What This Legendary Rabbi Said About the Messiah

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. So is it true that this recently deceased, revered rabbi in Israel had meetings with the Messiah? It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown.

Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on the line of fire. And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome to Thoroughly Jewish Thursday on The Line of Fire.

Michael Brown, delighted to be with you. And here's the phone number to call. Any Jewish related question you have of any kind regarding the Messiah, messianic prophecy, regarding the Hebrew language, regarding Israel today, regarding rabbinic tradition, if it's Jewish related, especially if you differ with me on something. I think I'm wrong on a particular issue.

Think my beliefs about Jesus being the Jewish Messiah are misguided. In any case, give us a call. 866-348-7884. The earlier you call in, the better.

This way we can get your calls over the course of the show. First though, I want to talk to you about the death of a major Israeli rabbi, Rabbi Chaim Kayniewski, at the age of 94. He passed away on Friday, but the time he passed away was too close to Sabbath to have a funeral.

You're supposed to have it within 24 hours, but if you have Sabbath, then Sabbath disrupts that, so then it has to be after the Sabbath. So, the funeral over the weekend on Sunday ended up drawing some estimates say close to one million people. In fact, for those that are watching, I'm just going to put this on in the background so you can see some of the crowd as I'm speaking.

You won't hear anything, you'll just hear my voice, but if we can put that footage up, we will. And you'll see, it's absolutely massive. Blocks and blocks and blocks, and of course it's all black, meaning black hats and black coats, because these are ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Just looking out of the fresh, it's still stunning. So, he was the most revered rabbi in Israel at the time of his passing. He was born in what is now Belarus, and then moved to Israel with his family when he was a boy, and he has been famous for his learning, for his study. So, to be a greatly revered rabbi in the ultra-Orthodox community in particular, that would mean, and through the centuries, that you know the literature really well, and that you understand the literature really well, and of course that you live by the Torah at a very, very high level. So, it was noticed as a child that he was called in Elui, which is a child prodigy, and by the time he was born mitzvahed, he knew stuff that many, many scholars would not master in a lifetime. And basically, instead of getting involved with other things, communal affairs, and lots of things like that, and being an actual rabbi over a synagogue, or even the head of a yeshiva, he was devoted to study, and his father basically said, that's the best thing you can do is sit and study. And that would be, again, for the special scholars that have that discipline and that gift, and for them, this is how they worship God by studying Torah and all of the commentaries and all of the related literature and on and on. So, he developed a habit of study as a married man, and kept this up through his life, basically, where he would wake up at two in the morning, so he'd go to sleep maybe at ten in the evening, basically have a twenty hour day, he would wake up at two in the morning because he decided, now, I can't fully convey the weight of this, I can't imagine it, actually. And I'm sharing all this so you'll know why he was so revered, and then tell you about some of his statements about the Messiah that are very, very interesting.

All right? No, he was not a secret messianic Jew. No, he did not have a revelation of Yeshua. We have no knowledge hint of anything like that. I'm not hinting at that, okay?

I'm talking about the traditional Jewish Messiah that he's been waiting for. We'll get to that in a little while. But picture reading through the Bible once a year. Easily done, right? No problem. Many, many people do it.

All right? You have to go to a certain pace, but reading through the Bible once a year, easily done. Craig Keener, when he was a young man and came to faith, before he was Professor Craig Keener and a famous New Testament scholar, he realized that if he read, I think, forty chapters a day, he could read through the New Testament in a week and the whole Bible in a month. So, he did that over and over again many, many times, probably for a period of years. You try doing that. Try to read through the Bible once in a month.

Imagine doing something like that. What Rabbi Kanieski decided to do is more like reading through the Bible once a day with ten commentaries to it. I mean, you can't fathom what he went through. So, he not only went through the Bible, but he went through the Mishnah, he went through the Talmud once in a year. But then he went through law codes and key writings of Maimonides and other key pieces of rabbinic literature that, to read through all of it and to understand all of it, very, very few of the most elite rabbinic scholars would do that in a lifetime. But to go through it on an annual level, not just the Talmud on an annual level, that's almost incomprehensible. It's so complex, it's so detailed, it's so difficult. So, to go through it and to have some type of understanding of what you're looking at, very difficult.

