David Reagan - A Messianic View of End Time Prophecy
What is the future of Israel? In the natural there appears to be no hope for the nation. But in the supernatural it is a whole different situation. Those who know Bible prophecy are convinced that the nation has a great future ahead of it. One of those is our guest today, Dr. Richard Hill, who is the Messianic Pastor of Beth Yeshua Congregation in Las Vegas. Stay tuned.
Dr. Reagan: Greetings in the name of Jesus, our Blessed Hope, and welcome to Christ in Prophecy! My colleague, Nathan Jones, and I have a very special guest in the studio with us today. He is Dr. Richard Hill, who is the pastor of Beth Yeshua Messianic Congregation in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is also an official representative of the CJF Messianic Ministry in San Antonio, Texas, which folks, is a wonderful ministry that is headed up by Dr. Gary Hedrick. I recently read Dr. Hill’s new book titled, “Israel in Bible Prophecy: A Chronology,” and I was so impressed by it that I contacted him immediately and invited him to come to Dallas to be interviewed on our television program. Welcome to Texas.
Dr. Richard Hill: Thank you.
Dr. Reagan: We call this God’s country.
Nathan Jones: So good to have you on Dr. Hill.
Dr. Richard Hill: Nathan, nice to see you.
Nathan Jones: I got to actually go to Las Vegas recently for the first time. I was visiting Pastor Billy Crone’s church. And he said when people ask him why he’s in Las Vegas he gets kind of angry. And I said, “Why is that?” And he said, “Well, they say, ‘What is a Christian doing in Las Vegas?'” What’s a Messianic Jew doing in Las Vegas? He said, “Well, we have two million lost souls here, but three million visitors every month come it. It’s a great mission field.” So, I’d love to know is what is your testimony? How did you come to Yeshua, Jesus as your Messiah? And what helped you, or what guided you, obviously the Holy Spirit, but to put a church in Las Vegas?
Dr. Richard Hill: Well, anybody that goes to Las Vegas that is a Christian obviously is called by God to go there. Nobody really wants to go.
Nathan Jones: It was a culture shock, yeah.
Dr. Richard Hill: Nobody really wants to go because it is so hot there.
Dr. Reagan: Were you born and raised a Christian?
Dr. Richard Hill: Yes, I was, well you are not born a Christian, but I was raised as an Episcopalian actually in New Jersey. And I had a real wonderful spiritual experience with the Lord when I was about 12-15 years old. I actually listened to the priest in his teaching, and he presented the Gospel. I went home I received Jesus and then I turned from Jesus right at that moment in my household. So, I turned for 17 years away from the Lord. He called me back when I was about 30 years old. I was going out with my current wife. Current wife of course, she was my girlfriend at the time. And she actually said, “I want to go to church. I want to go.”
Nathan Jones: Okay.
Dr. Reagan: You were in California at that time?
Dr. Richard Hill: I was living in Los Angeles. We were going to a ballroom dance class, that’s how we met.
Nathan Jones: Wow, that is dedication.
Dr. Richard Hill: Yeah, well I was trying to meet young ladies at the time. I was getting tired of the scene I was in; it was not a good scene. But God called me to this. He brought us together. And she said, “I want to go to church.” And we actually ended up at Hal Lindsey’s church Tetelestai Christian Center.
Nathan Jones: Oh, wow!
Dr. Reagan: Is that how you got interested in Bible prophecy?
Dr. Richard Hill: That’s exactly how I got interested in it.
Dr. Richard Hill: He was teaching about grace, by teaching about Israel. And it was years later when I found out that I was Jewish. And, so we–
Dr. Reagan: So, you didn’t know that at all?
Dr. Richard Hill: No, I didn’t know that growing up at all. My grandmother was German, but we found out she was German Jewish. But I had already been in the Messianic movement after that. First, we were discipled, you know grew in the Lord strongly. Day one we just took off with the Lord and stayed with Him all of our lives. So, we are very excited with what God is doing in the ministry. But, so, He called us in the Messianic movement through that church. We started a Bible study with another gentleman, and he was leading it, it was a Messianic Jewish Bible study. And then that turned into a congregation in LA, so I pastored there as an assistant for five years. And then God called us to Las Vegas.
