Sid: This why I’m so excited about Joel Rosenberg I have him on the line this week. Joel is a best selling author perhaps you read his first book “The Last Jihad.” It made the New York Times best seller list, Number 1 on Amazon but his second book he really out does it. And the thing that’s so exciting to me is that his background was he was a Senior Advisor to Netanyahu in Israel, he was the Chief speech writer for Steve Forbes when he was running for President. He worked 2 years doing research for Rush Limbaugh and on and on. And he’s taken all of this and he comes from a Jewish background, he’s a strong evangelical Christian and he’s put this all in a pot with a prayer. And the prayer was Jeremiah 33:3 and he called to God and God answered. He wrote the book and as you heard on yesterday’s broadcast he thought it was really messed up because he was prophetic and when 9/11 happened he thought “No one is going to want to read this book.” But to make a long story short God wants people to read this book because it’s such an action pack exciting book based on prophetic insight and current event insight that the secular talk show hosts in America they’re not religious at all but they’re saying that this is one of the most fascinating books that they’ve ever read and they get the gospel. Get it, that’s why God is doing it. On yesterday’s broadcast Joel we were talking about I asked you a point blank question and I said “What is your spin on the Palestinian state if you would pick up there.
Joel: Well, I believe that it seems almost inevitable I think it’s inevitable.
Sid: It feels like you made the statement and I feel the same way “The world is pushing for it and the world will not stop until there is a Palestinian state.
Joel: And I write about that in “The Last Days” just the compelling, the forces trying to destroy Israel as well as immense international pressure as well as the internal pressure among Israelis’ who want to be just like the nations as Jewish people always wanted to make peace with the world.
Sid: You know there is I believe Genesis 12:3 is still true today. And that means that God will bless the Jewish people and curse those that curse them. And I have grave in trepidation for the United States of America the greatest country the world has ever seen. I am proud to be an America citizen I have grave in trepidation for our country because we walk ourselves into a curse but I am also concerned about Israel if Israel goes along with this of course on the other side I don’t know how they can fight it. But if Israel goes along with this it’s not a blessing for Israel either.
Joel: No, it’s like taking…it’ll be like taking a child and cutting it in half. It’s not up to Israeli Prime Minister or Parliament or an America President for that matter to give away something that is not theirs to give. And Judea and Samaria is the land that God gave to the Jewish people. Now I have dear Palestinian Christian friends, I was just in Israel with my wife and my children and my parents. All their first trip to Israel and we had a wonderful lunch with our Palestinian Evangelical Christian friend right next to Beit Jala. I have great sympathy to the Palestinians their suffering both under radical Islam and Yasser Arafat’s reign of terror.
Sid: Their really the scape goats in all of this.
Joel: But that’s not having compassion for people isn’t the same as looking at the scriptures and saying “Well, God’s promises aren’t going to happen, let’s just divide up the land how we see fit.” That is bound to be trouble and in “The Last Days” what I basically envisioned was an American President conquering Iraq and then turning his attention not to Iran and North Korea the next elements of the axes of evil but to forcing the Israeli’s to make a make a peace deal with Yasser Arafat. And I began writing the last days in 2002 before my first book was even out and yet it is already coming true that America President has turned his attention now trying to persuade Israeli’s to make a peace deal when there doesn’t seem to be a partner for peace. Now that’s all political and I’m writing a political thriller that draws people in using current events but as you get drawn into this question should Israel or shouldn’t Israel give up the territories and try to make a peace deal with the Palestinian leadership as I draw you into that story the spiritual temperature begins to go up. Because the characters in it aren’t simply on a political or geopolitical quest, they’re on a spiritual quest because of all of the terrorism, because of all of the dangers to their life. You know you can’t just find homeland security or national security these terrorists are dealing with issues of their own eternal security. Which is amazing that God has taken this novel “The Last Days” it’s been out 4 weeks and it’s already 4 weeks on the New York Times best seller list.
Sid: You know what intrigues me Joel about “The Last Days” is one of the premises is they discover oil in the Middle East and this money maybe just the catalyst necessarily for Palestinian and Israeli Jews to get along.
