Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1365 ｜ The Iran Deal’s Surprising Role in End Times Prophecy ｜ Mark Hitchcock

00:00:00.700 How does the New Deal with Iran fit into biblical prophecy about the end times, or does it at 0.79

00:00:06.300 all, and does it matter?

00:00:08.040 Today we've got Pastor Mark Hitchcock here.

00:00:10.380 He just wrote the book, The Persian Storm, all about biblical prophecy and what is going

00:00:14.760 on in the Middle East.

00:00:16.400 Fascinating conversation, no matter how you land on eschatology, you will learn something

00:00:21.240 and be encouraged.

00:00:22.340 This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers, go to goodranchers.com.

00:00:26.500 Use code ALIA.

00:00:27.300 Check out, that's goodranchers.com, code ALIA.

00:00:30.000 Mark, thanks so much for taking the time to join us.

00:00:41.420 Could you tell everyone who you are and what you do?

00:00:44.220 Well, yeah, my name is Mark Hitchcock.

00:00:46.220 I'm a pastor of Faith Bible Church in Edmond, Oklahoma.

00:00:49.660 I'm also a research professor down at Dallas Theological Seminary.

00:00:54.860 Taught down there for several years.

00:00:56.180 Been at the church that I pastor for 35 years.

00:01:00.000 And my favorite thing is I'm a grandfather.

00:01:03.240 I've got seven grandchildren.

00:01:05.760 That is wonderful.

00:01:07.520 All right.

00:01:08.240 If you could tell us about your latest book, Persian Storm, what it is and why you wrote it.

00:01:13.440 Well, you know, I've been watching what's happening in the Middle East for a lot of years.

00:01:16.960 I love Bible prophecy.

00:01:18.380 And, you know, I love Bible prophecy.

00:01:19.720 It's really helped me put the Bible together.

00:01:21.320 It really helps me understand God's plan for what's happening in our world now and in the future.

00:01:26.120 So I've been studying Bible prophecy for a lot of years.

00:01:29.440 And I believe there's a prophecy in the Bible in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39.

00:01:33.940 It talks about a coming invasion of the land of Israel when the people of Israel have been regathered back to their land, which they have now since 1948.

00:01:43.000 And it talks about a coalition of nations that will come into Israel and invade them in the end times.

00:01:48.060 And several nations are mentioned.

00:01:49.440 They're ancient names, but we look at the modern counterparts.

00:01:52.760 One of those nations in Ezekiel 38.5 is Persia, which is modern day Iran.

00:01:57.940 The name was just changed in 1935 to Iran, and today it's the Islamic Republic of Iran.

00:02:04.000 And so I believe that what we see happening in our world today is setting the stage for these future events that the Bible predicts.

00:02:12.060 And, you know, we don't know everything that's going to happen, but we know the end result the Bible tells us about this coming invasion.

00:02:17.980 And what we see today, I think, is the buildup to that is setting the stage for these events that are coming.

00:02:23.960 And so I think it's important for us as believers to understand what the Bible says about what's coming in the future,

00:02:29.640 but also to help us see how things are being set up today for that.

00:02:33.220 And, you know, one of the things that does is gives us a lot of confidence that the Bible is true and that God's in control of what's happening.

00:02:40.160 It's not just chaos and, you know, we're just kind of like, you know, a bus going down a mountain road out of control,

00:02:45.420 that there's a plan that God has and he's in control and we can have confidence and trust in that.

00:02:50.220 And it gives us hope.

00:02:50.920 yes um you know there are so many different debates as you know about the end times what

00:02:57.440 that's going to look like there's a group who believes that you know what is interpreted by

00:03:02.100 many today is end times prophecy has already been fulfilled post-millennialist tend to believe that

00:03:07.280 way there's the all-millennialist i'm a historic pre-millennialist which is not dispensationalist

00:03:13.040 but there's a lot of crossover and then also a lot of differences in what faithful christians

00:03:18.940 believe is going to occur when Jesus returns again, rapture in the middle of the tribulation,

00:03:27.120 after the tribulation, all different kinds of things. But you've arrived to the conclusion

00:03:32.620 that you come to, which I think is dispensationalism, correct?

00:03:37.480 That's right. Yes. I'm a pre-millennialist like you. I believe Jesus is coming back,

00:03:41.920 going to set up a literal thousand year reign. But yeah, the difference is I believe in the

00:03:45.840 pre-tribulation rapture. That's probably the main difference between historic premillennial and

00:03:50.220 dispensational premillennial. Yes. Right. Whereas I'm post-trib, you are pre-trib, but a lot of

00:03:56.740 similarities in what we think about when things are going to occur in the end times. And I'm so

00:04:01.780 fascinated in what you talk about when you talk about Ezekiel 38 through 39 and what that has to

00:04:08.780 do with this Persian storm and what's going on right now. So could you elucidate that a little

00:04:13.580 bit. Sure. You know, Ezekiel 37 is a good starting point. Ezekiel 37 talks about a regathering of the

00:04:20.720 Jewish people in the end times to their land. And that really began in earnest in 1948 when the 0.53

00:04:27.220 modern state of Israel was founded. And only 6% of the Jews lived in Israel in 1948. They were

00:04:33.300 regathered after being scattered for 2,000 years to 70 countries. They were regathered to their

00:04:40.140 homeland to their ancient homeland and the bible predicts that they're going to be regathered there

00:04:44.960 in ezekiel 37 and we're seeing that prophecy about israel being regathered being fulfilled

00:04:50.680 before our eyes so we can know the other things ezekiel says will happen as well because we can

00:04:55.340 see one prophecy happening right before our eyes but ezekiel 38 talks about when they're regathered

00:05:00.660 to their land and it says when they're at rest and living securely that a group of nations are

00:05:06.360 going to come into Israel to try to wipe them out, to try to, like, they're going to come like a cloud 0.61

00:05:11.120 to wipe them off the face of the earth. And some of these nations that are mentioned, if you look 0.97

00:05:15.580 at the modern counterparts to those, it's for the places that are mentioned are in modern-day Turkey.

