We've got a prophecy update. Let's get right to it. There's a lot going on here in the month of September now. Can you believe it already? It's September. Time flies. But one of the things I wanted to kind of dive into a little bit tonight is making sense of current events. Aren't you glad you're a Bible-believing Christian? Man, isn't that great? That's something that I thank the Lord for so much. Because without God's word, like we see in a lot of Gen Zers right now that don't have the Bible, there's a huge... you know, problem with depression, suicide, people are seeing what's going on in the world and they don't know what to make of it or it doesn't make sense to them. And yet, then there's those that are so disconnected from logic and reason that they seem to be part of the problem. They don't understand that what they believe and see is so far off from truth. And then when they're disillusioned, they realize, man, what have we been believing and following? You know, there's a group that's actually starting to come to a realization that maybe their worldview, their ideology was all wrong. You know what group that is? The Jews. Have you seen that? It's interesting because the Jews themselves, at least here in America, you know, we've seen a very, you know, kind of extreme liberal progressive kind of Jew, but it's what we've watched is in this past couple of years, particularly, but especially after October 7th, The Jews are starting to say, wait a minute, what side are we on here? And these people with their worldviews, it's not really working out so well. And we're starting to see all those wealthy Jews that were funding Harvard, and they all pulled their money out because, well, they heard what the president of Harvard University was unwilling to say about genocide against Jewish people and stuff like that. And the Jews are starting to see it. Now, I think that's interesting because we've always thought as Bible-believing Christians, that the Jews, it makes sense that that's happening in the sense that Romans tells us in Romans 9, 10, 11, that the Jews, there's a blindness that has happened in part to Israel. And Paul talks about how that blindness sort of gives us reason to understand why they don't believe the Messiah. That's why they don't believe a lot of things that I think God would want them to know. But good news for the Jews. I think we're starting to see that sort of the scales, maybe just a few of them lifting off their eyes. But ultimately, when will the total blindness be revealed or lifted off the Jews? Anybody? Yes, when the fullness of the Gentiles come in, then all of Israel will be saved, and the Lord has a plan for the Jews, and they're gonna see it clearly. They're gonna see Jesus is the Messiah. By the way, once you see that Jesus is the Messiah, your worldview gets straightened out fairly quickly. Once you accept Christ and believe, your worldview starts to adjust. It has to adjust if you believe in Jesus. That's why, by the way, in this election year and as things are heating up with election issues and stuff, one of the main things I wanna do is share the gospel of Jesus Christ. I wanna make that our number one thing because that's what's gonna really change hearts and minds of people. You can tell a young girl not to get an abortion, But to a person with an ideological, you know, an ideology that she's had since she was a kid, and she's got all these, you know, people backing her saying, oh yeah, it's my body, my choice, stuff like that. You know, it's hard to say, you know, you really shouldn't do that morally. But they don't really care about what's moral or what's right or wrong. They just care what the multitudes are saying. How do you fix someone who wants to sin and do something that's wrong or even evil? You have them repent of their sin and understand that Jesus died on the cross for their sins. And it's the kindness of God, it's the goodness of God that leads men and women to repentance. We gotta remember that. What leads people to repentance? Is it yelling and screaming at each other? Or even picketing? Or trying to elect or even vote in? I'm all for voting and I think that's a good, responsible Christian thing to do is to vote. And we might even talk a little bit about that tonight. But more than even voting, I think more importantly, we need to see souls saved. People come to the Lord, and that's gonna be the best thing. I don't believe we have to tell people how to vote. If they accept Christ and they start reading their Bible, the Lord will give them a conviction of what is true. It's the word of God that transforms us and changes us. You know, and it's an interesting thing because if you carry out, well, let's leave the gospel out and let's just convince people that abortion is wrong and we need to make it illegal as much as I'd love that. I'd love to see abortion illegal. But how has that worked throughout the centuries of Christians imposing our laws upon non-believing, non-Christian people? That's not ever really worked out very well. Just look at the prohibition. There's a good example. Did that really solve the problem with alcohol and stuff like that? Not really. It actually made things kind of worse in a lot of ways in the mafia and all that stuff. It was quite a problem. A country like the United States, we need to be fixed from the inside out. We need the gospel message to be shared. I think that's the hope that we have is if we can have revival in our country where people are saved. Brad, do you really think that's gonna happen? Don't know. That's up to the Lord. Our job is to go into all the world and preach the gospel, make disciples, baptize people. That's our number one call to make that happen. And the better we are at that, the more successful we are in that, the better we'll see our nation move where it needs to be. So anyway, all that to say, It makes me glad because when I read what's going on around the world and see the news and stuff, I even as a Christian sometimes lose a little bit of perspective and I find my blood boiling when I see such stupidity. When I see people just believing things, you're like, how in the world do they get that mindset or worldview? And it makes zero sense until I remember, oh yeah, This is what Satan the deceiver is all about. He wants to deceive. And one of the things Jesus warned about in Matthew 24 is deception. Don't let any man deceive you, because that's going to be a characteristic of the last days. Radical deception that will lead to radical apostasy, which means a falling away. from the Lord as far as the church goes. So that's kind of what I want to do is sort of take a look at some of the bigger items that have happened in this past even few weeks and sort of make sense of them perhaps from a biblical perspective. So all that, you know, I'm not talking about, by the way, headlines that you're like, that doesn't make sense, that's crazy. Like when we look at the crazier and crazier headlines, have you noticed that's rampant? We could do prophecy updates talking about this stuff, like this, NPR article, a robot gets a face of living skin that allows it to smile. This is gonna make you all feel good right here. This is real living skin. Here's the article, it says, if humanoid robots make you a bit queasy, would it help if they had fleshy faces that can smile at you? Not really helping me at this point. The uncanny feat is the result of a new technology using engineered living skin, tissue, and human-like ligaments to give robots more natural smile, according to Tokyo University researchers who have unveiled their work just this past week. You know, does this make you feel good about robots? They're so much more friendly with their living skin. I thought that was like bubble gum, ABC, already been chewed. But no, that's living skin cells. You say, okay, Brett, that's gross. Okay, I'll admit that's gross. But I suppose in the last days, we'll see stuff, whether robots are a part of the last days and stuff, I don't know, we'll see. We've talked about some of the military stuff robotics can do. And the Bible does sort of hint at some of that perhaps. But what does the Bible say? Some of the stuff, a lot of the stuff that's going on in the world today is contributing to something that Zechariah the prophet made a big deal about this. And I wanna kind of visit that. It's Zechariah, you can turn there or look up on the screen tonight if you'd like. But in Zechariah chapter 12, let's just refresh our memory of what Zechariah the prophet talks about. You gotta remember this, Zechariah 12, And really, most of the last part of his book, it's all about the day of the Lord that's coming. And that's when the second coming of Christ, I believe the day of the Lord perhaps starts after the rapture of the church. That's where God sort of just reaches down and starts to really affect and reach his hand into the world and say, okay, it's time to start fixing what's going on. Some people say, why doesn't God come and fix the problems now? The answer is he will, and he has this perfect timing. But it's called the Day of the Lord, and the Day of the Lord begins, I believe, with the rapture of the church and the seven-year tribulation period, and then the second coming of Christ, all as part of the Day of the Lord. But during that time, Zechariah explains some