Blessing or Cursing?

We have a fascinating history lesson for you today, so stay tuned. Four thousand years ago, a covenant was made that would have an enduring impact throughout history. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

In the miraculous rebirth of the nation of Israel. Here is today's program. And welcome to the program. I'm so glad you can join me today.

I have a special guest in studio. And that's because we are carrying a product and I'm anxious to get it into your hands. A film titled America and the Israel Effect. Are there consequences when America puts pressure on Israel, compromises her security or makes her give up land? And if you've heard my discussions over the years with Bill Koenig, you know there are actually terrible consequences that come to any nation when they put that kind of pressure on God's covenant land and people. That then affects you and me in monumental ways. It affects the people in any nation of the world if their governments are putting pressure on Israel.

And that puts that nation and people at risk. So I'm going to be playing a number of sound clips today from this film, America and the Israel Effect. And I've tried to pick some clips that are not seriously compromised on radio as my radio audience lacks the visual capability of seeing them. Now, remember, folks, we have a video version of this program where you can see everything we are discussing that and I reference it often. You can find that video version on our Web site, OliveTreeViews.org, then go to radio.

You can find that video version on his channel television, on YouTube, on Rumble, on Facebook. And we really do want some of you who are visual to have that capability of seeing what we're talking about. Now, how has America been compromised by U.S. leaders who want to give away land and marginalize Israel and her security? Who have been the primary perpetrators of this? And we have a rather new administration.

Will they bless or curse Israel? I think we know the answer to that, and the answer will directly affect every one of my listeners to this program. One of the producers of the film is in studio with me. His name is Stephen Briggs.

He is director of operations for Hatikva Films, and I'm going to say more about Hatikva Films as we go into the program here. Stephen, welcome to the studio. Thank you for having me. Stephen, how did you get into, I mean, I've seen bits and pieces of a number of your presentations.

We carry the one I just referred to. How did you get into this? Well, it's a long story, but I'll keep it short for your listeners. I lived in Israel for four years, from 2004 to 2008. And to minimize the length of that story, my grandmother was instrumental in praying for me and my grandfather as well. And they felt very clear that I was supposed to be going to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was not on my radar. They prayed, they told me, and the Lord stepped in in a number of amazing ways. And three and a half weeks after I'd spoken to my grandmother, I ended up in Israel. I served with a brother called Lance Lambert. Yes, I met Lance years ago.

I know he's passed on. While I was in Israel, I met the producer of a film called Jerusalem and the Covenant City, which is the earliest film that looks at God's plan and purpose and past, prophetic, past, present and future destiny of Jerusalem. And a new film that he was asked to present, Lance Lambert, was called Blessing, Curse or Coincidence. Well, originally it was called Curse or Coincidence. And I challenged the producer, I said, God's intent is to bless, it's not to curse.

You can't call it Curse or Coincidence because that's a wholly negative position to take. In the initial introduction with him, he turned to me. This was at the beginning of 2008. He said, Steve, when you leave Lance's, I want you to come and work for me. I was like, was that just a trite comment or is it something that I should follow up? Well, a few weeks later, I saw him. We met.

He said, I never say things like that. It must have been the Lord. And here I am involved with the film production company, making not just one film about Genesis 12, but a whole series of films. And this one is the fourth film in the series.

And folks, you can learn much more at HatikvaFilms.com, HatikvaFilms.com. I think what I want to do is I want to start with the fact that there were early Christian, I don't know if pioneers is the right word. We've got John Nelson Darby, D.L. Moody, William Blackstone, C.I.

Schofield. And these men played some very important roles. This would have been in the 1800s.

It's almost 200 years ago. And let me just play a clip here of Paul Wilkinson. And I appreciate you have Paul Wilkinson in the film. Again, we've talked about Lance Lambert in the film and some others that some folks were recognized.

But if we could play this clip and then I want to come back and talk about it. Although John Nelson Darby wasn't a minister, he wasn't a clergyman after he left the Church of Ireland. He was an itinerant. He was a man who had the heart of a pastor, the heart of a shepherd. And so Darby went out into the United States firstly to encourage his fellow brethren. Swiss and French brethren that were out there in the prairies. In four weeks he traveled 2,000 miles. But as he toured the United States, he and his fellow brethren, evangelists, itinerants, were being invited to conduct what became known as Bible readings, taken into homes, taken into the churches, Baptist churches, Presbyterian churches, independent churches, to read scripture and to proclaim in particular, and this is what marked out John Nelson Darby and the brethren in those days, the imminent return of the Lord.

During the course of these seven tours of the United States, John Nelson Darby would meet men such as D. L. Moody. The focus began to emerge in understanding of restorationism, that the purpose, this miraculous experience of the story of the Jewish people, the story of Christians, and the story of America was related. It was really not separate things, but tied together. From 1883 to 1897, pre-millennialists, evangelicals that believed in the Lord's return, the restoration of the Jews, were coming together to read the Word, to study the Word, and to seek the Lord's guidance. How were they to get the message out to the wider church?

