JOHN RILEY

This is the Middle East Report your connection to truth for reporting on Israel and the Middle East. Each week we bring you the truth of what's happening there in the Middle East and Israel, because there is a lot of deception out there in the news media, social media, and in so many different places. That's why you need the truth. One organization that is doing that is Israel Team Advocates International and incredible organization that has been fighting against anti-Semitism for a long, long time. And a dear friend of mine is the founder of that organization, Aaron Fruh. He joins me on this edition of the Middle East Report. Aaron, thank you so much for joining us. We're going to talk about a conference that's happening in Dallas, Texas, very, very soon. But before we do that, tell us about Israel team and what you guys do. Israel Team is an organization. We work on Christian college campuses. We help students understand their roots of their faith is Hebraic. that the foundation of the faith is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And those were Jewish apostles and Jewish prophets. And we want to help them understand that Israel matters today. And so many churches across America are teaching and preaching replacement theology, which is a theology that says the church is the new Israel. God has rejected his people, but that's not true. The Paul the Apostle says that the Jewish people are still beloved for the sake of the fathers. And so and that's present tense. They're still beloved. They haven't been rejected. God's covenant still stands. And so what Israel does Israel team does is we we put on conferences, symposiums., we teach courses on Christian college campuses to push back against this growing narrative. So many students are getting their information from TikTok and social media. And the peer pressure is incredible today. So if there's a group of students and they're all anti-Israel, then you may just fall into that group and begin to hold those beliefs. So a new arm of our ministry is called the Redwood Coalition, and it's a group of about twenty scholars that we've gathered together to put on these conferences. And so in the last twelve months, we've been at Regent University in in Virginia Beach, Virginia, at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, California. Last week, we were on the campus of Wheaton College, the historic evangelical flagship college outside of Chicago, Illinois. And we had as our guest speaker, Eileen Hirsi Ali., she talked about radical Islam and, and why we need to push back against radical Islam and why we need to support and love the Jewish people and the state of Israel. We had seven hundred students and faculty in the historic Edmond Chapel. In two weeks, we'll be in Dallas, Texas, and,, at a conference for pastors. So John, that's basically what we do. We try to help people understand that Israel is still chosen. And God hasn't rejected his people.

JOHN RILEY

Let's dive in., Aaron, to this conference that you've got going on in Dallas that's coming up on the twenty first of this month, October twenty one., in a suburb just outside of Dallas. And I have to tell you, I love the name of this conference., and again, this conference open to everybody, but especially it is for pastors. Pastors need to get there and be a part of this. But, but I love the name of this conference that you have coming up. Jesus is a Jew. Does that affect the gospel?

AARON FRUH

We must realize that Jesus was born a Jew. He was raised a Jew., he's the world's most famous Jew. He taught the first century Judaism of his day. The parables that Jesus taught were taught by other rabbis. It was. It was the teaching of the day. So Jesus, when he returns, he returns as the lion of the tribe of Judah. Judah is where we get our name, Jew or Jewish. So the conference will be held in Rolla, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. At Christ the Redeemer Church. It's on October twenty first. We've got world class speakers coming in from all over the world. Reverend Jerry McDermott, who is probably the foremost New Testament theologian on this issue of Israel. Jerry was once a supersessionist. He believed that the church had superseded Israel, that God had rejected Israel. He was teaching replacement theology, and God got a hold of Jerry's heart probably twenty years ago, and he began to write books and articles. His newest book is Israel Matters. Another book for pastors and leaders is called The New Christian Zionism. Jerry will be speaking. Jules Gomes from Rome, whose PhD in the Hebrew Bible will be speaking. So we've just got a line up of world class speakers. It's just a one day conference, and it'll be very enriching for every pastor and church leader that comes. I want to encourage everybody to,, pray for this conference, number one. But if you are a pastor, you need to be there on Wednesday, October twenty first. It starts at nine o'clock in the morning and then ends at four in the afternoon. All of these world class speakers and again, the topic, Jesus is a Jew. Does that affect the gospel?

JOHN RILEY

It's kind of crazy that we have to make that statement. Jesus is a Jew because there's some people out there who think he was a Palestinian. It's crazy how we have really got confused and mixed up about all of this, and have taken the Word of God and just put that aside.

