17 Responses

1. Amen! This episode was very meaningful to me to understand what God is doing within the Islamic world. It is to make the good news of His Son known to them who have lived in the chains of spiritual darkness and what lengths God will go to save them because He loves them! The Church must make the most of this once in a lifetime opportunity which is the vehicle God has chosen to make know to them this wonder of salvation through His Son!

   “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33

   One of the most moving episodes yet, Joel! Yep, it made me cry…

   Blessings!

2. Glad it impacted you, good4u. And it was great getting to spend some time with you in Israel. It was blessed time. On Friday, I recorded a few sermons on the Mount of Olives on the Olivet Discourse.

3. I so enjoyed to getting to know you better as well, Joel. Your daughter is so lovely and she must look like her mama with you thrown in there somewhere too! LOL It was great fun and my very first trip overseas and could not think of a better way to spend it other than perhaps a missions trip which, to my regret, I have never done!

   Please know I watch every one of your episodes, but only comment if I think I have something to say. I know your schedule is very busy these days (yeah, I see it) and I am gonna reminisce a bit a say I miss the old days of your blog when you were pretty well unknown and you would post your personal articles and the rough and tumble of poster discussions about it. I really miss those days…*sigh* but God has worked through you to spark a true paradigm shift within the sleeping church. Your ground-breaking literary efforts have ignited the block of Islamic paradigm authors within biblical eschatology of whom I have read many and follow some of their blogs as well all in an effort to add even more understanding to help the sleeping church prepare for the worst time in history that the church and world will ever know just before the return of God’s Son. Your literary works played a part in this process and now reaching even more for the cause of Christ. God bless you and praise God for allowing all of us to play a part for watching for the return of His Son!

   Blessings!

4. Thank you Joel for this “real life” view from the ground of what is occurring in the Balkans. What is occurring is certainly outside of our abilities to affect in regard to politics and may be outside the abilities of even politicians to control. As we listen with the flesh we are tempted to think we can stop what is occurring but what man means (to some extent) for evil, God can mean for good.

   What we have the ability to control of course, is to listen with the Spirit within our own sphere of influence. My small group is developing a relationship with a refugee ministry in my hometown. Imagine if all the small groups and churches represented by your listeners were to get involved with similar ministries in their hoemtowns and give to help ministries in Europe? What impact might that have for the Kingdom?

   Good4u mentioned a once in a lifetime opportunity. Luke 21:13 tells us all of End Times will lead to an opportunity for testimony. What is our role in the last days? To survive in a bunker or to fearlessly proclaim good news? Are we REVIVALISTS or SURVIVALISTS? Jesus warns us that due to the increase in lawlessness the love of most will grow cold. That warning is for me and for all of us I believe to not put personal survival ahead of the Kingdom. In Rev. 21:8, the very first category of those who are excluded from the Kingdom are the cowardly!!

5. Moving indeed.

   When in Luke 13 people came with “Lord isn’t it terrible,” He answered,
   “except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” His answer was the gospel.

   In the ‘west’ Gods people have more than enough to evangelize the globe over,
   may we indeed give what we cant keep, so others may gain what they cant loose.

   Thanks Joel

6. This episode inspired me to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ among muslims and other people. Thank you sir Joel and Antecessor team.

7. Thank you for this video. Apart from seeing a different side of the refugee situation, I was reminded that no matter what the side is, I should be on the side of love.
   It is time for a great harvest and we need to be laborers for the Lord at this time.

8. Hi Joel and all your Berean readers.

   I appreciate the Biblical perspective on the refugees and the need to reach them while we have such a great opportunity. I have a missionary friend who last month was in a Middle Eastern county and risked his life by sharing the Gospel with a Muslim man. Dalton Thomas and his mission outreach is reaching them not only when it is much easier to witness to them but when they are vulnerable so more receptive to the Gospel.

   …mod snip…

   P.S. I will be going on a medical missions trip with the missionary I spoke about above, to a north west African country from Jan. 6-14 and would appreciate your prayers for an effective ministry and safety.

