3, 2, 1, 0 From the studios of WORQ in Wisconsin This is the Stand Up For The Truth podcast. Today's issues, overlooked headlines, and biblical observations equipping the remnant around the globe. Got your sword handy? This is Stand Up For The Truth. It's Thursday, October 10, 2024 on the calendar. Fresh new podcast today. Mary Danielson at the host, Mike. Yes, good morning. Welcome to Stand Up for the Truth. We are welcoming back Paul Scharf of Friends of Israel Ministry. It's going to be great to catch up with him today. He's had a busy fall so far. We're going to learn what he has been doing and talk quite a bit about Israel. My scripture today is Psalm 31, 19 to 20. O how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you, in the presence of the sons of men! You shall hide them in the secret place of your presence from the plots of man, you shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we rejoice in the promises in your word. Help us to cling to them when the waters rise and troubles increase in our world and in our lives. Help us to leave everything at your feet and praise you at all times. We lift up the nation of Israel and her leaders that they may be led by you more and more as you reveal your love and care for them and the ultimate revelation of Jesus unto salvation. We also ask for grace and mercy for those who have to rebuild their lives from weather incidents, catastrophic flooding, Lord. We pray that many would look to you for the strength to continue on, that many would be saved as a result of this. We do lift up Paul and his family, Lord, his commitments and all that goes along with a ministry to your people. Protect and guide him, give him good health, encourage him along the way. In Jesus' name, amen. Paul Scharf is a church ministries representative for the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry based in Columbus, Wisconsin and serving in the Midwest. Paul speaks regularly about Israel, Bible prophecy, and many other topics in churches and Bible conferences all across the Midwest and around the country. You can find his writings and sermons at sharperiron.org, raptureready.com, prophecytracker.org, truthscript.com, and prophecytoday.com, in addition to, of course, foi.org. That's friendsofisrael.org, foi.org. Paul appears regularly as a guest on Prophecy Today Weekend, Prophecy Today Daily, Listen for the Joy. He's done interviews for KHCB Christian Radio Network, and VCY America, and, of course, Stand Up for the Truth. Again, the site is foi.org. Paul Scharf, welcome back to Stand Up for the Truth. Thank you, Mary. It's wonderful to be with you. You have had a busy season of travel and teaching. Fill us in on what you've been up to because you and I haven't chatted for many months here. What you been doing? Well, Mary, of course, I'm located here in Wisconsin. I will have been out of Wisconsin at least on one day of the month, if I have this right, every month of this year except January. And I believe I'll have been in an airport in every month except August. And so it has been busy. Now, included in there, there was a stretch where we were pretty close to home. for most of July and August, but September picked right up with travel that will last through the end of the year. I did something I've never done before, which was to go to the West Coast two weeks in a row in September. I started out my trip going to Iowa to my alma mater, the Faith Baptist Theological Seminary for the Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics. and was privileged to present a paper there and went on to a Friends of Israel Prophecy Up Close event in the Boise, Idaho area. I'd never been to Idaho before. I was very impressed with what I saw. I had a wonderful weekend there, but came home from there, and just a few days later, my wife and I went back to the West Coast to San Diego We had a Friends of Israel Prophecy Up Close event there at Shadow Mountain Community Church campus where David Jeremiah is the senior pastor. It was actually hosted by Southern California Seminary which is also part of the campus there. But then on Sunday I also taught a large Sunday school class at Shadow Mountain. So we had just a really amazing weekend and time there and all of that travel. And I'm just recovered from that and getting ready to head to Indiana tomorrow and North Carolina next week. So that's it in a nutshell. Yeah, well, the Lord's keeping you busy at this hour of the world. I want to mention, too, the new apps on FOI. Israel My Glory has an app and Friends of Israel. Tell us a bit about these apps. I think I like apps because they're an easy way to locate and support ministries in our device driven world. I think it's easier than going online, although you still can. You can certainly go on your computer and find those. How new are these apps? Well, I know that things are continually growing in that direction. One of the things they're working on is adding articles from Israel My Glory that you mentioned. That's our award-winning global outreach magazine. Our flagship resource has been published since 1942 continually. And they're adding the resources, the articles. The ultimate goal is to get all the way back to the beginning so people can search all that material. And people can certainly avail themselves of all that information. And I know that it's a constant project to bring those up to date and continue to fill in the information. Mary, I also have an app through my Sermon Audio page I could just mention quickly. People can find all my resources on sermonaudio.com slash P-S-C-H-A-R-F. And they can also get an app that will lead them just to my material. I certainly want them to use the FOI apps that you mentioned, but Sermon Audio has recently redone their whole website and their apps as well, and that's where people can always stay connected to me personally for my ministry within Friends of