Eric Metaxas and Jonathan Cahn

[Music] our kind of freedom self-government in america on the american model is inextricably intertwined with biblical christian thinking and i'll go a step further at the heart of the gospel at the heart of the gospel is the idea that we answer to no king but jesus 400 years ago another civilization was begun formed and molded for the purposes of the creator a city on a hill the eyes of the world would be upon it and if it followed the ways of god that god would bless it and make it the most prosperous the most powerful the most secure the most exalted of civilization the blessings of ancient israel would come upon it ladies and gentlemen please welcome eric mataxis and jonathan kahn wow wow holy cow i don't know about you but i'm intimidated it's magnificent praise the lord i just got to say before we start jonathan i love you and i love talking to you and we get to do it publicly this is going to be fun uh but before we start talking i just want to underscore if you don't give a lot of money today spring you're crazy i just want to bring that i am so impressed with mike myers and dave spring academy i don't normally say these things but you have to understand what you have here is not normal this is spectacular spectacular um well jonathan please have a seat i'll pretend this is my living room uh we're gonna talk about america is that okay with you is your mic on no if your mic's not on what can we do can we get a megaphone okay one two three hear me here we go all right good all right i've got a million questions for you and i don't even know where to start we're gonna have to talk fast you're uh yeah and let me just say it it is an honor for both i mean for both of us to be here this is the first time really i haven't accepted any been able to do anything during the lockdown this is the first time i've really traveled uh so it's a blessing i feel so strongly about what you're doing what you're doing here well you know this is a super spreader event we're all going to get it yeah hopefully he's spreading the gospel i would yeah oh he's clever super spreading the scripture says there's neither jew nor greek and yet here we are what do you make of it i don't know what to make of that um i've got a lot of questions for you first question is you're always wearing black and this could just be yes or no because we got a lot of important questions but my first question is are you or are you not the jewish johnny cash yes or no uh no no all right um well that's really all i have to say so uh no this is such a blessing when i found out that they i was the speaker three years ago and i have to say thank you and um i thought there must be some mistake when they're inviting me back but they only invited me uh as an interviewer we're really interested in what you have to say at least the people here i'm always interested in what i have to say but i'm just saying the people are here because you sir you're the nostradamus of our time that's a joke that was a joke can i can i joke am i allowed to joke thank the lord wow uh not that i'm really asking for your permission but um we have some important things to talk about jonathan you um you've written many spectacular books some people will be familiar with them and some people won't so i want to talk about that and i want to maybe assume that not everybody is familiar with your books um the title of the evening returned to the foundation reviving the seed of our nation there are a couple of assumptions that are in that and i want to touch on those assumptions just in case anybody is watching online or or listens to this at another time both you and i believe that america has a special purpose in god's uh economy that god has had his hand on this nation and blessed and i think a lot of us feel that how is that different from what some people call replacement theology well replacement theology for those who don't know is saying that god has replaced israel with the church i mean it's the first thing so uh now i certainly i'm against that i'd have to replace myself you know with myself but it is clearly not biblical but it's a different thing with america america if nobody's saying or we're not saying that that america is israel israel is israel but america is unique there's only been two civilizations uh in history that were founded not because of territory not because of an ethnic group but dedicated to god from the foundation and one is israel and the other is america okay now hold on that's just the kind of thing when somebody makes a point like that on my radio program people accuse me of interrupting but what i'm really trying to do is say that's so amazing what you just said i don't want it to get i don't want it to evaporate into the ether i've never thought of that but that's true say it again because it's a magnificent concept it's a daunting concept yeah and it's true there uh of in all of history only two nations were founded not because of territory not because of of uh tribes but founded dedicated from their inception on the word of god and for the purposes of god one ancient israel god ordained that to america and there there is no other nation and that is what makes america so unique it's it's there from the foundation yeah well you've written about this in in your books but it's a big deal and there are a lot of people who would push back and say that you and i are we're nationalists or we we somehow uh you know were if if they're not accusing us of worshiping donald trump instead of worshiping jesus they would say we're worshiping america or we've somehow in other words how do you what do you say to somebody who doesn't understand that idea or who somehow feels that that idea is antithetical to the gospel to take a nation and look at it historically other than israel yeah well yeah history is history it that is what it is but it's not about america and it's not and it's not about we we focus on america no matter what it does right now america is falling from that calling but we recognize that the the the foundation it was established for god i mean that those who came to virginia beach you know the first one they had a cross they dedicated america to god they they actually founded jamestown which is the beginning of of you know the civilization on may 14th which is also the birthday of israel it just happens to be the the uh the uh now wait a minute isn't that the kind of thing that jonathan cahn would say who else would know that i said you but you seem to have a particular crazy knack for noticing historical parallels and and other kinds of parallels i just want to say because i'm always interested before we get into the specifics have you always been this way in other words what is that your personality when you were a kid did you see these things were you interested i was i i was i was an atheist when i was eight years old um and i i i so i i wasn't that i always i always questioned everything i questioned from the beginning um and i believe it's i mean it's the grace of god i i don't if i had to reproduce the books that i wrote like the harbinger or any of them i could not reproduce it it's just the lord leads and okay here's the next one here's the next one here's the next one i could never reproduce it sometimes i mean with some of the books i'm i'm in my bed and something just came comes to me well that can't be that's that's kind of crazy i get up i go on the internet and it's true it's true so god always leads it you know i take no credit for anything uh but that's the way it happens you're not one of those crazy pentecostals are you what was it i really didn't hear i said you're not one of those crazy pentecostals are you i don't know if i'm crazy yeah but let me just interrupt and say i am one of those crazy pentecostals and if you don't like that get out okay oh no we love yeah i don't really mean i don't really mean pentecostal but when people talk about hearing from god or being led by god there's so many people good christian people that have different ideas about these things but you and i both but you in particular uh that's been a part of your ministry god has led you you wouldn't just say the lord made me and i do what i do you say the lord is leading you even in thinking of some of the things that you've thought of you just said that yeah i believe well i believe every believer