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Caption transcript for The First Christians (2019): “Religion” (7/9)

• 00:01 Jeffrey Seif: Jesus once spoke to a Jewish religious leader
• 00:03 and said that he, Nicodemus, needed to be born
• 00:06 of water and the spirit.
• 00:10 Let's find out what that's all about today
• 00:12 on "Zola Levitt Presents."
• 00:15 ♪♪♪
• 00:19 male announcer: Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
• 00:22 to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
• 00:26 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek,
• 00:29 for the same Lord overall is rich
• 00:31 unto all that call upon him.
• 00:34 "Zola Levitt Presents."
• 00:37 ♪♪♪
• 00:43 ♪♪♪
• 00:53 David Hart: We're so glad you've joined us today
• 00:54 on "Zola Levitt Presents."
• 00:56 I'm David Hart.
• 00:57 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 00:58 Jeffrey: And I'm Jeffrey Seif, and you are in for a surprise
• 01:00 as we go back and look
• 01:02 at the Jewish religious world in Jesus's day.
• 01:06 David: I want to say I'm kind of surprised
• 01:07 that this first aired 23 years ago.
• 01:11 As we watch Zola teaching, it looks like he was
• 01:13 just here teaching with us.
• 01:15 Great music, messianic music. Last week was government.
• 01:20 This week, it's all about religion.
• 01:22 Jeffrey: Yes, and you know, Bible colleges and seminaries,
• 01:24 and that's the world that I fare from, they have Jewish studies
• 01:27 departments to look at the Jewish religious world,
• 01:30 the background world of century one.
• 01:32 I believe it's very important, and so do the deans.
• 01:35 That's why I've made a living teaching as a professor.
• 01:38 Kirsten: We have all of that, a lot of information
• 01:40 for you today, good information.
• 01:43 But first, to learn about our first century Christians,
• 01:45 we're going to go back in time and travel to
• 01:48 the ruins of the Essenes.
• 01:50 Let's go there now.
• 01:55 announcer: The archaeological find of
• 01:57 the 20th century took place here in caves of
• 01:59 the mountains adjoining the Dead Sea.
• 02:02 Here in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls bore proof
• 02:06 to the authenticity of the Bible.
• 02:09 Stephen Pfann, director of the Center for Early Christianity,
• 02:12 has translated some of the texts taken from these caves and
• 02:16 is an expert in the religious practices of the first century.
• 02:20 Stephen Pfann: Behind us here are two of the caves
• 02:22 found here at Qumran.
• 02:24 Cave number four further behind me with the
• 02:26 triangular entrances, and down below me here is
• 02:29 the collapsed cave, cave number eight.
• 02:32 Inside these caves were found many scrolls, which we've all
• 02:35 heard about and have come to appreciate because they
• 02:38 represent actual scrolls used by people during the time of Jesus.
• 02:43 Also in here, however, were found mezuzahs
• 02:47 and phylacteries, also known as tefillin.
• 02:51 Now, the mezuzah was used according to the commandment
• 02:55 in the law in the books of Moses, in the book of Exodus
• 02:57 and the book of Deuteronomy.
• 02:59 It was commanded that the--that the Israelites would take
• 03:02 these Scriptures and apply them to the doorposts.
• 03:07 This would be a protection upon the house.
• 03:10 They were also commanded that when they pray, that they take
• 03:13 these Scriptures and wrap them around their arms and apply
• 03:17 them to their foreheads, in order that they would have
• 03:21 this blessing from God as they prayed.
• 03:24 All Jews had to pray this way all through history.
• 03:30 We still even today can see Jews in Jerusalem praying
• 03:34 at the western wall with their phylacteries
• 03:37 laid on very carefully.
• 03:39 This practice was taking place as we have evidence here
• 03:42 in the first century among Jews.
• 03:45 And it would have also been practiced by
• 03:47 Jesus and his disciples.
• 03:53 announcer: This is a photo of the phylactery found
• 03:55 in the Qumran cave.
• 03:57 It's as intricately made as a Swiss watch
• 03:59 and smaller than a paperclip.
• 04:01 Seen here enlarged, the leather pouch looked like this closed
• 04:05 and like this when opened, containing four separate
• 04:10 compartments for Scripture.
• 04:13 Passages from Exodus and Deuteronomy had been
• 04:15 handwritten in microscopic Hebrew.
