The Eric Metaxas Show - Greg Denham (Encore)

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

Pastor Greg Denham joins to share his thoughts on Israel (Encore)

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. It's a nutritious smoothie of creamy, fresh yogurt, vanilla, vanilla, protein powder, and a mushy banana. For your mind?

Drink it all down. It's nummy. I wub, banilla. I wub, wub, I wop, vanilla. Here comes Eric Metaxus. Hey there, folks. Welcome. As you know, it is my privilege on this show to highlight the work of heroes. As some of you know, the Alliance defending freedom are heroes. They are fighting for our religious liberties.

On a level, it's almost impossible to really do it justice when I keep saying that we owe them. Anyone who lives in America, whether they know. know it or don't, the Alliance Defending Freedom is fighting for our religious liberty in the courts, often in the Supreme Court, winning more than 80% of their cases. They do their work pro bono, which is to say, if you are, you know, horrified to hear that somebody's coming after you and you don't know where to turn, you turn to them, they don't charge you. The Alliance Defending Freedom does not charge you, which is why I want us to support them. We'll be talking about that in a moment.

But now I have the privilege of speaking to their senior counsel, Jeremy Tedesco with the lines ofending freedom. Jeremy Tedesco, welcome back. Thanks, Eric. Appreciate you having me on. Well, look, it's our privilege. I have this show for this very purpose. I want people who are listening to be aware of who is out there and what they're doing. It gives us hope.

So let's talk about what you're familiar with. We call it debanking. Is that the main subject of what we're going to touch on today? Yeah, absolutely, especially the congressional hearing that happened just last week on this issue. So tell us about that, for people unfamiliar with this. Yeah, well, Jim Jordan's House Select Subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government has kind of been dripping some information out over the last couple months, started in January, and then just hit again last week with information about big government colluding with big banks

to engage in financial surveillance of American citizens to identify essentially domestic terrorists or domestic threats to democracy. Yeah. And as part of that, there's a whole story there. But our story in it is that we were actually swept up in that, Alliance Defending Freedom, because one of the things that the U.S. Treasury Department shared with the big banks to help them identify terrorists and domestic threats is a hate group list. And as we know, the left creates these black lists of hate groups, so-called hate groups,

and they put Christian organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom on those lists. Right. Here's the point, folks. In case you're smoking a cigarette and driving down the highway and you miss some of this, let me be clear. The federal government is daring to identify as domestic threats, as terrorists, you and me and the Alliance Defending Freedom. the very people fighting for liberty, the very people fighting for the Constitution,

for the American founder's view of liberty, those people, which is to say most of you listening and me and the folks of the lines defending freedom have been targeted by our federal government. Now are you paying attention that we're in a war and that we have to do everything we can to support the good guys like the folks of the lines defending freedom because it's completely out of hand. Even to hear you say this, Jeremy Tedesco, obviously gets me excited because I think this is so sick. This is so sick. In other words, they're not simply, you know, overreaching their authority. They are turning their authority against what is good and right and true. That's how bad it is. This is not just, oh, this could go in a wrong direction. It's gone in the wrong direction.

and they are using the power of the federal government to go after the champions of freedom like the Alliance Defending Freedom. It's absolutely stunning, and I wanted to make it crystal clear for my audience of what is going on, because folks, this is how bad it is. So you folks at the Alliance Defending Freedom are targeted. This is how you know who the good guys are. If they're targeted by the federal government or by the Southern Poverty Law Center or any of these wicked, wicked entities, You know those are the good guys and we need to stand with them. So, folks, I hope you will stand with the Alliance Defending Freedom.

But before I give Jeremy a chance to talk further, I want to be real clear. We need you to go to metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner, metaxis talk.com. I'll give you the phone number in a moment. So Jeremy, it's just amazing stuff. So please just give us more details. I'm clearly amazed. Yeah, sure.

