The Jewish roots of Christianity

Home » Zola TV » Video Archives » ZLM Video

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

This program is not available for playing in your browser (see below for alternatives).

Play video (28:30)

Note: You can control playback speed from the gear menu in the player above.

Episode: “Letters and Eretz Israel preview”
Dr. Seif and the Harts answer letters from viewers and preview our upcoming series Eretz Israel

Caption transcript for “Letters and Eretz Israel preview”

  • 00:03 David Hart: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots," with insightful
  • 00:07 Bible teaching from Israel by Dr. Jeffrey Seif.
  • 00:10 Today we answer your letters and take a look at our new series,
  • 00:14 "Eretz Israel," the land of Israel.
  • 00:18 David: Thank you so much for joining us today.
  • 00:20 I am David Hart.
  • 00:21 Kirsten Hart: I am Kirsten Hart.
  • 00:23 Jeffrey Seif: I am Jeffrey Seif, and we wanna be a one-stop
  • 00:27 shop for all things Jewish.
  • 00:30 For those that love the land and the people, we wanna
  • 00:33 be a go-to source, yes?
  • 00:35 Kirsten: We are, and we also have a monthly periodical.
  • 00:39 There are actually two, but the first one I wanna talk
  • 00:42 about is the "Levitt Letter."
  • 00:43 I hope you're receiving it.
  • 00:45 It's something that goes out to our viewers monthly, and all
  • 00:48 kinds of information about Israel.
  • 00:50 We write articles in there, but we also answer viewer mail.
  • 00:55 We love when you write in.
  • 00:56 We love when you say nice things, but we also
  • 00:58 love when you write in.
  • 00:59 So we have questions today for you, Doctor.
  • 01:04 David: Yeah, here's the thing: you have many hats.
  • 01:07 You're a policeman.
  • 01:09 You teach officers, right?
  • 01:11 And also, you're a pastor and a teacher.
  • 01:15 So today, put on your teacher glasses.
  • 01:17 Kirsten: Professor. Professor Seif.
  • 01:18 David: Professor glasses, that's it, yeah.
  • 01:20 Jeffrey: Fire away.
  • 01:21 David: Here's the first question: "In watching the
  • 01:22 series "Faith of Our Fathers," I was amazed to hear about all the
  • 01:26 Jewish people never mentioned in the Founding of our nation.
  • 01:29 How involved were the Jews in the creation
  • 01:32 of the United States?
  • 01:34 Jeffrey: First of all, my sister said much the same, a
  • 01:38 Jewish woman, doesn't have the same beliefs that I do.
  • 01:43 When I told her about the series and sent her a clip, she was
  • 01:47 like, "Wow, I had no idea."
  • 01:50 A lot of people are clueless of the Jewish contributions, which
  • 01:55 is one of the reasons why I was so glad to do the series and why
  • 01:59 I would commend people to acquire it and learn the story.
  • 02:06 Oh, even before George Washington, Jews were involved
  • 02:11 in the early Americas going back to Columbus, who
  • 02:14 may well have been Jewish.
  • 02:16 We know that he had five Jewish people on his boats.
  • 02:19 We know that--
  • 02:21 Kirsten: I did not know that.
  • 02:22 Jeffrey: Yes, it was on the day when Columbus
  • 02:24 disembarked to the New World.
  • 02:27 That was when the Alhambra Decree went into effect, which
  • 02:31 was a decree by the Spanish crown.
  • 02:34 The Jews had to leave the Iberian Peninsula by a certain
  • 02:38 point in time, and everybody was looking to get out of Dodge.
  • 02:42 There were Jewish conquistadores that came over to the New World
  • 02:48 on the initial voyage.
  • 02:51 Even the maps that he used, cartography was something that
  • 02:57 was a Semitic discipline.
