The Jewish roots of Christianity

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Bible teaching with an emphasis on Israel, prophecy and the Jewish roots of Christianity

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Episode: “Letters and Faith of our Fathers preview”
Before we show you snippets of our brand-new series Faith of our Fathers, we hand Dr. Seif some “meaty” questions from viewers. Jeff’s responses are very honest and insightful.

Caption transcript for “Letters and Faith of our Fathers preview”

  • 00:01 ♪♪♪
  • 00:04 David Hart: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots," with insightful
  • 00:07 Bible teaching by Dr. Jeffrey Seif.
  • 00:10 Today, we answer your letters and take a look at our new
  • 00:13 series, "Faith of Our Fathers."
  • 00:18 David: Thank you so much for joining us today.
  • 00:20 I am David Hart.
  • 00:22 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
  • 00:23 Jeffrey Seif: Jeffrey Seif.
  • 00:25 Kirsten: Part of my job with the whole ministry is reading
  • 00:28 viewer mail.
  • 00:30 You did it for years, didn't you?
  • 00:32 Jeffrey: Yes, I did.
  • 00:34 Kirsten: All that snail mail, I don't know if you've heard that
  • 00:36 term, "snail mail" means it's slow like a snail.
  • 00:38 Handwritten letters, we still get those.
  • 00:40 We get e-mails.
  • 00:41 All of you write into the ministry with some great
  • 00:43 questions, and today we're gonna put you to the test, Dr. Seif.
  • 00:47 Jeffrey: Oy.
  • 00:49 Kirsten: These are some great questions that viewers have sent
  • 00:52 in to the ministry, and since you're our resident theologian--
  • 00:55 Jeffrey: Well, you're kind to say.
  • 00:57 And, by the way, if I fumble, I haven't heard any of these.
  • 00:59 David: Right.
  • 01:00 Kirsten: He has not heard a thing.
  • 01:02 Jeffrey: It's not rehearsed.
  • 01:03 Kirsten: No.
  • 01:05 David: I was gonna say that here.
  • 01:06 So, okay, I've got a little smile on my face right now
  • 01:08 because this first question, if you have the answer, I think you
  • 01:10 could be a billionaire.
  • 01:11 Are you ready?
  • 01:12 Kirsten: I wanna be a billionaire.
  • 01:14 David: Okay, here's the million-dollar question,
  • 01:15 all right?
  • 01:17 "Is there a way to fix America?
  • 01:18 Or are we just destined to decline into chaos?
  • 01:20 Besides proclaiming the Gospel, is there anything else we can
  • 01:21 be doing?"
  • 01:24 Jeffrey: Well, that question assumes someone a whole lot
  • 01:29 smarter than me, and, you know, I'm no expert in America,
  • 01:33 fixing America.
  • 01:35 What I'm trained to do, you know, I've been a Bible college
  • 01:37 and seminary professor.
  • 01:38 I take people to the Bible.
  • 01:40 I'm a graduate of the police academy.
  • 01:42 I take people to jail.
  • 01:44 My world is much simpler in terms of what America is
  • 01:47 destined to become.
  • 01:50 Now, it partly--the answer partly depends on what kind of
  • 01:53 philosophical persuasion someone works with.
  • 01:57 Some argue that the world is going to decay into despair and
  • 02:02 disorientation, and then the Messiah comes to bring about a
  • 02:07 great deliverance.
  • 02:09 There's the taking away of the church, and then it just
  • 02:11 plummets, and then he returns.
  • 02:14 Others have different visions of what's ultimately going to
  • 02:17 happen at the ragged edge of human experience.
  • 02:20 For me, I think it's problematic to be fatalistic, that is, to
  • 02:23 say, "Well, everything's in God's hands."
  • 02:26 I think the burden should be on us, you, you, me, and you, all
  • 02:30 of us, to do what we can to advocate for biblical faith and
  • 02:34 virtue and vision in this particular culture.
