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Bible teaching with an emphasis on Israel, prophecy and the Jewish roots of Christianity

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Episode: “Your Questions Answered”

Each month, we receive many letters and emails from our viewers and readers. Most are supportive, some are challenging, all are engaging. Katherine and I weigh in along with our ministry theologians, Dr. Todd Baker and Dr. Thomas McCall.

Transcript

Caption transcript for “Your Questions Answered”

00:01 This is important because it is so much bigger than
00:04 the small strip of land that is currently being
00:06 contested in the modern world.
00:09 The promise to Israel...
00:10 some have called it "greater Israel"...
00:12 The promise to Abraham regarding Israel is a
00:15 large piece of land and it is a promise
00:19 to that lineage, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
00:22 Jacob is Israel and is a promise to the Jewish people.
00:40 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
00:45 is that they might be saved,
00:47 for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek
00:51 for the same LORD over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
01:07 Shalom and welcome to our program.
01:09 I'm Myles Weiss.
01:10 And I'm Katharine Weiss
01:12 and we have a wonderful program to share with you.
01:14 Some of our viewers write in often
01:16 and share their thoughts and questions.
01:18 And we're going to give an opportunity
01:20 to answer some of those today.
01:21 Right and I'm really enjoying these programs.
01:23 We have a chance to get back to you about some of
01:25 the questions you sent to us through the "Levitt Letter"
01:28 or from the TV program or social media,
01:30 where ever you've seen us.
01:32 And let's start right away.
01:34 Let's just get right into it.
01:35 The first one I wanted to comment on was just a
01:38 quick note from a school teacher who writes...
01:47 And I thought about how disarming it is to use
01:49 cartoons and humor to drive home some of these
01:52 points about the Messiah, about the end-times,
01:55 some of the controversies within in Christianity and with the world.
01:58 You know there's been a lot of hoopla and
02:00 controversy over our cartoons.
02:01 I call it the great cartoon controversy of 2011
02:05 where people were writing to us,
02:06 "Oh this terrible, it's sacrilegious."
02:08 And others say, "This is wonderful, we really need this."
02:11 And it turns out you can't please
02:12 all the people all the time.
02:14 However, this teacher wisely is using the cartoons to get into
02:19 the hearts of her students in the next generation.
02:23 You know one person's joke is another person's baffling bumblings.
02:28 But anyways you know Myles laughter does good like a medicine.
02:32 That's in the Bible.
02:33 And any time I'm feeling down
02:35 a good joke will always lift me up.
02:36 Thank you, I appreciate that.
02:39 Let's go right on to...
02:41 this is from Velma who writes...
02:59 And I think about John Parsons and the Hebrew
03:02 study that he puts in all of our newsletters.
03:04 If you receive our "Levitt Letter" then you know that
03:07 there's a Hebrew lesson in each one.
03:09 And not only so, we try to bring some of the Hebrew
03:11 from the Word as we're teaching both on location
03:15 and here in the studio.
03:17 And it is the language of God and God has restored
03:21 it as a modern day language.
03:23 It was at the end of the 19th century when the
03:26 church was coming into a new era of looking towards
03:29 the Lord that the Hebrew language was restored as well.
03:32 Right, God said I restore a pure language
03:34 unto my people and that's Hebrew.
03:36 It is and now it's the everyday language in
03:40 Israel and I think there's such richness in the
03:44 language itself that as we study it and as we learn
03:47 more and more we realize that there's a poetic,
03:50 a majestic, artistic way that God uses the language
03:54 to reveal his heart and the meaning that he's
03:57 trying to get to us through the Word.
04:00 So I'm grateful that we can play a small part in
04:03 helping you with your studies.
04:04 This is a hard language.
04:06 You know when people move to Israel they go into
04:09 "ulpan" , "study", and they may spend 6 months, a year
04:13 or longer doing nothing but immersing themselves
04:15 in language study.
04:17 You met the grandson of ...
04:18 I did... ben Yehuda .
04:20 I met the grandson of the man who restored
04:23 the modern Hebrew language.
04:25 We actually had coffee at a conference together
04:27 a number of years ago.
04:29 And he was saying how hard it was for his grandmother
04:31 because that was it; she needed to learn.
