TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Holy Land Day 8: Matthew 24 and the Refuge City of Pella

Episode Date: May 5, 2022

Today on TruNews, the team spends its last day in the field exploring the ruins of the ancient city of Pella, Jordan. According to historians Eusebius, Epiphanius, Regimitus, and Josephus, this is the place that Christians fled to before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., prophesied by Jesus in Matthew 24. The team also visits Umm Qais, known in the Bible as Gadara, the place where Jesus cast out Legion into the herd of swine. Rick Wiles, Doc Burkhart. Airdate 5/5/22Holy Land Day 1: Ancient Roman City and Elijah's Mountain - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49569185Holy Land Day 2: The City of Aqaba and the World’s Oldest Church - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49573636Holy Land Day 3: Wadi Musa, Moses’ Spring, and the Gateway to Petra - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49587574Holy Land Day 4: Explorations at Ancient Petra - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49599828Holy Land Day 5: From the Dead Sea to the Mosaic Churches of Madaba - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49630066Holy Land Day 6: The Journey from Mount Nebo to the Jordan River - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49644875Holy Land Day 7: The Revelation Church City of Philadelphia, Today’s Amman - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49660019

The following program is made possible by the faithful prayers and financial support of listeners just like you. To find out how you can help, visit www.truenews.com. This is True News and this is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. This is our last day in our exploration of Jordan, the other side of the Holy Land. Tomorrow I'm scheduled to interview one of the most influential Arab businessmen in the Middle East. And that will be a very interesting and informative interview for Friday. And then Doc and I will board the aircraft to fly back to the United States along with our cameraman, Lee. And we will be back in the studio on Monday. We are standing right now atop a beautiful scene overlooking Jordan and the land

that you see back there, that used to be Jordan. Jordan lost it in the 1967 war. That is the West Bank of Palestine that has been occupied by the Israeli Defense Force soldiers since 1967. You can see the beautiful, fertile farmland. But that is Palestine. And we are right now in the upper northwest corner of Jordan. Now, Doc, this is actually, for me, this is one of the most exciting days in this two-week trip. Yes. Because, here's why.

Some of you have emailed us and said, Doc, Rick, when you were at Petra, why didn't you talk about that the Christians fled to Petra before the city of Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D.? Well, there's a reason. They did not flee to Petra before the destruction of Jerusalem. They fled to this city. We are in Pella. The Christians went to Pella. Indiana Jones went to Petra.

Yes, but the Christians went to Pella. Yes. So Petra is at the far southern point of Jordan, and Pella is at the upper northwest corner of Jordan. So, Indiana Jones went south to Petra, the Christians went north to Pella. Now, we might want to inform people about the timeline of how events happened, how, why did the Christians end up here in this particular place. There is a local tradition that Pella is the area where Jesus fasted for 40 days. There's nothing in scripture to confirm that, of course. But he spent a lot of time in this area.

Yes, all around this area. And that's another thing that has really struck me on this trip, Rick, is how much time Jesus spent up here in the northern part of Jordan, in Syria, in the Decapolis region. In fact most of the Gospels are accounts of what Jesus and His ministry did up here not in Jerusalem. He didn't spend much time in Jerusalem because the Jews were going to kill Him. Right. He came out to the Gentiles. The miracles were performed among the Gentiles. He knew that if He stayed in Jerusalem He

would be executed. He went back to Jerusalem when it was time to allow the Jews to crucify Him. Now Rick in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 Jesus tells His disciples, they ask Him the question about what's going to happen in the future, what's going to happen in the future, what's going to happen, you know, and then at the end of the world. And one of the things he says to his disciples in both Matthew 24, Luke 21, and also in Mark, that when you see armies encompassed about Jerusalem, you need to flee to the mountains. Now, most people put that at 70 AD, right? Because they say, well, that was the destruction of Jerusalem.

