Becca

Learning eschatology.

[Victor Davis Hanson @VDHanson]

https://t.co/g7UbpfIZ8C

[Shahriq Khan @RealShahriqKhan]

I’m going to say the sentence the global community keeps dancing around:

How the church handles Islam is the most important issue in the world right now.

Bigger than the elections. Bigger than the economy. Bigger than every trending crisis combined (in my humble opinion).

1.9 billion people. The largest unreached population in human history. The fastest growing religion on earth. And eternity on the line for every single one of them.

Every other issue is temporary, bro. This one is FOREVER, times two billion.

The world debates everything except the biggest thing.

Not anymore. Watch these next 6 months closely. Frontlines.

[Becca @EnlightenBecca]

https://t.co/mcVXOUnLF5

[Josh Howerton @howertonjosh]

Gonna shoot you straight: I'm still trying to get my head around all of it…

But I do know this: Pastors no longer have the luxury of not answering this question... whether we like it or not, it's going to be a major Q for Christians over the next 20 years.

[Mosab Hassan Yousef @MosabHasanYOSEF]

The $3.8 Billion Lie: Why Cutting Aid to Israel Would Sabotage America’s Power, Not Save It.

The US federal budget is about $7 trillion. That $3.8 billion to Israel is less than 0.05% of it. The defense budget is around $960 billion. The aerospace and defense industry generates nearly $1 trillion in sales and about $500 billion in economic value. Most of that $3.8 billion goes right back into American companies and jobs.

Israel’s own budget is about $220 billion. This is not charity, and Israel is not dependent on it. If it was just a matter of money, Israel could build its own weapons on its own. It has that capacity. But this is a real partnership, just like any corporate partnership where each side contributes to the project.

Israeli pilots and the Israeli defense establishment operate under constant threat from terrorists, jihadists, and anti-American entities. They make real-time, do-or-die adjustments to equipment developed for both countries.

That is what gives American weapons their edge over Russian, Chinese, and other competition. This is how America builds and maintains power through smart, long-term vision.

Yet the anti-Israel crowd, including figures like Ilhan Omar and Zohran Mamdani, tells the public that cutting this tiny fraction would make everyone rich. It’s not just a lie. It’s ridiculous.

If people with that Robin Hood mindset gain real power, they would sabotage the American way of investing, developing, and staying dominant. At the same time, American Jews, roughly 7.5 million strong, contribute an estimated $250 billion annually to the US treasury through taxes. Their bond with Israel isn’t just strategic; it’s family.

Cutting aid to Israel while pushing to isolate it sends a clear message to this highly productive community: your taxes may fund policies hostile to your family and your values.

These new voices aren’t serving the American people. They’re advancing Islamic and communist agendas, whether funded by China or anti-American Islamic regimes.
This outrage over Gaza is manufactured by the same terrorists and jihadists who dragged Israel and America into this dirty war, using human shields and weaponizing civilians by design to turn Americans against their own government and allies.

Replacing a proven alliance and a successful economic fabric with dependency and foreign interests is a dangerous gamble. The average American needs to wake up.

[The Moderate Case @TheModerateCase]

China isn’t asked to justify its existence.

Russia isn’t asked to justify its existence.

Iran isn’t asked to justify its existence.

Saudi Arabia isn’t asked to justify its existence.

The United States isn’t asked to justify its existence.

Yet one country is subjected to that question every single day.

Ask yourself why.

[Dinesh D'Souza @DineshDSouza]

Are there “no enemies to the right” or should we go after bad ideas wherever they are found? @SethDillon , Editor of @TheBabylonBee , offers his perspective.

[Ashley Hays @Ashleyhays2089]

Satan perverts EVERYTHING God has done, and he hasn’t stopped.

Soon he will be unrestrained and that period of time will be unlike anything that has ever been.

We have a family friend who was Special Ops and he had to kill a hybrid in the Nevada desert.. it got loose from a lab and it was merged with Ai and programmed to kill.

