EXPOSING the Israel Dilemma: Ancient Prophecies Come to Life!
This episode was released on November 13, 2024.
In this insightful interview, filmmaker Tim Mahoney discusses his new documentary 'The Israel Dilemma: Ancient Prophecies.' Matarazzo and Mahoney explore the biblical prophecies surrounding the nation of Israel and how they have been fulfilled throughout history.
Mahoney shares how his 'Patterns of Evidence' approach investigates the archaeological and historical evidence that supports the biblical accounts. The conversation delves into key events like the regathering of the Jewish people to their homeland in 1948, the stories of kings like Jehoiachin and Hezekiah, and the overarching themes of God's covenant and faithfulness.
Viewers will be encouraged by the film's message of returning to the Lord and the power of faith, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. The interview also provides practical information on how to watch 'The Israel Dilemma' in theaters on November 13, 14, and 17.
Don't miss this opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of biblical prophecy and its relevance for today. Watch the full interview now!
Get Tickets
0:00 Bible prophecy is real and we can trust God at his word with me today is Tim Mahoney the filmmaker of Patterns of evidence and this time he's looking at the evidence for prophecy and Specifically about the Israel dilemma. What has God said about Israel and how is it unfolded today Tim? It's great to have you here Well, thank you John for for having me on. Yes. Tonight is the night we're showing this movie the Israel dilemma ancient prophecies and This film came about Because of what happened in the last year with it is I wasn't planning on making this film, but I I When I saw what happened and I saw how the world was reacting to it. That's when I became You know felt very certain that we needed to you know, talk about well, where do this? Who are these people?
0:51 These people live in Israel. What's the history because the Bible has an awful lot to say about the nation of Israel Yeah, the Bible talks so much about the nation of Israel specifically and one of my favorite prophecies to look at and we can see Real-life proof was that God would regather his his people back to the land and we saw that fulfillment in 1948 and the people speak Hebrew it is in that same land and they are called Israel and it is it is a fulfillment of You know prophecy that was a couple thousand years old that not so many people wrote off because they said this is never going to happen But I love Tim that you have had Basically, you've kind of made your part of your documentary career about this patterns of evidence and you're looking for where is the proof?
1:38 This is what the Bible says. Where is the proof? Let's look at this. Let's find that pattern Talk about how you've come to some of these patterns that you've seen with prophecy Yes, and for the audience doesn't know Patterns of evidence is a scientific approach to investigate the Bible and so the science basically says well what you know, it looks for patterns based on information and The information that we have is the Bible is telling us that certain events happened. They happened in certain Ways and so for example In this particular film the Bible says that God made a covenant with the nation of Israel and it was because of Abraham God made a covenant with Abraham and said that your descendants would would Walk this land and in the future. I'm going to promise this land to your descendants and that's basically the story of the Bible is is this relationship between God and people and at the so if anyone understands what the story of the Bible there's Abraham has all these descendants they they end up going down to Egypt and they grow into a multitude and They become the the nation of Israel they they are they leave and they go to Mount Sinai and they Basically make a covenant with God. They make an agreement with God that they will be his people And that he will be their God and what ends up happening is that Moses?
