Is the Israeli Coalition Government About to Crumble?

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Is the Israeli coalition government about to topple? Is Netanyahu about to become Prime Minister again? Thanks for joining us on this Thoroughly Jewish Thursday.

This is Michael Brown. Any Jewish-related question you have of any kind, any question relating to the Messiah-ship of Yeshua, any question you have about Jewish tradition, Hebrew language, specific verses in the Hebrew Bible, give me a call. Modern Israeli government, 866-344-866-348-7884. Before we get into our first topic of the day, namely, the Israeli government, is the coalition government about to collapse? Will Prime Minister Netanyahu rise back to power as Prime Minister?

If that's a possibility, what are the paths to getting that? Before doing that, I was just looking for an update on the news, if there was anything new about the challenge to the coalition government, and was saddened to see that there's been another apparent terrorist attack, this time on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, very busy, prominent street in the heart of the city. And at present, six people wounded, at least one of them critically, and the gunman, at least one person involved, the gunman has not been caught yet, not been apprehended.

People have been told to stay indoors in the city. So it's an intense time in Israel right now. Eleven people have died and others have been wounded in recent terrorist attacks. And it's different than the times in the past, say, with the declared intifada, and yet there were terrorist attacks coming from all different directions. But there was more of a concerted effort by the terrorists, more of a concerted call, and it might have been easier for Israel to fight against that, as horrible as those seasons were, and many thousands of Israelis died. But here it seems to be more random in its uprising and nature, and it's just a time again to pray for the people of Israel, and for God's purposes, and for God's protection, and for all within the land to turn their hearts to look to the one only one who can help, namely God himself.

All right, 866-34-TRUTH. Let me try to explain again the complexities of the Israeli government and what has recently happened this week that has threatened the very fragile coalition that currently exists. So I'm going to go through some things from March of 2021. As always, our focus is on everyone listening by radio or podcast, so we're making things as clear as we can by audio.

But for those watching on YouTube or Facebook, I'm putting something up. It's just the Wikipedia page listing what happened in the elections in March 2021. So you've got—I'm going to list all the parties that won enough votes to at least get four seats in the Knesset.

That's the minimum threshold. You have to get enough votes to get four seats, and there are 120 seats total in the Israeli Knesset, the parliament. So to have the majority government, you need to have 61 seats out of the 120. So let's say it was Republicans versus Democrats, and Republicans got 62 seats, and Democrats got 58 seats, or vice versa. So easy majority. Let's say it's Republicans, Democrats, independents, and the Republicans get 59 seats, and the Democrats get 58 seats, and the independents get three. Well, whoever can make a deal with the independents and govern together, now you've got a majority government. Well, here is the total number of parties that won seats in the Israeli elections. The last ones.

Are you ready? Likud, Yesh Atid, Shas, Blue and White, Yamina, Labor, UTJ, Israel Beitenu, Religious Zionist, Joint List, New Hope, Meretz, Ra'am. Thirteen parties won seats. Some of them are ultra-orthodox, like United Torah Judaism, UTJ, or Shas. Some of them are joint lists, are Arab. So you've got these, or Ra'am, you've got these different groups, all right, and they're all competing for seats. Now, the number one party, the strongest, was Netanyahu's Likud. They got 30 seats. But because Netanyahu has been so controversial, because he has certain enemies, that there were people who were not going to work with him or form a coalition with him, and others were saying he was moving too far to the right, and therefore, because of that, they weren't going to form a coalition government with him.

So how in the world do you make this work? Now, you say, who's the current prime minister? The current prime minister is Naftali Bennett. He's of the Yamina party. The Yamina party only got seven seats. How in the world did he end up becoming prime minister? Now, it's temporary.

He'd have it for two years, and then you're Lapid from another party having it for two years. So I'm going to leave that graphic up for those that are watching. And the 36th government of Israel, after four straight elections without a clear, decisive victory for one party that was easily able to form a coalition. Look at this. The agreement was signed between Yesh Atid, Blue and White, Yamina, Labor Party, Israel Batana, New Hope Merits, and the United Arab List. The United Arab List was able to be a major, major player here. All right, so six seats. And then you have Yamina, with only seven seats, ends up with one of the two prime ministers. It's a 61-seat coalition they got. The first option was for Netanyahu's Likud to form a majority, because that's how it works.