  • 03:00 The Europeans hadn't even discovered it yet, and because
  • 03:03 before the Europeans reconquered the Iberian Peninsula when it
  • 03:09 was an Islamic holding, there in Cardova, there was a great
  • 03:13 university, and geometry, mapmaking, and all of that was
  • 03:18 all there, and those--that knowledge kind of trickled down
  • 03:25 to the Jewish people and off to the New World.
  • 03:27 Kirsten: Made its way.
  • 03:29 David: Did they think it was a better life here for them?
  • 03:30 Why did they make that journey to come to America?
  • 03:33 Jeffrey: Well, Jews were told that they had to either get out
  • 03:39 of the Iberian Peninsula or convert and become Christians.
  • 03:45 The Inquisition was in effect, and people were
  • 03:49 running for their life.
  • 03:51 Some ran underground.
  • 03:52 Jewish people ostensibly converted to Catholicism.
  • 03:57 They were called conversos, or Marranos, was a
  • 04:00 disparaging term that was used.
  • 04:02 So ostensibly on the surface they practiced Catholicism, but
  • 04:09 then privately they practiced Judaism, even in the
  • 04:13 early American experience.
  • 04:17 Here in Texas, going from Galveston to Amarillo, south to
  • 04:21 Monterrey, Mexico, this was called Nuevo Leon before it was
  • 04:27 America, and the province was governed by someone, Luis
  • 04:31 Carvajal, who was one of these Jews I've described.
  • 04:34 The Inquisition came over and killed him and over 100
  • 04:38 members of his family.
  • 04:39 Two sons escaped, went back to Europe, but there were a lot of
  • 04:42 Jews here in the New World.
  • 04:44 Kirsten: Was it a sort of promised land where there would
  • 04:48 be religious freedom?
  • 04:50 Because, again, from Spain, they're getting kicked out.
  • 04:53 The Jewish people, once again, are getting
  • 04:55 kicked out of their land.
  • 04:56 Jeffrey: Yes, and, in fact, there was certain charter places
  • 04:59 like Jamaica that said explicitly that there was no
  • 05:03 religious litmus test.
  • 05:04 Going to the colonies in America, closer to when the
  • 05:08 Europeans are coming, not the southern Europeans as in the
  • 05:12 Spaniards, but when the British and those that we know, Puritans
  • 05:16 came here, looking for a New World and religious freedoms,
  • 05:20 and Jews came along with--actually, the first Jews
  • 05:23 into the New World came from South America
  • 05:27 from Recife, Brazil.
  • 05:30 They came and went to New Amsterdam, and they
  • 05:35 took residence there.
  • 05:37 There were 23 families that disembarked,
  • 05:39 and that was the beginning.
  • 05:40 Kirsten: I was gonna say, something we learned that
  • 05:42 we didn't know at all, and before we come here
  • 05:46 to tape the TV program, we get to watch all of your teaching,
  • 05:50 and we didn't realize that many of the Founding Fathers
  • 05:54 actually studied Hebrew.
  • 05:56 That is just something that we're not taught.
  • 05:58 We don't know that.
  • 05:59 Jeffrey: Well, Hebrew was part of education.
  • 06:02 The early clergy, the early universities picked on it
  • 06:05 first--Harvard, and then Yale, and then Princeton--and to the
  • 06:10 extent the Founding Fathers studied at those places, they
  • 06:13 would've been influenced by it, but there were a lot of
  • 06:16 influences, things Jewish intellectually, to be sure, as
  • 06:20 per the language, and there were influential Jewish people.
  • 06:24 I had to, in effect, in the series "Faith of Our Fathers,"
  • 06:27 even taper down.
  • 06:29 I wanted David Barton to do the talking about the Founding
  • 06:33 Fathers and the document and the Christian origins, but truth
  • 06:37 be known, we could've done an entire series.
  • 06:40 You know, I got some bites in there, a minute or two, about
  • 06:43 different individuals in this series.
  • 06:45 We could've done a whole series on Jewish
  • 06:46 contributions in early America.
