It's great to have you all with us here tonight. Well, this has been fun. Years and years ago, we did a trip to Israel and I remember, I was somewhat aware of tour guides in Israel and I'd heard about this one guide that my pastor always used and how wonderful this guide was. And then I thought, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna let the Lord sort out who my guide is. I didn't really ask for anybody specific. And this is like, you know, this is like 30 years ago almost or whatever, but they tagged me as this young guy from Philadelphia. And I'm like, who is this kid from Philly? And it was really something because, you know, when we first, when Steve and I first met, You know, I think we hit it off and we had fun, but I'm gonna just say this. I think our views on scripture and some theology and some of that stuff was very different in a lot of ways. And what was cool about that is, you know, it's rare, especially in these days, to find somebody you can actually really talk about things if you have opposed views and different opinions. I think it's become really unhelpful because nobody's talking in a way that's productive. But Steve and I always have had interesting discussions about topics. And there's even been times where we had friendly debates on the bus. When you're in Israel, sometimes you have to drive for a half hour or 45 minutes. You know, we'd have the bus mics and I'd be sitting on one side, Steve would be sitting over there. We'd be talking about, you know, issues relating to the scripture. And some of you guys heard those debates in real time, but the cool part was it was all just kind of in good spirit and honest, like an honest attempt to say, Lord, what does your word really say? And what's really going on? There's so much out there that's untrue. But it was always helpful. And then as the years have gone by, I think both Steve and I have grown a lot in what we've learned. And I'd say we get closer and closer and closer as the years go by, just in what we really believe about scripture. And it's been really cool. It's been a really healthy and fun friendship. So, you guys saw him, if you were here maybe 20 years ago, I think he was here when we were back at the, Athey Creek Middle School, and he shared a really cool message back then. And then you've seen him streaming on the big screen here quite a few times, but we're privileged to have Steve the tour guide in the house tonight. Let's give an Athey Creek welcome, Steve the tour guide. There he is. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Greg, you brought back some phenomenal memories with that introduction. Yeah, remember those early days? Yeah. Yeah, that was great. Have a seat here. Sit on the cow. Thank you, Dr. Phil. Yeah, yeah, exactly. No, this is great, man. We're just like sitting in the living room here chatting. Yeah. Steve and I, we can talk for hours and hours. And I see you found the red heifer already. Yes, this is the red heifer. Yeah, there it is. We sacrificed it. So we don't even need to ask any questions about that tonight? Don't ask any questions. Trust me, you don't want to ask about the Red Heifer with Steve in the room. How do you like that for a preemptive strike? Nobody dare ask about the Red Heifer tonight. Let me start with a big, bold question. First of all, how's Tour Guide going? How's tourism? Tourism stinks. I hate to use the word victim because we so associate it with, you know, the left and all that. But I am sort of a victim of things that I had no control over. The coronavirus was a knockout that was two years of zero tourism. Israel had one of the most severe corona regimes in the world. I would say right after New Zealand and Australia. There was a time, by the way, for months where I was not allowed legally to go beyond six feet from my apartment, other than to get, you know, food for survival. I remember, by the way, at the time, I'm a runner, I like to keep in shape and At times at night, I said, I don't want to lose my whole fitness because of this. So I'd go out at night to jog in a park, and there was a kid with me who did the same thing. Right out of the army, he put black camouflage on his face. The government actually had people on motorcycles patrolling all these areas, looking for people that were breaking the curfew. So I lost two years to corona, and then tourism came back with a vengeance. I'll never forget, my first tour back was Mike Huckabee. And by the way, he's got two tours coming up. In February, he's still leading tours, even though he's the ambassador to Israel. Amazing man. And I remember he always comes in February, which is typically the low month. Very few people come then because the weather can be miserable in Jerusalem especially. And yet in front of the Mount of Olives were about 60 tour buses like you would see on the peak season. So here we were all happy and saying, wow, tourism's coming back. We're now going to recover. And then On October 7th, I was preparing for my flight to Israel on October 8th to guide my fall season. And a girl who had been with me on a tour recently, I got an incoming text that said, are you still getting on the airplane tomorrow now that a war is broken out in the Middle East? And I thought, she must be exaggerating. This must just be another event of rockets coming from Gaza. That's routine. We can live with that, right? But when I saw the scale of this, I realized this is a defining moment in history. By the way, folks, October 7, not just a defining moment in Middle Eastern history, but unleashed around the globe, for lack of a better word, genie from the bottle, you know, the genie of 1930s-like Antisemitism. In other words, it's not just, October 7th didn't just change the face of the Middle East, and most recently in the 12-day war with Iran, and we all knew that war would climax with Iran, would start on October 7th. But it's unleashed, unfortunately, a global hatred for the Jews that's almost equal, I would say, to the 1930s, and scarier because of the role that social media has in magnifying it. And, of course, all of us who are Jews are nervous about what we see because it's on the two extreme ends, the extreme left and some people on the extreme right. But social media has the ability to grow the extremes so that one day they meet in the middle. It's very scary. And I know this isn't the subject you wanted to raise with me, but I think a lot of us believe our days are numbered. The Jewish golden age in America has come to an end. And the question is, is will it crash? You know, will the Jews one day have to flee this country? You say no, but I'm not as convinced as you are. because the Jews of Germany were as assimilated, as successful, as intermarried with the locals as the Jews are in America today. And don't forget that Germany is the home of the Protestant Reformation. None of us would be here. There would be no Protestantism, as you know, without that explosion of the Reformation. In the heartland of the Reformation, the worst crime against the Jewish people ever took place. That's why nothing surprises me. So you say no, and I appreciate that. Our wishful thinking says, God forbid, but many of us who are Jews have become realists since October 7. I already was a cynic to begin with. I'm a cynical person. I don't have much hope for humanity, but most Jews do. This is an Achilles tendon of the Jewish people, especially progressives. They have this naive optimism about the state of humanity and human nature, which you know is antithetical to what the Bible teaches about human nature. The Bible does not have a high view of human nature. But unfortunately, we, the Jewish people, are very far from the Scriptures. Even some of our religious Jews are not into the Scriptures. Judaism is not a religion today based on the Bible. Hence, it's called rabbinical Judaism. It's based more on the Talmud and rabbinical arguments. So not even all of them get this part right. So I think October 7 was a wake-up call, not just for Israel, but for the Jews of the world. Yeah, for the Jews of the world. That's amazing. You know, it's interesting to me to watch American Jews that were on the far progressive spectrum And there's kind of a split. I see some of them jumping ship off of that, but I still see some clinging to it. And they'll sink with the ship. Do you think they're going to sink with the ship? If October 7 was not enough to knock you off the ship and look for the lifeboat, you're going to sink. Yeah, and the response of the world. That's the thing about the 1930s. I can't really speak to, but I mean, as far as today, the global anti-Semitism, it's so global. And like you said, the internet. Okay, let me ask you this. Why should we, mostly Gentile, atheist creakers, why should we care about Israel? Because in the news right now, and it's strange how the, the news and the podcasters are sort of joining now with religion. So pastors in America are hotly debating, God's done with Israel, why should we as atheist creakers who are mostly Gentiles, why should we care about Israel? Sure, because you are the adjunct. This is the fancy way of saying, you know, Romans 11. You are an adjunct of what starts and will end with the Jewish people. Okay, now maybe towards the end, Brett and I will touch on this whole thing that's become a byword among those YouTubers, dispensationalism. It's true that you're currently in an age that's been preoccupied with bringing the gospel of the Jewish God and the Jewish Messiah to the Gentiles. That's true. And the Bible, I believe, clearly