How Christians Should Think About Economics
Dr. Brian Baugus joins Michael to discuss God’s view of our money and how Christians should approach politics in light of economics.
“The first book was meant to help people with their heads; when you go to Israel, and there’s so much happening, it’s just running past you. I felt like they needed to know how to prepare for the next morning, what they would see in a brief snapshot, and what they were supposed to know about the Bible from it.
My only problem was it helped the head, but Israel’s also about the heart and that experiential part. So I always wanted something that would be a companion to it, that would help people understand the emotional and visual impact that we couldn’t fit into the smaller book.
Experiencing The Land of The Book is intended to do that. It’s a trip in a box. It’s trying to cover all of the emotional impacts in that one book so that if they’ve been to Israel, they can relive the experience, or if they’ve not been to Israel, they can prepare. Or, for some, they’ll never get there, and this can help them.”
“I had a professor who told me I needed to go, so I was going to go. And when I went, I fell in love with the land. So I can tell you things that are as close to total recall as I’ve ever had in any experience in my life.
I sat down and ate lunch in a place I hadn’t returned to in 41 years. But I could take you to the exact spot where I sat and ate lunch that day. And I recognized that not only did it change my life, but I wanted to change other people’s lives in the same way. And it did; it just ignited that passion that, 41 years later, is still going strong.
It was 1982, and my guide was Jim Monson, who taught at the Institute of Holy Land Studies. He’d stopped teaching full-time but was willing to lead our group because it was a group of three seminaries.
He took us around and then had free days and said, ‘Well, if you want we can do little extra projects.’ So I did every project he had. It was just truly remarkable. He was the one who ignited that passion.”
“The news will report another shooting or bombing, and It’ll be someplace people have never heard of, but they’ll end by saying, ‘And this is so-and-so reporting from Jerusalem.’
People then say, ‘This trip goes to Jerusalem. I could get blown up there.’ But they have no context of where these other places are; I think that fear is the biggest hurdle. Then beyond that, It’s the exotic nature. They’ll go to Breckenridge, but Breckenridge is still similar to wherever they live. So they can find a hamburger joint there that reminds them of home. But when they get to the Middle East, they think, ‘Exotic food; Am I going to be able to make it?”
“They shouldn’t have been surprised because God said the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali is where His light would shine. Zebulun is where Nazareth was located, and Naphtali is along the edge of the Sea of Galilee. So God gave him plenty of hints, but it reminds me that God doesn’t view life through our lens.
We think bigger’s better. Jerusalem would’ve been better, and Rome would’ve been the bigger city. But God took Him to an out-of-the-way place that the Jewish people despised. That’s where He displayed more of the miracles of His Son than anywhere else.
I just take that home and remember that I need to view life from God’s perspective because it’s so easy to fall into the world’s mold. So I don’t know if that’s why God had him go there. I do know Isaiah 9 mentions it, and there’s a great life lesson every time I go there to remind myself what’s truly significant and strategic from God’s perspective.”
“The city of David has to be at the top of my list. The last two trips I did, we had a few days in between. And they arranged for us to go and have a private tour of what they’re doing now. So we were there when they were filling the buckets with dirt and pulling it down, and they said they were about 25 to 50 yards away from digging from both ends to break through and have the whole roadway from the Pool of Bethesda up to the Temple Mount area done.
Now, in the rest of Israel, two things keep sticking in my mind. One is how much more is available than it used to be. In Tel Dan, I used to walk along the stream and across the hill, and that was about it. And now you see that they’ve uncovered the gate complex, not only from Abraham’s time but also from the Israelite monarchy period. I’m amazed at all the things that they’re making more accessible and more visible that were never there. On the flip side, there are a lot more people now and much more traffic trying to get to those places than there used to be.”
“God always said that when you construct an altar, you were to build it out of uncut field stones. The base of this altar they’ve uncovered is made of cut stone, so it was intended to look much like the temple in Jerusalem. It had a water source, an altar, a building behind with steps leading up, a holy place, and a holy of holies. But if you look carefully at the details, It’s not constructed the way God said it and certainly wasn’t supposed to be built there because God said there’s one place He would have them worship Jerusalem.
When Jeroboam split the kingdom and took the northern kingdom, he built two worship centers: one at the southern end of his kingdom at Bethel and one at the northern end at Dan. And I like how the writer says this became sin to Israel because they went to worship even as far as Dan. He wanted to do that to keep people from going back to Jerusalem.”
“I want them to walk away saying, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize the Bible had all this stuff in it. I’m going to go back and start reading Samuel and Kings and Chronicles.’ Maybe they’ll get to the prophets, which is where I’d ultimately like for them to go. But I’ll settle for having them reread the historical parts because it’ll make sense to them now.
If they get excited about the Bible and reading it, especially the history and the gospels, I will have succeeded. I want to get them into the word of God, have them realize these places are real, and relate them to someplace they have been nearby.”
“Tel Lachish is one of the most recent sites they’re redoing, but every time I go back, I keep forgetting all the things that happened there.
Tel Lachish was one of the five cities that joined Jerusalem to attack Gibeon. And this last trip, it dawned on me that this place was massive in the time of Joshua. It was a significant site that I always associated with Jeremiah or with Nebuchadnezzar.
