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The study of the Bible in its historical context - with a focus on the archaeology, history, geography, customs , culture, and even the languages of the ancient Middle East. WE ask what did they understand THEN - the original intent of the Lord - so that we can expand and enrich our understanding NOW and thus become true disciples of Adonai Yeshua as in John 8:31-32.
Episodes
Wednesday Jan 01, 2025
Wednesday Jan 01, 2025
This is getting too amazing. In this video lesson we not only continue to see that the Lord uses Chanukah to help His disciples 2000 years ago understand His return but also who He is. Who is this King? How is this connected to the time of the Maccabees and Yehoodah HaMakehvee, Judah the Maccabee, the Hammer? On top of that we will see that the Lord uses Chanukah 400 some years before the first Chanukah happened. Yes the Lord inspires one of His "prophets" to write predictions of Chanukah and, more than that, this prophet uses Chanukah inspired by the Lord to predict things of the end of days. So Jesus after Chanukah uses it to teach His disciples but the Lord also does it before Chanukah in and around 600 B.C.
So, if you are interested in the end times, if you are curious about how the Lord inspires a prophet to predict aspects of the end of days, this lesson is a must to view and study. And more than that you will see how this starts in the book of Genesis with Jacob and his 12 sons! This video will blow you away and its all history, Bible history. The Lord is coming again - the Return of the King - and Chanukah is right in the middle of all of it. So cool!
Critical links for you to study what is presented in this vidcast.
Link 1 - Antiochus IV is the villain of Chanukah and a picture of the villain we call the Beast in Revelation 13 - https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/antiochus-epiphanes-the-bibles-most-notoriously-forgotten-villain/
Link 2 - Chanukah, the Maccabees, and the Apocrypha - https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/hanukah-maccabees-and-apocrypha/
Link 3 - Dr. Clyde Billington's video on Chanukah in its historical context - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn2u0ufT1Rc
Link 4 - article on Daniel 11 and its historical accuracy - https://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophecy/understanding-the-book-of-daniel/daniel-11/
Link 5 - article showing the early date of the Book of Daniel - archaeology does it again - http://www.jesuswalk.com/daniel/app3_early-date-of-daniel.htm
Rev. Ferret - who is this guy? What's his background? Why should I listen to him? Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ortnret3oxcicu4/BackgrndTeacher%20mar%2025%202020.pdf?dl=0
Tuesday Dec 31, 2024
Tuesday Dec 31, 2024
Chanukah stands on its own as an important Jewish feast. It was an amazing time where God again came to the aid of His chosen people. Time and time again we see how God was with His people - outnumbered or with little power or resources - and the Lord gave them victory in His power and not theirs. We remember the Exodus or Joshua at Jericho or Deborah and Barak or Gideon. Even into 1948 and the War of Independence where Israel, a restored nation after 2000 years, was surrounded by millions of Arabs who wanted to annihilate them from the face of the earth. But, Israel was victorious because of the Lord and it was repeated in the Six Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
The connection between Chanukah and the Return of the King goes on. The Lord is showing us that the days before His return will be somewhat like the days before the first Chanukah but a 1000 times worse - Chanukah is a real set of events that God uses to teach of the ultimate Return of the King. It'll be the days of the Great Tribulation. In the days of Judah the Maccabee the Lord used Judah and his army of devoted religious Jews to defeat the evil forces of Antiochus IV and restore HaBayt Mikdash, the Holy Dwelling Place, or, as we know it, the Temple in Jerusalem. We have seen how God connects these events to Himself and His return. Is there a connection to the actual 1st Chanukah, the cleansing of the Temple and the reinitiation of the sacrifices? Let's go see.
Links to mentioned in this video ...
