To Hell and Back with Nehemia Gordon (Open Door Series – Part 8)

Gehenna - the Hinnom Valley - in Jerusalem, To Hell and Back, Nehemia Gordon, Open Door Series, Hell, Jerusalem, Bible, Gehenna, Hinnom Valley, Hounds of Hell, Bible Hill, idolatrous, cult, grace, Creator, UniverseIn episode 8 of the Open Door Series, Nehemia speaks about his adventures to Hell and back, literally. Hell is a geographic location in Jerusalem known in the Bible as Gehenna, or the Hinnom Valley (shown in the photo on the left). Nehemia's adventures in Gehenna and encounter with the "Hounds of Hell" was a life changing experience. Come along with him on the journey from the depths of Hell to the peak of Bible Hill, from the merciless cruelty of an idolatrous cult to the abundant grace of the Creator of the Universe!

Transcript

To Hell and Back with Nehemia Gordon (Open Door Series - Part 8)

You are listening to the Open Door Series with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Nehemia: Thank you. All right, well, Keith gave you the feel-good message. Now I’m going to preach the fire and brimstone. [laughter] Could someone tell me where this is? Do you know where this is? It’s a place in Jerusalem, but where exactly? Mount of Olives, no. Anybody else? Well, Michael, I know that you know. This is a place called the Valley of Hinnom. Say, “Valley”.

Audience: Valley.

Nehemia: Of Hinnom.

Audience: Of Hinnom.

Nehemia: And in Hebrew, that’s called “Geh Hinnom”. Say, “Geh”.

Audience: Geh.

Nehemia: Hinnom.

Audience: Hinnom.

Nehemia: Geh Hinnom is a Hebrew place, the literal place that gave us the name for Hell. Quite literally, in Greek in your New Testament, for example, you have the word “Gehenna”. And I grew up as an Orthodox Jew reading ancient Jewish sources, and they talked to us all the time about “Geh Hinnom”, the Valley of Hinnom. And they didn’t literally mean this valley, they meant what this represents, which is what you call in English, Hell. And I really love this picture. What I love about this picture is this cute little family there having a picnic, and I call this picture “A Picnic in Hell”. [laughter] And I’ve actually quite literally been to Hell when it’s frozen over.

But why is it that this beautiful, picturesque valley just on the edge of ancient Jerusalem gives us the name for this concept of Hell, of the suffering of the sinners? Where does that come from? And what really pushed me to investigate this was many years ago, meeting this sweet little old Southern lady from the United States, who was visiting over in Israel. And she said to me, she said, “Neeyamaya…” that’s how she spoke, “Neeyamaya”, she said, “You’re going to burn in Heyl”. [laughter] And then she said to me something really interesting. She said, “You Jews, you don’t believe, you have no grace”. And I thought, “Okay, well, let’s find out for us what this Hell is about, and investigate a little bit about this. What is this grace? Is that this novel concept that only appears in her Bible, which for her was the New Testament? Or is that something in my Bible as well? And what is Hell really all about?”

So, I decided to take a little trip over to Hell. I hiked over to Hell, walked over there, and I came across this place. This is the place I was looking for. This is a building called the Charnel House, and it was built by the Crusaders, it’s this massive building, like 12 meters high. I have a drinking problem, [laughter] like that guy in the Airplane movie. This is the Charnel House, and the Crusaders built this building, and what they used to do is, when strangers would come to town, pilgrims from Europe, who didn’t have any money with them and they would die from diseases or be attacked by people that would kill them, they would bury them in this building. And in fact, you could see at the top of the building here, there’s a hole in the roof, and they would actually drop the bodies in, and it would fill up with bodies over hundreds and hundreds of years. And this was, essentially, a mass grave for the strangers, for the poor.

And why did they choose this specific spot? They chose it because right next to that spot, to this day, you can see the remains of another mass grave from the period of the Second Temple, from the 1st century. And this ancient mass grave - these are typical Second Temple period tombs, and there’s a huge number of them here - the reason that they had this mass grave here is something that’s actually described in the New Testament. It was in a certain place, in a certain field. Anybody know that story, what that was called, that field?

Audience: Potter’s Field.

Nehemia: Potters’ Field. And why was it called Potter’s Field? Presumably - it’s actually mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah - this was a place where they used to come, and they would take clay from this field, and they would make pots out of it in the Hinnom Valley, in Geh Hinnom. And there’s a prophesy that Jeremiah has, where he talks about… God tells him to take an earthenware vessel, and take it out into the Valley of Hinnom, through the Gate of the Potters, through Potter’s Gate, and smash it there in the field, in the Hinnom Valley. And in that particular prophesy, that symbolized the way that God was going to smash the kingdom of Judah for their sins. And this Potter’s Field became the mass grave, and that’s actually a story told in the New Testament.

And it says in the Book of Acts, it says as follows. It says, “Now, this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity.” What man are we talking about?

Audience: Judas Iscariot.

Nehemia: Judas Iscariot. “And falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.” So, he’s apparently committing suicide, essentially. He’s so distraught about what he’s done, and he jumps down into the field, and whoosh, his bowels gush all over the place. It’s covered in his blood, and his guts. “And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The Field of Blood.” Say, “Field of Blood”.

Audience: Field of Blood.

Nehemia: So, why is called Field of Blood? Whose blood is that, according to the Book of Acts? The blood of Judas Iscariot. That’s what it sounds like, certainly when you read in the Book of Acts. Well, here’s an interesting thing. As I was investigating this, I came across another passage - probably even a more famous one - which is in Matthew 27, starting in verse 3. It says, “And the chief priests took the silver pieces,” that is the 30 silver pieces that Judas Iscariot got for turning over… Who did he turn in? “And they said, ‘It is the price of blood,’ and they took council and bought with them the potter’s field to bury strangers in. Therefore, that field was called the Field of Blood unto this day.”

So, why is it called the Field of Blood according to Matthew? Because of the blood of… Huh, that’s interesting, the blood of Judas Iscariot versus the blood of Yeshua. Well, which one is it?

And you know, what I could do, and what some people want me to do, is to stand up here and tell you, “Your book don’t got it right. Your book can’t even get the story straight. It contradicts itself”. And some people are very upset at me that I don’t come up here and do that. What they want me to do is to stand up here and debate Keith Johnson, and debate Michael Rood, and say why my faith as a Jew is better than their faith as Messianic, Christian, and whatever the heck Keith is. [laughter]

That’s the way they want us to engage, like in the days of the Spanish Inquisition, when the Jews would come - and they were actually forced to debate in these disputations against the Christians, very often against Jews who had converted to Christianity. And I just don’t feel like that’s my calling. And I think this is a good example of why I think that’s not the best approach, because if you look at this particular example and you say, “Well, we have here a contradiction between Matthew and Acts. I mean, they can’t get it straight. Let’s throw the whole thing out”. Well, then you actually miss something very important. And what you miss is the truth, in this particular case. And I think the truth is much better than winning an argument. I could win arguments all day long. I’m a Jew, I was raised arguing my entire life. [laughter] But when you come there to argue in this hostile way, you don’t always find the truth.

And what’s the truth here? The truth in this particular example of the Field of Blood - which we’ll find out why that’s important in a minute - but the Field of Blood where they used to bury the strangers, the reason that’s important… the reason that’s not the truth is that there may be more than one reason why something is given a name. And in fact, we see that in the Tanakh, in the Old Testament, in what is my… I’m a Karaite Jew, say, “Karaite Jew”.