of the stuff that's gonna happen. He starts off, he says in Zechariah 12 too, behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege, both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day, Will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people? All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. Some people try to say, oh, this stuff's already happened. It's already happened and it's, you know, past prophecy. Some of your, you know, amillennial or preterist type thinkers, they'll say, oh, these are just old prophecies that had to do with the Jews. Little question for you, this last part. When in world's history did all the people of the earth gather against Jerusalem? What was the last time that happened in history? Well, the answer is very clearly never, not even close. There's been times where they had some big things, 586 BC, the Babylonians crushed Jerusalem. Before that, it was the Assyrians that were threatening Jerusalem. And there's been times where Jerusalem has been trodden down by other nations and people groups, but never really all the people groups of the world. And again, this is people that I think are biased when they say, oh, this has already happened. They think the day of the Lord's already happened. They don't see anything in prophecy, which is, to me, a really difficult view to hold today as we're watching biblical prophecy unfold right before our very eyes. We're seeing all kinds of things, the regathering. You know, I could understand the amillennial thinking before the Jews became a nation again, and they'd say, well, this must be figurative, but it's not figurative. This is very literal. And I'm gonna show you, again, just kind of how the, you know, The prophecies are stacking up right now, and we're starting to see the world shape itself to be closer to this event. And the key and the operative thing to know is when it says, in that day, and the rest of the context of this, that is the Lord's day, in that day, I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. Again, in history, it was never burdensome. Jerusalem was never a burdensome stone for all people. But it is that today. Now in Zechariah 14, the prophet kind of goes over it again, but even more perhaps dark and gloomy. He says, for I will gather in Zechariah 14 too, I will gather all nations against Jerusalem, not just that they'd be against it, but notice, I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle. This is again, the day of the Lord talked about here in Zechariah 14. And the city shall be taken, the houses rifled and the women ravished, half of the city shall go forth into captivity and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle. We can talk about the times the Lord defended Israel in history and how he defeated, like the Assyrians that I mentioned earlier. I mentioned Sunday, one angel came down and wiped out the whole Assyrian army, 185,000 soldiers. That's how the Lord fights in his day of battle. Now, one thing about these prophecies that I want to remind you, when did the prophet Zachariah speak these words under the inspiration of God, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? Well, the answer is it was right around the same time when the Babylonians had wiped out Jerusalem. Jerusalem was sitting in total ruin. The walls were down, the temple was crushed. The city was in total disrepair and ruin. And Zechariah gives this prophecy. There's coming a time where all the nations of the world are gonna gather against Jerusalem. Can you imagine, like, that's kind of like saying, so today, you know, all the nations of the world will gather against, you know, Dundee, Oregon. You're like, they're gonna want their wine out there? I don't know. What are they gonna want from Dundee? But it's even worse than that. It's like if Dundee once was a really thriving metropolis, and then it became sort of nothing, and then the prophecy comes out, that little nothing town that's nothing and rubble right now, the whole world's gonna come against that. Now to say that one day Jerusalem would be a cup of trembling would seem far-fetched to the average person in the world in the day of Zachariah's prophecy. The Jews, when Zachariah gave his prophecy, they couldn't even rebuild their temple. And not only that, the Jews were all very apathetic. If you remember when Artaxerxes gave the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, Do you remember, none of the Jews wanted to go. Like it was all they could do to get a few Jews to leave Babylon. All in all, there was about 50,000 Jews that finally went to restore and rebuild the walls and the temple. But you know, 50,000. That's not a lot. There's a lot of Jews that stayed in Babylon. A lot more stayed than actually went and did what God wanted them to do. But this was the condition. The people were apathetic, the city was in ruin, the walls were down, the city was down, and then Zechariah says, by the way, all the nations of the world are gonna gather against Jerusalem one day. One day, when you go down to verse three there of chapter 12, he says, in that day, while I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all people, all the nations of the world. So what God's saying is Jerusalem's in ruins, but let me tell you something. One day, one day, the eyes of the world will be on Jerusalem with fear and trembling. Now, one of the things we'll show you tonight is just how that's kind of happening. Jerusalem's in the news every night. People are talking about Jerusalem. Nobody knows what to do with Jerusalem. Let's just call it a burdensome stone that people are having a hard time lifting. We're watching that happen. Who would have thought? Even when Mark Twain went to Jerusalem over a hundred years ago, he wrote about how it's just this tiny little nothing town that's out in the desert and there's nothing there except for a few sheep and a few Jews and a few Bedouins. He writes about how it was just a nothing. But in the last hundred years, it's an amazing thing that's happened to Jerusalem. It's becoming a cup of trembling, a burdensome stone. And when this happens, when all the nations of the world, like in this, it says, all the nations will gather together to battle in Jerusalem. And the question is, when will this be? Will this be the battle that starts in the Battle of Armageddon, the nations gathering against Israel with their weapons turned toward Israel? That's gonna be in the tribulation period. There's another battle we can talk about, the Gog Magog War, where there's a list of nations that are gonna turn toward Israel, but it doesn't seem the Gog Magog one is all the nations of the world. But it is interesting to watch all the nations are starting to weigh in on Jerusalem and Israel, the Palestinian issue, the Arab-Israeli conflict. Now, you say, well, when did this start happening? Because you even said, Brent, Mark Twain wrote about it just over 100 years ago, and it was nothing, and nobody cared. True. When did the problem of Jerusalem start to become a burdensome stone? Well, I think you can trace it back. Let me go through, you know, have you ever noticed that everybody's got their plan for Jerusalem, whether it's the EU or the UN, the United Nothing, or the USA or Russia, everybody's got their opinion of what should happen with Jerusalem. But as it turns out, they're determined to impose their, or even as the United States, our own solutions on Jerusalem. Has Joseph Biden chimed in with his opinion about what Jerusalem should do this week? Yes, shockingly, but he only gave us one word on that. I'll show you that in a minute. But it's amazing how the world is trying to say, this is what the Jews need to do. Everybody knows what the Jews should do. Nobody agrees. And the Jews are in a real pickle right now. But basically it seems the world is kind of determined to impose their own solution. And often it's in defiance toward God's plan for Israel, God's plan for the Jews and God's plans for Jerusalem. How's that gonna work out for the nations of the world that wanna do stuff that the Bible says, no. Well, who's Jerusalem? It belongs to the Palestinians. No, the Bible says, God says, Jerusalem is mine. When you watch Toy Story and Andy put his name on the bottom shoe of Woody, that means it was his toy. God wrote his name on Jerusalem. That's what the Bible says. He wrote his name on Jerusalem. He didn't do that with Dundee or Portland or New York City. He said, Jerusalem, all cities of the world, guess what? Jerusalem is mine, saith the Lord. So as it turns out, when the world says, no, it belongs to the international community, Nope. It belongs to the Christians and the Jews and the Muslims. Nope. It belongs to God and God is actually saying the Jews are gonna end up there. That's where they're gonna end up in the millennial kingdom. So when did it start to become a cup of trouble? Just go a quick timeline real quick as we put the puzzle pieces. The graphic tonight is the puzzle because a lot of people see the world as very puzzling and what to do with the Jerusalem problem and the Jews and what to do with the issues of the day. And a lot of people think it's just a total disaster and who can figure it out, but I do believe it's a puzzle. And as Christians, as Bible thinkers, we see the puzzle pieces falling into place. People say the