Transcript

Truth Set Free Q&A · Crosswalk

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Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow
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Him. You're listening to Crosswalk with Pastor
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Steve Winnery. Crosswalk is the radio ministry
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of Calvary Chapel Tri -Cities and it is our aim
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to lead you to the cross through the teaching
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of God's Word. When you're talking about Iran,
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Iran is mentioned in Ezekiel chapter 38 as being
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one of the enemies that comes down against Israel
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during the last days and so there's a whole coalition
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of nations and so it includes Iran and Turkey
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and Ethiopia and Libya and some Eastern European
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nations, that's kind of up in the air as to what
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that might be, and then specifically Russia,
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all come down and invade Israel. The passage
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itself talks about the fact that it's a surprise
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attack and Israel is unprepared for it. And so
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when I'm looking at what's happening with Iran
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right now and with President Trump rightly going
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in and stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,
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when I look at this whole thing, it's got the
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potential to rework the Middle East and actually
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bring about peace in the Middle East. And that's
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the picture that you have of Israel in Ezekiel
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chapter 38. They're living securely in unwalled
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villages. They don't expect the attack and they're
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surprised by it as is the whole world. And so
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you have nations that are protesting the attack
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on Israel by this coalition of nations. And so
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that's the next thing that you have on the prophetic
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calendar. When you're looking at what's going
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on in Gaza, specifically, because you mentioned
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it. And again, I think Matt's right. I don't
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think that the settlement issue has to do with
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Gaza unless I've missed that. I think it's the
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West Bank, because that was just in the news
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with the Britain thing. OK. But the whole situation
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with Gaza and Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon,
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again, it looks like in Ezekiel 38, you have
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a peaceful situation with Israel where there's
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relative peace going on. And as a matter of fact,
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Paul in first Thessalonians chapter five talks
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about the rapture of the church taking place
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at a time when the world is saying peace and
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safety. And so the biggest thing that I'm looking
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at in this situation is that the outcome of the
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fighting between the United States and Iran brings
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about some kind of peace deal in the Middle East.
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And if that happens, that's just a total setup
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for what you have in Ezekiel 38, like literally.
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And so there's a number of things in that passage
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that have been fulfilled over the, you know,
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it's been being fulfilled for a good 70 years
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now, but things that are in the last 20 years,
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some pretty radical things that have taken place,
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specifically with Turkey and Israel and reasons
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that people would invade Israel, that kind of
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thing have been taking place. And so the whole
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Middle East is being set up. And so I'm really
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expecting that Trump is going to be able to turn
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this into something where you get a transformed
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Middle East. So the whole Abraham Accords thing
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from his first term is basically unheard of,
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having Muslim countries recognize Israel and
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even be partners with them on any kind of level,
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unheard of. And so if Trump is able to do something
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like that, I think Obviously those have implications
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as far as Israel goes. The whole thing with illegal
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settlements in the West Bank, the settlements
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are not illegal. That's Israeli territory. And
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so when you're looking at the West Bank, when
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you're looking at Gaza, that's all Israeli territory.
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Originally the West Bank after the Israeli war
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of independence, basically. What we call the
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West Bank was Jordanian territory. It's never
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been Palestinian. The whole idea of Palestinians
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didn't come about until the 1960s, and that was
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by Yasser Arafat. And so it's something that's
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been promulgated in the press. It's just a propaganda
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tool, basically. And so you have to watch out
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for that stuff. But it was all Jordanian territory.
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Gaza was Egyptian territory. And when the Egyptians
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and the Jordanians attacked Israel, and this
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was specifically in the 67 war when that war
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was taking place, Israel ended up conquering
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these guys and taking all that territory. was
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never Palestinian. It was Jordanian. And the
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Jordanians did not put up with any kind of Palestinian
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uprisings, that kind of stuff. As a matter of
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fact, there's a thing in history called Black
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September where the King of Jordan basically
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slaughtered a good 50, 60 ,000 Palestinians.
