In Israel, I found myself in the land of the Bible. I have traveled widely, and I know that many of the cities of the world are now homogenized; they have become virtually indistinguishable from one another. But Israel is not like that. Its cities are not like that.

In Jerusalem, we are standing amidst the monuments and ruins of ancient biblical times. Fascinating! But that could also be said, for example, of Rome. In Greece, we can stand at the Acropolis or the Parthenon. But Jerusalem is living out its past: here are the same people speaking the same language and walking the same streets and following the same rituals and praying to the same God that their ancestors did in biblical times.

In Israel, history comes to life in a way that is unique. Not only that, but for Christians there is also a feeling of déjà vu, of having been there before. And of course we have, through the pages of the Bible and countless church sermons and Bible studies.

Now it’s one thing to learn about a place and something quite different to experience it. My wife and I both felt a strange feeling of being at home. She’s from Venezuela and I’m from India, so we were born elsewhere. We now live in America and have made America our home. But Israel almost immediately became our spiritual home.

We are at home in Israel because our faith was born here. This is where the God of the Universe entered history through His relationship with Abraham and the patriarchs. This is where Jesus was born, taught and was crucified. This is where the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles, inspiring them to take the good news to the Gentiles.

“Gentiles.” That’s us. And Israel, we believe, will also be the place to which Jesus returns, once the end times prophecies of the Bible are all fulfilled.

We began our trip at the northern tip of Israel, the Sea of Galilee. We were in boats, similar to the boats in which Jesus and the apostles rode the waves on this very body of water. The boats were fastened together, and I was asked to speak to the crowd.

What a feeling! I had thought about what to say and had decided to talk about the miracles of the Bible, Jesus’ miracles in this place, and how a belief in miracles is in no way contradicted by modern science. Even so, I hesitated. I turned to my wife Debbie, “What should I talk about?” She quipped, “Just give your Sea of Galilee speech.”

Of course I had no Sea of Galilee speech, but her response made me chuckle, and I relaxed and gave the talk I had planned to give.

Order Dinesh D’Souza’s New Book, “The Stones Cry Out” on Amazon.com!

We visited Nazareth, where Jesus spent his childhood, and some of the places where Jesus lived and taught, Capernaum, and also the small village of Magdala, home of one Mary of Magdala—also known as Mary Magdalene. We went across the narrow torso of Israel, making our way to the western side.

“There!” our guide Ido Keynan said, pointing from Megiddo toward some distant mountains. “That’s Mount Carmel. That’s where Elijah had his showdown with the prophets of Baal.”

When we reached the west end of the country, we visited Caesarea Maritima—Caesarea by the Sea—where the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate had his palace and headquarters. And from there we went to Caesarea Philippi, where we stopped at a hillside spot with niches in the rock alongside a large cave. In Jesus’ time these niches held various cult statues to Greek gods like Dionysus and Pan.

These are the gods associated with lack of restraint and sexual orgies. Dionysus is the god of wine, pleasure, fertility and sexual frenzy. Pan is the Greek god of nature, the wilderness, shepherds and goats. He was represented with the legs, hooves and horns of a goat, and the arms and the upper body, arms and head of a man. In his honor, the site was called Paneas.

The shrine had existed from the third century B.C. to the fifth century A.D., when the region became Christian and the site was abandoned. But in Jesus’ time, people came from faraway places to indulge in the rites of Dionysus and Pan. Some even engaged in child sacrifice. Below is a small river that was used to dump the bodies of children who were killed to appease these gods. A gruesome image!

The massive cave that descends deep into the earth was considered by many pagans to be a gateway to the underworld, to Hades. For this reason, Paneas conventionally came to be known as the “Gates of Hell.” My mind flashed back to Jesus’ words to Peter in Matthew 16: 18 about building his church so strong that “the gates of hell shall not prevail over it.” Jesus was standing pretty close to where I stood, overlooking the caves and the stream.

But now I understood something about Jesus’ words that I hadn’t before. Jesus wasn’t just speaking metaphorically about the gates of hell. He was speaking specifically about what this place represented: idolatry, worship of false gods, and various forms of cultic and sexual immorality. Jesus meant to say his church would stand firm not just against Satan but also against the ungodly temptations of the world. Basically when Jesus said, “the gates of hell,” he meant, “You’re looking at it.”

Most of our trip—five days—was in Jerusalem. These are five of the most memorable days of my life. Debbie and I saw and learned so much, and what we saw brought the Bible to life in a new way for us. Imagine standing among the ruins of King David’s palace, and looking across to the homes and terraces where, three thousand years ago, David first saw Bathsheba.

Imagine standing in the Pool of Siloam, where Jesus healed a blind man, and then walking the Pilgrimage Road connecting the pool to the Temple. These sites were recently discovered, and what are the odds? I wouldn’t give very good Polymarket odds on finding these places after two thousand years.

Yet they are here. God, I believe, has chosen this time in history to speak through the stones. The stones are literally crying out, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Jewish pilgrims ritually cleansed themselves in the Pool of Siloam and walked that upward path to the Temple more than 2500 years ago. I asked Ze’ev Orenstein of the City of David Foundation, which is excavating those sites, what the chances were that Jesus bathed in the Pool and walked the Pilgrimage Road.

He answered, “One hundred percent.”

