Watchman on the Wall

Southwest Radio Ministries: Welcome to Watchman on the Wall, a daily outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries and swrc.com. God is still on the throne, and prayer changes things. Today, author and teacher Mark Linsted will continue sharing where he believes the third temple will be built. And then a little later, Pastor Larry will answer an intriguing question about AI.

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If you'd like to learn more about leaving a legacy of faith through Southwest Radio Ministries, we'd be honored to help. Visit swrc.com or call 1-800-652-1144 for free confidential information on including Southwest Radio Church in your estate plans. One of the most fascinating prophetic questions in scripture is the mystery of the third temple. Here to continue exploring this incredible topic is Bible prophecy teacher and author Mark Linsted.

Mark Linsted: I like to do a little bit of opposition research. That's my fun thing to get into, to dabble in to see what I can come up with and understand. In fact, I do so much of it that I have a stamp that I use on books. I'm a book person. I'm a book idiot. I love books. I buy them, and sometimes I read them. My stack of unread keeps getting larger than the stack of read, but that's okay. When I do opposition research, I have a stamp I put in the book. It says "heretical garbage for research purposes only." So if I'm ever gone and you want to get in my library, check for that stamp to see if it's something I thought was good or something I thought was bad.

But I thought it was important for us to start to look into a little bit of what the end times signs, or things that we call signs of the end times, what they look like through the Jewish, the Muslim, and then the Christian perspective just so we can understand a little bit about those around us, those other religions, those other forms of faith. One of the biggest stories over the last three years has been the red heifers. So I wanted to start with the red heifers and the sacrifice of the red heifer as we read in Numbers 19.

It's really about a cleansing. It's about ashes of this heifer that was pure, unyoked, unblemished, red, sacrificed to purify the temple, to purify the Temple Mount, to purify the priesthood, so many things, and it pictures Christ as well. I thought, okay, maybe not everybody, probably most in here have heard of the red heifer, but everybody on earth, I think, really knows a little bit of the story already because there's a man named Vendyl Jones. Believe it or not, they have movies about this guy. He looks like this in the movies: Indiana Jones.

I'm not joking. Hollywood came down and were following him. But they didn't think that people would understand that he was looking for the ashes of the red heifer. So then they said, okay, Ark of the Covenant. Everyone knows what that is. We'll have him search for that. But he's really been, during his life, he was looking for the ashes of the red heifer in Qumran. Since 70 AD, there has not been a sacrifice for Israel, for the Jewish people. They believe they need the ashes of the red heifer to cleanse the Temple Mount, to cleanse the temple, to cleanse the priesthood, to begin sacrificing again.

He was in a hard, hard time looking for this. In fact, Dr. Linsted actually dug with him several times in the cave at Qumran, in several caves at Qumran. If you want to hear some really interesting stories, ask him about doing that. But the red heifers are not new to our family. It's not something new. In fact, Dr. Linsted, even back in the late '90s, early 2000s, went to a kibbutz and visited a red heifer then. I can't remember, I think the name was Bluebell. But he visited this heifer. We've been tracking them as many people who do who are into prophecy, who are into looking for the end times.

It's really interesting because it doesn't just stop with his like for them. Because now, if you go to Israel with us, I will take you into this pen, and now I think there's a glass front you can go into where the current red heifers are. In this video, one of our friends from Iowa, a farmer, was allowed to feed the heifers. I was terrified as he took the pitchfork and shoveled hay over the top. I'm like, please don't touch one of them. But it was such an interesting thing. Our family has a long history of tracking these heifers, of getting to know the ins and outs of them.

These are owned by a man named Byron Stinson, and they were flown into Israel from Texas, I think it was September 20th, 2022. The man who owns them, his name is Byron Stinson, a very, very interesting man. If you ever get a chance to watch or read anything that he's done, he's very interesting. He arranged for them to arrive in Israel. There's five of them. Sometimes people wonder why five. He had, I think, 23 or 28 that were perfectly ready to go. Why five? There is an embargo on livestock between America and Israel. There isn't on pets, and you can have five pets.

So he has five pet heifers. Actually, he has four pet heifers. Three are still qualified. One was already cremated as a trial run. I'll let you decide if that was a trial run or if that was the mask of getting the ashes ready to go. But it was such an interesting thing to see. And the typology is interesting because most of the Jewish festivals, most of the Jewish traditions, are foreshadowings of Christ. So the heifer really does picture Christ. The qualifications of purity, of sacrifice, and bringing salvation is really an interesting study if you ever go into that.