i mean no matter who they are they have to believe that the lord leads and the lord gives insight that's what the bible says yeah if we're seeking we will not you know i always speak whenever i open up the bible i say lord you know there's a treasure here show it to me show it to me i want more of you and and and never be finished and he never disappoints you know well there's never an end i mean i look at something that's right the bible says look how did you get that in there did you just slip that in there i never saw that before god is amazing there's no end to him well so there are two points in a way so you really do believe god speaks today and that his holy spirit can inspire us and speak to us he might not do it every second but he does it he's done it with you i know he's done it with me but you also believe and this is again contrary to what some people think that god is a god of history and that he operates in history and in a funny way i don't know if i'm putting words in your mouth but i've said this before that the story of human history is kind of like a poem that the lord is writing and it's beautiful and part of it it seems to me that you're saying is that america has a unique place and obviously if the lord chooses you as he chose israel in a much more significant way you don't say hey great the lord chose me it's a burden no yeah it's a responsibility to the rest of the world yeah god god uses all things and yes god's the god of history god weaves all things together and with america from the foundation you know when israel was about to head into the land moses charged israel he said okay here it is do the here's life and death well as america was beginning as as the puritans were coming to massachusetts bay there you had another kind of moses you had john winthrop john winthrop as he's coming in they're coming to land he gives a charge a prophetic charge to america and he says listen we if we follow the lord if we shall be a city on a hill and we'll be the most blessed nation and he's using israel he's way back then he's using what god said to israel you will be blessed and america that was prophetic has become the most blessed the most powerful the most prosperous nation in the history of the world but it all began with that foundation the foundation unlike other nations was we are here for god but but that's conditional it's not about us it's about god so we can't we can't dismiss that we have a foundation if we turn against that foundation then there are other things that take place which leads me to my uh next question before i ask the question it still says 40 minutes time remaining and that can't be possible but that means we can keep going up here for a season which is a biblical term for some time so i don't know if you want to you want to get that going or that just your way of saying ah go ahead whatever um but uh we want to we know people have to get out of here uh i know i do so well okay i'll ask two questions together has america fulfilled the promise of its founding as a city on a hill and then the next question so what happened to america because i think we know we're not exactly in kansas anymore rabbi yeah the uh the first thing is that in many ways america did fulfill it in many ways uh america uh you know was a refuge for the world for for most of us are here because it was a refuge america has been a champion of freedom america has been the center of the gospel for uh sending the gospel an example america has given haven to the jewish people god says you bless them i'm gonna bless you that is a that is a promise from god america has been the best friend of israel in the world america has has if it wasn't for america we don't know what would have happened in the 20th century when hitler rose up to take over the world or when communism rose up to take over the world it was america so america is crucial in god's plan so that's all yes and america has been blessed as what john winthrop foretold it would be more than anything but there's a but and the but that that actually comes from john winthrop people you know they get where you say city on the hill but he didn't just stop there he said but but if we turn away from our god if we turn away from the god of the bible then the judgments that came on israel will come upon us okay so the people take that part away from it and the thing is that what has happened to america the that i mean it's it's an amazing thing because here we are founded after the pattern of israel i mean you know that that the puritans even were thinking about that making hebrew the language you know thanksgiving comes from a hebrew holiday so they founded it after israel but we have also followed the course of israel's fall the way from god israel we don't know they're blessed by god but then they started driving him out driving him out of their public square driving him out of their children's lives driving them out of the culture and then they started calling what was evil good and what was good evil and then they started promoting immorality sexual immorality they started taking other gods and then they started persecuting the people of god well america not to mention they also lifted up their children as sacrifices america we have followed the same course we have also been driving god out of the public square god out of the culture we've also lifted up our children not thousands on the altars of baal but millions of our unborn children we have also called evil good and good evil we have also promoted immorality and now we're seeing the signs increasingly of of the the coming of persecution to god's people so we have followed not just the good but the bad and that's where we are now i'm sorry i asked that question um let's talk about the harbinger one of your books uh tell us about the origins of the harbinger how it came to you uh you know give us a taste of what it says yeah well what happened was i was standing on the corner of ground zero and i saw in manhattan in manhattan in new york city and i saw a tree that had been struck down and something said somebody said you have to seek this out there's something here something said something said yeah the the there's this thing in my head so you have to seek this out there's something here and when i started seeking out it was the the first puzzle piece of a mystery that kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and like whenever i needed the next thing someone would say something that turned out to be the next thing or something or i'm typing on my computer and instead of what i'm asking for something else comes up and it's the next thing that i needed that so so this happened it's called revelation yeah and and and so the harbinger for those who don't know is that in the last days of ancient israel harbingers or signs warning of judgment appear in the land nine signs that are according to one scripture well those same nine signs those nine harbingers that appeared in the last days of israel have appeared on american soil some have appeared in new york city where kind of we are some have appeared in washington d.c some have involved leaders even presidents some have involved symbols or or right or ceremonies but they all did it's not like general eric these are exact precise things and they all occurred with people who had no idea what they were doing i'll get i won't go into them you know except to say uh except i'll mention i'll just mention one of them to give a taste and one of them is this it centers on this scripture in isaiah 9 10 which says which says there's an attack it's the beginning sign of judgment or warning wake-up call for a nation in the bible and what happens there's an attack on the land and the people instead of coming back to god god allows it it's a shaking god allows it to bring them back but they don't come back and so what happens is they respond not with repentance but with defiance and they say well the bricks have fallen in the attack but we will rebuild with quarry so we're coming back stronger the sycamore has been struck down but we're going to come we're going to plant a stronger tree we're coming back stronger defying god now that's what it says now that scripture here's the thing eric and when i did this when i saw every single thing in that scripture manifested what i didn't even realize when i is that on the day after 9 11 