Sugar Land Bible Church

Dr. Andy Woods: He was with us in November, actually. Spoke at the Sugar Land Town Center event and then he had the two Sunday morning services. Well, I'm glad he's back. I want to welcome him in a special way. Let me tell you a little bit about him. He's the founder of Truth in Love Ministry and is an often-sought-after speaker who travels around North America addressing critical issues facing believers and as Americans.

He's a Christian pastor, a former Muslim. Shahram was born in Iran, came to America to escape the oppressive Islamic regime, and had a powerful conversion to Christianity in 1999. His unique background includes experience as a pastor, police officer, teacher, coach, and servant leader in his community. He was a candidate for governor of the state of Washington in 2012.

When he became a Christian, he immediately faced persecution and disapproval from his family and culture. According to the teachings of Islam, his conversion means he's an apostate and deserves to be killed. In spite of this opposition, Shahram has persevered, enrolled in Bible college, and has become a Christian pastor since 2003. He graduated from Puget Sound Christian College with a bachelor's degree in Biblical studies and Christian ministries. Will you please welcome Shahram Hadian?

Shahram Hadian: All right, good morning. It's a blessing to be back with you here at Sugar Land Bible Church. As was mentioned, it was a blessing to be here in November, and it's good to be back with you guys as well. I'm going to pray, if that's okay, just for the word this morning. Let's pray together.

Father, I thank You for this opportunity. I thank You for Sugar Land Bible Church, Lord, and their stance here in this part of the country. Thank You for their faithfulness, for the leadership, and thank You for Your people here, Lord God. I pray this morning that You would anoint this word, this message, that it will communicate Your word, Your heart, Your truth, all of it in love where we want to seek after what You are doing and saying in these days. We love You, we honor You, we bless You. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Challenging topic today. Lots of topics today and tonight that we're going to be speaking on. This morning, I wanted to share on what we're witnessing, and I think all of us would agree we're witnessing some incredible things in these days that we are in. We're in the last days. One of the things that the Bible has predicted is in the last days, there would be a turning on God's people. That includes, in my opinion, obviously believers, Christians, those who already are in the Messiah, but also those whom God still has a covenant with, and that is the Jewish people.

That covenant is not based on their salvation but based upon His word, His promises to them. You see on the topic we're going to be talking about: What is anti-Zionism? What is Zionism first of all? What is anti-Zionism, and how it's leading to an alarming rate of antisemitism, Jew-hatred, Jew-libel, and how it's not happening just out there in the world, but it's actually happening in the church.

Before I get into that, with all of these topics, if you want to stay connected to our ministry, please grab either a business card on the back table out there in the foyer or go to our website. Also, I do shows on Rumble twice a week. We do live shows on Rumble. You may have seen me also on Worldview Tube with Brannon Howse. Of course, Dr. Woods and I have been on there many times together over the years, and it is really incredible critical information, up-to-date information on all that is going on.

I personally do two to three hours a day minimum of research and staying on top of all the things that are happening so that we can continue to equip the body of Christ. Please utilize it. It's a free resource on Rumble. Our main platform is there, and that information is on our business card, our showtimes, and the link if you want to go and subscribe to that channel.

The Bible has told us, going back to our topic this morning, that in the last days, the prophet Zechariah... if you're familiar with the timing of the prophet Zechariah, Zechariah was writing at the time of the Persian leadership or the Persian influence over the nation of Israel. Around 520 BC, approximately, the prophet Zechariah is given prophecies, and in chapter 10 on of Zechariah, he's talking about the last days. He's talking about that which is not immediate fulfillment, but in the last days.

When the Bible says "in that day," what is it referring to? It's referring to the coming of Christ again, the coming of the Messiah again. This is different and distinct, obviously, from the rapture of the church, which is for His bride, versus His second coming to set up His eternal kingdom. You've heard Dr. Woods talk about this. I'm still amazed today that so many believers believe that we're in the kingdom. This is preposterous for multiple reasons, but none other than if this was the kingdom, it would suck.

We are looking forward to the coming kingdom, but yet we know that we approach those days. In Zechariah chapter 12, it speaks of two things that must happen. Remember, what's the context? Zechariah is writing after the fall of Jerusalem. 586, Jerusalem's already fallen. They're in captivity. There is no nation. You got that? There's no nation. It says, "And it shall happen in that day." We're talking about the last days, future, "that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples. All who would heave it away will surely be cut to pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it."

We're talking about Jerusalem in specific, but yet Jerusalem belongs to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jerusalem belongs to Israel, but there's no more Israel. Jerusalem's been sacked when he's getting this prophecy. It's saying in the future, Jerusalem is going to become a centerpiece of the nations, and all the nations are going to want it. Anybody that tries to grab this heavy stone is going to be cut to pieces. Why? Because it doesn't belong to them. It belongs to the Lord. It belongs to whom the Lord has given it to.