teaches that God has blinded us, the Jews, for this period of time. He can only unblind us. It's a supernatural blindness that's come on us, but you're sort of... What Brett probably has called the church age, this present age, is sort of this interregnum between two Jewish brackets. It all started with the Jews. You're now an adjunct. You've been grafted into it. and it will then go back with the last bracket to the Jews. It is a Jewish, you know, the mafia in Philly and all the East Coast, you know, the Italian mafia was big when I was a kid and they don't call themselves the mafia, they call themselves La Cosa Nostra, which means our thing. The Bible really is a Jewish thing. You can't Judaize the Bible, it is Jewish. It's ridiculous when people claim we're trying to Judaize the Bible. Now, there's a verse that I share with Micah, who I think will put it up in a minute. It's sort of an Old Testament echo of Romans 11. It's Isaiah 49, 6. So if we can see that, here it is. So look, this is the original context of the Messiah here. This is God speaking through Isaiah to the Messiah to come. That is what the crux of the Messiah is. The Messiah is the savior of the Jews. OK, but here Isaiah, for the first time, is intimating about the global reach. It's not enough that you are the savior of the Jews. That is what you are. But I will also make you also, that's the key word, not not in other words, as an adjunct, I will also make you a light for the nations that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth. What Pontius Pilate had put on Jesus's cross to mock him is true. He is at heart, as the Messiah, he is the king of the Jews. It is a Jewish thing, and you are grafted into that. So what Paul says in Romans 11 is already sort of hinted at here. Why should you even be a Zionist? Now, the word Zionist is used as a, you know, a byword and a curse word. Guess why? Because Yahweh, the God of the Bible, is the original Zionist. He is the founder of Zionism. And if you don't believe me, Micah, I just mentioned, I had him collect, I texted him earlier today, several verses from what's called the Zion Psalms. Okay, these are Psalms in the book of Psalms that refer to Yahweh. as the founder of Zion, the preserver of Zion, and the savior of Zion. Zion is a central concept in the Bible, and God is the founder of it. He is the original Zionist, and he is the one that has forever united the Jewish people, and the land of Israel is part of the relationship with what was basically the Abrahamic covenant. The God of Israel, the people of Israel, and the land of Israel are God's You know, covenant, it is that Abrahamic covenant thing. And he is, based on these verses from the Psalms that Michael will put up here in just a second, the original Zionist. So let's just check. I think there's only three of them here, okay? So look, for the Lord has chosen Zion. He's desired it for his dwelling place. This is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell, not in Rome, what they call the eternal cities. Where's the seat of the God of the Bible? It's in Zion. Okay, so that's number one. Micah hit it, number two. For the Lord, wow, check this out. For the Lord builds up Zion and he appears in his glory. Wow, is there more? On the holy mount, okay, this is David's city. For those of you that have been to Israel on tour or will go to Israel on tour, you will visit this place. It's called David's city. It's the hill that originally is the nucleus of Jerusalem. Okay, the original Zion is referring to the hill that Jerusalem sits on and it climaxes on the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount is also that hill called Mount Zion. On the Holy Mount stands the city he founded. The Lord loves the gates of Zion." Okay, so the Bible, folks, is about Yahweh, and he is the founder of Zionism. It is the Abrahamic covenant, and it is forever. And God forbid anybody try to make it asunder, because you can't part what God himself has put together. Yeah, no, that's so good. You know, I think a lot of Gentile misunderstanding of the Bible is not recognizing that, what I'm calling the church age, but that gap that you were mentioning. Like when you read the book of Daniel, the book of Daniel is written to the Jews, and it says it very specifically. You know, Daniel chapter nine, you know, Daniel, 70 weeks are determined upon Israel, upon thy holy people, upon thy holy city. Like it's very specific. And where people start, and pastors, and churches, and eschatology gets cattywampus is when they miss that. And they start building in their own construct of really what leads to replacement theology. So that's really good. So I love that, that God is a Zionist. Boy, that's the truth. Good stuff. Let me dive into some world events and stuff that's going on, because you and I have talked about a lot of things recently, but let's kind of shift gears and go to Gaza. Fortunately, we don't have to go there literally, but it's, you know, just kind of building that up a little bit. You know, right now we're hearing there's a plan by Benjamin Netanyahu to fully recover the Gaza Strip. And that's kind of the big news the last few days, you know, is going back in there. Obviously, Netanyahu's always said the demise of Hamas is his goal and to completely obliterate it. Times of Israel article, Netanyahu says, Israel to take military control of all Gaza, but we don't wanna keep it. And he's kind of doubled down in the last 24 hours about the not wanting to keep it part, which is kind of interesting. So, you know, He basically has a plan to get in there and root out Hamas. So here's a few questions. Does Netanyahu think he's gonna use this as a strategy to complete his war aim, to obliterate Hamas? The narrative is that they're just occupiers taking over. Tell us a little bit. Do you think that Netanyahu has a good idea, or is it gonna work? What does Steve the tour guide think about that plan? Well, I wish there was an easy answer to that question. So let me give you a little bit of the context of the whole Gaza thing. Ariel Sharon, who was the prime minister that withdrew from Gaza, was not a left-winger. This was Israel's most right-wing prime minister who withdrew the Jewish people from Gaza. Why was that? Because Ariel Sharon realized that much of the Israeli To the extent that the Israeli army had to occupy and police Gaza, it was a drag on human resources and the army was not free to practice for war. The job of an army is to fight wars, not to be police. We had something like 7,000 Jewish residents at Gaza alongside a million and a half hostile, jihad-loving Palestinians. And by the way, Joe Biden is wrong when he says that Hamas is not Gaza, and Gaza is not Hamas. Overwhelmingly, Gaza has been Hamasitized. I know that's a hard truth to accept, but it's true. And what happened was too much of the army was being used as bodyguards for those 7,000. So he realized that Israel, if it's going to be sharp in future wars, it has to stop policing these areas. The standing army of Israel is not this massive army. We're talking about a pretty small army by world standards. So he pulled them out. Now, he was promised by George Bush, the son, that if he did pull them out and Hamas attacked Israel, that we would automatically get the sympathy in the United States for doing that. In other words, what do we profit from pulling out? that the world will give Israel credit to retaliate against Hamas. Now, did they really give Israel credit? No, the world did not stick by its promise. But now, what was the proof that Ariel Sharon was right? that they had to leave Gaza. In 2006, less than a year after they pulled out, there was a war between Israel and, anyone know? Hezbollah. And Israel did not win that war. People consider it to have been a draw. Now that's not good because a draw in that part of the world is sort of a defeat. Your enemies say, look at this. All the armies, Egypt and Jordan and Iraq and Syria, failed to defeat the Jews. Hezbollah succeeded to keep the Jews from winning. So that was the proof that he was right. All these years the army had been depleted. So now Netanyahu says he wants to reoccupy the Gaza Strip. It's a potential trap. which is why he's been quick to say it's not to occupy it, it's just to take over it. I have mixed feelings about it. Our hostages are in dire straits. You may have seen the video a few days ago of one of our hostages being made to dig his own grave. Hamas filmed him and he truly looked like he was starving. He was one of the real starving people there in Gaza. And there's a race to get them out. And the chief of staff of the Israeli army has told Netanyahu, you have a choice. You can occupy all of Gaza, but it will probably lead to the execution of the hostages as a response. And you have to, where are you on that? The hostages were reoccupying Gaza, even temporarily. That's the struggle, and it's not an easy call to make. Not only has the world not backed its promise because of Ariel Sharon, and I don't know if you guys remember the images of Jews being pulled out of their homes. And cemeteries, Jewish graves. Dead Jews were dragged out of their graves from Gaza. It was traumatic. When was that, 2005? 