Proclaiming Justice with Laurie Cardoza Moore

Laurie Cardoza Moore: Welcome back to Proclaiming Justice, a PJTN podcast. On today's podcast, we are continuing our conversation with Rabbanit Yaffah Batya da Costa about the rise of the replacement theology threat and God's eternal covenant that He made with Israel.

During our last podcast, we discussed how in early Christianity, replacement theology played a significant role in fueling hatred of the Jews and how Greco-Romanism distorted the Gospel message. If you missed the last episode of our conversation with Yaffah, you can find it and our previous podcast lineup on our website at pjtn.org, salemsoneplace.com, as well as all the other platforms that you use to access your favorite podcasts.

Yaffah, thank you for joining us again on Proclaiming Justice. Today, I want to continue our conversation about the rise of Christian antisemitism, especially on social media with leading antisemites like Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, and Candace Owens, and Judaism's interpretation of who the Messiah is.

We have witnessed a growing number of Christians turning against the Jews in Israel because of their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. I think it's very important that Christians understand why many Jews have not embraced Jesus as the Messiah. Christians must understand that their rejection is based on the prophecies in the Bible about the Messiah. Yaffah, where do we begin?

Yaffah Batya da Costa: This is such an important topic because it's so misunderstood and the churches aren't teaching about it, most of them. There's always an exception. Most Christians don't understand that in the Jewish world—and actually I'll go to this right now—it was written later by the Rambam, one of the very famous sages of Judaism, that there are actually two stages of Messiah.

The first stage of the Jewish Messiah is somebody who is a potential Messiah. They have the credentials to be the Messiah. They're Torah-oriented. They're a great Torah teacher. They're very learned. It's clear to quite a few people that's how the first-century Nazarenes viewed Jesus. Even though the New Testament doesn't use the word "potential Messiah," they thought he was the Messiah, but then he left and didn't return.

When he left, they asked him if he would at this time restore the kingdom to Israel. He said it's not for you to know the time. He didn't say he wouldn't do it. He just said it's not for you to know the time. They were expecting him to return in that generation because there's a verse that says he claimed he would be coming back and people alive today will see him. I can't quote chapter and verse, but I know it's in the New Testament somewhere.

That generation was expecting him to return and do all the things that are described in the Hebrew Bible as the prophecies about what the Messiah will do. That's when you know that person is the Messiah. You know for sure. It's not that he's a candidate. It's real. It's for sure.

The Jewish people take it as someone who has to do those things in order to be considered the Messiah. When Candace Owens is shouting, "Christ is King, Christ is King, Christ is King," he was never crowned by the Jewish people. Only the Jewish people can crown their king. That's also in scripture in the Hebrew Bible. People can believe that, but to the Jewish people, it's like someone is just ranting and raving and not making any sense. If he's some other kind of Messiah, not Jewish, then he could meet some other kind of criteria. But if a Candace Owens or whoever is claiming that Jesus is the King of Israel, the King Messiah, son of David, they have to go back to the Jewish criteria of who the Messiah is. He's more like Moses. He's a man.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: It's interesting that you bring up Moses because didn't the scriptures say that there would be one like Moses who will come after me?

Yaffah Batya da Costa: That's right. It's in Deuteronomy 18. That's the parsha that was read the week that I was born. It's Deuteronomy chapter 18. He says a prophet like me from among your people. First of all, he doesn't even say it's the Messiah. He says it's a prophet that will come and you have to listen to him.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: I want to point out he will be from your people. He's not going to be a Greco-Roman god. He's going to be from the tribe of Judah, as the scriptures foretold. I think that's important to point out for Christians so that they understand that. Too often, Jesus gets categorized as a Christian. The requirements of the Messiah is that he would have to come from one of the tribes of Israel, specifically the tribe of Judah.

Yaffah Batya da Costa: Absolutely. Furthermore, it's very clear in the Hebrew Bible that no human being can be called God, or deity, or divinity. That's Roman. That's Greco-Roman. That's exactly what the Council of Nicaea said and decreed, and then forced it onto the whole population of the Roman Empire at that time, which was the fourth century.

There's this thing in Christianity that Christian theologians talk about called progressive revelation. What that means is you can start with the Hebrew Bible because that came earlier, and then you can go into the writings of the first century, what people call the New Testament, as built upon the Hebrew Bible. But it can't conflict with what already happened before it in the Hebrew Bible. It can't contradict it.

