Sid: You know you cannot help but be red hot for the Messiah when you finally understand the foundation of the Biblical Feasts and their meanings and their first coming of the Messiah and the return Messiah. As a matter of fact, Rabbi Jonathan Bernis I’m looking at your new book here called “A Rabbi Looks at Jesus of Nazareth.” And why is this in your opinion mandatory end-time Bible prophecy for being at the right place at the right time when Jesus returns?
Jonathan: Well, Sid in my study of scripture, there are very clear statements; I found very clear statements prophecies made by Jesus himself as well as the prophets of old, and the Apostle Paul that are absolutely clearly connected to the last days before Jesus returns. And for the most part they’re completely overlooked by the church.
Sid: And not only that, many people are going to find themselves out of the favor of God because they don’t understand God’s plan for the Jew, the Church, and Israel in the last days.
Jonathan: That’s right and Sid what excites me is that the teaching concerning the days right before Jesus returns are about the outpouring of the greatest favor of God than at any time that we’ve seen since history, since history began. And Sid, we live in those days,that’s why I wrote the book.
Sid: Okay, there’s a term called the fullness of the Gentiles that if I was a non-Jewish believer I would like to know about this and what it means. I want you to teach as you do in your book a little bit from Roman’s 11:25.
Jonathan: Okay, well let me go to another scripture first to set that up. Jesus was explaining to his disciples almost 2,000 years ago about the events that would happen immediately before His return. And He made this statement, “Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles.” Now Sid, this was a time that although they were under Roman captivity, Jerusalem was the center of Jewish life. But Jesus was prophesying that Jerusalem would actually literally disappear off the Jewish map for a season that it would be trampled down. He said, Jerusalem would be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of Gentiles be fulfilled. He was talking about the destruction of Jerusalem which took place in 70 AD; the destruction of the Temple and then all the subsequent battles to take Jerusalem by other Gentile nations until a set time in history when Jerusalem would come back under the control of the Jewish people. Who then had to cry out to Him, “Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord.” Now that happened in our own life time, at least the life time of most of us listening, 1967. Israel is attacked by the surrounding Arab neighbors enemies and in six days, talk about the hand of God; in six days they defeat their Arab enemies and the seventh day they rest. The hand of God is all over the Six Day War and the greatest single event that came out of the Six Day War was the restoration of Jerusalem after almost 2000 years back into the hands of the Jewish people. Sid almost immediately there was an outpouring of God’s Spirit on the Church. Young people, Hippies came into the Kingdom of God; we call it the Jesus Movement; there was an outpouring of God’s Spirit in traditional churches called the Charismatic Renewal. And little known fact Sid, hundreds if not thousands of Jewish young people were saved in the years following 1967; not an accident, not a coincidence it was the outpouring of God’s Spirit as promised when the times of the Gentiles would be filled. That ties in with Romans 25 which says that, “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery Brethren.” Who is He speaking to? He’s speaking to the church at Rome, and he’s saying that this mystery, I don’t want you to be ignorant about. I want you to understand it Brethren, if that was true of the Roman Church then, the gentile Church then, how much more today Sid? He said, “The blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in.”
Sid: And as you put it, for the last two thousand years there has been a blindness on the gentiles and I know you’re finding the same thing that I’m finding, that it’s when we teach gentile’s about what was really the basics of Christianity at the first church which they’ve been blind to for 2,000 years it’s like the Bible becomes brand new.
Jonathan: Absolutely and that’s what I’m finding with people who read my book and have written, emailed they said, “My eyes have been open; I’m seeing the Bible in a way I’ve never seen it before. It’s like being born again again and it’s releasing faith.” The word of God releases faith, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the truth of God’s word. So Roman’s 11:25, I don’t want to be ignorant of this mystery of this Church if Paul wrote that it’s the Lord saying I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery. What’s the mystery? The mystery is not the blindness coming on the eyes of the Jewish people, that’s no mystery. Isaiah said, “They have ears but they don’t hear, they have eyes but they don’t see.” It’s not the mystery of the blindness Sid, you and I were raised in Jewish homes that were blinded to the Messiah. The mystery is how and when the blindness will come off the eyes of the Jewish people. And Paul tells that will come when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. What does that mean, the fullness of the gentiles? Well, number one, when you connect it with Luke 21:24 it’s the times of the Gentiles, it’s the fullness of time that God has a set period of time; just as He set a set time when the outpouring of the Holy Spirit would come on the Jews in Jerusalem, assembled in Jerusalem in the temple on Pentecost. According to the Rabbis by the way, the same event, the same Holiday where the law was given, it’s now the outpouring of the Holy Spirit a Devine intersection between God and man Sid, being at the place at the right time. And I don’t know about you, well I do know about you.
Sid: Ha-ha.
Jonathan: You and I want to be at the right place at the right time! And people that are listening to this program want to be at the right place at the right time! I’ll tell you what the right time is, now, now!
Sid: Well, if I’m understanding you right Jonathan you’re saying, “When the blindness comes off of the Gentiles or the fullness of the Gentiles comes in then they are going to be able to fulfill Roman’s 11:11; Salvation has come to the Gentile to provoke the Jew to jealousy and then the blindness comes off of the eyes of the Jewish people.” It’s so simple you need help to get confused.
Jonathan: Actually you’re actually right; you jumped ahead because you know the same truth also. First of all the fullness of time connected to Jerusalem. When Jerusalem comes back into Jewish hands “1967” it signals the set time of God, the appointed time to favor Zion is here, it began in 1967. But secondly fullness of the Gentiles is yes, that very thing, the fullness of revelation; it’s the fullness of time number one, but number two it’s the fullness of revelation. It’s the blindness coming off the eyes of the Gentiles that cause them to understand that the roots of their faith are Jewish; that the power of God is for today. That healing and miracles is for today and not only for today, but it’s to be those that are listening that are to exhibit or bring forth that fullness of power and miracles and healings and then it removes the blindness of the eyes of the Jewish people.
Sid: The highest call on the face of this Earth God has granted to Gentile Christians, because they have the honor of completing the fullness of the Body of Jesus by provoking the Jewish people to jealousy. And when this occurs it’s not that the Jew is any better than the Gentile Christian or the Gentile Christian is any better than the Jewish believer; it’s just the body is incomplete and when that body gets complete it’ll be the devil’s worse nightmare!
Jonathan: Nightmare Sid! The thing that the devils been trying to keep happening for 2,000 years is going to happen and it means his demise! Amen.
Sid: Now the book, “A Rabbi Looks at Jesus of Nazareth,” it wouldn’t do me much good Jonathan if a traditional Rabbi looked at Jesus of Nazareth because I know their conclusions and their conclusions are based on the big Lie! But by you looking at the scriptures I believe that what Paul is talking about in Roman’s 11 verse 25 you’re helping the blindness come off the eyes of Gentiles so they can then walk in that anointing from God to get the blindness off the eyes of Jewish people; so that the two can come together so that we can have the full dwelling place of God in the Spirit; so that we can have the greatest Gentile revival in history! What a time to be alive!
Jonathan: Well said Sid, I believe that this is an end time equipping book, an end time equipping material that God has led me to write to equip the Gentile to fulfill their role, their destiny in bringing the gospel back the Jewish people so that together we can usher in the return of Jesus to this earth.
Sid: Jonathan, I love the quotes you have in your new book about the modern day architect of Rabbinic Judaism; the one that created the whole alternative to Biblical Judaism on his death bed, Jacque Ben Sockeye. He said, “I see two roads before me and one is life and the other is death and I don’t know which road to take!” It’s called what Jesus said, “If a blind man leads another blind man, won’t they both fall into a ditch?