Audience: Karaite Jew.

Nehemia: As a Karaite Jew, my Scripture is the Old Testament, or what we call the Tanakh. And in the Tanakh we find many examples where more than one reason is given why somebody is given a name. And in fact, that’s common. Let’s look at a few of these examples. Edom, say, “Edom”.

Audience: Edom.

Nehemia: Edom is the name of the nation that came from Esav, or Esau, the brother of Jacob. And there are two reasons why he’s called Edom. Edom means red, and the first reason is given in Genesis 25:25. It says, “Esau was born covered with red hair”. Say, “red hair”.

Audience: Red hair.

Nehemia: So, why is he called Edom according to this verse? Because he was born with…

Audience: Red hair.

Nehemia: Five verses later, it says that Esav, Esau, he sold his birth right for red lentil soup. Say, “red lentil soup”.

Audience: Red lentil soup.

Nehemia: And in Hebrew “red lentil soup” is “adom, adom”. So, why is he called Edom? Because he sold his birth right for…

Audience: Red lentil soup.

Nehemia: Well, which one is it? And the fact is that both of them are true. This isn’t a contradiction. This is a normal thing in ancient Hebrew sources, in Hebrew thinking, that there could be more than one reason for a name. Very, very common. And names were very important in ancient times. It makes a big deal in the Tanakh about people being born and being given certain names. And very often, there are two names. Another example is Jacob. Jacob in Hebrew is Yaakov, say, “Yaakov”.

Audience: Yaakov.

Nehemia: And why was he called Yaakov? Well, there are two reasons. Genesis 25:26, he came out grabbing onto his brother’s heel. And the Hebrew word for heel is “akev”, say, “akev”.

Audience: Akev.

Nehemia: So, why is he called Yaakov? Because he grabbed onto the heel. 27:35, Esav says another reason for him being called Yaakov. “Therefore, he was called Jacob, Yaakov, because he has deceived me twice”. In Hebrew, “deceived me” is “ya’akveini”. Say, “ya’akveini”.

Audience: Ya’akveini.

Nehemia: And then he says, “My birthright he has taken, and behold, now my blessing”. And what was the real reason he was called Yaakov - was it the first reason or the second reason? Both, but presumably, the original reason was Genesis 25:26. Later on, Esav gave a second reason for him being given that name, but that’s not seen as a contradiction in Hebrew thought. That’s a very, very common thing.

And apparently, that’s what’s happening with the Field of Blood - that you have one reason is, the blood of Judas Iscariot. The other reason is the blood of Yeshua. And in fact, it may be called Field of Blood, and many historians say this, it may have been called Field of Blood a thousand years, even, before these things happened.

And why was it called Field of Blood originally? Probably because of something that happened there. And this we’re told by Eusebius, who was a 3rd century Church Father. He says that right next to the Potter’s Field is the place of the Topheth. Say, “Topheth”.

Audience: Topheth.

Nehemia: And what happened in the Topheth? We’ll get to that in a minute. But I want to bring you one more example, which is interesting. Beer Sheva, or Beersheba in English, two reasons. Abraham made an oath with Avimelech, who was the Philistine King. And the Hebrew word for oath is “shvuah”, say, “shvuah”.

Audience: Shvuah.

Nehemia: I can’t hear you, shvuah.

Audience: Shvuah.

Nehemia: Shvuah is an oath, he made an oath with him. And because of this oath, it was therefore called “Beer Sheva”. “Isaac made an oath with Avimelech”, and also the word for oath, again, is “shvuah”. Say, “shvuah”.

Audience: Shvuah.

Nehemia: “And therefore, it was called ‘Beer Sheva.’” Now, is this a contradiction? I actually had professors at Hebrew University who told me, “Well, Genesis 21 was written by one author, and Genesis 23 was written by some other author, and they both had competing traditions about who named the city Beer Sheva. And eventually, those were brought together”. And I think that’s utter nonsense. You know, the truth is, it was probably called “Beer Sheva” hundreds of years before Abraham. And the reason that he chose that spot may have been - what a great place to make an oath, the place whose name sounds like the word for oath. And that’s probably what’s happening with the Field of Blood as well. So, why is it called Field of Blood?... Ooh, I want to bring one more example.

And this example, this is a page from a manuscript. This is an example from the New Testament, can I bring an example from the New Testament?

Audience: Yeah.

Nehemia: Is that okay, Keith? Can I go into your realm there, a little bit? [laughter] Okay. This is an example of what I call a “dual name explanation”. Say, “dual”.

Audience: Dual.

Nehemia: Name explanation.

Audience: Name explanation.

Nehemia: So, we saw Edom, and Jacob, and Beer Sheva. And here’s one in the New Testament. And this one is the name of a certain character who I think is kind of important in that book. It appears in Matthew chapter 1 verses 18 to 25, and in verse 21 we read here - this is the angel speaking to Joseph, telling him what name to give the unborn child. “Veteled ben vetikra shemo Yeshua”, say, “Yeshua”.

Audience: Yeshua.

Nehemia: “Ki hu yoshia et ami me’avonotam”. That is the reason why the one commonly known as “Jesus” was given the name in Hebrew, “Yeshua”, because “Yoshia et ami me’avonotam”. Do you all see that? Is that clear? [laughter]

Audience: Yes.

Nehemia: Let’s look at the English translation of the Greek. Matthew 1:21, “And she will bring forth a Son, you shall call his name Jesus.” The Greek word behind Jesus is “Yesun”, in this particular verse, Iesoun. Sometimes, it appears as “Yesus” for certain reasons, “for He will save His people from their sins”. Now, when you read this in Greek, you’re left wondering, what on earth does the name Iesoun, say, “Iesoun”

Audience: Iesoun.

Nehemia: …have to do with the statement, “He will save His people from their sins?” When you read it in Hebrew, it makes perfect sense. In Hebrew it says, “And she will give birth to a Son and you shall call his name ‘Yeshua,’ say, “Yeshua”.

Audience: Yeshua.

Nehemia: I get the feeling this name isn’t all that important to you guys. Am I with a Karaite group here? [laughter] That’s okay, I like Karaite groups. “And she shall give birth to a Son, you shall call His name…”

Audience: Yeshua!

Nehemia: “…for He will save My people from their iniquities.” Now, the three English words, “He will save” is the one Hebrew word, “yoshia”. Say, “yoshia”.

Audience: Yoshia.

Nehemia: So, why is he called “Yeshua?” Because yoshia - He will save His people from their iniquities, or My people, according to a different version. Let’s do something here. I’m going to ask this side to say, “Yeshua”.

Audience: Yeshua.

Nehemia: I learned this from Keith. And this side, I’m going to ask to say, “Yoshia”.

Audience: Yoshia.

Nehemia: So, what is He called?

Audience: Yeshua.

Nehemia: And why is He called it?

Audience: Yoshia.

Nehemia: What is He called?

Audience: Yeshua.

Nehemia: And why is He called it?

Audience: Yoshia.

Nehemia: Does that make sense, in Hebrew?

Audience: Yeah.

