Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1211 ｜ Israel： What Should Christians Think？ And an Announcement

00:00:00.840 How should Christians think about Israel? 0.99

00:00:03.400 We are getting into all of this on today's episode of Relatable.

00:00:06.880 It's brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.

00:00:09.320 Go to goodranchers.com.

00:00:10.620 Use code ALI at checkout.

00:00:12.060 That's goodranchers.com, code ALI.

00:00:22.960 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable.

00:00:24.800 Happy Thursday.

00:00:25.720 Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far.

00:00:27.780 We are back in studio after a tour of Southern California.

00:00:32.460 My family and I have been bouncing around that part of the state for the past two and a half weeks.

00:00:38.260 It was such a lovely time.

00:00:39.720 I know California is crazy policy-wise, price-wise.

00:00:43.660 I mean, it really is.

00:00:45.500 But I've said this before.

00:00:47.160 The Christian conservatives in California, not just in Southern California, like in Orange County,

00:00:52.640 but in other parts of the state as well, different parts of LA, also Central California,

00:00:57.780 some of the most solid people that I've ever met.

00:01:01.460 I truly feel refreshed when I go to California, not only because it is just such a beautiful state.

00:01:08.860 I mean, the weather, the beaches, it's just gorgeous.

00:01:11.380 But also because I love the people there.

00:01:14.520 A lot of the people.

00:01:15.720 Not all the people.

00:01:16.940 I mean, I'm a Southern girl.

00:01:18.620 I was raised in Texas.

00:01:20.000 I went to college in the Southeast.

00:01:22.480 So I love Southern culture still.

00:01:25.340 I just love the decorum and the traditions, the culture that the South has.

00:01:31.780 But second to that, I would say California.

00:01:35.360 I mean, if it weren't for our family not being in California and some of the just absolutely

00:01:39.680 crazy policies there, I think CR and I would actually consider moving there.

00:01:45.160 That's how much we love it.

00:01:46.140 But it is great to be home.

00:01:47.860 It is great to be back in studio.

00:01:50.020 I got to interview some incredible guests while I was there in Southern California.

00:01:54.480 Some of those guests you have already seen on the show, but some of those guests you have

00:01:59.080 not seen yet.

00:02:00.540 I mean, really just amazing in-person conversations.

00:02:03.880 I hope that you've enjoyed the ones that you've already gotten to see, and you will definitely

00:02:07.920 enjoy the ones that we have coming up.

00:02:10.840 Also, at the end of this episode, speaking of the show and interviews, I've got an announcement

00:02:16.640 about the show.

00:02:17.960 It's a good announcement, but it is a significant change to the show that will be occurring next

00:02:23.540 week that I will fill you in on and explain a little bit at the end of this episode.

00:02:29.320 So make sure you stay tuned for that.

00:02:31.400 Because we've been traveling, I just haven't been able to really give my thoughts on the

00:02:35.840 news.

00:02:36.160 And so I went back and forth on what am I going to talk about my first day back in the

00:02:41.560 studio, and I decided that I would talk about the possibility of World War III, but not really

00:02:47.960 the geopolitical aspect of it.

00:02:50.600 Of course, that's very important.

00:02:52.220 But the theological debate that is raging specifically on the right.

00:02:57.500 It's interesting when we have these kind of intra-political or intra-right conversations,

00:03:02.900 theological conversations, my nexus that I like to occupy is the intersection of theology

00:03:12.840 and politics and culture.

00:03:14.780 So as we talk about Israel and Iran and prophecy and the end times, I wanted to try to answer

00:03:22.660 a simple question.

00:03:24.140 And that is, what is Israel?

00:03:27.660 What is Israel?

00:03:28.820 There are so many different aspects of this conversation that I won't be able to get into

00:03:34.180 today, like all of the different end times positions and how Israel plays into all of

00:03:41.420 that and which people believe what.

00:03:43.560 A long time ago, like OG relatable days, I think back in 2019, maybe, I did a whole episode

00:03:50.780 about the end times.

00:03:52.320 I explained each of the main positions and what I believe about those positions.

00:03:56.700 I've also done a two-part discussion with Jeff Durbin, who is a post-millennialist.

00:04:01.880 I am a post-trib pre-millennialist, which is like the traditional pre-millennial position.

00:04:10.580 I've explained all of that on a previous episode.

00:04:13.460 So we will link it.

00:04:14.420 You can go back and listen to that.

00:04:15.800 I also encourage you, I will be reading from this book during this episode, but I encourage

00:04:20.940 you, if you have not gotten systematic theology by Wayne Grudem, you can go to the part where

00:04:26.500 he explains all of the positions about the end times, also known as eschatology, the study

00:04:31.760 or knowledge of the end times, and you can see what each position holds in detail.

00:04:37.980 But within that conversation is the question about Israel.

00:04:42.420 What should Christians think about Israel? 0.98

00:04:44.360 What does the Bible have to say about Israel?

00:04:46.560 And just like almost anything else, there are disagreements.

00:04:49.200 And so I will go over the various positions of what Bible-believing, true, authentic, gospel-preaching

00:04:59.960 Christians believe about this, because it's not a salvation disagreement that Christians

00:05:05.880 have, but it is significant, and it can actually determine what we think about geopolitics, and

00:05:12.660 that really matters.

00:05:13.700 Before we get into the theological aspect of it, if you have been kind of unplugged from

00:05:19.020 the news and you're just plugging back in, let me just give you a very quick and brief

00:05:24.120 overview of the Iran-Israel conflict that is going on.

00:05:29.080 So on June 13th, 2025 amidst the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, Israel launched a surprise attack

00:05:35.940 on Iran, targeting nuclear and military sites to disrupt its nuclear program and eliminate

00:05:41.660 key leaders, Iran retaliated with missile barrages on Israeli cities, causing damage and injuries

00:05:48.200 over the next days.

00:05:49.480 Both sides escalated, with Israel striking Iran's energy sector and military facilities while

00:05:55.180 Iran fired missiles and drones.

00:05:57.460 So I was in California while this was happening when the initial attack happened.

00:06:01.540 I was actually on my way with CR to the Fox News Bureau in Los Angeles, and I was going

00:06:07.720 to talk about Alex Padilla, who J.D. Vance refers to as Jose Padilla, and everything that

00:06:14.320 happened that day.

00:06:15.480 And they told me 10 minutes before I was about to get there, hey, actually, can you come on

00:06:19.540 an hour before and can you talk about what just happened between Israel and Iran?

00:06:23.660 And I was like, um, I will try.

00:06:27.120 And so I, you know, it was fun.

00:06:28.760 I brought my perspective to that, tried to bring it back to the position that President Trump

00:06:33.400 is in and that America is in, since I am primarily concerned about the United States.

00:06:39.280 President Trump posted this on June 22nd, talking about U.S.'s intervention.

00:06:46.000 He said, we have completed our very successful attack on the three nuclear sites in Iran, including 0.96

00:06:50.940 Fordo, Natanz, and Esfahan.