But to go through that plus all the other stuff in a year is mind-boggling. So, that's how it became legendary for his study routine, his devotion, but then his service to the community. Because everyone would write him letters asking, what about this? What about this legal decision? What about this? What should I do here? What should I do here?

What's the right thing? Because the law codes and the commentaries and the response to literature where rabbis are answering questions, that answers so many things, but then maybe you don't know where it was answered. You have a question, but you haven't mastered all the literature, or maybe there isn't a clear answer and someone else needs to come up with it. So, once a week, his pattern would be to go in the room and there would be stacks of hundreds and hundreds of letters written to him, so he would go through every one of them and then write a response. And his response were famously short, yes, no, don't do it, do it quickly.

Okay. And then he may have scrawled a few references. So, he did that through his lifetime. And he was ultra-Orthodox, Haredi, but not Hasidic. So, if you think of the Satmar Hasidim or the Babat She'er Hasidim, he was not Hasidic. So, the Hasidic Jews look more to grand rabbis, the community leader called the Rebbe, almost like with mystical powers with God. And they may be more into aspects of like fervor and worship or things. I'm oversimplifying maybe a bit more emphasis on mysticism and certain literature. But the fundamental beliefs are the same.

The fundamental scholarship is the same. So, he was considered to be the giant of the generation because, you know, a few guys died before him at the age of 100 this or 98 this. So, he was now the revered leader of a large percentage of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel, which make up maybe 12.5 to 15 percent of the population of the nation. So, this meant with nine something million people in the state of Israel, six million something Jews and three million Arabs and others, that you're talking about a very large percentage of the community came out for his funeral.

The vast majority of the men would have been there. That's the level of esteem in which he was held. He got a lot of flack at the end because he said, go on with Torah study, go on with the yeshivas when COVID hit.

So, there are a lot of deaths because of that. And then he pulled back a little. So, he was in controversy more. And people are like, who is this old rabbi?

Well, who's this guy giving decisions? And his son would come and read things and say him in his ear. And he just listened and just give the simple answer.

And he remained sharp, as far as we can tell, very sharp right to the end of his life. But I share all that because it is major and it's, as we see reported, the largest funeral in Israel's history. But what's interesting is how much he talked about the Messiah. Now, let me show you a few headlines. This is from July 31st, 2020, on Israel 365 News. Rabbi Kanievski announced the Messiah is here among us.

Look at this headline. Rabbi Kanievski announces the Messiah is here among us. That's July 31st, 2020.

All right. How often did he say things like this? Now this is ChabadInfo.com. Here's an article, Rabbi Kanievski, the Messiah is already here. But is this July 29th, 2016? The Messiah is already here?

Well, then, how about this article? November 21st, 2015, Rabbi Chaim Kanievski on the Messiah. There's a rumor going about that Rabbi Kanievski said in a speech that he gave on the day that commemorated the day of the Chazon Ish, another famous scholar who was his father-in-law, I believe. He spoke powerfully and said that Mashiach, the Messiah, is coming.

We should prepare ourselves by learning Torah. So he's saying, Shavuot, on the outset of Shavuot, Pentecost, the Messiah is coming, so get ready by learning Torah. This is 2015.

How about this one from 2020? October 15th, 2020, Israel Today. Israeli rabbi says he's already holding meetings with Messiah.

So this is during COVID. A snapshot of Israel's spiritual hunger is biggest. Rabbis are afraid to leave the country lest they miss Messiah's coming. Here's another story.

This is Baltimore Jewish life. And when does this one go back to? March 22nd, 2019. According to Rav Kolodexty, Rav Chaim Kanievski never predicted when Mashiach is coming. Well, what do you mean he never predicted when Messiah is coming? He was giving dates. He was giving times.

No, no, no, no, no. What his son-in-law said is that he believed the confession, one of the 13 principles of belief, from Moses Maimonides, I believe in the coming of the Messiah. And even though he tarry, I believe in perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah, even though he tarry, I'm going to wait for him every day believing that he will come. So therefore, because he believed it, just like Christians say Jesus could come at any moment, Jesus could come at any moment. So you live saying he's right at the door, he could come at any moment, and a year later you're saying the same thing, and 10 years later you're saying the same thing, and 50 years later you're saying the same thing.