Nehemia: It makes perfect sense. And really, I don’t see how you can come to any other conclusion than that this was written in Hebrew, and the angel is reported as speaking Hebrew. What’s interesting is, a lot of people today are saying that the original very words that Yeshua spoke was Aramaic. Have you heard that?

Audience: Yeah.

Nehemia: That’s the theory going around. In fact, I saw this movie by this great scholar named Mel Gibson, [laughter] and in that movie, Yeshua spoke Aramaic, and actually, very bad Aramaic. I have many Israeli friends who heard that and they were like, “Oy, vey. These guys, these Italian actors, they can’t pronounce Aramaic for their lives”.

But anyway, he was speaking there Aramaic. Let’s look at what the Aramaic says. There’s a version of the Aramaic Gospel that’s survived, and it’s called the “Peshitta”. And let’s see what it says there. There, it says in the Peshitta Aramaic, in 1:21, “And she will bring forth a Son and you shall call His name ‘Yeshua,’” say, “Yeshua”.

Audience: Yeshua.

Nehemia: “…for He will keep alive His people from their sins”. Now, the word I translated here, “keep alive”, it can also be translated as, “He will resuscitate”, He will even “resurrect”, it could mean. “He will bring back to life, He will keep alive”. That’s the translation of this word, and the word in Aramaic is the word “nacheyoo”. So, I’m going to ask this side to say, “Yeshua”.

Audience: Yeshua.

Nehemia: And this side to say, “nacheyoo”.

Audience: Nacheyoo.

Nehemia: So, what is he called?

Audience: Yeshua.

Nehemia: And why is He called it?

Audience: Nacheyoo.

Nehemia: Huh? Well, maybe this name isn’t all that important, I don’t know. You decide for yourselves. [laughter] Now, there’s a second reason for the name, “Yeshua”, and that name is not actually stated explicitly. And that’s one of the really interesting things about dual name explanations - is very often, there’ll be two reasons for a name. One is stated explicitly, and the other is not stated explicitly, it’s implied by the context. And we actually already saw an example of that, Edom, the reason given for that name, “Red”, for the descendants of Esav, the two reasons. The first one is just implied. It never comes out and explicitly states it. But when you read it, you say, “Well, why is it telling me that he came out covered in red hair? Obviously, that’s why he was called ‘Edom.’” And then, two chapters later, it tells me he’s called “Edom” because of the red lentil soup.

Well, that’s what happens with the name “Yeshua”, actually. There’s the explicit name explanation, “Yoshia et ami me’avonotam”, “He will save My, or His, people from their iniquities”. And then the other reason is something that we have to go back to the Tanakh, or speak Hebrew, to understand. And if you speak Hebrew, it’s immediately obvious. But for those who don’t, let’s go back to the Tanakh. Nehemia chapter 8 verse 17. “And all the congregation…” I love this book, it was named after me. [laughter] That’s what my parents told me.

“And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths, for since the days of Jeshua, the son of Nun, unto that day had not the children of Israel done so”. This is what it says in the King James Version - that’s the Keith Johnson Version, right? No, it’s a different KJV. And when it says, “Jeshua the son of Nun”, obviously there’s no J in Hebrew. In the original Hebrew, it says, “Yeshua, the son of Nun”. Now, who is this Yeshua, the son of Nun? Is that the guy from the 1st century that you all are talking about? No, it’s Yeshua that you know as Joshua, right? Now, why is Joshua the son of Nun, the disciple of Moses, his assistant, who then became leader of the people, why is he being called “Yeshua?” What’s the reason for that?

And this is actually a linguistic reason that had to do with how Hebrew was pronounced in Second Temple times. I’m not going to go into a whole complicated… Maybe I will take an hour to go into the explanation. [laughter]

Man: No.

Nehemia: No, okay. But in any event, Yehoshua, the son of Nun, say, “Yehoshua”.

Audience: Yehoshua.

Nehemia: That’s what he’s normally called. In the Torah, he’s called “Yehoshua”, and in the Book of Joshua he’s called “Yehoshua”. And all the way up until the Second Temple times, he’s always called “Yehoshua”. Then all of a sudden, in Second Temple times, we read in the Book of Nehemiah, he’s called “Yeshua”. And the reason for that, again, is a linguistic reason. But why this is important is that the name “Yeshua”, we can see from here and other places, is actually just a contraction of the name “Ye-hoshua”. And then, if we want to know what Yeshua means, that name, whether it’s talking about Yeshua the son of Nun, or Yeshua of Nazareth, we have to look at the name “Yehoshua”. Say, “Yehoshua”.

Audience: Yehoshua.

Nehemia: So, let’s look at this. We have Yehoshua, and where does Yehoshua come from? It comes from two Hebrew words which are, “Yehovah yoshia”. Very interesting. So, this side say, “Yehovah”.

Audience: Yehovah.

Nehemia: And if you want, you can say, “Yahweh”, we can talk about that a different time. You know, some people will tell you, “If you don’t pronounce the name this exact way, you’re going to burn in Heyl”. [laughter] You’re going to be down there in the Gehinnom Valley with me. But I don’t think that’s the way it works.

But anyway, so this side say, “Yehovah”.

Audience: Yehovah.

Nehemia: And this side say, “Yoshia”.

Audience: Yoshia.

Audience: Yehovah.

Audience: Yoshia.

Nehemia: And when we put those two words together, they form the word “Yehoshua”. And if you say, “Yehoshua” 10 times fast, Yehoshua, Yehoshua, Yehoshua, Yehoshua, Yeshua, it comes out as “Yeshua”. And that’s where that name comes from. That’s why Joshua the son of Nun is being called “Yeshua the son of Nun”. And there are other guys - there’s a man named Yehoshua the son of Yehozadak, the High priest in Second Temple times. And he’s also referred to in one place as “Yeshua the son of Yehozadak”.

So, “Yeshua” means, “Yehovah yoshia”, which is two Hebrew words that mean, “Yehovah saves”. So, those are the two reasons for his name, the first one given in Matthew 1:21, the explicit one, “He will save His people from their iniquities, from their sins, or My people”, according to one version. And the other is, “Yehoshua - Yehovah yoshia”. So, that’s very interesting.

Now, the significance of this is that for what I’m talking about, going back to Hell, bringing you back to Hell with me, drag you back into the pit of Hell, is that there are very often two reasons for a name, and sometimes three, and four, and many more reasons. And when it comes to the Field of Blood, the original reason for the name of that place… Oh, here by the way, in my book, The Hebrew Yeshua vs the Greek Jesus, I talk more about these name explanations. They’re very important for understanding Hebrew Matthew, and really, any ancient Hebrew writing.

But let’s go back to here, the Field of Blood. Why was it called the Field of Blood? Because of something that used to happen there, something at an altar called the “Topheth”. Say, “Topheth”.

Audience: Topheth.

Nehemia: How many people here have heard of the Topheth? A few of you have. Most of you haven’t. Topheth is a key thing mentioned in many of the Prophets. It was a major place just outside of ancient Jerusalem where the Jews of Jerusalem used to come and they would offer sacrifices. Now, this was not a legitimate altar, it was an altar of the Ammonite deity, whose name was Molech. The Ammonites worshipped the God, Molech, and the Topheth was his altar. And all over the ancient world, they used to worship Molech. The Greeks called him Kronos and the Romans called him Saturn, but he started out as this Ammonite deity. And one of the things he demanded was child sacrifice.