Nathan Jones: Okay, wow.
Dr. Reagan: When did you get involved with the CJF Foundation in San Antonio?
Dr. Richard Hill: That was when I went to Las Vegas. God called us to Las Vegas as a missionary with CJF Ministries. And then I started a congregation there as well.
Dr. Reagan: Tell about CJF.
Dr. Richard Hill: CJF is a worldwide missionary organization that brings the Gospel to the Jewish people. So, wherever there is a Jewish population we have people there as missionaries sharing the good news of Jesus.
Dr. Reagan: Founded by Charles Halff?
Dr. Richard Hill: Charles Halff, and Gary.
Dr. Reagan: A wonderful man.
Dr. Richard Hill: Yes, wonderful.
Dr. Reagan: I met him personally and he helped us in our ministry when we got started. And that was originally called The Christian Jew Foundation, but the term Christian Jews went out. And so, they just...
Dr. Richard Hill: We shorted it to CJF Ministries.
Dr. Reagan: ...refer to it as the CJF. Yeah.
Dr. Richard Hill: Yes. And so, through that organization, and I praise the Lord for them, because they allowed me to be a Messianic pastor as well. So, Beth Yeshua was planted there in Las Vegas.
Nathan Jones: There’s a strong Messianic Jewish presence in Las Vegas?
Dr. Richard Hill: Well, we have at least two congregations there. Yeah.
Nathan Jones: Wow.
Dr. Reagan: There’s a strong Jewish presence.
Dr. Richard Hill: Yeah, there are 80,000 Jewish people.
Nathan Jones: 80,000 Jewish people in Las Vegas, out of 2 million!?
Dr. Richard Hill: Two million people total.
Dr. Reagan: And very few of those are religious, right?
Dr. Richard Hill: Yes, that’s true.
Dr. Reagan: Most are secular.
Dr. Richard Hill: There’s about 20 synagogues in town, approximately.
Dr. Reagan: How about that? I guess most of those are reformed synagogues.
Dr. Richard Hill: Well, it is reformed. It’s conservative, yeah. And there’s some orthodox as well.
Dr. Reagan: Okay. Well, let’s talk about your book for a moment, Israel in Prophecy: A Chronology. What motivated you to write this book in the first place?
Dr. Richard Hill: God did.
Nathan Jones: That’s the Bible school answer. Yeah.
Dr. Richard Hill: No, I’ve been teaching all these messages that are in the book for the last 25 years. And God finally just said, “Put it into a book.” So, about five years ago, I put together this chart. The chart that is the backbone for the book.
Dr. Reagan: Yes, in the back of the book there.
Dr. Richard Hill: It’s at the very back, yeah. And that just lead me to be able to write this book. So, God be glorified through it all.
Dr. Reagan: Do you have any novel concepts in there that you don’t normally run across in the study of Bible prophecy?
Dr. Richard Hill: Well, I believe the whole book is a novel book. Very few are written like this because it is written in a chronology. So, I put a chronology into all the prophecies about Israel. There are two prophecies that are imminent, one is the Rapture, the Pre-Trib Rapture of course. And the other one is the Ezekiel war. And so, in my timeline though I have the Ezekiel war first, and then I have the one world government being set up. And then during that time period I have the Pre-Trib Rapture occurring.
Dr. Reagan: So, you try to lay down all of the prophecies in their chronological order?
Dr. Richard Hill: Yes.
Dr. Reagan: Well, that’s great. That’s very helpful. And you say that you consider the war the Gog Magog War to be rather imminent. Do you think it is going to occur, start before the Tribulation?
Dr. Richard Hill: Yes, oh, definitely. At least in the book I say at least 3 ½ years prior to the Tribulation period, the Ezekiel war will occur.
Dr. Reagan: Why do you say that?
Dr. Richard Hill: There’s a number of reasons within the chapters of Ezekiel 38 & 39 that point to that fact. The first one of course is the seven years. It talks about the seven years of...
Nathan Jones: Cleaning up the land of the bones, and burning the weapons for seven years?