To sound the midnight cry, Behold, the bridegroom cometh. And these conferences became known as the Niagara conferences, and it was the theology, the eschatology, Darby's belief in the restoration of Israel and the return of the Lord, that fired that entire movement, which gave rise to men like D. L. Moody, William E. Blackstone, Cyrus Schofield, and so on and so forth. And it became the focus of restorationism, or that if the return of the Jews to their ancient homeland may have significant meaning and became important. And that would, of course, lead me right up to Reverend Blackstone. One of the men who was most profoundly influenced by Darby's theology was a Chicago businessman by the name of William E. Blackstone.

Reverend Blackstone is one of the most extraordinary men in the entire story of restoration. Without Reverend Blackstone's influence, it is quite possible that Israel would never have existed. He referred to Israel as God's sundial. If you want to know where we are in the chronology of world events, keep your eyes upon Israel. Stephen Briggs, so this is some early pioneers, and William E. Blackstone is so key to all of this, and he called Israel God's timepiece long time ago. And it hasn't changed. Israel's still God's timepiece.

It has been throughout history, the scriptures talk about when we see the restoration of Israel as a nation once again, it tells us that God is on the move, that he's coming back, his son is returning to take us to be with him, and that thrills me, it excites me, and here we are living in the generation that the apostles longed to live in. Yes, you're very right. So Blackstone was going to influence a US president by the name of Woodrow Wilson. Now, just a word about Wilson. He was an arch-liberal. He did enormous destruction to America, but he was a friend to Israel. I actually have a presentation where I talk about him. He was in favor of a Jewish homeland, roughly the time of Theodor Herzl, 1917, 1920.

America was now a world power, and we're going to be moving into the 20s and the 30s here pretty soon, but Woodrow Wilson played a huge role in the early stages of the nation of Israel. Absolutely, and the understanding, he saw that this is something that God is going to do. He read the book.

He knew what the book said, and he wanted to be a part of that incredible story. Stephen, you're from the UK, which is obvious. You have a slight accent. It's just a slight one. I really appreciate it.

I love it. And Great Britain, so important in Israel's formation. We have General Allenby out of Great Britain.

There are just so many key players that came out of your country, and they were instrumental. We go back to 1917, 1920. We can take it up even to the 1930s and even the 1940s, but your country wouldn't let Jews come in to Palestine, and your country has paid a price for that. It has. Britain's been on a roller coaster, especially in regards to their relationship with the Jews.

You can go back as far as 1290. King Edward I kicked all of the Jews out of the UK, and we went into a period that there's not much good came out of that tiny little island for several hundred years, and then you had a man called Oliver Cromwell who came to power, and at the behest of his colleagues, he welcomed the Jewish people that were being persecuted across Europe back into the UK. That was a catalyst in my estimation for a transformation within British society, which resulted in the word of God being not only translated into English, but then being taken to the uttermost parts of the earth. And so we have the Jews welcomed, the Jews being blessed by the country, and we have the law of God, the gospel of God being taken to the nations. So those two things, in my estimation, were the catalyst for the expansion of the British Empire. You had the likes of William Wilberforce, the Wesley brothers, Whitfield, Spurgeon, to name a few, who all read the Bible and saw that before Jesus comes back, the restoration of Israel had to happen and the gospel had to be preached to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Those two keys were the catalyst for the restorationist movement across the UK, which ultimately led to the Balfour Declaration of 1917. Correct. So we're going to get more into the 1920s and 30s here eventually. And again, folks, we carry this film. Give our office a call.

You can check the online store at olivetreeviews.org. And to learn a little bit more about Stephen Briggs and the Hatikva films, go to hatikvafilms.com. I want to play another clip here, because we're going to get into how did this new nation of Israel actually get started. Again, we already referred to the fact that Great Britain, they're a white paper, they banned the Jews from going into the nation.

This is back when they were fleeing some persecution. Well, the persecution's about to get a whole lot worse in the 1930s. By the time the Balfour Declaration was published by the British government, the United States had become not only the wealthiest nation on the face of the earth, but arguably the wealthiest and most powerful nation the world had ever seen. But before the state of Israel became a reality, the world would witness the worst atrocity in human history. During the 1930s, the dark clouds of war began to gather in Europe, as the Jewish people there began to experience persecution once again, this time under the Nazis.

Jewish suffering would be on a scale unprecedented in their entire history. In December 1941, after an attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, America was drawn into the Second World War to liberate the Pacific Ocean and Southeast Asia from Japanese imperialism. She also sided with Britain to liberate Europe from the grip of Nazism. American involvement with saving the Jews was not an eager one. It wasn't something that they fell over themselves trying to do. There is a lot of argument about, and you'll get a lot of angry opinions also about President Roosevelt, whether or not he was in favor of the Jews or against the Jews, whether he knew about the Holocaust or didn't know about the Holocaust. To the best of our knowledge, they knew about the Holocaust. He just didn't want to do anything. Could they have done things, for example, like bomb the rail lines?