And here, we see Jeremiah 7:31 it says, “They go on building the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the sun of Hinnom,” which is in Geh Hinnom, “to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire which I did not command, nor did it come into My mind”.

And, you know, as I read in the Tanakh and in history, I see again, and again, and again, that the people of Israel, my people, have continually sinned by doing things that God did not command, and things that did not even come into His mind. Things that we invented out of our own hearts, that ends up being the way that we worshipped the Creator of the universe, and we end up falling into this sin of Topheth, whether literally or figuratively.

And the Topheth was an interesting altar. It was kind of bizarre. It had this hollow statue that was made of bronze and its arms used to stick out - and Michael could tell you all about it, but I’m going to give you the abbreviated version. There’s a Jewish commentator named Rashi, who describes in great detail the altar of Molech. And he says as follows… Now, this rabbi, Rashi, lived in the 12th century and what’s interesting is, normally I’d tell you, “12th century? How could he know what the ancient Ammonites and Israelites did?” But this description fits almost to the word, sometimes, the description of the ancient Latin writers as well. And the Romans had a lot of contact with the Topheth, because one of the places that used to worship Molech was a place called Carthage. And Carthage was actually a Canaanite colony. The Canaanites had come across to Tunisia - what today is Tunisia - established a colony, and they set up there an altar to Molech of the Topheth. And what’s really exciting to me about that, is that archaeologists have uncovered the Topheth at Carthage. And they’ve found there the bones of 30,000 burned victims, mostly little boys, but also some little girls.

“The high places of the Topheth”, commenting on the verse in Jeremiah that we just read, he said, “That was the Molech that was bronze, and they would stoke a fire under it. Its hands were spread out. When it became hot, they would put the child in its hands, and the child would be burned and would scream. The priests would beat drums so that the father would not hear the cries of the son and be overcome with mercy. It is called Topheth because of the drum”.

Here’s another name explanation. So, why is it called “Topheth?” The Hebrew word, “toph”, say, “toph…”

Audience: Toph.

Nehemia: …means “drum”. And the priests would beat the drums, “duh, duh, duh, duh, duh”, so that the fathers wouldn’t hear the moans and the cries of their burning children and grab the children out of the hands of that vicious and cruel deity, that altar.

And this was something that really left an imprint on the people of ancient Israel. I mean, Topheth was like, this was this image of the ultimate suffering. And that’s how, later on when Jews talked about the suffering that would happen to those who sinned against God and were not repentant, they said, “Well, that’s going to be the suffering of the Hinnom Valley”. And when they said the “Hinnom Valley”, they were talking about the suffering of the Topheth, of the crying of the children. Now, it’s actually the image that they get from Isaiah. The Prophet Isaiah takes the imagery of this familiar Topheth that everybody in Jerusalem knew about, the suffering children, the burning and the conflagration, and he says, “This is what’s going to happen to the King of Assyria”.

He says, Isaiah 30, “The Topheth is already prepared,” talking about the King of Assyria, “it is made ready for the king. It is prepared deep and wide. Its pit is with an abundance of fire and wood. The breath of Yehovah kindles it like a stream of sulphur.” I mean, this is literal fire and brimstone. This stream of sulphur is kindling the pit of the Topheth, and that pit was underneath the altar. The altar stuck his arms out, and the fire came up and heated up the altar, this hollow statue. And that is literally where we get the term, “the pit of Hell”. That was literally the pit of Hell that was burning, and the children we’re told by the Greek sources and the Roman sources, the baby will be put on the arms, and as the baby would be burning, its body would shrivel up and fall down into the pit of Hell, into the fire pit. And that’s how it would meet its ultimate end.

Now, you know, this woman telling me that I, as a Jew, who does the best that I can with what I know to follow the prophets that God revealed His word to, the prophets of ancient Israel, that because I’m doing that, because I’m trying to live my life according to Moses, according to Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, that I’m going to burn in hell, and God won’t have any grace for me, she’s essentially telling me that my God, or her God, rather, is like Molech, that I’m going to be handed over into this merciless statue who’s going to burn me up like the children were burned up to Molech.

Now, when I hear this, and even when I go to the actual spot to the Field of Blood, it’s hard for me relate. Like, “What’s she talking about? What, in my experience, can prepare me to understand this image of this merciless hellfire, this merciless burning of the children?” And when I think about it, it’s very similar. The children had no chance. Nobody asked the children, “Do you want to burn in Hell?” They were just thrown into the fire. And what this woman is saying is that because I’m a Jew and I was born and raised up in this tradition, and I’m following the word of God that was revealed to the prophets of ancient Israel, therefore, it’s a pit of fire for me, kind of like those children.

What, in my experience, can prepare me for this? As I was thinking about this, I’m like, “The only thing I can think of, the merciless burning of children, is something that’s memorialized here, in this place”. Can somebody tell me where this place is? It’s hard to see, but where is this place? It’s something called the Children’s Memorial. It’s part of Yad Vashem, and it’s the Children’s Memorial in Yad Vashem that memorializes the murder by the Nazis of 1.5 million children. And it’s really a powerful place. You go there, and there are these candles all over the place, and the candles, in Jewish tradition, each candle represents somebody who has died, who has passed away. Usually, they light the candle on the anniversary of someone’s death, but sometimes they light it all the time, depending on your tradition. And here, they have these hundreds of candles, and there are all these mirrors. And as you walk around, you see more and more of these candles. And you realize, there are more children that were murdered in the Holocaust than you could even possibly fathom. Like 1.5 million - that’s just a number. What does that really mean, even?

And what brings it home, what makes it even more real is there’s this quiet, calm voice coming over the loudspeakers that is announcing the name of each and every child that was murdered. And you stand there in this memorial, and you hear names. These are real names - Sarah Horovitz, 3 years old, Poland. Jacob Dandor, 12 years old, Holland. These are real names of children who were murdered, and where they came from, and how old they were when they were killed. Miriam Ashkenazi, 6 years old, Greece. And it goes on, and on, and on, one-and-a-half million names.

And that’s what Molech is - the merciless burning of children. That’s what it’s about. And I don’t believe that the God of Israel is like Molech. I believe He wants to hear the cries of his children, and He has mercy. He doesn’t want our cries to be drowned out by the drums.

You know, something that also made this very real for me was going to this place. This is the 9/11 Memorial, just outside of Jerusalem. And in fact, it’s the only 9/11 memorial in the world that has the names of all 2,980 approximate victims, even though only 5 victims were Israeli. And the reason they set up this memorial, is they said, “Look, our five citizens died in the Twin Towers, but we were part of a collective experience, a collective fate. And so, we’re not just going to put the names of our five people, we’re going to put all the names”. And I think this is a really beautiful memorial. It’s an artist’s representation, obviously, of the collapse of the Twin Towers. That’s supposed to be the fire going up, and the smoke and everything going up. And out of it rises the American flag, victoriously out of this great destruction.

Remember what 9/11 meant to you. I don’t know where you were. I remember exactly where I was, and what I was doing on 9/11 at that moment. And I remember what it meant to me, and 3,000 people were killed in 9/11. Now, imagine 9/11 x 500 times. That’s what the Holocaust was, just for the children. We didn’t even get to the adults yet, which were six million. And that’s essentially the image that I get when this woman says, “Neehemya, you’re going to burn in Heyl,” that she’s telling me, my God, the God of Israel, is like Molech and He’s going to cast me down to the pit of fire without even a chance. And I find that hard to believe. You’re allowed to believe that.

