While Elections May Influence Tomorrow: God Determines the Future

While Elections May Influence Tomorrow: God Determines the Future

Nov. 4, 2026

Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Guest: Chris Katulka

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 11/4/26 To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, hello and welcome to this Wednesday edition of Stand in the Gap Today, and it’s also our bimonthly focus on Israel, the Middle East, and biblical prophecy. But as we all know, today’s also the day after critical US midterm elections. And it’s not only important for America, but frankly the rest of the world as they looked on. And what most political pundits are describing as a political tsunami, some slanting their opinions or even calling it an historic repudiation of the party in power. As I discussed on Monday’s program with guest J.R. McGee, the title of that was In the Midst of Elections, Warnings and Preparations, Biblical Clarity and Times of Confusion. That need, I believe, is more important now than ever. And today, along with my returning guest here today, Chris Katulka, Vice President of North American Ministries for the Friends of Israel, together we’re going to seek to present biblical clarity regarding our US elections, the unfolding implications of the recent elections, for instance, in Israel, we’re going to go there specifically in the next segment and two, the potential impact of the US elections on Israel, and then conclude with God’s certain and unchanging hand in the affairs of men.

The title I’ve chosen to frame today’s program is this, while elections may influence tomorrow, God determines the future. Now I’d like to give a little though, a few thoughts, a little longer introduction today for me on this regard, but as to yesterday’s US election results, commentary is clearly already all over the board. Everybody has an opinion. Political analysts are speculating about how Republican and Republican polling could have been so far off. Everyone seems to be looking for someone to blame. And that is not though where I want to go at this moment when I believe that our nation should be, frankly, in mourning and confession and repentance of sins and a grieving of the sin of our people and our leaders. And I think it’s prudent for all true believers now to ask three questions. First, where are we now? Second, where is my trust centered now?

And then thirdly, where do we go now from here? So let me start with this. Where are we now? I think we’re exactly where God has said we would be. Collectively, Americans have spoken. God has given us what we’ve demanded. And though this massive political change is not without some historical precedent, the purposeful election of people who vote the murder of the unborn into their state constitutions or delegate their authority via their votes to those who would openly embrace the abomination of homosexuality or antichrist Islam or anti-God communism or endorse other quality or characteristics which contradict the qualifications of scripture within America, I think is without precedent. But the American people have voted their values in values that reflect what we know from research shared on past programs, the values which reflect America’s number one religion, syncretism, or in simple terms, idolatry, where God by definition is not feared and truth is determined by what one feels within themselves to be true.

And in the end, people do what they believe. And when God’s truth is replaced with man’s pragmatism, truth has indeed fallen in the streets. And in such moments, we must understand that America is not the America many older Americans would like to remember. Without biblical truth as the unchanging anchor, we are a nation unmoored and destined to experience the increasing judgment of God. Now secondly, where is my trust centered now? That question we should ask ourselves. Well, for the unbeliever, I think the search will intensify for someone whom they can place their trust. Deception, charlatans and false prophets that scripture foretells will increasingly arise and will entice people to look to them for answers. But for true believers, we must do what we have always been called to do, but with greater intentionality and that is to trust fully in God. Proverbs three: five and six says this, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not into thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.” And thirdly, where do we go from here?

Well, I think the answer is actually quite simple. We go in the same biblical direction and in the same way we should have been going yesterday, must do today and certainly tomorrow. And what is that? Well, we must fear God more than man. We must trust in the Lord. We must pursue holiness in the fear of God. We must share the gospel of Jesus Christ with all who will listen. We must live as salt and light in a darkening culture. We must live as Christlike as possible and we must walk faithfully as ambassadors of Jesus Christ and citizens of a heavenly kingdom looking earnestly for his soon promised return. And as believers, well, our confidence should never be in political parties or candidates or elected officials, courts, legislatures, or governments, because while all of these institutions have consequences in our lives and should never be ignored, they were never intended to be the object of our trust.