Your party got the most votes. Okay, now go ahead and form a majority government. He couldn't get 31 others. He couldn't get 31 other seats. He had the religious right with him and others, but he couldn't form a coalition government. So this very, very fragile group comes together. And if somebody says, I don't like the way you're governing, I'm out of here, boom, the whole thing collapses. So what happened this past week is Idit Silman, who is part of the Yamina party, has officially dropped her affiliation there, meaning it is no longer at 61 to 59.

It is now 60 to 60. And for Netanyahu, in his mind, this is a defection towards him. What were her specific comments? It was not about Netanyahu that she was speaking. Rather, she and others felt that Bennett is too centrist, that in order to bring this coalition together, he has come more to the center, whereas Yamina, what it means in Hebrew is to the right. It is a right-wing party.

It is not radical right-wing, but it is a right-wing party. And Naftali Bennett himself is an orthodox Jew, not ultra-orthodox, but orthodox. So he's been criticized, for example, speaking with President Biden, speaking in public, referencing the West Bank. You don't talk about the West Bank. That is a leftist talking point, or a Western talking point, or an anti-Israeli talking point. If you're an Israeli conservative, you talk about Judea and Samaria. That's what this is, the biblical territories of Judea and Samaria. Others call it the West Bank.

That's part of biblical Israel. So things like that have gotten her to step away and say his values no longer reflect the values of Yamina. And talk is that others in the party will also defect. And if they do, if they join with Likud, theoretically, or just stood outside and were available to be brokered by others, then the whole government would come down immediately.

So what are the potential paths forward? Well, one would be back to Likud, back to Netanyahu, who is now also using the terrorist attacks as part of his political ammunition to say, look, when I was prime minister, terrorism was the lowest it's been. We had a firm hand, and the terrorists recognized it. But the current government is weak, and that's why they're attacking the way they are. Now, obviously, those are very strong claims.

Could anyone stop this type of terror? That's debatable. And what if Netanyahu gets back in power and the terrorism continues like this or is even worse? Nonetheless, there are many things very positive with his government and others not. And of course, he's right in the middle of major court cases where he's been indicted for corruption. Depending where you are on the political spectrum, you either think he's being attacked unfairly or you think he's finally getting justice. In any case, he remains a very controversial figure. In that respect, not tremendously different than Donald Trump in America in terms of being controversial and really loved and really hated.

And in fact, married three times, for the record, if you want another parallel there. In any case, it is possible. It'd be difficult. But it is possible that with this shift that Netanyahu could get enough votes so there's a vote of no confidence in the current government. The majority is no longer there. It's possible that he could put together a coalition that would get him back in power. Would it be for the good or not?

I don't know. There's a lot I like about Netanyahu, the concerns I have in terms of how far right the government was going. And certainly one of the biggest concerns is the messianic Jew is that for him to get back in power, he has to have the ultra-orthodox parties with him. And the ultra-orthodox parties will use their power in ways that will hurt messianic Jews and in certain ways not be in the best interest of the whole nation.

So there's that dynamic as much as I've appreciated Netanyahu in so many other ways and has been a great statesman for Israel and a strong leader in many ways. The other alternative would be if a coalition government cannot be formed that you have yet another wave of elections. Just think of the last elections in America. How divisive that was to the country.

How wearying that was to the country. Is Israel going to go through this yet again? Is Israel going to have to be subject to this yet again? And then how effective can a government be in the midst of a time like this when you're going through it? You don't have a clear mandate. You don't have a clear majority to make decisions.

And everything's kind of paralyzed. Does Israel want to go through that again? But that's the other option. And I'm quite sure in Netanyahu being the seasoned politician that he is and being very ambitious to lead the nation once again and with his party getting so many more seats than the closest competitors that he's going to push forward however he can and see this as a mandate to move forward. So that's what's happening right now. You say how should we pray the way I often pray for situations in Israel? Because it doesn't just affect Israel. It affects the surrounding Arab and Muslim nations.

It affects the world in many ways. Lord, your will be done in Israel. Your purposes come to pass with the government because God knows which way is best. And God cares for every human being in the land. For Israelis, for Palestinians, for Muslims, for Jews, for atheists, for his own followers. He cares for every person in the land. Lord, your best, your will, bring it to pass.

