Welcome this evening. Good to have you with us. We have much to go over and a lot to talk about. So let's get, let's get started. We've entitled this prophecy update Gazalago? Question mark. I don't know why that just is kind of funny to us. But, but it is an interesting day. And, and really the Bible talks about these things. So it'll be something worth considering. You know, Could what is taking place today, the question we often ask at Prophecy Update, does it mean the end could be near? And the answer is yes. But does it necessarily mean for sure that the end is near? The answer is no. There's been a lot of, I've been doing Prophecy Updates for 40 something years, or part of them, for 40 years, preaching them for 30. But I've also seen a lot of dogmatic prophecy update guys be wrong a lot because they were too dogmatic. This is the end of the days, you know, and a lot of people become pessimistic. So I do think we have to be careful not to overstate things like this is for sure what's happening. But what's interesting about what's going on in the events of today is some might say, wait a minute, Brett, things seem to be getting straightened out. in Israel, if you know why I would even say that, if you've been following the news and what have you. And some people might say, see, the end is not near. Well, the interesting thing about the Bible is it's so mysterious. And there's so many things that we kind of look at in pieces, but we're gonna show you how even calming and peace in Israel could be pointing to a specific event that I'm not even sure the order of these events. For example, the Gog Magog invasion, when some people say, well, it's for sure at this point, or it's for sure at that point. I've never been dogmatic about when the Gog Magog invasion's gonna be. Could it be before the rapture of the church? Could be. Could it be after the rapture of the church? Could be. I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other on that, but the circumstances around that particular invasion are unique. and a little different than some of the other end times predictions, which is kind of interesting. And one is kind of in stark contrast. I'll show you a little bit of that, perhaps tonight if we have time and we'll get into that. But, you know, Jesus himself said it best when it comes to this idea, you know, are we for sure at the end? I think we should be careful about saying that. Even though as Christians, we should look for his coming, long for his coming. We should like the early church, save Maranatha, which is that kind of expression of the Lord. He's coming, be ready. Are you ready for the coming of the Lord? And it's just something the early church used to say to each other. We should have that attitude, but at the same time, being careful to listen to Jesus. What did he say? There in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus made this comment. He said, and Jesus answered and said to them, take heed that no man deceive you. I always like to remind people the very first thing Jesus said when the disciples said, what does the end look like? That one of the first things he said is watch out for being deceived. One of the things I like about Steve the tour guide, which he's going to come on here in a little bit, is I like how he's kind of a little more pragmatic. He's not quite as sensational as a lot of people that are out there talking about these things. And he'll give you an honest opinion. I think that's really important. And not, you know, pull any punches. I think sometimes there's a temptation to get into the hyperbole or even exaggerate what's going on. And I think we should be careful with that because, you know, deception is going to be part of the end times. People are going to be deceived. But we think, oh, well, that's just the other side. They're going to be deceived. I don't think so. I think it's our side that's going to be deceived. If you read your Bible carefully, watch out for this. So Jesus said, whatever you do, the very first thing when he answers, he doesn't say, well, you know, the rumors of wars, that's not what he said first. He said, take heed, be careful that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name. People said, I'm coming in the name of Christ. Okay, now keep that in mind for tonight. I'm coming in the name of Christ, in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that you be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. So even Jesus said, the end's not yet. Even though you're seeing wars and rumors of wars, the end's not yet. These are words of Jesus. You can't go wrong with that. Now, one of the things that I mentioned was what if things are getting more peaceful in Israel? What if things kind of get, and we're gonna ask Steve about his thoughts on this here in a few minutes. But what if there's peace in Israel? Well, one of the things we've talked about a lot here is what are the conditions of the Ezekiel 38 Gog Magog War? Let's just kind of review that really quick. I think it'll probably lead into our discussion later on here. It says by the prophet Ezekiel 38 verse eight, after many days thou shalt be visited. In the latter years thou shalt come into the land. speaking to the Gog leader and Magog of the north, which is a confederation of nations listed there in Ezekiel 38. They're gonna come down after many days in the latter years and that shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword and is gathered out of many people against the mountains of Israel. That's always an idiom for the West Bank, the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste. but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely, all of them." That's noteworthy. One of the things that the mark of this Gog-Magog invasion is they're drawn down into the West Bank and into the land of Israel. It says they'll be dwelling safely, all of them, and it goes on in verse nine, and it says, thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, this army, confederation of nations, and thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou and all thy bands and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord God, it shall also come to pass in the same time that things shall come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought, and thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages, And so, you know, that's been the debate. What's an unwalled village? Because in some ways, Israel is mostly unwalled right now, compared to ancient Bible times, most towns or cities had a wall. But now there's kind of a big wall right down the middle of Jerusalem, but there's debate. Are we seeing unwalled villages? Well, compared to those days, I would say yes, but there's still walls in Jerusalem. So that's kind of people say, the Gog and Magog invasion can't happen yet. So because of that, but then it goes on in the middle of that verse and says, I will go to them that are at rest. that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, having neither bars nor gates. And what are they gonna come to do? To take a spoil, verse 12, and take a prey, to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods that dwell in the midst of the land. So this idea of cattle and goods, and there's even further description about the economic success of Israel during the Gog and Magog. That'll be one of the things they're coming to take a spoil from Israel. It's because their economy will be booming. So these are the situations that the Bible says around this confederation of nations that's gonna come against Israel, the Gog-Magog invasion. Those are some of the requirements that I just read. Now, with that said, a lot of us have thought, well, it seems like things need to improve a little bit before the Gog Magog invasion, because Israel's had all kinds of tension. The greatest tension, perhaps, from the Hamas down in Gaza. And that's, of course, October 7th, last year, was a huge memorial date that we'll never forget. And in some ways, I've even heard Jews say it's worse The repercussions is worse than the Holocaust. Now why would a Jew say that? Because the Holocaust, six million people, lasted longer. October 7th was just one day. The reason Jews say that is because at least after the six million Jews were killed, the world sort of had some sort of a pause of sympathy toward the Jews. But after October 7th, shortly the next day, the world has only showed hatred toward Jewish people and antisemitism is on the rise. And so this Gaza Strip has been the most contentious of places for so long, over 50 years of just nothing but contention and trouble. Now, I was down right at the northern part, the northern border of Gaza. It was about 10 years ago that I was there. And I took a little screenshot of my phone because that's where I was, right there at Ascalon, just south of Ashdod. which are those five Philistine cities, Akron, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Gaza. Those were the five Philistine cities that we always read about in the Bible. And I was with some buddies, we went on a little tour right down there just with a... the intention to stop at all five Philistine cities. And most of them are just archeological ruins. But I just wanted to show you, this is one of the most beautiful areas of Israel, right there at Ashkelon. It's like, totally reminds me of San Diego. Same kind of climate, beautiful palm trees and beautiful little parks. This is one of the ancient cities. I think this one was Ashkelon, the ancient city of the Philistine people. that they had