  • 02:38 Whatever it is, whatever our sphere of influence is, here I
  • 02:40 have the opportunity 'cause you're gracious enough to not go
  • 02:43 "click," you know, I have the opportunity to speak to you and
  • 02:45 some others, but whatever the context is, God's people, we
  • 02:49 wanna utilize our influence.
  • 02:52 Ultimately, I live with the belief that the Word that goes
  • 02:56 forth through me is going to pay dividends.
  • 02:59 God's Word will pay dividends.
  • 03:01 What ultimately happens in human history and American history, I
  • 03:04 leave that to people that are smarter than me.
  • 03:07 Kirsten: I do have a question.
  • 03:09 I know you have more.
  • 03:10 As it relates to the "fixing of America," everywhere, everyone
  • 03:14 says, "If my people," probably you know this verse, "who are
  • 03:18 called by my name will humble themselves and pray, then I will
  • 03:20 hear from heaven," but here's a question.
  • 03:25 "My people--"
  • 03:27 A lot of people think that "my people" refers to America.
  • 03:32 Jeffrey: Well, I like to listen to biblical literature.
  • 03:36 I believe that there's a principle of "hermeneutics,"
  • 03:40 which is a fancy word for "interpreting the Bible," and
  • 03:43 I've served as a hermeneutics professor at a Bible college
  • 03:45 and seminary.
  • 03:47 The first interpretation of any text belongs to the original
  • 03:50 hearers, and the text in Chronicles is speaking to
  • 03:54 Judeans, and so principally there, he says, "If you will do
  • 04:00 this, then I will come and heal your land."
  • 04:04 Of course, if you look at the Old Testament economy, the
  • 04:07 relationship between the Jewish people and the Jewish land
  • 04:10 is intrinsic.
  • 04:12 That is to say, it's part of the package.
  • 04:13 Believers in Jesus, we don't have a Promised Land to
  • 04:16 speak of.
  • 04:18 That is to say, we're told that our commonwealth is in heaven,
  • 04:21 and from it, we await a Savior.
  • 04:23 Our promise is on the other side of the grave.
  • 04:26 The Hebrew people in the world of the Chronicles and in the
  • 04:28 world, this land that's vouchsafed on this side of the
  • 04:31 grave, the land of Israel, I think the promise that, if they
  • 04:35 turn, he will come and bring restoration in that
  • 04:38 land applies.
  • 04:41 We can derive principles from it.
  • 04:43 I do believe that God hears prayer and blesses, but I think
  • 04:48 that promise principally applies to those who first heard it, the
  • 04:51 Hebrew people.
  • 04:53 David: That's good.
  • 04:54 Can I go back to you teaching policemen how to
  • 04:56 become policemen?
  • 04:57 So I think in the academy, or even policemen, they have
  • 05:03 a chaplain.
  • 05:06 Is that right?
  • 05:08 Do you all have a chaplain in what you do?
  • 05:11 Jeffrey: Well, police departments have chaplains.
  • 05:13 I served as a chaplain, I still am one.
  • 05:16 David: So even in secular world, they rely on God, I believe?
  • 05:19 Jeffrey: Yes, and, of course, when people are thrown up
  • 05:20 against death--that they tend to get a tad bit more religious,
  • 05:24 and this is true in the police services and in the military
  • 05:28 services as well.
  • 05:30 They have chaplains because people are much more thrown up
  • 05:33 against the precariousness of their own experience.
  • 05:37 David: That's good.
  • 05:38 Ready for another question?
  • 05:40 I gotta put these on like yours.
  • 05:42 "Does the United States equal New Babylon?
  • 05:45 My mother and I have lively conversations on the
  • 05:47 future Babylon.
  • 05:49 She insists it was the USA, while I thought it was the
  • 05:52 original location, Babylon.
  • 05:54 From what I have read, the original Babylon has
  • 05:57 been rebuilding.
  • 05:59 High-tech wiring has been laid for future business conferences.
  • 06:04 Kirsten: There's a lot in that, I know there's a lot.