Know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior- put your faith in the blood shed on the cross for YOU. He offers a free gift of salvation, all you have to do is say yes to it.

[Becca @EnlightenBecca]

"What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun."

[Becca @EnlightenBecca]

I'm really excited about this one

[Becca @EnlightenBecca]

"But being hated is exactly what Jesus told us to expect if we're going to follow his commands. Silence in exchange for cultural respect is a deal with the devil."

[David Diga Hernandez @DigaHernandez]

When the Holy Spirit Warns You About Distractors

[Joel Richardson @Joel7Richardson]

Of course, it’s perfectly fine to criticize Israel. Israelis themselves do it openly and passionately every day. That’s part of living in a free society. What is not okay: When your criticism relies on and merely parrots Hamas terrorist propaganda. When it relies on biased UN talking points that hold Israel to standards applied to literally no one else. When it becomes an obsessive fixation, condemning Israel for imagined crimes while ignoring regimes that actually commit them.

Honest criticism seeks truth. Hostile obsession spreads lies. Know the difference.

[Isabel Brown @theisabelb]

The American Church is failing Christians by ignoring spiritual warfare. Satan & demonic influences are REAL, but we can fight back.

On the Feast Day of St. Michael the Archangel, learn how pervasive Satan has become & how to pursue goodness out of evil.
https://t.co/wzB7mTaJoW

[Focus on the Family @FocusFamily]

🚨 PREMIERE 🚨

Truth Rising is LIVE on X. Dedicated to Charlie Kirk, a husband, father & follower of Christ who lived with courage and called believers to stand boldly for truth.

Start living courageously in truth. Watch now, share, and spread this message everywhere.

#TruthRising #TurningPoint #TPUSA

[Frank Turek @DrFrankTurek]

Thank You Charlie for Mixing Faith and Politics with Alisa Childers & Natasha Crain https://t.co/rq70qhpMA8

[Joel Richardson @Joel7Richardson]

Gather your children together and watch this: October 7.

[Pastor Rich Bitterman @w_bitterman]

"I forgive him"

Erika Kirk stands at a podium during her husband Charlie Kirk’s packed memorial service, tears in her eyes, as she publicly forgives the man accused of taking his life. The stadium is silent. Her words echo across a sea of mourners.

The stadium is packed. Under the bright floodlights, sweat and dust stick to tongues. The roar of the crowd dies as the pulpit’s microphone cracks.

Erika Kirk stands at center stage, body trembling. The memorial hangs in the air like a dark cloud. Her husband Charlie’s name is on every pair of lips. She lifts her eyes, the hush pressing against her as if the wind itself is waiting.

And she says, firm yet fragile, “I forgive him.”

The words fall like stones. They scatter something inside the crowd. They echo off steel beams, bounce from seats. The scent of hot concrete and thousands of hearts pounding together mix in the heat: grief.

Rage. Compassion. All braided together.

She could have left the anger alive, let it coil like a serpent around her spine. Her retribution register ringing.

She could have let the fire burn until her own skin was scorched. Many would. Many do. But there beneath the stadium lights, she trades rage for mercy. She trades shouts for words.

She trades debt for grace.

Jesus walked into a synagogue once. He saw a man who could not use his hand, withered. He felt the weight of that man’s pain. He glared into the hardness of surrounding hearts and did not retreat. In Mark, his anger was holy because it was born of love. He reached out. He healed.

Erika’s anger lives, but it is not in charge.

Something else carries her forward. Because forgiveness does not erase the wound. It does not silence the ache. But it pulls the poison out of blood, even if the scar burns.

In forgiving, she does not pretend justice does not matter. She assumes it does. She rests it in a larger story.

Peter asked Jesus: How many times must I forgive? Seven? Jesus said seventy times seven. It is a refusal to count offenses. Not a scoreboard. A surrender.

In the parable: a debt so monstrous that the figure collapses. From being kissed by grace to choking a man over coins. He demands payment. The King, seeing all, rages. Because if you have known mercy, how do you refuse it?