Perhaps. My father was in a sub-camp of Auschwitz. The War Refugee Board was created by two Christians who said, The Jews are being murdered. We can't sit idly by. They demanded that there be action, demanded that things being brought to attention. They could see the 7th Air Force going over. And what were they doing? They were bombing Blech Hamel. They knew were Auschwitz.

They could see it, but they never went there once. By accident there was one or two planes that happened to unload a couple of bomb loads, but they got lost and went off course. But to say the United States was actively trying to save Jews during World War II, I would probably say not. They were trying to win the war. And the argument there is, win the war, we'll save the Jews. Stephen, we had two waves of persecution.

We can go back to the 1880s and we had the Fiddler on the Roof era back then. I actually have some family members who fled Russia about that time, came to America. That was one huge wave of persecution, 1880s, and some of those Jews were actually going to Palestine at that time. But then we have this wave of persecution in the 30s and the 40s. And as we just heard in that clip, we had a US President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who did absolutely nothing to intervene and save European Jewry.

Can you understand that at all? I think it's horrendous what took place. And the fact that there was an opportunity to limit the amount of Jewish people that ended up in the gas chambers and they didn't carry that out.

What can that do but put you on a collision course with the Almighty? What Roosevelt did, his role in this. We can say thanks be to God that America did get involved in the Second World War. It would have been a different story and potentially many more lives would have been lost. But there was an opportunity to limit that loss. Well, he says we'll win the war and save the Jews that way.

I can sort of understand that. But there could have been, as the little clip says, actual activity. They could have bombed the tracks going into the camps. And then you can't get the human cargo into the camps if you bomb the railroad tracks.

Easy to do. And they even saw American planes going over the camps, but they did nothing. And the British, of course, we mentioned earlier as well, same thing. We could have allowed Jewish people who were fleeing. I mean, there's some horrendous stories of Jews arriving in Palestine and the British sending them away and putting them in prison camps in Mauritius, in Cyprus. It's unbelievable that these ones who have suffered persecution have been incarcerated and then the British incarcerate them again.

Exactly. You're listening to Understanding the Times Radio. I'm Jan Markell. I have in studio with me Stephen Briggs from Hatikva Films because we're carrying a product that he is very instrumental in creating and that is America and the Israel Effect. I am so enthused about this. I've watched it several times and the history is fascinating. If any of you love history, you will love it. It goes all the way back.

We opened here with comments about some of the early pioneers such as Darby and William E. Blackstone and Schofield and D.L. Moody and how they set the stage for the rebirth of Israel with their theology. They said Jesus is coming back, but what has to happen before Jesus can come back is the state of Israel has to be reborn.

That was the message they were preaching back in the mid to late 1800s. I want to play another clip, Stephen Briggs, because we're moving into the era of Harry Truman, an amazing man. I worked with Holocaust survivor, as my audience knows, Anita Dittman. For a number of years I wrote her book, Trapped in Hitler's Hell. So grateful for President Truman who in 1947-48 came along thanks to the passing of President Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Fascinating story.

Let's play this clip and come back and talk about it. Well, we know in all likelihood that President Roosevelt would have been against it. But he wasn't president. He had died. And the baton was then passed to President Truman. One of the first documents on his desk is what do we do about the question of Palestine?

It was right there. Two and a half thousand years earlier the Jewish people had been exiled in Babylon. In the first year of his reign, the Persian King Cyrus decreed that the enforced exile should end and the Jews be allowed to return to their promised land to rebuild the temple and re-establish their national life.

The Bible tells us that there were those who were opposed to the idea. The American president, Harry Truman, was a southern Baptist who clearly understood biblical prophecy. He was faced with a similar situation as Cyrus had been.

What would the American president do? He was a Bible reader on his own, independently. How religious a man was Truman?

That can be open for a lot of debate. He was also a politician. We have to remember that part.

We're not going to get around it. He knew the story and the role of Cyrus. And when the problems were coming up, in 1947, what do we do for the establishment of a partition between an Arab state and a Jewish state? What were the promises of the Balfour Declaration?

He considered that. What were the promises that the British had made? We have to be thankful to President Truman because already in 1947, he decided that America should support the idea of the partition. What promises did we make to all people? We certainly were fulfilling the promises made in World War I. We established all these Arab states.

Couldn't the Jews just have a tiny, tiny piece of land that they would call their own? The decision finally came down to was his, and his alone. Remember, he was bitterly threatened by everybody. And he said, I have to do what is right.

I have to do not only what is moral, I have to do what is just, I have to do what is proper, and I have to do what is biblical. Because he knew of Cyrus. Five and a half months after this historic United Nations vote, in November 1947, the State of Israel was declared on the 14th of May, 1948. Ben Goron proclaimed the creation of the State of Israel.

And immediately after that, America was the first country, I think within 10 or 15 minutes time, that she recognized the State of Israel. I think it was thanks to Truman that we managed to overcome this period when the recognition was given to the State of Israel. And then we had to fight our way because the recognition did not save us.

