Uh Welcome to Prophecy Today. I'm Jimmy De Young Jr. Along with my brother Rick, we examine current events in the light of God's prophetic word. We are in the midst of the three-fall feasts. The one upcoming is the Day of Atonement.
Rick, that is also known as Yom Kippur. It was the most solemn, holy day of all the Israelite feasts, occurring once a year on the 10th day of Tishri, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. On that day, the high priest was to perform elaborate rituals to atone for the sins of the people. Described in Leviticus chapter 16, verses 1 to 34, the atonement ritual began with Aaron or subsequent high priest of Israel coming into the Holy of Holies. The solemnity of that day was underscored by God telling Moses to warn Aaron not to come into the most holy place whenever he felt like it.
He could only come on this special day once a year. Lest he die. That's verse 2 of chapter 16 of Leviticus. This was not a ceremony to be taken lightly, and the people were to understand that atonement for sin was to be done God's way. And this was a dispensational period.
Talking about dispensations right today, we're going to follow up on a conversation that we had months ago with Paul Scharf, with our good friend Dr. Paul Weaver. That's right, Jimmy. He'll be coming up in the second half hour, and we'll talk about a defense of traditional dispensationalism. Yes, and you're not going to believe this.
He talked about an attack on dispensationalism today. It's very important, Rick.
So important. The whole second half hour is going to be about dispensationalism.
Well, we've got to cover all of our other news items that we examine in the light of God's prophetic word. And we need to get started, Rick. We've got Ken Timmerman, David Dolan, Steve Herzik will be here talking about the Three Fall Feast. But let's get started with Ken Timmerman.
Well, that's right, Jimmy. I have Ken Timmerman with us. He's an author and an analyst. You can find out more about him by going to his website at kentimmerman.com. Ken, thanks for being with us today.
Thanks for having me on, Rick. It's always a pleasure.
Okay, let's get right into it. And let's go to the Middle East, where there's a reported drone coming from the Iranian-backed proxy, the Houthis, towards Mecca. Can you talk about this? Pretty extraordinary. The Houthis fired this drone at the holiest site of Islam, Mecca.
The Saudis shot it down, but they say, wow, you have now really gone across a red line. They had a devastating airstrike on Houthi military bases. I watched some of the video of this. It was pretty big airstrike, and the Saudis are not at all pleased. Look, what's happening here is that the United States has had talks with the Houthis.
We come to an agreement, apparently, where they will stop their attacks on international shipping going through the Babil Mandeb Strait. In other words, out of the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean. And in exchange for that, we will not help the Saudis in their airstrikes against the Houthis.
Well, the Saudis... Showed this week that they can do it without our help, and they really smashed the Houthis after this missile attack on Mecca. Very interesting the way this all plays together, and this all is going on against the backdrop of the Iranian war. Can you give us an update there? The president has said he is facing a Big decision.
Should I annihilate the regime or should I not? And he said this on Thursday, and he's going to be meeting with our Gulf allies next week at the UN General Assembly in New York. He clearly wants to have them on board for whatever the next phase in the war is going to be. Look, the war, Rick, is going much better than people think. The Republicans, who are facing a very, very tough reelection campaign in November, many of them are panicking.
They see the high gas prices, especially the extraordinarily high price of diesel fuel. They think that they're going to lose. You have 71% of American voters who believe that Trump does not have an exit plan. This is all nonsense. It's all smoke and mirrors.
The war is growing incredibly well. Don't be a panican. You have to accept that we're going to pay a higher price for the time being in our gas prices and diesel fuel prices. But in exchange for that, Rick, we are going to end the endless wars. That's what this is all about.
This war is about ending the endless wars in the Middle East. Once we get rid of the Iranian regime, which I believe is going to collapse on itself in a matter of months, the source of terrorism throughout the world. suddenly has to find a new home, and I don't think it's going to be very easy to find one. This is the war to end the endless wars. Republicans need to get on message.
They need to tell their constituents that. We're getting ten million barrels of oil per day. Through the Strait of Hormuz Rick. Nobody talks about that. That's more than half the pre-war total.
Plus, remember the Saudis and the Emiratis have shifted another 7 million into the Red Sea.
Now, the Iranians attacked that this week. They hit a major Saudi pumping station going to the Red Sea. It is temporarily shut down. But Rick, within two days, the Saudis had already lain a new pipe, buried it in a bypass of that pumping station.
So by next week, they're going to be back online again. The only oil not going through the Strait of Hormuz is Iranian oil, and that is creating panic inside the regime. There have been attacks over the past week in Iranian Balochistan along the Pakistani border, attacks against Revolutionary Guards bases. There have been demonstrations in Tehran. The regime is panicking.
They don't see how they're going to get this economic noose from around their neck. Even their rail link to China, Rick, has been hit by the blockade. Secretary of Treasury Besant has gone to the Tajik and the Kazakh governments and gotten them to cut off the rail link. They can't get trucks into Pakistan because the Pakistanis are now cooperating with the economic blockade. President Trump is the one with the options, not the Iranians.
Well Ken, I happen to agree with you, but we know that perception is reality and this is going to be an issue all the way through those November elections for sure.
Well let's move on to Europe where in the United Kingdom a Labour MP has called for military action against Israel. Rick, you know, who would think that Britain could reach a new low where you would have a member of parliament?
Okay, he's part of the Labour, the ruling Labour Party, calling for military action against Israel. His name is Tahir Ali.
Okay, so obviously he comes from a non-British background. He could be born in Britain. I don't know all the details about him. But this is really extraordinary. The Brits are beholden to the increasingly large Muslim population in that country.
They have scaled back their relations with Israel since the Labour government took over. And this has had a dramatic impact on their relationship. Relations with the Arabs.
So until the Labour government took over, Rick, the Arab countries, the Arab Gulf countries were getting intelligence from Mossad via MI6, the British military intelligence.
Now, Mossad is no longer sharing intelligence with the Brits. And so the Arabs are telling the Brits to go take a hike. And they're telling them to take a hike in terms of investment. They're scaling back their investment in Britain and everything.
So this domestic affair that the British Labour Party has with its Muslim minority. Is going to cost Britain in investment and an influence around the world. And Ken, just as a quick follow-up to that, this change, it seems, in foreign policy based on the immigration there, that's being replicated all over Europe, isn't it? It is. They just had an election in Sweden.
My wife is of Swedish background, remember? And the Imams in Sweden, in Somali communities, are calling on their followers to vote for the Communist Party.
Well, the Communist Party now in Sweden has something like 9% of the vote, bigger than it has ever been in the past. And it's because of this Muslim vote. Look, going back to Britain just for a second, the Home Office issued this pamphlet, Brick, in mid-August to new asylum seekers. And they had to say in the pamphlet, you know, if you're coming here, you have to understand that rape and sex with children is actually illegal in Britain. You can't do things like that.
It will affect your asylum claim. What kind of people are they trying to get into their country? Rick, I think Britain has serious, serious problems. That are not going to go away in the near future. It's only going to get worse.
Final question for you today, Ken. As we look ahead to President Trump's summit with President Xi of China, there have been some. Health rumors for President G floating around. Can you talk about this? Well, there is a rumor that was going around earlier this week.