  • 06:48 Kirsten: Ooh, let's do it. Let's do that in the future.
  • 06:51 David: Here's a question, so, back in the day,
  • 06:53 were they welcomed with open arms, or was it a struggle?
  • 06:57 Jeffrey: Well, people have prejudices, but they came here
  • 06:59 because there were freedoms, and you can't get away from people's
  • 07:04 private and sometimes-made-public verbal
  • 07:07 disparagements, but on the whole, Jews were able to be free
  • 07:11 and practice their religion.
  • 07:12 Kirsten: Well, the Puritans were running away from being
  • 07:14 oppressed and not being able to worship and follow what they
  • 07:17 wanted to religiously, so it kind of followed suit that--you
  • 07:21 know, I mean, let's look at what is the plaque on
  • 07:24 Statue of Liberty, "We welcome all of you."
  • 07:27 Jeffrey: Yes, and I mentioned in the series, that plaque,
  • 07:29 "Bring me your tired and your poor--"
  • 07:31 was a Jewish woman who wrote that line that--
  • 07:33 David: Right.
  • 07:35 Jeffrey: And, in fact, and it was noted in the series,
  • 07:37 previous, that the letter that George Washington wrote to the
  • 07:42 Touro Synagogue up in New England, therein he gave voice
  • 07:46 to the fact that "We give no quarter to persecuting people on
  • 07:50 the basis of faith," and it is--you know, "We hold these
  • 07:53 truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
  • 07:58 people are entitled to the pursuit of life, liberty,
  • 08:02 and happiness," according to the dictates
  • 08:04 of their own conscience.
  • 08:05 That was part of the American ethos, and, of course, that
  • 08:10 makes room for Jews in it.
  • 08:11 And Jews didn't just come here.
  • 08:13 Jews were contributors of what happened here, and it's
  • 08:17 a story that's oft untold.
  • 08:20 Kirsten: We would be wise to go back to that theology and
  • 08:23 doctrine and thinking, I think, and instead of persecution.
  • 08:27 I mean, people are just so against now those of different
  • 08:31 beliefs, and it would be nice to go back to what our Founding
  • 08:34 Fathers wanted originally for this country, I think.
  • 08:36 Jeffrey: Yes, and I think that's the beauty of our
  • 08:38 viewers, by the way.
  • 08:39 I mean, a Jewish person will watch the programs, to be sure,
  • 08:43 but when you look at Christian television, what goes out in the
  • 08:45 networks, a lot of these are Christian friends that have a
  • 08:48 love for things Jewish, and it speaks to a beauty in their
  • 08:51 heart and a kind of openness that they care about this kind
  • 08:54 of story and that they share to contribute to its ongoing
  • 08:57 telling, and that is America at its best, by the way, a kind of
  • 09:01 openness to new people, new experiences, new things.
  • 09:04 David: We shouldn't have to be reminded of this,
  • 09:06 but guess what?
  • 09:07 Jesus was Jewish too.
  • 09:09 Kirsten: Aha, that's good.
  • 09:11 David: It's all about Jesus.
  • 09:12 Kirsten: Surprise.
  • 09:14 Jeffrey: We shouldn't have to be reminded of that.
  • 09:16 In fact, in Medieval Europe, when they were doing crucifixes,
  • 09:21 you know, if you look at a Protestant cross, it typically
  • 09:24 won't have Jesus on it.
  • 09:25 If you look at a High Church cross, the crucifix, Jesus is on
  • 09:29 it, but it's not just for modesty's sake that this loin
  • 09:33 cloth over his midsection, his private parts.
  • 09:36 If you look at Medieval art, they weren't sheepish about
  • 09:39 showing, you know, private parts, but a reason why they
  • 09:42 wanted to do that is not to advertise the fact that he was
  • 09:46 circumcised, that is, that he was a Hebrew.
  • 09:48 It's kind of "Let's keep that off the radar," and the people
  • 09:53 have long since forgotten and intentionally wanted to obscure
  • 09:57 the Jewishness of Jesus; tragic.