His son-in-law is saying that's the same thing he was doing. He's coming. He's coming very soon.

You better get ready. He's about to be revealed. And remember this, if you're a traditional Jew, you're not waiting for him to come on the clouds of heaven. You're waiting for him to be revealed here on earth, which means if you think he's going to be revealed any minute, then he's here.

Then he's here. And so-and-so could be the Messiah. This one could be the Messiah.

Who knows? So this is part of the constant rhetoric from the rabbi about the Messiah. When I told an ultra-orthodox rabbi friend about one of his predictions, he goes, no, he's been saying that for years and years. In other words, because he believes imminent, any second, any moment, Mashiach could be revealed. We've got to prepare ourselves. We've got to be ready.

So because he really believed it, that's how he talked, and that's how he lived. All right. We'll be right back. Ask the question, what does this have to do with the rest of us? And it's early Jewish Thursday. It's interesting. But what about the rest of us?

We'll talk more when we come back. And some really interesting quote signs of the times from ultra-orthodox Jews. Stay right here. 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. There we go. It is thoroughly Jewish Thursday.

Hey, to my great team here, guys, I just sent you an email, a text to pull up with the 13 principles of faith so we can read what traditional Jews confess on a daily basis regarding general faith and the coming of Messiah. 866-348-7... Oh, hang on. I didn't hit send. I didn't hit send.

That's why it's still looking at the screen there at me. So we'll get your calls in a moment. 866-348-7884. A little bit more about Rabbi Chaim Kanieski and the Messiah.

This is matzav.com, March 1st, 2022. So this is just a couple of weeks before this revered rabbi dies. You say, what about a soul? I'll leave that to God. I'm not here to pronounce judgment on another human being. You say, look, he was so God-fearing and caring for the people and lived so sacrificially and a tremendous compassion and heart for Klal Yisrael, for the nation of Israel, the people of Israel, and so on. And I'm not his judge. Each one stands before God, not before me.

I'm 100% sure that there is no salvation outside of the mercy of Messiah. And that's why we preached every person on the planet. At the same time, we leave each individual to God.

They give account to him, the judge, not to me. So I relate the stories of his life and how revered he was with appreciation, not in a demeaning way. And I leave his soul to God. So Rabbi Chaim Kanieski on the Ukraine war, look for the footsteps of Mashiach. So this headline I'm looking at, March 1st, 2022. Look for the footsteps of Mashiach. Look for the footsteps of the Messiah. In other words, when he sees these other major world events, just like a lot of Christian leaders and all this prophecy being fulfilled, that seemed to be the way he thought. The Messiah's coming is imminent. The Messiah being revealed is imminent.

Live every day like that. And therefore, when these major world events happen, major world shaking, look for the coming of Messiah after that. But as my rabbi friend told me years ago, put this in the context of what he's been saying for years and years and years. I've just pulled up quotes going back five, six years, seven years. And he's obviously been saying that in other settings for years before that.

So don't say, oh, he's been talking about, apparently he's been talking about it for decades. So the 13 principles of faith were developed in the 12th century by Moses Maimonides, who lived 1135 to 1204, was the most influential Jewish philosopher in history and the codifier, the first major codifier of the laws in a systematic way in the post Talmudic era. So you start off, so each, each confession, I believe with complete faith. I believe with perfect faith, complete faith that the creator blessed his name is the author and God of everything that has been created and that he alone has made, does make, and will make all things. I believe with perfect faith that the creator blessed his name as a unity. Some of this is understood as a pushback against Trinitarian beliefs and that there is no unity in any manner to like unto his and that he alone is our God who was and is and will be.

I believe with perfect faith that the creator blessed his name is not a body so that in traditional beliefs, God is totally noncorporeal and that he's free from all the accidents of matter, that he is not any form whatsoever. Four, I believe with perfect faith that the creator blessed be his name is the first and last. Five, I believe with perfect faith that the creator blessed be his name and to him alone is right to pray and there's not right to pray to any being beside him.