Unfortunately, it's been spread by my good friend Gordon Chang, who is a little bit like the boy crying wolf. He said that President Xi had a seizure at this recent BRICS meeting in India.
Well, if you look at the video that he posted, what actually happened was that his earpiece in this simultaneous interpreting earpiece, he had problems with the earpiece. The Prime Minister Modi said, Is it okay? And Gordon Chiang said, Oh, he's saying, Are you okay? No, no. He was saying, Is it okay?
Can you hear? And he clearly couldn't. He was talking back and forth with his security people, holding the earpiece and holding the translation mechanism. President Xi is just fine. He's going to be in New York next week.
He's going to be meeting with President Trump. And I am sure that they have lots of things to talk about quietly behind the scenes that we will not learn about. Of course, top among them is China's continued support for Iran. There was a report earlier this week that when the Iranians hit our base in Jordan, they were getting intelligence from a Chinese military satellite, an imaging satellite.
Well, apparently, that imaging satellite. is no longer in orbit.
Something happened to it on its way around the earth, and I am told it might have had something to do with US Space Force. Ken Timmerman for Prophecy Today. Ken, as always, we appreciate your insight. Look forward to talking to you again soon. Thanks so much, Rich.
God bless. Great job, as always, Ken. And I want to go back to your update on Iran and the possibility of Iran being taken out.
Now, we focused on Iran because Persia is listed in Ezekiel 38, the war of Gog and Magog. And so we've always focused that maybe Iran would come against Israel, which they have. But. It's interesting what you said: that terrorism would have to go to another home. When you look at the first verse of Ezekiel 38, now the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, set your face against Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshach, and Tubal.
Well, maybe this world of terrorism goes to the land of Russia, the land of Magog in the north. And remember what Matthew 24 says, verse 6: There will be wars and rumors of wars. There's still more fighting to come.
Well, we've got to take a break when we come back. David Dolan will be with us with our Middle East news update. Right here on Prophecy Today Weekend. I'm Steve O'Dell with Mission Network News. The United Nations and European Union are jointly calling for greater action against global religious persecution, recently observing a day to commemorate victims of religious-based violence.
They were speaking out on a day that is supposed to help all of us think about freedom of religion, think about the fact that people should be allowed to practice their religion. That's Todd Nettleton with the Voice of the Martyrs USA. He says Europe has its own share of religious intolerance. For example, a recent study found more than 800 acts of violence against Christians in France alone in 2025. We think of Western Europe in particular as democracies.
We think of them as places where religious freedom is protected. But obviously, some of these stories are starting to raise attention to the fact that, no, that's not always true. Learn more and find prayer points at missionnews.org. Finally, if it seems like you're seeing sign language interpreters more often on the news or at big events, you're not mistaken. Rob Myers of Door International says: Many people would recognize that we're seeing more and more visibility of sign language and deaf communities, but people just don't know the struggles that have gone into getting some of that recognition.
Historically, deaf people in the United States couldn't access information because it wasn't available in sign language. Opportunities for deaf leaders were unavailable too, even in Christian ministry. The woman who helped to found DOAR watched as her father was turned down by over 50 different organizations simply because he was deaf. Door International is a ministry by the deaf to the deaf. Find your place in the story at missionnews.org.
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I'm Steve O'Dell. Welcome back to Prophecy Today Radio, the program that looks at current events in the light of Bible prophecy.
Well, this is the portion of our program where we look at news coming out of the Middle East, focusing on the Middle East in general, but Israel in particular. To do that, we have with us journalist Dave Dolan. Dave, thanks for being with us today. As always, Rick, I'm blessed to be with you. Dave, if you would bring us up to date on the latest developments in the Middle East.
Well, Rick, uh along Israel's border with the north, uh Lebanon, it's uh been a quieter week, thankfully, than the previous uh month really when they were demolishing uh Huge Hezbollah infrastructure. There was some more of that that went on this week. Smaller scale. There were a couple of drone attacks from Hezbollah, and there was a couple Israeli actions. Against them, but it was a fairly quiet week there.
In Gaza, we had two more senior Hamas. uh military leaders targeted buy the idea during the week, eliminated during the week. And again, the Army leaders made clear that they will eliminate any leader that they know took part in the october seventh, the massacre nearly three years ago now at the end of the high holy days in twenty twenty three. We also had, Rick, a big controversy. We had a minister in the Palestinian Authority, a former minister.
He revealed himself to be the source of a warning to Prime Minister Netanyahu of the Hamas October 7th attack. He was asked by Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader. He knew him personally, to come and talk. He said, We're going to launch a major action against Israel. It's going to be crazy.
It's going to be something like they've never seen before. And I want you to pass on that warning.
Now, why he wanted to do that is a question. It kind of reveals the plot. But in the end, what happened, I won't go into details, is he passed it on to the leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zaid of the UAE, who phoned Prime Minister Netanyahu in late September, Rick, and warned him that something was afoot from Hamas that they'd heard.
So now that's become a major political issue as Israel looks to have elections the end of next month. And by the way, Rick, just a note on that, the latest opinion polls show There's going to be another deadlock probably in this upcoming election. The left-wing centrist bloc. cannot form quite a coalition according to the latest polls, meaning they have to have sixty or more. The same with the Likud and the right wing bloc.
So to form a government, they'll either have to persuade some other party from the center or whatever to join them, or we'll have another deadlock and go to new elections.
So hopefully, that won't be the case. And finally, Rick, we had more, of course, action in the Persian Gulf. Another tanker attacked by the Iranian regime on Friday. We had Pakistan, some of their leaders saying that they are willing to come to Saudi Arabia's aid as the Houthis continued their attacks during the week. Rick, several Saudi bases were hit.
They said they shot down a Saudi jet over Yemen during the week, and they had visual proof of that. In Jerusalem, the Prime Minister repeated that the end of the regime is Israel's goal, not any sort of peace deal or just reopening the Straits or whatever, but he didn't say what he would do if President Trump intervened against that. And finally, Rick, we had a report in the Jerusalem Post that the new leader of Syria, a little over a year now, Al Sharra, is taking most of the foreign aid he's getting, including from the U. S. and Europe, and using it to beef up his armed forces instead of repairing damage from the civil war there and other things to help the people directly.
So I'll have to see where that goes in the future. That's our update as we look at news coming out of the Middle East. Dave, I want to move on and talk about a subject that you and I have talked about before, but it continues to be in the news. In fact, it was one of the most talked about stories this week, and that is essentially anti-Semitism, the way it came out this week. A popular singer named McLemore was dropped from a series of concerts because of his statements supporting Palestine, which in one sense is fine.
But then, on top of that, he accused Israel of genocide and apartheid. And this is something that has continued to happen, even though it is not genocide by any type of definition. Can you talk a little bit about this, how Israel is portrayed in world media and what that means for us?
Well, Rick, the saddest part about it is it was widened into another grand Jewish conspiracy against people that criticize Israel, this sort of thing. The reason being, of course, that it was Robert Kraft, the owner of the Patriot Stadium in Boston, Who banned the upcoming Ed Sheehan concert that was supposed to be opened by Mac Lemour? And the point that he made, and he's Jewish, Kraft is Jewish, he's a millionaire, he's a Trump supporter. But uh the point he made is that this is not the leading act at this concert. Uh it's a man that isn't known for his anti-Israel rhetoric or tirades or whatever, but this is an opening act.