00:06:55.400 I am so sorry if I butchered those words.

00:06:57.780 All planes are now outside of Iran airspace.

00:07:00.160 A full payload of bombs was dropped on the primary site.

00:07:03.400 Um, all planes are safely on their way.

00:07:06.200 Congratulations to our great American warriors.

00:07:08.480 Initially, Trump acted like he had no idea what Israel was doing, didn't get involved.

00:07:14.080 Secretary Rubio was like, you know, support Israel.

00:07:17.660 But it sounded kind of like he was distancing America from what Israel was doing. 0.66

00:07:22.880 And so at first, when Israel initially launched their attacks, it was very unclear whether America

00:07:27.600 was going to get involved.

00:07:28.740 A lot of people on the right, again, disagreeing about what to do there.

00:07:33.520 But as I just read to you, Trump decided, yes, America is going to get involved.

00:07:38.160 And then on June 23rd, he said, congratulations to everyone.

00:07:42.280 This is what he posted on Truth Social in all caps.

00:07:45.140 He said it has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran.

00:07:48.700 There will be a complete and total ceasefire in approximately six hours from now.

00:07:54.500 So they were supposed to halt all hostilities between the two countries after Trump says

00:08:00.720 that he helped negotiate this ceasefire.

00:08:04.080 But then very quickly after that, I mean, there was a reason I wasn't really posting about

00:08:08.360 this at all.

00:08:09.800 But even after it seemed like it was resolved per President Trump's post, I didn't post

00:08:14.720 about it because honestly, when I read that, I was like, I don't believe that.

00:08:18.380 It's not that I don't believe Trump.

00:08:20.080 I believe that Trump was being sincere there.

00:08:22.000 But I just don't believe that that's that, that the war is over.

00:08:26.500 They decided to just end it.

00:08:27.880 I mean, these countries have been going at it for thousands of years.

00:08:30.920 And suddenly we're just going to stop because Trump said, I just didn't believe it.

00:08:36.900 And so, yes, there were mutual accusations of violation shortly after the ceasefire was

00:08:41.580 announced on June 23rd.

00:08:43.500 Israel claimed that Iran launched missiles.

00:08:46.040 Iran alleged that Israeli drone strikes violated the agreement.

00:08:49.500 And then Trump had a moment that a lot of people are quoting because he dropped another

00:08:55.220 bomb called an F-bomb.

00:08:57.480 And I won't play that word.

00:09:00.840 Of course, we don't do that unrelatable.

00:09:03.140 But just so you know, the moment that people are talking about, Satwan.

00:09:07.500 I'm not happy with Israel. 0.99

00:09:08.820 You know, when I say, okay, now you have 12 hours, you don't go out in the first hour

00:09:14.080 and just drop everything you have on them.

00:09:15.920 So I'm not happy with them.

00:09:17.520 I'm not happy with Iran either. 0.99

00:09:19.240 But I'm really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning because the one rocket that

00:09:24.100 didn't land, that was shot, perhaps by mistake, that didn't land.

00:09:28.100 I'm not happy about that.

00:09:31.100 You know what?

00:09:32.000 We have, we basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard

00:09:37.060 that they don't know what the f**k they're doing. 0.76

00:09:39.720 Do you understand that?

00:09:41.560 So I think Trump was genuinely upset by that.

00:09:44.520 I mean, he could have felt humiliated that he had publicly said, look, I negotiated this.

00:09:50.480 I have helped broker peace here.

00:09:52.360 And then Israel, he says, violated that agreement and made it seem like he didn't have any power

00:09:59.560 and that Trump wasn't actually successful in that.

00:10:02.240 And I'm sure he was genuinely upset.

00:10:04.480 Not only, I'm not saying that it was all about personal ego for Donald Trump.

00:10:08.260 I think anyone would have been like, what the heck, from a place of personal embarrassment,

00:10:13.280 perhaps, but also just anger, because I do think that Trump wants peace.

00:10:17.040 I don't think that he wants America to be involved in this.

00:10:21.520 Maybe he sees it as necessary for a variety of reasons, not just to protect Israel, but because

00:10:27.240 Iran, as a lot of people have said, is the head of the snake.

00:10:30.040 They fund all kinds of terrorist regimes that threaten the United States as well.

00:10:35.620 They've been chanting death to America, death to Israel for many decades.

00:10:39.980 And so maybe Trump sees this as necessary.

00:10:42.380 But all of this has caused a big disagreement within MAGA.

00:10:47.180 You've got the more pro-interventionist part of MAGA.

00:10:50.360 You've got the anti-interventionist part of MAGA.

00:10:54.140 You've got the part of MAGA.

00:10:55.480 And it doesn't neatly necessarily lay over the categories that I just explained.

00:11:00.060 But you've got a part of MAGA that is more pro-Israel.

00:11:03.440 You've got a part of MAGA that is less pro-Israel.

00:11:06.420 You've got a part of MAGA that is completely anti-Israel.

00:11:11.160 But underneath all of this is really a theological debate.

00:11:15.400 And that was highlighted in an interview between Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz when Tucker, who is, I would say, pretty anti-interventionist, especially when it comes to Israel, and then Ted Cruz, who is very pro-intervening on Israel's behalf, they got into a theological conversation, which we will get into in just a second.

00:11:38.200 But first, let me pause.

00:11:39.580 Let me tell you that in the midst of all of the craziness happening in the world, the potential

00:11:44.320 of World War III, that God still reigns, that this is my Father's world.

00:11:49.040 And that is what we sang a cappella last year.

00:11:52.360 4,000 Christian women together at Share the Arrows, led by Grammy Award-winning artist Francesca

00:11:59.020 Batticelli.

00:12:00.060 I mean, that moment, when I remember it, when I watch videos of that, it still sends chills up

00:12:06.200 my spine.

00:12:06.900 You guys, this year, by God's grace, is going to be even more powerful.

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00:12:19.120 literally, it's only year two, this is one of the biggest women's conferences in existence.

00:12:25.320 Certainly the biggest conservative women's conference, but one of the biggest Christian women's

00:12:30.380 conferences in existence.

00:12:32.600 That's Share the Arrows. 0.99

00:12:33.440 It's happening again this year, October 11th, Dallas, Texas.

00:12:37.440 Elisa Childers is coming back.

00:12:39.560 We've got my friend Ginger Duggar-Volo.

00:12:41.460 We've got a motherhood panel with Hilary Morgan Ferrer and Abby Halberstadt.

00:12:45.340 We've got a biblical health and wellness panel with Shauna Holman, Taylor Dukes.

00:12:50.440 I will be speaking.

00:12:51.600 The powerful Katie Faust will also be speaking.

00:12:54.060 The worship with Francesca is going to be amazing.

00:12:57.440 So in the midst of this craziness, if you need stability, if you need clarity, if you need

00:13:02.820 courage, if you need community, then you need to join us at Share the Arrows.

00:13:07.260 You can go to sharethearrows.com.

