Countdown 2 Eternity

Guest (Male): Hey, welcome to Countdown to Eternity with Pastors James Kaddis and Andy Woods. It’s a weekly radio ministry from Calvary Chapel Signal Hill. James and Andy examine current events and connect what’s going on in our world to Bible prophecy. Let’s lean in and listen.

James Kaddis: Well hello, my dear brothers and sisters. I want to welcome you to another episode of Countdown to Eternity, and I am with my dear friend and one of the great ones, Andy Woods. Bro, before we even start, tell me: how did the prophecy conference go?

Andy Woods: It’s one of those things, James, that went so well, it scares the daylights out of me how well it went. I mean, everything that could work out, worked out. We had moved to a new location to accommodate more people, and that was a good move because more people came. We moved from the church over to the Sugar Land Marriott, and just outstanding worship by our worship team, Olam Worship.

Every talk was relevant and pertinent. I guess we’re going to talk about the Tucker interview in just a second, but that was running concurrently with the conference. People were saying the stuff you guys are saying is exactly what we heard on this interview related to anti-Semitism. So, it’s almost like the Lord set up everything to take place at just the right time. As a lot of propaganda was going out, He just positioned our conference.

The talks all seamlessly went together. You know, when you organize a conference, you bring people in, and you don’t really know how it’s all going to turn out. It’s almost like one speaker picked up where the last one left off. The comments we got are comments I’ve never gotten in any conference I’ve hosted. People were telling me, "This is the best conference I’ve ever been to in my whole life."

It wasn’t just one or two people saying that. It was a lot of people. So, that’s why I say, James, it was a God thing. I don’t know if a human being can orchestrate something like that. That’s why I say it went so well, it scared me. We had high security because our Muslim friends had taken over our town square about six months to a year before that.

We’re a very pro-Zionist, pro-Israel conference, and all these shootings are going on all over the country. So, that makes you a little bit nervous, but we just had such great security. We had no issues. We had favor with the hotel. The people—sometimes you run into people at these conferences who are just mad at the world. We just didn’t have people like that. They were enthusiastic. They were sweet as apple pie. They were encouraging. So, that’s why I say it was a God thing.

James Kaddis: Okay, so let’s tackle this, bro, because obviously, you mentioned it. It was timely. There were a lot of crazy claims that were made in this Tucker interview, which, by the way, I’m going to dedicate a whole video to dealing with the many lies that were communicated there. But what were some of the things in this conference that came out that maybe we could use as a launching pad for conversation today that you think were probably the most impacting?

Andy Woods: Well, there’s the idea that the Jews living in the land of Israel aren’t really Jews. If that’s true, I guess the Muslims never got the memo because they’re still shooting at them as if they are Jews. This idea that Israel is an apartheid state—that lie is being debunked. It’s a ridiculous lie. You have members of the Knesset and the Supreme Court that are non-Israeli; they’re Arabs. That’s strange behavior for an apartheid state.

If Israel is an apartheid state, she’s doing a lousy job at it. If Israel is a genocidal government, she’s doing a lousy job of that because that’s the only part of the Middle East where Christianity is actually expanding and growing. I think a lot of it is that Christianity cannot explain its existence without Israel. It’s impossible. It’s what Paul says in Romans 11: "It’s not you that support the root; the root supports you."

Now, Israel, by contrast, can explain its existence without Christianity very easily, but Christianity cannot explain its existence without Israel. Had God not worked through the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we would not have a Scripture, and we would not have a Savior. The interesting thing about it, James, is Israel is the gift that keeps on giving.

God is not finished, Genesis 12:3 notwithstanding, blessing the world through Israel. The kingdom is coming, and Satan doesn’t like that because, as our mutual friend Olivier Melnick says, Satan has read his retirement plan, and he doesn’t like it. That retirement plan is implemented the moment the kingdom arrives. He knows the kingdom is coming to the world through Israel, so he works in history to blot out Israel.

It’s pretty simple. So, your view on Israel allows you to take a side in the angelic conflict. As for me and my house, we’re going to be on Israel’s side.

James Kaddis: You have to. I mean, there’s no alternative that even makes any biblical sense. Like you said, we wouldn’t have the Bible, we wouldn’t have the things of God that we get to enjoy every day if it wasn’t for the Jews. It’s kind of like I’m a kid who’s an orphan, and I get adopted into a very loving, wonderful family by a mother and father who pretty much give everything up so that I could be adopted. Then I go to my brother or my sister, who is natural-born in that family, and I say, "You don’t even exist. I’m now replacing you." Tell me, how does that work? You become a wretched, ungrateful fool for doing that.

