Countdown 2 Eternity

Announcer: Welcome once again to Countdown to Eternity with Pastors James Kaddis and Tom Hughes. A weekly radio ministry from Calvary Chapel Signal Hill. Together, Tom and James examine current events and connect what's going on in our world to Bible prophecy. Let's lean in and let's listen.

James Kaddis: Well, hello my dear brothers and sisters. I want to welcome you to another episode of Countdown to Eternity. And guess what? I have the great Tom Hughes with me. And that means it's going to be a fired up episode. And that means Tommy is going to try to get me all loud and crazy. And that means we're going to have a lot of fun.

Tom Hughes: Yes, we are. We're going to have a blast. Everywhere I go, James, I know you hear it all the time, but we really do have to figure out a way together to go places. I know, hey, we're going to be coming up June 14th at your church again.

James Kaddis: At my church. That's exciting. It's only about four weeks away or something like that, five weeks away. And Lord willing, it might be in a new church building. I mean, that's what we're praying for. We put in an offer. Hopefully, it's going to get accepted. You guys pray.

Tom Hughes: That would be great. I want to ask everybody, please pray for that. Please pray for Pastor James and the congregation there. They need to get that building. I believe they need to. God's the one who really makes that decision, but nevertheless, we pray because I look at it and go, it's a need, everybody. It really is. It's a need. And I think it would be fabulous.

I'd love to come there. That'd be so cool. And you still haven't invited me out for Sunday morning. I just thought I'd let you know that, everybody. James has never invited me out for Sunday morning. I've been all over the world on Sunday mornings except James' church.

James Kaddis: Bro, I would love to have you out on a Sunday morning. Are you kidding me? When is your first availability? You know what, I'm going to talk because there's a couple of Sunday mornings coming in June. Matter of fact—

Tom Hughes: I'm gone the entire month of June.

James Kaddis: Okay, wait a minute. What about the June that we do the conference?

Tom Hughes: That morning I'm supposed to be at another Calvary Chapel that morning.

James Kaddis: Okay. Well, if that is not happening, then you're going to come out and speak all my services.

Tom Hughes: Okay. All right. I'll let you know. There you go. James just invited me. I had to ask him publicly.

James Kaddis: Hey, bro, that's gold. That's like the President of the United States coming up to me and going, "James, I'm really disappointed you've never invited me to come talk to your congregation."

Tom Hughes: So there's a guy that you and I know very well. He's famous, like real well known. And he asked me once. I saw him and he said, "Why don't you ever invite me to come and speak at your church?" You know what I told him?

I said, "Because you have a track record whenever you're invited, your secretary calls the night before and says—I'm not going to mention his name—says so-and-so's unable to make it tomorrow." And then you just told everybody they're coming and then you're left holding the bag. I said, "That's why I never invite you." He's very famous.

James Kaddis: I know exactly who you're talking about. And it is the reason why that official invitation has never been sent their way either. I get it.

Tom Hughes: But if I say yes, I'll actually show up. I will. I won't, unless I'm in the hospital or something. I can't help that.

James Kaddis: Well, there's been a moment where there's no notification that's ever been given and it's like service starts and where's our guy? We'll just leave that alone. We'll talk about it another time. But I know exactly who you're talking about.

Tom Hughes: Yeah, that happens. It's somebody in particular. So I learned. All right. So anyway, you ain't getting no invite.

Hey James, check this out. I know this isn't news to you, it's not news to me, but I think this is news to a lot of people. Algemeiner article, how shocking they say, how Palestinian propaganda mirrors language directly from the Nazis.

And we know, in fact, what they go back to, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Who was the president of the Supreme Muslim Council in 1927 when they wrote the book. He was the president when they wrote the book and said Solomon's temple undoubtedly was here on the Temple Mount.

Check this out. In that same booklet, James, he said in 600 and whatever, Muslims occupied the Temple Mount. They used the word of themselves. "We've occupied." It's in their own writings. And I think this is just classic. They have it themselves.