At the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, our guide Ido Keynan reminded Debbie and me of the accounts in John chapter 20 and Luke chapter 24 where the apostles enter the empty tomb. They don’t find Jesus there, but they do find the burial linens with the cloth that had been around Jesus’ head folded separately.

Keynan is a messianic Jew—a Jewish believer in Jesus. He told us about Jewish customs of Jesus day, and today, that give us a deeper understanding of the significance of this scene. “Even today,” Keynan said, “when my father has a bunch of people at a meal, if he has to leave, he will either fold his napkin and place it on the table, or he will toss it and then leave.”

“What,” I asked, “is the meaning of that?”

“If he tosses it,” Keynan said, “that means the meeting is over. People are free to leave. But if he folds it, that means no one should get up. That means he is coming back.”

A strange feeling came over me as I applied what Keynan said to the folded clothes in Jesus’ empty tomb. Debbie and I were with another couple from Montreal, “cultural Christians” who had never previously considered seriously whether the things they had been taught in childhood were actually true. I saw the expression of astonishment on their faces, which they tried quickly to conceal, almost as if it came with a note of reluctance.

In that nine-day trip, Debbie and I got a brief but unforgettable introduction to biblical archeology, biblical history, and also biblical prophecy. We saw how those three things are closely connected.

As we returned to America, I said to Debbie, “I don’t understand why the things we saw and heard are not shouted from the rooftops of every church in the world.”

“Pastors study theology,” Debbie said. “They don’t study archeology.”

That’s part of the answer. But as I learned later, there’s a corollary to this. Archeologists are mostly secular scholars who don’t want their discipline to be connected to the Bible. They fear it makes their work less “scientific.” So they minimize the relevance of archeological findings to the Bible, even when there is an obvious connection.

Biblical archeology is a discipline that is somewhat ashamed of itself.

Since early 2023, I have immersed myself in a three-year study of biblical archeology. My wife and I have also returned to Israel, several times. We went back in early 2025 for the filming of my documentary “The Dragon’s Prophecy,” which includes a section on biblical archeology. We went again in September 2025 for the opening ceremony for the Pilgrimage Road, a project that we have donated to every year since 2022. In early 2026, we were in Israel where I spoke at the annual international conference on anti-Semitism.

All this time, I have continued to read, and reflect, and study. I have come away with the exhilarating recognition that the events and people of the Bible are real. It’s all true. What I previously accepted on faith is now supported and corroborated by scientific fact. The events of the Bible and the events of history do not exist separately; rather, they come together as a single story of God working through time to achieve His plans and purposes.

I now understand my Bible in a newer and fuller way. I have in my mind the full track of events described in Scripture, from Genesis through Revelation, encompassing the Old Testament and the New. But now I also have a parallel track, pegging these biblical events and figures to historical dates and places, and I can also identify the archeological findings that prove, supplement and illuminate this biblical narrative.

I have written this book to share this fuller understanding, which I hope will enrich and deepen your encounter with God’s word and God’s plan for the end of the age—the end of time. And if you’re a skeptic, this book will challenge your faith in skepticism. I dare you to read it. Once again, it’s The Stones Cry Out, and you can preorder it now from Amazon.

Biblical archeology and biblical prophecy are intimately connected. As I intend to show, biblical archeology is not merely about the past, it is also about the present and the future. This book will corroborate the events and people of the Bible, demonstrate how biblical prophecy is being fulfilled today, and also reveal how the ancient stones help us prepare for the momentous events to come, the end times or last days envisioned in the Book of Revelation.

And that’s the way I see it.

Born in Mumbai, India, Dinesh D’Souza came to the United States as an exchange student in 1978. After graduating from Dartmouth College, he served as a policy analyst in the Reagan White House and a scholar in two prominent think tanks, the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is a New York Times best-selling author who has written books on politics, religion, culture, and economics— including Illiberal Education, The End of Racism, What’s So Great About America, and United States of Socialism—and three books on Christian apologetics: What’s So Great About Christianity, Life After Death, and Godforsaken. D’Souza has made eight political documentary films and produces a daily podcast called The Dinesh D’Souza Podcast, which is seen and heard by about 100,000 people daily. His new book, The Stones Cry Out: Biblical Archaeology, Prophecy, and the Last Days, is available on Amazon.com.

The attempt to wipe out the Jewish people is more than ignorance or prejudice. Anti-Semitism is a demonic spirit that opposes the King of the Jews Himself. And until the church recognizes it as spiritual, it will never be dealt with properly.

Remember God’s promise, so bold that it leaves no room for ambiguity: As long as there is a sun, moon, and stars, there will be Jewish people on the earth (Jer. 31:35–36). That means every attempt to eliminate the Jews is an attempt to make the Bible look false. Satan understands this. And that is why he has never stopped trying.

To understand why anti-Semitism is spiritual warfare, you must understand how the enemy operates. Satan does not fight humanity at random. He resists whatever God is advancing in the earth at a given moment. Scripture is clear: God’s redemptive plan is bound to His covenant with Israel.

From the beginning, the enemy’s goal has been to stop this covenant. When God chose Abraham, opposition followed. When Israel multiplied in Egypt, Pharaoh moved toward extermination. When Messiah was born, Herod ordered the slaughter of Hebrew children.

I have lived long enough to know that this did not always look the way it does now, at least not in America. There was never a time when anti-Semitism didn’t exist, but there was a time when it was not openly celebrated or casually excused.