But there's more to the story, right? Well, Doc, a lot of the Christian Zionists today, the rapture people, they believe that prophecy is for the future. Right. That, you know, you should flee when you see these things happening when you see modern day jerusalem surrounded by the armies of the world you should flee no no that prophecy already took place it already happened because the disciples asked jesus three questions and the second question was related to this yes and so they wanted to know

when will the temple be destroyed right what is the sign of your coming what is the sign of the end of the age he answered all three questions in one long answer that spans matthew 24 and matthew 25 but a lot of people get caught up on it because they think that the answer about the destruction of the temple refers to the future to the second coming right but that was a prophecy at the time he gave it it had not happened right but the christians living in jerusalem at when when the roman armies came they knew what jesus said and they got out of town and they came here and that migration and historical accounts say all the christians left jerusalem all of them and they migrated to the area of paria the paria is the area all around

here but in particular tradition has it that they came here to this particular area pella and this is where they resided where there was a a Christian community for an extended period of time. And this isn't just the speculation from us. This is from historians like Eusebius, Epiphanius, Regimitis, and so others that had access to more historical information than we do that confirmed that there was a mass migration of Christians from Jerusalem to this area, but not in 70 AD, but in 66 AD. So why did they leave four years before the destruction of Jerusalem? Well, depending on who you ask, we'll do the Josephus story first. And you had told this story before, and when I found it again today, it was related directly to this, that in around April or May of AD 66, something, a mysterious phenomenon happened that around Jerusalem was heard armies marching and chariots riding in the clouds around Jerusalem. It was supernatural.

Right. And Josephus says it was something out of the ordinary. Josephus gives very detailed descriptions of numerous supernatural warnings God sent to the people of Jerusalem. unbelieving Jews interpreted the supernatural signs as signs from heaven that God was going to deliver the Jews from their enemies. But the believing Jews, the Christians, they said, that's what Jesus told us. Right. In Matthew 24, 15, when you see the armies encompassed around Jerusalem, that will be the sign that you need to flee. And so the Christians of that particular time, they took that as a warning. Now, there was also an account by Epiphanius who said that an angel appeared to a group of believers in Jerusalem and told them this is that sign.

This is the time to flee. He also said that there was an oracle, a prophet, who told them it was time to flee. And so this happened around 66 AD. So there was a period of time for about two to three years that there was a migration out of Jerusalem as the tensions continued to rise in the Jerusalem area. And to give you an idea, Jerusalem isn't like, you know, 10 miles down the road here. Jerusalem's 80 miles to the south. And so this was a mass, you know, event. This was a big deal

to be able to move. Remember, you had to walk that. You didn't drive it. And you left everything behind. That's right. In fact, Jesus said that. Don't even worry about taking anything. Just get up there as quick as you can and so doc i have to think about uh you know the christians in the first century who believed what jesus said said i'm there there'll be a day that you will have to leave your home immediately don't take anything with you just leave the city's going to be destroyed and they believe the word of the Lord and they departed. Here we are today in 2022 and anybody paying close attention to world events, the Russians in the past four to six weeks have numerous times told America and Western Europe, we are prepared to destroy your cities. And yet the Christians in America and Europe continue to sleep. They're just sleeping. They're ignoring the warnings, the warnings that are clear in scripture to be prepared. But the Christians at the first century

said, we believe the Lord we're leaving. Their attitude wasn't, uh, Hey, I'm staying here. This is my home. I'm staying. I'm not going to ever leave. No, they said, the Lord said, we have to flee if we want to live. And what I thought was significant in the historical documentation that talked about the migration here to Pelot, it said all the Christians left, all of them. That's because nobody survived the siege on Jerusalem, Doc. Right. If you weren't killed by the Romans, you were killed by the zealots inside the walls.

Or you starved to death. Right. So the Christians trusted the Lord. They believed him. And they left Jerusalem. And this is where they came. They didn't go south to Petra. They went north to Pella.

Right. came. They didn't go south to Petra. They went north to Pella. And so what Doc and I are going to do today is we're going to walk around the sites of Pella. There are many ruins here. I'm looking right now behind you, Doc, is the remains of a church. And to our back, there's the remains of a church. Actually, three different churches on this particular site mainly from anywhere from the fourth to sixth centuries about the eighth century the city of Pella was completely abandoned because there was a major earthquake that occurred and so everybody left Pella at that point and so a lot of this has remained untouched one of our guides told us they're still discovering things here at Pella. Over my right shoulder here is, they found up on this mountaintop, a fort and a jail. And they said in the jail they still found individuals shackled, mummified in there.