00:05:21.680 Persia, of course, I mentioned earlier, mentions modern-day Iran. Arosh and Magog, which I believe

00:05:27.160 are in modern-day Russia, are mentioned. And so, you know, these are the nations that we see today,

00:05:31.900 primarily Iran right now, that are, you know, the main enemy of Israel, have all these proxies

00:05:37.160 against Israel. And so the Bible tells us that's going to happen at some point in the future when 0.95

00:05:42.180 Israel's been regathered to their land. And again, since the prophecy in Ezekiel 37 about Israel

00:05:48.020 being regathered is being literally fulfilled, I believe that Ezekiel 38 and 39 will be literally

00:05:54.440 fulfilled as well at some point in the future. So again, I see what's happening today in the

00:06:01.880 build up to this. Nothing we see today is the fulfillment of anything in Ezekiel 38, but just

00:06:07.640 the stage is being set because the events of the end times can't happen in a vacuum. You know,

00:06:13.000 it's not like it's just going to all of a sudden, everything's just going to come together in a

00:06:15.780 year's time. There's a build up and a process to this. And that's what I think we see happening,

00:06:21.020 which indicates to me that, you know, Christ's coming could be very near. Now we don't set dates

00:06:25.740 for Christ's coming. That's a reckless thing to ever do. Jesus forbade us to do that. But

00:06:30.960 there are things we see in our world today that the scenario in our world, the events in our world

00:06:38.100 look more and more like the biblical scenario, I believe, that's predicted for the end times

00:06:43.420 more and more all the time. You know, some people argue that, well, we've already seen

00:06:49.200 kind of the fulfillment of that happen in the book of Esther. But obviously, you're arguing

00:06:55.000 that, no, no, the Gog and Magog, Ezekiel 38 through 39, has not yet been fulfilled.

00:06:59.960 That will happen at a future date.

00:07:01.680 And so what do you say to that contention that that's basically already occurred?

00:07:06.460 Yeah, several things.

00:07:07.660 One is in Ezekiel 38, it talks about that it's going to happen in the latter years.

00:07:12.420 It's just going to happen in the last days.

00:07:14.680 And that phrase is often used of the time of the coming of Messiah in the Old Testament.

00:07:19.800 But back in the book of Esther, there was a, you know, a destruction of a lot of enemies of Israel in the book of Esther.

00:07:27.300 But they didn't come into the land of Israel.

00:07:29.700 They were kind of, the Jewish people were scattered all over the place and kind of took care of their enemies or destroyed their enemies in various places.

00:07:36.800 Ezekiel 38 says these nations are going to come into the land of Israel and they're going to die.

00:07:41.360 They're going to be killed supernaturally by God on the mountains of Israel by disease, by fire and brimstone from heaven, by infighting among the armies.

00:07:51.900 Nothing like that happened back in 473 A.D. or 473 B.C. whenever the book of Esther took place.

00:08:00.900 Also, you know, if the book of Esther, there's a Jewish feast that came out of that, out of the book of Esther called the Feast of Purim.

00:08:08.300 And it'd be interesting if the Jewish people don't believe that Ezekiel 38 was fulfilled

00:08:13.900 in the time of Esther, because if they did, they would make that part of their celebration

00:08:19.100 of the Feast of Purim.

00:08:20.560 So the Jewish people themselves don't see that as a fulfillment of Ezekiel 38.

00:08:25.680 So I don't think it's something that's far in the distant past.

00:08:28.940 It's something that's still future today.

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00:10:16.700 How confident can we be that these ancient civilizations like Persia correspond to the 0.91

00:10:23.540 modern nations that we see like Iran today? Well, you know, Ezekiel's writing in about 570 BC.

00:10:31.340 And so when he's writing back then, obviously these modern nations that we know today don't exist.

00:10:36.520 So I think he's just stating these are the geographical locations.

00:10:39.880 These are the places that will be part of this invasion.

00:10:43.760 Now, the names of some of these places have changed a lot over time.

00:10:47.260 But it's these locations, these places, whatever they're called, whenever this event takes place, you know, they could change again.

00:10:53.700 Some of these names could.

00:10:54.640 but there's four of them that are mentioned that are in modern-day Turkey as Meshach and Tubal and

00:11:00.460 Gomer and Togarmah. I mean, they're clearly in modern-day Turkey. You know, again, Persia just

00:11:04.620 became Iran. Put is mentioned, which is modern-day Libya. Kush, which is Sudan. The modern day was

00:11:11.600 south of Egypt. So these are the locations that are going to invade, but obviously Ezekiel's

00:11:17.440 writing in his day, if he would have written, you know, modern names for these places, no one would

00:11:22.200 have had any idea where they were he was writing to his audience at that time now obviously every

00:11:29.360 christian no matter what their eschatological view is should look to the bible as our guidebook

00:11:36.300 not modern events but at the same time we do look at modern events and then we look to scripture we

00:11:42.960 try to compare the two as you're doing in your book and say okay what exactly is happening

00:11:48.340 according to these biblical prophecies.

00:11:50.700 Is there anything in this Iran peace deal, as it's called,

00:11:55.700 that has kind of just been executed that shapes or affects

00:12:00.060 what you think about everything that you're talking about in that region?

00:12:04.060 Well, you know, this Iran peace deal is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

00:12:07.440 You talk about back and forth and conflicting ideas.

00:12:10.740 You know, somebody says one thing and then the other side comes out the next day

00:12:13.480 and says, you know, that's not true.

00:12:14.640 But, you know, the whole idea, though, of peace in the Middle East has been an elusive phantom now for decades.

00:12:22.900 I mean, president after president, secretary of state after secretary of state have tried to go over and solve that Gordian knot,

00:12:30.580 you know, that Rubik's Cube over there in the Middle East.

00:12:34.020 And my understanding, again, of Bible prophecy is, I think in the end times, there's a figure who's going to arise called the Antichrist.

00:12:42.760 He's going to be a kind of a rise out of nowhere.

00:12:45.760 He's going to gain power.

00:12:47.580 And eventually he's going to take over the whole world,

00:12:50.240 which I think a lot of the technology today and all of that fits in with that whole scenario.

00:12:54.420 We see how that's possible today.

00:12:55.920 The tools of world domination are in place.

00:12:58.680 But I think the Bible tells us that when the Antichrist comes on the scene,

00:13:02.400 he's going to forge some kind of peace agreement there in the Middle East

00:13:07.540 that's going to bring peace to Israel for a period of time. 0.57

00:13:10.740 So it's going to be a false peace.

00:13:12.540 It's going to be a temporary peace, but he's going to do what no one's been able to do and solve that unsolvable problem.

00:13:18.400 So I see all of these peace negotiations, peace movements that are taking place in the Middle East as a build up to that.

00:13:26.440 And, you know, alongside of that, we have these Abraham Accords, which a lot of people believe if we can, you know, if something can come to pass where the U.S. and Iran can come to some peace deal,

00:13:37.180 then that may open up a broader peace where saudi arabia and some of these other nations

00:13:42.120 will become part of the abraham accords you know of course president trump has started this board

00:13:46.360 of peace that's uh you know trying to negotiate the situation with israel and gaza but you just

00:13:52.400 see all these different things the abraham accords the board of peace the the peace negotiations

00:13:57.180 between iran and the u.s right now i think you know hezbollah and israel have agreed to some talks

00:14:03.520 where they're going to meet and talk about peace.

00:14:05.480 So it's just all peace talks there,

00:14:08.100 but it never seems to be solid or permanent.

00:14:12.580 And so when the Antichrist comes on the scene,

00:14:15.000 I think he's going to be able to broker some kind of a deal.