  • 06:07 Jeffrey: Well, to the question, Babylonia in antiquity, Jews
  • 06:10 were--Judea was annexed as a Babylonian holding in 605 B.C.,
  • 06:17 and Jews were spirited away off into captivity until the
  • 06:21 Persians overran the Babylonians.
  • 06:23 So Nineveh and Babylon was the place for all things wicked.
  • 06:27 Now, in the newer testament, Babylon in Revelation,
  • 06:30 specifically, is used as a buzzword.
  • 06:33 You know, the great "whore of Babylon," and I'm not trying to
  • 06:35 use nasty language on television.
  • 06:37 It's just there in the literature.
  • 06:40 Babylon was used kind of a buzzword for the Roman Empire,
  • 06:43 the place of all things vile and wicked.
  • 06:46 For me, you know, people look at the literature, and, you know,
  • 06:50 some people can make an application that America with
  • 06:53 licentiousness and disregard for value, virtue, and vision, that
  • 07:01 there can be applications to the Babylon that's noted, but I
  • 07:06 prefer to let the story tell its story in its own context and say
  • 07:10 we may wish to infer certain applications, but to your
  • 07:13 question, I look at the literature literally, and when
  • 07:17 he speaks of Babylon in the literature, he is speaking of
  • 07:21 Babylon, and when he speaks of Babylon in the newer testament,
  • 07:25 we know it's Rome because it's used interchangeably in Jewish
  • 07:29 literature where Babylon is referred to as Rome, the city
  • 07:32 that sits amongst the seven hills, et cetera, which is where
  • 07:36 Rome was.
  • 07:38 Kirsten: So we need to be really careful to take how we apply
  • 07:42 especially the prophetic Scriptures to our time now, and
  • 07:46 if I can just say, Dr. Seif just did a whole series, a wonderful
  • 07:50 series all about Revelation.
  • 07:53 If that's something that is interesting to you, Jeff took it
  • 07:56 chapter by chapter.
  • 07:58 We have that available as resource also.
  • 08:01 But we can't just go, "Okay, Babylon covers all of this."
  • 08:05 Jeffrey: Well, here you go, and to that end, yes, I did do a
  • 08:08 walk-through with Revelation, and some were disappointed
  • 08:11 because I don't get out and make these outlandish claims that are
  • 08:16 very interesting for television moments.
  • 08:20 "Wow, the spectacular."
  • 08:22 I'm rather boring and pedestrian at one level.
  • 08:25 A lot of these people, that make these claims about this equals
  • 08:26 that, and they write a book, the books aren't worth the paper
  • 08:30 they're written on, ten years later, and, for me, you know,
  • 08:33 I've been a Bible professor for 30 years.
  • 08:35 I'm not looking just to have 30 minutes in the sun, you know?
  • 08:38 I wanna be able to go with what I construe to be credible, and
  • 08:42 I'm not particularly impressed by a lot of what I hear in the
  • 08:46 name of special insights into the end of the world in the way
  • 08:50 different people interpret Revelation, and I know people
  • 08:52 can be disappointed in that.
  • 08:55 I know that some of you can be disappointed in that because you
  • 08:57 wanna hear answers.
  • 09:00 You wanna connect the dots, and those that can confidently
  • 09:03 assert those connections, well, they can enjoy your confidence.
  • 09:08 Maybe enjoy your confidence today, but you might be
  • 09:10 dispirited tomorrow when you find out it doesn't happen
  • 09:14 that way.
  • 09:16 I would rather be a little bit more sedate in the way that I
  • 09:19 look at the way people are managing their understanding of
  • 09:22 the end of the world.
  • 09:24 David: That's good.
  • 09:26 We've got more questions, we'll be back after this.
  • 09:27 ♪♪♪
  • 09:33 announcer: Our offer on this program, the eight-part series
  • 09:36 "Sar Shalom: Prince of Peace," on two DVDs.
  • 09:41 What does it mean to walk in the footsteps of Israel's Messiah?
  • 09:46 To search out an answer, Dr. Jeffrey Seif takes viewers
  • 09:48 to the Galilee region of Northern Israel, where our Lord
  • 09:51 delivered his magnificent Sermon on the Mount.