tom daschle the senate majority leader gets up to give the response of the nation to 9 11. at the end of his speech he says there is a scripture that speaks to us now and the scripture comes from isaiah and then out of his mouth comes the scripture that speaks about those attack on the land the beginning of judgment and the pronouncing judgment on the nation he has no idea he says isaiah 9 10 he has no idea what he's saying he has no idea and he says at the end of that that speech he says this is what we will do so hear the exact words of that scripture with the nine harbingers was proclaimed as america's response and when i started the harvard i had no idea only at the end did i see that i love this because i mean the uncanny thing about your books uh is that they're true uh they're not made up it's they seem made up because it couldn't possibly be true but then you'd look into it you realize it's true almost as if god is speaking yeah now which he is i believe he's warning i believe a god of mercy warns a nation um did you mention the mystery ground from the harbinger okay in a nutshell here here and this is good because it's about return we're talking about about america and and hope destruction came to ancient israel it went when the judgment came it returned to the ground the same ground where they had consecrated the nation to god which was solomon the temple of god it returned to the same ground and god was saying listen you broke the covenant now return back return this is where they pray well well is there a place in america like that on america's first day as an as a constituted nation when george washington was sworn in inaugurated in the capitol he gives a prophetic warning basically saying america never turn away from god or your or your blessing could be removed then he takes the whole first government they go to a place and they dedicate america its future to god in prayer on that ground if we can find out where that ground is we can find out we have a mystery well the ground was in the capital the capital wasn't washington dc it was new york city it wasn't just new york city was lower manhattan america was dedicated to god on ground zero the ancient mystery it was right there at that chapel at ground zero the ancient mystery that the destruction comes back to the same ground god was he allowed it that we our eyes were turned back to where we were dedicated god is saying return america so you're saying that the uh anybody who's visited there there's the spot uh it used to be federal hall uh where he was inaugurated that's where he gave the warning that's so that's where he gave his yes his inaugural speech and the warning yes and you're saying they walked from there yes to what is now grounded what was that ground zero that they would still it's still there it what's that ground zero is is a chapel it's the oldest functioning chapel in in new york city it's saint paul's chapel which is that which is which is they had the ground of ground zero in the back they walked through there they and they prayed and dedicated america to god and and and that is where it all returned on that day it sounds like you're making this up but you're not making this up no no you can check it it's extra i know it's extraordinary um so what is the biblical template that you just mentioned what does it lead to what happened after 9 11 yeah with yeah with the template is this and you see it again and again in the bible that years before the great shakings come on the land comes this wake-up call comes an initial shaking and it which comes in the form of an attack on an enemy the lord lifts the hedge for a moment and allows the nation to be shaken and it's only temporary but it's to say wake up i i don't head to judgment well what happens is then there's a time of there's a window of time window of year span of years it's not there's not we're not putting god in a box it's a window of time where the nation has to come back to god to repent to come back to god or to harden itself and and go and defy god and ultimately head to judgment then great shakings will come upon that okay it's pretty clear which path america took i wish that weren't true but it's very clear that we we kind of went back to god for about three or four weeks yes and for the rest of the time between now and then about 20 years uh we have not clearly been been going in that direction um yes so you you said that before 2020 um you had a strong sense of what was coming and that led you to write the sequel to the harbinger the harbinger ii yes uh talk about that because it's so clear when you say this was a warning yes we did not respond to the warning as we should have responded to the warning yeah so what do you see yeah the the um and yeah and to further what you said you know it looked in the days after 9 11 it looked as if there could have been a revival people were flocking to churches but there was no revival because there was no repentance without repentance there cannot be revival and so it's not just we didn't come back we got worse we've been racing away from god yeah but that's exactly what's in the template because they're saying we're not gonna go about we're not gonna go back so we're unfortunately we're following it's not just the harbingers it's america itself is following that foots those footsteps now there's there's hope we're gonna get to but here's the thing in 2019 i'm praying i was praying lord what's the next book what do you want me to write and i think okay i'd like to do this i like to do this and he gave me something totally else and the thing is that i got a very strong strong sense that this year coming which was 2020 there was going to come great shakings on the land i shared this publicly great shakings on the land and it's going to be the it's going to be the continuation of what began in the harbinger and so i had with the book that i had to write was something i held off for for eight years i didn't want to until i couldn't just write it had to be the right time which was the harbinger too which is the continuation of where things of where it goes where it goes and i'll give you i'll just give you a little taste so there's so much well first of all in the harbinger too what i did what i was led to do is number one there's all sorts of things that i did not put in the harbinger because there was just so much so that was one thing secondly is have the harbingers continued since all this have that have we been warned where are we going what's happened since and the final thing is what's happening now and where are we going and and if where we're going what do we need to know because i felt i had to write this to warn and god's people and that to know what's coming and how we can prevail or or stand in these times that are coming so i'll just give a little taste let's get the other thing um with now the first part where things that i didn't share at the time of the harbinger one is that when when 9 11 came there's a scripture actually john winthrop quoted from it when he warned america don't go away from god all over new york city all over even the world but new york city that scripture is a scripture that was being chanted to lead into the week of 9 11 that was saying there was a warning of a nation that has known god and that turns away from god and one of the things it says is the enemy will come like an eagle upon swoop down upon your land and much more i won't go into it also all around uh on the day on 9 11 there was an ancient hebrew right that was appointed so that before the attack came all over the northeast you could hear the sound of the watchmen the sound of the shofar was sounding and it was sounding from the northeast it was actually going according to the sunrise it was sounding in every place where 9 11 took place just before it happened i won't go into that i will i'll just mention one thing eric because we have time one thing we've got 40 minutes look we'll always have 40 minutes 40 minutes i believe joshua may have stopped the sun or something like that it's uh it's marvelous it's marvelous yeah so so so one of the things that happened or that that i didn't realize eric when i wrote the harvard i had no idea all around america on the morning of 9 11 believers were opening up the bible before the attack and during before they were opening up to isaiah 9 10 the harbinger scripture