Israel. Okay, and Israel, My Glory is such a beautiful magazine. It's so well done. Can people get that mailed to them? Is it still in hard copy? It is. It goes all over the world in hard copy and it also goes now digitally. The new editions are available digitally and if people will go to IsraelMyGlory.org they can find out about that and they can actually sign up for a free one-year subscription. We offer that everywhere we go with sign-up sheets on paper on our display table and people can also go online And they can sign up and get either print or digital one free year of Israel My Glory. OK. Wow. Sounds great. Friends of Israel also has international workers doing the work of ministry. What are the various roles, at least in Israel, particularly in light of anti-Semitism around the world? I don't know if that's had an effect on the ministry at all. Do you have any updates on what people are doing, no matter what country they're in? Well, yes, Mary, we have people all around the world doing amazing heroic works, people in South America, people in Eastern Europe, where obviously there's the ongoing war situation in Ukraine, and people in Israel, as you mentioned. people, not foreign workers going into Israel, but people located in Israel who are there ministering in churches. And that is the only place in the world where we work directly with specific local churches on an ongoing basis or have a relationship with specific local churches. And the mother church there, if you will, is Jerusalem Assembly. Menno Kalischer, who is the son of Zvi, if people read Israel, My Glory, they know Zvi from the back of every issue of the magazine, his life story. He was a Holocaust survivor, an Israeli war veteran, and served with the Friends of Israel for more than 50 years. His son, Menno, is a wonderful, skilled pastor there in Jerusalem. They've now planted a daughter church in a strategic area, so there's two churches there. There's another local church in Rehovot. And those three churches are affiliated with the Friends of Israel in terms of, as I said, an ongoing ministry relationship. The only situation we have like that in the world with specific churches. But they have had just incredible opportunities for ministry in the time since October 7th, 2023. And we can get into this a little more, but our media, our legacy media, if you will, has failed us entirely to tell the amazing stories of what's really happening in Israel. Of course, there are many thousands of people who've been displaced from the north and from the south, pushed to the center. People who otherwise would not be suffering, but they've had to leave their homes because of the threats and the attacks. And so they're around Jerusalem, and the Jerusalem Assembly has had an amazing ministry to these people. I mean, cooking meals and providing basic necessities, again, for things, for people who otherwise would not necessarily be in need, but they are because of being displaced because of the ongoing terroristic threats that they're facing. And it's just been an incredible season of ministry for them. Again, they've worked heroically and around the clock much like our workers in Eastern Europe and Ukraine were doing and continue to do but especially back during the early days a couple of years ago of that outbreak of war and it's truly astounding at our Prophecy Up Close events we've actually been able to get live interviews as part of the day with Menno And with his daughter, Yael, who's also in a part of Friends of Israel. And they've actually joined us for a video conference as part of our day of teaching and shared some of the details and what it's like and what's going on and what they're facing. in Israel, in Jerusalem right now, and it's been fascinating and encouraging to hear that, and people are always moved when they hear directly from them. Yeah, that's very encouraging. I know it's just, I don't know how many are displaced, I know it's tens of thousands of people, and I know that Netanyahu would like nothing more than to get those hostages out, return these people to normal lives, But the need must be incredible. Do you happen to know, are people still just staying in hotels? It's been ongoing, of course, as everyone knows, for a year now. Yes, I don't have a lot of specifics on what they're going through on an individual basis, but I can tell you this, the Friends of Israel in the last year has actually, our tours obviously have been suspended right now because tourism again in Israel is basically on hold right now, but the Friends of Israel has taken three, what have been called solidarity trips. with key individuals. I have not been blessed to be on one of those trips yet, but a number of people have gone. They're actually, next month we'll be taking a fourth of these solidarity trips. Kind of a small group of select people, both from inside and outside the Friends of Israel. to go and see, it's not a tour, to tour biblical history, but to see really events related to what's happening right now and to also, for accountability's sake, to go and check in on all those places that people have supported through the Friends of Israel, through giving special gifts To our Israel relief fund in our standing with Israel fund and so that's been a major effort in the last year along with our regular service trips have gone also to Israel origins and have said those are service trips. or specific age groups, and they have both gone to Israel. And so those folks have been able to see and interact and talk to many people who've been affected directly by these events of the last year. OK, and if people want to contribute, can they just go on the website and contribute to this particular, if that's something they want to contribute to? They certainly can, and we have, again, as I mentioned, Israel Relief and Standing with Israel. They're two different funds, and together they've brought