2005, the summer of 2005. So 20 years ago. So we forgot our promise to Israel just in a short amount of time. Now, not only are we not keeping that promise, we've got this weird set of paradoxes of warfare that we've never expected of any people group in history. You know, the Gaza Ministry of Health identifies as, or is operated by Hamas. You know, Israel, you know, They get blamed for bombing hospitals, but we know they use those as shields and stuff like that. The world expects Israel to supply food right now. Food is the big thing, and the optics are they're starving out, which anybody that really knows what's really going on there, A lot of the problem is Hamas is taking the food for their own soldiers and also stopping those. But is it a legitimate expectation to supply aid to your adversary when you're at war with them? So, now this is gonna shock you. The first part, people may even offend people of good conscience here. Morally, no, I don't feel we do. The problem is that it's really cost Israel in the information war, which I know you wanna probably ask me later. Part of war is not just the battlefield, but what's happening in the sphere around it. And Israel has lost a lot of goodwill not just from the Democrats who of course say, well, Israel's lost to them anyway, okay? Statistics have shown that Israel's already started to lose support. It's dropped its support among Republicans by 7% in the last couple months. So the people that you really do want to still have your back are starting to question Israel. It doesn't mean I believe all the footage that's being shown. I think Hamas is brilliant in their propaganda and their use of TikTok. And remember, there's 2 billion Muslims who can post to TikTok. There's only 12 to 14 million Jews. We can't win that war. Right. So let me just size this up for you. Ready? There's two billion Muslims, most of whom, I'm not saying all of them, many of whom, and I would say well over 50% of whom, are taught from their infancy to hate the Jews, and they do hate us. Then you have a huge chunk of Europe who during the Middle Ages, their churches taught them to hate the Jews. And even though those same Europeans have become secular today, there's still this residual from all these centuries of demonizing the Jews, it's still there to a degree, okay? So a lot of them don't like us, okay? Then the global left, and you're from Portland, the capital of Antifa, right? Yeah, I mean, and I feel like I've seen these people, you know, throughout my time here, like in day jobs before they go out at night, you know, it's Antifa. No, that's just Portland people. The global left hates Israel because they see us, us, who I consider the greatest example of decolonization in the history of the world. In 1948, Israel threw off the yoke of two empires in one war, the British and the Islamic Arab empires. So you would think that Israel would be vetted as the greatest act of decolonization in the world, but the global left considers us to be the most egregious example of colonialism in the world. So look at these blocks. Two billion Muslims, A couple hundred million Europeans and the global left all hate us and we're only 12 to 14 million people. We can't win the information war. But the strategy of Israel for a couple months in letting those optics, not doing anything to present different optics has hurt us. And therefore, I don't feel morally responsible at all for the Palestinians. At the end of this talk, I gave Micah a link that he'll put up on the screen at some point. Israel made a huge mistake. Israel has a 46-minute video that it's made available in a limited theater showing of all the footage of October 7th. Hamas did a great job in filming a lot of stuff. It's all there for anybody that wants to see it. Now, Israel had produced a 46-minute version of this, sewed it all together, and presented it to journalists and to diplomats, but they refused to make it available to the larger public. Why? Because they thought it would hurt the feelings of the families of the survivors. The problem is, is when you're a leader of a country, as Netanyahu is, or any leader, You have to put the good of the country even before the bereaved families. That's your job as a prime minister to put the good of the whole country. They should have made that 46-minute video available for everybody to just have access to, but this site here that is up here is the footage of everything you'll ever need to see from October 7. All the video footage, all the photographs. In other words, you can see it. It's not all sewed together as one convenient 46-minute showing, but it's all there. So don't get your kids, hey, let's watch a video, family. Don't do that here. So it's very graphic, but for those of you that want to be witnesses to history, and to be able to direct your friends and family that say, come on, the Jews, they're exaggerating. Nothing that happened on October 7th warranted what Israel's done in the last years. Direct them to that site, and then all the proof is there of what happened, and they have no excuse at that point. So part of Netanyahu and the Israelis right now are saying part of the, they can't get the food where it needs to go because they're not in control of some of those regions, but isn't that part of their rationale saying we're gonna go take over Gaza and watch, we will feed people. Have you heard that narrative? Yes, yes, but who's really the guilty party? There is a famine in Gaza, which I don't accept. I don't really believe there is, but let's say there is. The guilty party is the United Nations. Now, I'll tell you why. The United Nations is one of the most wicked organizations in the world. And by the way, just so you know, their very charter is wicked. Their very charter. I took a whole class at Penn State, a whole semester in the UN. And I remember having to sit there and read their charter. It is at its core a global Marxist plan to take over the world. It is evil. I remember they took us on a field trip to the U.N. and they have one of the most famous murals there in the General Assembly, the evolution of man, you know, from monkey to man, all as basically a a denunciation of what we believe, you know, that we're created. The UN, Brett, has 600 trucks of food or 600 trailers of food that could be hooked up already in the Gaza Strip. And it's just sitting there. Why? They refuse to give it out because it bypasses Hamas And Hamas has asked them, don't give in to the Jews. Don't give it out according to the Jewish mechanism. So the UN has allowed 600 trucks of food to just rot there in the sun. They are evil. And they are the true masters of the famine. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting, you know, nobody wants to blame Hamas. That's right. Nobody wants to blame the UN and all the other cooperatives. I'm ready to blame. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's do it. Blame. You know, the statement from Netanyahu's office also noted, you know, the cabinet members backed a list of five principles that they want, you know, that Israel will demand before it'll end this war with Hamas. And I think they're interesting. Number one, the terror group's disarmament, Hamas. Return of all 50 remaining hostages, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive. The demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. Israeli security control over the Gaza Strip. I'd like to know if you think that's possible. Hold on. The existence of an alternative civilian government that is not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. And so, you know, I'm wondering, you know, who do they believe and what do you think is gonna happen? You know, let's say Israel takes over the Gaza. Who's gonna really control that? Who wants the government? I don't even see a possibility of that. No, and look, again, I'm just gonna be really blunt. And I don't do this to make waves, but I'm just going to be honest. Many months ago you and I did an interview and I told you The Palestinians' movement originates about a hundred years ago, and from the get-go they said this is a zero-sum game. One side wins, the other side loses. One side survives, the other side perishes. They never for 100 years were open to meeting in any sort of compromise. It's never been about building a Palestinian state. It's always been about destroying the Jewish state. So first of all, let's just get cut to the chase. There is no chance of peace between the Jewish state of Israel and some Palestinian state, because the very cultural DNA of that Palestinian state is to destroy the Jews. You see, it's irreconcilable. We have irreconcilable differences with them. So there's never going to be peace. All the wars we've had with them have been nicknamed in the Hebrew media, mowing the lawn, which is they get powerful and powerful, then there's a war, and they get crushed, and then a few years later, they rise again, we mow the lawn, the grass grows back. Unless there's a total removal of the Palestinians from the area, and I'm not talking about murder, I'm not saying kill them all, but if you remember when Donald Trump said, at least in the beginning, when Donald Trump was asked about it, he said, what should be done with the Palestinians? He said, there's two million of them, it's not the most giant population in the world, they could be absorbed into the other, 26 Arab countries, okay? In other words, they are bone... Remember what Adam said of Adam and Eve? You know, Adam said of Eve, oh, she's bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. There's nothing that distinguishes the Palestinians from Lebanese Arabs, Jordanian Arabs, Syrian Arabs. They should have been absorbed by those people long ago. Why weren't they absorbed? Because those people are also Muslims who are devoted to the destruction of Israel. And to absorb them, to absorb the Palestinians would be to bring the conflict