Against All Odds

We want you to believe in angels and in miracles.

So stay tuned. My name is Landon, and I'm nine years old. I'm the guy that got thrown up the third story at the Mall of America. And. That was the part where God came in and helped.

There's a miracle or I'm alive. God healed all the parts of my body. I'm perfect. Welcome to Understanding the Times Radio with Jan Markell. Radio 4 The Remnant.

Brought to you by Olive Tree Ministries. In part one of our program, Jan Markel talks to Carrie Hoffman. Whose story will encourage you in dark times. In part two, Josh Schwartz and Ken Michael talk to David Tal. The Mideast is the epicenter of end time activity.

They will talk about it. Here is today's programming. Yeah. You probably don't recognize Landon, but I'll bet you remember his story and what happened to him nearly four years ago at the Mall of America. This is what he looked like on April 12th, 2019.

This picture taken about an hour before he and his mom walked into the mall to meet up with a preschool buddy and his mom on the third floor. My name is Carrie Hoffman. I have a husband, Dave, who I've been married to for 12 years. and I have twins who are 11, Hayden and Haley, and Landon is now nine. My family has a story to share.

And it's a hard one to listen to, it's very heartbreaking. But out of it is an amazing miracle.

So Landon was five years old and he was ending preschool. And so we were going to go do something fun to celebrate with a friend. This friend of ours really wanted to go to the Crayola factory at the Mall of America. And the boys were excited saying, yes, let's go there, let's go there. And we went.

And right when I was driving into that parking ramp, I just got an overwhelming sense that something's wrong. I shouldn't be here. It was just like chills. It was just a feeling. But we're here, so I'm just gonna pray.

The mall was not open yet.

So they played in the car for a little bit, then we started to go in. And we're at the Rainforest Cafe on the third floor. And of course the boys are You know, so excited they want to see the alligators. And the alligator was not on and there's a big sign that says, please don't step on the rock. and the boys were climbed up on that rock looking over the edge and at that time A stranger came up and was whispering to the boys and so I stopped talking to this mom and I kind of went over to him and I said, oh excuse me, do you not want us on this rock?

I'm thinking he must work here, he must be like fixing it or something. And he smiled at me and he said, No, no, no, you're okay. You can be here.

So then I thought, oh, okay, you know, I stepped back. And then he whispered to them again. And I thought, Do you not want us here? And then he said, no, you're fine. And in that second, he picked Landon up under the arms and ran.

and just threw him off that third floor balcony. Welcome to the program.

So glad you can join me for this segment here. And now and then you know that we depart occasionally from the news and the happening now format and we bring in other topics from apologetics to faith-building stories of encouragement. And it does exhort us in Hebrews 10 to encourage one another and all the more as you see the last day drawing near. And some of you will remember a rather heart-wrenching story from a few years ago that occurred here in my hometown, state of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Carrie Hoffman and her son Landon were on a trip to Minnesota's famous Mall of America when a demonized man grabbed her son Landon and threw him to the main floor from the third floor almost 40 feet.

And that began a saga that was really followed by the world. And most importantly, prayers came from the world. From around the world. And Carrie had a test of faith and endurance like not many can go through because Landon's recovery was clearly against all odds.

Well, Carrie has joined me in studio today for understanding the Times Radio. She too lives in the Twin Cities area, as does Landon. Landon, was he 11 years old now, Carrie? Yes, he's 11. Just finished fifth grade?

Yes.

So, what intrigued me, lots of things, but you're driving to the Mall of America, and you've got an ominous feeling that you've got to almost pray for protection. I think that's stunning. Talk to me a little bit about that. I did. When I pulled into that parking lot, I just got chills and it felt like I'm not sure what's going on here, but I should pray, which I often do when I have a feeling just that the Lord will command his angels concerning us to protect us in all of our ways.

So I just prayed for angels to go with us, protect us. And then I pleaded the blood of Jesus over us. And I thought, we're here for a fun day.

Now let's go have fun. And you were with another friend? I was with Landon's little friend and his mom.

So describe what happened that morning because it was right after the mall opened. This goes back to April 2019. Six years have gone by now and I have a hunch you remember it like it happened yesterday, but tell me what happened. I do. I remember it like it was yesterday.

It wasn't open yet. It was like 9.45 and the mall opened at 10. And so they let you come in and walk around the halls and get a coffee if you want.

So that's what we were doing. We were right up the third floor.

So the boys were wanting to go to that rainforest cafe is right next to the Crayola factory where we were heading.

So we were going to go just stand outside those doors and wait for it to open. And they were standing on those rocks there looking at that fake elegator that goes up and down and in and out. It wasn't on. And so they were just looking at it, like kind of waiting for it to turn on. And that's when a man came up and was leaning over the edge and whispering with them.

You talk about angels stepping in. A five-year-old boy is fighting for his life this morning after a stranger threw him from a balcony. When your friends ask you about what happened to you, what do you tell them? I tell him that It was me. that got thrown.

and they say, Really? And then I show them everything on me. And then They believe it and then Sometimes, like, some people don't believe it, but I don't care if they do or not. I just care that lots of people do care about me and I care about them too. A stranger came up and was whispering to these two little boys.

It happened in a blink of an eye. He snatched them and ran. And I was just frozen. Like what? You can't react.

