Hi friend, thank you so much for downloading this podcast and I truly hope you hear something that edifies encourage, equips, enlightens, and then gets you out there in the marketplace of ideas. But before you go, I want to tell you about this month's truth tool. It's called Have You Ever Wondered? And I absolutely love this topic because if you're like me, going out into the night sky and looking up and seeing a million stars, don't you just stop and think
about God? And are you not in a moment of awe and wonder or looking out over the vast expanse of an ocean and you start thinking, what is man, that thou art mindful of him? And it makes you
wonder about the magnificence of God? I think that sense of wonder was put there on purpose, and this wonderful book includes a composite of multiple authors who have written from their perspective as a scientist, or a historian, or a mathematician or an artist, on why they all have this sense of awe through the work that they do. In other words, the heavens declare the glory. And as it tells us in Romans, we are really without excuse
because his handiwork is everywhere. And this book invites you to walk through the chapters written by people who all have a sense of awe and wonder when it comes to God through their various disciplines in life. It's an amazing book and it's yours. For a gift of any amount. Just call 877 58. That's 877 Janet 58. Ask for a copy of Have You Ever Wondered? And we'll send it right off to you as my way of saying
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my partial partner. So 877 Janet 58 or the website in the market with Janet parshall.org consider becoming a partial partner or asking for this month's truth tool. Have you ever wondered? And now please enjoy the broadcast.
Here are some of the news headlines we're watching.
The conference was over. The president won a pledge.
Americans worshiping government over God.
Extremely rare safety move by a major 17 years.
The Palestinians and Israelis negotiated.
By the Bush tax cuts.
Hi, friends. Welcome to In the Market with Janet Parshall. I'm thrilled. We're going to spend the hour together. You know, each and every day we start our broadcast with you hearing the cacophony of the marketplace of ideas. That's why all of those voices blend together. And we do that on purpose. This program is designed to get you out there, to go and tell, to influence and occupy, to let your light so shine because you just can't keep the
good news to yourself. Like Jeremiah, this message is like fire in your bones and you want to go out and share, but we want to help you when you get there, not to be put off by the vain and hollow philosophies like the book of Colossians talks about,
that are being bought and sold in the marketplace. And so one of our jobs, we hope, is to help you grow up in him, to get off that diet of milk, move to a diet of meat, get some spiritual heft on your bones, and really know what you believe and why you believe it while you are contending for the faith. It doesn't get any better than that. By the way, that is what I love to call
the athleticism of the Christian life. And you and I should be so excited to get up every single morning and realize that God's given you the precious gift of another day, which means the potential to be able to tell his good news to somebody and for you to experience his grace, his mercy, and his love. Do you know, before your feet hit the floor this morning, the word says that he had given you sufficient grace for the day, that nothing and no one can separate you from his love.
And that, as if that wasn't enough, he's crowned you with loving kindness and tender mercies. Now, I don't know about you, but that that's like more than enough. Not just for today, but for a lifetime. And then, because of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, we've got the quickening and the direction of the person of the Holy Spirit who helps us to know what to do, why we should do it, and to press on to
being conformed and transformed to the image of Christ. And then, as if that weren't enough, he gives us the illumination of his word so we don't have to stumble in the dark. Wow, what a great and glorious God we have. But while we're in the marketplace, I'd love to introduce you to various people along the way. People that you might not know, people who are there in the marketplace already influencing and occupying. And one of the people you're going to hear from this hour is a gentleman just
like that. I love this man. I have worshipped him from afar. And I don't mean that in a non-biblical sense. What I mean is there's nothing like someone who is like Jeremiah, who does have fire in his bones, who with absolute clarity can teach line upon line, precept upon precept, what the word has to say. And that is exactly who Doctor Lon Solomon is. Now, this is a man who, in 1980 became the senior pastor at McLean Bible Church
in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.. And I have to tell you, just so that you understand, there are all kinds of churches in our neck of the woods here in Washington, D.C. but this is one of those churches that draws all kinds of people. I mean, this is a man who's talked to presidents as members of Congress who were sitting in his congregation, talks to judges, gets
appointed to a council by a past president. We'll talk about that in a moment, but also is so good at what he does that he's captured the attention of the culture. So there are multiple news outlets that would do stories online about McLean Bible Church and the impact it was having on the world in Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and the globe at large. And I can't wait for you to understand who this man is and to follow him now at Lon Solomon Ministries, because there's so much
going on there. So let me just tell you quickly, he has served in that capacity. He's had that job until 2017, and it was the birth of his disabled daughter, Jill. We're going to talk more about this. That led to his initiating and organizing Jill's House, a ministry to serve the needs of disabled children and their families. He is on the board of one of my most favorite ministries, Industries. Jews for Jesus. He's been there since 1987. He now
serves as chairman of the board's executive committee. In September of 2002, he was appointed by President George W Bush to serve in his administration as a member of the President's Committee on Intellectual Disabilities. That was a position he held until 26, 2006. We get the whole hour with Lon, and that's a treat, Lon. The warmest of welcomes. I am thrilled you have so many things you could be doing with your time. And you're giving me the gift of time. I can't possibly return it. So let me
just say thank you. And on behalf of people listening all across the country, we're thrilled to spend this hour with you.