Well, you know, people throw around the term Orwellian, but, you know, I think somewhat loosely, at times, but this really applies. The federal government was surveilling financial surveillance through collusion with the big banks of American citizens for a whole host of reasons. It wasn't just these hate group lists they were sharing. They were looking for people whose financial transactions included terms like Trump, that they shopped at Dick's sporting goods or Cabellas, that they had political opinions that, you know, were right of center. I mean, these are the kind of indicators they were telling big banks to survey. people on the basis. So if you love God and the United States of America, you're the bad guy,

according to these evil actors. That is where we are in America, that they're actually now, it's not just implied. They're actually being outed. We have the facts and we have a few heroes like Jim Jordan out there in Congress pointing fingers and saying these people are doing this and we better pay attention. So you guys at the Alliance of Freedom, you've been fighting this battle for a long time. So what are you doing with regard to this specifically? Well, on the banking front, we've been concerned about debanking for quite some time now. We've been really working on it for the last year and a half. One of the things that we're doing is we're helping push legislation in the states, the state legislative session, debanking legislation. It's called the Equality and

Financial Services Act. It's been introduced in about eight states. And we're hoping to get that pass in at least one state. And what that does is protect people from being debanked because of their religious or political beliefs. And so we really need to have the state step up and provide protections for people's basic civil liberties. No Americans should be afraid that they're going to lose their bank account because they exercise their political or religious beliefs in the public square.

But that's really where we're at and we need to put a stop to it. Well, this is why I say to my audience, folks, please help. Please help. If we don't fight now, it's always. This is, it's never been like this in America. I mean, for years and years, these things have been happening slowly, slowly, slowly. But now it's out in the open. And we're seeing very clearly just the wickedness of these forces arrayed against liberty,

against those who dare to say, I love America, I believe in God, I take the Bible seriously. If you're one of those people, you have been targeted. And we have to fight. If you don't fight, I say this all. the time, you're part of the problem. You're not doing nothing. You're helping evil to win if you're not part of the solution. One easy way you can be part of the solution is by helping those who are fighting with everything they have, helping the alliance defending freedom. So I want to give you the website again, and I want to give you the phone number. The website is metaxis talk.com. You'll see the

banner. I beg you to give generously. The nation is at stake. Liberty is at stake. This is This is not a hyperbole. I'm not exaggerating. We are in a pitched battle against people who are the enemies of liberty and who dare to call us the enemies of liberty. That's what makes it so evil. The phone number is 855-385-36. 855-385-0-5-96. Folks, I just beg you to take a stand here. 855-385-0-5-96 and the website metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner. So what else we need to know, Jeremy Tedesco,

on this debanking stuff? Well, I think we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg, really. So it's wonderful and kudos to Jim Jordan for doing, you know, starting the select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government. This is where the Twitter files has come out of. This is where all the information about how AI is being weaponized by grants through federal

agencies to shut down speech online. And those same tools are being applied in the financial context. So what we're seeing right now is a lot of sunlight on a problem that threatens everybody's civil liberties. And I think we're going to see, you know, ultimately coming out of this, hopefully some legislative solutions, not just at the state level, but at the federal level as well. if we can get the right folks in the right positions in seats and the federal administration and in both sides of the Congress.

I do think most people listening, you know, we couldn't have imagined that it would get this bad in America. And I just want to be clear, folks, you know, if you're half listening, it is this bad. And we need everybody to do what they can. So metaxistalkystalk.com is the website, mettaxistalk.com. From small family farms to your dining table, Moink gives you access to the freshest, sustainably sourced meat and fish,

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As I hope I said in the previous segment, right now as my guest, we have someone who's a very good friend of mine. His name is Pastor Greg Denham. He is in California. And there's so much I could say about Greg, but one thing I'll say to tee up this interview, he's a friend of Israel. He visits Israel often. He loves Israel passionately. But he wrote an article at the Christian Post, which really knocked me backwards. And I said, I've got to get him on the program. We try to get him on. We couldn't schedule it. He then wrote another article at the Christian Post on the same subject. And I said, we have got to talk about this. It makes me uncomfortable to talk about it because it shows that Israel ain't perfect.

