Transcription
As soon as sin comes into human history, what's really interesting is God says, "I'm sending my son. I'm sending a male child into human history. He's going to overturn the curse. He's going to forgive sin and he is going to defeat uh this diabolical dragon who is Satan himself."
Just to be clear, did he just say that God that God said he would send a human? Yeah. Yeah. You don't see it there. This is probably not at all. And you're you're a current Christian right now or what is your status? Yes, sir. I I'm a uh in the 7th Day Adventist Church. Okay. Uh I can what you call I get a fall away person. I really haven't practiced my religion for a long time. Uh but I I am a curious person by nature and I I don't think I fully understand uh what the what the rabbis beliefs are in terms of uh this what what's going to happen in what we generically call the last days.
Okay. Daniel chapter 9. I was discussing this with some Christians the other day and they were explaining to me that it's a prophecy about how the Messiah is supposed to come then die before the year 29 CE. And I was explaining to them that this wasn't the case that the Messiah was not supposed to come before the destruction of the second temple. And they were telling me that it was they were counting they didn't they were counting from the um they were counting from one of Jeremiah's prophecies and they were kind of confusing it. I myself I'm a little confused on it and I was trying to explain it to them as best I can but I get a little confused about where to start counting.
Reference your discussion about the antichrist and after I heard your comment I opened up to Daniel 8 and there is some uh agreement that this is a foreshadowing in verses 24 through 26 of the antichrist even though was commonly thought it was Antiochus but still there are so many parallels and many do think that that is a prophecy about the antichrist. However, the main point I want to say about this is that I did call a few months ago and brought up the shroud of Turin and you had an extensive reply, but I happily and respectfully say that all those things that you stated are very clearly now out in the open out there in YouTube world and scientifically that not only has the carbon dating been debunked and Now the most modern technology has proven evidence not just for his resurrection but his suffering. And anybody who researches this now whether a pope hundreds of years ago who had no access to modern technology whatever he said there is so much evidence that Jesus rose from the dead.
[Music] Welcome to Knock Talk. I'm your host William Hall broadcasting live on occasion, Texas, USA with another episode of Rabbi Toby Singers. Let's get biblical Q&A. Coming to you live from Rabbi Tobia Singer, welcome back, sir. It's great to have me back. Good to have you back. All right. Very good. So, um, moving right on into this. How did you how did you find this guy on here? This uh Mark um whatever his name is. Mark Junior. I'm just I don't know. Yeah. Um he's a very well-known person. Obviously, you don't go to synagogue very much, but um as it turns out, uh Mr. Skull is a very well-known uh pastor out of Arizona and um he wants Jewish people to know why they should worship Jesus. and he provides a series of reasons. And I thought, well, maybe this is a good idea to explore the evidence and let it let it just take us where it may. So, okay. All right. Here we go. First clip. And uh what I'm excited to do today is to answer the question, how did people know that Jesus was coming? We'll jump right in. We'll move pretty quick. 4,000 BC before Christ, Adam and Eve received the prophecy that the Messiah, Jesus, would be born of a woman. So, here's the promise in uh Genesis 3:15. Uh God shows up and says to Satan, "I will put emnity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
As soon as sin comes into human history, what's really interesting is God says, "I'm sending my son. that I'm sending a male child into human history. He's going to overturn the curse. He's going to forgive sin and he is going to defeat uh this diabolical dragon who is Satan himself." Just to be clear, did he just say that God that God said he would send a human? Yeah. Yeah. You don't see it there. This is probably Oh, not at all. That's funny. This is probably the most compelling reason why someone should convert to Christianity. And here it goes. It says in Genesis roughly 4,000 B.CE. Pastor Driscoll insists that uh the Messiah would be sent into the world and he would be the son of a woman and he would defeat Satan. That's what we're told. As it turns out, if you go to the book of Genesis, he's referring to Genesis chapter 3:15. I am sure if you were just watching this guy on YouTube, you you'd go, "How would he say that with so much confidence?" Surely it says that somewhere in the Torah. Look it up for yourself. It isn't there. The text is in the context of God uh cursing or uh cursing the Adam, Eve and the serpent. And there God says that I place enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. Um he will uh crush your heel. And that means that your seed will crush the your seed will crush the head of the serpent and the serpent could bite um the foot uh couldn't bite the heel. As it turns out, there's nothing here about a Messiah. There's no mention that the Messiah would defeat the devil. And if I conceded all this, then this would be just another reason why Jesus couldn't be the Messiah. Let me explain. That means if the role of the Messiah is to destroy Satan, let's just concede everything because I want to steal man this. If the role of Messiah is to destroy the um the Yates, the evil inclination in the world, uh is to destroy the devil. Let's just right. Well, how did Jesus do with that? And the answer is as far as I can tell, uh Satan is doing better than ever. So, he didn't accomplish that either, which means this is just one more thing that Jesus didn't accomplish. The text actually says, "I'll put hatred between you and the woman." Because after all, it was a serpent that sought to seduce the woman. So the retribution is that in fact there will always be emnity. The the descendants of the woman, meaning mankind. In fact, we're told shortly after that the woman would be called Cavo because she's the mother of mankind. That mankind would have a natural aversion to the serpent. And man has the ability, her descendants have the ability to destroy Satan. Conversely, Sudden can only bite at the heel, which means that man has the ability to deliver a a a fatal blow to Sudden. He can overcome him. Now, in case you wonder like where am I getting that from? How do I know that's what's uh comes into view in this early part of Genesis? is because the very next chapter we're told that in fact sin is hiding behind the door in a conversation between God and Cain. We are told in chapter 4 6 and 7 that the serpent or sin excuse me is hiding behind the door. You are the desire uh you are his desire but you can master over him. It's right there in the text. Incidentally, in Christian theology, man cannot overcome Satan. Man cannot overcome sin. Um, there's nothing man can do um to earn his way to heaven. That's the kind of language you'd hear in church. There's nothing man can do to achieve his own salvation. That that's what like that's what the whole book of Romans is about. That's especially the case in Romans chapter 3-6. That's the whole point. Now, there are some Christians who would insist that because it says in Hebrew between your seed and her seed. So some Christians argue that because a woman doesn't have seed only a man has seed meaning sperm a woman has an oam so therefore this must be a a reference a clear reference of the virgin birth. This is complete nonsense. Now it is true that the word zera seed can mean just that can mean that which a man produces in order to have children but it also can mean descendants. It doesn't mean only that and this is um a fallacy a linguistic fallacy. So as an example in Genesis chapter 16 10 when the angel is speaking to Hogar he promises her same word that her from her seed will come a great nation. In that case he's talking about Yesh. So that's clearly not true. So just be very aware of that where you have this etymological fallacy where you constrict the word zera or zo to only one possible meaning that is like sperm in in Greek. Um so therefore woman doesn't have that. Therefore it must be a unambiguous reference to a virgin birth. Don't buy that. That's just uh a game. That's just a bait and switch. So there's nothing in the text and I I just you know encourage you to listen to the way Mark presents that he presents us with absolute confidence that of course it says that um the woman is going you know give birth to the Messiah and the Messiah is going to defeat the devil. There's, you notice how he says that with that much confidence to the point that I have no doubt that people sitting in that church listening to this sermon and why the Jews have to worship Jesus that they're utterly convinced that there is such a verse like that. As it turns out, this claim is completely vacuous. It's made up. Yeah, that's horrible. And people just go there and take the word of the guy behind the pulpit and they build their lives around it. It's really It's really saddening.