We had to fight our way because the recognition did not save us from the war. Stephen Briggs, Harry Truman wanted to be like King Cyrus. You have King Cyrus who was an unredeemed man who helped the Jews return back to Israel. It's recorded in the scriptures, it's touched on in Ezra, it's an amazing responsibility. Cyrus, this individual from another kingdom, chooses and decrees that the Jewish people can return. And that was the Lord's lead. Truman identified himself as a modern day Cyrus. And he recognized that this was something of such profound significance that he saw that he had a key part to play in God's Redemptive Plan and Purpose.

Why? Because he read the book. He understood the book.

He read it as a child and he had this tremendous opportunity before him to see the fulfillment of another aspect of God's prophetic word. Sadly, we get the independent nation of Israel, 47-48, the U.S. weighs in in 10 minutes, the United Nations. But then all heck breaks loose in Israel because the Arab nations are not going to stand for this. So they're going to invade? You might have said to me, the Muslims are never going to stand for a Jewish takeover of what was Muslim land.

Obviously it's God's land, but Muslims had been occupying it and the Turkish empire. It's just so amazing that again, he wanted to be Cyrus, but he was the key player. Again, Roosevelt passed on, this man stepped in and he was not going to leave the Jews. Not only that, but then he recognized that they were in displaced persons camp after the war. And he couldn't stand that either. He brought many of them to America.

Absolutely. And he felt tremendous testimony here of the kind of responsibility that leaders in this day and age would have towards those who have suffered persecution and difficulty. And this transformation really, I mean, this was such a significant moment in scripture. Isaiah 66 talks about can a nation be born in a day and people come forth all at once. And he was an eyewitness to God's word. As we mentioned earlier, this is a signpost. This is a sundial. This tells us that we've entered into a new phase of God's redemptive plan and story that began in the Garden of Eden and has worked its way through because of a promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12 3.

I will bless those who bless you and him who curses you I will curse and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Again, we're carrying this product called America and the Israel Effect. And it is produced by Hatikva Films, H-A-T-I-K-V-A-H Films dot com. Stephen Briggs is the director of operations there. Stephen, how many people are working for Hatikva Films? We're a very small entity, so we use freelancers. I'm the only full time involved with executive produce this film.

This is number four in a series of films called Blessing, Curse or Coincidence. The previous one looks at the British called Cyrus Nations UK. And this is the one that's current. Jan has kindly taken it on. Exactly. We are carrying it.

There are many, many more that are part of the series. So folks, we're keeping it simple and we're carrying the one America and the Israel Effect. And you've heard me on this program for years. And I've talked with former White House correspondent Bill Koenig in his book, Blessing or Cursing and the Consequences of Dividing Israel Eye to Eye, Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel. So this is right in line with what Bill has been teaching for over 20 years.

In this case, you can visually and graphically see what we're talking about because it is a DVD that we are carrying. So what I'd like to do, Stephen, is when I get back from a real short time out here, we're going to move into a time in history for the nation of Israel, which I think everything from 1947-48 on is absolutely remarkable. But when we get to the 1973 war and the role Richard Nixon played, I think the audience is going to be fascinated by it because Nixon was a conflicted man.

He was known for anti-Semitism and yet he saved the country. And we're going to explain why when we get back. You don't even remember the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

I happened to be vacationing and was coming back in town. I turned the car radio on and I'm hearing about this. And I didn't fully understand it all back then, but I'm hearing about a war in Israel. They had been victorious in the Six-Day War of June 1967. Not going to be so victorious in 1973, correct?

That's correct. They were losing badly to the point where those within the White House and the senior leadership in this country saw this as a tremendous opportunity to leverage the circumstances in the Middle East and to turn things for Americans. Then their perceived best interests. But Richard Nixon is going to step in and step up to the plate. We're going to talk about it as soon as we get back.

Again, America and the Israel Effect. And it's in my online store. Give my office a call. Get on our newsletter lists. Honestly, it's a great lesson in history. Can't recommend it strongly enough. I'm back in just a couple of minutes.

Don't go away. More and more people are acknowledging that world events are apocalyptic. Or foretold in the Bible.

We are a privileged generation. That is why we carry many products to help you understand these last days. One of our most helpful DVDs is Dr. Ed Hindson's video, Understanding Revelation in 60 Minutes. Since most churches will not teach this final book of the Bible, Dr. Hindson has produced a video to give you a one-hour overview that is easy to understand. Find it in our online store at OliveTreeViews.org. That's OliveTreeViews.org.

Or call us, Central Time, at 763-559-4444. One-third of the Bible talks about the future, and the book of Revelation is the key to understanding the final days. Learn from one of our best teachers, Dr. Ed Hindson, and his video, Understanding Revelation in 60 Minutes. Why is there such a conflict?

I'll tell you very simply. It's because there's a God in heaven who is fulfilling his word. And the nations hate that reality because it reminds them that they have to answer for their actions. And in the case of Biden and this administration, it's no different. God's word will have the last word. Let Jan Markell and Stephen Briggs continue and conclude their fascinating discussion. Does history really prove the Genesis 12-3 blessing and cursing verse?