00:14:18.060 And he may take a framework that's already in place

00:14:21.640 and just make it stronger.

00:14:24.140 So I see all of this negotiating for peace

00:14:27.700 as a key piece to the end time puzzle

00:14:30.360 because I believe that there's a seven-year tribulation period that's coming in the future,

00:14:35.280 a seven-year time of great trouble for the world.

00:14:38.160 And the Bible tells us the event that starts that period of time

00:14:41.800 is this peace treaty that the Antichrist is able to broker over there

00:14:46.500 and bring them to the Middle East. 0.92

00:14:47.760 So to me, all this is just a buildup again to what's coming.

00:14:51.960 And we don't know what will happen.

00:14:53.660 There'll be a lot of twists and turns as we go along.

00:14:55.940 but this peace negotiation, I think, is a very key part of that ultimate scenario that the Bible

00:15:02.640 predicts. I have so many questions. It's so fascinating. Should Christians then be wary

00:15:09.260 of any world leader who is trying to negotiate peace, considering that we all want peace. War 0.69

00:15:15.580 is bad. We don't want casualties. We don't want the conflict that comes with war. And so peacemaking,

00:15:21.840 obviously is something that's good, regarded very highly by Jesus.

00:15:25.720 So how should we think of this?

00:15:28.300 Do we think of peacemaking in the Middle East with skepticism?

00:15:31.840 Or should we celebrate it? 1.00

00:15:34.940 No, I'm for that.

00:15:36.260 I mean, I think any person should be.

00:15:37.780 Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers.

00:15:40.060 It's our job in this world to do what we can to see justice carried out, compassion.

00:15:45.340 We don't want people being killed in the Russia-Ukraine war

00:15:48.340 and these wars, these terrible wars that are taking place. 0.99

00:15:51.120 So we should be in favor of these things. 0.94

00:15:53.580 You know, it's not our job as Christians to try to work these things and, you know, try

00:15:57.780 to see world events happen in a way where the end times will come.

00:16:02.080 God will take care of all of that.

00:16:04.260 Our job is to work for peace, for compassion.

00:16:07.260 I pray for the peace process there.

00:16:09.320 I love the people of Iran.

00:16:10.700 There are many believers there.

00:16:11.880 We don't want people over there being killed and their economy being destroyed.

00:16:15.260 So we want peace.

00:16:16.660 but the bible does say that ultimately there's someone who will come who's going to use peace

00:16:22.900 then kind of as a tool in his own toolbox to kind of you know come in and gain ascendancy in the

00:16:29.160 world but we should be wary of people today who are trying to bring peace because the antichrist

00:16:35.140 is going to come on the scene in a very obscure way he's going to rise out of insignificance

00:16:40.260 so no one we see today on the world scene who's really well known is the antichrist i believe

00:16:46.120 I believe he's going to rise up out of total obscurity and insignificance at the beginning

00:16:50.980 of that period of tribulation.

00:16:52.820 And so we should be for peace and compassion for people all over the world today.

00:16:59.100 God will work all those things out in his time.

00:17:02.500 Yeah.

00:17:03.380 And it's also important to know, and you can add to this, I'm sure, but that the brokering

00:17:10.520 of peace is not the only signal that this person is the Antichrist.

00:17:15.640 The Antichrist will also be able to achieve global power, will also bring about the intense

00:17:22.280 persecution of believers. 0.81

00:17:24.880 And so we can't say, oh, anyone who is trying to broker a piece, Trump or anyone else in

00:17:30.820 his administration or whatever, that they're acting in a way that is of the Antichrist.

00:17:36.020 The Antichrist will be a distinct figure who not only brings about a fake piece, but also

00:17:41.420 has all of these other characteristics that are described in Revelation, right?

00:17:45.640 That's right. Yeah, the Antichrist, I mean, he's going to come on the scene. He's going to be

00:17:48.880 someone like the world's never seen before. I mean, the Bible says he's going to do signs and

00:17:53.900 wonders. I mean, he's going to be a miracle worker. He's going to be a captivating, mesmerizing

00:17:59.340 speaker that will take the world by storm. He's going to use, I believe, all the technology that

00:18:04.780 we have in our world today to leverage these things to be able to gain control over people's

00:18:10.040 lives. Ultimately, the Antichrist is going to demand that the whole world worship him as God.

00:18:15.640 So, you know, what began in the book of Genesis with the sin of man is going to end with the man of sin in the end.

00:18:23.960 And we shouldn't try to identify anyone today as the Antichrist.

00:18:27.640 People send me all kinds of stuff all the time, telling me they figured out who the Antichrist is.

00:18:33.260 And we're not to try to figure out who the Antichrist is.

00:18:36.180 Of course, myself, you know, believing in the pre-tribulation rapture, I think we're going to be raptured before he's revealed.

00:18:41.840 So I don't think we'll even know who he is.

00:18:44.240 And so I always tell people, you know, from my perspective,

00:18:46.520 if you ever figure out who the Antichrist is, I got bad news for you.

00:18:50.100 You've been left behind.

00:18:51.100 So we don't want to know who he is.

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00:19:55.560 Okay. So is your view then I hope you're right. And I'm wrong by the way, because I would love

00:20:01.700 for the rapture before the tribulation to be true. And many people I honor and respect hold

00:20:06.780 that belief as well um we do read that the mark of the beast um will be um those okay so those who

00:20:17.660 refuse to worship the antichrist will not take the mark of the beast so that will be believers so is

00:20:24.580 your view then that those believers who refuse to take the mark of the beast that they became

00:20:29.340 believers during that tribulation and after the rapture that those christians in your view wouldn't

00:20:34.400 be Christians that were already Christians at that point, but became Christians later

00:20:39.120 after the original church is raptured up. 0.67

00:20:42.480 Right.

00:20:42.960 That's what you have to hold if you hold to my view.

00:20:45.280 Yeah.

00:20:45.420 Everybody who's a believer on the face of the earth at the moment of the rapture, it

00:20:49.780 was caught up in a moment in the twinkling of an eye.

00:20:52.380 And then after that, many people will come to faith.

00:20:55.820 You know, I think the rapture could be the greatest evangelistic tool in history.