The same thing with what happened later in Christianity in the fourth century where the Greco-Romans took over Christianity. They did exactly that. They contradicted what is clearly and explicitly stated in the first century and what's explicitly stated in the Hebrew Bible. So it's not progressive revelation. It was contradictory revelation.

The Christian theologians want to say God showed us a certain amount about Himself, but not all. He showed us a certain amount about Himself in the Hebrew Bible and then showed us a little more in the first-century writings and then finally finalized it by the Romans in the fourth century to say there's this three-person, one God with three persons. Well, that's not anywhere in the first century, but they say it's progressive revelation, meaning it wasn't revealed in the Hebrew Bible and it wasn't revealed in the first century, but now it got revealed in the fourth century. The other way to look at it is it got revealed, but it contradicts both the first-century writings and the Hebrew Bible.

That's where the Jewish people are standing on this. Why does it contradict? Because we go with just three verses, and there's many more. Deuteronomy 6:4, the Lord your God is one. That means one singular, *echad*. I go to the shuk and I'll say I want one of those.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: And that's the Hebrew, *echad*.

Yaffah Batya da Costa: *Echad*. I'll say *rach echad* if he starts putting three or four in the bag. I go, no, *rach*, it means only, *echad*, only one. So it's the numeric one. It's the number one. *Echad, shtayim, shalosh*. You count in Hebrew. In Deuteronomy 6:4, it says God is *echad*, one singular, unitary.

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Yaffah Batya da Costa: Then in Exodus chapter 20, verses 3 through 5, it talks about how you shall have no other gods before me. In the Hebrew, it's literally "in my face." It gets translated as "you shall have no other gods before me."

Then you have Isaiah 44:6 that says, "I'm the first, I'm the last, there is no God besides me," or something like that. "There's no other besides me, God." There's more than that, but if you just take those three, there's no one who can be even compared to the Creator God, much less be declared co-equal. That's what the Nicaea Council did with Jesus. That's what they said.

It's just not acceptable in the Jewish mindset, based on the Hebrew Bible and even based on the first-century writings.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: I just want to clarify, Yaffah, that in the Hebrew mind within the Jewish world or Judaism, it is critically important. Christians say *sola scriptura*, only the scriptures. This is the mindset of the Jewish world. They are warned over and over, and we know this through the texts of scripture, that they are not to have any other gods before Him. No idolatry. Idolatry will get you stoned to death. That's how serious it is.

I think we tend within Christianity to get angry at the Jewish community. The Tucker Carlsons, the Candace Owens, the Nick Fuentes, the constant arguing about the Jews and the hatred that is communicated through their messaging. But Christians have to understand if we're going to be standing on biblical truth, then we can back it up in the Word of God. That's why within Judaism, everything is established through God's Word. If we can't establish it through the Word—it's why I always tell my students—as you study the New Testament scriptures, you have to be able to back them up and the principles that you are learning in the Torah, in the Tanakh, what Christians call the Old Testament, in the writings, the Hebrew writings. You have to be able to back it up.

I had a rabbi friend years ago when I first got involved in this movement. I was an avid student of the Bible, and we were talking about the Messiah. He said, "Let's put it this way: we're both waiting for the Messiah, correct?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Well, one of us is waiting for the first time, and the other is waiting for the second time. Can we not wait together?" I said, "Okay, good point."

I think that's important for us to know, and it's why we're having this conversation. Christians have to understand that there are people who will take the position of our Jewish communities or our Jewish brethren and they will use the scriptures against the Jewish people to antagonize hatred because they're different, they're not like us. Unfortunately, that has been one of the leading forces, the tour de force against the Jews for the last 2,000 years.

Yaffah Batya da Costa: I don't mean to correct you, but it's 2,300 years because it goes back to the 3rd century BCE. We'll talk about that someday. Most people don't know this. It's a well-guarded secret. A lot of people know it, numerically it's a minority, but still, a lot of people know this history, but they're cowards. They're cowards because they don't want to talk about it because they don't want to offend anybody.

This business of somebody's different and therefore we're going to dislike them or even hate them is Roman. It's Greco-Roman. That's how far back it goes, 2,300 years. So your point is just so beautiful and so well expressed. If we're both waiting for him, whoever it is, can't we be friends in the meantime? Because we're both waiting for the Jewish Messiah.