700 years before Christ, Isaiah prophesies that Jesus' mother would be a virgin who conceived by a miracle and that Jesus would be God who became a man. Uh you guys see this every year on your Christmas card. This one shows up every year. Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold the the virgin. And there's a debate regarding whether this means a a woman who is young versus a woman who is chased. I get into all of it in the book. Let me just say this. Thousands of years ago in a small religious town, if you were young, you were also chased, right? It's not like old town. Anyways, uh the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emanuel. Well, what's Emanuel mean? God with us. So the virgin miraculous supernatural birth will give birth to a son. That son will not just be her son but God's son Emmanuel, God with us. Well, of course, this is all fulfilled uh through his mother Mary uh bringing Jesus into the world 700 years before Christ.
So th this is an indictment against not Mark Driscoll but against Matthew the author of the first gospel chapter 1 verse 23. The verse is mistranslated taken out of context. In fact not only does the word virgin not appear there but the definite article uh is there. Matthew would have us believe there's no definite article there and the context has nothing to do with the birth of the Messiah. The word in Hebrew the text says he alma hurled the Spain. Behold the young woman is with a child and she will give birth to a son the corim of Emanuel and she will call his name Emanuel which means God is with us. So it's not that uh in the ancient world he said that well young women would typically he said chase we'll just use conventional language young women in the ancient world in ancient Israel were certainly um chase meaning a virgin. Well, there's nothing could be sillier. As it turns out, in the ancient world, Jewish young women got married and had babies. In fact, um it's old women that don't have babies. Young women do. Right? If Isaiah wanted to uh convey that a virgin is to conceive, there's a word that means virgin in both biblical Hebrew and modern Hebrew. And that's the word basula. Matthew quite deliberately altered that word in order to make it appear christological. It doesn't say basula in Isaiah 7:14. Incidentally, the word bulla or basula that word appears many times in the Hebrew Bible. Isaiah uses that term many times. If he wanted to speak about virginity, he would have said that. Now you might say, well, virginity, young woman, there's some sort of relationship. He tried to convey that with a with a sort of some humor there. But it really is very silly. A young woman conveys two things, youth and gender, nothing else. Whereas a virgin conveys only um a sexual history. So they're not related to each other. The context of Isaiah 7:14 is a sign when the Ephro Syria war would come to an end. And the king of Samaria, meaning the northern kingdom, his name is Pek Ben Raalyahu, who formed an alliance with Ritsen who was the king of Syria um to destroy a southern kingdom when they would fail. Isaiah is speaking about an immediate event and the sign is the maturity of the child. I encourage people to read Isaiah 7, but start with verse one. Now, this is never going to happen in church. Never. Means you're never going to sit in a in a in a pew and hear a pastor read off Isaiah 7 from verse one at least to verse 16. that cannot happen. The reason is that everyone would immediately know become transparent that this passage has nothing to do with the birth of the Messiah. But rather when the two kings the uh Pekal Yahu and Ritsin would be defeated. The sign is in verse 15 and 16. Butter and honey will a child eat when he knows to reject bad and choose good. For before the child knows to reject evil and choose good. These two kings who threaten you, they'll be destroyed. The child's name is Emmanuel, which conveys that God is with us. Meaning that God will protect the southern kingdom of Judah, which was under threat. This is the name the mother was supposed to give the child. In contrast, you have in Isaiah 8, Isaiah who's the husband, this is Isaiah's wife. Isaiah is told to name the child maher shal hashbas quicken loot haste in the booty. And you know it's the same child because before the child knows to say daddy or mommy see Isaiah 8:3 and 4, these two kings, which two kings? the king of Samaria, meaning the northern kingdom of Israel, and Syria. Now, if this is referring to Jesus, I'd like to know when did the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Syria go to war against Judea in the time of Jesus? This is nonsensical. In fact, the northern kingdom of Israel did not exist during the time of Jesus in the first century. The kingdom of Syria did not exist during the first century during the time of Jesus. During the first century, both Syria and the land of Israel were part of the Roman Empire. This com what these Christian you ask me why do I care about Christians? Why do I people always ask me why do I do this? Because I care. Christians are persuaded by this. As it turns out, Isaiah tells us that God gave him children for what reason? As signs and portents to Israel. Isaiah 8:18 explicitly says that. So the names of Isaiah's children are signs for the in this case the kingdom of Judah that they will be rescued. And again the sign is not the conception of the child or the birth of the child. But look carefully. It's the sign uh is the immediacy that the child won't even be mature enough to reject bad and choose good. The child won't even be able to say daddy or mommy when these two kings would be destroyed. And as it turns out, both Pekk Ben Ramayahu and Ritzen, the king of Israel, the northern king of Israel, and the king of Syria were both um assassinated. So that's the immediacy. So what this does, Isaiah 7:14, its use by Matthew is an indictment against the Christian Bible. And do not let anyone fool you into believing that Matthew was relying on the Septuagint. You're going to hear that repeatedly from missionaries. Okay? Matthew was relying on the Septuagint. There is nowhere in the Christian Bible where the Septuagint is even mentioned. There is no uh Septuagint in our hands from the Christian era or before. That means from that is more than 2,000 years old with Isaiah 7:14 with the Greek word parthonos in it. The Septuagint had been worked on and worked on by many people. That means the original Septuagint uh going back to roughly 256 B.CE CE that was penned for the um library of Alexandria by some 70 72 uh translators was only the five books of Moses. You have to get this into your head. Okay. The original Septuagint which was uh assembled which was translated from Hebrew to Greek was only of the pentateuch only the Torah nothing else. Now listen very carefully. Subsequently, translating the Hebrew Bible into the Greek language became a cottage industry. There would be many Jews who would do that. All of Tanakh. Okay, we have fragments of that in the Dead Sea Scrolls of Greek translations. And this would continue into the second century and third century. And it was the church, I'll call him a church father, the church theologian. He was really a bright guy. uh no question uh probably the most um prolific author in the Christian world his name is origin he's the one that assembles the Septuagint as we have it today now they keep calling it Septuagint but it's not the original Septuagint so the Septuagint we have if you went on Amazon or went online and found the Septuagint that is a a Christian product to be very careful. The original Septuagint that's roughly 2200 years old does not exist because the library of Alexandria was of Alexandria was destroyed not once but many times over. The original Septuagint is lost. I demonstrate in volume one of let's get biblical that in fact even of the five books of Moses it's heavily edited later later on subsequently I show that by using the Talmud but that's not germane here so don't fall for the Septuagint excuse it's not going to get them off the hook Christians insist that there are hundreds of prophecies that can be illustrated from your Hebrew Bible that Jesus is the Messiah when we examine all all these putative prophecies, what we discover is that they're all scandalous. They're all promiscuous. They're all filled with basically a smoke and mirrors. It's just slight of hand. And therefore, 365 * 0 equals zero. There are no prophecies in the Hebrew Bible that speak about Jesus or Christianity. These are all invented by the church. Matthew indulges in this kind of biblical this kind of chicanery using a pastor in the Hebrew Bible more frequently than almost any other author in the New Testament. The only exception that is Paul. So both Paul and Matthew are engaging in altering the Hebrew Bible in order to make it appear christological. It's not that the Jewish scriptures are never supposedly quoted by other authors in the Christian Bible, but it's much more rare. It can be said, therefore, that Matthew was more responsible than any other anyone else. Now, when I say Matthew, we don't know who wrote the first gospel. We're just using the word Matthew in quotation marks. But whoever wrote the first gospel was more responsible for the rejection of Christianity among the Jews than anyone else. Because if Matthew had never been written, uh, many more people would have stumbled into the church. Let's continue.