Later on, in Zechariah 14, again talking about the last days: "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem." What do we see today? We see all the nations of the earth arguing, battling over Jerusalem. As we'll get to a little bit later in this message this morning, you'll see that the largest ideological people group on the planet, that's Islam, Muslims, two billion of them, one-quarter of the world's population, believe that Jerusalem is theirs. They claim Jerusalem.

Remember again at the time of this writing, there is no Jerusalem in the control of the Jewish people. Jerusalem was no longer in the control of the Jewish people going through the captivity, post-captivity, through all of the occupation that the Israelites were under to the time of Christ under Roman occupation, to the time of the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. From that point, they were scattered. When could this prophecy be fulfilled? It has to be in a situation where there has to be a rebirth, there has to be a re-control of Jerusalem by the Jewish people. That happened starting in 1948 in our lifetime.

I'm standing here before you this morning as a former Muslim from Iran, a country which is in the headlines a lot. We're going to be talking about that in the 11 o'clock service. The country that I'm from, the government that represents supposedly my country, this Islamic regime, absolutely hates Israel, wants to annihilate it off the map. Yet I'm standing here before you telling you that we need to stand on God's word, stand with the Jewish people, stand for biblical Zionism. A lot of Christians are trying to move away from this word. I think we move towards it because we're not going to be ashamed of God's word.

What's the scenario? The scenario is there was no Israel, but something miraculous happened. In 1948, God rebirthed a nation that didn't exist for two and a half thousand years. Then in 1967, Jerusalem, which had been in the hands and control of multiple empires and multiple other nations, now finally fully comes back into the hands of the Jewish people, of this nation that has been rebirthed. That's a miracle.

History is repeating itself. What we're talking about this morning, antisemitism, Jew-hatred, Jew-libel, is not new. Before Israel became a nation, we saw the rise of Nazism, the rise of National Socialism. The National Socialists claimed to be Christians. They were the "Christian Right." But they vehemently hated the Jewish people and they worked with the Muslims. If you know the history of the Muslim Brotherhood, they worked with the Muslims to come up with the Final Solution.

We saw regional Jew-hatred. To some extent, it was happening in other parts of the world, but we saw a rise of antisemitism, a rise of Jew-hatred, libeling all Jews. We saw the things obviously with the pogroms, the boycotting, obviously Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass in Germany, which led to the Jews being put into the ghettos and from there, the extermination of over six million Jews. The majority of the world and the majority of the church was silent, or they actually believed that maybe somehow it was correct because after all, the Jews don't belong there.

They're not a nation yet, but after this almost extermination of the Jews, which was not the first time in Biblical history that it's happened, God rebirths the nation. A miracle happens as I mentioned, and now Israel becomes a nation, and now there is a regathering. The other day at our home, I had a friend of mine that you guys have seen probably on Brannon Howse, he's a Messianic Jew from Israel, his name is Aaron Lipkin. Aaron was at our house sharing, and I wanted to encourage him. I said, "Aaron, whatever right now Israel is going through, whatever the Jewish people are going through, I want to remind you of this passage in Amos chapter nine."

Again, a prophecy about the future: that not only is God going to bring those exiled people, Israel, back to their land and rebuild their cities and rebuild a nation in their own land, but God says once they are back, they will never be uprooted again. It does not matter what the enemy does. It does not matter what the world does. It does not matter what the United Nations decides. It does not matter what administration is in the White House. God's word says once they're back in the land, they will never be uprooted again. I believe that means never.

Why? Because the King of kings is coming to rule from Jerusalem. He's sitting on David's throne. He's not coming back to Washington, DC, or Europe. He's coming back to that land. This alarming rise of Jew-hatred... people ask me all the time, "What do you think is behind this? It's hard to make sense of it." What have we seen since October 7, 2023? Since Israel was attacked with the equivalency of a 9/11 event, where it was the equivalent of 40 to 50,000 Americans being murdered.

I always tell people, "Imagine if the Mexican drug cartel or some element came across the southern border and murdered 50,000 Americans, bigger than 9/11. Would we hesitate to go into Mexico and wipe out that enemy no matter what the cost?" Yet 1,200 Jews minimum were murdered, hundreds have been killed since, and within three weeks the world turned that event and blamed Israel. It didn't even take three weeks. It was very quickly where the narrative shifted and it became about this is the attack, Israel is the occupier, Israel is committing genocide.

