Jesus' Return and World Peace | A Conversation on the End Times

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: I think that even as the Jewish people missed Jesus, when he first came, I think so too. Humanity's the same, that we have an imagination of what it's going to look like in the end times. And perhaps our imagination is not going to be how it actually plays out.
Dustin Roberts: With everything happening in the world, peace feels pretty far away, and it's natural to wonder what lies ahead for you and your family. Welcome to Discovering the Jewish Jesus today. I'm your host, Dustin Roberts, and Rabbi Schneider and I are going to be talking today in the studio. We're talking about Jesus's return and whether our expectations of the end times might be missing something really important. This conversation, it could change how you face an uncertain future. So now join Rabbi and I in the studio. Let's get started with prayer.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Hallelujah. Father God, we love you. We bless you. We never want to just move forward, God, and and just do this without relying on you and clinging to you. We love you, Daddy. Amen.
Dustin Roberts: Amen. You know, a lot of people This is like one of the most common questions that people ask. They say, if the Messiah has come, why is there not world peace?
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Right. Well, first of all, we know what the typical answer is. We talk The typical answer is there's a first and a second coming, right? That Messiah fulfilled some of the Messianic prophecies in his first coming. For example, Isaiah 53, that the Messiah would be pierced through for our transgression and by his wounds we'd be healed. That he wouldn't be recognized like Joseph in the Hebrew scriptures. He became the deliverer of his brothers. But when his brothers went down to Egypt to buy food where Joseph was ruling, Joseph presented himself to them in a form they didn't recognize. They didn't know it was Joseph, their brother. And it was only after Joseph brought them in and, you know, was ready to fully bring them into the revelation that Joseph revealed himself and they saw, this is our brother Joseph. So Yeshua is a type of Joseph. He first comes as one that is not recognized. That how Isaiah 53 starts out. Isaiah 53 starts out by saying, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? In other words, the Messiah would come in a way that people were missing it. So the answer to the question is that Messiah came as a priest and as a sacrifice in his first coming. In his second coming, he's coming in as a reigning king, and it's at that point that order will be restored in the earth. You know, we can answer people's questions about Yeshua. We can answer objections to why Yeshua isn't the Messiah. People say Jesus couldn't be the Messiah cuz he didn't bring peace on earth. And I can go and answer that question by pointing to different scriptures in the Hebrew Bible, like Isaiah 53, use other examples like Joseph. But you know what the real truth is, Dustin? The real truth is, I know that I know because he's revealed himself to me. And at the end of the day, if somebody is just going to base their knowing on scriptures, I don't know how much they can really know. Jesus said to the Pharisees of his day, you search the scriptures because you think in them you have life. Yet it's these that bear witness of me, and you refuse to come to me that you may have life. People read the scriptures. You have 100 different people reading the scriptures, and you've got 20 different interpretations from 100 different people. And each one is pointing to a different scripture. One is saying, you know what, Jesus is going to come back before the great tribulation. And they have 15 scriptures they point to as to why Jesus is coming back before the tribulation. Then you have a whole other set of respected scholars that say Jesus is coming back in the middle of tribulation. And they have their 10 scriptures. And then you got somebody that says, he's not coming back till at the end of the tribulation like me. And I've got my 10, 15, 20 different scriptures. So at the end of the day, I like to just speak about the simple truth that I know that God loves me and that Jesus is the Messiah cuz the father revealed it to me.
Dustin Roberts: So at some point you have to go beyond just like searching and what you're reading and you have to say like, God, if you're real, I need to know we need to connect.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: That's it. I need you to show me. Show me, father.
Dustin Roberts: Now I'm going to go back to that tough question.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Yeah.
Dustin Roberts: Why isn't there world peace today? Like why is the world such a mess? Why are things like getting workers?
