Participants:
Series Code: NL
Program Code: NL011001A
|
00:24 Well good evening, and we're coming to you
00:26 from Surprise, Arizona. 00:29 And the reason I'm laughing is that sometimes I want to say, 00:34 Sunshine because it's so bright here, 00:36 you know, and so beautiful. 00:38 And in fact I slipped one time and called it that, 00:41 and I've never heard the end of it from Pastor Murrell Tull. 00:45 But we're in this beautiful church, 00:47 and we're having a tremendous time. 00:50 And I think that you've been just as thrilled with this 00:54 first few days here as I've been. 00:57 We have heard two excellent messages, and one of our 01:01 panelists, Pastor Jeff Zaremsky, the worship leader in Florida. 01:05 Fabulous message, deep message, a lot to say to us 01:09 from a unique perspective. 01:10 And that's what I like about these presentations that come 01:13 from those with a Jewish heritage. 01:16 They have a unique perspective on the Bible in its entirety. 01:19 Right. And that's what Jeffrey remind us again of this night. 01:22 Absolutely! And we're learning some things, because, you know, 01:25 somehow in our mind we've had the idea that there was the 01:31 Old Testament, the New Testament, and of course there 01:34 is in a very real sense, but there is also a oneness that is 01:41 here in Scripture. Yes. 01:43 And this is the amazing and beautiful thing. 01:47 Well, would you introduce our panel? 01:50 Well, we have Ralph Ringer in the lead seat, I guess it is. 01:57 Well, he's closest to us, and directs the Jewish work at the 02:00 North American Division, and a good friend 02:03 of the ministry, and we love him. 02:05 Our speaker for this evening, Jeff Jaremsky. 02:07 Two congregations he is the leader of in Florida, 02:10 and I always get them wrong, so Jeff what are they? 02:12 They are Frontier Beth El-Shalom, New Port Richey and 02:15 Beth El-Shalom, Saint Petersburg. 02:17 Alrighty. And Jeff has told us that he's allergic to cold, 02:20 so we gave him some good weather. 02:22 That's why he's pastoring, and working down in Florida. 02:24 And our friend, the theologian from Oregon, 02:28 Sasha Alexander Bolotnikov. 02:31 Are you in Oregon now? 02:32 I thought you were in Cincinnati. I missed it. 02:35 No, I'm already in Oregon. 02:36 Well, actually, technically in Washington. 02:39 Okay. Vancouver, Washington, but it belongs 02:41 to Oregon Conference. 02:43 Alright, okay. Well, we're... and tell us a little bit. 02:47 What are you doing there? 02:48 Well, besides directing the Shalom Learning Center, 02:52 which is a training and outreach institution for North American 02:57 Division, I'm also leading a congregation there. 03:02 Alright. And in your spare time you do what? 03:05 Ha! Sasha keeps busy! 03:09 And then he co-hosts a program for us, which has... 03:12 That's my spare time. 03:14 Yes, ha ha, ha, right. 03:17 So we appreciate that. 03:18 Ralph give us just a sense of what you were called to do, 03:22 what your portfolio entails. 03:24 Well, when I was evangelism coordinator for the Florida 03:28 Conference, I gained a deeper passion for reaching the Jewish 03:36 people, especially when I understood from the Bible, 03:39 and the Spirit of Prophecy, they are the last 03:42 people group to be reached. 03:43 And the Lord laid on my heart to enable, to help to fund, 03:50 organize, and put them on. 03:53 In fact, the man sitting beside you had a lot to do with me 03:58 going to the division. 03:59 I was happy doing that in Florida in the Southern Union. 04:02 And then he asked me to lead out in the North American Division. 04:07 And that's what we're still doing; 04:10 like bringing Sasha in, getting Jeff started in the work there 04:16 in Florida, so I don't actually do Jewish ministry. 04:21 I enable, I set the culture, the funds, organize so that it can 04:26 happen, and also the go between between conference, 04:31 between churches, and so on, and the workers. 04:34 Because the Devil knows this is the last work, the last people 04:39 group to be reached, and so he pulls out all the stops to try 04:44 to stop that from happening to slow down Jesus' coming. 04:48 If you were to go to Jeff's synagogue there... 04:52 I've been many times to the one that's, it's in Clearwater, no! 04:59 Well, you've got the Clearwater... 05:01 St. Pete is where it is. 05:04 And I've been there many times. 05:07 If you went in that, and if you've been in synagogues, 05:11 you're going into a synagogue. 05:13 They've got the Torah there. It's in an ark. 05:17 When the Lord gave me the privilege of being at 05:20 North American Division I was, I wore a lot of hats. 05:25 I was on 65 boards and committees, chairing a great 05:29 deal of them, one of which was this particular committee. 05:34 We were able to buy, or to purchase ten of those, 05:38 if my memory serves me correct, at $4,000.00 apiece, 05:43 which was an excellent buy. 05:45 We bought ten of those. 05:47 They're beautiful, old antique, from out of Europe, and each one 05:55 of the synagogues has one. 05:58 There may be some others somewhere, I don't know. 06:01 There may be more than one, because you have a beautiful one 06:05 there, and each time they do the reading of the Scripture, 06:10 they bring that out. 06:11 And this is much like when Jesus opened the scrolls 06:16 and read from Isaiah. 06:19 It is very similar to what we have there. 06:23 Ah Jim, I noticed that you were referring 06:26 to it as a synagogue. 06:27 Some of our congregations do that. 06:30 I prefer that we use the word congregation, because we don't 06:38 want to be limited to what a synagogue does. Okay. 06:43 On the other hand, we don't want to be limited to 06:49 what a church does. Right. 06:52 And so congregation is acceptable on both sides, 06:57 and we have a tendency to ruffle less feathers, and also to get 07:04 the message out to both groups what the work really is. 07:10 It's to congregate God's people into that oneness that Jeff 07:17 talked about tonight in his presentation. 07:20 In that one tree where the Gentiles are grafted in, 07:24 some of the Jews had been cut off, but then they could be 07:29 grafted back in into one tree where the 07:33 Messiah, Jesus is the root. 07:35 And so, therefore, I would prefer to look at it that way. 07:42 I think it's a broader reach and understanding. 