TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Journey to Jordan Day 2: TruNews Viewers Encounter Pella, Mar Elias, and Jerash

Episode Date: November 11, 2022

On today's TruNews, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart share with the audience the highlights of our first full day of our Journey to Jordan, along with tour participants from all over the US and around the world. On today's visit, we explore the ancient city of Pella, where Christians fled during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. We then visit the birthplace of Elijah, Mar Elias, and observe the remains of two 5th & 6th century churches dedicated to the Old Testament prophet. On our last stop for the day, our tour sees what life was like for New Testament believers in the first century by visiting one of the cities of the Decapolis, Jerash. There we see the preserved remains of the Roman empire, and relate that to our Christian faith. Rick Wiles, Doc Burkhart. Airdate 11/11/22.A hilarious gift idea for Christmas 2022! Order your Fauci Elf! https://tru.news/faucielfIt’s the Final Day! The day when Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. You can order the second edition of Rick’s book, Final Day. https://www.rickwiles.com/final-dayYou can partner with us by visiting TruNews.com/donate or by calling 1-800-576-2116 or by mail at PO Box 690069 Vero Beach, FL 32969.

Well, this is True News, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help us God. I'm Rick Wiles, and with me is Doc Burkhart, and we are in Amman, Jordan tonight. And this is a beautiful view of the city. And the neighborhood that we're in right now is Abdoom. Yes. So it's where a lot of the embassies are located. A lot of the diplomats live in this area.

We've had our first day of travel with the True News Tour group. Who have been just a great group. Yes, and all of us are exhausted right now. We're fighting off sleep. It's what time? About 9 p.m.? About 10 o'clock. 10 p.m., and yeah, I feel it.

So we've been up and moving. I woke up at 3 a.m. this morning, and my body was wide awake. But it's not wide awake right now. So we're experiencing that second day of jet lag, which is the catch-up day. Yes, but it was a great day. It was. Wow. This gang of True News supporters are a great bunch of people. Really?

We've had a good time, and we have people from all over the United States. All over the world, actually. In the world. We've got a brother that flew in from Australia to be here. Yes. I mean, he got the prize for the longest trip. He flew from Australia to New York City and then New York City to Oman. Wow. Just to be here.

So it's great knowing him. But we've had a good time. We've gotten to talk with a lot of the people here. And, you know, judging by the smiles on their faces, they're having a good time too. Yes. judging by the smiles on their faces, they're having a good time too. Yes, and we just have had some great conversations, not just about the sites that we've seen, but about just things in general. I'm surprised with people, how many people that are on the trip, Rick, that have been viewers and listeners for many years,

and also surprised by how many are just recent viewers of the program. We've got people who've been watching 12, 14, 15 years, and we have people who've been watching less than six months. Yes. They saw you one time talk about the Jordan trip and said, I'm going on that trip. I know. I know. I was talking to one gentleman.

He said, no, I really don't watch you that much. I said, well, you must watch me enough that you're here in Jordan. He goes, I saw that show. And he came on. He's here. But it's good. We're enjoying it. It's a great trip, Rick, and good people. We're having a great time, but we're also learning some great things, too.

We are. We are. So today, we were up and moving about pretty early, got everybody on the bus, and headed out. Our first stop to see was the city of Pella. Right. And for those who don't remember from our first trip, Pella is actually the place of refuge that Christians in A.D. 70, when they fled Jerusalem, they went to Pella. Yes. And established a community there, a community that lasted many years. Several churches over several centuries were built in Pella. And so we had the opportunity to share with our group and with the people there the things that transpired during that escape from Jerusalem.

That's right. There are a number of ancient churches there in Pella. The ruins are still there. You can walk around and see the pillars and the floors. And there's, I'm trying to think, some of the other things that are there in the city that are not necessarily connected to the Christians who were there. Well, there's the Canaanite temple that's there. Yeah, there's a Canaanite temple. Right. Which, I mean, goes back to, what, 600 B.C.?