So most all of these, the great majority, we'd be able to say the same way so we'd have to nuance. I believe with perfect faith that all the words of the prophets are true. Seven, I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses our teacher peace be unto him was true and that he was the chief of the prophets, both of those that preceded and of those that followed him. Eight, I believe with perfect faith that the whole law now in our possession is the same that was given to Moses our teacher peace be unto him. Nine, I believe with perfect faith that this law will not be changed and that there will never be any of the law from the creator blessed be his name. Ten, I believe with perfect faith that the creator blessed be his name knows every deed of the children of men and all their thoughts that it is said to see that fashion is the hearts of them all that giveth heed to all their deeds.

Of course, it's being prayed in Hebrew. Eleven, I believe with perfect faith that the creator blessed be his name rewards those that keep his command keeps his commandments and punishes those that transgress them. Twelve, I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah and though he tarry I will wait daily for his coming. So so get that that even though he's not here yet and and the Jewish community has been praying for his coming for thousands of years I'm gonna expect every day I'm gonna expect every I'm gonna wait expect him every day so people say that's what Rabbi Kanieski said that's why he's constantly saying well Messiah is coming any day. Number thirteen, I believe with perfect faith that there will be a resurrection of the dead at the time when it shall please the creator blessed be his name and exalted be the remembrance of him forever and ever for thy salvation I hope oh Lord I hope oh Lord for thy salvation oh Lord for thy salvation I hope. Okay so here's the the big question what about the reports that said that he has been meeting with the Messiah now I only heard that a few times I did not dig deeply I dug as deeply as I could but I only go so far and from this distance I can't tell you any more except that those words were reported is it true that he made that claim or was it reported that he made that claim I'm not qualified to say but was it that he really thought that he knew who the Messiah was is that what is that what it means that he knew who the Messiah was and he was now meeting with him and any day he was going to be revealed that's why he was looking even more possibly or was it his way of saying he's here any minute that somebody among us I've been meeting with this it's somebody among us is about to be revealed as the Messiah I can't say but what I can say is this when you lose someone of his stature in that community there is a tremendous sense of grieving and a tremendous sense of loss and even a desire that his death would somehow be an atonement for the sins of the generation based on the rabbinic teaching that the death of the righteous makes atonement for the sins of the generation if that generation will repent then their sins will be forgiven because of the death of that righteous person there's even more talk about Messiah coming because of the grieving and and it's got to be soon how many more people like this we have to lose before Messiah is revealed and he said it was he was coming soon so to me in an atmosphere like this it simply opens the door for us to talk more about the Messiah because more people are talking about the Messiah and to explain why we believe what we believe and if the concept of the atoning power the death of the righteous comes up say yeah that's what we believe except we only think there was one perfectly righteous whose death could atone for the sins of the whole world there's not some later Christian catholic pagan gentile doctrine it's not human sacrifice this is substitutionary atonement that the innocent for the guilty the righteous for the unrighteous that's that's what we believe and and perhaps use this as a good time to share the gospel to share the good news the basura and just like the rabbinic community is going to use this to say we need to learn more we need to follow this example we need to be even more devoted we need to do even more mitzvah's good deeds to bring in the messiah so our perspective is it's a great time to talk more about the messiah to pray for open hearts and the jewish community it's big news i wanted to talk about it on thoroughly jewish thursday with that we go to the phones 866-348-7884 uh baila in upstate new york welcome to the line of fire thank you for having me dr brown you're welcome i i have a jewish question i'm sorry it's not a biblical one no no all are good all jewish questions are good okay well i'm jewish here's the issue i was born in portugal and as we know a lot of the jews were scattered throughout uh one of my parents is from spain the other one is from portugal and throughout growing up we were always told we were jews but my parents and grandparents were believers and as i got older i started to question this i know how how am i a jew why are you telling me i'm a jew but you're teaching me about jeshua that was so confusing but as i as i got older and this whole ancestry thing came out i went ahead and did a blood test and yes i am jewish what if i wanted to move to israel how do i prove it my birthday it says i'm portugal yeah okay that's the problem so baila do you remember what the dna came up i think it said 70 73 a european jew jewish okay so what about safari jew so it wasn't ashkenazi it was it ashkenazi rather than safari because you would think with portugal it would be more safari yes but it didn't state that i figured that out myself later got it okay got it yeah all right so european all right so let's back this up what israel wants to know is is