07:45 And then because it's a congregation, 07:48 they are not limited to do just what churches or synagogues do, 07:54 but they can bring together God's people. 07:56 And, Jim, I know you're very sensitive to that also, 07:59 having led that group. 08:00 But, going to you, Jeff, so you prefer the term 08:03 congregational leader. 08:06 It kind of frees you to minister in the way that 08:09 you wish, don't you? 08:10 Sure, that's a good term for again broad spectrum. 08:14 But in the synagogue there are, in the congregation there, 08:18 we use the term Rabbi as well. 08:19 Uh huh, yah, uh huh. 08:21 Although we have to be kind of careful, because when we 08:27 announce Rabbi in the traditional Jewish community 08:32 it means an individual, leader, teacher, who is ordained, 08:37 and recognized by the Jewish community. 08:43 And, you know, we don't want to be looked upon as some kind of 08:50 deceptive in this sense. 08:53 We want people to understand who we are. 08:57 We want people to understand what they're choosing. 09:00 I think we need to be sensitive. 09:04 It's a little bit like, as a pastor if someone addresses you 09:11 as, and respectfully from a different background, Reverend. 09:18 I don't think we ought to make a big issue out of it. 09:20 At the same time, I don't think we ought to 09:24 necessarily address ourself. 09:26 I'm not saying Rabbi is like that. 09:28 I'm just saying that we need to be sensitive to both the 09:33 Christian background, and the Jewish background. 09:37 And, as Paul said, he was all things to all people that 09:44 some might be saved. 09:45 And that we are sensitive, and that if we are addressed in a 09:52 certain way by a certain group, let's not be a problematic, 09:57 or on the other hand, not be offended. 10:01 It's really a broad term though in many, many respects. 10:05 In fact you'll find that Jesus, who probably was not an ordained 10:11 Rabbi, was often referred to as Rabbi. 10:14 So I even call C. A. Rabbi now and then. 10:19 It's interesting in the Jewish community, actually the term 10:25 Rabbi is the Aramaic word meaning great; 10:29 somebody in the position of authority. 10:32 And actually Rabbi's, unlike the priests, 10:36 are not of Aaronic descent. 10:38 It's the lay people who, basically around the third 10:42 century BC, second century BC took the role of being the 10:48 teachers of the Torah, because, unfortunately, Levites and 10:53 priests became a bit corrupted, and tempted with money. 10:57 And that's how the term arrived. 10:59 But it also, but now in the modern society it has this 11:05 kind of a specific connotation. 11:07 So when people say, You know, and for many Jewish people 11:11 a teacher is the Rabbi. 11:13 And they'll still call me Rabbi. 11:15 You know, I have my degree in Rabbinic literature. 11:19 But I am proud to be an ordained Seventh-day Adventist pastor. 11:25 And regardless of the fact that during my course of studies 11:29 I was approached by my colleagues and teachers to go 11:35 into a real Rabbinate, and be a Rabbi of reformed congregation, 11:40 I respectfully declined this because I am loyal 11:45 to the church I believe. 11:47 Alright. Well, good. 11:49 One of the things we talked about when we met a couple 11:51 years ago, and went with this, Jim, was because you wanted 11:54 the world to know, and Ralph has touched on this, 11:57 that this is a specific people group that you have to reach 12:03 in a very specific way. 12:04 It's not a one size fits all kind of thing. 12:08 When you're dealing with Christians of other faiths, 12:10 you have some common ground that you can sort of begin with. 12:14 When you're dealing with the Jewish man, I can't grab you 12:17 by the tie and say, You need to give your heart to Jesus, 12:19 because He died for your sins. 12:20 That's not going to fly. 12:21 It won't fly with anybody else either. 12:24 That is very, very true! 12:26 But what we're saying is that when you're dealing with 12:31 our Jewish brethren, there is a certain way you have to approach 12:34 if you want to be perceived as legitimate. 12:37 And you're not going to be able to go in with some of the things 12:40 that we've classically done with other Christians. 12:43 And this is also true of the Muslim community. 12:45 That these people groups are, I don't want to say difficult, 12:50 but your texture has to be different, and the way you 12:53 approach them has to be different. Is that not so? 12:56 Well, you know the Apostolic Church, of course, was Jewish. 13:00 And there was not, even though it was either a Jewish person 13:06 who accepts Christ as the Messiah, or they do not; 13:11 one or the other. Later on the Gospel goes to the Gentiles. 13:16 And then the Gentiles, in a very, well, within a hundred 13:20 years, there were probably a thousand Gentile believers 13:23 for every one Jewish believer. 13:25 Because it really started to grow in that group. 13:29 But there also began to present some problems when this 13:35 happened, so that it made a separation considerably, 13:40 between the Jewish mind and the Gentile mind, so that people 13:48 began to... The Jews were sort of pushed back. 13:54 That's really where more of the replacement theology came in 13:58 is along about that particular time. 14:01 And misquoting some of the things that Paul 14:03 said, and so forth. 14:05 So then you see this separation between the two, 14:08 which didn't exist in the original. 14:11 It was the Apostolic Church were Jewish people... 14:17 You know, sometimes we hear, Well, the Jews rejected Jesus. 14:21 They really did not. 14:22 The early Christian's were Jews. 14:24 The Disciples were Jews. 14:26 The seventy were Jews. 14:29 The people that the 3,000 that were baptized at Pentecost 14:32 were Jews, and they accepted. 14:35 The nation, the leadership, no. 14:39 Some did, but as a unit they did not. 14:43 But the honest at heart accepted. 14:47 And our very basic beginning is a 14:50 Jewdayo-Christian beginning. 14:53 It's where it all started. 14:55 And I believe that Seventh-day Adventists... 14:57 In fact a very fine young man who I'm very close to accepted 15:04 Jesus Christ and he said, I am complete now. 15:08 Because of the belief... 15:11 You see, he had studied other Protestant beliefs, and because 15:17 they rejected the Sabbath, they rejected so many things, 15:22 he said, I could not find the thing I was looking for. 15:27 But when I found the Seventh-day Adventist message, then he said, 15:32 I saw this is the Apostolic religion. 