Watchman on the Wall

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The countdown is on for Prophecy in the News Live in Bristol, Virginia. Today, we're giving you a special preview with two of this year's featured speakers: Micah Van Huss and Southwest Radio Ministries' president, Dr. Kenneth Hill. They'll give us a sneak peek at what they're bringing to the conference and why you'll want to be there. Let's get started.

Southwest Radio Ministries: Greetings, friends. Southwest Radio Ministries is gearing up for our largest conference of the year. It's the Prophecy in the News Live, October 22nd, 23rd, 24th—three full days with a special emphasis every single day. We would love for you to join us in Bristol, Virginia, at the Delta Hotel. More information is available at swrc.com.

Before we get into all those kinds of things, I want to say welcome to two special guests who are joining me in the studio today. The first is our president of SWRC, Dr. Kenneth Hill, and the next is our director of Marginal Mysteries, Micah Van Huss. Micah and Dr. Hill, welcome to Watchman on the Wall.

Dr. Kenneth Hill: Thank you very, very much.

Micah Van Huss: Thanks for having me, Josh.

Southwest Radio Ministries: We are looking forward to this conference. It's the first of its kind that we've done exactly this way. Micah, perhaps it'd be better if you tell the folks what's going to happen on that Saturday because this is something that you have done in different locations. It's the first time that we've sort of combined efforts here. I know that I'm sort of beating around the bush, so I'll let you tell the folks all about what Saturday's going to hold.

Micah Van Huss: Well, this conference, we're doing three days of different topics on each day. Thursday will be an Apologetics Day. Friday, October 23rd, will be a Bible Prophecy Day. Then Saturday, October 24th, is the day that I am kind of hosting. It is our annual Mysteries of the Bible-verse, which is the mysterious stuff of God's creation.

I'm looking forward to this year. We have a couple of guest speakers with us. I will be speaking on my "Angels Eternal" book, "Realm of the Dead," and "War of the Princes." I will also be giving my presentation on my brand-new book, "Mythologies Decoded: Echoes of the Bible."

We also have speaking for us Doc Brown. Doc Brown runs a YouTube show, Prometheus Lens Podcast, and he is going to be talking about Esau and what Esau really was. Of course, his talk is about Bigfoot, and Esau was very hairy. It's a fascinating topic. We also have speaking for us Mac Dominick. He's talking about Jesus versus the Old Gods, the gods of old. We also have Tyler Gilreath joining us, talking about the transfiguration mystery, about the spiritual realm beyond the veil. Saturday's going to be, in my opinion, a lot of fun. I love to study the weird stuff of God's creation, but we will do it from a biblical foundation.

Southwest Radio Ministries: And Mysteries of the Bible-verse is something... this will be the third year.

Micah Van Huss: Yep, third year. We did Mysteries of the Bible-verse in Cincinnati two years ago and Indianapolis last year. This year, it will be in Bristol. It's been a lot of fun. I've met so many new friends at the Mysteries of the Bible-verse over the years—not just speakers, but also people who attend. It's always a good environment and a good conversation.

Southwest Radio Ministries: Dr. Hill, you're going to be speaking on Thursday morning as the conference begins on our day that's focused on apologetics. You've got the very first session. You've got a new resource that'll be coming out soon, "The Scripture Speaks," looking at the book of Ephesians. We're excited that you're going to speak at this year's conference.

Dr. Kenneth Hill: Well, thank you, Pastor. I appreciate you letting me know that I'm going to be speaking. Oh, I knew that. I knew that. It's exciting to me. "The Scripture Speaks" has been a project that we've been doing for quite a while. We have some local things that we do in the Tri-Cities area on radio with that, and now we're having the opportunity to expand a little bit.

We've got a book coming out. Books are becoming a greater necessity, I believe, than ever before, and they're becoming fewer and fewer in number, unfortunately. This series of books that uses the moniker "The Scripture Speaks" will be Bible studies on the books of the Bible. It'll be something that will be useful, I believe, in everybody's spiritual existence.