to an end. And there's people that don't want it to end because they believe And again, I'll just be honest, what do they say about us in Arabic? What do the Palestinians and all the Muslims basically say about us? They think that we're just a passing phenomenon to Jews. They see us as the crusader kingdom that occupied Jerusalem for 100 years. They always say this in Arabic. Just as we waited out the crusaders for 100 to 200 years, we'll wait out the Jews. Eventually, we'll beat them in war or they'll collapse from within. But most of them are irreconciled to our existence. And that's why there'll never be peace. Donald Trump was right, although I think he's retreated a little bit from this. the only way to bring them peace and so that they don't keep getting killed in wars with us, and the only way for us to have peace and not keep getting, is for them to be absorbed by the rest of the Arab world. That's how I see it. Yes. Isn't that a similar discussion with this idea of, and I can't believe the two-state solution thing is coming back and resurfacing, but most people- Who is it resurfacing with? Oh, well, I mean, I'm hearing that all the time now on the news. The two-state solution. Even our government. Even Donald Trump? I'm not sure Donald's fighting for that as much, but it's coming back. But it seems like such a joke because one thing that seemed Donald Trump when he was working on the Abraham Accords, he said, forget the whole two-state solution. And I think because he had that worldview at that time, there was some gains made with some of the surrounding Arab nations. But they're bringing that back. Europe's totally touting the whole two-state solution, but most people don't realize Israel's been more open to the two-state solution and giving up land. Remember Ehud Barak, when he gave away the kitchen sink, and later he kind of acted like, oh, I was just proving But maybe he was right, because he proved they never want a two-state solution. The one group in the world that really will never go for a two-state solution is the Palestinians. Is that fair to say? And again, this just shows you how wisdom is different from intelligence. Ehud Barak, wait till you hear this, Ehud Barak is the most decorated soldier in Israel's history. So he has that going for him. Man, that's street cred, right? Then when he was a kid, he scored, I think, among the top six IQs in the country. So this is a smart guy and a war hero. But wisdom begins with the fear of Yahweh. What's that mean that wisdom begins with the fear of Yahweh? It doesn't translate that well from Hebrew to English. It means the reverend awe and acknowledgment that God is sovereign over the creation and over his covenantal relationship with us. There is no salvation for the Jews outside of our covenantal relationship with the God of the Jews. And so either he naively believed, you know, that peace is coming, or as you said, when he backtracked from it, after the Palestinians rejected his peace over Israel, he said, well, I only offered them the whole store knowing that I wanted to unmask the truth of who these Palestinians are, which he succeeded to do. So yes, it's interesting. Don't never accept it, he says. Don't never accept it. And the world pushing Israel, and the main block of people pushing Israel to do it are the Europeans. And what makes them really hypocritical is that it's because of the crimes of the Europeans that Israel even had to come into existence. It was founded basically by survivors of Europe's Holocaust. But also, The Europeans today, their countries are falling to unmitigated Islamic invasion. France, Sweden, England, Belgium, Ireland to a degree. All these countries have had, you know, here the big thing in America is the floodgates of illegal immigration from Mexico. In Europe, it's been the floodgates of people from the Middle East. And do you know that 10% of France is Muslim? That's amazing. Did you know that Canada, our neighbor, which models itself after Europe, they're close to 10%. They're getting there. Justin Trudeau did more to destroy Canada. than anybody could imagine. He just opened the floodgates to this. And I've been to Canada recently, I can tell you, they are a large presence there. Montreal has been the scene of bombings and shootings of Jewish day schools. This is becoming common in Canada. So some of this behavior is their own fear that now we've got 10% of these people living in our country and we need their votes or we need to appease them. So that's also a driving factor behind Europe's moves. Yeah, no, that's interesting. Why? So, you know, with that, to me, if you just know even a little bit of history, you know, none of the Arab nations and the Palestinian Authority, none of them will ever accept. But it makes me think, why Why is Israel losing the media war, the information war? And we've touched on it a little bit, but I just think that that's so profound. You mentioned that there's only 12 million Jews and billions of Muslims. So that's a big part of that. But can you speak into a little bit more of that? What's your read on why is it that Israel's losing that so bad? Especially, you think October 7th would have been, oh man, We would have gained 20 years of favor from such a horrific thing, but it not only didn't do that, it actually went the complete opposite. All right, so I addressed earlier the innate hatred of the Jews by these large blocs, so let's now cover the Generation Z of this country, okay? So I'm not gonna say that Generation Z was born with an innate hatred of the Jews. You know, they weren't. But they're not the best educated generation either, okay? And they spend hours and hours on social media. And they're not there intellectually yet. They're more triggered by emotions. You know, in other words, it's hard to sell what they're seeing as good on TikTok. It's hard for me to come to a Generation Z person and say, Oh, let me put a positive spin and all that. They're being inundated with this stuff. And it's a tragedy because one day they'll be the leaders of this country and when you read statistics about where they stand with Israel, not just Israel, the Jews now, as a people, the numbers don't look good. In other words, barring a major conversion of that generation, you almost can see the end of America in that generation when they finally, come to power. It's not even just the Jews and our problem, just their whole world view. So again, people think we the Jews are the most powerful puppeteers on the planet, but if we were so good at it, we'd be having much better results. In other words, we don't have the power that everybody says we have, because things aren't going our way in the media, which supposedly we control. So, right, so it's not going well for us. Good point. Yeah. Let's shift gears and talk. I saw some news that I think is interesting about Lebanon. Yes. And, you know, Israel, their recent war with Hezbollah, you mentioned the war that they kind of lost because it was a tie. But recently Israel, they saw virtually every top leader killed and Israel, it was an amazing offensive and a lot of their weapons destroyed. So right now, the United States have been pressuring the Lebanese government to get control of whatever's left of Hezbollah and their weapons and stuff like that. On Tuesday, I believe it was, the Lebanese government kind of acquiesced and said, okay, we'll do it. But I have a couple of questions. Why, it seems to me like the Lebanese government, you know, Lebanon used to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. And then Hezbollah came in and just destroyed this beautiful country. Why wouldn't the Lebanese government, first of all, just, once Israel kind of wiped out the leadership, why didn't they just pounce? That was the time to pounce. I'm just gonna fine tune something that you just said. Lebanon was a beautiful country because it was the only Christian country in the Middle East. It was a Catholic majority country. At one time, Lebanon was 70%, at least 70% Catholic, okay? Then what tipped it the other way was a combination of what you just said, but it was more like the birth rate of the Muslim population there. But also, unfortunately, following an event in 1971 or two called Black September, The Palestinian refugees from Israel's 1948 war, a lot of them were in Jordan, and under Yasser Arafat, they tried to take over Jordan. And the leader of Jordan crushed them in the month of September, killed something like 10,000 to 20,000 of them, and that's what became known as Black September. There's a terror group named after that, Black September. I think they did the Munich attack, which you and I talked about yesterday over dinner. And what happened was the survivors from Jordan's crushing that migrated to Lebanon, and therefore the influx of Palestinian Muslims finally and ultimately threw the demographics towards Islam over the Catholics, so that today the Catholics of Lebanon are a minority. Now, what's that have to do with what you just asked me? According to the Lebanese constitution, the president of the country has to be a Christian, okay? The vice president or whatever has to be a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the parliament has to be a Shiite, okay? This is all based on the demographics of what Lebanon was 100 years ago. If they were ever to change, you know, do a survey now, it would be the total opposite. A Shiite would be the president, and the Christian would be lucky to even be a speaker of the parliament, okay? So you have a Christian leader of Lebanon who's