It happens so fast. And then I screamed no after he was already thrown. Carrie says she immediately ran to then five-year-old Landon. The stores in what is the largest mall in America weren't even open yet, but several nurses happened to be inside, rushing to her side to help. Then the nurses are working at them and they would say, I think we got a heartbeat.

And I would say, you bet we got a heartbeat. And they're like, we think he took a breath. And I'm like, yes, he took a breath. Landon was rushed to the pediatric ICU, Carrie staying every night by his side. In those early days, what were you asking God for?

Complete healing and restoration. We're walking out here. We're not going to leave here in a wheelchair. He was thrown three stories. I mean they're not like normal stories in a house.

He caught himself. He landed. That's why his arms were broken and his nose was smushed. Then I believe that angels caught him because I prayed for angels coming in there. What did the doctors tell you?

All of them. This is a miracle. He should not be here.

So, nurses conveniently were present. They were on the second floor. Yeah. And they witnessed what happened. Yeah.

And they flew into action. Relive that for just a moment. Yeah, they saw what happened and they heard my screams and they saw me run down there.

So they were also waiting for a store to open on the balcony on the second level.

So they were there, watched the whole thing. Most people ran away because they're scared. They came too. They were right behind me. I got down to the end of the escalator and I yelled, Where is he?

And there was one other woman down there who also was a nurse, and she pointed to him. I ran to him, picked him up, and she said, No, put him down. And as soon as I put him down, then these two other nurses were there. And not only are they nurses, but they work at Children's Minnesota and they work in the cardiac unit. And so their job is to resuscitate people and save lives every day.

They knew what they were doing. And so, yes, I believe God placed them there. Yeah, totally.

So, how many people have loved ones fall 40 feet, survive the fall? Obviously, huge damage. Yeah. So, let's talk about that for a moment because this is six years later, and most of this is healed, not 100%, but I think it's some vision problems are about all that's remaining. But still, you've fallen 40 feet.

You're five years old, I believe he was. Yeah, Landon doesn't even remember this, which is hard to imagine, but. Doesn't remember it, and maybe a lot of kids go through trauma, and God helps them to forget that probably what happened, but four months of treatment. Yeah. First day that we were there and we got out of the ambulance and into that life-saving room where they don't know what the extent of his injuries are, but they're saving his life.

So they're setting his bones. They're checking his blood pressure. They're doing all those things just to get him stable enough to go get the MRI. When they were doing that, I was standing on a chair and praying for him. They let me do that.

And they even said, if you don't need to be speaking, don't speak. And I spoke because they allowed me to, just asking God to put him back together. I just really saw him whole and I claimed him perfect. They said, what is his blood pressure? And I yelled out, it's perfect.

Then they took him across the hall to get the MRI. And there is where a couple hours later, I learned that he injured his frontal lobe and everything looks okay for right now. And that was the big extent of his injury. The frontal lobe, but we did know it looked okay. We had to wait 10 days for the inflammation to go down, the brain drain to come out, and all those things to check it again.

And when they checked it again in 10 days, I'll never forget that day. We were downstairs and praying and waiting for those results. And the doctor came running down the hallway with a big smile on his face saying, It looks the same. He injured his frontal lobe. You're going to get him back.

He's going to be Landon walking and talking again, but he will be more impulsive as he grows up. We don't know what that exactly means, but he'll just not make as good decisions. Which proved to be true. It proved to be true. If you just joined me, you are listening to Understanding the Times Radio, Jan Markell.

I have Carrie Hoffman in the studio because I came across her book. You can only find it on Amazon, Miracle at the Mall. The true story of Landon Hoffman, who survived being thrown from a 39-foot-high balcony at the largest mall in America. And by the way, Carrie, everybody in Minnesota either visits the mall or certainly drives by the mall. It's near the airport.

And I think most of us, we just have a strange feeling. And that doesn't mean that we got merchants out there who are giving their life to their businesses and all and we support them. But the point is, you had an uncomfortable feeling as you drove up to the mall. I don't think anybody imagines that there's just something going on out there and we can't fully explain it, but that you experienced the worst of the worst. I felt it was a demonic attack.

That's what it comes down to. There's something demonic going on. Yeah. I think so. I think what most people don't know, unless they have your book, they would know.

But this is round two for these kinds of incidents. You had one in your childhood. And I think that's a significant story because an intruder came to your home and your parents went through a very similar scenario. Help us understand. We had left our garage door open this night and it was in June and this guy was riding around on a bicycle with a gun and he was looking for a place to rob to get money.

And our garage door was open and he came in and took a tablecloth off of our dining room table and wrapped it around his face. And he came upstairs to wake all of us up one by one. And I have a brother and I have a sister and then I was third. And then we woke up my parents and we all went and sat in the living room. Living room while he was trying to decide what to do with us.

My dad was saying out loud, kids pray, everybody pray. And my dad was just praying out loud and asking God for the right time to take over this man. And he said he had given this story when it happened. About how God just kept telling him not yet, and my mom was trying to confuse him with, Can I get my glasses? Can I go to the bathroom?

And the kids pray, and so we were just all praying out loud. And the guy was confused. My mom said, Well, what do you want us to do? And he said, Go to the garage.

So we went out to the garage, and he wanted the keys to a certain car that he was going to tie us up and put us in this trunk. And then he wanted my mom to drive to cash machines. We didn't know where the keys were. We always had kept him in the car, but we said we didn't know where they were. I had told him they're in the car because that's where we kept him.

