Why Antisemitism Is on the Rise in America

The following program is recorded content created by Truth Network. If you have a Jewish-related question, it can relate to the Hebrew language, Jewish tradition, Israel, today, it can relate to the Hebrew Bible, Messiah, Messianic prophecy, those kinds of things. If it's Jewish-related, give me a call.

866-348-7884. And I will get to as many of your questions as I can during the course of the broadcast. I do want to address the issue of Jewish-related questions. I do want to address the issue of the continued rising tide of antisemitism. Some news reports earlier this year indicated a 300% spike in New York City and antisemitic hate crimes, so Jews being attacked specifically because they were Jews. Another report, Wall Street Journal, indicates that levels have continued to rise of antisemitism in America since 2016, with Jews feeling more vulnerable in America than they have in years. The question is, why?

So we're going to get into that on today's broadcast. Also, news from Israel. Another member of the coalition government in Israel has now resigned. This is an Arab member of the Meretz Party, Meretz being a far-left party, or left-wing party, joined the coalition with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and others, saying, okay, let's bring all these disparate parties together and work together. And this representative said, the government is too far right. The government is making decisions based too much on right-leaning parties, and Bennett himself being right-leaning, and therefore, this, MK, resigned. So now, it's not just that it's 60 out of 120, as opposed to 61 out of 120 seats, but 59.

So it's a minority. So it's well expected that there'll be a call to dissolve the government, which would mean new elections coming in September, so yet another wave of elections, and yet another attempt for Netanyahu to come back as prime minister. We'll see what happens with the court cases against him.

That is ongoing and of interest, and we will keep you posted, because it's major, major news. First, let me share a few things about antisemitism with you. In my book, Our Hands Are Stained with Blood, and then in my book, 60 Questions questions asked about Jewish beliefs and practices, I have whole sections dealing with the phenomenon of antisemitism. And I point out, following the lead of Professor Edward Flannery, that antisemitism is the world's longest hatred. Flannery said this, antisemitism is the longest and deepest hatred of human history. What other hatred has endured some 23 centuries and survived the genocide of 6 million victims in its 23rd century of existence, only to find itself still intact and rich in potential for many years of life? Go back to Esther, chapter 3, verse 8.

Esther 3, 8. There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the laws, international laws. It is not in our best interest to tolerate them. This is an accusation brought against the Jewish people. You have a similar accusation in the book of Ezra, Ezra chapter 4. The king should know that the Jews who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem and are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city.

Skip down in these records. If you search the past, you'll find that this city is a rebellious city, troublesome to kings and provinces, a place of rebellion from ancient times. That is why the city was destroyed. Why is Jerusalem, to this moment, the most controversial city in America in terms of its standing and in terms of who should own it and who should have the rights to it? Anti-Semitism is also the most widespread hatred of all time.

Not just the longest, but the most widespread. As I wrote, it can be traced from the Greco-Roman world to Christianity, from Islam to fascism to communism, from white supremacists to black supremacists, from university campuses to the world press, from the philosopher Voltaire to the historian Arnold Toynbee, from the composer Richard Wagner to the card designer Henry Ford, from Japan to Russia to Iran. Why the Jews? Even pointed out that a few years back, this group, the Raelians, came into the headlines claiming they had successfully cloned human beings, obviously just a publicity stunt.

But I was curious, who are these Raelians? Well, they're followers of Rael, who is abducted by aliens and enlightened by them, and he had just posted a new speech on those websites in multiple languages, and it was anti-Semitic. I thought even the Raelians are anti-Semitic.

I mean, I smile, but ultimately it's something to smile about. I've also pointed out that anti-Semitism is the most vicious hatred of all time, as it goes on and on generation to generation with all types of viciousness and murder, and it's the most irrational hatred of all time. As I wrote, the absurdity of the anti-Semitic libels simply defies rational explanation. When the Black Plague decimated Europe, Jews were accused of starting the plague by poisoning the wells with a mixture made of spiders, lizards, and the hearts of Christians mixed together with the sacred elements of the Lord's Supper. Outraged mobs slaughtered thousands of Jews as a result of this pernicious rumor.