Video on the miracles God did in recent battles Israel was in - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsN5bqVzX34
Article on 17 major battles and their miraculous nature - https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/17-miraculous-israeli-military-victories
Rev. Ferret - who is this guy? What's his background? Why should I listen to him? Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ortnret3oxcicu4/BackgrndTeacher%20mar%2025%202020.pdf?dl=0
Monday Dec 30, 2024
Monday Dec 30, 2024
The Hebrew name of Judas the Maccabee is Yehoodah Hasmonaim but his nickname was Yehooda HaMaKehvee or Judas (or equivalently Judah) the Hammer. He was the military hero of Chanukah. He was the one who captured Jerusalem in 164 B.C. He and all the religious people of Jerusalem restored the House of Adonai, HaBate Mikdash, the Holy Dwelling Place, or the Temple. They dedicated it (Chanukah means dedication) and it was decided that the Jewish people would do a feast every year remembering what great things God had done.
It was an amazing crazy victory over odds that were more than overwhelming. Judah "hammered" the forces of the cruel pagan Seleucid Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. But, does God make any connections with this victory with Yeshua His Son? Are their similarities between Yehoodah and his leadership of the armies of the Jews and Yeshua, King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Let's explore this in this video.
Links mentioned in this video ...
Dr. Clyde Billington's video on Chanukah in its historical context - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn2u0ufT1Rc
Article on Daniel 11 and its historical accuracy - https://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophecy/understanding-the-book-of-daniel/daniel-11/
Article showing the early date of the Book of Daniel - archaeology does it again - http://www.jesuswalk.com/daniel/app3_early-date-of-daniel.htm
Rev. Ferret - who is this guy? What's his background? Why should I listen to him? Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ortnret3oxcicu4/BackgrndTeacher%20mar%2025%202020.pdf?dl=0
Sunday Dec 29, 2024
Sunday Dec 29, 2024
OK. It is crystal clear by now that Jesus is teaching about His return using the sequence of events in 1 Maccabees 2. It is too amazing. The exact order in 1 Maccabees 2 is the exact order in Matthew 24:9-21. We don't get it since we are 1) not Jewish and 2) we are not taught the Bible in its historical context. But, the Lord is doing something new. He is doing something to bring us who are behind the curtain, behind the veil, to see more clearly. This so to take His "bride" into a more complete and enhanced understanding of His word and get "her" (that is us) ready for the coming of the Bridegroom.
In this video we will meet more amazing Jewish people from those dark and terrible days under the cruelty of Antiochus Epiphanes IV. We will meet my hero, Eleazar, and Bible teacher. We will also learn about Jewish families and how they would not buckle under the pressure to turn away from the Lord and turn to the practices of the pagan Greeks and their worldview of Hellenism, a worldview straight from hell. And from this we will again see how they faced persecution and torture and death. It was a time of a great tribulation on all Israel.
But, it is interesting that Jesus is teaching that before His return that the terrible days of the Maccabees is nothing compared to the terror of the tribulation. After all the things He said that relate to those days Jesus ends those five statement with ...
"For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short." Matt. 24:21-22
I had an awesome lady Bible teacher who taught on the book of the Revelation. When it got to the rapture she taught we should hope for the best but prepare for the worst. She asked us to ask some questions that no one asks? What if those who are post-trib - in other words that the rapture will happen after the tribulation - are right? What if we as Christians must go through what the Jews went through but 1000 times worse? Those who hold to post-trib are simply speculating as to their view of the end times. Those who are mid-trib and pre-trib are simply stating a man made view of the endtimes. There are endless arguments and no conclusion except one's own prejudice. So, all those Christians - pre and mid and post and who are not rapture people - will be saved and we will finally all see who was right and who was wrong. So, I remember that great lesson I learned from that women Bible teacher who I held in high high esteem when she said, "Hope for the best but plan for the worst."
One famous Christian pastor says Christians in the USA are not ready. Here's his article. We are not ready. We are too soft and too integrated into the culture of "me first" that is all around us. We don't hold a candle to the heroes of the faith in this lesson and in the previous lesson. It is time to wake up and get ready.
Link to Pastor Brunson's article - https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/milton-quintanilla/were-not-ready-pastor-urges-us-christians-to-prepare-for-persecution.html
Rev. Ferret - who is this guy? What's his background? Why should I listen to him? Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ortnret3oxcicu4/BackgrndTeacher%20mar%2025%202020.pdf?dl=0
Saturday Dec 28, 2024
Saturday Dec 28, 2024
Candle 4 is lit. What does it represent as far as Jesus connecting Chanukah with His return - the Return of the King? So far Jesus has said He is God on Chanukah. The evil king Antiochus said he was god and he's the villain of this Jewish feast. He's not god - no way. Only Yeshua is Lord of lords and King of kings and the only God. But, Jesus said this on Chanukah and that ain't no coincidence! See John 10:22 and following.