in, people have, God's people have given, through the Friends of Israel, since October 7th, 2023, roughly $3 million through those two funds combined. and those have gone to things through Israel Relief like helping organizations that the Friends of Israel has a long-standing relationship with, various groups that deal with things like bomb shelters, ambulances, meta-cycles, equipment that will go to soldiers in the IDF and and then the standing with Israel Fund was actually begun after October 7th, and it's it's used to send funds where there are immediate needs and some of that has gone through the Jerusalem Assembly to help toward feeding people and helping displaced people and and you know, providing for them in this hour of specific acute need, as we're talking about. It is an acute need. You mentioned, I want to camp a bit on dispensationalism because you mentioned a conference, Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics, and for our listeners who may not know what that is, because not everyone who listens is grounded in some of these terminology, Dispensationalism in the church. It's a theological system that views history as it is laid out in the Bible, from creation to the wrap-up. And it focuses on how God works through different eras and ages. And its distinctives are a literal interpretation of scripture, especially prophecy. And secondly, its view that Israel is separate from the church in God's program for the ages. Paul, it's kind of fallen into disrespect, and so I want to ask you about this conference, what's replacing it and why? I tend to think if a person reads the scriptures in order, in context, they will actually get dispensationalism. But I wonder, too, then, alongside that, are churches still even teaching the Old Testament? Because that has to enter in here. What are your thoughts, and how did this conference go? What did you talk about, and what are your thoughts on the status of dispensationalism as a whole in the church? The conference, I believe this was the 17th annual national conference for the Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics, that's a long title. It's not a huge conference, it's kind of an academic style conference of people getting together and listening as really academic papers are read and then there's a significant time of interaction with each one. I've wanted to go ever since this organization began. It really started with Dr. Mike Stallard who was not originally at that time, but now is the Vice President of International Ministries for the Friends of Israel. And he's been in that role for a number of years. So I knew of Dr. Stallard before that and when he started the council. So we met this year at FAITH in Ankeny, Iowa. There were roughly 55 people, I'd say, at the height gathered in a large room there on the campus. And it was two days, two long days, but full days of reading and hearing these papers by the presenters. So I was privileged to go for the first time. I've always wanted to go, but also to present a paper. My paper was selected. The theme this year was largely on dealing with myths about dispensationalism, and so I tackled a long-standing myth, and that is the myth that dispensationalism teaches more than one way of salvation. In other words, are the dispensations various ways of of being saved, are there various ways in which people are saved? And I would say no, and I would say that dispensationalism has never taught that in the main, but that the dispensations, and I know we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here, but the dispensations are not ways of being saved, but ways of living one's life. And obviously one big change that we would recognize right away is before the cross there was a way of living your life under the law, and as today in the church, we are free from the law, we're not under the law, Paul tells us, but under grace. And yet, salvation across the board since the fall of Adam and Eve is grounded in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. never was by our human works or law keeping or anything else and never will be. But the content that people have believed has grown with the progress of Revelation as we've been given that from God through the centuries and through the Testaments of Scripture and people came to understand more and more. Of course we can look back now in hindsight and practically have the complete Gospel just from the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament. We can have the coming of Christ, His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension all from the Old Testament. Before it happened, they would not have understood that, of course, as clearly as we do now. But they were still saved by faith alone. They had to believe what God had revealed. And that message even then centered in a coming Messiah. And they were justified by faith alone. So that was my part in presenting a paper. Those papers, by the way, and even videos from the conference will be available. in some time here we're still in the phase where we're refining the papers after the conference in light of the discussions and so forth. But it was a very profitable time. It's basically a group of a lot of professors and numerous pastors as well and some seminary students and there's just a process of being selected to present a paper and And then we have these two days, and I would encourage people if they're interested to check that out and to consider coming in the future. And they can find all that information. Again, this is a separate organization from the Friends of Israel, but dispensationalcouncil.org is where they can go for that. And they can actually see all the past Material going back to 2008 and and they can ultimately see what was presented this year Okay, so I know that's only a part of your of the answer to your questions, Mary, but I'll pause after that right