When the Catholic Church declared or codified in 1215 that the elements of communion literally became the body and blood of Jesus, Jews were accused of stealing and torturing communion wafers, leading to whole Jewish communities being burned at the stake. In the Muslim world today, they still believe that every year, Jews kidnap and torture a priest or other victim, using his blood to make Passover matzah, unleavened bread. The Muslim world also takes seriously the protocols of the elders of Zion, a notorious forged document from the 19th century that claims to report the secret plans of a hidden group of Jewish leaders who are poised to take over the entire world, ultimately bringing it into subjection to the Hindu god Vishnu.

Here's a direct quote from the protocols. Our kingdom will be an apologia for the divinity Vishnu, in whom is found its personification. Jews have also been blamed for the spreading of AIDS, as well as for orchestrating the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, and on and on. Jews have been accused of controlling the Catholic Church. Sigmund Freud said this with regard to anti-Semitism. I don't really want to search for explanations. I feel a strong inclination to surrender my effects in this matter and find myself confirmed in my holy, non-scientific belief that mankind on the average and taken by and large are a wretched lot.

Sigmund Freud. Why then has anti-Semitism increased in America in recent years? On the one hand, in general, there has been the continued fanning of flames of racial hatred, ethnic hatred in America. Whites hating blacks, blacks hating whites, different groups hating Hispanics, different groups hating Asians, different groups hating Jews, etc. And I'm sure that hatred has gone in each different direction at different times, but this is exacerbated in the whole culture. I talked about it yesterday and how baseless hatred is destroying the nation. If you didn't read my article on that, go ahead and do it at AskDrBrown, askdrbrown.org.

So that's one issue. So if general racial ethnic hatred is increasing in our society as a whole and being fueled by the media, by politicians, by social media, the Internet, well it's only natural that anti-Semitism will be on the rise as well. Some might say, yeah, but it seems it's on the rise even more. Well there's no surprise with that because the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the notorious forged document I just referenced a few seconds ago, that continues to get good circulation. I have been in New York City many, many times and if you walk down the street, especially on a Saturday in a busy area of the city, you'll find street vendors and they're selling everything.

They're selling your Rolex watches for $15, right, the lens Rolex watches, $15. They've got all kinds of jewelry, but they've got books. There's a guy just standing on the street and he's got his little setup of books and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion has perennially been for many years now one of the best sellers. People buy it and believe it and in a country like America where you do have a disproportionate rate of success for the Jewish population. I mean you say the same about the Asian American population, right, but the Jewish population, Jewish Americans have been more successful, more educated.

Well that's just going to play into the Protocols. You see, there is this Jewish cabal waiting to take over the world. Look at Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook and look at Steven Spielberg. I mean Hollywood, the Jews control Hollywood and the Jews control social media and the Jews control the banks.

So all you need is a person here, a person there. It doesn't matter how many things go against that theory. As long as you have a little confirmation, well then that's enough to prove the Jews are taking over the world. Then you've had different anti-Semitism from people like E. Michael Jones and others on the right. And their argument about how the Jews are ultimately all in rebellion against the society and by nature are destructive revolutionaries that want to bring down a society and bring down Christian values. And then you've got a Jewish porn leader.

That confirms it. So you have those types of voices. That's rising in our culture as well. Then you have the growth of numbers of ultra-Orthodox Jews, large families filling communities. That creates hostility. And you're trying to take over our city and you're different and you look down at us and that's what's being perceived.

So those tensions rise there on the ground. And it's just natural that as each year goes by that Satan is going to do what he can to attack and wipe out the Jewish people. So Jews have left countries like the former Soviet Union.

The countries represented there in Russia. Many Jews fled from there to Israel. There's a large percentage of Russian Israelis and they left because of anti-Semitism. Even though they were leaving careers, they were leaving a lot of things behind and came to Israel and could not simply resume those careers. And there is the joke about the guy pumping gas for you in Israel is now going to tell you about the chemical formula of the gas because he's a chemist.

But the only job he had was pumping gas. Still, it was better to leave because of the rising tide of anti-Semitism. That's happened in England.