  • 09:55 Eight half-hour programs include on-location reenactments, all
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  • 10:53 ♪♪♪
  • 11:00 David: For many, a trip to the Holy Land is the dream of
  • 11:02 a lifetime.
  • 11:05 The Bible truly comes alive as you see the sites where so many
  • 11:09 biblical events happened.
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  • 11:26 ♪♪♪
  • 11:31 Kirsten: Our upcoming series is titled "Faith of Our Fathers."
  • 11:34 We're gonna be looking at the foundations of biblical fathers
  • 11:38 in the Bible and also the foundations of our fathers of
  • 11:42 America, and something that's just kind of neat--I love this
  • 11:46 when we take tours and you, too, gone to Israel umpteen times,
  • 11:51 we've gone 10, 11 times--is we get to go where historically or
  • 11:59 traditionally the beginning of time started.
  • 12:03 There's a tradition, I believe, that Mount Moriah is where the
  • 12:07 Garden of Eden was.
  • 12:09 You've heard that, yes?
  • 12:11 It's fascinating.
  • 12:13 Jeffrey: Yes, and no.
  • 12:15 Yes, in that arguably, there's a very cogent argument that Eden
  • 12:20 in antiquity is where Israel is in modernity.
  • 12:26 I did a series on that, by the way, "Back to Eden."
  • 12:29 There's a very responsible argument that that was the
  • 12:31 place, and, of course, because Moriah is located in there.
  • 12:34 It certainly is a central high place there, but Eden arguably
  • 12:39 in antiquity is where Israel is today.
  • 12:43 David: And all of these series too, the dramatic reenactments
  • 12:46 are just incredible.
  • 12:48 Kirsten: That are coming up in our brand-new series, yes.
  • 12:50 David: Yes, and we could not do any of this without your
  • 12:52 financial support, so we just wanna say thank you for
  • 12:53 that also.
  • 12:56 Kirsten: Thank you, and we would love to take you to Mount
  • 12:58 Moriah, where, really, our freedom of faith started that
  • 13:04 Christ redeemed the world, and it's just there's so much in an
  • 13:08 Israel tour.
  • 13:10 We'd love for you to go with us.
  • 13:12 Jeffrey: And if I can speak to that, please, I think part of
  • 13:14 the allure--if you look at the biblical drama, they were cast
  • 13:17 out of Eden, and then there's this story of Abram beckoned to
  • 13:23 this Promised Land, and it's like the land is sacred and
  • 13:27 mysterious, and there's this wanting to get back to the land.
  • 13:32 Those stirrings that people feel to go visit Israel, it comes
  • 13:39 from that, that is to say, arguably, Israel is Eden.
  • 13:46 There's, you know, God's people wanting to get back to the
  • 13:48 center of the drama.
  • 13:51 Kirsten: To the foundation of our faith.
  • 13:53 And the new series that's coming up, you came up with the whole
  • 13:56 idea, the "Faith of Our Fathers" kind of to, not parallel, but
  • 14:00 side by side, the faith of our biblical fathers with the faith
  • 14:03 of our Founding Fathers.
  • 14:06 Jeffrey: Well, I contributed to the biblical perspective on it.
  • 14:11 Our producer--and all of us.
  • 14:13 It's more of a team effort.
  • 14:15 You know, it says, "Our Jewish Roots with Dr. Jeffrey Seif,"
  • 14:18 so--but I don't wanna assume more ownership of it than
  • 14:20 I deserve.
  • 14:22 No one gives me a script.
  • 14:23 There's nothing I say that I don't say from my own heart and
  • 14:25 head, so no one owns me like that.
  • 14:27 I'm not on anybody's leash, but this just comes out of decades
  • 14:31 of working with the Jesus story and the Jewish story and
  • 14:35 contemporary moments, and there's a lot of brain trust in
  • 14:38 this ministry for all those decades, and it came from that
  • 14:41 collective more than me as an individual.