So we go out there single file. My dad was the last one. And I went in the car and held up the keys. And as soon as I held up the keys, the man looked and my dad heard God say now. And my dad grabbed the gun, punched him, got him to the ground, pinned him on the ground, and just kept punching him until he would let go of the gun.

But he wouldn't let go of the gun. He kept saying, I give up, I give up. And then my dad said, well, let the gun go then, but he wouldn't. He had a death grip on it. And my mom had to pry it off with his fingers.

And he bit her in the leg. And my dad held him there. And then my mom got the gun away. And the police came and he had 27 bullets in his gun. He was ready to hurt somebody too.

And it happens to you again several years later. You think that was preparing you? I do think that that moment, none of us were fearful because we were praying and asking God to protect us and we knew that he was there. We all had a peace. And when this happened with Landon, it was the same thing.

Just had a peace that we were taken care of, that God was in control. And I think what stood out to me is you kept your mind on God alone. That's during the Landon ordeal here. Carrie's prayers continued all the way to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, where a team of surgeons was standing by. The nearly 40-foot fall shattered his wrists, hands, and elbows, broke his femur, shattered the bones in his face, and injured his brain.

No. They wheeled him in and they instantly just started working on him, every part of his body. And I stood on a chair and I prayed for the doctor's hands to be used by God to fix him, to heal him. Mommy loves you so much. We knew it was going to be a slow journey.

But we were gonna take this one day at a time until every bone in his body was healed and everything in his body was perfect. If you could give the camera a thumbs up, I'd be very happy 'cause I could show daddy. I love you, Landon. When Lannon was in the hospital, I tried to keep my mind on God and God alone. I had praise and worship music on.

I never had the TV on. And, you know, whenever I was fighting, I would look up scriptures and I journaled every night. And whatever the nurses guided me on, what he needed is what I. Would focus on and ask God to help me do, and God kept me in that sense of peace the entire time. Jesus.

Yes.

Yeah. This I know.

Sorry. Yeah. Five. Yeah, she Hmm.

So Today, four years later, I finally feel like I have him back. The first year at a hospital, it was probably the hardest time ever. He didn't look like himself. He didn't act like himself. His personality is completely different.

He was struggling in school and with friends, and it was hard. But we're finally getting back to who he was. Jen Markill, Understanding the Times Heaven in the Studio, Carrie Hoffman, came across her book. You can find it on Amazon, Miracle at the Mall. It's a story of Landon and what happened.

Spring of 2019 here in my hometown of Minneapolis-St. Paul here in Minnesota. And I think another thing, Carrie, that stood out to me is the people literally around the world who were engaged in this. That's quite amazing. You know, there are tragedies literally every minute in America and around the world.

And not everybody from around the world gets tuned in, but they did. Yeah. I think it was because I immediately cried out in prayer, asked people to pray, and people wanted to pray for him. They sent me letters. I had thousands of letters that people say.

Prayer groups, prayer. Prayer groups all over the world. Yes.

Even some in Australia, I would get letters from. It was amazing. That clearly made a difference, though. It had to have. For sure.

Anything that Landon was not doing well on, I would ask for prayers, just one certain prayer group that I had, and then they would spread the news. But I also feel like even though people didn't know exactly what they were praying for, they were just praying that he would be healed and we would get answers and we would go home. And I felt it. God kept me in a perfect peace the entire time. I was never fearful.

I was never worried. I never thought he was going to die.

Some doctors did, and I didn't want them in my room. Oh, they did? Yeah. There was one specific.

Okay. But you definitely had to learn patience. You talk about it. Everything took so long. That's medicine.

And every bone takes a long time to heal. Every procedure takes forever. It does. He broke his leg twice.

So he broke his femur from the fall. That's six weeks to heal.

So it kept us in bed. Then we're like, oh, six weeks, we can stand up. He broke it again. But that was a divine intervention as well. At the time, I was very upset that he broke it again.

And we have to stay in bed for another six weeks, not get up, not move. But what had happened from the fall was his vena cava had ripped off from his heart and it was hanging on by a thread and the inflammation in his body held it together and it was slowly reattaching to the heart. And as it was, it was getting tighter and tighter and it got to the size of a pinhole. If Lannon hadn't up and walking around, that would have complicated things. He could have died.

So he needed to break his leg a second time to stay in bed until the doctors figured this out. And so again, that was another miracle. We needed him in bed. And I was so mad at the time wondering why, why? But I just trusted that there.

Was a reason. I knew I'd know a reason someday, and I do now. And I'm impressed, Carrie, that you've done a lot of media. As a matter of fact, I picked up a little clip here. This is actually landing today, and I think my audience needs to hear it.

And folks, if you're watching the video version, you can see all these clips and you can see landing several years ago and landing today. And here's that miracle boy today. Landon loves hockey. Hanging out with his buddies.

Alright, Lando, we're gonna do our eye movements.

Okay, stay focused on that. I'm gonna try to distract you. Don't let me. He's still working on his recovery. We were with him as he got vision therapy to help control his eyes from drifting.

See a clock that's like.

Some numbers are out and some are like in.

So far, we're seeing his eye movements smooth out. His ability to converge his eyes is quickly improving. We're seeing improvement with his physical coordination. From surviving an unspeakable act of evil at America's largest mall to a typical eleven year old boy. No.