your mother jewish that the dna is important in terms of your own knowledge but uh will it function as legal proof in israel the the big question is was your mother jewish all right now they could always say well you're you converted to another religion you're a jesus follower and try to keep you out based on let's just say they didn't know any of that uh did your mother have a formal jewish wedding no okay that's going to be the problem right um she didn't right now i mean obviously as a believer or she didn't but otherwise what they want to see is they want to see your mother's ketubah which is the the the jewish document the aramaic document that is written out and signed by a rabbi for the wedding and that would only be for a jewish couple a jewish woman that they and so so if that's added in in other words if you excuse me if you have that evidence then that's what they're that's what they're looking for so what i would do is i would get online and say okay i i want to move to israel theoretically i want to move to israel i don't have my mother's ketubah k-e-t-u-b-b-a-h i don't have my mother's ketubah i have dna records does that help uh without that it's it's a bit problematic that's the simplest way to prove it uh with the generations of believers that's wonderful it's a little harder to prove maybe you could get other info about your ancestry in writing aside from dna but check i have no ketubah what do i do 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 friends to thoroughly jewish thursday this is michael brown absolutely delighted to be with you here's a number to call 866-348-7884 any jewish related question of any kind and a quick reminder have you been to vitaminmission.com have you checked out the great health supplements from our sponsor dr mark stengler go over there share it with friends family get the word out because there's a 10 discount you get to use when you're there as one of our line of fire listeners and then in turn dr stengler makes a donation to our ministry to help us get on more stations and reach more people so this is a real partner again this is our way of partnering with you for better health vitaminmission.com so a quick word about making aliyah which is becoming a citizen of israel if i went in there as dr michael brown well-known messianic jewish apologist etc can quote missionary because i seek to reach our people and others with the gospel barring absolute divine intervention barring god just stepping in and saying i want this to happen i would not get citizenship why because i'm a jewish believer in jesus you see ah but all the odds for all jews the view would be because of the influence of the very religious who wield a lot of political power in israel the view would be i have converted to another religion and this has been debated in the courts gone to israeli israeli supreme court and ultimately there would be the ability to push me out and exclude me as a jewish believer in jesus saying well you've converted to another religion even though i could give a stack of other jewish rulings and rabbinic thinking that would say once a jew always a jew just like you could be a jew for marks you could be a jew for buddha you could you could be an atheistic i was talking to dennis prager the other day and and you know talking about our differences and things and he said look i i ask you know he's telling about having more in common with me than he would say with a leftist jew who did not believe in jesus but he said look the jewish community has a problem with jews for jesus doesn't have a problem with jews for marks it's a great question to ask but in any case i would not be able to get in even if i could marshal strong arguments on my behalf however because i have legitimate proof of my jewishness both my mother and father being jewish and going back generations being jew have my mother's ketubah i have the the the certificate my parents ketubah their their wedding certificate ketubah just means a written document so i have that and it's legit on every level i have a copy of it i have the the physical itself so if no one knew who i was then i might get citizenship easily so sometimes the messianic jew will not make a big deal about the fact that they're messianic jew they're not going to be shouting it from the rooftops and wearing jesus t-shirts but they'll just quietly go because they're jews they're part of the nation of israel they want to serve the country there and there's no reason why they shouldn't be there for example if you're born in the country and and your parents are jewish believers and you're raised as a jewish believer you're 100 welcome there legally or or if you're uh an atheist or a rabbi and you become a follower of jesus as a jewish person and you're an israeli citizen you're in you're not getting kicked out over that this is really just a way to exclude people i said when you convert it to another religion therefore you can't gain citizenship coming as always i'm making this as simple as i can but i i do not know how much emphasis can be placed on dna so when a caller asked and said look her mother was not married as a traditional jew because her mother was a believer even though there are jews i i i don't know what legal ground dna has right now because you don't have the documents that they're looking for and if you go back a generation if you're a jewish person getting married it's just overwhelmingly common that you would have a ketubah a marriage certificate otherwise uh for our caller before the break otherwise you you have to see is there other proof of jewishness in your family what other proof of jewishness can be accepted eight six six three four truth let's go over to fred in richcrest california welcome to the line of fire hey dr brown how's it going today everything is going well thank you fantastic