TBN Israel: What Is It and How We Christians And Jews Differ

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                    

A station I go to for the latest information right from Israel is TBN.  This is from the Trinity Broadcasting Network.  Just what is this?  It's a Christian Network.  This was a surprise to me, a very old, Jewish news-junky and researcher of Israel's history who has dual citizenship and also loves Israel.

Yair Pinto and Erick Stakelbeck are one of my favorite young men who know exactly as much and more than I do about Israel's history, and also tell it so well.  But when they enter the prayer part of their program, which is not included in all their reports,  I duck out with my mouse, as they are Christians.    Yair is serving in the IDF or has done this;  can't keep up with them.  They do such a good job in keeping me informed;  I love their style.  I am awed because they are not Jewish!!!

Erick Stakelbeck is not Jewish.  He was  (born January 21, 1976) and is an American television host and presenter of The Watchman on TBN and The Watchman Newscast on YouTube. As a Christian Zionist, the show is sponsored by Christians United for Israel, Stakelbeck being the director of its Watchman Project.  Stakelbeck has also been noted as an investigative reporter and author on radical Islam, and is TBN's news director.  He knows more about our history than most Jewish people, and so I'm very proud of him and would give him an A+ in Jewish history.  

 Stakelbeck graduated from the Holy Family University in Philadelphia, Penn.  While a long-time supporter of Israel, he also became increasingly drawn to studying the roots of Islamic terrorism after the September 11 attacks, and began writing articles for FrontPage Magazine.                      

Yair Pinto was born to a converted Jewish woman now Christian in Israel.  He's also in IDF, one of our soldiers, but he's a Christian.  It happened like this.  His mother converted first to Christianity; before he was born,  coming from a secular Israeli family. The odd thing is, you'd never know that Yair wasn't Jewish.  

 Jewish and Christian customs come together. Yair is a third generation Israeli with his parents’ families originating from Brazil and Holland. As an officer in the Tanks Division (Reserves), he has successfully blended his Messianic Jewish Faith in a unit of men filled with Orthodox and secular Israelis. He and Anna King share strong common beliefs, and both have a tremendous ability to mix with everyone. 

Without men like these, the Christians would probably not be as helpful towards Israel as they have been.                                                               

 Anna and Yair   married on May 30, 2013 in a sunset wedding at an organic garden in Jerusalem. The wedding will be quite Israeli, under a CHuppah, and with the traditional breaking of the glass at the end of the ceremony. The difference is that Yair is a Jewish Believer in Yeshua (Jesus) and Anna is a Believer as well. It is their desire to be a testimony of faith to their 300 “20 somethings” Israeli wedding guests from Army and school. 

 Anna will be studying Political Science and Anthropology at Hebrew University this fall.  

In a recent news update from TBN Israel, IDF officer and a TBN reporter Yair Pinto provided firsthand accounts and reports from the frontlines of the Israel-Gaza War while actively serving with the IDF. The report highlights several key developments in the ongoing conflict.

I'm going to share some facts they might not be aware of, and it's why Jews have not converted to Christianity or Islam, for that matter.  

First, at the time Jesus was born, the land was taken  over by the Greeks.  Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua.   The name is derived from the Hebrew name Yeshua (Joshua) , which in turn comes from Isho in Aramaic. 

 The Greeks had brought with them their polytheistic religion, including worshipping Demi-gods (half-gods) like Heracles, a god with a parent that was of a mortal and one that was from the sky-Mount Olympus, they said.  It was easy for some Judeans to follow Jesus for this reason.  They accepted him as a half-god.  The story of someone going into Egypt with an idol hidden in a camel's package is found in the Book of Genesis, specifically in chapter 31. It involves Rachel, the wife of Jacob, who secretly took her father Laban's household idols, also known as teraphim, when Jacob and his family fled from Laban's household. This happened before Moses' day and the Exodus where Israelites learned of just ONE g-d.  

Moses has taught the Israelites that their was only one G-d, and that G-d was not to be seen; no pictures were to be drawn, an invisible G-d- a force.  But the people were SO used to SEEING IDOLS of the many gods.  It was almost traumatic to get used to the idea.  Greeks believed that Many of the ancient gods, like Zeus, had children as a result of their romantic involvement with mortals. Demigods, being part god and part mortal, had great powers and abilities and often featured in the mythology of the Ancient Greeks.  