  • 14:44 Kirsten: Well, we're excited to bring that to all of you.
  • 14:47 That new series starts next week.
  • 14:49 We have a preview coming up, but now we're gonna jump back into
  • 14:52 some of our e-mails and snail mails that all of you have sent
  • 14:56 in to the ministry.
  • 14:58 David: Yes.
  • 14:59 Kirsten: Have another one?
  • 15:01 David: All right, Dr. Seif, you ready?
  • 15:02 "How will we be able to recognize the spirit of Ahab and
  • 15:05 Jezebel in our midst?
  • 15:08 There's a warning in Revelation 2:18-29, which shows the results
  • 15:12 of allowing them to function in our midst."
  • 15:17 Jeffrey: Well, I'll tell ya, Ahab and any Jewish king that
  • 15:19 marries a woman with Baal in the name as in Jez-Baal, you
  • 15:25 know he's not thinking clearly.
  • 15:27 Certainly, there's stupidity, there's foolishness, there's
  • 15:29 wickedness, licentiousness.
  • 15:31 How do we recognize it?
  • 15:33 It's a reasonable question.
  • 15:36 You know, it's around us so much we get inoculated to it,
  • 15:38 you know?
  • 15:40 Kirsten: You know, that's really good because, in the evangelical
  • 15:42 Christian world, especially on social media, you have so many
  • 15:44 people saying, "So-and-So has a Jezebel spirit.
  • 15:47 There's a Jezebel spirit."
  • 15:49 What is that?
  • 15:51 Can you define exactly what that is?
  • 15:53 Jeffrey: Well, by application, I think what they mean is wild,
  • 15:56 wooly, manipulative, crafty, deceitful, underhanded,
  • 15:59 destructive, you know, all of the above.
  • 16:02 I think that's using biblical language to describe what they
  • 16:04 perceive to be at play in and through an individual.
  • 16:08 Kirsten: Do you think we have the authority to call that out
  • 16:11 in someone else?
  • 16:13 Jeffrey: Well, there's a gift called discerning of spirits,
  • 16:15 and I don't know whether someone saying it--that's just their
  • 16:17 opinion, and they're using religious language.
  • 16:19 Someone else would just say, "That's a real deceitful blah,
  • 16:21 blah, blah," but if you have biblical vision in your mind,
  • 16:24 then you would tag it with a biblical text.
  • 16:27 I'll leave it to God to be the ultimate judge of people.
  • 16:30 David: Ooh, that's good.
  • 16:31 Jeffrey: Certainly, you can say they're acting poorly and
  • 16:33 manipulatively, but to say, "You are so-and-so," I'm disinclined
  • 16:36 to do that personally, and I tell people it's not good
  • 16:38 to blame.
  • 16:40 It's not good to put tags.
  • 16:42 I think the only person that has a right to blame--two classes
  • 16:45 of people==well, not two classes.
  • 16:48 Children have a right to blame, to my way of thinking, and God
  • 16:50 has a right to blame.
  • 16:52 Children can blame because they're too foolish and don't
  • 16:54 know any better.
  • 16:55 God can blame because he knows all the facts.
  • 16:57 Those of us that are somewhere between God and children that
  • 16:59 don't have everything, I think we should be a little
  • 17:01 more humbly.
  • 17:03 We can say, "Well, I think So-and-So has such-and-such,"
  • 17:05 but God's the ultimate judge.
  • 17:07 He knows everything we don't.
  • 17:09 David: You have a lot of titles.
  • 17:10 You're a policeman.
  • 17:12 I would think you have to discern when people are doing
  • 17:13 right or wrong.
  • 17:15 Jeffrey: Yes, you know, but I, as a police officer--and less
  • 17:17 that now.
  • 17:19 I'm more administrative than anything.
  • 17:20 I have the rank of commander, and I'm involved in the police
  • 17:22 academy so--but, you know, I mentioned in training officers,
  • 17:26 I say, "Look, I have over 20 years a police officer.
  • 17:29 How many guilty people do you think I've taken to jail?"