Still tied up. Still tied up. That was a lifelong sentence. Yes, and so still don't know how many centuries they were there, but it had to extend from probably the 7th or 8th century. So amazing things we're finding here. Spiritually, one of the exciting things I've learned about this place is Epiphanius wrote that the Christians who had returned from Pella back to Jerusalem. Now, this was probably 59, 60 years after the destruction of Jerusalem. So in the second century, yes. Some of the Christians who fled here went back to Jerusalem

to start life over. And he said that they were, that the Christians were performing miracles. There were signs and wonders, supernatural things happening as they preached the gospel i think epiphanius said it was the disciples of the disciples of the apostles yes say that again the disciples of the disciples of the apostles returned back to the area of jerusalem remember jerusalem been completely leveled there was no jerusalem at that point but returned to the area where jerusalem had formerly been and attempted to restart life and preaching the gospel and doing miracles back at the beginning and mid of the second century. So. All right. Well, Doc, Bassam's got the SUV waiting for us. He's going to drive us around to some of these sites that the government officials

here, the tourism officials have given us permission nobody else is allowed to drive here uh but your true news team is allowed to drive we are we've been given special treatment the entire two weeks that we've been here and we're very grateful to the jordanian people well this is definitely a site that people need to visit would you agree absolutely this was way up high on the list and And again, we're planning to bring our first group from America to Jordan in October of 2022. So if you're interested, email us at info at truenews.com and just say, keep me informed about the trip to Jordan. We don't even know yet the exact dates and the cost. Doc and I are here to scout out the territory and put together this plan to bring you over here and see it.

I will probably do two different trips. There will be the regular tourist trip, and then there will be a second one later, the more arduous adventurous trip. Yes. Because we have done a lot of climbing and a lot of walking, and so we know that a lot of our guests that will come with us in October are not going to be physically up to doing the climbing that we have been doing. But there's still plenty to see here, plenty to do. Yes. So we're going to make that first trip the places that you can get to without a lot of physical exertion.

Now, the second trip, those of you who are adventurous, that's going to be another trip. There are plenty of opportunities for that. All right. Let's go get in the SUV. We're going to drive around here in the ruins of Pella and try to tell the story of what happened here. The Christians who fled Jerusalem at the command of the Lord to get out of Jerusalem because Jerusalem would be destroyed.

My friends, that city that people are going to today on pilgrimages to Israel, that is not Jerusalem. That is Hadrian City. That is a Roman city. Via Dolorosa. It doesn't exist, my friends. That's a tourist trap. That city was destroyed. old jerusalem is underneath and what is built on top what people are visiting today thinking it's jerusalem that is the city built by hadrian yes the the uh conqueror who came and destroyed um well he didn't he he's the one who rebuilt. He rebuilt a lot of things here. Didn't rebuild it. He built a new city on top of the rubble. So we want to bring you to Jordan. This is the other half of the Holy Land, and there is so much to see here. You could spend a month here and not see all of it.

So let's go and you and I will explore together. The area that we're standing in, this entire region, as I look out across the Jordan Valley, this is Canaan land. Yes. The Canaan land of the Bible. So about 70 miles away is Mount Nebo, where Moses first saw the promised land. It's where somewhere in that vicinity is where Moses was buried. He never got to this place to see Canaan land, but this is Canaan land. As in Canaanites. Yes. And so when the Hebrew people arrived here, that's who they met, Canaanites. They had to deal with the Canaanites who were living here, and God had given them instructions to remove the Canaanites and possess the land.

So wherever you had Canaanites, you had Canaan temples. Right. High places. High places. So what is behind us is a Canaanite temple where they worship Baal. Now, all this stuff we read in the Bible is suddenly real. It's alive to us right now. This is where the Canaanites, this is one place, not the only place. This is one of the places that the Canaanites worship Baal. And, Doc, this archaeological find is actually fairly recent.

Right. A group from Australia discovered it in 1994, and they've had several expeditions here over the past 20 years or so, 25 years or so. And each time they find a little bit more, a little bit more. This particular site here, this Canaanite temple that we're standing next to, and once again, Rick, to read about it in the bible and then to actually see it uh firsthand uh there are actually several layers of temples here uh so they built over many ages yes and so the first one that they've been able to determine uh dates from about 1650 bc and so that predates uh you know uh the children of israel coming in the promised. It's about the time of Abraham. And so the Canaanites were here worshiping their false god Baal.