to archaeologically unearth, and so we saw that. But here's me and my crew, and that's the bush, the purple bush behind us is in Gaza. And we're just standing there. Micah, who is one of the guys that tirelessly helps me with the tech and the keynote stuff and photos and video stuff, he's been doing that for years. But what an interesting trip that was for us. Of course, I made a stop at the American embassy there. Oh, this is a, I call it the embassy, American embassy, but it was a McDonald's there right at the northern Gaza area. And I gotta say, that was the best McDonald's burger I've ever had. They're nothing like American McDonald's. That hamburger was twice as big as a quarter pounder. And it was like grain-fed beef from Israel. I'm telling you, it was like one of the best hamburgers I've ever had. But enough about that. I probably should get back to the main thing here. Yeah, leave it up there. Don't worry, Cinnabon's afterwards, so we'll make up for it. But the Gaza Strip has been a constant problem for Israel. You know, the Six Day War, 1967, Gaza was part of the attack of the people of Israel. And it really forced Israel to occupy during that time. From 67 to 2005, Israel had the unfortunate responsibility of occupying that space because terrorists were coming out of there and so forth. So Israel really had to control what was happening. But finally, the Israeli government just said either we're gonna occupy this for every generation and we'll have to go in here and it's gonna be a constant conflict, urban warfare, really brutal. that Israel had to deal with. So finally they gave up Gaza and gave them their independence. Remember Ariel Sharon? And by the way, billions and billions, untold billions of dollars were pumped into Gaza. But what did the people of Gaza do with those billions and billions? They pumped it into more terror, more rockets, more tunnels, more death. Really sad. Well, September 22nd, 2005, some of you remember the footage of the Israelis being pulled out of their homes in Gaza. More than 8,000 Jews had to leave their businesses, their homes, and they moved them out of the Gaza Strip. and really Israel left back there in 2005. And really, this was the situation since 2005. It's just gotten worse and worse, tunnels, terror, death. And so October 7th required Israel, they had really no choice. Forget what the whole world says. If you have rockets just piling on your heads for year after year, and just terror all the time, You'd be crazy as a nation to not deal with that. And so, Israelis under the leadership of Netanyahu have done quite a job with that. Now, this most recent ceasefire, is it working? Is it permanent? Some of the hostages were set free. What's the deal? What should we think about what's going on? Well, that's where I want to really bring in Steve, the tour guide. Now, Steve, he's a PhD in the Hebrew University, of course. He got his doctorate there, a former IDF soldier, and he's also a great tour guide. Let's do an Eiffel Creek welcome for Steve, the tour guide. Steve. Hello, hello, hello. All right, hey Steve, you know, when you were in the IDF, were you, I forget, were you in the Golani Brigade? That's correct. Tell us what that brigade, what the responsibility of that brigade was. Sure, the Golani Brigade is one of four infantry battalions, actually brigades, and Israel is separated into three districts, the Northern Command, which is responsible for Lebanon and Syria's border, the Central Command, which is Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Southern Command, which is Gaza. Golani is part of the Northern Command structure. So much of my training was geared towards a future war with Hezbollah. That was the main focus, Hezbollah and Syria. Golani historically, has more casualties, I think, than any other unit of the Israeli army. Now I was fortunate because I served during the Oslo peace process, which was probably the quietest, most peaceful time in Israel's history to be in the army. So I can't claim that I have any war stories. or, you know, participated in any glory on the battlefield or anything like that. And I don't apologize, because I'm happy not to have any post-traumatic stress, as many soldiers who graduate... Yeah, well, you may not have had some action like that, but you've told me some stories. I think most Americans have no idea, even during a time of peace, if you're in Israel, it's not really a time of peace, even during the Oslo. Remember the story, can you tell us just a quick, remember the taxi ride that you took where you, There were a lot of Jewish soldiers that were being killed when they would take a taxi ride because there's no formal transit for some of the units. Can you tell us about that? Sure. What happened was the year before I joined the Israeli army, somebody in the Golani unit that I was in was kidnapped while hitchhiking. The terrorists of Hamas had dressed as Hadzidic Jews, Orthodox Jews. And unfortunately the soldier who was kidnapped was an American Jew like myself who had not lived in Israel long enough to really discern Arab from Jew. Now that's important because the media will tell you that the Jews are white colonists for the most part and the Arabs are, you know, these indigenous brown people. But those of you that have been to Israel will notice that most Israelis and Arabs are indistinguishable from one another. Most Israelis come from native Middle Eastern backgrounds. They've returned to Israel from places like Iraq and Yemen and Morocco and Syria, so... Somebody who's lived there their whole life is able to discern who's an Arab and who's a Jew, but new arrivals like me struggle with that. And somebody just like me the year before in Golani had been kidnapped and killed. His last name I remember was Waxman. So of course I was paranoid about this. So I was on the Golan Heights and I had to catch a ride to Tiberias to get a bus to Jerusalem. So I had to hitch a ride from the Golan Heights to Tiberias. I was picked up by a car and I insisted in sitting in the back seat, and unbeknownst to the driver for most of the ride, I had the barrel of my M16 pointed at their back, you know. And towards the end of the ride, He looked in the rearview mirror and he noticed I had the barrel of the gun pointed towards him. And he said, what's happened to you? What are you, crazy? And I said, no. But I said, I don't know who's who in this country. Just get me safely to my destination and we'll all get to our place safely. I doubt he ever picked up a soldier again, hitchhiking. But yes, that's the story that you're thinking of. Well, yeah, I think that's the thing. Until you're in Israel, it's hard to picture even those kinds of stories, what people and the IDF have to deal with. Well, I've got a lot of questions for you tonight, Steve, and I think we'll start with Netanyahu's visit to the White House. I think that was quite remarkable. If any of you guys had a chance to watch that on the news, It really was like, you know, when you see this kind of a meeting between Netanyahu and Trump, it was kind of moving for me in some ways to see somebody actually treating Netanyahu. Last time we had, you know, Biden asleep with the Prime Minister in the Oval Office, if you remember that. And it was so, it was very insulting, you know. But I wanted to get your take on this. You know, Trump, he dropped a bombshell, of course, at the press conference. We'll get to that in a minute. But I wanted you to kind of just, what's the big difference between the last administration and the Trump administration's reception of Benjamin Netanyahu? And what do the Jews in Israel feel about that? Why don't you talk about that? Sure, so I'll compare it to the worst of days was when Obama had Netanyahu enter through the servants' quarters, you know, the servants' entrance and exit by way of that same servants' quarters. And here you see Netanyahu being received, perhaps unlike anybody in the history of diplomacy in the White House, for not only Trump meets him there, but Vice President Vance is there, Pete Hegseth is there, the entire senior staff. is there. So that's a major difference. But I also want to point out a subtlety that I'm not sure made it onto the clip there. I don't know where you guys cut that off. But at the very end of the clip, Trump, he seats Netanyahu. Netanyahu evidently is signing some sort of guest book. And Trump, you know, puts him in the chair, you know, sort of like extends to him a humility and a grace that people would probably say is not typical, you know, a president to do for a foreign leader, but probably was not typical of Donald Trump himself in Trump 1.0. And maybe one of the things that will come up in this conversation is there's a huge difference between this Trump administration and Trump 1.0. Not so much in relation to how they're treating Israel, because obviously in Trump's first term, 1.0, he was the best president towards Israel in the history of the United States. But something's changed. Part of it I credit to the assassination attempt in Butler. Something happened to Donald Trump in the aftermath of that to sort of Give him more, I don't know if the word's humility, but there's a humanity to him, a softness to him that you don't see in his first term as much. So that's one thing I noticed. But another thing that I noticed is how well prepared this incoming Trump administration was in advance of their coming back into office. Now, Donald Trump will tell you that when he was in his first term, he was on the job training almost for the whole four