The reason this is different, the reason this is happening, is because a significant event has happened that the Bible has prophesied: the rebirth of Israel. Two and a half thousand years. A significant event. So now we are witnessing a level of this hatred that is now global. It is being facilitated by none other than the Islamic world, globalized what they call the Intifada. Before October 7, 2023, this had become a slogan again and again through every nation on the earth, through our college campuses, university campuses, the media, politicians: "Globalize the Intifada."

What does that mean? Globalize the war and the killing of Jews. And the church is silent. Some of you are familiar with this leftist organization, Amnesty International, who supposedly has been tracking what's been going on in Gaza with the blaming of Israel for what's going on in Gaza. Look at the first line of their report. This was in December of 2024, about one year after the attacks on Israel. Obviously, the headline is propaganda: "Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territory." Let me read that one more time: "Occupied Palestinian Territory."

What happened in 2005? Israel withdrew from Gaza. Israel handed Gaza over. Israel forcibly removed their own people out of Gaza, the settlers that were there, in 2005. Within nine months, they elected Hamas, the so-called Palestinian people. You see this title: "You feel like you're a subhuman: Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza." That's the headline. We've been hearing this. In the last year, I have personally lost about half a dozen friendships with pastors, Christian pastors that used to be supportive. They were dispensational, they claimed that their eyes were open, and we're all nuts if we're dispensational.

They now are saying Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. They're using the same talking points as the left, as those who are Jew-haters. Yet they see nothing wrong with it. You have social media influencers, pro-Hamas people like this guy Shaun King. He's got a pretty decent following. He's not just going after Jews, he's going after those who support Jews. Therein lies the muddying up and the absolute demonizing of the word Zionism. That's why I'm praying today we can make sure that we just have this clear.

In future generations, when people want to use a word to describe evil people, they won't say "Nazis." They will say "Israelis" or "Zionists." If you're a Zionist, you're now a Nazi. That's where they're going. We've got to round up all the Zionists because it's not just Jews we're after, we're going to go after Christians who support Israel because you're now as evil as the Jews. They don't see any problem with that. This is not antisemitic, right? This is not Jew-hatred, right? This is not blanketing Jews?

In all of human history, and I mean from the beginning of time, no evil people have ever been as thoroughly documented as them. I wonder how he really feels. Tucker Carlson, perpetually lying about Israel, lying about the Jewish people. Then these labels where they lump all the Jews. "The Jews control the world," "The Jews this," "The Jews that." Last time I checked, there's only 16 million of them on the planet. That's it. 16 million. By the way, do you know that there's actually Jews that are antisemitic? They actually are against their own cause. Liberal Jews who are antisemitic. I'm not kidding you. That's a category.

Tucker Carlson, remember when he came out and said that Zionism is a brain virus? That if you're a Zionist or if you support Zionism... the problem is that there aren't enough voices that are out there refuting. Tucker Carlson is such a wimp. He's such a baby. He's such a coward that he won't bring on his show somebody who is a Christian Zionist like a Dr. Woods. All he does is he brings people on who absolutely have no knowledge, or think they have knowledge, and agree with his point of view. Then you have Candace Owens. she took it to a whole other level because she started using the tropes like "The Jews are the synagogue of Satan."

We've seen it go. Of course, she blames Charlie Kirk's assassination on Israel and the Mossad and the Jews. Now you're seeing this politically even into the White House, recently with JD Vance, putting the tropes out there that Israel is manipulating US public opinion and manipulating the administration. That it is Israel that's running foreign policy. Not Qatar, not the Saudis, not the Arab Emirates. Not the Qataris that gave us a $400 million Boeing 747, gave the president.

I voted for President Trump three times, but I have deep problems with that decision. If that was a Democrat president, we all would have been up in arms. You're going to take a plane from a foreign country and put it in service as Air Force One? They just had problems with it because they were leaving Turkey and they had to leave it behind or have it fly without the president because it doesn't have all the security measures of the old Air Force One yet. That seems like a very foolish decision from a security standpoint.

Even though President Trump has been probably one of the most pro-Israel presidents, including in his first term when he declared moving the embassy, the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem... the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was historic and biblical. But recently, you remember these comments that he made at the G7? "Without me, there would be no Israel because no other president was willing to do what I did. I've had a great relationship with Bibi, but now Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon."

He went on to say that he thinks that the guy in Syria, Mr. Al-Assad... the former ISIS commander who had a $10 million bounty on his head for killing Christians and Jews and Druze and the Alawites who took over Syria... he went on to say he thinks he would do a better job in Lebanon than Israel. This was not only a cringe moment, this was a fall on my knees moment. There's a moment where your spirit goes, "Whoa. Whoa, Mr. President. What did you just say?"