15:36 This is the Jewish religion, in a sense, 15:40 with Christ at the very center. 15:42 And so this, I believe, is the message we need to be presenting 15:47 to the Jewish people is that this is the fulfillment. 15:53 This is IT! It's almost like a Messianic Jew in a sense, 16:00 but even though that's not exactly the truth. 16:03 You know, what you mentioned, Jim, if we go back for the first 16:08 hundred years, or the first century, I should say, up until 16:11 the change into the second century Jews out numbered 16:17 Gentiles in the church. Right. 16:20 It started in the second century where at the first time that 16:25 the Gentiles out numbered. 16:27 They brought things in. 16:28 There were three things that happened that set the stage 16:33 for the fallacies that Jeff was talking about a few moments ago, 16:38 and the series about replacement theology, 16:41 about dispensations, etc. 16:43 And there were three things that brought it in, 16:47 that worked together. 16:49 We have some people they look at, and we as Seventh-day 16:54 Adventists look at the change of the Sabbath, 16:56 and we have stood very strong there. 16:58 There are two other things that help to facilitate that. 17:03 And that facilitation happened with the Gentiles bringing in 17:09 paganistic ideas, and enforcing them, 17:13 that led us into the dark ages. 17:15 And those other two things are replacement theology, 17:19 and separation between clergy and laity. 17:22 And because the clergy gained all the power in that hierarchy, 17:29 then they could change the Sabbath. 17:31 Because the Jews had been replaced, they could take 17:35 and change the day. 17:36 This is an over simplification, but this is 17:40 basically what happened. 17:41 And we have to understand those three together to totally 17:46 undo what was done there, starting in the second 17:50 and in the third century, and which brings about these false 17:55 theologies that comes into Christianity that 17:59 Jeff and Sasha have addressed. 18:02 That's interesting, and actually in the DNA of our church 18:11 there is a three angels' message. 18:13 And we often focus on worship when we talk about three angels' 18:18 message, which is the message of the first angel. 18:23 But there is a message of the second angel, 18:26 which is the Babylon. 18:27 And actually this confusion, this mixing up, 18:32 started in the second century. 18:35 That's what actually led to anti-Jewish sentiments 18:41 within the Christianity. 18:43 And historian, you mentioned Jim, Judea Christianity. 18:47 That's the first term. 18:49 You know, it's now, people often say, first Apostolic 18:54 Church, but in the academic historical literature there is a 18:59 term used, Judea Christian. 19:02 So Judea Christians began to die down in the middle of the 19:09 second century under the pressure from mainly Gnostics. 19:16 Gnostics are Greek people who came to Christianity. 19:21 But what happened to them, they did not change 19:25 their way of thinking. 19:27 They remained the Greek, they remained very philosophical, 19:32 they remained, they began to interpret Bible allegorically, 19:39 and that was totally, totally against the Jewish mindset, 19:45 and against the spirit of the Bible. 19:48 And eventually we have such a church father of such origin who 19:54 ridicules the Sabbath. 19:56 And, of course, we have a very political persecution, you know. 20:01 The ancient Jewish sources such as Midrash quote, for example, 20:06 the comedy plays in the Roman amphitheaters. 20:10 You know, when the camel comes out and the camel has a 20:14 sackcloth on it, and they ask, Why is the camel 20:19 wearing a sackcloth? 20:21 Oh, because the camel belongs to a Jew, 20:25 and today is the Sabbath, and the Jew doesn't feed the camel. 20:30 And everybody laughs. 20:31 So there was this first anti-Semitism in the mid second 20:36 century, and it was connected with the Sabbath. 20:40 And so it was a ridiculing of the Jews, and the rise of the 20:48 allegorical interpretation that stemmed from Greek philosophy 20:54 that actually changed the direction of the church 20:59 into a wrong way, and that led to the fact the Jews first 21:05 stopped coming to the church, and then they were 21:07 pushed out of the church. 21:09 That's, I think that's the key. 21:11 Between the early years when the church was predominately Jewish, 21:14 and the Protestant Reformation, which is a long period of time, 21:17 you could not have had the establishment of the medieval 21:20 church without the demonization of the Jewish community. 21:24 You had to get that Jewish influence out of there. 21:26 You've got to get the Sabbath out of there. 21:27 You had to get all of the Jewish influences, so the only way the 21:33 church could do that was to demonize of them. 21:34 And you hit on something last night, Sasha, 21:36 that was very, very good. 21:37 The church said, Listen, to the Jews. 21:40 Here's your options: 1. You've got 5 days to get out of Dodge, 21:45 2. Convert to Catholicism, 3. You're dead. 21:52 Now you pick the option, but those are your three choices. 21:55 And in doing so you effectively remove the Jewish influence, 22:00 which is your centering influence. 22:02 So once you take out of the center, the pole where this 22:05 thing sits on, or the cornerstone, 22:07 now you can go anywhere. 22:09 So any theology that comes in, any pagan theology comes in, 22:13 you're ready to accept that because you've lost your center, 22:16 because you've taken the Jews out of the equation, 22:18 so all of the beauty that they bring is now gone. 22:21 You know, persecution was coming from many sides for 22:26 the Sabbath keeping believer. 22:29 He was receiving, he was not accepted by the Jews who had not 22:34 accepted the Messiah. 22:35 On top of that he's persecuted by the pagan, 22:40 and particularly when the pagan becomes Christian 22:44 and they begin to keep the first day of the week. 22:47 They are now persecuting those who continue 22:51 to keep the Sabbath. 22:53 So they've gotten, they are not accepted on either side. 22:57 They're not accepted by the Jews who have, the ones who have 23:00 rejected the Messiah, and they are not accepted by the pagan. 23:05 So they are now forced into Where are we going to go? 23:10 At least if we go here and begin to keep the first day of the 23:14 week, we'll be accepted somewhere. 