years. But this time they really sprinted way before even taking office. And for example, earlier I sent Micah a picture of what they planned for the Gaza Strip to look like after it's been rebuilt per the plan that you mentioned that Donald Trump, there it is. Good job, Micah. per the Donald Trump plan. But what's interesting is that picture and that plan was delivered to Donald Trump back in July, which means that Donald Trump even put the request in for that design months before that. That's not something that was done in a week. That's the finished product that was submitted to his administration. This is before they won the election, Brett. This is months before. He's already got people that had put in this request to have that print that you see, that picture, submitted to him. And the request for that picture and design was submitted months before that. So that betrays a lot about the forethought. Because you have to remember, Donald Trump's often accused of doing everything from the hip, shooting from the hip and not thinking about anything he does beforehand. But that picture tells another story. That picture that was submitted as a proposal in July is telling us that this administration has been preparing itself for months on many fronts, not just the Israel front, but of course, things related here domestically in the United States, the border with Mexico, all sorts of issues have been worked on by this administration months in advance. And that's already a huge difference from Trump 1.0. Yeah, it's almost like, you know, he, in his first administration, he came in ready to roll, but he got attacked so harshly. And even by his own selection of people, you know, I think he was misguided by some other advisors who said, you should have these people, but they were kind of not really on board with Trump. But this time it seems like everybody's really committed to carrying out what basically told everybody at all is rallies. Here's what I'm going to do, A, B, C, and D. And they're just checking boxes pretty radically. This picture kind of reminds me of Dubai, just on the Mediterranean. It makes you wonder if that's kind of part of what they're envisioning. Let me ask you, did you see the little gift that Netanyahu gave Trump. Yeah, the golden beeper. The golden beeper. I wonder if Secret Service tore it apart first just to make sure there was nothing on it. That's the first picture I'm seeing of it. Yeah, you can actually zoom up to it to see it a little bit. It says, to President Donald J. Trump, our greatest friend and greatest ally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pressed with both hands. What I can't make out is what is that blob that it's on? I think it's a piece of, you know, we call it Myrtlewood here in Oregon. The only two places in the world, you know, that we have that wood is Israel and Oregon. That's right. Which is kind of cool. So I think that even brings Oregon into the discussion a little bit there. But I thought that was funny. You get a sense that Donald Trump and Netanyahu have kind of become sort of friends, like legitimate friends. Do you think that's true? So from everything that I've read, the relationship was frayed after Trump 1.0. And there were books even written about this. Something again has changed in 2.0, and I'll tell you what I think it is. Trump respects strong people. He, you know, he respects strength. And even though Israel was caught in this initial salvo on October 7, Israel's response since then has epitomized incredible strength. You know, the Pager attack should go down as the greatest intelligence operation maybe of all times, you know, and that's for a country with legendary operations already. So I just think Netanyahu and Israel's response to October 7th has won Donald Trump's respect. Right. I think that Donald Trump just respects strong men, and Netanyahu and his echelon of leaders and military people have proven themselves as strong. But it's also, if I may, it's so breadth. What makes Israel a unique ally in the whole constellation of American allies is that Israel doesn't need American boots on the ground. And I'm sure we'll get into this when you ask me about, you know, what Trump said at the White House and America taking over Gaza and all that. The reason why many people in the American government and historically in both parties, let's say when the Democrats were middle of the road centrist also at one time, What they saw in Israel was an ally capable of defending itself. All America needed to do was provide Israel with the weapons it needs. But never in the history of Israel's wars have American soldiers had to participate, either in the form of boots on the ground or even pilots. People will say, yeah, but when Iran shot ballistic missiles at Israel a few months ago, weren't there American pilots and British pilots and French pilots airborne to shoot down those rockets and missiles? And what was an unprecedented participation of the American Air Force? But it's not like those pilots were active in a war where they were in danger of being shot down over enemy territory. In other words, Israel will never allow, it violates a central core value of the Zionist movement. Following the Holocaust, Israel was established on the ethos that the Jews have to defend themselves, that this is an honor, and then we have to die by ourselves. We're not going to have others fight our battles for us. To do so betrays the Zionist founding ethos behind the country. So I think this is something that America's security and political strata have always appreciated, that Israel is one of the only allies the country has where America won't have to come with boots on the ground to rescue Yeah, and that was one of the big questions a lot of the alarmists and people are freaking out about the press conference which I'm about to show. People were saying, are American boots gonna be on the ground in Gaza? People were kind of freaking out. And it's mainly because of this. Before I ask you about this, Steve, I'm gonna play this, just a little snip of basically the bombshell Trump dropped on the world at the press conference. Let's play that right now. The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply Unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Do a real job. Do something different. Just can't go back. If you go back, it's going to end up the same way it has for a hundred years. So, you know, I was a little surprised by this announcement, to be honest. I think most people were. Question, were you surprised? And I was also noticing Netanyahu's face. This particular angle I've noticed didn't have Netanyahu's face, which I wanted to have on there. But, because he looked a little surprised, too, by some of the things he was saying. That goes against the narrative you just said about the pre-designed picture. I would just say, with AI, I can draw up a picture like that in 20 seconds about the Gaza Strip all designed and everything, but maybe there's more to that. But even Netanyahu struck me as a little surprised. Maybe that's just me. What do you think? No, I agree with you, he was surprised. And he showed a deft, not deftness, he was deft in hiding his surprise to the best of his abilities. Even his comments, his comments kind of covered, his comments were kind of covering sort of like, oh yeah, you know, Trump's a visionary, like I thought he handled it really well, but it's the way I would have handled it. There was sort of that comic relief shortly thereafter. If you remember, a woman from Afghanistan wanted to ask him a question about the Taliban, and he says, I don't understand a single word you're saying, and everybody laughed. So that sort of broke the tension, if that makes sense. Yeah. So I guess my question is, what do you think this means? Do you think it's for real? And what do you think is happening here with this announcement? Sure. So I'll tell you what I've read. But again, I don't know how realistic it is. So the picture that I sent you that Micah posted, the logic behind Donald Trump saying that is the Gaza Strip has been totally destroyed. Over 65% of its buildings have been destroyed. And some estimates are that it will take between, wait till you hear this, between 25 to 30 years to clear the debris just to clear the debris. Now, why that long, Steve? Come on, you're kidding. Because what we haven't been told in the wider media, and it's not because of a conspiracy or anything, it's just for some reason nobody is considered important enough to say. It's estimated that there are about 10,000 unexploded munitions in those ruins. And some of those munitions are 2,000-pound bombs. Some of them are much smaller. But it means that you have 10,000 potential booby traps. Every one of these unexploded ordinances could kill people and take out a family, take out a block, some of them, a 2,000-pound bomb. So it's not just getting rid of cement and what do you call those wires in buildings? Rebar? Yeah, rebar. I always confuse it with the food, rebar. Rebar pie. Yeah, rebar pie. Get your iron and vitamins. But just to deal with the, to find the 10,000 unexploded ordinances, to identify them and to explode them one by one and clear the debris and Remember, you had almost 500 miles worth of tunnels dug by Hamas underneath the... They call it the Metro because it was larger than New York's subway system. That now hurts the structural integrity of the Gaza Strip should you want to do massive building on top of it. So now you got to deal with all that stuff, re-stabilize the earth under