that speaks about the attack and the beginning of judgment all over america the reason is there's a bible called the one-year bible and the one-year bible has an appointed scripture for every day well if you open up the one-year bible and you open up to isaiah 9 10 about the attack at the beginning beginning of warning there's a date on top the date is september 11th and the day and that has been there the one-year bible came out in the 1980s so for 16 years every year on 9 11 believers were opening up their bible to to the scripture about the attack and the warning and the beginning of judgment and and they were they were doing it and on that day as well and nobody had an idea until it happened but it was all there it was all there that's a little taste of the unrevealed but let me just let me just mention and we'll get to where we are now mention some of the things that have happened since then and i'll just mention very briefly one is that the president of the united states since i wrote the harbinger the president this i'm talking about barack obama i won't go into detail but he actually inscribed what is isaiah 9 10 uh which is about pronouncing judgment on on the highest place in america he inscribed the what the basically the essence of isaiah 9 10 i won't go into it oh another why won't you go into because of time but but also 40 minutes pal we're just starting we're just beginning but also also the other now there for those who know the harbinger one of the harbingers has to do with a tree and i will just say this one of the harbingers that harbinger i won't go into it except to say it was struck down what happened after in new york city it was a sign it was a symbol of america it was struck down on a hebrew holy day since the harbinger came out another how was it struck down it was it was you know one of the symbols in the in the bible uh eric of national judgment is he says the tree will wither wither away well this this tree that represented america was one of the harbingers it was called the tree of hope at ground zero it started withering away a tree was planted at ground zero the tree was planted it says according to the scripture isaiah 9 10 the the sycamore will be struck down it was at ground zero who planted the sycamore uh the it was there it was it was growing at ground zero for a long time so it was there before oh yeah before there and the the bible says the system the sycamore has fallen well as literally as sycamore ground zero fell and then it says but we will plant this other tree in its place they literally they planted the same tree that the bible speaks about that which is called a panachia tree or an eres tree they planted it and then they called just like in this in isaiah 9 10 and they said this is the tree of hope this is a you know we're coming back we're coming back well it withered away until finally they they had it they had to destroy it and it was on passover so you know in many things but i'm just gonna let me take let me give you one and then and then we'll go to now okay yeah one other one other that has been and this is very important that that where america has gone in the in the last days of jerusalem in the bible there was one day where the enemy breaches the walls okay babylon once the walls breached you know you know the judgment was coming the defenses were gone these were the hedges of jerusalem they made it a day of mourning it was called the ninth of tammuz the jewish people mourned for that day it's the beginning of judgment well in 2015 america crossed the line and they what they did we all know it through the supreme court we struck down marriage as we know it we struck down the biblical definition of marriage it was june 26 2015 but on the hebrew current calendar it was the ninth of tammuz the day that the protective wall is breached and there now this is in the harbinger too this is the harbinger too will you be signing those books after this event that's what happened i can't get my books on because i'm going to be signing my own books darn it maybe somebody can get me a copy um i um it's an awesome thing jonathan to think of these parallels to think of god's mercy in giving us these warnings and saying these things and i honestly think you must sometimes feel a little daunted that the lord has chosen you to be drawing these parallels and showing that you know you're not making it up but it's an extraordinary thing i think without you we wouldn't know these things and there's something wonderful about knowing these things the lord wants us to know these things so yeah we want to kind of get to yeah what what in the world i mean when you talk about what happened in 2015 yeah yeah there was a moment yeah clearly i think a lot of us saw it and we think wow yeah that's a big moment what happened yeah so what do you see happening after well it's affecting us to this day i mean it's very it's freedom it's affecting education yeah school uh well here's the thing where where this thing goes is that when i look at the pattern we look at the template uh you have this window of time and then shaking's shaking start resuming well one of the things and i actually when i look back at the harbinger there's a chapter called things to come and it speaks about how they can come one of them shakings come on a nation in judgment uh through civil disorder the breakdown of law civil disorder another shakings uh the division of the nation's divided more than it ever has been uh disasters all sorts of things but but one of the things is there's a pattern and actually you can find it hinted at the harbinger the harbinger too i i open it more but that is that the question's asked how long was it from that first strike and when the shakings get the the great shaking start coming on the land well in the in israel's case the first strike came in 605 bc nebuchadnezzar invades the land then then there's a space of time the great shakings begin in 586 bc well between that that's 19 years so 911 happened in 2001 when is the 19th year the 19th year is the year 2020. and so 2020 so for years i'm looking at this year and saying lord is this going to be and one of the sign one of the shakings that come is and the prophet jeremiah speaks about the 19th year and what's going to happen one of the things he says is a plague will come on the land in the 19th year that's one of the things now does he say wuhan he didn't does the scriptures say chinese or wuhan that's all he flew all hebrew all hebrew i'm sorry too bad i'm sorry about that but all he wrote but the thing is that i won't go into this but one of the largest chapters in the in the harbinger 2 is called the plague there's so much i won't go into about when it happened where it happened the exact day it happened or in america all these things that are part of but these are we're in a time of shaking at the same time if we look at what's happening in america we are still racing away from god i mean the culture is racing away from god and so that that that's that brings us where we are now we've also seen a political shift as well donald trump we've seen those years and there's the thing behind that too behind behind what donald trump did and where we are now as well uh does it so 587 bc uh which is sort of roughly where we are now uh that doesn't sound good to me in other words the the jewish people go into exile it's not really no no if we and and listen i'm not also to keep in mind god uses warnings you hear a message and a scripture touches you god uses it so it's not saying we have to follow the exact thing but the fact is the template is there which is warning this is what happens to a nation that has known god been blessed more than any other nation and has is departing from god now now the thing is that that you know there is still hope you know in every book you know and everything there's always hope but but the hope you know without revival america is there's no hope for america i mean there's hope for us but there without revival there is no hope for america i mean that seems increasingly clear and sometimes i think that god has allowed turned us over to what i generously call a fake administration but whatever you think whoever you think was elected we are clearly going through a kind of madness most americans see that what is happening their various subjects we won't go into it but a madness