23:16 I mean at least the persecution will end here. 23:21 And so they make a natural... 23:23 They're pressed into it. 23:26 And they find justification for it in their minds. 23:29 They'd say, Well, you know, we can be remembering the 23:32 resurrection of Jesus. 23:35 And for awhile they'd try to keep both days. 23:39 And then gradually the new generation comes along, 23:44 and they begin to only keep the first day of the week. 23:47 So we see these people just really between a rock and a hard 23:54 place as far as where they're going to stand with truth. 23:59 And it wasn't overnight. No, oh no. 24:00 It ended over generations. Exactly. 24:02 Each generation weakened. Right. 24:05 Like I said, they were doing both. 24:06 And then which one they enjoyed more, 24:08 and until over a long period, span of time. Yes. 24:11 And, as you mentioned, C. A., I would emphasize here 24:17 that Satan had a plan. 24:18 That Satan had a plan to uproot anything he bragged Jewish 24:24 from the Biblical teaching. 24:26 And when I look at our fundamental beliefs, you know, 24:32 when we talk about pre-Advent Judgment, you know, 24:36 when we talk about the cleansing of the heavenly Sanctuary. 24:42 If you try to understand them based on the Bible, you know, 24:49 this becomes a very significant issue; how to prove it 24:54 Biblically, you know. 24:56 Because if we want to preach the three angels' message 24:58 we can't take the Spirit of Prophecy books and go out to the 25:05 world and say, This is the Spirit of Prophecy book; accept. 25:09 The Bible is the foundation, and Ellen White based 25:16 her teaching on it. 25:18 She didn't invent any new teaching. It was based... 25:22 She was a lesser light to show to the bigger light. 25:25 So we needed to go to the bigger light. 25:27 But for many Christians, and I keep talking to many of them, 25:31 even to many Messianic's who went through the Evangelical 25:37 training, and this is so non-Jewish. 25:41 For example, the scapegoat, well, to be more precise, 25:48 in Hebrew the goat for Azazel, because the scapegoat is 25:53 kind of very English... 25:55 I don't know, there's no such in English word, scape, 25:59 except the part of this idiom. 26:02 So you take this, all Christians believe it's Jesus. 26:07 But, you know, Jewish people all the time believed that 26:12 scapegoat represents the Satan. 26:15 And so we have this Jewish teaching in it. 26:21 We're just sometimes embarrassed to recognize it, 26:25 or the idea of the judgment. 26:30 On that scapegoat, in Israel if someone wants to tell you to 26:33 go to hell, they tell you to go to Azazel. Ha! 26:38 Yeah! You'll learn very quickly that there's nothing that the 26:41 Bible doesn't talk about the scapegoat. 26:44 In fact, this is a wrong translation, which was grafted 26:49 in because of the Septuagint translation 26:52 of the Torah into Greek. 26:54 So to defend our doctrines as a Seventh-day Adventist, 26:59 if we throw out Hebrewaic thinking, we'll cut the branch 27:05 on which we're sitting. 27:06 Well, you know, following that up Sasha, I have found my 27:12 understanding of the Scripture since I've been involved in 27:18 Jewish ministry has greatly deepened. 27:21 And our teachings as a church have much deeper 27:27 roots than just surface. And we cannot... 27:34 Why we have so many denominations, and all of that, 27:37 is because we have varied. 27:39 You know you mentioned the core, C. A. 27:42 When we fully understand the full context of the Biblical 27:49 bases, and where it came from, who were the writers, 27:54 and specifically, who were they for? 27:56 You know, yes, the word of God is for all of God's people, 28:00 but where did it come from? 28:02 When we forget where it comes from, and the context, 28:06 where it comes from, then we have all kinds of errors 28:09 in every direction. 28:11 And that's the confusion of the second angel's message 28:14 of Revelation: Babylon, the confused religious world. 28:18 Come out of it! And this is where we need to take a stronger 28:24 look; not to be looking for, What do Christians say? 28:28 What do Christian fathers say? 28:30 What do denominations and scholars say? 28:33 And all of them have their place, but what comes first? 28:38 What does the word of God say? and where did it come from? 28:41 and on what basis? 28:43 And let's not forget those roots. 28:45 We forget the roots, and then all the rest of the tree 28:50 is contaminated. Precisely, precisely. 28:51 And if I could just then... 28:53 Now where is that taking us today? 28:54 What is the outcome of this, from 2,000 years ago really, 28:58 you know, first, second century? 29:00 We're living it now. 29:02 The persecutions that are still happening now are the 29:05 anti-Semitism that is still happening now. 29:07 I mean the persecution to the Holocaust. 29:09 So a lot of those roots were right from this teaching: 29:12 replacement theology, ah Luther. 29:15 Luther said some horrible things. 29:17 He wrote some pamphlets that we should take the Jewish books 29:20 and burn them; that we should take the Jewish people 29:22 and gather them together. 29:24 We should put them into forced labor, and we should kill them. 29:27 And step by step it's exactly what the Nazi's did. 29:31 Following now, Luther wrote a lot of greats things, too, 29:33 and God used him in a lot of great ways. 29:35 I think he had maybe too much beer, or got a little senile 29:38 there at the end, and he wrote some horrible, horrible things. 29:41 He had a bad day I guess. 29:42 A bad day, yeah! Yeah! 29:43 And it was used, but it came from this. 29:46 And initially Luther was actually 29:48 very favorable to the Jews. 29:49 But when they didn't meet his prophetic desire for what he was 29:54 wanting them to do, you know, convert enmass, 29:55 he then turned on them. Yeah. 29:58 And so we see today a lot of anti-Semitism, 30:00 both within Christianity; there's boycotts, 30:04 and divestments going on by Christian 30:06 denominations against Israel. 30:08 The new anti-Semitism is anti-Israelism. Yeah. 30:11 And a clear example in the world, too. 30:15 Just this week a horrible, horrible tragedy 30:19 took place in France. 30:20 This, this slaughtering. 30:22 This guy going into this magazine 30:25 and killing tons of people. 