No, sir. Israel is there because God said it would be there. Israel is standing because God has protected Israel. It has nothing to do with their obedience. It is because I just showed you, God's word says they're going to be planted in the land once again never to be uprooted. Mr. President, since 1948, they've been attacked again and again and again. They've been outnumbered in multiple wars, including the '48, their Independence War, '67 War, '73 War, then all the Intifadas that they've had since 1993 with the so-called Oslo Accord. Mr. President, every single time they've been outnumbered and they should have been defeated, but they're still standing, sir, because God is protecting Israel. God has birthed Israel, Mr. President, not you.

That's why we're here. You see this antisemitism, this anti-Zionism, is what is now driving what we're going to be talking about tonight: this Red-Green Axis. The socialist, Marxist, communist, globalist with the Islamic movement. Their litmus test now is becoming Israel. Within the church, relationships are being broken. I'm not trying to break these relationships. These are pastors or Christians who no longer want to be friends with me or do ministry with me because of my support for Israel or our ministry's support for Israel. They're the ones who are breaking relationship. It's becoming a litmus test.

Well, it is a litmus test because it's a litmus test on our understanding of God's word, our interpretation of God's word. Moving on very quickly, the latest in this Red-Green Axis hatred is that when attacks happen... Mamdani was elected, and when Mamdani was elected as Muslim mayor of New York City, Democrat, socialist, Muslim mayor of New York City, you may or may not know this, but close to 40% of his vote came from Jewish voters in New York City. Young Jews in New York City voted in large numbers for Mr. Mamdani.

Yet we've seen over 200% plus of attacks against Jews. This is the latest. A guy on the right chanting, "Allahu Akbar," which means Allah's the greatest, while he stabbed two Jews, one of them coming out of the synagogue. You see there on the ground holding his chest. Immediately, Mamdani tried to say it was mental illness. He doesn't really mean it, as he's chanting this phrase. He doesn't really mean that he's doing this for his supposed God Allah, he's just mentally ill. Then it came back that this guy had no history of mental illness because he actually is doing it because he's a Muslim and he hates Jews. We're going to look at that in a minute.

Let me get to the heart of what we're talking about this morning, and that is Zionism. I do think the word is confusing and I do think that there's different definitions of Zionism. First of all, you have the concept that some put out there of what I would refer to as "Global Zionism." This is the idea that... someone like Kirk Cameron, when he came out as someone who no longer supports dispensationalism, one of the things he said is, "Well, Israel becoming a nation was just a political movement. Some people got together and politically decided just to make this thing happen."

That's one way that they try to push it off, is the concept that Zionism is globalist, putting together a concept and making a nation happen. Of course, those early people coming back to Israel... remember, there's only 500,000 Jews total when Israel became a nation. That's all that came back to the land or were already in the land. They were escaping what was happening in Eastern Europe. The early movement was political in the sense they were just trying to have a safe place.

But these folks that want to malign Zionism will then come out and attack it as that's what it is, that's all it is, and therefore God has nothing to do with it. There are Jews obviously that support Zionism because now Zionism in their definition, again sort of putting the Bible aside for a minute, would be the concept of, "Well, we have a right to a nation and we have a right to existence." Again, my question is, what gives us a right as Americans to have a nation? Didn't we have to break away from occupation? Didn't we break away from the British, from the idea of the divine right of kings?

Yet there are people back then and even today that believe that America was born out of rebellion. I don't agree with that. I believe God's hand was on us becoming a nation because the Bible tells us that God's sovereignty is what allows a nation to rise or a nation to fall. Correct? Nations do not rise or fall outside of His sovereignty. Do you believe that or not? God is sovereign and He's fully in control of history. We don't have to worry about it. We don't have to fret about it.

But here's the problem. Even though there are Jews in Israel today or outside of Israel that will say, "I'm a Zionist," in the sense of "I support the right of the Jewish people to that land and their right of self-defense," our problem is as Christians we cannot define or stand on Zionism without the Bible. If you try to stand on this word without the Bible, we have a problem. That's what I'm hoping to look at.

For example, in Psalm 87 in the Old Testament, we are told... my friend Aaron Lipkin when he was on my show, he made a great point. He said, "Who do you think the first Zionist was?" I'm racking my brain, I'm trying to think of a person. He goes, "It's not that complicated. God's the first Zionist." This is a hard thing. This is a hard thing because this has become a toxic word. It has become a dangerous word to the point where people want to now kill you if you identify as a Zionist or stand on the word Zion, which we'll look at in just a minute.

The Bible says His foundation, God's foundation, is in His holy mountains. The Lord loves the gates of Zion. Where is Zion physically? It is Jerusalem. It is the Mount Moriah. It is the mount that Jerusalem is standing on. More than all the dwellings of Jacob. Who is Jacob? The grandson of Abraham. What did God call him? Israel. God changed his name to Israel because God promised Abraham that through your descendants would come a great nation. Israel is Jacob, Jacob is Israel. More than all of the dwellings of Jacob, God says, "Where do I want? Where is My heart at? It's in Zion."

Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. First of all, when the Bible talks about Zion, the word Zion... I have this thing about defending the Bible. I get pretty fierce when it comes to defending the Bible. I think part of it is maybe because I wasn't raised with it. I wasn't born with it. When I became a Christian at the age of 28 and I started reading God's word, it was just insatiable. I couldn't get enough, I couldn't read enough, I couldn't study it enough. Even today, as any of you arrived with an understanding of the Bible? No. I hope that's not your attitude.

We're constantly students of God's word because God's word is alive. It's active. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. When I read God's word, I began to embrace God's heart and understand His heart. Zion, the way the Bible uses it, is yes, first and foremost talking about the city of Jerusalem, the holy mountain. Zion is mentioned in the Bible at least 150 times. If you want to be more accurate, probably about 153 times. It's a word the Bible uses in the positive. Why are we then using it in the negative? Why are we shy of using it?

Zion simply means a fortified city, raised up on a mountain. Where is Jerusalem? The topography is incredible. Jerusalem's up on a hill. City of David during his reign. We know that it is God's city. Where is He returning? To Zion. Where is His eternal city coming? To there. David, of course, captured it from the Jebusites and it became the possession of Israel and the seat of power. It is also referenced in the Old Testament as Israel. Beyond just talking about the city, God's word mentions it as the land of Israel. Never says Palestine.

We then get the theme carried forth. God's holy city, Jerusalem. It is a reference to all of the land of Israel. It is a reference to believers in the sense of His people. It is spiritual in the sense of yes, there's a spiritual aspect of it in the New Testament. In first Peter, Peter says this, "Therefore it is also contained in the scripture: Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame." He's quoting the prophet Isaiah, chapter 28.

He's directly quoting the Old Testament saying that Zion is what God is carrying forth through the new covenant, and Zion is going to be playing an incredible role. It is where the cornerstone is. Who is that cornerstone? That's Jesus, that's Christ. God is building the cornerstone yes for His church. He built it for the church, but then He's still building it then for His kingdom, because it does not end there. Biblical Zionism is this. We've gone from the idea of "Global Zionism" to what I would refer to as "Secular Zionism."

Global Zionism doesn't even make sense because if you believe that this is simply a concoction of a bunch of globalists or some political entity, then as a Christian I'm talking about now, you're completely disregarding the Bible. If you come and you say, "Okay, well I understand that again there are those that are secular, particularly Jews, they're secular, but they're saying Zionism is our right to existence," that makes sense in the sense of their right to exist, their right to defend their land, their right of return to a land. It's interesting that nobody attacks America and says, "You don't have a right to be an American."

Do you still see Mexico trying to come back and take land back? But yet we do this with Israel. It's the only country on the planet that I know of that we say they have no right of being there. They have no right of existence. But when we get to what is biblical or scriptural Zionism, it is everything that I just said, understanding how God's word talks about Zion, understanding the importance of Zion in God's picture and even in His return. But it is also important to understand that it means that God was going to rebirth a nation again.

Biblical scriptural Zionism is the belief that because Israel violated God's word, broke the Mosaic covenant through their disobedience, they ceased to become a nation. Correct? But yet God, in fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, which is eternal and unconditional, still said they're going to be a nation again. Because that was the promise He made to Abram: you're going to be a great nation forever. What does forever mean? Forever. In fulfillment of that, biblical Zionism is asserting all we recognize is God prophesied in the last days this nation would be rebirthed again and now we've seen it happen.

Because we've seen it happen, we recognize it is God's plan, we recognize it is God's will, we recognize it is God's timing, and therefore they are there, they will stay there, they will never be uprooted. If you want to work against them, you're working against God. Let me say that one more time. If you're working against them, you're working against God. If other Christians want to make it a litmus issue, let's go ahead and make it a litmus issue. But it's a litmus issue not because you're against me, it's because you're against God.

You're against God's word, God's timing. We're going to look at now some of the theological problems with this. The number one theological problem that is eroding biblical support for Israel or biblical Zionism is what's called replacement theology. Israel is not replaced. We go through all of this in that DVD: Replacement Theology, the idea the church has replaced Israel. Anything that God's word talked about about Israel, it's no longer applicable, it all applies to the church. I'm still waiting for our country. Because if God said there's going to be a nation and the church has now taken that over, where's our country? I want my country. Where's our land? I want Christian land.