Andy Woods: It’s interesting. Paul deals with this in Romans 11 about the natural branches that have been pushed out of the tree temporarily—that’s Israel—and the unnatural branches that have been brought in. What’s interesting about that is when Paul talks about the attitude of the unnatural branches—which is us—towards the natural branches, he doesn’t give us a lecture on hermeneutics and proper interpretation, which is all important. I’m not diminishing that.

But Paul talks about arrogance. He talks about an attitude of pride. If a Christian has this view that God is through with Israel and we’re now the favored people that are brought in and God is done with Israel, that’s a heart issue. You need to check out your heart. Your hermeneutics flow out of your heart. A lot of people have adopted the hermeneutic, which means method of interpretation, that they have because their heart is hard. I think people will find that teaching clearly in Romans 11, I want to say around verse 18.

James Kaddis: It’s a very nice way of saying sin makes you stupid because the hardness of your heart affects your hermeneutic. That’s such an absolutely appropriate rendering of the issue. Okay, there were a lot of lies that were communicated in this interview. I think that one of the things that Tucker was trying to do was, in essence, trying to frame this issue of war with Iran as being the creation of Bibi Netanyahu. The Trump administration is capitulating to that pressure, that Israel has control, AIPAC, blah, blah, blah. What do you say to that, bro?

Andy Woods: If you want to blame somebody, I wouldn’t blame Trump; blame Jimmy Carter. He’s the one that allowed so much of this to happen in 1979—these horrors that the poor Persian people have faced for the last 40 years. So, let’s assign blame where it belongs. Let’s go back 40 years to the 1979 nightmare of Jimmy Carter.

The other thing is everybody’s running around saying they are isolationists, and they’re basically saying if you want to give any deference to Israel financially or otherwise, then somehow you’re not America First. I don’t understand that mentality because, first of all, let’s just leave the Bible out of it for a second. They’re the only example of any form of a Western-style democracy in the region.

The attacks that they are enduring and absorbing is because of that fact. Do people think for a minute that once these powers get rid of Israel—which they won’t be able to, by the way—but let’s say hypothetically they succeed, where are those attacks going to be aimed at after that point in time? At us here in the West. So, Israel is standing between us and terrorist activity.

The fact that wars are being fought over there means they’re not being fought over here. So, that makes Israel our best friend in that sense. Beyond that, look at all the technology that we glean from them, that we share from them. If you’re going to boycott Israel, you’ve got to shut off your cell phone, shut off your GPS, and basically go back to the Dark Ages.

So, I look at it from that standpoint. Now, let’s bring the Bible into it. I know all these guys—Tucker Carlson, etc.—are trying to rewrite Genesis 12:3. But the truth of the matter is it’s in the Bible. I didn’t put it there; God put it there. God was very clear that if you bless the nation of Israel, you’ll be blessed, and if you curse the nation of Israel, you’ll be cursed.

As you know, as a linguist, there are two words for "curse" there. One is a light curse, and one is a heavy curse. So, if you bring a light insult against Israel, God is going to bring a heavy curse against you. Just go through the Bible and watch how God has worked that principle out over and over again. I don’t see any statute of limitations on that. I think it’s an enduring principle.

I know Kirk Cameron and all these people are trying to argue that Genesis 12 is just about Abram and not about the nation of Israel, but it’s repeated in Numbers 22. There it specifically says Israel. So, is the book of Numbers not in Kirk Cameron’s Bible? Does he only isolate himself to Genesis 12? What happened to our Bible study methods in these guys? So, I guess that would be my response.

James Kaddis: It’s bad teaching. Then we take it a step further because what a lot of people don’t realize is the views in Islam are perversions of things that are taught in the Bible. It’s my assertion that Islam is not a world religion. Islam is, in essence, a heretical teaching of Christianity if you really think about it.

Matter of fact, I want to play something for you. I want you to see this, and just for your information with respect to this video, the translation on this is actually very, very good. It’s a really, really good translation. Read what this guy says. You can hear if you speak Arabic, you know exactly what he’s saying. He’s the former Grand Mufti of Egypt.

What I want you to listen for, and maybe you can make some notes when you hear this, I want you to listen for how his Islamic view of Bible prophecy and the end is, in essence, a mutation, a very twisted version of what we know the Bible actually says about what will happen in the end times. Watch this guy. Bro, this is amazing. And by the way, coming from the perspective of an Arabic speaker, the translation is remarkable. It’s a beautiful translation. Watch this.