Now, I’m an optimist. I don’t tend to focus on the end of the world. But with current events in the Middle East, I’m beginning to see things speeding up pertaining to end-time prophecies. And I can actually see how the world could instantly become anti-Semitic with the way things are going.

It would be so easy for this to happen worldwide right now, as we saw it happen in Germany before the Holocaust. It’s hard to believe a nation could normalize the slaughter of six million people, even after the fact. But I see the same spirit manifesting today in the United States and throughout the world.

America could easily fall into the anti-Semitism trap and become another Nazi-like nation. Why? Because it’s a spiritual battle. Anti-Semitism is satanic. Demonic powers working through human agents come against Jewish people globally. Especially in Europe right now, more and more Jewish people are realizing they have no future in these countries and are looking to make their home in Israel.

What has changed since October 7, 2023, is the boldness of anti-Semitism. What used to stay hidden is now out in the open for everyone to see. In the wake of the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust, hostility toward Jewish people has surged across America—on college campuses and in public demonstrations. Jewish families who never imagined needing security now have to rethink their safety.

The Anti-Defamation League conducted a Global 100 survey in 2025. The results were that anti-Jewish sentiment is at an all-time high. It found that 46 percent of adults worldwide—that’s 2.2 billion people—“harbor deeply entrenched anti-Semitic attitudes.” That number more than doubled in just ten years, compared to their first Global 100 survey in 2015.

And since the recent strikes against Iran and its proxies (in 2026), we have seen another huge upsurge of anti-Semitism. It’s gone way beyond what we saw before. It’s likely that in the wake of these strikes, more than half the world’s population has become anti-Semitic or anti-Israel in their thinking.

Let the Holy Spirit Search Your Heart

I want to challenge those of you reading to let the Holy Spirit search your hearts. Allow Him to shine His light on anything you have excused, inherited, laughed at, ignored, or spiritualized away.

Some of you have never considered that anti-Semitism can be a spirit, not just an opinion. Others have recognized it in culture but never thought to confront it in a bloodline, a church environment, or a spiritual framework.

The purpose of this is for you to get clean and live in “instant repentance.” Ask the Lord, right now, to show you anything in your heart—any bias, any contempt, any apathy, any “I’m sure it doesn’t matter” posture—that is not in keeping with His covenant heart. And when He shows you, renounce it. Repent. Break agreement with it. Because God is not trying to condemn you; He is trying to free you from a spirit that opposes the King of the Jews.

Anti-Semitism has survived every attempt to eliminate it. It adapts, changes language, and disguises itself. But its target never changes.

Israel stands at the center of God’s redemptive timeline. The return of Messiah, the final harvest, and the restoration of all things are inseparably connected to what Scripture declares will take place among the Jewish people. And when that reality draws closer, resistance becomes louder.

Recognizing this does not minimize the pain anti-Semitism causes. It explains why it must be addressed spiritually, not just emotionally or politically. Rising hostility is not evidence that God’s purposes are failing. It is evidence that they are advancing.

To order Sid Roth’s new book, The Glory Story, visit Amazon.com.

Scripture has already told us this would happen. And God has already shown us how to respond.

Instead of issuing statements and publicly distancing ourselves from it, we need to confront it spiritually. Until we do, it will keep resurfacing—even inside the church.

That means anti-Jewish jokes, attitudes, or doctrines cannot be brushed off as biased problems. They must be treated as deliverance issues. Churches need to build moments into their services where people repent—not just personally but corporately—for anti-Jewish attitudes in their bloodline and in their congregation.

Standing with Israel is having God’s heart for the nation and the Jewish people and being on God’s side in these last days of demonic deception. No one else is saying it this way—but it must be said.

You cannot be anti-Israel but not anti-Jewish. That is a false distinction. Israel, the Jewish people, and Zionism are biblically and historically interwoven. Every time a crisis erupts—Iran, Venezuela, New York, anywhere—someone finds a way to blame Zionists, Israel, or Jews. It makes no rational sense until you see it as spiritual.

If you’re a Christian and anti-Israel, there’s a disconnect in your spiritual identity. The “I’m just anti-Zionist” mask must be confronted. It is the same spirit.

Speaking of being anti-Zionist, I want you to know something. God is a Zionist. I am a Zionist. Every real Christian should be a Zionist. Even AI knows this.

I looked up the word Zionism using AI, and the definition was simple: It refers to the biblical belief that God promised the land of Israel to the Jewish people.

Do you know what anti-Israel or anti-Semitism is? It’s a synonym for hating God.

You tell me you hate Zionism. You tell me you hate Jewish people. You tell me you hate Israel. Then you might as well finish the statement. You hate God. Why? The Bible tells us what God thinks about Israel and the Jew.

Once you know what God’s Word says about the land, you understand that standing with Israel is not a political issue. It is a gospel issue. If you understand prophecy, you know that no matter what you see with your natural eye, God has the last word. God’s Word is the last word. So let’s examine what His Word says about Israel.

The reason anti-Semitism never dies is not random hatred—it is a targeted spiritual campaign against a specific covenant. If you want to understand why the enemy never stops, you have to understand what he is trying to stop. And what he is trying to stop is God’s fulfillment of the most specific, most repeated, most legally binding promise in all of Scripture—the land covenant. This is the prize. This is why the land is contested. This is why Jewish people are targeted. The enemy knows that if this covenant is fulfilled, his time is up.