But it's that same—the reason I bring it up because it's that same Grand Mufti that Algemeiner says, "Hey, wait a minute. That guy that went and trained Hitler to kill the Jews? The same guy who said the Temple Mount was the place of Solomon's Temple?" They're using the exact same tactics today. Well, I mean, if you just follow history, you can see exactly what's happening.

James Kaddis: Exactly. So Egypt's Grand Mufti being the same person who inspired Hitler and also being the same person who called it the home of Solomon's Temple. There's a lot of commonality, bro, that exists between that and Islam, Nazism and Islam. And it's propagandist and there's many things that we can find that anchor us to this history and the similarities are striking.

And I think that it's one of those things that make it very difficult for people to see because there's almost this instant separation that exists between those two entities because they don't completely understand the fullness of what happened. And there are some nuances here. So Amin al-Husseini, who was—they actually referred to him as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. I said Egypt.

He was literally the central nationalist Arab who was the Islamic leader during the British Mandate period. Now that's a very important fact. He had documented ties to Nazi Germany. He met with Hitler in 1941. We have pictures showing that he met with Hitler. He supported the cause of the Axis.

And he was involved with very specific propagandist broadcasts that aimed at the Arab world, which by the way, those broadcasts were designed to further the cause of Hitler in an attempt to eventually come against the Jews that he was seeking to overcome in the moment. His alignment with Hitler, which is something that a lot of people don't necessarily realize, and these are all things we have to nuance this conversation with.

His alignment with Hitler was driven largely by this shared opposition to the Jews and by the way, to British control. There was huge opposition that existed with Germany and the Arab world that did not want Britain to control any of it. Not because Nazism and Islam have the same beliefs, but because the enemy of your enemy—what's that phrase? What is it?

Tom Hughes: The enemy of your enemy is my friend.

James Kaddis: Yeah, the enemy of your enemy is my friend. The distinction is super important here so that we can be accurate when we talk about the historicity of this. Now on the temple issue, there are recorded instances—we have documented instances. I'm actually, if I look distracted, it's because I'm looking for them right now.

There are documented instances where he acknowledged the historical Jewish connection to the Temple Mount much earlier in his career when he was on the up-and-up, which very much contrasts sharply with the later denial that he had when him and Hitler were very close and were aligning. So we're kind of overlapping a little bit this statement that he made regarding this issue.

But let me just say this. It's not completely accurate to frame it as some full ideological merger between the two. It's more of a, your enemy—say that again, my brain is fried.

Tom Hughes: The enemy of your enemy is my friend.

James Kaddis: I know, I'm so sleep deprived. The enemy of your enemy is my friend. But what is important to acknowledge is how the narratives have very much shifted over time and in a way that also seems to be very much lined up. So it's weird how it works. It's this alliance that they have together that have created this.

I think the bigger issue to discuss here is the commonalities that exist between Nazism and Judaism and let's how about we even talk about communism. All relate to the social norms that they seek to create in controlling the people to develop the false narratives that they communicate. That's where the commonalities exist and there are many of those.

Tom Hughes: There are. Okay, so you speak of socialism. When we look at how Israel began, modern Israel began with kibbutzim. That is socialism. Or communism. Which would you—how would you describe it? Socialism or communism for the kibbutz?

James Kaddis: I would say communism.

Tom Hughes: Yeah, so commune living. But that's how—so Bernie Sanders was raised on a kibbutz in Israel for ten years. So when you see this thought process and for everybody viewing, basically everything is shared by the community. Even today, if you're on a kibbutz, vehicles are shared. So you don't necessarily own it.

James Kaddis: I would say this, and these are four items that I've memorized. They're sort of important items that people have to list here because they'll make total sense. In any major totalitarian system, that is communism, the Nazi system, definitely Islam, you see this. There are major commonalities and the commonalities exist with what they do.

