Standing with Israel - Strang Report - April 16, 2024

0:00 Hello everyone, I'm Stephen Strang and welcome to this edition of the Strang Report live on Tuesday, April 14th, 2024. Apparently I made a mistake. We're live. I don't do that very often. I knew it was one day off from the 15th and I said it wrong.

0:41 I should write better notes. But anyway, here we are. Today I'm going, I have no guests. I'm just going to share from my heart, maybe have a little fun in just dealing with a lot of different subjects, fairly serious subjects. Today I'm going to talk about the attack that Iran did on Israel just on Saturday night, early Sunday morning where they were. And also I'm going to comment on what's happening in New York with the trial with Donald Trump and even what happened at the Men's Conference at James River Church in Missouri just a few days ago. I hope that you subscribe. If you haven't subscribed to the Strang Report, I hope that you will do that.

1:27 Right now, the subscriptions are going up every single week and I've set a pretty high goal. I don't know that there's any point in me telling you what my goal is, but I'm motivated and also hit the little bell. It tells you when we're live on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4 p.m. Eastern time and we are live today. As we record the podcast, partly because my guest can't really be on live. It also allows us to edit out mistakes like I just did and it also allows us sometimes to add B-roll, which just adds to the quality of the podcast. But today we're live.

2:08 Now tomorrow I'm actually interviewing Chuck Smith or Chuck Pierce, rather, the very respected prophet, we're going to talk about what's happening in the Middle East from a prophetic point of view and it will play up live on Thursday at 4 p.m. You won't want to miss that and you may want to tell others about it. In fact, we're going to do some promotion on our website, on Charisma News and in other ways just to let people know because I think it's going to be so very important. Now everyone knows that Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th. It's interesting when you find out that Hamas says they attacked Israel because of the red heifers.

2:54 You know, there's been a lot of interest in the red heifers. There's some prophecies that a red heifer has to be offered on the Temple Mount as a part of the last day's scenario and there are several perfect red heifers in Israel and there's all this controversy about it. It's kind of behind the scenes. When I was at National Religious Broadcasters a few weeks ago, there was quite a buzz there, some people talking about it, speculating it. And it's just interesting that Hamas has actually said that that was just over the pale as far as they were concerned. Of course, there are radicals, there are terrorists.

3:35 They killed more Israelis in one day than the number of Jews have been killed in one day since the Holocaust. Since the Holocaust, the most Jews killed in one day was October 7th, 2023. And the war is dragged on. At first the world was outraged that this happened. Now there are protests many, many places. I mean, even here in the United States, there are pro-Palestinian protesters yelling, death to America in our own country.

4:18 It's really very serious and I think what it does is it points to the fact that we are in the end of time. We're in the end of time. The Bible talks about it and I was just talking to a Christian leader this week about end time prophecy. Now I grew up in a church where people would talk about end times and the tribulation and the rapture and the feeling was that all these horrible, horrible things were going to happen. And listen, if you read Revelation or if you read the book of Matthew where Jesus talked about it or even Daniel, there are some terrible things going to happen.

4:59 In fact, I even wrote about it in my own book, Spirit-led Living in an Upside Down World, which I'll talk about a little bit later. But some terrible things are going to happen. But the feeling was that it didn't matter to Christians because we were going to go away in the rapture. We were just going to, in the blink of an eye, the twinkly of an eye, the wording that's in the Scripture, and we'd be gone. There are other points of view of people that think that the rapture won't happen until after the tribulation. Some believe it'll happen in the middle of the tribulation. There are some people who don't believe in all that at all.

5:39 But as time has passed, well, I should say that as a young person, I always assumed that all these things would happen long after my lifetime and they were interesting to contemplate, that it didn't really affect me. As I have become a journalist, as I become a Christian leader and study these things, and as I have seen the events of the world unfold, where there's a great following away, where there's a great apostasy, where there's a move toward one world government, which we saw during COVID. Well, there's been a move toward globalism in one world government.

6:19 We saw some ways where governments would actually try to take away our freedoms and impose their will, the WHO that would almost impose its will over countries, actual governments and so forth. Anyway, I say all that to say, now I'm not so sure that I'm not going to go through the tribulation. But one thing that I believe is that no matter what, the Holy Spirit can empower us. First of all, the Holy Spirit causes us to be strong and to stand up to all of these things that are going to happen.