How might it apply to the current U.S. administration? Has God actually orchestrated history so that nations will come alongside Israel so that she might blossom and prosper and be a blessing to the world? And that this program features so many film clips? Why not watch our radio program on our website under radio, then complete archives on his channel, on our YouTube channel, on Rumble or on LightSource?

We want you to enjoy this video version of the program that we prepare weekly. It says very plainly in the Bible about the blessing and a curse. If you don't want to read the Bible or you look at it as a story invented by somebody, you can believe whatever you want. The problem is that it's recurred throughout history over and over and over again that every country that turns on the Jews to try and destroy us, try and thwart God's will of the role that the Jewish people have in the destiny of future, somehow it always turns on them. Well, a study of any people that have opposed Israel and the Jews historically is enough to alert you. When the Lord said, when you touch them, you touch the old graphic expression, the apple of my eye, literally means it's like you're sticking your finger in my eye when you do that.

Whether you're talking about the Babylonians, you want to pick on the Romans, you want to pick on the Spanish during the inquisitions, you want to pick on whoever you wish. At some point do you stop and say, are these all coincidences? The United States was blessed with something extraordinary, extraordinary. I'd like to be an optimist and say that it's all going to be good going forward, but I am concerned about both the theological trends in the United States and also some of the political, I don't know if I want to call it trends yet or not, but what's going on as far as pressure on Israel for dividing the land. What's going to happen with Israel now?

We have a changing political environment which is really serious, and we're not certain that the moral compass of the United States is the same anymore. Welcome back. I'm spending the hour with filmmaker Stephen Briggs, Hatikva Films. Here's where we started about a half an hour ago, and we talked about some early Christian pioneers. We talked about the influence of William E. Blackstone and his book, Jesus is Coming. This is back in the 1870s, 80s, and actually about 25 million books sold, Jesus is Coming, and Blackstone was saying back then, look, the Jews have to come back to their land. Darby and Blackstone and others influenced so many in the church in the late 1800s, and then we morphed into the 1900s in our discussion, and we saw 1917, the Balfour Declaration, we saw Theodor Herzl come along, we saw the efforts of Great Britain to both help and hinder the Jews, and then, of course, the Holocaust, and then the role of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and ultimately Harry Truman. This is just a quick overview of things that are in the film, America and the Israel Effect, which we are carrying.

Stephen Briggs is director of operations for Hatikva Films and is in studio with me. Stephen, where to begin with what happened in the early 1970s? America was going through some tough times, economic-wise, and we had some rough presidencies about that time, but Richard Nixon came along. And the Yom Kippur War, let's talk about that war for just a minute or two. First of all, Israel was very prepared for her 1967 six-day war, literally one in six days of miraculous intervention. What happened in 1973?

Well, 1973 was a different story. It was a surprise, Yom Kippur, and the most holy day in the Jewish calendar, the Day of Atonement, the Day of Covering, and they were attacked. They were in a situation where they were losing badly, and they needed reinforcements, they needed weaponry, they needed the tools necessary to not lose this battle. As we look in the film, we look at what happened, but you had this president, Nixon, at the helm, who was known to be an anti-Semite. He's really a mystery and an enigma in a lot of ways, but there was a key, and the key to this whole story is the fact that he had parents praying, and the point that he was told one day in the future, you will have an opportunity to do something special for the Jewish people. Don't miss that opportunity. Whatever that word that was said at that time, and I don't know the exact words, that was something that came back to him at this crucial moment in history. Goldmyer was going to make a middle-of-the-night appeal to him.

Let's just play a clip here. All these clips, folks, that are from the film, America and the Israel Effect, they're very, very educational because the history that we are covering, and it's a lot of years because we started about the early 1800s, and now we're up into 1973. There would be another American president who would make a dramatic intervention on Israel's behalf. He was the only president of the United States to have resigned from office. He was seen by many as something of a Jekyll and Hyde character, and he was reputed to have been an anti-Semite.

Richard Nixon. He was an anti-Semite. He had a conflicted background, a very conflicted background. On one side, as I said, he had this anti-Semitism. On the other side, there's a story they tell about President Nixon, that his mother told him when he was a little child that someday he will be in a position to do something extraordinary for the Jews. And she hoped that when he was in that position, he will do that.

Any mother telling a child that kind of a story, you're going, all right, it's a fairy tale, it's this or that. Who knew? But Mr. Nixon was in an extraordinary position. He did have Jews as part of his cabinet. The Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, of German origin, served with the American Armed Forces, was the Secretary of State. He was a security advisor. He was also Jewish. And the question was, how much of a Jew was he?

Well, we could argue that. Stephen Henry Kissinger, probably a self-hating Jew. Apparently, Richard Nixon's mother said, as this clip indicated, someday you'll be in a position to help Israel, and you do it.

And boy, did that come back to his memory. Absolutely. The power of praying parents, the power of the words that we, as the older generation says to the younger generation, they can bring life or death to a situation. And those words, whatever that was that was actually said, caused a turning in the history of the whole Middle East. Absolutely. And the outworking of America as well, by implication.