All right. This is the third clip, last one. Here we go. Furthermore, uh 700 BC, Micah prophesies that Jesus would be born uh in the town of Bethlehem. So Micah 5:2, "But you, oh Bethlehem, Ephrath," that's the region. Bethlehem is the city who are too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler or king in Israel, whose coming forth is from old, from ancient days. The original word there is from eternity. And it's saying that someone is coming from eternity and he's entering into human history. And he's going to come to a town called Bethlehem, which is a very small, obscure, insignificant town. And we know from the story of scripture that Mary and Joseph um they were part of the family line of David. So uh Joseph adopted Jesus and he ultimately married Mary. And so what happened was the Roman government wanted to make sure they're getting all their taxes. And so they call a census and everybody's got to go to their hometown to register. Well, Joseph in God's providence, he's from the family line of David, the home of David is Bethlehem. So Joseph and Mary, though she's very pregnant, they have to make the journey uh to Bethlehem. And in the providence of God, they happen to arrive there at the very time that Jesus was born. So that the prophecy would be fulfilled that he would be born in Bethlehem because he didn't live in Bethlehem. He just visited there for a government census. H interesting. Yeah.
So what he's delivering here is Luke's version of Jesus' infancy narrative. Matthew's version contradicts it completely. But I'm going to set that aside for right now. What is key is that Micah 5 verse 2 in a Christian Bible, it's verse one in a Hebrew Bible, so it's the same verse. It just the chapter break is different is completely misquoted. So the text tells us in fact that a ruler um will come out of will come from Bethlehem. So if you just read the first part of the verse without the end of Micah 51 or 52, you might think that the Messiah is supposed to be born in Bethlehem. First of all, the the word Messiah isn't there, but it does say a ruler. But the key is the very end of the text it says is very important and his origins are from which means from earlier times. molum from ancient days or from earlier days or days of old. Okay, which means that that ending indicates that the Messiah is not supposed to be born in Bethlehem but rather his connection to Bethlehem. His connection to this city is from earlier times in that uh King David was born in Bethlehem. uh see uh 1st Samuel chapter 17. So it is true King David was born in Bethlehem and that's why Matthew and Luke are going to work very hard to have Jesus born in Bethlehem. However, they are going to independently use two completely different plot devices to make that happen. You've heard Mark talk about the family originally is from um Nazareth and they have to get down to Bethlehem because of a census which is silly. No one when someone when there's a census taken people don't go back to the place where their family lived a thousand years earlier that like where would you go? Matthew has it completely the reverse. Matthew has a family originally from Bethlehem. And then they go down to uh Egypt because Herod the Great is looking to kill the kid. And then when they think about going back home, they go, they're told, "You better go to Nazareth because Herod Archelaus is now the ruler over Judea and it would be very dangerous to go back to Bethlehem." I want to set that aside. Mikeda mimeol. The word mimeol that phrase which means days of now the word olam alone if you take that word alone and there's no modifier it can mean eternity it like leoled it can mean eternity but now when it's me mem when it's mem it mean because means from days of old in fact that phrase molum or kolum appears more than once in Tanakh. For example, just a few chap just two chapters later in Micah 7:14, we have the exact same phrase. And there in Micah in Micah 7:14, in every Christian Bible, it then states correctly that it's from ancient times. the the phrase in context is that we're hoping for the latter times when it'll be like the good old days. What uh what Mark is doing here is is altering it and saying eternity in order to convey that Jesus is God somehow. Now Matthew, whoever wrote the book of Matthew is much more advanced than this pastor in that and you You won't even believe me unless you look it up. And what I'd encourage you to do is open up Micah F. If using a Christian Bible, it would be Micah 52. And then open up to Matthew chapter 2:6. You want to look at those side by side. Okay? You really want to look at those side by side. And you'll notice that Matthew, whoever wrote the first gospel, realized that the very ending of Micah 52 presents an existential problem because the end of Micah 52 that from and is going forth means that the relationship between the Messiah and Bethlehem is from the old days. For those of you not familiar with history, Micah lived 2700 years ago. Micah lived the same time as as Isaiah during the Assyrian Empire. Okay, so just for one moment because I it I realize that many people are just not familiar with the history here. So Mika, that's his real name, lived at the same time as Yeshi Yahoo. He lived the same time as Hosea Hosa. He lived the same time as Amos. They all lived at the exact same time. Okay, during the heat of the Assyrian Empire. This is very important. Roughly 2700 years ago. Okay, that's when Mika or Micah was written. King David lived 3,000 years ago. King David lived 3,000 years ago, which means that Micah lived 300 years after King David. Do you understand? And that's very important to understand. Micah lived three centuries after King David. Therefore, when Micah says that the future ruler, his relationship to Bethlehem will be from the old days, he's referring to 300 years ago from the city in which King David was born in. See 1st Samuel 17:56-58. So you you understand what's going on there. This is a monumental problem for the author of the first gospel because the author of the first gospel wants to convince you that it was predicted in the Hebrew Bible specifically in Micah that the Messiah will be himself will be born in Bethlehem rather than the relationship between the Messiah and Bethlehem is ancient days. So he cuts it up and in fact he deletes the last part of Micah chapter 5 verse 2. If you go to Matthew chapter 2 verse 6, the ending of his origins will be from uh from the earlier times from ancient days has disappeared. I'm not kidding. Has disappeared. It's gone. Matthew erased it, deleted it. Took out a scalpel and just uh selected in the words uh from old from ancient his origins are from old from ancient days. He deleted it and he pasted it instead and he will be a shepherd over Israel which he borrows from the subsequent verse. So what Matthew does he collapses it. Why? This is not some artistic he did this specifically to convince to persuade his reader that Bethlehem was the birthplace of Messiah of the Messiah of Jesus. And of course, all you have to do is go back to the original, my brothers and sisters, all you need to do is look it up for yourself. If you go back to the original, go back to Tanakh, go back to the Jewish scriptures, and you're familiar with these sacred oracles that are eternal, no missionary, no matter how talented, will able to rob you of a relationship with God.
Thank you. Okay, one second. Just sit tight with me, Bruce. Um, caller, sit tight. I'll be back with you shortly. Don't hang up. Okay. All right, let me get back to Bruce. You might want to keep Bruce on. His question is very general, so you're probably need to do some clarification on his uh point. Here we go. Bruce, you're live on the air. Go ahead and tell Rabbi your your questions or concerns. Uh, Rabbi uh, Singer Shalom. Yes. My my name is Bruce. Could you briefly uh, help educate me? I'm a curious person on what your beliefs are uh, as as a Jewish person in terms of uh, your the last days prophecies. uh I know what they are, you know, for punishments and whatnot, but could you briefly summarize what your beliefs are as to what will happen uh in the last days uh of Earth's history? Thank you. I appreciate your help. And you're you're a current Christian right now or what is your status? Yes, sir. I I'm a uh was raised in the 7th Day Adventist Church. Okay. Uh I am what you call I get a fall away person. I really haven't practiced my religion for a long time. Uh but I I am a curious person by nature and I I don't think I fully understand uh what the what the rabbis beliefs are in terms of uh this what's what's going to happen in what we generically call the last days.