7:02 It also causes us to be strong. Even if we were to die, even if we had to give our lives, it causes us to be strong. And we can believe that God has a plan and purpose. It's not just bad things happening. God has a plan and purpose for mankind. This outlined in the Word of God and the Scripture, and we can be thankful that we're alive now. In fact, someone told Jonathan Kahn one time, he's of course the author of the Harbinger and more recently the Josiah Manifesto, and they said they would have loved to have lived in biblical times. And he said, well, congratulations, you are living in biblical times.

7:44 And that's a very interesting way to look at it, that the times we're living were prophesied in the Bible. So we need to pray. We need to pray for the situation. The Middle East is very, very tense. There are some people that are saying that it's just one or two things could happen that could actually trigger World War III, bringing the superpowers we need to pray, that that doesn't happen. And we believe in the power of prayer. I've talked about it many times on the Strang Report. One of my purposes in life is to try to call the body of Christ to pray and to hold up a standard. I'm not certainly the only one doing it.

8:25 We're not a prayer ministry per se, but I just believe that even as we analyze what's happening in the world around us, that we have to understand, that we have power in prayer, and that we can speak to mountains and say that they should be removed and they will be removed in the name of Jesus. Jesus commanded the wind in the waves. They obeyed him. He said that greater works than these that will do. We have to believe this. And again, there's so much more that could be said, and that's for another day. I want to touch some things.

9:05 I get all these emails from different ministries and groups in Israel calling for prayer. They're calling for prayer and they're calling for hope. In fact, we have raised quite a bit of money for three different ministries in Israel. They are, I guess you'd call them messianic ministries. They're believers in Yeshua, Jesus, and they're there in Israel spreading the gospel, but also helping those in need, particularly during the Israel Hamas war. And we've been able to partner them through our nonprofit partner called Christian Life Missions.

9:46 We do everything through Christian Life Missions, 100% of what people give go to the cause. And we've been able to raise from viewers like you $150,000 that has already been dispersed. The ministries say that they're putting it on projects that actually help people. So they're not taking anything out for overhead. Neither are we. You can go to ChristianLifeMissions.org and check out our Stand With Israel. There's also reports on how this has been done and the three different ministries are listed there and what they've been doing. But I got an email just this morning from a ministry in Iran and it's ELAM.

10:32 I want to say Elam or Elam. I'm not sure how to pronounce it, but it's a Christian ministry in Iran. And they're also very concerned about what's going on and they're calling for prayer. And I thought it was worth sharing with you. They say that we should pray for restraint from all sides in this conflict and for it to deescalate. Pray that the Lord will raise up peacemakers who can speak with wisdom, authority and clarity in this atmosphere of antagonism and aggression. The church in both Iran and Israel, as they should get on their knees and pray as they rise to continue sharing the hope of the gospel amid fear and uncertainty.

11:20 There are stories, anecdotal stories that we hear. They're hard to check out, but of people coming, Muslims, having dreams and Jesus appearing to them in the dreams. And apparently there's quite a vibrant underground church in Iran and we need to pray for Iran. But we also must pray for Israel. If you know anything about me, you know that I'm proud to say that I'm a Christian Zionist. I visited Israel many times. I've raised lots of money for Israel. I love Israel. You know, the Bible says that God will bless those who bless Israel.

12:03 And I believe that that's true. But I also believe that we need to not deify Israel. You know, Israel is a part of God's plan. The fact that a nation was born in a day, which Israel was on May 14, 1948, it's a fulfillment of prophecy. But there are some who almost, it's Israel right or wrong. And you know, Israel needs to not be guilty of the same kind of atrocities that Hamas is. They're in a very difficult situation. We need to actually pray that their military leaders, really none of whom or most of whom are not believers as we would understand it, but that they would have the wisdom of God because many lives are on the line, not only in Israel and in the Gaza Strip.