00:20:59.020 I mean, you think about all the people have heard about it and all of a sudden, you know,

00:21:01.980 these people disappeared like, wow, you know, this is what they said was right. And it'll reorder

00:21:06.880 the world. I think we don't have any idea today in some ways how the world will be reordered,

00:21:12.020 how the Antichrist will be able to come in. He'll be the man with a plan. And he's going to come in

00:21:16.520 and have all kinds of plans and bring to this world. So, yeah, people will come to Christ after

00:21:22.460 that. In Revelation 7, there's a whole multitude of people that are believers. Can't even count

00:21:27.100 the number. And, you know, John asks, who are these? And he says, these are those who've come

00:21:31.320 out of great tribulation and they've rashed their robes wide in the blood of the lamb so

00:21:35.640 many many people will come to christ i believe after how the rapture takes place during the

00:21:40.600 tribulation so we often call them tribulation saints and those are the people that we read

00:21:45.180 about in my view you know during the tribulation period who are on the earth yeah yeah so

00:21:52.400 interesting you know there are some people who i think this is mostly in the post-millennial

00:21:56.980 camp which is not the camp that i'm in but who believe that you know the tribulation has already

00:22:02.420 happened and there are many tribulations that happen some of them believe that nero is the

00:22:06.320 antichrist and we're just living in a different time now post-millennial but um you know something

00:22:12.640 that i hear a lot is well it's easy for us americans to say that there will be a future

00:22:18.840 tribulation but if you look at for example what's happening in nigeria or in the middle east or in

00:22:24.460 China to Christians, not just today, but throughout history, how they have been slaughtered, kidnapped,

00:22:29.460 enslaved, tortured, Ottoman Empire, the horrible things that Christians went through. How can there 0.72

00:22:36.200 be a future tribulation that would be even worse than that? And so how do we distinguish what that

00:22:43.160 future tribulation will be like versus the already horrible things that Christians are having to

00:22:49.000 endure around the world today? Yeah, that's a great question. You know, what I distinguish it 1.00

00:22:53.780 this way is you kind of, everybody in this world as believers have tribulation. Jesus said, 1.00

00:22:59.120 the apostle Paul said, it's by many tribulations you'll enter the kingdom of God. So everybody has

00:23:05.040 problems, troubles, trials in life. Many people, severe trials, as you've mentioned in different

00:23:10.720 parts of the world. But I call those small T tribulation and the tribulation period will be

00:23:16.920 the capital T tribulation, because the thing that will distinguish it is not only will there be the

00:23:23.080 wrath of humanity, I mean, humanity's inhumanity to one another, not only will there be the wrath

00:23:28.700 of Satan and his demonic host that we see today, but the tribulation will be a unique period of

00:23:34.520 time when God himself is doling out and pouring out wrath upon the earth. You have a series of

00:23:42.280 judgments there's seven seals there's seven trumpets there's seven bowls as god himself is

00:23:48.760 judging this world for its rebellion against him and so that's one of the reasons people like

00:23:53.600 myself are pre-trib because all of us believe all the different views of the rapture believe that

00:23:59.560 we're exempt from god's wrath it's just when does the wrath start and how does god keep us from it

00:24:05.440 and i believe that whole seven year period is the wrath of god on this earth now now it intensifies

00:24:11.200 because Jesus pictured it like birth pains.

00:24:14.200 And so they get closer together

00:24:16.640 and they get more severe as you go along.

00:24:18.940 So it doesn't start out as bad as it is at the end,

00:24:21.940 but that whole period is the wrath of God.

00:24:24.160 And so that's what's different. 0.74

00:24:25.660 People today who are living in countries

00:24:28.180 being tortured and kidnapped and persecuted as believers,

00:24:31.380 they're suffering the wrath of people

00:24:33.680 and the wrath of Satan,

00:24:34.900 but they're not suffering the wrath of God.

00:24:37.480 And so that's a distinction that I would make.

00:24:39.160 That's gonna be a unique period of history

00:24:41.080 in the future. Yeah, something that we haven't seen before. And if people want to know my exact

00:24:47.920 view of eschatology, I've done an episode, few episodes on that, but we'll link it in the

00:24:52.280 description of this episode. People can go look at that. But I'm more interested in what you think

00:24:57.640 in this conversation. I'm curious about Iran and a little bit more about their role in this.

00:25:04.860 Obviously, hostility toward Israel, toward America are two of their main characteristics.

00:25:11.080 But if the Iranian regime, as hostile as it is right now, say it was overturned and it was replaced by a more neutral, less radical regime, would that change at all what you think about what is shaping up eschatologically in the Middle East?

00:25:27.180 Well, you know, what I always look at when I see the Bible is we know, I know at least, well, I think I know, you know, what the Bible says about Ezekiel 38, 39.

00:25:35.180 So we know what's going to happen ultimately.

00:25:37.920 But how we get there, we don't know.

00:25:40.060 You know, we don't know all the different events that will take place to get to that

00:25:44.200 invasion in the future. 0.93

00:25:45.780 But what I believe is at some point in time in the future, Israel is going to be at rest, 0.96

00:25:50.840 they're going to be living securely. 0.92

00:25:51.980 In other words, they're going to be living under this false peace of the Antichrist. 0.81

00:25:56.040 Russia, Iran, these nations are going to conspire together. 0.72

00:25:59.400 I mean, you know, you think about Iran with all that's happening right now with Midnight

00:26:03.100 Hammer and Operation Roaring Lion and Epic Fury.

00:26:05.920 I mean, their hatred for Israel, obviously, among the regime, has been at a very high level.

00:26:14.420 But now I think it's higher than ever.

00:26:16.260 And they will look at any chance in the future they have to pounce upon Israel.

00:26:20.580 But, you know, even if the regime over there were to fall and a more moderate regime were to come in, all the seeds of that revolution are still there. 0.82

00:26:29.360 All those Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps leaders are still there unless they're totally eliminated. 0.91

00:26:35.180 The Basij, who's kind of the ground troops for this radical regime, will all still be there.

00:26:41.020 And among all the leaders that are there, the whole Mullah regime, it's interesting. 0.90

00:26:46.760 In Iran, they have an eschatology, too.

00:26:48.720 They have a view of the end times. 0.79

00:26:50.980 And that's actually what drives them.

00:26:51.800 Right, I would love to hear more about that.

00:26:54.140 Yeah, go ahead. 0.55

00:26:54.980 That ideology is really what drives everything for them.

00:26:57.700 It's fascinating.

00:26:58.400 They're very interested in prophecy in the future.

00:27:01.620 But their view is they have this Mahdi.

00:27:04.980 The word Mahdi means the rightly guided one.

00:27:07.800 And they believe the Mahdi, the 12th Imam, he was a direct descendant of Muhammad, went into hiding, or they call it occlusion, back in the 9th century, back in 873 AD.

00:27:19.460 So he's been in hiding all this time. 0.62

00:27:21.620 And they believe that someday he'll come out of hiding and he'll be the rightly guided one.

00:27:25.900 He'll be their ruler.

00:27:26.980 He's going to bring justice to the world.