Guest (Male): As for the collapse of the Zionist entity, we do not know what will happen next. The Jews, Israel, and the Zionist entity are not worth a gnat's wing to Allah or to humanity. Imagine with me, a political scenario, that Israel has disappeared. What would happen then? America would immediately intervene.

Don't you think that once we cast Israel into the sea, it's all over. America would intervene immediately. The Hadith states that you will fight the Romans, and the Romans are the Americans. If America intervenes once Israel is finished, what happens then? Russia would immediately intervene.

Who is Russia? Russia is Gog and Magog. Tribes in Armenia, existing and known. We know them, and they are well-documented. Imagine if the Americans and the Russians intervene here. What would you do? You would fight them. This is my land, my country.

This situation requires direct divine intervention. The Prophet—peace be upon him—informed us that divine intervention will occur and that Isa, son of Maryam, will descend. Jesus, son of Mary. Listen. He will then eliminate Gog and Magog, and the Muslims will triumph over the Romans, but only through divine intervention.

James Kaddis: Divine intervention. Wow! Look at who he says is going to be named. Listen to this. Jesus, son of Mary. Bro, what do you say to that? Because here’s the thing: Satan is so good at taking the truth and twisting it. Look at how Bible prophecy was just completely twisted here. This is some weirded-out version of Ezekiel 38.

Andy Woods: Yeah, it looked like he’s basically talking about how Israel is kicked out, and then somehow America, Gog, Magog, Russia, come in. It’s the exact opposite. Those nations invade not after Israel is kicked out; they invade in order to invade Israel in the first place.

This sort of functions kind of like a lot of the flood myths that are floating around out there. We have some—I think there’s around 300, if I remember the count right—flood myths. They keep the story intact at points. They have sometimes eight that escape, like in Noah’s Ark. Sometimes they have an ark in a flood.

By the way, engineers have looked at their arks, and they would just bobble over and over again like a bottle in the water, whereas the biblical ark is designed perfectly to endure storms. So, they keep a lot of the story intact, but they leave out things. They leave out monotheism. They make it sound like it’s the gods that are fighting each other or conversing before they send a deluge.

They also leave out sin. Instead of God bringing a flood on the world because of sin, the gods brought a judgment on the earth because the inhabitants of the earth were making noise and disrupting the nap, so to speak, or the sleep cycle of the gods. That’s what that kind of thing reminds me of. It keeps certain parts of the story intact, but it perverts it at points as well.

James Kaddis: Yeah, and again, this is so important that we point this out because this goes back to the Tucker Carlson interview. I think that this is really important because there is a perversion of that which is true, and that perversion is being used as the distracting mechanism to come to conclusions that are hugely erroneous and actually, I would argue, designed by the enemy to rob people of the blessing that God wants to give them. Do you think that’s a fair assessment?

Andy Woods: Oh, absolutely. This is how the cults work as well. They use the Bible; they use the word Jesus. But they keep certain parts of the story intact, but as Paul says in Romans 1, they take the truth and they suppress it. They rewrite it. They make it more accommodating to their own liking. I also found it very problematic, James, that this interview happens while they’re in the airport. As I understand things, Tucker Carlson did not leave the airport.

James Kaddis: No! What in the world is that all about? He tried to frame it as, "I’m fearful of security. I’m very, very worried that Netanyahu is going to target me, Israeli officials are going to target me, because they all hate me and they’ve tried to attack my family." That’s what he’s talking about.

Andy Woods: Well, the truth is I’ve been to Israel several times, as have you. We’ve both been in and out of those security things with no problem whatsoever. All you have to do is show that you’re there to respect the culture, and you’re not there to hurt anybody or damage anything. I mean, if you do that, no problem.

James Kaddis: I remember when Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated; I was in-country. They pulled me and my dad out of a bus of 50 people. They clearly were able to identify that we had Middle Eastern roots. They pulled us out of the bus and interrogating us for like 35 minutes. The interrogator, who was either IDF or Mossad, I don’t even know—she was like a little girl, but was incredibly good at what she did.

Do you know what happened that got us off the hook at the end of that interrogation? What got us off the hook was they asked, "Are you Christians?" We said, "Absolutely." Then they asked me and my dad, "Will you quote your favorite Bible verse?" Well, of course! And we preached a message. Literally did that. They were like, "Welcome to Israel. We’re so happy you’re here."

This was on the Israeli-Jordanian border. Very kind and very nice. When I was in America taking one of the last groups that we took out, they had Israeli officials in those lines questioning people. They saw me; they could right off the bat immediately look at me. You would not know that I speak Arabic, there’s no way you would know that, not the way that I speak English.