They got some big problems, and we're going to talk about that right now. Pastor Greg Denham, my friend, welcome back. Oh, it's so good to be with you, Eric. I love you. Hey, listen, I'm so proud of you. Letter to American Church, of course, is taking our country by storm. We had a great showing at our church, Eric. So thank you so much for your leadership and your friendship.

Well, listen, can I just frame this just real quick? I got on a plane, Eric, on New Year's Day, and traveled to Israel. we were actually invited essentially by the foreign affairs. They asked me to kind of lead an evangelical delegation of pastors to stand with Israel in the aftermath of October 7. I just want to say to every Christian, every evangelical all throughout the world, we need to be the best friends to Israel we can possibly be. What does that look like, like unconditional love, proclamation of the gospel to the Jew first and then to the Gentile? and we need to stand against all forms of anti-Semitism in the times in which we live.

I mean, Eric, I'm going to get to this article in just a second, but as you will know, you got major rise of anti-Semitism at this time. And this is so important to what we're talking about, the context of our times. I mean, it's not in 1990. I mean, Israel's on the front lines of the enemy of our time. That's just a flat-out fact. I mean, you have the head of the snake, which is Iran, and, you know, the puppets of Hamas and Hezbollah. I mean, what are they want? What do they want?

They want the destruction of Western civilization. They want to replace it with an Islamic new world order. You're talking about Islamic Nazis. And look, we need to be Churchill's and Bonhoeffers in the times in which we live. And we need to stand with our Jewish friends who are on the front line of this, you know, hellish. demonic reality. In fact, when we, when we visited, you know, Israel, Eric, you know, we visited Kafar Azza. There were 63, you know, 63 precious lives, just brutally murdered. And they showed his pictures, Eric, that are not, you know, in the public that, you know, I got to suppress in my

mind even right now. I mean, pictures of just the most demonic insane brutality. And I don't even want to describe it out of so respect for those who lost their lives and their families and stuff. And, you know, Douglas Murray, you interview Douglas Murray. I love Douglas Murray. He's such a, smart guy, clear thinker. But, you know, he just said, this evil of Hamas, what, what, one of the, what, one of the differences that you see with Hamas and other crazy people is the glee by which, you know, they, they, they perpetrated the, this evil, you know, they were just like, it's as if they were intoxicated. But I just want to say quickly, I mean, these are headlines, Eric, two-thirds of American Jews feel less secure. Over a thousand anti-Semitic incidents reported at U.S.

colleges since October 7th. Anti-Semitism wave prompts sharp rise in immigration. You know, Harvard pro-Palestinian faculty group apologizes for sharing anti-Semitic image. Holocaust, memorial stones in Vienna splattered with yellow paint. I mean, that's just half the list here. Okay, I mention all of that because all believers, I just want to encourage you, be extra sensitive to your Jewish friends at this time who are feeling really pressed and many times alone. And, you know, and I would encourage you to like reach out to your Jewish friends and tell them you stand with them. You love them. And I'll tell you, if they ever feel threatened, they got an open door to your home. You know, one of the things I loved about, you know, Rob McCoy, Eric, he was conversing with your dear friend Dennis Prager.

And I got to meet Dennis when I was with you. But, you know, Rob gave Dennis his home address. And he just said, hey, you know, kind of as a demonstration, we love you. I stand with you. And I thought, oh, my goodness, that is so beautiful. Like when I met Dennis, I did the same thing. But look, the thing is that there is a deeper lay. of evil here. There is a darkness behind the darkness. There's a spiritual battle. And that was

evident October 7. The point is, is that the context of our times, clearly, there is a rise of anti-Semitism. There's no doubt about it. And when we visited Israel, we had a chance, Eric, to sit down with the third in power in Israel, Amir O'Hana, who is the Speaker of the Knesset. And we're able to to share our hearts with them that in the unique times in which we live, in which he, of course, knows about this terrible rise of anti-Semitism, that there are Jews that are believers in Jesus. And a lot of people don't know this. So they believe that Yeshua, Jesus is the Messiah of Israel.