In the meantime, people can have their different views and different opinions and people can share, "Well, I think X," and somebody else says, "Well, I think Y." That's fine as long as it doesn't get down to, "I'm going to beat you over the head with my beliefs until you submit." The proselytizers, the missionaries trying to demand that Jews convert and become a Christian.

I was doing this on X today, and some people responded to me and said you're absolutely right. Paul was against the Pharisees of the House of Shammai who were saying, "No, no, no, these Gentiles, these non-Jews have to fully convert and become Jews." Paul was against that. But the other side of that coin, the flip side of that coin, is Paul never told Jews to give up their Judaism to become Christian and to become non-observant of the Torah, like the Torah was done away with. That's replacement theology, that the Torah was done away with, the Jews have been done away with, everybody now has to be Christian meaning not observant of the law.

Paul was saying Gentiles don't have to observe the Mount Sinai Torah, but for Jews, it was still active, it was still valid, it was still present. He even proved it in the book of Acts by joining with and paying for the sacrifices of the Nazarites because there was a rumor about him that that's what he was saying and he wasn't saying that, that Jews should abandon the Torah. Paul and the leaders of the Nazarites, James and whoever else was the leaders in Jerusalem, said to Paul, "Look, there's this rumor about you. You got to fix this because people are a little bit hot under the collar about this." Paul goes, "But of course I've never said that." So the book of Acts absolutely confirms that Paul was Torah observant and he never told Jews to not be Torah observant.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: Unfortunately, that has happened in modern day because I know of members of the Jewish community who converted to Christianity and no longer observe or keep the Torah of Moses. They say they don't have to, and this is Christians teaching a different Gospel message than the one that was first preached to them. Because the Gospel message was preached to Moses first.

To be Jewish and then to convert to Christianity and say that we no longer have to keep the Torah of Moses is shocking. But again, it shows how Christians do not know their Bibles from a Hebraic position. This is why we are having this conversation, this is why we're doing this study. We've got to understand the biblical history from a Hebraic position, not from Greco-Romanism, which has led too many people astray. I look at Jeremiah. There's a scripture that comes to mind right now in the book of Jeremiah where God told Jeremiah don't do as the pagans do. They put nails in trees and they stand them up and they adorn them with gold and silver. You can't get more obvious than that.

Yaffah Batya da Costa: Tree worship, sure.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: As the holidays are quickly approaching.

Yaffah Batya da Costa: There are a lot of Christians who know today that Jesus couldn't possibly have been born in December. The shepherds wouldn't have been out at night with the flocks; it would have been too cold. The people who really know the Jewish roots of Christianity talk about this and they'll say it was probably maybe around Sukkot.

But the other thing is there was a pagan holiday called Saturnalia, December 25th. They didn't know when exactly he was born because that wasn't tracked by anybody. It didn't matter. So because they didn't know the natural date, they said, "Well, let's pick this one because if we pick this one, then the pagans who were used to celebrating the festival of Saturnalia don't have to give up their festival." They just change it and have different things that they're talking about and celebrating, but it's still December 25th.

I don't know how many, but a lot of Christians know these things about the pagan stuff that got put into Christianity. But again, that was after Romanism took over after the Romans took over.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: That's why we're having this conversation. So let's talk, Yaffah, let's talk about the Jewish tradition, some of the examples of and biblical references with regards to the Messiah.

Yaffah Batya da Costa: Okay, and people can look these up.

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Yaffah Batya da Costa: So the first one is, aside from not being deity, divinity, and an object of worship, the first one is he has to be Jewish. The quote there is at Deuteronomy chapter 17, verse 15. It says, "You may appoint a king over you whom the Lord your God shall choose, one from among your brethren shall you set as king over you." So he has to be Jewish.

And you said correctly, of the tribe of Judah more specifically, not just Jewish. That's the next one. That's at Genesis chapter 49, verse 10. He must be a member of the tribe of Judah. The quote is, "The staff shall not depart from Judah, nor the scepter from between his feet." That's talking about the King's scepter. So after King David, all the kings of Israel had to have been from the line of David. That's why he's called Messiah Ben David, son of David.

And he must be a direct male descendant of King David and King Solomon. So the quote there is, "And when your days, David, are fulfilled and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed, your descendants after you, who shall issue from your bowels, your loins, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will make firm the throne of his kingdom forever." Now that's 2 Samuel chapter 7, verses 12 and 13. So he has to build that house, this Messiah.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: Something I wanted to point out also is that he had to be anointed. And that's where Samuel the prophet came in to anoint David as king. He anointed Saul first and then he anointed David.

