Will Israel Follow a False Messiah (Antichrist)?

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A little shout-out of appreciation at the beginning of the broadcast. Let's start the broadcast by looking at the scriptural question, will Israel follow a false Messiah at the end of the age? In other words, an Antichrist. Will there be a great deception on the Jewish nation as well as on the entire world at the end of the age before the real Christ, the real Messiah, is revealed to Israel? There's an old Jewish joke that when the Messiah comes, the first question we'll ask him is, is this your first time here, or were you here already? In other words, are you the Christian Messiah who's actually the Jewish Messiah too, or was there no Christian Messiah, Jesus really wasn't the Messiah, and this is the Jewish Messiah? Obviously, a religious Jew is not asking that question because the religious Jew is convinced that the real Messiah has not come yet. But obviously, all of us who are followers of Jesus, Yeshua, we know that he is the one true Messiah, and at the end of the age, he'll be revealed to the Jewish people as the one true Messiah, but what happens before then? Will Jewish people follow someone who claims to be the Jewish Messiah, and he will be the Antichrist figure?

Now, as far as I can understand, the Bible does not give us a direct answer to some of these questions about the nature and identity of the Antichrist. I want to go through my own history of how I studied the scriptures and how I understand the scriptures today, just to give a little background. I got saved in a church that preached the pre-trib rapture, that believed in what we would call dispensationalism, that felt that these were really great insights into the Word of God, so I naturally believed that because that's what the church taught, and then as I read the scriptures, where I would see certain verses that seemed relevant, I understood them in the context of what my church taught. I was saved about two years, and a fellow that I had led to the Lord in our high school asked me a question about Matthew 24, because it didn't make sense to him, and he wasn't following rapture, second coming, in the passage wherever they divided, so I read it through with him. I had basically memorized it at that point. I had memorized about 4,000 verses at that point, so I had a lot of scripture in my head, and I said to him, you know, I see the questions and the problems also. I guess I really need to study more about the second coming and the Antichrist. Now, at that point, if you said to me, Mike, why do you believe what you believe about this doctrine or this doctrine or this doctrine or this doctrine?

I was like a machine gun. Here are all the verses. Here are all the verses why I believe what I believe.

Absolutely, I could do it. When it came to rapture, the difference between rapture and second coming, I couldn't do it. Now, rather than say to myself, hmm, maybe something is going on here. Maybe what you learned was not taught in the Bible but taught by other books. Maybe you should reconsider. No, I didn't do that because I just assumed that what I had learned in my church was true.

I knew there were other viewpoints, but I was quite sure that what I was taught in my church was true. So I started to buy books on the end times, dispensationalist books. I bought some of the old classics like, was it WEB? He used those initials. His book on Jesus is Coming. The books by Clarence Larkin with his woodcut charts.

I got contemporary books by authors like J. Dwight Pentecost and John Walworth. And I really worked out the whole system and I became very dogmatic. Again, a young believer. I memorized a lot of scripture, read through the Bible at that point about five times. So I was in my youthful zeal now dogmatic that this was the truth. There were no other competing views. The other views were wrong.

I remember in college one day, a guest speaker came in to our little Christian fellowship and he was a minister. I think he had a collar and I didn't like the collar. I thought that was too traditional, so I probably judged him a little already. But he was discussing the end times and he gave the different viewpoints. And some hold to this view, some hold to this view, some hold to this view. And I talked to him afterwards aggressively, but not in a fight, as to, no, this is the way. This is the one way. And he kind of smiled and said, son, you're a little dogmatic here.

But that's how it was for another couple of years. Now, even then, I did not know for sure who the Antichrist would be according to the Bible. And for those who think it's only dispensationalists who hold to this view, only those who are preacher rapture who believe in an end time Antichrist.

That's not true. If you read the writings of the early church fathers or just do a search online these days with AI, you can get all kinds of lists of things. Did the church fathers talk about an Antichrist in the first few centuries? And you'll see, many of them very explicitly did, that they believed that there would be a final tribulation time, that they would believe that there would be this final Antichrist figure. They believed there would be this time of testing before Jesus returned. They were premillennial in their thinking, but not dispensational premillennial, not pre-trib rapture premillennial, for those that understand those terms. So, I had heard speculation about the Antichrist being European, but we didn't know for sure.