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They were calling themselves Palestinians by
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that time in the early 70s. And again, when you're
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when you're talking about the West Bank, that
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was Jordanian territory. What happened with Israel,
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what's been happening with Israel is they've
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been giving up land for peace. And so Israel
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gave up the Sinai Peninsula specifically to Egypt
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in the late 70s to make a peace treaty with Egypt.
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And that one is held. They have been giving up
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land for peace in the West Bank and in Gaza specifically.
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Gaza was given over to Muslim control or Arab
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control specifically so that the Arabs would
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be peaceful with Israel. And you saw how that
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turned out. Hamas took over and it just became
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a terrorist state. You've got some of the same
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things that are going on in the Palestinian area
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or the Palestinian areas of the West Bank. What
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the Jews call it is Judea and Samaria. And so
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those are the historic geographies of Judea and
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Samaria. And so we call it the West Bank. That
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again is a political, it's basically a political
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statement on it. The friction between Great Britain
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and Israel has been ongoing ever since World
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War I, basically. And so the British had control.
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of the Palestinian mandate. That's what they
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called it. Basically, Turkey sided with a wrong
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ally in World War I. They were on the side of
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the Germans. They were on the side of the Germans
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in World War II also. But in World War I, they
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were on the side of the Germans. And when Germany
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ended up losing, so did Turkey. The Turkish empire
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ended up losing. And what happened was the Western
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allies came in and carved up the Turkish Empire.
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There was no, again, when you're talking about
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some of the modern nations that we have, Egypt
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was always an entity, but when you're talking
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about Jordan, there was no Jordan. There was
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no Iraq. Iran had a, that was called Persia,
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and so they had basically a territory within
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the Turkish Empire. But there was no Palestine,
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there's no Israel in the sense of, there's no
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Palestinian state within the Turkish Empire.
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And so what the Western nations did was they
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started divvying up the Middle East. And that's
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where we get Iraq, that's where we get Iran,
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that's where we get the modern borders, that's
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where we get Lebanon, that's where we get Syria,
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that's where we get Jordan, that's where we get,
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at the time it was called Palestine, that's where
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we get all these nations. And it wasn't until
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after World War I, Great Britain had control
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of the area of Jordan and Palestine specifically.
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They also had control of Iraq. And so when the
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Jews were already in Palestine, they were already
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in what we call Israel, they started emigrating
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there en masse. They'd always had a presence
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there, but they started emigrating there en masse
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during the late 1800s, when it was still the
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Turkish Empire, the Ottoman Empire. They'd had
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bought up a bunch of land in Israel that kind
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of thing and as the the British were dealing
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with the Arabs and the Jews in Israel there was
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animosity between the Jews in Israel and the
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British Specifically because they felt like they
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were getting You know, basically they were getting
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the short end of the stick in the way that the
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British were ruling. The British had promised
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that Israel was going to come into existence
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after World War I. It's called the Balfour Declaration,
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excuse me. I can't believe that's in your head
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and you can just pull it out. Yeah, well, it's
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there. Anyway, and so they had been promised
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basically the land of Israel. And basically it
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was the whole land of Israel. And what you ended
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up with after when the UN partitioned Israel,
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after the British mandate was ended, was not
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anywhere close to what the Balfour Declaration
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stated. And so that was something that evolved
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over time. From World War one all the way to
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1948 and so there's always been this animosity
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since World War one Basically between the Jews
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and Great Britain and so this is just the next
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you know another step in that basically and so
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The biblical implications for this The Bible
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teaches that by the time that you get to the
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end of the tribulation period every nation is
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going to be against the nation of Israel. Every
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nation on the planet is going to be against the
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nation of Israel. And so that is where we've
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got to go. And you can see that becoming more
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and more obvious as time goes on. You've got
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major groups of people, almost half the country
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have basically flipped on their heads as far
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as their opinion of the nation of Israel. and
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that is going to be something that gets more
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and more strident and more and more anti -Jewish
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as time goes on because the Bible teaches. Yeah,
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we've never been this close as far as anti -Semitism
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at least in my lifetime. Obviously there was
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a spike during, you know, 1940s World War II
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time, but in my lifetime it's the worst it's
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ever been. Right. You have all the countries
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that you mentioned coming into this weird peace
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deal that it looks like, right? could change,
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but it's looked like it's going there. In fact,
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we're talking friends with Saudi Arabia. Right.