In Amos 9:15, God is speaking, and He says, “I will plant them upon their land.” That’s the Jewish people upon the land of Israel. And He’s saying, once I do this, “no more will they be uprooted out of their land which I have given them.” Who gave them the land of Israel? God Himself. Once they returned, Israel became a nation in 1948, and in 1967, Jerusalem was once again in Jewish hands. Now that they have returned, no one is going to drive them out again, according to the Word of God.

When Tucker Carlson interviewed Mike Huckabee on February 20, 2026, it made headlines throughout the world because Tucker Carlson said that, according to the Bible, if the descendants of Abraham were to receive all the Promised Land today, it would essentially include the entire Middle East. Then he asked Huckabee if Israel had a right to all that land. Huckabee responded, “It would be fine if they took it all.”

Well, the truth of the matter is, we don’t have anywhere near the land that God promised the Jewish people. I say we because I’m Jewish, and I have dual citizenship. I’m Israeli as well as American.

And actually, my answer to who owns the land will surprise you.

God’s Covenant with the Jewish People

God makes His position about the Jewish people very clear in Scripture.

First, He explains why Israel was chosen in the first place. Deuteronomy 7:7–8 says:

The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all the peoples. But it is because the Lord loved you and because He kept the oath which He swore to your fathers.

Israel was chosen because of God’s love and His covenant promise.

Then God says something even more remarkable. In Exodus 4:22, He tells Moses to say to Pharaoh, “Israel is My son, even My firstborn.” There is something special about a firstborn child. God is saying that Israel holds a unique place in His heart.

And God makes it clear that He will never forget them. In Isaiah 49:15–16, He answers Israel’s fear that they have been abandoned: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands.”

Now here is something that amazes me. According to the Bible, there is only one city in the world—only one city in history—where God actually promises a blessing if we pray for it. That’s unbelievable. God almost bribes us to pray for this city with such a promise.

Psalm 122:6 says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May they prosper who love you!’”

Do you know what the word peace is in Hebrew? Shalom. But the deeper meaning of shalom is completeness. So the verse is really saying pray for the completeness of Jerusalem.

Psalm 122:6 continues: “May they prosper who love you!” If you pray for the peace of Jerusalem, you will prosper. But prosperity in the Hebrew sense is not just about money. Derek Prince told me that the Hebrew idea behind the word prosper means something much deeper—it means heart peace.

So this verse is really saying: Pray for the completeness of Israel, and those who love Israel will have peace in their hearts.

The Bible reinforces this in Psalm 135:4: “For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, and Israel for His special possession.” Think about that. You may have possessions, but God says Israel is His special possession.

No wonder He also says in Genesis 12:3: “I will bless them who bless you [Israel], and curse him who curses you.”

If you look at history, you can see that covenant unfolding before your eyes. God scattered the Jewish people. God preserved the Jewish people. God regathered the Jewish people. And the Bible says that once they are gathered again in the land, the Spirit of God will come upon us, and living waters will flow out of our innermost beings.

The Great Jewish Lease

So now we come to the question everybody asks: Who owns the land? Do the Jewish people own it? Do the Muslims own it? Does Hamas own it?

I want to explain something that many believers have never heard before. I call it the great Jewish lease. Yes, you heard me correctly—a lease.

Why do I say it’s a lease? Because when you read the Bible carefully, you discover that the land of Israel ultimately belongs to God Himself. The Jewish people do not own it in the normal sense of the word. It has been leased to them, rooted in the unconditional, everlasting covenant between God and Abraham.

Leviticus 25:23 states it plainly: “The land shall not be permanently sold, for the land is Mine.” God owns the land of Israel.

So if the land cannot be sold permanently, what does that mean? It means God remains the owner, and there is only one other option. It can be leased. And the Jewish people are the ones He has given the right to live there according to His covenant with Abraham.

This covenant states the terms of the lease, and it’s recorded in Genesis 15:18:

On that same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great Euphrates River.”

Notice something very important. God did not say Abram purchased the land. God said He gave it. And because the land ultimately belongs to God, no government, army, or international body has the authority to cancel what God established.

And who are Abram’s descendants? The Jewish people. Look at the boundaries—from the river of Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River. That’s a lot of land.

We see that God had already made the promise earlier in Genesis 12:5–7.

Abram took…the people that they had acquired [the Jewish people]…and they… came to the land of Canaan.…The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.”

So He has now said it twice. If God says something one time, that should be enough. If He says it two times, you’d better pay attention.

When it comes to other nations, God uses their treatment of Israel to determine whether they will be blessed or cursed. In Joel 3:2, God says:

I will gather all the nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. I will enter into judgment with them there regarding My people and My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land.

Notice the issue. They divided up God’s land. They took portions of the land God gave Israel and gave it to others.

Later, under Joshua’s leadership of the Israelites, God repeats the territorial promise again. Joshua 1:4 says:

From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Mediterranean Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory.

According to current estimates, Israel presently possesses only a tiny fraction of the land God promised Abraham’s descendants. The world already gets upset with Israel over the land they have now. What will happen when they take full possession of everything God promised?

Now the length of the lease is spelled out in one of my favorite psalms.

Psalm 105:8–11 says:

He remembers His covenant forever, the word that He commanded, to a thousand generations, that the covenant He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, and confirmed to Jacob as a decree, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance.”

