Chris Katulka: Everything God's doing in the Scriptures is in accordance with his rescuing and restoring what was broken in the beginning, and it's for that reason I believe prophecy is embedded in every element of the Bible.

Steve Conover: Welcome to the Friends of Israel Today. I'm Steve Conover and with me is our host and teacher, Chris Katulka. If someone asked you what you believed as a Christian, and you're someone who values the unchanging Word of God, you love and support Israel, how would you answer them? Today we're continuing our focus on the core doctrines of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. Our beliefs as an organization originate in the Word of God, and that's why this is important. What we believe affects the way we live and do ministry.

Chris Katulka: Yeah, we're wrapping up our series, our Here We Stand series, and we've been looking at a lot of amazing core doctrines here, like who is God? Who is Jesus Christ? How do we interpret the Bible, the process of sin, salvation and sanctification, eternal security, a lot of amazing doctrines. But today we're going to wrap our whole series up. I think we're going to put a nice little bow on it by looking at God's prophetic Word, looking at the doctrine of eschatology, the end times.

Steve Conover: But before anything else, the news. Videos from Iran that are shown on the news or online often show Iranians burning American or Israeli flags. However, under U.S. and International sanctions and Iran's ban on contact with Israel, finding flags to burn can be a challenge. To get around this problem, and I'm not making this up, a factory Southwest of Tehran was created for the sole purpose of making American and Israeli flags to be burned in protest. The flag company is reported to make around 2,000 American and Israeli flags per month.

Chris Katulka: Steve, I think it's really important for our audience to know that this is not a joke. Like you said, this is not a Babylon Bee article, that's just a satire article. This is real. This was from the Washington Post and the only thing that was coming to my mind is I was reading this is that they're burning a flag. And by burning a flag, you're actually burning what that flag represents. And that flag represents a people and their values and their ideals. You know, a flag is more than just a design. It's a symbol that has deep cultural meaning. When Iranians burned American and Israeli flags, they are showing the world that they hate the people and the values those flags represent. For me, our flag represents the ideals the Iranian leadership refused to accept, ideals like liberty, justice, and freedom. So let's hope those freedom-loving Iranians rise up to change the direction of this incredibly oppressed country.

We're in our final week here of discussing important key doctrinal truths that help us define not only what we believe as Christians, but also how we should live as Christians. You know, over the past four weeks, we've had two brilliant men on the program with us, Steve Herzig and Dr. Mike Stallard. And between these two men, we covered some major doctrines like, “who is God?” The person of Jesus Christ and the divinity of Jesus Christ. We talked about sin, salvation, good works and eternal security and we even discussed how we should interpret the Bible and how that interpretation affects the way we understand God's plan for Israel and the church. Really this is a rich time of learning more about the doctrines that impact us. So if you didn't get a chance to listen to our past episodes which are connected to this Here We Stand series, I want to invite you to visit our website FOIradio.org again, that's FOI as in Friends of Israel, FOIradio.org, and there you can find all the past episodes with Steve and Mike, and it's there you can also purchase our new Here We Stand booklet, which covers 19 key Christian beliefs, beliefs or doctrines that come straight from the Bible. Again, that's FOIradio.org. I hope that you visit.

Okay, so we wanted to save this particular doctrine for the very end of our Here We Stand series and it's a doctrine that I believe is extremely important to understand because it can often be pushed behind some other key beliefs that we have. And that's the doctrine or belief that's called eschatology. Now, let me define for you what that means. Eschatology is literally the study of the last days. So eschatology is just a fancy word for the doctrine of prophecy. You know, growing up, I always heard that prophecy makes up one third of the Bible. It's very important and shouldn't be overlooked because a large portion of the Bible is prophecy, which is true.

But I have a problem with one of those statements. To me, the whole Bible is prophetic in nature. The moment Adam and Eve sin, God cast a vision for how he plans to rescue and restore what's been broken by Adam's disobedience. Back in Genesis 3:15, God promised to the serpent who deceived Eve. He says this, "And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. Her offspring will attack your head and you will attack her offspring's heel." This seems like a very convoluted verse here in Genesis 3:15, but really it's a broad prophecy that puts the serpent on notice. God's saying your days are numbered. You're going to try to bite the heel of the woman's offspring. That's Jesus. That's His death on the cross, but your little nip at his heel will be nothing compared to Him crushing, attacking your head. That's the resurrection and Satan's final demise and really everything that follows from that moment, whether it's a narrative portion of the Bible or a poetic portion of the Bible or a prophetic portion of the Bible, everything God's doing in the Scriptures is in accordance with his rescuing and restoring what was broken in the beginning, and it's for that reason I believe prophecy is embedded in every element of the Bible.