Thank you. John, it's it's my pleasure, honestly.
Oh, thank you so much. Well, let me start in the present first, and let me ask you about Lon Solomon Ministries. And I want to tell my friends I've got a link on our information page, Lon Solomon ministries.com. Easy to remember if you're driving. Don't worry about it. It's right there for you to do it. And it is chock full of information, including but not limited to. You were at McLean for over 37 years. There's a boatload of sermons there. But tell me about Lon Solomon
Ministries today. What is it doing and what's it all about?
Well, thanks for asking. Um, hello, everyone out there. Um, and, uh, well, when I left McLean in 19, in 2017, I really wasn't sure what the Lord wanted me to do next. And so I just kind of said, I just need to. I was tired, and I just said, you know, I just need some time to rest. And then it became clear that the Lord was leading us to begin Lon
Solomon Ministries. So we do a number of things. We are on about 2000 radio stations across America, uh, with using sermons that I did when I was at McLean, which were already prepared for the radio, because we were on Wava here at Salem station, here in D.C., uh, and then, uh, we started uh, after that and of course, social media platforms as well. And then we started using something that we did in DC that I know, you know about called not a sermon, just a thought. Uh,
it's a little one minute. Um, it's a little it's like an ad that we would buy on secular stations here in DC, and we would run them just like an ad on the rock station, the country station, the talk station, whatever. Uh, and the whole idea of not a sermon, just a thought was to give people a thought about the Lord. We didn't use it for church growth. We didn't even talk about the church, ever. We used
it to talk about the Lord Jesus. And just to give people a little ding in the paint, uh, to get them thinking and then to end it always with not a sermon, just a thought. I'll give you an example. I mean, these were only 46 seconds long, but one of them that we did was went something like this. It's opened by my quoting a line from Hotel California. You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave. Hi there. This is Lon Solomon, pastor
McLean Bible Church. And, you know, hell is a lot like the Hotel California. Uh, you may want to check out, but you can't leave. Which means that the best solution for this is never to go to hell in the first place. And that is done by trusting Jesus Christ in what he did on the cross for you to pay for your sin. Not a sermon, just a thought. And we.
And I have.
To.
Believe that.
So many in our culture today are spiritually curious but hesitant about religion. That's why I've chosen. Have you ever wondered, is this month's truth to explore how everyday experiences might be the signposts pointing to deeper biblical truths? As for your copy of have you ever wondered when you give a gift of any amount to in the market, call 877 Janet 58. That's 877 Janet 58 or go to
in the market with Janet Parshall. We have the privilege of spending the hour with Doctor Lon Solomon, who is with Lon Solomon Ministries, and we're talking about his ministry right now, for years, led one of the most important churches in the Washington, DC area. And God has said, oh, you're not retiring, Lon. We've still got a lot of
work to do. So I want to go back to this brilliant idea that you had, because I, like millions of people in the DC D.C. area would be driving along, and whether it was a Christian station or a secular station, I would hear your voice doing one of those 46 second long pieces saying, not a sermon, just a thought.
And every time I thought, Lord, plant those seeds and reap a harvest out of what Lonnie has just shared, and it was just enough to get busy Washingtonians to start thinking about things eternal, to start thinking about their relationship with the Lord. And it was an absolutely brilliant idea. Now, if I've done my homework right as part of Lon Solomon Ministries, now this is going all over the country, is it not?