Dr. Richard Hill: The burning of weapons for seven years. That does not happen within the Millennial Kingdom.
Dr. Reagan: Why not?
Dr. Richard Hill: Because in the Millennial Kingdom those weapons are going to be used for plowshares.
Dr. Reagan: Yes, well what about during the Tribulation though?
Dr. Richard Hill: In the Tribulation in the first half of the Tribulation that war, and the war that goes on in the very beginning, the first half of the Tribulation period, that is a worldwide war. This war here in Ezekiel it’s a Russia and the confederacy war, so it is a local war around Israel.
Dr. Reagan: Yes.
Dr. Richard Hill: It’s just those nations, and Russia attacking Israel. It’s not the whole world. It’s not all nations that are doing battle against Israel and Jerusalem.
Dr. Reagan: There’s been quite a shift in dispensational thinking about the Gog and Magog War. For many, many years they all took the position it was going to be right at the beginning of the Tribulation because it says it is going to happen at a time when Israel is living in peace. So, they said okay, there is going to be a peace treaty with the Antichrist and the war will start. Walvoord took that position for example. But a problem with that is it says it’s going to take them seven years to clean up the battlefield, and they are going to be run out of Israel in the middle of the Tribulation, at least a significant number of them when the Antichrist turns against them and starts persecuting them. They’re not going to have time to clean up the battlefield.
Dr. Richard Hill: Exactly.
Dr. Reagan: So, now the thinking has moved to where the beginning of the war is before the Tribulation. And that’s the position you’ve taken in the book.
Dr. Richard Hill: And I take at least 3 ½ years. It could be a lot longer before that as well.
Nathan Jones: And you believe then the Rapture will happen after this war, not before this war?
Dr. Richard Hill: Yes.
Nathan Jones: Okay, why’s that?
Dr. Richard Hill: Well, I just think it lines up better. I mean scripturally wise, and I say this in the book the Rapture and the Ezekiel War are imminent, so they could happen at any time. But I believe the world is going to be seeing this war. We are going to be seeing it on the internet, we’re going to see it on TV. This is a war that God wants the whole world to see, the Ezekiel War it’s dramatic. And He wants everybody to know because it says in Ezekiel 38 & 39 over and over again, He will be glorified.
Nathan Jones: The world will know God.
Dr. Richard Hill: He’s the only one that comes to the defense of Israel. And so how does that work out? That’s amazing.
Dr. Reagan: Well, folks one of the things that really impressed me about Richard’s book is that it contains a very, very strong and enthusiastic endorsement of the concept of a Pre-Trib Rapture. And we are going to take a brief break and when we come back, I’m going to ask him why he believes in the Pre-Trib Rapture, specifically what are his arguments. And also, why he thinks so many Messianic Jews have rejected the idea?
Part 2
Nathan Jones: Welcome back to Christ in Prophecy and our interview of, Dr. Richard Hill, who is the pastor of the Messianic Congregation in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pastor Hill we have been, or Dr. Hill, you’ve got so many titles. Rabbi Hill. We could talk about the Rapture but I think some people are confused especially when I talk to Messianics they see a Second Coming of Jesus Christ, but they don’t see it separate from the Rapture. Why do you believe the Rapture is separate from the Second Coming of Jesus?
Dr. Richard Hill: Well, in my book I actually have ten great reasons why I believe in a Pre-Trib Rapture, and two of those reasons are Jewish reasons. So, one of them is the Rapture actually fulfills the Feast of Trumpets. And the other one is the ancient Jewish wedding. We are in this–ancient Jewish wedding is prophetic. Every aspect of the ancient Jewish wedding, all the stages are prophetic. So, we are in one of those stages right now and that’s the fetching of the bride.
Nathan Jones: Could you quickly go through those stages just so we can understand?
Dr. Reagan: Yeah, explain this.
Dr. Richard Hill: Okay, well the very first stage is the ketubah stage or the covenant stage where the fathers of the bride and the groom get together, in the ancient world of course, and then they would say, and go through some details as to: Should we marry? Should we not marry? Those kinds of things. When they decide to marry then that’s it, they are married at that moment. But what they do is they write up a ketubah, a ketubah is a contract. And so, the contract states the bride is going to do these things, the groom is going to do these things. Everybody signs it. Everyone’s happy.