00:27:28.660 I mean, he's going to bring a global rule of Islam, but they believe that for him to 0.93

00:27:34.540 come, that he's going to come in a time of chaos and bloodshed in the world. 0.92

00:27:39.920 And they believe that America is the big Satan and Satan's the little Satan, and that we 0.82

00:27:44.700 need to be removed for their Mahdi to come back. 0.95

00:27:48.080 And so they believe, too, that they can hotwire the apocalypse. 1.00

00:27:53.000 They can put out the welcome mat for the Mahdi by creating these things. 0.95

00:27:57.140 So they believe that in creating all this chaos and fighting against Israel and, you know, trying to destroy the United States, that they're actually, you know, speeding up the coming of their Mahdi. 0.90

00:28:08.700 So all of that ideology that's deeply embedded there, that's not going to go away. 0.62

00:28:13.340 It's not going to go anywhere, no matter who's ruling there.

00:28:16.240 And it would, you know, I think those seeds could rise back up very quickly.

00:28:20.760 You could see, you know, another overthrow or a coup there.

00:28:24.440 Again, we don't know what would happen, but we do know what the Bible says will happen. 0.64

00:28:28.760 And whatever happens over in Iran, God's in control of that. 0.83

00:28:32.420 And ultimately, it will lead to the events in Ezekiel 38, I believe.

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00:29:51.600 Um, you know, there are some critics of just the idea that we should be looking at the modern state

00:30:01.100 of Israel, um, through this biblically prophetic lens. And there's a big argument about this among

00:30:09.180 a lot of different factions of Christians who Israel is, if we're really talking about the

00:30:15.220 literal, physical Israel today. But your argument is that we are, that we are talking about the

00:30:22.340 current nation state of Israel, whereas critics would say, no, God's chosen people in Israel,

00:30:30.540 they go through the line of Christ and through the lens of Christ, we have been grafted in,

00:30:36.380 we are the church, we are the new Israel. And you take a differing approach to what I just

00:30:41.880 articulated. So can you talk a little bit more about that, why you take Israel references in

00:30:47.920 these prophecies literally? Sure. It goes all the way back to Abraham, the Abrahamic covenant. God

00:30:54.640 made a covenant with Abraham. He told him, lift up your eyes. He's in the land of Canaan. Look as 0.91

00:30:59.020 far as you can see every direction. I'm going to give this land to you and to your descendants

00:31:03.280 forever. He made the same promise to Isaac, made the same promise to Jacob. God promised them that

00:31:09.680 land, their descendants forever. Now God's put them out of the land several times for their 0.99

00:31:14.520 disobedience. The last time he did it was in 70 AD. They were scattered against 70 countries for

00:31:20.320 2000 years, but they were brought back in 1948 by a UN resolution. But it's a miracle that the

00:31:27.500 Jewish people are back there in their land today. I mean, it's called the miracle on the Mediterranean

00:31:32.080 that they're even there. Again, I mentioned earlier, 6% of the Jews were there then. Now

00:31:36.920 almost half the Jews in the world are back there in the land.

00:31:39.640 Now, a lot of people will say,

00:31:40.900 well, how do we even know who a Jew is today?

00:31:42.860 Well, if you look up on Google,

00:31:44.080 say how many Jews are there in the world?

00:31:45.380 It'll say 16 million, 16 or 17 million.

00:31:48.500 So somebody has a count of who Jewish people are.

00:31:52.680 And they say, well, these people just came back

00:31:54.300 from Eastern Europe and came back to Israel. 1.00

00:31:57.260 Well, they had to come back from somewhere

00:31:59.000 because they'd been dispersed

00:32:00.280 and scattered all over the world.

00:32:02.420 And so I believe that God brought them back there

00:32:05.080 in the fulfillment of Ezekiel chapter 37.

00:32:08.360 You know, they're not there by accident.

00:32:09.880 They've been brought back there by God

00:32:11.460 to set the stage for these events of the end times.

00:32:14.780 And so I believe that the covenants God made with Israel,

00:32:19.120 with the Jewish people, with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,

00:32:21.660 with their descendants,

00:32:22.660 I believe those are still in force today.

00:32:24.840 Because in Romans 9, 4,

00:32:27.360 Paul says there in the present tense,

00:32:29.320 he says the covenants belong to Israel.

00:32:33.100 He doesn't say the covenants belonged to Israel.

00:32:35.400 They belong to Israel.

00:32:36.880 And Israel in that context clearly is the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

00:32:41.900 And so if those covenants, and of course, Paul's writing those words during this current

00:32:46.720 age, the church age.

00:32:48.280 So I believe those covenants still belong to Israel and that God will fulfill those

00:32:53.200 with them, a future generation of them at some point in the future.

00:32:57.840 And now in the church age today, in the church, Jews and Gentiles are one in the body of Christ.

00:33:02.460 But I believe that God has a special plan for the nation of Israel through those covenants

00:33:06.520 he made, and that God will literally fulfill those covenants at some point in the future.

00:33:12.760 Yeah.

00:33:13.520 You know, as you were talking, I was also thinking of Romans 9, and I'm wondering how

00:33:17.840 you think of this verse when Paul says, not all who are descended from Israel belong to

00:33:23.940 Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring.

00:33:27.600 But through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

00:33:30.180 That means, Paul says, that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children

00:33:34.640 of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

00:33:39.120 So it seems to me, because he's saying, he goes on to say, is there injustice on God's

00:33:44.500 part that he seemed to promise this one thing and now he's doing something else?

00:33:48.440 And he goes on to say, well, no, because God created us.

00:33:52.720 He's the authority of all things.

00:33:54.360 And who are we to accuse God of injustice?

00:33:56.700 this, you know, I've interpreted this passage as meaning, look, it's children of the promise.

00:34:02.000 God fulfilled his promises through Christ, and it is those in Christ who are his chosen

00:34:07.400 people.

00:34:07.900 As he says, it's not children of the flesh who are offspring of Abraham, but children

00:34:11.520 of the promise.

00:34:12.600 So how should we think of that?

00:34:15.320 Well, it says earlier, it says, you know, not all who are Israel are of Israel.

00:34:18.520 In other words, not all Israelites are believers. 0.64

00:34:21.340 So Israelites, Jewish people who aren't believers in Messiah, they're not part of the promise.

00:34:27.820 They don't receive that promise, but it doesn't mean that somehow those blessings have been transferred to Gentiles or to the church.

00:34:36.140 I think he's just saying, look, not everybody who's of Israel or born of Israel who's a Jew is really a true Israelite.

00:34:41.820 In other words, they're not really a full Jew in the sense of believing in Jesus as their Messiah.

00:34:47.620 So I don't think he's making a transference there of, you know, hey, now Gentiles are Jews as well.

00:34:52.260 Because you read all of Romans 9, 10, and 11 together, get all the way down to chapter 11, verse 1. 0.95

00:34:58.700 It says, at the end of chapter 10, God says, I'm holding out my arms day after day to this obstinate people.

00:35:04.820 They reject me.

00:35:06.220 Then he says in chapter 11, verse 1, has God rejected his people whom he foreknew? 0.88

00:35:12.220 Talking about the Jewish people.