You know, when I went down into to Hell to study this thing, something happened. I actually came across something that shocked me. And to be honest, it didn’t just shock me, it freaked me out. And what I came across, as I’m going there and looking at the Field of Blood and the Charnel House and all these things, is I’m walking down on this path, and I’m there in the Field of Blood, and I see something there, which is the bone of a small child. And it was lying there on the surface, and I saw it. And I’d studied archaeology, that’s what I have my bachelor’s degree in from Hebrew University. I remember from archaeology days, that if you find something covered in layers and layers and layers of fossilized moss, you know it’s ancient. It’s been lying out for thousands of years.

And I saw this bone, this tiny little bone, covered in these layers and layers of moss, fossilized moss, and I said, “Wow, this must have been here for thousands of years. Maybe this is one of the bones of the sacrificial victims”. And I don’t know, maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was from some other circumstance. But over the days that followed, I became convicted that I needed to go back to that place and bring that bone to a proper burial.

And what convinced me of that, what really was the final push to do that, was this verse in the Book of Deuteronomy. This Book talks about a man who’s executed, who’s put to death. And we’re told there that what the Canaanites, we know, used to do, is they would take the body after he was stoned or killed in some other way, and they’d hang him on a tree for everyone to see what happens when you violate the laws of the land. And they would leave him on that tree for days, and weeks, and months, sometimes for years, until the birds would come and pick at the bones, pick at the flesh, and there was nothing left.

And the Torah tells us that that’s forbidden. You cannot leave the person hanging for more than one day, up until sunset. It says as follows. It says, “You shall not leave his corpse on a tree, for you shall surely bury him on that day, for a curse of God is one who is hanged. And you shall not defile your land, which Yehovah, your God, gives you as an inheritance”. What this is saying is that if you leave a body unburied, that is a curse upon the land. And here specifically, in this context, it’s talking about somebody who murders. And the Jewish thinking is, if we’re required to give a murderer the dignity of burial, then surely someone who is innocent, we must bury in that same day.

And in fact, to this day in Israel, this is what they do. When someone dies, they bury them, especially in Jerusalem, on that very day. And I remember when my grandmother, of blessed memory, passed away, I was with her in the morning. She was terminally ill for several weeks. I was with her in the hospital in the morning, and at her funeral in the afternoon. I mean, in American culture, it’s like, “I’m flying in three weeks now for the funeral,” right? There, it was that day, and it’s because of this verse. It’s considered a curse upon the land if you don’t bury the bodies.

And actually, Keith and I had this discussion just before we started this tour. My father fell terminally ill, and he was living in Chicago, and his lifelong dream was to live in Israel, and in fact, most of my family had immigrated to Israel back in 1990. He said, “Well, I’m a rabbi, but rabbi doesn’t actually pay anything”. So, he worked as a lawyer. And as a lawyer he said, “I’ve got to finish up my practice and close it up. In a few more months I’ll move to Israel with the rest of the family.” Well, I’ve been hearing that since 1990. And it was only when he fell terminally ill that he finally moved to Israel.

Keith and I had this discussion. He said, “Nehemia, what if we’re on tour and in the middle of the tour, you get the phone call, God forbid, may your father live to be 120, but realistically, what happens if we get the phone call and we find out that your father has passed away? We should end the tour and you should go to Israel.” I said, “Keith, even if I wanted to make it to the funeral, there’s no chance because he’s going to be buried that day.”

In addition, to be honest with you, I said to Keith, I opened up to a verse in my favorite book, the Book of Nehemiah, and it talks there about how the people had just heard the Torah read to them, and they were very upset, because they found out there’s all these things in the Torah they’re not doing, that they didn’t even know about. And they started to cry and mourn, and Nehemiah calls them and he says to them, “You must not weep and mourn today, because this is a holy time.” It was Shabbat. And he said, “You must not weep and mourn on a holy time.”

I said to Keith, “I feel that God has called us to do this, to go out and speak about these things, and that this is a holy time. And when I get back to Israel, and may my father live beyond 120, but when I get back to Israel, if I have to, I’ll mourn. But now, I’m here on this holy time and I must do this.”

Woman: I love you.

Nehemia: Thank you. I love you, too. Let me go back to the topic. So, as I’m thinking about these things a while ago, and I realize I must bury the bone of this child that’s been left on the field for thousands of years. I mean, think about it. They bury them that day, and here, the bone has been there for thousands of years. And it’s haunting me, and I decide I need to go back. As I’m walking back, I walk past the place in Jerusalem called Bible Hill. Say, “Bible Hill”.

Audience: Bible Hill.

Nehemia: Bible Hill is one of my favorite places in Jerusalem, and there are actually two reasons for the name Bible Hill. Is that surprising to you, two reasons? [laughter] Of course, we know that’s a contradiction, and therefore reality is not true. No. There are two reasons for the name Bible Hill. The first reason is that it’s the only hilltop in modern Jerusalem that’s undeveloped. There are no buildings on top of it, modern buildings, and so basically it looks today the same way as it looked in the time of King David. It’s pristine. So that’s one of the reasons, and therefore, they called the name of that place Bible Hill.

The second reason, which is what excited me, is that on that hill they found this. This is a silver scroll that they found up on Bible Hill, in an ancient tomb, and it’s actually one of two silver scrolls, and the significance of these silver scrolls is that they are the oldest copy of any biblical text that has survived. Now, what do I mean by that? What I mean is that Moses wrote the Torah approximately around the year 1,500 BC, give or take a couple of hundred years. We can debate about that, exactly when it was, but about 3,500 years ago. But the oldest copy we have of the Torah isn’t 3,500 years old. Can somebody tell me how old the oldest complete copy of the Torah is, complete? It’s about 1,000 years, only. You know, we have the Dead Sea Scrolls that have 10 pages here, and five pages there, and three fragments here of two verses. But the oldest complete copy is about 1,000 years old. Now, what we have today are copies of copies of copies of copies, and that’s true for all ancient books. When you read the ancient writings of Plato and Aristotle, you don’t have the original one that Plato or Aristotle wrote. You have copies of copies of copies removed from the original by hundreds and maybe thousands of years, in some instances. Well, the significance of these two silver scrolls is that they are the oldest surviving copies, and they date to around the year 650 BC. Say, “650”.

Audience: 650.

Nehemia: Who is the king around the year 650 BC in Judah? Herod? No. Herod is in the 1st century BC. Who is the king? King Josiah, or in Hebrew, Yoshiahu. And on these two silver scrolls that come from the period of King Yoshiahu, we have the same passage in both scrolls. And it’s what we call the Priestly Blessing. And this is something that actually changed my life many years ago, studying about these two silver scrolls, because when the professor told us about the two silver scrolls, he read them to us, and he read them to us the way they appear in the scrolls, which is essentially the way they appear in the Book of Numbers. Let me read it to you from Numbers, the exact wording, Numbers chapter 6.