How long is the lease? Forever. And just in case someone missed the word forever, it says it is for a thousand generations. That’s a pretty long time. And just in case someone missed that, the psalm says it is everlasting. That sounds just like forever to me.

When God says something once, you should listen. When He says it twice, you really should listen. When He says it three times, you definitely better listen!

Now God also said something else to the Jewish people. If they sinned, they would be scattered. Deuteronomy 28:64 says: “The Lord will scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to the other.”

And that is exactly what happened. The Jewish people were scattered to the four corners of the earth. We were persecuted in nation after nation. And yet, despite being scattered and persecuted everywhere we went, the Jewish people survived. There should be no Jewish people alive today based on the level of persecution my people have endured—except for God.

Even the rebirth of Israel happened supernaturally. Isaiah 66:8 asks: “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Shall a nation be born at once?”

And that is exactly what happened. On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and in a single day a nation was reborn.

I’ve also heard an interesting story about President Harry Truman, who played a crucial role in recognizing Israel as a nation at that time. There’s a reason for that. He had a good Christian mother who taught him that Israel must be a Jewish nation and that those who bless Israel will be blessed. When Truman became president and had the opportunity to recognize Israel, he remembered what his mother had taught him. And he acted.

So when you step back and look at the whole picture, something becomes obvious. The survival of the Jewish people makes no sense naturally. Nation after nation tried to wipe us out, yet we are still here. Empires rose and fell, but Israel returned to the land exactly the way the Bible said it would.

That tells you something important: If God is the one preserving the Jewish people, then you can be sure there is also a spiritual force trying to stop them. Now you understand why anti-Semitism has never made rational sense—and never will, until you see it for what it is.

Behind the rising hatred and confusion surrounding Israel is something far deeper than politics. There is a spiritual force at work—one the Bible calls the spirit of the antichrist. To understand what is happening in our world, we have to understand that spirit, how it spreads deception, and why it has always set itself against the Jewish people.

The Spirit of the Antichrist

Anti-Semitism is more than just another issue people argue about. It’s a prophetic sign. When you read the Bible, you see a pattern. Periods of growing hostility toward the Jewish people often appear during times of spiritual deception and rebellion against God.

And there’s another connection: The same spirit that tries to erase Israel from God’s plan eventually turns its attention to the Messiah Himself. Once Israel is pushed aside, the next step is to redefine who Jesus really is. This pattern isn’t coincidence. It follows a spiritual cause and effect.

When Israel is removed from the story, Jesus is separated from His Jewish identity. Once that happens, His return loses its meaning. Why? Because a Messiah disconnected from Israel is no longer the Messiah of Scripture.

And that is precisely how the spirit of antichrist operates. It does not always begin by denying Jesus outright. It tries to redefine Him. It reshapes Him into a form that is no longer threatening to the status quo. And that is dangerous!

In 2 Thessalonians 2:10–13, Paul warns that God allows strong delusion to come upon those who do not receive a love of the truth. Notice what he does not say. He does not say they lacked information. He does not say they were ignorant or uneducated. He says they did not love the truth.

And that’s where many people struggle. It’s easy to agree with truth. It’s much harder to love it enough to let it change you and to stick with it even when it costs something. Especially when it comes to Israel and God’s covenant purposes.

Scripture shows a pattern. When people turn away from the truth of God’s covenant with Israel, spiritual confusion soon follows. And once deception takes hold, it doesn’t stop there. The picture of Messiah begins to change too. People reshape Him to fit what they are willing to accept. We see that happening in churches across America today.

The Bible shows us something about the way God works. First, He reveals what He is going to do, and then He looks for people who will believe Him and respond. The prophet Amos said it this way: God does nothing without first revealing His plans to His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). But hearing what God says is not enough. Once God reveals something, He expects us to respond. That is especially true when it comes to Israel. When God begins to highlight something in His Word, He is asking His people to stand with Him.

In this season, God is bringing Israel back into focus in a powerful way. That is one reason many people feel unsettled right now. Something is changing. As God’s Glory increases, people can no longer stay neutral about the things that matter to God.

And Israel matters to God.

Sid Roth, a former account executive for Merrill Lynch, was raised in a traditional Jewish home. Yet religious tradition provided no answers when he hit rock bottom in 1972. With his life out of control and his marriage in shambles, Roth was set free from demonic oppression through a supernatural encounter with Jesus. Immediately, he began to proclaim Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. He is a pioneer in the convergence of Jews and Christians in Messiah Jesus. His television program, Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural!, documents miracles and is viewed internationally. His new book, The Glory Story: A Journey Into God’s Supernatural Presence, is available on Amazon.com.

In Leviticus 23 the Lord commands His people, Israel, to keep His holy days: the Sabbath (Shabbat, v. 3), Passover (v. 5), the Feast of Unleavened Bread (v. 6), the Feast of Firstfruits (vv. 10–11), Pentecost (Shavuot, vv. 15–16), the Feast of Trumpets (v. 24), the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur, v. 27), and the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot, vv. 34–42). Historically, these holy, or appointed, days commemorated significant events in Israel’s history and served as a time to gather and remember God’s deliverance and blessings. Yet each of these holy days finds its ultimate fulfillment in Yeshua.