One of the things that those in the replacement camp will say... and by the way, this is also the majority of Catholicism. People ask me all the time, "Why is JD Vance now showing his true colors?" I never trusted JD Vance. Let's not forget JD Vance was a Never-Trumper. He was TDS Never-Trumper. All of a sudden now he comes in the political spectrum. He was supported by people like Peter Thiel, who is a globalist, technocratic globalist. Now he's showing his true colors because he is a Catholic supporting replacement theology.

By the way, remember Bucky Carlson, Tucker's son, was his either chief of staff or chief legislative aide before he was removed. I think there's a rift going even within the administration politically, but spiritually in the church, those who are making this statement are basically saying there's no longer any type of calling or hand of God upon the Jewish people because it's done. It's finished. It's over. There's no prophetic plan, there's nothing in the future. All these promises were already fulfilled in Christ, despite Israel being mentioned over 70 times in the New Testament.

The only explanation of this is of course you have to replace Israel with the church. The only way to do that is you allegorize literal verses. What is the foundation of dispensationalism? We take the Bible literally unless it tells us otherwise. If we know it's allegory, if we know it's metaphor, then we understand as metaphor. But otherwise, when the Bible says something literally, we take it as literal. God meant it literally. So if God says there's going to be an Israel again, that means there's going to be an Israel again, a nation, a land, and what has happened? There's an Israel again.

But now we have a global hatred. We've gone from, let's say during the time of the Nazis to a regional, mostly regional antisemitism, Jew-hatred, to now global. Global. It is rapidly increasing and it's alarming. It should alarm every person, especially Christians. It should alarm us how prevalent it's becoming in the church. By the way, this started with Justin Martyr in the second century AD, the idea that because again Israel had fallen, Jerusalem had fallen, there was no Israel, there was no Jerusalem, the Jewish people were scattered. So they read these verses in the New Testament and I guess in one sense you can't blame them because they're struggling with the idea that, "Well, it says Israel but there's no Israel. I guess it means the church." What a horrible way of interpreting the Bible.

What I want to tell you is according to statistics that I've seen... we're still trying to get newer statistics, but I've said this on Brannon Howse, I've said it with Dr. Woods, I've said it in many platforms: I think we're underestimating how prevalent this has become in the American church and the Western church. According to this, almost 70%, 70% of young people are now in that camp of replacement or what's called covenantal. A little bit better in the older generation, but among that younger generation, they have no concept of this because the support for dispensationalism, the support for literal interpretation is going out the window. You couple that with biblical illiteracy and we have a problem.

The problem of what we're talking about this morning isn't in the world and it's not in the political left or the political right, it's in the church. We've got to be able to have bolder voices and get stronger on this. This leads to false support for this concept of Palestinianism. The people that are in the replacement camp, they're the ones who are saying things like "Jesus was a Palestinian." They're the ones who are saying things like, "We don't say Jesus was Jewish, we say Jesus was a Christian."

They're trying to erase the Jewish lineage, the Jewish history. Again, this is not a minor issue. This is at the crux of the gospel. I'm very vocal on the myth of Palestine: that there's never been a Palestine, there's never been a Palestinian people. The people that are living in Gaza were predominantly Egyptian Arab... not Jews, Arabs, they're from Arabs from Egypt, they're Jordanian Arabs. Many of the so-called Palestinians living in the so-called West Bank, which is Judea and Samaria, are again mostly Jordanian Arabs, they're sort of gypsies, they're nomadic. It's interesting that why don't the Arab Muslim countries welcome them in? Why don't they want them? Because it's a propaganda machine.

The other theological error that is destroying support for biblical support of Israel, biblical Zionism, scriptural Zionism, is the idea what's called covenantal theology now. This is the concept where you go from "We're not replacement but we're expansionist." Replacement is supersessionism, it's that we've fully replaced it. Covenantal theology is expansionist where you see this with reformed theology or particularly with hyper-Calvinism, which is now becoming a huge percentage of the American church and a huge percentage of the political right.

Meaning many Christians that are involved in the political movement that are involved in the political movement are involved because of their reform or covenantal theology. You'll see in a minute, this leads to the concept of dominionism. The idea that we're in the kingdom now. They will say Christ fulfilled all the promises to Israel in Himself and in the new covenant, and therefore there is no longer any outstanding promises.

This is where you get eschatology called preterism, right? Partial preterism. This is the idea that those prophecies that have to do with Israel, the Jewish people, the land, all of those things were in the past. They've all been absorbed and fulfilled in the new covenant through Christ. Once again, it's not really that much different in my opinion than replacement because once again the only way you get around any mention of Israel in the New Testament or in Book of Revelation is through allegorizing, spiritualizing verses. Daniel 9, fulfilled. Matthew 24, fulfilled. Book of Revelation, fulfilled.