Yaffah Batya da Costa: Right. Now I asked a rabbi this one time quite a while ago: would the final Mashiach Ben David have to be anointed? And he said, "Well, it depends." He said, "If his genealogy is clean and clear and well understood and well known and not disputed, not in question, then he might not have to be anointed. But if any of those other things existed—his genealogy was disputed or it wasn't clear or it wasn't firmly established who his father, grandfather, great-great-great, whatever was from the line of David—then he would have to be anointed." And by the way, with oil, obviously, that's what the anointing vehicle is, with oil, and by a prophet.

So it would have to be both a prophet and the Messiah at the same time. Now I know Christians will say and they believe many of them that John the Baptizer immersed Jesus in water. But that's immersion, that's not anointing. No one in the New Testament that I'm aware of ever talked about him being—there was a woman one time who anointed his feet, but she wasn't a prophet or a prophetess anointing him from his head down through his beard and everything like David and Solomon. So he was not anointed with oil.

And he did have a questionable ancestry if you look at the birth narratives of Luke and Matthew. It was questionable whether Joseph was his father or not. So again, if he has to come from the tribe of Judah, then he has to have a human father, and that human father has to come from the tribe of Judah. Those are things that are really problematic for Jesus.

Now, if it's him coming back to be the King of Israel and to fulfill all the rest of these prophecies, which I'm going to mention the rest of them in a minute, if it is him and there's a prophet that comes ahead of him—we think it's Eliyahu, but it could be any prophet, but we Jews actually do believe Eliyahu's going to come before him and announce him, we pray for that all the time—then Eliyahu could anoint him when he comes back. Or of course, he could anoint the one who gets declared to be the Messiah if he hasn't been here before. But he still has to be anointed, the Jewish Messiah, the King of Israel, still has to go through an anointing and by a prophet of God.

And then there's the one about he must gather the Jewish people from exile and return them to Israel. So the quote is, "And he shall set up a banner for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." Now that's Isaiah 11, verse 12.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: So just real quick, I just want to reiterate that the goal of the Messiah is to gather the Jewish people from exile and return them to the land of Israel. "And he shall set up a banner for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel," the 10 northern tribes, "and gather together the dispersed of Judah," the two southern tribes, "from the four corners of the earth."

Yaffah Batya da Costa: Right. And by the way, the corollary to that is Ezekiel chapter 37 that talks about God saying to Ezekiel, put a stick in one hand and label it Israel, put a stick in the other hand label it Judah, and then put the two sticks together. And that's a prophecy about Israel and Judah being regathered into the land, the land of covenant, the land of promise, which goes back to Genesis chapter 17 as an eternal covenant.

And then he must rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Quote: "And I will set my sanctuary in their midst forever and my tabernacle shall be with them." That is Ezekiel 37. So not only does God tell Ezekiel He's going to gather both the people of Israel, which is the northern kingdom, and the people of Judah, which was the southern kingdom, in one place in the land, but this king of Israel of the whole of Israel, of the Israelites, all the tribes, has to rebuild the temple. That's Ezekiel 37, verses 26 and 27.

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Yaffah Batya da Costa: Now here's a really tough one for a lot of people because it's clear it hasn't happened. It's so clear. It says he will rule at a time of worldwide peace. Quote: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."

Laurie Cardoza Moore: This is a difficult one because even if we go back to the time of Christ, there was no peace back then. So this is important for us to understand. This is the prophet Micah. And when did Micah—Micah was a contemporary of what other prophet and what other king at the time?

Yaffah Batya da Costa: I'm not sure off the top of my head, but I think he's one of the later prophets, but he's not as late as the last prophet, Malachi. So I'm not sure where in the prophets he stands. He's one of the minor prophets. That's what he's called. There are major prophets and minor prophets. And then there's prophets like Daniel, and his book is within the writings of the Royal Houses because Daniel was a member of the Royal House, like David and Solomon. So you have prophets, you have major prophets and minor prophets, and then some of the prophets' writings are put into this collection of the Hebrew Bible called the writings of the Royal Houses. So I'm not sure where Micah is in any of that, but I think he's one of the minor prophets. Micah 4:3, by the way.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: If we're looking at what's happening right now, let's just look at modern-day headlines. We hear all this talk about peace. We hear that Donald Trump is trying to negotiate a peace, a ceasefire agreement, a peace treaty, and that seems to be a moving target. He obviously hasn't achieved peace. I understand recently that the Saudi government, the Abraham Accords—so in the process of the Abraham Accords are trying to reach some type of agreement or peace within the other Arab neighbors of Israel. The Saudis don't want to have Israel as part of this agreement. I don't know where that's going to end up and how Trump is going to handle that. There just seems to be no example that we can point to with regards to a peace treaty that is of any significance. It just seems like the battle continues to be waged between all of these players in the Middle East. And I commend President Trump for what he's trying to do.