Second, there was no viable research written about Jesus.  It is as if we are to believe in a Superman. To Judaism,  G-d does not take human form.  Jewish belief strictly adheres to the concept of God's incorporeality, meaning God has no physical form and cannot take on human form. This is a core tenet of Judaism, distinguishing it from some other religions that posit God's incarnation in human form. While the Hebrew Bible uses anthropomorphic language to describe God's actions and interactions, these are understood as figurative language to make God's actions more understandable to humans. 

Bethlehem must have become very Greek for the gospel writers to call a man named Joshua as Jesus, the Greek word.   The Greeks were trying to Hellenize the population.  They had even tried to put idols in the synagogue.  It was the Hasmonean family men to put an end to that.   

Matthew wrote his gospel about 60 years later after Jesus's death saying  that Jesus was teaching Judaism in that he said, " in the Gospel of Matthew, specifically Matthew 5:17: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them".  

 The Gospel of Mark probably dates from c. AD 66–70, Matthew and Luke around AD 85–90, and John AD 90–110. Despite the traditional ascriptions, all four are anonymous and most scholars agree that none were written by eyewitnesses. (I count 25 years as a generation).  Three of the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—are quite similar to each other when compared to the fourth Gospel, John. They tell the story of Jesus in similar ways, frequently including the same stories and sayings and often using the same words.  

It seems that what Jesus was teaching was not new, but Judaism told in an up to date speaking style of that day.  

 Consider how Pilgrims in our Thanksgiving story spoke compared to today.  Consider how bibles were translated during first printing press and today.  There is even the translation about Mary and her condition.  

Third : Reason is that Early Christians, particularly after the life and death of Jesus, started to diverge from traditional Judaism, although they were originally a movement within Second Temple Judaism. This divergence stemmed from a few key factors: 

• Belief in Jesus as the Messiah: The central difference is the Christian belief in Jesus as the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament for Christians). Jews do not believe Jesus is the Messiah, whom they anticipate is yet to come.

• Salvation: Early Christians, influenced by figures like the Apostle Paul, emphasized salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, who they believed died for the sins of the world. 
• Judaism, conversely, emphasizes righteousness and living a moral life through adherence to Jewish law.
• 
  
• The Law (Torah): While early Jewish Christians continued to follow Jewish law (Halakha), the inclusion of non-Jewish converts (Gentiles) led to debates about the necessity of circumcision and other Mosaic Law observances for these new followers.
• Paul argued that faith in Christ was sufficient for salvation and that the Mosaic Law was not binding for Gentiles.
• 
  
• The Council of Jerusalem: This council, held around 50 CE, addressed the issue of Gentile converts, concluding that they were not obligated to follow most Mosaic Law rules, though they did need to abstain from practices associated with idolatry.

It came to the point where many Gentiles were converting to Judaism and the Roman government was against this.  Their meeting in Rome in the 300's CE show this, and they considered Judaism as competition.                               

 

 The First Council of Nicaea (325 CE):

• This was the first ecumenical council, convened by Emperor Constantine I.
• Its main purpose was to address the controversy of Arianism, which questioned the divine nature of Jesus Christ.
• The council produced the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith that affirmed Christ's divinity as being "of one substance" with God the Father.
• It also addressed issues like the date of Easter and other church matters.
• The council is considered a turning point in early Christianity, establishing foundational doctrines and setting a precedent for future ecumenical councils. It didn't directly address Jewish issues, but its decisions indirectly impacted Christian-Jewish relations by further delineating Christian identity and practices, potentially contributing to the development of Christian anti-Judaism. Some historians argue that the Council's focus on Christian theology, particularly the rejection of Arianism, might have indirectly laid the groundwork for later forms of Christian anti-Judaism by creating a sense of "otherness" between Christians and Jews. 

Where as Christianity still is trying to add to their numbers and 

convert people, Judaism doesn't.  We were stopped by the first

Roman Christian church, and haven't done it since.  In fact, in a

way, we try to talk you out of doing it.  