That's happened in France. So it is just part of the atmosphere of this world which by default with fallen human nature and satanic activity is anti-Semitic. And the way we confront it is by speaking the truth and by praying and by demonstrating love. It doesn't matter if a Jewish person agrees with us theologically or morally. We simply say we stand against the anti-Semitism. We stand against the Jew hatred. We stand against the demonizing of Israel. And then where Israel is wrong and Jewish people need the Lord, we speak plainly, we speak truthfully. But we speak out against the anti-Semitism. It is a sacred calling that we have as followers of Jesus to expose the lies that want to wipe out his own flesh and blood. We come back going straight to the phones right here on Thirdly Jewish Thursday. 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. How the world needs God's Shalom. How America needs God's Shalom.

How the Jewish people need God's Shalom. There's a wonderful verse in Isaiah 26. Many of us will know it from King James and other translations that God will keep you in perfect peace. God will keep those in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on him. And it says in Hebrew, yetzer samuch, so it's the inclination, the mindset, leaning on him. Yetzer samuch tizor shalom shalom. God will keep them in perfect peace, shalom shalom.

Kivatah, kivachah batuach, because it trusts, or that person trusts in you. That's where the shalom will come from. Not from this world. Not from this world.

Not from what you read in the news, or read online, or watch. No, it will come from an encounter with God. It will come from taking hold of the truth of God's Word, which transcend all experience.

And ultimately saying, God, I trust you. We will then be established. We will then be secure. We will then be immovable. We will then be unshakable.

God's grace will uphold us. All right, for your Jewish-related questions, 866-348-7884. We go to the phones, an anonymous caller. Welcome to the line of fire.

Yes, Dr. Brown, I hope nobody recognizes my voice, that's why I want to be anonymous. I'm really concerned because my husband is traditional Jewish and I go to a messianic congregation, and last Friday I found out that Saturday they already had it. They had a bar mitzvah for a young man that has, quote, two dads. And the lady, my friend that also goes there, was telling me about it.

And she was like, oh, it's fine, you know, one of these young, one of these men is on our board, and one of them is, and he's going to be the vice president on June 1st. And it's just, my husband's going there, and he's so involved. And I'm just, I'm trying to get God's peace.

Yeah, well, I'm sorry, I'm sorry that you're going through this, and obviously we can hear the effect it's having on you. Let me ask you this, though. When you say it's a traditional synagogue, a traditional synagogue would not welcome into its leadership someone in a homosexual relationship, so it can't be that traditional. It's conservative, and they're all, I mean, they're so... A conservative is anything but traditional. You got that right. Right, right, so within the three major branches of Judaism, reform, conservative, and orthodox, conservative is liberal. All it was trying to do was conserve certain traditions. That's the Judaism in which I was raised. So that's perfectly normal there. Just look at it like this.

They don't know the Lord the way we know the Lord. The husband's involved in it so much, he's in the men's club, he's really involved. Right, right. It just hurts.

Of course it hurts, but please, please hear me. The bigger thing is that he doesn't know Yeshua. The fact that they have these liberal social values, to them, they're being inclusive, to them, they are being prophetic and going against the bigotry of society. I mean, that's how they see it, that they're doing the right thing in God's sight, and they'll have their rabbis explain why these things are kosher. If it was an orthodox or ultra-orthodox synagogue, these things wouldn't be happening. I mean, they'd reach out to the kid, for sure, but they would not allow a man, quote, married to another man to be part of their leadership or anything like that. But the thing is, look, the world is the world. It would be no different than if he was a nominal Presbyterian Christian going to a nominal Presbyterian church that did confirmation for kids with same-sex parents and welcomed the same-sex parents into their congregation.

It's just the world that doesn't know the Lord. So I would encourage you. What do I do? Yeah, what you do is pray for him to know the Lord and pray for him to know Yeshua. I've been doing that for years.

Excuse me? I've been doing that for years, and it was so weird the week before I went to support him because he was leading, doing some things in the service, and Yeshua came up, and I was able to tell them that Yeshua didn't come to destroy the Torah but to fulfill it and all this. And then the next week, when that seemed like a breakthrough, it's like the enemy threw this out.