Yaffah Batya da Costa: So they're stuck. And what they're stuck on is Saudi Arabia has been very clear with President Trump that he has five years to get Israel to agree to a Palestinian state and implement that. And the Israelis, not just Netanyahu, but the whole of the government and all of the people in recent polls, 80% or more are against a Palestinian state because the population is hostile to Israel and to the Jews. You can't make a state out of a population that is so hostile.

So they have to do something to break this impasse in order for there to be truly peace. But the difficulty that MBS, Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia—the difficulty he has is his father is still the king. He is currently the king and he cannot go against his father. It's a matter of honor that he would not publicly go against his father and against the peace proposal that his father put together and published as a matter of this is Saudi Arabia's view of what needs to happen in order for there to be peace. He cannot go against that.

When it happens someday, as it will for all of us, that his father goes on to his reward and Mohammed bin Salman is the king of Saudi Arabia, then he can do whatever he wants because he'll be king. But he cannot go against his own father who is the king right now without very severe consequences. So they're stuck because there's no plan in place to say there's going to be a Palestinian state, but the population is going to be different, or the Palestinian state is going to be in Uganda or it's going to be in some other country. It's not going to be in the territory that should belong to the Jews, which is all the territory west of the Jordan River, which is what was supposed to have been from the beginning. So there's no elbow room on this. They're stuck as much as they're trying. They're trying very, very hard, but they are stuck.

But the point is that in the time of the Messiah, whoever that is, there will be world peace.

And then the next one is he, the Messiah, the King of Israel, will rule at a time when the Jewish people will observe God's commandments. Now this is key. Again, we've said the Torah wasn't revoked, wasn't done away with. And here we have Ezekiel again, chapter 37, verse 24, reiterating this point. Quote: "My servant David shall be king over them and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes." That's talking about the Torah. There's no getting around it. The Jews have to observe the Torah. And the Messiah is going to reinforce that.

Then we have another verse in Isaiah, this one's at chapter 66, verse 23. He will rule at a time when all people will come to acknowledge and serve one God. This is the one God of the Hebrew Bible. Quote: "And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me, says the Lord." Now you can't have that if Christians are saying, "Well, He's one but there's three," and "Jesus is co-equal but he was a man." Wait a minute, he was 100% man and 100% God. That's in the Catholic Encyclopedia. And they say it's a mystery and it can't be explained. This is the way they deal with it on the Encyclopedia.

But the other thing is that is a corollary to this is Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 31 through 34, where in that verse it talks about everybody in the whole world will know God directly, one-to-one, know Him themselves. No one will have to teach his neighbor about God. They will all know Me. I'm not quoting that directly because I don't have it here in my notes, but people can read up on Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 31 through 34.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: So we won't be doing these podcasts anymore because everybody's going to know all this information, right? Oh, let that day come soon. Not that I don't like doing these podcasts, I love them, but the fact that I don't have to teach anyone anymore because everyone is going to know Him from the least of these to the greatest. And that's Jeremiah 31:31. I mean, if you ask Christians too, "Do you consider yourself a New Covenant believer?" Well, Jeremiah talks about this. And they'll say yes. And I'll ask them, "Well, where was this first mentioned in the Bible?" And they're thinking New Testament scriptures. Let's go to the prophet Jeremiah.

Yaffah Batya da Costa: Now here's the difficulty. And poor Paul, I really feel for Paul. I sincerely believe that Paul sincerely believed that this prophecy was going to be fulfilled in his day, and that's why he quoted Jeremiah 31 when he talks about the New Covenant. Really, that word in Hebrew, *chadash*, can be "new" or "renewal." Because we talk about a new moon. Is that a brand-new, brand-spanking-new moon in the sky? No, it's a renewal because the moon has a cycle. And so every month it comes back and we call it a new moon, but it's actually the renewal of the moon cycle. Well, it's the same in Jeremiah chapter 31, 31 to 34. It's talking about a renewed covenant. So the covenant is the same. What's different is it's going to be written on the minds and in the hearts of people rather than written on stone.