Okay, great. I'm glad you're curious. Most a lot of people aren't. So go ahead and hand them to me. Robert, do you want to keep them on? Any questions or anything? No. Well, okay. Thank you, Bruce. Go ahead and hang them down to me for answer. Thank you, Robert. That's a very good question. What we want to do is look to scripture for the answer. You know, the Bible wasn't written for this unique class of scholars and high IQ people. Hashem wants a relationship with every person. So Tanakh is very clear, very simple on the nature of God and his plan for mankind. The messianic prophecies are articulated explicitly in the Jewish scriptures. I believe I can be certain of this, but I believe that we are right now in the midst of this final Exodus. I believe that um it's all unfolding right now because the Bible tells us that before the coming of the Messiah uh the Jewish people return to the land of Israel and Jerusalem would be liberated. It's very clear that when Zechariah conveys that to us that the Messiah is not here yet because there would not be war in the world if the Messiah has already come. The Messiah is a a descendant of David and Solomon, son after son, direct patrilineal line. And he is going to restore the Davidic dynasty. The Bible tells us in 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 12-16 that the Davidic dynasty would move on forever. would never um would never be taken away from the house of David. Never. And it must come through King Solomon there. It's the one who will build his house in my name. Okay. Um Messiah when the Messiah comes, the world will be transformed. It will come after a great tribulation called Jacob's trouble found in Jeremiah 30:7. We hope that's already occurred. That's behind us. It is, we are told, the worst event in Jewish history that will happen in the future. And it's important to bear in mind that Jeremiah, the prophet who conveyed that, lived during a very difficult time. Jeremiah uh prophesied and witnessed the destruction of the first temple. So when he's looking into the far future and he says it's the worst calamity, there's there's no day like it. There's a day of sorrow for Jacob. This is why it's called Jacob's trouble and there's nothing like it. No parallel to it. It's very clear that that's referring to what what happened some eight decades ago when one-third of Jewry was destroyed when all of European Jewry uh was shattered by Hitler Makshim and the Germans the Germans yoyat and those who aided them. Now the Nvi says but from it will emerge your salvation from this great tribulation the return of the Jewish people after that tribulation is prophesied. Um once the Jews are in the land Jerusalem has been liberated 2300 years after Alexander the Great uh defeats the Persians. I say it to you because you said that you have an affiliation with um with 7th Day Adventists which is like a a millenarian group that emerged in the late 19th century but you would be very familiar with Daniel 8 verse14 that's its real meaning that would that should like for you as an 7th day Adventist that should just set off all kinds of alarms Enough said there. So, the Ylim is liberated. The Jews are back in the land, but it's not over yet. There's a great tribulation that's going to follow in that. It's not going to be like what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah uh 30:7, but it's going to be something like Zechariah 12:10. There's going to be an attack on the Jewish people. People are going to get killed. That's going to cause a great mourning among the children of Israel, a turning back to God. Uh, and it'll be something like what occurred in the days of Josiah, what happened in the valley Megiddo. Uh, the book of Revelation misconfuses this and calls it the war of Armageddon in Revelation 16:16. That's completely correct. Incorrect. uh the prophet is hearkening back to a time when a great mourning caused a a repentance among the children of Israel. The events that unfold is that everyone will know the truth. That's the most important feature of the messianic age uh that the knowledge of God will cover the world as the water covers the sea. Habakkuk 2:4. You have a similar passage in Isaiah 11:9. The restoration of the Jewish people to their land. The Almighty is not going to leave anyone behind. We are I believe I believe this that we are because living in that time. I don't know if we're weeks away or months away. We're we're in the midst of that. Uh more than half of the known Jews in the world live where I do in the land of Israel and they're coming back. That has not been the case since the first temple period. The majority of Jews, known Jews, live in the land of Israel. Moreover, God is gathering lost Jews and bringing them back. Many people are discovering the Jewish faith or are converting to Judaism in numbers that are just unprecedented. I encourage you to read Isaiah 43:5 and 6. The in gathering of the exiles because of there will be a worldwide knowledge of God. In fact, the Messiah himself will rebuke many nations. See Isaiah chapter 2:3 and 4. Uh the nations will take heed of this. They will put down their implements of war and turn them into implements of agriculture. They'll take their swords and spears and turn them into uh plowshares and pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation. Neither will they learn of war anymore. So there'll be peace in the world. What's occurring in Nigeria, in Ukraine, in Gaza will come to an end. that will not exist any longer. There'll be a temple that will build in Jerusalem. A very physical temple. Uh the third and final temple will be there. See Ezekiel 37:26-28. The three last passages of the valley of dry bones. So the temple rebuilt and the last nine chapters. Well, technically it's it's really the details come into view in Ezekiel 41-47. Okay, 41-47 of the temple that will be rebuilt in the in the messianic age and it'll be restored to its full order. That's what's very critical. So the B and in fact we are told the end of Ezekiel 37 that when your sanctuary will be in your midst then you will know then the nations will know that I am God. So when the Beit Hamikdash the temple you built in Jerusalem the world will know that I am God. There is no antichrist that does not exist in Tanakh. That is a Christianomination. You will find that it only in the Christian Bible. There's no such thing as an antichrist. You want to find the name Antichrist, you'll find it in the epistles of John. You'll find it spoken of in 2 Thessalonians in the book of Revelation. That's a Christian dualistic concept. There's no such thing as an antichrist. Meaning somebody who pretends to be the Messiah, who's not the Messiah. That cannot be. That cannot be. In fact, the building of the temple, we are told in Ezekiel 37, again, the last three passages, then all the nations will know that I am God. I beg you, I plead with you, read it for yourself. The nations will come to the Jewish people. They'll grab our shirt and they will say take us with you because we have heard that God is with you. It's very important. So while today the Jewish people have many enemies, people have very strong views about Jewish people. Some non-Jews have very favorable views of Jews, but many despise us and curse us. That will come to an end in the messianic age. The Gentiles will turn to the Jews and say, "Surely you've inherited lies and vanity, wherein there could be no truth. How can a man make unto himself gods when they are not?" See Jeremiah chapter 16. The key point is that God will be king of the whole world. He will be one and his name will be one. Today there are many people that deny the God of Israel that believe in the doctrine of the Trinity that worship a man as God. That will all come to an end in the messianic age. And there will be a resurrection of the dead as prophesied in Isaiah 26:19 and Daniel 12:2. This will be pre all of what I'm describing will be preceded by the coming of Elijah the prophet as described in the end of the book of Malachi. Now why would God use an order of events that one triggers the next? And I'm not coming up with this term order um from my own mind. In fact, the Passover seder is called an order. The word seder is means in order. Why? Why in order? Why all these stages? Why don't they just blow the trumpets in Zion and the Messiah is here? Why are the was there an order of events so people would notice what is going on and would repent? And we're seeing a worldwide repentance today as never before. We're seeing today from all over the world. Millions of people are coming to the God of Israel. Millions. Because they're observing these prophecies unfolding now. And again, I'm it's very clear that what is occurring today is all messianic. It's a restoration and a a return. In fact, the our old enemies are back and they're are going to war with and this is a mistake. This is an error and we pray that we will see the coming of the true Messiah very quickly in our time. Thank you for your thoughtful question.