And in Numbers 6… does everybody know what the Priestly Blessing is? It starts out in chapter 6 and it says, “And Yehovah spoke unto Moses saying…” I assume that’s how it starts, even though I haven’t found the verse yet. It starts in verse 22, it says… there it goes, “And Yehovah spoke to Moses saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and his children saying: Thus shall you bless the Children of Israel and say unto them.’” And then, there’s a three-line blessing that follows the blessing that the children of Aaron, the Kohanim - when we say Kohanim in Hebrew, that means the priests. Like if you meet somebody named Cohen, that usually means they’re a direct descendant on their father’s side from Aaron. Here, it’s saying, “The descendants of Aaron, this is the blessing they should speak over Israel.” It’s a three-line blessing.

It says, “Yevarekhekha Yehovah veyishmarekha”. “Yehovah, bless you and keep you.” “Ya’er Yehovah panav eleikha vayikhuneka.” “Yehovah shine His face towards you and be gracious towards you.” That’s the literal translation. “Yissa Yehovah panav eleikha, vayaseim lekha shalom.” “Yehovah lift His face towards you and give you peace.” And then, in verse 27 it ends and it says, “And they shall place My name upon the Children of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Now, I heard this blessing my entire life. My father used to me cover me with his tallit, when we were in the synagogue, and the Kohanim would get up on the dais and they would spread out their hands like this, “live long and prosper.” No, but that’s actually the actor, Leonard Nemoy - Spock - was a Kohen, and that’s why he did this. They would spread out their hands like this and they would say… They wouldn’t say, “live long and prosper,” [laughter] they would say the Priestly Blessing, “Yevarekhekha Adonai veyishmarekha. Ya’er Adonai panav eleikha vayikhuneka. Yissa Adonai panav eleikha, vayaseim lekha shalom”. That’s how I always heard it in the synagogue with “Adonai”, “Lord”, instead of the name.

And when the professor put up this slide on the screen at the university and he said, “Here is the original Priestly Blessing from Numbers chapter 6, preserved from the time of King Josiah in 650 BC,” and it has the name - he didn’t say, “It has the name,” he just read it. And I’m like, “Wait. That’s not right. That’s not what it says, it says, Adonai.” And I cracked open my Bible and I looked and I’m like, “Wait a minute. Does it really say Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey?” Which some people say as “Yahweh” and other people say, correctly Yehovah? [laughter and applause] Keith told me to say that. I mean, could it really be?

Look, I was born and raised in Chicago. I’ve lived in Israel nearly half my life, but deep in my heart, I’m from Missouri. [laughter] And so, I’m one of these people, you’ve got to show me. It’s not enough just to tell me, I’ve got to see it for myself. So, I actually went over to the Israel Museum to see this silver scroll for myself. And I saw it there and I stared at it for hours, because it’s very, very tiny. You can’t tell from the slide, it’s actually very, very tiny. And back then, they had a magnifying glass in front of it, so you could see it. And eventually I was able to make out here the letters, Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey, the letters of our Heavenly Father, Yehovah, in the original earliest passage of the Priestly Blessing.

This is me, by the way, laying in the tomb where they found these two silver scrolls. They used to lay bodies out here, and they’d put the head there, like I’m doing there. And then, when they would bury people back then, they would put on their feet crocs, just like I have, right? [laughter] Not my best material, I admit this.

But anyway, down here in this little pit is where they found the original two silver scrolls of the Priestly Blessing. And here is a photograph, an enlarged photograph of it, and you can see here, obviously these colored letters were added by the archaeologists, but you can see there, Yud. Say, “Yud”.

Audience: Yud.

Nehemia: Hey.

Audience: Hey.

Nehemia: Vav.

Audience: Vav.

Nehemia: Hey.

Audience: Hey.

Nehemia: That’s “Yehovah”, or “Yahweh”, according to some people, and according to others who have had personal revelations, “Yihawehi”. [laughter] That’s apparently how there’s one prophet speaks it in China, I don’t know, so I’ve been told. So, here it says Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey in the Priestly Blessing, and this is what it looks like without the little colored lines added by the archaeologists - you can see very clearly the Hey, the Vav, and the Hey. And if you look closely, like stare at it for a long time, you can see the Yud. You see that? It’s pretty cool.

So I’m walking by this place where this Priestly Blessing was found, Bible Hill, and I realize how powerful the significance of this geography of Israel is. You know, you read the Bible by itself, and it’s like it’s in black and white. And then you go and you walk through Israel and it comes alive in 3D-color, so I’ve been told. [laughter] Actually, Keith said that yesterday at the radio station, and afterwards, we heard it repeated several times. Yay for Keith.

So I’m walking by and I’m realising the spiritual significance of this. Here I’m walking by Bible Hill, and down there in Geh Hinnom, in the Hinnom Valley, is the pit of Hell, where we get the name of Hell. And there was the bone of this child that’s been lying out there for thousands of years. I knew exactly what I needed to do. I needed to go down and take the bone out of Hell and bring it up and give it a burial on top of Bible Hill.

This is my dog, Georgia. Say, “Georgia”.

Audience: Georgia.

Nehemia: Does anybody know what breed of dog this is?

Woman: Ridgeback.

Nehemia: Very good. So she’s a Rhodesian Ridgeback, born and raised in Israel, and she’s very cute. And I love dogs, but not all dogs are as pretty and as cute as Georgia - and that’s unfortunate for them - but when I went down into the pit of Hell, down into Geh Hinnom to take the bone of this child and bury it up on Bible Hill, this is what I encountered. And this was one of a pack, there were a whole bunch of them that hadn’t been there the first time I went. And I call these dogs the Hounds of Hell. And when I encountered the Hounds of Hell, they were howling and they were barking and gnashing their teeth, because they did not want me to come and get the bone of that child.

Now, the truth is, I don’t know if they were even aware of the bone of the child, it had lost all smell after thousands of years, and dogs are smell-oriented. But they knew that I was coming into their territory, and that’s all that mattered. And they did not want me to come into their territory to take the bone of the child and bring it up out of Hell to the Bible. And you know, as I’ve gone around and taught along with Keith in our teaching ministry, we’ve encountered the Hounds of Hell from time to time, both literally in this instance, and sometimes spiritually. People who say, “You can’t come into my territory and teach that. You can’t come and teach that pronunciation of the name. You cannot teach that Hebrew source that I don’t know how to read. What are you doing, coming into my territory?” And they bark, and they howl, and they gnash their teeth.

But one thing I know about dogs, thanks to Georgia, is dogs are cowards. No matter how loud they bark, in fact, the louder they bark, the louder they howl, the more they gnash their teeth, the more cowardly they are. And all you have to do is stand up to the dog and don’t be afraid. They can smell fear, but if you’re not afraid, they’ll back down. And that’s what happened. These dogs backed down, and I was able to get the bone of the child.

How are we on time? Keith says I can go for another 15 minutes, excellent. Excellent. One of the things that I’ve encountered in my travels is what I call the Spirit of Marcionism. Have you all heard of Marcion?

Audience: Yes.

Nehemia: He was an early church figure who was actually branded a heretic by the Catholic Church, and we know that counts for so much. [laughter] But Marcion, here they actually made a correct decision. Even a broken clock can be right twice a day. But I encounter, as I travel, the spirit of Marcionism. Marcion taught that there were two different Gods. There was the God of the Old Testament who was different and distinct from the God of the New Testament. He said, “The God of the Old Testament…” somebody say, “halleluyah”.

Audience: Halleluyah.