That gives shape to what’s happening tonight.

This forgiveness is not soft. It is a weapon drawn in surrender. It bears the mark of the cross. There is blood. There is blight. Charlie is gone. Yet forgiveness declares that even death does not have the final word.

In my living room watching, you can feel it. The hush presses into rib‑cages. Someone swallows. Someone weeps. A thousand hearts tremble. Some faces are pale. Some eyes shine with tears.

The crowd leans in. As if hearing the Gospel not in pat theology, but latched to bone. As if seeing the shape of love in her silhouette under light.

Christ commanded: “Be angry, sin not.”

Do not sleep angry. Let no sunset tug bitterness into your soul. Let anger die with the day. Do not feed resentment with memory. Do not fashion a coffin for hope with your own hands.

Resentment tells you things about yourself. That the gospel may still lie distant in your bones. That you have tasted forgiveness and not swallowed it. That your heart, soft at times, is edged with cold.

That you need again to look to Calvary. See the nails. Feel the crown. See the Innocent bleeding.

Hear him cry: “Father, forgive them.”

Erika is not acted by sentiment. She is acted upon by gospel. The weight of her grief hammered into something incomprehensible: courage. Love. Mercy.

She is the echo of that cross‑cry. She took the stones of grief and set them down.

There is sorrow here that demands voice. There is longing that resists easy comfort. There is the justice system turning its gears. There is the possibility: forgiveness may take time to root. May ache in the earth before blooming. But under stadium lights she plants it.

She tastes hot metal in her throat when she says “I forgive him.” Her hands tremble. Her heart wants to recoil, wants to scream…tears fall.

But she bows instead. She opens the door of her heart. She trusts something greater.

And you: who reads this. Who carries your own wound. Who corners yourself with memory.

You are invited: come take your feet out of the gravel. Shake them. Feel ground under skin. Let forgiveness be your step forward, not your burden.

So here is my challenge: in your darkest room, when your voice is raw, say the name. Speak it. Whisper: “I forgive you.” Let the air charge. Let the weight crack. Be afraid, tremble. But step anyway.

Because of what Erika did, we see the cross awkwardly alive.

Because of what Christ endured, we understand forgiveness is not retreat. It is surrender. It is facing hell and singing resurrection. It is taking loss and playing it into melody.

It is the bravest love.

We were not made for bitterness. We were made for forgiveness. Taste it. Say it. Live in it. Tonight.

[Joel Richardson @Joel7Richardson]

Let’s be clear: there are good and bad people on both sides of the political spectrum. For years, extremists on the Left have misrepresented and demonized ordinary people like Charlie Kirk. That toxic rhetoric led to his murder. Yes, it did.

But his death became an awakening. Many on the Left are beginning to see just how dangerous their own extremist voices have become. Still, others double down, continuing to slander Charlie and ordinary Christians as hateful extremists.

Yet something bigger is happening. Normal people everywhere are standing together in simple, shared humanity. Let the extremists shriek and expose themselves for who they are. They have the right to their opinions, but our common humanity requires that we shun such divisive hatred and refuse to give it a place among us.

[Ron Cantor @RonSCantor]

WHO IS “THE ISRAEL OF GOD,” IN GALATIANS 6:16?

I noticed yesterday that the term “Israel of God” was trending online. This is an effort to fool people into thinking that the God of the Bible is not interested in the nation of Israel and that the Church is the new and true Israel, and God has turned his back on his ancient people in favor of his new people. It refers to a reference in Galatians 6:16:

“And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.”

However, there is no way that Paul here was saying that “the Israel of God,” which those posting this phrase assume (wrongly) is the church, has replaced the nation of Israel. Consider this...

1. This is the only time this phrase is ever used in the New Testament. Thus, it would not be wise to build a doctrine around it without support from other passages. Furthermore, the Greek word Israēl appears 72 other times in the New Testament, and it always refers to ethnic, national Israel (i.e., the Jewish people or nation of Israel).