Then we remember Jesus teaching in a special sequence. In those days before He returns He talked about the abomination of desolation. He talked about fleeing to the mountains and not taking anything with us. All these are in the books of the Maccabees in the same order! Those books were written in the mid to early 1st century B.C. The disciples of Jesus would have had access to those books. Thus, it seems highly probable that they saw what Jesus was doing; He was creating an awesome connection between Chanukah and His return. So, as we put the Bible back into its historical context we too hear as they did THEN, and see the way those disciples did THEN, and understand the way they did THEN, so the Ruach HaKodesh רוח הקודש - our comforter and teacher - can help us enhance and expand our understanding NOW.
In this vidcast you will meet some amazing women. We will also meet 7 brothers - men and boys who are also so amazing. Actually most of the women are teenagers. Girls married at 12 or 13 or 14 in and around 170 B.C. These young Jewish teenage moms and those 7 Jewish brothers exhibited courage and bravery that no Christian girl or young man in the USA would ever face or has ever faced. We will meet true heroines and heroes of the faith in a time of horror and death and fear and chaos. And Jesus tells us that perhaps the terror they faced is what may face moms with kids again and all of us before He returns.
Here's the links to where you can purchase that amazing historical novel entitled, "Maccabee," by Dave Carson. It's based upon the event of 1 and 2 Maccabees and it is an adventure story supreme. Get you'll love it.
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Maccabee-David-C-Carson/dp/1432701657
Rev. Ferret - who is this guy? What's his background? Why should I listen to him? Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ortnret3oxcicu4/BackgrndTeacher%20mar%2025%202020.pdf?dl=0
Friday Dec 27, 2024
Friday Dec 27, 2024
And so the connection between Jesus' return and Chanukah continues. We must again return to ancient Israel in and about 170 B.C. What was happening to the devout and faithful Jews under the cruel, vicious, and pagan Greek king Antiochus IV? And how does Jesus relate this to the days before His return - the days of tribulation where many have the mark of the evil one, the anti-Christ the one who is anti-Bible and anti-God? Come. Return to those days with us. Let us seek His truth as Yeshua teaches them THEN so we can more fully understand NOW.
Here's a link that reviews the revolt of the Maccabees and the 1st celebration of the feast of Dedication or Chanukah חֲנֻכָּה - https://www.ancient.eu/article/827/the-maccabean-revolt/
Here are links to very readable versions of the 1st and 2nd book of the Maccabees.
1 Maccabees - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1maccabees/0
2 Maccabees - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2maccabees/1
Rev. Ferret - who is this guy? What's his background? Why should I listen to him? Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ortnret3oxcicu4/BackgrndTeacher%20mar%2025%202020.pdf?dl=0
Thursday Dec 26, 2024
Thursday Dec 26, 2024
Christians and Jews believe in ONE God, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob (Israel). Just like Paul said in 1 Cor. 8:6, Eph. 4:6, and 1 Tim 2:5. And as we learn about the revolt of the Maccabees we see what God did for His chosen ones, Israel. One old Levite priest and his five sons, Judas, Simon, John, Eleazer, and Jonathan and a bunch of Jews from the village of Modi'in (pronounced Moe Deen) flee to the hills and begin a revolution against the powerful Greek Seleucid kingdom of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. It is as if Puerto Rico invaded the USA landing their forces at Miami Beach and conquering us in four years. Impossible. But, God has already told us time and time again,
"Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?" (Jer 32:27)
Lord said to Sarah in Abraham's tent, "Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son." (Gen 18:14)
The Egyptians had enslaved all the Hebrews and were murdering the baby boys of the Hebrews; God delivered these powerless slaves from the most powerful nation on earth at the time. And God does it again in the time of the Maccabees.