A true miracle. Do you want to add to that, Carrie Hoffman? That's just a few months old. Maybe you have an update. He loves life.

He's golfing today. He loves fish. He loves baseball. He loves telling everybody he's the miracle boy, that he's the boy that was thrown over the balcony at the Mall of America and God saved him. He is ready to tell a story to anybody who wants to hear because he wants everybody to go to heaven.

Not everyone gets a miracle. I think almost every listener is waiting for some are just waiting to get well. Others are waiting to get over grief. Others have lost person, pets, whatever. There's just a big loss in their life and they're waiting for their heart to get healed.

Yeah. What do you tell people like that? Because in some cases, those folks aren't going to get a miracle. No, but what I would say is our Heavenly Father loves us so much. There's nothing in this world that can fill that hole except for him.

And so when you just immerse yourself with his love, listen to things that are going to fill you up, draw you closer to him, that's the only thing that here on earth is worth living for. We're here for a blink of an eye and time and we're in heaven for eternity.

So while we're here, God wants us to enjoy our lives, no matter what we're going through and how we can do that. The joy of the Lord is our strength. I sat in that hospital room and every day was fun. We made it fun. Even if he was going through something really hard, we looked forward to the popsicle or had Nana and Papa come in and play a game and it was laughter and we had a good time in there.

We did not say poor us and what about us and feel sad about anything because we were fighting for our lives and we knew God was on our side. And when we get to heaven, that's forever. Then our bodies will be perfect and those holes will be filled. You can find Carrie on Facebook and Instagram under Carrie Hoffman, K-A-R-I-H-O-N. F-F-M-A-N-N.

You can find her book, Miracle at the Mall. On Amazon, the true story of Landon Hoffman, who survived being thrown from a 39-foot-high balcony at the Mall of America. That's America's largest mall. You have an interesting story as it concerns the word Emmanuel. Why don't you talk to us about that?

Yeah, when we were in the hospital on that first day, people keep coming to see you-lots of family and friends, but other people too.

So they ask you to have a code word to get up to your room so that when people get there, they don't have to be questioned. They just say this code word, and that means I know them and they can come up. I didn't care what the code word was at the time because I was too busy thinking about Landon.

So one of my cousins said, how about Emmanuel? And I said, sure.

So the name was Emmanuel. She said, let's use that because it means God is with us.

So I said, okay.

So everybody who came to the hospital said that name to get up to our room. Two weeks into it, I was sitting in Landon's bed one morning and I was journaling and my sister had texted me, do you know the name of the man who threw Landon is Emmanuel? And I sat there in the bed and cried. And a nurse walked in and she said, what's wrong? And I said, well, we're saying Emmanuel as a code word to get to our room.

And that's the name of the man who threw him. I didn't know anything about him. I didn't want to know. She goes, well, we got to get that changed. And I said, yes.

So we changed it to perfect because that was the word. Anytime the doctors came in to talk to us, they would give us their report and I'd say, but he's perfect, right? And then the doctors started saying, yep, he's perfect.

So we changed it to perfect. Years later, I started writing this book and thinking about that again. And it just showed me how God's fingerprints are all over. The story in so many different tiny little ways that the name of the man who threw Landon is Emmanuel, and Emmanuel means God is with us.

So God was with us through the man who threw him. And I just feel that Satan asked God for permission to be able to do this to Landon because he knew what the outcome was going to be. He knew he was going to perform a miracle. He knew he was going to save him. And God allowed it because he knew that I would tell it.

And so that's why I'm out sharing this story because I. I got this perfect miracle. I got my baby back not only without any injuries, nobody would know who he is. I got him perfectly back just the way that I asked God to give him to me. And he allowed Satan to do it to show the world who he is, that this is a miracle that you cannot deny.

And I think you've forgiven. And I think we need to talk about that for a moment or two. That's one of the most difficult assignments on earth is to forgive those who do evil towards us, perpetrate it, think it, plan it, execute it. This gentleman actually, I think he turned up at the Mall of America the day before, am I right? Yeah.

And he wasn't successful with his plan to kill somebody the day before. The day of, he spotted you and Landon and another mom and a little boy. Picked Landon. That sort of makes you feel like you got a target on you. Yeah.

But you did turn around and forgave this Emmanuel. I did. I forgave him because right away that first day, I felt like this was the devil's attack. It had nothing to do with this man. He didn't know us.

He doesn't know Landon. He didn't want to hurt him.

Something must be completely wrong with him.

So I fell to my knees right when he got out of that life-saving room and said, I forgive that man because I wanted God to be able to use me freely to be able to pray for Landon to intervene in our lives and not hold this hatred and inner bitterness inside my heart about this man who must be having a horrible life, lots of problems. I don't know his life, but something is wrong for him to want to hurt us. And so I know that when he dies and goes to heaven, he'll have to answer to what he did. I just want to forgive him and I want God to take care of him.

Well, you've described, again, you have it in the title of your book, Miracle. It's an incredible story. It's an incredible miracle. As a matter of fact, a lot of national media picked up on it. And I know they've cut things out of some of your interviews, which I understand they even took a cross out of your background.

Is that right? Yeah. When I was on Inside Edition, I had a cross in the background and they removed it. And did they kind of want you to not talk about some things? I talked about a lot of things that they cut it all out, but they did call a Miracle Boy.