You move the pieces on the chessboard the way you see fit to accomplish your purposes. That's my prayer. We'll come back and go straight to the phones. 866-348-7884. 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, welcome to Thoroughly Jewish Thursday.

That music is your reminder. 866-348-7884. Just looking at a report that speaks of now two people dead in the terrorist attack. I'm not sure if that report came in first saying two dead and then it's afterwards just wounded, or if among the wounded two have died.

I'll try to get that sorted out for you. Oh, this is not Thoroughly Jewish Thursday related, but it is big news that Judge Kitanji Brown Jackson has been confirmed by the Senate as the next Supreme Court justice who will serve. So my prayer for Judge Jackson is that she will rule righteously in God's sight and that she will, by rule, I mean make rulings right as judges do, and that she'll be a godly influence, a righteous influence on the court. Someone questioned me on Twitter, well is that a right way to pray?

Is it biblical and God's going to make people do certain things? Of course it's the right way to pray. Of course it's the right way to pray.

From what I can tell, I disagree with her judicial philosophy, just like those on the left disagree with the judicial philosophy of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. But once the person's confirmed, right, so I'm constitutional, originalist, conservative in my viewpoint of where the court should land on things versus activist, or quote, living constitution. But once someone's in, then I'm praying for God's best. I'm praying for God to help that person to do the right thing.

How can we not pray that? In any case, I just wanted to share that. Alright, 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to the phones. We'll start with Skip in Utah.

Welcome to the line of fire. Alright, tell you what, whatever is up with that connection, I can't hear Skip. But Skip, your question, as I see it on my board here, why do you only hear about terrorist attacks from me, not the media? You know, I just, I saw your question, and during the break, I was just looking at Fox News, I was looking at CNN online, and of course, a lot of stories about the confirmation of Justice Jackson, and the major news that is, and other news of different kind, and Tiger Woods playing in the Masters and getting off to a good start, etc. I didn't see any reports here. Could it be because six people wounded, nobody killed, it's not as big news?

It's a very, very fair question. I mean, here, if I just go to any major Jewish website, I know what's going to come up. You know, if I go to Israeli websites, two killed, what a shame. Two killed, eight wounded, four in serious condition.

Police now suspect attack carried out by a single gunman. I had read it earlier, they thought it might be two, but best they can tell, one fourth terror attack in two weeks. You'll see it all over the Jewish news as to why you're not seeing it reported more widely. The saddest reason would be because terror attacks in Israel are nothing new.

No big deal. You know, it's just like in cities in America where there's constant, constant shootings, it's just not the news as much as it should be. And how many terror attacks take place on a regular basis in a country like Nigeria where Muslim radicals are attacking Christians, and we never hear about it in America? And I've asked that question, why don't those black lives matter? You know, we absolutely have to know that. You know, we absolutely affirm the value and importance of every black life in America, but how about every black life period?

You know, it's the color of the skin, and because they're getting slaughtered in Nigeria, it doesn't matter to us as much. You wonder, you know, you hear about a terrorist attack, say, in Brussels at an airport, it's a terrible thing, and it's, you know, many, many people killed or attacked, and it gets world headlines, but some of these other things, no headlines at all. It does make you wonder, hey, thank you for the call. Let's go, and may God's grace be with the families of the victims and those that are seriously hurt, and may God turn the tide within the land.

866-34-TRUTH, let's go to John in Virginia. Welcome to the line of fire. Yes, thank you, Dr. Brown.

You're welcome. Yeah, my question is what is a Jew? A definition. I've been studying religion more seriously and listening to your program, and maybe you've answered this in the past, but I apologize, but between, you know, religion, race, ethnicity, you know, what exactly is a definition?

Yes, I've answered it many times, but the question comes up all the time, and it's very relevant. So first, let me explain why it's a confusing question for those that don't follow. If someone says I'm a Christian, that is simply having to do with their religious faith. If someone says I'm Hispanic, that is explicitly having to do with their ethnicity.