When you're wanting to study the Word of God, you need good helps to use. Of course, the Holy Spirit of God is the best help you can have, and then you look for resources that the Holy Spirit has worked through in humankind. That's the next thing you look for. Of course, that's by the preacher, the pastor in your pulpit where you go to church. That's a Bible teacher, perhaps in a Sunday school or other Bible teaching class that you have. It's also in the books that are written. We've got that new book coming out on Ephesians. It's going to be an exciting time, and we'll talk a little bit about that.

Southwest Radio Ministries: Yes, it will. All day Thursday is geared towards apologetics. As we said, Dr. Hill will be speaking about the book of Ephesians. We also have Dr. Lonnie Shipman. He's written several books for SWRC and our publication branch called Beacon Street Press. Dr. Shipman is a man of many talents—a great scholar and a scholarly mind—but he's also a very gifted pianist and musician. He can play multiple instruments.

Combining his talents, on Thursday, he's going to be speaking about how we know that we can trust the Bible, how we know that we can trust what God's Word says. That has been so questioned in our modern day, and I'm glad that he's going to be addressing that topic. Dr. Shipman also has a unique collection of rare and historic Bibles. He may have a handful of them on display or at least available with him as he travels and as he's with us on that day. So we're looking forward to that.

Also, we've got a unique presentation from Dr. Shipman on that Thursday. Many have heard his piano music, and he's going to be playing a whole session—about forty-five minutes—of majestic piano praise, it's called. That's a very unique thing for Thursday only that's going to be at this Prophecy in the News Live event, October 22nd through the 24th. We're looking forward to having him.

I'll be speaking twice that day as well on Thursday. My first session will be about "The Case is Closed: Jesus is the Messiah." I truly believe that the Bible points to that. Old Testament and New Testament shows us that Jesus is the Messiah. I'll be walking through three ways that Jesus claimed that he is God and three ways that Jesus backed up those claims.

Anybody could claim to be the Messiah; anybody could claim to be the Christ. But it's another thing to be able to back up those claims, and Jesus did it with three main lines of evidence.

Dr. Kenneth Hill: I've got a question for you, Josh. When you talk about the case being closed, the facts are in, and Jesus is the Messiah. I hear from folks who don't believe as we do—the non-Christian sects in particular—and they say that Jesus has never claimed to have any touch of deity. Well, he's not claimed a touch; he's claimed deity. He is God Almighty in the flesh, he was. He came as the second person of the Trinity to specifically do something for us, and that was to serve as the Messiah. But in that position, he also serves as our redeemer. So how do you approach that when you meet a person in conversation and they're saying, "Well, I don't believe Jesus ever said he was God"?

Southwest Radio Ministries: They're really misunderstanding Scripture at the core, and they don't really understand his claims. I would challenge them: open the Bible, understand in its context what Jesus is actually saying.

In the Gospel of Mark, there's an outright question as Jesus is standing before his accusers right before he goes to the cross, and they ask him point-blank, "Are you the Messiah?" He says yes, basically, to paraphrase him. He's very clear—a direct statement. There's many other ways that he claimed to be God. We're going to walk through the Scripture in that particular presentation and point out three key ways.

One thing I would like to tell our listeners right now is that when Jesus does a miracle, it's often connected to his message and to his morality. Jesus' message and his morality are linked to his miraculous works. Why that's important is because that's part of his claim to be God, claim to be the Messiah. When Jesus says, "I am the light of the world," for instance, he's harking back to the Old Testament. When he says, "I'm the good shepherd," Psalm 23 says, "The Lord is my shepherd."

So there's all these claims where he says that "I am the one who can forgive your sins." There's many claims that he made to be God, and the people understood his claims. That's why they often picked up stones to stone him. Why would you kill him if he wasn't claiming to be God?

We're going to talk about those kinds of things at the conference. The great thing about this conference, and people who are listening say, "I'm a long ways away from Bristol. I can't be there. This isn't relevant to me," we're also having this particular conference professionally filmed. These sessions will be available later to our SWRC audience as video projects. So that's another helpful resource that we want to get into the hands of people to equip them with those kinds of things.

