Sid Roth - This Was Foretold by the Ancient Jewish Prophet
Can an ancient Jewish prophet open mysteries to understand what is happening to our world right now? Yes! Join Sid for this edition of "It's Supernatural"!
Sid Roth: Well, my friend Mark Biltz is here, and Mark is a pastor. He is also a Jewish believer in the Messiah, like myself, but he has such a unique gift for Bible teaching. The supernatural started out with you at a young age. You were in the 8th grade, and you bumped into an angel! What happened?
Mark Biltz: Yes, it was unbelievable. I had run away from home, and so I had my little pillow and sleeping bag and backpack, and I was out in this wooded area by a highway, and my sister, a year older, and my brother, a year younger, were out calling, looking for me, and I was crying out to God, saying, "What should I do? Should I tell them where I'm at or not"? and I heard this booming voice, I mean, like a police megaphone, and it sounded like my dad's voice.
Sid Roth: So, it was really audible?
Mark Biltz: It was audible, and it said, "Mark, tell the kids where you are," and this happened three times, so finally I told them. They came running over, and then, out of nowhere, we all agree it had to be an angelic person. This is a small town of 800 people. Everybody knows everybody. It's 10:00 at night, and this young man comes up, and he says, "Can I be of any help"? and my sister says, "No, everything is fine. He's going to go home," and the being said, "Well, home is where Mark belongs". We had never seen him before. No one knew who he was. We'd never see him again, and it was quite-
Sid Roth: And it wasn't your father with the booming voice?
Mark Biltz: The booming, my dad was crippled. He couldn't go anywhere. I thought he was in a police car or something, and he stayed at home. It was just my sister and brother.
Sid Roth: I'm curious, at that time, did you realize it was an angel?
Mark Biltz: When I got, when we got home, we all talked about it. We all thought it had to be an angel because none of us knew him.
Sid Roth: I mean, you do so many unique things as you study the Bible. For instance, you'll take an individual book of the Bible and actually put it in chronological order. Why do you do that?
Mark Biltz: Well, for me, it's to help me understand it. When I was reading the Book of Jeremiah, I found it was just all messed up, so I decided to put it in order so I could make sense of it, and realize, as I compare it to other prophetic books, wow. It painted a big picture.
Sid Roth: Mark, when you put things in chronological order, you find that history actually repeats itself.
Mark Biltz: Oh, my goodness, yes, and the same patterns. It's all about the pattern, and the patterns that happen in Jeremiah day is also happening in our day, and when you put the patterns together, you can tell what's coming.
Sid Roth: You find even patterns in the warnings.
Mark Biltz: Oh, definitely, definitely. Just like what's fascinating is God's people in that day, they were not serving God. They wanted nothing to do with Him, and He would write warnings. Jeremiah would be writing warnings that they needed to repent, and yet, at the same time, they were totally ignoring God's.
Sid Roth: Well, actually, there are six similarities in Jeremiah compared to today. Tell me, what are some of the similarities?
Mark Biltz: Well, one of the similarities that I think of is Revelation 3:20, when the Lord is standing at the door knocking. That's not the door of a nonbeliever. That's the door of a church, and it's like God is standing outside the church knocking on the door, and they're saying, in Revelation, "Leave us alone. We're having church". They didn't even know God was missing.
Sid Roth: Well, there's a scripture that talks about these patterns repeating themselves, I believe, in Ecclesiastes.
Mark Biltz: Yes, it's 1:9, and that's where it talks about, basically, "That which has happened is that which will happen again. There's new under the Sun".
Sid Roth: So, by doing this research, I have to believe that you know that you can have a leg up on what's happening in society since history keeps repeating. Even the Bible says that history keeps repeating.
Mark Biltz: That's right. God declared the end from the beginning, so if we really want to know the end of the matter, you have to look at the beginning and the pattern.
Sid Roth: As we said, in Jeremiah's day, it was lawlessness, like we have today. There were a few things.
Mark Biltz: Yes, yeah. Total lawlessness, chaos, total political upheaval, social unrest. One of the amazing things to me is revealed in Matthew 24 where it talks about how nation will rise against nation. Really, that's ethnic group will rise against ethnic group.