00:35:13.580 this is god forbid the strongest negative you can have in the greek language and he goes on to to

00:35:19.200 talk about what he's doing in this current age then you get down to 11 25 and he says that when 0.57

00:35:24.320 the fullness of the gentiles have come in all israel will be saved and i think that looks at 0.53

00:35:30.060 a remnant of israel in the end times that god's going to save in the end you know deliverer is

00:35:35.100 going to come from zion which is jerusalem he's going to remove ungodliness from jacob in other 0.95

00:35:40.260 words that this generation at the end is going to be purged and they're going to be able to go into 0.94

00:35:44.380 his kingdom but you know romans 9 10 and 11 you have to we read all those all three of those

00:35:50.520 chapters kind of together chapter 9 is kind of israel's past their past election chapter 10 is

00:35:56.620 their present rejection and chapter 11 i think is their future restoration and i think the reason

00:36:02.080 romans 9 10 and 11 are there this is very important in the book of romans you know why does god just

00:36:07.040 put those chapters in there. Right at the end of Romans 8, he's just made this promise. Nothing can

00:36:12.940 separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. High depth, angels, principalities,

00:36:17.360 nothing. Well, there would be somebody out there, maybe an objector would say, well, what about the

00:36:21.820 Jewish people? You made all these promises to them. It looks like you've rejected them. And so how can

00:36:27.740 I know you're not going to do the same to me? So I think he puts chapters 10, 11, 9, 10, and 11

00:36:33.560 there to say, I haven't rejected them forever. They are now been set aside. They're obstinate.

00:36:39.280 The majority of them don't believe in me, but I've still got a plan for them and I'm going to

00:36:44.800 fulfill my promises with them. And so you can be assured I'm going to fulfill my promises with you

00:36:49.320 as well. Yeah. And what we agree on and what all Christians definitionally have to agree on is

00:36:56.680 that there is only salvation through Christ. And even when you're talking about a future plan for

00:37:03.080 the remnant of Israel. You are not talking about a separate mode of salvation. Sometimes they see

00:37:07.820 people accuse dispensationalists of that, and that's not true. You believe that that promise

00:37:12.900 is fulfilled through Christ, just as it's been fulfilled to us through Christ too, correct?

00:37:19.100 Yeah, that's right. In Zechariah 12, it says that they're going to look upon me whom they've pierced.

00:37:25.120 They're going to mourn like one mourns for an only son. When Jesus comes, I believe there's

00:37:29.660 going to be a generation of jewish people who will look to jesus and they'll see him and you 0.97

00:37:34.620 know the only man-made thing in heaven will be the wounds of jesus and they'll be there forever for

00:37:39.700 people to see and the jewish people are going to recognize him they're going to look upon the one 0.77

00:37:43.780 they pierce they're going to mourn for him they're going to repent and they're going to receive him

00:37:47.580 him as their messiah and i think then god's program and plan for them then will have come

00:37:52.900 full circle and will be completed during that time and he'll fulfill his promises with them i think

00:37:57.820 during, you know, the millennium, during the kingdom, you're going to give him the land that

00:38:01.520 he promised and all of that. Yes. You know, a lot of people, when they think about the end times,

00:38:07.580 they're just like, you know, I don't, I just don't want to think about it. It's all going to work out

00:38:12.500 in the end. It's, you know, some people think it's stressful. There are so many disagreements

00:38:16.540 and debates about it. What is the responsible, most biblical and peaceful way? Not via speculation,

00:38:23.620 but, you know, in a biblical way to think about the end times

00:38:28.080 and why is it important for Christians to consider?

00:38:31.540 Well, you know, I always say, you know, about the millennium,

00:38:35.000 you know, spring millennial, amillennial, post-millennial.

00:38:36.700 I'm pro-millennial.

00:38:38.200 I'm for the millennium any time, you know.

00:38:39.840 So, you know, we don't want to argue about things with other believers.

00:38:44.780 You know, there are several things that if you're a believer,

00:38:47.380 you have to understand about the end times.

00:38:49.760 We believe Jesus is coming back literally, visibly.

00:38:52.400 He's coming back to the earth.

00:38:53.620 We believe that there's a future resurrection.

00:38:56.280 We believe that there's a future final judgment.

00:38:58.980 And we believe there's a literal heaven and hell.

00:39:01.220 So those are kind of the four pillars of a biblical view of the end times.

00:39:04.960 Now, around those four things, there are a lot of different, you know, points that we

00:39:09.580 discuss with one another.

00:39:11.260 But anyone who believes those things has an orthodox view of the end times.

00:39:16.160 And we don't want to, you know, make this an issue where we break fellowship with people.

00:39:21.040 I have friends that disagree with me on the different points.

00:39:24.800 I mean, even, you know, even if someone's a dispensationalist, we still disagree about

00:39:29.160 other little things.

00:39:30.340 But, you know, people disagree about a lot of things.

00:39:32.380 People disagree about baptism and the Lord's Supper.

00:39:35.180 And, you know, so we don't want to, and Calvinism and Arminianism.

00:39:38.620 So we don't want to allow the fact that we disagree about the end times to cause us not

00:39:42.940 to study it.

00:39:44.240 I think a lot of people just kind of turned off where there's so many views, but there's

00:39:47.280 a lot of views about a lot of things.

00:39:48.940 but i think it's important to study bible prophecy because there are a thousand prophecies in the

00:39:55.460 bible about a thousand prophecies about 500 of those have been literally fulfilled there's nothing

00:40:02.480 that proves the truth of the bible and that god is the true god like prophecy so the bible is

00:40:08.460 filled with prophecy and it's the only hope that we have in this world the only hope in this world

00:40:13.940 that we have is the coming of Christ,

00:40:16.180 that he's going to come back someday

00:40:17.460 and make this world everything

00:40:19.820 that we've always wanted it to be.

00:40:22.040 There's no hope in this world.

00:40:23.600 Now, there's a lot of things in this world.

00:40:25.060 God's given us a beautiful world,

00:40:26.540 so many things to enjoy,

00:40:27.920 but our ultimate hope is in Christ and in his coming.

00:40:31.500 And I think a lot of people who are Christians

00:40:33.800 don't think about that very often.

00:40:36.600 They probably almost never even think about

00:40:39.320 that Jesus is coming back.

00:40:41.060 and it's mentioned 318 times in 260 chapters in the new testament so more than once per chapter

00:40:48.380 so obviously this is something that god wants us to think about when the bible was originally

00:40:53.800 written 28 of the bible was prophecy at the time it was written a lot of that's been fulfilled

00:40:59.120 already but it's something that we need to understand i think just to have a grasp of kind

00:41:04.540 of god's program his plan where things are headed in this world and god didn't give us prophecy to

00:41:11.660 scare us but to prepare us he didn't give it to us to make us afraid but to make us aware and alert

00:41:17.820 and ready for him when he comes back and living a life that's pleasing to him and so i think it's a

00:41:24.540 very important part of our christian lives that i think is um kind of uh neglected i think in many

00:41:32.380 people's spiritual lives, even in their spiritual disciplines, to really long for the coming

00:41:38.200 of Jesus.