• 04:18 The Essenes's encampment here at Qumran covered nearly two acres.
• 04:23 Their purpose in moving to this desolate area
• 04:25 was to totally dedicate themselves to what they
• 04:27 believed was the way of the Lord.
• 04:31 Steve takes us now to the site of a mikvah or ritual bath
• 04:35 used by the Essenes for purification.
• 04:38 Stephen: Behind us here, we have the plain of the Dead Sea.
• 04:42 Down at the far end, we can see one of the two sites
• 04:44 of the Essenes that existed here.
• 04:48 The Ein Feshkha behind me is the site of Khirbet Qumran.
• 04:52 Down below was where the married Essenes would have lived.
• 04:55 Here we have the site where the priests and
• 04:59 the single Essenes would have lived.
• 05:01 In my hand, I actually have a copy of the rules that governed
• 05:08 the people who lived at this site, many copies of which were
• 05:11 found in that cave which I just pointed out to you.
• 05:15 In front of us, we have one of the important installations
• 05:19 here at the site of Qumran.
• 05:21 And as in many different places, including Jerusalem and
• 05:25 Sepphoris up in the north, there are numerous pools like these
• 05:29 known as ritual immersion pools, or in Hebrew mikvah or mikvaot.
• 05:41 announcer: The mikvaot, of course, were vitally important
• 05:43 in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus.
• 05:45 Here along the southern wall of the temple,
• 05:47 cleansing in the waters of this pool was an integral part
• 05:50 of preparation for worship.
• 05:53 Everyone who sought to worship the God of Israel
• 05:55 had to be cleansed.
• 05:57 But yet there were differences.
• 05:59 Stephen: The Pharisees said that if you went down
• 06:01 and fully immersed yourself and came back up, you were
• 06:04 pure and equipped to be able to go on into a pure area.
• 06:10 But the Essenes said that's not enough.
• 06:12 A person also has to be right in his heart, he has to be right
• 06:16 toward his brother, and he has to be also right toward God.
• 06:20 In fact, in this scroll, it's required and it says, "By the
• 06:23 Holy Spirit of the community, in his truth, shall he be cleansed
• 06:27 from all his sins; and by the Spirit of uprightness
• 06:30 and humility shall his iniquity be atoned.
• 06:33 By his soul's humility toward the precepts of God shall his
• 06:36 flesh be cleansed by the lustral waters and sanctified
• 06:39 by the flowing water."
• 06:42 It's the two together according to the Essenes, both right
• 06:45 attitude and right way of life, before going down into the pool
• 06:51 in order to come up clean and justified and pure before God.
• 06:58 announcer: To better understand how the Essenes actually went
• 07:01 about the cleansing process, Steve takes us
• 07:03 to yet another mikvah.
• 07:06 Stephen: Here we are at another mikvah
• 07:08 within the site of Qumran.
• 07:09 This is probably the most important ritual immersion pool
• 07:12 in the entire site during the first period
• 07:14 of their existence here.
• 07:16 That is, up until it was destroyed by an earthquake,
• 07:18 and you can see the great destruction that happened here
• 07:22 in the earthquake of 31 BC.
• 07:25 But until that time, this was so important because this is
• 07:29 the ritual immersion pool into which the novices would
• 07:32 enter and come up for the first time a renewed son of light.
• 07:38 And it has a division between the avenue for going down before
• 07:44 the immersion, and going up afterwards.
• 07:48 So that those who go down who are unclean will not
• 07:52 come in contact with those that are clean.
• 07:55 You can see these runnels right here, which remain
• 07:58 as a separation between the unclean and the clean.
• 08:03 It was also used during the time of the renewal ceremony every
• 08:07 year, where the people would come here in droves,
• 08:12 large numbers of people, for a renewal of their
• 08:15 commitment to the beliefs of the Essenes.
• 08:18 But also it was used in order to enter the site in order to be
• 08:22 able to eat the sacred meal on a daily basis.
• 08:28 So, as a person would enter in, you can see first of all that
• 08:31 there are a series of steps here, and then a wider step.
• 08:35 Another couple of steps and a wider step.
• 08:38 This was so that during the year, as the water would
• 08:41 evaporate down, there would be a proper platform for an
• 08:44 individual to go ahead and stand here in their loincloth,
• 08:53 they would immerse themselves down so that every
• 08:56 part of them would be covered with water.