world's falling apart. We Bible believers, we're saying everything's falling into place, exactly like the Lord said it would. I think these are all puzzle pieces falling into what Zachariah was talking about, about the burdensome stone. So the first puzzle piece that I want to bring up is back during the Zionist movement. In the 1800s, even the 1700s perhaps, but 1800s, the Jews started migrating because they had no homeland where they were safe. Theodor Herzl and those guys all said, man, we gotta find a place where we're not gonna be persecuted, antisemitism. The Dreyfus Affair, you can look this up, it really sparked Zionism where the Jews, see people in the world today say, Zionism, it's a horrible thing. All Zionism is is Jews who were scattered all around the world that the Bible said would happen. And the Lord said in the last days, I will gather my people back into the Holy Land. That's what the Bible says. Zionism is God's way of doing that. He used the mechanism of Theodor Herzl and the other Zionist movement to say, let's go back to our ancient homeland, Israel. And nobody wanted it back then. The Jews started migrating there, buying land from the Bedouins. They didn't militaristically come and crush the Bedouins. They didn't do what the United States did. We just came and took the land from the Indians. They actually paid a lot for the land. Not all of it, but some of the land they have today was paid for. by European Jews who came and lived there. And then it became sort of official. One of the first markers I put on the list of the timeline is, do you guys remember the 1917 Balfour Declaration? It was basically when the British particularly and others were starting to recognize that the Jews were gonna be able to take that area of the land and make it there where they can live. And the world started sort of warming up to the idea of the Jews, but there was a small group of Palestinians that were there. They weren't called Palestinians really back then. They were just Arabs from Jordan. They became Palestinians like in the 1960s. That's where that really started. They're not an ancient group of people. They're not the Philistines of old, but the Balfour Declaration really got things rolling where the Jews were starting to feel like, hey, we're gonna come back to our homeland. Then another puzzle piece that really was, and you can look all this stuff up to go to the details, but these are important sort of stakes in the ground, if you would. The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 was another time where basically the League of Nations and stuff started getting ready to do their thing. It was 1922, a funny little thing called the Declaration of Principles by the League of Nations, which is, by the way, the League of Nations was the predecessor to the UN. But the whole world agreed to this place called Palestine. They agreed, this is the Declaration of Principles, the world basically gathering, saying, this area does belong to the Jews. And that's what they decided at the Declaration of Principles. That was the land of Israel, even though it was called Palestine. Remember, the Romans called it Palestine. It was Israel before it was Palestine. It was Emperor Hadrian. who called it Palestine and also renamed Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina, but that one didn't stick, Palestine did. And it was the land of Israel, it was set aside as the national Jewish homeland because of all these people that were being chased around the world in 1922, the Jews not really welcome where they were living in Europe and other places around the world. So they were invited to come back and live there. And then Britain, during 1922, when that all happened, Britain was given what we call the British Mandate. That's the second thing in 1922 that happened, called the Mandate of Palestine, which basically ensured, And by the way, the British, it was a tough thing. There was kind of a betrayal of the Jews. They kept the Jews out. Even the Holocaust survivors within sight of the promised land, the Jews were driven away from that holy land when they were seeking refuge from Hitler. There's some movies that you can watch that are pretty good. that kind of depict that. But driven back even by the British Navy, ships, loads of Jews trying to come to the promised land, trying to get away from Hitler, and they wouldn't let them go there. And then they were eventually put into camps, concentration camps. So the Declaration of Principles, the British Mandate, that was in 1922. Then another key piece, and it really starts heating up in World War II. In 1944, Germany needed money. There's kind of an interesting thing that a lot of people don't know about. There were 500,000, conservatively, 500,000 Hungarian Jews that were still untouched by the Nazis. But they were trying to figure out what to do with these Hungarian Jews. And, you know, Typically, the Nazis would have got a hold of them and put them in concentration camps and killed them all, 500,000 of them. But he offered to sell them instead for their lives, $2 a piece. This is in history. How much was a Jew worth in 1944? Hitler tried to make a deal with $2 a piece. No one would take them. The British said there's no room in Palestine for them. which is really interesting. So we'll not even take $2 to save these people and figure out where to put them. We're just gonna leave them at the mercy of Nazis. It's really kind of a dark time for the Jews. That's just an example in 1944. But it was 1947, this is a real key time, and this is where the trouble of Palestine really starts to become a world problem. UN Resolution 181, November 29th, 1947, it's called the Partition of the Land, the nations of the world, exactly as God had said in His Word, by the way, They joined together, the United Nations, dividing the land and Israel, and the Jews ended up with about 13% of what they'd been promised from the Lord himself at that time, 13%. And then the Arabs were given certain sections and what have you. But then in May 14th, 1948, was David Ben-Gurion, the head of, the Jewish agency, they weren't a nation yet, so they were called the Jewish agency, proclaimed the establishment of the state of Israel. And U.S. President Harry Truman, of course, acknowledged and recognized the new nation on that same day. Big day in Israel's history, May 14th, 1948. And this is where Bible prophecy, you know, like if you were an amillenniast, you should have just said, okay, I'm no longer an amillenniast. Why would you say that, Brett? Here's why, because amillennial thinking says all this stuff about the Jews regathering in Israel and becoming a mighty nation again, that's fulfilling exact Bible prophecies that you are still saying, oh, that's all figurative. Well, it's happening. Oh, what a coincidence. That's like, you have to say that. What a coincidence that a nation of people have been divided for 2000 years. And then just like the Bible says, I will gather in the last days my people, Ezekiel 36 and 37, totally with great clarity talk about the Jews regathering. When they became a nation again, see what the Amillennial eschatology people think is, it's all figurative, all the promises go to the church, all the curses go to the Jews, when you read your Old Testament. But when Israel becomes a literal nation again, you gotta start going, well, what did the Bible say about literal Israel in the last days? And guess what? The Bible talks a lot about literal Israel in the last days. And so unless you adopt less of a preterist or amillennial kind of view, you're still having to sort of argue, oh, this doesn't mean anything. that Israel became a nation in 1948, and it's the most powerful, and all the nations of the world are focusing their attention on Israel right now. You have to say, what a coincidence that it's all coming out exactly like the Bible says, but we still believe that it's all figurative, don't take it literally. You see the problem with that? I hope I'm shaking up some of the, now, can you still be a Christian and be an Amillennius? Yes, you're just gonna, when you're raptured, you'll be changing your notes on your way up. if you have time. I have good friends that are amillennialists and preterists and people that I admire in all other areas of theology that I just disagree with them on it. But it's important to see, you know, people that say, oh, you guys are Bible literalists. How can you do that? It's very easy today because we're seeing everything literally come to pass right in front of our eyes. That's important to know. Now, May 14th, 1948, well, the next day, if you know the story, the British finally leave after the long time, the British mandate and all that, they finally leave. And then five Arab armies, Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, and Iraq attack Israel the next day. They're one day old as a nation. Their intentions were declared by a guy named Azan Pasha, Secretary General of the Arab League. And he said this when they went to war, it will be a war of annihilation. It will be a momentous massacre in history that will be talked about like the massacres of the Mongols or of the Crusades. This guy made his prediction and went down notoriously, famously wrong. The Jews held off the Arab forces, claimed a miraculous biblical proportion victory in the War