Dr. Kenneth Hill: Well, in this day and age, when you talk about apologetics, it's more than just a defense of the faith. We want folks to know the truth of Scripture so they can come to Christ, place their faith in Christ, and that they might walk with him through their life here. Later on, it's going to be an eternal walk there with Christ, and we're going to have a wonderful time. But this is part of the apologetics outreach, is it not, from Southwest Radio?

Southwest Radio Ministries: It is. We've got several books and resources available, whether it's Bible archaeology and how that ties in to defending the faith. Many other great resources that are available at our website, swrc.com.

Then all day on Friday at this Prophecy in the News Live event, we will have a focus on Bible prophecy. The whole event is called Prophecy in the News Live, so we're setting aside one day, Friday, October 23rd, to really tackle a lot of issues related to Bible prophecy. Whether that's the pre-tribulation rapture, whether that's dispensationalism—and we understand that a lot of these things are being questioned today. Mac Dominick will be one of the speakers. Lonnie Shipman will be back speaking about Israel's future, temples, and wars. Mark Linstedt will be joining us talking about the location of the third temple. That's become a popular conference topic, and something that he does a great job of explaining his case for where he believes that the tribulation temple will be.

We want to encourage our friends: we need to hear from you if you're planning on coming. We would love for you to be our guest. It's October 22nd through the 24th. It's going to be hosted at the Delta Hotel in Bristol, Virginia—three full days. Now, the cost is $50 for all three days, or if you want to come to one, or you're only able to come to one of those days, that's $25. All kinds of great resources that you can avail yourself of.

You can register today by giving us a call at 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. Or visit our website, swrc.com. You can click on events, click on this particular event—that'll pull up all the information, the location where it's being hosted, even discounted links for the hotel if you want to stay on-site and you wouldn't even have to get in your vehicle, you'd just have to come downstairs and go to the conference room. Discounted information about that is available on that website, including the full schedule—who's speaking, what they're speaking about, when they're speaking. All that's on swrc.com.

So give us a call today or visit the website to register for October 22nd through the 24th. That brings us back around to Micah and the Mysteries of the Bible-verse day. I know that you've got a brand-new book that you're going to have there at the conference, and something that's been on Watchman on the Wall in the last couple of weeks. Just remind our audience a little bit about Mysteries and also about your brand-new book.

Micah Van Huss: I will, but first I want to remind folks that in the date of this conference, it is a beautiful time to come to Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia. The trees will be in full bloom. I absolutely love the scenery around here come that time of year.

Southwest Radio Ministries: We've got the Blue Ridge Parkway close by, a famous driving route that people love to take.

Dr. Kenneth Hill: Appalachian Trail, if you wish to walk.

Micah Van Huss: That's right. If you've always wanted to come down, we've got Gatlinburg—we're about an hour and twenty minutes from Gatlinburg, but the conference will be about an hour and fifty from Gatlinburg. But yeah, beautiful part of the country. If you've never been, it's a great opportunity to come down and maybe schedule a day or two to go to Gatlinburg.

Dr. Kenneth Hill: And while you're thinking about your travel, just put in there that it's Exit 7 in Bristol, Virginia. So you just go right off of the Interstate 81 and you just go right to the hotel. It's right there. This is where we've had it before under different names, of course—the hotel's changed names quite a number of times over the years. It is a good location and nice accommodations. They've remodeled the hotel; they've done a lot of things to bring it up to speed. Now, this new book of yours, Micah, "Mythologies Decoded." Where was the code?

Micah Van Huss: So the mythologies are echoes of a deeper truth, and that is Scripture. That's the argument of this book—is that humankind remembers. There's all kinds of memories; they're distorted through different cultures, but they're all pointing back to something similar.

In my opinion, the best example would be Noah's flood, the Great Flood. There are over 270 cultures around our history and around our world that talk about a great flood that wiped everybody out. Thirty-two of those accounts talk about a favored family that was saved in a wooden vessel. Nine of those accounts say that animals were brought onto that vessel. I mean, this is way too much of a coincidence for this to have not been something that really happened.