• 09:00 They would get back up and walk up to the top.
• 09:09 They'd enter into the site and put on white clothing,
• 09:12 after which they would be able to go into the dining room
• 09:14 and eat with their fellows.
• 09:17 ♪♪♪
• 09:25 Zola Levitt: Well, here we are at the famous Jordan River.
• 09:27 And this is a most beautiful part of it just south of the
• 09:30 Sea of Galilee, where the water proceeds out to
• 09:33 roll down through the land, a curved path all the
• 09:37 way down to the Dead Sea.
• 09:39 At this point, it's very pure, very clean.
• 09:42 People are baptized here all the time, and I'm not far
• 09:45 from a baptistery that a kibbutz has actually installed along the
• 09:51 river so that people can walk down steps to the river safely
• 09:54 and so on, and be baptized in these waters in which,
• 09:57 of course, our Lord himself was baptized.
• 10:00 Well, Steve has told us about the mikvaot
• 10:02 there at the--at Qumran.
• 10:05 A mikvah is a Jewish ritual bath, more than
• 10:08 one plural is mikvaot.
• 10:11 And we saw the mikvaot there.
• 10:13 You know, it is so ancient a ceremony, the idea of washing
• 10:17 with water for purification, or to make a change,
• 10:21 or to be cleansed for some new belief.
• 10:24 The Jewish sages actually teach that this goes all the way back
• 10:28 to Abraham's journey to Canaan in the first place.
• 10:32 If I can go back all the way to Genesis 12, the chapter
• 10:36 where God said to Abraham, "Get thee up and go,"
• 10:39 and sent him to the land of Canaan.
• 10:42 Verse 5 says, "And Abram took Sarai," their
• 10:45 names were different at that point.
• 10:47 "Abram took Sarai his wife, and lot his brother's son,
• 10:51 and all their substance that they had gathered,
• 10:54 and the souls they had gotten in Haran."
• 10:58 Along the way, they stopped at the village of Haran,
• 11:01 which still exists in Syria.
• 11:04 From--they started at Ur, went up the Tigris, Euphrates
• 11:08 fertile valley into what is now Syria, stopped at Haran,
• 11:12 then continued on to Canaan.
• 11:13 When they stopped at Haran, it says there were
• 11:15 souls they had gotten.
• 11:18 The sages teach that the implication is they had
• 11:21 converted people, they'd brought them into Abraham's faith,
• 11:24 that is faith in the covenant of the land that he was going
• 11:28 to have with God, and followed Abraham to the
• 11:31 land that was promised to him.
• 11:34 And the covenant wasn't even enunciated, but Abraham
• 11:36 had the faith to get up and go when God told him.
• 11:39 So, these people that apparently were willing to come with him,
• 11:42 the sages teach must have been washed, must have been purified.
• 11:46 And they suppose that the mikvah goes all the way back to there.
• 11:50 I don't know, but it's an interesting thought.
• 11:54 For sure it goes back all the way to the tabernacle, which
• 11:57 is a long time ago, because the priests of Aaron, his family,
• 12:02 were washed before they began their priesthood.
• 12:05 And that is the beginning of I don't want to say modern baptism
• 12:10 because baptism is many thousands of years old, but the
• 12:13 beginning of the concept of being baptized to be enabled,
• 12:18 to be empowered to carry out the duties of a priesthood.
• 12:22 And that specifically we find in the book of Exodus
• 12:25 in the instructions for the tabernacle.
• 12:28 "This is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow
• 12:31 them, to minister unto me in the priest's office.
• 12:34 And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the
• 12:37 tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water."
• 12:43 They were immersed in water to have a beginning
• 12:47 to their priesthood.
• 12:48 What the washing did was to enable them to minister
• 12:51 to the people for God.
• 12:53 The priests, the Levites, that tribe, Deuteronomy 10:8 and 9
• 12:57 selects them and says they shall not have a land inheritance.
• 13:00 Their inheritance is to minister to the people for God.
• 13:04 And they pronounce a special blessing even today
• 13:07 that we all know--
• 13:08 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 13:10 "May the Lord bless and keep you and so on,
• 13:12 cause his countenance to shine upon you."
• 13:14 That is called the Aaronic blessing
• 13:16 or the Levitical blessing.