They did? Yeah. Were you able to give the Lord credit? Where I saw you, you did a very good job, but I don't know what they took out. Yeah, and I told a lot of things, like I told in here, just how God was there the entire time, never left our side, kept me in that perfect peace.

They were just interested in the drama part. I also think the world's interested in the forgiveness part because I think that is hard for a lot of people to do. But me understanding that the ultimate judgment is eternity, like I said, here, we're here for such a short time. Eternity is forever. Even being in jail is not suffering the way that you will if you go to hell.

So, I don't need to worry about that. I casted my cares on God a long time ago. I gave him to God, and I don't think about him anymore. It's not my business. You can see some of this story.

There are clips all over YouTube. Again, you can find the book written by Carrie Hoffman, A Miracle at the Mall, on Amazon. Carrie, I'm down to about 30 seconds. Do you want to sum anything up? Just know that nobody can snatch you out of your father's hand.

He is the ultimate decider if you live or die.

So, just because this man came up and wanted to kill him, God is in the ultimate control. And he just said no. Again, I thank you for coming in here. You live here in the Twin Cities where I do. And God's done amazing things through you.

I just want to thank you. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate you having me on your program.

Now, up next, part two: Ken Michael, Josh Schwartz are going to talk to one of my favorite Israelis, David Tahl. He's got great insights on what's going on in the Middle East and more. Abraham Accords, don't go away. Back in just a minute or two. We are learning this morning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did arrive in the U.S.

for another high-stakes meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House. The two are working toward a ceasefire deal in Gaza. But as Fox News correspondent Doug Luzeta reports from Washington this morning, there are big hurdles ahead. You forge the Abraham cords. is forging peace as we speak.

In one country, in one region after the other.

So I want to present to you, Mr. President. The letter I sent to the Nobel Prize Committee. It's nominating you for the Peace Prize, which is well deserved. And we've had great cooperation from surrounding meaning surrounding Israel, surrounding countries, great cooperation from every single one of them.

So something good will happen. We have scheduled Iran talks and they wanna they wanna talk. They took a big drubbing. I think when we hit the three sites, really, I would say the three sites, not just the one. The one was a big one.

And it was deep in granite and it was obliterated. It turned out the Atomic Energy Commission said it is obliterated. Do you think that there can be a two-state solution? I think Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves. but none of the powers should threaten us.

That means that certain powers, like overall security, will always remain in our hands. No, that is a fact. And no one in Israel would allow. agree to anything else because we don't commit suicide. We want life, we cherish life.

for ourselves, for our neighbors, and I think we can work out a peace between us and the entire Middle East. with President Trump's leadership. And by working together, I think we can establish a very, very broad peace that will include all our neighbours.

Well, welcome back to Understanding the Times. I'm Ken Michael, along with Pastor Josh Schwartz.

Well, this week, Prime Minister Netanyahu met with President Trump to talk about the Middle East, what's going to happen in Israel and Gaza and the rest of the Middle East. And here to discuss that with us today is from the Balagon Connection. We'd like to welcome back David Tall. David, thank you so much for joining us today.

Well, it's a pleasure to be here. And yes, there is so much to talk about.

So I'm glad that this opportunity to explain what's going on has been afforded to so many people.

Well, let's talk first about what President Trump wants to do. He is insisting that there's a ceasefire coming in Gaza. He wants a ceasefire, and he wants peace between Israel and Gaza. What's your take on that? And we heard Prime Minister Netanyahu say absolutely there will not be a two-state solution.

What's your take on that? Well, there's a lot of things actually mixing in, but let's go back to the beginning. Remember, we have a very militant, very, I'm going to say, death cult that is in control of Gaza. It's called the Hamas. It is the Palestinian version of ISIS or Al-Qaeda, if you want to go that, who believes that they should die for their cause.

And they're the ones who perpetrated the 7th of October last year. And Israel is saying, no matter what happens, no matter how it happens, no matter what the final agreement is going to be, we can't allow them to stay in power to be able to threaten Israel again.

So they're trying to stay in power. They still have twenty live hostages and another thirty that are not with us. And that's the negotiation that is going on. They're trying to stay in power. Israel is saying, we don't want you left in power at the end of this.

And that's where it is right now.

So what do you see Gaza looking like in the future? I know we don't know exactly what that looks like. President Trump said that he wants to make that an area of great commerce and tourism. Do you see that happening in the near future? Theoretically, yes.

The only Or I'm going to put it like this. The last bottleneck, the last main obstacle to this Middle East mega peace great plan that we can go into if you want to. The only thing that's actually holding that back are the Palestinians in Gaza. President Trump has already said he would like to see them leave Gaza and will turn Gaza into an economic powerhouse. Israel would like to see The Hamas leave Gaza and for it not to be a threat.

So we're on this bottleneck that if this gets solved, I mean, the great. deal maker that President Trump is, find a way to make Israel agree and make Hamas agree. If that happens, we're going to see this big piece going out. But Gaza has to quit being a threat. Either through an agreement Or through military occupation.

There is talk in Israel today that if Gaza doesn't, or if the Hamas doesn't reach an agreement, Israel will completely occupy the Gaza Strip and it will be under military occupation until something changes or until something happens. That's one option. The other option is that President Trump, together with the Qataris, together with money, manages to convince the Gazans that they can live in peace and relative safety, and then the rebuilding of Gaza actually takes place. In both cases, they're talking about Gaza being the main hub of the big India, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Europe kind of access, or the new Silk Road kind of dynamic that is going to be very, very interesting.