They cannot get back to their ancestral home. They are being discriminated against. Okay, that's right. Hold on. I want to be clear with my audience. The reason I had you want, because you love Israel, but you wrote two articles at the Christian Post. And that's what we're going to start talking about right now. Okay.

What are the articles, what are the titles of these articles at the Christian Post? Right. Sorry about that, Eric. And by the way, Eric, it was all Israel news and the Christian Post. I mean, Joel Rosenberg's... Both places, all Israel news and the Christian Post, and your last name is Denim, D-E-N-H-A-M. Right. What I read in these articles, and I just want to tee this up for my audience.

Thank you so much. And I've heard about this going back for years, and it's very upsetting. So we can be friends of Israel. We can still criticize Israel, right? Officially, folks, take this in, because this is pretty sick. Israel will not allow Jews who believe in Jesus as Messiah and Lord. They will not allow them to be citizens in Israel. Now, there's if you say, I'm an atheist, I'm a Buddhist, but I'm a Jew, they say, come on in.

We'd like you to be a citizen in Israel. But if you say, I believe in Jesus, they say, no. Now, that to me, Greg Denham, is mind-blowing. I actually, I heard this years ago, and I just batted it away because I thought, this is just bizarre and sick. Can you, I mean, as somebody who loves Israel as you do, can you explain? I mean, how long has this been going on? who sets this policy? Yeah, that's a great question. Well, it's been going on for a long time, and here's the thing. It is often not addressed, Eric, and I'm not so sure there's been any

program like this today that we're addressing this issue. I'm sure there has, but the reality is this thing is, his needs light. And, you know, I think of Herschel used this phrase, throwing light on this subject. You're exactly right. Unfortunately, you have in Israel terrible discrimination towards descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are Jews. And we're talking, you know, a Jew is, we're talking in ethnicity. Judaism is a religion. But once a Jew, a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob believes that Jesus is the Messiah, they're discriminated against very, very tough to get into the land of Israel. Of course, as I was mentioning earlier, the context of our time is you got this radical rise of anti-Semitism. The founding fathers, Eric, of modern Zionism like Herzl, they envisioned Israel to be a safe harbor for all Jews. I mean, Bingurion, the first prime minister said, look, if you qualified to lose your life in the Holocaust, hey, there's a green light essentially to the land of Israel. I mean, something has gone wrong.

It's sticky. It's messy. There's a few people in the interior ministry of Israel that make it very, very deep. difficult for our brothers and sisters who believe that Jesus is the Messiah to enter into the land at this particular time. And here's the thing, you know, evangelicals have been identified as Israel's best friends. And so I just want to say to all of our evangelical friends and genuine believers all throughout the world that we can play a role in helping throw light on this and and make Israel even stronger.

So look, Israel is a democratic secular state. It has its flaws like any other nation, I mean, like our own nation, right? But a Christian must not forget their relationship to Israel and their responsibility to Israel. I was mentioning earlier, every Christian should be a friend of Israel. So it doesn't mean like, you know, we have to agree with every policy. But the Lord is coming back to Israel. said, you know, if you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me. So he's speaking

of his Jewish brethren. Yeah. Hang on one second. We're going to go to a break. We'll be right back. We're talking to my friend, Pastor Greg Denham, D-E-N-H-A-M. You need to check out his articles at All Israel News and Christian Post. This is a very important subject, folks. We'll be right back. Our God-given freedoms are facing unrelenting attacks. It's a battle for truth, and the only way we win is if we stand together. Thankfully, Alliance defending freedom has been defending our rights for 30 years and winning. Right now, they're involved in two critical cases before the Supreme Court. They're suing the FDA for endangering the health and safety of women and girls. And in the second case, they're assisting the state of Idaho to defend its law protecting the lives of women and their