• 13:19 The people of the tribe of Levi, the sons of Aaron,
• 13:23 the priests say that blessing still today in Israel the first
• 13:27 day of every month, Rosh Chodesh.
• 13:30 So, it was all the way back to there.
• 13:33 Now, this has an antitype or an answer in the New Testament.
• 13:37 The Christians are all priests.
• 13:39 And in the New Testament, it is clear that we too are baptized
• 13:44 to be enabled to carry forth a priestly ministry.
• 13:47 If I look at the epistle of 1 Peter, all the epistles
• 13:52 of Peter are addressed to Jewish people.
• 13:55 Certain books of the Bible, of the New Testament,
• 13:58 are addressed to Jews.
• 14:00 Hebrews of course, Peter is one.
• 14:03 It begins, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers
• 14:08 scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia," et cetera.
• 14:11 And he defines those strangers this way in verse 2, "The elect
• 14:15 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father."
• 14:18 In other words, those people who originally knew the
• 14:22 God of Israel, in other words the Jewish believers.
• 14:26 And he describes them in a special way in the dramatic
• 14:30 verse, 1 Peter 2:9 and 10, "But ye are a chosen generation,
• 14:36 a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people that
• 14:41 you should show forth the praises of him who hath
• 14:43 called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."
• 14:47 And those who were called to be these priests were baptized.
• 14:54 This was--you see, all believers in the Lord, all Christians,
• 14:58 and at that time of course, as we're pointing out,
• 15:01 most of the church was Jewish.
• 15:04 These Jewish people were particularly called
• 15:07 to be priests for the Lord in the new covenant,
• 15:10 and so they're baptized.
• 15:12 Every Christian that is baptized at every church, in this river,
• 15:15 in the baptistery in your church, in the swimming pool
• 15:18 in your yard, doesn't matter, is being baptized
• 15:22 in order to be enabled to be a priest.
• 15:25 Now, the Mishnah, if you go back in the Jewish writing,
• 15:29 talks a lot about this purification rite.
• 15:32 The mikvah, the dipping, well, Rabbi Joshua held that a mikvah
• 15:37 alone was adequate to bring a convert into Judaism,
• 15:42 the washing by itself was adequate.
• 15:45 But Rabbi Eleazar held that circumcision
• 15:47 should also be done.
• 15:48 This was the sign of the covenant between
• 15:50 God and Abraham.
• 15:52 And just like in the church today, arguing over baptism.
• 15:55 This started a long time ago. This started before Jesus.
• 15:58 This was argued from time immemorial, what
• 16:01 sort of baptism for what sort of office and so on.
• 16:04 They even divided converts into two groups.
• 16:07 There were simply the gerim, the converts, the proselytes.
• 16:11 And then the gerim hazerekim, the holy converts, who
• 16:15 were willing to undergo both circumcision and the mikvah,
• 16:19 who were very serious about going into Judaism.
• 16:22 Orthodox synagogues today have a mikvah in America.
• 16:26 And when someone converts to Judaism, that person
• 16:29 goes into the water, it says like a little child,
• 16:32 they're described as born anew.
• 16:34 They actually clip the fingernails close and
• 16:36 shave the hair from the body, and get into
• 16:38 the water as babies to be reborn.
• 16:42 And here Jesus in John 3:3 says, "Ye must be born again,"
• 16:46 and it's like a reference to this wonderful conversion.
• 16:51 He is, of course, trying to convert Nicodemus
• 16:54 at that point into the faith in the Messiah.
• 16:58 We'll be back after this.
• 17:08 announcer: Our resource this week, the "Grafted In" package,
• 17:11 which includes the series "Called Together" on two DVDs,
• 17:17 a Grafted In necklace, two Stand With Israel koozies, a Grafted
• 17:22 In decal, a Grafted In pen, our Things to Come bookmark,
• 17:27 and the Prophesied Messiah bookmark.
• 17:31 Contact us and ask for the "Grafted In" package.
• 17:35 And thank you for your support.
• 17:40 announcer: For insightful perspectives on Israel
• 17:43 and Bible prophesy, ask for our free
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• 17:48 At levitt.com, you can read the newsletter, watch
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• 18:10 Kirsten: If you're not following us on social media,
• 18:13 I encourage you to join our family, Zola Levitt family,
• 18:17 Zola Levitt Ministries on social media.
• 18:19 Now, let's go back to Zola.