All of those genres of writing are pushing forward God's plan of redemption. For instance, just think about King David. There's a lot of parts of King David's life written in the Bible that are historical, where he comes from, what he was doing when Samuel found him and anointed him king of Israel, his battle with Goliath and his confrontations with Saul. But at the same time, God made a prophetic promise to this individual, this historic individual in 2 Samuel 7. The promise that God made to David was one that would look forward to one of his sons, who is Jesus, who would sit on his throne. And then on top of that are the many prophetic writers looking to King David and that promise that God made to him that one day there would be a Messiah who would come.

Do you see how it's all woven together? There's narrative there, there's poetry there, there's prophecy there. All of it fits in so nicely so that you can see how the Bible is prophetic and it's pushing forward God's agenda. And for that reason, I believe the entire Bible is really a prophetic look towards God's rescuing and redeeming of what he created. Now, there are many components to prophecy like the rapture, the tribulation, the millennial kingdom, which we'll talk about later, and the eternal state. But I want to focus on one thing today, and the one thing I want to focus on is the why?. Why is it important to study prophecy? What does it mean for a believer today to study prophecy? Well, first is this. God is omniscient. God knows everything from beginning to end, from the first to the last as the prophet Isaiah says in chapter 44 verse six about the Lord, he says this, "This is what the Lord, Israel's King says, their protector, the Lord who commands armies."

He says this, "I am the first and I am the last and there is no God but me." The God of Israel is saying that he is the beginning and the end. He is the author of the past, the present and the future. He sees all things in one glance and you know what? Jesus himself picks up on this concept. He calls himself the first and the last from Isaiah 44. Jesus himself says, I am the, you might remember, the Alpha and the Omega. He says in Revelation 1:8, he says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega says the Lord God, the One who is, the One who was, and the One who is still to come. The all-powerful.” Going right back to Isaiah 44, in light of God being the first and the last, the beginning and the end knowing everything, he says this, I love this.

He says this to his people. The fact that he can see everything in one glance, from the beginning to the end, he says this, “don't panic. Don't be afraid.” You know, I think prophecy can often be used to scare people because the events are scary. They sound scary, especially for people who don't know the Lord. But for those of us who follow him, for those of us who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, who have trusted in the Lord, for us, the fact that God is the first and the last, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, should not scare us but bring us comfort. So why is prophecy important for the believer? Well, first it shows us that our God has a plan. Aren't you glad that God has a plan? He's laid it out perfectly for us in his Word, for us to understand and for us to know.

There's no reason to panic. There's no reason to be afraid because God knows everything from the beginning to the end and nothing, think about this, nothing as Romans 8 says, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Finally, prophecy is designed, listen, it's designed to change you as a Christian. It's not just information about the future. Prophecy is a part of God's Word, and I always like to say the components for life change for a Christian is when the Holy Spirit interacts with the Word of God. That's when true change occurs in a Christian's life. And you know there are so many times when Paul begins to teach about prophecy. It's connected to his desire for his brothers and sisters in the Lord to live changed lives today. For instance, just before Paul starts talking about the rapture and 1 Thessalonians 4, he opens chapter four by saying this.

"Finally, then brothers and sisters, we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus Christ, that as you received instructions from us about how you must live and please God, as you are in fact living, that you do so more and more, for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is God's will, that you become holy." God's prophetic Word is designed to change the believer. Listen, knowing that at any moment Jesus could return should remind the believer that we shouldn't fall asleep behind the wheel of our faith. Instead, we should be living for His return. That's prophecy changing us for today. God wants us to be prepared for His arrival. That's what prophecy is all about. It gives us the confidence to know that God is the Victor in the end, and today our spiritual life reflects how seriously we take his return. Now when we come back, we're going to look at what the Scriptures say about this amazing moment that's coming in the future, the millennial kingdom, Jesus' physical thousand year reign on earth, and I hope that you stick around to hear all about it.