of Independence. And since 1948, Israel has been a hotbed of controversy and wars. I've gone into all the wars of Israel and done, we've done even prophecy updates where we talked about the Six Day War, Yom Kippur, we talked about the War of Independence and all the other, the Intifadas and stuff like that. But basically from the day they became a nation, and I wanna let this be kind of a big marker for us tonight, because from the day they became a nation, they've had what we might call accurately, existential threat. We'll get into that. What's an existential threat? Climate change. No, we'll talk about that in a second. But Israel has been threatened by the Arab nations from the very day one of their nation. And the world, the whole world's been trying to fiddle with the problem. Like maybe some of these pictures, if you're old enough, some of these pictures will bring back memories. We have a litany of presidents who've attempted to make peace between the Arabs and the Israelis. And they'd shake hands and sign agreements and accords and stuff, but it's never really brought about the peace. People will say, peace, peace, but there will be no peace. And that's where we are. Israel is a cup of trembling and a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense. It's kind of interesting, kind of like when it says it's a burdensome stone that nobody can lift. So nothing has worked to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. The problem is that the world is in conflict with God's plan for the Jews and for the nation Israel. That's the biggest problem. It's not a political issue. You need to understand this. As much as the world, it looks that way, it feels that way, but you have to understand it's a deeply spiritual issue. And I believe there's a lot of deeply demonic sort of powers that are trying to disrupt what's going on in the Middle East. And you can see it when you're over there. When you're in the Middle East, I've been there a lot of times, spent a lot of time over in Israel and Jordan. I've been to Egypt and places where you can feel the darkness, the evil, but you can also feel that Jerusalem is a special place. Not because it has a beautiful lake or river or even it has amazing buildings or anything like that. I mean, it kind of is neat because it's ancient. But there's other more beautiful cities and more noteworthy as far as architecture and stuff like that. What makes Jerusalem a big deal? The answer is it's God's city. He calls it his own. And he's got a plan and a future there, ultimately where Jesus Christ is gonna rule and reign from Jerusalem. So God has a big plan for Jerusalem. So this really starts to make sense. When the world tries to handle Jerusalem in their way and Israel in their way, no wonder everybody's coming up empty. Again, everything seems to be falling apart. I believe this is all part of what's falling into place. And to every careful Bible reader, I think you start to realize, wow, the puzzle pieces are, in fact, coming together. So let's get back to the headlines now. How do you make sense of a headline like this that came out last week? Wall Street Journal, Hamas murders six hostages, Israel is blamed. Think about this for a second. This is maybe one of the crazier headlines I've ever read in my lifetime. Six Israeli hostages were horribly, horrifyingly murdered this week. You know, it's funny how the world was starting to forget the hostages. And I think there's evidence of that. Nobody was really talking about the hostages. Before last week, there was 107 hostages that have still been yet to be retrieved out of the 300 plus hostages. But the world was rudely reminded that these are still real people who have been held in these tunnels in the southern part of Gaza. And these are real people that were, their families were praying and hoping and just with signs in the streets, hoping to get them to be released, but only to find out that they'd been shot in the back of the head, all six of them. And this Wall Street Journal article is sort of making the point that, wow, hostages were murdered and who's getting blamed? This article says, Hamas probably can't believe it's luck. or the lack of moral seriousness by its enemies. The terrorists murdered six Israeli hostages, including one dual citizen, American, Israeli, and is suddenly under pressure to make, now the Jews are in pressure to make concessions to Hamas. This is what's happening. The world is saying, okay, Jews, you just had your hostage mercy, that's your fault. You need to go and fix that. That's the way it looked Monday. It happened on Sunday, this last Sunday. That's the way it looked on Monday, a day after Israel said it recovered the bodies of six hostages. They were executed by being shot in the back of the head at close range. In a Gaza tunnel, only a day or two before Israel reached them, shot multiple times at close range. The hostages are Eden Yerushalami, age 24, Ori Danio, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gott, 40, Almig Sarusi, 27, Hirsch Goldberg, the United States citizen is 23. The one up on the upper left there is Hirsch Goldberg, Poland, who is an American citizen as well. This article talked about how we have met Hirsch's parents, John Pollan and Rachel Goldberg. They were struck by their strength and good courage, willing to do anything and go anywhere to help their son. The crime here is all on Hamas, they said, which took the innocent hostages on October 7th and has refused to release them through multiple rounds of U.S. brokered negotiation. Yet the reaction from the White House and the British government and the Western press and some parts of Israel is to blame the Israeli government. On Monday, in one word answer to the press, this article says, Scrum, Mr. Biden accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not doing enough. Now, this is where we need to step back for a second and carefully consider the crisis. You know, Joe Biden, when he's asked the Israeli, is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doing enough to try to bring about the ceasefire in the release of hostages? I wanna show you that because one of the things that you get a sense of is there's a bit of vitriol and lack of caring. At least this is the way a lot of us see this. Here's the question that was given to Biden. What makes you think that this deal will be successful in a way that the other deals were not? Hope springs eternal. Mr. President, do you think it's time for Prime Minister Netanyahu to do more on this issue? Do you think he's doing enough? No. Now, this is painful because, first of all, is Netanyahu doing enough? Biden just got off of his three week vacation in Rehoboth. I would argue maybe he's not doing enough for Israel or for the United States in a lot of ways, but especially in our situation with Israel and the predicament. Meanwhile, Love him or hate him, Netanyahu's working his tail off trying to figure out what's going on over there. Love him or hate him, think he's wrong or right. He's doing as much as any world leader that I can think of, maybe ever. It's shocking. So what actually happened? with this? Well, you know, Sunday when the IDF was going and they were attempting to rescue and there's some inside information, like Amir Tsafati talks about how he has got inside information. I don't know his sources, but you know, it might not be the narrative you're seeing on the news where they were killed like 36 hours before the, IDF got there. Some are saying it was more like minutes before the IDF got there. They were shot. And the, you know, the, you know, hostage keepers fled, shot them, fled, and then they were apprehended and, you know, taken out. That's the inside story. Which I kind of hope that's true. But the IDF reported that it appeared that six hostages had been executed, gunshot wounds, And so when this happened, this caused a very severe political crisis in Israel. I'm talking about the last five days, this has all happened. And it's a crisis that's been building for a long period of time, but it sort of hit a crescendo just even this week. And if you don't believe me, here's some of the images. Some of this will be just like Portland, so you're like, yeah, this is like home. But this is going on in Israel, and it's basically a massive demonstration in the streets, thousands turning out for some of the funerals of the victims, but also protesting Netanyahu and the government handling of the hostage situation. When these six, these are 100,000 Jews in Tel Aviv gathered in protest. These aren't small protests. These are giant protests. And it's basically the Jews saying, we need to make a deal with Hamas and a ceasefire so that we can get the rest of the hostages. Now, I can understand why people think that, but we gotta remember, and this is something that I think people struggle with, we need to remember the idea of a hostage. Is it good to make deals with those who take hostages? In fact, even, and I feel kind of goofy even talking about this, but I need to say it, and hopefully people online are watching, because I'm shocked at how many people don't realize you start to create a market for hostage taking. if you just appease the hostage takers. So it's a shorter view. Now, if I were one of the family members of the hostages, I would be like, let's do whatever