Watchman on the Wall

Host (Male): 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 Carl Gallups will begin leading listeners on a unique pilgrimage to Golgotha.

First, though, I want to say thank you to everyone who has been responding to our plea for help this week. Giving is, unfortunately, down to critical levels, and we need your help today. Your gift will sustain Watchman on the Wall and Southwest Radio Ministries through this financial storm and allow us to continue this program and our publications.

Please give your best gift today. Visit swrc.com and give, or call 1-800-652-1144 with your gift. That is 1-800-652-1144 and swrc.com. Thank you, and know that your gifts today are greatly needed and very much appreciated. Now, here is our host, Dr. Larry Spargimino, with today’s guest, author Carl Gallups.

Larry Spargimino: Pastor Carl Gallups is our guest for this show and the next. Carl has been doing some eye-opening and praise-generating work in the original language texts of the Bible. Truly, all Scripture is God-breathed, and Carl Gallups has done the world a great service in his research and writing.

We are offering his new book, *Golgotha’s Groanings: Stunningly Unique Biblical Disclosures from Genesis to Revelation That Will Shake the End-Times World*. I know that is quite a title, but Carl and I have been lollygagging for the last 20 minutes getting really excited. This is an exciting book. Carl, thank you so much for being available for these two programs.

Carl Gallups: Well, thank you, Larry. It is always great to be with you and an honor. Yes, it is quite a title, but of course, most of that is the subtitle that explains the book. I don't want people freaking out thinking that is the whole title. *Golgotha’s Groanings* is the title, and then all of those other things underneath it in the subtitle just explain the power of what is in that book. It's not my writing, but the Word of God that is in there.

Larry Spargimino: Just to help our listeners, the *Tav* is the 22nd and last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Tell us of the three *Tav* crosses, and especially the one in the middle, something we see in the biblical text of Scripture. You make that very clear. This is something that we see in many places in the Bible. You point that out. Tell us the significance of this.

Carl Gallups: I think sometime way back, you and I did a program on this because I have been working on this for years. This book, *Golgotha’s Groanings*, brings it to its pinnacle peak, and I will explain that in a few moments. To answer your question, the *Alif* is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and the *Tav* is the last letter. Other people are familiar with letters like the *Shin* and the *Heh*.

The bottom line is the *Alif-Tav*, the first and the last. God Himself in the Old Testament, I think four times, says, "I am the first and the last, your Redeemer." By the time we get to the New Testament, it is Yeshua, Jesus, who is our Redeemer, our ultimate Redeemer, and He says, "I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end." Revelation says the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.

That title of the *Alif-Tav* is God, first and last. The Bible was written in Hebrew, but it was not written in modern Hebrew. When we see the letters in modern Hebrew, that is one thing. It was written in what is called Paleo-Hebrew. Paleo means ancient. It was written in Paleo-Hebrew, as the scholars call it. The letters were shaped very differently, drastically different than the modern letters.

The *Tav*, the last letter, was in the shape of a crucifixion cross, slanted over just a little bit like it was underweight. In my book, I prove this. If you went on the internet right now and said, "Was the ancient *Tav* shaped like a crucifixion cross?" even AI, which I have corrected, will tell you that I'm right. A lot of Google searches won't give you the correct answer.

Even scholars will say the ancient *Tav* was in the shape of an X or a plus sign. No, it was not. In my book, I have a picture of the oldest Paleo-Hebrew artifact we have from Hezekiah’s Tunnel. It is called the Siloam Inscription. I have it circled and I give all the credit to the guy that has it on his website. You can go see it. He is an archaeologist and geologist. You can see the *Tav*. It is in the shape of a crucifixion cross, slanted over just a little bit like maybe a human being would be on it.

That is astounding because one of the things that I found on the internet, and I checked it and it was true, and then I went deeper and deeper, was that very first verse, Genesis 1:1. In Hebrew, it is *Bereshit Bara Elohim Et Hashamayim Ve’et Ha’aretz*. In those words, when you look at them in Hebrew and you look at them in the Paleo-Hebrew, there are three *Tavs* used in those words.