But is the red heifer a sign for the end times? I say yes. You say, well, Matthew 24 doesn't say that red heifers will come. No. But Daniel 9:27 says the Antichrist is going to stop the Jewish people from sacrificing. So if something stops, what does it have to do? It's got to start. You can't start sacrificing if you don't have the ashes of the red heifer to cleanse the temple, the tabernacle, the priesthood, anything in connection with the temple. So I think it is a sign for the end times. I think it most definitely is.

If we begin to look at this through the eyes of the Orthodox or Hasidic or Jewish people, what do they think about the heifers? Where does it matter to them in the scope of prophecy and the end times? Well, it's really interesting. They believe from Moses, or Moshe, to the second temple, there were nine red heifers sacrificed. The ninth one was just before 70 AD. Those are the ashes they can't find. They were swept away into Qumran during the siege. But they also believe something really interesting. They believe that the 10th red heifer is a sign of the Messiah coming, that the Messiah may even be responsible for the sacrifice.

I agree, too. If you think it's nine, I'll agree with you it's nine. And I think number 10 could bring the Messiah the second time, not the first. They think it's the first coming of the Messiah, not the second. It's really interesting as you go throughout their understanding where they think that goes, and we'll get into that a little further on. Now, some of the Jewish people think that this is Christians trying to bring about the Antichrist. There are so many differences between the belief systems there that it's hard to even navigate many times.

The Jews are split on their beliefs by who they follow as a rabbi, and those rabbis are split all over the place. Some of them do not want what they call Goyim—that's their name for us, and I want you to be aware that's not a polite name—some of them do not want the Goyim help. They think that heifer can't possibly be worth it because it came out of them; it needs to come from us. We need to do the research, we need to do the breeding, all that. Some are happy for the help because they want the third temple built as soon as possible.

I want the temple to be built because that means I'm probably going to get raptured. I'm ready. They're also split on whether they think they need some of the ashes of the ninth heifer to blend with the 10th heifer for them to be legitimate ashes. Some of the younger rabbis say we've got a perfect heifer, that's fine, we'll use it, we don't need the other one, we can just do it ourselves. No problem. We can move forward. So there's a large split between them in their own belief system. Now, many modern-day Jewish people are Jewish in name only, I would say.

Almost like America, Christian in name only. Sometimes they'll go to Christmas mass or meeting, maybe Easter occasionally. But for the most part, very secular. And that's an interesting term, secular, because in Jewish-run nations, in Jewish words, the word secular is very offensive actually. It doesn't mean that I don't follow your system; it actually means unholy. So if you call a Jewish person, "Oh, you're secular," they're going to get mad at you for saying that because you're going to call them unholy. But I would say they're non-believing or they're very lackluster in their faith.

It's really an interesting thing to talk about them as we look at these things because they are asking for this. "Yeah, we want the red heifers. Yeah, so do I." Why? Well, Jesus is coming for the second time. No, He's coming for the first time. It's an interesting discussion between the Jewish people and the Christian. They think they're going to need it, of course, to cleanse the Temple Mount, to prepare the instruments, to prepare the priesthood to return to sacrifice. So for them, the ashes of the red heifer means they can build the temple.

And I agree with them. I think they could build it anyway because it doesn't matter. I don't think the Shekinah glory is going to occupy that temple, just so you know. I don't think that the glory of the Lord will come to that temple because the glory of the Lord left the temple when Christ left the Temple Mount. And it's not coming back until He places His foot. Remember, Rapture, Second Coming, two different things. Rapture, He's not going to physically touch the earth; He's going to come in the clouds. Second Coming, He's going to put His foot physically on the Mount of Olives.

He's going to split the East Gate in two, and He's going to enter the Temple Mount. That's when the glory will return to the Temple Mount. So that's what I think. That's what I believe. And that's the Jewish understanding, is that He's coming for the first time. Where their end times go, we'll talk about that a little later. It's very interesting. But I just want you to know I'm not looking for a temple. I really could care less if I see this temple be built. I just know that if a temple is going to be built, that means they're going to return to sacrifice. If they're going to return to sacrifice, that means we're close to the tribulation because in the tribulation he stops the sacrifice. That's a sign to me for the end times. So I'm really looking for the Rapture. That's what I'm looking for.