AARON FRUH

Yeah, there's some Christian evangelicals that teach today that, as you just said, John, Jesus was a Palestinian, and he's on the other side of the checkpoint, and he's standing with his people, the Palestinian people, in opposition to the Jewish people. And so it's remarkable how you can twist scripture to make Jesus a non-Jew. And that is really the objective today, in many circles of Christianity, teachers and pastors are once again teaching replacement theology. It was a theology that actually led to the Holocaust in Germany. Ninety percent of the German Christians were either Catholic or Protestants. The pastors begged the Nazis to hang swastikas from their pulpits. They embraced the Nazi movement of anti-Semitism, and without the complicity of German Christians, the Holocaust would have never happened. And you have to ask yourself the question who poured the gas into the gas chamber? It was German Christians, baptized Christians. The opening paragraph to our. Our posters. Since the Holocaust, there has been an explosion of Christian scholarship asking how did this take place in the most Christianized country in history, the birthplace of the Reformation? Did we get Jews and Judaism somehow wrong? What are the implications for our understanding of Jesus and the gospel? And so this conference is going to ask those deep questions, one of which is how did German Christians come to the place of being filled with such hatred towards the Jewish people? And so it's as if we're living in the nineteen thirties again, all across this world, Europe is really already fallen. When you think of the Church of England, it's ninety five, ninety nine percent replacement theology. Some of the things the Archbishop of Canterbury have said has said recently against the state of Israel is remarkable. So Britain has already fallen. The churches have already fallen back into this this heresy of replacement theology. And across America, it's happening again. And and John, I was on the phone this week with a dear friend of mine that he's in churches on Sundays speaking about Israel, trying to help pastors grab a hold of this great truth that God has not rejected Israel, that Israel is still part of God's redemptive purpose for the world. And at the end of the age, what is God doing? He's restoring his people to their land. We're living in the last days of time. And so my friend told me that, you know, he's out and about all the time with pastors. And I said, what are you seeing out there? You know, with pastors. And he said, most pastors that I'm around, they have a love for Israel, but they're really confused when it comes to their theology of Israel, number one. And number two, they're afraid to say anything from their pulpits. So they don't want to promote their belief that God has not rejected Israel, that he's they're still the chosen people. So they shy away from it because they're afraid of losing people. So that's basically where we're where the church was in the nineteen thirties, Germany. Pastors were afraid to speak up against the anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism of their day. Oh, wait a minute. That seems to be where we are today. I mean, you think about what's happening in church pulpits across the country. It's true.

Aaron Fruh

I like to tell people, I say, you know, when you went to bed last night, did you see the sun? Did you see the moon? Did you see the stars in the heavens? When you awoke this morning. Did you see the sun come up? And if you're living by a seashore,, did you see the, um, the waves of the sea? Well, here's what God says in Jeremiah chapter thirty one. Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar? The Lord of hosts is his name. If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before, before me forever. So that's what God says. If you see that there's the sun is destroyed, the moon is destroyed. There's no stars in the heaven. Then God has changed his mind. And Israel is no longer a nation before him. But if that fixed, that's how serious God is about the nation of Israel, his covenant people, that he proves it by the stars and the heavens, and the moon and the sun and the waves of the sea. So if you've seen all those things, it means that Israel is still a nation. And so to reject Israel is to reject the God who identifies himself as the God of Israel. And we can't forget that in the Abrahamic covenant there was a land promise. And so many pastors today are declaring that that Israel is really not the spiritual Israel that the Bible prophesies about, that this land does not belong to them. It belongs to Palestinian Christians, and they adopt the whole Palestinian,, nationalistic narrative, which is really Marxist. That was started in the 1960s by the Soviets,, to try to sequester the growing state of Israel. And so to jump on that side of history is really to be against the God of history, the God who calls himself the God of Israel, the God of the Jewish people. This conference is called Jesus is a Jew. Does that affect the gospel? Wednesday, October twenty first in the the Dallas, Texas area. This is a conference especially for pastors. We're talking to pastors today or church leaders. You need to be a part of this. You've got some time to plan to get there. And it's an all day conference starting at nine in the morning and then ending at four in the afternoon. You can get more details when you go to IsraelTeam.org, IsraelTeam.org. All the details. It's a free conference. You can find out more when you go to IsraelTeam.org. IsraelTeam.org. Now, a few minutes ago, Aaron, you know, you asked some questions. Did we get Jews and Judaism somehow wrong? And what are the implications for understanding of Jesus in the gospel? And you guys are going to, you know, address those questions in light of everything that's going on in the world, anti-Semitism and everything else with the Jewish people.