it. So the logic behind all this and the article that was attached to that picture that you guys put up, said that what the Trump administration was thinking was called BOT, build, operate, and transfer. That wasn't mentioned in any of these press conferences, so I'm just reading now to you what was going on behind the scenes. The idea is to rebuild the Gaza Strip by hiring private enterprise to do that. So in other words, putting out I don't know if this is an English word also. In Hebrew, they say tenders. In other words, announcing bids. Here, everybody, come and rebuild the Gaza Strip, all you massive major engineering and building companies, in return for your investment. Remember, it's bot, B-O-T. After you build, we'll allow you to, oh, operate it. You can operate the Gaza Strip to regain your investment, to profit off of your investment, anywhere between 50 to 100 years, at the end of which, then it would revert to T, transfer, that's the T in bot. Okay, build, operate, and transfer. At the end of the 50 to 100 years, the land would then be transferred to the government, whether that be the government of the United States or the government of Israel. So that's sort of the finer details behind all that, and hopefully that helps people understand a little bit to color in the picture of what Trump was saying. He didn't articulate it because it was not, you know, the nature of the press conference was to put out blurbs and not get into too many details. But right, build, operate, let the companies rebuild the Gaza Strip who invest, by the way, it's estimated it will cost up to $2 trillion to rehabilitate the Gaza Strip. Okay, a massive amount of money. No governments are going to want to do that, but perhaps private enterprise will, but on condition that they're allowed to operate the utility companies, operate the railroad that was in the picture, to regain their money, to profit a little bit before transferring it to a government. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, I think so. It builds in kind of a self-security too. I mean, if they're gonna wanna secure their investment, which they'll be interested in making sure that Hamas is not in charge, because that'll ruin their investment. And there's nothing like private enterprise to do that. I have a bit of a theory. Give me some time to describe kind of what I think Trump's doing, and then I'd like your thoughts on, because I might be off on this, But, you know, as I see it, Trump, you know, is the dealmaker guy, you know, and one of the things American diplomats have made over the years, the mistakes they made is they try to come up with, let's figure out what's really fair for everyone and try to balance it all out, two state solution, which nobody really wants. But Trump never negotiates from kind of, let's do what's really fair. He always kind of seems to start in a very strong position and he can move from there. And some people say he starts with craziness, Gulf of Mexico. You know, that's crazy. Or, you know, like just ask Canada, Mexico, Panama, ask them how those crazy ideas go. But with Agaz, I think he's doing the same thing. He said something that shocked the world. But I think basically Trump's saying, particularly like Jordan and Egypt and some of the surrounding neighbors, isn't he saying, you know, Israel gave you the Sinai. He's not saying all this, but kind of saying it. Israel gave you the Sinai and helped you protect it over the years from ISIS, jihadis, Al-Qaeda. Israel's been a good friend of Egypt since that peace treaty years ago. And Trump's basically saying, you guys have to at least be willing to put up some help or tent cities to help where these Gazans have no place to go right now. You guys should put up there or shut up. And basically, you know, what are they gonna do? Go move into these, like you said, concrete homes with IEDs and unexploded devices. Trump's saying, these guys have to go somewhere, and it should be Egypt, Jordan, and other places. Now, if you don't wanna be helpful, okay. So what he's saying now with where he's starting, he's saying, if you don't wanna help, that's okay, we'll do it. We'll do it without you. And it kind of leaves them in the dust. And basically, if you don't want to participate, that means that, you know, all the Turkish companies, Egyptian companies, you know, whoever won't help won't get the funds for what's going on there. And it's kind of calling their bluff. None of these nations really wanted the Palestinians or care about the Palestinians. to begin with. I think these countries really want the Palestinians to continue to be the pawns that they've been for a long, long time. And Trump's really showing their side of dishonesty by saying, we'll do it this way then. And it's funny because I think the world is starting to see maybe Trump's smarter than he presents sometimes when it comes to this. That's my theory. Tell me what you think. No, I think you're 100% right and I applaud you for, you're one of the few people that got it right on why the Jordanians and Egyptians don't want the Palestinians. Usually the mainstream news will tell you, which is true by the way, that it would destabilize those two countries. That's true. It would destabilize Jordan, which has the longest border with Israel of all of its neighbors. So it's not even in Israel's interest that they go to Jordan, but it would also perhaps destabilize Egypt. But that's not the main reason. You put your finger on the main reasons and let me just explain why. During the Syrian Civil War, 5.5 million Syrian refugees were absorbed by Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey. So they did have the space for them. So why aren't they showing this generosity towards the Palestinians? Because of ideology. And this doesn't filter to most of the news, which is this. The Arab world, for the most part, still refuses to recognize Israel's existence. They see the Palestinians as this pawn, as you said, a tool, a leverage to use to ultimately destroy Israel. To take the Palestinians out of Gaza is to acknowledge basically the defeat of Islam and the Arabs. It's that simple. The Arabs and Islamic world are still holding out for hope. that Israel will be destroyed, with the exception of these Persian Gulf countries that made peace with Israel over the Abraham Accords. But the rank and file Muslim still desires to see Israel destroyed. You and I have discussed Islamic theology in the past, and on my own channel I devoted several episodes to Islamic eschatology and the whole religious side of it, but I want to add another thing to the salad here, which is this. It's not just the theology. It's a theology mixed with what's common in traditional societies. The Arab world has a strong sense of shame and honor. And what people don't understand was that when Israel was created in 1948, It caused tremendous shame to the Islamic and Arab worlds, a shame that they never recovered from, and a shame that will only be remedied by the destruction of Israel. And that shame is still with them to this day. And therefore, for them to take the Gazan refugees is to accept that shame as an everlasting shame. In other words, to accept that as a fait accompli, and they're not gonna do that. So, you were correct. Most people don't, either they don't know it or they refuse to admit this, you know, that the Arab world is still predisposed and in my opinion irreversible. Look, I admit that I myself was surprised by the Abraham Accords. It's nice to know that there are moderates out there. I still see them as the exception to the rule, what's called the Arab Street. Remember, Israel's peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt are not with the people of those countries. Israel's despised. Do you know that the most popular books sold in bookstores in Egypt are Hitler's Mein Kampf and the protocols of the elders of Zion, okay? If you go to Egypt, those are the elite. That's not a population at peace with Israel. Same with Jordan. I've been to Jordan many times, and you told the story about me in the taxi. Now I'll remind you of the story of when you were with me at Petra, and this guy wanted to start a fight with me. You know, he saw that I brought a bottle of spring water into the country that had some Hebrew writing on it, and you saw how animated he got. You're from Israel! You know, and the rage that this guy had. He is typical of what's called the Arab street of both Jordan and Egypt. We have to remember that the peace treaties are with those governments and the people don't like those peace treaties and their religion is able to accept it under what's called Hudna. Hudna is a precedent that was set by the Prophet Muhammad when he deceived the people of Mecca into a peace treaty that was supposed to last for 10 years, but then he broke it, I think two years, into the peace treaty when it became an opportunity for him to defeat and kill them. So that's the precedent for Islam's peace treaties with infidels. You're allowed to make peace only for 10 years maximum, by the way, at least according to Islam. I didn't know that. Right. And then as soon as it's to your advantage, you have to break the peace. Now, you can renew it every 10 years. You know, obviously, The one with Egypt has lasted since 1979, okay? But I'm sure if you were to go to their leading madrasa of Islam in Egypt called Al-Azhar University, they would say, well, this is Dahudna. In other words, they don't accept this is a permanent peace with Israel. Well, and they've proven, you know, the Arab world has