has come not to most people but to our leaders to the media that's crazy they are calling good evil and calling it's just it's a complete madness and it seems to me that in a weird way it is god's mercy to wake us up and to say to us do you see now that there is no hope outside of me yes and that we must return to him in a way that we wouldn't have if the election had been different that's exactly what god does in the bible eric he does he says listen it's trying to hold off the greater thing i mean the the calamity and so so he allows shaking in his mercy as you said he allows this to happen in his mercy it is it kind of withdraws in his mercy for that exact reason but there is hope and i'll and that and i'll get to that too that i want to mention uh in america's history there was a time and you mentioned civil war before we were talking about this well that was another time we were we have never been so divided since then but it was it looked like the future of america was at stake and in the third year or 1863 or it was dismal it looked like they were england was almost betting against america surviving at that point and it looked as though the union was losing everything and everything finally there was a call and it went through lincoln where he issues a call for a day of prayer and repentance he repair repented he he gives he issues it's an amazing statement if you ever read that he issues that and then and then about two weeks two months later comes the turning point of the war and the turning point was one in this state here which is gettysburg that was one that was and the other was the fall of vicksburg they happened one day after the other gettysburg july 3rd and vicksburg uh the fall victory july 4th okay now the thing is so that happened about that way but when i looked closer on this the the turning of one of them vicksburg it didn't happen then it happened on another day when grant won his first victory to take vicksburg okay the day he won the first victory was the day after the national day of prayer and repentance that was the real turning point of the civil war but then the other one the turning point of gettysburg before that was called the batter of battle of chancellorsville and that and that and it won't go into it but that led to gettysburg when did that begin it began the day after the national day of prayer that lincoln so prayer if we didn't have we might not have america today if we didn't have people praying and if we didn't have repentance not just praying but if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their evil ways i will hear from heaven i will forgive their sin i will heal their land now now eric i saw this happen in my own lifetime when i was a new believer and actually this is the event that forced me to tell my parents i was a believer in jesus i went to washington and the thing was there was a time when you i'm sure you remember it when it looked like america's falling apart carter was president uh we were we were having double-digit inflation double digit employment we were on gas lines everything was falling apart and we had 52 american hostages in iran and every day we turn on the television and say death to america death to america then carter sent in a rescue thing they crashed and it was disaster a gloom was on america and they were saying what's the import most important thing you need to focus jonathan the most important thing carter never sent a mean tweet in his life focus on what's important we'll give him that go ahead of course there were no tweets but we'll give them that okay all right so all right so what happened was at that same moment christians gathered from around the country and they came to the washington mall and and they they prayed with one scripture the scripture was if my people they kept saying again and again and again i remember being what year was that that was that was 1980 1980. if my people if my people in my i was there i was a new believer and i remember two prayers one is everybody grabbed their hands and they said lord where where we were helpless with these hostages and over a year you released them by your hand okay that was one number two everybody put their hands to the capitol building to the western terrace and said lord put into government whom you want now here's what happened a few months later there was an election there was a revolution in the polls and all these people who were saying we're on for biblical values were swept into office including ronald reagan ronald reagan was about politics about it he was he was inaugurated on another thing now the inauguration had always been for over 100 years 150 years had been on the eastern side they changed it to the western side so now he's standing where we were praying and saying god put who you want there and he's facing where we were all praying if my people and now but in the hour that he was sworn in the hostages were released so two prayers in one moment and then we saw a change of history all of a sudden it doesn't matter your politics america started rebounding economically the world the soviet union fell all these things that would they called it morning in america right it was like another chance but it all changed when ronald reagan put his hand on the bible but it wasn't just the bible he had his hand on a verse the verse he had his hand on was if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray i will hear from heaven i will heal their land god the god of the bible the god of solomon who he said it to is still the god who is alive and well today he can do miracles he can change anything but if my people it's it that is um that is a fact um i thought we had 40 minutes left but i was just told that that's a typographical error on the clock and we have about two minutes left so give us a final thought i know that um dr meyers will come up here and then we'll come back up after that but give us a final thought yeah if well first of all you know you said if my people so the ultimate the two words that are so important are three or is my people and the word if god still is alive and well and if what we're seeing here with all the things we're saying that's showing you how real god is in all these things god is alive and well if he gives a promise he will keep it but we for there to be revival there has to be repentance for there to be revival it has to begin with us we're the people we can't just pray for revive we have to pray for revival that's never before but we have to start living in revival if we will live in revival the revival starts now and do not fear the darkness with the darkness just like it is here the dark getting darker the lights of god you all have lights on your table the lights will shine brighter than ever and if the america in many ways is going from bad to worse it's time that we go from good to great you see you know don't fear you a lot of you a lot of you been praying say i wish i could live in biblical times congratulations you're there biblical you're there now these are the days of jeremiah that's what it was these are the days of isaiah these are the days of elijah we're seeing these other days of elijah well it wasn't just miracles it was persecution but that's when you have the greatest testimonies that's when god pours out his power the greatest for those it says the eyes of the lord are searching the entire earth looking for the one whose heart is completely his he will lift them up you be that one you be that person and god will do it you be that person let it begin here let it begin in pennsylvania in fact if it's okay i was going to say i think uh before we leave the stage temporarily uh i think we should pray dr meyers is going to come up and these people if they're listening to holy spirit are going to write a sacrificial level check i don't know if they think i'm joking i am joking and yet i'm serious this is so important what this dr meyers didn't ask me to say this but i just want to tell you there aren't many places like this there are not many places that will invite me to speak and there are not many places that will invite jonathan kahn to speak so this is a special place i want you to know that um we're gonna pray for a revival let's do that and dr myers uh will come up here jonathan yeah is it is it okay if we let's let's rise let's rise together and let's this is why we're