Nehemia: What? No, no. Did someone just say, “halleluyah?”

Man: Halleluyah.

Nehemia: Okay. Apparently, some people are not paying attention. [laughter] So, Marcion taught that there were two different Gods, say, “two Gods”.

Audience: Two Gods.

Nehemia: The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. He said, “The evil God of the Old Testament made this world, this corrupt and disgusting world, and the God of the New Testament,” Marcion taught, “created the spiritual world up in the heavens as a completely separate realm.” And he says, “The God of this world, the evil God of the Old Testament, He is a God of hate. But the God of the New Testament, He’s the God of love. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the shackles of the Torah. The God of the New Testament, He’s the God of freedom. You could do whatever you want. The God of the Old Testament is the God of vengeance. And the God of the New Testament,” Marcion said, “was the God of forgiveness.”

And although Marcion was cast out of the church and branded a heretic, I travel around the world and I’m constantly encountering the spirit of Marcionism. His spirit lives today. Now, in my Bible, in my Scripture as a Karaite Jew, the Old Testament, the Tanakh, the Hebrew Scriptures, the God of Israel is called “El Nose”, say, “El”.

Audience: El.

Nehemia: Nose.

Audience: Nose.

Nehemia: El Nose” means, “a forgiving God”, but literally, the word “nose” comes from the word “masah”, say, masah”.

Audience: Masah.

Nehemia: Masah is a burden you carry on your shoulders. And when He’s called “El Nose”, it means He is the God who carries the burden of sin, takes it off of our shoulders, and puts it on His own shoulders. This is in the Old Testament. In the Book of Psalms 99:8, He’s El Nose, he’s a forgiving God. And this is why Marcion didn’t want anybody to read the Hebrew Scriptures. He banned the Old Testament. He said, “That Old Testament, it’s not even in the Bible.” That’s what Marcion did, because he was afraid people would read it and see that his doctrine was false doctrine.

Exodus 34 verses 6 to 7 - in my view, this is one of the most important passages in the Bible. And the reason it’s so important, Exodus 34:6-7 is because Moses comes to God and he says, “God, show Yourself to me. Let me know You.” And God said, “I’m going to reveal Myself to you by telling you what I’m like, by showing my characteristics to you.” And He proclaims His name, He says, “Yehovah, Yehovah,” and then it says, “a God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, full of true righteousness.” He’s merciful and He’s gracious. Now, that’s interesting, because this little old lady from the South told me, “God has no grace for the Jews. You’re going to burn in Heyl”.

And I read here when God tells to Moses, this is what I’m like, He says of Himself, He’s rakhum, say, “rakhum”.

Audience: Rakhum.

Nehemia: And He’s khanun, say, “khanun”.

Audience: Khanun.

Nehemia: And those two Hebrew words, you get so much more understanding when you look at the source of Hebrew words. Very often… in fact in many languages, you start off with a concrete concept, something that you can touch and feel, something from everyday life, and you then by extension get what we call “abstract concepts”. So, for example, the word “rakhum”, which means “merciful”, comes from the Hebrew word “rekhem”, say, “rekhem”.

Audience: Rekhem.

Nehemia: And rekhem is the Hebrew word that means “womb”, like the womb of a woman. And “rakhum” is the attribute of the womb. A woman who has a womb has this innate, inherent feeling of mercy and love for that which comes from her womb. And that’s what rakhum means, not that God has a womb, heaven forbid. But what it’s saying is that He’s rakhum, that he has that characteristic of a woman for that which comes from her womb. And that gives you this colorful image that you don’t get by just reading the word “merciful” in English - like, what does that even mean?

And then “gracious” is a really powerful word. The word is “khanun”, which comes from the Hebrew word, “khen”. Say, “khen”.

Audience: Khen.

Nehemia: And khen, if you look at how it’s literally used in ancient Hebrew, it means a “sparkle” or a “twinkle”. And what it describes is the sparkle or twinkle in God’s eyes when He looks down at us, as a Father, as a loving Father. And that’s what it means, that God is khanun. He’s full of this sparkle in His eyes, looking down at us, lovingly. And what does it mean that He loves us? Khanun in this sense, He has grace for us. So, “khen” is grace. And often, you’ll see in Scripture, “He found favor in His eyes.” And the Hebrew literally says, “He found khen in His eyes.” “He found grace in His eyes.” Abraham looked up at God and He saw the sparkle in God’s eyes, looking down on him, lovingly. And this is what “khanun” means. God, in the Old Testament, has grace. That’s what it says. That’s His core characteristic, that He describes to Moses, khanun, etc.

He’s also forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. I’m going to go past this. Oh, there’s my book, A Prayer to Our Father, a very good book. We talk a little bit about that concept with the spirit of Marcionism. You should get that book. The author told me it’s a good book. [laughter] That was Keith, he co-wrote it.

You know, it does say in the Tanakh that the God of Israel’s an avenging God, “El Nekamot”. And let me go back here a little bit.

You know, we’re told in Ecclesiastes 12:14, “God will bring every deed into judgment.” And I think that’s a good thing, because if He didn’t, there would be no justice in the world. 1 Samuel 24:12, here, David has this conflict with Saul. And he says, “I can’t touch Saul because Saul is anointed, he’s a mashiakh.” You know what “mashiakh” means? Mashiakh, messiah, literally means, “someone who is anointed with oil”. Every legitimate king of Israel is a mashiakh, anointed with oil. Now, not the Mashiakh with a capital M that we’re waiting for in the end days, may he come soon. But Saul was a mashiakh, anointed with oil, as king of Israel, and David said, “I dare not lay my hands upon a mashiakh. So, this conflict that I have with Saul, somebody else is going to take care of it.”

And he says as follows. He says, “May Yehovah judge between you and me. And may Yehovah take vengeance upon you on my behalf. But my hand will not be upon you.” This is what David said about Saul, praying to God, asking God to take vengeance, because if there’s no vengeance, and if Saul doesn’t repent, then David has no recourse. The Torah actually forbids a human being to take revenge. God is the One who’s allowed to take revenge.

And then, in Romans 12:19, Paul says… Somebody say, “Paul”.

Audience: Paul.

Nehemia: “Never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine. I will repay,’ says the Lord.” Where does he get that from? Did he make it up? It’s from the Book of Deuteronomy. He’s quoting Deuteronomy, that says that exact thing. And so the idea here in both the Old and New Testament is that God does take revenge, and that’s a good thing. And that’s why it says, “To someone who is unrepented, El Nekamot.

And what drives home for me how important it is that God takes revenge is this man. You know who this guy is? Adolf Eichmann. They call Adolf Eichmann the Architect of the Final Solution, that is, the plan to wipe out the Jews of Europe. Hitler came up with this brilliant idea - actually he took it from Martin Luther. Hitler wrote about this idea back in the early ‘20s, about how he was going to exterminate the Jews. But how was he going to do it? He wasn’t a very practical person. He gave the order, and somebody else carried it out. And the one who carried it out was Adolf Eichmann. He’s the one who set up the train schedules. He’s the one who sent in the troops to round up the people, to put them on the cattle cars and ship the shipment of poison gas to Auschwitz and Treblinka and Majdanek and all those other places. He was the one in charge, he was the bureaucrat who pushed all the paper.