proven that peace treaties really don't mean anything other than those ones that have held. But I agree with you. I remember reading about that particular part of Islam. It's an ideology that says you really can be deceitful, and that's well within their religious right to deceive those nations like America or Israel. You know, let me ask you this. What would Israelis, what would they feel about having America in Gaza? That just, I just smell trouble there maybe. You're right. Now Brett, you tell me, I agree with you, but you tell me why you smell trouble. I smell trouble too, but I want to know why you smell trouble. Well, okay, it's interesting. Well, I feel like biblically speaking, we've got a few scriptures like Zechariah chapter 12, you know, that reminds us, let me put it up there, by the way, Zechariah 12, it says, Biblically, I have probably some geopolitical reasons why I'm concerned, but maybe my number one concern is Americans coming to help Israel be neighbors with Israel in the Middle East. And then also, while Trump's in office, I feel like we have a good, perhaps, opportunity to do what's right there. But four years from now, what's gonna happen? Who's gonna be the next president of the United States? If we had the last administration with that same responsibility, I wouldn't trust that deal or that procedure for 10 minutes. That's one of the many dangers I see. What do you think about that? So the Israeli security apparatus's fear is that if America were to make that into its own territory, You have to remember that Israel's airspace is only something like 75 to 80 miles wide, you know, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean coast. So first of all, you would have the Israeli Air Force, and you presume that America would want some sort of military presence in Gaza. And now every time Israel was threatened, they would have to worry about What do we do with the American presence here? Our airspace is now part of their airspace. So there's some real security problems with that. But I don't think it's ever going to happen. Remember that when Trump says that America will take Gaza, remember the BOT, build, operate, and transfer, it's at the end of the transfer period. We're talking, Brett, such a distant future that I'm not sure any of us will be here when that happens. In other words, remember, man makes plans, God laughs. Yeah, that's true. Just because these plans are in the air doesn't mean they're going to happen. You know, God's got his timing, and I loved your preamble to, before you had me on, how careful we have to be about gaming and timing all this stuff, because things can change on a dime. Nothing's written in stone, and things are much harder to predict than people will acknowledge. Yes, now the two-state solution, I've heard people say, well, there's a two-state solution, America and the United States, two states. But I've noticed that that is, from my perspective, the two-state solution, it's reasonable people aren't talking about that anymore, and people that are clinging for dear life to kind of a crazy world ideology, they're still kind of hoping for two-state. Do you think that's something, is that going by the wayside? Are people finally getting to where they're realizing the Palestinians And the Arabs, none of them want a two-state solution. Do you think that's going to fall or is that going to just continue to be the narrative? What do you think about that? So you credited me with being blunt and cutting to the chase before you introduced me, so now I'm going to say something blunt. Very few people would say this because they'd be afraid of Well, you'll see what I say, and then you'll see why people... So listen, from the beginning of this conflict, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, it's been an annihilationist conflict. There was never a chance for two states. I liken it to this. And forgive me if I'm going to use the sport of boxing as a paradigm here, as a template, but I think it's good. The sport of boxing is governed by laws known as the Marcus of Queensberry. It's a set of rules that have evolved over the decades. They determine what gloves you wear in the boxing ring, how many rounds, 12 rounds. the behavior of the referee, the behavior of the corners, to keep what is a violent fight a respectable sport that people can watch and the fighters can leave with their lives intact. So, OK, the Marcus of Queensbury rules. That name hails from England. So what's the problem? Let's say I'm a boxer. I'm in a violent sport. I know that I can get a black eye or a broken nose, but I also know the rules. And let's say I agree to the terms to fight Canelo, you know, the fighter Canelo. The two of us enter the ring and suddenly Canelo tells me, Forget the Marcus of Queensberry rules. This is a fight to the death. Now, I have a choice. I can insist, no, I'm going to fight still according to the Marcus of Queensberry rules. But if I insist on doing so, I'll go to my grave. My choice is either to be naive and continue to fight according to the Marcus of Queensberry rules or meet him at the bar that he has set, whether I like it or not. Now, where's the comparison? The Israelis for the last 80 years have wanted to believe that there's rules to this conflict whereby both parties can survive it, that we can share the same land. Yes, it's a tough conflict. Yes, the solution will be hard, but at the end of the day, We're two peoples who will share the same land. You always hear people, pundits say, you know, neither side is going to disappear. They'll always be the two peoples living there. The problem is the Palestinians have been outspoken from the very beginning that this fight will not end until one of us is annihilated. They plan to annihilate us. They have genocidal intent towards us. Now, we have a choice. We can either continue on the Marcus of Queensberry rules and let them kill us, or we have to, and this is where I'm going to, you know, But again, or we have to expel them. In other words, nobody in Israel wants to commit mass murder. Neither me. Listen, Brett, I've spent half my life as an American Jew, and I spent half my life as an Israeli Jew. And I've never heard in discourse over my 53 years of being a Jew straddling the US and Israel, anybody say to me, let's kill them all. No, it's just not in our disposition as a people. At the same time, I'm realistic and realize we can't coexist together in that small land if one of the two parties says, sorry, this is an all or nothing fight whether you like it or not. Either we're going to annihilate you or you're going to knock us out. So obviously in lieu of genocide, and despite what people say, Israel's not been committing any sort of genocide in the war, but I don't believe this conflict can end with the Gazans remaining in Gaza. They set the bar to annihilation, and they lost. Doesn't mean that they have to be annihilated, but it means, sorry, I'm not sure there's a space for you there anymore, and I won't lose any sleep over it. If somebody wants to accuse me of being an ethnic cleanser, over what I just said, that I'm willing to see the entire Gazan population relocated elsewhere, so be it. Because I choose to live, and I remember Golda Meir said, I rather be hated and alive than be pitied and dead. In other words, people love the dead Jews. The Jews, they build museums to us for the Holocaust in all the major cities of the world. They see the Jews that go to the graves as sheep to the slaughter as some sort of noble character for some reason. But the Jews that insist on living, we're vilified. Well, I'm one of those Jews that insist on living. The lesson I took from the Holocaust, never again, to me means, I will never allow a people group that says their goal is to annihilate us, to carry through and annihilate us. So since the Palestinians from the get-go have always had that as their goal, it means that it's either us or them. And since we're not willing to annihilate them because it's not in our characters as people, I do believe we have to seriously contemplate about kicking the Gazans out. And look, that's not politically correct, and that's not going to be well received by secular people, you know, I know a lot of people watch these prophecy updates that aren't even believers, and I'm sure I'll be, you know, insulted in the comments section. I don't care. Read my lips. I don't care. Right. I don't, I don't, right. We, we, right. Thank God a critical mass of Jews in the world have come to the I don't care stage to say we don't owe the world Beans, to keep it family friendly, I'll say beans. We don't owe the world anything. And we choose to live and we're being merciful by not doing to them what they would do to us. If they were to beat us, there would be another Holocaust. But it's obvious that there'll be no two-state solution because to agree to a two-state solution, the Palestinians have to recognize Israel's right to exist and they're not going to do that. It's against their constitution as a people. You know, if you have a question, you know, like people say, Brett, what happened to Candace Owens? What happened to Tucker Carlson? Why are these guys, Candace Owens just got voted biggest anti-Semite ever, or of the year, anti-Semite of the year. And some of you are like, well, we love Candace and Tucker. You know, they're very smart people, articulate in a lot of ways. But what you just said, Steve, that's the piece they don't get. And that's why they say things that come off very antisemitic, and really are, because what they're