there. That's okay. This is Standard for the Truth. You're listening to Paul Scharf, Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, FOI.org. And I think that when people, we have a lot of people that are starting to study prophecy, maybe they don't have a firm foundation, because it's an expansive topic. But I always know that they don't understand dispensationalism if they believe that the church in Israel, it's all the same thing, and they don't understand that God has a separate plan for Israel. And so then I think, wow, how can we get this understanding out there? Paul, do you think that this has to do with somewhat not teaching the Old Testament anymore and the general flow and context of Bible history? Yes, I think it has to do with that directly. I think it has to do with, frankly, not teaching the Bible as much as we must and as we used to. And dispensationalism, for those who may be hearing this and just wondering even what we're talking about, dispensationalism is a Bible word and a Bible concept. Really, in fact, I could even say this. Bible believers believe in dispensations because it's a biblical concept. Paul uses the word, if you have the King James or the New King James especially, you're going to see the word dispensation in the New Testament. If you have another modern version, you might see the word administration, for instance. It's actually built on the Greek word from which we get our word economy. which, by the way, doesn't really mean finance. It means the rules of the house. What are the laws of the house? And how do things work, in other words? And so God has instituted various ways of ruling his world, running his household, if you will, And they change, just like a personal household will change through the course of time. For instance, especially if there are children involved as they're born, and they're infants, and then they're young children, and then they're teenagers, and then they've left the home. There are going to be different rules for the house. And so there are different rules in God's household through the ages of time. So these aren't necessarily ages of time themselves, but they relate to the progress of time. and the progress of revelation. God has instituted different ways, as I said earlier, of living our life. under his direction as he gives further revelation as history progresses. And this is, when you put this together and see how central it is in biblical history, then you have dispensationalism. Dispensationalists are those who see the vital importance of these dispensations, especially, as you mentioned, the distinction between Israel and the church. And the fact the church has not replaced Israel, but God still has a future for Israel. He will fulfill every promise he's ever given to his chosen people, every prophecy ever made regarding them, the people, nation, and land of Israel. The church is not an afterthought. It was always part of God's plan. In fact, you could argue we have the highest place in all of God's plan. Beloved and in a privileged people But the church does not replace Israel the church age will end and God will turn back the focus again to working through the people nation and land of Israel and it's it's so important that we recognize this and all of this we believe is born out of a literal interpretation of the scriptures if we take the Bible literally and We believe you come up with what we call dispensationalism, and this is how it happened historically. Out of the Reformation, through the decades, through the centuries, there came about those who wanted to study the whole Bible, to get back to your question, Mary. Not just the New Testament, but the Old Testament. and not just the history but the prophecies. Dispensationalism is not just about prophecy, it's an understanding really of all of life and all of history. But it includes prophecy, it doesn't neglect or negate prophecy. and these people wanted to understand their whole Bible, and so they began to have Bible study meetings and Bible study conferences, and out of this came the Bible Institute movement and the Bible College movement, and a direct descendant If I may say it that way, as these decades progressed, it came about in 1938 with the formation of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. So that would be just a quick overview of dispensationalism, what it is and why it's important in my understanding. That is important. It is important for everyone to understand because there's more interest than ever in prophecy. In some camps there's less interest, but I really believe that God is doing an incredible work in Israel, especially over the last 12 months that we have seen. And you mentioned the God who keeps his promises, and how important this is to the church. If God keeps His promises to Israel, He will keep them to us and vice versa, and that is the God that we serve. So thank you for pointing that out. This is interesting, Paul, because I was on Harbinger's Daily this week and I saw an article called, To Oppose Israel's Existence is to Oppose the Will and Plan of God. It is so well done. And I was excited to read it, but I didn't even realize it was written by Jim Showers, the executive director of Friends of Israel. So this popped up on my screen at just the right time. And I want to talk about it a little bit. I know we only have a minute or so before we get to the break. So let me set this up a little bit. Paul, and we can talk about this. Again, the title is, To Oppose Israel's Existence is to Oppose the Will and Plan of God. And he says, Many within the church sadly fail to understand modern Israel's existence as an act of God's will. Some of these skeptics believe the state of Israel's establishment was an overreaction to the Holocaust of World War II, and they hold the nation responsible for all the violence in the Middle East. He says, such thinking indicts God for