30:27 It's been in the news. 30:28 And over and over again they're talking about it. 30:30 And there's a great outcry against it, and should be. 30:32 Well, just a few weeks prior to this in Jerusalem another bunch 30:37 of guys went into a synagogue and slaughtered, hacked off, 30:42 and hacked people praying. 30:44 Three American Rabbi's, and a fourth Rabbi were slaughtered 30:49 there while they're praying; blood over the books, 30:52 and over their prayer shawls. 30:53 And a Jewish police officer was slaughtered in that. 30:57 It was in the news for about a day. 30:59 And there were even people who praised the 31:01 the Jordan Prime Minister. 31:04 Jordan has a peace accord with Israel. 31:06 Of all nations, the Jordan Prime Minister came up the next day 31:08 praising the terrorists. 31:10 Instead of there being a world outcry against it, it was, 31:14 Well, it was the Jews. 31:15 And so the, you know, Okay, let's... 31:17 That they should have been killed instead of a world 31:18 out-cry against atrocity. 31:20 CNN on their broadcast it had... 31:27 They got it backwards. 31:28 They called it a mosque. Yeh. 31:30 A slaughter happened at a Mosque. 31:32 And said the Jews went into the mosque. 31:33 Yeah, and it wasn't a mosque, it was a synagogue. 31:35 And in one line it said, Four Israeli's killed, 31:38 and two Palestinians killed, as if it was, you know, 31:40 some kind of fight going on. Right. 31:42 You know, it didn't call it like a terrorist type of thing. 31:44 And saw the President. 31:47 The President of the United States said, I call upon both 31:50 sides to exercise restraint. 31:52 No one's calling for France to exercise restraint right now. 31:55 Catch those terrorists and bring them to justice. Yeah. 31:58 You know, so there's this unequal standards when it 32:03 comes to Israel, and when it comes to the Jewish people. 32:05 Well, there's no question that that's true. 32:07 And we have a history to prove that that's true. 32:09 What we are looking at today though is how can we 32:14 reach these people? 32:15 And this has been the goal of 3ABN. 32:18 We've made four trips there, and the primary reason for that is 32:22 building a base where we can reach out. 32:25 We have applied for a license to be on cable in all of Israel. 32:32 Because being on cable in Israel, which is unbelievably 32:37 expensive, is as expensive, and we think somebody is trying to 32:42 price us out of it, but it's as expensive as if we went on a 32:45 full satellite that would be covering many, many nations. 32:49 So we are now, we've made contact with the president of a 32:55 company to represent us there. 32:57 I've met with him, and we're still praying, have a prayer go 33:02 that this could be. 33:03 Because we are told, and you've sent me statements, 33:07 I've received statements from you, Ralph, and I've found some 33:11 on my own in the Spirit of Prophecy where we are told 33:14 that there's going to be as many people, many Jewish people 33:20 converted in a day as there were at Pentecost. 33:23 Now I read that last night, in the beginning of our 33:26 session last night. 33:28 And that means as many people in a day 33:32 as there were at Pentecost. 33:34 Jewish people. It's not talking about at large. 33:38 We're already baptizing a lot more than that worldwide, 33:43 but it means specifically Jewish people. 33:47 How are they going to be reached? 33:49 You see, we believe that through media you're going to get 33:53 behind the closed door. 33:55 We find this over and over again throughout the Middle East. 33:58 People who are Muslim, people who are Jews, people who have no 34:03 religion whatsoever, Arab Christians, 34:06 they are coming and finding the Seventh-day Adventist Church 34:12 from watching 3ABN. 34:14 And it's in English right now. 34:16 Now when we go, if we go into Israel we're hoping it'll be in 34:21 English, but we want Hebrew byline down below, so that those 34:28 who don't understand English can read it. 34:31 We had an individual, a good friend of mine, 34:34 was visiting with one of the leading Protestants 34:38 in the United States. 34:39 A man that has been strongly involved with the 34:41 Billy Graham Association, and setting up their crusades. 34:44 And he said to him, he said to my friend, We believe that the 34:51 Seventh-day Adventists are the ones to take 34:55 the Messiah to the Jews. 34:57 He said, Let me tell you why I believe that. 34:59 He said, I am a Sunday keeping, pork eating Baptist. 35:03 He said, You are a Sabbath keeping, Leviticus following 35:09 Seventh-day Adventist. 35:11 Who has got a better opportunity to reach the Jewish mind 35:17 than a Seventh-day Adventist? 35:18 He said, I'm not the only one that believes this. 35:20 We have talked about this in wide circles that this is 35:25 something the Seventh-day Adventist's can do 35:27 better than we can do. 35:29 You know, that, I believe, is one of the things God has called 35:33 us, with the three angels' message is to reach out to the 35:37 Jewish people; not just a few here and there, 35:40 but to see great things happen. 35:43 And again, I'm talking for 3ABN, because we are one of the ways 35:49 to get behind those closed doors. 35:51 See we get letters all the time, from people all over the world, 35:56 that believe everything Seventh-day Adventists believe. 35:59 There's just no Seventh-day Adventist church near them. 36:01 And they will send support, a financial support. 36:07 I had a man tell me that recently. 36:09 He said, There is not a Seventh-day Adventist church 36:12 within sixty miles of where I live. 36:15 He says, I'm nearly seventy years old. 36:18 I was Christened in the church down the street. 36:22 I will probably be buried in the church down the street. 36:25 But I believe everything that Seventh-day Adventists teach. 36:28 The people in my church know it. 36:31 And he said, They know that I keep the Sabbath. 36:34 They know, and he went down the line. 36:36 He said, I guess you could call me a closet Adventist, 36:40 but I believe the message. 36:42 Folks, there are millions around the world that have been 36:47 watching the television, listening to the radio, 36:50 and that believe this message. 36:53 One of these days they're going to come out. 36:56 And I believe this is especially true with the Jewish people. 