00:13:08.940 Get your ticket today.

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00:13:43.360 Okay.

00:13:44.500 Ted versus Tucker.

00:13:46.980 Here's the moment that went viral on Acts 2.

00:13:50.500 Growing up in Sunday school, I was taught from the Bible, those who bless Israel will be blessed

00:13:55.740 and those who curse Israel will be cursed.

00:13:58.880 And from my perspective, I want to be on the blessing side of things.

00:14:01.580 That's in the Bible.

00:14:02.640 As a Christian, I believe that.

00:14:04.260 Where is that?

00:14:05.200 I can find it to you.

00:14:06.200 I don't have the scripture off the tip of my, you pull out the phone and use the Bible.

00:14:10.720 It's in Genesis.

00:14:11.740 But so you're quoting a Bible phrase.

00:14:15.020 You don't have context for it.

00:14:15.820 You don't know where in the Bible it is, but that's like your theology.

00:14:18.100 I'm confused.

00:14:18.940 Where does my support for Israel come from?

00:14:20.840 Number one, because biblically we are commanded to support Israel.

00:14:24.760 But number two.

00:14:25.420 Hold on.

00:14:25.920 I'm not holding on.

00:14:27.280 Hold on.

00:14:27.600 You're a senator and now you're throwing out theology and I am a Christian and I am allowed

00:14:30.700 to weigh in on this.

00:14:31.880 We are commanded as Christians to support the government of Israel.

00:14:34.380 We are commanded to support Israel.

00:14:36.620 And we're what does that mean?

00:14:37.600 We're told those who bless Israel will be blessed.

00:14:39.600 But what?

00:14:39.920 Hold on.

00:14:40.200 Define Israel. 0.91

00:14:40.900 This is important.

00:14:41.700 Are you kidding?

00:14:42.560 This is a majority Christian country.

00:14:44.320 Define Israel. 0.91

00:14:45.200 Do you not know what Israel is?

00:14:46.580 He's talking about the nation of Israel.

00:14:47.980 Yet nations exist and he is discussing a nation.

00:14:50.340 A nation was the people of Israel.

00:14:51.780 Is the nation God's referring to in Genesis, is that the same as the country run by Benjamin

00:14:56.860 Netanyahu right now?

00:14:57.700 Yes.

00:14:58.080 Yes.

00:14:59.680 Okay.

00:15:00.440 Cruz also said, the reason that I am the leading defender of Israel is because Israel is our

00:15:04.840 strongest ally in the Middle East, an incredibly troubled part of the world, and supporting

00:15:08.680 Israel benefits America. 1.00

00:15:11.620 Okay.

00:15:11.920 So here are some questions that I think that we should ask.

00:15:15.200 We learned in 2020 the vital importance of defining our term.

00:15:19.860 So some questions here.

00:15:21.860 What does the verse actually mean that Cruz cited?

00:15:24.820 What does bless mean?

00:15:26.180 What does curse mean?

00:15:27.780 Have these things manifested itself in America, aligning with Israel?

00:15:33.520 And what is Israel?

00:15:35.520 What does that actually mean?

00:15:37.720 Before we get into that, I just want to play you another clip that was going around and some

00:15:41.420 questions that I have about it.

00:15:42.880 Here is Tammy Bruce, who is the spokesperson for the State Department.

00:15:46.800 It's not three.

00:15:47.300 The pride of being able to be here and do work that facilitates making things better for people

00:15:53.880 and in the greatest country on earth, next to Israel.

00:15:58.220 Okay.

00:15:58.900 So that is the spokesperson for the United States State Department.

00:16:03.400 I really like Tammy Bruce.

00:16:04.600 I don't know if she misspoke there.

00:16:06.740 Maybe she just meant that Israel and America are equally the best countries in the world.

00:16:11.600 I'm still uncomfortable with that view.

00:16:13.980 I think that we should believe, those of us in America and those who are representing

00:16:18.680 America, I think we should be very comfortable and confident saying that America is the greatest

00:16:23.540 country on earth.

00:16:25.340 And I did find that strange.

00:16:27.460 My question is, are Christians, in particular, obligated to think that way?

00:16:32.800 Are Christians obligated to hold the view that Ted Cruz has?

00:16:35.840 Are Christians obligated to hold the view that Tammy Bruce has?

00:16:40.420 Well, in order to answer these questions, we have to look into the two main Christian

00:16:45.360 viewpoints on Israel.

00:16:48.540 And that is the distinct view and the unified view.

00:16:53.160 Now, that's what I'm calling them.

00:16:54.760 They're not really officially referred to as that, but I will explain why I'm using that

00:17:01.340 terminology, but I actually think it's the clearest and most charitable way to describe the two

00:17:07.120 main views about Israel within the church.

00:17:11.120 So, the distinct view and the unified view.

00:17:15.340 Both of these views are held by true, genuine, gospel-believing, Bible-believing Christians.

00:17:23.560 But the disagreement really matters and has really big implications on what you think about the end

00:17:31.200 times, what you think about the future, and what you think about geopolitics today.

00:17:35.440 So, let me first explain the distinct view.

00:17:38.340 So, the distinct view is held by a lot of evangelicals, particularly Southern Baptists.

00:17:43.760 I grew up Southern Baptist.

00:17:45.500 I grew up believing in this kind of thinking about Israel, probably without even realizing it.

00:17:52.140 But as I've examined my views over the years, I've realized, okay, I was definitely raised with

00:17:57.580 this distinct view.

00:17:59.780 Other denominations and other kinds of Christians definitely can hold to this distinct view,

00:18:05.960 but it is very popular within the Southern Baptist world, and I'll explain why.

00:18:13.120 But this distinct view is the view that Israel and the church are two distinct entities,

00:18:18.600 that the ethnically Jewish people are still God's chosen people, that God has a special plan for

00:18:26.120 Israel's salvation.

00:18:27.820 This group also tends to hold the belief that the modern-day geographical Israel is the Israel

00:18:34.220 referenced in Scripture, is the nation that all nations must bless to be blessed,

00:18:40.940 and is the centerpiece of the fulfillment of end times prophecy.

00:18:45.920 So, that is the distinct view.

00:18:48.620 The unified view is held by many Christians as well, many Presbyterians, many Reformed Baptists.

00:18:55.240 I consider myself Reformed Baptists, and other Christians in other denominations.

00:18:59.460 Now, this view is the view that the church is the fulfillment of God's Old Testament prophecies

00:19:06.340 and promises, that there is no special reserved plan or time for ethnic Israel's salvation.

00:19:13.080 They would reject the idea that ethnically Jewish people are in any way God's special chosen people

00:19:19.600 today.

00:19:20.720 God's chosen people, they would assert, are Christians, and anyone who believes in Christ

00:19:26.640 for salvation, whether you are ethnically Jewish or whether you are Gentile, you are part

00:19:32.420 of God's chosen people if you have been saved by grace through faith in Christ.