04:34 It was a commitment.
04:35 It was and the grand-dad commanded his family to
04:38 learn it and he was a strong teacher and he made
04:42 sure that everyone in the family did it.
04:45 And what fruit has come from that, restoring the
04:47 entire language from ancient days.
04:49 It's really also a sign of God's favor and his
04:52 commitment to the Jewish people and the reality of
04:56 the Jewish historicity in the land which is being
05:00 contested all the time.
05:02 Well the language is one more part.
05:03 It's not just archaeology, history,
05:07 the wars of conquest and the written word,
05:10 the land deeds and the written word
05:12 that verify the Jewish right to the land
05:14 but the language being restored from
05:17 the ancient language, and it's so similar.
05:19 It's exactly the way God wants it to be.
05:22 You know so much of what we have to do these days
05:24 unfortunately is make the case for the Jewish right
05:28 to be in the Jewish land.
05:30 That's sad.
05:31 It is sad.
05:32 And that reminds me of the letter that you have.
05:34 Most of the letters that we've been receiving are
05:37 just so positive and we're so grateful for the
05:39 feedback and we're so thankful for your
05:42 appreciation and your love.
05:43 Although there are people that have a problem
05:46 sometimes with Jewish people in the land.
05:48 They certainly do.
05:49 And this gentleman did.
05:50 You know this is so important.
05:52 I think I want to save this for our next segment
05:54 because it's such an important letter
05:57 and it really needs a wider discussion than we have time for.
06:00 But there's something else that
06:01 I think I'll bring right now
06:03 which is a question that came from
06:06 one of our readers who asks,
06:20 Now Psalm 83 is a very important Psalm because it
06:23 speaks about the pan-Arab war that will take place
06:27 and precede the Gog and Magog war in Ezekiel 38 and 39.
06:33 So it's a very significant passage of Scripture and
06:37 if you read it exactly literally and you
06:40 substitute the modern names of the nations
06:44 for the ancient names of the nations
06:46 you will see that it's describing
06:48 an Arab war of aggression against Israel that will
06:51 be so serious that it will
06:54 almost snuff out the life of Israel.
06:56 But out of it God of course will triumph.
06:59 There will be great losses on all sides
07:02 but God will triumph
07:03 and it precedes the Gog and Magog war.
07:07 And a good book to further understand this
07:09 is "Israelstine".
07:11 If you'll read that book it will help you to
07:13 understand the wars of the Psalm 83.
07:16 And it's important because the last verses of Psalm 83
07:19 says the purpose of all this difficulty and
07:23 destruction is that they may know him...
07:26 they may know him as the Lord of the heavens and the earth.
07:30 And that's really the importance.
07:32 God is not willing that any should perish
07:34 but all come to everlasting life.
07:36 That call upon him.
07:37 Exactly
07:39 We'll be back after this.
07:42 Hello, I'm Wayne Fornier
07:45 and I've been a supporter of Zola Levitt Ministries
07:48 for many years.
07:50 You know this ministry brings you the weekly
07:52 television program "Zola Levitt Presents",
07:54 the the website "levitt.com"
07:57 and the "Levitt letter",
07:59 a free monthly news magazine.
08:02 How has this happened without the
08:05 support of a church, a denomination,
08:07 or some endowment paying the bills?
08:10 The lord has seen fit to use regular people
08:13 like you and me.
08:15 We're the ones who keep this ministry going.
08:18 You know, asking for contributions can be awkward
08:22 but not asking can be detrimental.
08:24 On several occasions our founder Zola Levitt would
08:27 surprise viewers when he would say, we don't need
08:30 your gifts of funds right now.
08:32 Give to your home church or to another ministry.
08:35 When we need support we'll tell you
08:38 but we're fine right now.
08:40 Such a statement sounded ludicrous but it
08:43 established the fact that Zola Levitt Ministries is
08:46 not trying to make a fortune out of the ministry.
08:50 The resources of Biblical materials we offer are
08:53 those that are helpful to our viewer's spiritual walk.
08:57 Zola Levitt went home to the Lord seven years ago
09:00 but Myles and Katharine Weiss continue to sound
09:03 the call for the church to recognize that God
09:06 is not finished with the Jewish people
09:09 and Israel remains his timepiece.
09:12 When I heard the Gospel from a Messianic perspective
09:15 it strengthened my faith in God.
09:17 But it was something I recognized as being worthy
09:20 of my financial support.
09:22 If you see this outreach as worthy of your