They pulled me aside and immediately started speaking to me in Arabic. Immediately. "Let me see your passport," 100 questions—not 100 questions, but question after question after question after question. They saw the Israeli-American flag and were suspicious. I mean, I kid you not, that’s how seriously they take security. When it was all said and done, they were extremely kind.

But it was a process. So, Tucker, this is what they do. They’re all about security. By the way, can I ask you this question? If I’m Tucker, and I go into Israel, and I continue to say that Israel hates me and Israel is blah, blah, blah, and they hate Christians, do you think for one second as an Israeli, I am going to go out of my way to make Tucker’s life miserable while he’s in country? Probably not. He’s too high profile. It’s ridiculous.

Andy Woods: Well, when I was there, they knew more about Ezekiel 36 than most churches know. If they knew that you believe the Ezekiel 36 passage about the rebirth of the nation of Israel in the last days, it’s like the welcome mat is rolled out. I think that’s true. I said earlier, look at the Knesset, look at their Supreme Court. They’ve got non-Israelis at the highest levels.

I remember Tony Campolo, social justice warrior. He was going to that Christ at the Checkpoint conference there at that Bethlehem college. He was talking about what a horrible thing that wall, that security wall is, that he had to go in and out of, and how bad it made him feel and all of these kinds of things. It’s like, Tony, have you looked at a map lately?

Do you realize how tiny Israel is in a sea of Islamic theocracies that have written into their charters, "We want to drive you into the Mediterranean Sea"? Of course, they’re going to have some kind of security detail. That’s any independent sovereign nation has that right. So, for Tucker not even to leave the airport, to me, the whole thing is laughable.

James Kaddis: He was working hard to create a narrative that was indeed propagandist. That’s exactly what was going on.

Andy Woods: I just hope your average viewer had enough sense to see through it. Here’s a guy that’s being paid—we had the fellow’s name up earlier when you and I, James, were talking—that was given $15 million to start the Tucker Carlson Network. This particular meme says a Muslim who dropped Omeed Malik—a Muslim who dropped $15 million to launch Tucker Carlson’s independent media empire.

So, let’s just follow the money. Isn’t Tucker Carlson purchasing a home or buying a home, measuring the drapes, so to speak, in Qatar, as we speak? Isn’t it Tucker Carlson who says all these ridiculous things that Sharia law is great? No problems. I can leave my keys in my Lamborghini. Well, guess what? If you’re caught stealing there, they’ll cut your arm off.

So, I’ll bet your keys are left in your Lamborghini. It’s just very sad, James, that we’re living in this time period where he platforms little Adolf, as I call him, the Holocaust minimizer, Nick Fuentes. He brings people on like John Rich who somehow link our belief system and theology, Zionism, which the Israelis love, to somehow the Rothschilds.

He brings historical revisionists on to say that Winston Churchill was really the bad guy. On and on it goes. It’s just propaganda. It’s sad to watch. It’s sad to see so many people hang on the guy’s every move as if he’s a legitimate news outlet. To me, he’s no different than Al Jazeera.

James Kaddis: That’s right. 100%. It’s just troubling to watch this happen. Okay, believe it or not, we’re running out of time. I want to give you the last word on something because this is the eminent issue. This is the thing that’s sort of on the mind of everybody. Where do you think this is going right now with Israel and Iran? I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the president set a deadline the day before Purim. Wouldn’t it be interesting if on Purim they invade Iran? I don’t know. What do you think?

Andy Woods: Well, I wouldn’t put it past the administration. What the administration says they’re going to do, many times they do. He’s not your typical career politician. I don’t know how we can just look the other way at the deaths of 50,000 people or more within less than a month killed by their own government. 50,000? Sorry, what did I say? 50 million. I’m sorry. I knew what you meant. I just wanted to make sure. Thank you for rescuing my pronunciation there.

But yeah, he’s talking about genocide in Gaza, and yet you’re not going to say a lick, one word, about 50,000 lives being taken immediately over a political view. The other thing is with Trump, things kind of move in cycles. Look at when he moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2017. Wasn’t that exactly 50 years after Israel acquired Jerusalem in 1967?

We know about 50, the year of Jubilee. Debts are released on the year of Jubilee. So, I find that interesting. This thing with Purim is interesting. This would be an opportunity for Trump to finally erase who started all of these problems back in the 1970s, Jimmy Carter. This would be the crowning achievement of Trump’s legacy, which would be to reverse the deleterious and negative impact of Jimmy Carter.