00:19:38.300 Many, though not all, in this unified camp would reject the idea that the current nation of

00:19:46.280 Israel is the Israel referenced in end times prophecy.

00:19:50.420 In fact, many in this camp are what we call post-millennialists, so they believe that the

00:19:55.820 prophecies about tribulation that talk about Israel in the Old Testament in particular, even

00:20:02.020 in the New Testament, have already occurred.

00:20:04.500 They occurred a very long time ago, they would assert.

00:20:06.980 Again, you can go back to the previous conversations and episodes that I've done on end times to

00:20:13.000 get more details on that.

00:20:15.040 Now, I have views that many would probably say fall into both of these camps in different

00:20:24.180 ways.

00:20:24.780 And after I explain these positions more thoroughly, I will tell you what I mean by that.

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00:22:12.160 So this distinct view is held by who many call dispensationalists.

00:22:24.040 Now, maybe a lot of you have heard this word dispensationalist, but you're like, OK, I

00:22:28.440 don't really know what that means.

00:22:30.220 That was me for a long time, even though I grew up, not really realizing it at the time,

00:22:35.420 but grew up under dispensationalism.

00:22:38.160 I didn't know what was meant by that.

00:22:41.260 But this refers to how people in this camp, this distinct view camp, organized the Bible

00:22:47.100 and organized human history into dispensations, which just means a system or an ordering.

00:22:54.540 Biblical dispensations refer to the eras of time in which God related to man in different

00:23:01.040 ways and still relates to man in different ways.

00:23:04.660 A dispensation, it comes from the Greek word oikonomia, meaning stewardship or administration.

00:23:12.060 So this is a distinct period in which God administers his plan for humanity in a specific

00:23:18.400 way.

00:23:19.700 So there are seven dispensations that dispensationalists say that we see throughout Scripture.

00:23:27.160 So innocence, that's Genesis 1-1 through Genesis 3-7.

00:23:32.040 Conscience, Genesis 3-8 through 8-22.

00:23:35.420 So that would be post-fall.

00:23:37.000 Human government, that starts with the Noahic Covenant. 0.92

00:23:40.240 Genesis 9-1 through Genesis 11-32.

00:23:43.920 The promise, Genesis 12-1 through Exodus 19-25.

00:23:50.160 Law, Exodus 21 through Acts 2-4.

00:23:54.500 So the establishment of the church, grace, Acts 2-4 through Revelation 23, and the millennial

00:24:00.860 kingdom, Revelation 20-4 through 6.

00:24:05.040 So dispensationalists, they categorize history into these seven dispensations, and they observe

00:24:11.400 a pattern in how God deals with man through these dispensations.

00:24:15.940 They would break it down in four ways.

00:24:17.700 They would say, we see responsibility.

00:24:19.300 We see human failure.

00:24:21.780 We see judgment from God.

00:24:23.420 And then we see grace to move on.

00:24:25.900 And so dispensationalists believe that we are currently in an age of grace, that we are

00:24:30.180 in the church age in which God is focusing on gathering people into the church.

00:24:37.020 Dispensationalists believe that in a future age, God will focus on gathering in the Jewish

00:24:43.240 people, specifically after believers are raptured before the tribulation.

00:24:49.960 Okay, are we tracking?

00:24:51.220 I know, it's a lot.

00:24:53.020 They believe that Christ will establish his millennial kingdom with Jerusalem as the capital

00:24:58.360 and Israel as the leading nation.

00:25:02.540 Now, this group, I want to be as charitable and as steel man-y as possible for both camps.

00:25:09.840 This group does not deny that salvation is by Jesus alone.

00:25:15.020 They believe that Jews, just like everyone else, must trust in Jesus as the true Messiah,

00:25:19.960 but they believe that Jewish people will always be distinct.

00:25:23.480 They won't join the church.

00:25:25.240 They are and always will be God's chosen people that he will ultimately redeem through Christ.

00:25:31.940 There are some Old Testament prophecies this group believes refers to the future salvation

00:25:36.840 of Israel, Isaiah 59, 20, and a redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from

00:25:43.220 transgression, declares the Lord.

00:25:44.980 They would also cite Zechariah 12, 10, and I will pour out on the house of David and the

00:25:50.240 inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and please for mercy so that when they look

00:25:55.260 on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only

00:26:01.300 child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.

00:26:05.100 This group sees the current conflict between Israel and Iran to be a fulfillment of Old 0.55

00:26:12.100 Testament prophecy.

00:26:13.500 They look to Ezekiel 38, for example, or they might look to Jeremiah 49 and identify the

00:26:19.240 nations referenced in those passages as modern-day Iran, Russia, Sudan, Turkey, and Libya attacking

00:26:26.640 an unsuspecting Israel.

00:26:29.020 Now, in the New Testament, dispensationalists, or everyone in this distinct view camp, would

00:26:35.400 cite Romans 11, 25 through 29, where God through Paul says this,

00:26:41.020 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers.

00:26:45.840 A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 1.00

00:26:50.920 And in this way, all Israel will be saved, as it is written, the deliverer will come from 0.98

00:26:56.760 Zion. 0.76

00:26:57.260 He will banish ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them when I take 1.00

00:27:01.640 away their sins.

00:27:02.740 As regards to the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. 0.99

00:27:06.260 But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers, for the gifts

00:27:10.660 and the calling of God are irrevocable.

00:27:14.300 Okay, so that is some of the biblical support that they would cite for their position.

00:27:20.340 There are lots and lots of passages that they would cite for that.

00:27:24.320 Let me give you some historical context about this position, because I think it's important.

00:27:29.280 This is not a position that the church fathers held.

00:27:32.260 I can't say that no church father held this position, because I don't know for sure, but

00:27:37.260 it certainly wasn't common.

00:27:38.700 Dispensational theology, specifically this idea that the different administrations of

00:27:45.380 God's dealings with men can be broken down into these seven kinds of dispensations, that

00:27:53.060 really didn't emerge until the 19th century.

00:27:55.700 A lot of religious things happened in the 19th century.

00:27:58.780 A man by the name of John Nelson Darby, he was an Anglo-Irish clergyman.

00:28:03.600 He originated dispensationalism after breaking from the Church of Ireland, following his

00:28:09.420 own spiritual crisis.

00:28:13.300 His vision of history, or his division of history rather, wasn't necessarily this like

00:28:20.020 stark theological departure from every other Christian.

00:28:25.280 What made his perspective so important is the literalism with which he interpreted scripture

00:28:33.420 and specifically Old Testament and New Testament prophecy that led to this strict separation,

00:28:41.040 in his view, of Israel and the church.

00:28:45.580 He went on speaking tours throughout the United States in the late 19th century.

00:28:52.480 His view was further popularized by C.I.

00:28:56.200 Schofield.

00:28:56.920 C.I.

00:28:58.140 Schofield is responsible for the Schofield Reference Bible, which was highly influential because

00:29:05.640 of the exhaustive notes, the references that were included.