  • 17:31 And they give a number, and I say, "None, absolutely none."
  • 17:36 "What do you mean you haven't taken guilty people to jail?"
  • 17:38 No, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
  • 17:41 I'll take someone to jail if I have specific and articulable
  • 17:44 facts that would lead a reasonable person to believe
  • 17:47 that the crime was committed, and they're responsible, but
  • 17:50 they have an opportunity to tell their story, and those facts can
  • 17:54 get tried, and we don't always get it right, and which is one
  • 17:57 of the reasons why, even when you learn to look at things more
  • 18:01 discerning, more disciplined, you talk to individuals, and you
  • 18:05 make an arrest or you secure a warrant, even then, they're
  • 18:08 innocent until proven to be guilty.
  • 18:11 Here, I think we just talk too much: "She has a Jezebel spirit,
  • 18:13 this and that."
  • 18:15 We talk about people we don't know.
  • 18:17 We talk about circumstances.
  • 18:19 We don't have the full picture.
  • 18:21 Kirsten: No, I think that's very wise and especially that it also
  • 18:23 applies to the new series, "Faith of Our Fathers."
  • 18:26 We're looking at some of the fathers of our nation, and there
  • 18:31 are some things that we could pick out and go, "Well, you had
  • 18:33 this, and they did this.
  • 18:34 George Washington owned slaves.
  • 18:37 He was horrible."
  • 18:39 And, again, we don't have the chance to know them personally
  • 18:41 and to know their life story, and we actually will learn more
  • 18:44 about George Washington in the upcoming series.
  • 18:47 What a man of faith.
  • 18:49 Jeffrey: Yes, in fact, in his day, you couldn't free slaves.
  • 18:52 What's interesting is that he paid slaves.
  • 18:54 He treated them more as employees.
  • 18:56 Again, we make decisions and talk about people.
  • 18:59 We don't know the facts.
  • 19:01 Now, up North, by the way, in the northern colonies, they
  • 19:03 didn't have it at all--that it was disallowed from the get-go,
  • 19:07 but before we had United States, before these colonies federated,
  • 19:12 you know, whether it's Virginia or South Carolina or
  • 19:15 Massachusetts, they all had their own regulations, and
  • 19:18 they differed.
  • 19:20 Up North, slavery was not allowed.
  • 19:22 In the South it couldn't be disallowed.
  • 19:24 And, again, one of the things that I like about our guest in
  • 19:27 that series, David Barton, is that he's expert in the primary
  • 19:30 sources to take us on a trip down memory lane to take a new
  • 19:34 look at the old story.
  • 19:36 Kirsten: He is an expert, and I promise you, you do not wanna
  • 19:39 miss one episode of this new series.
  • 19:43 Even gather your kids around.
  • 19:46 They will learn American history, and they will learn
  • 19:48 Bible history.
  • 19:50 It's a two-for-one coming up and everything that you've
  • 19:52 brought us.
  • 19:54 And speaking of the new series, you want a sneak peek?
  • 19:56 Here we go.
  • 19:58 David: The Word of God has given us examples of faith that have
  • 20:02 shaped virtually every aspect of the believer's life today.
  • 20:07 Where would we be without the examples of Noah, Abraham and
  • 20:12 Isaac, David, and ultimately that of Yeshua, Jesus?
  • 20:18 Faith is woven into the fabric of America as well.
  • 20:22 From the pilgrims to John Adams, to Patrick Henry and
  • 20:26 George Washington.
  • 20:28 God's providential hand remained highly esteemed and honored
  • 20:32 above all.
  • 20:34 Faith unshakeable, faith unstoppable, "Faith of
  • 20:38 Our Fathers."
  • 20:43 Jeffrey: I differentiate faith from theology.
  • 20:46 Actually, theological constructs come from a Latin dictum "fides
  • 20:51 quaerens intellectum," which translates as "faith in search
  • 20:55 of understanding."
  • 20:57 That is to say, someone has something resonating within
  • 21:01 them, and then they go into the biblical story to try and
  • 21:03 ascertain it and figure it out, and they come up with theology.