They absolutely rely upon what I believe to be four major staples. The first thing that they rely upon, and this one is big, is centralized control of information. If you cannot centralize the information that's being given to you, you can't control it. So they do this in Islam. They do it very, very well because although they have these multiple extant manuscripts that have 90,000 variants in them, they still control the narrative based on the totalitarian mechanism they pull in making sure you only get a limited amount of knowledge.

They make it against Sharia law to speak against those things. Rather, what they do is they end up bringing us to the second point, this Nazism does, communism does, and certainly Islam does, is they rewrite and manipulate history. So you have to be able to rewrite and manipulate history. You have to control information, you have to rewrite and manipulate history, and then you have to create enemies in order to unify people.

That's the third thing and that's probably the biggest thing because the unity that exists amongst multiple factions of Islam centers around the enemy that they've created. Primarily the Jews and then the Americans or Christians. So that's what they do. And then the other thing that they do, and this one is huge but not completely always seen, and that is propaganda. They use propaganda to shape this public perception.

So Islam does it on a regular basis with respect to how they characterize the things that happen everywhere you go. You're seeing the IRGC doing this right now in Iran. You're watching multiple enemies of Israel doing this on a pretty regular basis. It's really ugly. And that's why Christianity and Judaism don't fit in this control center.

You don't see those mechanisms being deployed. They don't really fit in that category. Why? Because they don't function as some kind of a state-controlled propaganda system. So grouping it in that way weakens any belief that you might have regarding things. I think the most definable way to be able to create the substantial difference that exists there is Islam is driven by a religious ideology.

And so people are lied to. They're convinced that something is going to exist that they get that they're never going to get. There's something deeper and more personal. So I never said, nor will I ever say that Judaism is alike any of these systems because it's not. As a matter of fact, it stands as a direct repudiation against those systems, which is why—one of the reasons why they're hated so much besides the fact that it's a very spiritual issue.

Tom Hughes: Yeah, and plus you have the difference between Rabbinical Judaism and Biblical Judaism.

James Kaddis: Thank you. Huge.

Tom Hughes: And that's where people get messed up. So if we look at Rabbinical Judaism when Jesus came the first time, he says, "Hey, by your traditions you make the law of no effect." That was 2,000 years ago. After the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, Rabbinical Judaism went on steroids because suddenly there is no temple. There's no more animal sacrifice.

So they had to create a system even stronger with their traditions in order to stay as a group. So hence, it's the reason why we see Jews that are scattered all over the world, they still keep the Shabbat. They still keep Passover. And you see these different things. If they're in China, if they're Jews, you see them. I mean, you've seen these groups of Jews that are somewhere maybe in Ethiopia and you find out there's 100 different families in a village that are all celebrating the Shabbat. They have all of these Jewish traditions that they keep.

That is the development of Rabbinical Judaism, which unfortunately, James, it has put some of the teachings of the rabbis—and not all Jews think this way, but a lot of them do—above the Bible. So that's where you have these discrepancies. But we see this happening in churches too. People put their teaching of their pastor over the Bible. Certainly the Catholic church, that's exactly what the Catholic church is built upon. Whatever the Pope says.

James Kaddis: And there's something bigger here too at stake that also has to be understood and it goes right back down to understanding the differences between the systems. So Nazism, for example, communism, look they're based on almost a racial supremacy. Certainly Nazism is. And the propagandist mechanisms that are deployed, just like communism in practice, they've relied on this centralized control that I just mentioned and this suppression of any type of truth.

And that's the most important part. They rely on the suppression of truth. If you don't recognize that part, then you miss this one important aspect and that is both of these require that people have to abandon objective truth. They have to. It's the requirement. Judaism at its core, just like Christianity, is rooted in this idea that absolute truth is given by God. It's not given by anybody else.

So that creates accountability—instant accountability and no control through deception. Now there's people that will deceive claiming to represent God and not doing it accurately. But that's exactly why it's been targeted throughout history. Not just the spiritual issue which is the main issue, but any system that relies on lies, which is most of them that are out there, they will always see truth as a threat.