Yes, that's right. And so you realize, hey, this is where they were worshiping to Baal. Right. And this is one of the temples. And, you know, they got knocked down. Well, actually, three different times. They rebuilt the Canaanite temple three different times. But what I was showing the tour group today is from where we were standing from the visitor center, you could look

at the remains of Pella and you could see about 5,000 years of history sitting right in front of you with everything that's been discovered right there. And a big portion of that was also related to our faith as believers. That's right. So I gave our group a short lesson on the biblical importance of Pella. So I want you to watch it, and then we'll be back. Our second stop was Mar Elias, and Doc presented facts about Mar Elias. But right now, this is what I told our True News tour group today about Pella. All right, so I want to tell everybody why we made Pella our first stop on this trip. Let's start with the history of Pella. I'm not going to go into long detail, but it is quite an ancient city going back many thousands of years. The name Pella, many historians believe that the name was given to the city

because the city was founded by soldiers in the army of Alexander the Great. Now, the city existed before Alexander the Great, but in terms of that age, they believe it was soldiers of Alexander the Great that gave it the name Pella because Alexander the Great was born in a city called Pella in Greece. And so that's where this name came from, but that's not the real reason why we're here. There is a New Testament biblical significance to this city right here. So, I'm going to go, I'm going to start by looking at Matthew 24. Now, many of you know that chapter, Matthew 24 and 25, is a long prophecy about the end of the age, the end of the world, the second coming of Jesus Christ. So Jesus was at the temple. He walked away from the temple,

and his disciples called him back to the temple and said, Master, we have some questions. We want to talk to you. We need to ask you some things. So let's look at what it says, Matthew 24. And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and the disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. They were like, whoa, Jesus, wait a minute. Look at all this. Look at the magnificence of the temple and the surrounding temple buildings. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you,

There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world? They ask him three questions. When will the temple be torn down? What is the sign of the end of the world?

And what is the sign of the second coming? Three questions. Where a lot of Bible prophecy teachers today get things confused is they take his answer about the destruction of the temple, and they make that a futuristic prophecy when the temple was already destroyed. Now, when Jesus said those words, it had not happened. So it was a prophecy. But that prophecy was fulfilled. So Jesus said, hang on, let me get my phone. He said, take heed that no man deceive you.

That's his very first answer. Don't let anybody deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you're not troubled. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places.

All these are the beginnings of sorrow. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you. And you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another, and many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that endure to the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for witness unto all nations, Now, verse 15, he starts to answer the question, when will the temple be destroyed?

When will Jerusalem be destroyed? Spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let them which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house, neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that He's talking at this point about the destruction of Jerusalem. Now, they ask him three questions. When will the temple be destroyed? When will the end of the world come?

When will be your second coming? So many modern American Bible prophecy teachers take those scriptures about the abomination of desolation and they say that's in the future. That's coming sometime after the rapture, okay? All these things happen after the church is taken away. But here's what happened. In 70 AD, the Roman army surrounded Jerusalem.

Titus was the commanding general, later became the emperor of Rome. They completely, utterly destroyed the temple and Jerusalem. The blood that flowed in the temple was the abomination of desolation. Jesus said, when you see these things coming, when you see the army surround the city, flee into the mountains. Look around you. Flee into the mountains when you see these things

happening. Not one Christian died when Jerusalem was destroyed. Tens of thousands of Jews died, not one Christian. The Christians knew the prophecy. Josephus, who is a Jewish historian, great historian, writes about the destruction of Jerusalem. And he said God sent many supernatural signs long before the invasion. And the Jewish leaders misinterpreted the signs. They told the Jews, these are signs from heaven that God is going to give us victory over the Romans. When the signs were actually God telling the Jews, if you don't get out of here,