Dr. Reagan: Yeah, but when you say they are married that moment, Americans don’t understand that because you’re talking about what we call an engagement.
Dr. Richard Hill: Right.
Dr. Reagan: Because they are considered married, but they haven’t consummated the marriage.
Dr. Richard Hill: They haven’t consummated the marriage, and they don’t live together as well.
Nathan Jones: But it’s contractually more than our engagement.
Dr. Richard Hill: It’s a contract, yeah, it’s a covenant. At that point they are married, and yet it hasn’t happened yet.
Nathan Jones: Like our New Covenant.
Dr. Richard Hill: Yeah. So, the fulfillment is Jesus dying on the cross for all of our sins. And He has made that contract now. Right? The ketubah.
Dr. Reagan: The New Covenant.
Dr. Richard Hill: It’s the New Covenant. And he has put the ketubah together and now His bride, and of course the bride is still coming together.
Nathan Jones: The Church.
Dr. Richard Hill: Yeah, the Church, the body of Messiah. So, we’re also becoming part of that bride.
Dr. Reagan: Because the second stage is a waiting period.
Dr. Richard Hill: Second stage is a waiting period. The groom leaves, and what he does is he performs–
Dr. Reagan: He starts building a house.
Dr. Richard Hill: Yeah, it’s the bridal chamber. So, typically in the olden days he would add on a room to the household that His father lives on. And so...
Dr. Reagan: And that period lasts at least nine months, right?
Dr. Richard Hill: It’s about a year. It’s about a year time. But depending on whether the children are actually very young or not.
Dr. Reagan: And the bride does not know when he’s coming.
Dr. Richard Hill: Right. Nobody knows except for the father.
Dr. Reagan: Okay
Dr. Richard Hill: Yeah, even the son doesn’t know.
Dr. Reagan: So, we are in that waiting period right now?
Dr. Richard Hill: We are in the waiting period right now, but Jesus in John chapter 14 He said, “I’m going away to prepare a place for you.” And that’s the promise.
Dr. Reagan: There you go, alright.
Dr. Richard Hill: He’s preparing the place; it is the bridal chamber there in Heaven.
Dr. Reagan: Alright, the third stage then is the fetching of the bride.
Dr. Richard Hill: The fetching of the bride, and that’s where we are in right now.
Dr. Reagan: Where He comes maybe in the middle of the night, and she’s got to be ready.
Dr. Richard Hill: He can come anytime when He wants of course, but the Father tells the Son. And then there is, then you know the Son comes back.
Dr. Reagan: Okay, and then the next stage is after He fetches her, they go to the bridal chamber and consummate the marriage, and they are there for about seven days.
Dr. Richard Hill: Yes.
Nathan Jones: Seven days, seven years of Tribulation. I see where you’re going.
Dr. Richard Hill: Yes.
Dr. Reagan: And then they come out and there’s a celebration.
Dr. Richard Hill: So, you have Pre-Trib and then your seven years in Heaven, then we have the Bema Seat Judgment there in Heaven as well. We have to get prepared for the wedding. The wedding occurs at the end of that Tribulation period right before the Second Coming of Jesus. And that’s Revelation chapter 19.
Nathan Jones: And that’s why then you believe the Rapture is separate from the Second Coming based on the wedding phase?
Dr. Reagan: Now you said there were two Jewish reasons. What’s the second one?
Dr. Richard Hill: The second one is the Feast of Trumpets, shofarot is the Hebrew word that we use for that. And it’s the blowing of the shofar, and it is also called Rosh Hashanah in the Jewish world. And this is a feast that actually prepares for Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. But it’s a day that we blow a shofar all day long. And in our services, I blow it at least 100 times. So, it is a lot of fun to blow the shofar.
Nathan Jones: Good breath.
Dr. Richard Hill: Yeah.
Nathan Jones: You know it’s amazing when you understand the Jewish side of the Bible, something that we Gentiles lack, we miss out on so much understanding. Bible prophecy comes alive when you understand the Jewish perspective. And that’s what you find in your book?