  • 10:00 Kirsten: But that's not what we're about here on
  • 10:01 "Our Jewish Roots"; We'll bring it right back.
  • 10:03 David: That's right. We have more questions.
  • 10:05 We'll be right back.
  • 10:08 David: Our resource this week: the series,
  • 10:09 "Joshua: More Than a Conqueror," on DVD.
  • 10:13 This eight-program series reveals how Joshua went from spy
  • 10:16 to Moses's apprentice and then became the faithful leader
  • 10:19 of the Israelites during the conquest of the land of Canaan.
  • 10:23 With dramatic reenactments, Bible teaching from Dr. Seif,
  • 10:27 insight from Chaim Malespin, music, and much more.
  • 10:31 Contact us and ask for your copy of the DVD series,
  • 10:34 "Joshua: More Than a Conqueror."
  • 10:39 David: Join us right now for additional content that is only
  • 10:41 available on our social media sites, Facebook,
  • 10:44 YouTube, and Twitter.
  • 10:47 Visit our website, levitt.com, for the current and
  • 10:49 past programs, the television schedule, tour information, and
  • 10:53 our free monthly newsletter, which is full of insightful
  • 10:56 articles and news commentary.
  • 10:58 View it online, or we can ship it directly to
  • 11:01 your mailbox every month.
  • 11:03 Also, on our website is the online store.
  • 11:06 There you can order this week's resource, or you can always give
  • 11:09 us a call at 1-800-WONDERS.
  • 11:13 Your donations to Our Jewish Roots help us to support these
  • 11:17 organizations as they bless Israel.
  • 11:20 Please remember, we depend on tax-deductible
  • 11:22 donations from viewers like you.
  • 11:28 male announcer: "For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a
  • 11:31 good land--a land of fig trees and pomegranates, a land of
  • 11:37 olive oil and honey."
  • 11:40 "Arise, walk through the land, for all the land which thou
  • 11:45 seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever."
  • 11:53 Worship in the shadows of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
  • 11:59 Behold the land of the covenant.
  • 12:09 David: Just about weekly on our program, we say that
  • 12:12 traveling to Israel is the trip of a lifetime, and it
  • 12:16 really has been for us too.
  • 12:18 We would love for you to join us on a tour to Israel.
  • 12:20 We go both in the fall and the spring.
  • 12:23 All the information is right here on levitt.com.
  • 12:25 Kirsten: We are a television program, but we also are a
  • 12:29 ministry, and we are a tour company.
  • 12:32 We're many things. So we have this program.
  • 12:34 We have the tours. They're called Zola Tours.
  • 12:36 Levitt.com is the website for everything our ministry covers.
  • 12:42 Something else that we have, we do a monthly periodical called
  • 12:47 the "Levitt Letter," completely free.
  • 12:49 You can sign up on our website.
  • 12:51 We have up-to-date information monthly about what really is
  • 12:55 happening in the land of Israel.
  • 12:57 No fake news goes out from our ministry.
  • 13:00 And something else that we have on there, we have
  • 13:02 letters from our viewers.
  • 13:04 So we would love for you that watch our program to write in.
  • 13:09 Let us know your takeaways from the programs and also
  • 13:11 what they meant to you.
  • 13:14 Another thing that we do is we support the people
  • 13:17 in the land of Israel.
  • 13:20 Your donations, your monthly regular donations go to make
  • 13:25 this program possible but also many, many ministries
  • 13:29 in the land.
  • 13:30 David: You know what, I think we're in our
  • 13:32 40th year of this ministry.
  • 13:35 I can't believe it's been that long.
  • 13:36 We're so thankful to be a part of it, and we also just wanna
  • 13:39 say thank you for supporting us, that we're able to go to Israel
  • 13:42 and do our dramatic reenactments; send you,
  • 13:45 Dr. Seif, there, many times you've been--
  • 13:48 Kirsten: To teach on location.