2. Galatian scholar Timothy George says the phrase “has baffled Pauline scholars considerably.” (Galatians, vol. 30, The New American Commentary, Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994, 439). If it confuses Pauline scholars, who give their lives to understanding Paul, it is unlikely that a quick reading in English will render the correct interpretation.

3. Notice there are two groups of people in this verse: “all who walked by this rule,” and “the Israel of God.” They are separated by the Greek word “and,” which means “and” or “also.” It can mean “even,” but only to emphasize something (i.e. It’s so easy “even” a child could solve it). In this verse, Paul is speaking about two different entities. If “all who walk by this rule,” and “the Israel of God,” are the same entity, it would be like saying I love to visit Holland and the Netherlands. (Holland is the Netherlands.)

4. It would be quite strange for Paul to throw in such a consequential theological idea—“equat[ing] gentile believers with the people of Israel” here at the end of a letter, and not use “this potent expression … in his magisterial exposition on the role of Israel in salvation history in Rom 9–11” (George). W. D. Davies, the renowned Duke professor and scholar, agrees that, “If this proposal [that the Church is Israel] were correct, one would have expected to find support for it in Rom 9–11, where Paul extensively deals with ‘Israel’” (Paul and the People of Israel, NTS, 1977, 10–11, no. 2). In Romans 9–11, he uses the word Israel 11 times and roughly two dozen times uses pronouns (their, them) to refer to Israel, and it always means the nation and people of Israel—never the church.

5. The New Testament never claims that the church is the new Israel. That is a later construct, first declared in Justin Martyr’s apologetic (Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 11), written in the latter half of the second century: “For the true spiritual Israel, and descendants of Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ.” Paul never teaches this.

6. The phraseology “peace, and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God,” alludes to one of the most famous Jewish prayers, the Amidah, chanted three times a day. Remember, Paul was a learned Rabbi. These prayers and blessings were deeply embedded in him. They honored the God of Israel and pointed to the Messianic kingdom. He still is a Jew after salvation (Rom 11:1). He did not give up his Jewishness when he became a believer in the Jewish Messiah (See Acts 21:20-25). The Amidah reads, “Grant shalom, goodness and blessing, grace and kindness and mercy upon us and upon all Israel, your people.” Messianic scholar, David H Stern, says that both Messianic Jews, the Judaizers, who were deceiving the Galatians, and many of the Galatians themselves (as God-fearing Gentiles, who attended synagogue) would have recognized the similar wording.

THERE ARE TWO PRIMARY VIEWS

1. Church as “Spiritual Israel” View:

• Paul is blessing all believers—Jews and Gentiles alike—who are the true, spiritual Israel.
• Suggests a typological or spiritual continuation, where the Church inherits Israel's role.

This view is supported by Anglican theologian N. T. Wright, “Paul is redefining Israel (emphasis mine) around the Messiah. ‘The Israel of God’ includes those who belong to the Messiah—Jew and Gentile alike. He is not replacing Israel with the Church; he is saying that the faithful remnant has now been reconstituted in the Messiah.” (Paul and the Faithfulness of God, 2013, Vol. II, p. 815)

There are problems with this view: 1)There is no need to redefine Israel. Israel was already defined as having a physical and spiritual application. In God’s first words to Abraham, he tells him that he would be the father of one nation, and a blessing to all the other nations (Gen 12:2-3). That one nation, Israel, birthed the Messiah, who was a blessing to the whole world. If Israel is redefined, then there is no need for Romans 11, which speaks about Israel’s role in the end times.

2) It makes the God of the Old Testament unfaithful, who has already stated that even Israel’s disobedience could not remove their calling (Jer 31:36, Rom 3:1-4, 11:29). God cannot lie, and God cannot change. He has made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he called eternal, everlasting, and forever and ever (olam, l’olam, and min olam v’ad olam).

3) As stated above, it is inconceivable that Paul would suddenly use the word Israel in a completely new light at the end of an epistle. These sections are rich in relational warmth, final exhortations, and personal notes and often reflect Paul’s heart as a shepherd and his awareness of the wider church network. It would be the middle sections, like Romans 9–11 or Ephesians 2-4, where doctrine is developed.