Steve Conover: If someone asked you what you believed as a Christian, and you're someone who values the unchanging Word of God and loves and supports Israel, how would you answer them? Many struggle to understand what God's Word says about creation, the church, Jesus Christ, salvation, Israel, and the end times. Our hope is that our booklet Here We Stand will equip you with 19 key beliefs of the biblical faith. Learning doctrine doesn't have to be a chore. It can revitalize your walk with God and demonstrate your love for him to others as you come to know him better. To purchase your own copy of Here We Stand: 19 Key Christian Beliefs, visit us at foiradio.org. That's FOIradio.org. We'll have a link on our homepage or you can call our listener line at (888) 343-6940 and someone will return your call during our regular business hours. Once again, that's (888) 343-6940. To order in Canada, call (888) 664-2584. Again, that's (888) 664-2584 and that's in Canada.

Chris Katulka: Welcome back everyone. We're continuing our discussion and our series here on Here We Stand. We're looking at prophecy and we're going to focus in on one event in God's prophetic Word, which is his millennial kingdom that's coming, the millennial kingdom that was promised in the book of Revelation, but really the kingdom that God had been promising way back in the Old Testament. It is a Jewish kingdom. That's always invited, both of the Jewish people into this promise of the kingdom, but was always designed to reach out into the Gentile world. So both the Old Testament and the New Testament leaves the reader with this feeling of anticipation. As the Old Testament ends with the book of Malachi, you're left kind of hoping God will send his promised Messiah to establish and restore this kingdom. And as the New Testament ends with Revelation, once again, you're left hoping Jesus, the promised Messiah, the Messiah has come, but will come again soon.

He makes a promise that he's coming again. You're hoping that he comes again soon and establishes and restores the kingdom God promised. So both the Old Testament ends within a sense of anticipation and the New Testament ends with a sense of anticipation. Even the disciples were waiting for Jesus to establish the kingdom. They ask them, "Tell us, when will these things happen? What will be the sign of your coming in the end of the age?" That's what they ask him in Matthew 24:3 on the Mount of Olives. Jesus highlights some of those events. The first half of the tribulation indicates judgment that's coming from above, and he also calls those tribulation moments birth pains. Jesus compares the tribulation with the experience of giving birth to a child and the pain is real. The suffering is unbearable. The anticipation that's there. Do you hear that word? Anticipation.

The anticipation in the middle of the grief can be felt in the room. Yet through all the pain and all the suffering, the moment of pure joy erupts into the scene when the mother really is seen holding her child for the first moment. If certain events in a tribulation are birth pains as Jesus calls them, that means that the millennial kingdom is equivalent to those feelings of a mother when she is holding her child safely in her arms. The millennial kingdom gets its name actually from Revelation 20. Six times the phrase is used, a thousand years. That's what a millennium means. It's a thousand years, so it's the millennial kingdom and there are six times in Revelation 20 that this a phrase, “a thousand years” is used to describe the kingdom Jesus Christ brings at his literal physical, visible, bodily return to earth. You can read about it in Zechariah 14 and Revelation 19. Upon his return, Satan is bound for a thousand years and those Old Testament saints and those who have trusted in Christ are resurrected and reign with him.

The millennial kingdom is the kingdom that was promised by the Old Testament prophets and the one that Jesus preached about. Isaiah the prophet gives us, I think, one of the clearest pictures of Jesus' reign during the millennial kingdom, and it can be found in Isaiah 9 and it says this. It's a verse that you've probably heard before. "For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it, with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." You know, Jesus is the child born and the Son given whose reign will, think about this, this is what Isaiah is saying, his reign will spread globally. His rule will not be like the politicians today who spout platitudes of peace.

His rule will bring peace in every way to everyone because he's the Prince of peace. The throne on which he sits will be the throne of David, which will be set in Jerusalem. And Jesus' reign on earth will be marked by these amazing components: justice, righteousness, and peace. And from Jerusalem will flow godly instructions to the nations of the world. In the millennial kingdom, all the promises God made to Israel will find their realization and culmination when Jesus finally reigns from his throne in Jerusalem. You know, this is a major hope of Christians around the world. It's a hope and anticipation of God's kingdom on earth when he makes all things right. So let's pray to the Lord for his coming kingdom and he makes this prayer, “Lord, thy kingdom come.”

Steve Conover: Now, Apples of Gold, a dramatic reading from the life and ministry of Holocaust survivor Zvi Kalisher.