saying, you know, they're going with that narrative, oh, you know, the Jews are trying to ethnically cleanse. It's like they're agreeing with that. but they just don't understand the dynamic that you just described. I'm always amazed at the intellectual people that don't get that. Do you think it's because they're too intellectual for their own good? Why do you think people still think that? Well, definitely not Candace Owens. I consider if I had to put a meme for the word grifter, if you know what I mean by grifter, she would be the perfect emoji for that. I believe this about her, by the way, going all the way back to when she first broke into the scene. If you remember, Candace Owens broke into the scene during the Black Lives Matter riots. She was hired by Daily Wire because, you know, she was a conservative African-American who agreed with, you know, conservatives on the whole BLM and the riots in your city, Portland, you know, Antifa, all that stuff. But from the very beginning, I sense that she says what her audience, in other words, She's chasing viewers. She's not intellectually honest. She's what I call a grifter. She's seeking, she's in it, I personally believe she's also in it for the money, and that's my opinion, I'm entitled to it. I think Tucker Carlson is a little bit more sophisticated, but I also consider him to be a grifter. And I think some of your people need to hear what I'm about to say, because I don't know if they know this. When Tucker Carlson was employed by Fox News, if you remember just before he was cut loose, Fox News was sued for something like a billion dollars related, and he was part of the lawsuit for some reason. As part of the trial, Tucker was forced to hand over all of his text messages, you know, that he sent as an employee of Fox News. And during many of those, you know, as they perused the through his text messages, several of them made fun of his audience. He made fun of his own audience. He called his own audience stupid. He called Donald Trump the Hitler of our times. He made fun of MAGA. Okay, so that's the real Tucker Carlson according to his text messages, and I invite anybody after watching this to Google it for themselves, to see that I'm not making this up. You know, Google Tucker Carlson's text messages at the trial, you know, the famous Fox News lawsuit over the election prior to this. So, he's an insincere person. He's two-faced. And he is a grifter. Now, I've heard some people claim, and again, I'm just throwing this out there, I'm saying the word alleged, I'm not saying it's a fact that he's received money from Qatar. So I mean, we don't know what's going on behind the scenes that motivates these people, but I refuse to even grant them the consideration that you did. I think both of them are intelligent, but I don't consider them intellectuals. Because to me, an intellectual is somebody who pursues truth wherever the evidence goes for the sake of truth, even if it's unpopular. But their whole model to be popular is to seek after the views and the news that they think their people, you know, like she's going after this whole thing with Emmanuel Macron's wife, you know, being a man and all this stuff. Because this is what sells. And this is, you know, what keeps her popular. So I don't have respect for either of them. If you want to watch People who I really do consider intellectuals, there's a guy named Douglas Murray out of England. Have you heard of him, Brett, Douglas Murray? Outstanding intellectual, maybe one of the conservative movement's greatest intellectuals in the English-speaking world. He's one, they exist, but they're not grifters, typically. They don't have millions of people following after them. Did that sound cruel? And I don't care. No, I wanted you to address that. I don't owe her squat. Candace Owens is peddling a Nazi-era conspiracy theories about the Jews. And she stooped really low when she questioned whether, you know, if you remember the doctor, the famous Dr. Mengele who performed, you know, survivors of Mengele's medical experiences were still alive until just a couple years ago. And she threw all that into question and said it never happened. So I'm just saying she's stooped really low and I just have no respect for her at all. I think we have to be careful to everyone that we listen to. And I feel like sometimes conservative Christians can get on bandwagons. I remember a few years ago people were on the Kanye West bandwagon. Praise the Lord. And I was like, be careful everybody. And I think that's enough said about that even this past week. we have to be really careful who we're listening to. And I love the Bible for the reason that we have God's holy word. And that's the one thing I can really put my trust in is the word of God. Would you agree, Brett, there's also, I think we're also seeing a sifting of the true Christians from the fake ones. I think so. Because to me, a lot of the people that listen to these people still, either they're totally illiterate in the Bible, in other words, They don't know the Bible at all, or the Spirit of Christ is not in them, and therefore they don't have the discernment that's warning them, you know, don't watch these people. These people are lying. These are the Pied Pipers. But look, you mentioned the whole thing with Gog and Magog and, you know, that famous verse about, I will sink my hooks into the jaws of Gog. I mean, now that's talking about that one event, but that's happening every day. You know, the jaws are being sunk. And I totally agreed with you, Brad. I loved it that you quoted, you know, when Jesus says, if it were possible, even the elect. That should scare everybody listening to this. And one of the things that I decided to do a couple weeks ago is I decided this year I'm going to read the Bible straight through again. Now, when I was a new believer, I did that my first couple years. I dove into the Bible and read it straight through probably my first two or three years as a believer. I may have even read it twice in a year. I was so excited about the Bible. And then what happened was I changed my method of studying the Bible to, rather than just reading it straight through, I would loiter in a book for a couple months. You know, I'd stay in Revelation and read commentaries about it. I spent a whole year in the book of Isaiah. And all that's great. There's a place for that. But the last couple weeks, I just see things happening at such breakneck speed. that I'm like, man, I just gotta delve into the whole Bible. I haven't read the book of Job probably in a decade. You know, I haven't, right, there's books of the Bible I haven't seen in about a decade. So one thing that I've committed myself doing for the next 12 months is I'm gonna read through the Bible. And I may make this just an annual, I may just do this now every year till the end. Because we have to, it's our discernment. And it's our only real tool that we have to tell the sheep of most clothing from the real sheep. Amen. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Yeah, that's good. Good stuff. Man, I can't believe we're running out of time. So I got some rapid fire questions for you, Steve. I thought we had another hour. Yeah, I think these guys would probably stick with us. But let me turn just a few questions over to example. I feel like with the big news, sometimes, especially the Middle East, it's what's going on in other places that you also have to keep an eye on. For example, topic Syria. You know, the IDF published footage just, I think today or a few days ago, showing the construction of temporary army posts atop the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, which we go up there on our tour, and this area looks familiar to me from some of our tours. But army posts, basically where troops have been deployed since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime. We talked about that a little bit last month. Do you think that, what do you make of the news that Ahmed Al-Sharar, the new Turkish guy, or the new Syrian leader, and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, they're meeting to discuss a joint defense pact in Ankara Tuesday of this coming week, including establishing Turkish air bases in Syria, training for Syria's new army. Maybe you saw that Times of Israel article. Is that something we should watch? Do you think Syria is just too messed up and it's going to take years for them to rebuild? Or is that something that we should be concerned about for Israel? Yeah, I think we should be concerned about it because because the reality on the ground can change immediately following that deal. In other words, it doesn't have to do with the condition of Syria's army. It has to do with Turkey's presence in Syria. Now, the bases being spoken of would be Turkish Air Force bases, and Syria would cede to Turkey control over part of Syria's airspace. And that's important because Israel's traversed Syrian airspace recently in its bombing of Iran a couple months ago, bombing of Iraq also a couple months ago. So I mean, Israel It would heighten the risk of a conflict between Turkey and Israel. But the thing that we really would have to be concerned about, and I don't know if it's happened, it hasn't been mentioned in any of those articles, if they were to publicly declare a mutual defense pact between Syria and Turkey, whereby an attack on Syria would be considered an attack on Turkey, that would really be a problem. Because Turkey, I don't think most people know this, Turkey has the second largest army in NATO after the United