Thank you. Yeah, but here, listen, your job is to plant seeds and pray with a broken heart because your tears speak volumes to God, and I know situations with wives that pray for years and years and years for their husbands to come to faith, and then they did in the most extraordinary way. I mean, I remember one case in particular. Every time I would preach at this church in New Jersey, this woman would come up to me and say, my husband, she was Gentile, he was Jewish, but he was a God mocker, and she'd come in tears, my husband, my husband, her heart was breaking, I mean, for good reason. But when he got born again, he got so radically born again, he'd set up a keyboard on street corners and play and preach the gospel. I mean, he became outspokenly bold.

It was amazing. He was a college professor, a psychologist, and wouldn't hold back airing his views. So the fact that they're affirming of homosexual relationships and all that, that's the least of your concerns. They don't know the Lord. They don't hold to the same standards that we do.

They read the Bible differently. So I know it's burdensome, but that's honestly the least of your concerns. You just keep shining the light, you keep showing something beautiful to him, you keep being, rejecting Yeshua over and over and over and over. But it breaks God's heart too, but what can you do but pray? I can't do anything but pray.

Yeah, and listen, let me say this last thing to you, and then I'm going to call on our listeners to pray with you. There are rabbis that I've interacted with now for over 50 years, and there's some I've interacted with steadily, steadily, for over 20 years, sometimes talking by phone once a week. Rabbi Shmuley and I have spent many hours together, beautiful times, sometimes just the two of us, for hours talking, heart to heart. None of them are believers yet, but I keep sowing seeds and praying.

There's a gentleman that I started working with in 1993. It took 25 years, a religious Jew, 25 years before he came to faith, and now it's a beautiful thing to see what God is doing. So let's pray, everyone listening, especially if you have a burden for the lost sheep of the house of Israel and the tears of this wife touch you, let's pray, God, open his heart, open his mind, soften his heart, bring him to repentance, put faith within him, God, give him a heart to turn, we pray, pour out grace on him and give him a heart to turn and use this woman to touch him. In Yeshua's name, amen. Thank you for calling, I appreciate it.

866-34-TRUTH. Tell you what, Eric, stay right there. We're gonna go to you right on the other side of the break. This way, we'll have time for your question.

We won't have to rush the question or the answer. You know, on Wednesdays, we send out an e-blast called the Wednesday Watch List, and we give you in one email all of our latest videos, because every week we put out a number of short videos on specific subjects or targeted videos on things, and we want you to know about them. And if you miss it just in the business of life, you don't see it posted on social media, boom, you get that every Wednesday.

And then Friday, here's a list of all the articles I wrote the previous week, it's on average five, and most of them are dealing with the key issues you're wrestling with in society, with the things that you're being confronted with, your kids are dealing with in school, or you're reading on the news and you're like, eh, you're frustrated because you wanna get a message out. It's like, wait, wait, Dr. Brown, you said what I was thinking. Great, now you can share that or just be informed, edify yourself. Remember, we have this holy mandate from the Lord to help get God's people thriving and healthy and strong. As we get thriving and healthy and strong, yolks are broken from our own lives. As we get healthy and thriving and strong, we now in turn can help others. As our light shines more brightly, the darkness will be dispelled. And no, we're not gonna see a perfect world until Yeshua returns. We're not gonna see perfect peace on earth until Jesus returns.

America will not become a totally, quote, Christian nation or messianic nation until the Lord sets up his kingdom over the whole world. But the fact is, we can make a difference now and we do it together. So go to AskDrBrown.org, A-S-K-D-R Brown.org, click to receive our emails. Also, the beginning of the week, if we have a new resource offer, things we've put together for you, a new book coming out, a special announcement, you'll know about it. AskDrBrown.org, sign up for the emails, just put in your email address, your first and last name if you like your address as well.

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866-348-7884. Stay right here and we'll be right back. This is how we rise up. Heavy as a hurricane, louder than a freight train. This is how we rise up.

Harder speed and faster, feels like Thunder. Magic static, call me a fanatic. It's our world, they can never have it. This is how we rise up. It's our resistance, you can't resist us.