trying to defang Hezbollah. And he's lucky that the Sunnis have decided to throw in with the Christians on this because the Sunnis hate the Shiites too. So this is a case that my enemy's enemy is my friend. And they've decided to disarm Hezbollah. Now, what are the chances of success and what's at stake here? Between 1975 and 1990, the world's most famous civil war was the Lebanese Civil War. All these groups killing each other. their fear is that their attempt to disarm Hezbollah will trigger another version of this. So they have a real reason to be afraid. What are the chances of them succeeding? The plan is to disarm Hezbollah by December 31st of this year, the end of the year. Am I hopeful about it? No. Yeah, you get a sense of that. I saw a news article from the Associated Press, Lebanese Shiite ministers, they walked out of the cabinet. So the one that decided, oh yeah, we'll just harm Hezbollah, but the Shiites, they all got up and left the meeting. But just so you know, since Israel's ceasefire with Hezbollah, a ceasefire that started in November of the past year, Israel's bombed them 500 times. and killed 250 Hezbollah activists, which is as many as they killed before the Pager attack. The Pager attack, man. Yeah, wasn't that phenomenal? That was crazy. Guys. When you see the pager attack, or Operation Rising Lion, and the first few minutes of Operation Rising Lion, which has earned its own codename, Operation Red Wedding, which killed 30 brigadier generals in a matter of just one second or two seconds. and then the country's top 12 nuclear engineers again in just a few seconds. This is on the level of miracles that we saw in Old Testament times. And you have to wonder about the dullness of those Christians in denial of this. And this is, Brett, something I definitely wanted to hit, which is this. And I know Brett may ask me about this at the end anyway, so forgive me if I ducked the elephant here. Biblical literalism is under attack, okay? And it's being cursed under the name dispensationalism. Okay, now Brett, I heard Brett give a great teaching on this in the last 20 minutes of his last prophecy. Yeah, it was excellent. And I told him when I came here for the week, I said, Brett, we gotta pick up on that topic while I'm here. because it's so important to equip you with knowledge of, first of all, you're under attack because you're being taught to take the Bible literally. And biblical literalism is attacked as dispensationalism because The honest truth is, is if you read the Bible from Genesis to the end of the book of Revelation, I'll argue that the default setting of the Bible, you will automatically settle on what's being cursed as dispensationalism. Even if you've never heard the term dispensationalism, even if you don't know Schofield, and you know, and who is the other guy? Darby. Yeah, Darby and all that stuff. Right. None of these people are relevant. They're being used. In essence, they're digging up their graves practically, you know, to put all of us under this umbrella, those of us who take the Bible literally. Now, why am I mentioning this? For the last 100 years, there's so many prophecies being fulfilled. And the burden is on them. How do you explain the last 100 years? In other words, hundreds of passages are being fulfilled. And for all the talk of we, the Jews, being bright and smart, and there's some truth to all that, the pager attack and Operation Red Wedding, this is on the level of miracles. You can't just say this is Jewish genius. And therefore, I don't understand the dullness of those people when they're confronted with these incredible events as, oh, that's just a coincidence. What? The burden's on them, not on you. It's not on you to defend being a biblical literalist. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. I can almost, I hate to even put it this way, but 500 years ago during the time of Martin Luther, Martin Luther was a horrible anti-Semite. Thankful for the Reformation, but man, there's some stuff that we don't wanna bring up with Martin Luther. But once Zionism, which is being so demonized, like you mentioned earlier, once that started happening and there was the literal regathering of people in the Holy Land, and then literally becoming a nation, one of the most powerful nations, like how many prophecies? I feel like we're such a privileged nation. people today, because if you're in your 70s, 80s, you've seen huge chunks of Bible prophecy come to pass so literally, it's undeniable. And yet there's this crazy level denial, like you said, what is it, just coincidence? Yeah, it takes more faith to believe it's coincidence than it does just to realize, wow, God is moving exactly like His Word says. So wait to hear this, it's even darker than that. It's not so innocent. It's not that they think it's a coincidence. This is going to shock you what I'm about to say. But people like her and others basically deify the Jews. How do they do that? It's not the God of the Jews that did all this. It's this global Jewish cabal, this conspiracy. The Jews are so powerful as a people. We're such master manipulators that we're the ones that manipulated Israel into existence. We're even the founders of Christian Zionism. She claims that it's all the Rothschild. None of this is true. But what it is, is you become so obsessed with Jewish conspiracy theories that you almost apportion to the Jews deity Because only a God can control the world to the extent that these people accuse us of controlling the world. So I would say to people like that, I would say, man, you almost treat us like we're divine. You credit to us the power that only God can have. Does that make sense? Yeah. If you're in Israel, Jerusalem, and you've spent most of your life there, if I were to come and show just the average Jew on the street, or let's go to Tel Aviv where 70% of the Jews are atheists, and I show them the same fulfillments and talk to them the same way we're talking about the pagers and the miraculous level, it almost seems like they don't see it either. Can you talk, can you speak to that? Yeah, it's interesting. Israel is historically overwhelmingly secular. Now a lot of that's changing because of the birth rate of the Orthodox Jews. Just so you know, by the way, Israel is the only Western country that has a high enough birth rate that it's naturally perpetuating itself. It's not shrinking like France, England, Japan, all these other countries who don't have birth rates to sustain that, okay? So, and who are the, a lot of the people having a lot of kids, it's the religious Jews, okay? Because they believe it's a mitzvah, commandment, be fruitful, have kids, you know, settle the land. So, it is starting to change, but Tel Aviv is still a bastion of secularism, but I would say that deep down among a lot of the secular Jews, whether they'll admit it or not. And I say this because, for instance, when you leave the Holocaust Museum, as you're walking towards the parking lot that the bus is in, it has this massive-sized text from Ezekiel 37 about the Valley of Dry Bones. this incredible prophecy, and they're applying it to this situation, saying, one day there's this hope for those people. That's how they interpret it. So I'm saying, now that wasn't put there by Orthodox Jews. In other words, there is this critical mass of faith buried deep within the people. The problem is that most Israeli Jews have been turned off by religious Jews. You have to understand the Hasidic Jews, the guys that have the black hats and black suits who make up one-fifth of Israel's population, refuse to serve in the army for the most part, do not pay taxes for the most part, are a major drag on society. That's not an advertisement for Judaism, or let's say it's not an advertisement for becoming religious. To become religious is to become like those people, okay? So I don't necessarily equate Israel's agnosticism with agnosticism towards God. I do think within every Jewish person, and maybe I'm being naive here, Is this belief that our history is unique, it's special, and only God could, that there's something miraculous about our history? There's something in our consciousness about that. But the, what do you want to call it? But the poster child of Judaism, the religion today, is that group of Jews who are also very corrupt in politics, do you know what I mean? So it's driven a lot of Jews away. I do think if you showed that to people today in Tel Aviv, some people would be very interested. And you know what, Brett? Let's have some fun. Do it as an experiment. I'd love to go with you and have you, you know, and I'll even translate for you. Right? Because I would love to see how's the war changed the perception of those Jews about God and all that stuff. What's God accomplishing in the Jewish people since October 7th? How is he using this to bring down strongholds or to plant seeds? It's interesting and I can't give you an answer. Yeah, that's neat stuff. It's an interesting question for me because we know from Romans 11 that when the fullness of the Gentiles come in, then all of Israel will be saved. So I always kind of look at what's going on with the Jewish people today and wonder, is this God setting the stage for, you know, or preparing the hearts of the Jews who are largely in unbelief right now to just when they see it, it'll all come to fruition. And I always wonder if we're seeing maybe a little bit of that stirring right now. Do you think that's true? I'm telling you, I was so moved during the 12-day war. I had some incredible encounters with people in