And did the Bible really tell us clearly? What about this view that the Antichrist would be Jewish, and that he would be a false Jewish Messiah, and the nation would believe in him, and the third temple would be rebuilt, Jewish people obviously would gather to the land, the third temple would be rebuilt, it would look like a time of great Jewish restoration, the Jewish Messiah would now be revealed, the nation would follow him, he would now be in peace, and the whole world would follow him. Could that be true? So that was another speculation, interesting ideas. Then what happened was someone in our church started reading a book by a fellow named David McPherson, and it was claiming that the rapture was a relatively recent doctrine, and it began with sisters prophesying these Scottish sisters in the 1800s, and then it went from there to Derby, and then from Derby through C.I.

Schofield, and it became popularized, and then Hal Lindsey, and so on. And when I read it, it raised major questions to me. I never felt that I got a definitive answer in the book, it was kind of like a detective thing, and I felt when I finished it I didn't have a definitive answer. But I remembered, wait a second, wait a second, you didn't get this teaching from the Bible, you got it reading books about the Bible. Whereas every other thing you believe, every other doctrine you hold to, you got directly reading the Bible. In other words, my church taught it, but I read the scriptures, like yeah, there it was, there it was, there it was, there it was. When it came to difference between rapture and second coming and dispensational views, no, I didn't get that reading the Bible for myself, I got it by reading books about the Bible.

So I didn't throw it all out, I said let me restudy. So I started getting books that taught differently, but then beyond that, much more importantly, I just started digging into the scriptures themselves and concluded that the pre-trib rapture was not taught in the Bible. Now, if you're convinced it was, I'm not fighting with you, we're brothers and sisters in the Lord. I'm sure people I've worked with around the world to this day hold to that doctrine so we don't divide over it. If you'd like to know more of why I don't believe that, together with my friend Professor Craig Keener, you can read the book that we wrote, Not Afraid of the Antichrist, Why We Don't Believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Not Afraid of the Antichrist by yours truly and Professor Craig Keener. But what happened was, I swung so far away from the dogmatism I had, maybe hold to a pre-trib rapture but not in the same dogmatic way that I did, I so swung away from that because I thought every last detail of everything in the end times is prophesied here and here and here, and we can figure it out today and compare it with headlines.

So I stepped back, and instead I started looking at the broad strokes of scripture, not wanting to have to change what I believed every couple of years. Oh, the ten horns, that's the ten European nations. Oh, now it's not ten in the world. This represents this country. Oh, that's not lining up. This headline represents this scripture.

Oh, now it's lining up. So I was looking at the broad brushes of history, and because of that, I did not intensively study end time prophecy. To this day, I'm not dogmatic about my views on the book of Revelation because I am not a scholar of the book of Revelation. There's so much mystery in it. It's been understood differently at different times in church history.

Strong arguments can be made for different aspects of it. So while I have no doubt that aspects of the book, without a question, are still future, I'm not dogmatic about what other portions may be already historic or what may be just symbolic throughout, et cetera. So where do I land then on the subject of antichrist and a false Jewish messiah as I come full circle in wanting to understand every verse that's relevant to the end times but still not wanting to be dogmatic? If there is to be this end time antichrist figure, unless it's some AI thing that we haven't worked out, or there's going to be this super power intellect, maybe that through a human being, what level of demonic deception, satanic empowerment, false signs, wonders, miracles, et cetera, this individual is going to have to be incredibly deceptive. This individual is going to have to be incredibly powerful for the world to follow him.

And it could be that he comes in the midst of world crisis, world famine, world plague, world war, and is able to put an end to those things. And just as we saw how the whole world shifted over COVID, which in terms of overall epidemics, and world history was relatively minor. Yes, we lost dear friends.

It was very costly to many. But in terms of pandemics in the past, one third of Europe died of the Black Plague or other things like that, it was relatively minor. And yet the whole world shifted. You could see how in a moment of time, everything could shift. You could see how in a moment of time, the fear could grip people and they'll follow things they never would have followed and they'll subject themselves to all types of regulations. Think of massive famine and people dying and obviously killing each other over whatever food supplies there. It wouldn't take much for a world leader who could fix that to get the allegiance of the people. So someone is going to come at a certain time with incredible influence, wisdom, power, deception, that is going to lead the world to strike.