00:29:11.740 His annotated Bible, the Schofield Reference Bible, embedded his dispensationalist belief that

00:29:18.240 he had learned from Darby into the study notes, making this theology not only accessible for a lot

00:29:25.880 of people, but extremely widespread, popularized.

00:29:30.360 It was one of the first study Bibles and certainly one of the most thorough study Bibles

00:29:37.940 that people had.

00:29:40.200 And it benefited a lot of people in that it opened people's eyes to all of the different

00:29:46.680 intellectual viewpoints that were possible within the Bible, and that there was an intellectual

00:29:53.480 richness to Scripture, the cross references, and the Schofield Reference Bible were so thorough

00:30:00.860 that I really do believe that it is responsible for a lot of the good, positive, intellectual

00:30:11.040 questioning and digging into Scripture that occurred in the 20th century.

00:30:17.840 Schofield had a disciple named Louis Sperry Schaefer, and he founded the Dallas Theological Seminary,

00:30:27.380 which became the kind of go-to place for dispensationalist scholarship and clergy training.

00:30:34.280 And this is where a lot of Southern Baptists have gotten their training, and so that's kind

00:30:39.280 of where you see the connection there.

00:30:40.940 Now, I do just want to say, because there's a conspiracy theory, that Schofield and his

00:30:49.100 reference Bible was funded by Israel, or funded by the Jews, or funded by the Rothschild family.

00:30:59.600 There is no tangible proof of that whatsoever.

00:31:04.140 Like, there is no evidence that we can see that I've seen—you are welcome to send it to me—there

00:31:11.140 is no evidence that Schofield or Darby, who created dispensationalism, the separation of

00:31:17.760 the church and Israel, or he popularized that idea—rather, there is no evidence that they

00:31:24.280 were influenced by some kind of, like, unbiblical special affinity or affiliation with Israel and

00:31:31.260 the Jewish people.

00:31:32.480 I think they genuinely studied the Bible and came to this conclusion, whether you agree

00:31:40.160 with them or not.

00:31:41.220 Now, I will agree with the assertion that this had a big effect on how evangelicals see Israel.

00:31:50.840 Some might say, yeah, because it is biblical, and so it was a good influence.

00:31:56.600 And some might say, well, it's unbiblical, so it was a bad influence.

00:32:00.620 And we will get to the other side of this debate, which is the unified view in just a second.

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00:33:08.700 Okay, so here's the unified view.

00:33:16.320 The unified view says that the church and Israel are the same.

00:33:19.720 So typically, this is held by those who subscribe to covenant theology.

00:33:25.240 This is also known as fulfillment theology, but it is pejoratively lambasted as replacement

00:33:32.880 theology.

00:33:33.480 You'll hear people say that this is very dangerous, that we should reject it because it's

00:33:38.080 anti-Semitic.

00:33:39.620 That is unfair, I think, and untrue, even if you disagree with this position theologically.

00:33:46.540 So let's steelman this position. 0.87

00:33:48.700 So the belief is that history is organized around covenants, beginning with the covenant

00:33:53.600 of works in the garden.

00:33:55.360 God's promise to save through the last Adam, Jesus Christ, is announced as early as Genesis

00:34:01.960 315.

00:34:03.580 This is that verse.

00:34:04.460 This is when God is explaining his curse to Adam and Eve.

00:34:09.300 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring, 1.00

00:34:14.020 he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. 0.88

00:34:18.840 He is talking about Christ.

00:34:21.840 They emphasize the grand and glorious unity in Scripture, how it exalts Christ as Savior,

00:34:27.580 they would say from Genesis all the way to Revelation.

00:34:29.880 Gentile believers are explicitly called, quote, fellow citizens with the saints and members

00:34:34.680 of the household of God, and Christ is identified as Abraham's ultimate offspring, making all 0.55

00:34:40.020 believers Abraham's spiritual descendants.

00:34:43.400 So this is actually the historic view.

00:34:46.520 This is the view that was held by most church fathers.

00:34:49.580 For example, like Augustine, he viewed the church as fulfilling God's promises to Israel,

00:34:54.440 laying the groundwork for the covenantal ideas, what's known as covenantal theology, though

00:35:00.320 it wasn't systematically articulated at that point.

00:35:05.260 Puritan theologians at the Westminster Assembly codified covenant theology in the Westminster

00:35:10.300 Confession of Faith.

00:35:12.140 Covenant theology, therefore, uses the covenant of works, God's dealing with Adam requiring

00:35:16.740 perfect obedience, which was broken by sin, and the covenant of grace, God's promise of

00:35:21.600 salvation through Christ's work, which is received by faith to unify God's plan, linking Israel

00:35:26.520 and the church as one people.

00:35:28.060 So there are so many parts of covenant theology that we won't be able to get to, not just when

00:35:32.800 it comes to the end times, but also when it comes to baptism.

00:35:35.980 Most people that subscribe to covenant theology also believe in infant baptism as a sign of

00:35:41.920 the new covenant, but we don't have time to get into all of that.

00:35:44.380 We have to focus on what this camp, this unified camp, many of which subscribe to covenant

00:35:50.880 theology, but not all, believe about Israel.

00:35:55.320 So I articulated in summary what they believe, and here are the texts that they would use to

00:36:02.520 support that.

00:36:03.180 And I actually have a lot to say on this because Wayne Grudem in that book that I held up earlier,

00:36:08.440 Systematic Theology, has a lot to say on it, and I just think he explains it so well.

00:36:12.400 So Romans 9, 1 through 13, Paul grieves that many Israelites are unsaved despite their covenant

00:36:18.280 privileges, despite having the prophecies, despite having the Old Testament.

00:36:24.380 He says they have the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the law, temple worship, the

00:36:27.920 promises, but God's children are ultimately identified by God's promise, not ethnicity,

00:36:35.860 not bloodline.

00:36:37.280 But he says in verses six through eight, it is not as though the word of God has failed

00:36:42.660 for not all who descended from Israel belong to Israel and not all are children of Abraham

00:36:48.260 because they are his offspring.

00:36:50.640 But through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

00:36:53.840 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the

00:36:59.020 children of the promise who are counted as offspring.

00:37:03.980 He says in the rest of chapter nine in verses 30 through 33, what shall we say then?

00:37:12.460 That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it. 1.00

00:37:15.420 That is a righteousness that is by faith, but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead 0.70

00:37:20.560 to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.

00:37:23.480 Why?

00:37:24.420 Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works, they have stumbled

00:37:30.780 over the stumbling stone as it is written.

00:37:33.380 Behold, I am laying in Zion, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

00:37:38.240 And whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

00:37:43.420 Okay.

00:37:43.780 Let me read you some of what Wayne Grudem says about this position because he explains it really

00:37:50.540 well.

00:37:50.820 He says, we should notice that the many New Testament verses that understand the church

00:37:55.720 is the new Israel or new people of God.

00:37:59.680 We should notice that the New Testament does that.