So the real commonality isn't going to be between any of these ideologies and what you see in the Bible. It's between the regimes that manipulate them. If you think about it, the regimes, what they call their core truth that they believe in is a deception in and of itself. It's a pretext. It's a pretense. It's what gives them the authority to do it. But when it comes down to it, it's at the same core issue. They want to control people and they lie, cheat, and steal to be able to do it. And that's the thing that is perhaps the most important aspect of all of this to be able to understand.

Tom Hughes: Yeah. In the words of Paul in Romans chapter 1 where the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. We also think of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 where God will send them strong delusion so that they will believe the lie because they would not receive the love of the truth.

And we find this thread throughout the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament. It is this: what is truth? Pilate says, "What is truth?" And so what do you have to do to eliminate God? So we have in all of these different religious systems... What I find interesting about Judaism is that God promised in the Bible that he would gather the Jews back into the land during the last days.

And in that, he had to also keep a people, a distinct people. And he used—he even uses and used Rabbinical Judaism to keep them distinct because they have. They've kept those things. And again, you and I have both said it doesn't mean they are better than the Bible. What it is, is God still uses those things and he will bring them around to the truth.

But it's also this type of thing that these liars that are out there all over social media saying these aren't really Jews or how could they be God's chosen people because they'll pull something completely out of context from the Talmud. As if all Jews believe this one particular thing that is found by some writing that's in the Talmud. When the Talmud is just a collection of writings. It's not Bible.

And most Jews don't even believe all things that are written in the Talmud. They can't because you have contradictory things that are in the Talmud. The Talmud isn't the word of God. But they will use these things against them as if to say, "See what you really believe." And you have to talk to Jews. "I don't believe that kind of stuff." It's like pulling some commentary off of your shelf and saying, "Well, this pastor said this, therefore all pastors believe this." It's crazy to believe something like that.

James Kaddis: Yeah. And you have to keep in mind when you bring up men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, it's a brilliant picture, the Romans picture, because there are tons of examples that I can come up with where truth becomes the apex of everything. And there's a million passages in the Bible that actually show that.

I mean all over and actually not just like a simple declarative passage that has a declarative statement where you just simply hear something being told to you about truth. But I can literally show you not just Bible passages that make those declarations about truth, I can actually show you whole stories and cases made in the Bible for how truth is at the center of everything.

And that is something that you can't do anywhere else. As a matter of fact, that's why Islam spends more time teaching people how to attack Christianity and how to attack Judaism more than anyone else. And there's a lot of this. I mean, it's just super, super incredible. You hear the story about Ahab who rejects the truth and what ends up happening there with the field that took place there.

There's tons of Old Testament illustrations that are drawn. You go back to the time of Joseph and you can see where truth becomes something that rests on everything. You can't ignore that. And for us, if we don't have the truth and if we're not spending time collectively seeking the truth, we're in big trouble. Even in the New Testament when you learn about Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts. What an incredible example. They lied to try to maintain an image. Truth exposes them instantly.

The pattern is consistent. Pilate, you just brought up Pilate. Same thing. "What is truth?" Well, truth is literally standing in front of him. The literal existence of truth is encapsulated in Jesus who is the word of God. Or the Pharaoh in the story of the Exodus. Same thing. David after he slept with Bathsheba and how truth was central in him being able to even exist as the king. It's unavoidable, bro.

Tom Hughes: It is. Okay, so if we're going back to Israel, there's lies that are being said about them. Right over your left shoulder, we see the gold dome. Over your right shoulder, you see Al-Aqsa mosque. And again, you look at these things and you say, wait a minute, so Jesus was standing pretty much from where you're sitting. Mount of Olives, the top of the Mount of Olives.

James Kaddis: Top of the Mount of Olives, yes. The picture was taken from the Mount of Olives.

Tom Hughes: He's talking to the disciples and he's talking about what stands on top of the Temple Mount itself with the temple that's going to be destroyed and so forth. But still we have the promise that God is going to bring them back into the land. But the lies are being said, "These aren't really the Jews."