here let's pray god is real and god is faithful father we praise you tonight we thank you for this night lord we thank you for day spring we thank you for every life that is shining faithfully for you father we ask first of all you take care of the needs there lord take care of all the needs of day spring father lord raise up a generation father and everyone who's doing this work lord and father lord we ask lord we come before you lord and we we confess that america we have fallen from you we have turned against you we have driven you out lord and father now we reap what is happening but father you are the god of the impossible you're the god of mercy and you're never finished so lord we ask lord let there be revival in this land that there be revival in pennsylvania let there be revival in washington dc let there be revival lord from the east coast to the west coast lord let there be revival among the young lord let there be revival in the church lord lord strengthen pour out your spirit upon your people father we ask lord whatever it takes whatever it takes let there be revival in this land lord father lord we ask father that you have your way lord touch the government stay the hand of the government and have your way lord restrain evil and open up the way for the gospel lord we pray father that there would be a outpouring of your gospel lord in this land lord and we ask your power upon every pastor your power upon every congregation your power upon your people lord we don't just pray for revival tonight we commit we will live in revival we will live in revival yeah we'll live in your power we'll live and repentance whatever we have to put out we'll put out of our lives whatever you got to put in we will put in thank you but we commit today to live as the apostles live the disciples the prophets we will live in power we will live in your word we will live on fire for you lord we ask lord have your way lord and we praise you we choose revival in the name above every name that is named the name of yeshua hamashiach hallelujah the name of jesus the messiah or how long the light of the world will vote israel the glory of israel the area and the lion of the tribe of judah in his name and all people say amen amen praise the lord amen amen thank you thank you wow i don't i don't know why they're going off stage it still says 40 minutes there but oh thank you so much you may be seated and we are going to invite jonathan and eric back to the stage in a little while and have some questions for them uh but oh it's just been really wonderful and i just really feel the spirit of god here tonight moving in our midst and we're so thankful for that because yes we're here to glorify him this really isn't about dayspring christian academy this is about furthering his cause in our nation and around the world and so we talked about seeds tonight and and that wonderful metaphor that we see so often in scripture jesus certainly talked about seeds and and the importance of of seeds and the importance of our hearts and and and we want to have fallow ground we want to dig up the the soil of our hearts to receive what god would be speaking to us and so i thank you for this opportunity to encourage you to ask you to participate with us in the vision that god has given us we believe that the principal approach mission that god has given dayspring is distinctive it is unique it is focused like laser and what he's called us to be as a school he doesn't call every school to be what he's called dayspring to be but we have been raised up now it's clearer to me than ever than it was 35 years ago when i was first beginning to to pray and say lord really now i know why he planted this school here for such a time as this i never could have predicted the things that have happened in our nation would have happened so quickly in my lifetime but i i want to ask you to consider participating partnering with us yes financially is a big part of that and we're going to talk about that in a second but i i also want to encourage you about another step another strategy to be able to help us move the ball and that is that we want to understand what has god called us to do in our local community and i know it's not just lancaster pennsylvania that i'm speaking to tonight that there are local communities all across this nation out in the pacific ocean even that god is speaking that he is raising up people who are willing to stand tall and he's equipped us with truth to be able to ignite a fire of revival and a fire of revival that will bring change not only in our hearts but into the external realm in which we live and so on august 3rd i am going to host a special gathering together in day springs auditorium where we're going to launch a special initiative that is called local self governance initiative it's something that i think and it was just confirmed to me yesterday sitting in my office speaking uh with some parents and i knew that yes this is what the lord was confirming we talk about our nation all the time we love our nation we're so thankful for america but for us to impact the nation of america it has to start locally it has to begin with us that's where we have the greatest influence the greatest impact is locally and yet most of us don't understand how our local governments operate how our state governments operate i'm so thankful to see representative brett miller here tonight but we have to be standing with our representatives they're representing us our government is based in us and we the people and so if you are interested in learning more about how you can get engaged in your local community and understand the biblical principles of the governance that has been put into place that started with christian self government we have a principle in the principle approach that we study and we teach the students called how the seed of local self-government is planted and so we're going to be planting those seeds we're going to be nourishing those seeds of local self-government and so i want you to take your envelope right now that isn't your table so we'll have to have the house lights come up and i'll walk you through two steps in that tonight one is the financial commitment that that you may feel in your heart that the lord is urging you forward to participate in and there are places there that you can mark for information that you like to know more about day spring maybe for your children or your grandchildren then you can have fill out your name and whatever is necessary on the card and then you can place your gift in the pocket of the card but then when you seal that envelope i want you to write in big bold letters if you are interested in participating in the special initiative that's going to be launched on august 3rd and we're going to meet and and lay that out just write the word restore and big letters and that will be an alert to us to contact you to let you know the details about how that will unfold and we'll remind you about august 3rd and so forth those of you that are online there is a given giving button one that you can touch or do something with i'm not sure how that's working with online but you can write in the comment if you're interested for your community and it may be in hawaii i might i love hawaii it's one of my favorite places on earth as well as israel write restore in the comments section and we will contact you and we will be able to equip you we have wonderful principle approach tools to help you know how to impact your community so that's what we're going to just take a few minutes to fill those out put those in the big red envelope at your table someone will come around to collect those at the end of the evening but thank you right now let's just pray and ask the lord to confirm to your heart father we just thank you for bringing us to this point and we know that with you money is no issue you own the cattle on a thousand hills but you use people to step out in faith and it's amazing how you bless those who bless others and so we ask now that you would confirm to our hearts and lord this new initiative that is starting that you would breathe life into it lord that you would do more than we can even imagine as we step out in faith and allow you to use us in our local communities so we ask this in jesus name amen [Music] so [Music] so [Music] thank you so much for your support may the lord