we have to do. I don't care if we have to give them 5,000 Muslim prisoners that were terrorists, because that's the deals that happen. For every few hostages, they'll give hundreds of criminal terrorists. as a trade for hostages. So they've been trying to appease Hamas and getting hostages. And it's worked with a certain number, but what it's also doing, and nobody wants to talk about this, is it's creating a market and hostages are a good idea. If you're a terrorist in the Middle East, get a bunch of Jews, because they care about their people enough. Well, they'll get all your prisoners back, they'll make concessions. And it's hard because the hostages, like for example, this is just a picture of the kids that were taken. just the kids that were taken on October 7th. And so you do understand, man, I would do anything if I were a father of one of these kids to get the little kids back. Some of these kids have been retrieved, others are dead. They found some of these children already killed. But the moral reality is basically being reversed against Israel. Basically saying Israel's not giving Hamas what they want, so obviously they're getting what they deserve. Their hostages are being killed. That's the world starting to talk about how Israel's doing it wrong. But I would say who are we, the United States, and who is the world? Honestly, who is Joseph Biden? You say he's the commander in chief and the most powerful man in the world. But who is he to say that, you know, the Jews or Netanyahu is not doing enough when it seems like he's doing everything he can? And here's the United States position. We heard it officially in the last few days, that the Israelis need to make an agreement with Hamas. But if you know that what's been happening for the past month or two, Israel's done everything they can to make an agreement with Hamas. If you don't know that, you're totally somehow missing major, if you, before people open their mouth in protest, they should probably do a little research and find out what happened. You'll sense it in this video. I think Netanyahu's just a little bit, well, you tell me what you think. I think this kind of sums it up. This was a press conference from a couple days ago. I want to set the record straight. On April 27th, Secretary of State Blinken said that Israel made an extraordinarily generous offer for a hostage deal. On May 31st, Israel agreed to a U.S.-backed proposal. Hamas refused. On August 16th, Israel agreed to what the United States defined as a final bridging proposal. Hamas refused again. On August 19th, Secretary Blinken said, Israel accepted the U.S. proposal, now Hamas must do the same. On August 28th, that's five days ago, five days ago, Deputy CIA Director said that Israel shows seriousness in the negotiations, now Hamas must show the same seriousness. I want to ask you something. What has changed in the last five days? What has changed? One thing. These murderers executed six of our hostages. They shot them in the back of the head. That's what's changed. And now after this, we're asked to show seriousness? We're asked to make concessions? What message does this send Hamas? It says, kill more hostages, murder more hostages, you'll get more concessions. The pressure internationally must be directed at these killers, at Hamas, not at Israel. We say yes, they say no all the time, but they also murdered these people. And now we need maximum pressure on Hamas. I don't believe that either President Biden or anyone serious about achieving peace and achieving the release would seriously ask Israel Israel to make these concessions, we've already made them. Hamas has to make the concession. Thank you very much. You know, I don't sense a guy who's just sitting on the beach, not doing enough, kind of like our president. I think I sense a guy who's fired up and he's doing what he can. Love him or hate him, he's trying to fix. What a problem. Now, again, it's tough when you're an American to try to speak into these things. There's so much about the Jews situation that we don't understand as Americans and all these, you know, protesters at Columbia and Berkeley and all these places. I've noticed and actually experienced some of this. Nobody knows what they're talking about, not even close. It's amazing the ignorance of what's happening. But one of the things that's profoundly interesting to me is the use of this term existential threat. That's a funny term because people just throw that around. It's an existential threat. What's the definition of an existential threat or crisis? It's an overused term, but it means a threat to your very existence. That's what it used to mean like two years ago. Today, it means that our drinking water doesn't taste quite as good. It's not as pure. So it's an existential threat. Or Donald Trump is an existential threat. Like everybody loves to talk about who's an existential threat or what's an existential threat. But if you wanna be honest, it's a very threat to your existence. Has the United States even really known that? you can maybe make that argument back. We had kind of an existential threat perhaps in 1776 when we decided to become independent and we made our Declaration of Independence and suddenly our existence as a nation was under threat by the British Empire and so we had a serious war. But even after that, the Civil War could have been sort of existential threat, except it was one side of ourselves against the other, so the United States still survives. Maybe, you know, World War I, World War II, not really. Those battles, they didn't really come onto our soil. We don't really know as a nation what a real existential threat is, at least not for the past couple hundred years. Meanwhile, climate change is one of the great existential threats. And the thing I love, remember how I started tonight? Aren't you glad you're a Bible-believing Christian? Because we just have answers that a lot of the world just doesn't. I feel sorry for them. Is climate change an existential threat? The answer is absolutely not. How do I know that? Well, the Bible tells us. This is a verse y'all should have just to remember where it is so you can turn your friends to it. Because here's what God says in his word. And he's talking about things like destroying the world. He just wiped out the world with the flood. Okay, so God knows what he's talking about here. He wiped out the world with flood, but then he says, you know, this whole story, Genesis 8, and Noah built an altar unto the Lord, took every clean beast and every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on an altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. "'Neither will I again smite any more every living thing "'as I had done.'" Now here's where the key verse is, verse 22. "'While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, "'cold and heat, and summer and winter, "'day and night shall not cease.'" That's a promise from God right there. So winter and summer is gonna happen. It will not cease until the day of the Lord. The Lord's saying as long as the earth is, while the earth remains. Now he had to say that because we know that there's gonna come a time where there's gonna be a new heaven and a new earth and this old world will be destroyed by the Lord. It's not gonna be destroyed by, you know, human climate change. As long as the earth remains, guess what? We can be at peace. So you and I, now does this mean you and I should go trash the earth? That's what people say about people that believe the Bible. Oh, they don't believe in, you know. No, we obviously should be good stewards of the earth. But it's funny how the same people that are saying existential threat about climate change, they're unwilling to recognize that Israel literally has existential threat all around them. Every nation around them, with maybe the exception of Jordan, but I've been to Jordan a lot. I've spent a lot of time in the nation of Jordan. And I'm not even gonna say, I mean, that relationship with Israel is hanging by a thread. They're not pals over there. But what's the existential threat of Israel? There's nations, specifically Iran and all of her proxies, the Hezbollah up in the north in Lebanon and in Syria, and the Hamas, the proxy of Iran, their whole charter says, we wanna annihilate Israel. We want Jews to cease to exist. Ethnic cleansing, that's what they're all about. And they don't even hide it. Do you remember my favorite, because he was so stupidly bold, was Ahmadinejad, back a few presidents of Iran ago. He was so vocal, and he'd say, we want to wipe Israel off the map, we want to drive the Jews into the sea, and the Holocaust never happened. This was the president of Iran. He was like a statesman. that was saying stuff very boldly. Now, Rouhani, he was a little less bold. Now he's gone and we've got the Ayatollah. So there's craziness over there, but all they wanna see is the death of Jews and the death of Israel. And by the way, they wanna see America go the same way. Big Satan, little Satan is what they call them. And both of them, they want to be totally wiped off the earth. It's odd that the same people who see climate change as existential threat do not admit or see that Israel is facing a literal existential threat from the day they became a nation. The day after they became a nation, five powerful Arab nations, totally