  • 13:49 How many times have you been to Israel?
  • 13:51 Jeffrey: Fifty or so.
  • 13:52 Kirsten: Wow, when you get to that point, it's the
  • 13:54 "or so," could be.
  • 13:55 Jeffrey: I don't count. I just go.
  • 13:58 Kirsten: We still count.
  • 14:00 David: And the dramatic reenactments are just--
  • 14:03 they're like Hollywood, really.
  • 14:04 Kirsten: Quality.
  • 14:05 Jeffrey: I think it's the drama that's the genius of this
  • 14:07 organization, tell you the truth.
  • 14:09 It's not the talking head. It's not me.
  • 14:12 It's, just, it's the way people can see it
  • 14:15 come to life, you know.
  • 14:17 That's just--and I hope to add something to it, but there are a
  • 14:20 number of ingredients here.
  • 14:22 It doesn't revolve around my person going there as a teacher,
  • 14:25 but it's great to do it with a group.
  • 14:27 Kirsten: Many things under our umbrella of ministry, many
  • 14:30 places, and we get letters from our viewers,
  • 14:34 and you have one, don't you?
  • 14:35 David: Are you ready for question number two?
  • 14:36 Kirsten: You ready, Dr. Seif?
  • 14:38 David: This is kind of a long one, here we go:
  • 14:39 "We know God blesses those countries who bless Israel.
  • 14:42 Do you think the religious liberty America offered to the
  • 14:45 original Jewish immigrants has anything to do with
  • 14:48 the success of our nation?"
  • 14:50 Jeffrey: Yes, and there's a variety of reasons for that.
  • 14:54 First of all, any people that's open to a brother from another
  • 14:57 mother, there's a kind of grace there in
  • 15:00 what that nation's all about.
  • 15:02 That is only gonna pay dividends in future generations
  • 15:05 as opposed to hating.
  • 15:07 But beyond that, certainly, in the seminal promise in early
  • 15:11 Genesis, "I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse
  • 15:16 those who curse you, and in you all the families of the
  • 15:19 earth will be blessed."
  • 15:21 It's one of the more famous texts in the older testament
  • 15:25 that speaks to the fact there's a blessing that accrues.
  • 15:28 I wanna add something to it just--it's not my own edition.
  • 15:32 That's Genesis chapter 12, verse 3.
  • 15:35 I quote from a few different Bibles when I work the program.
  • 15:40 When I'm working from a Hebrew Bible, I'm working with a Hebrew
  • 15:44 text and the Jewish Publication Society version.
  • 15:48 But with this right here, I'm working with a version called
  • 15:51 The Tree of Life that was published by Baker Books.
  • 15:54 I served as the project manager for it, and we had a debate
  • 15:59 about--and there's some 50, or so, individuals about what to do
  • 16:02 with Genesis chapter 12, verse 2, and it was a Christian woman,
  • 16:08 Hélène Dallaire, who's an Old Testament professor at Denver
  • 16:12 Seminary, fell in love with the Jewish people, went and did a
  • 16:15 PhD at Hebrew Union in Semitic languages, and then was asked to
  • 16:21 come there and teach people that are gonna be rabbis,
  • 16:23 the Hebrew language.
  • 16:25 She argued on the basis the Hebrew, in chapter 12, verse 2,
  • 16:29 where the Lord says, "My heart's desire is to make of you into a
  • 16:34 great nation," it is something effusive there.
  • 16:38 It's God's desire, his love, not just his will, not just some
  • 16:42 intellectual intentionality, but it's an extension of the heart,
  • 16:46 and it's with that heartfelt comes this promise, subsequent
  • 16:50 to it, that "I will bless those who bless you and curse
  • 16:53 those who curse you."
  • 16:55 I think there's a blessing that accrues to individuals
  • 16:58 who bless the Jewish people.