9. Hi Joel,

   I so appreciate your ministry and have followed your teaching for quite some time now. I have a few questions on the Islamic Antichrist theory that I hope you can answer. I have read some of Chris White’s work and just need some things cleared up. In Daniel 9:26 White claims that only 10% were Arab and 90% were Roman citizens according to Josephus. Do you have any clear evidence that the Roman citizens were middle eastern?

   Do you believe that Micah 5:5 in in the context of the millennium and not at Jesus’s Second Coming? Thanks for your help.

   Jared

10. Jared,

    Thanks for your question. First, let me say that White is an articulate guy, and he has some good stuff. I have, in the past, appreciated some of his videos. I actually helped him with some of his research on one of his books. Unfortunately, he never once attempted to run any of his concerns or objections by me. I could have helped clear up most of his issues. In fact, he never even told me he was writing the book. In my view, this is simply not an ethical thing to do. On a few occasions, he actually states that I am dishonest. When I read that, I personally lost respect.

    Now to be objective, some points White makes in the book are good. He caught one occasion where I made an error in my quotation. This was a good example where I could have addressed his concerns, and also offered ample other evidence to establish the point I was making, but as I said, he did not bother to consult me. Instead, as I said, he simply stated that I was being dishonest. I also agree with much of what he says about the Mark of the Beast. Some of his points are things I have been saying for some years.

    Unfortunately, much of his book is filled with poor logic, terrible theology, (especially his mistreatment of various “kingdom now” texts to argue for a past fulfillment of Daniel 2), various half-points and selective quoting, and in some cases, outright untruths. His comments about the Roman armies are a good example.

    Now, for what it is worth, I should mention that I actually do not believe Daniel 9:26 is even speaking of 70 AD. I believe it is entirely about the future Antichrist. My point in making all of the observations I did is simply to show that the primary go-to text that supporters of the Roman Antichrist theory look to, if it to be understood as they understand it, actually points us to the Middle East.

    Now with regard to your particular question, despite White’s confident assertions, he simply does not know what he is talking about on this matter. Far too much of White’s research is mere google sleuthery.

    White’s assertions of 10% is simply in conflict with every source one might go to, either ancient sources or modern scholarship. Consider for example, the following quote from from Antonio Sanotuoso’s “Storming the Heavens” pp 97-98:

    Italy still remained the preferred area in case of emergency and provided the majority of the recruits under Augustus, most coming from northern Italy; central and southern Italy filled the ranks in Rome, which offered more prestige, better conditions and higher pay. Over time, however, fewer and fewer Italians enrolled in the legions. Records in which the place of origin is given or can be inferred show 215 Italians against 134 non-Italians under Augustus, 124 against 136 under the Claudii (the next dynasty – A.D.41-68), 83 against 299 by Trajan’s period (99), and 37 against 2,019 during Hadrian’s reign (117-138) to the end of the third century. These figures, according to Jacques Harmand, would translate to 65 percent in the first half of the first century, 49 percent under Claudius and Nero, 22 percent during the rest of the first century, and only 1 percent from Hadrian onwards.

    Did you get that. Santuosso says by 70 AD, only 22% of the entire Roman armies were Italian. Mind you he is discussing not merely the eastern legions, but numbers for the entire empire! In the east, the numbers were much, much higher. As Lawrence Keppie says, (there is btw, a typo in my book, where I wrongly attribute this quote to Phang)

    In the East, that is Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, it seems clear that local recruitment was well under way under Augustus [d. 14 A.D.], so that by his death only a very small number of legionaries derived from Italy or indeed any of the western provinces … Under Nero [d. 68 A.D.], when the eastern legions required supplementation… it was to Cappadocia and Galatia that [Rome] looked for recruits. This was doubtless standard procedure. [The] legions of the East consisted largely of “orientals” [Middle Easterners].

    I’m not sure how White could have simply ignored these citations. For what it is worth, since writing Mideast Beast, a few years ago, I did much more research, and obtained a few more excellent works on the subject. The bottom line is my research holds firm.