00:38:01.720 The fact that Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, Ephesians 5.25 would

00:38:06.700 suggest this.

00:38:07.560 Moreover, this present church age, which has brought the salvation of many millions of Christians

00:38:12.200 in the church, is not an interruption in God's plan, but a continuation of his plan

00:38:17.440 expressed throughout the Old Testament to call a people to himself.

00:38:23.540 In Romans 2, Paul says,

00:38:25.640 For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and

00:38:31.140 physical.

00:38:31.860 He is a Jew who is one inwardly. 0.99

00:38:34.340 The real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal.

00:38:39.680 I mean, that's pretty plain as day.

00:38:42.900 He also says in Romans 4,

00:38:45.580 The father of all who believe without being circumcised, and likewise the father of the 0.99

00:38:51.240 circumcised who are not merely circumcised, but also follow the example of the faith which 0.83

00:38:57.140 our father Abraham had when he is referencing Abraham.

00:39:00.320 So Abraham is the father to all people of God, not through his bloodline, but because of faith.

00:39:10.140 Wayne Grudem goes on to say that those who truly believe in Christ are now the ones who

00:39:14.300 have the privilege of being called my people by the Lord.

00:39:18.800 That's Romans 9.25.

00:39:22.020 He goes on to explain in the book of Ephesians, and Ephesians 2 specifically,

00:39:26.840 Far from thinking of the church as a separate group from the Jewish people, Paul writes to

00:39:31.260 Gentile believers at Ephesus telling them that they were formerly alienated from the 0.97

00:39:35.920 commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, but that now they have

00:39:40.760 been brought near by the blood of Christ.

00:39:43.280 And when the Gentiles were brought into the church, Jews and Gentiles were united into one

00:39:48.240 new body.

00:39:49.460 Paul says that God, quote, has made us both one and has broken down the dividing wall of

00:39:54.740 hostility that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace and

00:40:02.100 might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross.

00:40:07.900 That is Ephesians 2.14-16.

00:40:11.580 He goes on to write how the Old Testament prophecies also point to this unity between the church and

00:40:20.380 Israel, all who can only be saved by faith in Jesus Christ.

00:40:27.500 So that is the covenantal view, or that is the unified view.

00:40:33.680 So they would not say that the ethnically Jewish people are God's chosen people today.

00:40:39.340 They would not necessarily say that the geographical location of Israel represents

00:40:46.960 God's chosen nation.

00:40:48.620 They would point to the various passages and even more passages than the ones I just listed

00:40:53.520 to say, no, God's covenant people, his chosen people are all of those, Jew or Gentile, who

00:41:00.100 have believed in the name of the Lord, who have believed in Jesus for salvation.

00:41:04.540 There's no future special plan for them.

00:41:07.380 Israel today is not necessarily the epicenter of the end times.

00:41:12.480 That is not what Genesis is referencing when God is saying, whoever blesses you will be

00:41:19.180 blessed, whoever curses you will be cursed, because God wasn't talking about an ethnic

00:41:23.980 bloodline.

00:41:24.720 He wasn't talking about a geographical location.

00:41:27.620 This position would say, the unified position would say, they were talking about God's covenant

00:41:32.460 people that he has ransomed for himself through Christ.

00:41:37.520 This covenantal view, this is from Ligonier, would say that the covenant with Abraham prefigures

00:41:44.600 the gospel and is fulfilled in Christ.

00:41:47.020 Quote, salvation is given to us not because of anything we have done or could do or ever

00:41:52.000 will do, but purely on the basis of what God has done.

00:41:55.580 And we receive the benefits of what God has done simply by trusting him as Abraham did.

00:42:02.380 Okay, so what do I make of all of that?

00:42:05.000 What do I think about modern-day Israel and how Christians should think about this conflict,

00:42:10.740 how Christians should think about the Jewish people based on everything we just read?

00:42:14.740 It probably was clear to you which position I think is more biblical.

00:42:20.460 And I'll just say, I think that the unified, the fulfillment theology, the covenant theology

00:42:26.320 view of Israel, that the church is the fulfillment of Israel, is the more biblical view.

00:42:32.100 It's the historic view, and I do believe that it is more supported by scripture.

00:42:37.260 So for those of you out there who think I'm some dispensationalist, Schofield-propagandized

00:42:43.040 shill, you're wrong.

00:42:44.360 I'm not a dispensationalist.

00:42:45.900 I haven't been a dispensationalist for a long time.

00:42:48.480 I've never read the Schofield Study Bible.

00:42:50.820 I don't think my family even owns one of those.

00:42:53.140 Wouldn't be bad if they did.

00:42:54.280 But although I was probably raised with some kind of idea of dispensationalism, that's

00:43:01.640 not the view I believe scripture supports of the end times or of Israel.

00:43:08.480 However, I am also not in the camp that I see so prevalently that because Israel is not 0.99

00:43:21.460 the distinct entity that dispensationalists say that it is, that we should feel some sort

00:43:29.140 of special malice towards them.

00:43:31.820 That's what I see in a lot of this unified camp, like a special hatred towards Israel and

00:43:38.760 the Jewish people that I also think is just like unhinged and doesn't make any sense. 1.00

00:43:42.520 So I'm going to give you five points of what I believe about all of this based on what

00:43:49.840 we just read and talked about in just a second.

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00:45:16.280 Okay, here are my five points, and I have got sub points beneath them, as I often do.

00:45:23.520 Number one, this is what I believe.

00:45:26.200 These are Allie's beliefs about this.

00:45:27.860 Number one, God's chosen people are God's people through Christ and Christ alone.

00:45:32.820 Acts 4.12,

00:45:33.740 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men

00:45:39.520 by which we must be saved.

00:45:41.920 All Christians believe that.

00:45:43.780 Number two, there may be a large-scale in-gathering of ethnic Jewish people that is yet to come.

00:45:50.040 Now, this will, I believe, come through no extraordinary means but through evangelism

00:45:55.000 and believe in the gospel of Jesus.

00:45:57.760 I do not believe, as I've articulated on past episodes, that Christians will be caught up

00:46:03.040 in a rapture pre-tribulation and then come back down.

00:46:06.900 I don't believe that.

00:46:08.760 Yes, Christians who are pre-millennialists do believe in a rapture, but I don't believe

00:46:14.400 that we are going to be raptured before the tribulation and that that is the time that

00:46:18.100 the Jewish people will come to know Jesus.

00:46:21.820 That's just not what I see supported in Scripture.

00:46:25.060 And so there may be a large-scale in-gathering conversion of ethnic Jews one day that comes 0.95

00:46:31.100 through belief in the gospel, but I don't believe that it's on the same timeline as dispensationalists

00:46:38.060 would say that it is.

00:46:39.740 Number three, I believe that the fulfillment of God's promises are found in Jesus and his

00:46:45.360 church.

00:46:45.900 Again, this is the historic belief within the church.

00:46:49.860 It's the one that I hold.