Joel: Well you know Sid people have said for decades that how did it come that the Jewish people and the Isaeli’s are the only people and country in the middle East that doesn’t have oil. That’s been you know a joke like “Oh promise land, how come we couldn’t have gotten Saudi Arabia.”
Sid: (Laughing)
Joel: You know but there are some indications in the scriptures that Israel will one day discover a vast amount of wealth. Discover produce but they will have so much wealth that they will become an envy of their enemies and their enemies will come attack. And I had really speculated this is Ezekiel 37, 38, 39 but I’d really been thinking and praying about that. Okay what could that be and I was doing quite a bit of research, I’d been to Israel a number of times, studied there and as you mentioned I worked with Israelis’ and spent a lot of time there and I began to uncover that there has been huge amounts of natural gas discovered off of the coast of Israel and Gaza and some small amounts of oil. And perhaps it will eventually be proven to be commercial quantities of oil in Israel itself. And as a fiction writer I could take that and say well, “What if that natural gas and oil proved to be of such value and quantity that it could prove the basis for the oil for peace deal. The Palestinians would give up their radicalism and the Israelis’ would give up a little bit of land and that the 2 sides would make a deal. Now maybe a temporary deal, it might not be a deal that lasts but I was in visioning what if oil and gas and the promise of tremendous wealth for every Muslim, Jew and Christian in the region form the basis of an actual peace process.
Sid:
And let me tell you something else that I find real interesting in your book Joel because see I approach it everything prophetically from the Bible and so I’ve got my speculations on the last days also. But you hit so many homeruns according to my speculation. One of my speculations is not only will they find oil which is going to get the whole world incensed with them but another speculation is the big bear Russia is not dead and is actually going to become a great advisory of the world including the United States in the last days.
Joel: Well, you’re beginning to give the early indicators of my third book in the series will be and that’s where Israel not only discovered oil and make a peace treaty based on it which is the book that’s out now “The Last Days.” But that Russia, Iran, Libya and others will begin to be so outraged by this by all the wealth that the Israelis are producing.
Sid: How did you feel Joel when you were involved with these think tanks, Heritage Steve Forbes Presidential campaign, Rush Limbaugh for a couple of years, and you see all the inklings of what the Bible talks about you can see it in their embryonic stages.
Joel: Well, you know what’s interesting Sid because you just put your finger on why I think the Lord took me to Washington and to politics rather than directly into ministry. Which I would have expected and even desired my wife and I both would have. But you know King David writes that “Your law of Lord makes me wiser than my teachers.” And it’s interesting when we know the word of God we have a sense of what’s coming, we may not have the specifics but there are clues to be watching for. And my fascination for the prophecies in Ezekiel 37, 38,39 the rebirth of the state of Israel, the discovery of tremendous wealth in Israel, peace in Israel and then just a cataclysmic, apocalyptic attack on Israel. And then God’s descent and then it’s the pouring out of the Spirit. Well that’s quite a thriller story and it’s true and it’s coming and the question is when? And by working in these think tanks and by working for an Israeli Prime Minister and working for Steve Forbes one of the really though I think one of the leading economic forecasters and someone who has tremendous insight on the global economy I got to meet people and see research and see inside information. But because of my understanding of prophecy totally fascinated me because I said “I think these things are starting to come true.” And that’s what lead me to write well let me just take that and put it in novel form. I didn’t think a non-fiction book would work because it’s all you know because maybe I’m wrong.
Sid: But wait a second now Joel, what I mean here in this country where you can’t even put up the 10 Commandments in a federal building didn’t you think that this would stop your book when you preached the gospel in it in a sophisticated way? But when you preached the gospel didn’t you think that this would stop it from being a best seller?
Joel: Well I was a little anxious about that, curious about it but look I have 3 little prayer warriors in my family…for 2. But we were praying every night with my children I mentioned before on the show Caleb, Jacob, Jonah.
Sid: Well, look with that combination you can’t miss.
Joel: How could you miss exactly and Jonah you know he’s the feisty one in the family he really rings true with his name. But we prayed every night we said “Lord” kids we need an agent for this book to…
Sid: Oh Joel, we’re out of time we’ll pick up right here on tomorrow broadcast.