    Now, this may file below be tough to decipher, as I use some short-hand for some of my resources, but this is a fairly careful examination of the raw numbers. It does not detail all of the troops, only those I have been able to verify their origins/derivation. I hope this is helpful to you.

    Blessings!
    Joel

    Click on this file below:

    Roman Troops

11. First off, thank you so much for making these videos. It’s refreshing for me as a millennial to see something that is legit and also so well produced. I have been so encouraged by these! The Spirit has given me a huge heart for Muslims and to see them come to know and love Jesus. Living in the American South, my husband and I have felt isolated and alone in our passion to see Muslims reached. The racism and hatred even among the Church here is thick. Thank you again for the encouraging videos! Keep it up! Praying for the ministries of all of the people working among the Muslims here and abroad. Praying for open hearts, ears, and eyes!

    -Lauren

    PS: I’m pumped to see the new documentary!

12. Thanks Lauren,

    This means the world to us.

    Bless you!

13. Hi Joel,
    I just watched this video on youtube and was lead to share it on my church website to encourage people to give. Unfortunately there seems to be a problem with the antecessor.org website, which seems to be outdated, and no way to give to this.
    there is a giving page with the option to give to something called Bical 2015, which was in May 2015.
    It looks a bit strange.
    Do you know anything about what is going on there? It makes it look a bit suspicious to give on that website.

    Regards
    Fiona

14. Fiona,

    When you click giving, it takes you to the Syrian Crisis page. I promise they are legit. 🙂

    http://antecessor.org/giving.htm

    Blessings!
    JOel

15. Hi Joel,
    Thank you for looking into that so promptly. I went back and looked at the page and can now see they way they have set it up. Unfortunately the page is not laid out very well (my husband also went onto the page and didn’t ‘get’ the set up) and first glance it looks like you have to select from the two boxes above the submit button that don’t have anything to do with Syria.
    I understand that it isn’t your page or ministry, but if you have any influence with that ministry, I would highly suggest that they think about looking for someone to keep their page more up to date, and maybe put a payment gateway like paypal on there.
    When you are not familiar with a ministry, you are much more hesitant to give them your actual credit card details directly.
    Believe me, I am only trying to help as an ‘ordinary’ person typical of visiting their site, and after watching your video, I would love to see them prosper in this crucial mission.
    Not sure if you can do anything, but thought I would try anyway.

    God bless your work,
    Fiona

16. Hi Fiona. Thank you so much for your desire to give. If you go to the http://antecessor.org/giving.htm the first option at the top is “Syrian Refugee Crisis” below that the amount can be entered. If you or anyone would like to give by check, they can be made out to Antecessor and earmarked for the Syrian Refugee Crisis and sent to:

    Antecessor
    P.O. Box 21864
    Chattanooga, TN. 37424

    God bless you and all who have given.

    Wayne

17. I am always gripped with heart wrenching emotion and compassion when I read about and/or see images of the many small refugee babies and children who seemingly overnight and almost without warning are torn from their innocence and everything that they know and love and then squeezed onto these tiny boats and thrust into this terrifyingly, impossible nightmare, in the middle of the seemingly unknowable, vastness of a powerful and mighty ocean, with no guarantee of even making it to(in what must seem to be in their little young minds) this whole other world. And heartbreakingly, many do not survive this nightmare. And having read ‘Night’ by Elie Wiesel, I cannot but be reminded at how quickly and abruptly a child’s innocence and life can be so devastatingly torn apart, inexplicably in 2015!. Yet, honestly and sorry to say, until I began to delve into your books, blog and lectures, and the awesome documentaries that you, Dalton, and the entire FAI family produce; that was pretty much where my compassion for this refugee crisis ended. This, however unfortunate, is far to a “convenience of luxury” way of thinking and way of life for millions of us here in the US. Thank you for helping to enlighten the eyes of my understanding to the true purpose of the church and to all of God’s children in these last days.

    Ecclesiastes 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief, And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/support-and-suspicion-the-lonely-life-of-a-syrian-refugee-in-maryland/2015/12/25/f813cf28-a7ea-11e5-9b92-dea7cd4b1a4d_story.html