Listen to them. It sounds almost like our T. *Bereshit*, you hear that? *Bara Elohim Et*, and I'm going to come back to that. There is the other one. And then *Hashamayim Ve’et*. There is the other one. They are spaced almost symmetrically perfect apart. Three crosses if you drop them down. What makes this so astounding, Larry, is the middle one. I said, "*Et*."

That is how you pronounce it when you take the two letters *Alif* and *Tav*, the first and the last, and put them together. It is *Alif-Tav*. That is not a word in Hebrew. Why is it there? It is called an accusative case grammar marker. There are about 50 languages on the planet that use that. English does not, so we don't know what that is when we read it. In fact, that is not even translated in Genesis 1:1.

It points the action of the verb in those languages, and Hebrew has that. But here is the deal. God says in His Word, "I am the *Alif* and the *Tav*." I am the *Et*. I am the one that points the action of everything to what I've done. That grammar marker is used about 11,000 times in the Old Testament, which means there is about 1,000 pages to the Old Testament. It is used about 10 or 11 times per page.

The ancient Hebrews and the modern Hebrew scholars know that out of those 11,000, there are a couple thousand that do not serve as grammar markers. They are looking and they are saying, "What is this about?" They know it is something mystical and mysterious. It is in God's Word and it is God's name. By the time we get to the New Testament, it is what Jesus calls Himself. "I am the first, I am the last, I am the beginning, I am the end."

Each Hebrew letter all the way back to ancient history also has a meaning attached to it, kind of like if we are texting and we use the letter K to answer somebody. That letter K to us means "okay" or "I hear you." The ancient Hebrew had meanings like that for every single letter. In 2016, *Haaretz*, one of Israel's most famous newspapers, wrote an article called *The Amazing Hebrew Language*.

I have it quoted in my book because what they say is every letter of the Hebrew alphabet to this day has a meaning attached to it. They are seldom used and you don't have to know this to read or write Hebrew, but it is interesting. They are admitting they exist. Let's go back to Genesis 1:1. You have got three crosses, unmistakable, brought down by the *Tavs*. Only three *Tavs* in those seven words.

The middle one is *Alif-Tav*. It is God on the cross, or Jesus, God in the flesh, Emmanuel on the cross, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. When you take the meaning of the *Alif* and the meaning of the *Tav*, here are the meanings. *Alif* stands for God Himself. You could just put that letter, and it is like the K in our text which means "okay." If you just put that letter, it is a symbol of God Himself, Yahweh, Elohim, El Shaddai.

The last letter, *Tav*, we know it is in the shape of a cross, but what does it mean? The Covenant. That is what it means. It has always meant that. You have to remember, when Genesis 1 was written, there was no such thing as crucifixion. That was invented by the Persians and then perfected by the Romans. The Hebrews would not have drawn a picture of three crosses on a hill with Jesus or God in the middle.

The orthodox Hebrews today find that repugnant, but it is in the first verse. There it is. When you take God and the cross, the message is saying, "I am the God who made covenant with you by going to the cross." *Alif-Tav*. That picture is there. The other thing that you will find in my book, *Golgotha’s Groanings*, is that the first word, *Bereshit*, means "in the beginning." It is three English words, but it is one word in Hebrew.

That one Hebrew word has only six letters because you know the Hebrew basically has all consonants with vowel points, vowel sounds attached to the consonants. You have got six letters. I've got the graph in my book. You can see it. Those six letters make up 12 Hebrew words that are used in the Old Testament. I'm not talking about a letter scramble. I'm talking about the first two as a word, the first three as a word, the first four as a word, the last four are a word, the last three are a word, the last two are a word, the first and the last is a word, the first two and the last letter is a word.