So either the Gazans say, okay, let's live in peace, or Israel actually occupies the Gaza Strip.

So David, let's work through that. For those who might not understand the immediate importance of the placement of Israel in the land where they are and how that plays a role with this new Silk Road trade organization, this corridor. Can you give us some insight into that, the strategic placement of Israel and what that potential Middle East trade corridor could look like? The tour guide kind of euphorism is that God put us in one of the most strategic places in the world. But it's a really, really bad neighborhood.

But the idea is that Israel sits on the eastern side of the Mediterranean on one side, which connects to all of Europe, meaning Turkey, Italy, and all the rest of Europe, and borders with the Red Sea on the other side and the rest of Asia.

So if India wants to export something from India to Europe, it's got to go either around Israel or by Israel. And the idea is to create a combination of Ports and shipping routes that go from the east, meaning basically India and Maybe even the South China Sea that go through the Gulf, the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and then.

Somewhere, this has to connect to a port on the shores of the Mediterranean. The only port that actually is possible in this is Gaza. And they're talking about turning Gaza into the main hub or the main port where this corridor from India through Saudi Arabia, both for energy and for goods, connects to the Mediterranean Sea. That's the big plan actually that President Trump is holding for Gaza. And that was a plan that was in place because Saudi Arabia is trying to step off.

The energy dependency, or the oil dependency, or the oil economy dependency that they have. And this is going to be the big mega deal that President Trump is trying to sign. I believe that President that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington right now, because if somebody flips the switch on the Gaza issue, I think him and President Trump have already. put out the framework for this whole East West corridor that they would like to actually pronounce it publicly the minute this happens. Wow.

Yeah, Josh and I were talking about that earlier. Perfect place to put a port where all the goods and services could come in.

So, David, you mentioned Saudi Arabia earlier. How do they fit in and all the other countries that are signing on to the Abraham Accords? How do they fit into this whole scenario? Are they going to be involved in physically being there? I'm sure financial.

contributions are going to be made, but how do they fit into all this?

Well, let's start off at the beginning. Saudi Arabia is the main hub or the main power in the Sunni Muslim world, or many would say the Muslim world. I mean, Muhammad came from Mecca. And if Islam is a major factor in the politics of the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is like the, how do you say, the main clubhouse of Islamic theology. As such, they have power and they have opportunity, add on their oil wealth and they're a major player.

But they've always had a problem with the other version of Islam, what we call the Shiite Islam, that is represented by Iran. With the fall of Iran and what happened in the last month, well, what happened in the last two years, but specifically in the last month, is Iran has fallen from grace. It's fallen from power, it's falling from relevance, it's falling from the ability to project its power. Saudi Arabia becomes the main power broker or the main authority broker in the Middle East. President Trump has seen that, spent major amounts of time in Saudi Arabia, and Together with Israel and the other moderate Muslim nations, will create the power block or the union or the federation or whatever you want to call it of moderate Islam together with Israel in the Middle East.

And that is, how do you say? the dream of end times coming true.

So in essence, Saudi Arabia and moderate Islam coming to peace with Israel moves us in a very, very positive direction, especially speaking of Ezekiel 38 and the supposed peace that's going to be there before those from the north come in.

Now, before we dive into that, because I think that's important to dive into, David. What are your thoughts on everything that happened with Iran. You did mention that they have fallen. Is this a complete fall in Iran? you know the classic jewish answer to any question is yes and no I mean, we've done that before.

But I will say this: it is probably not a complete fall, meaning Iran is still a power to be dealt with. It is still a very strong economy. They have the 10th largest reserves of natural gas, if I remember correctly, and huge amounts of oil. They are very resilient, very proud people with a diverse history. I mean, they are still a power to be dealt with, but they've been smacked.

And in a neighborhood that we live in, where power and strength are directly translated into political weight, Iran has lost a lot of its political weight. For instance, Iran was projecting power through its proxies. The Khizbalah is the classic one in Lebanon, the Khutim in Yemen. And they're saying, okay, you have to deal with us because we can make the Khizbalah do all kinds of things if you make us mad. The thing is, the Khizbalah has been dismantled in Lebanon.

The Khutim are on their bad foot. Iran itself is, so they cannot project power. And if they cannot project power, then they are not. A factor that has to be taken in consideration. What we're seeing in Washington right now.

President Trump. Benjamin Netanyahu and the power that President Trump has through all of these different arrangements, he is going to be the unifying factor for an agreement of peace that is based on economics and politics and not based on religion. And that is the backdrop that I think we're talking about. And that leads us squarely into this piece that comes from Ezekiel 38 before Israel is invaded from the north and God has to answer. Do you understand that after the 7th of October is a wounded bear or a wounded line?

I'm going to use the line. I'll use the line because that's what we're talking about.

Something major has to happen in order for Israel not to be afraid like it is right now. And again, we are very, very fearful. I don't know if you know, yesterday we blew up a facility in Syria that we thought might be a threat. On the other hand, they're still fighting. We lost five soldiers yesterday in Gaza, in an ambush in Gaza.

