Last year I was briefed by the MLB. TV app that I had watched or listened to over 130 hours of baseball in 2025. I wasn’t surprised. Major League Baseball is a sport that plays well without having to view the game on TV; one can also savor the radio feed. Yet, the listening quality of a baseball game depends on the expertise and sensitivity of the sports broadcaster.
As an NY Yankees fan, I took pleasure in the years I spent listening to the radio voices of John Sterling and Susan Waldman call the Bronx Bombers’ baseball games. Since I now live in Southern California, I also relished the broadcasting skills of LA Dodgers legendary announcer Vin Scully.
One of the skills of a crack baseball commentator is knowing when to stop talking and let the game breathe! Scully was a master at detecting the intensity of a game when the Dodgers were in a win-or-lose situation.
It’s the bottom of the ninth. The Blue Crew are down by one run with two outs and two eager runners on second and third. The opposing pitcher has a full count on the batter. The crowd is edgy, but silent.
What in the world would Scully say? Share a few recent stats on the perspiring pitcher’s record with men on base in the bottom half of the ninth inning? How about several fresh analytics on how the LA hitter performs in these situations?
Nope! Scully would remain silent.
Vin waited on the inhale of bated breath of the LA crowd, and the exhale of the next pitch, to call the game any further. His baseball broadcasting was priceless.
For expert broadcasters of America’s National pastime, a crowd’s intense silence at the bottom of the ninth needs no additional baseball banter. Instead, the hushed anticipation of baseball fans poised to see their team take the lead speaks louder than any barrage of statistics, analytics, and speculation. It is prime time to let the game breathe.
When the Hebrew Scriptures Need to Breathe
The same observation applies to how some pastors interact with the Jewish Scriptures, which Christians refer to as the Old Testament.
At times I perceive evangelical pulpiteers unnecessarily throttle the Hebrew Scriptures by carpeting the ancient text with Christian themes and far-fetched applications. These biblical orators feel the need to insert Christian theology into a text directed at ancient Israel and sidestep the message God originally steered towards the Jewish nation.
When this scenario occurs, the original application of a passage is lost. In other words, the pastor refuses to allow the Jewish Scriptures to breathe on their own. Instead, he flings an NT blanket to smother the words of the Hebrew text lest his non-Jewish Christian audience be confused by a passage that contains a present-day or future message to the Jewish people.
As I pen these words in March 2026, Israel and the United States are locked in an aggressive attempt to permanently damage the repressive regime of the Islamic State of Iran. With that important goal, the objectives of the US and Israel are to disrupt Iran’s program to refine enough nuclear material to build a nuclear bomb and to crush Iran’s aim to finance world terrorism aimed at the destruction of the modern state of Israel.
While my purpose of this post is NOT to argue the pros and cons of the current war effort, I am concerned with the many voices that are blaming Israel for “pulling the US into another war in the Middle East.”
Sadly, a sizeable force of Israel’s detractors exists inside evangelical Christianity. Many of these evangelical influencers are opposed to any effort that positions Christians in a supportive role to the nation of Israel. Therefore, to prevent any hint of evangelical support of Israel, Christian critics of the modern Jewish state are bent on a mission to delegitimize the modern state of Israel. How?
Some evangelical leaders are adamant in denying that today’s Jewish people have any connection to the biblical Israel. In other words, the Jewish people living in Israel and the Diaspora outside Israel are “fake Jews.”
Consequently, why would Bible-believing Christians want to support a nation of impostors who are pretending to be part of the nation that Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel, belonged to while He was on earth 2000 years ago?
Then we witness other Bible-clutching leaders and theologians who claim the Church is the true Israel. In other words, a more genuine spiritual Israel, i.e., evangelical Christians, are now replacing Jewish people who are OUTSIDE the Body of followers of Yeshua.
Where do these Israel-denying efforts by Christians leave the Jewish people? In part 1 of this post, I surmised that any denial of Israel’s rightful place in the ongoing promises of God assigns Israel to a “phantom status.” If Gentile followers of Yeshua replace Jewish people, or if Jews are proven to have no connections to the biblical nation of Israel, the Jewish state is a nebulous nation with a “stolen identity.”