permitting Israel's rebirth and allowing the Jewish people's return to their homeland, a development that began in the late 19th century prior to the Holocaust. Yet God did exactly what he said he would do through the prophets, of course, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea. He declared the Jewish people will be replanted in their land, never to be uprooted again And then he talks about this defiance impugns God's sovereignty, implying that he was uninvolved in bringing this about. And so when the church says that Israel is illegitimate, they have no right to the land, this line really struck out to me, Paul, this defiance impugns God's sovereignty. We only have a minute left to go, but I wanted to set that up because I want to ask you about this. I don't think people really understand what they're saying when they malign Zionism and Israel being back in the land in unbelief. So I'm going to take a break here pretty quick. I'm talking to Paul Scharf, Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, FOI.org. And you can support them by going to that site and all that they're doing around the world. We're going to talk about this when we come back. So we'll be back in two minutes with more with Paul Scharf and talking about God's sovereignty and his plan when it comes to the modern state of Israel. So stay with me. We'll be back in two minutes with a lot more. Our social media pages are shadowbanned. Thanks for your prayers and sharing our posts at StandUpWithTheTruth.com. Welcome back to Stand Up With The Truth for this Thursday, October the 10th. And we are talking to Paul Scharf, Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, FOI.org. And when we took a break, I was setting up this article, To Oppose Israel's Existence is to Oppose the Will and Plan of God, written by Jim Showers. It's on Harbinger's Daily. And the church seems to be dropping the ball as far as understanding Israel being gathered in unbelief and this plan of God. And what a great article this is. And he says, the fact of Israel's return and restoration is a unique historical phenomenon because usually an exiled nation is absorbed into the people groups it joins. It's not I mean, never in the history of the world. It's unnatural for a nation to live in exile for centuries and keep their identity, keep their dream to return home. This has never happened in history, but this is God's doing, Paul. Let's talk about this, the sovereignty of God in this as it began well before the Holocaust with the Zionist movement, which is also under attack. So tell us about this and what an amazing thing God has done, but the church is kind of sleeping on this one. Well, yes, I mean, it's the return of Israel to her land is one of the greatest stories, obviously, in the history of the world. I would, you know, what are those stories? I mean, Columbus crossing the oceans is one, you know, but at the top of the list has to be the return of Israel as a people. to her land, reviving her language, keeping her culture intact, her religion intact, through all these centuries in exile, never being totally assimilated into foreign cultures, but maintaining their integrity as a people and coming back to the land. This is astounding, and I think we're kind of numb to it, because many of us have lived our whole lives in the shadow of the return of the people of Israel to the land, and they're there, and we see them on the news. It just sort of becomes like ho-hum. Now, if you don't believe that God has a future for Israel, then you're going to say, well, this is maybe the greatest accident of all of history, but it's not biblically, prophetically significant. But to pick up on where we were before the break, If you believe the Bible literally and you believe that God has a future for Israel, then you have to say this is amazing. We do believe God has a future for Israel and we believe we're privileged to live at a time where we see At the very least, we have to say this, God is setting the stage for future prophetic fulfillment. He is laying the groundwork. The people of Israel are coming back into their land as a people. And now you mentioned a key, they're back there, of course, we know, sadly, most of them, not all of them, praise the Lord, but many of them in unbelief. So this leads to another problem, and even a problem I find within our dispensational circles, and perhaps people who have not been taught a really complete version of dispensationalism or haven't really thought this through, they're still sort of trapped with this conundrum, and they say, but the people of Israel are in unbelief. How can this be the work of God when they're back in unbelief? And of course, I say, well, you've missed the point. Because the Bible tells us there's a time of tribulation coming. I believe it's after the rapture of the church. And the people of Israel have to be in the land in unbelief for that tribulation to begin. They're going to sign a covenant with the Antichrist as an unbelieving nation back in the land. So if you're in despair and feeling hopeless today because Israel's back in the land in unbelief, think of the whole story. Yes, they're in unbelief, but they're back in the land, and God's going to take them back to the land in unbelief and then bring them to life, bring them to faith, bring them to himself in the land. And this is the rest of the story. So don't give up hope yet. Don't quit in the middle. Don't despair. God has a future for Israel. And your article, The Coming Transformation of Israel, really spells this out well, because you ask the question, how can this possibly be the result of God's work? Well, it's a two-phase return. And I love how you emphasize in this article that the land and the restoration spiritually of Israel, they're connected. You can't have one without the other. They can be regenerated spiritually only after returning to the land. And