So for something to happen that says Israel is going to give up its armor and beat its sword into plowsheds, something major has to happen. And it has to be this mega. grand, amazing deal where the economy and the diplomacy and the politics glue together everybody and a sense of trust is created not by what The other side can do, but what the other side says it's going to do. And since He is the king of deceivers. He's going to deceive Israel and the rest of the Middle East into a sense of trust while all of the time plotting what we know is going to happen in Ezekiel.

So I'm not saying that we're there yet. I'm not saying it's happening yet, but you can see something like that. If the situation in Gaza is resolved and President Trump does pull out all the stops on this mega deal, you can see at least the first couple of steps leading up in that direction. Yeah, you're exactly right. And one other thing, you mentioned it briefly, is the IDF just bombed some locations in Syria.

what is going on in Syria right now? I mean, that's a key player in the Middle East and in Bible prophecy. We know Isaiah 17 is going to happen at some point. What tell our audience what's happening in Syria right now. Syria was one of the hotbeds of opposition or hatred of Israel.

It was ruled by a minority called the Alawites, with a family called the Afad family. But Syria has disintegrated, fallen apart. dismantled. In place of the old regime, there is a new regime that actually came out of ISIS and Al-Qaeda, but is now taken off the uniform, put on a suit, and is trying to reach some kind of diplomatic accord with the United States and with Israel as a result. What President Trump has done has everybody in the Middle East says, okay, I'm willing to give up my weapons, I'm willing to give up my militant aspect, and I want to get on the economic bandwagon that President Trump is actually putting in.

And Syria wants a part of that too. Not only Syria, Syria's patron right now is Turkey. And they're both saying, let's Side with the United States. And very interesting, the United States is tying Israel into that.

So if you want to side with the United States, you have to be okay with Israel. And we're seeing the Syrian regime reaching out to Israel and saying, let's not fight anymore. Let's reach an agreement. We cannot reach an Abrahamic agreement, but we agree not to fight. If that happens, I think Lebanon is going to jump onto the bang wagon.

And there's talk about Lebanon also being part of the Abrahamic Accords. If they can convince the Hezbollah, which was the Iranian proxy, that is. Completely fallen underground. If they can convince the Hezbollah to give up its weapons, and as a result, Israel will pull out of the places that we're holding in southern Lebanon, then we'll have Lebanon and Syria. Peaceful.

For the first time since the birth of the State of Israel in 1947. I mean, that smells like Ezekiel. And like you said, we're not saying that this is taking place, but it's almost as the points are being charted on the map to show us that we are going in a direction towards this. Again, a lot of things have to happen. Israel is still very, very scared.

And I mean, I'm watching Benjamin Netanyahu, I heard what he said. in in the meeting. But can I superimpose something very, very interesting? I was watching parts, and we just saw a part of it just now. There was Trump on the left side of the table, Benjamin and Tanya on the right side.

But behind Trump, about four or five seats down, was the Israeli the American ambassador to Israel. And I don't know if you know, but his name is Mike Cuckerby. He was the governor of Arkansas, and he's well known. But here's the thing. The fact that there's a born-again Christian.

Mm-hmm. As a major player, In what's going on between America and Israel today, sitting on the table in this very, very public announcement, means that God's in play here. And I think that's kind of fascinating. Wow. Amen.

Heard what's going on in the Middle East. Let's see what's happening over here in America. How does that affect us here in America? I want you to listen to a quick clip and then we'll get your take. Does the Iranian regime really have numerous sleeper cells within the United States?

Yes, as my article is titled, Iran Does Have Sleeper Cells in the United States, and they've had them for many years, and it's a key component of the regime's statecraft. The phrase sleeper cell has skyrocketed in the news recently as conflicts in the Middle East have escalated. It's a secretive sounding phrase for a kind of undercover group. And you might have heard similar expressions like sleeper agent or sleeper spy. We're rounding up all these individuals or attempting to locate the ones that did get in.

You have one that was admitted to Hezbollah. We also arrested a former sniper from a hostile country who snuck into the United States.

So those are the type of individuals we want to locate. ICE has been busy. ICE has arrested 130 Iranian nationals all across the United States. And ICE currently has 670 Iranian nationals in ICE detention.

Now we talk about some of those people who are detained right now. You just heard Todd Lyons explain some of it. This guy, a former Iranian Army sniper who had his military ID card on him at the time of his arrest. This guy, a former IRGC member with suspected ties to Hezbollah, this man had a gun in his waistband, and I says another one of them was a known or suspected terrorist. After President Trump left the G7 summit in Canada a day early last week, it was learned he had received a message from Iran that if the U.S.

attacked Iran's nuclear facilities, the regime could activate sleeper cells to launch terror attacks in the United States. We do not know much about most of them, and Border Czar Tom Holman does not think Iran will give us any information. This is the biggest national security issue this country has ever faced. You think Iran? Would give us any information about their national security issues or what the past or records of these people are.

Iran is not going to give us that information. That scares me more than anything. Welcome back to Understand the Times. Today we've got David Tall with the Balagon Connection with us, and we are dissecting what's happening in the Middle East and what's happening here in our neck of the woods.

Now, David, you just heard in that clip that there are confirmed sleeper cells, Iranian sleeper cells in America, and there are confirmed arrested former IRGC members also here in America. What are your thoughts and What should we be doing to at least guerd ourselves from what could come?