You hear that person being a little bit deeper on the other side of the bridge. This is Michael Ellison, founder of TriVita Wellness. I'm always thrilled to offer a new product from TriVita that is science supported with equivalent doses per serving that follows the science.

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It happened to me a number of years ago and I will never forget when the physician said, Michael, you must change the way you think or you will have no quality of life and you will die a premature death. Now I can assure you Ashwagandha KSM 66 is in my daily diet. I'm Dr. Paul Burnett, a board certified doctor of holistic health and director of wellness services at TriVita. I want you to know that TriVita's Ashwagandha KSM 66 is not just Ashwagandha. Ashwagandha KSM 66 undergoes a rigorous formulation process and has 22 gold standard clinical trials. TriVita's Ashwagandha KSM 66 adaptogenic properties assist your body in adapting to stress, reducing fatigue and restoring your natural balance. Join countless others who have discovered the benefits of TriVita's Ashwagandha KSM 66. Order today and use promo code BROWN25 to receive 25% off your order. As a new customer, 100% of your order proceeds from your first order will go to support the Line of Fire radio broadcast.

Call 1-800-771-5584, 1-800-771-5584 or online at T-R-I-V-I-T-A, TriVita.com. This is how we rise up. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back, friends, to the Line of Fire broadcast.

It is thoroughly Jewish Thursday. This is Michael Brown, delighted as always to be with you, not taking calls. I'm answering questions that were posted on X today.

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Be looking in your spam folder, your junk folder, because that's probably where the first email will come, and then make sure you accept all the future ones from us because we want to be there to pour into you. All right, a few scriptures to consider about the end times in an antichrist figure. First, let me give you this background. Jewish tradition has coalesced around several ideas based on various scriptures that we will know who the Messiah is because he will do various things. Judaism downplays the idea of the Messiah being a miracle worker. Obviously, we can make a scriptural case for that, but in terms of miracles of healing and things like that, Judaism downplays that aspect of the messianic era or the messianic role and says that we'll know who the Messiah is because he'll do several things. He will regather the Jewish exiles from around the world.

That's why some traditional rabbis oppose the modern state of Israel. They say that's for the Messiah to do. He'll regather the exiles. Others say no, the regathering of the exiles now is a sign that we're getting closer and closer to the messianic era, and then he will do the final regathering of the Jewish exiles. He will fight the wars of the Lord and defeat the enemies of Israel. He will rebuild the third temple, and he will bring all of Israel into obedience to the Torah. So the one who does that will certainly be recognized as the Jewish Messiah.

We see the in-gathering of the exiles, regardless of what you attribute it to, it's undeniable that the Jewish people have been regathered to the land in the last 100 plus years in unprecedented numbers, and there are more Jews living in the land of Israel than any time in world history, higher population of Jewish people in the land than any time in world history. So that's unfolding, and a growing movement to build the third temple. Now, right now it's impossible with the presence of the Al-Aqsa Mosque there in Jerusalem at the site of the old temple, but what could happen?

How could it happen? Would it take a Messiah-like figure to make it happen or to defeat the Muslim armies and to establish victory for Israel, rebuild the third temple? So we're just speculating here, okay? Let's say this figure does that, but let's say he does it in such a way that also brings peace with the world. Now, there's the fascinating theory of Joel Richardson and others that the Messiah will be a Muslim leader, and that he will broker a deal with Israel and the Muslim nations that they can rebuild the third temple, and that's why Israel will then follow him thinking, well, he's the great world leader, but would they embrace him as Messiah? Well, obviously not if it wasn't a Jew, no, but they could look to him as a great world leader. Would the Muslim world embrace him as al-Mahdi, the final redeemer and the final guide?

Is that possible? Would the world then look as he's brought peace to the world? So, I mean, all we can do is speculate, right? All we can do is speculate. The idea of a European Messiah has, or a false Messiah, a European Antichrist, has its arguments too. But I want to lean into the one that would say that the Antichrist will not be Muslim, will not be European or some other ethnic or racial origin, but will be a Jew. Let's think about that for a minute.