00:46:52.360 Number four, there is no Christian theological obligation to support the nation of Israel

00:46:58.280 militarily or politically.

00:47:00.680 But I do think it makes good biblical sense to support the nation of Israel in certain ways.

00:47:09.240 And I've got six, seven sub points on this.

00:47:13.860 A, the nation of Israel right now belonged to the Jewish people first.

00:47:18.780 It was significant to Judaism first.

00:47:21.160 They were there thousands of years before Islam came into the world.

00:47:24.780 B, it is the only homeland for a global minority, the Jewish people, who have been the victims 1.00

00:47:29.620 of relentless persecution and attempts at extermination.

00:47:32.440 C, it is the home of Christian historic sites that Israel has thus far protected and stewarded 0.68

00:47:38.240 very well.

00:47:39.180 D, Islam is a unique civilizational threat. 1.00

00:47:42.580 And we should support perhaps the only other country in the world with the moral clarity

00:47:48.240 to say that Islamists aren't oppressed. 1.00

00:47:50.740 They are the oppressor.

00:47:52.020 E, of the list of designated terrorist organizations, 99%, literally, are Muslim.

00:48:00.100 Mass migration of the Muslim world into the Western world has made every Western country 1.00

00:48:04.920 less safe.

00:48:05.940 More violent crime, more sexual crime, more terrorism, more poverty, more chaos that is

00:48:12.100 baked into Islamic ideology.

00:48:14.920 That is not true of Jewish belief systems and of Jewish migration.

00:48:22.040 The enemy of my enemy is my friend in this case.

00:48:25.460 Israel is an enemy to Islamic extremists, and so is America. 0.98

00:48:29.900 F, Israel is a democracy that shares many of the same Western values that we have.

00:48:34.840 Not all, not in totality, but many.

00:48:38.060 Just ask yourself, if all of the Middle East were like Israel, would that be better or worse? 0.99

00:48:42.740 If all of the Middle East were like Iran or Afghanistan or Gaza, would that be better or worse? 1.00

00:48:50.980 Now, this is G, theologically, we should yearn for Jewish people to be saved, just as Paul

00:48:57.220 does in Romans 9.

00:48:58.520 We share half of their Bible.

00:49:00.300 Our Savior is Jewish.

00:49:02.220 Our Savior is the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy, of Jewish law, of Jewish ceremonies and celebrations.

00:49:07.960 We should have, I believe, an affinity for the Jewish people that makes us zealous for their salvation.

00:49:15.920 Those are all my sub points on point four.

00:49:18.320 Now, last point, point five.

00:49:21.160 None of this means that we have to support intervention in their wars.

00:49:26.660 There are arguments both ways, but we are not obligated to do so.

00:49:30.540 But every government has the moral responsibility, I think the biblical obligation, to put the

00:49:37.360 well-being, the prosperity, the security of their country first.

00:49:41.280 Israel does that really well for their country.

00:49:43.620 That's one thing I love about Israel, is that it is Israel first all the way. 0.97

00:49:48.780 I want America to be as America first as Israel is Israel first. 1.00

00:49:54.000 I actually want that for every country.

00:49:55.620 I want every country to put its interests first, even at the expense of the interests of other 0.98

00:50:01.860 countries.

00:50:02.860 I believe that's why God created governments.

00:50:05.180 I don't think that means we have to be completely isolationist.

00:50:08.420 I think that there could be an obligation in some cases for intervention when it makes sense

00:50:14.920 for us and our allies, as long as it is in the interest of the only constituents that our

00:50:21.360 government is really supposed to serve.

00:50:23.620 But I do believe that we are not and should not feel responsible to fight all of Israel's 1.00

00:50:36.120 wars simply because they are an ally.

00:50:40.420 Also, none of this means that we cannot criticize Israel, the government of Israel, Israel's policies.

00:50:45.820 I think a lot of people believe that we can't criticize Israel's policies without being

00:50:51.400 anti-Semitic, and I think that's stupid.

00:50:54.020 Israel's values are liberal in many ways, pro-LGBTQ, for example.

00:50:59.640 Not all of Israel.

00:51:00.660 It's a country just like any other country.

00:51:02.340 There are a variety of beliefs.

00:51:04.220 But it is hugely secular and has a lot of secular beliefs in place.

00:51:09.960 Like, we can't act like the geographical nation of Israel and everyone who lives there is abiding

00:51:15.900 by the Old Testament law that was put in place for the Jewish people by God.

00:51:22.560 And so it's okay to criticize the nation of Israel, the policies that are put in place. 0.82

00:51:28.660 I think it's okay to criticize, if you want to, even some of the practices that have been

00:51:35.220 put in place by Israel in this conflict between Palestine.

00:51:38.620 Now, I do think, and this is just kind of me riffing, like, I do think it's strange how many

00:51:45.300 people are pretending like October 7th didn't happen.

00:51:48.520 Like, oh, I can't believe I saw someone say, unfortunately, Israel has chosen after October

00:51:53.100 7th to fight fire with fire.

00:51:54.780 As opposed to what?

00:51:56.520 Like, fight fire with tickling?

00:51:58.020 Like, what were they supposed to do?

00:51:59.580 Now, do I want civilians to die?

00:52:01.620 Do I want people to starve?

00:52:03.400 Absolutely not.

00:52:04.520 I don't want innocent people to suffer at all.

00:52:07.540 War is really ugly, and it's really bad, and we should be praying for peace and hoping

00:52:12.500 for peace.

00:52:13.560 But Israel retaliated after a surprise attack when their people were raped and tortured

00:52:22.140 and murdered and kidnapped.

00:52:26.080 I mean, Hamas killed babies in captivity, and we're just acting like that's not horrifying.

00:52:32.920 Israel is defending itself.

00:52:34.240 I'm not saying, again, that we have to defend every mode of defense that they have put in

00:52:39.840 place.

00:52:40.160 But let's not also forget what started this entire conflict in 2023.

00:52:46.420 And so I don't know if that gives you the clarity that you're looking for.

00:52:50.420 This is such a layered and complicated topic.

00:52:53.580 I will not pretend to know every single facet of geopolitics.

00:52:59.080 I will not pretend to understand every single nook and cranny of the conflict that is going

00:53:04.080 on, or every aspect of American politics, or every aspect of how our government decides

00:53:11.640 our priorities and our interests, or even every aspect of the theological debate in this.

00:53:18.420 But I've been thinking about this and reading about this for a long time and praying about

00:53:23.840 this as well, because I want to be wise in how I think about it and how I talk about it.

00:53:29.100 And I hope that I have given you some clarity, or maybe at least just a jumping off point for

00:53:34.520 you to read your Bible, read Romans 9, read Hebrews 11, get Wayne Grudem's Systematic

00:53:43.060 Theology.

00:53:44.280 There are some good podcasts out there.

00:53:46.480 I'm not going to recommend one or the other because either they're dispensationalist or covenant,

00:53:50.500 and I really want you to explore scripture for yourself, get you an ESV study Bible.