Israel. This was a special month. I was meant to be there. It was really for such a time as this, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. And I remember on a few occasions, I took trips into Jerusalem from the suburb of Jerusalem that I was staying in, and I did have great conversations with some Hadzidic Jewish kids at a cafe in the Shuk, you know, where our restaurant is. And I just saw people's face shined with faith. Now, I know for the Christian, they're gonna be like, how's that possible? They're not born again, they're not saved. And I said, don't put God in such a small box. Yes, he is the way, the truth, and the life, but we don't know how he's progressing this in stages. You know what I'm saying? And I saw such abounding faith of the locals, the people I shared the bomb shelter with. were so positive. Everything was just so positive. The people I encountered in Jerusalem, the morale of the country was so high. I didn't want to go to Israel that month. I had to go there because I owed the Ministry of Tourism six continuing education days. And I realized if I don't go there and do these days now, I'll fall behind, right? So I went there and I really, it's almost like I had to drag myself by the scruff of my neck to go. But once I was there, it was so emotional. I didn't expect any of the stuff that I experienced. And that was one of them. morale, but not just carnal morale, not like, well, we Jews are the best, Israel's the best, we're kicking everybody's butt. It wasn't that. People understood where we are in history, where we are in history. Something in their gut, their instinct connected it with the divine. That's the best I can explain it. That's interesting. That springs into a couple of questions. One, big debate and all the podcasters and pastors because of what's happened. And the question, should the United States, should we be supporting Israel in the narrative of genocide? How can we support genocide? All the false narratives that are out there, but it's forced this weird discussion within theology and doctrine about, who are the real Jews? And if you've been going through the Bible with us, the Bible's pretty clear on that if you ask me. But I wanted to ask you that question, as the debate rages over modern Jews or biblical Israel or the state of Israel, and there's all this parsing of God's plan, can you help us sort this out a little bit? Yeah, I really can. So, So, first of all, the most obvious thing of all is, in whom are God's prophecies about the Jews being fulfilled in? It's being fulfilled in us. It's not being fulfilled in the black Hebrews in New York, you know, who claim to be the real Jews. It's not being fulfilled by British Israelitism, which is a white version of that. We're the chosen people. All these people that contend and claim they're the real Jews, I say, well, how come none of the prophets are being fulfilled in you? They're all being fulfilled in us. But since I love your enthusiasm so much, you, the black Hebrews, and you, the British Israelites, why didn't you run the Hitler at the front of the line and say, well, we're the real Jews. Why are you killing those fake Jews? That's a good point. Yeah, okay, so that's number one I'm gonna get with. I knew you'd like that. Yeah, that's good. Right, number two is, and this is just honest truth, DNA today proves that all us subgroups of Jews, Ashkenazi, which is me, Sephardic Jews, which are from the Spanish expulsion, Iraqi Jews, which are known as Mizrahim, okay, people from the East, We have a common DNA that proves that we descend from what's called the Levant, okay? The Levant is that eastern shore of the Mediterranean. What today is Israel, Lebanon. It's true that we're not a pure race, okay? So as it relates to my group known as the Ashkenazi Jews, Most of our DNA is said to go back to that part of the world, but believe it or not, 80% of our maternal DNA, in other words, 80% of us have maternal DNA that's believed to descend from four Gentile women who probably converted to Judaism to marry Native Israelites that or let's say Jews that were taken as slaves by the Romans following the destruction of our temple So yes, our bloodline goes back to Israel. Okay, the majority of it, but it's also true that we're not some pure race Okay, but that's fine because again God's still working with us I doubt there's any Jewish person alive that is truly got 100% now my my my personal What do you call it? DNA. Ancestry.com had me as 100% what's called Ashkenazi Jew. So I don't have anything besides that. I remember being disappointed because I remember Ancestry.com advertised by showing this white blonde girl discovering she's 10% Zulu, you know, or like how your, right, your promise is great surprise. There's all these surprises. There was no surprise with me. I'm 100% this particular subgroup of Jews. Now, this is where it gets interesting. I know Micah has a slide. And this will show you how antisemitism is shape-shifting. Because Hitler hated us and said, well, Steve may be light-complected and Steve may have blue eyes, he's not really one of us. He's a Semite and he has to be killed, okay? So then comes, about 20 years after the Holocaust, an author of a book, an Israeli journalist named Arthur Kessler, who says, OK, if the anti-Semites hate us because we're a different race, now I'm going to write a book that says we're not really a different race. We're just converts to a religion called Judaism. So he writes this book that all the anti-Semites cite to this day called The Thirteenth Tribe. The subtitle, okay, has the word Khazar. Okay, you'll hear this in anti-Semitic circles. The Jews, like Steve, are descendants of the Khazars, which were some Mongolian, you know, do I look Mongolian? A Mongolian group that converted to Judaism and therefore they have no right to Palestine or to the land of Israel because they're not really descendants of Israel. But since he wrote that book, DNA evidence proves that, no, we really do descend from, in fact, there are no Jews who have Khazar blood. In other words, we know what DNA goes back to that part of Europe, and none of us have that. Okay? So what's the problem? Look how antisemitism shapeshifts. So the Hitler generation hated us because we're Semites, despite the way we look. But then comes a guy that says, I'll debunk all that with a book that claims we're not really Semites. And now our enemies say, they're not really Semites. Let's get them because they don't belong in Israel. In other words, look how we can't win. But the truth is, is that there's over a dozen very reputable DNA research papers done by the greatest universities in the world that have proven that all Jewish groups, including my own, descend to Israel. And so combine that with all the prophecies being fulfilled in us and not all these other contenders and pretenders, that's my answer. Now, are the Jews holy? You know, right? See, we have to understand what holy means. Holy does not mean that we act like goody goodies. Holy means that we've been set apart by the God of the Bible for His purposes. I will argue that the whole of the Jewish people is holy. If you understand the original Hebrew, the whole of the Jewish people, including the atheists, who have no idea, have been set apart by the God of the Bible for his purposes to this day. The atheists that live in Israel, whether they know it or not, have been drawn back there by the sovereign of the universe as his proof to the world, I'm still that God of the Bible who keeps his covenants. whether the atheist Jew knows it or not, they have been set apart by the Yahweh, the God of the Bible, for his purposes. Now, not all of us like it. My father, who today has severe dementia, he can't even remember what we've spoken about 30 seconds ago, but he remembers this. He'll say to me every time I go visit him, he'll say, what's going on in the world? And I'll say, oh, there's a war in the Middle East, blah, blah, blah. He says, Steve, why does everybody hate us? And he remembers that everybody hates us. And then he'll complain, he'll say, He's like, this is not a blessing to be the chosen people, it's a curse. And I understand why he says that. It has come with an awful price. And guess what? The Jews didn't ask for it. You could argue that the original generation there at Mount Sinai when they all said in unison, oh, we'll do what you say. We'll follow this law. You know what I mean? But all of us who've been born since then have not had a say. You know, in other words, God sovereignly called our father Abraham into this relationship, whether we like it or not. and we've paid a major price and still are, whether we like it or not, and all Jews are there for a holy because God set us apart. We're His chosen vessel on earth. That's all that chosen people thing means. People resent us, including Christians, historically. because we refuse to just melt away and assimilate. Now, I heard you say on Wednesday, and this is one of the things that you and I have had an ongoing relationship, you know, you talked about our discussions for 20 years, and this is something you and I have talked about. There'll always be a Jewish people. There will be a Jewish people in the millennium. The only day that ends is when there's a new heaven and a new earth. Then none of this matters anymore, Jew, Gentile. Now, If one of you were to say to me, as many Christians have, well, Steve, if you think the Jews still have it, what do you do with that verse that says there's no Jew or Gentile anymore? And I'll say, but you left out half the