If someone says I'm black, that has to do with their race, and those are three separate categories, right? When you say I'm a Jew, that could mean you are a practitioner of Judaism, or it could mean that you have descended ethnically from the Jewish people. So you can have an atheist Jew, and you can have a Jew who's a Buddhist, right?

So how does it how does it actually work? And there's even a debate right within the Israeli government in terms of the definition of a Jew. In other words, any Jew has the right of return to Israel.

So if you're a Jewish person, then you can emigrate to Israel and become a citizen there. What about someone like me, a messianic Jew, a Jewish follower of Jesus? Have I converted to another religion, Christianity, in their eyes, and therefore I'm no longer Jewish? Or is it impossible to stop being Jewish, like it's impossible to stop being Hispanic, or stop being white, or stop being black?

So that's the debate. But to define a Jew historically, it would have been a descendant of the the people of Israel. You might have been a godly descendant, a worshipper of the one true God of Israel, or you might have been ungodly. You might have worshipped other gods, but you were still an Israelite. And then from there, ultimately, as everything comes through through Judah, and the kingdom of Judah, and the province of Judea, so you would have been a Judean, a Jew.

That's where we get it from. So to this day, to say someone is a Jew could be a broad ethnic statement. They are a descendant from the Jewish people.

Or it could be an expression of their religious faith. So here's how you get white Jews, black Jews, Asian Jews, Hispanic Jews, etc. Here's how you get Jews of all colors. People convert to Judaism. And when they convert to Judaism, they become part of the Jewish people. And therefore the Jewish people will have many different backgrounds of skin color and ethnicity. But then once you are part of the Jewish people, that becomes a larger designation as well. So you can be a physical descendant, like your parents were Jewish. They were non-religious Jews. You're a non-religious Jew. You're still a Jew. That's more of an ethnic descent. Or it could be that your family converted to Judaism, became followers of the God of Israel, and now your kids will be considered Jews, even though there is no historic connection. So it's a bit more complicated, but once you understand it, then it makes sense.

Yeah, it's hard to make sense, I guess. Okay, so I mean, is it, well, I don't know, I guess, would it be better to distinguish between Israelites and Jews? Or are there really hardly any racial Jews anymore?

No, no, there are plenty that have descent back. There are millions of Jews living in Israel that have Middle Eastern descent that are not converts into Judaism, like my family line would have been as a Caucasian, at some stretch in time. Or intermarriage would be the other thing, you know, intermarriage with conversion to Judaism. No, so there are plenty of Jews, a very good number, especially those who are not Ashkenazi, who would be able to say, yeah, we trace ourselves back to the people of Israel and the Middle East and the Jewish people, etc.

But by the time you have the New Testament, things have already spread. You've already had many people convert to Judaism and join from other nations, and God calls the people Jews there, right? They're referred to as Jews, Jewish people. So again, it's not confusing once you understand that there is the ethnic descent, and as long as that's preserved, then you're a Jew. Or you could convert to Judaism from another ethnicity, and now you're part of the Lord, your Jewish people.

So those are the categories. But the simple thing is, once a Jew, always a Jew, right? So you're born a Jew, you die a Jew. When I was about to get baptized in February of 1972, so I was saved for a number of weeks then and born again follower of Yeshua, and my dad was concerned, you know, baptism, that's another step, and the old rabbi who had been the previous rabbi of the synagogue there, he said, you know what will happen to your son after February 4th? I think that was February 4th, 72 he goes, he'll be a baptized Jew, and he's still a Jew. So obviously the old rabbi didn't agree with my religious choices, but he's telling my dad, hey, your son's still a Jew, don't worry about that. Hey, thank you very much for the call, much appreciated.

All right, I just got a minute before the break. Clay, you're next. Yes, and oh, Mike, I love your question about ancient Israelites they're blacks. Well, we'll get to your calls on the other side of the break, but remember Esther 4-14, where Mordecai, the Jew, challenges his cousin Esther, his younger cousin Esther, hey, you've got to risk your life to save your people now. If you don't speak, help will come from another place, but who knows, maybe God put you in the kingdom.

It doesn't say God, there are gods not mentioned explicitly in Esther. You've come into the kingdom for such a time as this. April 14th, Esther 4-14, that's why April 14th, coming soon, National Not Ashamed of Jesus Day. What are you going to do on that day? Go to notashamedofjesus.org, notashamedofjesus.org, let's help spread the word.