you reference your Ezekiel, of course, the dry bones. That shows it connected to the land. And wow, I really, really thought that was very insightful. And Ezekiel, I think, is that where you would direct people, Ezekiel 35, 6, 7, 8, 9, to really kind of start to understand this? Yes, very Ezekiel 38 and 39 many people are fascinated with those chapters the battle of Gog and Magog That was the subject of our July August Israel my glory and the lead article from that was written by dr. Mark Hitchcock and And I was privileged to write the blog for foi.org, and people can find it in other places as well, as you mentioned, that provides some background support to that IMG article that went up on our blog. It's regarding this becoming transformation of Israel in chapters 36 and 37. And I make the point in the article both chapters talk about both aspects or both regatherings, if you will. There's two future regatherings of Israel, a regathering in unbelief to be brought into the land, to be judged in the land. But the purpose of that judgment, the whole purpose of the tribulation is to bring Israel, not the church, which will already be in heaven with Christ, but to bring Israel to repent, to receive her king and his kingdom, and then to be blessed, to be brought back into the land in blessing and to receive the kingdom, to be blessed in the kingdom forever. And we know that for many of the Jewish people, I think some of them are going to be actually saved spiritually at the very last millisecond of time when they look in faith On the one whom they have pierced, Zechariah 12, 10, and mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn. and that will obviously be the last available moment in history, and I believe some will be even brought to faith at that time, and the people of Israel, Paul says in Romans 11, and we'd have to go into some details of exactly how we understand this in the greater context, but Paul tells us in Romans 11, 26, all Israel will be saved. In other words, the whole nation that exists by the end of the tribulation will be saved to enter the kingdom. And there's so much more land that they do not have at this point, that God will give them. And your article also says the land will be physically transformed and one day become like the Garden of Eden. That's Ezekiel 36, 35. So I don't, I don't, when the churches say that, that they're illegitimate, you know, they're usurpers, et cetera, et cetera, they have no right to that land. ignorance of what the Bible teaches about prophecy or just the plain reading of the scripture. So Paul, we have to, people get into a revelation, which is great, and Daniel, but what about Ezekiel? Churches need to be teaching this, and Paul, I don't think they are, right? Well, we know God has made covenant promises to Abram, Genesis 12, 1 through 3, about the Abrahamic covenant. I call it the backbone of all of history. The Abrahamic covenant is the key to understanding all the rest of the Bible and all the rest of history. And it's repeated, it's reiterated, it's re-emphasized over and over and over to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants all the way through the Old Testament. And then God gave three other covenants to expand on the clauses of the Abrahamic covenant. uh... which are promising a land and descendants and blessing land there's a land covenant that expands on that deuteronomy thirty descendants the davidic covenant second samuel seven the blessing the new covenant jeremiah thirty one paul said in galatians three fifteen even a human covenant once it's made its once it's confirmed you can't annul it or add to it that's the nature of a covenant god is not God has not negated his covenant promises to Abraham and to his descendants, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the people of Israel. He's going to fulfill all of them. You know, it's interesting, Mary, we've touched just a little bit here, or I have on the importance of the Reformation in returning to biblical literalism, literal interpretation. And certainly the reformers in their lifetimes did not get to the point of refining and reforming these things we're talking about here about Israel. But out of the Reformation, the trend began. And people first, as they began to read their Geneva Bibles, and read their whole Bible, and a Bible they could afford to buy and hold in their hand and read that had study notes at the bottom. And they began to say, look, the Jewish people are going to be saved and added to the church before the end of this age. The Bible predicts this. And then others came after them and said, no, that's not quite far enough. The whole nation is going to be saved. And then finally others, I believe, brought the thinking to the level of completion and came along and said, no, to be exact, the nation is going to be saved. The people as a nation will be saved and restored to their land, the land of Israel. And as you said, it's a land that they have never yet even enjoyed. And people can look at Genesis 15, and see the, you know, and I love to look at maps that attempt to show exactly what is the fullness of the boundaries of the land of Israel. Our mutual friend, Dr. Andy Woods, I know he likes to say it like this. People talk about Israel giving up the West Bank. He said, I'm not worried about them giving up the West Bank. I'm waiting for the day they reclaim the East Bank. They've yet to enjoy all their land, but they're going to have all those promises, land, seed, blessing, be a blessing to the world. By the way, that's the only way you and I can be saved. as Gentiles, we have no promise from God at all. Paul makes that clear in Ephesians 2. The only one we have is that footnote at the end of the Abrahamic covenant that in Abraham and his descendants, actually, all the families of the earth can be blessed. Yes, yes. You know, you've got to be blind not to see what has