It's an amazing, amazing responsibility, the words that we speak and who we tell, what we tell too. Israel was literally going to run out of supplies. She was going to run out of airplanes, she was going to run out of tanks, she was going to run out of all sorts of weaponry again. This is October 1973. They were proud of themselves for their six-day war victory in 1967. For some reason, Golda Meir not prepared in 1973.

Do you have any insight on this? I don't think they were expecting it, very simply. They obviously won head over heels.

They did not possibly think that they were conquerable at that time. And of course, this happened. And there was a knock-on effect as well across Africa, because the African Union instructed their member states, 23 of the 28, to sever ties with Israel as a result. And Israel had been involved in Africa across the board. That's what the next film is all about, the record on the Israel effect, and it's looking at that. So what takes place in Israel affects the nations all around it.

That's what the word of God tells us. But I can't imagine how conflicted Nixon must have been in his mind, because he's on the record of being anti-Semitic, and then he's got this Henry Kissinger who's saying, no, no, we're not going to get involved, we're not going to help Israel. And Nixon turns around and says, whatever it takes, and this is based on his conversation with Golda Meir, go above and beyond to help Israel.

This coming from a Jew hater. Yes, and he must have seen the geopolitics within this, and recognized, oh, actually, this we can use to our benefit. Within that, of course, we saw the whole Arab world turning to depend on the US, and particularly Egypt, because Egypt was promised all sorts of support moving forward as a result of this turning of this event, which resulted in American influence in Egypt and into the oil worlds of the Arab world being something that was channeled to them. It turned the whole region from Russian control, really, into American control. And we have to go back a little bit further to recognize that because Russia voted for the recreation of the state of Israel, all of their proxies voted that way as well.

And they anticipated, because the early fathers of Israel were socialist in their outlook, they thought that they would have their socialism outpost in the Middle East, and that was of key strategic interest for them. And so you see these geopolitics playing out, and it's not new to us. Russia, America, who holds strategic interest? China as well now. We've seen it recently with the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Russia and China have swept in and are taking control of that region as well. These geopolitics are not isolated.

One thing is done over here, it has a consequence to the other side of the world. Israel was losing. We were not prepared there would be a war, because it was not reasonable at that time, and some of our generals thought that it's out of the question, et cetera.

And we were caught by surprise. And it was on the Yom Kippur, and the beginning of the war was really terrible, terrible. Egypt and Syria had attacked Israel on the holiest and most solemn day in her biblical calendar, Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. Israel was losing its aircraft. Within the first matter of days, 49 of its aircraft were destroyed. Now, for a little country, to lose almost half of your aircraft is serious. They were losing their tanks in the battles. They didn't have supplies to fight. We could not continue because just we didn't have any armament. We lost many people, we lost many vehicles, we lost tanks and airplanes, but nevertheless what we needed was just the ammunition in order to continue the war. As Moshe Dayan told Golda Meir, who was prime minister at the time, the third temple might fall.

The third temple was the state of Israel. It could fall. Panicked calls went into the American government for help. Panicked. Henry Kissinger held them back. Kissinger's reported response was, let them bleed a little. Golda Meir rang the White House at three o'clock in the morning and spoke directly to President Nixon and told him that Israel was in very real danger of losing the war, particularly as the Russians were rearming the Syrians and Egyptians. Richard Nixon's mother was a Quaker and a real Bible-believing Christian. It is reported that as the Israeli prime minister, Golda Meir, pleaded with him for help on the telephone, the words of his mother's prophetic utterance when he was a child, that he would one day be in a position to help Israel, came back to him. After the phone call ended, the president summoned his cabinet.

President Nixon was livid. The bottom line, he told Kissinger, he told the Secretary of Defense Schlesinger, he says, do whatever you have to do. Send them whatever they need. Get the stuff in the air and get them the tanks, the planes, the weaponry.

Get it over there now. Well, Kissinger questioned that. His answer was, with an expletive or two to Kissinger, to basically get it done, and then whatever you need, double it. The Americans came and really in a very meaningful, very meaningful way. Many, many, many flights a day.

They sent us without asking too many questions. So Stephen Briggs, Richard Nixon, saved Israel in 1973. Shortly after that, he was going to resign.

How does that fit into your blessing and curse scenario? You have, in other areas of his character, he was an anti-Semite. He was. This involvement here, my own perspective on it is, if the seed of Messiah is finished, if the seed of the Jewish people, if the nation is removed from the equation, then God's word isn't accurate. And if we can't depend on God for fulfilling his word, then why would he fulfill his word with saving and redeeming you? God used another individual Gentile to be involved in ensuring that his plan and purpose would be outworked. But yes, we have to have consistent character and not be double-minded. And Nixon did do a lot of things that were anti-Semitic. So in this instance, it was good. But God's looking for us to be consistent with our faith and consistent with what we do.

Genesis 12.3 is still operational. So you are saying that his anti-Semitism could have taken him down? It could have, because you reap what you sow.