We'll be right back. 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. Oh yeah, when I hear those words, I get stirred that music moves me. By the way, my team always reminds me on Thoroughly Jewish Thursday that we have our extra Jewish music. Most of the time I remember, sometimes like today, I'm ready to jump in early, but once I hear it, I just want to kind of sit back and take it in. Welcome to the broadcast, 866-34-TRUTH.

Any Jewish-related questions, we're opening the phones momentarily. Okay, so hearing those words sung and the words of the priestly blessing reminds me of a tweet that I sent out last night. Now, to be candid, because I've written a lot over the years, many thousands and thousands of pages, I don't remember everything I've ever written in terms of quoting others or citations of others and things like that. When someone's reading from a book I wrote 30 years ago, I'm pretty much knowing what comes next and where it stops and where it starts. And I've had people quote me and say, oh, no, I had a semicolon there, not a comma. I mean, I remember that kind of stuff much better, right? Someone will quote from one of my books and say, Dr. Brown said this. It's like, no, I didn't say that. I quoted someone who said that in the book.

You missed us. Ah, but when I'm quoting other scholars and their information, there's tons of stuff that I research, I annotate, and then I forget, right? Or it's stored somewhere else in my brain. So I was reviewing an article that I'd written, an academic article in the New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis on the Hebrew root Barach, Levarach, to bless, et cetera. And there was a note from a top Old Testament scholar, David Noel Friedman, about the priestly blessing. And it was really interesting. So that's number six.

May the Lord bless you and keep you. Right. And, yeah, look at this.

And I'd forgotten this. OK, so it builds to a crescendo. So the first clause, you have a record of the night for Yishma Rekha. So it's three words in Hebrew. Then the next, yeah, Aaron and I, part of the lack of an echo that next is five words.

And then the last you saw a deny may the Lord lift his face upon you via Semlach HaShalom and grant you peace. The last is seven words. And the accented syllables are three, five, and seven.

And then the total number of consonants, 15, 20, 25. Just one of these beautiful things in terms of carefully crafted in the Hebrew, building to a crescendo. All right, eight, six, six, three, four, truth.

Let's go to Clay in Virginia. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown. Is the TLB a translation or a paraphrase, sir? Oh, it's a translation. Absolutely. It's a translation.

The Tree of Life version is a translation. Yes. What would cause you to wonder about that, sir? I was just listening to the show yesterday, and that came into my mind. I was just curious.

I've got a quick question. Do you know of any plans to put it on audio format? TLB, I don't know. I didn't know it wasn't on audio, actually. I'm not sure if you go to YouVersion, if there is an audio version or not.

So check that out. Check out the YouVersion of the Bible, the app which has been distributed by the Multiplied Millions that makes all these translations available for free. And then you can just download them on your cell phone or tablet and have full access to them. But many of them are available in audio. So I don't know if you can get it as an Audible book.

Go to audible.com. I'm not sure about that. But I think it may have been released in audio on YouVersion. So I'd have to check that, but I'm not. No, it's not. Okay, thanks. Thanks for checking, sir.

We've got a great team here broadcasting from CFNI in Dallas. So in any case, I don't know if there are plans to do it. So the TLB is distinct in, for example, rendering Jesus with Yeshua and rendering Mary with Miriam. Those are not paraphrases. Those are just saying this is the way it would have been originally, that Yeshua was known as Yeshua, not Jesus, and that his mother was Miriam, not Mary. Or it may reference the Holy Spirit, and instead of having Holy Spirit, it will say Ruach HaKodesh in Hebrew.

Those kinds of things. But that's not a paraphrase. That's a translation with a very specific purpose. But thank you for asking. Much appreciated. All right, 866-34-TRUTH. Let us go to Michael in Washington. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hello. Yes, hello Michael. Hello, hello.

Thanks for having me. I recently, a friend of mine said that they've seen an article by the Obadiah Alliance that they made a ruling on the Igbos, saying that they were descended from the ancient Israelites, and I just don't see how that's possible. I'm not trying to make this a race thing, but I don't see how it's possible when the, you know, they don't, the ancient Israelites were looked European, correct? No, they didn't look European.