Sid Roth: Mm-hmm. That makes a big difference.
Mark Biltz: And when you look at what's happening today, with the ethnic groups rising against ethnic group, total parallel. This is why we have to understand.
Sid Roth: So, do you believe that that is actually what went on in Jeremiah's day?
Mark Biltz: Oh, you bet. Oh, yeah. They had, there was even fights between the rich and the poor. It was both totally social unrest in every area.
Sid Roth: Now, you live in Seattle, Washington where all that stuff is going on. Now, you found in these patterns that God always warns before judgement.
Mark Biltz: He always brings warning before judgement because He's not willing that any should perish, but the problem is so often. And the amazing thing, the warnings are usually to His people. It's not, God is more upset at His people turning against Him than the heathen turning against Him.
Sid Roth: Well, doesn't it say judgement begins at the house of God?
Mark Biltz: Exactly. That's exactly what it says, and so God always wants to deal with His people first, and we see that again in Revelation where He's dealing with the seven churches. That's who He deals with before He deals with the nations.
Sid Roth: When we return, Mark will reveal some of the warnings to the nations that are happening right now from the Book of Jeremiah. Be right back.
Sid Roth: And now, Mark must really, really relate to the prophet Jeremiah, especially when you found out his eating habits were the same eating habits that Mark had.
Mark Biltz: That is so funny, but, yeah, when you compare, again, Jeremiah to Revelation, the Apostle John was given a scroll and told to eat God's. All right. And he says it was sweet in his mouth and bitter in his belly. Well, that's the same thing that happened with Ezekiel in Jeremiah's time. He also was given the scroll of the Word of the Lord and told to eat it as well, and then we find Jeremiah, also, and says he also ate the Word of God, you know. And so, we need to realize, if we want to really understand these last days, we need to be feeding on the Word of God. Too often, all these,
Sid Roth: That's what you mean by eating it.
Mark Biltz: Yes, yes, really ingesting it.
Sid Roth: How do you ingest it?
Mark Biltz: Well, to me, it's just reading. I read all the time, and it's not so much memorizing. It's just like a computer. If you get it in, God can pull it out. Revelation comes alive. Living revelation will come if you eat the Word of God. The most important example I can give was when I had a gun at my head. A robber was ready to blow my head off, and he told me to lay down face on the floor. Well, my mind was fight or flight, but all of a sudden, the Word of the Lord came into my mind, and He brought back something I had read from Proverbs 2. And here the guy says, "Lay down on the floor"! and because I had eaten the Word of God, the verse came up that says, "When sudden fear comes upon you, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, it will be sweet," and that was God talking, speaking to me, and told,
Sid Roth: So, your mind would not know anything like that, but it came because you ate the Word, and it came right out of your spirit.
Mark Biltz: Exactly.
Sid Roth: But here is the big question: That's wonderful for Mark, but what about me? What about that?
Mark Biltz: Well, I think if they eat the Word of God, God will bring revelation to them. It depends. Do they treat the Word of God like their worst-tasting vegetable, or do they treat it like the best-tasting dessert? And we need to just love the Word of God and jump into it and ask God for revelation, and bring it back up when we need it because it is an ever-present help in time of need, but you have to eat it and digest it for God to bring it back out.
Sid Roth: So, feed your spirit every day, three meals a day at least. What warnings to the nations did you find as you decoded the prophet Jeremiah?
Mark Biltz: Well, there's a couple different warnings. One of them ... There's several chapters where he's warning all these different nations that they better submit to Nebuchadnezzar because that is the person that God had put in charge, but the biggest warnings was, he was warning all the nations on how they treat the nation of Israel, and if they don't treat the nation of Israel right, they're in big trouble. As a matter of fact, God says that after the 70 years of captivity where He punished Israel, He's going to turn around and judge all the nations on how they treated Israel, and so it's very important that we realize God is still in covenant with the Jewish people.
Sid Roth: In other words, people look at it as just history, but that is a reality today and forever.
Mark Biltz: Of course. Matter of fact, in Jeremiah 31, with the new covenant and other places, God says His covenant will never leave. As long as the Sun and the Moon is there, His covenant won't be broken with Israel.