It's in symmetrical patterns. When you put those words down and what they mean, you come up with what the Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1:15-20. In Jesus Christ, He is the image of the invisible God, and by Him all things were created, things seen, unseen, in Him all things of the universe were created and in Him He holds everything together. He is the head of the church and He is the one that went to the cross to purchase our salvation by His blood. That's what those 12 words say.

Larry Spargimino: Amen.

Carl Gallups: If somebody looks at Genesis 1 and says that's just a coincidence that there's three *Tavs*, the *Alif-Tav* in the middle, it could be. I would say it was too, if it was the only place in the Bible or just maybe one of four or five. But they are all through the Bible in just the right place. That's the other thing. If He is the Lamb slain from the beginning, guess what Genesis 1 pictures? The Lamb on the middle cross, slain from the beginning, in the beginning. Then you take the word "in the beginning" and there are 12 words that spell out that same story, and Paul actually duplicated it using the synonyms or the very same Hebrew words in Colossians. Chew on that a little bit.

Host (Male): Friends, we are talking with Pastor Carl Gallups about his new book, *Golgotha’s Groanings*. You've heard just a little bit about what it's all about. It's a tremendous book. It's a book of over 250 pages. There are plenty of diagrams and Hebrew text with explanations, and like I said before, you don't need to read Hebrew to understand what he is saying.

I think this would be a perfect gift for a young man or woman who has been bombarded with a lot of misinformation about the Bible, just a lot of nasty Jewish stories. It's not. It's the Word of God, and this book provides it in so many wonderful ways. Of course, it is helpful to anyone who loves the Bible and has experienced the life-changing power that the Bible presents.

Our toll-free number is 1-800-652-1144. Give us a call and we will send you a copy of *Golgotha’s Groanings*. 1-800-652-1144. You know, Carl, your amazing book shows that the theme of Golgotha is so pervasive in the Bible that the image of it in the Hebrew text has been encoded throughout Scripture. You've been talking about that, but that is so important because that could not be a chance thing. It could not be an accident. It couldn't be like we flipped a coin and it came heads or tails. This is God's providential watching over and controlling every jot and tittle of the Word of God.

Carl Gallups: You're right, Larry. It's no coincidence, as I just proved from Genesis 1. You've got the image, but then you've got the first word that has the message that Paul duplicated. More than that, the next time you see this same astounding image is in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3:15. God is speaking to Satan and He says, "From the womb of a woman will come a male child and he will crush your head."

We know that's about Jesus. We now know because we are on the other side of Golgotha. How would He do that? By going to the cross and resurrecting from the dead. In those exact words of that exact sentence, there are three crosses, *Alif-Tav* in the middle. Unbelievable. You keep going through. Abraham takes his son to sacrifice him. It's there.

You keep going, Psalm 22, "They've pierced my hands and my feet, they gamble for my clothes." It's there. Isaiah 52, it's there. Isaiah 53, it's there. Zechariah 12, "Behold, on that day you will look upon me whom you have pierced," says the Lord, "but you will mourn for him as an only son." It's there. You keep going all the way to Malachi, "And suddenly the Lord whom you are seeking will come to his temple."

It's there. I catalog in that book these passages. I do a little quick teaching and preaching on each one so people can understand the context, and then I show the pictures. I've got almost 100 illustrations in this book so that you're not just taking my word for it, you're looking at it.

Larry Spargimino: It's true, everything you say is true. When the Golgotha prophecies were initially given, they were impossible for humans to understand in their fullest sense until they happened. A lot of these fascinating revelations are there, but we don't discern them until they happen. You write, "We don't know what we don't know until it's been revealed to us in God's own season." That's a tremendous statement.

Carl Gallups: Thank you. I use that all the time in my preaching and teaching and it really helps people get that perspective. I hear gasps every time I say it. I use the illustration of this. Think of this in Isaiah 53. By the way, the three crosses and the *Alif-Tav* in the middle are in several places in Isaiah 53, right where they ought to be, right where it's talking about Jesus on the cross.