How could that scenario work? Well, what if he accomplished these things that Jewish people have been waiting for, that religious Jews have been waiting for for centuries and centuries and centuries? And this codified idea that we all know he was the Messiah when he does X, Y, Z, that's clearly codified in the writings of Moses by modernists, called the Rambam, in the 12th century, lived from 1135 to 1204, in his mission to Torah.

That's where he clearly articulates what's been taught over the centuries and codifies it in one place. So this is a strongly held view among religious Jews from all backgrounds that that's how we'll recognize the Messiah. Now, if he's able to accomplish these things, it would mean, if he's actually rebuilding a third temple, it would mean that he is working out somehow with the Muslim nations and Russia, China, I mean, whoever the players will be at the end of the age, America, to see that happen, because that's going to be of world interest. And it may be that Israel has to defeat these different powers, Russia, China, Islamic coalition, in order to build a third temple. And so they are subdued, but then victory comes with peace following, hey, here's how we could all live in peace. And now with a third temple built and this is it, peace has come, peace has come. It could be how the Gog Magog prophecy of Ezekiel 38, 39 comes to pass before a millennial kingdom saying, hey, we don't need walls anymore in our villages.

We don't need all this weaponry to protect us. Everything is peace and safety, 1 Thessalonians 5. And when everyone's saying peace and safety then sudden destruction comes, like a travail on a woman in labor.

Why would everyone be saying peace and safety if we're in a time of all out war? So every time there's a peace accord with the Muslim nation, Abraham Accords, before that other peace treaties, I'm always glad to see it. That's always a good thing. But in the back of my mind, I wonder how long will it ultimately last and will it ultimately lead to a false peace? Again, it's good when it happens.

We rejoice. But will it ultimately lead to a false peace, a false sense of security? And when everyone's saying peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes. To me, it is plausible. And to me, this then also helps open our eyes to the final deception where people put their trust in the wrong person and then recognize it. Oh my, we've been deceived.

We've been duped. And that is part of how the nation of Israel then recognizes, oh, oh, we've put our trust in a false messiah. We rejected the true messiah, hence the weeping, the agonizing, that deep repentance that is like a mourning over sin.

And that is when the cry, oh Lord, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the recognition that the one we rejected is the one who came to save us, that the one that we thought was a false messiah is the true messiah. When I lived in Maryland, there was a Jewish bookstore, Orthodox Jewish bookstore about 15 minutes from my house. And much of the massive Jewish library that I amassed was amassed in those days as I got many, many books. And the Orthodox Jewish dad and son were very, very friendly to me.

Knowing I was a believer, they were very friendly to me. The son came back from a conference with a book for me. It was written in Hebrew. And he said, Mike, I think you're really going to like this book. And it was a book on false messiahs in Jewish history, false messiahs in Jewish history. And so I flipped it open to read it. And the opening chapter, if I recall, the chapter's title was Oto-ha-ish, that man, that man.

They wouldn't even say his name, meaning Jesus. And I told them, obviously, I don't agree with the first chapter. But yeah, this is a book of great interest to me.

And of course, I own it to this day. So could it be that that is how a final deception will come on the Jewish people, but also the entire world? Because he'll make peace for the entire world and will seem to do things that no one else has done. The exiles will be regathered and Jewish people come in obedience to Torah only then to see that the one that they had rejected, the one they thought was the false messiah and the one who they often only knew through the lens of church history and through the disguise of church history where the Jewishness of the messiah was lost, that he is then revealed. So and then this is part of the end time great deception while a great harvest of souls is also put in place. This leads to the salvation of all Israel.

You can only speculate, but it's possible. This is Michael Ellison, founder of Trivita Wellness. I'm always thrilled to offer a new product from Trivita that is science supported with equivalent doses per serving that follows the science.

And that is true of our KSM 66 Ashwagandha with this protective process from farm to manufacturing plant. The KSM 66 has 24 published gold standard clinical trials in reducing stress, enhancing sleep, and increased vitality. In a recent Harris Poll, 87% of Americans feel stressed. I know the effects of chronic stress.