In Leviticus 23 the Lord commanded His people to remember the Sabbath: “For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation.…You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations” (vv. 3, 21). The Hebrew word for the Sabbath is Shabbat, which is a day of rest. In Judaism, Shabbat begins on Friday just before sunset and ends on the following evening after nightfall. The reason it begins in the evening instead of the morning is that this is the pattern recorded in the Creation account. In Genesis chapter 1, six times we read the phrase, “And there was evening and there was morning,” referring to the span of one day (vv. 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31).

While God established the Sabbath at creation when He rested on the seventh day (Gen. 2:2–3), for ancient Israel the Sabbath rest was also a commemoration of their liberation from slavery in Egypt, where rest was not afforded to them. Deuteronomy 5:15 declares: “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.” Thus, the Sabbath became a celebration of freedom as well as a day of rest.

The rest prescribed on the Sabbath is both a physical ceasing of labor and an invitation to receive spiritual refreshment.

In the New Testament, Rabbi Yeshua invites those who are “weary and burdened” to come to Him for rest (Matt. 11:28, niv). Furthermore, He identified Himself as the “Lord of the Sabbath” (Luke 6:5) and taught that “the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Through the practice of taking a day a week to receive from the Spirit of Elohim, we receive the very rest of God Himself, who is by His very nature rest. Through Messiah, who released us from the debt and bondages of sin, we have access to this divine refreshment.

Leviticus 23 goes on to address seven feasts, four in the spring and three in the fall. Passover, the first of the spring holy days, commemorates how the Lord used the blood of a Passover lamb to deliver the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. Each family was to take the blood of an unblemished lamb and apply that blood on the doorpost of their home. When the angel of death, which was God’s judgment, passed through Egypt that fateful night, the judgment passed over every home that had been marked by the blood of the lamb.

As followers of The Way, we understand that Yeshua is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Messiah’s death and resurrection fulfill the symbolism of the Passover lamb, providing redemption and freedom from the bondage of sin. Therefore, Passover serves as a powerful reminder of God’s salvation through Yeshua. This is why Paul says Christ has become our Passover (1 Cor. 5:7).

During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which begins the day after Passover, Jewish families remove all leaven from their homes and eat only unleavened bread, called matzo. This is done in remembrance of when the children of Israel had to leave Egypt in haste after God instructed them, “When you hear My voice, leave in haste and do not wait for the bread to rise.” (See Deuteronomy 16:3.) They were to instantly obey and move out. Thus, the Feast of Unleavened Bread speaks of instantaneous and full obedience.

This is why Jesus’ sinless body—symbolized by unleavened bread, free from the leaven of pride—was buried during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Yeshua is the absolute fulfillment of this holy day, the One who perfectly and immediately obeys the Father. The Feast of Unleavened Bread retains its original meaning for Israel and the Jewish people but took on its fullest and final meaning when Yeshua Himself, the Bread of Heaven, was broken, buried, and given unto us (Luke 22:19).

During the Feast of Firstfruits, each individual farmer was to bring the first sheaf of the spring harvest to the priest, who would then lift it up and wave it before the Lord. Yahweh would then deem the farmer’s entire harvest acceptable and dedicated to Him.

Consider again that this feast corresponds with the first fruit of the spring harvest. In the winter, the sky is often gray and cloudy. There are no leaves on the trees, no splashes of green, no flowers or fruit. The ground is brown and truly looks dead. But when the spring comes, when the weather warms up and April showers water the earth, this dead-looking ground is suddenly made alive. The grass is green again, leaves begin to sprout from those dead-looking trees, flowers spring forth, and fruit grows anew. It is like the earth comes back to life from the dead.

This takes on new meaning when we realize that Yeshua was raised from the dead on this holy day. He is the firstfruits of the harvest and “the firstborn of the dead” (Rev. 1:5). He ascended to heaven as “the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20, MEV), heralding the new creation and the promise of our future resurrection. Yeshua is the first in a long line of God’s elect who will be raised from the dead to experience His love and presence in heaven forevermore!

Held seven weeks and a day (fifty days) after Passover, Shavuot, also known as Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks, was originally an agricultural feast day. But over the years traditional Judaism associated this feast with the day the Lord appeared on Mount Sinai and gave the Israelites His Law. Every year at this time religious Jews renew their acceptance of God’s gift, the Torah.

But Scripture tells of a time when the Law and the lawgiver would draw nearer. Jeremiah 31:33 says, “‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’” Ezekiel also anticipated this time when Yahweh would give His people a new heart and put His Spirit within them (Ezek. 36:26). The Law, once written on stone, would become etched in human hearts.

This was fulfilled in Acts 2, where we find 120 of the first believers in Yeshua gathered together in the Upper Room celebrating Shavuot. As they were there, recalling once again how Yahweh appeared in fire on top of the mountain and gave Moses His commandments, suddenly He appeared to them again—fresh and anew—up close and personal!

This encounter inaugurated the prophecies of Ezekiel and Jeremiah that the Lord would no longer speak to His people only by the writings on the tablets of stone. Instead, He was fulfilling these prophecies by communicating to His people from His Spirit within them. Thus, for believers in Yeshua, this feast, the last of the spring holy days, symbolizes the empowerment of the indwelling Holy Spirit, who enables us to fulfill God’s purposes and bear witness to His truth.