really appreciate your ministry um i have a question about abraham and his background before the call and i'm referencing joshua 24-2 where it references abraham's father and grandfather that served other gods yep and i just i just heard a message that therefore this verse inferred that abraham was an idol worshiper and god's call of irresistible grace kind of pulled him from that and i just wanted to get what the traditional jewish view and and your view as a messianic believer would be on that sure first this has zero to do with irresistible grace not a not a fraction of a syllable mentioning irresistible grace knows that god just called him and he was drawn because of that to the contrary abraham's faith is commended uh he believes god in genesis 15 6 and it's counted to him for righteousness hebrews 11 makes much about his faith in the book of isaiah god calls abraham his friend right now of course irresistible grace would say well that's the result of irresistible grace all i'm saying is the text says zero about that so even if abraham started as a as an idolater which nowhere does the bible say that but even if he started as an idolater because his father and grandfather were there's nothing in the text that says he wasn't seeking there's nothing in the text that says he wasn't recognizing something is wrong there's nothing in the text saying that that he was not drawn to the truth as god was calling him that he then responded so factor out irresistible grace that's just reading a calvinistic point into the text that based on pure speculation so leave that out as for jewish tradition oh there's a ton of jewish tradition about abraham breaking with idolatry in fact some of the most famous midrashim some of the most famous homiletical stories that go beyond what's written in the text are about abraham's courage you know there's there are even traditions that nimrod threw abraham into a fiery furnace because he refused to renounce idolatry but probably the most famous story is this one so again this is purely jewish tradition this is storytelling passed on to illustrate points now is it possible the story has some historical background it's possible but there's not a stitch of historical support this these traditions exist independently it was as far as i know it's just good storytelling and many rabbis would say yes it's storytelling to illustrate a point others would say no no it really happened it's in our tradition it really happened okay so according to the most famous report abraham's father tarah had had an idol shop and he sold idols that's how he made his living and he had smaller ones and then bigger bigger bigger bigger and people would come in to to buy an idol to buy a statue and abraham was running the store for his father again just according to jewish tradition and a man would come in he'd say how old are you 70 years old and abraham would say this statue was built last week it was carved last week and and you're a seven years old you're going to bow down to it and worship it and god would you know realize wow that's foolish and he would leave you know what so abraham would try to get people to realize that there was only one true god so at one point he decides he's he's going to stage something and he he smashes all the idols except for the biggest and and he leaves the biggest alone and his father comes in and sees all the idols completely smashed and says what happened and abraham said well a fight started and the two smallest ones started fighting and then the bigger one beat them and then a bigger one beat that one and then a bigger one beat that one and and they all just smashed each other until just the strongest and the biggest was the only one standing and tarah says what are you talking about these are just statues this is wood stone these are just statues they can't fight you say exactly they're not gods why are you worshipping them and that was when tarah's eyes are are open to reality of idolatry so there are all kinds of traditional stories what do i believe well i believe that his father was an idolater because the text tells us at some point abraham understands that there's only one god or that there's a supreme god communicating with him and he follows him and he steps out not knowing where he's going but obeying that calling when it happened how it happened lots of beautiful rabbinic traditions but i don't have a clue the text doesn't tell us anything and there is no tradition with any historical value that tells us anything so we don't know how abraham came to this revelation what god did to open his eyes but consider this you've got genesis 5 genealogy from adam up through noah and then genesis 6 is the flood so god finds one righteous man on the earth through whom he can repopulate the earth through this man's sons three sons and daughters-in-law so he finds noah destroys everyone else because of their wickedness and restarts the human race through noah's offspring now you get to the 11th chapter of genesis and you have the tower of babel and god scatters everyone around the earth what happens at the end of genesis 11 we get introduced to abraham who becomes abraham and through abraham's seed the whole world is blessed so there was something about abraham that stood out something about his response to god something about his righteousness that got god's attention and god said okay i'm going to bless the world and bring redemption to the world through his seed to the point of genesis 18 god shares more behind the scenes information with abraham about sodom and gomorrah about the coming destruction say look i know he's going to command his children to follow me so god saw something about abraham but we we don't know what so if you just if you just search online uh jewish traditions about abraham or jewish midrash m i d r a s h about abraham