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 866-344-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Oh, what beautiful words. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. Welcome to Thoroughly Jewish Thursday, 866-344-TRUTH. All of us, all of you joining us now on KDKR in the DFW era. I've got an important announcement I'll be making in the next few days that'll be very relevant for all of you listening. All right, 866-344-TRUTH. Let's go to Eric in Johnson City, Tennessee. Welcome to the Line of Fire.

Hi, Dr. Brown. I had a quick question. Yeah. In the Old Testament, there are individuals mentioned with a lineage, and there are some that are not. The prophet Elijah, one of the greatest prophets, an unwanted prophet, his lineage is not mentioned at all. Is there a significance in the omission of his lineage?

Yeah, it seems to be. I mean, you have his successor, you have the father's name there, right? You have so many through the Bible were known as son of this one, son of that one. Part of the lineage, when Ezra comes back from Babylonian exile to join his people in Jerusalem, it links this lengthy lineage, son of so-and-so, to trace him all the way back to Aaron, the high priest. So, there's obviously purpose in mentioning the lineage. Not mentioning it seems quite intentional. There are some who claim that he was a Gentile, and that's why it's not mentioned, but there's no hint of that in the text.

There's nothing that would strongly point in that direction. And his name, Eliyahu, so, the Lord is my God, Yahweh is my God, is a very strong testimony of his Israelite background. But, my impression is, it makes him a more supernatural character. In other words, he comes out of nowhere, and then he departs, taken up in chariots of fire and a whirlwind. So, even though he's a human being, Jacob, James 5, tells us he's flesh and blood just like us. There's something very much supernatural about this man of God that comes just with a word from God, and an unction from God, and is backed by God, and then is taken out of this world. So, he is a unique figure in that way. And then, his voice comes back later, many years after his death, there's a letter that's written from Elijah to a corrupt king.

Where did that come from? And then, of course, at the end of Malachi, there's Elijah that's coming. Does it mean Elijah literally, or the spirit and power of Elijah? And then he's a figure in the New Testament, and he's a figure in traditional Judaism.

To this day, every Passover Seder, you leave a chair empty for Elijah the prophet. So, it just kind of plays into this bigger-than-life character, and that, to me, is the only explanation. Again, some have claimed he didn't have an Israelite heritage, but putting that one aside, to me, it's just for effect. And it underscores this dramatic nature of his character. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, a friend of mine is a youth pastor, and he was reading it, and he was wanting to preach to young people, or preach in a sermon, that Elijah's lineage didn't matter. He was just a willing pesto that God had wanted to use us, and if we would do it ourselves, he would use us.

I don't think that's right. I feel like there's a deeper… Yeah, let's just say this. Maybe I've expressed something that's more germane to the text itself, right? But, for sure, your friend can make application, or he can point to a Jephthah in the book of Judges, whose mother was a prostitute and was rejected by his contemporaries, and God raised him up and used him. So you can say, look, whatever your background, God can use you, so I don't believe that's the primary reason we don't have the lineage, but is your friend making an application from that for young people? Sure, you can make that application, and certainly take James 5, Jacob 5, that he was a human being just like us, and he's the most supernatural person in the Bible outside of Jesus.

He's the most supernatural human being in terms of so different, so other, but he was flesh and blood, just like us. Hey, thank you for the call, Eric. Thank you, Dr. Brown.

You are very welcome. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Jonathan in Israel. Thanks for calling.

Welcome to the line of fire. Hello, Dr. Michael Brown. Hello. So, my English is not so good. I will do my best, but if I say something in Hebrew, you can transfer it, okay? All right, all right. So, first of all, I grew up in all parts of this community in Israel, so Hallelujah.

Okay. And right now I'm considering myself agnostic, because nobody really manages to convince me of the Greek, and on the other hand, I'm really enjoying being Jewish, and I'm enjoying Jewish tradition, so... Let's just say I'm not really religious, but I do read the New Testimony, and I find out that Jesus was a great guy, and he preached only to do good, and he only wanted to do good, but the idea that he's the Messiah, from a Jewish perspective, it just doesn't fit anything I know about Judaism, so I know that every prophet about Jesus brings the Messiah is from the Nevi'im, the prophet, and not from the Torah. So, in English, there is a word, Bible, but in Hebrew, it's not a word, it's tanar, it's an issue. So, in Hebrew, mostly the author wants to talk about the Bible, he won't say Bible, and he won't say tanar. He will say Torah, if he talk about the Torah, and he will say Nevi'im if he talk about the prophet, okay?