Approximately 187,900 Christians live in Israel, making up 1.9% of the total population according to the Israeli government. The Christian population in Israel has been steadily growing. 

Several sources offer different figures for the number of Christians serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), reflecting the voluntary nature of their service: 

• Around 100 Christians serve in various positions and units.
• Several hundred Christian Arabs serve in the IDF.
• Approximately 400 believers (likely including Christians) are currently serving.
• One source estimates at least 1,000 Christian Israeli soldiers. 

It's important to note that military service is not mandatory for Israeli Christians, unlike for Jewish, Druze, and Circassian citizens. Christian Israelis who choose to enlist may do so for various reasons, including a desire to integrate into Israeli society. So thank you Yair Pinto for risking your life and serving with others in the IDF.  We certainly need your help, both in the IDF and in broadcasting what's happening to Israel. 

Also, thank you, Erick Stakelbeck for you diligence in knowing our  history so well;  not many like you, either.   I also appreciate your care in wording;  you understand.

Yair, I note that with the war and all, you were aghast at how tosay an ending prayer, being a Christian.  I thought it nice you saidthat if only the Iranians could learn to love the Jews.  

Resource:

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2023/07/who-was-jesus-as-seen-by-his.html

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-politics-in-religion-power-play.html

https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/demigod/

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2021/11/differing-genealogies-kings-of-judah.html

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2024/12/how-we-jews-christians-and-muslims-view.html

Resource: 

https://www.tbn.org/israel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erick_Stakelbeck

Modern-Day Astronomy Reflects Back to Ancient Greek and Roman Religious Beliefs Affecting Judaism

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

                                         Planet Earth or Mt. Olympus of a far-away planet?  

                                                  

The USA has a Space Force.  Our Air Force pilots believe they have encountered UFO's on flights.  Our children learn in school that besides the moon, there are planets such as our Earth, and beyond us there are others .                                   

The order of the planets in the solar system, starting nearest the sun and working outward is the following: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and then the possible Planet Nine.  Some of these names come from ancient Greek gods that were adopted by the Romans who changed their names to Roman ones.   They all travel on their own highway in the sky near or far from the sun.  

They all lived on Mt. Olympus.  Mount Olympus was the mythical home of the 12 gods in Ancient Greek history. In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the twelve Olympians are the major deities of the Greek pantheon, commonly considered to be Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes, and either Hestia or Dionysus.

According to the myth, the mountain was created after the Titanomachy, an epic battle between the young Olympians gods and the Titans. When the Olympian gods won the battle, they created their new majestic home – Mount Olympus.  One could think of it as one of our planets that the Greeks were not aware of.  However, they most likely looked up to the sky and imagined Olympus being high in the sky, among or on one of the stars that they saw.  What is it?  A planet looks like a star to us that doesn't twinkle?                                       

  Unlike stars, planets don't twinkle. Stars are so distant that they appear as pinpoints of light in the night sky, even when viewed through a telescope. Because all the light is coming from a single point, its path is highly susceptible to atmospheric interference (i.e. their light is easily diffracted).  They may have noticed that some stars didn't twinkle.  Real stars can look like constellations that the ancients named.  

                                                                           

Ancient Greek theology was polytheistic, based on the assumption that there were many gods and goddesses, as well as a range of lesser supernatural beings of various types. There was a hierarchy of deities, with Zeus, the king of the gods, having a level of control over all the others, although he was not almighty. They depicted Zeus as looking like the typical Greek man with perfect physique.  Each god was responsible for certain tasks.  

Greek Gods

Greek Name	Roman Name	Occupation
Zeus	Jupiter	Captain of Gods
Poseidon	Neptune	God of the Sea
Hades	Pluto	God of the Underworld
Hera	Juno	Goddess of Marriage/Queen of Gods
Hestia	Vesta	Goddess of the Hearth/Home
Ares	Mars	God of War
Athena	Minerva	Goddess of Education/Science/Virginity
Apollo	Apollo/Sol/Pheobus	God of Sun
Artemis	Diana	Goddess of the Hunt/The moon
Aphrodite	Venus	Goddess of Love/Beauty
Hermes	Mercury	God of Commerce/Speed
Hephaestus	Vulcan	God of the Forge/Fire
Eros	Cupid	God of love
Persephone	Proserpina	Unwilling bride of Pluto Goddess of spring
Dionysos	Bacchus	God of wine/God of revelry
Demeter	Ceres	Goddess of earth and Harvest