you'll you'll find some really interesting stuff again beautiful stories edifying stories i used the idol story when i was preaching in india i actually used it preaching to hindus about the one true god the story i just told about the idol shop and they were smiling you know and i went over to the tree i said okay it's just a tree i kick it it's nothing i said if i carve out a piece of wood that we bow down to it it becomes a god or manifestation of god they were smiling they're getting the message hey fred thank you for the call it's the line of fire with your host dr michael brown get on the line of fire by calling eight six six three four truth here again is dr michael brown thanks to the truth team for that beautiful transition from skillet to thoroughly jewish thursday music eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four with any jewish related questions i i said early in the broadcast i was going to share something with you very interesting reports for the last oh last few years hearing more and more like signs of the times or unusual things happening in the jewish community or special messages being sent so again i just look at this as and about it's about the messiah god continues to prepare the way traditional jews would say for the coming of the messiah that messiah they're waiting for i'm saying for the return of the messiah and and we seek to use these as bridges to talk further what we have in common what we see differently but to share our viewpoints so this is from the safariya website i i read it widely reported a couple years back on the exact date an article by mordecai lewis uh the beginning of the redemption and the fi and the three final hours so i'm going to read this to you uh i don't know when mordecai lewis posted this but the events about about this boy nathan and things like that yeah 2015 is the initial reports go back to when i read more about this i don't know how long ago a couple years back so two years ago so this is i'll give written 2017 15 year old nathan had a near death out of body experience that took place on the first night of sukkot september 28th 2015 he describes his experience exactly what is written by the prophets and the holy books regarding the end of days he said at the following one of these days the whole world will be involved in a war world war three the person will start the world be somebody named gog so from ezekiel 38 at first everyone will fight over taking possession of rushalayim jerusalem then the nations of the world will unite to fight against us in this war which will last for two weeks a few million people within our nation will seeks to assist therefore if one wants to be saved it's crucial that he study torah perform acts of kindness and do chuva that is returned to hashem return to god and repentance during the first few days of this war the idf israeli defense force will manage to keep our attackers at bay and then they'll be obliterated afterwards our enemies will begin a killing spree at that point we realize that we can only rely upon no one other than our father in heaven okay so i'm going to stop there for a moment and according to mordecai lewis and this hey this is what's written in the prophets this is what our sages have said and ultimately israel comes to this crisis and they can only look to god there are many christians who believe in a similar scenario that there'll be world upheaval that israel will come under attack that that many will be killed that the people will look up to god and distress that god will come and destroy the enemies of israel and rescue his people so they would say with the coming of messiah we would say with the return of messiah uh so now another report mosey shabbat so after sabbath delhi 20th 2016 rabbi shalom burger asked rabbi rabbi kennyesky what must be done to prepare for the coming of the messiah rabbi kennyesky gave an unexpectedly direct and simple response wait now said rabbi kennyesky all that can be done is to anticipate the imminent arrival of mashiach and that same month uh so july 2016 31 year old carolyn talia an orthodox Jew from birth had a near-death out-of-body experience she describes the following and remember i said earlier that rabbi kennyesky's viewpoint for many years was any moment any moment any moment three and first year okay so according to this report i saw my family in our nation standing together in one place glancing towards the heavens then the sky transformed into this giant screen which began to expose the sins of each person to everyone people became extremely embarrassed as i'm watching their embarrassment i begin to feel embarrassed as well uh they were so embarrassed but had nowhere to run or to hide you turn back and you see yourself people start to cry and they don't know what to do with themselves then i see this rainbow that comes down from heaven and hits the earth the aftermath of that was a giant tsunami which destroyed much of the earth except eretz israel the land of israel and israel people are running and running while thousands of rockets discuss pass overhead sirens are blaring there's chaos everywhere so nathan this is the boars report isis will kidnap people and torture them like they did to gil gilad shalit who is a long-term prisoner of war held by hamas carolyn isis is at work beheading stabbing and slaughtering people individuals can't even bury their own family members or even mourn for them their main concern is just to save themselves i ask what is all this where am i they tell me this will be what it looks like three hours before the revelation of mashiach there are many jewish traditions that say everything will fall apart and get really really bad before the messiah is revealed as i continue to run behind me i see people being slaughtered and hang some of these people i know some are strangers