Why Christians Support Israel Part 5: Biblical Reasons

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Well, welcome to this week's Israel Answers, where we're going to finish our series about

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why Christians should support Israel.

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Today I'm going to share with you some biblical reasons why you should be blessing the Jewish

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people and standing with the state of Israel.

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Welcome to the Israel Answers series, connecting Israel, the Bible, and you.

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Join Susan Michael as she explores timely issues and current events from a scriptural

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perspective to equip the Christian world with a balanced and biblical response.

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Be sure to subscribe for future episodes, which will ignite your faith and bring the

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Bible to life in your everyday world.

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Now, let's join Susan with your Israel Answers.

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So far in our series, we have talked about the personal reasons for Christian support

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of Israel, the practical reasons for support of Israel, moral and legal reasons, and today

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I'm going to tell you the biblical reasons.

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Now at the end of today's broadcast, I'm going to offer you a free downloadable, the

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10 reasons why Christians should support Israel.

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And those reasons are largely biblical reasons, so I really encourage you to get them.

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Today I'm just going to focus on four different scriptures, one from the Torah, one from the

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Psalms, one from the prophets, and one from the New Testament to show how that the Bible

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is very consistent from beginning to end about this subject.

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So from the Torah, from the very first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, we read

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the story of how God chose a man named Abram.

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And this is what he tells Abram in Genesis 12 verses 1 through 3.

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Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that

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I will show you.

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I will make you a great nation.

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I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.

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And I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you

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all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

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My friends, that's a whole lot of blessing that God would bless him.

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He would be a blessing, and God would bless everybody that blessed him, and through him

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all the families of the earth will be blessed.

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So let's get in on this blessing.

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First of all, this is not a magic charm.

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This is not a verse that's your key to how you should be blessed, because this verse isn't

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actually about you, and it's not giving you a magic formula.

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This verse is where God is announcing the initiation of his plan of world redemption,

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and he's telling Abraham, I choose you.

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If you will follow me, I'm going to take you to a land I'm going to give you.

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I'm going to make you a great nation, and I'm going to use you and your people to bless

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all the families of the earth.

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The apostle Paul later said that verse is referring to Jesus Christ.

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That is the blessing to the families of the earth, its world redemption, or personal redemption,

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I should say.

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Now God chose Abraham, and therefore if you were to bless who God chose, and you blessed

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the plan God put into place, then you would be walking in fellowship with God, and you

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would be blessed in return.

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So I want to encourage you to get involved in blessing Israel and the Jewish people,

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not because you will be blessed, because you will, but because God is at work here.

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He has laid it all out very clearly here to Abraham.

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And don't think for one minute that what he told Abraham has been revoked or is over.

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I'm going to show you why what he told Abraham is still in play today.

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So now let's go to our next verse, which is out of the book of Psalms.

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Psalm 105 verses 8 through 11.

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He remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded for a thousand generations, the

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covenant which he made with Abraham and his oath to Isaac and confirmed it to Jacob for

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a statute to Israel as an everlasting covenant saying, To you I will give the land of Canaan

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as the allotment of your inheritance.

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So the Psalmist here is confirming that God's promise to Abraham that included this piece

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of land is an everlasting covenant that will not be broken.

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And the gift of the land is a part of an everlasting covenant.

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Therefore, it is an everlasting gift.

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Now let's look at one of the Hebrew prophets.

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Isaiah 62.

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This is another verse that tells us how God has invited us to partner with him in what

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he is doing in Israel, in Jerusalem.

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And that's Isaiah 62 verses 6 through 7.

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It says, I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, they shall never hold their peace

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day or night.

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You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent and give him no rest till he establishes

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and he makes Jerusalem a praise in all the earth.

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Now listen to this.

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It is God who is going to establish Jerusalem as a praise in all the earth.

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When is that going to happen?

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Well that is going to happen when we have the kingdom of God on earth and the throne

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of David ruling from Jerusalem and that has not happened yet.

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And so this scripture makes it very clear that while it's God who's going to do it,

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our role is to be watchmen on the walls, praying and interceding with persistence and never

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being silent until we see this happen.

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We have been invited to partner with God in this great plan of redemption.

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We are invited to be involved as intercessors, as though standing on the wall and in so doing

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we will be a blessing to Israel and the Jewish people.

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Now let's look at a New Testament scripture.

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I'm actually going to read to you two scriptures out of the same section though in Romans 9.

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We have started with Romans 9 verses 4 and 5.

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This is where the apostle Paul lists all of the blessings that we have received from the

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Jewish people.

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So let's read it.

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Who are Israelites to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the

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law, the service of God, and the promises of whom are the fathers and from whom according

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to the flesh Christ came, who is over all the eternally blessed God, amen.