But God says I'm going to do this. So if he's going to bring them back into the land, he's going to keep them a particular people that are separate from all of the rest. One of the reasons why these lies are being said instead of the truth is because Satan wants to prove that God is a liar. Right? So if God promises he's going to bring them back into the land, he wants to prove that God can't keep his promises.

In Jeremiah chapter 32, this is really interesting. God says in verse 41, he says, "I will bring them back into the land." And he says—the only time in the Bible God says this—"With all my heart and all my soul." I find that really interesting. Where God says, "With all my heart and all my soul, I will bring them back into the land."

So when I see these people who say these aren't really the Jews or they have no right to the land—in other words, God breaks his covenant—well wait a minute, that's not at all what God says.

James Kaddis: Yeah. And this is really cool that you brought this up because it's something I haven't talked about in a long time. But when God says he is going to bring the people into the land, which I think you're correct, it's the only place in the Bible where it says it, Jeremiah 32:41. He's going to bring his people into the land with all of his heart and all of his soul.

It speaks significantly of very important things that the average person would not see if they don't know history or culture or don't know the Bible. And those specific things are clear. And it's worth our while emphasizing some of those things because they go against the narrative that the liars are communicating. Okay, so we should just go over this just for a second because it is something I haven't talked about in a long time, but I think it's a really, really good point that you bring up.

That very phrase, "With my whole heart and with my whole soul" is God expressing this undivided intentionality. Meaning, I will not be distracted in my intent to bring this promise into fruition. You almost never see language like that describing his action toward a nation in restoration. Now you can see language like this in all kinds of other areas. You don't see it with respect to bringing a nation into restoration.

So culturally and biblically, that kind of language is really important to understand. Points to a very permanent and personal investment. In other words, God is saying, "I am making this investment because I fully intend for it to carry through eternity with me." It's not a temporary regathering. It's God saying, "I'm fully committed to this outcome." And it's the outcome that he's committed to.

And historically Israel had already been scattered. They've been regathered in cycles at this point in Jeremiah. But this statement goes beyond those cycles because the very last taking away exile was about to happen by Nebuchadnezzar on the 9th of Av, 586 BC, which technically had not happened during the time that Jeremiah is writing this. As a matter of fact, when it does happen that's where he pens to paper the book of Lamentations because he's lamenting over the fact that a half million men, women, and children were killed in Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar at the time.

So this statement goes beyond any of those types of cycles. It literally points to a future regathering that carries a sense of finality and resolve that only God can have. It also, by the way, this is really important, it also ties directly into the new covenant storyline that's in the same chapter that you read about later on in Jeremiah. So God is not just bringing them back geographically, he's actually transforming them spiritually.

And the land, the very land and the heart are being dealt with together. And the church is prophetically being aligned to be a part of that restoration for Israel, not replacing Israel. And then the other thing is—and I know I got a big mouth—but what most people miss is this. This is not a man-driven restoration. This is not like some kingdom now movement where we go and we build something and then all of a sudden we say that it's God.

As crazy as this sounds, I'm going to even go so far as to say this. It's not even necessarily political. It's definitely not accidental on any stretch of the imagination. It's God staking his own character in fulfilling the promise. And when he uses language like that, it forces a conclusion like there's no other way you can take it.

So what we do as people who study Bible prophecy is it forces us to wait to see that happening because God says that what you're watching right now unfold in history cannot be reduced to some coincidence. It has to be—it's demanded to be understood by God as fulfillment of something prophetic in motion. That's what he's saying. So the deeper layer here isn't just that Israel comes back. You can say that till you're blue in the face, "Oh, Israel's coming back."

It's how God feels about it. God is saying, "This is personal. You're not going to remove my feelings on it." I mean, it's hard to describe the feelings that God has, but that's what makes this passage so super powerful. And by the way, it's also what makes this passage so overlooked because most people won't capture that because they minimize language like that, especially in the culture and the world in which we're living today. I'm sorry I got a big mouth but you lit me up, I had to say that.