And so if it were the main act, then uh Jewish uh attendees and pro Israel Christians and others. Could choose to go or not and be assaulted by this ridiculous. And again, this is an entertainer, a rapper, et cetera. What would he know about genocide? Has he been in Gaza?
What does he know about the history, really, of this conflict? Did he see the October 7th video that still hasn't been released to the public, Rick, that is so graphic, it really can't be released? But many people have seen it. Many of my friends have seen it. A mass slaughter, beheadings, rates, the whole thing.
And this was planned, as Sinoir said. But, Rick, they're even more concerned in Israel about further statements this week from the vice president, J.D. Vance, that were pretty critical of Israel, saying we're not subservient to them. We have divergent plans and views.
Well, of course they do. Nobody said that they're subservient to Israel. And it's just not the case. That's part of this. Conspiracy theory again about the Jews that the vice president's friend Tucker Carlson and he was asked again about him this week, Rick, and he said, Well, we disagree on some things, but you know that's about it.
Well, some of the things Carlson's saying now are so extreme. And so ridiculous and so anti-Israel. This is one of our closest allies over the years. that this is more worrisome, frankly, to the Israeli leaders at least. And I think the Israeli public too, than these absurd comments you get every so often from these entertainers that don't know their left cheek from their right foot.
It certainly is worrisome, David. But we keep on talking about it. I know we talk about these things often, but it stays in the news, and that's why we're talking about it here.
Well, David, let's move on. And for the final topic, I'd like to discuss the upcoming holy day of Yom Kippur that will be observed in Israel and by Jews around the world.
Now, you've been in Israel and been there when Yom Kippur was going on. If you could talk to us a little bit about those experiences, how important Yom Kippur is, and maybe even a prophetic perspective on Yom Kippur. Yes, Rick, it begins at sundown on Sunday evening this week. lasting twenty five hours because they make it a little bit longer than the natural day, just to make sure that people are fasting when it starts and haven't broken their fast until it's over with. And of course, that's one of the features of it, both in the Bible and in the practice in Israel today, is Most Orthodox Jews and many secular Jews, especially adults, fast from food entirely during that twenty five hours.
And many even fast from drinking any liquids at all, which in the Middle East can be challenging if it's earlier in the year, which it is this year, in September, it's often in October. Everything goes completely quiet after sundown. Cars are off the road. The buses stop, the train stop, the plane stop, the airport is closed. The only thing you hear is the occasional police or fire truck or ambulance sounding.
And that's often Rick because the kids love it. They go out in the streets at sundown, especially the secular kids, the religious kids are mostly in synagogue, but they go out on their bicycles and take advantage of the empty streets. All over the place, and of course, some of them fall and scrape themselves, et cetera. But otherwise, it's very, very quiet. And the morning of Yom Kippur, as Jews have prayed in many of the synagogues all night, especially Orthodox men pray all night, of course.
It's the day when you conf uh finally confess all of your sins for the Past year, but most importantly, when they're forgiven, when the high priest would go into the temple with the blood of the lamb, and as a result, the sins of the people were forgiven.
Now we know it was the blood of the sacrificial lamb, Yeshua, Jesus, that has already taken away our sins, and we don't need once a year on a certain date to ritually practice that. But I always observed it, Rick. I always did an extra fast and some other things. I didn't fast from drinking. Again, Middle East, that's a bit much to not have water.
But uh because again, it reminded me every year that the the Lamb of God, the the one who gave his life for the world, died for my sins. And he already knew my sins even before I committed them. But he gave us a way to come back to him through the shed blood. of the Lamb. And so it was always a great day for me of rejoicing in Yeshua while solidly remembering that it is a command of God to reflect and to repent and to turn away from our sins.
And that is a whole nation doing that, Rick. And you talked about the anti-Israel sentiment everywhere and all the criticism. I think it's the only country on earth that has a national day of repentance.
So God bless Israel on this Yom Kippur. Certainly so. Dave Dolan for Prophecy Today. Dave, as always, we appreciate your insight, both politically, but also biblically, prophetically as well. Thanks so much.
Look forward to talking to you again soon. Glad to do it, Rick. God bless. Great job, David. We have more to come.
We want you to stick around. Steve Herzig will be at the end of the program today explaining Yom Kippur right here on Prophecy Today weekend. Did man live with dinosaurs? This is Ken Ham, CEO of the Apologetics Ministry of Answers in Genesis. Evolutionists often mock creationists for believing man lived with dinosaurs.
But did you know there's a long list of creatures that live today? and are also found buried in the same layers as dinosaurs. This list includes rabbits, squirrels, possums, beavers, parrots, owls, penguins, flamingos, frogs, salamanders, bowel constrictors, iguanas, crocodiles, crayfish, shark, crickets, cockroaches, and more. This isn't surprising to Biblical creationists. God created all living things over six days, so of course dinosaurs lived at the same time as everything else.
And we find them buried together because of the global flood. Get answers to your questions about dinosaurs at AnswersRadio.com and plan your visit to our full-size Noah's Ark at AnswersRadio.com. Uh Welcome back to Prophecy Today. I'm Jimmy DeYoung Jr. Along with Rick, we are examining current events in the light of God's prophetic word.
Well, we're in the midst of the fall feast, the next being the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the year. We'll talk more about that later on when we bring Steve Herzig to the program as we take a look at the book at the very end. A couple of months ago, we focused on dispensations or dispensationalism with our good friend Paul Scharf.
Well, there was an attack on those that believe in dispensations and dispensationalists. Rick, you and I listened to a podcast by our good friend Dr. Paul Weaver, and I just felt like this was something that we should focus on this week.
Well, that's right, Jimmy. We do have a good friend of both yours and mine, Dr. Paul Weaver. Paul is an associate professor of Bible Exposition at Dallas Theological Seminary. Prior to that, he was the academic dean at Word of Life Global Bible Institute, where both you and I know him as the academic dean from Hungary, the Word of Life Bible Institute in Hungary.
Good friend of ours, Paul. Thank you for joining us today. Oh, it's great to be with you. I think this may be my third, maybe fourth time on the program, so I'm thankful that you keep having me back. Absolutely.
We're very happy to have you back when you get a chance. I do know you have a busy schedule traveling all over the world, speaking at different Bible Institutes. I know you're doing some things in the Middle East now, plus your professorship there at Dallas, plus you're still doing a lot of stuff for Word of Life. You stay very busy, don't you? I do.
I love to teach. I love to teach abroad. My heart's still very much mission, so trying to help mobilize our students to consider overseas teaching as well as just training nationals for the work of the ministry that we're all called to do.
Well, Paul, the reason we had you on this program is I certainly follow your ministry and the different things that you are doing. And you have a podcast, which is an excellent podcast. We have recommended it before and we've talked about it on this program before called The Bible and Theology Matters. And you talk with different guests about a lot of a wide-ranging variety of topics, especially dispensationalism. Could you tell us, first of all, about this podcast and why you do it?