Well, like everything else, first thing first is to be aware of what's happening. And let's make this clear. Iran doesn't like America. Iran doesn't agree with America. And Iran is relationship with the United States of America is based on Iranian interest, and one of them is hatred of everything that America represents, everything that the West represents.

So let's start off with this. We have to understand that by definition, Iran is evil. The thing is, this: we see more and more in our society here in the United States that. Decide not to deal with evil. Decide not to deal with the downright ungodliness of regimes like Iran.

And we're seeing Demonstrations in support of Iran, demonstrations in support of the Hamas organization, demonstrations in support of all of this ungodliness that comes from the other side. And I'm going to say it like this. That is as much a weapon. against the United States and against Israel as sleeper cells will be. I don't believe Iran will be using sleeper cells right now because I don't know if you heard yesterday they talked about reigniting the negotiation with the United States.

And Any kind of vector terrorist attack on American soil will turn these what they call, by the way, what they call useful idiots that are supporting Iran all over. And by the way, some of them included in the Democratic Party.

Okay, they are more useful to Iran right now than I think the sleeper cells are.

So Iran is going to use the sleeper cells. It's going to keep them in the meantime to be a threat. But I don't think right now they'll be used because the useful idiots are much more useful. Than that is. And I think that is something that we need to take into consideration, and they need to be dealt with too.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. In fact, Josh, we were talking about the Red-Green alliance that I think David's spot on, that they're going to use people that live here that are sympathetic to their cause to start a lot of the problems that we're seeing. We're seeing ICE agents being attacked for the immigration issue that we have going on.

So I couldn't agree more.

So, David, As we close out here, we're running out of time. How effective do you think the strikes were on Iran's nuclear program?

Okay, let's put it. In in context. Um it probably set Iran back I'm not gonna say uh indefinitely but at least Back for years. The Ford facility is gone. The Natanz facility is gone.

And their ability to turn the 408 kilo of enriched uranium that they had enriched to 60% into a 90% bomb. And then put that uh Material into metal and put that metal into a bomb and put that bomb on a rocket. I think that is very, very inconceivable right now. We're not sure where the 408 kilo are right now. We know that they still want to do it.

So, what I'm trying to say is this: we've put them back a couple, probably a couple of years but we haven't Completely change their want or their striving to reach a nuclear weapon because the only thing that'll put them back on the map right now is a nuclear weapon.

So it's gone, but not completely. Hmm.

So David, if Iran's nuclear program has been decimated, do you see a regime change in the future, or how is that going to play out?

Well The regime change is the million-dollar question that everybody's asking about Iran right now. And I'm going to tie it into two things. First of all, the fact that they got smacked so. Definitely by Israel militarily and intelligence-wise, has put them in a weak position. And again, in a society, in a culture of power and strength, the government is in a very, very dire straits right now, the regime in Iran.

The thing is that we cannot press the button for any regime change. The Iranians will not allow us, either Israel or the United States, to be the reason for the regime change. They have to do it themselves. But I think something else is fascinating on that connection. Because if we talk about peace in the Middle East, that will be the precursor of end times, then that cannot happen while the Ayatullah, the fundamental let's death to America and death to Israel, is still in power in Iran.

So another step in the direction of this Middle East peace that would actually facilitate what we're talking about would be a regime change in Iran, where the Iranian Ayatollah, fundamentalist Shiite, twelfth Imam idea gets put down and a pro-West regime takes in place. But there are enough people in Iran that are never going to forget that, meaning that's going to be a peace on the outside, but there are going to be elements in Iran that will always be on the side of the destruction of the State of Israel.

Well, that still puts the ball in their court because we do know that eventually they will continue with an alliance with Turkey and Russia and come against Israel in the Ezekiel 38 scenario.

Now, David, as we are concluding here, we are so thankful for you and your ministry. Can you help our listeners understand how they can get in contact with you and the things that your ministry is doing? The ministry is called Gihon Springs, which is a spring of water that bubbles out from Mount Moriah in Jerusalem and fills up the Pole of Siloam. We are actually supporting military units People that were impacted by the war, meaning mostly widows and some military units directly, a printing press that puts out material in Hebrew and Arabic about Jesus, and a couple of other ministries in Israel.

So, if you want to support that, Gihon Springs, G-I-H-O-N springs.com, just check the link. And if you want to check the Balagan connection, I've been putting up information about what's going on. Join me there whenever you can.

Well, thank you, David. God bless you and your ministry.

Well, Josh, we have another pastor huddle coming up. We're excited. Yeah, we do. This time, October 7, 8, 9, 2025, Lee Brainer is going to be joining us and he is going to do a deep dive of a biblical and theological study on the coming eschatological kingdom from Revelation chapters 19 through 22. It's going to be a fantastic time together.

You can go ahead and register on our website, olivetreeviews.org, under the events tab on the pastors huddle. Remember, this is for pastors. If you do have any questions about that, please feel free to email me, josh at olivetreeviews.org.

Now, in all of this, Ken, I think we have to keep in perspective the big picture. If we are seeing all these marks on the chart lining up for potential peace in the Middle East and this coming Ezekiel 38 war, we know that Jesus also is getting closer and closer.

So friends, we must stand firm on the truth of the gospel and be proclaiming Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. To all of our friends, those especially that do not believe, because Jesus is coming soon. Amen. Well, we look forward to joining you next week on Understanding the Times. Until then, God bless you all.

To his honor and glory be unto your name Be unto your name.