Sid Roth: And what about another thing that a lot of people talk about, the Islamic radicals and the two-state solution?
Mark Biltz: Oh, exactly. A lot of that pertains to the Book of Jeremiah and today. God says He's going to come against any nation that tries to part his land, and so we, the nations, had better pay attention to that.
Sid Roth: And who is Babylon today?
Mark Biltz: That's a great question. A lot of people ask me that. Is Babylon a religion? Is Babylon a political system? Is Babylon a location? Well, as you very well known, there could be 70 different layers. I think it could be a political system, a religious system, and it's mostly just fleeing idolatry.
Sid Roth: And what about the smart arrows?
Mark Biltz: Oh, I thought that was interesting. When you read Jeremiah, it talks about after the 70 years, God is going to come against Babylon, and basically it says they will have, like, expert arrows from an expert man, and I think it was interesting, Back in '91, when everyone came against Iraq, they had smart bombs, missiles that were like arrows, and so I think it was very interesting how prophetic God is in letting us know what's coming.
Sid Roth: You know what? I get the feeling you're not just doing this for the show. You feel that excited about the Word of God.
Mark Biltz: Oh, I love the Word of God. It's my passion. I just want to eat it up because to me, it's so important for our lives today. It's more than history. It's alive because it tells us how we need to and what we need to do right now.
Sid Roth: What kind of people, from your studies of Jeremiah and other books in the Bible, is God looking for right now? Because if there has ever been a time to be right with God, it's right now. Now is the acceptable time.
Mark Biltz: Oh, for sure. God is looking for a humble people, and He's looking for people that want to obey Him from the heart. It can't be just an obedience out of fear. God is looking for people who want to magnify the laws. We live in a period of lawlessness, and so God is looking for people who want to magnify His laws, make it honorable again. Just like Washington's law are different than North Carolina's laws, well, laws tell you a lot about the lawmaker, and so, for me, when I look at God's laws, I try to look at the reason behind what the heart is of the person who gives the laws. I don't see it as legalism. Those guys, it's like, "What do I have to do to be saved? I got to do this law or that law"? No. I feel like a little kid that just wants to do to make Dad happy.
Sid Roth: Okay, is there something in Jeremiah that explains the coronavirus next?
Sid Roth: Well, because history repeats itself, because the Bible prophecies, most people miss this, we are told that the prophecies repeat themselves. That's where a lot of teachers get messed up. They say, "Oh, that already happened," but it's going to happen again. So, there are revelations right now, like today's newspaper, from the prophet Jeremiah.
Mark Biltz: Yes. One of the interesting things that I find is in Jeremiah 12 where Jeremiah is whining, but it's like so many of us today. He asks God, "Why do the wicked prosper? It's not fair. Why do you allow them to take root and produce fruit"? And so, God says to Jeremiah, "Look, if the running with the footman hath wearied you, what are you going to do when it's time to run with the horses"? And so, in the book on Jeremiah that I wrote on decoding Jeremiah, I teach people how to run with the horses because people of faith are runners. Abraham ran. Isaac ran. Rebecca ran. Elijah outran horses, and so when it comes to one of the things that are happening today is the coronavirus, and people are asking if I think this is the judgement of God.
Sid Roth: Right.
Mark Biltz: You know what? I don't think so. Here's how I look at it: If God tells you, "Don't put your hand in the blender when it's running. I'll cut off your fingers," and then we go and put our blender, we can't say, "That was God's fault. God is judging me". It's because we weren't obeying. Well, it's the same thing. God had... We're bringing judgement upon ourselves. As a matter of fact, in Jeremiah, God says, "Your own wickedness will correct you," and I think what is happening in the world today is reacting to all of the lawlessness that's happening. It's not that God is judging us as much as the lawlessness is correcting us, and when I think of what happened with the coronavirus, here's what I think: I think we have to love what God loves and hate what God hates, and in Proverbs 6, it mentions seven things that God hates that are an abomination. Guess what? The first one is a proud look. Well, my goodness, that was the problem in Jeremiah's day was pride. Look what's happening in our day. God is taking... Just like He took all the idols down in Egypt, He's taking the idols down: the entertainment idols, the sport idols. All of these idols that we're trusting in, He's taking them down, and in Jeremiah, He tells the king and queen to humble themselves. Well, that's what's happening, full of pride. The other thing that God hates, it says, the second thing, after a proud look, is a lying tongue. Look at all the fake news! Full of fake news, and that's what was happening in Jeremiah's day. The prophets were all prophesying lies, giving fake news, and the third thing, the last thing I'll mention, is hands that shed innocent blood. Look at all the innocent blood that's being shed. Back then, they were offering children to Moloch. Well, today we have the abortion issue, so everything is parallel which is why the nation of Israel is experiencing what it is in Jeremiah's day and what we're experiencing today.