2. Ethnic/National Israel View:

• Paul uses “Israel of God” to refer to Jewish believers in Jesus, distinct from Gentile believers.
• The “them” = Gentile believers who walk by the rule of the new creation, and “Israel of God” = Messianic Jews.
• This maintains the ethnic distinction of Israel throughout Scripture.

This view is embraced by reformed scholar Douglas J. Moo. “It is best to take ‘the Israel of God’ as referring to believing Jews, the Jewish Christian remnant... Paul likely distinguishes between two groups in the benediction: the Gentile believers (‘those who walk by this rule’) and the Jewish believers (‘the Israel of God’).” (Galatians, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. 2013, p. 406)

F. F. Bruce agrees: “Paul’s wording seems to favor the interpretation that ‘the Israel of God’ refers to that part of Israel which is faithful, in other words, the Jewish believers. It is most natural to understand the second clause as an addition to the first, not a restatement of it.” (The Epistle to the Galatians: A Commentary, NIGTC, 1982, p. 274)

S. Lewis Johnson Jr. from Dallas Theological Seminary writes “The context suggests that ‘the Israel of God’ refers to elect Israelites, that is, Jewish believers in the Christian Church. There is no convincing reason to identify this group with all believers (Jew and Gentile)...” (Bibliotheca Sacra 129, 1972: 222–23)

Reknown scholar Craig S. Keener also sees it as referring to Messianic Jews. “The phrase ‘Israel of God’ likely points to Jewish Christians as distinct from the Gentile believers already mentioned. Paul consistently uses ‘Israel’ to refer to ethnic Israel, unless clearly redefined—which is not done here.” (The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, 1993, on Galatians 6:16)

These scholars argue that Paul is making a distinction, not a redefinition:

• “Those who follow this rule” = Gentile believers walking by the Spirit (Gal. 6:15)
• “The Israel of God” = Jewish believers in Messiah, the faithful remnant within ethnic Israel

This, in my opinion, is a more plausible view. Paul has frequently spoken about the Jewish believers in Israel in his letters to predominantly Gentile churches (see Rom 15:25–17, 1 Cor 16:1–3). After Paul meets with Peter, James, and John in Jerusalem, they all agree on the importance of Paul collecting funds for the Jewish believers there. “Paul and Barnabas were [by Peter, James, and John] asked to remember ‘the poor,’ a shorthand expression for “the poor among the saints in Jerusalem (Rom 15:26)” (George, 165).

While Paul thought that believers had equal standing before God, and that God does not show favoritism (Rom 2:11, Gal 3:26-28), he also teaches that Israel has a unique role (Rom 3:1–4, 11:29). Acts 15 is very clear that while the Jewish believers did continue to walk according to the Torah (not as a means of salvation, but obedience) that Gentile believers were not expected to embrace the liturgical commands, only the moral ones and to avoid pagan worship practices like drinking blood or engaging in sex acts with temple prostitutes. Therefore, considering all this—it seems that Paul was including the Gentile believers in this benediction inspired by the Amidah, saying this is for you—the Gentile believers and the Messianic Jews.

Another reason to embrace you is seeing how the enemies of Israel and the Jewish people have weaponized this verse as a proof text, erroneous, as it is, that God no longer sees Israel as his own. This theology has been the cause of tens of thousands of Jewish deaths. One could say it was a root cause of the gassing of six million Jews in Nazi Germany, as Hitler used to say that he was only finishing with the church had started. Bad theology, in this case, can lead to horrible antisemitism and senseless deaths. Please be careful with your Bible.

Dr. Ron Cantor
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[Lecrae @lecrae]

Satan is going to constantly bring up your past failures, your wrong doing, your poor decisions, and your sin. He hates God’s mercy and forgiveness toward you. He doesn’t understand it. Fight back by reminding yourself of the Grace and love God has given you.