you're going to be destroyed. So they completely misinterpreted the biblical warnings. Then another historian, Christian historian, wrote that there was a prophet who went through the city and told the people to leave. The Christians fled to this city, Pella. This is why we're here. This is where they came to from Jerusalem. It's 70 AD. They escaped the destruction of the city and they took refuge. They went into the mountains and they came to Pella. And that's why there are so many ancient churches here, because this became a hub of Christianity. And so this is the reason that we're here, that you now, when you go home and you read Matthew 24, you have a different understanding. When Jesus said, when these things, when you see the army,

when you see the abomination of desolation, don't go back. Don't go back to your house to get your belongings. Just get out of town. Run. Flee. Run. Get to the mountains. So the Christians believed the prophecy. And then God raised up, according to tradition, God raised up a prophet at that day, 70 AD, who went through the city and told the Christians, this is it. This is it. The army is coming. Prepare to get out of here. So that's why we brought you to Pella. Because this city represents where the early Jerusalem

Christians came. Now remember, the Jerusalem Christians were Jews. The early church was Jewish. The Jewish people—you've probably heard people talk about replacement theology, and they accuse people of me and Doc being replacement theology teachers. Well, you teach that the church replaced Israel. No, I don't. The church and Israel are one.

You have to understand what Israel is. Israel is not a political state. It's not a race of people. It's the people of God. Israel always represents people who are in submission to God and obey him. That's Israel. But what we've been taught today is that Israel is a political state made up of people of the Jewish religion, and they represent Israel. That's not God's interpretation.

That's not his definition of Israel. Israel represents the people who believe him and obey him. And so in Jerusalem, when Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom, there were Jews who believed and Jews who did not believe. The Jews who believed remained Israel. The Jews who did not believe were evicted from Israel. Their branch was removed. Their branch was removed. But the Jews that believed remained Israel. And then the Gentiles who believed

were the branches that were grafted in to Israel. Yes. So we were grafted in, as I said, brought into Israel. So it's not that the church replaced Israel. No, Israel and the church are one. Just different words. It's the church replaced Israel. No, Israel and the church are one. Just different words. It's the people of God worldwide who believe God and obey him.

And so here we are. We're standing on the ground of where Christians took refuge. We're sheltered. We're protected by God. Now, I'll ask you one question before we close. What if somebody today, what if God raised up a prophet in America today and said, there's going to be a nuclear war. And Washington, D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, all going to be destroyed.

You need to flee. How many of you would do it? That's for each person to answer that question, because the reason I'm asking that question is that people had to make that decision in 70 A.D. In one day. In one day. They had to make a decision. Do we leave or not?

And Jesus said, don't even go back and pack your bags. Just go, get out of town, run to the hills, run to the mountains, and I'll protect you. So Christianity flourished here. That's why there are churches. If you would spend a couple hours here walking around, there are numerous church ruins here. So Christianity took a, made a, this is a home base after the destruction of Jerusalem. And so Christianity flourished here in Jordan and then went out throughout the Holy Land and many other regions preaching the gospel. But it was the Jerusalem Christians who came here that kept the church alive.

Amen. That's right. Anything, Doc, before we close? Well, what I'm just thinking about is this is my second visit here to Pella, and I'm reminded our place of refuge is always in obedience to Christ. And that Christ really is our refuge. So Pella really in many ways represents that refuge that we take in Christ, but requires an act of obedience on our part. Do we believe him?

Do we believe his word? Do we believe it when we are confronted with it, when it says, trust in me, your refuge is in me. Do we truly, truly believe it? Because it took a tremendous step of faith for Jewish Christians to step out of Jerusalem, a walled city, and come to the mountains. And to believe that the temple was going to be destroyed, that the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed. That's right. So for me, someone commented here earlier, it's so peaceful out here. It is tremendously peaceful. But you know where the real peace is from visiting this? It's in Christ. Trusting in Him as your refuge and your strength in obedience to Him. That's right. That's the lesson. Amen. Obey and you'll be happy. All right. Okay. We're going to get back on the bus.