Exactly. So that was a very, very interesting time in American history, Israel history. I want to bring it up a little more to modern times. We had George H.W. Bush dividing the land back in the early 1990s. We had Bill Clinton doing all sorts of Camp David meetings and talking about dividing the land.

We had George W. Bush. He was often called Mr. Palestine. He was so obsessed with the Palestinian state.

It didn't end well. And then came a very unique and interesting man, Donald J. Trump. All these other presidents said that they would restore the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, talk to me a little bit about President Trump from your perspective.

You're from the UK. What did you think of this businessman becoming president of the United States and really becoming Israel's best friend in her 73-year history? I think the whole world was shocked when he entered the White House, this man who has changed his stripes in a number of different ways. But what he did in this instance with regard to Israel, he carried out what other presidents hadn't done. And that in and of itself is huge. He was a man of character.

Everything that he said he would do upon entering the White House, he did. There were a lot of people that didn't like that, but that was the reality. There's a verse in Joel 3 which is crucial in our understanding of this. Joel 3, verse 1 and 2 says, For behold, in those days and in that time, when I shall bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem so not if, when, in other words it's going to happen, I will gather all nations and bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will execute judgment upon them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and people often overlook this last bit, and they have parted my land.

Thank you for bringing that up. And this land, this question, this dispute over physical territory is something that's intricately intertwined with the promise that God made to Abraham. It's reiterated five, six times in Psalm 105, verse 8 to 11, and it's to do with covenant. So the conflict over the land and over the real estate, if we can put it in those terms, actually is not about Israel. It's not even about Jerusalem. It goes even narrower. It goes to the old city of Jerusalem.

It goes even narrower than that. It goes to the temple mount. It goes even narrower than that, to the actual temple, to the place where an offering was made with Abraham offering his son and the ram being found in the thicket, the place where God chose to put his name. That's the centre of the conflict, and that's why all of the nations want to divide the land. It's because God is a God who has put his name there, and it's to do with his inheritance, it's to do with his plan and purpose being outworked, and that's why the nations hate it. If I can say it like this, Jan, you are in micro to all of your neighbours' testimony of the reality that there is a God in heaven. In the same way in macro, Israel, even in her unredeemed estate, a testimony to all of the nations that there is a God in heaven that they have to answer to for their actions.

Jan the micro, Israel the macro. And the nations hate that reminder because it means they have to answer for their actions. President Donald Trump was involved in some deals. As a matter of fact, one was called the Deal of the Century, and then came the Abraham Accords. Later, heading towards the end of his term, the Abraham Accords and Deal of the Century, that took place at San Remo in 1920. We really don't need Abraham Accords and Deal of the Century. What were your thoughts when you heard President Trump negotiating and suggesting some land could be given up?

That was his intent, wasn't it? But looking again at the outworking of that, this idea of land for peace has never worked. You look at the pullout from Gaza, 2005, and the ramifications and Hurricane Katrina sweeping through. It was a direct correlation.

It's not mere coincidence there's more to it. I was living in Israel at the time when that pullout took place. And look at how Gaza has become a hotbed for Hamas. It hasn't done anything about bringing peace.

So this land question is important. It's important because it's to do with God's covenant that he made with Abraham and his descendants. And it's actually for not only the blessing of the Middle East, but it's for the blessing of the whole world.

Trump's peace accords that he sought to do and bringing these nations together, at some point, we're going to see a highway from Egypt to Assyria. And it talks about Egypt, my people, Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, my inheritance. And that statement, Egypt, my people, blows my mind.

Because you think back to the exodus from Egypt and God says, I want nothing to do with you. And yet in Isaiah 19, God describes Egypt as his people. What an incredible turning about of his redemptive plan and purpose.

He's going to call them to himself. So Israel being back in the land is a blessing for the whole world. And God used Trump to recognize internationally Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish people.

Yes, and that was a remarkable day when that happened. Jerusalem became capital, not Tel Aviv. It did, but just that recognition didn't change Jerusalem's status. Jerusalem was capital in God's eyes for thousands of years. But in the eyes of the nations, America recognizing Jerusalem as being the capital, moving their embassy from Tel Aviv to this disputed little city called Jerusalem, reinforced Israel's rights to that being their eternal capital and a number of other nations followed suit. And hopefully my nation in the UK will follow suit and many others because Jerusalem is Jerusalem. You're listening to Understanding the Times Radio. I'm Jan Markell.

And in studio with me is Stephen Briggs from Hatikvah Films, HatikvahFilm.com. So now we have a rather new administration, Stephen, Joe Biden, and they want to divide Jerusalem. And they're talking about this happening in East Jerusalem and this happening in West Jerusalem.

And you and I know there's only one Jerusalem. It used to be and you may not be quite as familiar with American politics as I am. It used to be that leftists loved Israel.

That is not the case anymore. I'm not sure there's a leftist in Washington that cares about the nation of Israel. They want to divide. Mr. Biden wants to divide. Tell me what you see in this administration. He's sought to undo every declaration that Trump said that there's such a hatred and a hostility for this businessman that wasn't part of the establishment that came in and actually did things that benefited America. And so we have a situation where the pendulum of American politics has swung the other way for this window.