been going on over there in the last year, actually in the last month. They are taking out world terrorists, people that we would have hoped would have been taken out a long time ago, but they are, say, getting revenge on this attack on the Marines back in the 80s. And they are taking out people that seek to harm not just Israel, but the entire world. And they are blessing the world that way. Plus, they've given us the Bible. They've given us the Messiah. They've given us their brains, their technology. The cell phones and pagers that the enemies of Israel uses are from Israel. Talk about divesting. Well, they haven't because it's hypocrisy. But Paul, I think about how they are blessing the world and you can choose to see that or you can choose not to see that. Do you have any thoughts on that? Well, yes, I mean, as you said, they've given us the scriptures, they've given us the Messiah, they're going to give us the future kingdom. Hard to be anti-Semitic if you're a believer who's looking forward to living in a Jewish kingdom with the Jewish Messiah, right? But, yeah, and there is a blindness, Paul tells us, temporarily, right now, in part, there's a blindness, spiritually, over the eyes of the Jewish people. Yet as you mentioned Even in spite of that all through history God has gifted his chosen people in marvelous ways They've accomplished their accomplishments far far outpace their numbers and and even now They're in unbelief. We wouldn't expect that necessarily everything they're doing as a nation in unbelief is good and right, and yet so much of it, as you said, is so good. And we can rejoice just on a human level of how amazing the their intellect, their abilities that they've displayed just in this war effort, as you mentioned, the strategies that they've implemented, the precision that they've used, the results that we've seen, it's absolutely astounding. It is astounding. And we rejoice in that, just in a level of common grace, as you said, in our world today, because in spite of a spiritual blindness, there's an efficiency of talent and in every way a proficient results in this war effort that we must attribute to the blessing of God. Yeah, absolutely. It has been astounding and it just makes me smile and I hope other believers are picking up on it. This is Stand Up For The Truth for this Thursday. talking to Paul Scharf, Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, FOI.org. I love getting his unique perspective on so many different things and how the Lord has gifted him to understand these things. Let's talk a little bit, Paul, about Israel and U.S. relations. Of course, I would hate to see the U.S. turn on Israel, but we're going to vote in less than a month, Paul, pro-family, pro-life, freedom of speech, the ability to gather and talk about what you and I are talking about, gather in the church. These are things that are important or should be important to Christians who vote. Now, how can Americans remember Israel when they vote? Because I'm reminded of Trump moving the embassy to Jerusalem. But I've also heard of a large number of Christians that are not going to vote. And someone said, well, I can't vote for someone who might be in favor of a two-state solution in there. But Paul, God's going to sovereignly have his will in Israel. They're going to go through a difficult time. I don't think that that is something that American voters need to concern themselves with necessarily, but I'm disturbed at this. Charlie Kirk said that there's a survey out there by George Barna, and only 51% of people of faith plan to vote in November. In other words, 41 million born-again Christians will not vote. 32 million mainline Christians will not vote. And he says this is a five alarm fire. But we are also supporting Israel when we vote. Paul, what are your thoughts on Christians saying we're not going to bother with this election? Well, Mary, you have several questions together there, and I certainly don't want to hold myself up as an expert on. Either you even US politics, that's not my expertise, nor America Israel relations, but I think I can give some biblical. And a big picture. ideas to fill in what you're talking about. Yes, God is in control. That's what we ultimately need to remember, isn't it? Ephesians 1.11, he's working all things after the counsel of his will. I have no idea what's going to happen in November on the election. I have no idea how long it will take for us to know a result. I don't know what the Congress is going to look like. I don't know any of that. But I know that God is sovereign, God is in control, and whatever is going to happen, He already knows and He is already using it in the outworking of His plan. He's working all things after the counsel of His own will. He doesn't need any other counselors. He doesn't need our input. And He's even working all things for the good of those who love Him. Now, that being said, as I said, a dispensation is the law of the house. We're living in God's house. He has rules for us and he holds us accountable as stewards. By the way, these are ideas that are of central importance to this whole issue of dispensationalism. And as stewards who are going to give an account, by the way, part of that account will be the fact that he's placed us in this most amazing time in history, won't it? This significant day in which he's allowed us to live and he expects us to bring a return on his investment, if you will, of placing us here at this time. this incredible day in history. Part of that stewardship, I believe, is to vote, to be an active citizen. We don't all work in government, we aren't all called to run for office, but most everyone who has the legal opportunity as a citizen can vote. And and I think that's something important for us as Christians to do. They'll never be a perfect candidate until the millennial kingdom when. When Jesus, there won't be a ballot because