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added sugars or synthetics. I think if you're looking for something to make you feel better naturally, you should definitely give Balance of Nature a try. In fact, order today. Whether you order online or call them direct, you must use the promo code Eric to get the special offer of 35% off. Call them at 800-2468-751. And use discount code Eric or order online at balance-onature.com. Use discount code Eric to get 35% off, 35% off. Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to my friend, Pastor Greg Denham. We're talking about something very important.

Greg, you over and over and over and over talk about your love of Israel, the love of evangelical Christians for Israel. But, you know, you say you have this one thing against them, which I do as well. And this needs to be fixed. This is a big deal, ladies and gentlemen. In Israel, you know, you could have, your family could have been killed in the Holocaust and you could have come to faith in Jesus as Messiah. And Israel says if you believe in Jesus as Messiah, oh, you can't be a citizen.

That to me is so mind-blowing that every time I hear about this, I just can't even believe that this is happening. And my question to you, Greg Denham, you wrote two articles about this. what do you suppose could be behind this? I mean, there's some people that hate Israel and they criticize Israel. But, you know, this is something where I think if you love Israel, you have an obligation to criticize Israel. This is bad. Why do you suppose they would have made this decision?

Who made this decision? And how do they even enforce it? It's just so strange to me. Well, I got to say, I think there's a lot of water under the bridge on this issue. And we can throw some light on it. I keep referencing that phrase because Herzl used it. Look, there's some misunderstanding. For one, Jesus, you know, was not a Christian.

You know, Jesus didn't come to start Christianity. He was born King of the Jews. He died King of the Jews. He's coming back as King of the Jews. And the King of the Jews is the Savior of the world, who is the Lord, right? And you were talking about just the insanity of this. Look, let me take a little further the discriminative policy, the immigration policy there in the interior ministry.

Essentially, Eric, I mean, unfortunately, it's like, you know, a Jew who believes in Jesus, actually they don't see them any longer as a Jew. I mean, and so in other words, it's like they actually hold, And if, you know, if you have changed your religion to Christianity, that somehow that negates your ethnicity, you're talking about like, you know, the cancel culture times a billion here. I mean, it's just really, really sad. And look, it is my part. I love Israel. The Lord loves Israel.

Christians are to be a friend of Israel. Evangelicals are identified as the best friends of Israel. And our Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel, in Israel, you know, is the world. Israel, I'll tell you, Eric, have been overlooked. And we need to stand with them. And I think of like when you wrote about Bonhofer, I could just quickly say, you know, Bonhofer identified and recognize the insanity of Hitler and the Nazi leadership in Germany who tried to divide the church, right? They tried to devalue and disregard Jews in the church. The church, he's a church, he's. is made up of both Jew and Gentile.

But you have voices in Israel. It's not the exact parallel, but you have voices in Israel, influences, not all Israelis, who are dividing Jews. So essentially are saying that a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who believes in Jesus as Messiah, is no longer a part of Israel. Well, of course, that's just insane. I mean, think about it. Like you and I are believers, we follow Jesus from voices, from Jewish voices, You know, the Jesus movement was a Jewish movement for which we are invited into. So my point is, in such a time is this, we can help, I believe, Israel.

You know, faithful are the wounds of a friend. I'm not interested in wounding Israel, but I'm just saying we can shed light on this. You know, Jesus wasn't a Christian. He didn't come to start, you know, a new religion. I mean, Eric, check this out. Israeli scholar and Orthodox Jew, Pinkas Lapid, said, Jesus was utterly true to the Torah as I myself hoped to be. I even suspect that Jesus is even more true to the Torah than I in Orthodox Jew.