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Okay, let's think about that. Why isn't there world peace today? Why are things such a mess? And let's tie that back into the objection that people often give that Jesus couldn't have been the Messiah cuz there's not world peace. But think about it. Jesus himself said, nation will rise against nation in Matthew 24, and kingdom will rise against kingdom. And people will be betrayed by their own family. He talked about what would happen in the end days. And he didn't promise that there'd be world peace. He promises that things are going to get worse. And when things get worse, he said, look up cuz your redemption draweth nigh. So there's not world peace because it's all part of divine timing. The scripture says that before the Antichrist is revealed, sin will run its course. And when sin reaches a climax, there'll be such a deception in the world that it will give place for an Antichrist to arise. And Yeshua is not returning until the Antichrist is first revealed. So there's not peace on earth because everything's part of a divine timetable. And before the Messiah returns and there's peace on earth, first things will spiral downward until things get so bad that the Antichrist will emerge and people will be in such a state of deception and desperation that they'll believe in a false Messiah. And that's almost right before the very end where Yeshua's bright glory and light is revealed from heaven and he crushes all demonic energy under his feet and establishes his reign in the world.
Dustin Roberts: Have you seen any videos or have you heard talk even in the past about the red heifer? Do you know anything about that and what that means?
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Yeah, I've read you know quite a bit, not in depth, but quite a bit, stories of surfaced, you know, over many, many years about the ashes of the red heifer and that the third temple cannot be in full service until we have the ashes of the red heifer. And I've always kind of, you know, stood back a bit because this is my personal conviction and this may not endear me to everybody that's listening right now. But I'm not fully convinced that there's going to be a third temple in the way that many Christians imagine. And because I not fully convinced I'm not saying that there's not going to be a third temple. I 'm just saying that I not fully convinced of it. And because I not fully convinced of it, I not really sure what role the ashes of a red heifer would play. Let me explain a little more. The Bible tells us, remember not the ark of the covenant, which was at the center of the temple, and don't even recall it. For behold, I'm doing a new thing. And in the same way that Yeshua's blood was shed once and for all, so that we no longer need to sacrifice animals, we no longer need to sacrifice bulls and goats, the New Testament tells us in the book of Hebrews, because once and for all, Yeshua's blood has been sacrificed and all these previous sacrifices, all the animals in the Hebrew Bible, they were just types and shadows that were pointed to the real payment, which was Yeshua. I'm not convinced because of that, because Yeshua has fulfilled everything, that everything in the Hebrew scripture was types and shadows. I'm not convinced that there will literally be a third temple, at least in the way that we imagine it.
Dustin Roberts: We'd likely have Jesus come back like mentioned in Zechariah 14 or something like that. If anything was built, it would almost be like Jesus would be there. He himself tabernacling with man represents a temple.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Yeah, exactly, exactly. So yeah, that's what a lot of people believe. You know, the third temple will be built. Yeshua will reign from there. It's possible. But um I just think that even as the Jewish people missed Jesus when he first came, because they were looking for a Messiah that would appear differently than the one that came. I think so too. Humanity's the same, that we have an imagination of what it's going to look like in the end times. And perhaps our imagination is not going to be how it actually plays out. And I think we should all be conscious of not having everything in such a box that we think, you know, it's how it's going to play out in the future. I mean, you watch some of these end time guys. I mean, they got the whole board they're putting up, you know, it's this is going to happen here, then this is going to happen here, then this is going to happen next, then this is going to then this is They got the whole time frame, you know, and it's like maybe, but I I'm doubtful. I think it's so far beyond us.
Dustin Roberts: Okay, what do we know for sure?
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: What do we know for sure? We know 100% Yeshua is coming back. We know every knee will bow and tongue confess that Yeshua Ha Mashiach is Lord. We know that when he returns, the glory is going to circle the earth as the waters cover the sea, that every eye will see him, even as when a lightning strikes, everybody sees the lightning around. So that's going to happen as return. We know that. We know that their Antichrist will be revealed, that there's going to be somebody that's going to be endowed with superhuman power from the forces of darkness, that's going to be an agent of deception which will lead the entire race into captivity. We know that for sure. We know that there's going to be a period where there's going to be peace on earth that we call the millennial period, where the rulership and the government of God will reign upon the earth. But yet babies will still be being born during that time. And because of that, it will still be possible for people to sin. We know that at the end of the millennial period, there'll be a final rebellion of the powers of darkness. And then Yeshua will once and for all put it all to death and that all darkness, everybody that's participated in darkness will be thrown into the lake of fire. There'll be no evil that will ever be manifest again and that God's children will forever, forever and never be in heaven. And nobody that's in heaven can go out of heaven and no one that's not in heaven can get into heaven. And it's going to be love and peace and everything beyond what our wildest imagination could ever even fathom forever more.