Listen, Isaiah 53 and of course Isaiah 52 goes with it, but let's just look at some of the main features. The punishment that brought us peace with God was laid upon Him. He was pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and the punishment that brought us peace was laid upon Him and by His stripes we are healed. He was destined to be like a lamb, silent before its shearers, he opened not his mouth to his accusers.

Then it goes on to say he was destined to be in death with criminals, with thieves, but he was buried with the rich. Then it goes on to say and after the suffering of his soul, which means he dies, in fact a few sentences later it talks about the death of this mysterious one in Isaiah 53, and then it says yet he will live again, he will see the light of day. Think of it, 700 years before Christ.

We've got the two thieves on the cross, we've got Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb, we've got a resurrection, we've got stripes on his back, and the word punishment in English translations, the Hebrew word says it means a scourging, a whipping. He's pierced. Now he's crucified, beaten to death. He stood before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin Council and opened not his mouth until they finally ask him, "Tell us, are you the Son of God?" His answer, "I AM."

Caiaphas said he's committed blasphemy, kill him. Those two words got him on the cross. The same words that God spoke to Moses when Moses said, "Who will I tell them sent me?" and he said, "I AM WHO I AM." All of that is in Isaiah 53. Now, it wouldn't be until 700 years later before every detail of that came to pass, and now the calendars of our world mark that event, the most cataclysmic event in human history.

The point is, nobody knew what we didn't know until it happened. Now we look back and we say, "Why couldn't those Jews, why couldn't those Jews have understood that?" Because it hadn't happened. If we were living back then, reading that, it would sound almost like gobbledygook. The ancient Jews translated it to mean this must be talking about Israel taking the punishment of the world. There's a certain truth to that, but the point is it's written in the first person all the way through. He, he, he, he did, he did, he did, he said, this happened to him. It's about a person, it's not about a nation. Now we know the person because it has happened in our historical lifetime. 2,000 years ago, but we are on the other side of it. Now the whole world knows, or at least should know, and if they don't, it's not God's fault. Does that make sense?

Larry Spargimino: It sure does. Well, thank you, Pastor Carl Gallups. We are just about out of time. What a wonderful and enlightening interview. Dear listener, please be sure to be back with us for our next broadcast. Tell a friend about these exciting and informative shows and we're going to look at the New Testament in our second segment and we're going to see what we find in the Hebrew translation of the New Testament. Hope you can be with us again. Tell us another person needs to listen to these shows. Thank you so much, Carl Gallups.

Carl Gallups: Oh, thank you. God bless you.

Host (Male): Carl Gallups' book, *Golgotha’s Groanings: Stunningly Unique Biblical Disclosures from Genesis to Revelation That Are Shaking the End-Times World*, is a must-read. The ancient Hebrew text shows an encoded image of three crosses throughout the Old Testament. The image of the three crosses also shows up when the New Testament is translated into Hebrew.

How important is Golgotha? Well, all four gospels mention the events of Golgotha, which is unusual. When you read *Golgotha’s Groaning*, the reader will come to believe that the Bible, unlike any other book, contains verifiable evidence of its own multi-dimensional inspiration. Order your copy of *Golgotha’s Groaning* by Carl Gallups today. Call 1-800-652-1144. That’s 1-800-652-1144. Or you can order online at swrc.com.

*Golgotha’s Groaning* by Carl Gallups is an extremely valuable book for people who have been bombarded with a lot of misinformation about the Bible. Get this excellent book today, *Golgotha’s Groaning*. 1-800-652-1144. Now we welcome Larry Stam to the microphone to share ways that you and I can share without fear our faith with others.

Larry Stam: Shalom friends, Larry Stam here. So glad you are joining us as we continue in our teaching series, *Serving in His Court: Biblical Principles for Personal Evangelism from the Heart of a Coach*. In this series of teachings, we are addressing questions and objections to the Christian faith. In our witness as followers of Jesus, we need not be afraid or be intimidated about questions and objections that people pose.