• 18:23 Zola: The Essenes, the wilderness people, the ones
• 18:26 out who worshipped the Lord all the time, must have
• 18:29 been fascinated with the book of Isaiah.
• 18:32 It was a favorite of theirs, they certainly copied it
• 18:35 all the way through.
• 18:36 And all the other books of the Old Testament except
• 18:38 Esther were copied by them.
• 18:41 And they came across the passage which must have just thrilled
• 18:45 them who lived in the wilderness, "The voice of him
• 18:49 that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord,
• 18:52 make straight in the desert a highway for our God."
• 18:54 It's Isaiah 40, verse 3.
• 18:57 "Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill
• 18:59 shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight
• 19:02 and the rough places plain.
• 19:04 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
• 19:07 see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."
• 19:11 That kind of passage motivated them.
• 19:14 They were religious people, no question.
• 19:16 They had a religious council.
• 19:18 By the way, it had 12 members and an inner circle of 3,
• 19:22 just like with our Lord and his 12 disciples and
• 19:25 the inner circle around him of 3.
• 19:28 The sacred meals that they ate together were
• 19:30 so similar to communion meals, festival meals.
• 19:34 They studied together, they ate together, they celebrated.
• 19:38 They observed the ruach hakodesh, the Holy Spirit.
• 19:43 They had this conception out of the Old Testament.
• 19:46 The Holy Spirit didn't just come at Pentecost brand new.
• 19:49 He was active in the Old Testament, and
• 19:51 they realized that from their study.
• 19:53 They wrote often about prophecy, they wrote about the last days.
• 19:56 There are scrolls of the sons of light versus the sons of
• 20:00 darkness, which very much resemble the book of Revelation,
• 20:04 a final battle of the forces of good and evil
• 20:06 with good triumphing in the end.
• 20:09 They were Bible people, no question about it.
• 20:13 With the Lord in the gospels, we see arguments over Scripture
• 20:17 with the Sadducees, with the Pharisees individually.
• 20:20 He has to debate them each about their conceptions
• 20:24 of resurrection and whatnot.
• 20:26 And it's obvious that our Lord was so skilled
• 20:29 in the Old Testament.
• 20:30 He lived by it.
• 20:32 There are churches that think it's invalid.
• 20:33 It would be news to Jesus Christ.
• 20:35 He conducted his life by it.
• 20:37 He quoted the book of Deuteronomy alone 130 times.
• 20:41 He quoted the Shema, the quintessential Jewish prayer,
• 20:46 "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one."
• 20:49 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 20:52 Our Lord read the Torah all the time and quoted from it,
• 20:55 of course, voluminously.
• 20:58 And as a Torah reader, he must have been quite expert.
• 21:02 The Torah reader became practically an occupation,
• 21:06 and today there are people who specialize as Torah readers.
• 21:10 In the ancient times or in Jesus's time even, the person
• 21:13 who read the Torah was considered to have some divine
• 21:16 spirit upon him, and he would go on and teach.
• 21:19 In today's synagogue, the rabbi sometimes can read the Torah,
• 21:25 but more often they have a Torah reader, and
• 21:28 then the rabbi gives the sermon.
• 21:31 Some rabbis are able to read Torah skillfully.
• 21:35 The truth to tell, they may get more credit for
• 21:38 knowing it than they always do.
• 21:40 It's more likely the Jewish law books that they know
• 21:42 and know thoroughly than Scripture itself.
• 21:46 Paul's requirements for elders and deacons were the same
• 21:49 as in the synagogue in his time.
• 21:52 The Jewish regulations are the ones that come into the
• 21:54 New Testament and are finally observed by the churches today.
• 21:58 Indeed, they were the first Christians.
• 22:01 The churches in the empire, not just in Israel,
• 22:03 were also very Jewish.
• 22:05 After all, as Paul traveled, he was received in the synagogues.
• 22:09 What he came to say, that Messiah had come,
• 22:11 he came to say to Jewish people.
• 22:14 And they're the ones that heard it, they're the ones that were
• 22:16 converted, and they're the ones that witness
• 22:18 to their Gentile friends and brought them in.
• 22:20 Sometimes, the synagogue was a place where people faked it.
• 22:25 At the city of Smyrna, I read in Revelation 2:9,
• 22:28 "I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty.
• 22:31 But thou art rich," he says.