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So what is this saying?

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This is saying that God gave to the people of Israel about adoption, His glory, the covenants

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that we learned from, the giving of the law, the service of God, the worship of God in

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the temple, the promises, the forefather, all of these things that you and I hold dear

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as Christians came from and through the Jewish people.

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So once we understand their role as though it was as a birthing people to birth these

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things into the world for our benefit, we have benefited so much from them.

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The very least we can do is to bless them and to support them and stand in solidarity

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with them.

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But you know some people in the church teach that yes, but because the Jewish people that

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did not accept Jesus, they lost it all.

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Now God's working with the church.

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He's got a new plan and a new people in a way.

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So let's read what the apostle Paul said just two chapters later in Romans 11 verses 28

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and 29, concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election,

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they are beloved for the sake of the fathers, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

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So this is saying that while yes, at the time the people Paul was writing to here and maybe

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even at times in history at other times they've been seen as the enemies of the gospel of

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Christ and he says nevertheless concerning their calling, concerning their election,

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their chosenness, their calling, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers because

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God made these promises.

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We read about it in Psalm 105, his promises to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Israel.

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These are the fathers that for the sake of these promises God made to them, he loves

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his people and he is going to see his plan to use them fulfilled.

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And it goes on for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

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Some of you might pronounce that irrevocable.

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So the calling of God cannot be revoked, nor can the gifts.

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Well what are the gifts?

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Well so much time in Scripture, the land of Canaan was the gift, the inheritance to the

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people of Israel.

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This my friends has not been revoked.

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God's promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Moses, Israel, they're still in place.

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Exile from the land because of their sin did not revoke their ownership of the land and

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it did not revoke their calling.

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In our days God has brought the people of Israel back to their land.

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So we had better get behind this.

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He's using them, they are still the call of Abraham, he is fulfilling his promises.

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So we had better not oppose it and find ourself on the wrong side of this equation.

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We do want to be on the side of God's blessings.

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So let me just close with one final point.

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With such a firm biblical foundation for support of the Jewish people, it is no surprise to

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find that many of the fathers of the Bible-based evangelical Christian movement preached from

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the Scriptures the return of the Jews to their homeland and the blessing that that return

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would bring to the world.

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So modern Christian supporters of Israel follow in the steps of great Christian leaders such

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as John and Charles Wesley, Robert Murray, Robert Murray McChain, Charles Spurgeon and

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many of the Puritan preachers just to name a few.

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So our series so far has demonstrated that while the biblical basis for Christian support

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for Israel is extensive, that there are also a variety of other convincing arguments based

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just on history, on morality, on legality and just plain old common sense.

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So I hope you have found this series helpful as I have reviewed the many reasons why we

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as Christians should support Israel.

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Are you ready now?

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Are you ready to bless Israel?

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So go and today's show notes we're going to link to the ICEJ where you can get more

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involved in our ministry there in Jerusalem.

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And I invite you, if you have never been to Israel, go on one of our tours.

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Your life will never be the same and you will have the opportunity to walk that land and

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to intercede as Isaiah 62 calls us to intercede while your feet are standing there in Jerusalem.

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And then I have two specific offers for you.

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So please stay tuned.

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Well, hey, give me one more minute.

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I have two very special offers for you.

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First is all you ladies out there, we have scheduled a women's tour to Israel this November,

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November 2nd through the 12th.

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I invite you to go with me to the land of the Bible.

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Let's walk the land, let's talk the Bible, let's have our faith restored and ignited

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and strengthened for the days in which we live.

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To sign up, I want you to go down below into today's show notes and sign up for our tour

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interest list.

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We will send you all the information.

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Or if it's easier, just call our tours department line at 866-393-5890.

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That's 866-393-5890.

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I want to travel Israel with you.

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Now my second offer is a free download that we have developed just for you called 10 Reasons

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for Christians to Support Israel.

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Over the coming weeks, I'm going to be talking about a lot of these reasons, but I want you

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to have this download so that you can be preparing yourself, that you can share it with your

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friends and colleagues and invite them to listen in each week as I will be going over

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some of these reasons and going a little bit farther into depth.

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So in today's show notes, we link directly to this downloadable 10 reasons why Christians

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should support Israel.

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Or you can go to the out-of-zion-show.com landing page, click on Resources, and we should

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have a link there for you as well.

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So take advantage of this free download, and I will see you back here next week, fully

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informed, ready to learn some more.

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Until then, God bless.

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We hope you have enjoyed this episode of Out of Zion with Susan Michael.

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Be sure to subscribe to Out of Zion now on Apple Podcasts, cpnshows.com, YouTube, or

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wherever you like to listen and learn.

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Out of Zion with Susan Michael is a production of ICEJUSA, All Rights Reserved.