Now, what is the Islamic or Muslim belief? This gets a little more interesting. The Quran, I believe, borrows a lot from the Bible, and they say that the red heifer story is confused, that the Jewish people don't know what they're talking about. They actually in the Quran, they ruin this idea of the red heifer because they blend it with the golden calf during the exile and exodus. And scholars of the Quran—I'll use that term loosely, scholarship—they say that the reason why the Jewish people have it wrong is because they copied from the Quran and the Hadith, which is the explanation of the Quran, to make their text.

If you know anything about ancient manuscripts, you know that's complete poppycock. Complete ridiculousness. Just so you know, the Mishnah, which describes even greater detail of the red heifer, was compiled around 200 to 300 AD. They took all the oral text, they put it together, they called it the Mishnah. You know when the Quran was written? Somewhere between 600 and 700 AD. Really hard to copy something that hasn't been written yet. So like I said, I use the term "Quranic scholar" very loosely. You do know Muhammad couldn't read or write, right? How did he confirm anything that was written down? Oh wait, it was written down after he died too.

Islam is found in the Bible in Galatians chapter 1 verse 8. If you want to look that up, you'll enjoy that one, I believe. But what do they think? And really, we need to consider the source of where this information comes from. Because if you look at the Quran and you start to dissect what it says, you look at what it says about the creation of Adam. Do you know there's, I believe, five different accounts of how Adam was created in the Quran? One says that he was made of congealed blood. One says he was made from clay. Another says he was made from dust. And one says he was made from nothing.

Which is it? So you need to consider the source because there's so many things that they get wrong. Look at Mary, the mother of Jesus. According to the Quran, she is the sister of Aaron and Moses. Methuselah, move over, you're not the oldest person in the Bible anymore. That's something to consider the source here. It's such an interesting thing. The sun sets in a muddy puddle according to the Quran. Have we been off the earth to see where the sun goes? The earth is flat according to the Quran too. So I just want to make sure we understand this, that the stars, the falling stars, are actually hurled stars at demons. Allah is throwing stars at demons. That's what a falling star is.

There's so many things that are just so inaccurate. But when they look at the heifer, what they say is the heifer sacrifice, they say, "Well, the Jewish people couldn't read Arabic very well, so they just got the color wrong. It really isn't red." But they say it could be yellow or it could be black. Well, you wrote it. What color is it? They don't even know themselves. But it could be yellow or it could be black.

And it's really a story about a man who was murdered, a Jewish man was murdered, and nobody knew who did it. So they say that the red heifer sacrifice or the heifer sacrifice is really about resurrection because Allah tells Moses to sacrifice a heifer so that they can figure out the murder. And the people mock him. They say, "What are you talking about?" He says, "No, no, we gotta do this." So they sacrifice a heifer. They take the pieces of the dead cow, they take the pieces of the dead cow and they beat the dead body with it. The dead body comes back to life, and the man points out his murderer. That's what they think the sacrifice of the heifer is.

This is where we're at. It's such a crazy thing. But like I say, you gotta consider the source. If I was to describe what the Quran, I've got an English one written by a man named Usama Dakdok, fantastic believer. If you read the Quran and take it at face value, have you ever known anybody who has a tendency to drink strong drinks and maybe they go to church once a year, they went to Sunday school until they were four or five, and then you start talking theology with them and they start telling you the story or the account in the Bible of something? You're like, "You got the names all wrong on that one, man." That's exactly how the Quran reads. Somebody who can't get anything straight.

And that's exactly what we see here is the confusing of this story. It's insane. Now, they don't believe in the red heifer. They don't believe that that's a thing. But the spokesperson for Hamas blames Israel's importing of the red heifers for the October attack. Do you think they fully believe their own text, or do you think they know they're wrong?

Southwest Radio Ministries: We've been listening in on a presentation Mark Linsted gave on the Mystery of the Third Temple. One of the greatest mysteries in Bible prophecy is the location of that future third temple. Could we have been looking in the wrong place all along? The Lost and Found collection takes you on a fascinating journey through scripture, history, and archaeology to examine the evidence.