The Feast of Trumpets, the first of the three fall festivals, was marked in ancient Israel by the blowing of the trumpets, or the shofar. In the Torah the blowing of the trumpets often preceded times when God revealed Himself or was about to break in on behalf of His people. In Exodus 19, the first time the Israelites as a nation encountered Yahweh, the Lord announced Himself with the blowing of a trumpet that proceeded out of heaven (vv. 10–20).

For believers in Messiah this feast is a picture of the rapture. When Jesus returns with the blowing of a trumpet from heaven, those who are not prepared to meet Him will tremble in unspeakable fear. But those of us who are ready to see our God will ascend and meet Messiah in the air, just as Moses did when he went up the mountain to meet God after he heard the heavenly shofar blow.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, Paul writes: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” And Paul says elsewhere, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Cor. 15:52).

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In both the past and future, the blowing of the shofar announces God’s manifest presence. Thus, the Feast of Trumpets calls believers to be alert and ready. The next time God sounds His trumpet from heaven, it will signal Messiah’s return. At this time, His glory will be fully manifested to the entire world.

The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur, which means “the Day of Covering”) follows the Feast of Trumpets. In ancient times, on this holy day the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies, a sacred room where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, and pour the blood of a bull and a goat on top of the Ark of the Covenant, called the Mercy Seat in Hebrews 9:5. When the Lord saw the blood poured out upon the Mercy Seat, He would overlook the sins of His people for a year.

Leviticus 17:11 declares: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement” (emphasis added). Biblically, the Day of Atonement is about the blood that is shed for the forgiveness and covering of sin.

The Lord can only be in covenant with humanity through a blood atonement, for “without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22). Therefore, for believers in Yeshua, this holy day symbolizes the ultimate atonement made by Messiah, the sinless One whose blood was poured out, opening the way for us to be in covenant relationship with God forever.

In one way, this feast has been fulfilled, insofar as Yeshua’s blood has already been shed and we are able to be in fellowship with God now. But there is also a prophetic way that Yom Kippur will find fulfillment in the future—the Jewish people will turn to Messiah Yeshua. Zechariah 12:10 says, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.”

When Yeshua returns, He will lift the veil from their eyes! The Book of Revelation foretells this glorious event that Zechariah wrote about: “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen” (Rev. 1:7). Paul also foretells of this event in Romans 11, stating that at Messiah’s return “all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins’” (vv. 26–27).

The Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament alike anticipate a time in the future when a mass of Jewish people will receive Yeshua as their Messiah. As they do, the kingdom of God will be fully inaugurated in the earth and the fullness of the Day of Atonement will be gloriously manifest.

Finally, the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot, commemorates God’s provision and protection during the Israelites’ journey through the wilderness. During this feast, at many Jewish homes and synagogues a sukkah—meaning a tabernacle or booth—is built out of lumber, grass, or any other natural substance and serves as a temporary structure reminding Jewish people of the temporary tents the Israelites lived in during their journey toward the Promised Land. It is then decorated with natural materials such as tree branches, leaves, flowers, vegetables, and fruit. Many people will eat their meals and sleep in the sukkah for the entire seven days of the feast, remembering how the Israelites had nothing but God in their forty years of wandering in the wilderness after coming out of Egypt.

For believers in Messiah, Sukkot is a beautiful foreshadowing of how we should live today—totally dependent on God and joyously thankful for His provision. It is also a reminder that just as the Lord was with His people during their wilderness journey—His presence was seen every day for forty years as a pillar of fire by night and a glory cloud hovering over the Tabernacle by day—so is God’s presence with us today wherever we go.

The Feast of Tabernacles will find its ultimate fulfillment when Yeshua reigns in the new heaven and the new earth, tabernacling with His people in the fullest sense. (See Revelation 21.) For believers, Sukkot serves as a reminder of the hope of eternal life and the ultimate establishment of God’s kingdom.

To recap how Yeshua fulfilled God’s spring holy days: He died for us on Passover, was buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, rose on the Feast of Firstfruits, and sent the Holy Spirit on Shavuot. Regarding God’s fall holy days: Yeshua returns on the Feast of Trumpets, the salvation of Israel is represented in the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles points to the coming new heavens and new earth, where we will forever tabernacle with Messiah.

While believers in Yeshua are not bound by the Levitical Law to observe these feasts, recognizing their significance and what they symbolize can enhance our appreciation of the gospel and the overarching message of Scripture.

Paul wrote in Romans 11:24 and Ephesians 2:12 that Gentile believers have been grafted into the commonwealth of Israel. Therefore, all of us, Jew and Gentile alike, who are in relationship with Yahweh through Messiah have been grafted into Israel, the olive tree, and, therefore, these holy and appointed days are now an opportunity for spiritual blessing for all God’s people!

By remembering the precept to celebrate and honor God’s feasts (Lev. 23:2), we are established in faith.

Rabbi Schneider hosts the impactful television program –Discovering The Jewish Jesus, which is available in more than one hundred million homes in the United States and nearly two hundred nations worldwide. In 2021 he began broadcasting on radio and now airs across America. Rabbi Schneider imparts revelation of Jesus’ Jewish heritage and His fulfillment of Messianic prophecy.  Questions of how the Old and New Testaments tie together, and how Yeshua completes the unfolding plan of The Almighty Yahweh, are answered with exceptional clarity. www.discoveringthejewishjesus.com/about-2/rabbi-schneider/

Could an event foretold in end-time prophecy and the Book of Revelation actually be the hidden cause and secret behind October 7?