The psalmist reminds us in Psalm 146: three, “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no help.” So our hope must be in the Lord. Our confidence must be in the Lord. Our future is being with the Lord. And that brings us directly to the focus of today’s program. While many elections may influence tomorrow, they do not determine the future. God alone determines that. Therefore, our task is not to speculate fearfully about what may happen next, but understand the times through the lens of scripture, discern what God is doing and faithfully obey him wherever he has placed us. And with that, I welcome to the program right now, Chris, and we’ll get more into this, but I just have a quick question here in the last minute approximately. What are your thoughts from what you see happening yesterday as it relates to a believer, you being a believer and leading a gospel ministry, a centered ministry?

Chris Katulka:

Sam, I appreciated your monologue there and I 100% agree with it. And I love that you use Psalm 146, “Don’t put your trust in princes, nor in the son of man and whom there is no help.” This is where my thoughts go because it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to last night. But we have to go to the big picture here of what scripture talks about. And it’s funny that Psalm 146 says, “Don’t put your trust in the son of man.” That’s actually that word is Ben Adam in Hebrew, which means a human. But there is a son of man that we should be putting our trust in. And that comes from Daniel chapter seven, when Daniel has a vision of a son of man, a human who approaches the ancient of days, that’s God the father. So a human, one like a human, approaches the ancient of days and the ancient of days gives him, God gives him all authority, power and dominion to rule over every nation, tribe, and tongue.

That son of man is Jesus. In fact, Sam, Jesus’ favorite title for himself in the gospel is not Messiah. It’s not even Son of God. It’s Son of Man. That’s where my trust is. That’s where my confidence is as it seems like the world is shaking and turned inside out.

Sam Rohrer:

And ladies and gentlemen, I hope that if it’s the case for you, stay with us as we come back, we continue. While elections may influence tomorrow, God determines the future. Well, if you’re just joining us today, welcome aboard. Our program today is our bimonthly focus on Israel, the Middle East and biblical prophecy. And my guest today is returning guest, Chris Katulka. He’s the vice president of North American Ministries of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, and their website is israelmyglory.org. In the last segment, if you’re just joining us, we did do commentary on the significance of the elections here in America yesterday and as we’re discussing and people still finding out because many of the elections are still not finalized completely, but the change was extraordinary. And I won’t go back and revisit right now, but we’re going to move from that focus into the focus of this segment and the balance of the program, which will now go to Israel.

But what happened here in there is connected and we’ll talk about that. So while Americans are processing the implications of our election results, Israelis, as we’ve talked about in previous programs, continue in the processing of significant political changes of their own from their election about a week or so ago, October 27th, I think. But the recent elections in Israel produced another political realignment as ours will produce one and now a new governing coalition there is beginning to take shape. And as we’ve discussed many times on this program, Israel is unlike any other nation. Political developments there not only affect the security of the Jewish state, but often have implications for the entire Middle East and in many ways the world. And while many Americans know the names of Israeli leaders, they don’t often understand the coalition process because they’re in a parliamentary process unlike what we have here.

They don’t know who the key players are and what the formation of a new government may mean domestically and internationally. And that’s why I’ve entitled this particular segment, New Leadership in Israel, a nation at a crossroads. Now, Chris, let’s go back here and start to focus on that. For listeners who may not have followed the Israeli elections closely, could you give us an overview of the result? Who emerged with the greatest influence and what does this new coalition that appears to be in process right now? So I’m saying it may be finalized today, I don’t know. Tell us what’s happening.

Chris Katulka:

Yeah. Sam, we get to enjoy the fact that you and I were talking before the program that we get to see the election results come in and once they come in, it’s done. We know who won and that’s it. Sometimes you got to wait a couple days or whatever, but that’s a nice feature of the American political system. But in Israel with the parliamentary system, the vote is just the beginning. And what we see in the parliamentary system is that the people don’t vote for a person, they vote for a party, especially in Israel. Israel is so small, they don’t go by representation for location. You don’t choose your representative based on where you live for the Knesset, for Israel’s parliament. You actually vote based on your party preference, what you believe is the best party. And sometimes parties, Sam, can just arise out of just basic need.

There were pensioners who were frustrated with how little money they were getting, so they formed a pension party.