Also partial preterist will give the Book of Revelation an early date, 60 or 65 AD. Why? Because they will say everything was fulfilled in AD 70. The Antichrist was Nero. If you go to and you read their writings of preterism, when you ask them, "When was the seven-year tribulation? When was the final 70th week?" Well, it happened before AD 70. Who was the Antichrist? Nero, the Roman emperor was the Antichrist. What was the mark of the beast? Well, it was the coin and the inscription on the coin was the mark of the beast.

Partial preterist at least have some semblance of sanity in the sense that they acknowledge all we're waiting for today is the second coming of Christ. They at least acknowledge that Jesus is coming back a second time. The difference is this covenantal theology or partial preterism leads to the concept that we are now in the kingdom. We have to be able to Christianize the world, but Jesus is coming back. Full preterism is beyond any understanding in my opinion because not only do they believe everything is fulfilled, they believe that Christ came back spiritually the second time already.

When? AD 70. So again, you have an interpretation problem, a theology problem, a prophetic problem, an eschatology problem, and a worldview problem because as I said at the beginning, if we're in the kingdom, we have a problem. We're not doing a very good job of ushering in the kingdom. If we're post-millennial, where we're post the reign of Christ, we're in the reign of Christ, and obviously it's been 2,000 years, so they reject the idea of a thousand-year reign of Christ being literal. When the Book of Revelation said He will reign for a thousand years, I guess that's allegory, right? A thousand years really meant 2,000 years or a longer period of time. It doesn't make any sense.

But what doesn't make any sense is when they get to the point where they'll say we believe Jesus already came in AD 70 to actually judge the Jews. Why? Well, because they crucified Him. They broke the covenants, they were in violation, and they crucified Him. Antisemitism comes from this concept that now you're anti-anything Semitic. You're anti-anything that would deal with that lineage. Where's the concept of Semitic come from? Semitic comes from the concept of lineage. We believe that those who came from Noah and particularly the line of Shem are the Semitic people. Therefore, that being antisemitic isn't just being against Jews, it's being against the very lineage of the Messiah.

They may not acknowledge that, but where it leads to is ultimately if you follow this to its end, you must then deny the very lineage of Messiah as coming from that line. That's why they're saying things like "Jesus wasn't Jewish, Jesus was Christian." because they're trying to wipe out... they have to. In order for them to go where they're going, they have to wipe out any aspect of Him being Jewish. Here is one of these full preterists, this guy who's been interviewed by Tucker, been on a lot of podcasts, Joel Webbon. He claims to be a pastor. He had a guy on his show a few months ago where this guy was saying, "I refuse to say Jesus was Jewish." Webbon agreed. "I understand that you have that point of view."

When this guy asks Webbon as a pastor, "Don't you agree? Because after all, there's no clear genealogy in the Bible, right?" Wrong. So here's what he says. Webbon gets criticized by Dinesh D'Souza for trying to write the Jews out of the Bible. He says, "I would never write the Jews out of the Bible or scriptures. They play a vital role. They're the bad guys. They perverted the law, killed the prophets, persecuted the apostles, and crucified Christ." Here's full preterism in view. "After rejecting their Messiah, He spiritually returned in AD 70 and judged them, and you know the rest."

What he's saying is "you know the rest." Jesus came back in AD 70 spiritually, not literally, because you know there was a problem like if He literally came because every eye will see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. And so you're like, "Is there any recorded history that Jesus returned the second time?" But this is lunacy and I would say that this is completely outside of any orthodoxy. I would have to question that these people that profess to be Christians, are they truly Christians? They don't have any evidence of them having the spirit of God in them.

For the sake of time, I only have six minutes left. I want to finish with this and let you know: there's a reason that you're seeing this rise of anti-Zionism that in my opinion, follow it to its end, will lead to antisemitism. If you are against Zionism, particularly scriptural Zionism, either theologically motivated where you don't believe it applies anymore because if they're correct, if partial preterist, preterist, covenant, replacement, if they're correct, there is no Zionism today. Does that make sense? Because if they're correct, God is done.

There is no right of return, there is no nation to be born, there is no right of existence for the Jewish people in fulfillment of prophecy. Therefore, it is a concoction by the elders of Zion or by the globalist Zionists. That's where they have to go. But if you go there, it will lead to antisemitism because you will become not only against the Jews, obviously, because if you don't believe they have a right to exist in their land, then you believe things like they're occupiers, they're colonizers, and they're committing genocide. Which is ludicrous if you think about genocide. You know where genocide is happening? In Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, in the Congo, in Syria.