He continued by saying that he believed in the resurrection of Jesus. You have Jewish philosopher Martin Buber who said, we must overcome the superstitious fear which we harbor about the messianic movement of Jesus, and we must place the movement where it belongs, mainly in the spiritual history of Judaism. So look, I just want to say to all of our evangelical friends out there, my brothers and sisters, and every genuine Christian all throughout the world, speak in private and in public that all Jewish lives matter. A Jew is a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Israel exists to be a safe harbor for all Jews. and I believe we can be, continue to be a great friend of Israel by throwing light on this issue. And remember, you know, quote Christianity, the Jesus movement began in Jerusalem, not in Rome. And Jesus is coming back as the Davidic king. You know, I think of, just me to say one more quick thing, Eric, is that, you know, thinking of when Jesus was making his way to Jerusalem and Blind Bartameas was getting his attention. You know, he didn't say, hey, Christian, have mercy on me. No, he said, hey, son of David, have mercy on me, right? The Davidic king, the descendant of David, who was promised to establish the kingdom forever.

I want to ask you before. We're going to go to a break here. But what is the title of your website? Is it the context movement? Yes, thank you so much. Thecontextmovement.com. Yes. The context movement.

I want to steer people to that website because this is so important and we need to understand it. Thecontextmovement.com. Folks, please check out the contextmovement.com. And what's the title of your new book before we go to the break? You know, rediscovering the original Jesus movement, how first century context clarifies God's plan and course corrects the church. And thank you for your recognition. Yeah. Discovering the original Jesus movement.

Yeah. Rediscovering the original Jesus movement. We'll talk about that in a minute, and the website is the contextmovement.com, the context movement.com. Be right back. Hey, this is Eric Mettaxas. For years, I've told you about Nutrametics, a professional supplement brand trusted by doctors since 1993.

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go to neutrametics that's n-U-T-R-A-M-E-D-I-X.com. Neutrametics.com, use the code Eric for 15% off. Again, Neutrametics, N-U-T-R-A-M-E-D-I-X.com. Nutrametics.com, use the code Eric for 15% off. Make like a Mr. Milk-toast, you'll get shot out. Welcome back, folks. I'm talking to my friend, good friend, Pastor Greg Denham, who is in California. Greg, what is the church that you pastor? I always forget the name and the name.

the location. Thank you so much. Well, it's actually Rise Church, San Marcos, North County, San Diego, extraordinary church. And thank you for visiting numerous times and we can't wait to have you back. I love it. Rise Church in San Marcos. If people are interested, if you can get to San Marcos, Rise Church, my friend, Pastor Greg Denham, leads that church. And we're talking, Greg, about your, you know, decades-long interest in Israel. your appreciation for the Jewish people and for the Jewishness of our Christian faith. I mean, it's not like Jesus invented a new religion, as you said. And I think this is what sticks in the craw of a number of bigots who have a voice in Israel.

They have managed to do something terrible, managed to say that if you believe in Jesus as Messiah, we don't care if you have Jewish blood, we don't care if your family died in the Holocaust. You can't be a Jew according to our definition. That's despicable. We need to call them out on it. We need to understand it. And you've written about it at all Israel News and at the Christian Post. And folks, if you look up Denham, D-E-N-H-A-M, I will share those articles again.

But it's very shocking to me. So you could say, Greg, theoretically, I am an atheist. I do not believe in the God of the Bible. I don't believe in the Bible. I believe it's baloney. But I'm a Jew. And they go, well, come on in. you can be a citizen in Israel.

Would they not say that? Yeah, that's my understanding. Exactly right. And look, you have some Shavad Jews, for example, believe that the late Rabbi Monakam Schneerson of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, was the promised Messiah. Other Orthodox Jews disagree, but it's not an issue in getting into Israel.