And then after that, I want to talk about a specific podcast that you just put out. Sure. Thank you for that question. I have the privilege of hosting a program called the Bible and Theology Matters podcast. And in it, I have a conversation with different scholars and Bible expositors about all things Bible and theology.
And certainly we talk about dispensationalism and end-time events. And because, as you know, almost a third of the Bible was prophetic at the time it was written. But why do we have a podcast?
Well, as you know, you can influence people through podcasts, through radio that you couldn't normally have in any one classroom. And so I'm thankful for that. But I'm committed to the fact and convinced that what you really believe determines how you really behave. And that's our catch line because we want to help people to think biblically because the way we think about God and his word and his works will impact the way we live. And we see that in Paul's epistles, Ephesians 1 to 3 are about the belief of the church.
Church and chapters 4 to 6, the behavior, the doctrine before the duty. And so we see that what we really believe impacts how we really behave. I love that. What we really believe determines how we will behave. That is so true.
Great tagline.
Well, one of the latest podcasts that you have done, and we're going to put it up on our website. We'll link to it. Encourage you guys to look for this however you get your podcast. But the name of the podcast is Why Albert Moeller is Wrong About Dispensationalism. And you're talking to a group of scholars talking about a book review that Dr.
Al Moeller did with Dr. Daniel Hummel called The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism. Can you tell us why you did this podcast? Yeah, so this As you probably know, Dr. Al Moeller is the president of Southern Seminary and very influential.
His thinking in public podcast is listened to widely. And in that interview, he did interview the author of a recently released book entitled The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism. And that interview included a lot of mischaracterizations, logical fallacies, straw man arguments, unfortunately, very unkind and disparaging comments about dispensationalism, and quite frankly, historical inaccuracies.
So, within about a week timeframe from when that was released, I called friends and scholars at other dispensational schools. And so, there were 10 of us in all that discussed the contents of that interview between Dr. Al Moeller and Dr. Daniel Hummel about that book. And so, we just wanted to respond to and give a voice out there that people can listen to to actually correct.
Those mischaracterizations, logical fallacies, strawman arguments. It was. It's very interesting.
Now, I haven't watched his whole podcast, but I did. And in your podcast, you played parts of the podcast. And there was a little bit that, if you're not careful, there was a little bit that seemed disrespectful towards those that take the dispensationalist view, as you and I both do, and as this program is based on. But getting past that, I thought you guys were very respectful of the facts. You even had nice things to say about Dr.
Moeller. But I think it's very important that we look at what they were talking about, what this book presents, and talking about dispensationalism.
So let's get into that just for a second. We're going to go through some of the criticisms that they came through. And these aren't new. And so this is, I think, a great exercise for us to share with our listeners as we go forward. But one of the first criticisms that they talk about is the fact that they say dispensationalism is a new system.
It's a novelty. It's something that. It's only been around for a short period of time. And in their mind, that discredits dispensationalism. Can you talk about that?
Sure. Indeed, this is one of those accusations that covenant theologians repeatedly bring up ad nauseum. As Dr. Charles Ryrie wrote, this accusation has been made as regularly as a dripping faucet. And it's been responded to decisively many times.
So let me start by saying it is only in the relatively recent church history. That theologians have attempted to understand and systematize the history of God's plans and purposes of human history. And so this is the case with dispensationalism. and with covenant theology. While dispensationalism as an organized system and I emphasize organized system because there was thought, dispensational thought before it was organized but before or the organized system may be about 200 years old.
Well, covenant theology Which is the competing theological system is only about 400 years old.
So, when you're talking about all of church history, that's not much older. And as Dr. Snowberger, who is a guest on my program from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, in our podcast, he mentioned it's like an eight-year-old girl telling her six-year-old sister that she's not very mature. And so, Dr. Stollard from Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, also who is on the podcast with us, added that the Roman Catholic Church would level the same accusation against covenant theology that they're the new kids on the block.
So, while maybe the organized system, again, emphasize organized system of dispensationalism and covenant theology is relatively new, the concepts of dispensationalism clearly are not. They go back to the apostles and the early church fathers held to much of the principles we hold to today in dispensationalism.
So, this. I would emphasize old argument by covenant theologians has been rebutted often and again I think decisively. Most recently in the book edited by two friends of mine at Southern California Seminary, Dr. Corey Marsh and Dr. James Fazio, entitled the book that they recently released at the same time, ironically as this book came out, it's called Discovering Dispensationalism and it's subtitled Tracing the Development of Dispensational Thought.
from the first to the twenty first century. And so we recorded a three part podcast series with those two editors, doctor James Fazio and doctor Cory Marsh, on that book. And I think they decisively respond to this false claim. And, folks, as you're listening to the program today, Dr. Weaver is a scholar, and we're having a this is going to be a scholarly discussion.
Now, we're not going, and you could probably have this discussion for weeks, I'm sure, and we're not going to go into the depth that even you went to on the video.
So, I encourage our people, as an exercise in learning to understand how we read and understand the Bible and what role dispensationalism plays in that, I encourage you to go listen to that video. But let's continue on. If you could give us a simple definition of dispensationalism, sure. My simple explanation of dispensationalism, because I do believe you can state it in just a few words, or you can spend hours unpacking its death because, in fact, it's dealing with the whole Bible's understanding of history.
So, as I see it, and my simple explanation, dispensationalism is an understanding of of human history. As recorded in the Bible. Regarding the plans of God in the past, in the present, and in the future, that flows out of a plane. Normal. Literal reading of scripture.
So it's not a system per se that we want to superimpose upon the scripture, but we believe that God is the author of language and He has revealed Himself in a way that we can understand Him, and He used natural laws of communication to do so. And so it starts with a literal historical grammatical interpretation of Scripture and allows us to understand the incredible grand narrative of Scripture, starting with the purpose for human history. Stated in Genesis 1:26 to 28, when God delegates Adam and Eve the responsibility to rule as his image-bearer. But because of sin and its consequences, it's never fully realized and won't be fully realized until the end of the book of Revelation when Jesus Christ, the second Adam, Will accomplish what the first Adam failed and will rule on the earth. And we, his image-bearers, will rule and reign with him for a thousand years.
So it's simply an understanding of human history from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 using the natural laws of communication, the historical, grammatical, literal approach. That is an excellent definition, and I appreciate you sharing that. And it's funny, if we get back to this podcast that we are talking about here, some of the critiques of dispensationalism, there seems to be some contradictory critiques. The first one is that they say that dispensationalism is too complex. That's right.
And several of my contributors to the program had a lot of good feedback to respond to that accusation. For example, Dr. Christopher Cohn from Colorado Biblical University, who was on the podcast, reminded our listeners that this is a logical fallacy to presume, like Al Moeller and Daniel Hummel, that simplicity is always better. Simplicity is not always better. Dr.
David Gunn from Baptist Bible Seminary then also reminded us that even if we grant the argument that simplicity is generally thought to be better, There are other aspects of a system that must be taken into consideration. Primarily, and first and foremost, does it explain the text of Scripture best?
So Dr. Stollard then rightly argued that covenant theology with its Three. Theological covenants, and maybe on another program we could talk about those and can give constructive criticism. But they provide three what they call theological covenants. These aren't specific covenants stated in Scripture or named in Scripture, but they're theoretical and theological.