outnumbering the Israelis, attacked them. And like I said, biblical proportions, God protected the Jews. That's one of the things we know the Bible says, God is gonna continue to protect the Jews, no matter what the world does. The Gog Magog invasion, the Jews seem to be in real trouble and will be sort of hanging by a thread, it seems, but the Lord's gonna come and intervene and fight for Israel, like he did in the day of battle. And also during the battle of Armageddon, when they're, you know, Antichrist is making war against the Jews, and all the nations of the world do that. It's the same thing, God's gonna come, Christ is gonna return and protect Israel and the Jews. So, you know, There's this shocking merge I've noticed, and it makes no sense if you're a logical thinking person, that the same people that are sure that the climate is gonna destroy it, we're all gonna be dead. Greta Thunberg, she posted on her social media like five years ago that we're all gonna die and it's all gonna be gone in five years. Well, that was more than five years ago. So she took it off her social media. because it was a little false prediction. This is an interesting article, Fox News article, Greta Thunberg among six arrested at an anti-Israel protest in Denmark. I think we used to feel sorry for her because she was a child. Now she's an adult and she's doing these things in her 20s and it's not as funny anymore, although it is funny. I'll show this again. entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you? Wow. So we felt sorry for her when she was that little kid. And now she's saying the same stuff and none of her predictions are coming to pass. But she doesn't realize what's interesting. So she just got arrested protesting for Hamas and against Israel. But question, does Hamas, who cares less about the environment than anybody in the world? It's the Hamas. The Hamas could care less about global warming or climate change or anything like that. It's always amazing to me who buddies up. Like the LGBTQ community protesting for Hamas. They would be hung by a crane by the neck. in that region of the world. They don't understand, there's no logic. But the same people, AOC, she's anti-Israel, pro-Palestine. It's funny how they're all the ones that are also very pro-climate change and are talking about the, should we do the AOC doomsday clock again? I just wanna keep it light here tonight. You guys seem a little troubled here, so. And we're like, the world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change. And your biggest issue is how are we going to pay for it? And this is our World War II. That's almost like six years ago when she said that. So I'm counting, I'm gonna see if the world is gone. If she's a false prophet, prophetess, then in six years we'll still be here. If she's true though, the world will be totally annihilated like she said. You know, it's interesting, your worldview, if you're not having a biblical worldview, we shouldn't be shocked when people make these really weird, I would say, compromises. One minute you're supporting Hamas, who could care less about the global warming, and the next minute you're pro-LGBTQ, but the people you're supporting, they would be the first ones to kill LGBTQ people, and they're all within your people you're supporting. They've got moral gaps in what they think. When you follow the Bible and stick with the Bible's plan, you have zero moral gaps, and you have clarity about what's going on in the world. The puzzle pieces, These are all puzzle pieces coming together. So back to Israel, when Netanyahu, that was, by the way, the Netanyahu thing that I showed you was his press conference, but that was an outstanding press job. If you want to watch the whole thing, you've got to get one that's translated or got subbed, because that was the only part he did in English. The rest of it was in Hebrew. But all of this, the whole thing about an existential threat and all this, it raises significant questions related to worldview perspectives. What should a nation do when they have hostages? That's something that Israel's facing for real. Should the nation feel morally obligated to take any necessary action to rescue the hostages? I can understand why some people would want that, especially if you're a parent of one of those hostages. But if you look at the longer term, and even the United States used to say, we don't negotiate with terrorists, because you're only gonna feed that, and if they get what they want, then they're gonna keep doing it, and it's gonna get worse. So the prisoner swaps and all that, it's been happening. So Netanyahu has done some acquiescence to negotiating with the terrorists, but it's only seeming to get worse. And now we see as Hamas gets few and few hostages, if they lose all their hostages, they have nothing else to go on. It's amazing that the world is saying, we support the group that took the hostages, women and children, and we're gonna support that. and Netanyahu has to back off and stop taking on the Gaza area. But the reason I got this picture up there is the big thing that's being debated right now is should the Israelis stay in Gaza? or should they make a ceasefire and get out and let the... The problem is Hamas will come right back, and everybody knows this, and rebuild, and they're patient, and Iran will keep sending money. As long as Israeli IDF is out of Gaza, they're just gonna come back. So it's hard to even imagine a deal which Hamas would actually free the remaining hostages. That's what's concerning right now. Because if they don't have them, they have no leverage. We gotta keep in mind, what is Hamas's number one plan? The non-existence of Israel. That's what their number one goal. Something that people in the West don't seem to want to acknowledge. What the West is saying at Berkeley and Columbia University, they're saying that the Jews are trying to genocide the Palestinians. which is so not true. I could introduce you to Palestinians who live in Israel who would say, that's a false narrative right there. There's some Palestinians that they just wanna be peaceful Israeli citizens. And they wish that all the Arabs would put down their weapons. If all the Arabs put down their weapons, there'd be peace in the Middle East. If the Jews put down their weapons, there would be a total annihilation of the Jews. That's the way it's been since May 14th, 1948. So when Biden says Netanyahu is not doing enough, he needs to be reminded that Israel's under serious And there's never been a moment since the Declaration of Independence of Israel that they've not had an existential threat. Don't let people just throw that term around, existential threat. It's people using terms. I love how everybody tries to compare everybody to Hitler. Oh, he's a Hitler. He's like Adolf Hitler. Very few people in the world have done what Hitler's done. You might be able to compare some of the leaders in times past who have killed millions of people, but unless you've killed millions of people because of your hatred for an ethnicity, you're not Hitler. Be careful on what people are trying to say and don't let people get away with just lies of wrong terms. But, you know, The idea, this very southern area called Philadelphia of Gaza is in question. And that's where these six hostages were found, in the very southern part. And you can see the money and the missiles and the Hamas people, they're coming up through the border of Egypt. And that's why Israel feels like they have to stay down there in Philadelphia, where they believe the remaining hostages are. Like the J Post article, Philadelphia or hostages? Either way, Israel's bound to lose. For a lot of people that know the situation, like the Jerusalem Post, they are saying it's a lose-lose for Israel, which is kind of what the Bible says as well, when you think about it, except for the God factor. God is going to protect Israel. This article says, if only things were so simple and clear-cut, the mass protests and general strike that erupted following the horrific execution of six hostages by Hamas and the blame thrust on the government for its failure to secure their release were demanding one thing, a ceasefire deal. Opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stance at the Philadelphia Corridor, which is that place I was just showing you, it's essential to retain, to prevent Hamas from remaining, or rearming, I should say. and finding the remaining hostages. The families of the hostages themselves are split over what acceptance of a ceasefire deal would mean for their loved ones. So it's just a really hotbed of controversy. Here's another article, Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu apologizes for hostages' death, defends Philadelphia Corridor decision. You know, he's in a tough place. He's been accused of not caring about the hostages. He's been blamed for the hostages to begin with. And some would argue that he was to blame, that the military wasn't doing what it should have been in October 7th, and they blame Netanyahu for that. There's another side of that argument, that Netanyahu doesn't control the military as much as we'd like to think as a democracy in the United States. But that's a whole nother political issue. But Israel did leave that area back in 2005 during the Gaza pullout. And ever since