Mike Kellogg: Recently a rabbi asked if I knew an electrical repairman to do some work that the yeshiva. "I'll do it," I replied. I agreed to do it because of the great opportunity to witness for the Lord. So I went with him to the yeshiva. When I finished, the rabbi asked, "How much should I pay you?" I replied, "First, can you make me a cup of tea?" The boys began to ask me questions concerning why I did not belong to the yeshiva. When the rabbi returned with a cup of tea, he also asked me questions. I told them, "I follow the Lord without the yeshiva." "How?" one asked. “Now you expect me to be like you to follow traditions and do no work? The Lord said you work and I will help you.” The rabbi intervened. "If they work, they will not have time to follow God."

“If they work, they will not have time to follow God.” I replied, "I work very hard and have time to thank the Lord and do witness for him." "How?" they asked. “You saw me work here. I also have time to tell you something special about the Lord.” "What can a man like you tell us about the Lord?" one asked. “I can tell you things you have never heard. No, it cannot be. Have you ever heard about the Son of God?" I questioned. “You are crazy. From which book did you take this funny story?” "From the Bible," I replied. “Do you believe in the Bible? If so, please give me a Bible and I will read for you about the Son of God.” They gave me a Bible and I read Daniel 3:25. "I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they are not hurt and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."

"This cannot be," one insisted. “How can you follow God if you do not believe what the Bible says? What do you think of Isaiah 53 and of the other prophets who wrote about the Lord's coming?” They looked from one to another and the rabbi had no answer. He asked me at which yeshiva I studied. “None. I studied the Bible which was written by the Spirit of God and the Lord teaches me through his Spirit. I received him as my Savior.” The rabbi then asked, "Which synagogue do you attend?" "I go to the house of prayer," I replied. As it is written in Isaiah 56:7, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." "What?" he exclaimed. "You're not Jewish." "I am a completed Jew," I replied. "I believe all of the Bible. I believe on the Messiah, that he will return, and all who believe on him will be saved." "Now we know about whom you speak," he said. "You gave us many things to think about." I gave them my phone number and told them to call me whenever they have questions. They listened and treated me kindly. May the Lord open their eyes.

Chris Katulka: The impact of Zvi's life and ministry in Israel, it didn't end when he went home to be with the Lord. In fact, Zvi's legacy lives on. Our Friends of Israel ministry representatives continue to share the gospel in Jerusalem, Israel, and really all throughout the world. We also serve Holocaust survivors and their families. We provide free food, medicine and clothing, and we even promote the safety and security of the state of Israel and the Jewish people everywhere. So when you give to the Friends of Israel, your donation actually allows us to advance the gospel of our Messiah, Jesus. You can give online by visiting FOIradio.org. Again, that's FOIradio.org. You can click right there on our donate link. Also, be sure to let us know where you listen when you contact us.

Steve Conover: Thank you for being with us today. Chris, in this final week of our series, looking at the teachings of our ministry, how do we make sense of the last five weeks of study? What's the big takeaway for our listeners?

Chris Katulka: Yeah, I think when we're looking at the doctrine as we've been going through our Here We Stand series, it's very easy to systematize doctrine. We want to cut everything up and put them in their places, but that's not the way doctrine works. You know, doctrine is designed to really flow into one another. There's a reason that God impacts every element of doctrine and how certain doctrines impact other doctrines. They flow together. There isn't this clean cut way of looking at things. It's a holistic way of looking at doctrine and I hope that's something that we've been able to help our listeners with over these past five weeks. And that's why you can also listen. I want encourage you to get our Here We Stand booklet, it's 19 key Christian beliefs and I think it will help you understand all these different doctrines that we have and how they work together. You can get our booklet by simply going to FOIradio.org. Again, that's FOIradio.org. And listen, next week we have a special guest with us, Robert Nicholson of the Philos Project, which is a Christian advocacy group for the Middle East. And also just a reminder, if you've not yet subscribed to our magazine, Israel My Glory, you can get a full year at no cost by simply going to FOIradio.org.

Steve Conover: Our host and teacher is Chris Katulka. Today's program was produced by Tom Gallione, co-written by Sarah Fern. Mike Kellogg read Apples of Gold. Our theme music was composed and performed by Jeremy Strong. I'm Steve Conover, executive producer. The Friends of Israel Today is a production of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. We are a worldwide Christian ministry communicating biblical truth about Israel and the Messiah while fostering solidarity with the Jewish people.