What will happen in 2024? Americans need to be praying that God would step in and put in a man or a woman in place that will align themselves once again with what God intends for this great nation to do. But in Zechariah 12, it says, I will make Jerusalem a couple of reeling unto all peoples. This is verse 2, and upon Judah also shall it be in the siege against Jerusalem. And then it says in verse 3, it shall come to pass in that day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples. All that burden themselves with it shall be sore wounded and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together against it. Now that's a fascinating verse because it tells us that every nation is going to come against this place of Jerusalem. Why? And a burdensome stone, what it essentially is saying, if you try and mess with Jerusalem, you're going to put your back out.

Your lifting days are going to be over. And so we have a situation where it's almost an obsession of the nations. I mean, there's more UN resolutions passed against Israel, and that's happening in this period right now. Why is there such a conflict?

I'll tell you very simply, it's because there's a God in heaven who is fulfilling his word. And the nations hate that reality because it reminds them that they have to answer for their actions. And in the case of Biden and this administration, it's no different. God's word will have the last word.

You are right. And I am deeply concerned because every one of my listeners is going to be affected. And that's in the blessing and the cursing angle that we've talked about now for almost an hour, is that the blessing and the cursing, it comes upon a nation and upon a people. And good people are harmed because of the policies in Washington. Good people in Minnesota and Wisconsin are harmed because of this. And I'm very concerned because I see the hostility on the part of the left when it comes to everything it has to do with the nation of Israel and the Jewish people.

We heard a few minutes ago how Henry Kissinger, a Jew himself, he said to Richard Nixon, let Israel bleed a little bit. We don't care. Let's just make them suffer a little bit. Well, this mentality, it can be terrifying in the natural. Obviously, God's got a purpose for it all. And everything is playing out exactly as he said it would, as you have outlined here in Scripture. Very simply put, God gives a nation the leadership they deserve.

Yeah, and that's true. Sadly, I think that that may sum up just about everything here as we've gotten who we deserve. At this present moment, but it doesn't have to stay that way. The key, as with all of the turning points in history, is if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sins and heal their land.

But that verse in 2 Chronicles 7 verse 14 is so often taken out of context, you need to read around it in verse 13 and what it says there as well. We have a situation now where if this doesn't drive us to our knees, and I say that for my own nation as well, the leadership of our nation needs to be changed. Because if we don't see that transformation, if we don't see the church crying out to God, reminding our listeners that in 1 Timothy 2, it talks about first of all that we pray for kings and all those in authority.

Why? That we may lead a tranquil and quiet life and that souls may be saved. If you really love this nation, then we should be praying for the leadership of this nation.

We've been talking to Stephen Briggs for the hour and I am down to about three minutes here. But the Bible tells us in Psalm 122 6 to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Now we can, and I want you to expound on that, but we can take that in a couple of different ways. Are we praying for the Prince of Peace to come back and rule and reign out of Jerusalem? Probably, but is there a greater meaning for Psalm 122 6 than what the average listener might be expecting?

Yes, there's a whole lot that we lose in language. So shalom in Hebrew, which is the word peace there, doesn't mean absence of war. It doesn't mean a removal of conflict. It means wholeness and completeness.

So the understanding there is greatly expanded. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. If we say pray for the wholeness, pray for the completeness of Jerusalem, well does that really make sense? Well it does when you realize that Jerusalem is the center of God's plan and purpose. So pray for the eternal purpose of God to be fulfilled. Now let me go to the very last verse in that passage. The last verse in that passage says, For my brothers and my companions sake I will now say peace be within you. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God I will secure that Israel's good. So if we love the church, if we love the things that the Lord is doing in the body, in the land of America, then it's incumbent upon us, it's our responsibility to be involved in praying for the eternal purpose of God which is centered in Jerusalem to be at work. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love you. And that word prosperity there, what's true prosperity?

It's knowing more of Christ. Thank you. That's wonderful. Again folks, we carry the DVD, America and the Israel Effect. It's in my online store, olivetreeviews.org. You can get onto our newsletter lists and we'll offer it there as well or just call my office for America and the Israel Effect. Fascinating lesson in history, world history, US history, British history, and the key to it all, modern history of the nation of Israel. Stephen, thank you for what you do. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. I'm going out of the program with a little saying I use now and then. When you need the wall to fall, the sea to part, the mountain to move, the rain to start, the chains to break, the enemy to flee, the storm to cease, the victory. Our mighty, awesome, faithful God has you covered.

Say I want to thank you for listening and we'll talk to you again next week. Contact us through our website, olivetreeviews.org. We get our mail when you write to Olive Tree Ministries in Jan Markell, Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311. That's Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311.

All gifts are tax deductible. We hope this hour has been informative and a faith builder. If he who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps, know that he never slumbers nor sleeps through the trials of your life either. And always remember as we watch history unfold that everything is falling into place.