Certainly not European. They looked Middle Eastern. If you look at, you know, an Egyptian today or an Iraqi today, they'd be darker-skinned, more brown-skinned. We do have a statement from the early second century, or excuse me, early third century in the Mishnah, going back to a bit earlier time, and it mentions, it contrasts the Germans and then the Ethiopians, so Caucasians, and then Africans, contrast that with the Jews, the Israelites, who would have been, like, boxwood in color. So they would have been, you know, brown-skinned people or light brown-skinned people, but how is it that I'm a Jew and I can claim descent from Israel and I'm Caucasian? How is it the Lemba tribe in Zimbabwe can have verified descent from Israel and they're black? The answer is, intermarriage.

It's very simple. As the Jewish people spread around the world and people converted to Judaism and intermarried and they stayed long enough in a place, then after a while, Jews in China looked Chinese, Jews in India looked Indian, Jews in Africa looked African, Jews in Europe looked European. That's how it happened. Intermarriage in.

So let's remember this, let's remember this, Michael. If we intermarry out, right, in other words, you're a Jewish person, you marry someone that's practicing another faith and you leave Judaism, then within a generation or two, there's going to be no consciousness of Jewish descent anymore. In other words, your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren will be lost to the people of Israel. But if you intermarry in, you're a Gentile, you convert to Judaism and you join the Jewish people, now the kids you have, they'll look a little different, but the kids you have will now be part of the Jewish people. So we know from Scripture that there are specific references to Ethiopians or others of dark skin that would seem to be different from the people of Israel as a whole, but the people of Israel were in Egypt and pretty much indistinguishable in many ways outwardly from the Egyptians as far as brown-skinned people. And of course, you had many black-skinned people in Egypt as well. So that's how you can have different groups in Africa or India or other parts of the world that get discovered, and yeah, there is DNA that connects them back to Israel. Does that make sense?

Yes. What made you think that the Israelites look European? Where did you get that from? That's just what's been in front of me my whole life. Yeah, so that's the wrong image. Jesus as a long-haired, white-skinned, blue-eyed European.

Those are the images. And then you even have religious art where the Jews are these evil-looking people, the rabbis and things. They're these hook-nosed, almost demon-looking people. Bernard Starr, a psychologist, was at Brooklyn College for years, and then came to some of my debates with Rabbi Shmueli and was impacted by those, has written about that publicly. He's published articles and books, and he's given examples with Renaissance art and this European Christianized Jesus, and then the Jews are these demonized-looking people, whereas they were all Middle Eastern. Hey Michael, thank you very much for calling in.

I appreciate it. And by the way, we all tend to project to Jesus in our own image. If you look at religious iconography and church history, you'll see in China that Jesus looks Chinese, and different parts of the world is just projected a certain way. I remember going into an African-American church in Brooklyn in the 70s, and to my surprise, there was a mural on the wall, and Jesus and all the disciples were black. And that was surprising to me, because I'd always seen him as Caucasian.

I hadn't even thought it through. I hadn't even thought of what someone in the Middle East would have looked like at that time, etc. And I remember my friend, he wasn't arguing that Jesus was black. He said, hey, but when you open up a yearbook, your college yearbook, a high school yearbook, who's the first person you look for yourself? He said, so we want people to see themselves when they walk in. Billy Graham once said to a mixed crowd, a lot of blacks there, he said, hey, he was lighter than you and darker than me.

But in any case, he was absolutely not European, absolutely not Caucasian, for sure. 866-344-TRUTH. Let's go to Michael in Pennsylvania.

Welcome to the line of fire. Hello, Dr. Brown, how are you? Hope you're doing wonderful this evening.

Yes, thank you. I had a question, but before I get to that, I just would like to ask you in your own personal time to just keep my mom up in prayer, Millie, as she's recovering in the ICU from COVID pneumonia. How long has she been in the hospital, Michael? She has been in there since December 31st. Okay, that's a long haul.

All right, great grace to her, and prayer warriors out there, let's lift her up. Yes, sir. Okay, so as to your question. So my question is, and I'm sorry if it's a bit too broad, but my question is, what did the Jews during the time of Jesus, so not the early church, in other words like the Pharisees, not so much the scribes, because we know they didn't believe in a resurrection, our angels, but what did the Jews believe in the time of Jesus about the millennial kingdom, or about, as we would call it, the kingdom, rather? Right, so it's a great question, it's not too general at all.