They were able to get their seats in the Knesset to make their changes. And then guess what? The pension party closed down and they were done and they moved out. So again, party systems is what drives Israeli elections, but still personality does too. And what we see once again is that Netanyahu still has a lot of political power, but it’s waning. It’s waning. He ultimately won 53 seats with all the various parties that will join with him, but it’s not enough to form a government. Netanyahu needs 61 seats. There’s 120 seats in the Israeli Knesset. You need 61 to win. He only could form 53. The opposition, his name is Gotti Eisenkot. He was only able to get 48. The polls certainly thought that he would get more, but he didn’t. The big thing though, what we see rising up is that the Arab parties, the Raham party, the joint list party, they won a record breaking 19 seats.

Now here’s the problem with the Arab party. The Arab parties don’t like to partner with any Israeli parties at all. They literally just stand always in opposition to the Jewish parties, essentially, to the other parties. So here’s the deal. If either Netanyahu, which it won’t happen, or Eisenkot can win those 19 Arab parties over to form a coalition, they win. But it creates a problem. So Netanyahu will never partner with the Arab parties. While Eisenkot said he wouldn’t, but you know what? Now that the power balance is swayed through the Arab parties, he’s taking back, I think, his words. But you’re right, today the president of Israel, he’s the one who offers the president of Israel, that’s Isaac Herzog, he’s the one that’s going to say, “This particular party is going to go and attempt to form a government.” And a lot of them are saying Netanyahu needs his Likud party, Netanyahu’s party is called Likud, that he’s the one who should deserve the right first to try to form a government.

If he can’t, then it will go to the second place person, Eisenkot. So we’re going to see which direction the president goes here pretty soon, but I’ll just say something that I think Israelis and Americans share in general right now. I think Israel is in a gridlock. It’s not going to go anywhere. I actually think what’s going to happen is both won’t be able to form a party and they’ll form a coalition. And what will end up happening is they will just have to go to elections once again. And so again, that could happen in the next few months, but Netanyahu will remain ultimately the caretaker of the premiership being prime minister until that election comes. So again, it’s vastly different than the way that we do politics here in America, but the big takeaway is this. Netanyahu, despite all of the criticisms, still has a lot of power in Israel, but not enough.

He lost seats, but not enough to create a government, and that’s going to keep Israel in a gridlock until one day Netanyahu leaves. The question is, should Netanyahu step down? I don’t think he will, but he still has enough power to be able and influence to be able to create 53 seats and create gridlock, which is very interesting.

Sam Rohrer:

Okay. And I have two different questions. I’m going to combine them here because of the time. You just put them together as you can. And that is, you mentioned, for instance, the pension people that formed a group and then they got in and they accomplished their thing. So here’s my question. What are the most significant policy priorities that you think are driving how the coalitions may come together and put into that the component of the religious dynamics that are, as a part of it, where the Temple Mount, worship, perhaps enhancing Sanhedrin, all of those kind of things, how those are factoring into what may well shape any new coalition that comes forth?

Chris Katulka:

Yeah. The coalitions of the religious parties that you just mentioned, those will always… Netanyahu needs them. He needs them. They will side with him. Eisenkot and those that Eisenkot will try to form a coalition will never partner with the religious, more ultra orthodox parties in Israel, primarily because of what I keep calling the kingmaker situation in Israel, which is that the ultra Orthodox don’t have to serve in Israel. They don’t have to serve in Israeli army. They’ve been given a free pass to not have to go where every other Israeli has to. This is created… Now that was something that was instituted by Ben Gurian, Israel’s first prime minister when the state became a nation, when Israel became a state and had his own sovereignty. He did that because the Holocaust had killed so many ultra Orthodox. There were only like 400 of them in Israel, but now they’ve grown to a huge group of people, so much so that there’s multiple parties in the Knesset.

And so now you have a large group of people who don’t have to go to the military, and this creates a lot of what we’d say in Yiddish service, a lot of trouble in Israel because there are even conservative parties, conservative parties like Netanyahu. Eisenkot is very conservative individual, believe it or not. He and Netanyahu probably have a lot more in common than you would think. The problem usually rests over this issue of not wanting to partner with the religious parties because they don’t serve in the military. And there’s a lot of conservative Israelis who go, “I’m never partnering with Netanyahu as long as he continues to perpetuate this ridiculous law.” And so you have parties on the opposition side who think like Netanyahu that you would normally think would form a coalition, but refuse to because he partners with the ultra Orthodox. So what are the big policy issues though?