00:41:38.740 The New Testament ends, John saying, even so, now come Lord Jesus.

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00:42:57.840 but I just also love knowing the mission behind it and what I'm supporting by using EveryLife

00:43:02.660 products. Go to everylife.com, use code Allie10. You'll get 10% off your first order. That's

00:43:07.680 everylife.com, code Allie10. You know, a lot of people accuse pre-millennialists of just, um,

00:43:19.820 of being pessimistic and of saying,

00:43:24.680 well,

00:43:24.700 the world is going to go to hell in a handbasket.

00:43:28.340 It's just going to get worse and worse.

00:43:30.340 And so there's no use in trying to make anything better because things are

00:43:34.240 only going to become more simple and more corrupt.

00:43:37.880 Why is that a wrong interpretation of the view that you just articulated that,

00:43:44.400 yeah,

00:43:44.500 things are going to be bad,

00:43:45.780 but Jesus is coming back in the end.

00:43:48.240 Why does,

00:43:48.920 why doesn't that mean that we should just sit on our hands and wait?

00:43:52.460 Well, Jesus has given us all kinds of commands about what to do while we're waiting.

00:43:56.880 He's told us to go and take the gospel to all nations.

00:43:59.600 He's told us how to treat our spouse.

00:44:01.220 He's told us how to raise our children.

00:44:03.340 He's told us how to interact in society.

00:44:05.080 He's told us how to work.

00:44:06.360 He's told us how to relate to government.

00:44:07.860 You know, give the Caesar what Caesar's to God, what's God's.

00:44:10.780 So there's nothing in the Bible at all about just sitting around and waiting. 0.79

00:44:15.180 In fact, in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, Paul chides these Thessalonian believers who kind of were just quit working.

00:44:25.220 They were just kind of parasites, just kind of sponging off the other believers this idea, hey, Jesus is coming back.

00:44:30.240 And so, you know, we're just kind of, you know, kind of just, you know, live life and not worry about anything. 0.96

00:44:36.380 Paul writes a letter and, you know, comes against the Thessalonians for living that way.

00:44:41.500 And the one thing I've always found fascinating to some of the greatest missionaries and Christian leaders of the last hundred years are premillennialists.

00:44:52.240 You know, D.L. Moody, Billy Graham.

00:44:54.680 I know you probably know Greg Laurie.

00:44:56.140 He's a friend of mine.

00:44:57.060 Greg Laurie is a strong Bible prophecy premillennialist.

00:45:00.180 C.I. Schofield, John Piper.

00:45:02.520 Yeah.

00:45:03.180 And, you know, C.I. Schofield, you know, the Schofield Bible.

00:45:05.960 You know, people just love to lambast the Schofield Bible.

00:45:08.520 C.I. Schofield started the Central American Mission, a missions organization that's had

00:45:14.040 great impact. So not just premillennialists, but even dispensationalists have had a big impact in

00:45:20.720 world missions and all of that. And so I've never once in my life, and I've known, you know, most of

00:45:26.700 the leading dispensationalists probably over the last 50 years, I've never met one of them that

00:45:32.060 had that attitude of just kind of a laissez-faire attitude. Tim LaHaye, you know, was a strong

00:45:36.580 dispensationalist wrote the left behind series he was one of the most active evangelists i've ever

00:45:41.520 met in my life i've been with him many times and he's sharing the gospel with a waitress that comes

00:45:47.200 to wait on us or someone in a store i mean he was you know the farthest thing from a person just

00:45:52.700 kind of sitting back and saying well hey we're just going to wait for the lord to come back and

00:45:56.040 constantly busy laboring for the lord so the people that i know that i'm friends with that

00:46:00.920 are premillennialists dispensationalists are actually some of the most engaged culturally

00:46:05.720 engaged people that I know. Hmm. Yeah. Um, what else can you tell us about that you wrote in

00:46:13.280 your book that you're like, okay, this was one thing that in your research and your study that

00:46:17.780 you found fascinating or really important that you want people to know? Well, you know, I think

00:46:25.040 one of the things that's important is, as we look at these, you know, events that are happening in

00:46:29.260 world today is how much focus there is on these nations that are mentioned in ezekiel 38 till you

00:46:36.100 really start thinking about it you know you don't really notice that but obviously israel i mean 0.94

00:46:40.100 they became a nation in 1948 and you know they're the focus of all kinds of hatred today and venom

00:46:46.460 against them there they are and the bible predicts that israel will be a burdensome stone to the

00:46:52.600 nations in the end times well if there's any nation that's a burdensome stone to the world 0.99

00:46:57.260 right now, it's Israel. And also to see just how Iran and Russia and these other nations that are 0.95

00:47:03.020 mentioned there are in the news almost every day. Right now, Iran, Iran negotiations, you've got

00:47:09.980 the Ukraine-Russia war. In fact, you know, the G7 just met here this last week, and the two topics

00:47:16.760 that were front and center were Iran and Russia. You know, the Russia-Ukraine war and these Iran

00:47:22.460 peace negotiations so to me i think the thing that that probably grabbed me the most is just

00:47:27.280 as you read about these different nations that were listed there 2500 years ago

00:47:31.760 you can look today and say okay israel's back in their land just like the bible said

00:47:37.100 they've got these enemies around them that want to destroy them one of them's iran you got russia

00:47:42.540 you got turkey and four of these names are are from modern day turkey erdogan who's the the

00:47:47.860 president there, you know, hates Israel. And so it just, to me, when I look at that and think about

00:47:53.780 this was written by a Jewish prophet 2,500 years ago, and you pick it up today and it looks like

00:48:00.920 the newspaper. Now, again, you made a good point earlier. We don't look at the Bible through current

00:48:06.840 events. You know, we don't look at current events and then go, hey, what can I find in the Bible

00:48:10.860 that fits this? We look at current events through the Bible, but we can't help but read the Bible

00:48:16.520 and look at our world today and say,

00:48:18.520 well, this looks more and more like the scenario

00:48:22.740 the Bible predicts in the end times

00:48:25.160 than at any time in history.

00:48:27.320 Again, I mentioned earlier, all the technology

00:48:29.100 and all these things that the Antichrist can come use,

00:48:31.620 the globalism.

00:48:33.080 So those are some of the things to me

00:48:35.060 that just strikes me how much what we see today

00:48:38.020 reflects what's in these passages. 0.99

00:48:41.720 You know, I've heard Christians express anxiety

00:48:44.280 over things like having children.

00:48:46.520 How can we bring children into this world knowing that things are going to get bad?