36:59 Jesus said, You will not see me anymore until you say, 37:02 Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Yeah. 37:05 He didn't say, You won't see Me anymore; 37:06 I'm done with you guys. 37:07 I'm cleaning My hands. 37:09 But there will be a coming back. 37:11 Until the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled, right? Yeah. 37:15 And then it will come back to the Jewish people. 37:17 And I believe the time of the Gentiles; going to the fullness 37:19 of the Gentiles; going to the world, like you say. 37:21 It's being preached around the world through personal people, 37:24 and through satellite, and through television, 37:26 and in various means. 37:28 The gospel is going to the world. 37:29 And so now it needs to come back to the Jewish people. 37:32 Now we don't have the same view of this that 37:35 the evangelicals have. 37:37 What is their view? 37:38 Well, the evangelical view that all the Jewish people have to go 37:43 to Israel, and come to Israel in order for the Messiah to come. 37:46 Actually they're habod kinds of things: that all the Jewish 37:48 people have to keep at least the Sabbath together, 37:51 or pray certain prayers together, 37:52 and then the Micaiah will come; 37:55 the Messiah will come. 37:56 But every opportunity has to go to all the world. 38:00 And people will come in. 38:01 People will be saved. 38:03 So what we believe is that they are grated onto the branch. 38:06 Together; everyone together. Right. 38:08 Not two separate houses, not two separate trees; one house. 38:11 The wall of separation that was built up in the second century, 38:14 broken down, united together. 38:16 And so they must come. 38:17 We've got several groups. 38:19 We've got first those who believe in the 38:22 three angels' message. 38:24 We have people that don't believe in the 38:26 three angel's message that are of all kinds of backgrounds, 38:30 and then we have the Jewish people who don't believe in 38:33 the three angels' message. 38:35 But before the end they are going to all, not all, 38:39 but from each of these groups, the faithful will come to Jesus. 38:47 Is that right? Is that what we believe? Amen. 38:49 Alright. And one of the important things, 38:51 and Jeff has mentioned it, about Luther. 38:56 One of the things, we cannot repeat the mistake 39:00 which was done, and it's impatience. 39:02 You see, in the very beginning, if you look, Luther studied 39:08 Hebrew with Rabbi's. 39:10 This is how we have the Bible; the first 39:13 translation of the Bible. 39:15 You know, Christianity... 39:17 If it wasn't for Jews who preserved the Bible text... 39:21 In fact, when you look at the years, the first Hebrew printed 39:26 Bible was done exactly sometime in 1525. 39:31 That's exactly when Luther was working on the translation of 39:35 the Bible in German. 39:36 So, but then he thought, Okay, I'm going to 39:40 convert them right away. 39:41 And this is where the problem is. 39:43 We expect quick results, okay? 39:46 Kind of a get rich quick scheme. 39:49 It's not going to work. 39:51 In my work I know it takes sometimes a year, 39:56 it takes sometimes a couple years, three years, four years, 40:00 for the Holy Spirit to work on the heart of the people so that 40:05 the things we believe would sink in. 40:10 And so it was interesting in the history of the Lutheran 40:13 church; back in 1876 a group of Rabbi's met with Lutheran 40:21 Bishops in Germany, and asked them to accept them into 40:27 the Lutheran church. 40:28 It was reformed Rabbi's. 40:30 That's what Luther wanted what, 300 years before. 40:35 And you know what the Lutheran churches said? 40:37 They said no. So we cannot make this mistake today. 40:44 You know, we cannot say... 40:46 This is the worst thing I see among many people, 40:50 many sincere Christians, and Adventists, 40:53 or Jews do not accept. 40:56 You know, that's what is often the biggest hurdle. 41:01 People say, you know, Why should we preach? 41:04 They won't accept. Let us not repeat what happened in history. 41:09 You know, we find this though with people of all beliefs. 41:14 I was in Georgia at a church not long ago, and a man came up 41:17 to me and he said, I watched 3ABN for five years. 41:21 He sat at a notebook. 41:22 He said, I wrote down every text that Kenneth Cox, 41:26 and he went down the line: Doug Batchelor, 41:29 and then Lyle Albrecht. 41:32 And he named them all. 41:34 He said, I wrote down every text that they gave, and looked them 41:38 up to prove them wrong. 41:40 He said, I did this for five years. 41:42 And finally, he said, I told my wife, I can't prove them wrong. 41:46 We've got to join them. 41:48 And he said, I walked into the Seventh-day Adventist church, 41:51 and I became a member. 41:52 It takes time, sometimes, for people to be able 41:58 to make this decision. 41:59 Especially when there's this 2,000 years of built up 42:02 division, and hurt, and persecution, and fear. 42:07 And that's why the congregations that we have that have helped 42:10 break down the prejudice, and break down those fears, 42:12 making a comfortable setting where they can come in and hear, 42:16 and hear the message in a context and culture that 42:19 is acceptable to them. 42:20 Right. And prejudice, by the way, is not just one sided. 42:24 No, right. You find it on both sides. 42:26 But you've made a key statement. 42:29 Where they can come in to a culture that is much like 42:33 theirs, and there learn about Yeshua. 42:37 Which is why this initiative of getting on cable in Israel 42:41 is such, to my mind, and I know to yours also, Jim, 42:44 a high priority for 3ABN. 42:48 Think what would happen if we could get the Gospel 42:51 in Israel on a 24/7 basis. 42:54 We know now that there are people in Islamic countries 43:00 who are keeping the Sabbath, and their lifeline is 3ABN. 43:03 That's right. In the palaces of certain countries 43:07 3ABN is getting in there, and Bibles are getting in there. 43:10 That can happen, and will happen, I think, 43:13 when the Gospel gets in Israel. 43:15 This is the last frontier. 43:18 You've got, and I'm going to get on my horse in second, 43:20 and I'll be off. I'm with you. 43:21 You've got an evangelical mindset that says we've got to 43:24 rebuild the temple on the temple mount. 43:26 You know that they're hyper focused on that, 43:29 and if someone tried to tear down the Dome of the Rock now, 43:33 and put something there, you'd have World War 3. 