The big policy issues come down to two things. Number one, national security for Israel, how the war is going to play out. I believe the people that voted for Likud and for that coalition are saying, “We want to make sure that Hamas is done, Hezbollah is taken care of, Iran is taken care of, and the Houthis are taken care of. No longer are we going to live like this anymore.” I think that’s usually the people who vote for Netanyahu. They believe in some capacity he’s managing the war properly. On the other side of the policy issue is actually Netanyahu himself. I actually think the people who voted for Eisenkot, the people who voted for that coalition that got 48 seats, those people are just saying, “We’re done with Netanyahu. Can we move on?” It’s not even necessarily a policy issue. They might agree with Netanyahu’s war against Hamas and Hezbollah, but the problem is that they don’t want Netanyahu doing it anymore.

They want him gone. And so again, this is what happened in the last Israeli elections when Netanyahu lost. They had to form an awkward coalition of conservatives, liberals, and even the Arab party to try to oust Netanyahu. So the question is, will they do that again? And I’m not too certain about that.

Sam Rohrer:

All right. That’s excellent, Chris. Ladies and gentlemen, stay with us as we move through the program today. The theme, while elections may influence tomorrow, God determines the future. When we come back, we’re going to shift to now US elections and Israel aid. That’s a part of it. And talking about US and Israel, a relationship at a crossroads. Welcome back here to Stand in the Gap. We’re right in the middle of the program and we’re in Israel. Actually, we’re focusing attention there, but we’re going to connect what’s happening there to our US elections here yesterday, at least in one part. Because Chris, I want to get back to you, because while Israel’s internal politics and coalition dynamics are critically important, and you just explained in a very, very clear way that in the last segment, Israel, we know, does not at all exist in a vacuum because for decades, one of the most important strategic partnerships across the entire world has been the relationship, as we know, between the United States and Israel.

And it seems like even in the past two years, that relationship has turned from, I don’t know, almost friendly to antagonistic, at least here in our nation. But today there’s some increasing questions about the future of that relationship from a number of perspectives. Numerous American political leaders, as we know, I think you and I may have talked about it in past programs, they are openly questioning any continued military and financial aid to Israel, and others are calling for a fundamental reassessment of America’s role in the entire region. All that’s getting caught up in all of this Iran business as we know. But here, now in the wake of yesterday’s election results here, many are asking whether the new political landscape in Washington will strengthen, will weaken, or fundamentally alter the relationship between our two nations, of which are a lot of implications either way. But for that reason, I’ve entitled this segment, US Elections and Israel Aid: A Relationship at a Crossroads.

So here’s my question. As you observe both the changing political landscape in America, Chris, and the formation of a new government in Israel, here’s the question. How concerned are Israeli leaders about the future of US support and what role are yesterday’s election results possibly or likely to play in those considerations? Because that’s a big question. So anyways, what do you say?

Chris Katulka:

Yeah. Israel was one of the bullseyes when it comes to the midterm elections. I mean, the Abdul Al-Sayed PAC that put out that commercial of a couple grocery shopping and saying, “Oh, we can’t buy banana and eggs because Israel’s killing Palestinians right now. They’re bombing Palestinians.” I mean, that’s just the most absurd thing you could possibly say, but the reality is that the Democratic Party, I would say almost on a big umbrella picture has decided to use Israel as its target for politics, for their agenda, for their talking point. I mean, even Rahm Emmanuel, who is Jewish and been a supporter of Israel, he was the mayor of Chicago and the chief of staff for Barack Obama. He’s even making Israel a center point of kind of disconnecting from them. And so this is becoming a real issue because people are beginning to think… I really believe a lot of Americans think their problem is Israel.

There’s a very famous saying that came from one of Netanyahu’s former writers, I believe, staff writers or something. And he said, “Israel is the world’s Jew. If you want to blame your economic problems, if you want to blame your personal problems, if you want to blame the high inflation, if you want to blame… Just blame Israel because Israel is the world’s Jew.” And so with Israeli leaders, I think they see the writing on the wall. We look at Israel from an American perspective, but you have to ask yourself, “What do Israelis think about this?” They look at what’s going on in America and they say, “Are you Mashugana?” Mashugana and Yiddish means are you crazy? You’re electing a Muslim senator now.