I'll answer it on the other side of the break. Have you visited RealMessiah.com? Have you checked out the amazing free Jewish resources waiting for you there? RealMessiah.com, spread the word. We'll be right back. 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. Michael Brown, delighted to be with you.

Let me go straight back to the phone. So Michael in Pennsylvania, what did the Pharisees believe about the coming kingdom, what we would refer to as the millennial kingdom? We can't say precisely what they believed in the first century for a couple of reasons. We do have some documents, apocryphal, pseudepigraphical documents from right before the time of Jesus and immediately after the time of Jesus that may have had Pharisaic authorship. And then we have the teachings of the Pharisees as transmitted by the later rabbis, and these are now developed over a period of centuries. So how much went back to the first century is debated among Jewish scholars. As best as we can tell, though, there was an expectation, based on the clear words of the Hebrew prophets, that there would be a Messianic king who would set up his kingdom on the earth, so it was an earthly kingdom, not a heavenly kingdom, so again in harmony with what we refer to as the millennium, that he would destroy the enemies of Israel and that he would set up a rule of peace on the earth where the whole world would come into the knowledge of God or those that were not destroyed in God's judgment.

Some broad strokes like that would have been widely held to, but the idea that there was one universal belief that's been held to by Jewish people through the ages, which is not what you're saying, that would be a later rabbinic reconstruction of past history. The Messiah becoming even more of a great teacher kind of in the image of the rabbis, a lot of that would be kind of retrojecting rabbinic views back on scripture. But as best as we can tell, the Messiah that the Pharisees would have been looking to, and therefore the Messianic kingdom, would have been one where the enemies of Israel were defeated, where the exiles returned. And remember, the temple was still standing at that point, right?

So exiles returned that were still scattered around the world, and the Messiah ruling out of Jerusalem with an iron hand. Some things like that may have been widely viewed. And as to a view that there was a thousand-year kingdom that was certainly taught in certain Jewish circles, we just can't say it was universal. Even if there was a very strong Pharisaical view of this, we just can't say for sure what it was in the first century.

But I think these broad strokes are fairly safe. Certainly, even if there were some aspects of Messianic suffering that were taught in some Jewish circles, and that remains a debate until this day, the idea that there was an expectation of a crucified Messiah who would rise from the dead, certainly people didn't see that coming. After it happened, Yeshua could say, hey, look, it's written. This is all written about me. And then eyes were opened to see it.

Thanks for your question, and may God's healing grace be with your imam. All right, 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Vicki in North Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. Hello. Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, loud and clear, Vicki. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Well, and thanks for all the answers that you have given the people. I just love gaining the knowledge and everything.

I really enjoy the program. Well, thank you. When I was wanting to ask, I met an Italian guy a couple of, I'd say about two months ago. And he was just telling me, he was saying that, you know, how he didn't believe in God, and how the Jews wanted everybody to believe in their God. And they want to take over the world. And, and he was saying, you know, the Italians, we were in charge of the Roman Umpower, and we're coming back. And he was going on and on. And I was saying, no, did you? And he was saying, just tell me this. Do you, do you believe in God? I told him, yeah. He said, you see, the Jews want you to think that because they have brainwashed you. God doesn't exist.

And he was, I'd say, about 42, 45. But I said, where are you getting this from? The Jews want to take over the world.

He was very militant about it as well. Where is that coming from? It's coming from the pit. It's coming from Satan. It's coming from the father of lies. And I mean, this is a new one though, to say that, but I mean, no, the idea that the Jews want to take over the world, that lie has been around for a while. And I'll tell you exactly where some of it comes from.

I can give you a very specific source for that. But the idea that the Jews want everyone to believe in God, and because you believe in God, it's because you've been brainwashed by the Jews. I mean, that's a new one.

That twist, I know they don't hear. So this guy is obviously very lost, very confused, or that the Italians of the Roman Empire are going to come back. He obviously, the very thing he's rejecting is the thing he needs. He needs the God of Israel and the Messiah of Israel, namely Jesus. What a lost soul. May God help him. Okay, so, as far as the lie that the Jews want to take over the world, understand that through history, there have been all kinds of lies spread about the Jewish people.