They would meet daily in Zeus palace in the Pantheon, to discuss the fate of the mortals.  So they controlled the mortals' lives.  Below the Pantheon was Zeus’ Throne – known today as Stefani – from where he would rule both gods and men, hurling thunderbolts to those who disobeyed him.  Take one more step and people believed that bad things that happened to them were punishment from the gods, like the thunderbolts.

This is a list of some of the notable offspring of a deity with a mortal, in mythology and modern fiction. Such entities are sometimes referred to as demigods, although the term "demigod" can also refer to a minor deity, or great mortal hero with god-like valour and skills, who sometimes attains divine status after death.                                            

                          Achilles, played by Brad Pitt for movie

• Achilles: son of the sea nymph Thetis (daughter of sea god Nereus), and Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, an ancient Thessalian Greek tribe in mythology. 
• Actaeon: son of Aristaeus and Autonoë, Boeotian prince who was turned into a stag by Artemis and torn to pieces by his own hounds.
• Aeacus: son of Zeus and Aegina who was the daughter of a river god. He was the father of Telamon and Peleus and grandfather of Ajax and Achilles.
• Aeëtes: son of Helios. He was the king of Colchis and played a key role in the story of the Argonauts. His daughter Medea married the famous hero Jason.
• Aeneas: Trojan hero, son of Aphrodite, goddess of love and Prince Anchises. He fled to Italy and became the ancestor of Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome.
• Amphion: son of Zeus and Antiope, and twin brother of Zethus.
• Arcas: son of Zeus and Callisto, a nymph and minor goddess associated with Aphrodite.
• Aristaeus: son of Apollo and Cyrene, a Thessalian princess. He was a shepherd who was made a god after inventing skills such as cheese-making and bee-keeping.
• Asclepius: son of Apollo and Coronis, who achieved divine status after death. He became such a great healer, that he could bring back the dead. Zeus killed him for this, but raised him from the dead as the god of healing and medicine.

The point is, they believed that a man could be half-god, a demi-god.  Most of earth was populated by people holding polytheistic beliefs. 

1. 
                          Moses and the 10 Commandments

Along came the ancient Israelites who learned a different way of thinking about gods.  They believed in only one unseen G-d and they were not to create statues or pictures of their G-d like the Greeks and Romans did. They had arisen out of Ur of the Chaldees on the Euphrates River south of Babylon,  which was polytheistic and moved westward to Canaan for a new beginning.  

The biblical G-d found in the Old Testament is pictured with no body, no family, and no human needs.  All depend on Him and He on nothing.  In due course, all the great feats of nature and life that man experienced the divine power were related to the one G-d; the creator.  G-d was ambivalent, majestic and condescending, terrible and kind, destructive and loving, punishing and forgiving.  Man can feel lowly and humble in his presence, but man also seeks His nearness and the closest possible communion with Him.  G-d is transcendent and non-human, but at the same time is intensely personal and voluntaristic.  It is His will or "word" which in relation to nature, is called  Creation.  

The Greek Civilization and their religious beliefs, called Hellenization,  entered the periphery of Judaism when Alexander the Great, and he was such a great man that the Jews had loved him too, in the 4th century BCE when he conquered the lands of the Middle East.  Hellenism spread from the Mediterranean to the Middle East.  Judea was surrounded by a ring of Hellenized cities while at the same time, Jews were traveling outside of their homelands and expanding their businesses into these Hellenized areas.                              

This Jewish Diaspora was expanding fast into Egypt, Cyrenaica (Cyrenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya. Also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, it formed part of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica, later divided into Libya Pentapolis and Libya Sicca. During the Islamic period, the area came to be known as Barqa, after the city of Barca.), Syria and Asia Minor; places all becoming Hellenized. 