verse. That means you also believe there's no male or female anymore. Now are you for the trans? Hey, Steve, this is Portland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right. Yeah, yeah. Don't encourage them. No, I'm just kidding. Sorry. No, that was good. No, that was good. You must take that verse to its full extent. If there's no Jew and Gentile anymore, then there is no male or female either anymore. Right. So, Steve, what does that mean if you insist that there's still Jew and Gentile and that that goes into money? It has nothing to do with us being better In Christ, the Jew and the Gentile have equal standing as saved people, all that stuff. But it still means that God has a purpose for us going even into the millennium. We're still his vessel. It's an eternal covenant, and it only, let's say this, it's an everlasting covenant until there's a new world order, the final world order of God, which is a new heaven and new earth. And at that point, none of it will matter. Does that make sense? Yeah, I hope you guys are recognizing Yeah, that's worth it. Thank you. You know, a bunch of stuff that Steve just said fits right in with Paul, Romans 9, 10, and 11. You know, the vessel, chosen vessel, the holy. Remember on Wednesday night, I read Romans 11, 16, which says, for if the first fruit be holy, remember we were talking about this, the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root be holy, so are the branches. That's the whole enchilada right there, which includes the root, the descendants of Abraham, but also the branches, the lump, the whole thing. That's the whole thing that is saying right there, it's holy. And if you're looking at it, like a lot of us as Gentiles look at the word holy, but the Greek word used here, not just, I don't know what the Hebrew word is, but the Greek word, it does mean to be set apart, to be delineated for something specific. And so that's the thing, the word holy doesn't mean they're perfect. And this is where I wanna ask you about, is there a difference between God's chosen people and set apart, this holy people, and then the state of Israel? No, because God is the one that brought Israel back into existence. It's his project. Now, it's true that he's, what's the word I want to use? He has given up his sovereign rule to a degree. Not really. He's calling the shots. I mean, God is ultimately sovereign. But for now, there's human beings called prime ministers who are just like they were kings in ancient times. Some of those kings were great, loved the Lord, and the bulk of them didn't. And yet they were all called Messiah. Now, oh, okay, now let me get into that. No, this is really important, folks. So listen. The term Messiah originally refers to each king of the Jews. So King Saul was the first Messiah. It is the word that's used in the Hebrew Bible because the Christians, when they translate the Bible, don't want to confuse people. They prefer to say anointed. Anytime that word Messiah shows up in Hebrew, they won't translate it as Messiah. They'll translate it as anointed. But it really does say the word Mashiach, which means the Messiah. Okay? So who was the very first Messiah of the Jewish people? King Saul. Who was the second Messiah of the Jews? King David. And so on and so forth. Solomon being the third. So originally it's strictly a synonym for the chosen king. Some of those messiahs were good, some of those messiahs were bad, but it didn't change the fact that they were still God's anointed for such a time as this. Now in the book of Daniel, Daniel expands the idea and says not just the Jewish kings are anointed for such a time as this. God raises the kings of the Gentiles He raises up nations and he deposes nations. He raised you, King Nebuchadnezzar, but he can also depose you, King Nebuchadnezzar. You know, I love that chapter when Nebuchadnezzar's on the roof of his building, of his palace. Is this not Babylon the great that I built with my majesty and glory? And he said, Nebuchadnezzar has been appointed to you. That was one of my last teachings on my own YouTube channel. By the way, if any of you want to follow, it's Steve the tour guide. So it's the same with presidents of the United States. Now, we all love to hear that Donald Trump's anointed. I believe that, but guess what? God also had a purpose for his predecessor. We have to accept that. Either you believe in the biblical truth, the full length of the truth, you can't pick and choose. There's no room for wiggle room. I'm elated with the current leader. I voted for him, and I'm being honest, every day I wake up and say, wow, thank you for doing that. Wow, thank you for doing that. Wow, thank you for doing that. Am I ashamed to say that? Yeah, yeah. And yet, one day, he's going to be history, and maybe somebody not so great is going to replace him. I told you that I personally think the Trump years may be our last hurrah, not the beginning of the next 100 years of a happy, prosperous, spiritually. I think some Christians have been deceived into thinking there's only great times ahead, and I don't believe that. Each leader for a time is this, God is the sovereign and so is Netanyahu and so are the prime ministers of Israel. Just because they're sinner Jews or they don't know him personally doesn't mean that God's not using them. Was the Pharaoh of Egypt a born-again Christian in the amen corner? No. But God said of him, Pharaoh, you Pharaoh, I've raised basically for such a time as this. I'm the one that put you on that throne so that my fame and my miracles go to the four corners of the earth. And he probably died an unbeliever. So again, we have to disabuse ourselves and divorce ourselves from this notion that God only works with those that believe in him or are only conscious of being used by him. No, he's the sovereign of the universe. He's the king. And that king is using unsaved Jews and Jews of all kinds to fulfill his promises. Boy, there's so much there. One, and I've got to say this because some of you might be like, oh, he just said there's a bunch of messiahs. And because of the way we think about that in English. Oh, what I really should have said is that Jesus, right. There's the messiah. Yeah, yeah, right, right. What it is is, thank you for doing that, Brad. I'm saving it here, Steve, saving it. Okay, so what it is is, As each successive king of the Jews or each successive messiah of the Jews becomes more corrupt, I mean, we have Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, engaging in child sacrifice, okay? Towards the very end of that monarchy, Jews start to long for this ideal Messiah, the eschatological Messiah, the Messiah. There is no, in Hebrew language, a capital letter versus a lowercase letter. But it's insinuated when I say that The eschatological Messiah is the Messiah that everybody was waiting for and saying, man, this is going to be the guy. He's going to restore us to that golden age that David sorted the paradigm on. The Messiah. Right. So I'm glad you said that. Yeah. And, you know, a second component to that, I think is really interesting. Because, you know, back when we were doing an election of 2020 and 2016, in 2024, I just heard the church just, you know, debating, how could you vote for this person? And I always cracked up, because I'm like, how could you vote for anybody? If your metric is, should we vote for, like, remember it was Hillary and Donald. It's like, and I always told the people in Lake Oswego were on social media saying, Pastor Brett told everybody who to vote for. No, what I said was, is you're gonna vote for a sinner. Whether it's Hillary or Trump, it's big, huge sinners. And yet they said, but how could we do that? So some people said, well, we're not gonna vote. And here's what I told people is this, God voted for Samson. Yes. A prostitute-loving, self-absorbed guy, and he judged Israel. Wait, who is this? Samson. Oh, yeah, of course. In the book of Judges. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, not only go through the Judges, then you start talking about Manasseh. God put Manasseh, the worst king in Israel's history. Right. who end up becoming a believer at the very end. I mean, God raised up all kinds of crazy kids. He raised up, you know, probably the most amazing and most incredible king in Israel's history is David, but he was an adulterer and a murderer with Uriah the Hittite. And so my point is God voted for extremely imperfect, and I use the word voted, I'm not trying to be irreverent, God doesn't vote. God says, this is who I'm putting in that office. And so I feel like we have a responsibility to say, Lord, we want your will to be done. So as Christians, we pray. I'm not wanting to get into a voting election, but what you're talking about here is God raises men up and puts men down, and they're all huge sinners and flawed and what have you. So I think that, It's interesting, if you kind of look at our nation, if all the Christians who said, we're not voting because that guy's imperfect, that changes the course of our whole country. And it happened once before, do you remember? In recent memory, you know when it happened? When Obama ran against Mitt Romney. Most Christians boycotted Mitt Romney strictly because he's a Mormon, as if he's running for theologian-in-chief. And we got Obama instead. Or no, we got Obama instead largely because the evangelical Christian world sat that one out. That's a fact. And it's hard. I mean, I'm not saying it's an easy thing to work through, but I just think we have to remember God has raised people up and some