Right. And then over succeeding centuries, the temple was rebuilt and built right on top of it. And so right here you have three different layers of temple, and you can actually see the different layers because the Australians, just by the different style of stonework and everything that actually see the different layers because the Australians just by the different style of stonework and everything that's in the walls you can determine where the where one temple ended and next temple was built on top of another temple built on top. You know Bale must have liked chickpeas because they found chickpeas in there. Yes that was interesting and so

and what they would do is each time they would rebuild, they'd dig a big pit, and they'd throw all their old stuff down in that pit and cover it up and everything. And the Australians found it's about a 50-foot hole over here that they just kept digging down, digging down, and keep finding things related back nearly 4,000 years ago. It's hard to imagine that this particular site was used for worship of the false god for nearly 4,000 years. Well, archaeologists say that this region is one of the oldest human inhabited places in the world. They have found traces of human civilization dating back to 5,500 BC. Right. Now, Doc, this pillar, and I don't know what you can see with the camera, there's a pillar here. There's also a pillar over there. These were called cult stands. And the worshipers of Baal would place food on top of these pillars, on these cult stands, because they believed Baal would consume it eat it they

brought their offerings their animal offerings their food their vegetables they would bring it and place it on these these stands right to feed Baal to please him to appease him so you know we actually can see some of the the items of Baal worship still standing here today. And if you look in different areas here, you see about what we'd consider about an 8 by 10 boxed block wall, blocked off and everything. Those are called cow boxes. And basically they were used for bringing the sacrifices in and that they would be prepared for the sacrifice in this they actually and there's another place here that they actually it's in the center right over here behind us rick

it was their holy of holies they had a holy of holies in their temple uh as well and only certain so the unholy of unholy yes and so uh so many fascinating... So does that mean that the Baal temple priests entered into that area and had direct communion with Baal? That would mean, that's what you'd have to assume. So the devil showed up here. Right. So, well, hey, there's one more thing I want to point out about this site. Archaeologists have found that there was an intense fire here that destroyed this temple. And they also believe that an earthquake took place because the rocks are charred. They said that there was an intense heat here. And there was also some destructive force like an earthquake.

So I would send that out as a warning to the pagans in America. That's right. What makes you think you're gonna do better than the Canaanites that worship Baal? They were destroyed by fire and earthquake and the same will happen to the pagans in America if they don't change their ways, repent, and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. Doc and I are going to get back in the SUV. We're going to drive around. We're still in Pella.

Yeah, we're in Pella. We're at the archaeological site that's under the Ministry of Tourism here in Pella. And I want to see one or more of the ancient churches that are here. I don't know if we're going to get up to the top of the mountain where the jail, the fortress is at. The closer you get to the mountain. The bigger it gets. The bigger it gets. The steeper it gets.

All right. I'm not sure. Maybe if I had a helicopter. But they said we can't drive up there. Now, Bassam said it's easy to drive up there. Yeah. All right? There are no stone walls to get your SUV stuck in.

We've got a mountain goat SUV. But the park manager said we can't drive up there. So I don't know if we're going to climb this today. Maybe another day, Doc, but not today. I doubt it. All right, let's go try to find one of the ancient churches. Well, Doc and I are church hopping in downtown Pella, Jordan. There are at least four known churches here that have been excavated. We're standing in the largest one. There's one

behind us that you can see up on a hilltop. That's the smallest one. But before we talk about this church, Doc, let's talk about the two other churches that we saw. One, the church itself was rather small, but the structure was large. Right. It was obvious where the church was because you could see where the columns were and where they called the nave, where the front of the church was. It was really obvious. But connected to it, that small chapel, it seemed like, were a number of smaller, for us, they'd be rooms. But it looks like they were houses or dwelling places, but they're all connected together. So the people actually lived connected to the church.