What about the Armenian genocide that nobody wants to talk about? That's where genocide is happening. The population of Arabs in Gaza has increased by 3% since October 7, 2023. They're not dying off, they're increasing. Have they been killed? Yes. Is there a war? Yes. Is it bad? Yes. Has Israel done everything perfectly? No. Can you criticize the Israeli government? Sure. Are you an antisemite for simply disagreeing with the Israeli government? No, not in my opinion. I disagree with our American government often. I wouldn't say I'm un-American or anti-American. I love America, I love our principles, I love our foundation, I love our constitution, I love our declaration. But I have problems with the way our government acts sometimes, like during COVID.

I want to show you very quickly. The root of this division goes back to Genesis 16. The root of this antisemitism goes back to Genesis 16. Because Ishmael, who was born out of covenant against God's covenant, God speaks this over him: "You'll be a wild donkey of a man. Your hand will be against everybody and everybody's hand will be against you and you will live to the east of your brothers." That means that his hand is going to be against his brethren. Who was his number one brother? It was Isaac. We've seen this feud, and this feud is today carried forth in the largest ideology on the planet of one people group, and that is Islam.

That's why I say Islam is an antichrist spirit and antisemitic. Because not only did their very foundation claim that the Jews stole the covenant from Ishmael and gave it to Isaac. That's why they believe it was Ishmael that was going to be sacrificed by Abraham and not Isaac. But also this type of teaching. Here is in the Hadith according to the prophet of Islam: before their Messiah returns, whom they call the Mahdi, with their prophet Isa, that's Jesus. There's a document that is on the table called Polar Opposites. If you see people say, "Oh, the Muslims believe in Jesus, the Christians believe in Jesus, we have so much common," get this document, study it, read it, share it so you understand. That is absolutely a lie.

Nothing in common between the fake Jesus of the Quran and the true Jesus of the Bible. Nothing, period, zero, zilch. One is an antichrist, one is Christ. One is spirit of Christ. Here's what it says: "Allah's apostle said the hour will not be established until the son of Mary descends among you as a just ruler. He will break the cross because they claim the cross never happened. He will kill the pigs," not talking about animals, that's the Jews, and he will abolish the jizya tax, the extortion tax that Muslims will charge non-Muslims to protect them because it won't be needed anymore because they claim the world will be Islamic.

Here is another Hadith, Sahih Muslim. It says, "The prophet said the last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews. The Muslims would kill them until the Jews were hide themselves behind the stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: 'Muslim or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'"

This is a verse, by the way, that Hamas was using during October 7 as they were hunting down Jews. They were celebrating the idea that the stones, the buildings were crying out to us, "Oh look, come here, come behind this car, come behind this shelter, there's a Jew here, come and kill him." They were literally using this verse to justify their behavior. Today we have imams in America, in Dearborn, Michigan, in Houston, who literally will say things like "We have to kill the Jews, we have to kill the Zionists. It's time that we get rid of them. There can be no Israel."

Yet we don't get this called out. But remember, brothers and sisters, Israel will be saved. Israel's rejection of the gospel is not total, it is not final. Israel needs us to give them the gospel. We need to be light to them. Yeshua is coming back to a remnant of Israel to save them. Let's not forget the deliverer comes out of Zion. We pray for Israel, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, but we need to stand on this.

I am not ashamed to be labeled... you want to label me? Fine. I am not ashamed to be labeled as a biblical Zionist because I believe biblical Zionism is the actual proper interpretation of all of God's word, including His plans for the church and His separate plan for the nation of Israel. Therefore, I'm not shy, I'm not going to run away from it. I hope you do the same thing. But we need to pray for what's going on in the church today because this movement that is demonic, it's an antichrist... if we just want to simplify it: Why is this happening? Because it's a demonic agenda of Satan once again to destroy God's plan, purposes, His people, His covenant, and it will not work. Amen? It will not work. We'll blow the trumpet one day in Zion when the King of kings returns.

I pray this was helpful for us to hopefully understand what's behind it, what's going on, what we need to stand for. Tonight, by the way, if you're able to join us at 6 o'clock: "Battle for Texas: This Islamic Movement Rising in Texas." It is the forefront. Please come tonight at 6 o'clock. And 11 o'clock in just about 15 minutes we're going to talk about Iran and Bible prophecy. God bless you guys, thank you so much, and I'll see you later. Let me close in prayer.

Father, thank You for this morning. we pray Your blessing upon the rest of our time, Lord, and I pray that this message will be used as You see it fit, Lord, for Your glory. Let it rest in our hearts, let us wrestle with this, but let us come to the truth, to the conclusion of standing on Your word, Lord God. We love You, we bless You, and we bless the Jewish people, we bless the nation of Israel because Your word says to do it, because it is Your purposes and plan. We love You and I pray a blessing upon everybody here this morning in Sugar Land Bible Church in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you guys, God bless you guys.