States. Most people don't know that. People think, oh, it's got to be France or England that have the second and third largest armies. No, Turkey has the second largest army in NATO. So it's a serious, serious military, more serious than any military that Israel's ever had to go against if it were to go against them. So court, yes, it should concern us. And Ahmed al-Sharar, which is his new name, he's wearing a suit and tie now. He looks like such a Western kind of leader, but a few weeks ago he was wearing the turban and looking just like Baghdad Bob or whatever the, you know, or whoever, you know, like, like, it's funny how he's trying to present as a more moderate, but he's, he's really from Al Qaeda, like he's an Al Qaeda guy. And I think that that's something that causes concern for me. Just who is this guy really? And what's his intention? If he got, if he's got Erdogan with, like you said, the huge Turkish army, I see that as a problem for Israel. Let me move to Lebanon, a similar question. I've been watching a lot with Lebanon. Everybody's saying Lebanon's on the cusp of something new and different, promising, exciting and new, have a new president and the Lebanese armed forces taking back the country. I'm not really buying that. I think Lebanon's still a basket case. Am I wrong about that? No, you're right. It's a basket case. I do think the president has good intentions. After all, I think he's a Christian according to their constitution. According to Lebanon's constitution, the president has to be a Catholic or, you know, from the Christian community. The second leader has to be a Sunni and the speaker of their parliament is Shiite. It's part of the power sharing there between the various three religious sects. Everybody said that he has the right intentions. Israel agrees that he has the right intentions. America agrees that he has the right intentions. The problem is that Hezbollah is still more powerful than the Lebanese army. Even though Israel severely degraded Hezbollah, the Lebanese army was never anything of substance. And one of the things that came out over the last couple of months since the ceasefire was that as part of the ceasefire, The, what happened was America sent Com, the general who was sent here to oversee that ceasefire. He's part of this like committee, the ceasefire committee that includes him, the Israelis and the Lebanese army. But the representative of the Lebanese army on that committee happened to be a Shiite Muslim who betrayed everything being said in those meetings to Hezbollah. So, and then Hezbollah took advantage. So for instance, it as well as tried to uh... break the agreement by getting its weapons move it but as well as not allowed to move weapons around according to the agreement it's it's it but it's been doing that in other words is she i guy who was sitting at the you know how to seat at the table that committee was giving away all this intelligence that has fallen therefore has public at breaking the ceasefire so that israel cannot leave lebanon yet it was supposed to leave A couple weeks ago, it asked the Trump administration for a, you know, for a, what do you call it, like an extension. And I think today the Trump administration gave Israel till February 16th. Now, do I think everything will be ready by then? Not necessarily. Now, see, this is something I don't fully get. Why is America so, and are they? Maybe we're wrong. How insistent is America about Israel departing Lebanon by February 16th? Who's the one pushing that in the new administration? If Israel were to withdraw before securing all those gains it did with the Bieber attack, it would be a tragedy. to let such an amazing campaign that happened in Lebanon go to waste. So we'll see how that develops. I do think the leader may have good intentions, but see, you have to understand, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, these are all, oh, Syria, these are all artificial constructs. These are not real nation states. What's a nation state? A nation state, if I recall correctly, is a state for one people. Greece is the nation state of the Greeks. Italy is the nation state of the Italians, okay? What are the real nation-states of the Middle East? Turkey, although it's one of the newer peoples in the region, they didn't conquer it until the 1500s, okay? But it is a real nation-state. Turkey's like 99% Turks and over 99% Muslim. Iran is a nation-state. Egypt is a nation-state. Israel is a nation state, but Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, and Libya are not. These are artificial constructs, not based on one ethnic group or religion, but it's like this salad of many tribes and stuff, and they never were really a people to begin with, a united people. So that's the real reason why Lebanon doesn't have a bright future. It was long before Hezbollah rose on earth. Lebanon, you know, most people may not remember, you know, between 1975 and 1990, Lebanon fought one of the most brutal civil wars in the world. A country of only a few million people, I believe over a million people were killed in that civil war. So it was already coming apart by the seams, Syria also, Iraq also, Libya also. So none of these countries have bright futures because there's no real glue that bonds the people. There is no real national identity there, if that makes sense. No, that's helpful. You know, I think a lot of people kind of go, oh, Israel's got everything dialed. Iran's pretty much solved. Lebanon, Syria's solved. But I feel like we should still be praying for Israel. They're still fighting multi-front wars, and it's not over. Yeah, this war is not over yet. It's not over yet. But I get a sense that people are kind of acting like that. Now Trump's in power, so it's all good. I think there's still a lot of work to be done. Well, Steve, man, I can't believe how quickly this time goes. We'll have you on again soon, maybe sooner than, I think we might try to do these more frequently, perhaps, than just once a month. We'll see how it goes, but I appreciate you. Thanks so much. Thank you, thanks for having me, folks. Yeah, and man, we're praying for you. I know tourism, you haven't been doing a lot of tour guiding lately, but- I promise. Yeah, but we appreciate what you are doing, and man, God bless you buddy. Thank you. I appreciate it. See you, folks. All right. Yay. God bless you, buddy. That's great. Boy, you know, I love his perspective and input on all that stuff. And, you know, just a real good friend. I appreciate Steve a lot. I wanted to do one final topic that kind of piggybacks on something Steve actually was talking about when we were talking about, you know, who do you listen to and stuff like that. I wanted to just, one bit of news I think that's prophecy update material that I'd love for you to be aware of. It's sort of a word of rejoicing, but it's also with a word of caution. And I might be considered the pessimist when it comes to some of this stuff, but I think that's a gift. I have a gift of pessimism. Because I think sometimes Christians are too quick to jump on bandwagons. But let me say, we can rejoice in some of the good, but we also have to be really cautious. For example, President Trump announced today he's launching a new presidential commission on religious liberty and an executive order that will target anti-Christian bias. So we go, wow. Freedom of religion, this is great, and I do feel that, and that's something to celebrate. You know, he swore in Pam Bondi today. She's a Christian lady. From what I can tell, she seems like a fairly solid Christian woman sworn in last week. She's gonna lead the new task force on stopping all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government. Also will prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism. which I'm excited about that. I think that's a good thing. And yet there's a little bit of a cautionary thing. For example, today during his appearance at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, President Trump announced that he'll reestablish a White House faith office led by his longtime spiritual advisor, Evangelist Paula White. The president started his day urging Americans to trust in God. Now, there's a lot of American Christians, rah, rah, Trump's, you know, he's awesome. He's a Christian who loves Jesus. But I think we have to be really careful with some of these things, especially because, first of all, let me ask you this question. What's more important, that people come to know Jesus and are saved for eternity, or that America's a successful nation? The Jesus one's the most important, and let's not forget that. I think sometimes Christian Americans, we kind of view that as one and the same. America's success is a Christian success, but that's not really the truth. And I wanted to just show you that. In fact, here's a snippet of Trump's kind of speech at the prayer breakfast. You should see this. The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible. The IRS, the FBI, terrible. and other agencies. In addition, the task force will work to fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide. So you say, yeah, that's awesome, and it is. And IRS was targeting Christians. I mean, there are some interesting things that we can, and I'm really glad about that. But who is Paula White, his spiritual advisor, and the one that he put in charge of faith office? Well, she is not a real Christian. She's a wolf in sheep's clothing. I mean, you need to know that about Paula White. She preaches a prosperity gospel that's Kenneth Copeland, and