Because there is a big difference between the Torah and the Nevi'im. So let me just ask you something, Jonathan, or Yonatan, let me ask you this. A traditional Jew believes that Mashiach is important in God's plan, correct?

Yes, of course. And he prays every day, ani ma'min b'viati Mashiach, right? So prays daily and confesses, okay. So, what are the prophecies about Mashiach within the Torah that a traditional Jew would point to? Yeah, but my question is not about this, my question is, why isn't... I'll show you Yeshua and the Torah, that's easy. I'll show you that in a moment. But I'm asking, as a Haredi Jew, if someone said to you, show me Mashiach in the Torah. We're not talking about Yeshua for the moment, right? No, I don't know. Ah, okay, in other words, they're not... To be honest, we never talk about Messiah yet.

Okay, okay. If somebody talks about the Messiah, get away from him, because he's either a Chabad, a Chabadnik, who will believe that there might be the Messiah, or either he's a Messianic Jew. Basically, a Haredi Jew does not talk about the Messiah. Even though it's important through Jewish history, and certainly a major theme within the Scriptures.

Okay, so, I mean, they're going to talk more about Halakha and learning Shas and all of that, I understand. Okay, so let me tell you the different places where I would find Mashiach in the Hebrew Bible, okay? The first hint is in Bereshit, Genesis, the third chapter.

And this is just a hint, okay? But remember when Hashem, when God curses the nachash, the serpent, right? He says, So I'll put enmity, hatred, between you and between the women. So, I'm going to put hatred between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, and he'll crush your head, you'll strike his heel. There are many who believe throughout Genesis, God keeps talking about Avraham's zara, the zara of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God says, through your seed, through your zara, the whole earth will be blessed.

So many look at this and say, ultimately, this is a prophecy that a descendant of the woman, a descendant of Eve, will ultimately destroy the nachash who represents Satan. Right, okay. That's just a hint, we just leave that there, okay?

Alright. Alright, now we go to Bereshit, Cuffbaits, so Genesis 22. And there we read about the Akedah, the binding of Isaac. So you know in the actual... Oh, I know about it, yeah.

I know. Okay, now we know that in reality, Yitzchak doesn't die there, right? But later rabbinic traditions say that God counted it as if he died, and as if his blood was shed.

And there are even Jewish traditions that says every offering that's offered, even the tamid, the daily offering, that that's offered based on the merits, the zahut, of Yitzchak. So this to me is just a picture of Messiah who suffers for us, and based on his zahut, based on his merits... But why God cannot be more specific and more obvious?

I mean, if you read the Torah... No, wait, if you read the Torah, I know what you got. I heard the first person that I listen to you every Wednesday and every... I don't really know how you see. Okay. Yes, and I heard most of your... I listen to most of your YouTube videos, and you are beautiful, okay? Even though I'm not agreeing with you on 90% of the subject, but I keep on listening to you because I'm trying to find the truth, okay?

Yes, yes. If you read the Torah without the Mefarsim, yes, without the Rashi and without the rabbinic tradition, if you read Torah and you believe yourself, okay? You don't see that Abraham knew about the Messiah. You don't see that Moses knew about the Messiah. Moses, for example, when he was dying, God told him, look, you're going to die, and you will never set foot in the land of Israel.

So let me show you the state of the land of Israel. Why did God tell him, look, you will wake up one day after the Messiah will come, and you will be there in the land of Israel. Right, right, okay, so... Why did he say to Abraham?

Yeah, so to answer your question, it's because God reveals things little by little, because we're not able to understand everything, and it's one thing upon another upon another. Look, a Haredi Jew believes there's Torah Sheba Alpei, an oral law, right? But there's not a word about it anywhere in the Torah. It never mentions that.