09:24 financial support please call us at
09:27 1-800-WONDERS...visit us online at levitt.com.
09:31 or write to us at Zola B ox 12268, Dallas, TX 75225.
09:39 We depend on your financial sustenance.
09:43 Thank you.
09:47 ♪ Background music ♪
10:11 ♪ Background music ♪
10:37 Our resource on this program,
10:39 "An Epic Love Story, Jews and Gentiles One in Messiah"
10:44 by Myles Weiss
10:46 This booklet answers some questions you may have on
10:48 issues like...
10:59 "An Epic Love Story" takes you into the heart and the
11:02 mind of Paul's writings to the Roman church.
11:05 Contact us and ask for "An Epic Love Story".
11:13 What a blessing to have the Epic Love Story
11:15 Myles, to offer to our audience.
11:17 It's a great resource.
11:18 I know a lot of people have said it's really
11:20 helped them to understand Romans 9-11.
11:24 So we talked earlier about the settlers and
11:29 we don't even like to call them settlers
11:31 because it's God ordained land.
11:34 Exactly, listen to the tone of this letter.
11:37 And you know all of our mail is not love mail.
11:39 Some of it is a little more dramatic than that.
11:41 This comes from William and he says,
11:54 Well I have a problem with this.
11:56 And I think God has a problem with this because
11:59 what the world is calling the "West Bank" is the
12:03 heartland of Israel.
12:05 It is Judea and Samaria.
12:07 It is not some addition.
12:10 It is not some west bank of a river, the Jordan river.
12:13 It is the place where the patriarchs walked,
12:16 where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived.
12:18 It's where Yeshua taught.
12:20 It's where he performed his miracles.
12:22 It is the heart of the nation of Israel and so it
12:26 has such a rich history of Jewish life and thought
12:31 and teaching and philosophy and activity and living,
12:34 that to call these folks settlers and
12:37 to call that the west bank of a river
12:39 is just demeaning.
12:41 It's just not the case.
12:42 Right...people are hearing the call of God
12:44 that he said he would re-gather them.
12:46 And they are hearing it, they are responding to it
12:48 and they are obeying the Scriptures by coming there.
12:51 You know the Bible says in Genesis 15, verse 18,
13:07 Yes...now this is important because it is so
13:09 much bigger than the small strip of land that is
13:12 currently being contested in the modern world.
13:15 The promise to Israel...
13:16 some have called it "greater Israel"...
13:18 The promise to Abraham regarding Israel,
13:20 is a large piece of land and it is a
13:24 promise to that lineage, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
13:28 Jacob is Israel and is a promise to the Jewish people.
13:32 Now these settlers so called...
13:36 and we'll get to random acts of violence in a moment...
13:39 but the settlers are residents...
13:42 Just peaceful, loving people.
13:43 Peace loving, peace seeking, mostly observant
13:48 orthodox Jewish people who have read the Bible,
13:51 believed what they understand and have taken
13:54 it literally and have moved back to Israel
13:57 according to the Word of the Lord.
13:58 For instance David Rubin who lives up in Shiloh
14:01 where the ark rested and where Hannah heard from
14:03 the Lord about Samuel's birth.
14:05 these people are beautiful people.
14:07 They are people that love God that just tend the
14:10 earth, make it blossom and basically just want to
14:13 live there with their families fulfilling what
14:15 God has asked them to do to go and build villages,
14:19 plant vineyards and tend towards them.
14:22 Fulfill the Word of Scripture and to me
14:25 these are modern day heroes.
14:28 They looked at for example in Amos 9:15 where it says
14:31 "I will plant you in this land"
14:32 "never to be plucked out again."
14:34 You will build vineyards, you'll grow things,
14:36 you'll live there in peace
14:38 and you'll never be pulled out of this land again."
14:41 And they looked at that and said okay that's for me.
14:43 They've made aliyah
14:44 and these communities, by the way,
14:46 when you hear it on the television
14:48 you think of some...
14:50 I don't know what it looks like in your mind's eye
14:52 but these are beautiful communities of nice houses,
14:55 well kept, with just life coming from the children...
15:00 And they only act when something is pushed at them;
15:03 they will defend their homes.
15:05 But they are not going out and attacking.
15:07 They are not being terrorists.
15:09 They are simply defending their right to exist.
15:11 Talk about settlers being uprooted, Gaza was uprooted
15:15 and all of those beautiful people left
15:18 and now we just have rockets.
15:20 Right there was just the misguided attempt by