it's the same, you know, name it and claim it kind of stuff, which is not the true gospel. Don't be duped. She considers T.D. Jakes her spiritual father, which should say a lot about that. So don't think, oh, America's getting back to its Christian roots or being Christianized, how wonderful. No, I think this is dangerous because there's a lot of Americans, oh wow, Trump's doing such wonderful things for the church. But I wonder what God thinks about all of this stuff. Let me just give, I'd like to show you who Paula White is just so you can know. Here's a recent video of her. Listen to what she says. Wherever I go, God rules. When I walk on White House grounds, God walks on White House grounds. When I walked in the river, God walked in the river. When I go into the dry cleaner, that dry cleaning place becomes holy. I had every right and authority to declare the White House as holy ground because I was standing there and where I stand is holy. Yikes, yeah. I hope you see, now this is one of those subtle things I've been sharing that like Bethel and some of those kinds of ministries that where they like to put ourselves bigger than Christ, almost bigger than God. I'm the strong one here. And we kind of forget who's really in charge. And it's the name and claim it, blab it and grab it, prosperity gospel. This is a sermon recently where she did this rhythmic thing that was, Kind of what they do. This is how she rolls. The Lord says it is done. The Lord says it is done. The Lord says it is done. For I hear victory, victory, victory, victory in the quarters of heaven. In the quarters of heaven. Victory, victory, victory, victory, victory, victory, victory. For angels are being released right now. Angels are being dispatched right now. For angels have even dispatched from Africa right now. Africa right now. Africa right now. From Africa right now. They're coming here. They're coming here. In the name of Jesus from South America. They're coming here. They're coming here. They're coming here. They're coming here. From Africa. From South America. Angelic forces. Angelic reinforcement. Angelic reinforcement. I need an Advil. Now, I'm not just trying to do that to mock her, but, you know, is there an interpretation for those tongues? No, never is with these people, but I don't know who the guy is walking back and forth behind her with the prayer shawl and all that, but it's not only embarrassing to Christianity, because it's so theologically off, But it's troubling that this is the spiritual advisor to our president. Somebody did a funny, I'm sorry, I have to show this. Now, right, you shouldn't have showed that. No, I should have. And I want to tell you why, because this is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not. It's nothing even close to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's why the world can so easily mock it, and it is ridiculous. I really want you to understand, like, this is, sadly, this is the kind of Christianity that we see a lot of. That's not really Christianity at all. It's a prosperity gospel. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 24, verses four and five, it says, Jesus answered some of them, take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and will deceive many. That's what we talked about at the beginning tonight. Second Peter, chapter two, verses one through three, but false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. We're seeing that all over the place in Christianity, false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who brought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. False teachers denying the master who brought them. They have the appearance of Christianity, but they're really denying Christ himself. And then this verse goes on in verse two, and many shall follow their sensuality. Because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. That's why I wanted to show you the hip hop version, because this is a blaspheming of truth from a person who's actually a false teacher. And verse three, and in their greed, it's all about money. It's all about the money thing. In their greed, they will exploit. You know, one thing that Trump admires, Steve mentioned how he admires that Trump admires power. That's true, but Trump also admires wealth. And I think that might be why she is one that he admires. and really looks at as a spiritual advisor. Greed says they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. So speak, you know, sometimes it's a little more subtle. We have to be careful about what we're calling Christian. What is a true Christian in America today? And I'm really thrilled about what Trump is doing, like his policies. There's so many good things happening. I'm not trying to diminish that. But when it comes to Christian faith, I hope that many of you have a discernment to keep that separated. What is being presented as Christian in Christian America is largely not. And there's a lot of people being deceived and rah, rah, you know, all these people, we should be really careful about that. As Christians, the only thing we should really be rah, rah-ing is the Lord Jesus Christ himself and celebrating, worshiping, spending our time and efforts preaching about, focusing on, you know, the other false religion stuff's pretty easy to spot, you know. By the way. This lady, you know, who was this Episcopal Bishop that lectured Trump while earning taxpayer millions. Did you hear about this? So we all were appalled by this prayer, so-called, even though she was lecturing Trump, she called it a prayer. But if you recall, I was kind of laughing about sort of the facial expressions during this sermon of Trump and even J.D. Vance and Melania even was kind of like, oh my goodness, like what is this lady saying? But this New York Post article basically explains that Episcopal Bishop, Most Holy Right Reverend Marianne Budde's sermon was Budde's sermon to President Trump during that inaugural. It was this lady who also is linked to the federal contracting arm. Oh yeah, Trump's like, oh brother. I think that's just funny, but she's, in the Episcopal Church, she's linked to the Episcopal Migration Ministry, the EMM, and they've got a program. In 2023, the government funded $53 million from taxpayer-funded government programs to resettle 3,600 individuals, migrants. 3,600, but it was $53 million this lady and her organization received. 53 million, Ather Creek's never received a dime from the government for anything, nor will we. How do we take care of people that are homeless and needy? We do that with tithes and offerings that the people give. But this lady gets, Trump has temporarily paused her funding. Yeah, and has targeted her organization for reevaluation, which will be interesting. So I'm glad about that, I'm glad about that. But this kind of false religious nonsense is obvious, but watch out for the more subtle things we call Christian, acts that Trump is doing that we go, oh, Christian, and praise God, America's wonderful, and we're becoming more Christian. I'd say, be careful, this one smells like a wolf, a lot of it. Yes, I'm happy with a lot of the things, and we can celebrate that, but that word of caution. Don't be duped, Christians. We gotta stick with what is true biblical Christianity. I'll finish with this verse, and then we'll call it a night. Titus 2, verses 12 to 13. Paul was saying, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly. That means not just kinda jumping on every bandwagon, but be thoughtful, you know? righteously and godly in this present world, looking for, what should we be doing? Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our savior, Jesus Christ. Don't get so wrapped up in that we're looking for Trump to save America. We need to keep our eyes on looking for that blessed hope in Christ of his coming and his appearing. And until that happens, we should be all about the preaching of the gospel and the word of God, the light under our feet, the lamp under our path. Let's be careful to sort that out. Don't be duped. I see a lot of people being duped. Don't be duped. There's the word of warning to close off the evening. And now it's time for some Cinnabon. So, sorry for you online, but let's pray. We'll call this an evening. Lord, we're so thankful for just your goodness and the wisdom we get from your word. We see how the world will mimic and even sort of feign a form of Christianity or faith even, or religion. Even I think some people innocently thinking they're part of religion, but Lord, I pray that you just put a hedge of protection around your church. May we think soberly, Lord, like your word says, that we deny ungodliness and worldly lust, Lord. Should we live flippantly about these things? I pray you'd show us what it means to think soberly and righteously, have godliness in our homes and our lives. And even while we're in this world, Lord, we'd look for the appearing of your son, Jesus. I pray that we'd look for that, hope for that, and that, Lord, we'd be more into the spreading of the gospel than we are into politics. Help us to keep things in right priority. So bless these. Your people have taken this long time tonight to go through some of the events that's going on in the world. Bless Steve, the tour guide, as he continues to study and read through the Bible, and I pray you just give him even greater insight to your word, and as it relates to what's going on around the world. Lord, we thank you for Steve, and we pray blessing on all these as we go now. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.