  • 16:59 Some, by the may, may wish to take you up on the offer to
  • 17:02 support a ministry like this and others like it, but to be sure,
  • 17:07 those who endeavor to be a blessing to the Jewish people,
  • 17:10 they're gonna be blessed, and I think America is blessed, in
  • 17:14 part, because of its blessing to the Jewish people.
  • 17:16 David: I see it in our lives, blessing, I mean, our love for
  • 17:21 Israel and how he's blessed our family beyond anything we could
  • 17:24 ever imagine because of our love for Israel and
  • 17:28 for the Jewish people.
  • 17:29 Jeffrey: Yes, yes, and many could attest to that.
  • 17:32 I think George Washington, by the way, would say--in fact, he
  • 17:36 was--he beckoned Robert Morris, his Secretary of the Treasury,
  • 17:43 this fledgling country, to go petition Haym Salomon, a Jew in
  • 17:49 Philadelphia, to help because he was holed up in
  • 17:52 Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
  • 17:55 They ran out of money. But Morris was an anti-Semite.
  • 17:58 He didn't wanna do it, but he did, and within half an hour,
  • 18:03 finally, because of Haym Salomon--and I mentioned this in
  • 18:07 the series "Faith of Our Fathers," the money was raised
  • 18:10 to help retool and to reinvigorate with the finances,
  • 18:14 the Revolutionary Army.
  • 18:17 George Washington, if you ask him, "Do you think that there's
  • 18:21 blessings because of Jewish contributions and that we can be
  • 18:25 blessed because we support--"
  • 18:27 oh, he'd be all in, he'd be all in.
  • 18:29 He wrote a letter, of course, that was referenced, "Give us
  • 18:32 thanks to the Jewish people," and he was an early supporter of
  • 18:36 the Jewish people, and there were many others.
  • 18:38 Kirsten: We have to be careful.
  • 18:40 I know it's a fine line, to me, personally, of "If I bless the
  • 18:44 Israeli people, I get a blessing."
  • 18:46 I don't want it to be like you're rubbing Aladdin's lamp,
  • 18:50 and a magic genie appears.
  • 18:51 The magic lamp is like, "Ooh, I was nice to that
  • 18:53 Jewish person down the street, now where's my money?"
  • 18:56 It's a interesting--I don't know--balance?
  • 18:58 Jeffrey: I don't think we should do life,
  • 19:00 "What's in it for me?"
  • 19:01 It's not a slot machine: "I'm gonna put some gold into the
  • 19:04 Jewish-loving, pull this handle down, and now I'm gonna get a
  • 19:06 lot more coins on the other end."
  • 19:08 I just think--you know, Jesus said, "If you only love your
  • 19:12 own, how are you any better than the heathen?"
  • 19:14 We ought to have something for something beyond us.
  • 19:19 That's the whole purpose of tithing, by the way, is
  • 19:21 something disciplined.
  • 19:23 Most of us spend money we don't have for things we don't need,
  • 19:26 to impress people we don't care about; we use credit cards;
  • 19:28 we get ourselves all messed up with money.
  • 19:30 I think a disciplined approach to life carves off a portion to
  • 19:34 give for the Lord's good purposes beyond those of our own
  • 19:38 and to love the Jewish people, to have something to
  • 19:41 invest in that beyond us.
  • 19:43 Just the kind of person that manages their affairs that way,
  • 19:46 it's going to invariably pay dividends, it surely is.
  • 19:50 Kirsten: And I think back to "God loves a cheerful giver,"
  • 19:52 but it's from a pure heart.
  • 19:54 Instead of the financial reward, "What can I get
  • 19:57 from blessing the people,"
  • 19:58 the blessing comes in so many other things other than just,
  • 20:01 "Oh, I got extra coins."
  • 20:03 Jeffrey: To that point, in the Corinthian correspondence
  • 20:05 where Paul gives voice to that, he's raising money
  • 20:07 to send back to Israel.
  • 20:09 "The Lord loves a cheerful giver."