You'll receive Mark Linsted's eye-opening book, Lost and Found: Solving the Third Temple Mystery, Dr. Rob Linsted's insightful book, What's Next on God's Calendar, and the Third Temple Mystery DVD. Together, these resources will help you better understand God's prophetic timeline and why developments in Israel today matter to every believer. Order the Lost and Found collection today at swrc.com or call 1-800-652-1144. That's swrc.com or 1-800-652-1144. Pastor Larry Spargimino is here now to answer an interesting question about you and AI. Pastor Larry, how do we develop true Christian discernment when it comes to artificial intelligence?

Larry Spargimino: Discernment may be defined as the ability to judge accurately and requires a high degree of understanding for the purpose of making wise decisions. People exercise discernment on a daily basis because of the number of claims and promises that we face every day. Candidates for a political office make many promises, contradict their opponents, and boast that they are eminently qualified to provide voters with what they really need. Voters need discernment to weigh through the verbiage and make a good choice.

In our modern world, there are new developments in science and technology which, to say the least, have produced many amazing devices. Because most of us are not familiar with these alleged breakthroughs, we are easily deceived. Technocrats love to promote their technology, which is portrayed as having many benefits, including doing more with reduced cost, making life easier for the population, and providing quick solutions to many problems. For many, technology is their only Messiah.

In fact, AI has the ability to predict the future. AI can study trends, analyze their development, and make some accurate conclusions about the future. Now, this is not true prediction, but it certainly has the appearance of a high predictive ability and, in the minds of many people, assumes the position of God. "Yes, this is amazing," some people will say. The rapid advance in popularity of AI and its apparent ability to outthink humans should put us on the alert. Every technological revolution follows a moral trajectory shaped by the nature and character of its creators and the spirit of the modern age.

For Christians who accept the revelation of scripture, we believe in human depravity. For those who do not accept the Bible's portrayal of humanity as sinful and fallen, people are believed to have an inherent creativity that will ultimately produce happiness and joy. Now, of course, a quick study of history will quickly prove that humanity is selfish, destructive to the ideas of freedom and liberty, and is quickly moving toward a totalitarian one-world order in which super-elites will rule the masses.

While human creativity reflects the image of the Creator, nevertheless, there is the obvious truth that humanity has been morally, ethically, and spiritually corrupted. Romans 3:23 expresses this truth quite well: "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." In his excellent book, The New AI Cold War, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Maginnis writes, and I quote him, "The AI revolution is no exception. Past innovations have been used to bless and to harm. AI mirrors the full spectrum of human impulses: creativity and cooperation, but also pride, greed, and the thirst for domination."

The danger is real, and there are many who see the need for regulating AI. Christian discernment about AI must not be based on techno-optimism nor on techno-fear, but on the invisible realm of darkness and the moral depravity driving the ambitions of humanity. There are always the dynamics of pride, greed, and large profit margins controlling so much innovation today. Competitive pressures reward speed and technological breakthroughs, which take precedence over proper moral restraint. Thus, we are led to the very evils that scripture warns us all about. "For the love of money is the root of all evil," we read in 1 Timothy 6:10.

Jesus was also quite clear when He warned about a covetous heart. "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." Unlike the unresponsive idols the Hebrew prophets condemned, AI can easily function as a rival deity. While this may sound far-fetched, recent studies prove that AI chatbots are increasingly being treated as relational companions. Users report deep emotional attachment and profound trust in the machine's responses, especially responses that are understood as conveying affection and approval.

Like the builders of the Tower of Babel, AI builders often pursue so-called progress without even acknowledging the existence of and our accountability to Almighty God. The population needs to be alert. There is great danger involved in AI.

Southwest Radio Ministries: The Bible tells us a third temple will one day stand in Jerusalem. But where will it be built? The Lost and Found collection explores one of the most fascinating mysteries in Bible prophecy. Inside this collection, you'll receive Mark Linsted's groundbreaking book, Lost and Found: Solving the Third Temple Mystery, Dr. Rob Linsted's book, What's Next on God's Calendar, and the Third Temple Mystery DVD, all together for a gift of $50 or more.

Discover how archaeology, scripture, and today's headlines point to God's prophetic plan. Order your Lost and Found collection today at swrc.com or call 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. Tomorrow, we travel to Israel with Clayton Van Huss and Go in the Land to learn about how archaeology can illuminate your faith. Watchman on the Wall is a production of Southwest Radio Ministries and is supported by faithful listeners like you. Visit swrc.com.