15:25 Ariel Sharon in 2005 to gift Gaza to the neighbors
15:32 hoping that would certainly bring a measure of peace
15:36 because if the land of Gaza was given to
15:39 the Arab neighbors that they would certainly live
15:41 in peace with the Israelis.
15:43 And what happened instead was that the greenhouses
15:46 and all of the growing activity, all of the
15:49 places that were built were torn to the ground
15:52 and what has come instead has been thousands of
15:54 rockets being fired into Israel from Gaza.
15:57 And it is unfortunately the
16:00 opposite of what was hoped for.
16:03 Now we see the arising of a special status state for Palestine.
16:10 And that's a whole discussion that we'll get into later.
16:13 But the special status for a proposed state is really
16:18 a tremendous victory for Hamas.
16:21 Hamas means violence.
16:24 It means that the launching for terror into Israel
16:30 is getting legitimacy in the world community
16:32 because of the United Nations...
16:34 the united nothing...
16:36 the united unified...
16:38 however you want to say that.
16:39 It is getting air play and legitimacy for violence to
16:43 come again against Israel.
16:46 And I have to say that you can only understand this
16:48 by looking at the Word.
16:50 And the Word speaks clearly about the " aliyah ",
16:54 the "return" and the rebuilding, the virtual
16:58 garden that's been made there by the Israelis.
17:01 And now we're seeing that that's being contested and
17:05 probably will be until the Lord returns.
17:07 Well the Scripture tells us that it will be but
17:10 that God himself will defend his land and his people
17:15 because he has a plan.
17:17 And it's a shaking.
17:18 It's the birth pains.
17:20 But we can look up and we can know that our
17:22 redemption draws nigh.
17:24 Yes that's true.
17:25 Our redemption is drawing nigh.
17:27 God is on the move and so do what we do.
17:30 Stand with Israel, you will not regret it.
17:32 We'll be back after this.
17:36 Your financial contributions to Zola Levitt Ministries
17:39 enable us to bring you our weekly television series,
17:42 our monthly newsletter
17:43 and our website.
17:45 But you may not know that your gift of funds also
17:47 makes a difference in Israel through our support
17:49 of the Jerusalem Archaeology Fund;
17:52 Bridges for Peace;
17:54 and the Lone Soldier Fund.
17:56 We welcome your donations to Zola Levitt Ministries
18:00 as we serve together until the Messiah returns.
18:22 ♪ And then the storm will break, ♪
18:24 ♪ The clouds will roll and shake, ♪
18:27 ♪ The rains will fill the brooks and streams. ♪
18:32 ♪ Thunder will tremble then, ♪
18:34 ♪ Making the faithful men to doubt him, ♪
18:39 ♪ To cry out to him, "Lord, do you see we perish?' ♪
18:47 ♪ And he will calm the storm, "peace be still." ♪
19:00 ♪ music interlude ♪
19:49 ♪ So calm, so blue, the Holy Sea of Galilee, ♪
20:00 ♪ In grace, in peace, in praise of our Messiah. ♪♪
20:24 That's Zola.
20:26 He was a master musician.
20:28 But he also just brought the joy of simple music
20:31 to all of us.
20:32 He really translated his love for Israel through
20:35 his music and through this program and everything
20:38 that he did as the founder of this work.
20:40 He was quite a guy.
20:42 Want to continue with our letters
20:44 This one caught my attention,
20:55 This comes from TM in Missouri.
20:59 Well really the only folks among the Jewish people
21:02 that are sure that they come from the priestly
21:06 tribes are the Levites and the " cohanim" or the "Cohens".
21:10 So when you come across people like Zola Levitt or
21:13 last name Levi, Levinson...those names
21:16 that sound like they're related to the word "Levite"
21:19 are generally speaking they are from the
21:22 levitical tribe and so they're from the tribe of
21:24 Levi and probably have that historical connection
21:29 to that function of the priests.
21:31 And the " cohanim" or the "priests" themselves are
21:36 people who you run into have names like Cohen,
21:38 Kahn...those kinds of names.
21:41 Which is your mother's name.
21:42 Oh yeah, my mom's side of the family are Cohen
21:46 and they probably, again, come from that priestly tribe.
21:50 It's interesting because of those last names
21:53 growing up in the synagogue my uncles Cohen
21:57 they would get the honor of coming up to the " bema "
22:00 to the "platform" and reading the Torah on a
22:04 Saturday morning because they were cohanim .
22:07 And so there's an honor that's given to the modern
22:10 Jewish people in conservative and orthodox
22:13 Judaism and it's kind of a typical way of doing that.
22:16 Other than that we really don't know.
22:18 I like to joke that I'm left handed so maybe I'm