be glorified through it and now let us welcome back to the stage our special guest and our friends rabbi jonathan khan and eric mataxis [Applause] you're still here they certainly are terrific and i have a ton of questions you have a ton of uh oh yeah and we have 40 minutes on the clock that's excellent isn't that great that's wonderful thank you joshua i do have a few questions because i think a lot of people have questions and we appreciate very much uh being able to get inside your minds because you both have so much to offer and for one thing i'm going to say your books have immensely blessed and impacted me both of you and i really appreciate that i'm so thankful that you are going to be able to be out there signing books at the end so don't forget get in line and have your book signed uh this evening over in that direction there's an opening in the wall that you'll go through there but let's begin by i i i know you touched on this before and you said that it's not too late for america because there's always hope for america but is there a tipping point that at some point where you feel that you know it's just too late is that something that we should look for or i think don't even look at that the double masking was the tipping point it's clear there's no coming back from that level of lunacy it's over uh the question was directed there is a point the bible speaks about it the only thing is until we know what that point is we got to pray for hope we got to pray for hope okay we got to pray for god's hand amen yeah good okay wonderful uh yeah another question that comes up a lot is what role does the church have in civil government should should the church stay out of that stuff and mind its own business with the spiritual heart of the people you mean like the dead churches are doing [Music] well let's go there you want to start 11 years ago i wrote a book about the life of dietrich bonhoeffer when i wrote the book i didn't realize that it was prophetic i believe like jonathan kahn that the lord led me to see things and to write things before i even knew what was going on when you look at it now it's staggering unfortunately the parallels and bonhoeffer was trying to tell the church to wake up and to resist the nazis many in the church at that time said no we just want to preach the gospel it's hard to believe the devil could say we just want to preach the gospel but it was the devil who was saying that because the god when you say we just want to preach the gospel you don't even know what the gospel is they decided we're not going to be political but sometimes politics comes to you when they're putting jews in boxcars to treblinka and auschwitz if you do not stand up and do more than preach the gospel you don't know what the gospel is you're a hypocrite or a dead christian and when things are happening as they are happening in america today when half of the country doesn't even believe the election happened properly it is chaos and madness if the church does not stand up and speak boldly and with courage we will go down the path precisely that germany went we are no better than the germans and we're no worse and if a civilized nation turns away if the church in that nation turns away and says not yet we're not ready to make any enemies we're just going to preach the gospel we're going to be apolitical they are paving the way for the devil to do evil things and there's no reason that that cannot happen here and i would say if you look at bonhoeffer it absolutely will happen here if the church does not stand up and get as political as wilberforce and bonhoeffer did i agree and i i can i can identify my father grew up under hitler as a jew and he escaped um that's the reality of evil we that the bible says um right you know we're watching america kind of the the middle ground disappearing and things getting streaming extreme on both sides the one and there the one time that happened in history was weimar germany where you had the extreme you had extremes about fighting in the streets and all the stuff and that was the result of it it is crucial and the other doctrine of the german church is that that's for this this space and we're in this space and and the the the church part doesn't have to touch the rest of the world the lord never gave us that option he said you are the light not of the church you're the light of the world you're the salt not of the sanctuary you're the salt of the earth and if you don't do it who's going to do it if we don't shine who is going to sign if we don't do it and if we just withdraw because i mean it's one thing if we can't if you know that's one thing they will still shine a light another way but if we just say hey we're withdrawing that means we're taking the light out there will be no light in government so we have to we have to in what we have in the time we have we have to affect shine and touch impact every area of life that we can it says for the the earth is the lord's and the fullness thereof we have to do that he said go he didn't say stay back because if we don't go forward we're gonna if we don't fight it now in the public square we're gonna fight it at our doorstep if you don't we don't go to it it's to come to us but god calls he said the gates of hell will not prevail against you so we are to be on the offense good thank you thank you [Applause] now i've said a lot about education tonight and i have a vested interest in that and i believe that's the calling that god has in my life but i would like to know do you think that education will make a difference christian education can make a difference or is it a peripheral thing that we're talking about tonight but you're literally making a difference tonight that's a fact it's extraordinary thank you for this invitation thank you for giving us this platform but uh jonathan please yeah uh you know the bible says train up the child if you don't do this you know if you don't do that if you don't have education that you're cutting off the lake there's no future how there's no future there if there's no transmission of it uh so it's crucial and it's amazing because if you look at i mean the american school system was founded for the gospel the public school system was founded for the glory of god now look at it you know some many probably don't remember but in in the early 60s that's when they took out the bible took out prayer and look what's come in now look at what's come in when you take away god the vacuum is going to stay you're going to have something else come in so at the same time notice the same time where there's threats as never before to christian education there are there are laws which if passed will put every christian school on the defense to survive that's why it is so crucial because if you don't do it the next generation is going to be lost and the other thing is the same time that look what they're indoctrinating the children into in public schools and they're trying to cut off christian schools well that tells you if the battle is there that tells you there must be something very important because the enemy does not waste his ammunition i i was going to say to add to that i realized only a few years ago that i had never learned because i didn't go to a christian school and yale university is at this point not only not christian but effectively anti-christian and you know aggressively secular so it was only a few years ago that i really understood the story of america and how american-style self-government and liberty is unavoidably inextricably intertwined with virtue and faith there's no way around it it's not a perspective it's an absolute reality it's like math you cannot have liberty on the american model without robust expressions of faith without virtue inculcated usually in communities of faith and i realize nobody in america except kids at day spring and a handful of other christian schools are getting this stuff and so i put it in my book if you can keep it and i would do anything to get that book into the hands of every high school kid in america i was just talking to one of your board members about it because precisely because we have abdicated doing this on any level including unfortunately in some christian schools we are exactly where we are you could not get people to vote for socialism and cultural marxism unless you had spent decades not teaching them