• 22:33 "And I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews,
• 22:35 and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
• 22:38 Sometimes, the Scripture's twisted
• 22:40 to anti-Semitic purposes.
• 22:42 There were people pretending they were Jews to attend
• 22:44 church in order to trade with the church members.
• 22:46 They might wear forelocks and a prayer shawl.
• 22:49 They might adopt Hebrew mannerisms, or
• 22:52 they might be Jews that didn't believe.
• 22:54 But anyway, they looked the part of Christians.
• 22:56 To look like a Christian, you had to look Jewish in
• 22:59 the early churches, this one in Smyrna in Asia.
• 23:04 It's funny, I have the experience in my
• 23:07 life of just the opposite.
• 23:09 Once, I looked for a job with an insurance company when
• 23:12 I was in college, and they said one requirement is
• 23:14 I had to go to church every Sunday.
• 23:16 I said, "Gosh, I've never gone to church
• 23:18 in my life, I'm Jewish.
• 23:19 I go to the synagogue."
• 23:21 They said, "Well, you need to go to church,
• 23:22 it's what's required of us.
• 23:24 We go to a barbecue after, we make contacts that way."
• 23:27 I said, "Well, I don't believe what's going on there."
• 23:29 And they said, "It doesn't matter what you believe.
• 23:31 We're there to meet the church people
• 23:33 and to sell them insurance."
• 23:35 Well, they said, "You look just like any one
• 23:38 of the church people."
• 23:39 What they meant is you can look Gentile, look Gentile,
• 23:42 and that way they'll think you're a real Christian.
• 23:44 Well, back in Revelation in Smyrna, it was look Jewish
• 23:47 and they'll think you're a real Christian.
• 23:50 The first Christians were Jewish, and we will
• 23:53 see that in a most dramatic way.
• 23:56 You know, when the kingdom comes, the
• 23:57 believers of all ages will come together.
• 24:00 The Old Testament saints, these first century Christians,
• 24:03 the church members and the faithful of all ages,
• 24:06 including our own age, will meet together.
• 24:08 And then we will be able to worship with the first
• 24:11 Christians, and we will see they were Jews.
• 24:14 ♪♪♪
• 24:25 ♪♪♪
• 24:36 ♪♪♪
• 24:46 ♪♪♪
• 24:57 ♪♪♪
• 25:07 ♪♪♪
• 25:16 ♪♪♪
• 25:26 Kirsten: Family, it's all about family today.
• 25:28 Jeffrey: Yeah, I feel for those that have trouble in the family.
• 25:31 You know, I tell my wife Barri that home is wherever she is.
• 25:36 And people live alone today, and even people live together
• 25:39 with people and there's pain.
• 25:41 Recovering a biblical approach to family
• 25:44 is so, so, so important.
• 25:46 Kirsten: It is.
• 25:47 David: We love social media.
• 25:49 And our kids are on it all the time.
• 25:51 Back in the day, they didn't have all that, so I think family
• 25:54 might have been a little tighter back in the day, you think?
• 25:56 Jeffrey: Well, there's a lot of distractions.
• 25:58 You know, people--I don't think social media meets the needs.
• 26:01 People talk about connecting.
• 26:03 There's still a lot of disconnection.
• 26:05 And back in the day, they're not distracted by television.
• 26:08 Sorry, we are on television.
• 26:10 You know, but a lot of times, people just zone out
• 26:12 and they don't do things together.
• 26:15 And it's important to recover that.
• 26:17 Used to be back in the day, people would gather
• 26:19 together around a family Bible and pray together.
• 26:21 My wife and I do that in the morning.
• 26:23 Simple things there are that people can do
• 26:26 to strengthen a family.
• 26:28 Thank you for strengthening our family, that is to say
• 26:31 "Zola Levitt Presents" is a ministry, and it's all hands
• 26:35 on deck helping to move forward.
• 26:37 And it's your contributions to this family that
• 26:40 help us feed the kids.
• 26:41 There's a world out there that needs to know the Lord and
• 26:44 that needs biblical medicine for life's assorted hurts.
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• 26:51 "Zola Levitt Presents."
• 26:53 David: I've got to say I'm looking forward to next week,
• 26:55 it's all about agriculture in the first century.
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• 27:00 Jeffrey: Do it please. And as you go now--
• 27:02 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 27:05 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
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