people, how could God put Trump in office? He's got flaws. Yeah, he's very flawed, but I do believe like you, we're seeing some, I'm really glad there's not boys changing in girls' restrooms. I'm really happy about that. Brett, that's awesome. Can I jump on that for a second? Awesome. Okay, so here's something that most people don't know. When the Bible says in Hebrew that somebody has a heart after God, the average American Christian, when they hear, oh, David had a heart after God, they're thinking because he worshiped the Lord and played his harp and all that, but that's not what it means, actually, in Hebrew. To have a heart after God means you're gonna obediently fulfill what God would have you do. It comes down to doing God's bidding. That means you have a heart after God. In other words, it's referring to the obedience. You could easily argue, as you just did with the gender stuff, that Donald Trump is acting out what God himself would want us to do. In other words, it doesn't mean that Donald Trump then goes back to the White House and plays, you know, worship songs. I doubt that, yeah. Right, right, right. But that's what people think when they think of, oh, he's got a heart after God. Oh, because David's strumming there on the harp or, you know, a modern day version of that playing the guitar. That's not what it means. It means that the person is doing what God would have the leader do, as opposed to rebelling against God's principles or God. That's really what it means. Yeah. Yeah. And now that also speaks to something that, you know, we've gotten here at Eighth Creek all kinds of heat as if we're all, you know, we're so supportive of Israel that we think they can do no wrong. Right. I think we're biblically consistent. I look at all the kings of Israel throughout history. They did some good things. They did some bad things. And you and I have been equal opportunity offenders. We've talked good things about Netanyahu and bad things about Netanyahu. And this narrative that maybe some of you are hearing, and if some people are watching online that are part of the, huge group of people that are kind of bashing away at us. One thing I just want to say is the state of Israel, to me, like, as I asked you, is that the same thing? And you said, yes. I think that, you know, Jewish people are God's chosen people. That's period. But are they perfect? No, in fact, they're very imperfect, just like these kings that we're talking about, just like Netanyahu is imperfect. And to make the narrative that just because we support Israel means that we think they can do no wrong. That's just a false propaganda thing of anti-Semitism, really. So just wanted to say that. You mentioned the 12-day war. We're almost out of time. I can't believe how fast the time is. And you were there. I loved, one morning I got on my social media and you're out there on the outside. I refused to let them take my coffee in the morning, you know, as the sirens are going off in the background and stuff. I'm going to drink my cup of coffee. And then you went down into the bunker after that. The whole thing was surreal. And maybe they'll enjoy this. It was just surreal. I remember, I knew before I went to Israel, there were already rumours that there would be a war with Iran. But I thought it would happen the day after I get back. Because America, no, no, I'll tell you why. Because the United States was scheduled to negotiate with Iran on the Sunday that I was supposed to leave the country. Okay, so I figured there'd be no war until Trump says, sorry, that we haven't had successful negotiations. Instead, the war broke out two days before on Friday. I remember waking up and my host said, hey, did you hear we just bombed Iran? And they have 100 drones coming towards us. And that's when I made the video about I'm not going to let this disturb my coffee. But this is what's amazing. I mean, Brett, this was right out of a space age, this was so surreal. Every night we would have, the Iranians launched missile barrages at us twice a night. Usually the first one would be sometime between 1 and 1.30 in the morning. I was sound asleep When I got there, we all had an app from the home front that made that noise that your own apps will make if there's a tornado warning, that screechy noise, you know? It will wake the dead when you get that thing. And I would have 15 minutes approximately to get to the bomb shelter, so I didn't even have to run to it. I could casually get up, get dressed, go to the bomb shelter. Spent 30 minutes in the bomb shelter, then come back, and then they would hit us again at about 4 or 4.30 in the morning. But on the first night of the war, I'm sleeping and I hear all these explosions above. And I'm like, man, I didn't get any sort of warning. Real explosions where you feel like the building's shaking, right? So I walk out into the kitchen, looking through the sliding doors of the balcony where I made that video, and I suddenly see behind these biblical Sumerian hills Dozens of rockets, Israel's interceptors, called the Arrow 2, screeching to the sky. All these explosions were each of these rockets breaking the sound barrier. They fly something like Mach 12. It's either 12 or 14 times the speed of sound. So I'm not hearing the rendezvous with the incoming missile. I'm hearing them break the sound barrier on their way. And I'm like, man, why didn't I get any sort of warning? So I had read later in the day on a website that that's because they were shooting down missiles that were still over Jordan, you know, are still over. Right. But and all the explosions I heard were of them breaking. It was so weird seeing those biblical hills. being the scene of this Star Wars looking weapon, you know, going up. I'll never forget it. And I was just, I had to pinch myself as I'm watching this. I said, I've seen this on YouTube videos, but it's a different thing to see it up front with your own eyes. It was spectacular. Wow. Yeah, it was spectacular. Well, do you think we should have Steve come back more often? Thank you. Thank you very much, thank you. God. Well, one thing I wanna say is for those watching online, especially those that are critical and what have you, this is a special event. This isn't our Sunday morning or our Wednesday night Bible study. We focus on verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book through the Bible. And this is kind of a knockoff, a one-off. That's the narrative that's also out there by some of these podcasters and stuff, that all Ethiopia Creek ever knows is talk about Bible prophecy in Israel. But you know, what's funny to me is when pastors go to cemetery, they go through all the... I mean, seminary, cemetery. They go through all the ologies. But there's no study called Israelology, which is amazing to me because that's what the whole book's about. It all ties in with everything Israel. I feel like that's what's missing from a lot of people. So like you said, dispensationalism comes naturally to those who go verse by verse through the Bible. You'll find all the verse by verse pastors, they're going through the Bible and they're also generally dispensationalists, which is kind of cool. But ultimately, I'm reminded, you know, what Revelation 19.10 says, it says, I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren and have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God for the testament of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. You know, all this stuff Steve and I are talking about, It really, it gets to, you know, the fullness is when the second coming of Christ, when all these things that are wrong will be made right. The coming kingdom, Jesus taught us to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. So really, if, you know, Steve and I just have a chance to talk about all things Israel and what's going on, but ultimately we keep our eyes on Jesus and we look for that, the Messiah who's coming. And man, I look forward to that day. That's gonna be a glorious time when Christ comes, rules and reigns. Israel will be not at war. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, thank you. Thank you, Steve. And we will have you back. And can I just, I just want to thank you all. From the moment I landed here, and I got here Friday, just before Brett's first stadium meeting. And from the moment I landed here, so many of you came up to me at the Moda Center and were just so warm and so embracing. And I feel so at home here. So I really just want to thank you. Thank you so much for that. Well, let's all stand and let's say a closing prayer and we'll call it a night. Lord, we are so thankful for just being able to have Steve here with us. And I pray blessing on Steve, Lord, whatever you have for him and his future, Lord. We know that you've given him a knowledge and an understanding of your word and an ability to communicate. And Lord, and yet I just have a sense that you've got greater things for him. And I pray that you'd position him exactly where you want him to do what you would make most effective, even as you raise up men, kings and rulers, Lord, I pray that you just continue to prepare Steve for whatever is in front of him, Lord, that he'd be able to be clarifying and teaching and instructing the way that he does, Lord. Just bless him, the work that he's doing. Bless his parents back at home and may, as he heads back to Philly, Lord, I pray that he just go encouraged and built up and full of faith, Lord. Bless him, we pray. And bless the cookies we're about to eat as well, as much as possible. In Jesus' name, amen.