Now when the Dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the Serpent.

In the vision of the Dragon’s war the woman is taken into the wilderness to find safety. The duration of her hiding is given in a mysterious phrase: “a time and times and half a time.” What does it mean?

“When All These Things Shall Be Finished”

In the closing chapters of Daniel an angel gives the prophet a glimpse of Israel’s future in the coming centuries and the last days. The glimpse includes war, persecution, and the ruler referred to in Revelation as the Beast. At the very end of the prophecy a second angel asks how long it will be until all is fulfilled. The answer given is this:

It shall be for a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished.

It is the same phrase given to describe the time of the woman’s hiding from the Dragon. Earlier in the Book of Daniel an angel gives the prophet another revelation concerning the Beast and the End of Days:

He shall speak words against the Most High, shall persecute the holy ones of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. And they will be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.

From Daniel to the Book of Revelation, the consistency of the Scriptures is striking, as is the reappearance of the phrase “a time, times, and half a time.” Each appearance refers to a time of persecution. The persecution is orchestrated by the Dragon and carried out by the Beast.

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The Beast’s Dominion

The prophecy of the Beast in Revelation 13 matches precisely that given in Daniel:

And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.

In Daniel it is for “a time and times and half a time.” In Revelation it is for forty-two months. Forty-two months is three and a half years. Thus a time is one year, times is two years, and half a time is half a year—three and a half years. This is the time of the Beast’s dominion.

The Refuge

The meaning of the phrase is further confirmed in another verse from Revelation 12 where the woman’s time of refuge from the Dragon is given in terms of days:

Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

One thousand two hundred and sixty days is another version of three and a half years. So three and a half years are given for the reign of the Beast, the power of the Dragon, and the demonic persecution of the woman, Israel.

The Temple Mount

But the Scriptures give us even more specific revelation as to what will happen in that time. It all centers on the Temple Mount. In Revelation 11 an angel tells the disciple to measure the Temple Mount with one exception:

But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.

Again, we have the span of forty-two months. In that time the Temple courts and the city of Jerusalem will be given to God’s enemies and the enemies of Israel. The foremost of those enemies will be the Beast. So the reign of the Antichrist at the end of the age is connected to the Temple Mount.

Shikutzim—The Abominations

Daniel 9 gives us one more clue as to what will happen on the Temple Mount:

Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice.

The word translated here as week is the Hebrew shavuah. It speaks of a span of time marked by the number seven—in this case, seven years. This has become known as the Tribulation Period, the last seven years leading up to Messiah’s return. The middle of the week, or seven divided by two, comes out to, again, three and a half years, a time, times, and half a time. What will then happen? The Antichrist will abolish the offerings and sacrifices of the Temple. The prophecy continues:

And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate.

The word translated as abominations is the Hebrew shikutzim. The same word is used in the Hebrew Scriptures to speak of idols. This is what Messiah referred to as the “abomination desolation.” It is commonly understood as the Antichrist’s setting up of an idol on the Temple Mount in the last three and a half years of the Tribulation Period—thus causing the desecration of the holy place.

The Ground Zero of Prophecy

So it all centers on the piece of earth known as the Temple Mount. The Beast’s possession of that mount will constitute his ultimate conquest. Its desecration will represent his ultimate act. Why the Temple Mount? The Temple Mount is the center of Jerusalem, the center of Israel, the center of God’s purposes on earth. It is the most holy of grounds. It was there that the people of Israel ascended to worship the Lord, observed His appointed holy days, and celebrated His appointed feasts. It was there that the house of God stood and His presence rested.

So if the Temple Mount is the central ground of God’s purposes, it will also become the central ground of the Enemy’s purposes. And if the Temple Mount is the nearest thing on earth to God’s throne, and the Enemy seeks to sit on God’s throne, then it is inevitable that he will seek to take possession of the Temple Mount.

Further, if the Temple Mount is the place from which Messiah will reign, and the Enemy seeks to stop the purposes of God, then he will seek to establish on that Mount his own reign. Lastly, if the Temple Mount is God’s most holy of grounds, then it must become the ground of the Enemy’s most unholy of desecrations.

So it was inevitable that the Temple Mount should become the most fought-over ground on earth, the central space in the war of God and the Enemy, the woman and the Dragon, the Lamb and the Beast.

The Creature’s Territory

The Dragon is a territorial creature. He never gives up ground without a fight. For the land of Israel to be given back to the Jewish people—it took the force of the First World War. For the land to actually become the nation of Israel, it took the War of Independence. For Jerusalem to be restored to the Jewish people, it took the Six-Day War. In each case the focus narrowed, from the land to the nation to the city. In each case it came through war and bloodshed. The final narrowing of focus must concern the Temple Mount. And so the slightest movement with regard to that ground can ignite a firestorm. What we are about to see is that it actually already did—and we all witnessed it.

If the Temple Mount is the central ground in the war of the Dragon and the woman, could it have played a part in the calamity of October 7? Could it, in fact, be the prophetic mystery that lay behind it all?

This excerpt was taken from Jonathan Cahn’s No. 1 New York Times Bestselling book, “The Dragon’s Prophecy.” Order your copy here.

Prepared by Charisma Media Staff.