00:48:51.260 Whether you are pre-trib or post-trib, there's still people who just worry like,

00:48:57.920 okay, sure, I'll follow the Lord, but I don't know if I can subject my child

00:49:02.280 to the increasing corruption and depravity.

00:49:05.460 What would you say to that fear?

00:49:08.540 Well, I get asked that a lot at our church by young ladies at our church.

00:49:12.620 My daughter-in-laws have asked me about that before.

00:49:15.800 Whenever you talk about the rapture, you know, there's always someone comes up after church

00:49:19.320 and says, you know, I've got a little baby, you know, what's going to happen at the rapture

00:49:23.100 and these various things that can make people afraid.

00:49:26.360 You know, God wants us to live our lives in faith and in trust and in hope in Him.

00:49:32.200 And we have to leave a lot of these bigger things to God.

00:49:35.820 You know, I've found in my life, a lot of times I'll try to start thinking about things

00:49:39.640 and trying to figure everything out on my own.

00:49:41.620 And all it does is kind of just begin to mess you up.

00:49:44.880 and God put us here in this world

00:49:47.280 and he gave us families,

00:49:48.720 he gave us spouses for those of us who are married,

00:49:51.500 he's given us our parents,

00:49:52.980 he's given us people who love and care about us

00:49:55.140 in a relationship

00:49:55.860 and God is in relationship with us

00:49:58.760 and he wants us to be in relationship with others

00:50:01.520 and the greatest blessing in my life

00:50:04.280 other than my relationship with the Lord

00:50:06.300 is my wife, our two sons and our seven grandchildren

00:50:09.980 and they bring tremendous joy to my life

00:50:12.800 And so we don't want to get so caught up with, you know, what's going to happen in the future and all these bad things happening in the world, you know, that I don't want to have children and enjoy the incredible blessing that they are to us.

00:50:25.620 You know, people have lived in human history in really, really difficult, dark times, really bad times.

00:50:32.280 And they still had children and they still enjoyed the blessings of this life that God gives to them.

00:50:36.920 You know, we can think, well, it's worse today than it's ever been in history.

00:50:40.340 Some things are with all the technology we have.

00:50:43.000 There's a lot more dangers out there, but we don't face the day-to-day threats on our

00:50:47.180 life and all those things, at least here in America, that people have in other places.

00:50:51.640 So I just think, you know, we live our life and we save money.

00:50:56.240 We work hard.

00:50:57.200 We do what Proverbs tells us to do.

00:50:59.040 We do all those things as if, you know, the Lord's not coming back for 100 years, but

00:51:03.860 we also live with an expectancy and anticipation that Jesus could come back at any time.

00:51:10.000 And I know it's hard to hold those things in tension.

00:51:12.760 But as much as I study prophecy and love Bible prophecy,

00:51:16.580 I don't get up every day worrying about, well, what's going to happen to my grandchildren?

00:51:20.340 And these things, I just enjoy them every day.

00:51:22.580 I enjoy the blessings and the good of this life that God's given to me.

00:51:25.780 And 1 Timothy 6 says, God has given us all things richly to enjoy.

00:51:31.720 And God's a father.

00:51:33.100 He looks down and he wants us to enjoy the blessings of this life that he's given to us.

00:51:37.460 Now, it says in that same passage, he wants us to be generous and share.

00:51:41.300 But we need to enjoy these blessings that God has given to us.

00:51:44.980 And again, not to let these things overwhelm us or scare us and cause us to react in ways that I think are unbiblical.

00:51:53.760 Yes, definitely.

00:51:54.840 I think of, as you're speaking, Jeremiah 29.

00:51:58.220 Most people know Jeremiah 29, 11.

00:52:00.920 For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

00:52:03.960 But backing up, God gives instructions to his people who are in exile, who are suffering,

00:52:09.280 who will be under persecution.

00:52:11.140 And he says, seek the welfare of the city in which I've placed you.

00:52:15.460 And I'm sure there were generations that were spoken to by God who didn't see the end of

00:52:22.220 that exile, who only lived through suffering.

00:52:24.960 And yet he said, invest in the city where I've placed you.

00:52:28.300 Yes, you're exiles.

00:52:29.440 Yes, that this land is not your home. 1.00

00:52:31.860 And yet, seek the welfare of its inhabitants, and Christians are exiles in this life. 0.99

00:52:38.200 And I believe that God calls us to do the same thing.

00:52:41.040 Seek justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God, Micah 6, 8.

00:52:45.780 And all of that not only advances his kingdom, but all the things that we do,

00:52:50.900 whether it's raising our children with joy and with grace,

00:52:54.340 or whether it's trying to enact justice for unborn children,

00:52:59.060 all of those things in the life of the believer somehow contribute to a greater glory that

00:53:04.300 outweighs all of the trials that we're enduring today.

00:53:07.480 And that's part of the faith aspect of Christianity is that we don't always see it, but we know

00:53:11.900 that we always say God's eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch.

00:53:16.440 And that's where the hope comes from.

00:53:18.900 So I love your perspective.

00:53:20.800 So just scholarly and interesting, but also not one driven at all by anxiety or paranoia

00:53:28.500 that piece and the knowledge that comes from studying scripture really does go hand in hand.

00:53:33.760 Tell us again where we can get your book, say the title again, and how people can follow you if they

00:53:39.860 want to. Sure. Yeah. The name of the book, this most recent book I've written, is called The

00:53:44.620 Persian Storm. It's about what's happening over with Iran today and with the United States,

00:53:49.140 with Israel. I have a website, marklhitchcock.com. I have a video. I do a video every week on YouTube.

00:53:56.220 It's called Marking the End Times.

00:53:58.640 So if people are interested in kind of keeping up

00:54:00.500 with some of the events that I cover there each week.

00:54:03.460 Again, earlier I mentioned I'm a pastor

00:54:05.320 at Faith Bible Church, Edmond, Oklahoma.

00:54:08.140 Teach through books of the Bible

00:54:09.540 is kind of the main teaching I do there.

00:54:11.580 So people can go there to Faith Bible Church

00:54:13.480 of Edmond, Oklahoma to our website.

00:54:15.660 They want to listen to messages that we bring there.

00:54:19.100 But I have a website, marklhitchcock.com as well.

00:54:22.080 But the book's available anywhere,

00:54:23.800 all the major outlets.

00:54:25.660 you can find the book there.

00:54:28.500 Wonderful.

00:54:29.140 Well, Pastor, thank you so much.

00:54:30.460 I really appreciate your time and your insight.

00:54:33.200 Well, thank you very much for having me.

00:54:34.440 God bless you.

00:54:34.980 Appreciate your ministry.

00:54:35.920 Keep up the good work.

00:54:37.740 Thank you very much.

00:54:55.660 Thank you.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - June 26, 2026

Ep 1365 ｜ The Iran Deal’s Surprising Role in End Times Prophecy ｜ Mark Hitchcock

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