  • 20:11 "Give, and it'll be given-- be liberal and--"
  • 20:13 he's not looking to get a new church bus for
  • 20:15 First Baptist Church of Corinth.
  • 20:17 He's raising missionary money to take back to Israel with him,
  • 20:21 which is where he's headed to go bless the Jewish
  • 20:22 brethren in the land.
  • 20:25 Kirsten: It's a good Word.
  • 20:26 David: We have a new series coming up.
  • 20:28 We wanna show you some excerpts.
  • 20:29 It's all about the Land of Israel.
  • 20:32 ♪♪♪
  • 20:38 announcer: "Look to the north, the south, the east, the west."
  • 20:47 ♪♪♪
  • 20:54 announcer: "All the land which thou seest, to thee will I
  • 20:58 give it, and to thy seed forever."
  • 21:03 "Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither
  • 21:07 slumber nor sleep."
  • 21:10 ♪♪♪
  • 21:16 announcer: "Eretz Israel."
  • 21:19 ♪♪♪
  • 21:26 Jeffrey: It's called "adamah" in Hebrew.
  • 21:28 It means "earth."
  • 21:30 "Aphar" means the "dust," and "erets" means the "land," and
  • 21:35 my, how the Israelites loved it.
  • 21:38 Avraham loved it, Yischaq loved it, and apparently they loved a
  • 21:44 place called Be'er Sheva.
  • 21:48 announcer: "Now, the Lord said unto Abram, 'Get thee out
  • 21:51 of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's
  • 21:55 house, unto a land that I will show thee.
  • 21:58 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee,
  • 22:02 and make thy name great, and thou shall be a blessing.
  • 22:06 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him
  • 22:10 that curses thee, and in thee shall all families
  • 22:14 of the earth be blessed.'
  • 22:16 And Abram took Sarai, his wife, his nephew Lot, all
  • 22:20 their substance and persons they had acquired in Haran, and
  • 22:25 journeyed to Canaan."
  • 22:28 Jeffrey: Now, similarities aside, what's dissimilar is the
  • 22:32 fact that, in this case, at least in the Genesis case as
  • 22:35 we'll see, we're dealing with the real Pelishtine.
  • 22:39 What do I mean by that?
  • 22:41 The real Palestinian, so-called, according to history and various
  • 22:45 histories, were seafaring people that came from Greece and from
  • 22:50 the Ionian Islands, a tall people.
  • 22:54 And we note in the Bible, in no uncertain terms, how they secure
  • 22:58 a toehold principally along the coast.
  • 23:02 They never penetrate far east.
  • 23:04 They establish a few cities, and you have
  • 23:07 some Philistine holdings.
  • 23:09 Well, they came from the sea.
  • 23:12 Bible readers know of another man who traversed the fertile
  • 23:16 crescent, beginning in Ur of Chaldee, makes his way along
  • 23:20 Mesopotamia, settles in Haran, Syria, and eventually hears,
  • 23:25 [speaking in Hebrew]
  • 23:26 "It's time to go."
  • 23:28 In Bereshit, in Genesis 12, he makes his way down further, and
  • 23:33 here at Be'er Sheva, we are at that southern penetration, not
  • 23:38 far south, the Negev.
  • 23:40 [choir chanting]
  • 23:43 David Dolan: In the year 614, the Persians invaded the land.
  • 23:46 They damaged the church, but they weren't there very long.
  • 23:49 In 630, the Byzantines recaptured it.
  • 23:51 But just a few years after that, in 638, a new religion, Islam,
  • 23:56 sent its forces up to this land.
  • 23:58 Behind me, you see the Tower of David.
  • 24:01 That was a mosque minaret.
  • 24:03 It's gone between Christian, Jewish, and Muslim
  • 24:06 rule over the centuries.
  • 24:07 They also captured the Temple Mount.
  • 24:10 They began work on a magnificent shrine, the Dome of the Rock.
  • 24:13 That was finished in the year 691.