And the reason they knew this is his signature was everywhere. Every time there was an order to send poison gas, and send a transport of Jews to their deaths, it was his signature on it. Well, Eichmann got away. He escaped and he went to Argentina, and he lived there for several decades. And then the Israelis caught him and they brought him to Jerusalem and put him on trial. And some people said, “He doesn’t deserve a trial. Just kill him right now.” And we said, “No, we’re a people of justice. We’re going to put him on trial. There’s plenty of evidence.”

And here’s an interesting account that I heard from someone who heard it. It’s an oral tradition, admittedly. I heard it from someone who heard the story from Eichmann’s guard.

And Eichmann’s Israeli guard - he was being guarded 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The reason is that back when they did the Nuremberg Trials, Hermann Goering, if I’m pronouncing his name correctly, whatever, Goering, Hermann Guering, with an umlaut, he actually hanged himself because he didn’t want to be executed by the Nuremberg Trial. And so they were afraid that Eichmann would hang himself and take away our right to put him to death.

He was guarded by a guard 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. One of the things the guard noticed is that every Sunday, Eichmann’s confessor came, and he would confess his sins. One day, the guard was talking to Eichmann and he said, “Eichmann, do you believe that because you’ve confessed your sins, and you’ve gone through this ritual, and that you did all the rites and rituals you were supposed to do, that you are going to heaven? But the one-and-a-half million Jewish children you murdered are going to go to hell?” And the story goes, and I don’t know if it’s true, the story goes that Eichmann said to him, “Yes, this is how it works. I was baptized, and those one-and-a-half million Jewish children were not baptized. They didn’t believe In Jesus Christ. They’re going down to the pit of Hell.”

Now, I don’t know if that’s true or not, but this is something that many Israelis will tell you this story. And whether it’s true or not, it symbolizes, I think, the spirit of Marcionism. I think this is the ultimate expression of the spirit of Marcionism.

Jeremiah 31:35-36 says, “Thus says Yehovah, who gives the sun to light the day and the statutes of the moon and the stars to light the night.” What are the statutes of the moon and the stars? The statutes of the moon and the stars is what we call the laws of nature, that there’s this law that they continue to move in their courses, continually, perpetually. He says, “‘If these statutes depart from before Me,’ says Yehovah, ‘so too shall the seed of Israel cease from being a nation in My presence all the days.’” Every time you look up to the stars of heaven, you see the stars and the moon and the sun, that is a testimony that the people of Israel are still God’s people.

[applause]

And so, if somebody tells you that the Jews are going to burn in Heyl, because there’s now a new dispensation, that is not… They’ve been replaced by some other group of people, that means Jeremiah is a liar, and that means Yehovah, Yahweh, the God of creation is a liar. And I don’t believe they are. I think they’re telling the truth.

You know, everybody loves this verse, Malachi chapter 3 verse 6, they love to quote the first half. “For I am Yehovah,” “I am the Lord,” in English. “I am Yehovah, I do not change.” But look at the second half. He says, “Therefore, you are not consumed, O son of Jacob.” Now, what does that mean? That means, if God were to change, He would have changed His promise to no longer keep that covenant, I’d be burned up in a second. It’s true, that I would be burned up by God like Molech burned up his devotees. But the God of Israel doesn’t change, and He made this eternal vow, this eternal shvua, this eternal oath with the people of Israel and their descendants. And this will never change.

In closing, this is the grave of the bone that I took up to Bible Hill and buried there, and laid to rest. And I’m going to talk more about this later, but now I’m going to end here. Thank you.

[applause]

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  • Levi says:

    Your ppl are not the original JEWS!!!!!!! REMEMBER EVERYTHING STARTED IN AFRICA

  • Pieter says:

    Hi Nehemia,

    Thanks for making this available to everyone – I always enjoy your perspective and insight.

    You mentioned that the word ‘chen’ (favour/ grace) is linked to ‘twinkling’ (of the eye) in a concrete sense. As you explain, I can quite easily see the contextual link, e.g. as in ‘if I have found favour in Your eyes’. Could you please also expand on this from an etymological perspective – so far I have mostly seen ‘chen’ being associated/ sharing a root with the Hebrew words meaning ‘to encamp’ or ‘camp’ (‘machaneh’). Can you shed any further light on this?

    Shalom

  • Ian Anthony Jones says:

    Glory to God for the mercy and grace of our Father toward sinners!

    Earlier in the day yesterday while reading my Bible, I was struck by the existence of female sacrifices and spent hours puzzling over the reason for them. I watched this video late last night.

    Then again today I read about a female sacrifice for unintentional sin. This time your words came back to mind and it struck me that you might have given at least a partial explanation. Female sheep, goats and cows all have wombs.

    Could this be the significance? Is the female sacrifice for unintended sin an allusion to the special mercy and compassion of God in forgiving sins we didn’t mean to commit?

  • Bonnie says:

    fabulous. . .thank you so much.

  • Laura says:

    Hi Nehemia,

    Great talk (as always)! I don’t know whether the account of the conversation between the Israeli guard and Otto Adolf Eichmann was true, but knowing what the Catholics and the Lutherans believe, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if this conversation took place exactly as you heard it. Catholic and Lutheran leadership believe that ALL babies, if they die before they are christened (infant baptism), go to hell. Unbelievable, I know, but true. I am a Christian who attended a Lutheran high school, and the above is what we were taught in religion classes. It used to blow my peers’ and my teachers’ minds when I would ask, “Well then, am I going to hell because I wasn’t baptized as an infant?” I can still hear the gasps of horror whenever I asked that question. LOL!

    I was a believer but it wasn’t until I turned 20 that I was baptized — because I chose to be baptized, not because someone else forced it upon me. This was always a point of contention between me and my contemporaries as they believed since they had been christened as infants that they were “saved” and therefore, could behave any way they wanted. I saw this as hypocritical.

    I believe as the New Testament teaches that when one repents and confesses with one’s mouth and believes in one’s heart that Jesus Christ is one’s Lord and Savior, then as a response one will want to be baptized as a testimony of one’s dedication to Jesus. I look at baptism as a kind of wedding ceremony by which we announce to the world, “This is my beloved, and I am His.” Furthermore, although some children are mature enough to understand this concept and ask to be baptized, usually adults are the ones who engage in this activity. I waited until I was 20 because I wanted to be sure of my faith so that I could walk in it. There’s no point in “faking it” with God. If He’s real (and He is), He knows the difference.

    The point is baptism does not “save” anyone, neither do “rituals.” Eichmann was wrong and well knows this by now.

    God bless you, Nehemia.

  • Ron Shaw says:

    Whether it has been this episode8 or the previous ones, they have been very instructional for me. As with this one, it has helped to make more clear the meaning and significance of the scriptures. Having looked and understood them from a western mindset over the previous years, it is exciting to find and learn these new treasures through the instructions you have given. More alive. Thanks for being a good steward of the Word.

  • sanni opeyemi says:

    THIS IS SIMPLY…WONDERFULLY REVEALING

  • kris says:

    Better (is) a despised one, and a servant to him than one-honoring himself and lacking bread.

  • Heiki says:

    You mention Herman Göring hanging himself. He didn’t, he escaped the noose by poisoning himself with a cyanid capsule that was smuggled to him.
    He will face his judgement before YHVH, and I guess someone will ask him “you know, Yeshuah was a Jew?”

    Really enjoy the series.