We as Christians should not be surprised. Chanukah is not about a rabbinic story of some so called miracle of the oil jar. No way! It is a celebration of God, the only God, who is the all powerful one and is King of kings and God of gods and the Lord of lords.
But now. This awesome celebration remembering what God did for Israel, is used by God Himself to teach His disciples 2000 years ago of His return. Once again we will see another connection Jesus makes between the events of the Maccabean revolt, the remembrance of Chanukah, and His return.
Here's a link that reviews the revolt of the Maccabees and the 1st celebration of the feast of Dedication or Chanukah חֲנֻכָּה - https://www.ancient.eu/article/827/the-maccabean-revolt/
Rev. Ferret - who is this guy? What's his background? Why should I listen to him? Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ortnret3oxcicu4/BackgrndTeacher%20mar%2025%202020.pdf?dl=0
Wednesday Dec 25, 2024
Wednesday Dec 25, 2024
In this video we return again to the Mt. of Olives. Jesus is answering His disciples. They asked Him what would be the sign of His return and the end of the age. Jesus answers and seems to use events of the revolt of the Maccabees as a "picture" to teach them about the times of His return. We as Christians have no connection to Chanukah except it is in December like Christmas. But it has nothing to do with Christmas and we now learn the "miracle of the oil" that supposedly explains the meaning of Chanukah, never happened. It was only a story a rabbi made up in the 3rd century A.D. to try and come up with why Chanukah lasts for 8 days. If you haven't listened to the 1st video, I strongly urge you to watch the video, "Chanukah: Return of the King - Introduction."
So, let us jump in again. Let us return to the Mt. of Olives. Let's study the events of the revolt or the Maccabees and see how Jesus continues to use those days and times to teach His disciples and, therefore, teach us as we reconnect to those days 2000 years ago and hear Jesus they way they did THEN so we can enhance our understanding of the return of the King NOW.
Here are some links that may enhance your study ...
1 Maccabees - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1maccabees/0
2 Maccabees - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2maccabees/1
Rev. Ferret - who is this guy? What's his background? Why should I listen to him? Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ortnret3oxcicu4/BackgrndTeacher%20mar%2025%202020.pdf?dl=0
Wednesday Dec 25, 2024
Tuesday Dec 24, 2024
Tuesday Dec 24, 2024
It is the "season of light." For religious Jewish people it is the feast of Chanukah (Hanukkah is the modern way of spelling the feast) and is a celebration of light - the lights of the Chanukah Menorah. For Christians who celebrate Christmas it is the time to remember the coming of the "light of world" in Jesus. It is interesting that Chanukah and Christmas are connected in that they represent a celebration of the light. But, that is about the only connection they have. Simply put, Chanukah and Christmas have absolutely NOTHING to do with each other. There as different as ice cream and apple pie. I am always amazed at those Christians who say we need to celebrate Chanukah just like the Jewish people. That's like asking Muslims in India to celebrate July 4th Independence Day of the USA. Why would they? It makes no sense.
Jesus however, does something to Chanukah that is very surprising. He uses it and the history of the start of Chanukah as a way to teach His disciples 2000 years ago. He uses it to teach of His return as King and Lord. He uses the events of the revolt of the Maccabees, the July 4th of the Jewish people around 164 B.C., to help His disciples learn about what it might be like before He returns. This is the focus on this vidcast series. I do hope the video series is a blessing and it adds to your celebration of this season of the LIGHT. For myself, I actually add the celebration of Chanukah to this time. Why? Not for the awesome things God did for His people then but for how Jesus teaches me today about the Return of the King.
In the video I talked about some links I would provide. See them below. These are scholarly Jewish resources that teach us that there never was the miracle of the oil at Chanukah. It isn't me teaching this but non-Christian Jewish scholars. So, if there is no miracle of the oil then what is Chanukah all about? You will learn it as part of this vidcast series.
Link 1 to "My Jewish Learning" - https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/transforming-hanukkah/
Link 2 to Torah.com - https://www.thetorah.com/article/uncovering-the-truth-about-chanukah
Rev. Ferret - who is this guy? What's his background? Why should I listen to him? Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ortnret3oxcicu4/BackgrndTeacher%20mar%2025%202020.pdf?dl=0