This post will answer one question: “Who is the nation of Israel?” Are those, like myself, who call themselves Jewish, embracing a false identity? Most importantly, is there any indication in the New Covenant Scriptures that the nation of Israel no longer exists and has now been replaced by the Church? If so, we should be able to find solid evidence in the NT scriptures that Israel’s identity has undergone a radical transformation. The modern state of Israel is nothing more than a “p” antom Israel.”Israel’s identity
Next, we spring over to the Book of Matthew to see how this former tax collector employed the messianic prophecy of Zechariah. We immediately detect the same issues we discovered in our previous investigation of Zechariah 9:9.
Famous statue in the centre of Bremen, Germany, depicting the donkey, dog, cat and cockerel from Grimm’s famous fairy tale The Bremen Town Musicians Darren Baker | Dreamstime.com
Did Jesus ride on one animal or two? Did He mount them separately or both simultaneously?
I like the common-sense approach to these questions that Louis A. Barbieri Jr. offers in the Bible Knowledge Commentary:
“Only Matthew mentioned a donkey along with the colt. A simple explanation of what some call a contradiction is that when Jesus rode the colt, the mother donkey naturally went along.” (Matthew 21:7 ESV) (Louis A. Barbieri Jr., Matthew, The Bible Knowledge Commentary, 1983, paragraph 21163).
Hence, Jesus entered the holy city with two donkeys, but He rode only one.
This explanation, offered by Louis A. Barbieri Jr., is full of practical wisdom. I’m ready to consider this dilemma solved. But life is never that simple.
It is unsurprising that, despite this straightforward explanation, Bible students want to argue other positions. In the rest of this section, we will indulge some of our contrarian friends.
It’s about time! Some evangelical superstar had to say something. We can no longer ignore the gorilla of extreme conservative politics running berserk in today’s evangelical Church. In Pastor Andy Stanley’s book, “Not In It To Win It,” the author boldly goes where most evangelical leaders fear to tread.
The pastor of North Point Church in Alpharetta, GA is exasperated over the current trend of evangelicals who align themselves with right-wing conservative elements. He raises eyebrows in his criticism of pastors, Christian podcasters, and leaders who “lined up behind their political party of choice and leveraged our sacred text to validate political talking points.”
Most importantly, Pastor Stanley recognizes this development is detrimental to the cause of bringing the good news of redemption to all people.
In past generations, Christians broke down our culture into those who know Jesus and those who don’t. Instead, a significant segment of evangelicals has divided our society politically into the Left and the Right.
A few months back, I was amazed listening to a message by modern-day “prophet” and evangelist Mario Murillo in which he stated the “enemy of the Christian is the Democrats.” Even Jesus did not designate the Romans or the Sadducees as enemies of His followers. Yeshua viewed His day’s political and religious parties as lost sheep in need of salvation, not ideological adversaries.
Evangelicals have turned a new corner where Jesus’ followers are intent on changing our world through endorsing political efforts, passing laws that reflect conservative principles, and supporting Right-wing candidates regardless of their ties to white Christian nationalism. Stanley points out that Jesus no longer changes lives in this revised evangelical era. Instead, Right-wing political activism is the key to the transformation of our broken society.
The past five years have been extremely challenging since I am not 100% on board with the angry tenor of evangelical conservative politics. I’ve witnessed ridicule and rejection from fellow evangelicals on social media because of my convictions.
Brotherhood in the Lord has been trumped by something or someone else. I sense my spiritual connection to certain Christians is no longer enough.
Nevertheless, I consider myself an independent who embraces the core tenets of conservatism.
We are not here to “win” elections, argues Stanley, but for a greater purpose: to radiate the love and compassion of Yeshua to bring non-believers to His redeeming power.
The key takeaway points I gained from “Not In It To Win It” (NIITWI), in addition to my observations, are as follows:
*Evangelicals have shifted the focus from sharing the good news to supporting political causes
*Evangelicals have opted to cancel fellow Christians who do not align with their conservative political viewpoint
*Evangelicals are placing their trust in political activism to change America’s culture more than the power of the Messiah Jesus
*Evangelicals have little issue aligning themselves with Right-wing politicians and talk show media stars who have the reputation of being white nationalist and even antisemitic
*Evangelicals have revised the Christian message as one bent on saving America rather than Americans.
*Evangelicals have no biblical basis for espousing the idea God made a covenant with America.
In Matthew 3:2 the prophet John the Baptizer in the New Covenant admonished his fellow Jewish seekers, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Today many evangelicals have revised John’s call to prepare oneself for the coming of God’s kingdom on earth. Today Matthew 3:2 has been revised to say, “Vote, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”