43:35 They don't understand that the action is not on the 43:39 Temple Mound, the action is in the temple in heaven. 43:41 That's what Christ is doing now. 43:42 That's where the action is. 43:44 And we understand that because we've got the sanctuary message, 43:48 sanctuary message, you see? 43:49 It is, when you look at the stew, 43:51 that is systematic theology, the stew that is doctrines, 43:55 the one pea that the Adventist Church put in 43:58 that stew is sanctuary. 44:00 And yet it centers and gives us an understanding of everything 44:05 that's going on from creation till the time Christ comes back. 44:09 The sanctuary is so critical, and I think if the Evangelical 44:12 world had the sanctuary, they wouldn't be flying 44:16 off in all directions. 44:18 Because the sanctuary centers you on the work of Christ; 44:20 what He has done, what He is doing now, 44:22 and what He is soon to do. 44:24 In fact the Jewish people, the Jewish leadership missed the 44:29 Messiah because they didn't understand the sanctuary. 44:32 Had they truly understood, they would have seen Him 44:36 as the Lamb of God. 44:38 And we've got to make sure that we, as a church, whatever we do 44:43 that we don't miss the Messiah because we have somehow 44:50 thrown out, or disregarded, or ignored 44:53 the message of the sanctuary. 44:55 Because Christ is still to be found in the sanctuary. 44:59 One of the things which you touched, C. A., is on the focus 45:05 of Evangelicals on the temple. 45:08 And sometimes people tend, because they do not accept 45:13 this, and this is correct that this is not Biblical, 45:17 they tend to go to other direction. 45:20 They become extremely anti-Israel. 45:24 Israel has nothing to do. 45:26 The fact that you can look at what happened in Israel. 45:31 Without Israel we wouldn't have had the Dead Sea Scrolls today. 45:36 Without the Dead Sea Scrolls our understanding of the Bible 45:43 would be much less in the sense that for the entire nineteenth 45:48 century the German liberal theology tore the Bible 45:52 apart left and right. 45:54 And the findings of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the archeological 45:58 discoveries that were made in Israel, have proven them wrong. 46:04 So we can't throw Israel out completely just because 46:09 the temple will not be rebuilt. 46:12 We have to learn to differentiate because if we 46:16 become very anti-Israeli then we're shooting ourselves 46:22 in the foot, because Jews just will not come to us. 46:26 They will go to every church possible, but not to us. 46:30 You know, Jim, you were mentioning, and C. A. too, 46:37 about how you get in through the media. 46:42 We have something that I think last year we 46:46 talked about it coming. 46:48 Jeff, why don't you tell us more about Shalom Adventure, 46:52 and how this is getting through the internet and reaching out 46:57 and reaching a lot of those people. 47:00 Right. So we have the congregations where they can 47:02 come to, but not everywhere. 47:04 And even then some people aren't ready, 47:06 and won't feel comfortable coming. 47:07 So like the satellite, like television, 47:10 we have the internet, shalom adventure.com, a web site. 47:15 It's a live website. 47:17 It's web magazine, not just a web site. 47:19 Just not a billboard there. 47:20 It changes all of the time. 47:21 Every day there's new articles on there. 47:25 Every time you're refreshed there's new things to see, 47:28 and different stuff that comes up. 47:29 So it's constantly changing. 47:30 There's always stuff to see there. 47:32 The holidays come up and the holy days, and there's articles, 47:35 and videos, and Hebrew lessons. 47:37 People can learn to read Hebrew in just a few weeks. 47:41 Just ten minutes and day; in three weeks they'll 47:43 learn to read Hebrew. 47:44 Sasha is going to be doing a Part 2 on the Hebrew, 47:47 and we'll have more in-depth Hebrew lessons on there. 47:50 Is that a guarantee on that? ten minutes a day? 47:52 I'll hold him to it! Ha! 47:54 Well, at least right now, for those who don't want to study 48:01 Hebrew, we have a very special radio program, which we have 48:07 started in the Portland area. 48:09 It's called, Torah For Today. 48:12 Alright. Okay. Well, by the way, I took first year Greek 48:16 three times, so I am pretty much an expert. 48:19 You know Greek well, huh? 48:21 You just have to start, Jim. 48:22 You just have to start with Hebrew. 48:23 Otherwise, you know, it just proves that you don't 48:26 have Greek thinking. 48:28 So praise the Lord! 48:29 I know first year Greek better than anyone that I know of. 48:32 And with that you talk about Israel, the shalomadventure. com 48:37 website; some of the people have subscribed to it, 48:40 a lot of people have subscribed to it. 48:41 It's from Israel. Even though it's in English. 48:43 We don't have any of the, you know, 48:45 the texts are all in Hebrew. 48:46 So it's in English, so people are reading it in Israel. 48:48 And so the programming; it will be in English. 48:51 It will still be read and watched by 48:53 a lot of people there. 48:55 And if you have any Jewish friends, one of the things that 48:58 you can do is refer them to the Shalom Adventure. 49:04 And because, you know, behind the computer a lot of people 49:09 will look at things that they wouldn't, you know, speaking, 49:14 well bad things, too, but the good things that they can learn 49:19 about the Messiah. 49:21 They can learn about so much that they wouldn't go to a 49:23 church. No, that's right. 49:25 They wouldn't even question it in their surroundings, 49:28 because it's just like some of the Muslim's that 49:30 you were talking about. 49:32 But with a computer they will look in the privacy of their 49:35 own home, their own bedroom, their own computer. 49:39 And look, and the Holy Spirit can convict beyond what any 49:46 of the, Jeff and his congregation, or Sasha, 49:52 or anyone else can say to them. 49:55 They see in private, and sooner or later, and I believe I have 50:01 ran across in Israel, and in other places closet believers. 50:08 Yes. And this is a way we can minister to them, 50:14 and they can work to become believers. Right. 50:19 And this is one of the outreaches of the 50:22 North American Division. 50:24 And we really appreciate Jeff and Barbara and what 50:27 they're doing in that area. 50:28 Wow! Well, it's fantastic. 