13:02 But really if this escalates into a world war, of course, it will just be absolutely devastating. So we need to pray. We also need to pray, I believe, for what's happening in New York with the trial of Donald Trump, the first time a former president has been put on trial. And I know that many Christians have already sort of made up their minds on how they feel about what's going on. My personal opinion is that it is actually frightening that the government can use technicalities or just make up things to bring a charge.

13:45 If Donald Trump was not running for president, none of these charges, none would happen. But they have come up with very, very weak cases. Jews have actually run for office promising to put Trump in jail, those kinds of things. You know, really every American, whether you like Trump or not, should be very concerned about this. And we need to pray that our justice system will be fair. There's like a two-tiered justice system. I've talked about it before on the STRANG report. We don't have time, or I don't have time today to go into it, but we ought to pray.

14:29 I've interviewed President Trump. He told me personally that he had not done anything with Stormy Daniels. This whole thing in New York has to do with hush money with Stormy Daniels. They say that he somehow violated something by paying her to be quiet. You know, the fact is that rich people will often pay, even when they're not guilty, just to make a problem go away when it would create a problem for their business, or in this case his run for the president. But he told me personally he had not done anything. But whether he did or not, there needs to be justice when it comes to our courts of law.

15:12 And we need to pray. I mean, how would you feel if you were in that kind of situation? And it's just amazing to me that Donald Trump is as strong as he is. And you know, there's a lot going on with the election. This is just one part of it. I'm going to be interviewing some people in the next couple of weeks on the Strang Report about what's happening and discussing what Christians can do. You know, Christians are considered to be a voting block, but other than that, we don't have much say in what happens. It's kind of politics as usual. One of the things about Donald Trump that I personally respect is that he will at least listen to Christian leaders and allow himself to be prayed for in a way that I've never seen another politician.

16:03 And I've had the opportunity to be in the White House numerous times. I've personally interviewed four different presidents. I've studied it. I've written about it. And he does seem to be open. Now this is not to say that he is a great, strong Christian leader. He's not. He's a very flawed individual. But then so are the rest of us. Recently, I've been reading a book by a never-Trumper who can't understand how any Christian could possibly support Trump. And you know what? He makes him good points. There are people who's backed Trump that almost make him into a superhero, put him out of pedestal in a way that he doesn't really deserve and try to make him into some kind of Christian icon, which he isn't.

16:53 I think that we probably need to consider that Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. Donald Trump is not going to bring in the kingdom of God. I personally believe that if he's elected, he'll slow down or reverse some of the very bad policies that actually take away our Christian freedoms and actually make what the Bible calls calling evil good and good evil. There are some people who are trying to codify that into law, which will be very, very difficult for the Christian community. So for that reason, if nothing else, I think I'm supporting Donald Trump.

17:33 But my point today is to not talk about that, but to say that we should pray for him. Then the next thing I'm going to comment on is what everybody seems to be talking about on social media, and that's the men's conference at James River Church in Springfield, Missouri this past weekend. Now interestingly, I interviewed David Lindell on my podcast. You can go on YouTube or the other sites, the other platforms and actually listen to it. It was maybe two weeks ago and we talked about what was coming up. He did not mention any of the things that became controversial with the sword, Swallow or I guess you call him, and some of the other things that happened.

18:19 Of course, there was kind of a confrontation in a manner of speaking between Mark Driscoll, who's a friend of mine, a man whose books that I've published in the past, and John Lindell, who is also one of my authors and someone I consider to be a friend. And then it was later reconciled in a very Christ-like way where they actually came back and Mark Driscoll got up and criticized some things that he thought were extreme. John Lindell told him he was out of place. He confronted him publicly and Mark said, okay, and he walked off the stage.

18:59 You probably saw this on social media. I was not there. I've only know what I've seen on social media and what people have talked about. But later they came back and they dealt with it in kind of a Matthew 18 kind of way on how Christians can disagree and go on. And then Mark Driscoll preached his message that he was going to preach. So that is a beautiful example. It's an example of what the Bible says that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. Now you may be surprised by this unless you saw the podcast because I mentioned it, but I was actually at this conference last year.