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These people are the one and we're going to celebrate
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celebrating 9 11 in two days. And they were part
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of the country that organized an attack on us.
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Right. And because the Abraham Accords, there
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were Saudis that were flying on the plane. Exactly.
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And so because of the Strait of Hormuz with the
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oil situation, we need them. And we're doing
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this peace deal treaty. And the one thing that's
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quoted in America, the lion, young lions of Tarshish
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doing a diplomatic protest. Right. And then I
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also, I don't think it's a coincidence that Russia's
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in this weird prerogative where their backs up
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against the wall. They're losing this war. One
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of the controls that they have is natural gas
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being supplied to Europe, and that's gonna get
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taken away, or at least there's all this pressure
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that's on it. And then you have a dictator that
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wants to go out, you know, not... He wants to
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go out in a blaze of glory, in my opinion. He's
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just built that way, old KGB guy. So, all these
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countries have these weird motivations to line
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up against Israel in a time of weird treaties
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and peace deals that the global hegemony in U
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.S. is trying to line up. And it's all how the
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Bible predicts. And I don't think that's a coincidence.
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It's amazing. It's never been this close. And
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one of the things that you mentioned is the whole
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thing with gas. And so there are huge deposits
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of liquid natural gas, LNG, off the coast of
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Israel that have been discovered since basically
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2010, 2012. Yeah, did you know, you probably
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know this, but they shut down the Strait of Hormuz
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and then the Who's the Pirates on the south end?
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The Houthis. The Houthis bombed the pipeline
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that was the other route coming from the west
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side around the Strait of Hormuz. They took it
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out. And so right after that, one of the things
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that was discussed is, well, maybe we can go
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through Israel to supply that oil and bypass
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both of the choke points. And that's a direct
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prophecy of the spoil. that would motivate Russia
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and other countries to come down there and mess
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with that. Yeah, exactly. Turkey specifically
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wants in on the liquid natural natural gas off
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of off of Israel and the way that they're trying
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to leverage themselves is because Cyprus is half
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Turk half Greek and so the because Cyprus is
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close to this then the Turks want in on this
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whole thing and then Israel's planning on selling
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natural gas to Europe. That's what they want
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to do. And so if that ever happens, then that's
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a major impetus for Russia to get involved there.
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So yeah, there's a bunch of stuff lighting up.
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Russia is involved militarily with Ethiopia and
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also in Libya and behind the scenes in a number
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of areas. It's all the nations that are mentioned
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there. You've got interesting things going on.
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I'm also watching the Ukrainian thing because
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again, Russia is drawn into this warfare according
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to Ezekiel 38 with Israel and also 39. There's
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hooks put in their jaws and they're drawn in.
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So God makes it so they have to come down. And
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for them to come down right at this point with
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a whole Ukrainian thing going on, that's kind
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of problematic. It's like you don't really see
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that in scripture. Not that it can't happen,
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but you don't really see that. It doesn't look
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like it goes well. And so I'm looking also at
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a situation where Russia ends up stopping the
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war with Ukraine at some point. So there's got
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to be some kind of ending to that so that they
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can move on to bigger and better things and do
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the stuff with Israel. One of one of the things
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about an attack on Israel is why the need for
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all these other countries and Russia's Russia's
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getting their clock cleaned by the Ukrainians
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in a lot of ways. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so they've
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they've they've lost hundreds of thousands of
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men. in this war, and so they may militarily
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be depleted by the time that you get to the end
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of it, and thus they're gonna have allies that
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they would like to be involved in this whole
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thing and put together a coalition. And so you
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can see a bunch of things that, and I'm not saying
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that that's how it's gonna be, because I don't
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know that, but it's like you look at the situation
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and you can see how easily Ezekiel 38 can. Yeah,
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one of the things with being depleted too is
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that it also makes the nuclear option more profitable.