You’re letting all these people under the Biden administration into your country. You don’t even know where they’re coming from. And now they’re voting. They could be voting. They could be changing the tide of the direction in the United States. They look at what’s going on in the United States and they say, “I wouldn’t want to be over there right now.” That’s the way Israelis look at the situation. They look at the US and say, “Are you sure this is the direction you want to go?” And so yeah, I think Israeli leaders are concerned. When it comes to the aid situation as well, the big thing with Netanyahu is he was already talking about unhitching from America when it comes to aid. He had a kind of a 10-year plan to continue to lower the amount that America supports Israel in their defense funding, and then allowing that to eventually dissipate after 10 years.

Netanyahu’s actually been a proponent of that since the ’90s, but the reality is Americans only hear Israel on social media all day long. All they hear is Israel, Israel, Israel, and it’s usually from a negative perspective, blaming Israel for everything. This has become a problem in American politics, and I think they’re going to learn pretty quick. Israel is not their problem. They’re not the reason why we have high inflation. They’re not the reason why we have economic issues. They’re not the reason why, but Israel becomes the world’s Jew. Everybody can pass their problems on them. Not just America, Europe can do it.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, that’s one of the things I said in the first segment, that part of the response overall is pundits are looking for people to blame for why things went the way they went yesterday. And what you’re saying there is you’re bringing up, one, is that the nation of Israel and Jews generally said the world’s Jew, you can blame it on Israel because people want to blame everything on something else. Now, I’m looking at time here. I want to ask you… Give me a short answer on this one question, and then I want to go to how prophecy may be fitting into this, but how do you interpret Jewish vote? For instance, like Mamdani, mayor in New York, it was the Orthodox community. I watched rabbis talk about how glad they were that they voted for Mamdani. So whereas Israel looks and say, “Why do you do what you do in America?” I in America look and say, “Why do you, Orthodox rabbi, in New York City?

Why do you take credit for voting for a Mamdani?” How does this factor into it?

Chris Katulka:

Yeah. A lot of people look at those Orthodox Jewish people who are… They actually consider themselves anti-Zionist. And the reason why is not because they’re anti-Zionist, it’s because they don’t want to see an Israel exist until the Messiah comes. So anything that’s happening right now is just a secular state. God didn’t ordain it. It shouldn’t be there. And so they promote things like a pro-Palestinian perspective or they’ll say, “Hey, we had Mandani come in and he’s going to arrest Netanyahu when he shows up one day.” The reason they do that is because it’s not because they’re not Zionists, they are. They want to see Israel established, but they want the Messiah to do it, God to do it. And so instead of seeing God work through human effort to make it happen like he has in the past when Israel returned from exile under Ezra, Nehemiah and Zerubbabel using Cyrus the great, a Persian Gentile King, they see it like, no, we only want it to be God who does it.

So anything until then is an issue.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, interesting. That’s almost to me just like man’s understanding, trying to work out God’s plan rather than obeying what God says and looking to what he’s going to do by faith. That seems like a pragmatism put into effect there like we see oftentimes, but let me just get right into this because of lack of time. When looking at Israel and biblical prophecy, which we cannot separate, where the state of Israel today, we know is in the land of unbelief, kind of like what you’re just referring to as the Orthodox you’re talking about, where they’re trusting in the arm of flesh, not in Yeshua, that’s for sure. How do you see US and Israeli election results aligning with biblical prophecy and the conditioning of the hearts of the people of Israel as God’s plan is clearly, I think, unfolding?

Chris Katulka:

Yeah. I mean, rapidly what we’re seeing, especially with these elections and Israel being the topic of conversation for many of them, my mind and my heart immediately go to Zechariah 14, where the prophet envisions a day when all the nations will come up against Jerusalem. And in Zechariah chapter 12, the prophet says that Jerusalem has become a stumbling stone. It’s almost become a glass of wine that everyone’s getting drunk on. And look at what’s going on in the world today. The number one topic of conversation about everything, whether it’s in the US or Europe or the Middle East or down in South America, it’s Israel. It’s a tiny little nation the size of New Jersey and Jerusalem is at the center of it. So when I see that, it says all the nations will come against Jerusalem in Zechariah 14. I have to say, I don’t know when that will happen.