19:40 I had reason to be in Missouri on business. I actually arranged my business so that I could go to this conference. I was told it was very good. I was involved for many, many years with Promise Keepers. You may remember that and went to many Promise Keepers conferences. They're not being held anymore. And this at James River has been very successful for a number of years. They packed the arena at Missouri State University there in Springfield. And they claim, and I haven't been able to fact check it, but they claim, and I have no reason to disbelieve them, that it's the largest men's conference in the country.

20:23 And it's, you know, last year, in fact, I did a podcast on it last year after I got back because I was all excited. And they had some great speakers. A lot of men came to Christ. I was deeply touched, but they also had what I'm going to call fun and games. And they went out of their way to make this macho to the nth degree. And you know, as I was talking to somebody about it, I kind of remember it was like VBS when I was a kid, Vacation Bible School or even children's ministries today. They try to make them real excited, get the kids yelling and screaming and jumping up and down.

21:06 They try to make it fun. And then, of course, they teach the Bible lesson. And for men, and it was almost all men, there are very, very few women. The women that were there were mostly, you know, helping. It was just macho. It was kind of like, guys don't get a chance to get together and be men. And it was like going to a WWF rally. They had cars, they had some old cars. They actually had a real tank. The tank ran over the cars while the guys were yelling and they had strobe lights going off and smoke machines and all kinds of things.

21:46 And they had acrobats. And you know, it didn't last very long, but and it was exciting. They had strong music going and rah, rah, rah, rah, and then they would quiet down and have teaching of the word and an ultra call and all that kind of thing. This was this year's version that was maybe a little more extreme. I can't really tell, but it seemed to be a little extreme. And Mark Driscoll, who is nobody's fool and he very definitely has an opinion. He himself is a man's man and men gravitate toward his ministry because of that.

22:31 And that's why they invited him to speak. Mark Driscoll also knows what it is to be criticized. He's been criticized as much as any contemporary pastor in America. That's again a story for a different day. And so he understands it. So anyway, there's all these interesting dynamics. And I thought since today I'm opining kind of on what's going on this week, the week of April 16th. I got it right the second time around. And I just thought I'd share that with you. And finally, I want to mention my book. I talked about this a little earlier. There's a whole chapter in here on the end of time.

23:12 I touched on that earlier when I was talking about Iran and how we have to be led by the Holy Spirit and how we have to be strong. This is a book that I wrote last spring. It's been out for not quite a year. And it's a book that I passionately believe in. And we're making this book available to churches all over the country for penny cost Sunday. And we're selling it very, very inexpensively. And a donor has donated some money to give books to churches that may not be able to afford it or maybe want to give it to everyone in the service. And if you're interested at all, I'm not going to make this into a commercial.

23:55 But you can email me at info at CharismaMedia.com. And find out more information. We'll send you the information at info at CharismaMedia.com. It's here on the screen. The only reason I mention it is I'm today is kind of a potpourri. And I'm kind of ad-living and just kind of sharing. And I hope that you come to my podcast, not just for my guests, but I'm going to have great guests like Chuck Pierce next time. I'm going to get some other people that have lots of followers on social media because they are very articulate and have a lot to say. I think that you're going to like it.

24:35 I'm going to start promoting the podcast more and really building it. And I hope that you find that I bring balance to situations. That I've been like that my whole career. I try to bring Christian maturity and wisdom. You know, I've been around for a long, long time. I've been there, done that. I've seen it all. Or at least that's how I feel sometimes. Of course, I haven't seen it all. But I'm able to bring something that maybe other podcasters don't. And that's why I hope you'll subscribe. I hope that you'll tune in. And I will form a relationship. There's other podcasters, some that I follow.

25:17 That they're just people that I like to hear their voice. And I'm trying to mimic that for you. And I hope that we make a connection. Well, that's all I have to share today. I hope you enjoyed it. Give me your comments in the comment section. I love going and reading them. And I answer many of them as I feel it's appropriate. Tune in again on Thursday at 4 PM Eastern Daylight Time for my interview with none other than Chuck Pierce from Corinth, Texas. A man that I consider a friend I have deep respect for. And he has real insight on what's going on in the Middle East, especially as we seem to be racing toward the end of time.

26:03 Thank you for watching. Share this podcast with others. Put a link on social media. That would really help us get out the word. God bless you. See you next time.