Sid Roth: Now, you say, going back to coronavirus, that you call it a trial run.
Mark Biltz: I really think that just like the horses of revelation are coming, okay, I believe what we're experiencing right now is a trial run because God wants us to make sure we're spiritually fit. Can we run with the spiritual horses when they come? So, I really believe that what we're going through right now is preparing us for harder times so that we know where we need to get fit spiritually. The other thing said about the coronavirus that is totally amazing to me is, this is the first time in 3,500 years that on the very same day that God had all of Israel on the lockdown in quarantine within their houses. All of Israel was also in quarantine as well as the rest of the world. Like, God was getting all of Israel to finally keep the Passover correctly, and that is amazing to me that that is the first time that has happened in 3,500 years which is why this year is so important.
Sid Roth: Well, and that's kind of interesting because of the Word. It says you have to remain in your house on Passover. This was the first time in 3,500 years they were locked into their house. They had to remain in their house. Has to be very prophetic.
Mark Biltz: And it was the same day. It was on the same day of the week as well.
Sid Roth: You teach about how to have peace in the midst of chaos, that we're not alone. There are a lot of people that are watching us right now that feel alone, isolated.
Mark Biltz: Totally.
Sid Roth: Talk to them. Talk to them for a while.
Mark Biltz: Sure. One of the most important things that we can learn from the Prophet Jeremiah as we decode Jeremiah, when we compare it to what was going on with Ezekiel and Daniel, do you know, the very same time that the three Hebrew children were thrown into the fiery furnace over in Babylon, here the Lord appeared in the midst of that chaos. Back in Jerusalem, it was at the same time King Jehoiakim was cutting the Word of the Lord into three pieces and threw it into the fire. Just as the Word of the Lord was thrown into the fire in Jerusalem,
Sid Roth: Excuse me, that was the three Jewish?
Mark Biltz: Hebrew children.
Sid Roth: Children were in the fire, remember, in Daniel. Go ahead.
Mark Biltz: Yes, and Daniel, the first few chapters, two and three, we see the three Hebrew children, because they didn't worship the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, they were thrown in the fiery furnace, but what you find out, the same time in Jerusalem, the Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe, wanted to warn Israel and Jehoiakim not to do what they're doing, and he cuts up the Word of the Lord into three or four pieces and throws it in the fire in Jerusalem. The very same time the Word of the Lord is thrown in the file in Jerusalem. The Word of the Lord appears in the file in Babylon with the three Hebrew children. What you need to know, just like the three Hebrew children, when you're in the midst of the fire that you're going through and feeling all alone and under stress, know that the Lord is with you.
Sid Roth: And when he talks about not alone, the Lord is even more than with you. If you are born from above, the Lord is in you. You are never alone. Now, there's some people that don't know if they really have their sins forgiven, if Jesus really lives inside of them, if they really have had an experience with God, and there's some that have never done this. I want you to repeat this prayer. Just repeat the words that I say out loud as if I'm right in the room you're watching me right now because it doesn't matter that I'm not there. God is there, and he's all that matters, and if there's ever been a time, it's now. Repeat after me: "Dear God", out loud, "Dear God, I'm a sinner. Against You and You alone have I sinned, and I'm so sorry. I believe the Blood of Jesus washes away every bad thing I've ever done, and you have no memory, Oh God, anymore. It doesn't exist, according to Your Word. I'm clean, and now that I'm clean, Jesus, I invite You to come inside of me. Never leave me or forsake me. Give me the peace that passes human understanding. I make You not just my Savior, but my Lord. Amen".