Very good. We have our next caller on. This is a young man named Jacob. Uh who uh we had quite a few phone calls. Brilliant young man. Gonna make a great counter missionary. So, Jacob, welcome. Uh, present yourself and give your question to Rabbi. Hello, Rabbi. Such an honor to speak to you every time. Uh, my mom and I send our appreciation towards you for everything that you've done. My question today is about Daniel chapter 9. I was discussing this with some Christians the other day and they were explaining to me that it's a prophecy about how the Messiah is supposed to come and die before the year 29 CE. And I was explaining to them that this wasn't the case that the Messiah was not supposed to come before the destruction of the second temple. And they were telling me that it was they were counting they didn't they were counting from the um they were counting from one of Jeremiah's prophecies and they were kind of confusing it. I myself I'm a little confused on it and I was trying to explain it to them as best I can but I get a little confused about where to start counting.
Right. That that is the key that is a key question. Thank you for your Jacob. I'm going go ahead and now for answer. Okay. Thank you for your call. Okay. All right. That is a a key question and is when do you start counting the 70 weeks? Moreover, the Christians really don't know what to do with that because as soon as you ask them when do you start counting, it's conversation closed. In in most cases when talking to a Christian, you can very quickly and efficiently orient the conversation a way that the Christian realizes there's a problem. Like when talking about Isaiah 53, always begin by asking who's speaking. Always cuz this not what they expect when discussing Daniel 9. Always ask when do you start counting? Well, we know when we start counting is the destruction of the first temple. Go back to Isaiah Daniel 9 and two. um Daniel is standing a half a century after the destruction of the first temple. We know that because those are the first words of Daniel 9. Daniel 9 begins by saying that I am here in the year of Darius the me. Okay, stop. Why is that? That's the whole key. The whole key is that Daniel is standing in the first year of Darius the me. Why is this important? And it's okay to ask a question like why is that significant? They'll they'll have no clue. But that's everything because Darius the me who very quickly is replaced by Cyrus the great emerges after the destruction of the Babylonian Empire a half a century after the first temple was destroyed by the neo-Babylonian Empire by Nebuchadnezzar okay that's very critical so first I want to answer you very quickly you need to also ask the questions of there are six things that we're told in Daniel 9:4 that are to occur at the culmination of the 70 weeks for example that sin would come to an end and that's how it begins there would be everlasting righteousness that the seal of prophecy would be completed well if this is talking about Jesus how did sin come to an end really there's no sin in the world really it literally says that it'll be the end of transgression. So, right away, the Christians are in enormous trouble. Let's dial it back again. Very quickly, the time that you begin counting is from the destruction of the first temple and you go forward 490 years. The second temple stood for 420 years. The Babylonian exile was 70 years. That's 490 years. Daniel made a mistake when he was contemplating or calculating or considering the prophecies of Jeremiah. How do you know that? It says that in Daniel 9 verse 1 and 2, Daniel is very distressed. So, you've got to understand this or you just won't understand what's happening here. Daniel was looking at two passages in Jeremiah which seem at first glance to be the same prophecy of the same period of time. And the two passages that Daniel had in view that caused him distress was Daniel, excuse me, was Jeremiah chap 25:12 and Jeremiah 29:10. Now, those two prophecies at first glance seem like they're the same, and that's what Daniel thought. It was a mistake. And the angel Gabriel is going to is sent to Daniel to correct him. But let me let's explain this. Daniel views these two prophecies. The first prophecy of Jeremiah 25:12 is that Babylon would be destroyed, would come to an end at the end of 70 years. The context, you might as well know this, is Jeremiah is trying to persuade the Jews not to rebel against the Babylonian Empire, which is a theme that makes up a large bulk of the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah is saying, "God's not on your side. Don't do this. It doesn't work at the end." But one of the arguments he puts forth is the Babylonian Empire is going to is done after 70 years. like just wait. You just just stop wait and it's this Babylon empire is going to disappear. Okay? But there is nothing in Jeremiah 25:12 that speaks about the restoration of the Jewish people. This is very important. It's only about the Babylonian Empire coming to which the Babylonian Empire, the Neo-Babylonian Empire only um was around for seven decades. Now Jeremiah 29:10 on the other hand which also speaks of uh 70 years is not speaking about the Babylon the destruction of Babylonian Empire but it's speaking about the restoration of the Jewish people uh to their land. Okay, which is really quite different. So Daniel is standing there. The Babylonian Empire has just collapsed, but nothing's happening. The Jews are still in Babylon. The Jews are still in Babylon. Jews aren't returning. What's going on? You can only imagine how the consternation that gripped the prophet. Oh my god. The Babylonian Empire has collapsed, but all the Jews are still in Babylon. There's no hint. There's nothing to suggest the Jews are returning. What's happening here? He realizes that the time to start counting is the destruction of the temple. The angel he he engages in a prayer that continues for 16 verses all the way to Daniel chapter 9 verse 18 and 19 where he thinks that what has occurred here is that a curse of Leviticus 26:8 this past week's parsha has come into has been triggered where the exile of the Jews is not 70 years but is multiplied times 7 is 490 years. That means he's he is very very upset. So the key point is the angel Gabriel is sent to him and begins to unpack for him the prophecy of the future. And that essentially is that from the time of the destruction of the first temple moving forward seven weeks each day is a year.
So, 7 weeks is 49 years, or a half a century. Someone emerges who is a messiah. It's very important. And that's Cyrus, who gives the order, the command to restore and rebuild you and the temple. That's only Cyrus. And that's Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1. That chapter break is artificial. 44:28 is the last passage of that chapter, and 45:1 explicitly identifies Cyrus as the person who gives the command to restore and to build Jerusalem.
Remember what we said at the beginning of this, that Daniel is standing in the time of Darius the Mede, which means he's only months away from Cyrus, who gives the command for the Jews to leave Babylon and to go back to rebuild the base of the commonwealth. And you see that at the beginning of the book of Ezra, and you see it also at the very end of the book of Chronicles, okay? And Cyrus is called the Messiah. He's explicitly called the Messiah in Isaiah 45, verse 1.
One caveat: in Tanakh, the Hebrew word Messiah appears 39 times. And what is counterintuitive is, in none of those places is it referring to the Messiah that we call the Messiah. The trick, the slight of hand here in Daniel 9, is that in Christian Bibles, whereas the other 37 times that the word Messiah appears, um, it is referring, it's translated as an anointed one. Only in Daniel 7, excuse me, Daniel 9, in these passages 24-27, is it translated as Messiah with a capital M. There's no capital in the English language, and a definite article is inserted, but it doesn't exist in the Hebrew. So, there's, um, a lot of smoke and mirrors going on here.
Um, we are then told for 62 weeks, the, uh, the sanctuary will be rebuilt, um, uh, street and moat, but in troubled times. It'll be a very difficult time. And in fact, the second temple is marked by upheaval, constant upheaval. With the exception of a very brief Maccabean period, the second temple is, uh, was a Jewish commonwealth where the Jews were a, a vassal state under another empire. Initially, the Persian Empire, subsequently the Greek Empire, subsequently the Greek Empire after Alexander the Great, which means it, you have now four empires, and then subsequently the Roman Empire.
Now, the last week comes into view in Daniel, uh, 9, and the last week, that means the last seven years, is divided in half because something horrible happens in the last half a week where, uh, the, the sacrificial system comes to an end, and the temple is utterly destroyed. Now, what happened three and a half years before the temple's destroyed? Like, so the temple's destroyed in the year 70. So dial that back three and a half years. What occurs in 66? That's right. That's the great war that Rome, that Titus, who is the general of Rome under the emperorship of Vespasian, goes to war with the Jews, with Judea. The war goes for three and a half days, meaning a half a week. And the anointed one there, or anointed one there, is cut off, which means the destruction of the priesthood. Sacrifices come to an end, utterly come to an end.