Dr. Richard Hill: That’s exactly why I wrote the book.
Dr. Reagan: I don’t understand what you’re talking about here with regard to the Feast of Trumpets. Are you saying that you think that’s when the Rapture is most likely to occur?
Dr. Richard Hill: Yes.
Dr. Reagan: Okay.
Dr. Richard Hill: Yes.
Nathan Jones: But it’s not since we can’t know any day or hour, is the Feast of Trumpets two days if I think I read right?
Dr. Richard Hill: Well, the Feast of Trumpets in the biblical it is one day. Just one day.
Nathan Jones: Wouldn’t we then know the day and hour that the Rapture would happen?
Dr. Richard Hill: No, not necessarily. We don’t know the year either.
Nathan Jones: That’s true.
Dr. Richard Hill: You have to understand the Scriptures are very clear that it could happen anytime, anytime. So, just because there is a possibility of it happening on that day then that is fine, but if it doesn’t happen on the day of Feast of Trumpets well, then it still could be fulfilling of that feast.
Dr. Reagan: Okay, well, there is a third Jewish reason. And the third Jewish reason for a Pre-Tribulation Rapture is that the Tribulation has nothing to do with the Church. It has to do with the Jewish people. There were in Daniel chapter 9 Gabriel told Daniel that God was going to accomplish, I think it was six things among the Jewish people in a period of seventy-weeks-of-years. And the only one of those that you could possibly argue that has been fulfilled is the atonement. The rest of them are yet to be fulfilled. And that’s going to happen during the last seven years of the seventy-weeks-of-years. So, the whole Tribulation is a focus on the Jewish people. There is no reason for the Church to be here.
Dr. Richard Hill: That’s right. That’s exactly right. The issue with Daniel it says, “This is for your people, and your Holy City.” And it is for the Jewish people, it’s not for the Church. It’s not for any other nation. Although God is judging the world, and we know that through the book of Revelation. But He is focusing on Israel because He’s got a plan for Israel. So, tied with Daniel chapter 9 is Ezekiel 36:24-28 where God is working amongst the Jewish people. He’s bringing them back to the land, that’s the regathering. He’s going to save them. First, He’s going to judge them, then He’s going to save them, and then He’s going to properly restore them back to the land of Israel so that they can live in the Messianic Millennial Kingdom.
Dr. Reagan: It occurred to me one day that the Church Age began with an overlap period. The Church was established in about 30, 31, 32 AD, and it was 40 years later that God poured out His wrath upon the Jewish people, had them dispersed. So, there was an overlap period where He was working both the Church and the Jewish people. And it appears to me that we are probably in an overlap period right now at the end of the Church Age where God is beginning to change His focus to the Jewish people as He’s gathering them from all over the world, still working with the Church but gathering them, and very soon take us out and focus on them.
Dr. Richard Hill: That’s correct. That’s correct.
Nathan Jones: That seems like that is another thing that results from the Gog and Magog War. Not only does the world know the Lord, which you don’t need the Church anymore. But two that the Jewish people, all the Jewish people are gathered back in the land. Now, from what I’ve read only half the Jewish people are in the land right now?
Dr. Richard Hill: Yeah. Almost seven million Jewish people in the land. And there’s about 16-17 million around the world.
Nathan Jones: And they all need to go back.
Dr. Richard Hill: I would say that at least most have to go back. I don’t know if every single Jewish person is going to make it back to the land.
Dr. Reagan: Okay, I want to shift gears here now and talk about a different topic that you mentioned in your book, and that has to do with Replacement Theology. This is the view of the vast majority of Christian churches in the world. The Catholic Church, most Protestant churches, overwhelming viewpoint. God washed His hands of the Jewish people in the first century because they are guilty of deicide, of killing God, and He has no purpose left for them. All the blessings that He promised to Israel are going to be given to the Church, and God just has no purpose for the Jewish people. What about it?
Dr. Richard Hill: Oy vey! That’s what I got to say about that.
Nathan Jones: You’re Jewish.