Right. And that's not unusual because a lot of people did that. I mean, they lived close to the church, especially if they were a called out Christian community of some type. It could also function at some time as a monastery or something along that line. So think about it today in our modern world. Imagine a condominium or an apartment complex, and inside the condominium building or the apartment complex is the church. And everybody in the building belongs to the church. Right. So it was, you know, a place of commonality. And there was a, you could see all the smaller structures and then

there was a large open room in the middle of it where it was likely they had fellowship meals and so they they took care of each other they shared meals together they watched out for each other but where we're standing right now there was another church we we walked down and we we saw another church that had been excavated and um uh, and there's not a lot that we know. We're kind of doing this on a wing and a prayer here because there's not a lot of information available to us from the tourism department. This site is—there's a lot of work that needs to be done here to develop this as a thriving tourist site. But the thing that caught my attention on the second church site, Doc, is on the hillside, there's a footprint. It sure looks like a big footprint.

What is that? To me, it looks like a dinosaur footprint. So we're in Canaan land. Land of giants. There were giants here. Was one of the giants walking his pet? His pet dinosaur somewhere? It is an unusual thing to look at.

It's either a dinosaur footprint or some boys around here are having some fun and said, let's dig out a big dinosaur footprint and fool all these American tourists when they come in here. But it is an unusual formation in the hillside. So now we're at the largest church. Right. And this is a Byzantine era church that lands at somewhere in between four and 600 AD. Well, they believe, Doc, they believe that it was built somewhere in the late 390s or early 400s. And the reason, there's two reasons that they have for it. Number one, they found coins here in the church. Right.

And the dates on the coin, I think some of the coins were dated 398. And there were other coins that were dated in the early 400s, 410, 420. So it had to be in existence then. Yes. And then the second reason is they found a mosaic tile floor and the Christian cross was in the floor by mosaic tile. Now this is why they can date it from the Christian crosses. The emperor Theodosius II issued a decree in 427 AD that made it illegal for churches to have crosses in their floor. That's true. I forgot about that, but you're right. That was the iconoclast controversy.

See, governments and politicians have always feared the cross. Yes. So keep that in mind. If you want to rattle a government official, preach the cross. Now, this was a pretty large structure, Rick. I mean, it would compete with a lot of churches today. This is quite large. And it had these two rows of columns that supported a roof structure of some kind.

It had to be a church of significant size because the nave or the front of the church is huge. That's way back there. And there were two side naves to it as well. So that offered the opportunities for smaller services or celebrations or even baptisms. But what I found interesting was what was behind the nave. And so I went behind there, and there's a set of steps that lead into a wall, to stop at a wall but it it looks like at some point in the past that wall had been sealed up you can look inside it looks like it's an old

cave that had been sealed up so maybe uh it was used as a crypt maybe it was used as a you know burial place of some kind uh so and that was common too, you know, and even to this day, some priests and religious leaders are buried with the church or in the church. And so it wouldn't be that unusual to find that out. There's also a theater down here, Doc, below, to my left. It's hard to see it from this point we're standing, but it is directly below and it's not as large as the other theaters that we have seen but usually we'd sit about four or five hundred people yes so so you know what the first thing that came to my mind is faith and values faith here at the church values over here

at the theater religion and culture culture were connected. They were not competitive. They were not at odds with each other. Faith, religious faith, and cultural values were one. So they had the theater next to the church. The people at the other place, they were living around the church building, literally connected, their homes connected to the church building. So that's the idea that we are trying to generate with our audience here now is we're learning so much from the history of the church, about the history of the church, just by observing the sites that we're visiting here in Jordan. And there is no better way to get the scripture and Christian history to open up than to actually be here for it. That's right. There's one more site I'd like to see, but we're going to pass on this one. way to get the scripture and in christian history to open up than to actually be here for that's

right there's one more site i'd like to see but we're going to pass on this one that's the fortress on top the hill but we would need a mountain goat a mountain goat or an atv to get up there um the uh you can see all the goat trails on the mountain so obviously the goats made it at some point but and that that fortress prison has just been excavated in the past two or three years. That's what the curators were telling us here earlier. And so still finding things here, adding a further dimension to history. Folks, you've got to come to Pella. When we come back in October, I promise we will come to Pella.