what liberty is and how it works yeah and i have i have i have three boys we have three boys and we and we're in new jersey okay and new jersey has passed laws where they are indoctrinating children directly against god i mean in the most dramatic way we cannot put our children there you know it would be like it would be like leading our children to stumble we can't do that so we are dependent on christian schools you know and so we one of our largest part of our giving this year was to christian schools because that is so crucial i mean crucial crucial that should be for every every parent should be considering that if they can afford it and either way they got to do something amen thank you uh one last question have and it's for both of you to answer this have you gotten pushed back from your positions uh your stance whether it's with the harbinger books and so forth or just in your radio program and your podcast i know that eric you're you know you put a lot of things out there and so forth so how has that affected you personally and what effect does that have on you i think you're right well um it's been astonishing to see people that i think of as friends as christian brothers and sisters effectively disagree with most of what we've said this evening completely take a different attitude think that you can somehow be christian and woke or christian and pro-blm which is marxist or pro-socialist or apolitical apolitical really means pro-communist let's be honest there's no way you can be genuinely a political if you are communism will come in it's the natural way liberty the title of my book is if you can keep it because franklin rightly understood that there is no way to have liberty and self-government on the american model unless we the people actively keep it by giving money to the right things by not giving money uh to the wrong things by doing everything that's necessary teaching our kids and on and on and on and it is vital that we do these things or what we have goes away and so because of this i have been increasingly vocal not because i want to because i don't really like losing friends i don't like losing speaking engagements but we have a very strange culture right now where many christians are playing the game of saying well we don't we don't want to be political we don't want to be this we don't want to be that if the house weren't burning i wouldn't be saying fire but the house is burning and i have not made a career of speaking up but in the last four or five years what i have seen has been absolutely astonishing to me and it's dismaying to see supposed christians not understand this and think that anybody who talks about some of the things i talk about is somehow being divisive or something it's it's it's almost comical and only because i have some friends who don't see it that way that i can see it almost as as comical but why should any of us expect we shouldn't pay a price if bonhoeffer can go to his death if nathan hale can go to his death uh if innumerable people through space and time have gone to their deaths and suffered for what is right how could we ever even consider not doing what is right because we also know jesus defeated death so we literally have nothing to be afraid of and so i have felt emboldened and i continue to feel emboldened because of folks like you and folks like this and i want to be honest and say that [Music] what you all do and say uh it means everything i couldn't do what i do if it weren't for you and i want to just say finally that the conversation with rabbi khan is so wonderful that i think after everybody reads his books i want to go on my radio program maybe in a month or something and continue the conversation that we started here tonight because there's so much more and it's just so important [Music] when i when i i've been in ministry for a good while but when i wrote the harbinger more people knew me and i suddenly got all this i got great things but i also wasn't so used to all the attacks and that's but that's just the way it is if i wasn't doing anything if i wasn't affecting things then i'm not going to get that uh but the thing is that we and we have to especially in the times that we're in now we have to be ready for that the lord said do not fear man do not fear rejection it doesn't matter that doesn't matter you only you only fear god who loves you and that's it it doesn't matter what they think or not you're going to do what's right we only have one shot at this life and we have to do that if we're going to live our life being concerned or fair then then we're in trouble but it gets to a point it's like a it's like a a blessed point where you finally say you know what that's it i don't care anymore i'm going for it no matter what and we're going to be pushed to that point but that's where greatness comes from that's where it goes right now there is a an attempt to silence the voice of god's people all over we did i had put something on the web a message to joe biden and for the first time we got we got banned by shadow man by by youtube you know then they ended up relenting putting it back but they they do their thing um but the thing is that that's a sign that whatever you're doing there's something good in it and the thing is that if we don't speak if we just say well let's keep our neck out of it like they did like when hitler was rising then you're giving the victory to the enemy and you're ending your space we have to stand for god no matter what it what it takes you know what it happens um with the enemy you know when i when all this opposition comes you know what the lord said he said actually leap for joy and rejoice because great is your reward in heaven so the thing is that it actually encourages me because i know i'm doing something right and i know that if the enemy's against me then god's for me and if i'm doing something right that means i gotta keep going i gotta do more of it i gotta do more of it because there's something and that's when you're being attacked by the enemy you're being attacked it means there's something really good at the end of it but you gotta keep going to see that victory so listen i'd love to be like paul i'd love to be like elijah all of us but we've got to be like that that's what we have to do to do that and and the other the last thing is that and and eric was alluding to it is the lord listen he called us he called us he said follow me you're my disciple and we have the great high honor to be the disciple of the messiah he chose us it's an honor it's one thing to be with the lord when everybody's saying yeah it's a christian society that's easy but it doesn't mean that much but when we stand for him when we stand for him when it's hard we stand for him when they're getting opposition that's what he's saying well done my faithful servant well done my bride that's what it's about that's when you shine that's when it counts that's what it makes a difference so what a high honor we have to be disciples of the lord and he paid the greatest cost for us we can certainly do do for him as he has done for us amen [Applause] [Music] very powerful thank you both so much would you mind if we pray for you sure because you are out there on the front lines and you are touching millions of lives and we just want to pray a blessing on you and a prayer protection over you thank you heavenly father we thank you for these two men of god we thank you that you have called them for a time such as this that you've prepared them all their lives for the work that they are doing and we thank you lord that you're not finished with them that you continue to develop them and grow them and expand their horizons lord and i just pray that you put a hedge of protection around them let your favor surround them as a shield as they go forth as warriors in your kingdom and we pray lord god that you will open doors of opportunity that they have not even conceived of as you will use them to bring a great harvest into your kingdom here in the last days so we thank you thank you lord for bringing them here to this event in 2021 and we look forward to hearing more of the exploits that you will do through them in your kingdom and we ask it in jesus name amen amen [Applause] you

Channel: Eric Metaxas

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Length: 73min 54sec (4434 seconds)

Published: Wed May 05 2021