then, there's been a mass induction of weapons, munitions, the machines for producing weapons, digging tunnels. Since 2005, it's just been nothing but build up, build up, build up. And that's what the axis of evil needs, is to let Israel pull out and get that Philadelphia corridor back. So that's something to watch. If Netanyahu caves and says, I'm gonna give that area back and we're pulling out, most of the military experts are saying that'll be just a chance for Hamas to regroup. This is kind of interesting. Speaking of college and university people, I do like the clarity Netanyahu does as a statesman. He's one of the few guys that is clear as a leader, but listen to what he said about people that are to the protesters just outside of the UN. Listen to this. The anti-Israel protests that are going on right now outside this building, not that many, but they're there and throughout the city, Well, I have a message for these protesters. When the tyrants of Tehran who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair are praising, promoting, and funding you, you have officially become Iran's useful idiots. I agree with that. But, you know, Simpson article, Israeli actions push Iran closer to nuclear weapons. One of the things we always have to keep our finger on the pulse of what's happening with Iran, the whole Gaza thing has helped a lot of people just kind of forget about Iran. Meanwhile, Iran continues to enrich uranium and they're seeking to get nuclear weapons. An Israeli-Iran full-fledged war is still looming. One of the questions you might ask is why didn't the Iranians retaliate? It's been sort of a tit-for-tat sort of battle. Israelis kill some of the Iranians and then the Iranians try to kill some of the Israelis and shoot rockets. But the last exchange, whose ball is in what court? Well, if you're following, the Iranians technically owe Israel for their last action. But the big question is why has Iran waited? They were expecting it a few weeks ago. So why is Iran being silent? I think... it's possible that Iran realizes Israel is very serious right now. They're serious, and their resolve as a nation, even though there's protesters in the street, there's still a resolve to say, we have the existential threat of our very existence as a nation, and the Jews are not gonna let that happen. So I think you're seeing perhaps Iran sort of backing off a little bit, perhaps, not to end up looking like Gaza. Well, could Tehran end up looking like Gaza? The answer is yes. And that's just proven. The last big rocket barrage the Iranians sent, no Israelis were killed. Meanwhile, Israel targeted some specific targets in Tehran and other places and hit their targets and showed Iran that they are very capable to do what they wanna do. So the stage is being set for the whole world. Basically, this is where the puzzle pieces really start to come together, is the whole world is gonna start turning their anger more and more against Jews. Antisemitism is going to spike, I think, even higher until the day of the Lord. The stage is being set for that. Even 30 years ago, there was antisemitism around the world sprinkled here and there, but we're watching all over the world, Jews becoming more and more hated because of what's happening with the Gaza situation. I believe this is feeding the biblical narrative of the world of ultimately turning their arms and battle against the Jews in specifically Jerusalem. The news is rampant. I'll just give you some things. Like here, a man arrested over a suspected terror attack explosion at French synagogue. We're seeing synagogues attacked all over the world, even here in the United States. That's happening. NPR article, three Columbia deans, big surprise. Three Columbia University deans ousted for texts about Jewish students. Three deans at Columbia University have lost their jobs over what the university is calling disturbing texts. that touched on ancient antisemitic tropes. The three were texting each other during a panel discussion on Jewish life on the campus. They were talking about, you know, are the Jews really being, you know, hated at our campus? And the answer is absolutely yes. Just listen to, have you heard some of the students at Columbia University? They're just trying to survive. Many of them have left because they felt like their lives were threatened. on that campus, but these three professors were texting each other. I might add probably pipe puffing, cardigan sweater wearing. I don't know why I think that's funny, but. The three of them were texting each other during this panel discussion on Jewish life, mocking and disparaging Jews' complaints of antisemitism. The texts were recently released by a congressional committee investigating antisemitism at Columbia University. One of the professors, formerly the vice dean and chief administrative officer of the undergraduate school, was dismissive of the students' complaints, texting that, it comes from such a place of privilege, hard to hear their woe. is me," is what she said. Another one, she said the former Dean of Undergraduate Student Life texting vomiting emojis when they were talking about the plight of the Jews in their university, vomit emojis, and then wrote, amazing what dollar, dollar, dollar, dollar sign can do. Matthew Patashnik, formerly the Associate Dean of Students and Family Support, suggested Jews on campus were just trying to take full advantage of this moment. It was a huge fundraising potential. This is what these university professors in a school that's under congressional scrutiny for their anti-Semitism. Meanwhile, one of their professors is, remember the one I showed you a few months back that was feeling exhilaration during the Hamas attack on October 7th? That was a Columbia University professor feeling exhilaration when he saw babies being burned in ovens and old women being beheaded on October 7th. So interesting, here's a question as we kind of start to wrap it up. What will happen with the issue of anti-Semitism? in the world after the rapture of the church. Have you thought about that? Because I told you, it's gotta get bad. In order for Armageddon and all the nations of the world to fight against Jerusalem, or even the Gog Magog War, like when is all the nations gonna have sort of the heart to say, we're gonna destroy the Jews? Because that's what's gonna happen. They're all gonna set their guns, every nation, according to Zechariah, our text this evening, and they're gonna go against, to battle against the Jews in Jerusalem. But anti-Semitism is demonic, and you think about why does the enemy care so much about the Jews and want to destroy them? Well, it's all part of God's plan for the world. It includes the Jews, and the ultimate Jew, Jesus, the Messiah, is going to reign from Jerusalem. The enemy still hates the Jews. That's why Antichrist, if you read the book of Daniel or the book of Revelation, this coming world leader, Antichrist, is gonna hate the Jews and eventually make war against the Jews. And the Jews are gonna have to run for their lives and flee to the mountains. That's the Bible. But interesting, one thing you should think about, the Jews, if you're a Jew today, you look at the world in different categories. There's the people that want to annihilate you if you're a Jew. There's the people who wanna help the people who want to annihilate you. There's the people who don't care that there are people who wanna annihilate you. The Jews recognize there are people that are indifferent and are silent. But really, that's kind of the world to them. There's not a lot of people, but there is one people group. And what's funny about this, I know this firsthand, the Jews, no, there's one group of people that actually is very supportive of Jews that are not Jews, evangelical Christians. When you go to Jerusalem, they come up and they scratch and say, why do you guys love us? And I'll admit, some of the people that love the Jews, they come off a little kooky. I know why they do because of what the Bible says about the Jews. It's like there's evangelical Christians that are kind of giddy with excitement going, you don't believe in Jesus right now, but you will, we love you. Like there's like, you're a weirdo, but I guess we are thankful that you like us. Now you say, well, Brad, is that really a factor? Well, I think it is a factor in some of the elections we've had. When evangelical Christians are saying, we care about Israel and we're gonna vote based on policies about Israel, which there's a lot of Americans that kind of have that worldview, enough to make a difference in elections, as it turns out, if people show up. And the Jews don't know what to do with that. I had dinner with a group of people and my wife and I went and had dinner with Benjamin Netanyahu's son, Yair. And it was just really funny because he was trying to suggest why we should continue to support Israel. And he doesn't understand. The reason we support Israel, it's not because they're our only friend in the Middle East, although that makes sense. Because they're a good ally to have, that makes sense, but that's not why. We could go on all the reasons, but the reason is God has a plan for Israel. God is gonna open their eyes and it's gonna happen in the end times, which I believe we very possibly are in those days. So the struggle the Jews had to categorize people about who loves us and who doesn't, by the way, even Christians, they're leery of because of things like the Crusades, the Inquisition, the programs, et cetera. But evangelical Christians today, Jews are little, leery, skeptical, perhaps, but at the same time, they acknowledge, why are the Jews, or why are the Christian evangelical people the only ones that are really? Now, I say evangelicals, why not Catholics? Well, Catholics are amillennialists. They don't believe God has a plan for the Jews. The church, the great mother church of Catholicism, has overtaken Judaism. God doesn't care about Jews. He only cares about the Pope and the Catholics. That's the way the Catholics believe. That's their end times theology. God's done with the Jews, all the blessings go to the church, all the curses go to the Jews. That's the way they divvied it up. So the Jews realized the Catholics aren't really their friend, but it's the evangelical Christians. Now, what's interesting when you consider the rapture of the church, what's gonna happen? Well, there is a scripture, 2 Thessalonians 2, 6, that I'd like to remind you of. I know there's a lot of words, but here we go. It says, and now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. We're talking about the revealing of the antichrist, this coming world leader. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth. that they might be saved. See, when you receive the love of the truth, and Jesus is the truth, you're saved. That's the salvation. I hope you're all saved. If you're watching this tonight online, or if you're here, or somebody dragged you here to this Prophecy Update, the number one thing you need to do is love the truth. And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And that's how you're saved. Once you believe in Jesus, once you're saved, and you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart the Lord Jesus, the Bible says you're saved, and then the world will start to make more sense to you. The answers are found not in the universities, the answers are found in the Bible. The Bible gives us those answers. But interesting, this tells us something, and the King James language is a little tricky, it's even in your newer translations tricky, but what does it mean when it says, for the mystery of iniquity's authority work, only he who now letteth will let. until he'd be taken out of the way. We don't use the word let like they did in Old English, except for when you play tennis. When you hit the ball and it hits the net and it didn't quite make it over clearly, the net was letting, hindering. In fact, if you look up the Greek word for this, it makes it even more simple. The Greek word is kateko, which means to prevent, hinder, restrain, or keep from. So what is that scripture saying? There's something keeping or letting or restraining, hindering the coming of this Antichrist. And by the way, if you're a post-tribber, which I love you, and I'm glad you read your Bible and all that, but I would ask you humbly, if you're a post-tribber, why does it say that whether you're talking about the Holy Spirit or the church filled with the Holy Spirit, he's letting or holding back the coming of this Antichrist? When will he come? When the Spirit takes that one out of the way. In fact, let me go back to that if I can. It says, for he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. That's the rapture of the church. Then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume. We're not gonna know, you and I as Christians are not gonna know who the Antichrist is until we're taken out of the way. So it's because of that word let. Well, I'm getting off course here. There's so much to talk about here, it's kind of fun. But my point is this, what happens to antisemitism in the world when the rapture of the church happens? When this idea of the church letting, part of your role as a believer, I think, Whether we know it or not as a church, part of our job is to sort of be those that restrain what's gonna happen once we're raptured. What's gonna be different when the church is raptured out of here? Can you imagine? Like think about what's gonna happen in the world. What will happen to the United States? It makes me wonder because I wonder if there's enough Christians, real Christians in the United States to really make that much of a difference, but I think it will. I think our military will be disabled when the rapture of the church happens. Maybe not as much as maybe 10 years ago. Some of our commanding and all the things that the weirdness of our military now is starting to make me concerned. But it used to be not that long ago that a lot of Christian people, and kind of saw the value in standing up for your country and fighting and being people of honor and integrity, like that was a thing in our military. And a lot of that was attributed to people that had faith. What will happen to all the good churches in America that are sort of holding back the flow? Because right now, like for example, abortion's on the docket this year, in some ways in a lot of states. And there's a group that's trying to hold that back. What happens when the rapture of the church happens? there's gonna be no one holding things back. Sin and wacko crazy evil is just gonna go unchecked after the rapture of the church. One of those things that you should know about is antisemitism is gonna go totally unchecked. and the world, what we're seeing now, as Christians who know the Bible, we're watching this antisemitism on the rise, and we're the ones saying, no, you know, you gotta understand God loves his people. They're not perfect. They're not even following God at this point for the most part, but still God has a plan for them. So he who now lets will let until that one comes. So what do we do? And what do we do with all this? And if we are living in the last days, I think it's the same thing we do if we're not living in the last days. One of the things about my position as far as what I believe in times is whether it's a hundred years from now when the rapture of the church happens or tomorrow, our job is the description is still the same. And that is, you know, keep your eyes on Jesus. I'm reminded, you know, what Hebrews, the author of Hebrews 12, verses one and two. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witness, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. Like get rid of our sin, it's burdening us down. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. That's the key right there. The founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. "'despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand "'on the throne of God.'" So keeping our eyes on Jesus, what do we do about the politics of Jerusalem? Well, the Bible tells us, Psalm 122, six, pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for they shall prosper that love thee. What do we do when things get bad in the world? You're like, man, I've been watching the news, Brett, and the news is depressing. Remember what we learned a few weeks ago, what do you do? Do you lift your eyes up to the news? Where should you lift your eyes? Yeah, this is a scripture dealing, Jesus talking about the last days. When these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh. The Psalmist said, look up to the hills from whence cometh my help, my help comes from the Lord. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and the Lord showed him what to look at. Lot only lifted up his eyes to what was going on and he ends up in Sodom. So you and I have jobs to do as Christians, looking to the author and perfecter Jesus, lifting our eyes to the Lord and looking to him. When all these things of the end times start to come to pass, Jesus says, then look up, your redemption draws nigh. We don't have to be freaked out or depressed. We can know that the Lord has a plan and a purpose and all these things that are happening in the world are all falling into place, just like the Bible says. I only talked about Israel. We could talk about a lot of other things that are falling into place and we will, perhaps in future prophecy updates. So there you have it. Let's pray and then we'll call it a night. Lord, we are thankful for your word. It does bring clarity. We know your plan. We know how you're gonna work things out in this world. Right now, as the rest of the world sees it as just trouble and people are wringing their hands, wondering what they're gonna do, you and I, as Christians, Lord, we get to come to you and cast our cares upon you. You, Lord, are the one who's not the author of confusion or strife or trouble, but you're the one who gives us that peace, Lord, that passes understanding. So Lord, I pray that we as a church would draw near to you, keep our eyes on you, give us strength and hope as we live in these last days. We thank you Lord in advance for your plan unfolding. Thank you above all, perhaps for just the way of salvation to anyone that would believe, that anyone who confesses with their mouth and believes in their heart that Jesus died and rose again and accepts that work of salvation, that they are saved. Lord, what a glorious thing you've done to save sinners like us. which gives us great hope. So we go our way rejoicing. Bless these, your people tonight as we close our Bibles now in Jesus' name, amen.