The flood is one of the best examples, but "Mythologies Decoded: Echoes of the Bible" is the study of all these different mythological stories and how they are echoes of something truer, which is Scripture. But there were also events in human history that distorted the true story through human actions. Also, the Tower of Babel, when humankind's languages were divided into 70 languages instantaneously, you get—that's part of the separation of why the story of the flood and the stories before got distorted.

But you also have humans throughout history worshipping pagan gods, fallen angels. You have them worshipping idols, you have them sacrificing children, and through getting away from the Creator's values, they have distorted the truth.

There's also other fascinating things when it comes to our ancient mythologies. There are actually a number of mythological figures that are named in the Hebrew and Greek texts. Many of those names do not get translated into our English versions; the names are translated into their meaning rather than the names themselves. A few of those are in, I think, Acts 16. Yes, Acts 16, Paul says there's a girl possessed by a spirit of divination. Well, in the original Greek text, it's a spirit of Python. Well, who was Python? Well, in Greek mythology, it was Apollo, the great archer, who defeated Python on Mount Parnassus. And they built the oracle on top of where that location was, and the fissures from deep in the earth would come up. And they put a female on top, a priestess on top of that fissure at the Oracle of Delphi in Greek history, not just mythology. And she would prophesy because of the demonic spirits that would come and talk to her through that.

And so that's what we're seeing in Acts chapter 16. The King James says she was possessed with a spirit of divination, but in the original Greek, it was a spirit of Python, the serpent that Apollo slew. We also have other mythological figures that are named in Scripture. Lilith is named in Isaiah 34, I believe. But in our English translations, it is a screech owl. But in the original Hebrew, it is Lilith, who is a figure from mythology. We have Azazel mentioned in Leviticus 16, though he's translated "scapegoat" in the modern English translations.

That's one of the studies we do in the book—is these mythological figures that are mentioned and these mythological stories that are in Scripture. They just haven't been really taught that that's from mythology. So it's a fascinating study. In "Mythologies Decoded," we go from the chaos before creation. One of the more fascinating things—if you look at the ancient mythologies, the gods—we're talking lowercase gods here—the gods, or the heroes, the demigods, the Nephilim, they had to defeat a serpent or some sort of chaos monster before creation at the beginning. In the Norse mythology, they had to defeat Ymir, the giant, before humankind could come forth. Tiamat, Baal fought, Typhon—all these dragons at the beginning, these heroes have to fight them before creation.

But what happens in Genesis? There's no chaos or dragon that fights God. God is omnipotent. He simply speaks and creation obeys. So we're seeing all kinds of distorted echoes of the true story. And so that's really what this mythology book, "Mythologies Decoded: Echoes of the Bible," is about.

It was a fascinating write, and there's one more topic which I will specifically be covering in the presentation on Saturday, October the 24th, and that is the subject of heaven. Now, heaven, the study of that, when I came across that study, I learned things about heaven that, at 47 years old, after having already written four books, I had no clue what heaven would be like in certain ways.

The study of heaven in this book was one of the more fascinating things. The first presentation I will be giving on Saturday is the "Realm of the Dead," which is a partial study on hell. And at the end of the day, I will be giving a partial study on heaven.

I do very much look forward to giving these presentations again. I do have one more presentation in the middle of the day, and that is "Angels Eternal: War of the Princes." And this is the concept that the angels were placed in charge of nations after the Tower of Babel, Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 8 and 9. Deuteronomy 32:9 is the point in history where God chooses Israel. That's the point where Gentiles and Jews are separated. If there are 70 nations and God chooses one, what happens to the other 69 nations? Well, God places fallen angels in charge of those nations—he places angels, I speculate they were fallen at the time—but these are the princes, the principalities and powers that we war against in Ephesians chapter 2 and chapter 6. That other presentation I'm doing, "War of the Princes," is about that and the three reasons that Jesus Christ came to the earth: to reverse the curse of death by the serpent in the garden, to reverse the curse of the watchers who rebelled in Genesis chapter 6 and sired the Nephilim, and to reverse the curse of Babel, which contains the curse of the nations being separated from God. So, it's a lot of fun. I look forward to Saturday.