It happened to me a number of years ago, and I will never forget when the physician said, Michael, you must change the way you think or you will have no quality of life and you will die a premature death. Now I can assure you Ashwagandha KSM 66 is in my daily diet. I'm Dr. Paul Burnett, a board certified doctor of holistic health and director of wellness services at Trivita. I want you to know that Trivita's Ashwagandha KSM 66 is not just Ashwagandha. Ashwagandha KSM 66 undergoes a rigorous formulation process and has 22 gold standard clinical trials. Trivita's Ashwagandha KSM 66 adaptogenic properties assist your body in adapting to stress, reducing fatigue, and restoring your natural balance. Join countless others who have discovered the benefits of Trivita's Ashwagandha KSM 66. Order today and use promo code BROWN25 to receive 25% off your order. As a new customer, 100% of your order proceeds from your first order will go to support the Line of Fire radio broadcast.

Call 1-800-771-5584, 1-800-771-5584 or online at trivita.com. This is how we rise up. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Shalom, shalom, and welcome to a thoroughly year's wisdom. Michael Brown, so blessed, so delighted to be with you today, coming away from a little outside of Denver, Colorado, here on a rare, free day on the road between ministry trips, Colorado, then Washington state, then California. By the way, if you're on our email list, you'll know when I'm coming in your zip code area.

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All right, Jared, forgive me for the seven long questions. When debating Catholics on the Marian dogmas, they often cite the Gevirah or the mother queen position in the Davidic courts as the archetype for a Mary is queen of heaven. When I can tell the mother queens such as Bathsheba or Jezebel were such because they were married to kings first, not because they were mothers of the heir specifically. For example, David's father was never a king, so David's mother, the assumed Mary archetype was never a queen because she was never a queen, she was never a queen mother. Almost all the information I found in the subject works from a Catholic presupposition, what's the actual truth on the matter? Well, it's actually a very bizarre argument with all respect to my Catholic listeners.

It's a very bizarre argument. The queen mother was not worshipped, was not adored, did not have the status of the king, was not the one to whom the people ultimately went for the blessing of the king or for the adjudication of the king. The nations did not bow down to the queen mother, it was simply to the king. The queen mother, the queen was honored and revered, the queen mother because she was the mother of the king would have some level of honor in a society, but no, absolutely not. You read the Bible on your own a million times and never, never ever come to an idea that the queen mother was some exalted figure or like you mentioned, David's mother, that she had some lofty role. No, absolutely not. Again, it's such a bizarre view, it's even hard to refute because there's nothing to refute. There's nothing exalting her status. And of course, the only reference to queen of heaven in the Bible was to a Babylonian god that the people of Israel worshipped or an Egyptian god that the people of Israel worshipped. So no, absolutely not to that whatsoever. Fed asked, is there anybody alive today who can trace their bloodline to any of the original 12 tribes of Israel?

And if so, where are they? Are the Gentile converts to the religion of Judaism who identify as Jews, they have existed for many generations now, how is their religious identity different from people who self identify as an ethnic Jew? Okay, so Gentile converts, like Ruth, or others through the centuries, who attached themselves to the people of Israel, who now went through an official conversion, or before there was an official conversion, simply turned to the God of Israel and became part of the community of Israel. Now their bloodline gets absorbed in the bloodline of the people of Israel through intermarriage. And now, 100 generations later, someone who descended from an original Israelite couple, right, so say a blood descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, etc. So let's say someone who would be a pure blooded ancient Israelite, and someone who descended from a Gentile convert who married in like a Ruth, 100 generations later, they're indistinguishable, right?

Because that, think of it like this, think of it as just dropping one drop of Gentile blood into a pool of Jewish blood, it will just get absorbed in the rest. So Gentile converts were considered to be like the rest of Israel in Judaism, and they could immediately pray prayers to our father, and refer to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as our fathers, you know, the patriarchs. So they became fully part of the Jewish community over the centuries, and would be the same today. So, for example, if your mother converted to Judaism, married your father who was a religious Jew, and you were raised as a religious Jew, you would be considered legitimate in the eyes of Israel. Now some communities you wouldn't have like the great bloodline that was important, or the descent of a rabbi, or this or that, or something like that.