Yes it is. We call it not a sermon. America is the name of the initiative. And, you know, we realized a few several years ago that people in Washington were very used to this. People would come up to me and say, you know, my boss ended our business meeting the other day by going, not a sermon, just a thought. So it kind of became a byword around the city. But people around America had never heard these, of which we have several hundred. So we said, hey, why don't we take this on the road? And so
we picked two, two cities every quarter. This quarter we're in Minneapolis and Las Vegas, and we buy thousands of dollars of radio time on secular stations. And then we we run not a sermon in direct people to the website where they get the full gospel. So in 2024, Janet, you're not going to believe this because I didn't believe it in 2024. This is according to the radio stations, not us. Over 25 million radios were tuned when not
a sermon played in the four quarters. That's amazing. I had trouble believing that.
But.
But hey, you know what? I'm not a sermon. Just a thought.
Yeah, exactly right. But what a great God we serve. And how marvelous that he is. So enlarging your territory. But there's just something attractive about that. Don't lecture me. Let me just think about it. I want to discover truth on my own. And what you're doing is you're planting these so important seeds, uh, all through the radio. And I think it's just a brilliant idea and so
excited that this is continuing to grow, which is fabulous. Now, talk to me about the sermons themselves, because I'm telling you the reason why so many people went to McLean when you were senior pastor is because of who you are and how you preached. I am so thankful that those sermons have been preserved because if we go to Lon Solomon ministries.com, we can download a lot of these sermons. Talk to me about that.
Yeah, you can download them all. Well, when I was in seminary I had a wonderful professor, doctor Tom Edgar from Dallas Seminary, who, uh, taught us preaching, um, homiletics. And he, he had two things he used to always say to us, number one, uh, 1.1 sermon. Don't give us six points in one sermon because people can't remember it all. If you want to make three points, preach
three different sermons. And that was brilliant. And then number two, he used to always say, uh, that, uh, preach to junior high schoolers, because if you make it understandable to junior high schoolers, the adults will think you're wonderful. And so I always follow that advice. I didn't try to make it simplistic, but simple enough. You know that a 12 year old could understand exactly what I was saying. And so it's not rocket science. And it, you know,
it just it worked. And the basic thing that I used to tell people when they asked was, if a preacher doesn't tell you so what and how? What good is he? And so after teaching the word, you know, people want to know. All right. So what what difference does this make to me tomorrow morning and how do I do it. And if you give them that so they can put handles on what you're teaching, uh, then they can apply to their life. And so that that's what we did.
You know, I have to tell you exactly the way you just described that, I think, is why you are so unbelievably effective as a pastor teacher is because it's applied Christianity. I always say on this broadcast that we underline on Sunday, we've got all our magic markers in our notes in the margins of our Bible. Monday rolls around and we're like deer in the headlights. We don't have a clue how to take and apply what we just heard on Sunday to the world around us. Your
approach toward your preaching was always now. You've been. You've gotten the hermeneutics. You broke this all down. Now what difference does it make and how do you apply it to your life personally without doing that? Is it not an open door for us to compartmentalize our Christianity, rather than to have it weave into every bit of who we are?
Well, I certainly think so. I you know, I think the God gave us the Bible for two reasons. Number one, to tell us how to get eternal life and get to heaven. Number two, to tell us how to live until we get there. And the Bible is meant to be life changing. It's meant to change the way we think, the way we live, our value system. So if we're not helping people make that connection, I mean, a few people sitting out there will make that jump to lightspeed
all by themselves. But most of us, including me, um, we we need help. And so when the pastor helps you make that jump to light speed and like, oh, okay, I see, I see what I need to do. That is invaluable.