I’m not a date setter at all, but at the same time, I have to say America could be in the list of those nations. And what’s amazing in the Old Testament is God can use a nation for blessing and as an instrument of blessing and at the Same time he can use it as an instrument of wrath. It’s a very interesting thing when you look at Babylon, when you look at Persia, these ancient empires, God used them to accomplish his will. And then at the same time, he turned around and punished them for the way he treated their people by overextending what God intended it to be. Are we in that state? Is that where we are? We could be. We are seeing very quickly a sunset on that unique relationship that we once called that once was bipartisan. Democrats and Republicans on both sides.

Today, there’s a group, a coalition of Republicans that still are our strong holdout for Israel. And I think maybe a small amount of the Democrats, but it is not like it was a decade ago. Today, there is a sunset that’s happening on this unique relationship. And it could be the tide that turns how we see God is using America. It really could be. I earnestly still believe Genesis 12 matters. I will bless those who bless you and those who take it lightly, I will curse. And I think we’re taking it very lightly, the promise that God made to Abraham.

Sam Rohrer:

Ladies and gentlemen, all of these things that occur, whether they’re elections or wars, rumors of wars, all the various things that the Lord speaks about, we have to consider all of these things through the lands of scripture. When we come back, whereas elections may influence tomorrow, it is God who determines the future. Our next segment is prophetic certainties in a world at a crossroads. Well, as we go into our final segment, just a quick reminder, my guest today, Chris Katulka is the vice president of North American Ministries of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. He has a website that is easy to remember, israelmyglory.org. And I think you can pick up and become a receiver of their paper that they put out. And so anyways, go there. I would encourage you to do that. And this program again here, you can pick this up on our Stand in the Gap app or on our website and you can access a transcript easily that’ll be there and available.

And you can actually read along with that and listen to the program again if you would like, because we’ve covered a lot of ground here today. And I will say a lot of it that you may not hear anywhere else, but biblically sound and trustworthy. Now, Chris, throughout today’s program, we’ve discussed elections. We started with that elections here, political realignments, coalition governments in Israel. Particularly we’re talking about what’s happening here. We did that in segment two. International relationships, how those things are happening more in that last segment. Yet it in all of these things, while important, are ultimately temporary. Governments rise and fall. Alliances between nations form and then they dissolve. Leaders come and they go. But God’s purposes and prophetic plan remain absolutely on target and unchanged. And as believers, we’re instructed not merely to watch current events, but to view them through the lens of scripture, which is what we try to faithfully do on this program every day.

But when we look at Israel today, we see a nation back in its land. It is surrounded by its enemies. We know, we see that. It’s increasingly being isolated internationally. We just touched on that, but yet largely existing in spiritual unbelief and still rejecting Yeshua, Jesus as Messiah. We also see growing religious anticipation among many Jews regarding the coming Messiah. You’ve referred to that in talking about the Orthodox rabbis in the last segment, but there’s increased discussion as well about temple preparation, a heightened focused on Jerusalem, unlike any other time in modern history. And at the same time, we’re witnessing nations repositioning themselves politically, economically, and militarily in ways that seem to be setting the stage for future developments that scripture has long foretold. And for that reason, here’s where I want to focus here, prophetic certainties in a world at a crossroads. So Chris, when you step back from the headlines and look at both the recent US and Israeli election results that we’ve been talking, how do you see these developments fitting within God’s larger prophetic plan, those certainties, and particularly as it relates to God’s ongoing work among the Jewish people?

Chris Katulka:

Well, Sam, what happened yesterday is a blip in history. It’s a blip and it happened. And you know what? You and I hopefully will be back together in two years and we’ll be talking about different elections, a different president, maybe a different House and Senate. Just in two years time, it’s just a blip in history. But what’s not a blip in history are the Jewish people in the nation of Israel. In fact, Jeremiah 31 gives us really great insight. You have to first set the context for Jeremiah. Jeremiah is a prophet who keeps telling the last three kings of Israel, “You better just wave the white flag when the Babylonians come because God’s carrying you into judgment. So if you think he’s on your side right now and he’s going to take care of you and you’re going to defeat this huge army, you’re wrong.