Why? Because God chose them as his people, and salvation has come to the world through the Jewish people, and the Jewish people even have a role in salvation and welcoming the Messiah back at the end of the age. So because of that, just like followers of Jesus are targeted by Satan and around the world were persecuted and hated and things like that, well, the Jewish people are targeted by Satan because of their role as the chosen people. So through history, Satan has tried to destroy the Jews in various ways, and there are always new lies being told about Israel and the Jewish people.

You know, I'll give you examples from the past. When the Black Plague decimated Europe, Jewish people, because they were following Torah law and were living in more quarantine settings, they didn't die at the same rate that others did. Many died, but it was not as bad because there are quarantine laws and things like that. Well, others decided it must be—the reason not as many Jews are dying is because the Jews started the plague, and they poisoned the wells. And because of that, many Jews were slaughtered for this. I mean, crazy stuff like that. Or in, I think it was 1215, when the Fourth Lateran Council of the Catholic Church made an official pronouncement that the communion elements were literally the body and blood of Jesus, they literally became the body and blood of Jesus, then the lie began to circulate, oh no, Jews can get to Jesus again through the communion elements, and there were Jewish families burned at the stake for allegedly torturing a communion wafer, because that was the body of Jesus.

Vicky, I'm talking about crazy, crazy things. The specific lie that the Jews want to take over the world goes back to the protocols of the elders of Zion. This in turn may go back originally to a French novel, just novel, in other words, not history, a novel, make-believe, that then Russian secret police turned into a document and circulated it as a forgery, claiming this, that at a cemetery there was a discussion overheard, someone walking through it overheard a discussion with these Jewish leaders, and it turns out there's a secret cabal, there's a secret group of 300 Jewish people positioned all around the world, this goes back over a century now, all right, and they are waiting for the right moment to take over, and just look, just look, social media, people like Mark Zuckerberg, Jewish, they control the world, heads of Google, Jewish, or look at, you know, people like Greenspan that were over the money system in America, Jewish, and Steven Spielberg and Hollywood, Jewish, and a leftist billionaire like George Soros funding so many radical leftist calls, he's a Jew, you see, Jews are trying to take over the world. So the lie then plays in with these other things, as opposed to say, wait a second, Jews are less than like one half of one percent of the world population, right, maybe 13, 14 million Jews out of seven and a half plus billion, and through most of our history, we've been persecuted, rejected, hated, maligned, banished from different countries, but this is, the lie goes back to the protocols of the Elders of Zion, which every few years kind of gets a fresh push and gets circulated again, by the way, it's widely distributed in the Muslim world, protocols of the Elders of Zion in Arabic translations, widely distributed, and in many parts of the world, believed to be gospel true, and anywhere, here, Israel's so dominant in the Middle East, you see, there it is, Israel's trying to take over the world.

What Israel's trying to do, and what the Jewish people are trying to do, is survive, and if they can thrive in a country where they are wonderful, but through most of Jewish history, Vicki, the truth be told, it looked much more like The Fiddler on the Roof, if you've ever seen that movie, where there was terrible poverty, hardship, displacement, that's what our people have experienced over the years. My book, Christian Anti-Semitism, Christian Anti-Semitism, which you can get any different number of places where you get books, I deal with a lot of the up-to-date lies that are being told about the Jewish people, Christian Anti-Semitism. Hey, bless you, Vicki, and glad you're enjoying the information, and may God help this gentleman that you spoke with.

By the way, just looking at the clock, I'm not going to have a chance to get to the phones. Justin in Wisconsin, how can the New Testament church celebrate Passover? Actually, if you just go to chosenpeople.com or JewsforJesus.com and type in Passover, they'll have lots of suggestions. You just search Jews for Jesus, Passover, chosen people, Passover. There'll be resources, how you can do this in your church, what you can follow. And Jesse, if you're able to call in tomorrow with your question about why the church has historically believed, by and large, that the crucifixion was on Friday, which doesn't seem to give time for three days and three nights in the grave, great question to call in with tomorrow. Hey, bless you, have a great day, let's continue to pray for God's purposes Praise God. Another program powered by the Truth Network.