That, in our estimation, is much more complex in our assessment. Then Dr. Scott Keene of Ethnos 360 Bible Institute reminded us that the covenantal system is, again, In our estimation, more convoluted because it requires you to reinterpret. Old prophecies, Old Testament prophecies, and covenants. About Israel and the church by New Testament scripture.
So it becomes more complex because you're not understanding those Old Testament prophecies, those Old Testament covenants, in the way that the original readers would have understood them. You are trying to reinterpret them in light of what the New Testament authors are saying. And I don't think they contradict each other. The New Testament authors are building on, not contradicting, Old Testament prophecies.
So this is the whole line of argument that we think is faulty on several levels. It's so important as we look at it. As you were saying, this dispensationalism is not something we force upon the scriptures, but it is a way for us to look at and explain the whole scriptures from Genesis 1 all the way to Revelation 21. All of it fits into a plain reading.
So that goes to the next criticism I want to talk to you about, and that is contradictory. As I said earlier, they said it was too complex.
Now they're saying, well, it was created by engineers and lawyers, not. Theologians, not enough pedicree. It's tied to church. You know, these things that they're saying almost had kind of a little bit of a snobbish effect to it. But, anyways, can you talk about this?
What can you say about the fact that it wasn't necessarily theologians, but engineers and lawyers helped to establish this system of dispensationalism? Yeah, I think you pinpointed that they were very disparaging in identifying different individuals who were engineers and lawyers that helped to systematize these thoughts. And not trained theologians, although they were in the ministry for some of them for 20 plus years.
So that was very disparaging. Dr. Bookman from Shepherd's Theological Seminary pointed out the great concern with this whole interview was this: that it's full of mischaracterizations and disparaging comments, sometimes mocking, and as you indicated, as you stated, some academic arrogance, rather than wrestling with the real issues of interpretation, does the dispensational understanding provide the best explanation of God's plan and purpose for human history or not? What we're most concerned about, as Dr. John Rinker pointed out, is not pedigree.
But fidelity. Not whether you have the right degrees, but the right interpretations. Yet, even in the same discussion, it was interesting that Dr. Moeller pointed out that there was a book written many, many years ago now by Alan Russell called Voices of American Fundamentalism, where he pointed out that. Pointed out that six of the seven most influential inerrantists and conservative theologians, those who were defending the inspiration and inerrancy of scripture against the modernists who were denying some of the fundamentals of the faith, six of those seven were dispensationalists.
The only one that wasn't was Machin from Westminster Seminary. And five of those seven were graduates of Southern Seminary, the very seminary that Moeller was the president of. But none of them were taught that in their theology classes. In other words, five of them came from a seminary that did not teach dispensationalism, but six of those seven were dispensationalists, five from Southern Seminary. And so Moeller asked the question: how is it that they came to this realization?
And all the guests on my panel and I, I'm sure you and many of your listeners would say, because it's the natural reading of scripture. And so that's why it has such a strong grassroots development. Development and not so much academic down, but rather churches and individuals who can read the scripture and understand what the original author intended to communicate to the original recipients. And we can do that. God has communicated in a way that is clear and understandable.
Well, one more critique I'd like to ask you about that they talked about, and then after that, I'd like to wrap this up by talking about what's so important about dispensationalism and studying Scripture. But the next critique that they talked about was they're saying that dispensationalism is a fad, something that came to prominence in the 20th century and that was a fad that was very popular for a little while, but even now, maybe most of the dispensational or the traditional dispensationalist are older and it's going to be faded out. Can you talk to us a little bit about that? Sure. I would also I'd start by saying Dr.
Hummel is not an unbiased historian.
Now his training is in history. He's a historian by training, but in Other interviews and in the book itself, Dr. Hummel Identifies and clearly states that his father was a dispensationalist. His father was trained at Dallas Theological Seminary, but that he, Dr. Hummel, was influenced or convinced by N.T.
Wright and others, among others, not to be dispensational.
So I don't think this book is really a history, in my estimate. It's a polemic. He wants to make an argument, and so he does cherry-pick things here and there and glosses over other things to make his point. And now, think with me: if you don't believe a system, dispensationalism or any other is the correct system, you have to explain. In his case, he has to explain how dispensationalism was so impactful.
I mean, it was impactful on a grassroots level, in churches, in mission agencies, in entire seminaries and Bible colleges.
So many mission agencies, seminaries, Bible colleges that developed who were dispensational.
So in His book, in my estimation, he is trying to explain how this cultural phenomenon took place if it's not really the right reading of scripture. And so, some of the things he tries to point out, and he says it's a fad and that it's dying out, and that there's fewer and fewer dispensationalists. And I just think that's Just false. While there may be fewer seminaries and colleges that are choosing to be pre-tribulational and pre-millennial in their statements, and some there's a lot of other reasons for that, right? They want to have students come to their school that aren't from those, they want more students.
And so there's a lot of explanations for why some schools are dropping these statements out of their statement of faith and churches as well.
So it's not because dispensationalism is a fad, but rather less of an emphasis upon doctrine, less of an emphasis wanting to have more students becoming more of an education trying to reach a broader segment of Christianity, more students than you would if you had such positions in your statement of faith.
So dispensational schools are not all small and weaning in influence. After all, Dallas Theological Seminary is a dispensational school, and in the last two years, it has become the largest non-denominational Seminary in the United States. And then there's Liberty University, which is the largest seminary in the United States, and it's Baptist in its affiliation. And it too is dispensational in its statement of faith. They hold a future for ethnic Israel, believe in a pre-tribulational rapture.
Their statement of faith holds to a future seven-year tribulation on earth. Both Dallas Seminary and Liberty hold to a thousand-year reign of Christ.
So then there are many other mid-sized and smaller dispensational schools who are having a much larger impact than their smaller schools might think at first glance. Just three examples we mentioned in the podcast: the National Theological College and Seminary, the Ethanos 360 Bible Institute, the Word of Life Global Bible Institute that has 16 teaching sites around the world. There's other schools like Baptist Bible Seminary, like Appalachian Bible College, many, Shepherd's Theological Seminary, Master's Seminary. All of these are dispensational in their background in their statement of faith. And so we.
Haven't disappeared. We're still here. We haven't fallen, as one of the chapters' titles. The collapse is one of the chapter titles in Dr. Hummel's book.
And I would even argue that. Traditional dispensationalists, which is the variety that I would hold to. I'm a traditional dispensationalist of the Charles Ryrie variety, the Walverd Pentecost Maclean variety. There are many of us that are not. Old and archaic, as Hummel seemed to indicate.
He said, If I would surmise that if you go to Dispensational schools like Dallas Seminary, they'll be in their sixty-fives and seventies and above. And well, I'm forty-six, and I have at least seven other colleagues who are under the age of sixty-five who are uh traditional dispensationalists.
So the very one of the very reasons why I wanted to bring together these ten different scholars. And I think eight of the ten are under the age of sixty-five was just a visual representation amongst that panel to show that that one claim is just factually incorrect. I would like to add to their credit, Dr. Moeller did have a few kind things to say about Dispensationalism in the midst of a lot of disparaging and mocking things. But one thing he rightly pointed out is that the conservative resurgence within the Southern Baptist seminaries was really as a result of several key pastors in the Southern Baptist movement who were all dispensational.