  • 24:15 The Muslims that ruled here didn't set this up as a capital.
  • 24:19 They ruled the city, but they did so from Baghdad, sometimes
  • 24:22 from Damascus, sometimes from Cairo, and the different armies
  • 24:26 from those different areas would clash here in the city often.
  • 24:30 In the year 1009, the church was destroyed by Caliph Al-Hakim.
  • 24:35 This was one of the prompts for the Crusades.
  • 24:38 The Pope in Rome said, "We must go to the Holy City.
  • 24:42 We must recapture it."
  • 24:43 And in 1096, Crusader forces landed down on the coast,
  • 24:47 capturing the city of Jerusalem in 1099.
  • 24:51 Jeffrey: Frankly, at the risk of sounding overly pessimistic,
  • 24:54 this is a series I shouldn't even have to make.
  • 24:57 It is just so simple, it is so "one plus one equal two,"
  • 25:00 and that is that God gave this land to the Jew.
  • 25:04 And the story is played out rather dramatically after
  • 25:07 spending many, many years in a wilderness.
  • 25:10 The children of Israel began their conquest of Canaan.
  • 25:15 Leaving the base camp, they have a struggle at Jericho, right
  • 25:19 behind me, and then there's a campaign to the south.
  • 25:23 It'll go up north, and the end result will be--is that the main
  • 25:27 backbone of Canaanite resistance will be broken, enabling the
  • 25:31 children of Israel to take their inheritance.
  • 25:35 Friends, if we read the Bible, if we believe the Bible, let's
  • 25:40 stand up for what the Bible says and support the Jewish bid for
  • 25:45 residency here in the ancestral homeland.
  • 25:49 ♪♪♪
  • 25:59 ♪♪♪
  • 26:06 Jeffrey: I don't want you to miss the points in this upcoming
  • 26:10 series, and I hope you didn't miss the point in this
  • 26:15 particular program.
  • 26:17 Scripture says that "A liberal man will be enriched.
  • 26:21 And he who waters will himself be watered."
  • 26:25 God wants us to be gracious.
  • 26:27 He wants us to be a blessing, amen, yes?
  • 26:30 Kirsten: Amen, and we're excited about next week.
  • 26:33 We've been talking about Jewish people--every week is--but the
  • 26:36 land of Israel and the blessings that God poured into the land
  • 26:41 and his people that overflow to us.
  • 26:44 Jeffrey: Indeed.
  • 26:45 David: You go to lots of places in this series.
  • 26:48 It's great David Dolan will be with us.
  • 26:50 Kirsten: He's a journalist, he's wonderful,
  • 26:52 incredible insight in history.
  • 26:54 I'm gonna jump in here really quick.
  • 26:57 I don't know how you turn on to our program, if
  • 27:00 you found us online.
  • 27:02 We are all about Israel.
  • 27:04 We're all about the Jewish people, but most of all, we are
  • 27:06 about salvation and your heart.
  • 27:10 If you are watching this and don't know who we're talking
  • 27:12 about, his name is Yeshua.
  • 27:14 That's his Hebrew name. His name is Jesus.
  • 27:16 He loves you. He died for you.
  • 27:19 He wants to breathe new life into you today.
  • 27:23 Someone needed that, I think.
  • 27:25 Jeffrey: Amen. Well, I hope they got it.
  • 27:26 David: Yes; next week we start a new series,
  • 27:28 "Eretz Israel," but for now, we end our program with--
  • 27:32 [Jeffrey speaking in Hebrew]
  • 27:34 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
  • 27:37 ♪♪♪
  • 27:45 ♪♪♪
  • 27:50 ♪ A coming kingdom, a coming King, ♪
  • 27:58 ♪ a time of mercy, a time to sing. ♪
  • 28:07 ♪ A chosen people, a chosen song, ♪
  • 28:16 ♪ to live a destiny, to know the Lord. ♪♪

Guest organizations and links