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And one of the things that the world is focusing
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on now is if you have a nuclear weapon, then
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countries like America and whoever else won't
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mess with you because it puts that option on
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the table. So now everyone's trying to get a
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nuke, like North Korea and other things, because
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it changes the geopolitical strategy. It changes
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the dynamic, yeah. Yeah, for sure. And then what
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it looks like to me is that somebody hits the
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button in this war that kicks it off. The Bible
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says in that passage that fire and brimstone
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come down on these armies that come down against
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Israel and also on their homelands and also in
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Gentile areas. And so that's why the nuclear
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thing. And it doesn't have to be nuclear. God
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could just do that. it may be Ezekiel describing
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nuclear weapons. Yeah. Well, I mean, as you know,
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it's like they're burying bodies down wind and
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marking them with flags. And there's just these
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things that line up with that. But man, I mean,
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we can talk about this for hours. Bottom line
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is, like I always tell you, when you first started
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doing prophecy updates, at least for me over
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20 years ago, I'm like, Whoa, this is cool. And
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now it's like this could happen tomorrow and
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how close are we gonna get before the rapture
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comes back because we're in it and that we are
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there man yeah it's lined up it's all lined up
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yep i agree exciting time to be a alive yeah
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all right amy has been waiting patiently on facebook
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pastor steve she says can you help me understand
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when the old testament saints get their glorified
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bodies she's listening to amir And Amir referenced
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after the tribulation according to Daniel 12.
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She says I'm a bit fuzzy. Maybe I misunderstood
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So she didn't misunderstand because there are
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guys that hold the view that the Old Testament
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saints are resurrected at the second coming not
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with the Rapture or the you know the Thessalonians
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passage they separate that specifically because
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of the Daniel passage. So Right. What would you
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say to that Pastor Steve? You know, I would say
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I don't know for sure. So in the Daniel passage,
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part of the part of the problem with with taking
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that passage as as an indication of when the
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resurrection of Old Testament saints takes place
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is because it's it's a vague passage. And this
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is what it says at that time. Michael shall stand
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up. Can you tell us what chapter chapter 12 verse
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1 verse 1 the great prince? Who stands watch
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over the sons of your people and there shall
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be a time of trouble Such as never was since
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there was a nation even to that time and at that
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time your people shall be delivered everyone
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who's found written in the book and Many of those
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who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake
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some to everlasting life Some to shame and everlasting
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contempt those who are wise shall shine like
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the brightness of the firmament And those who
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turn many to righteousness like the stars forever
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and ever. And so it it basically specifically
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talks about the time of trouble for the people
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of Israel. And that is the tribulation period.
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You can tie that in with a number of other passages.
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But then it talks about this prophecy of the
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resurrection. And so you have a resurrection
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of the unbelievers. Well, that doesn't happen.
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That doesn't happen at the end of the tribulation
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that happens a thousand years later It says some
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to everlasting contempt, right? So now we have
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two different groups of resurrections, right?
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So there's at least two and then it says those
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who are wise Shall shine like the brightness
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of the firmament and those who turn many to righteousness
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Like the stars forever and ever. Well, that's
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obviously talked about believers It talks about
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many of those who sleep in verse two, in the
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dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting
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life. And that's obviously talking about believers
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also. The problem with that is you have a number
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of resurrections of believers. And so you have
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the resurrection of Christ and along with him
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are believers that were raised with him. That's
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in Matthew chapter 27. I think it's verse 55
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or 56, something like that. And so that's called
23:08
the first fruit of the resurrection. Then you
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have the rapture of the church where Jesus comes
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and takes the church to be with him. You see
23:15
the church in heaven at the end of the tribulation
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right before the second coming. So the church
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isn't raptured after the second coming. They're
23:25
already seen in heaven as the wife of the lamb
23:27
before the second coming takes place. And they
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come back with him in the second coming. Yeah,
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they come back with him. Yeah. And then in chapter
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20, you see a resurrection of the righteous dead
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who have died during the tribulation period.
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And so that is a good spot for the resurrection
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of Old Testament saints. And so that's a good
23:53
possibility. That's all the time we have for
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today. If you have questions for Pastor Steve,
23:59
please email me at crosswalkradio at gmail .com
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