So you'd still be considered legitimately Jewish. As to the first question, who can prove it by bloodline? Well, by DNA, by DNA studies, there are some who believe they can trace themselves back to a Davidic line. How definitive is it?

Questionably. But the most interesting one are those with what's called the Priestly gene. So just search for that Priestly gene. Studies have been done from the Lemba people in Africa, to Ashkenazi Jews in Poland, or different ones who identified as priests. So in Jewish tradition, many times you have the last name Cohen, which in Hebrew is Kohen, and that meant that you were a descendant of Aaron. And there has been a common gene pool found that traces back to a single individual, or a group of individuals over 3,000 years old in Israel. So there is this tradition, yeah, this is our descent has been passed down to us, dispersed in these different looking Jews, black and white and other Middle Eastern, of course, but they all descend from the same prototypical gene.

So yeah, there is evidence, others it would be just based on family history as far back as you can trace it, that you go back to a certain tribe. Josiah, what in your opinion are the most compelling Tanakh prophecies that speak to the Messiah being God? So first, I would point to passages where God can appear in human form, the most compelling for that being Genesis 18, reading it right through up to Genesis 19 one.

Not that long ago, I was talking to a Jewish man about this, a young Jewish man, a brilliant student of Scripture and rabbinic tradition. And I said, let's just read through the passage. So he just read it through in Hebrew, as if, as if he was, you and I were reading it in English, just reading it through fluently. And all of a sudden, his eyes start opening. He just read it as if he'd never read it before. Of course, he's read it many, many, many times in a synagogue, the weekly readings and things like that.

But he read it as if he'd never read it before, and his eyes open. And when you go to the first verse of Genesis 19, he saw he saw it. Clearly, Hashem, Yahweh appeared in human form.

So I first lay that out and say that clearly God can do that. Then I would go to Isaiah, the ninth chapter, verse five in Hebrew, verse six in English, and say that Ibn Ezra and Sanhedrin and the Talmud recognize that these were names of the child, Pelayotel, Yibaraviyat, Sar Shalom. So one of the names of the child, the messianic king is mighty God.

I would ask how that could be. Then I would go to Psalm 45, it would be verses six or seven, depending on reading Hebrew or English, and notice there how the messianic king was called Elohim, God. And then I would go to Daniel seven, and notice this figure, the son of man who will receive worship from all the world. And those would be the strongest passages to point to. But even there, it would have to be somewhat of a mystery in the Hebrew scriptures. In other words, there was not a clear understanding that the Messiah would be God. But clearly the foundations that are taught there are revealed to us when the Messiah comes into the world. And even then, it is the Word made flesh.

The Father does not take on earthly bodily form, the Spirit does not take on bodily form, but the Son does. Let's see, Vizarev, would love to hear your thoughts about the rabbinic Judaism as we know today was influenced by the Zoroastrian religion during the Babylonian exile, and that the Son of God was actually a real concept before the exile. Yes, the Son of God was certainly a real concept before the exile. And whether you get it from Book of Enoch, or Fourth Ezra, or different passages, and exact dating of some of the portions of Book of Enoch is debated. But for sure, in the Hebrew scriptures, the Son of God plays a key role there, mainly as a way of speaking of the Messianic King, you are my son, for example, Psalm 2. And then for sure, the concept of a highly exalted Messianic figure, that was clearly taught in New Testament times, leading up to New Testament times, but then more fully developed through the New Testament. As for Zoroastrian religion and its dualism, people claim that the New Testament faith was influenced by that as well, which of course we reject.

You could certainly find some aspects of it when you live in a culture long enough, and there are prevailing religious ideas, it's possible for those to influence your thinking, but the fundamental tenets of rabbinic Judaism and its emphasis on all law, and the things that are most important in rabbinic Judaism, and the things that happen, legal matters, and things like that, I would say in no way are they influenced by Zoroastrianism, but I'm not an expert on that. This is Michael Ellison, founder of Trivita Wellness. I'm always thrilled to offer a new product from Trivita that is science supported with equivalent doses per serving that follows the science.