3:07 Who writes the first five books of the Bible through inspiration of God? He says listen there are blessings if you obey God and there's curses if you disobey And so I started to hone in on that our team honed in on that this covenant that was made with the nation And what Moses says is that you're going to first have a kingdom So he you know, he says there's going to be a kingdom that you're going to have but if you disobey God And by the way, you will disobey God that kingdom is going to be destroyed and Because of your sin and then secondly he says or third he says you're going to be scattered amongst the nations you're going to be persecuted But then God is going to show his mercy and you're going to be returned to the land And that's what we look for. We look for those five steps in this pattern We look for those five different steps and we find amazing evidence of prophecy being fulfilled Yeah, and I love how you use dramatizations of some of these prophetic utterances That we're looking at to and then just how you kind of reveal that so let's let's take a look at some of these clips That you have and this one is about young king. Jehoiachin And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon The king's mother the king's wives his officials and the chief men of the land He took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon King Jehoiachin was a young prince who ruled as king of juda for only one year between
4:38 598 and 597 Well, what's fascinating about this is that Jehoiachin is the bible tells us who he was And that for one year he served and because all these kings in israel, you're going to see all the ones that did not obey god Finally he's taken away to Babylon and he's captured there But once again god's faithfulness, but so what's unique about this is that? This film is going to show you evidence from the kingdom of david all the way through to the destruction of the israel and Of juda the nations. I mean the the different parts of the nation when it divided we're going to show you from other countries other nations their archaeology and their documents are pointing back mirroring the bible And why this is important is that we're going to show and establish that god is telling us certain things We have prophets coming back to life in this film. We have isaiah. We have Hesachai we have isaiah and jeremiah and ezekiel that are talking to the people God used prophets to warn them and to say turn back to god And so these prophets are are are prophesying and we can see in the documentation That these events happen Earlier in time than when some people thought they happened and what that means is that they're prophecies god is warning in advance And then we have the prophets coming back to life in this film advance and then we're going to see the archaeology is testifying to god fulfilling his warning
6:13 And that the nation then is going to be Destroyed and we're going to see from the archaeology of assyria and from babalon how this happened And and how awful it was because they were persecuted very severely Uh, and then eventually the film winds up with it the return to the land now. Why is this important today? In the sense that do we have a historical understanding about what god is doing? And it does seem as if the israel the nation of israel god has somehow Chosen this nation of all nations to reveal who he is to to the world And so that's why I think it's important for us as we're dealing with a lot of activities that are happening there now That we understand how this all came into being Yeah Yeah, and with the making of this film actually the the whole patterns of evidence series You actually had the opportunity to go to israel years ago and interview Uh the prime minister and the the president and so you have some exclusive interviews in this film with benjamin netanyahu and shimon pares And so what are some of the insights that they were able to give back then?
7:28 That uh, you're seeing maybe unfold in a different way now That those interviews were profound in a way because uh, you know, I wasn't nobody I I just asked I felt like I should go to the nation and ask to talk about the bible And when people have asked me what's this film about is this a film about? uh politics or whatever no this film was about the bible and about Prophecy and about god unfolding events So when I went to talk with benjamin netanyahu, I you know, I I asked him many questions that were biblical in nature About about the nation of israel and how it came into being and the same thing was true with shimon pares now these men What you I think the profound thing that I learned is sitting in the room with them and And talking with them you start to understand they're different They're not they're they're different people They're different people than the normal person. There's a reason why their stature is such they have a presence about them When you're around the leader that basically says this guy is the leader or he has those There's an aura about a leader and that was one of the things that I sensed now shimon pares talked about uh how uh in 1948 That ben garian held up a bible He was the first president of israel when they became when they came back out after 2 000 years and then one day Became a nation
8:59 Uh, he you know, he says we are about the bible and so this is Uh, the you know, we are seeing history and we're seeing I think prophecy Uh unfolding and I think it's easy to get wore out by that sometimes people people kind of go Oh, i've heard this over and over again and they said it's over here or it's going to happen here or whatever But I think that we need to pay attention And I and the best place to start Is at the beginning So we start this film in genesis and we work our way through this through genesis and we we understand about god's creation the fall of man Then we we learn about noah and what happens then in the flood and then we go to the tower of babel And then that leads us eventually to abraham where god then chooses a man that he's going to have a relationship With and he's going to bless him and So I think for a lot of us it's important for us to have a biblical Understanding of how we got to where we are today because things are I think still percolating And I don't think the issues with israel are going to be going away Yeah, there's there's a especially since uh the the attacks in on october 7th of 2023 um There's been a heightened sense of focus uh, especially prophetically on the land of israel because we can look at the end of the bible and see oh we're we're heading there faster than
10:31 We originally thought or that we thought before september or october 7th Well, let's take a look at another clip that you have about we looked at young jehoiachin now. Let's take a look at old jehoiachin In the 37th year of the exile of jehoiakim king of juda evil marodak king of babalon Graciously freed jehoiakim king of juda from prison a regular allowance was given him by the king According to his daily needs as long as he lived A remarkable discovery connected to this came in the form of an artifact known as the jehoiachin ration tablet And it's actually referring to king jehoiachin of juda and his sons who receive On a monthly basis. They've received food rations including Seesam oil and exactly the the the rations are mentioned and this we find in babalonian cuneiform tablets This matches perfectly what is stated in the bible Ten silla of oil to jehoiachin king of juda and two and a half silla of oil to the sons of the king of juda Wow, um, I I follow a biblical archaeology finds uh, pretty good I that one's new to me and that's really interesting because it even gives the specific measurements that the bible lays out So what happens if we read the bible and then archaeology doesn't back up what the bible says?