22:20 from the tribe of Benjamin but we really don't know
22:23 and it's not that important in the long term is it?
22:27 Because really the blood line of the natural sphere
22:32 is interesting and it's notable but there's only
22:36 one blood that really counts and that is the
22:40 blood of the spotless Lamb of God.
22:43 You know the whole story is about the Lamb of God
22:46 and his sacrifice for mankind and so while I'm
22:50 interested in my history as a Cohen really it's the
22:54 saving blood of Yeshua , the Messiah, that really
22:57 makes a difference in my life and in other's lives.
23:01 It's really the story about the tribes for the
23:04 current, contemporary people.
23:07 So that's that one.
23:08 Now you have one.
23:09 I do.
23:11 I have somebody...one of our viewers said,
23:37 Which is wonderful that we get to bring the land to our viewers.
23:46 And so that's just saying that this work continues
23:49 because it's God's work and it's in God's heart
23:53 and it's in God's plan that the whole world will
23:57 know that Jesus is a Jewish Messiah coming back
24:02 for a Jewish Jerusalem and going to be the Lion of
24:06 the Tribe of Jerusalem...Judah...and
24:09 that God has a plan and no matter what you hear the
24:14 news saying, the media saying, man saying, the
24:17 Word of God stands forever
24:20 and that's what this ministry is based on.
24:22 That's what we love to see unfold.
24:24 You know going back to you being a Cohen...you know
24:26 when you were bar mitzvahed you read a
24:28 certain passage and it was thrilling to you after you
24:31 became born again Myles to go back and learn because
24:35 you were able to Google what your Ashkenazi would
24:39 be reading at that time.
24:40 Exactly, I got on line and this guy found me.
24:43 We found each other and he said are you Sephardic,
24:45 Spanish or Ashkenazi ...European?
24:48 And I said, well, I'm from...my people are from Europe
24:50 and he said I'll get back to you on Monday.
24:52 And on Monday he says what you read on May 2, 1964
24:55 was Ezekiel 44 verses 15 - 31.
25:00 Thrilling
25:01 So I went and I looked it up and it is the
25:03 passage of Scripture where the sons of Israel are
25:08 admonished to follow the sons of Zadock to go into
25:12 the Lord, minister to him
25:15 and then come out and minister to the people.
25:17 Now I had no idea as a 13 year old that someday that
25:20 I would be doing that as a pastor and now of course
25:23 with ZLM and the other ministries that we have.
25:26 But God knows and so in his sovereignty he
25:29 actually had me reading as a not so obedient, not so
25:32 nice Jewish boy reading the passage that would
25:35 become essentially a life script for me because he's
25:38 a big God an he's a good God.
25:41 And this opportunity that we have here together with
25:45 the viewers, with the readers of the Levitt letter
25:47 is really to bring what I think is one of
25:51 the most...maybe the most important message ever
25:55 which is that the greatest story ever told about the
25:58 greatest person, the Messiah of the world, the
26:02 Messiah of the Jews and the Savior of the world
26:05 that he is as you say coming back to a Jewish Jerusalem
26:09 and we get to shout that from the housetops.
26:13 We have the opportunity to tell everyone through this
26:16 program and through the writing that we do and the
26:19 tours and all of that we need to be looking for
26:23 the return of the Lord and you need to be telling
26:26 your loved ones, the people that you care about the most,
26:28 that they need to say "yes" to Yeshua
26:32 because as we say "yes" to him our life is
26:35 transformed here and we also are setting ourselves up
26:38 for an eternity with God himself.
26:41 So till we see you again we want to again remind you,
26:46 Shal'alu shalom Yerushalayim
26:48 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
26:53 Our resource on this program...
26:54 "An Epic Love Story, Jews and Gentiles one in Messiah"
27:00 by Myles Weiss
27:02 This booklet answers some questions you may have on
27:04 issues like...
27:15 "An Epic Love Story" takes you into the heart and the
27:18 mind of Paul's writings to the Roman church.
27:22 Contact us and ask for "An Epic Love Story".
27:28 Our monthly newsletter the "Levitt letter" is free
27:31 and full of insightful articles and news commentary
27:34 from a Messianic perspective.
27:36 Visit levitt.com to find our newsletter along with
27:39 current and past programs,
27:41 our television schedule
27:42 and much more!
27:44 Your donations to Zola Levitt Ministries
27:46 help these ministries
27:47 bless Israel.

Links from this show

Isralestine by Bill Salus

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Our Jewish Roots

Levitt Letter