Dr. Richard Hill: God has a plan. God has a plan for the Jewish people. He loves the Jewish people, they’re the apple of His eye. We have not replaced Israel. We have become partakers with Israel, but we’re ingrafted into the olive tree based on Romans chapter 11. But we’re partakers, not over takers, and that is what I teach as well.
Nathan Jones: Well, who killed Jesus then? If they are accusing the Jews of killing Jesus is there any truth to that?
Dr. Richard Hill: Well of course, we all killed Jesus.
Nathan Jones: We all killed Jesus.
Dr. Richard Hill: Everybody’s sin.
Dr. Reagan: Well, I can tell you who killed Jesus, Acts 4:27, “Truly in this city, Jerusalem, there were gathered together against thy holy servant Jesus whom you did anoint, Herod, Pontius Pilot, the Gentiles, and the peoples of Israel.” Gentiles, Israel, Herod, Pontius Pilot, and someone else, you and me. Because He died for all of us. All of us have the blood of Jesus on our hands. Not just the Jews. And yet the Church is taught that for 2,000 years. And you know anybody who take the position that God has no purpose left for the Jews has got to take some chapters out of the Bible, like Romans 9-11. You just got to cut them out.
Dr. Richard Hill: That is for the Jews.
Dr. Reagan: Because that says God still loves the Jewish people, still has a purpose of the Jewish people. And He’s determined to save a remnant. They also have to ignore the fact that Jesus said, “I’m not coming back until the Jewish people are willing to say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.'”
Dr. Richard Hill: Baruch Haba B’shem Adonai.
Dr. Reagan: Yes, amen.
Dr. Richard Hill: That is part of my book too.
Dr. Reagan: Well, another thing that I would mention is that I consider one of the worst forms of Antisemitism to be what is called Dual Covenant Theology. This is the theology that says the Jews have their way of salvation. Gentiles have their way of salvation. It is wrong to share the Gospel with a Jewish person. And there are some very, very well known...
Dr. Richard Hill: Prominent people, yes.
Dr. Reagan: Well-known Christian leaders who take this position. My position is that when you say that the Gospel is not meant for the Jews, you first of all are repudiating what Paul said in Romans that it is first for the Jews, and furthermore you are loving them right straight into Hell.
Dr. Richard Hill: That’s right. It’s the worst form of Antisemitism actually, yeah. Romans 1:16, we are to bring the Gospel to the Jew first, and then the Gentile. And that’s what I do at CJF Ministries, that is what I do at Beth Yeshua. That’s what my life is really about. And I want Jewish people to read this book as well. Number one I want them to be warned about what’s coming. Some of them know, Elie Wiesel he wrote about the holocaust that is coming. He’s warned the people. But I want them to know, I want them to see that the holocaust is coming, but I also want them to see the Good News message of Yeshua, Jesus.
Dr. Reagan: Right.
Dr. Richard Hill: So, that they will be saved, and get their names written in the Book of Life. And truly understand the truth about Yeshua Jesus.
Nathan Jones: It’s tragic when you think that two-thirds of the Jewish people will be killed by the Antichrist. You mentioned about 12 million or so living, that would 9 million people killed by the Antichrist. Even worse holocaust than Hitler, and you write about that in your book too.
Dr. Richard Hill: Yeah. But the good news in the holocaust is that one-third will make it through.
Dr. Reagan: Well, I have found that among Messianic Jews, and I have a lot of interrelations with them, I found that first of all there is a rejection of the Pre-Trib Rapture, they for some reason really reject that. I think many of them told me they consider it to be an Antisemitic concept because here we go one again all these Gentiles are going to be taken out, and we are going to be left. And I say, “Hey, you’re part of the Church, you’re going to be take with them.” And the second thing is they very, very much oppose this idea that two-thirds of the Jews are going to be killed during the Tribulation. They say this is Antisemitic concept. It’s ridiculous. You’re just wanting us to be killed. How do you respond to that?
Dr. Richard Hill: Oy vey again! That’s an emotional response. And that’s not biblical of course.
Dr. Reagan: Zechariah says it point blank.