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I'm Michael Brown coming to you with audio only. Before I go back to your questions that have been posted on X, related questions, why has Iran not attacked Israel yet in retaliation for Israel taking out Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, taking him out in Tehran, which is a deep embarrassment to Iran, to Iranian security and military readiness and things like that. Why has Iran not attacked yet when it's been threatening so loudly? I actually saw an article with examples from Arab press in different parts of the world mocking Iran for not coming back yet, attacking yet. It was political satire, these political cartoons, which are often incredibly biting, and Iran with these empty threats.

We're going to get you, and there's nothing behind it. Even without understanding if it was all the Arabic captions and things like that, my Arabic is better reading the Quran slowly than just a contemporary political piece. But even without understanding the Arabic, you could just understand the images, like whoa, they are really, really killing the Iranians for being paper tigers at this point. Why hasn't Iran responded first or responded more forcefully? So again, we're speculating here. We know that America has been putting pressure on Iran not to, urging them not to. That's one thing.

Another thing is, what is the result going to be? Does Iran really want an all-out war with Israel? No, it doesn't, unless it thinks this is the final cataclysm that's going to usher in the Islamic Redeemer. And there are those views in the Islamic world, specifically in Shia Islam and Iranian Islam. So yes, they could have that mentality, but otherwise, to what end? In other words, maybe they can inflict terrible damage on Israel, but then Israel is going to inflict terrible damage on them. And the nation is in a precarious enough moment right now with so many Iranians becoming secular in mosque closing and disillusioned with the government that they don't need another crisis. So that's the other question.

To what end? Or the most likely thing is just Hezbollah loose because then Israel has got to deal with them, and they are much better equipped and organized than Hamas, and let them just attack as an Iranian proxy. But still, even though there have been some bombs and an increase, it still hasn't happened. To me, the most logical reason is that it's just not in their benefit to do it because they don't want an all-out war with Israel. And they know that if Israel thinks it's fighting for its life, that it's either extinction of Iran or extinction of Israel, then Israel will do what it has to do. Do you mean a nuclear bomb?

If Israel was faced with an existential threat, in other words, you are about to wipe me out, then I'm going to wipe you out first. Yes. Would Israel do it? Sure. Would America do it? Sure. Would other nations that had the capability of doing it?

Sure. So that's, again, speculation. And then the other idea of, well, if a ceasefire arrangement is worked out, so if Israel will let up and work out something with Hamas, then Iran would not launch an attack. That's the other logic in here, and we shall see where it goes. But keep praying.

Keep praying for God's will and God's protection and God's best for all in the Middle East. Jonas, the Jewish tradition is about washing. Is there a connection to New Testament baptism?

Well, certainly. Certainly ceremonial washing in Judaism is the foundation for that. Ritual immersion was widely practiced in Judaism. Hebrews 6 actually mentions immersion, plural, and that could well be because there were different aspects of the ceremonial Jewish washings that were then incorporated into early Christian thinking. So you could see in Jerusalem, all over near the temple, these places where, for example, if you're on the southern steps and you're being led on a tour, you'll stop at a certain place, say, look at this, and you've got steps going down and like a little pool and then steps going up. So you'd walk in, you'd immerse yourself in the water, and then you'd walk out. It could be for repentance, like what John the Immersive was preaching, John the Baptist in the River Jordan. It could be for repentance. It could be that you become unclean, you accidentally touch something that was dead, a dead animal accidentally, and so you couldn't go into the temple, so you'd be unclean overnight, then you'd immerse yourself, then you could go in.

So yeah, that certainly is the backdrop. Now, not the washing of hands or that type of ceremonial washing, but ritual immersion. Yeah, for different types of purification, consecration, absolutely, of course, it is the foundation to the idea of baptism in the New Testament. Hannah, what is the reason that many Jews in Israel open to new age and Buddhism and are such and such, and how can I pray and reach them with the gospel? Some relatives of mine, for example, I myself am not Jewish. So, Hannah, this is what happens with human beings when we replace the search for God and the role of God in our lives.