Now, when, when, and the term there is Messiah, an anointed one is cut off. That's either the high priest or the priesthood. What that means is the following: I'm a priest. I'm a Cohen. I'm a direct descendant of Aaron. Now, although I'm a priest, and there are laws that apply to me, for example, I can't come into contact with the dead. And there are a number of prohibitions that are applied to a priest. The things that I'm supposed to be engaging in, if a temple were standing, namely bring offerings and so on, I can't do because the base mikdash isn't there. So, the priesthood comes to an end. It doesn't mean that there's no descendants of Aaron. Of course, we're here, but our function is removed. The word "cut off" can be killed, but it really means cut off. So, there's your 490 years.
Now, this doesn't work for Christianity at all, in on so many levels. The six things didn't occur. Uh, moreover, from the time that Jesus was, uh, crucified, let's say in the year 30, I'm just going to say the year that he was crucified in the year 30. It really depends whether you follow the synoptics or John. I'm just going to leave that alone. 30 or 33. Let's just take 30. That doesn't even work. It means, what do you do with the last week? If Jesus is executed in the year 30, and the temple is destroyed in the year 70, that means there's a 40-year gap. Well, 40 years is five and a half weeks. Again, if each day is a year, so 40 years is 5 and a half weeks. So, but it's not. It's a half a week. So, what you can ask the question, and you should ask the question, what do you do with this last week and where's the half a week?
So again, Christians can't answer this. They can't answer this for the same reason that if you lie to a cop, you're going to get in trouble. When you make things up, you're going to get caught because you can't keep track of all your lies. That's why America's, in my view, America's greatest writer and humorist was Mark Twain, who lived at the end of the 19th century, remarked that if you're telling the truth, you don't have to be very clever because you don't have to keep track of anything. Liars get into trouble. But if you're telling the truth, you have nothing to worry about. So you always just ask the question, just explain to me that if Jesus is executed in the year 30 or thereabout, where is the last week? And Christians have no clue what to do with this. No clue at all because they're, they're making this stuff up. And frequently Christians will say that that last week is a, it's reserved for the end, and there's this thousands of years in between them. Well, that's complete. That's completely a, a fatuous claim, but they're forced into this. So just say, just ask, like, where is this last week and the half week? When did that happen? How? It just, it's just completely made up.
Moreover, I mean, just think for a moment, if, in fact, as missionaries insist, we have a timeline for precisely when the Messiah would be killed, and that is toward the end of the second temple period, in the year 30, as an example. Why is this calculation never mentioned in the Christian Bible? And it isn't. Why isn't it there? Now, there are other parts of Daniel 9 that are mentioned in the Christian Bible. It's not like they didn't know that the chapter didn't exist. You know, the, the answer is that they didn't invent this, this lie during the first century. It was only in the second century when people started using Daniel 9, or this, um, this supposed calculation to say, "Ah, he died exactly when he was supposed to die." So, this is all really quite silly.
We always want to start, like, when do you start the calculation and when's it end, and why do you begin it there? And then immediately, who is the, this anointed individual who gives the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem? We know that is, just look at Isaiah 45:1. It's right there. Cyrus, by name, is told that he's God's anointed who's going to give that command. So, it's really very simple. Daniel miscalculated because he conflated two verses, and the angel Gabriel was there to unpack it for him. And the church, subsequent to the canon, would, um, misappropriate this passage in order to say that it was predicted in the Hebrew Bible precisely when the Messiah was going to be crucified. Thank you for your question. All right, very good. Okay, Pierce, you are live on the air. Go ahead and state your question for Rabbi.
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My question is about Numbers 19. It's about the sacrificial system in conjunction with Messiah, about, uh, Numbers 19 and Malachi 1:11-14, um, where the Cohen sacrifices the red heifer, and he throws in the cedarwood, the hyssop, and the crimson wool, and he becomes unclean, and how he didn't sin, but he became unclean and needed to clean himself. Um, so then a, a clean person has to take the ashes and put them somewhere clean. And why in Malachi 1, it is stating in 11 where his name will be great among the nations, sacrifices will be given and offerings as a gift to him, and how later on, in towards 12, 3, and 4, says how we, you know, the children of Israel were giving, uh, lame, sick, and damaged animals as a gift. And, um, I, I, I, I don't, I just don't want to answer your question. Why are you suggesting that this is referring to a red heifer during the messianic age? Why are you drawing that conclusion? It's about Ezekiel 37:19 as well, where the stick of Ephraim and the stick of Judah get combined into one stick by God's hand. And Daniel 2:34, where one stone comes and how the Messiah is supposed to bring about the, the, that system of, uh, helping the unclean become clean again by the, the proper sacrifices. Uh, thank you if you could give me some hope and clarity. Sure. Go ahead and hand them down to your answer. Thank you.
Right. So, you're quite right. In, uh, uh, in the book of Numbers, the parah adumah, the red heifer instructions for the red heifer, which is the greatest paradox in all of Jewish law, is that, uh, in order to purify someone who is unclean because that person came into contact with the dead, the ashes of the red heifer must be used. Okay. The paradox, and you're quite correct, is that the person who, uh, receives the sprinkling of the ash of the red heifer becomes clean. Now, be very careful for all the viewers. There's no sin in becoming unclean or impure. I know that the word impure or unclean can be seen as something wrong or sinful or anything like that. Uh, in fact, caring for the dead is a very great mitzvah. No sin in caring for the dead. In fact, uh, burying the dead is a very great mitzvah. It's a mitzvah. And in fact, even the high priest can become impure if he finds a dead body while walking in the wilderness. It's called a maseh mitzvah. He has to bury that corpse. Now, in the modern world, that is, is less likely to happen, but in the ancient world, people just walked and found a dead body, right? So, but that person cannot resume working in the Bais HaMikdash, working in the temple, bringing offerings, unless they're cleansed. Now, I want to, I'll do 30 seconds on this so you understand tumah and taharah, impurity and purity. Essentially, impurity sets in when something that was, uh, when life was somewhere and life departed. So, the vacuum created by the departure of life is impure. It does not mean it's not negative. Although the word impure can be used in Tanakh in a negative, as a pejorative, as a sinful, it doesn't mean it never means that, but in the cases you, we're talking about, it doesn't mean that, okay? Like a woman when she's menstruating. So, there was a potential for her to have a child. When that doesn't occur, so life departs from her, and now it's not full life, it was potential life. So her level of impurity doesn't require the red heifer, but in the case of a human being, it requires the red heifer.
Now, uh, moving over to Malachi. Malachi is the last of the prophets, and it was written, is one of those three books are written during the Persian Empire. And Malachi essentially is saying, you're not following the proper way of God. Because he, he says something intriguing. He says, you know, non-Jews are bringing offerings. I know it surprises people, but non-Jews could have offerings brought on their behalf in the sanctuary. And non-Jews are bringing healthy, clean, uh, robust. They bring their good stuff. And the Jews, you bring me sick animals. Which means that, hey, what's with you? Like, get your act together. You're messing up. Your, your leaders are a mess. Your priests are just, we need to get this all together. Like the book of Haggai, which is written about the same time, is, is actually testing priests of their knowledge or ignorance of Jewish law. Context or period as the second temple is built, right? So, we got to get ourselves together, and your leadership is absolutely pathetic. You, you got to get your act together. Okay.