00:53:55.660 I would say it's pretty neutral and objective, and you can read the commentary to help you

00:54:00.280 gain understanding without feeling like you are being persuaded in one direction.

00:54:05.240 But I'm not scared of the truth.

00:54:07.500 Truth is like a lion.

00:54:08.540 All you have to do is unleash it.

00:54:10.740 And so please send me your comments.

00:54:13.320 Send me your thoughts.

00:54:14.220 Send me your Bible verses.

00:54:15.240 Send me your position.

00:54:17.120 As long as we are all believing in the inerrant authority of the Word of God, I love these 0.67

00:54:22.620 discussions and these debates.

00:54:25.180 I'm sure that I sufficiently made plenty of people mad in this, which was not my goal.

00:54:30.360 It was just to try to explain as best as I could the nuance in all of this.

00:54:35.380 All right.

00:54:35.860 So I've got a quick announcement, but let me tell you about our last sponsor before we do

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00:55:29.520 All right, y'all.

00:55:36.220 So we have been doing Relatable since March of 2018.

00:55:41.120 I can't believe that it's been over seven years.

00:55:43.700 It has been what I call like my professional baby.

00:55:48.360 I have written two books.

00:55:49.940 I have given lots of speeches.

00:55:51.820 I have share the arrows, which I love so much, but so much work and thought and heart and effort

00:56:01.560 has been put into Relatable, not just by me, but by my team.

00:56:07.280 By Timothy, there has been so much prayer and consideration that has gone into every episode,

00:56:13.180 and I certainly haven't always gotten it right in everything that I've said,

00:56:18.260 but I am a Christian, a wife, a mom navigating the craziness of our culture

00:56:25.820 with as much clarity and courage as God is willing to give me,

00:56:32.080 and I have tried my best to take you guys along on that ride.

00:56:36.920 And when we started, it was one time a week, and then there was a demand for it.

00:56:42.280 We went to two times a week.

00:56:43.420 There was a demand for more, so we went to three times a week.

00:56:46.200 And there was a demand for more, we went to four times a week.

00:56:48.680 And y'all, the three to four times a week was really tough for me.

00:56:51.840 I was really hesitant to do it.

00:56:53.860 I felt that three times a week was really the good clip for my show.

00:56:59.300 And when I went to four times a week, I was like, I just don't know how long I can sustain this.

00:57:05.300 And every few months, I've reassessed, do I want to continue doing four times a week?

00:57:10.220 And there have been periods, a lot of periods in the past few years,

00:57:14.160 where four times a week has been necessary.

00:57:16.880 It's been like hour and a half long episodes every day for four times a week

00:57:24.060 because of everything that was going on in the news, whether it was in 2020,

00:57:28.900 I think we were doing four episodes then,

00:57:30.640 or whether it was in the 2024 election year or midterms or whatever.

00:57:35.000 Or people always ask me, do you ever run out of things to talk about?

00:57:38.820 And I'm like, no, I feel like I could go, you know, like five, six, seven episodes a week

00:57:45.240 and still have more to talk about.

00:57:46.520 There's always so much.

00:57:48.440 But this time, when I started reassessing again and talking to Chief Related Bro

00:57:52.520 about the season of life that we're in, believe it or not, I have an oldest child

00:57:58.080 who is about to start kindergarten who is six years old, which is just like insane to me.

00:58:03.000 A lot of you remember my first maternity leave episodes when I first announced I was pregnant

00:58:08.500 with my oldest and now she's about to go into kindergarten.

00:58:12.200 And it seems that now is the time for me to scale back a little bit on Relatable.

00:58:19.340 And so we are going to move to three times a week starting next week.

00:58:22.880 Next week will actually only be two episodes because it'll be 4th of July next Friday, next Friday.

00:58:29.520 And so we won't have an episode, but it will be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

00:58:35.680 That will be the new schedule for Relatable.

00:58:39.380 And we are going to try to follow the same formula every week.

00:58:44.400 We will see how this goes.

00:58:46.500 But Monday is going to be news, right, Brie?

00:58:49.280 I'm trying to remember.

00:58:50.280 Wednesday, theology, and then Friday will be our guest episodes.

00:58:54.240 And we've already been planning what these are going to look like, the topics that we're

00:58:58.140 going to cover, and the amazing guests that we are going to have.

00:59:03.600 But I actually think that this will allow us to be even more intentional with planning each

00:59:09.500 episode and will also allow us to be even more topical.

00:59:13.540 I already don't feel like I'm bound to the 24-hour news cycle.

00:59:17.680 But having one less episode a week, I think, will make it feel even more like that.

00:59:23.940 That, okay, if I just want to cover theology today, it doesn't matter what's going on in

00:59:27.840 the world.

00:59:28.620 This is the topic that we've planned for.

00:59:30.560 This is the topic that we've written for, researched for, and this is what we are going

00:59:34.000 to do today.

00:59:35.140 And honestly, going back to the beginning of Relatable, those are the episodes that y'all

00:59:40.640 have loved the most.

00:59:42.280 Sometimes y'all really want me to break down something that's happening in the news right

00:59:46.280 now, but most of the time, y'all want me to break down a trend that you're seeing, explain

00:59:50.880 the topic, explain some kind of theological subject, have a debate, or talk in depth with

00:59:57.480 someone about their faith whom you've never heard share their testimony before.

01:00:01.480 And so that's really what we are going to focus on going forward.

01:00:05.980 Now, there may be a season in the future where we go back to four episodes, depending on what's

01:00:12.020 going on, and we'll just kind of depend on our schedule.

01:00:17.180 But this is what's right for our family, first and foremost, in this new season of life, this

01:00:24.760 new era where I don't really know exactly what it's going to look like to have kids in school.

01:00:30.320 It's crazy.

01:00:30.840 You think it's going to give you more time, but it doesn't.

01:00:35.100 You just really want to be so focused on their education and ensuring they're fully taken

01:00:41.780 care of in that way.

01:00:43.180 I'm so thankful for the flexibility of this job, the freedom of this job.

01:00:46.980 I already get to be home so much and spend so much time with my family.

01:00:51.360 CR and I work together full time, so we always travel with our family.

01:00:55.520 But this is going to give us even more of that in this next season of life, and I'm very

01:01:01.260 grateful for that.

01:01:02.100 I'm grateful for y'all.

01:01:03.100 Y'all have been with me through so many seasons, through so many parts of this journey, and

01:01:07.960 I'm grateful to God that I get to have this relationship with an incredible audience and

01:01:14.680 that at least for right now, I get this platform to talk about things that really, really matter.

01:01:21.360 And I will continue to do so as long as he calls me to it and as long as it is what is

01:01:28.120 best for my family.

01:01:30.100 And yeah, that's all I wanted to say.

01:01:32.480 Just wanted to let y'all know that.

01:01:34.180 And so we will be back here on Monday.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - June 26, 2025

Ep 1211 ｜ Israel： What Should Christians Think？ And an Announcement

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