We got another site. Has this been enlightening here today? Good. We got a lot more to see. All right. Let's board the bus. Well, welcome back. We're standing here on a balcony in downtown Amman, a beautiful view as we're looking across the skyline of the city. It's just a little after 10 p.m. on, this is Friday, right? I'm trying to remember where we're at. It's Friday. And we've had a very full day and enjoying it. Now, our second stop today today was Mar Elias, which is basically not the hillside, but the vicinity is the birthplace of Elijah. Right. It's where Elijah grew up.

And once again, there are churches there that were built by Christians to honor the memory of the prophet Elijah. So it's one of my favorite places to visit. There's a peacefulness there. Right. Just a gentle spirit in the air. Beautiful view of the valley. And, of course, it's the land of Tishbites.

That's right. And so we had the opportunity to visit Mar-a-Las with the True News Group. And one of the things that they remarked, as you said, was the peacefulness of the site, that it just seemed like really a holy place. Yes. So there are two churches there. Right. another that was built, well, excuse me, one was carved in a hillside in the 500s, and another that was built on top of the summit of the mountain in the 600s. Yes. We know the church was at least as old as 622 A.D. because the mosaic that's in the floor is dated that.

Yes, they've got the date in the floor. So the church was probably older than that, but we know it's at least that old. They decided in 620 to lay a new floor. That's right. They had a committee vote. They did. It's a beautiful floor, what remains of it. Yes.

So Doc gave our tour group a short Bible lesson about Elijah and why we made a point of bringing everybody out to Mar Elias Day. Let's watch it. Well, we are at stop number two on day one of the first True News tour of the beautiful country of Jordan. And we are at Mar Elias, Elias meaning Elijah.

And this region, this far region around us, this is Gilead. So when you read in the Old Testament, ed meaning testimony, you know, your record, your testimony. So what you have here is the mounds of testimony, the hills of your record, your witness. That's what Gilead means. Elijah, this was not this exact spot, but this region was his birthplace. So Elijah the Tishbite.

So we are in the vicinity of the ancient city of Tishbe so Elijah was a Tishbite so if you ever wondered what a Tishbite looked like just walk around out here and these are Tishbite descendants okay so I'm going to step away I'm going to let Doc take this presentation, and then we're going to go up the steps and take a look at the structures that are here. But just keep in mind why we're here. This is to commemorate the life, the ministry of Elijah the prophet. Doc? Yes. Well, as Rick said, we're in the region of Gilead and in the

immediate region of a small village here called Lishba. Lishba right now, that's the name of the modern city, but the ancient city was Tishba. And Elijah was probably from the tribe of Gad, but we really don't know. It's possible some scholars say that Elijah himself may have been a Gentile that came into the Hebrew faith. In other words, he may have been a Gentile prophet. That kind of is a different perspective on things, isn't it? But we are on right now what's called Mar Elias or the mountain of Elijah. And it's on this particular hill that there are actually two separate churches up here. As we ascend the stairs here, you're going to see a smaller church that was established about the 6th century in the 500s, and it's carved right out of the hills.

It's very small. You'll actually see some of the crypts of maybe some of the elders that were buried there. And it was built in the 500s, of course, to commemorate the prophet Elijah. Most traditions have him come from right here. But what is probably the most prominent feature up here at Mar Elias is at the top of the hill here you're going to see a seventh century the seventh century remains of a basilica that was built on top of this and when you actually see the structure that remains you'll ask yourself how on earth were they able to construct something this big up on top of this mountain and what you're really going to notice though are the beautiful mosaics that are still on the ground that you can recognize, that you can see. And there's an

actual date in the mosaic that tells us when the mosaic was laid. It was the year 622. And so we know the mosaic was there from that year. It's likely that the basilica was built before they laid the mosaic. And so what you're going to see here is an example of how the Christian faith endured through the centuries here, that they took the effort and time to build a place of refuge and a place of worship and a place to commemorate those that have gone before us. Now around us here, you're going to see some graves and you're going to see some different sites around here, a graveyard. And these graves date all the way back to the fifth and sixth century. So these are the saints that lived during those times, and they still remain,