You've got to be here to see this place. This is the site where the Jerusalem Christians fled before the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. It's right here. Now this church is not, they weren't in this church. No. Because this church was built about 300 and some years after they fled, but Christians stayed. Right. it just shows you that there was a significant christian community here big enough to support at least four churches yes a church at least a church of this size and this was their mega church right yeah this was the big church here in in the city as far as we know because there could be more churches in these hillsides. They're continuing to find things every year. And we've seen sites of archaeological poachers have been here, digging in the mountainsides, obviously looking for

artifacts, distilled things. By the way, we have some Dredanian children down here by the tree. They've been following us throughout the day. I guess we're TV cameras from America. We're the main attraction here today. It could also be that we're cramping their style today, Rick, because they often come up here and play soccer in the open area. This is their soccer field? Yes. Oh, okay. I guess we should wrap it up and let the kids play soccer.

All kids play soccer in ancient church ruins, right? Right. You know, 1,600 years old. All right. This is going to be our final stop in Pella. We have one more stop on this trip to Jordan. And then tomorrow, my special guest will be one of the most prominent and well-respected Arab businessmen in the Middle East.

You don't want to miss that interview. We're going to talk about the New World Order, the Great Reset, a building plan for the Middle East, cryptocurrency, blockchain, war, world war, and so forth. Very knowledgeable man. And you don't want to miss that interview. And then we get on the aircraft and fly back to the United States of America. And we'll think about all of our friends that we met here in Jordan so on to our next stop on to the next one you're watching true news well this is our last stop in our journey to the Holy Land in Jordan and we are in the area called Jadara in the Bible the modern name is Umquay. Yes. And we're at the far

northern tip of Jordan. If you look over here you can see the Sea of Galilee. Also behind us is the Golan Heights. Syria begins right here and of course the Golan Heights was claimed by the Israelis. Also the land over here is Palestinian. It's occupied by the Israeli defense force. But this is the land of the Bible. It's all the Holy Land. And you know what? God owns the land. It's very, very clear in the land. Yes. It's very very clear in the Bible God owns the land. He only allows people to live there. Yes. And I've said often living in the Holy Land requires living holy in the land. So it's been it's been an honor to be here that the Jordanian people have treated us so kindly and we really have only scratched the surface we haven't been

to all the sites and many of the sites that we went to doc um we could have spent many hours there we were kind of rushed through some of the sites there's just so much to see everywhere you look there are archaeological ruins i it's just i've never seen anything like this in my life. Right. Even after our visit to Israel, we've both been to Israel. Nothing like what we see here in Jordan. Archaeological ruins are so common. As we just saw in the last place, children play soccer on the remains of a 1,600-year-old church. They're everywhere. So why did we come to Jeddah? There's a reason. Something very important happened.

Now, over here, the Sea of Galilee, you had Capernaum. What are the other cities? Tiberias. Right, and Nazareth to the south. Nazareth, yes, is over here. So Jesus did much of his ministry in this region, not in Jerusalem. He was out here with the Gentiles, and he performed many of his miracles among these people, the Palestinians.

And so one of the most important miracles that he did happened in this town right here known as Jedera. The ancient ruins are just right over here. They're still digging up the buildings. They said it would take decades to excavate the entire site. But Doc, let's talk about what Jesus did here. Right. So in Luke chapter 8, it tells the story that Jesus left Capernaum, which was on the far side of Galilee, the Sea of Galilee over here. And he told his disciples, we're going to go by ship. We're going to cross from the north end down here to the south end. And something happened on the sea.

Right. And that was the disturbance on the lake, the storm on the lake. He calmed the sea. He calmed the sea. And he's coming here. He had a purpose to come here he had a purpose to come here and had a mission to come here and when he came here to this area he cast out legion that was the luke chapter 8 the story of legion and so well you know what's interesting doc uh three of the

gospels tell the story uh the gospel of saint john doesn't tell it right but in Matthew and Mark there's there's only there's only one demoniac right in Luke there's two yes that means he still cast out at least one yes so but but still it was in this region in this area that he cast the the demons out into the herd of swine they cast themselves off a cliff into the water. Yeah. So the demoniac was living in the caves. Right.