Um, we talk when you spoke about the stone in, in the dream. Well, the stone is the destruction of Edom in the end of days. That destruction unfolds when a stone not thrown from with a human hand hits the, the foot of the great statue. Remember the foot of the statue that appears in Nebuchadnezzar's dream is made out of clay and iron, which do not adhere to each other. That's Edom. It's the final kingdom, and they're shattered apart. They break apart. That's very much Edom. The church, which is Rome, after all, is not a cohesive kingdom like the other kingdoms. The head of gold, the chest of silver, the legs of bronze. So, those are monolithic. But the final kingdom is Edom. Pompey enters Jerusalem in 66-67 B.C.E. But eventually, Rome morphs into Christendom. Constantine converts to Christianity at the end of 312. The Edict of Milan sanctions Christianity in 313. The Council of Nicaea in 325. The expulsion of the Jews in 326. And then the empire, all Christianity would morph and split and split again. And the Great Schism, the East and the Western Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church in 1054, the Reformation. So, it's constantly just breaking apart, breaking apart, breaking apart. Christianity is by far the most variegated religion in the world. It, it would be identified also as that which abandons, undoes both the law and the times, or the calendar, which Christianity, uh, seeks to absolve its followers of the calendar. The Jewish calendar is uprooted by the church at the Council of Nicaea in 325. Most people associate, uh, the Council of Nicaea with the identifying the nature of the, of Jesus, uh, is he created or uncreated? Uh, and that's true, that a major part of the dispute that had to be solved by the church in three, at the council of Nicaea in 325, but the other part was to identify what calendar is the church to Jews to synchronize their holidays. Until that point, there were many people in the empire who celebrated Easter on the Passover, and others by a, some sort of method using the solar or tropical calendar. They were, they were all over the place, and this was, this argument, uh, could have divided the church. But the point is that Constantine just gets rid of, and he actually writes a whole letter about this, which I have in volume one, that's good biblical. We're done with the Jewish calendar. That's really when the oral Torah comes to an end. So, it's the time and the law, uh, is upended by the church, and that is the last kingdom of Edom is destroyed. We have books in Tanakh that are devoted to, to describing the destruction of the last kingdom, the implacable enemy of the children of Israel, of God, and that's Edom. And God hates Esau, and he loves Jacob. See how the book of Malachi, after all, begins. And then you have the restoration of the northern kingdom, Ephraim, with Judah. And that's, of course, as you mentioned in Ezekiel 37, where the Almighty tells the prophet Ezekiel, after his vision of the resurrection of the valley of dry bones, he says, "This is the house of Israel." Uh, because remember, Ezekiel, be, Ezekiel 37 begins with God asking Ezekiel, "Can these bones live?" Imagine you're looking at a valley of bleached dry bones. And Ezekiel says, "Only you know, God." Which means it seemed impossible. Like, could the Jews be restored? Really? Could we survive all this? Really? And one of the things that comes to mind very quickly when you study Jewish history is, how did we make it? How did we survive? How is it even possible? And it's inconceivable, given all these bottlenecks, the Jews had to survive in order to be here today. And Edom, you know, during the 12 year, during the dozen years that Hitler ruled Germany, if you were a Jew, where would you want to live? Like, what religion would you definitely not want to be the dominant religion of the country you were trying to dodge Hitler's ovens? Right? So you would definitely say, I definitely do not want to live in a country that was dominated by Christians. Right? I mean, that would be just a no-brainer. You just want to be in the most non-Abrahamic religion possible. Right? So you would be safe in Japan. Even though the Japanese were a prominent member of the Axis, allies of the Germans, as a Jew, you were safe in Japan. You would not be safe in a. This is so transparent. You would not be safe in a Christian country. That's where you would, you would very unlikely to survive. You'd be okay in a Buddhist country, in a Hindu country, is not a Christian country because it's Edom. That's the implacable enemy of the Jewish people. So that's what comes into view now, when the sacrificial system will be restored at the end of days. And I believe we're close. I believe we're very close now. We're actually observing now the unfolding of prophecy today. The sacrificial system will be restored to its full order, described at the end of Ezekiel. And we will need a red heifer, uh, in order to purify all of us who are in a state of impurity, and so that we can resume the carbonot, the offerings, in the end of days. And please God, we will merit to witness this moment quickly in our time. Thank you for your thoughtful question.
Okay, let me get in the next caller. Judy, you're live on the air. Go ahead with your question. Oh, okay. Sorry, caught me off guard. Good afternoon. It's okay. Welcome back. Um, go quick. I wanted to, um, reference your discussion about the Antichrist. And after I heard your comment, I opened up to Daniel 8. And there is some, uh, agreement that this is a foreshadowing in verses 24 through 26 of the Antichrist, even though it's commonly thought it was Antiochus, but still, there are so many parallels, and many do think that that is a prophecy about the Antichrist. However, the main point I want to say about this is that I did call a few months ago and brought up the Shroud of Turin, and you had an extensive reply, but I happily and respectfully say that all those things that you stated are very clearly now out in the open, out there in YouTube world, and scientifically that not only has the carbon dating been debunked, and now the most modern technology has proven evidence not just for his resurrection, but his suffering. And anybody who researches this now, whether a Pope hundreds of years ago who had no access to modern technology, whatever he said, there is so much evidence that Jesus rose from the dead. And I think this is coming to the forefront because we're going into a tribulation, and everybody needs to know this because there is salvation from that. And I, I am very respectful of you, but I am so clear on this. I wish other people could see this. And again, there's a lot of different interpretations of, you know, prophecy, but this is now so real. And I'll hang up for you to answer. God bless you. Thank you.
Okay. Really? Right. Uh, we are told explicitly in Daniel chapter 8, where we have the vision of the ram and the goat, that this is a reference to Persia and Greece, explicitly, explicitly by name. So, how could someone possibly apply Daniel 8 to the Antichrist? It means I, you don't, I'm not, I don't have to interpret it explicitly. The ram and the goat is Persia and Greece, and that Greece would defeat Persia, which occurred in the Battle of Granicus in the late spring of 334 B.C.E. It's one of the most famous, uh, battles in human history where Alexander the Great himself, the king of Macedon, led an army that was smaller than, uh, the Persian Empire's army led by Darius, and defeated the Persian Empire, defeated the, uh, defeated the battles. There are actually three battles, very important battles that occurred between, um, Alexander the Great and the Persians, but this one is most critical, and it's a battle in which logically Alexander the Great and his army should have lost. They were, for many reasons, they should have lost, and this took place at the river Granicus. And it's not an accident that in Daniel 8, the, the, the ram and the goat are by a river. So, that someone should say that this is the Antichrist means that they're not reading the text. This is, it's one of the most pivotal battles in all of human history in which Alexander the Great is nearly killed. He's almost killed because he's fighting in it. And he had a general who saved him, who rescued him. And Alexander the Great, because of a very, uh, interesting strategy that he employed, defeated the Persian Empire, which at the time would have been considered impossible. The Persian Empire was a world empire. A world empire. It was inconceivable. It's like defeating the United States. It just, it's inconceivable. But he did it, and he's almost killed. He survives. Not only survives, but Alexander the Great becomes the person who is most responsible for Western civilization and the spread of Greek thinking. So, I beg people to just read it, just so you get it in its context.