their bodies still remain on these hills to this day. And so what you're going to see, it should give you a real sense of awe about the tremendous faith that we share over the centuries. And what impresses me so much about the site of the basilica up here is how peaceful it is. And I can just imagine myself transported back to the 7th century and walking up there, walking into the basilica, worshiping the Lord and coming out and then looking at this beautiful valley and looking at this tremendous area and think, this is the land of God. This is the land that God promised his people. And so as we ascend these stairs and as we observe everything that's up ahead of us here, I hope you take that to heart

that our faith isn't just a modern faith, but it's an ancient faith. And ordinary people like you and me lived in those centuries, worshiped the Lord, raised families, worked jobs, and yet lived for God. Because they lived for God then, you can live for God now. Amen? All right. Well, let's go on to the second stop of our tour here and see the ancient site of Mar Elias. Well, after we left Mar Elias, we drove to the city of Doresh. And Doresh is an ancient city. It's one of the cities of the Decapolis. Right. And the Decapolis was a region in, you know, in the first and second centuries that kind of had its own independent rule away from Rome. Rome said you can kind of rule yourself as long as you don't cause any trouble and you pay your taxes.

We don't have any issue with you. But, of course, the Decapolis is talked about a lot in the Gospels and in the New Testament. So there were ten cities. Yes, scattered all around. Pella was one of them. Jeresh was one of them. And several, you know, ten cities. Yes, scattered all around. Pella was one of them. Jerez was one of them. And several, you know, ten total. But the reason why we brought our tour group to this particular site is we wanted them to get a feel of what it was like in New Testament times.

Where when you read the Bible and you see them talk about various cities in the scriptures, you know, you don't have a picture of it. Well, we want to give them a picture. This is what life was like in the first century. There were temples to Jupiter and Artemis. There were central portions of the city where markets were open, where trade took place, and where maybe Paul— The chariot races.

Right, chariot races. And maybe where Paul preached. Maybe where Peter preached at some point. So we wanted to give our group a real understanding. You're walking in the times of the Bible. Yes, and Joresh, there's a large gate at the entrance of the city. The gate was built to Emperor Hadrian. Hadrian, yes.

Hadrian, and it's a massive structure still standing today. Right. So what does that make it, 1,900 years old? It's right at that. And so Hadrian ruled the Romans in the second century. He was the one that didn't rebuild Jerusalem, but built a city on top of the ruins of Jerusalem. And that was something that we pointed out to our group today. But it's hard to comprehend until you see it yourself, the massive building that they did during that time period. We think we're doing something today. They were hauling

rocks and stones and making magnificent structures, intricate carvings, without the tools that we have today. And it boggles the mind how much they were able to accomplish. You try to imagine the Roman Empire. It was the America of today. Right. And America is the Rome of yesterday. The two empires were very similar. Right. And Rome stretched all the way from modern-day Iran all the way to Great Britain and portions of Africa.

They built great cities and great roads. And that's a key part, too. One of the things that we pointed out today on the group was look at these roads that were built. Without these roads, the gospel wouldn't have been preached. That's right. And so there's opportunities in every generation, depending on what technology is developed, whether it's in the first century or in the 21st century, where there are pathways for the gospel to be preached.

You use what's there, and you use it for the glory of God and get the gospel out to all the world. Well, one thing that I really love about Jordan is their love of weddings. They like weddings. They like weddings. Wow. They are the most joyful weddings I've ever seen in my life. And so every time I'm in a hotel at night, there's at least one wedding. It's during our stay and it happened again.

Yes, it happened again. So we're going to close today's episode of True News. We're going to show you a wedding that just happened a few hours ago at the hotel where we're staying, and I want you just to experience what we experienced not too long ago, the happiness, the joy of a Jordanian wedding. And then Doc and I, we will be back on Monday. God bless. موسيقى Tēnā koe! Thank you.