11:59 We haven't had that happen yet, but like there would be some discrepancies there But we always see is verification that what the bible says is true Yeah, well what what we're seeing is a pattern of evidence, you know I mean there's more evidence I think for the bible than there are for so many other events that people take at hand But what ends up happening is that there's a rebellion going on there's a rebellion against the god of heaven and earth and so people are looking for excuses not to believe in god and Anyway, the whole point of this film here I think is to see that there are ancient prophecies that relate to the nation of israel that Were talking about this relationship that god had with his people So there's a lot to be learned in this film and it's very inspiring as well Just as you saw that, you know the very like you didn't know this but the very uh grocery list Yeah, way i can is found in these records and it's matching the bible just like that Now the other thing is king hezekiah, you know If you've got people that are you know, all of us are under stress and duress and with finances and with life and with health Family it might be This film can be a great encouragement the israel dilemma because we're going to tell the story about king hezekiah and king hezekiah Has this This king king of sinekara that's coming down and he has basically Wiped out every kingdom and he's mocking god
13:33 He's mocking god and uh, and he's basically saying don't depend upon your god I said listen, i've burned all the other gods and if you try to depend upon your god I'm going to i'm going to deal with you very severely And uh, you're going to we're telling the story of how isaiah, you know comes and you know king hezekiah is crying out to the lord We filmed these scenes We're bringing back king hezekiah to life isaiah Ezekiel Jeremiah you're going to be seeing these characters and I don't think anyone has ever been Has ever told the story from genesis all the way through to this time period This is the first time it's ever been done in my understanding And we're going to show you the evidence of god fulfilling his word But this is inspirational because king hezekiah calls out on the lord and God provides and you're going to see the evidence of how god provided and spared Jerusalem and so, you know if you've got you know concerns or burdens I grew up in a family a broken home I grew up with a mom who cried out to the lord You know, I think about it And we we we were on welfare So I know what it's like to cry out to the lord when you don't have enough Enough to get by and so that's why this film I think is connected to the lord So that's why this film I think is can be an encouragement as well. It's not just about archaeology It's about being encouraged that god is faithful to his word Amen. Well, you just mentioned a clip about hezekiah and isaiah and so let's let's play that we got a little bit of time here. Okay?
15:06 Okay The bible records that then hezekiah humbled himself and threw himself on the mercy of god Oh Isaiah the prophet brought the king a swift response from the lord saying that the king of assyria would not set foot in Jerusalem All right, so you have the the dramatic you know representation of those and uh, so The king of assyria would not step foot in israel. What proof do we have about that? Tim?
15:54 Well, we're going to show you what uh, what snetcrip says He he's he's you know political spin We have it today, but we've had it for thousands of years And he's going to put a spin on it because he's going to say I locked king katharine Uh, that's what his records are going to record. Well, the bible tells us that 185,000 of his troops were killed overnight Yeah And he had to go back To you know to his kingdom and so once again There's times when we can call out to to the lord and he can be our deliverer And and we're going to see that what the bible says is that he's going to be our deliverer He can be our deliverer and and we're going to see that what the bible says You're going to see what happens to these other kings. But once again, it's it's going back on It's turning back to the lord is what made this work And that's the message I think that this film is about is return to the lord if you don't There's hard times. There's judgment. There's difficulties if you try to do it your own way Yeah, there's such a strong lesson to be learned about that Uh, so tim how can people find this film? Where can they go to see it and what dates are available?
17:08 They can go to patterns of evidence.com patterns of evidence.com And uh, they will see uh the film there they can watch the trailer and they can also uh, then hit tickets And that'll take them to a ticketing site and then put in their zip code Uh find out where a theater is near them We're in almost 500 theaters around the nation and that's that's how they can Be able to be able to see the film and it's tonight. It's um, october 13th. I'm sorry november 13th 14th and 17th november 13 14 and 17. That's wednesday thursday and sunday Yeah, and that's that's an important thing to keep in mind If you don't get to see it on the 13th You still got the 14th and 17th and i'm sure that there will be streaming options and you can get the dvds at some Point down the road But we want to get people to the theaters the best way that we can and I personally highly recommend the whole patterns of evidence series um, I've interviewed tim many times about this because I love his approach this very scientific approach as a filmmaker to Explaining the patterns of evidence that we see the bible says this This is what history and archaeology says and we can trust that if god says it. It's true tim. Mahoney Thank you so much for being here today to talk about the israel dilemma and the patterns of evidence Well, thank you john for sharing it with your audience. I really appreciate I really appreciate it