50:30 So you want to give that website so that our viewers can... 50:35 shalomadventure.com 50:37 Alright. Spell that Jeff, just for those who may not 50:39 know how to spell it. 50:41 Well, I need some help with that. 50:42 Shalom? shalom Adventure, adv...All one word? 50:47 All one word. Uh huh, that's right. 50:48 venture.com shalomadventure.com 50:53 Alright. How'd you do in spelling, Jeff? 50:56 I'm just teasing! 50:57 I'm horrible in spelling. 50:58 I don't play Scrabble. Ha! 51:00 You spell better in Hebrew. 51:01 I understand! Ha! Ha! 51:02 Hebrew is a lot easier to spell. 51:04 Like I knew in Greek, yeah, right, alright. 51:05 You know, Jim, I think we should encourage our viewing 51:08 audience, and those here in house. 51:10 This Israel thing is something that's close to our hearts. 51:14 Yeah, it really is. 51:15 Satan is challenging us. 51:17 The cost is, it's incredible; it's daunting. 51:21 And yet we feel this is an area that the Lord 51:23 wants us to move into. 51:25 And the return from this investment is 51:27 going to be so strong. 51:29 I think the Lord is going to do something great 51:30 in that part of the world. 51:32 Yeah. Look at what God did through one Paul. Precisely! 51:34 Imagine reaching a bunch of Paul's. 51:36 Turn the world upside down by God's grace. Yes! 51:39 We'll close off the work with His mighty power. 51:42 That's right. That's right. 51:44 Well, we're hoping that this becomes a reality, 51:47 because we are not playing with it. 51:49 We're doing our best to make it work. 51:51 Uh, we're looking for... 51:54 It's going to cost us $50,000.00 a month. 51:57 Now our total budget is about 1.2 million a month. 52:02 And we have, as you know, it's totally faith; 52:07 people giving $10, $50. 52:09 In the beginning when Danny began the ministry, 52:13 he had some large givers. 52:15 Most of those have either passed away, or retired, and no longer 52:21 have that kind of income ability. 52:23 We have no really large, consistent givers. 52:27 We have received a nice gift or two. 52:30 But nothing like... 52:34 50 million dollars. 52:35 Folks, we've received in our whole ministry a gift one time 52:40 of a million dollars, another gift one time 52:43 of 2 million dollars. 52:44 That's in the whole 30 years. Wow! 52:47 So please don't listen to this. 52:50 One of our good friends got that rumor started, and I don't know 52:55 why that they did it. 52:57 They said, Well, they don't need the money. 52:58 They have 50 million dollars. 53:00 I don't know where they got that idea. 53:02 So there are a lot of individuals who love 3ABN. 53:04 Well, giving little bits that add up. 53:08 Yeah, it's the $50, the $100, $25. 53:12 And I wrote to two ladies not long ago, a lady and her sister, 53:17 they send $5 every month faithfully. 53:20 And they are, it's just amazing what God has done. 53:27 That work, the work of 3ABN is God's doing. 53:30 We know it, and we see it. 53:33 We're on 150 stations that the Lord has given us here in this 53:37 country, and ten satellites around the world. 53:41 We're on Dish Network, an unbelievable number of cable 53:46 outlets, and this is God's doing. 53:49 This is not our doing, and we recognize it 53:53 without any question. 53:55 Well, Jim, what you were talking about, what 3ABN is doing, 54:00 and it's by faith, and it's by sacrifice, 54:06 what we need, we're told that, and on Sabbath afternoon I'm 54:14 going to elaborate on that, but that many of the Jews 54:20 will join us, and help us to finish the work. Yes, yes! 54:25 You see, so many times we want, we want a quick fix. 54:33 The Lord knows that we need to grow in faith, and to do that 54:40 we have to face some trials, struggles, 54:44 and where like manna, they only got manna enough for one day. 54:51 They couldn't get it for any other time. 54:53 You know, one of the things that 3ABN is trying to do is to 54:58 promote the work that you folks are doing. 55:01 Plus Back To Our Roots with Sasha and Alex Schlussler 55:06 have faithfully done with other guests that come on the program 55:10 with them. Rachel Hyman. 55:11 Yeah, that's right, Rachel's with us sometimes. 55:14 And we're getting ready to do another season of that. 55:18 That's another one of the things that we're with. 55:20 Help us to know where we can help you get this message out. 55:25 Because we believe, with all of our hearts, that our Jewish 55:30 brothers need to receive this message 55:33 just like everybody else, and we want to give it to them. 55:37 That's part of the unique thing with 3ABN. 55:39 Like you, you know, promoted the website, 55:40 you mentioned to have me spell it. 55:42 A lot of places say come visit our website. 55:43 Come visit 3abn.com and we'll tell you where to get in contact, 55:47 where you help promote others and share it, 55:50 And God's blessed the sharing back. Amen! 55:52 You simply cannot have an entire people group that is being 55:54 neglected, particularly a people group from whom Christianity 55:58 takes its life force. It has to be. 56:02 We know that it's in the will of God for this to happen. 56:04 And one of the reasons we know is because it's 56:06 being opposed so much. 56:07 And sometimes you know who your friends are by knowing 56:10 who your enemies are. 56:11 And if Satan is fighting this hard, then he knows if we can 56:13 get in there God's going to do something great. 56:16 Well, listen, we are coming down to the last minute that we have. 56:20 Ralph, ten seconds, twenty seconds, 56:23 tell us what's on your heart, what your goals are 56:27 for the NAD Jewish Ministries. 56:29 To reach through three ways: through Jewish Adventist 56:35 congregations, through Jewish friendly churches, 56:40 and through like the internet, and streaming into homes 56:47 where there are families that can come to know their Messiah, 56:53 to reach the Jews of North America. 56:55 Well, we just want to thank Pastor Murrell Tull, 56:59 and this beautiful congregation for allowing us to be here, 57:04 and to present this series, and this congregation. 57:09 We want to thank these gentlemen for being with us. 57:12 We hope that you will be praying for God's message as it goes 57:17 around the world, and particularly praying as we reach 57:21 out to the Jewish people. 57:23 Thank you for your support of 3ABN, 57:26 and just keep on keeping on with Jesus Christ 57:30 our Lord, our God. |
Revised 2016-11-23