We have said in past segments that it's very important that we first inquire of them, the one who poses the question or objection, and find out if they're sincere. Are they genuine? Do they really want an answer, or are they just trying to throw a zinger out to get us off their back? In our last teaching, we talked about a number of questions and objections and we addressed the first one: that Christians are hypocrites.

That's a charge, and a simple response is, "Jesus is no hypocrite." Then you can ask the question of somebody, "Do you live up to your own standards?" Most people, if they're honest, say no. Then you can respond, "Well, in your own acknowledgment, you admit that you in one way, shape, or form are a hypocrite. I'm also a hypocrite. Jesus died for hypocrites." That's the point. There is a simple response to the charge that Christians are hypocrites.

Now let's talk about this charge: Christianity is a crutch. Christianity is a crutch. You ever heard that one? If you remember, Karl Marx, who authored the Communist Manifesto, had that famous quote. He said, "Religion is the opiate of the masses." People like Karl Marx and others charge that religion is simply an invention designed for people incapable of coping with life's pressures.

The reality is everybody's got to get through their day. Unfortunately, so many people are trusting in drugs or alcohol, tobacco, sex, money, power, accomplishment, achievement. They're putting their trust in material possessions to help them get through the day. Of course, everybody depends on something or someone to get through their day. This charge that Christianity is a crutch really falls on deaf ears.

The reality is that, yes, I put my trust in Jesus. I put my trust in the Lord, the one who has blessed me with life and breath and who holds the gift of eternal life and holds the keys to hell and heaven. So, yes, I put my trust in Jesus. I have a crutch and so I don't have a problem acknowledging that I am hopeless and helpless without Jesus Christ.

Jesus, remember, said, "Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you," etc., etc. So Jesus' message is the message of love, and then you can transition into the reality that, you know, God loves us so much no matter who we are and what we've done. The Bible says God, while we were still His enemies, Jesus died for our sins. Those are some simple ways to respond to that charge and that question, "What about the atrocities Christians have committed?" The short answer is, well, Jesus didn't do that, and anybody who did under the banner of Christianity or in the name of Jesus will be held accountable. There is a simple response to that.

Let's move on now. Here's a really good one. This is an objection: it's narrow-minded to think Jesus is the only way. Again, here's a coffee shop response that you can give. You can say, "Well, the reality is that all truth claims, all religions, all philosophies by definition are exclusive and exclude all other truth claims." That's the reality. Every religion and philosophy has truth claims by their very nature that will exclude other truth claims.

We can't say that it's narrow to think Jesus is the only way, that that's a bad thing. Remember Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." The reality is either that's true or it's not. For the person posing that question, you can give a simple response about the exclusive nature of all truth claims and all religions, but you can pin them down and say, "What about that statement of Jesus? What if it is true? If it is true, we as human beings need to take stock because Jesus and our trust in Him or rejection of Him will, by its very nature, our response to that truth claim determine our eternal destiny, whether in heaven or hell."

There's a simple way to respond to that charge. In our next segment, we are going to continue dealing and giving you coffee shop answers to questions and objections. Until next time, friends, the Lord richly bless you and keep you. Shalom.

Host (Male): Carl Gallups' book, *Golgotha’s Groaning*, is a book that you really must read. When you read *Golgotha’s Groaning*, you'll come to believe that the Bible, unlike any other book, contains verifiable evidence of its own multi-dimensional inspiration. Order your copy of *Golgotha’s Groaning* today. 1-800-652-1144. That’s 1-800-652-1144. You can also order at swrc.com.

*Golgotha’s Groaning* by Carl Gallups. 1-800-652-1144. Tomorrow, Josh Davis reveals spiritual deception is growing worldwide as the end-time system of worship comes into sharper focus. Be sure to tune in by downloading our free SWRC mobile app. Watchman on the Wall is a production of Southwest Radio Ministries and is supported by faithful listeners like you. Please visit swrc.com.