When it first came out in Exodus, it was written on stone. And by the way, those stone tablets, that was a gemstone. Some people think it was actually a sapphire. Precious stone. Some people think it was a sapphire, but it says stone. In the Jewish view, it was a precious stone. It wasn't like a slab of gray. Most pictures have this thing that looks very grayish. It was written on precious stone on all sides. You could see it.

But in the future, what Jeremiah is saying is that those laws and that covenant of Mount Sinai will be written in a human being's mind and on their heart. That's the only difference. It's the same covenant. Now I think that Paul really believed that, that when Jesus returned in that generation, that's one of the things he was going to do. So that's why he called it a new, again should be renewal, covenant. And so Paul thought because he knew the Hebrew scriptures, he knew these prophecies. Well, that didn't happen. Jesus didn't come back, but that didn't happen either. This prophecy did not get fulfilled. But it will. In the last days, it will be fulfilled.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: Well, this is interesting too, and we probably should wrap up with these final verses and we'll pick back up next week. But it says in Jeremiah 31:31, "Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah," these are all 12 tribes. This is a new covenant, and he states who they are that he's making this new covenant with. "Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law," or my Torah, "in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, who disturbs the sea and its waves roar, the Lord of hosts is His name. If those ordinances depart from me," now he's talking about the sun, the moon, and the sea and its roaring, "if those ordinances depart from me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before me. Thus says the Lord, if heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the Lord."

Right here, Christians who say God is done with Israel, He's done with the Jews, you cannot argue. Are you going to argue with Jeremiah, what he prophesied? He was a major, considered a major prophet. The last time I looked, Yaffah, the sun came up this morning, the stars were in the sky last night, and I'll bet if I drive over to the beach from where I'm at right now, I can still see the waves lapping up the shores.

This is an eternal promise, an eternal covenant. Christians, you have to get this right. You have to understand the house—this is the new covenant He's making with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. You've got to know who you are. We are suffering from an identity crisis and we're going to leave it there because we're going to pick it up next week because I know you all want to hear the rest of this story, as Paul Harvey would tell us. Yaffah, thank you so much. Is there any last comment you want to leave with us before we sign off tonight?

Yaffah Batya da Costa: Well, I just want to say I'm having so much fun on X, which used to be called Twitter, and people can join us and they can join the discussions or like and share and whatever they might like to do. But there's a lot of this that needs to be shared with many, many people, and social media is a great place to do that. If people want to join, they can. You know my handle on X because you and I follow each other.

But we need many more people involved in doing this, in helping other Christians to understand just what you're saying. Because I'll tell you, I was talking to a guy today, I'll make this very quick, and he quoted a scripture of the Hebrew Bible that said God had divorced Israel. And he's quoting correctly. But I asked him, "Well, can divorce be revoked?" And he was trying to suggest that God had revoked the Mount Sinai covenant when He divorced Israel. He was equating the two.

If a person does that, they're not just giving false testimony about Israel and Judah, the Israelites, the 12 tribes. They're not just giving false testimony, which is a major sin, one of the Ten Commandments. They're calling God a liar. Very dangerous because that divorce, the divorce decree, was given to the house of Israel, the 10 northern tribes. God never divorced the house of Judah. He stayed faithful.

That's what I was trying to tell him and he couldn't hear it. He absolutely could not hear it. That's tragic because there's blindness and he's, as you said, he's violating the ninth commandment by bearing false witness against Judah and calling God a liar. Because Jesus even said similar to what you just quoted about the sun and the moon and the stars, Jesus quoted a similar thing, and maybe he was actually referring to that what you just quoted. Not a jot or a tittle will pass from the law until all is fulfilled. I even quoted that back to him and he wouldn't accept it.

So again, Christians have been indoctrinated with propaganda and against their brothers and sisters, the Jews. And it's very tragic. It's terrible.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: It's why there's this animosity and this hatred. The only way we're going to deal with this is if we know truth, sound biblical truth. And that's why we're doing this study. Yaffah, can't wait to have you back next week. This is always so exciting to break down all of these verses and understand them in their proper context, not from some Greco-Roman mindset. Oh Lord God, deliver us from that.

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