He was howling at night like a crazy animal. He was cutting himself with sharp rocks. He was naked. He frightened everybody that lived around here. They were terrified of this man. They could hear him over here in the in the mountainside in the caves they could hear him howling and screaming at night yes like a crazy man he was demon possessed and so jesus jesus and the disciples came off the boat somewhere down in here yes and and somewhere

in this region right over here they met the two demoniacs. Right. We know that one was delivered. Yes. Now, so, Doc, as you said, Jesus ordered the demons to go into a herd of swine. That means that's how we know it's Gentile country. Yes. Because no Jew would be a herding swine. That's right and so the pigs then ran the herd of pigs ran off a high hill and jumped into the sea so somewhere out in here in this region there was

a cliff that these pigs were able to leap off of and and fall into the sea and drown right now that commotion the pig squealing jumping off the cliff and everything, that drew the attention of the people of Jedera here because they came out. And so somewhere in this area, the town existed. And so the townspeople walked over there to the Sea of Galilee to see what was going on. The rumor had come to the town. This Jesus has come here, he has performed a miracle, he's cast the demons out of the demoniac in the caves, and he's walking around sane in his right mind, fully clothed, and telling everybody Jesus did it. And what happened?

Well, as the story goes on in Luke chapter 8 the man who had been delivered or at least one of the men had been delivered came to Jesus and said can I be a disciple can I follow you at this time and Jesus told him no you stay right here you stay in this city and you tell everybody about me that's's right. But something happened before that. The people of Jedera escorted Jesus out of town. They said, please, just leave. We don't want you here. We don't want these miracles. Leave.

Go away. This is too bizarre to us. Just go away. Demoniak was delivered. Right. Set free. And the people said, we would rather have him out there screaming than to have the son of god here setting men free from demons but that's what happened to

this town but the town's not here anymore is it you know it's gone but doc mentioned that the demoniac who had been set free uh the next scene is that he's fully clothed in his right mind, and he's talking to Jesus, and he wants to become a disciple. He wants to join Jesus and the disciples, and Jesus said, no, I want you to stay here in J known as the first evangelist to the Gentiles yes and so it's just an amazing story now he was probably a Gentile okay I think we can probably assume that there might have been that might have been good reason why Jesus said no you can't be a disciple right now because his first ministry was to the Jews. Yes. And so, but he still had a calling on him. Jesus put the calling on him.

What was that call? To stay. Stay in your hometown. And go to your neighbor. And preach the gospel. Tell the people who set you free. And what was the gospel for that man? Being free from demons.

Demonic possession. Happened right here in this area well this wraps up our journey to jordan tomorrow well before uh i want to show you you probably can hear we're up on a on a upper level porch right they've rebuilt uh ancient judea or at least portions of it where we're at right now is uh buildings are from the ottoman period yes from the about 1800s early 1900s and they've been pretty much preserved our uh curator who's walking around with us he actually grew up spent 10 years of his early life here living here before the government uh made it an, you know, historical site and everything.

Yeah, he showed us his grandfather's house. His grandfather was a wheat farmer here. And so people were actually living in this village atop this hill up until, you know, as recently as 20, 30 years ago. Yes. Well, right below us, as we go down the steps, there's a restaurant, a a cafe and there's a lot of Arabic music and it's filled with tourists right now people very people very happy our guy told us he said this this location that we're at right now it will it will chase away the pressures of life meaning just come up here and sit and look at God's

creation this is the Holy Land So we want you to come with us in October. If you're interested, email us at info at truenews.com. Info at truenews.com. Say, put me on the mailing list. I want to know about the trip to Jordan. You're not making a commitment. We don't even know the dates and the prices yet, but we want to get that information to you in the coming weeks. Tomorrow, I'm going to be interviewing one of the most influential and respected Arab businessmen in the Middle East, and we're going to be talking about the New World Order, the Great Reset, cryptocurrency, blockchain, the rebuilding of the Middle East, World War III. He's got a lot of things.

This man travels all over the world. And he is known by government leaders and business people on almost every continent of the planet. So be sure to tune in for that. And he likes true news. Yes. And Monday, we're back in the studio. And we'll have a lot more stories to tell because we can't tell it all that we've been on in the past two weeks. All right. On behalf of Doc Burkhardt, I'm Rick Wiles signing off here from Jordan in the Holy Land, the other side of the Holy Land.

Again, tomorrow, a special broadcast from Jordan. And then we will be back in the United States next Monday. God bless. See you soon. God bless. See you soon. God bless you. The preceding program was made possible by the faithful prayers and financial support of listeners. Just like you to find out how you can help visit www.true news.com.