Jesus will rule and depending how you interpret some passages and some scriptures. such as we were in in Ezekiel, even Ezekiel 37, 24, maybe David will be on the ballot, okay? Glorified David, wouldn't he be a great ruler? But in the meantime, we have to pick from those that run, and we have to do the best we can as stewards under God, and I think, as you said, One of the critical issues has to be, what does any candidate think about Israel? And I am amazed, as you are, Mary, as so many are, that people at the highest levels of our government since October 7th seem to be, there seem to be those who would actually take us to support not Israel, but her enemies. And I would say this, and I have to again attribute this quote to our mutual friend, Dr. Andy Woods, but I use it all the time myself, is that we think of Israel needing America. That is not the issue at all. God is going to absolutely fulfill his purposes through the people of Israel. It's not Israel that needs America. It's America that needs Israel. And I think one of the last reasons that we sing God Bless America, and he has, but why would he still be blessing America today? I would think of my mentor, Dr. John Whitcomb, who had a sign in his garage that said, America, bless God. Well, we're not doing much of that, sadly, in our culture today, but perhaps one of the last reasons that I think God still, he still is pouring out his blessing on us here in America. Maybe one of the last reasons is because, by and large, over time, our nation has been a blessing to the people of Israel. And that might be the last reason that he's still blessing us. And if we turn away from that, I believe we are doomed. Yeah, well said. Absolutely agree with that. And we need to remember that when we go to the polls as much as we are able to, because God instituted government just like he did the family and the church. And when it comes down to these things, can we protect them? Because if we don't vote, we're opening a door to all kinds of other things. It's not just a presidential election. I want to just take a second to remind people that there's so much going on. In this election, we're talking about presidency, of course, and a lot of state and local issues. Control of the House and the Senate hangs in the balance. Governors, state attorneys general, local school boards. All this is going on in November, so it's not just the one thing. And so that is more disturbing to me in light of all that, because we're going to get more of the same if this 70 million Christians sits on the sidelines And that bothers me no end. But here we are, like you said, I like the way you said that is, you know, we can't tell what's going to happen. But it's going to be just a real life changing event. I think this is just one of those times. that we are in the middle of, we are living in. So Paul, did we miss anything that you still want to talk about? And I want to ask you about the Hanukkah baskets and what that is, because I know that we talked about that a year ago. Hanukkah begins on Christmas Day this year. So is Friends of Israel, are they working to bless Israel in another way through these Hanukkah baskets? Yes, and people can go to our Friends of Israel FOI.org website, FOI.org slash Hanukkah, and they can find lots of information about Hanukkah. And as you mentioned, Hanukkah this year, it's really kind of perfect timing. It's December 25th, which is, of course, Christmas Day through January 2nd. So it just offers an absolute wonderful opportunity for us to teach and preach about Hanukkah. You may say, well, why would we preach about Hanukkah? Well, Jesus did in John chapter 10. He celebrated and talked about Hanukkah. Hanukkah is not a biblical holiday, but it's prophesied. The events surrounding it are prophesied in the book of Daniel. And Jesus came into a world where it had been instituted in the intertestamental period and he celebrated, it was an important part of John chapter 10, his life before the cross. So we talk about these things and we have these Hanukkah gift boxes and people can go to foi.org and find those and they're not available quite yet, I don't believe, but soon people will be able to order those and share them with a Jewish friend. They're wonderful products from Israel, beautiful products from Israel. And they just are a wonderful gift to give to a Jewish friend. And here's something I've started doing, Mary, when I teach about Hanukkah, I'll take one of those boxes and place it somewhere near the front of the church, near the pulpit, where people can see it. They can come up afterward and look at it. And I use it as sort of an illustration. And then I say, someone with a Jewish friend, please, before you leave today, take this box. and take it to your friend. And these boxes go all over the world as we rejoice in the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah with our Jewish friends, because it's of biblical importance. And as you said, we could say so much more about that, but I'd encourage people to go to foi.org slash Hanukkah. Wow, Paul, thank you so much. We covered a lot of ground today, but it was great info. And just so people understand what a huge blessing Israel is to this world, even in a war situation and time of persecution. Thank you, Paul. We'll have to do this again in the next few months. God bless you. Thank you, Mary. It's been great to be with you. All right, now tomorrow we were supposed to have Jeff Childers. He is in Florida. So communication-wise, this is not going to be an option. So we won't have Jeff tomorrow. We're going to reschedule him for a drier time in Florida. But headlines tomorrow. Now he's going to do headlines next week, Tuesday. But in lieu of that, Chris Cantana next week. Also Pete Garcia and David Bowen. What a great lineup for next week. So thank you for joining me today. What a blessing it's been to talk to Paul Scharf.