And I'm going to say, I was conversing, Eric, with a precious mom, her son made Alia to Israel. He's fighting. I mean, you know, he's willing to live. his life down for the protection of Israel, you know, he's fighting in the IDF. And, and she, she cannot join him because they, they found out that she was a believer in Jesus. And essentially, they kind of kicked out of the country. So her son is actually fighting for the IDF even right now. I mean, I had, there's other instances like, let's say, for example, you have, you know, a mom and dad make

Alia and then the sun wants to follow, but then they find out, oh, the sun, you know, is a messianic and they're not allowed in. So now you have to explain when you say making Ali, a lot of people on this listening to the program don't know what you mean by that. Describe what that means. Thank you. Yeah. So a Jew returning to their ancestral home and Alia means to go up. I mean, it's kind of a reference to going up to Jerusalem in the holy days. But in this case, I'm just referring to, you know, making their way to Jerusalem, making their way back to their ancestral home. And, you know, and I have a friend who wants to do this as a Jewish believer. And when he was investigated, actually what seemed to, like, shut his case down was the fact that, you know, his wife was, they discovered that his wife was a believer.

She went to a Christian college and things. Look, this is a blind. This is such a scandal. I mean, you're, you're such a sweet man and you're, you're, you're such a sweet man. and you speak about this so gently. But, I mean, to me, I'm a little more hot-blooded. I cannot believe when I hear this. This is amazing to me.

This is something so dark. It's such a black mark on Israel that evangelicals have been the most unbelievably staunch supporters of Israel, of this government, of Netanyahu. And to hear that they have this prejudice, to my mind, it's very telling that there are people, somehow who have an animus against believers in Jesus, and they have a loud voice in Israel. And I find it interesting that they don't have a problem with atheists.

They don't have a problem with all the Jews who say, oh, I'm a Buddhist. They don't have a problem with any of that. But they have a problem if you say, I believe in Jesus. That is an amazing thing to me. I still wonder who is behind this and why Netanyahu. would not stand against it. Well, you know, you know what I'm reminded of, Eric, my dad, and by the way, I was thinking about your dad the other day and love you and I'm so sorry for the absence.

Thank God. Everything's moving towards the king. We're all going to be together. But, you know, my dad told me, Eric, that my grandmother, there was a time in our country, she couldn't vote, right? It's like, I can't even wrap my mind around that. This is a blind spot. It is a blind spot that there needs to be.

light thrown on it. And look, I really believe evangelicals and we're the greatest friends of Israel. We need to speak of this. We need to communicate this. And I told the, I told the Knesset speaker, I mean, wonderful man, Amir O'Han, a great meeting. Got to pray with them. Open up Psalm 2. But I told him, look, this is going to increasingly become an issue because what's happening Theologically and doctrinally, if you will, is believers in the West are recognizing, hey, you know, the Jesus movement, I mean, began in Jerusalem, right? I mean, we're in, the idea is that, you know, we're invited into this genius plan from eternity past to eternity of future in and through Israel, the Messiah of Israel.

God is a peace plan and is for the entire world. And ultimately, everything is culminating back to Jerusalem, because Jesus, Jesus was returning to Jerusalem. And I just told him, because I'm protective of Israel. I mean, deep down inside, I want them living their full potential. And this is going to be critical. They must make this adjustment. They must stop equating, like if you believe, hold a particular ideology of religion,

that it could potentially cancel your ethnicity, insane. I mean, that's insane. In addition to that, can I just say, I have to say, yeah. No, I just want to say, Jesus is the most famous Jew in the history of man. I mean, far exceeds, you know, with all due respect, the rabbi Halal and Akiva. I mean, and what we can do, Eric, I believe in helping this. If I could just quickly say, think of Joseph when he was in Egypt, and he's now dressed in Egyptian garb, and his brothers come and meet him.

They don't know it's their brother. And we in the West need to make sure that Israel sees the Jewishness of Jesus. When we were there, I was making, alluding this earlier, but when we were there in our delegation, I kid you not. We got to share the gospel, pray with people. But I would say like 30% of the people we communicated, precious Israelis, had no idea Jesus was a Jew. And look, evangelical. Holy guacamole. We're at a time.