  • 21:07 Today, when we think of faith, we think of
  • 21:09 theological constructions.
  • 21:11 When I look in the biblical text, faith, when I think of
  • 21:13 Abraham, I think of someone that has a vision of a future.
  • 21:17 It's not reduced or translated into dogma, into doctrine.
  • 21:22 So it is today, when we think of faith, we think of
  • 21:24 philosophical systems.
  • 21:27 I think that's problematic, personally, not that I have
  • 21:28 anything against theology, per se, but faith is
  • 21:31 something different.
  • 21:34 Faith is something that lives more in the breast than lives in
  • 21:36 the head.
  • 21:38 It's not to say there's no residency there, but faith
  • 21:40 sometimes prompts people to do things that don't make sense in
  • 21:44 the head.
  • 21:45 In fact, we look at it early in the game in the book Bereshit,
  • 21:48 in Genesis, where it makes no sense at one level.
  • 21:52 Avram, Abram, is such an older man, and his wife isn't much
  • 21:54 younger, and he is concerned that he doesn't have a future
  • 22:00 'cause he doesn't have a son, but he goes out for a walk, goes
  • 22:04 out, takes a look at the evening sky, and we're told that he
  • 22:07 looks up at the stars in chapter 15.
  • 22:12 He hears the voice before that, in verse 5, that "Your
  • 22:15 descendants will be akin to the multitude."
  • 22:20 He says, "So shall your seed be," subsequent to which, in
  • 22:24 verse 6, we're told that "Avraham believed God."
  • 22:28 ♪♪♪
  • 22:40 Betsy: Good day, sir.
  • 22:42 Thank you for coming.
  • 22:43 male: Good day, Betsy.
  • 22:45 It's my pleasure.
  • 22:46 It seems you've been given a godly task.
  • 22:48 Betsy: Must be, sir, I feel so unworthy.
  • 22:51 I'm good with needle and thread, and I cut well with scissors,
  • 22:54 but this is all so new to me.
  • 22:58 male: I believe Mr. Paine has said it well: "These are the
  • 23:01 times that try men's souls."
  • 23:04 It's new to all of us, giving birth to a new nation.
  • 23:07 It's not just you.
  • 23:10 We're all feeling dependent on God's providential hand as we
  • 23:13 consider the blessings and the consequences that await us.
  • 23:19 Betsy: When the congressional committee called upon me, I knew
  • 23:21 this would be a noble effort.
  • 23:24 I've gathered the cloth that I believe would be suitable.
  • 23:27 The white will offset the red nicely, I believe.
  • 23:30 It speaks so well of purity.
  • 23:33 male: Is this your design?
  • 23:36 Betsy: No, sir, it was actually given to me by the committee.
  • 23:39 It is actually much like the Continental flag, but the 13
  • 23:42 colonies will be represented by white stars against a field
  • 23:45 of blue.
  • 23:47 ♪♪♪
  • 23:52 David Barton: There's so much in the American founding that
  • 23:54 points back to really the Jewish heritage in history.
  • 23:58 Our Founding Fathers extensively quoted Old Testament passages.
  • 24:02 They even modeled the American Republic after the Hebrew
  • 24:05 Republic, so there's a lot of camaraderie there.
  • 24:08 Jeffrey: So you're a guy that's really dug into
  • 24:10 principal sources.
  • 24:12 You've been interested in that as an individual.
  • 24:14 I'm interested in the first two centuries of the Christian era.
  • 24:16 You're interested in 200 years back, and digging around
  • 24:19 that world.
  • 24:21 But out of that inquiry of your own has developed a ministry,
  • 24:26 WallBuilders, correct?
  • 24:27 What's that all about?
  • 24:29 David: WallBuilders is a name taken from the Bible book of
  • 24:31 Nehemiah, and it talks about how the people rebuilt things that
  • 24:34 have been torn down in their nation.
  • 24:36 Old Testament history, if you didn't have a wall around your
  • 24:39 city, if you were un-walled, you had no protection.