Tom Hughes: Well, I thought that was outstanding because it's also in the same passage twice the Bible says, "Ah, Lord God, is there anything too hard for you?" That is in conjunction with the world thinking Israel's never going to be gathered back in. There's nothing too hard for you. That's what God is saying about himself.

And then the exact words, folks listen to this, this is so cool with what James just said. Yes, God says, "I will rejoice over them over Israel, over Jacob, to do to them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and all my soul. For thus says the Lord, just as I have brought all this great calamity on this people—the diaspora, the antisemitism that was scattered as they were scattered through all the parts of the world—so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised."

With all my heart and all my soul. This to me, James, for anybody that is kicking against Israel right now... wow. You start looking at these verses, you're thinking that is totally God. "We don't care what you say, we hate your people, they don't have any right to the land, forget about them." And God says, "My whole heart and soul is into these people and loving them and showing my mercy and showing my glory, and you have the audacity and the evilness to come against me in what I am doing?"

That blows my mind because this shows, as you said, the heart of God for his people Israel even though he says, "You profane my name." His heart is for his people.

James Kaddis: Yeah. That's a mic dropper. What are you going to say beyond that? In all honesty, you want to talk about one of the greatest exhibitions of truth being given to us, provided by another thing that I don't talk about a lot, but I did when I taught through Jeremiah and when I write a book on Jeremiah, which I will one of these days, I won't hesitate to mention.

And that is the fact that Jeremiah was taking the intentionality that God had expressed to him regarding that matter and was comforting himself with that intentionality knowing what was coming to Jerusalem in a few short days.

Tom Hughes: Yep. Because Babylon was closing in. Everything's happening and also it's in the same passage where God says, "I will give you a new heart." That is the new covenant. That's the endgame. And to come against this and against Jacob? Yeah, you dropped a bomb on me, bro. Like that is very moving because you know you spend a lot of time studying these things and you think about them a lot and you don't realize the significance of them until you're reminded of it.

And I think maybe one of the most significant passages in the Bible is around 31 where he says, "Look up at the sun and the moon and the stars. If those ordinances exist, so am I people." I think it's Jeremiah 31:35. Sandwich between them both is 32. The whole time while Babylon is closing in.

And I agree, I think Jeremiah 32 and sandwich between 31 and 33, Jeremiah 32 is the most profound statement from God about his people Israel. You find them all over the Bible, but for somebody to argue against them, God makes it very clear, "You are coming against me when you speak against my people. You are coming against me."

James Kaddis: Holy smokes. Hey, we better go into something else because I'm done.

Tom Hughes: Okay. All right. Well, listen, we're out of time. But we got another show next week. I think it's going to be a fun one.

James Kaddis: Can I wear a jacket like this again? I probably won't change my clothes for a week, so I'll wear the same clothes. All right, guys. I'm sorry, I'm a little distracted by what Tom told me because now my mind is going a million miles per second. I think I'm going to make a separate video on it.

But anyway, with that said, we hope you enjoyed watching this as much as we have enjoyed making it. We love you guys. On behalf of the great Tom Hughes, God bless you. Thank you for joining us for another episode of Countdown to Eternity. We love you and don't ever forget this, Christ could come at any moment. God bless you.

Announcer: You're listening to Countdown to Eternity with Pastors James Kaddis and Tom Hughes. Online at countdown2eternity.com. You can listen to this episode again right there at countdown2eternity.com. I should also mention Tom Hughes is online at hopeforourtimes.com. Take a look at his available resources and some of the top stories at hopeforourtimes.com.

Pastor James has a new book called "The Last Book". Revelation isn't a book of fear, it's a book of hope. "The Last Book" is a guide to Revelation, giving you what you need to know about Revelation, the rapture, and the end times. Learn what the Bible says about the days we're in and what God's promise is for believers in "The Last Book" by James Kaddis.

Available right now at countdown2eternity.com or amazon.com. If you'd like to support what we're doing at Countdown to Eternity, there's a place to give at countdown2eternity.com. Then click the give tab. And then join us next time when the Countdown to Eternity continues. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.