 By the 3rd Century BCE, the Jews of Egypt had adopted  Greek and the Septuagint translation of the bible had been finished. Septuagint, abbreviation LXX, the earliest extant Greek translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew. ... Given that the language of much of the early Christian church was Greek, many early Christians relied on the Septuagint to locate the prophecies they claimed were fulfilled by Christ. 

Bad feelings developed between the  2 groups of Jews now living in Jerusalem; the traditional Jews  and the Hellenized Jews who were led by the TOBIADS (a rich but petty prince in Transjordania who married the sister of the high priest, Onias II. They were the cause of a political party of Hellenizers, ended by the Hasmoneans)  bought on  ANTIOCHUS IV EPIPHANES.  

Being Roman, he tried to suppress Judaism.  That brought on the HASMONEAN REVOLT which is our Chanukah story with the Jewish leader Judah Maccabee.                             

John Hyrcaanus and Alexander Yannai broke the power of the Greek cities of Judah,  but later these were restored and strengthened by Roman intervention aided by the Herod rulers.                             

                                                 Hillel

By the Mishnaic period 1st century BCE to 217 CE (The period of the Tannaim, also referred to as the Mishnaic period, lasted about 210 years. It came after the period of the Zugot ("pairs"), and was immediately followed by the period of the Amoraim ("interpreters"). This was when  the teachers, Hillel and Shammai died and ended with the generation after Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi.   Jewish material life in Judea, which had now been renamed as Palestine as well by the Romans in 135 CE, was predominantly hellenistic, although hellenization had ceased to be the political program of any Jewish faction. 

                                              

This was also the time when the Romans had invaded and were occupying  the land,, especially Jerusalem.  Jews were in a panic, and their religion was in question.  Small groups were forming and living monastic lives in search of their meaning.  Life was in an uproar.  Christianity had been born during this period.  So now, not only Greeks, but the  Romans and Christianity have knocked on the door of Judaism

demanding to be let in.                                                                        

                                 
 Both the Mishnah and the Talmud contain hundreds of Greek words which had become absorbed into Hebrew and Aramaic and tomb inscriptions were in Greek.  In a few cases, Jewish scholars fell away from Judaism under the influence of Greek philosophy.  

Outside of Judah, meaning the Diaspora, Judaism was first tolerated by the Greeks, and the organ of Jewish religious and juridical autonomy, the politeuma , essentially Greek in form, was recognized by the hellenistic kings:  however, Jews had recourse to the Greek courts and used that often.  Their aspirations to Greek gymnasium education and Greek citizenship caused a violent civil struggle in Egypt which only ended with the revolt of 117 CE.  

 Jewish contacts with Hellenism gave rise to a variegated Judeo-Hellenistic literature,.   One school advocated a Greco-Jewish rapprochement and held Greek philosophy to be Jewish in origin.  The writings were propagandist, apologetic, literary, historical, and ethical.  The leading authors were Philo and Josephus. Josephus is quoted so much, being a Jewish general caught by the Romans and given the chance to live IF he write the history of them in accordance with how they saw it-that is, for Roman consumption.  He could have even been on their side, anyway. like we have the left and the right in politics.    There were also translations into Greek of works of the Apocrypha and Apocalypse, while synagogue decoration and architecture were influenced by Greek art.  In turn, the Greeks were learning a little about Judaism and Jewish monotheism.  This did become a problem when so many Romans wanted to convert, and the Romans put an end to Jews accepting this.  Now Judaism was in competition with polytheism and the Romans didn't allow this to happen.

The Jewish rejection of  polytheism while the Greek city was bound up in it,, prevented the Jews a general acceptance into Greek life despite the assimilation that had been happening.  Jewish life indeed was influenced by Hellenization, but was still able to remain fundamentally apart.

                                               

           Solomon's Temple 920 BCE to 70 CE, lasted about 1,000 years

By 70 CE, the Romans had burned down Jerusalem and the Temple within it.   They built a pagan Temple over the Jewish one.  Much later, after 620 BCE, the Muslims built their mosque over the Roman Temple, the Mosque of Omar.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/why-do-stars-twinkle/#:~:text=Unlike%20stars%2C%20planets%20don't,their%20light%20is%20easily%20diffracted).

https://nabilnakkash.tripod.com/greekgods/id9.html