Dr. Richard Hill: Yeah, the problem is what I believe is most of those Jewish people that you’re running across are Torah observant. And therefore, they’re putting the Torah above the rest of the Bible, and they really don’t even read the rest of the Bible. So, Torah becomes important, that means you’re following the law, okay. And you are trying to keep the law, and you’re trying to keep the law to please God. So, your sanctification process is all focused around that. And I’ve met so many of these Messianic Jews that do that, and it’s really terrible.
Dr. Reagan: I try to point out to them, that many Jews being killed is a horrible thing, and it is not something that I look forward to. And it’s not because God hates the Jews, it is because He loves the Jews. He’s trying to bring the Jewish people to the end of themselves, so that they will finally turn, repent and receive Yeshua as their Messiah. Just like He had to beat me over the head with a 2×4 to get my attention.
Dr. Richard Hill: Same thing with me, yeah.
Dr. Reagan: And many of our viewers. I mean God has a way of getting people’s attention.
Nathan Jones: Why is that? When you minister to Jewish people, you bring the Gospel to Jewish people all the time, maybe you have more luck, if I can say luck, than I because you are Jewish, but as a Gentile I go up and immediately all the atrocities that the Church has done to the Jews over 2,000 years comes up. And they are totally like they have blinders that they just can’t see the Messiah. How do you break through that?
Dr. Richard Hill: You have to emphasize right away, and get off the topic of the Holocaust immediately, that’s what I do. I’m part Jewish so I’ll talk about my grandmother and how they left, and how blessed we are because of that, you know before the war broke out. So–
Nathan Jones: They got out of Germany in time then.
Dr. Richard Hill: Yeah. But a lot of these Jewish people they blame God for the Holocaust. So, you’ve got to say, “Look that was a crazy man that killed all these Jewish people, and it’s not God.” So, they get very emotional, you’ve got to get off the topic right away.
Dr. Reagan: And most Christians do not either know, most Christians I found do not know about the history of Antisemitism in the Church.
Dr. Richard Hill: Most do not.
Dr. Reagan: They don’t understand that when they approach a Jew, a Jew is very suspicious of them because of this history of Antisemitism.
Dr. Richard Hill: Immediately.
Dr. Reagan: And they have to also be very careful about language. You don’t talk about Christ. You don’t use that term because they were persecuted in the name of Christ. You don’t use the term cross. There’s so many things that you’ve got to be careful in your vocabulary in talking to a Jewish person. So, people really need to be trained in Jewish evangelism.
Dr. Richard Hill: And that’s what we do at CJF Ministries as well, we train people to evangelize.
Dr. Reagan: That is a wonderful thing, because we really need that.
Dr. Richard Hill: So, now you have to change your show title, Christ, can’t be, it’s got to be Messiah in Prophecy.
Nathan Jones: How is that? Mashiach? I can never pronounce it.
Dr. Richard Hill: Mashiach.
Nathan Jones: Mashiach in Prophecy.
Dr. Reagan: Well...
Dr. Richard Hill: Then you have to take crosses off of every church in America.
Nathan Jones: Wow, that sounds Islamic.
Dr. Richard Hill: Because it’s a cross, and then its Christ, and then its...
Nathan Jones: I find that when I talk to Jewish people, they think that if you become a Christian they lose their identity as Jews. How can you get saved and become a follower of Yeshua, and still be Jewish?
Dr. Richard Hill: Well, because you keep a Jewish lifestyle.
Nathan Jones: The culture, traditions.
Dr. Richard Hill: Simple, you see the problem?
Dr. Reagan: Just as Jesus and the Apostles did.
Closing
Nathan Jones: Dr. Hill it’s been great having you on. Could you let folks know who want to follow your ministry how to get in touch with you?
Dr. Richard Hill: Yes, you can go to our website it is called: Bethyeshualv.org, and that is where all the information is. The book is right there. And all you got to do is click on the tabs.
Dr. Reagan: Well, again thank you so much for being with us. May the Lord bless you and your congregation, and your outreach to the Jewish people. Folks, that’s our program for this week. I hope it’s been a blessing to you. And I hope the Lord willing you’ll be back with us next week. Until then this is Dave Reagan speaking for Lamb & Lion Ministries saying, “Look up, be watchful, for our redemption is drawing near.”