I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. I’m not making any predictions per se because I’m not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but it would be very interesting to see the Trump administration do some very significant damage to the regime there in Iran. But even if that happens, I think biblically speaking, Persia is going to remain Persia.

She has to be a hostile power that will invade Israel in the last days, albeit Ezekiel 38. But that’s not to say that evil can’t be slowed down for a season.

James Kaddis: So true. So true. Okay, bro, I think it’s happening. I think it’s eminent. I think it kind of has to be in many ways; our hands have been forced in this context. Any final words for anybody as we wrap it up? Because there’s a lot there. There’s a lot going on. Maybe you could speak to dedication to the truth because there’s a lot of lies going on right now. There are Satan worshippers that are out there like Candace Owens that continue to tell all kinds of lies about things like Israel. There’s a lot of lying happening, and it’s being sensationalized. Any word on this? Kind of a final word on truth, the pursuit of truth?

Andy Woods: Well, I’m going to take it back to Revelation 12. I had a chance to speak on that at our conference, and it’s just a tremendous chapter. I hope people give themselves to studying it. It’s a chapter about how Satan in the second half of the tribulation period is trying to wipe out—the Greek there is *orge*. From that word, there’s a lot of sexual terms that come out of it, but there it’s being used not in the sexual sense, but in the emotional sense.

It basically means unbridled, uncontrolled passion, uncontrolled anger. That’s what Satan is leveling against Israel, the woman clothed with the sun and the moon and the 12 stars in the second half of the tribulation period. There you see God rescuing Israel, doing all kinds of things like giving the woman the two wings of the eagle, which is imagery that goes back to Exodus 19:4, which allows her to flee into the wilderness.

Then a flood comes from the serpent’s mouth, and He opens up the ground so that the flood is absorbed. So, you read that and you say Satan hates Israel, and God loves Israel and wants to protect Israel. So, here’s the parting thought: what side of this angelic conflict do you want to be on? The Bible over and over again says choose this day whom you’re going to serve.

When you listen to people or promote people or like, click, subscribe to people that come on their platform and just trash Israel and give a bunch of propaganda that is very similar to what Hamas would say, they just took a side on the angelic conflict. I’m not questioning all of their salvation; that’s between them and God. I’m just saying on this issue, you’re wrong.

You’re against God. What was it the famous saying? I want to take this back to Abraham Lincoln. Someone asked him, "Is God on your side?" And he said something to the effect of, "Well, I don’t worry if God is on my side; I want to be on God’s side." Revelation 12 tells you the sides. I want to be on God’s side. I want to be one that’s supporting and promoting Israel.

I’m not one, James, to turn a blind eye to everything Israel does. God didn’t. The Old Testament is clear. He’s a critic of them as well. But when it comes to this idea of destabilizing Israel, defaming Israel, destroying Israel, delegitimizing Israel, saying Israel has no right to be in that land, Israel stole that land from somebody else, the Jews living over there aren’t true Jews—all of this kind of stuff that we hear, that’s beyond legitimate criticism. That’s anti-Semitic hatred, and I don’t want to be associated with that. I don’t want to give my mind or my vernacular or my mouth to those type of accusations. I want to be on the right side of the angelic conflict. So, I would just encourage your listeners out there to take a side.

James Kaddis: Amen. Salvation comes from putting our faith and trust in Christ, and part of this "pick the side," as you would put it, literally relates to that. We choose to put our faith and trust in Christ, and thus we stand with the people of Israel. I couldn’t think of a better thing to say. With that said, we are at time. So, I do—so does Andy—we sincerely hope that you’ve enjoyed watching this as much as we’ve enjoyed making it. We love you guys. We know the time is running out. Christ could come at any moment. Look to Him. There’s a lot happening right now in the world. Put Him first. God is good. Love you guys.

Guest (Male): You’re listening to Countdown to Eternity with Pastors James Kaddis and Andy Woods. If you joined us late or would just like to hear this again, stop by countdowntoeternity.com. Countdown, the number two, eternity.com. Hey, have you heard? Pastor James has a new book. It’s entitled *The Last Book*. Revelation isn’t a book of fear; it’s a book of hope.

*The Last Book* will give 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*. Available right now at countdowntoeternity.com. That’s also the place to go to give to this ministry, and thank you very much for your financial support and prayers.

Again, we’re at countdowntoeternity.com. I should also mention Andy Woods is online at andywoodsministries.org. Browse through his latest media, check out some of his recent interviews and available resources at andywoodsministries.org. Then join us next week as the Countdown to Eternity continues right here. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.