Daniel 7, a very famous chapter prior to this, although enumerates, uh, the four kingdoms, the lion, the bear, the leopard, and the, uh, fourth beast, which has 10 horns with an 11th smaller horn. Although those four kingdoms come into view in this night vision that Daniel has, the emphasis is on the first kingdom and very much on that last kingdom until the messianic age comes into view. What gets very little press in Daniel 7 is the Persian and Greek Empire. The bear and the, the bear and the leopard get very little play. Now, although they, the Persian Empire and the Greek Empire are, interestingly, uh, predators, terrifying animals are used that are definitely unclean. If you notice that in Daniel 8, the two animals, the ram and the goat, are used for these two empires. What's the switch? Because the Persian Empire and the Greek Empire were relatively benign towards the Jewish people compared to the Babylonian Empire, which is horrible. After all, that's Babylon. That's the Bavel that destroyed the first temple. Uh, for the Jews, the Persian Empire was relatively, relatively benign. It was not a, a cakewalk, but it wasn't, it was relatively benign. And the Greek Empire was relatively benign. Alexander the Great had a, a good relationship with the Jews, of course, after his, he died fairly young, and then you have the split. So, I don't know why you would say that. There's no Antichrist anywhere in Daniel chapter 8. It's Persia and Greece, and it's in the text. It doesn't require any interpretation.
Now, and Daniel 8 is there to provide a, the missing middle part, okay? So, don't say things like that. The Antichrist, very specifically, is in Christian theology, is Satan, is the devil, and a pretender to be the Messiah, named in the epistles of John, not the gospel of John, but the epistles of John. In 2 Thessalonians, we have a reference to it. And in the book of Revelation, fairly prominent. This is all dualistic thinking where there could be an, somebody who pretends to be the Messiah, and people foolishly follow him, and he builds a base mikdash, builds a temple, and worships him, and then he turns out to be the devil. That can't be. When the true Messiah comes, everyone will know the truth. The knowledge of God will cover the world as the water covers the sea. And the nations of the world will receive rebuke and instruction from Messiah himself. See Isaiah chapter 2, verses 2, 3, and 4. And all of these passages I'm presenting to you are messianic. And all Christians agree that they're messianic. So, I'm being, I'm really steelmanning this. I'm not selecting a passage that Christians don't think is messianic or not describing the Messiah, that he will rebuke, he'll give to the nations, he will judge among the peoples, is explicitly in Isaiah 2 and in Micah chapter 4, explicitly. Those chapters, because Jesus didn't fulfill it, strikingly, do not appear anywhere in the Christian Bible. Why doesn't the New Testament think it fit to quote these passages? Because it doesn't fit into their narrative. So, they simply delete it. It doesn't exist in the New Testament. Never quoted. Even though these verses are so famous that they appear across the street from the United Nations on 1st Avenue and 42nd Street. Isn't that mind-blowing? The United Nations does delete the text which says, "Zion will go forth the Torah and the word of God from Jerusalem." So, that they delete too, because that doesn't work for the United Nations either. It's just the passage that they will beat their spears and swords into, you know, plowshares and pruning hooks. That part they like, but they also engage in this very selective reading where they carve out a text they like and delete the text or don't mention the text they don't like. They at least quote something. The Christian Bible didn't have the guts, the courage, to quote any of it. They delete it all. Everybody's playing this game. So, I plead with you. I mean, the text openly says in verse 20 of chapter 8 that that the, that the, uh, goat is, is the king of Greece. Openly says that. That's in verse 21. In verse, uh, 20, the ram you saw is Persia. Like it says it. Why, why say the, like, why suggest such a thing? Doesn't even make sense. I say, go back to the original text. Read it in its plain sense. That's all. Read it for yourself. That's it. That's all you have to do. The Hebrew Bible was not conveyed. These sacred oracles were not given just for scholars and people with fancy degrees. Any person can have salvation. Just read it for yourself. That's all. That's all you have to do. Just read it for yourself. No Antichrist. There's no such thing as an Antichrist in the dualistic world where there, where Satan or the devil is a free agent and an enemy of God. So, there, of course, you need a Satan that's an enemy of God. There is Satan in the world, but Satan only does the will of Hashem. And whatever Hashem tells Satan to do, he does. He's created for the purpose of casting forth blandishments to mankind so that we have free will. That's all. He's a blessing. If not for Satan, if there was no evil inclination, we are created in the image of God, and we would by default want to worship God, never want to sin. So, the, this, the evil inclination is created by God, is a servant of God, does exactly what Hashem tells him to do, and seduces us only to the extent that God gives him permission for the purpose of giving us free will, so that virtue would be possible. And go look at the oldest book in the Hebrew Bible, the book of Job, where Satan stands before God in his court, makes a case, and God tells him, "This is what you can do. This is what you can't do." And guess what? Satan does exactly what God tells him to. So, he's not an enemy of God. All this is dualistic idolatry that Christianity synchronized with some thumbnail of Judaism. That's all. It's all idolatry. It's all paganism.
As far as the Shroud of Turin goes, I concede this point that the best proof of Christianity, that the church has, the best proof that Jesus is the Messiah, is a 14th-century fraud. You're right. A 14th-century fraud, a linen cloth that was handmade. And that's why, previous to the 14th century, there was no shroud. There was nothing. It suddenly pops up then, and the carbon dating was done on it going back to the late 1980s, and it was discovered to be exactly what we knew it to be, a 14th-century fraud. And it's true. If you want to find proof of this 14th-century fraud, the source for it is YouTube. You're exactly correct. YouTube is the Bible you should follow. YouTube is not my Bible. My Bible is Tanakh. That's it. So, it's a fraud. It's a man-made fraud. And that's why when you, in the 10th century, 11th century, there was no Shroud of Turin, there was no, it was, it didn't exist. It pops up. Someone created it, like all the other nonsense that was created, invented. It's man-made, just like Christianity is man-made. And but if you want to believe in the Shroud of Turin, if you want to believe in all these silly ideas, you will be very at home in using confirmation bias, which means you have to scour YouTube for the videos that seek to show, to demonstrate that the Shroud of Turin is authentic, is authentic, a shroud from the first century, and ignore all the videos, all the scholars that demonstrate that it's not. So, if you want to engage in that confirmation bias, which means you look at a whole body of so-called evidence because you already believe in Jesus and you want Jesus to be the Messiah, you want Christianity to be true, you only watch the videos. Well, you have basically the same guys running around saying on all these different videos that the Shroud of Turin is authentic. You ignore the mountain of evidence that it's a fraud, and you'll, you will not have to resign from your church. However, after 120 years, you will stand before the God of Israel. More of, I don't think it'll take that long because we're living now, I believe, at the end, and you will see the prophecies that will unfold. Tanakh has to be our source, not a 14th-century schmatta, rather the ingathering of the exiles, the restoration of the Jewish people to the land, the building of the temple, a worldwide peace, and the resurrection, not a 14th-century fraud, which is the best proof of Christianity. A fraud is the best proof that Christianity is a true religion. It's a perfect shock. Thank you, Judy, for your question.
You know, I've said this. I've said this numerous times, and I'll keep saying it. You know, it doesn't even matter if their science has the ability to prove those things. It still couldn't be Jesus anyway because he's already been disproved from being qualified for the Messiah to begin with. So, it doesn't really matter what the science proves or what it disproves. It just means we could see the text plainly in the text that Jesus couldn't have been the Messiah, no matter what. So, I'll stick with that. So, Rabbi, thanks for your time. Viewers, thank you for tuning in. And be sure to hit that like button, subscribe to the YouTube channel, turn on all notifications so you don't miss anything, and we'll catch you, uh, same time, same place next week. Shavua tov, you all have a great day. Thank you. Bye.
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