Let's leave it. There's the headline. Jesus was a Jew. Guess what, folks? That's true. We all know his mother was Italian. We'll talk about that on another show. Greg Denham, my friend. Thank you. Folks, please go to the context movement.com, the context movement.com and spread these articles. They're at All Israel News and Christian Post. Greg Denham, D-E-N-H-A-M. Greg, thank you. Thank you so much. Welcome back. Some of you know it's my privilege on this program to highlight the work of heroes in America. and the Alliance Defending Freedom, they're at the top of the list. If you knew what they were doing, we can only touch on it on this program,

but if you knew what they were doing, you'd want to help. And that's a part of why I have my guest on Jeremy Tedesco. He's a senior council at ADF, senior vice president of corporate engagement for Alliance Defending Freedom. And I want to exhort everybody who's listening to help the Alliance Defending Freedom. We are in a tremendous battle in this nation, and people often say to me, what can I do? And I say, there are many things you can do. One of the things you can do, especially now, is give to the Alliance Defending Freedom. We're raising money for them on this program.

And folks, I hope you have some sense of how serious this is. And that whatever little bit you can do or a lot, it's really needed now. This is not, we're not exaggerating. This is very serious. The phone number, if you want to be. want to dial the phone number is 855-385-0-5-96, 855-385-0-5-96. And the website is metaxistococococ.com. You'll see the banner metaxistoctalk.com. So Jeremy Tedesco, we were talking about debanking and how the federal government is attacking people in terms of their ability to do, to make financial transactions. It's a

scary and amazing moment that we've come to an American history. And to me, the only good news is that it's waking some people up. Yeah, I think that's right. I mean, we've seen debanking, especially on the basis of viewpoint, has been on the rise the last few years. This hearing last week was really kind of the crescendo of everything we've been seeing. One of our clients' indigenous advanced ministries is a small ministry in Tennessee that does relief work over in Uganda, builds wells, feeds kids, helps widows and orphans. They got debanked by Bank of America. last year in April had been a long-time customer there and just were told, look, your risk tolerance exceeds our risk tolerance policies at this point. No good reason at all. We see this again and in

again and again. And so it's on the rise. National Committee for Religious Freedom was debanked by Chase. The Arkansas Family Council that does pro-life and pro-religious liberty work and Arkansas get debanked by Chase for being so-called high risk. And so we know these things are happening. we know the federal government has incredible control through the regulators that operate on a day-to-day basis in banks, supervising them to push disfavored industries and people outside of the financial marketplace. This is a real problem. And we definitely need to solve for it, whether through litigation or legislation or just like Chairman Jordan is doing shining sunlight on this as a disinfectant. I think the more and more we pressure banks to knock off these practices and even put regulatory, you know, pressure on them to knock it off, the better off everybody's going to be. Nobody should be afraid they're going to lose their bank account because of their political or religious beliefs.

There are enough Americans who claim to love God, who claim to be Christians, that if we were all to do the tiniest bit, this stuff would end. but most Americans who claim to be Christians who claim to love liberty aren't doing anything. They think somebody else has this covered. And I'm here to tell you, folks, that's not right. We need to each do something. If we each would do the tiniest bit, it would be game-changing, which is why we're doing this fundraiser with the Alliance defending freedom. I cannot underscore it sufficiently. We each need to do something.

Some folks who are listening can do a lot, but everyone listening can do something. And I ask you, folks, please go to metaxistalk.com, whoever you are, whatever you can do, for your own consciences sake, do something. Metaxistalk.com is the website. We're trying to raise a lot of money. Every tiny bit will help. We want you to be generous. go to metaxis talk.com or call 855-385-0-5-96, 855-385-0-5-9-6. 855-385-0-5-96.

God bless you.