  • 24:42 You had no strength.
  • 24:43 You had no significant name.
  • 24:46 And so we see, in the book of Nehemiah, that after the walls
  • 24:48 had been torn down by the Babylonians, 70 years later,
  • 24:51 Nehemiah comes back and said, "Let's rebuild so that we'll no
  • 24:53 longer be a reproach."
  • 24:55 And, in our case, we look at what we don't know about
  • 24:57 American heritage, what we don't know about the American
  • 25:00 Constitution, American faith, and we said, "That needs to
  • 25:03 be rebuilt."
  • 25:05 So our mantra is that we present America's forgotten history and
  • 25:08 heroes with an emphasis on our moral, religious, and
  • 25:11 constitutional heritage.
  • 25:13 Jeffrey: Hey, I'm all for that.
  • 25:15 Nehemiah, "Nechemyah," in Hebrew, means "God comforts."
  • 25:18 A lot of people have been discomforted by this revisionist
  • 25:22 approach to history that wants to ferret out biblical
  • 25:26 references and orientation.
  • 25:29 ♪♪♪
  • 25:33 David: Our series that we start next week, "Faith of Our
  • 25:35 Fathers," is a very important series.
  • 25:38 Dr. Seif, can you give us a little overview of what
  • 25:40 will happen?
  • 25:42 Jeffrey: Well, quintessentially, when you boil it down to its
  • 25:44 essence, you know, "Faith of Our Fathers" is something that we
  • 25:47 need--you know, mothers and fathers need today.
  • 25:49 I mean, we look at our culture, and we see how biblical vision
  • 25:53 and value was intrinsic therein, and principally, we do it 'cause
  • 25:57 we wanna stimulate faith for today, for you, the viewer, for
  • 26:01 us, because we need it.
  • 26:04 You know, there's darkness.
  • 26:05 We roll the dice against an uncertain future, and faith
  • 26:07 prompts us to believe God and walk forward still in
  • 26:10 anticipation of good things to come because we serve a good
  • 26:12 God, and that's important yesterday with the founding of
  • 26:16 our country.
  • 26:18 It's important today as we look to build our lives on
  • 26:20 biblical foundations.
  • 26:22 Kirsten: It is, and I appreciate you taking your time to, kind
  • 26:25 of, popcorn-answer these questions that we have.
  • 26:29 We so love you writing into our ministry.
  • 26:33 Of course, we like the kind words also, but send your
  • 26:36 questions in.
  • 26:37 We wanna do more of these programs.
  • 26:39 If you appreciated Dr. Seif's insight into viewer questions,
  • 26:43 send more in to the ministry.
  • 26:45 The information is right there for you, and we'll do some more
  • 26:48 of these programs.
  • 26:50 Jeffrey: And if I can add, if you don't like it, write too.
  • 26:52 We can fight, you know, that, you know, I've been known to be
  • 26:55 wrong on one or two occasions, and I don't claim I'm God,
  • 26:58 you know.
  • 27:00 If I'm asked a direct question, I give a direct answer.
  • 27:02 I've been around for a while, but I don't know everything.
  • 27:04 You may be displeased by my answer to something, and it
  • 27:08 could be because you're lacking something or I'm lacking
  • 27:10 something, but let's keep the conversation going.
  • 27:14 David: It's been good.
  • 27:15 We always leave our program with a song from our founder,
  • 27:18 Zola Levitt.
  • 27:20 Jeffrey: And a tradition of the biblical text.
  • 27:22 Shaalu shalom Yerushalayim.
  • 27:24 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
  • 27:27 ♪ Chosen of God ♪
  • 27:30 ♪ Chosen for me ♪
  • 27:34 ♪ Homeland forever ♪
  • 27:37 ♪ Land of Messiah ♪
  • 27:41 ♪ Israel my love ♪
  • 27:50 ♪ How God watches thee ♪
  • 28:05 ♪♪♪
  • 28:15 ♪♪♪
  • 28:25 ♪♪♪

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