Dustin Roberts: Yeah. And you actually wrote about all this stuff in detail in in your book, The Book of Revelation Decoded. You have a revised edition. And in that book, you're basically interpreting end time events through the eyes of the Old Testament, the Hebrew prophets. Why is it important to interpret through the Old Testament?
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Yeah. Yeah. I think everybody that's interested in the end times, and we all should be, because Jesus said at the beginning of the book of Revelation, blessed is everyone that studies the words of this book. I think everybody should read a book like the one I wrote, The Book of Revelation Decoded, interpreting end times through the Hebrew prophets because if we just interpret end times through the New Testament, we're going to miss so much because there's so many things that the Hebrew Bible talks about in relationship to the end times. For example, at the end of the book of Isaiah, Isaiah describes the millennium. We have the scriptures in the Hebrew Bible that talk about the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked. So it's important to understand the end times, not only through the lens of the New Testament, but to understand what the Hebrew scriptures teach about the end times as well, so we can be grounded because any other pathway that doesn't include the Hebrew Bible is not laying a strong foundation.
Dustin Roberts: This is Discovering the Jewish Jesus and we'll be right back with the conversation. But first, you might have heard about the billboards across New York City displaying jews.com. It's meant to help Jewish people discover Jesus as their Messiah. And Rabbi, well, he recorded this special message right here sharing the heart behind the mission.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Somebody just asked me last night, what's the goal? You know, why why all the billboards? Why all the investment? And the goal is to reach Jewish people with the message of Jesus. And why am I so focused on this? It's because God spoke to me approximately 2 years ago. And he said to me, Acts 222. That's what we're doing here. This is a divine mandate from the Lord.
Dustin Roberts: Amen. And scripture tells us that Jesus won't return until the Jewish people cry out for it. You can be a part of seeing this prophecy fulfilled by helping us reach them with the gospel. You can partner monthly or give today at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And now back to our conversation. Rabbi, is there anything in the Hebrew Bible that gives us an idea of when Jesus is going to come back? Is there anything we can know to like really know that yeah, it could actually happen in our generation right now? Because people have been saying Jesus is coming back for thousands of years.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Yeah. Yes. Well, one of the events that's associated with the return of the Lord is in the book of Zechariah where it speaks about the nations of the world surrounding Israel to annihilate Israel. And it would appear that Israel will be annihilated. But all of a sudden, the midnight hour And you could even envision that now with all the hostilities and hatred towards the nation of Israel, you can see that happening. At the 12th hour at midnight, the Lord is going to reveal his glory from heaven. He is going to fight on Israel's behalf. He's going to stop the advancement of the enemy. He's going to overcome the enemy and he's going to reign. And the Jewish people will be restored into covenant relationship with him because when this happens, right as the foreign armies are about to overtake Israel, the Lord reveals his glory from heaven just like he did from Sinai. He crushes the enemy and the scripture says and the Jewish people when this happens will look upon him whom they pierced and mourn for him as one mourns for an only son. Just like Jesus said, and they will look upon me whom they have pierced.
Dustin Roberts: Is this after Jesus returns?
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: This is at his return.
Dustin Roberts: At his return. So the idea is that there's going to be quite a bit of people. He's going to come. He's going to rescue them and then they're going to be like, oh my gosh, we messed up.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: That's exactly my understanding.