Just walk safely into Babylon and save yourself, save your lives.” And they didn’t like his message as a prophet. They listened to other prophets that gave a more smooth message, something that you highlight a lot, deception, where Jeremiah was a lone voice in the wilderness crying out saying, “Nope, just walk into Babylon. Don’t fight.” And you know what? In the midst of that darkness that Jeremiah was going through, because eventually Babylon did come, eventually Jerusalem did fall and Judea and people were carried away in a great exile. It was very depressing for Jeremiah to be the one to carry that message and at the exact same time, be the one that would have to watch Jerusalem burn to the ground, a sacred place. You have to imagine that’s a very dark, dark, dark place for the Jewish people at that time. And yet there’s this moment in Jeremiah 31 where Jeremiah says, “God’s not through with his people.

You can’t get rid of them, even though it seems like you might be able to. In fact, you would have to undo his creation.” He ties it to creation. You’d have to undo creation. You’d have to turn the sun off, shut off the stars, create the stop the tides.

If you can measure the universe, if you could search the depths of the earth until those things happen, until you undo everything God created, Israel still exists and will. And so that is an amazing thing. And that’s why a lot of people, especially people who criticize Israel when it comes to the elections, they go, “Oh, you’re Israel first. You’re not America first.” No, I am an American citizen. I love my country. I think this is one of the greatest countries and experiments in politics and government that has ever happened in human history. And we have the privilege of voting even when it doesn’t work our way. I am a hundred percent a supporter and lover of America first. I love it. Yes, 100%. But you know what I am? I’m also Israel always. America is a nation, but Israel always will be. That’s why my mind goes back to one of the most famous presidents that we have, Abraham Lincoln.

His final words, the last recorded words that we have from him go to his wife and he says, “I would like to visit Jerusalem.” So even one of our greatest presidents understood that the bedrock of history, the place where God would develop everything and put his presence is not in Washington, it’s in Jerusalem. And that’s why I’m Israel always. I’m an American citizen. I love my country, but I’m Israel always because guess what? In the end, do you know what stands? A new Jerusalem that comes out of heaven, not a new Washington, a new Jerusalem. So that is where, when I think about the big picture of the Israeli elections, the American elections, they’re a blip in history. What matters the most is this prophetic plan where Jeremiah, even in the darkest moment, Sam, of Israel’s history says God’s not through with his people. He will reunify his people.

He will return them to the land. And the only way you’ll ever know God’s done with Israel is when the sun shuts off for good, which last time I checked Sam, his sun came up. It’s actually bright and shining right into my window right now. God still loves his people and has a plan for them.

Sam Rohrer:

He does indeed. And I’m going to ask you to pray if you don’t mind, Chris, at the close of our program, but I throw into that, that for those who fear God, God having given to us his plan of redemption that brings them aside, that brought Yeshua through the Jewish people who said that Jerusalem is God’s city, my support and belief and trust in God forces me to be in alignment with what you just said with Israel. We got about a half a minute. Would you mind closing this program in prayer please?

Chris Katulka:

Heavenly Father, we come to you as Bible believing born again Christians who understand the scope of history that you’ve laid out. Lord, to think that there are people who don’t have a hope, that their focus is on all of the things that are happening in politics today. Our hope is knowing what the scriptures, your scriptures teach us from alpha to Omega, from beginning to end. Lord, you are in control. And so Father, no matter what happens, we give you the glory, the honor and praise in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Sam Rohrer:

Amen and amen. Chris Katulka from Friends of Israel. Thank you so much for being with today. Always a pleasure. It really is. It’s a great honor to have you on the program. And ladies and gentlemen, I’d encourage you their website, israelmyglory.org. So thank you all for being with us today. I trust that this has been a matter of helping to clarify, increase your confidence and your trust in the Lord above, the only place that we should place our trust. So thanks for being with us. And again, Chris, thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, Lord willing, join me back here tomorrow at the same time here on Stand in the Gap today.