I tied it in with Micah 1, which says it was the beginning of the place where Baal Worship came into the southern kingdom of Judah. I probably knew some of it, but I’d never put it all together before, which put a spring in my step this last trip.
Tel Lachish is in the low foothills between Jerusalem and the coast. It’s the front door to the hill country of Judah. Sennacherib of Assyria and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon recognized that you must take the front and back doors to take Jerusalem. So they captured all the major cities before they could get to Jerusalem.”
“Israel is the land bridge where Africa, Europe, and Asia intersect. God was being strategic. God put them in the most threatened place. Every enemy that was getting strong wanted to take that land bridge on their way to the next continent.
Every enemy that was weak wanted to have the land bridge as a defensive barrier. Israel’s sitting there with all these nations wanting this land, and God says, ‘That’s the place I want you. I’ll teach you how to trust Me.’ Jim Monson said, ‘It’s the testing ground of faith.”
“The total land area of Israel today is the size of New Jersey. Most people don’t realize that most of that is the wilderness. It’s the desert in the southern part of Israel, which is even outside the land allotment. The part God gave Israel, from the Sea of Galilee down to the Jerusalem area, is about 50 to 70 miles at the widest.
And in the narrowest spot in Israel, it’s around six to seven miles. If you stand on Mount Carmel on a clear day, you can look to the west and see the Mediterranean or the east and see the hills of Jordan. It’s one of the early ‘aha’ experiences for people.”
“You need to know the land of the Bible. That, for me, is number one. But beyond that, people have offered their solutions for the Middle East. Presidents have made their proposals, but none have succeeded. Pastors have weighed in on what they think should happen, but nothing has changed.
It’s because the land isn’t just a geographical problem but a theological issue. The real question in the Middle East is, ‘Whose God is God?’ If the God of the Bible is the God of the universe, and He promised the land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is His word to be fulfilled, or is satan looking for an alternative?
We’re seeing a debate over God in the Middle East crisis. Is it the God of Islam or the God of the Bible who ultimately will win and whose word ought to be obeyed?”
“God made promises to Israel, but when Israel disobeyed, God took the premises away. He then gave those promises spiritually to the church, and so we are the new Israel. We’re fulfilling God’s promises to Israel in a spiritual way. The problem with that is twofold.
The Muslims think that since you’ve failed, God has given it to them. So Islam is the ultimate replacement theology. Paul explains the relationship between Israel and the church in Romans 9-11. He explains that while we have received blessings God intended for Israel, He is not done with Israel. Romans 11: 26 says, ‘And so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.’
God’s gifts and his calling are irrevocable. When God makes a promise, He doesn’t go back on His word. I’m glad because God promised us heaven and forgiveness of sin. And if God could break his promise to Israel, what’s to say He won’t break his promise to us? But Paul makes it clear God doesn’t break promises.
All Israel doesn’t mean every Israelite who ever lived gets a free pass to heaven. All Israel means there’ll be the national fulfillment of God’s promises to that nation. In Ezekiel, God talks about a time when He’s going to bring all the land back, but in that passage, He also says He’ll purge out the rebels among them, those who choose to disobey; even at the end, God will judge.”
“It’s as much God’s will for you to go to Israel as it was to go to Bible college or seminary.
It’s not that you have to go, but if you want to know the word of God, you will know it better by going. For the person who’s afraid to go, there is some danger, but once you get to the airport here in the States, most of the danger’s over. Statistically, you’re more in danger of driving on the highways here in the States than making it to Israel.
You will find that it’s incredibly safe once you’re there. And to the person who wants to return to Israel once you’ve been there, it’s like eating your first piece of chocolate. Once you try it, something in you says that you’ve got to do it again. It just changes your life.”
Dr. Charlie Dyer served for 33 years on faculty and in the administration at three
different institutions, including 21 years at Dallas Seminary and 10 years at Moody Bible Institute. In 2010 Charlie became Professor-at-Large of Bible for Moody and began hosting The Land and the Book radio program, which is heard on more than 350 stations across the United States. In 2015 he also accepted the position of Associate Pastor at Grace Bible Church in Sun City, Arizona, where he served for five years.
For much of his time in ministry Charlie has taken groups to Israel and the other lands of the Bible. Over the past four decades he had traveled to Israel over a hundred times, helping several thousand people experience firsthand the life-changing impact that comes from spending time in the land of the Bible.
In addition to his speaking, teaching, and guiding, Charlie has authored numerous books, including The Rise of Babylon, What’s Next?, The Christian Traveler’s Guide to the Holy Land (co-authored with Greg Hatteberg), Character Counts, Thirty Days in the Land with Jesus, Thirty Days in the Land of the Psalms, and A Voice in the Wilderness.
Most recently Charlie has published What Does the Bible Say about the Future?: 30 Questions on Bible Prophecy, Israel, and the End Times, and Experiencing the Land of the Book: A Life-Changing Journey through Israel. Charlie and his wife Kathy currently live near Phoenix, Arizona. They have two children, Ben and Becky, who are grown and married…and four grandchildren.
Experiencing The Land of The Book by Dr. Charles Dyer
The Christian Travelers’ Guide to The Holy Land by Dr. Charles Dyer
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