Any of the verses that they claim to use are very much twisted. What I'm saying is, I can build one block upon another to point to Yeshua, and then we'll just stay here so we can keep talking on the other side of the break, okay? I want to talk about the death of the righteous atones, and where we see that in the Torah, as you keep reading, by the time you get to Isaiah 53, it's clear, it's Yeshua, it's crystal clear. Okay, but stay right there. Thank you, thank you for listening and watching. 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 back, friends, to Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. I'm having a thoroughly delightful conversation with Yonatan in Israel. Do you mind me asking how old you are, sir? 32. 32.

And I still don't know what's going on with me. The religion is open. I was a communist, I was a radical right-winger, I was Hasidic one time.

I just don't know. Were you raised in the Haredi community? Yes, yes, in Bnei Brak, if you know.

Yeah, of course, near Tel Aviv, of course. And at what point did you really begin to question what you believed? Was it early on or later in life?

Yeah, yeah, when I was eight years old. The first time it was when, after Tisha B'Av, I saw my mom put the book of the keynote back in the closet. And I asked her, I told her, wait, you believe that Messiah will come every day, right?

So why are you keeping the keynote book for next year? And she didn't really answer me. And I was like, okay, I got my answer. And this is where it started. And to be honest, I started to saw the ridiculousness of the tradition who have been using the interpretation of the Tanakh.

Yes, yes. Today, as it says here, and this is not what, I can read the Bible, and I can understand the Bible will not rush you, but how come every time you don't see the narrative, you change whatever you want to change? And nobody gave me an answer. And they keep on saying to me, you have a question just because your head is not clean and everything you do is question God. Just shut up and start with the Torah and the Talmud and you won't have any question.

Yeah. And you know, Yonatan, I've heard that it can happen in any religious tradition, for sure. But I've heard that from other ex-Haredi, from people who are OTD, off the Derech. And it was the same thing when they asked, it's one thing to ask a question about some halakhic discussion, some shakla atari or some give and take in a Talmudic debate, and you're trying to understand that. But when you ask the bigger question, why should I listen to the Talmud, or why should, many times that will get shut down.

So I appreciate your honesty very, very much. And I encourage you to keep searching and being honest with God and honest with yourself. And just say, God, if you're there, you have to help me. You know, like the prayer in the Psalms, Gal einiva abita nifla omitot hecha, uncover my eyes that I can behold wonders from your teaching.

So God, if you're there, optimize. My wife, Nancy, when she was raised in Reform Judaism, so it was very, very liberal. But at the age of eight, she concluded that God did not exist.

And it was only at 19 when we met and she encountered God that she became a believer. But let me get back to your question about Torah. We do know in B'reishith 49 that there's a reference to a leader coming from the tribe of Yehuda, the tribe of Judah, and the nations will give him their obedience. That's understood as a Messianic prophecy, but that doesn't necessarily say Jesus.

I understand that. But in the words of Bilaam, Balaam, in Bamidbar, Numbers 24, I see him, but not yet, and a scepter will rise from Israel. So that's another picture of Messiah. So Moses wrote those words. So again, but that doesn't specifically point to Jesus.

It just points to a Messianic king. But then you have the whole, the situation of the korban, the sacrificial system, the goat laazizel, the scapegoat, that you put all the sins of the nation on that and carries them away. Or you have the cities of refuge. If you accidentally kill someone, you can flee to them. You have to stay there the rest of your life unless the high priest dies.

And when he dies, you're released. And this is part of the concept in traditional Judaism. You hear it this day when a famous rabbi dies that the death of the righteous atones for the sins of the generation. So that to me, that's the bezara, that's the gospel. And God's laying this out to put these concepts in the hearts and minds of the people of Israel. So when you get to Isaiah 53, kulano katzon tainu, all of us like sheep have gone astray, ish l'dar kol paninu, each one has turned to his own way. Vadonai hivgea bo etavon kulano, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

There it is. I mean, it's so clear, it's so beautiful. So the Torah lays the foundations. Nivy'im build on those foundations to bring us to Yeshua. So it's not just out of the blue.

These things are being laid out for people to see. And then when we go back and read it, so you start reading Isaiah 52, beginning in 13, hinei yaskil avdi yachum, and nisav ekavach ma'od. So God says his servant is going to be highly exalted, but then it says kasher shamamuachah. No, I know that in the Nevi'im, there's a lot of prophecy about Messiah, and a lot of, I wonder if you didn't mention Malachi's demon, which is, you know, the reverse. Itom yavo adon anachono, which is pretty much a point of Jesus, but I'm speaking about the Torah, and I'm speaking about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Moses, which were, especially Moses, he was the perfect guy.