I think of Jerry Vines. I think of Adrian Rogers. I think of W.A. Criswell. I think of Charles Stanley.
These were four of the. Key components of the conservative resurgence of men who are elected to presidents, to the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention, and helped to reclaim the seminaries, the very seminary that Al Moeller is the president of at Southern Seminary. And so he rightly recognizes that he's indebted to these key individuals. And again, none of them were trained to be dispensational in their seminaries that they came from. But it came out of a natural reading and study in the preparing to study to stand up and preach in the pulpit.
And they became convinced of the dispensational approach. And so I appreciate that you made that comment and made note of that. And I think that's another strong argument that dispensationalism is the natural reading of Scripture. Dr. Weaver, we appreciate so much the defense of dispensationalism and your scholarly efforts to be fair and balanced and to talk about this situation.
And I just want to say on another note, we've gotten into the weeds just a little bit here, and there's been a lot of scholarly talk. But I remember my dad, one of the things, and he always used to say it from the pulpit, he would say, if you disagree with me, don't bring your commentary, don't bring your popular literature, don't bring somebody else. He's like, bring the scriptures to me and let's talk about this. And people would ask him, are you a Baptist? What denomination are you?
And he would say, well, I'm a biblicist. He would talk about the fact that he studies the Bible. He believes in a literal interpretation of the scriptures. And I appreciate this exercise of looking at dispensationalism. And it's a way for us to understand God's plan, God's narrative that runs throughout the whole of scriptures, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 21.
Could you speak to that just a little bit? I mean, again, I don't, it's not like we are, this is our team, that's your team. And I feel like the general discourse and the tone of your podcast was very much like that. You were like, listen, there's all kinds of things we want to talk about here, and we want to be respectful of everybody's views, but the scriptures are preeminent. Isn't that correct?
That's right. And of course, dispensationalists have been famous for that. And we believe in the inspiration and inherency of scripture. And that is our only absolute source of truth. And so I also am non-denominational.
I'm not of a certain particular denomination, although I have my theological convictions. And we want to say we're willing to go wherever the text leads us. And so we're not committed to a particular denomination or a particular theologian, whether it's Darby or Ryrie or Burkhoff or Hodge. We want to go wherever the scripture leads us, because that is our absolute source of truth. That's our standard.
And that is the tradition going back to the Reformation movement. And I think if Martin Luther and John Calvin had one more lifetime, they would be dispensational too. Because it's the result of a historical, grammatical, literal reading of Scripture, which is really what led to the Protestant Reformation.
Well, one thing that dad and Joe always talked about is training up the next generation to understand dispensationalism, to understand Bible prophecy, and how important it is to get Bible prophecy right, to get your eschatology right. And I appreciate what you are doing right now. And this is an example of you are the kind of person that they were looking for.
So we appreciate your ministry. Thank you for being on the program, and I'm sure we'll talk to you again soon.
Well, thank you so much, Rick. I appreciate what you and your whole team are doing for the glory of God. Great job, Dr. Weaver and Rick. As always, I think this conversation was one that the body of Christ needs to be aware of.
Well, we're going to take a break, and when we come back, the legacy series with Dr. Jimmy DeYoung. This week, we'll be focusing on the judgment seat of Christ and when it takes place and how close we are to it. Right here on Prophecy Today weekend. Welcome to Prophecy Today.
I'm Jimmy DeYoung Jr. Along with Rick, we're examining current events in the light of God's prophetic word. Rick, such an important conversation that we had with Paul Weaver, Dr. Paul Weaver, on dispensationalism. Thank you for doing the hard work on that.
If people wanted more information on our website, where should they go?
Well, Jimmy, if you go to our website, prophecytoday.com, if you missed all of that conversation or if you want to hear it again, we have archived programs up there. You can listen to our streaming radio station. You could look at our bookstore. We have many products to help you understand Bible prophecy. And of course, as always, we would love for you to support our ministry if you feel led to.
Yes, that is prophecytoday.com. It's a great website if you're looking for information that will help you to further your study in Bible prophecy.
Well, we continue to carry the legacy series with Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, our father. And today we're going to conclude our series. Study on the judgment seat of Christ. You know, the Bible tells us that all Christians will stand at the judgment seat of Christ to be judged for the works that we have done for the Lord after we got saved.
By the way, our rewards determine our service for the Lord in eternity future. The judgment seat of Christ happens at the moment after the rapture, and the rapture could happen at any moment. We must be ready for the rapture, Rick, and the judgment seat of Christ. Your question may be. How close are both of these events?
Well, that's our study today. Please go to Ezekiel chapter 37 as we determine how close we may be to the judgment seat of Christ. Dr. Jimmy DeYoung and the Legacy Series. How close!
Are we to that? Judgment seat of Christ. Go back to the book of Ezekiel. The book of Ezekiel. And go to chapter 37.
Let me show you three little evidences. Of how close we are. I'm not going in depth on any of these topics that I'm going to give you. I'm going to simply introduce it to you and let you then Work it out in your study. Ezekiel chapter 37.
You know, Ezekiel 37 is the time when Jesus Christ appears to the prophet Ezekiel. He takes him to a valley full of dry bones. There, in the valley of dry bones, he asks Ezekiel a very interesting question: Can these bones live again, Ezekiel? I love the answer. Notice here in verse 3.
The Lord asked Ezekiel, he calls him the Son of Man, that's his name. He's asked Ezekiel, can these bones live? And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord, thou knowest. Like God, why are you wasting your time asking me about these bones if they can live?
You know the answer. Why are you asking me that question? And then you know what the Lord says without beating a beat? Hey, Ezekiel, I want you to preach, man. Treats to the bones.
Can you imagine preaching to a valley of dry bones? but oh, Ezekiel started to preach. all the bones started coming together. No, Ezekiel's event, that's pretty good preaching. Hallelujah.
God said, preach on, Ezekiel, and he preached on. Skin came flying out of the sky. and covered his bones. And God said, you're not finished preaching. Preach.
to the wind, and he preached to the wind. And the wind came down and filled these flesh-covered bones, and they stood up like a mighty army. Look what the text says. Verse 7. And so I prophesied, I was commanded, and I prophesied, and there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
That's the regathering of these bones. Verse 8. And when I beheld, lo, the sinew in the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them from above, but there was no breath in them. That's the re-restoration of these bones. And verse 9.
And then he said unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man. Verse 10.
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came in unto them, and they lived and they stood upon their feet in exceeding great army. By the way, That is apocalyptic literature, if you did not recognize it already. The Lord is using a symbol to communicate an absolute truth: the bones coming together, the flesh on the bones, the breath of life being breathed into these flesh-covered bones.
Now, what's the principle for interpreting a piece of apocalyptic literature? Keep reading the Word of God. We read through verse 10. Look at verse 11. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.
What he's talking about here, he's telling Ezekiel, Ezekiel, the bones are the Jewish people scattered to the four corners of the earth for 2,000 years. You preach, there will be a regathering, and these bones will come together. Keep on preaching. Preach the skin down, and these skin will come and cover these bones that have connected. And that's the restoration of a Jewish state.