then i hear this voice that screams out mashiach is imminent i'm telling people run i myself am running to search for my family to see how i can help them i know that there's going to be something very difficult ahead i see my mother and scream to her mother run i keep running then screamed out hashem he is god help me hashem i'm running faster and faster than suddenly i fell into this huge mount while i'm falling i turned my head towards the sky and see an image of rabbi ova joseph who is the leader of sephardic jews in israel who's looking at me with a warm smile he says everything that happened to and around you is the truth it's midat hadith at work the the attribute of divine justice at work now arrived in yerushalayim in jerusalem so she she's at the mount of olives uh it's split into two so zechariah 14 once the the mountain splits mashiach will instantly reveal himself before everyone will know that he is the mashiach and he will stand at the entrance of haraz 18 the mount of olives and determine who can and cannot enter anyone who doesn't have the merit to enter will stay outside and died and goes on and on you know this this report i'm just reading it's it's uh yeah let me just go to the end here i'm going to skip ahead um nathan and carolyn both had near death out of body experiences how can we believe them when the navi the prophet states the shem will not do anything unless he has revealed his secret to his servants the prophets elsewhere the prophet says it will happen after this they'll pour up my spirit on all flesh young men will see visions rashi foremost biblical commentator in judaism explains that it will happen after this is referring to the future that is the end of days the rambam maimonides said that there'll be a restoration of prophecy even before the actual manifestation of mashiach zohar jewish mysticism says that when the days of the messiah approach even children will be able to discover secrets of wisdom and through them be able to calculate the end of time then it will be revealed to all who are the specific hour of his coming of messiah does not appear to be known to anyone even the messiah himself the gamar talmud states since the days the betah mikdash the temple was destroyed prophecy was taken from the prophets and given to both sages so the rabbinic leaders and shoteem mentally unbalanced people okay so what do i make of all of this what's my commentary on it i i have no reason to doubt that these individuals had these experiences they could be dreams as fragments of their own imaginations based on their knowledge of scripture there could be genuine dreams from god preparing the jewish community for upheaval and the coming of the messiah which will then ultimately lead to revelation of yeshua jesus or it could be just demonic deception even though it's in harmony with a lot of scripture i don't know and and i and and i have not even spent time praying to say god what is this about because the obvious is what gets my attention the obvious is the thing that matters to me that more and more people in the religious jewish world are focused even focusing even more on the coming of the messiah and they are expecting him to be revealed at the mount of olives as soon as there's so much scripture with which we agree and great shaking and upheaval that i expect for the whole world and for israel and then for god to deliver the people of israel as they look to him whom they've pierced as they cry out so this to me is very exciting because the anticipation grows and grows and with that we can lean into it now please hear me as as clearly as i can communicate in no way do i ever seek to give the impression that rabbis in the past believe what i believe unless they were open believers or that this jewish tradition has been preserved secretly by the rabbis to point to jesus no i am not trying to be deceptive i am working hard i have worked hard for decades to be anything but deceptive and to make things plain and to say this is who i am this is what i believe as plainly as i can right up front period however however that being said i absolutely believe that god in his providence has left many traditions in judaism that can be bridges over which a jewish person can pass to help him or her believe in and understand jesus ishua the messiah that's what i believe and of course we have the hebrew bible that's the primary issue that is the big issue which has to do with obviously getting uh we just look at scripture and say hey according to scripture jesus ishua is the messiah so we have the bible but then jewish tradition not to claim the rabbis believe what i believe but to say look at this parallel or look at the same way of thinking or isn't this an interesting concept yeah i believe a similar thing there oh yeah we have deep deep differences on other points and our relationship to torah and views of god yeah understand that but but look at this and consider this and to me it's just good the more jewish people are talking jewish people are talking about the messiah the more i have a conversation to enter into friends avail ourselves of our jewish website specifically to educate inform you and for jewish outreach real messiah.com real messiah.com visit there and if you want to help us reach more jewish people with the good news askdrbrown.org click on donate designated for jewish outreach and you will partner with us in helping to hasten the day when all israel will be saved so check out real messiah dot com visit it explore it the resources there are free you will be enriched trust me if you want to stand with us and help askdrbrown.org click on donate you can even become one of our monthly partners we'll be back with you tomorrow you got questions we've got answers we rise it's our resistance you can't resist us another program powered by the truth network