Dustin Roberts: Wow. So what would you say to someone who says, well, uh you know, these are metaphorical things in the Old Testament. You know, this is isn't really going to happen. It's symbolism.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Yeah. Well, I would get back to some comments that I made earlier. I do think things will play out slightly different or a lot different than we are expecting. However, what we read about in the pages of the Hebrew scripture in the New Testament as well in regards to the return of the Lord and what things will be like, we know certain things will happen. We know that there's going to be a rebellion in the earth that will virtually almost snuff out the light completely. So we've gotten more and more used to evil and we've been so lulled to sleep by it, it's become so familiar to us that we don't recognize it as evil. We just think it's part of the culture and people accept it. I mean, think of the young people today being raised in this where they don't have moral boundaries of right and wrong. They can't even tell the difference anymore. And so they're raised in this culture where they don't have to sermon. That's why Jesus said when they asked him about the end times, tell us about the end times. When will be the sign of your coming and of these things the disciples asked Jesus? And the first thing he spoke about was deception. But yet you look at young people today that weren't raised with a clear understanding of the difference between maleness and femaleness and the sacred of uh marriage being between a man and a woman. So this is the type of climate that we're living, deception. And the deception of empathy because the reality is is that this is really the hook that Satan has used to cause mankind to choose a morality rather than biblical morality that makes a distinction between heterosexuality and homosexuality. And so uh yeah, the whole weaponization of empathy, the enemy, the devil is used that to put a hook in the soul of men to lead mankind away from godly biblical morals to instead choose empathy and replacing empathy over biblical values. Like empathy has become the highest value as opposed to God's word that delineates truth from non-truth.
Dustin Roberts: Yeah, you so right. That's that's exactly it right there. And that's what we say to ourselves. Who am I to tell someone who they should love? You know, like people should be free to love whoever they want. They should be free to care about whoever they want. They can do whatever they want, right? And that is ultimately, you know, moral, me loving them is letting them do whatever they want. We've lost though a foundation or a basis of truth. Yes, you can basically value that someone love someone and you can say, I understand that you love someone. You can even have empathy for the fact that they're have genuine feelings.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Mhm.
Dustin Roberts: But feelings aren't necessarily truth. Feelings, they may be true for that person, but they're not ultimate truth. Just because you have feelings for someone doesn't mean it's right.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: That is a lesson that every single disciple of Jesus needs to learn. That is a huge revelation for a person to come to a place where they felt that because they felt something, they had a right to go after that thing or they allowed their feelings to determine their identity and they allowed their feelings to determine their reality to go from that place to recognizing that feelings are fickle, that feelings don't determine truth, that feelings are not fact. And to be able to come to a place in our relationship with the Lord where we're discerning enough to say, yes, I feel that way. But just because I feel that way doesn't make it true. What does God's word have to say about that and then choose being a disciple and God's word rather than our feelings? And that, my friend, is a marked crossroads that a person can reach to really break through into glory and an exaltation into God's light and power. When we come to the place where we don't allow our feelings to determine our reality, but choose God's word as well.
Dustin Roberts: Yeah. And and so many people say, well, my feelings are valid, but when I hear what you're saying, you're not saying that someone's feelings aren't valid. You're saying you take your feelings and you subject them to the word of God. The Bible actually talks about washing our minds with the water of the word.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Yes, that's it. You said it. I couldn't have said it any better myself. You know, one other thing that I would like to point out regarding this whole discussion of homosexuality and where it is in the culture and what is our role and responsibility as believers and disciples of Yeshua to relate to people and communicate to someone that is living a homosexual lifestyle. And that is a heavy burden because if we just think we can go up to people that are living a homosexual lifestyle and saying, you know, you're living in sin and that's our attitude, we are in, I think, to experience some discipline of the Holy Spirit because yes, homosexuality is sin. But if we don't have an understanding of the person that we're ministering to and have a sense of compassion and if we're not walking humbly with the Holy Spirit before we just challenge somebody that's living in homosexuality with their lifestyle, I believe that we as believers are going to experience some training of the Lord. We need to be communicating the love of Jesus and the truth of the cross with people that are living a homosexual lifestyle. And there's a time that we're going to need to point out the air of that lifestyle. But it may not be simply going up to somebody that's