And then he said, Preach unto the wind. Let the wind fill these flesh-covered bones. That's the regeneration of the Jewish people, all in the program of God. And this has been happening. May I tell you one incident?
I could give you thousands, one incident. May the 24th, 1991. Judy and I have been living for five months in Jerusalem. We're both fully credentialed journalists. A journalist listens to other news gathering organizations to make sure he's on top of all the news.
I would always choose to listen to the BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation. And so it's a Friday afternoon, May the 24th. Shabbat is about to begin. All of a sudden, I hear the broadcasters say: Operation Solomon is underway. I found out what Operation Solomon was.
Forty-two aircraft took off from Ben-Gurion Airport. Flew across southern Israel, the Red Sea, northern Africa, into Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 15,000 Jews had made their way to the airport. In the next 24 hours, the greatest airlift to ever happen in the world. They airlifted all 15,000 in 24 hours back to Israel. At one time, there were 28 planes in the air. One 747 carries about 500 people.
They took out all the seats. They put 1,087 people on that airplane. While the plane was flying from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, into Jerusalem, while the plane was in the air, seven babies were born on the airplane. They landed in Jerusalem. They went to this one location.
Judy said to me, Honey, they're getting ready to eat downstairs. Why won't we go help them? And so we went downstairs. Here are these thousands of Ethiopians. In front of them a plate with a boiled egg.
A container of yogurt. Oliveson. cucumbers and tomatoes and on just normal Israeli fare. They didn't know what to do. You remember the Ethiopians were starving.
One of the reasons for that 24-hour airlift to get them into Israel is so they could sustain life. They didn't know what a boiled egg was. And so I walked up to this old man, I took the boiled egg, cracked it, peeled it, showed him how to eat it. And it started to catch on. I went over to this lady, had a baby strapped on her back.
I carefully opened the yogurt container, took a spoon, started feeding the baby, started feeding her. And that started to catch y'all. And while I was standing there, the tears were streaming down my cheeks. Because I thought of Zephaniah chapter 3. where it says In the end times, I will reach into Ethiopia.
I will get my prize and bring him to Jerusalem. We were touchy. The fulfillment of prophecy. See. out of a hundred and eight nations of the world, These Jews have been coming into the land.
Bones regathered. Flesh on the bones. the process of regeneration. Hey, look here at the next thing, verse 15. And then the word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick and write upon it for Judah, and for the children of Israel, his companions, then take another stick and write upon it for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions, and join them one unto another into one stick, and they shall become one in thy hand.
Here's what Ezekiel's told to do: take two sticks. On one stick, put Judah. On the other stick, put Israel. And then take the two sticks and put them in your hand. And while the two sticks are in your hand, the two sticks will become one.
Now, many prophecy teachers and commentators have said what that's talking about is the ten lost tribes. They're out there someplace. The two tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Judah, they're already in Israel. Those ten lost tribes are going to be found in the last days that will be joined together with those two tribes of Judah. That is not correct because there's no such thing as ten lost tribes.
No such thing according to the word of God. Mark it down. Book of Ezra, chapter 2. Remember Ezra 1, Cyrus is raised to allow the Jews to return to the land and build their temple. Chapter 2, it lists the 49,897 Jews that came back.
They list their families and where they lived. You study them, and they are parts of all 12 tribes. Once the temple is built, Ezra chapter 6, they have a dedicatory service. In that dedicatory service, you know what they do? They sacrifice 12 he goats for the 12 tribes of Israel.
When Jesus Christ is sending his disciples out, Matthew chapter 10 verse 5, he says, don't go to the Gentiles, verse 6. Go to the whole house of Israel. Why? Because the whole house of Israel, all 12 tribes were back in the land. When you come over to Acts chapter 2, verse 5, on the day of Pentecost, there were Jews from every nation of the world in Jerusalem for that feast day.
All 12 tribes are back in the land. They've been back in the land for over 2,500 years.
So, what is this prophecy talking about? What this is teaching in the future, after the rapture of the church, There will be two Jewish states. In my briefcase. I have a constitution for the State of Judah. On the phone less than an hour ago, I was talking to one of the major players, Rabbi Yoel Karen, who's responsible for putting the infrastructure together.
for the second Jewish state called Judah. He works for Baruch bin Joseph, one of the leading attorneys in Jerusalem. who was the man quoted By the Jerusalem Post, not some prophecy book, the Jerusalem Post, and he said this: the only solution we have to the Gentile world wanting to destroy the Jewish, they're going to form a second Jewish state. Judah, it's ready right now. One more thing, chapter 35.
Chapter 35 is a judgment against Mount Cyr. You need to study chapter 35 sometime. Who is Mount Cyr? 36th chapter of the book of Genesis says Mount Seir is where God sent Edom. Edom.
Edom, Esau, the twin brother of Jacob, and in their mother's womb, God told Rebekah: There will be two nations in your womb. Jacob becomes Israel. Esau He becomes the father of the Palestinian people. I can trace it. from Esau to the Palestinian people today.
Look what it says. Here's the reason they're going to be judged, verse 5. Because thou hast a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword. They're the ones that went to live in Mount Seir. Look at verse 10.
Because thou hast said, notice this. These two nations, Judah, Israel. These two nations and these two countries shall be mine. and we will possess it, whereas the LORD was there. This is a prophecy of the Palestinian people.
Malachi chapter 1. Jeremiah chapter 49. and also the little book of Obadiah. says these people will come back. Today, on my radio broadcast, I talk with the man who watches the Palestinian media.
I ask him about the Palestinians. Listen. setting their own borders as we speak. the borders for their Palestinian state. You know what Malachi 1 says?
They'll return, they'll rebuild. and I'll call their boarders. The borders of wickedness. The Jews from around the world gather. In Israel.
the land of their forefathers. He gives it to him. They will come from Every place. But because of world political leaders. They'll divide into two states.
And the Palestinians. For rise up. But to kill him. And to take those two states. That happens right after the rapture.
After The judgment seat of Christ. That's how close we are. to that event. Better be making. preparations.
For that time. We must be preparing for the judgment seat of Christ. It follows the rapture, and according to our study in Ezekiel to day, the rapture could happen at any moment. then the judgment seat of Christ. The judgment seat of Christ is going to be an awesome time for Please make ready for it to day.
Next week we'll begin a brand new study. Will answer the question: where is the United States in Bible prophecy? Please don't miss this study. Dr. Jimmy DeYoung and the Legacy Series.
Or we're going to take a break, and when we come back, we'll talk to Steve Herzig with Friends of Israel. We're in the midst of the three-fall feasts, the next one being Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Right here on Prophecy Today Weekend. I'm Steve O'Dell with Mission Network News. Tensions over fuel prices in Syria this week come on the heels of President Ahmad al-Shaira declaring the country to be on a new trajectory, one that prizes democracy and will unite military groups into one Syrian army.
As the Kurdish-led group SDF disbands, President Al-Shaira has promised constitutional protections for Kurds.