We replace it with other things. G. K. Chesterton famously said that when people don't believe in God, it's not that they believe in nothing, they believe in everything. I quote it in some of my books, including Saving a Sick America. Some of the writings of sociologist-anthropologist Rodney Stark from his book, The Triumph of Faith, as he shows around the world that where atheism is enshrined, you end up now with all types of superstitions and people believing in all kinds of crazy things. So you can go to a country like Iceland, which has a high percentage of atheists, and where basically not even 1% of the population believes in biblical creation. And yet they believe in the Huldu people. Half the population believes in these hidden folks, these elves or whatever you want to call them, these mystical people. For example, some put food out in their yard at night to feed them.

Well, lo and behold, in the morning miraculously, the food is gone. Or they're going to build in a new area. Well, they have to consult with the local spiritualists to see if they'll be disturbing the Huldu people.

And so it's this typical human nature. So about 70% of Israelis are fairly secular and a higher percentage of atheists than you'd have, say, in any African country, to my knowledge. And because of that, they're going to be into other things, New Age, Hinduism, Buddhism, other spiritual expressions, belief in aliens, alien healers, those kinds of things, which means they're open to spiritual things. So they can be open to hear about the power of God. They might be more interested in accounts of contemporary miracles. They may be more interested in people who had out-of-body experiences that brought them to a knowledge of Jesus.

So I would lean into the true supernatural, the true power of God, and from there get them interested. There is another realm. There's also a demonic realm. There's also a realm of deception. And you could be opening the door to the realm of deception, to the realm of darkness. Yes, there's a real spiritual realm, but there's the light and the darkness. And you're going the way of darkness. Here's the way of light. And then that can lead them to a point of recognizing who God is and coming to real repentance.

Let's see. Alex, when did Jews move from a collection of scrolls, the scripture, to a single book? For example, when Jesus taught, he enrolled the scroll of Isaiah, which scrolls about books have been the norm among first-century Jews. So you could not have the contents of the entire contents of the Hebrew Bible in a scroll because the scroll would be too long. So even a scroll like the Isaiah scroll, which we have preserved in Jerusalem at the Dead Sea Scroll Museum in Israel, excuse me, you have that preserved, the Isaiah scroll would be several scrolls that are sewed together. At a certain point, it'd just be too long. It would be too unwieldy. You have a scroll in synagogues around the world of the five books of Moses. So that's a really, really long, big scroll. But whatever point the rest of the world, the technology came to go to book form is when Jewish people would have moved from scrolls to book form. It would have been no different than anyone else in that way.

Orthopil, Norwegian. Do you think Isaiah 53, Isaiah 9, etc., are typological prophecies? Isaiah 9 is not typological. There was obviously great anticipation about a child born at that time, could it have been Hezekiah, that he would be the Davidic ruler, that he would be the greater David that Israel was waiting for, and that would fight their wars and would lead them to a time of peace, and that these prophecies were then proclaimed over him, but obviously he doesn't live up to them.

So not typological in that Hezekiah was a prototype of the Messiah the way David was a prototype of the Messiah as a priestly king. But certainly, my understanding of Messianic prophecy was that there was anticipation, Messiah coming on the immediate horizons of history. There was anticipation, here he is, he's about to come, now a king is born, yet this is the one we've been waiting for. Just think of how Americans look to the president like an almost Messianic, he's going to change everything, this is going to be the one that sets things right.

Think of Barack Obama being the chosen one and only Trump can save America. Well now multiply that in a place where you have a kingship and promises of a greater David. So he's born, Hezekiah is born, prophetic words are spoken over him but he doesn't fulfill them, now you understand, okay, it's not him, it's going to be a future descendant. As for Isaiah 53, it's clearly a direct prophecy of the suffering Messiah. I reject the view that it's speaking of the nation of Israel as a whole or that it's speaking of the righteous remnant of Israel. If you want more on that, just go to thelineoffire.org, type in Isaiah 53 and it will link you to relevant videos or go to the Line of Fire YouTube channel, type in Isaiah 53 or go to therealmessiah.com, therealmessiah.com and then look at objections to Messianic prophecies and you'll see the answer there. Was it possible that there was some prophetic figure who suffered and died and who the people thought was suffering from his sin but was somehow suffering by heresy? And he's a prototype, a forerunner, someone could argue that but it's clearly ultimately a direct prophecy of Jesus, the suffering Messiah, who dies for our sins and wisest from the dead.