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
Are the biblical Israel and the modern state of Israel the same?
I never thought I’d be asking this question in 2026. Let me state this question differently: Are the modern state of Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu and the biblical Israel under King David two distinct entities with no connection between them?
Of course, many centuries separate the two bodies called “Israel.” Yet, why should a doubt be raised whether Jewish people descended from Abraham and his offspring now residing in Israel are not the same?
When one fantasizes that the Israel of the Hebrew Scriptures no longer exists and has been replaced by the New Testament Church, that person has transformed modern-day Israel into a shell of its former self. This Christian belief is called “replacement theology.” I view this newly rendered Israel as a “phantom Israel.”
Replacement theology is the primary source of the mystification of Israel. Those who redefine biblical Israel into a spiritual Israel need to have their view of a shadow Israel demystified.
Kirk Cameron’s Bizarre Views on Israel
In a recent YouTube video from the messianic ministry, First Fruits of Zion, the podcast host Jacob Fronczak discusses Christian celebrity Kirk Cameron’s views on the modern state of Israel. In brief, Cameron questions whether the ancient nation of Israel and the modern Jewish state are identical. Several evangelical pastors, such as Andy Woods, and other scholars have astutely responded to Cameron’s misguided view on Israel.
The Promises to Abraham Are Meant ONLY for the Patriarch
As an example of Cameron’s baffling position on Israel, he maintains the blessings promised to Abraham apply ONLY to the patriarch, but NOT to his descendants. The former TV star appears to be wearing foggy lenses when he suggests the nation of Israel does not appear in the establishment of God’s covenant with Abraham, “And I will make of you a great NATION, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing (Genesis 12:2 ESV) (bold font added by author).
If Israel is not the nation promised to Abraham, according to Kirk Cameron, who is the nation God promised would come forth from Abraham? Could it be Edom or Turkey? Perhaps the nation God promised to the patriarch is Great Britain. I’ll let the reader answer this question.
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.
Growing up in New Jersey as a seven-year-old was an East Coast dream. Swimming at the sunlit Jersey shore. Fishing in northern Jersey lakes. Strolling through New York’s Times Square. I was a dyed-in-the-wool Jersey boy.
No New Jersey summer was complete without the family visit to Atlantic City’s Steel Pier. Of course, I spent the day dogging my parents about when we would attend Steel Pier’s diving horses extravaganza.
Who wouldn’t be thrilled to watch a woman on horseback plummet 40 feet into a water tank?
The Roy Rogers Rodeo was another contender for my attention. At this Western round-up in New York’s Madison Square Garden, I fantasized I would become the first Jewish buckaroo.
Unfortunately, my parents were adamant that horseback lessons should take a rear saddle to my Bar Mitzvah preparations.
Every winter, my Mom and Dad would ferry my brother and me through the Lincoln Tunnel to attend the Barnum and Bailey Circus at MSG. I always looked forward to the clown acts, but loved the daredevil horseback stunts most.
My favorite horseback riding trick is known as Roman riding. A performer stands or balances on the backs of two horses driven abreast, taking hurdles or performing other stunts.
I was always convinced these dazzling skills only belonged in the three rings or a riding arena. Yet I was recently briefed that Jesus may have performed a daredevil balancing act when He paraded into Jerusalem on what some believe was two donkeys.
Messiah’s Unusual Entrance into Jerusalem
I recently encountered this dilemma surrounding Yeshua’s Triumphal Entry while teaching a seminar on the messianic prophecies in the Gospel of Matthew. I was expounding on Yeshua’s entrance into Jerusalem in fulfillment of the messianic passage in Zechariah 9:9, which reads:
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey “ (Zechariah 9:9 ESV).
In Matthew 21:5-7, the gospel writer quotes from the Minor Prophet Zechariah to show how Yeshua’s jaunt into the holy city fulfills this prophecy:
“Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ” The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on” (Matthew 21:5-7 NIV11).
In the NIV and the KJV’s translation of Zechariah 9:9, the Messianic King rides into the holy city on two donkeys. In stark contrast, in most English translations of Zechariah 9:9, the Messiah journeys into a rejoicing Jerusalem on one donkey.
Unsurprisingly, a class member raised her hand to inquire about this quizzical discrepancy in the Matthew text. The student wondered, “Why does Matthew record two donkeys, a mother and a young colt? Didn’t Zechariah prophecy that the Messiah would ride on ONE donkey?
The student questioned further, “Matthew also recorded that Jesus sat on THEM. Did Yeshua sit on BOTH the mother donkey and her colt simultaneously?”
The picture this Bible student was portraying turns Yeshua’s entry into Jerusalem into quite a spectacle. Did He ride on the donkeys both at the exact moment or one at a time? I did not have an immediate response.
I knew my understanding of this passage required more research
I also encountered another quandry about the Triumphant Entry. Was Yeshua’s entry into Jerusalem actually “triumphant”?
Pastors often claim Jesus journeyed into Jerusalem to claim Himself as the long-awaited King of Israel. Initially, the Jewish crowds accepted Jesus’ victorious entry four days before Passover. But later in the week, the “same” crowds cried for Yeshua’s crucifixion.
Was Yeshua’s journey into the city of David a victorious military event? Did the crowd misunderstand Yeshua’s message in His memorable entry before His crucifixion?
I decided to do a deep dive into the messianic prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. Then, I would spring over to Matthew 21 to further investigate this possible biblical juggernaut. The results of my private investigation are found in this article.