So, this integration is going to occur. But as to whether the cultural and linguistics and political rights of the Kurds in the Northeast will still be cared for and guaranteed, we're not really sure. How new governance will affect believers in Syria is another unknown. The prayer is that they would still be able to meet together, they'd still be able to worship, they would still be able to marry, bury, and baptize, and that God would protect that religious freedom that they currently have. Find more prayer points in our full report online.
Yeah. And World Missionary Press is sending 750,000 diary date books to prisons across the U.S. These books contain daily Bible verses and note-taking spaces. This year, WMP will also be sending Spanish copies. Helen Williams with WMP says, They are extremely well received.
We get wonderful feedback from prisoners. It just gives them something to start their day. It gives them something to think about during the day. Gives them a place to write. Having these books can also be a stepping stone to joining a Bible study.
Please pray that the scripture would speak to the hearts of those who receive the date books and that the Holy Spirit would be with the prison chaplains as they minister to people through Bible studies. Learn the full story at missionnews.org. Thank you for listening to Mission Network News, a service of one-way ministries. We're a listener supported by people like you. Join us here on our social media network or stream our podcast on Amazon Alexa, iTunes, or TWR360.
Look for the links at missionnetworknews.org. That's missionnetworknews.org. I'm Steve O'Dell. Welcome back to Prophecy Today. I'm Jimmy De Young Jr.
Along with Rick, we're examining current events in the light of God's prophetic word. Well, as I said at the outset of the program, this is a program about Yom Kippur. We are in the midst of the three fall feasts. There are four spring feasts, and incidentally, Jesus Christ fulfilled each of those four spring feasts. That would be Passover.
Christ was crucified on Passover, buried on unleavened bread, which is the next feast. Then the feast of first fruits. He rose again on the feast of first fruits. And the feast of weeks or Pentecost, which is when the church began. And that occurred 50 days after the beginning of the feast of unleavened bread.
So we are looking at Jesus' fulfillment of the four spring feasts. There are three fall feasts: trumpets. Day of Atonement and Tabernacles. And Jesus Christ will fulfill the three fall feasts, beginning with Rosh Hashanah, which is when Jesus Christ returns to the earth and regathers the Jews that are in the wilderness, brings them to the city of Jerusalem. Then you have the Day of Atonement, which is fulfilled.
Matthew chapter 25, when Jesus Christ brings those into the city of Jerusalem, he judges them, Gentiles and Jews. That would be the judgment of the sheeps and the goats and the five wise and five foolish virgins. That would be that day of atonement, that time when those that have accepted Christ and looked upon Jesus, the one that they pierced, those Jews and Gentiles from the tribulation period, will go into the millennial kingdom. And that's the feast of tabernacles that is fulfilled at the millennial kingdom. This dispensation that we're in now is the sixth dispensation, the one in which we now.
Live is a dispensation of grace. And Rick, after our conversation with Dr. Paul Weaver, we know how important it is to have an understanding of the dispensations of the Bible. But during this period of the fall feast, we want to talk to our good friend Steve Herzig. Steve Herzig is the North American Ministries Leader for Friends of Israel.
Steve Hoximayk, and welcome to the program. Steve, these holidays are very important to the Jewish people, but there's a significance to us as believers, correct? Yes, they are, Jimmy, and happy holidays to you. Yes, the fall feasts are extremely important. Russia Shana kicks off the Civil New Year.
It's significant. Jewish people Are thinking about their past year and oh, what a year it's been, Jimmy? And then they'll be thinking about Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and of course, Tabernacles.
So, yes, this is a very important time on the Jewish calendar. You summarized it really well, Jimmy. The first is Rosh Hashanah. Yes, a greeting is: may your name be inscribed in the book of life. What a wonderful greeting.
What a wonderful thing that is. There's a concern. Hey, will you will your name be in the book of life, or will it be in the book of judgment? Looking forward to what kind of year next year is going to be? And so at Russia, Shana, People are analyzing their life.
And I know you and I have talked in the past. You've actually had Jewish people come and apologize to you for something they might not have meant to do, but they realize they did, and they want to make it up. They want to repent and ask forgiveness. That goes on at Rosh Hashanah. Then ten days later, these people.
Ten days of awe as people Begin to analyze what they might have done wrong, the sins that they have committed. They repent of them because Yom Kippur is not may your name be inscribed in the book of life, your name will be sealed in one of those books, the book of judgment. or the book of life, and everyone wants to be sealed in the book of life. And so on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, they will fast and they will pray and they will give charity, which by the way, comes from a Talmudic story where the Temple is burning in 70 AD, and the rabbi and a student is there, and the student says to the rabbi, Rabbi, our people are fleeing, our temple is done, what are we going to do? We won't have sacrifices.
And the rabbi says from now on we will fast, we will pray, and we'll give charity.
Well, those things are all good. but they're not in the Bible to atone for sins. And so the Day of Atonement is a day that we as believers can sit look at and say, boy. Have I trusted in the only path, the only way Be saved. And then five days later, the Feast of Tabernacles.
That's when God sets up His kingdom. The Messiah has come, and the kingdom is here. For Jewish people, Tabernacles is a reminder of his faithfulness to them as they were journeying in the desert and wandered around.
Now ten day journey turned out to be forty years long. But eventually they go into the promised land. And we as Christians say, well, first we have to repent. Then we understand that Jesus paid the price for us, and then we understand that we're absent from the body or raptured, and then we're present with the Lord Jesus and co rulers with Him, as you will, being Being servants of his during the thousand-year rule where the kingdom will be an amazing thousand-year-old so these three feasts are really a culmination of the program of God. It's an exciting time, it's a real exciting time, Jimmy.
Steve, as we approach the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, I want Christians to understand we bring you to this program so that you're able to teach us about the Jewish feast. But The feast are for the Jewish people. One final question for you. We always ask this one: Steve, tell us how we can best, from a practical perspective, approach our Jewish friends during these feast days and tell them and relate to them about Jesus. Jimmy, these particular days are so unique where people are many people are afraid, they're concerned, The best way for those of us who have Jewish friends, people we're concerned about, is number one, give them a call, ask them how they are, especially for those who might be shut in.
Number two, if you can possibly give something to them, a basket, a fruit basket of some kind, a card, a greeting to them to encourage them and let them know that you're praying for them and concerned about them, especially during these difficult days. It's great that we can find ways to connect with them, even if it's phone call or by mail, e mail, and let them know that we care, especially as they're about to celebrate their Day of Atonement and four Tabernacles as well. Steve, thank you so very much, my good friend, and always great talking to you at this time of the Jewish Feast. And we will wait for the next ones upcoming in the spring, probably. That will be the time when we get back together again.
But thank you, my good friend Haksimaek. Have a blessed holidays as well. Jimmy, thanks so much. Always great to be with you. Rick, another great program.
And let me leave this one last thought with us all as we finish today. When Christ sacrificed himself on the cross, he appeased God's wrath against sin, taking the wrath upon himself. Romans 5:9. With all that we've seen this week, we can't help but say the rapture of the church is not far away. Let's keep looking up until.
Thank you so much for joining us today. This is Jay Johnson inviting you to join us again next week for more of Prophecy Today. Prophecy Today is a listener-supported production of Shofar Communications in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