living that lifestyle and saying, you're living in sin unless you repent, you're going to go to hell. It is certainly true. The Bible says no homosexual will inherit the kingdom of God. But we as believers need to have a humble heart and be caring the anointing of the Holy Spirit to know how to minister to that person. And it may be that we need to love them before we point out to them that the road that they're on's not going to lead to their own happiness and it's going to lead them into further alienation from God. But Jesus died on the cross and gave his life for us that we can not only be forgiven but have a new nature and that you can overcome. One of the things that I had to learn in my life was that my feelings were not reality. And that just because I felt something didn't mean that I should pursue what I felt. I used to feel things so strongly that I was convinced that this feeling was reality. And you know what? I had to have a wake-up call and I had to be trained by the Holy Spirit to understand that feelings are not reality. Maybe you're going through something in your life right now. You have a strong feeling towards something. It could be many, many different things. I want to ask you just to submit your feeling to the Lord and submit it to his word. Perhaps even do a search online and say, I have this feeling. Does this feeling line up with what the Bible says? Perhaps you have done enough Bible research on your own to know that it doesn't. If you're struggling with a feeling that doesn't line up with the Holy Spirit and his word, if you can submit that to the word of God, you will get great breakthrough in your life. You'll receive a new endowment of power and the Lord will be very pleased with you. We all need to learn to submit our feelings to the word of God and to the cross of Christ. And that demands sacrifice. Jesus didn't want to go to the cross. He said, father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. But then he submitted his feeling to the father to avoid the cross. And then he said, father, not my will, but thy will be done. And he overcame his feeling of wanting to avoid the cross to do the father's will. He went to the cross. And the Bible says because of that, God highly exalted him and gave him a name above all names so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father because he submitted himself to the father's will unto death. I think one of the greatest things that the Lord is doing through this ministry is using Discovering the Jewish Jesus in a huge way in the earth to prepare the Gentile church and to equip them to share their faith with Jewish people. In fact, Paul said in the book of Romans that he magnified his ministry to the Gentiles because he said through Gentile believers, his own people would be reached. And so Gentile believers being equipped to share their faith with Jewish people is a huge part of God's redemptive purposes. So I want you to know every time you sow your finances into Discovering the Jewish Jesus, you're sharing. You're sowing seed into good ground that is right in God's redemptive strategy to prepare the world for King Jesus's return. Maybe you've never presented an offering to the Lord through this ministry. I would humbly ask you today to open your heart to the Lord and consider doing so. And if you feel the Holy Spirit knocking at the door of your heart to move forward with this, just be obedient. And because of you, we're making a difference. Amen. And to support Discovering the Jewish Jesus today, visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com. You can also send your gift in the mail. Our address is Discovering the Jewish Jesus, PO Box 777 Blissfield, Michigan 49228. And one place that your generosity is opening doors is our new outreach called jewishjesus.com. Through jewishjesus.com, Jewish people can explore Jesus, the Hebrew scriptures, and questions about faith in a setting that's created specifically for them. And sometimes the questions we receive reminds us just how important it is to be there when someone starts searching. One person recently came through jewishjesus.com with an incredibly simple but deeply personal question about whether Jesus could save them. Think about that for a moment. As Christians, a lot of us take that for granted as an absolute yes. But imagine being in their shoes. That's a scary thought to not know if he can or what will happen to you when you die if he can't because Jewish people have been taught their whole lives that Jesus isn't the Messiah. It's built into their culture. And behind that question is a real person looking for a real answer that could affect their eternity. And that's exactly why this outreach exists to answer that question for them and encourage them. That's one reason why your partnership matters. You're helping create opportunities for Jewish people to ask honest questions about Jesus in a safe way. Your gift helps keep jewishjesus.com available. So give today. Visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com or call 800-777-7835. Now here's Rabbi with the Aaronic blessing.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The Aaronic blessing in the book of Numbers chapter 6 is not a blessing that comes from an impersonal being out there somewhere in the heavens. This special blessing comes from a person, Yahweh, God Almighty, our creator and maker. So receive God's blessing into your life right now. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. And now in Hebrew, God bless you and shalom.
Dustin Roberts: I'm your host, Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Are you willing to stand with Jesus when it costs you? Well, Rabbi Schneider shows us how to accept our calling without compromise tomorrow on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.