He was the perfect guy, the perfect guy that God says about him, that, you know, to mona toshomimim. Right, but just remember, just remember, even from a traditional perspective, there's not a lot of Messianic prophecy within the Torah. But what I'm saying, there are themes that, because they didn't have a king yet, because they didn't have a full concept of Messiah. So God first is calling the nation out, bringing his people to himself, right, then giving us his laws and commandments to live by. Now, giving us a picture of the king, of David, of a greater David, of Mashiach, so he's just building it like a good builder, one layer on another. But what I'm encouraging... Moses didn't know about the Messiah. Moses didn't know about the Messiah. No, I... He died thinking that...

I believe... I think that, you know, he would never be in the state, in the land of Israel. God said about them, Bechol beitin ha'manu, he was God's friend, in a sense. So could God tell them, look, you know, you will wake up one day, you are not going to be dead forever, and you will see the land of Israel. Yeah, I don't think that they thought that they would be dead forever.

I believe they had a hope. But look, Moses wrote down the words of Genesis 49, 10, so he knew about the coming of Mashiach from the line of Judah. And he wrote down the words of Bilaam in Numbers 24, so he knew about the king who would rise up and destroy the enemies of Israel. So I believe Moses knew about Mashiach, and Avraham knew that through his zara, through his seed, the whole world would be blessed. But all these things are pictures, look, the whole sacrificial system, and every day, substitute, substitute, as Rashi says, life for life. And then as I mentioned, the atoning power, the death of the righteous, this is God's way of preparing the people for the coming of Messiah. And he does it in a very systematic way, so it builds on the foundation of Torah. And then you have many of these pictures and images, like the Akedah, like Joseph rejected by his own brothers, and he becomes the savior of the Gentile world. And then only the second time around, his own brothers recognize who he really is. And that's how it is with the church now, that Jesus is recognized by the Gentiles, but is foreign to his own people. But when he returns, he'll be recognized.

So I see all these beautiful layers there, and then you build on it the words of the prophets, you build on it the words of the Psalms, and from there, the picture is clear. Hey, the show's just about over, but I've got a question for you. And you don't have to answer on the air, okay?

Because Duane will come right back to chat with you. We have friends in Israel that have a lot of former Haredi friends who are believers in Yeshua, who've been on a very similar journey that you've been on. And I know they'd be happy to talk to you, so here's what I'm gonna do.

And this is off the air, so you don't have to respond on the air with me now, okay? If you'd like to give contact info, an email address, or something else, I promise you, it will only be given to one person that I know very, very well in Israel. I speak with him, interact with him regularly, I know him well, I've watched him for many, many years.

I've met some of his former Haredi, ex-Haredi friends who are now followers of Yeshua. And I'm sure he'd love to talk with you, all right? So if you'd like to give us this contact info, it will go to Noah, we won't put you on our mailing list, it will not be given to anyone else, all right? This is the only way I know how to put you in touch.

Or maybe you've got some other email or address or something. Dwayne's gonna come back on with you, Yonatan, and if you're willing to give us that contact info, then we'll pass it on. If not, then you can always write to me personally through our website or call another day, and I'd be delighted to continue the conversation. And everybody listening and watching, let's pray for God to reveal truth to Yonatan, for God to make real to this precious man how real he is and who Messiah really is. Let's pray for that and for Yonatan to have a heart to receive it.

Okay, stay right there. Dwayne's gonna come on and talk with you if you'd like to give us the contact info. Boy, may he do it. That would be wonderful.

I know exactly who to connect him with. And friends, this is what our ministry is all about. Thanks for being part of it. The third R of our ministry, revival in the church, moral cultural revolution in society, and redemption in Israel.

That's the ultimate cause for which we live, seeing our Jewish people come to faith. This is how we rise up. Heart is beating faster. Feels like thunder.

Magic static. Call me a fanatic. It's our world. They can never have it. This is how we rise up. It's our resistance. You can't resist us.