AARON FRUH

One thing that I realized as a pastor, and I was a pastor for thirty five years, and I was a replacement theologian. And the sad part about that is I was born a Jew. Think about that. But I rejected my Jewish heritage. I didn't understand it. I didn't comprehend it. I saw myself as a Christian pastor and never the twain shall meet. And in 2002, the Lord got a hold of my heart. I always say that visions are caught, not taught. And so I'm speaking to pastors right now. You may be like, I was sort of nuanced on this issue of Israel. And the Lord got a hold of my heart and I began,, writing and studying and forming a new theology that was a new kind of Christian Zionism that I was called, come what May, to support the Jewish people. And I met a guy named Bill McCartney who was the president of Promise Keepers, and he spoke at our church. And we began to dialogue and talk. And Bill was having the same revelation that God was restoring the Jewish people. He wanted to be a part of it. So we wrote a book together entitled Two Minute Warning Why it's time to Honor Jewish People Before the Clock Runs Out. And we spent three years researching this book. We team wrote the book together. And that book was a life change for me. It helped me to understand what had happened to the church since the Middle Ages. We're. The separation took place. Why the church broke away from its elder Jewish brothers and sisters. And so there's a prayer of Jesus in the high priestly prayer of John seventeen twenty one, where Jesus says, I don't pray for these alone that you've given me. Who are these? These are the Jews. I pray for all those who will believe in me through their message, that they might be one, so that the world might believe that you sent me. And so, but this is the key right here in John seventeen. And the enemy has kept Jew and Gentile separated all these years,, driving a wedge between the church and her elder Jewish brothers and sisters, the Jewish people. And so again, John, I want to be on the right side of history. And and Joel says in John chapter three, verse one, for behold, in those days and at that time when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of my people and my heritage, Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it. So what God is talking about through the prophet Joel here is in the last days Israel will be regathered. We must remember that whatever God scatters, he regathers. And so he's bringing back his people to their land. He's regathering them. And some pastors will say today, well, you know all of Israel., they're not they're not all religious. Where are their hearts? Towards God. But have you ever made a mistake? Have. Have we ever sinned? Well, the Bible says we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And so God says to Israel, all through the Old Testament, I will scatter you. Says that all the way back in Deuteronomy, I will scatter you across the nations of the earth, but one day I will bring you back. And so what we're seeing today is a modern day miracle of God bringing back from the four corners of the earth,, his people to the land of Israel. And he's going to enter into judgment at the end of the age with the nations of the earth, who divide the land of Israel, who are set on driving the Jewish people out of Israel. And in Matthew twenty five, the Olivet Discourse, Jesus is basically quoting John chapter three when he says, at the end of the age, the Son of Man is going to draw the nations. And he's going to enter into judgment with them there as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. He's going to put the goat, the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left hand. And he'll say, and everyone knows the scripture, I was hungry, he gave me something to eat, I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink, I was naked and you clothed me. I was in prison and you visited me, I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. And the righteous will say, when did we see you hungry or naked or in prison? And Jesus will say, you've done it unto the least of these, my brethren. You've done it unto me. Who is Jesus talking about? He's talking about his Jewish brethren. He was born a Jew, raised a Jew, he's still a Jew. And he's saying, you mistreated them. And he's saying that to the goats, but to the righteous. They enter into his his presence. But the goats are are driven away from him. So what I believe John, is at the end of the age. There's going to be goat nations and sheep nations. Just a few weeks ago in the United Nations, when Bibi Netanyahu spoke, it was seventy nations got up and left the Assembly Hall of the United Nations to reject Israel. So that separation is already happening across this planet. So there'll be goat nations and there'll be sheep nations. There'll be goat churches and sheep churches. Already in America. We're seeing all the mainline denominations,, are rejecting Israel. They're in full,, compliance with an ideology, a Marxist ideology to drive Israel from the land of Israel. And so we're seeing that same ideology now spread onto evangelical college campuses, into evangelical churches. It's what I've coined as Islamism, Marxism, which is a mixed mixture of Christianity, Islam, and Marxism, and that is spreading across our Christian college campuses. So what we're doing, John, is, is we are, we're, we're trying to push back against that. And our objective is, is to reach a righteous remnant. And the good news is there will always be a remnant of Christians, of sheep, Christians that will stand with the Jewish people, as did people like Corrie ten boom during the Holocaust. And she said, these are my people. These are God's people, and I'm going to hide them. I'm going to protect them in their time of need. So could it be that there'll be other Corrie ten boom that God will raise up Corrie ten boom, pastors and church leaders that will rise up and and have a voice to speak in favor of God's people.

John Riley

 May that be you as you are listening, that you will rise up and speak for God's people in this conference that's coming up. Jesus is a Jew. Does that affect the gospel? It's happening on Wednesday, October twenty first in the Dallas, Texas area. This is a free conference, especially open to pastors. It's limited to two hundred people and the first one hundred people that actually register are going to get a copy of the New Christian Zionism that's written by one of the speakers, Reverend Doctor Gerald McDermott. So you'll you'll get that. But this is an incredible conference. Please mark this on your calendar. It is Wednesday, October twenty first in the Dallas, Texas area. And you can get more details on that when you go to IsraelTeam.org. That's IsraelTeam.org. Please go to that website and find out more. Aaron, your organization is not a political organization whatsoever, but I do want to ask you about some of the things that are going on here in our country where we are seeing,, Islamists that are actually in a position to go into Washington, D.C., in high office. And we see this happening all over the country. We see it seems like an onslaught of Islamism that's happening across our country. You want to maybe talk a little bit about that and what you what you think is happening here in our nation.

AARON FRUH

It's frightening, John. And and I'm not one given to fear, but I, I really believe the church needs to wake up to what is happening. And right after ten, by the way, just last week when the Fly Dubai plane was almost crashed into Israel, I think the the co-pilot was probably aiming for a building in Tel Aviv or perhaps even the Knesset in Jerusalem., to have another nine eleven attack. And I said to myself when I, when I heard about this, and it was just a miracle that the plane did not break apart, that the Indian captain was able to, to open the door of the cockpit. And Israeli passengers rushed in to save the plane and everyone on board. There was one hundred and seventy men, women and children on board of that flydubai aircraft. But what's interesting is I wondered how long it was going to take. And it took sixty seven minutes for social media buzz to blame Israel for the attack, to blame Israel for this terrorist attack. And within a few days, there was two thousand five hundred conspiracy posts on social media blaming the Mossad or Bibi Netanyahu for trying to bring down this plane. Amazing. And so what's happening is in America, there's an ideology of Marxism. It's it's in our college campuses. And right after ten oh seven, um, October seventh, twenty twenty three, when one thousand two hundred Jewish men, women and children were slaughtered in southern Israel. Within just a few hours, there were marches in Paris, in San Francisco, in Sydney, praising Hamas for what they had done in complete Solidarity with Hamas. And I was in one of those,, rallies. I just sort of ventured in,, who is, who is doing the chanting? Who is praising Hamas? The majority of people in a group of about two hundred people in San Diego, California, praising Hamas for the murder of these twelve hundred Jews. The majority of them were white college students. I was amazed. And so what's happening is it's called the Red and Green Alliance. And you wonder what's happening on Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, what's happening on this campuses where there was such an uprising against Israel, encampments supporting Hamas,, supporting the global intifada, supporting the phrase from the river to the sea. Palestine will be free. What that really means. And if you translate it from the Arabic language, it, it says,, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be Arab. What they're saying is we're going to totally annihilate and murder every Jew in in Israel. And so the Red and Green Alliance has been moving into our college campuses from the Soviet Union since the,, the, the 1960s, Marxism is embedded into our campuses. And now Palestinian nationalism is the new mantra. And so those two ideologies have merged. The green is the Palestinian flag, the red is the Russian flag, the Marxist flag. And I add a third ideology to that or phase to that. And that's Christianity. So,, in many colleges today, Christian colleges, what I'm seeing growing is Islamism. Marxian a mixture of Christianity, Islam and Marxism. And some of the campuses we go to, John, there's uprising from Christian students that are saying what we're doing is racist because we're not promoting the glories of the Islamic religion on some of our evangelical college campuses. Right now in New Testament departments, they're teaching more on the Quran than they are the New Testament. It'll blow your mind of the things that I'm seeing out there. And so you wonder, why is this happening? Well, a group I work for, it's called is gap. I work with this gap. I'm a research fellow. There is gap is the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, based in Cambridge in the UK. And they hired a forensic accountant to find the money trail into our colleges here in the United States of America. And right now there's about twenty billion dollars that is gap has found so far. And you can look this up because they made a presentation before the US Congress called Follow the Money., is gap I s g a p. You can see this report for yourself. And I think there's a one hundred billion in undocumented funds that are coming into our colleges, and it's coming from Qatar. It's Islamic money that's coming in to promote Islam, to promote Middle East studies departments, and to reject the state of Israel. So that is what is happening. And the first thing that the Nazis did in the nineteen thirties was they took over college campuses. And we're seeing the same thing here in the United States of America.

JOHN RILEY

That's Aaron Fruh, the founder of Israel Team Advocates International. You can find out more about that organization when you go to their website, IsraelTeam.org, and find out about this conference as well, especially those of you in the Dallas, Texas area. Jesus is a Jew. Does that affect the gospel? This is a conference for pastors. It's absolutely free. And I want to encourage you. Help us get the word out about this conference there in Dallas, Texas. Let's make sure it's a great attendance. It's limited to just two hundred people. So if you want to find out more about that, please go to Arun's website, Israel team dot IsraelTeam.org. We know what's going on here in our country. So much anti-Semitism, Jew hatred happening. We see what's happening with the onslaught of Islam here. In fact, it is just crazy what's happening politically in that area. We see what's going on in Michigan. The Islamic candidate for Senate there in Michigan said, I base my life on the Quran. Well, he bases his life on the Quran, which says Christians must be eliminated. Jews must be eliminated. We've got a lot to be concerned about here in our country. That wraps up this edition of the Middle East Report. Thank you for listening. You can get a podcast of this show wherever you get your podcasts. We're on all the major podcast platforms out there. Just search for the Middle East report, or you can go to AFR.net and you can email me as well, middle East at AFR.net, that's Middle East at AFR.net. Thanks for listening.