Yeah. Amen to that. I mean, again, I made that comment when I was starting our conversation together about the power of the word. Let me just pause for a moment and ask you, and I'm going to tap into your pastor's heart here. You know, I follow George Barna's research at, uh, the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University very closely. And it's a wake up call for anybody who's in ministry, because we're not moving in the
right direction. We're moving in exactly the opposite direction. We're practicing a kind of synchronicity where we're like a buffet restaurant. We'll take a little bit of this worldview and a little bit of that and put it all together and amalgamate it. And as a result of that, we've got this shattered Christianity where now, if you look at Barna, his research says that far too many people who profess to have a faith in Jesus Christ believe that Jesus
committed sin. There is no actual devil. They're not even sure who the person of the Holy Spirit is. And if that is not a wake up call for churches, I don't know what is but the question, Lon, and let me see if I can get you to answer this when we get back is the antidote to that. Seems to me to be in the word. How do pastors make it more attractive for people to get into the word? Because you are such a superb teacher of the word. Lon Solomon is with us, head of Lon
Solomon Ministries. He's got a powerful testimony we're going to get in to later. And I've got a link to his website so you can download his fabulous sermons. You can learn more about. Not a sermon, just a thought. And he also takes a lot of tours to Israel back after this. We're spending the hour with Doctor John Solomon, who is the head of Lon Solomon Ministries. He also has been on the board of Jews for Jesus since 1987. He now serves as chairman of the board's executive committee
there as well. So, Lon, I have so many questions to ask. I want to talk about your testimony because if you're on the board of Jews for Jesus thinking people are going to figure out you are a messianic believer. So tell me about how you came to know Yeshua as your Savior.
I would love to do that, but can I answer the question you asked me first? Yes, please to break.
Yes and forgive me for not going back to that. Please do.
Oh no. That's okay. That's okay. No, I think you're absolutely right. I think that it's very disturbing to me. The leaders of our of the evangelical church today who don't believe that the Scripture is 100% true. Uh, whether it's from the Garden of Eden to the flood to Abraham being real, to, uh, David being real, all of this. Uh, it's very disturbing because of the power of the Bible has to be applied to people's lives by a teacher who believes the Bible is true. God's not going to anoint.
Somebody's trying to teach the Bible who doesn't believe it. And it's very disturbing that we've got so much leakage on that issue. And I you know, I've done 63 tours to Israel. You mentioned that. And one of the mantras we we use when with my group, when we go through Israel is as I show them things, I say to them, now say it with me. The more they dig out of the ground, the more the Bible
proves to be right. Because that's indeed true. Um, and so I'm not going to bore everybody, but but except to say that there's never been an archaeological discovery that has ever definitively proved the Bible was wrong. I mean, there are people who've interpreted them that way, but they can be interpreted to prove the Bible is right as well. So you gotta believe the Bible. Uh, yeah. And you got to believe all of it. If you don't believe all of it, then you don't believe none of it.
You know? So, uh, anyway, uh, that would be my answer to that. And you got to. You got to teach it with excitement. I mean, my gosh, if the person preaching it is not excited about it, well, then why in the world should I sitting in the audience, get excited about it? So those would be my thoughts on that now.
My testimony before you go to the testimony line, because what you said is so rich and so important and needs to be shouted from the rooftops. Because I loved your word. There's a leakage going on here. And I guess we shouldn't be surprised, because if you're reading the word, you understand that as we move forward in these latter days, we're not listening to sound doctrine. We want stuff that tickles our ears. We want it to be, um, culturally
relevant as long as it doesn't offend. It's diverse, it's inclusive, and all of the other whatever. Words are trendy in the marketplace right now. But the bottom line is, is that the word doesn't change, just like the author. The same yesterday, today, and forever. So what happens when you're in a church and the pastor goes, well, that was then, this is now. So let me just pick a topic out. So, uh, when we when Paul was talking about homosexuality, he was
referring to people who were licentious. These were not people who were living in monogamous same sex relationships. And you're a sheep, not a shepherd. You hear a shepherd say that. You start with the presupposition that the shepherd knows the word, and he starts doing what's right in his own eyes. How does a person sitting in the pew know better? I mean, if they're not being a Berean, if they don't check this, they're going to be taken captive again.
And this is a hallmark of these latter days. So what's the antidote for that?
Well, the simple answer is get out of that church and go find one that believes the Bible.
Um, yes.
You're not going to change a church from the bottom up. It doesn't happen that way. So if you're in a church where the preaching is not honoring the the, the, the veracity of the scripture, go find a church that does. Um, or a Bible teacher or a Bible study that does. Um, but it is sad that many people do not understand the truth of the Bible enough to even recognize when the when the Bible teachers going off, you know, on
a tangent and that's that's tragic. And they sit there and they don't even recognize that he's going off or she's going off. That's tragic. And that happens.
Um, yeah.
So that would be that's my quick answer. Get out of the church.
I couldn't agree more. And not only that, but stay grounded. You know, I've often shared with my friends on radio that when the Bereans said to test all things for years, I thought they were testing the Greeks. And they were checking what the Epicureans and the Stoics might be saying. But in reality, they were fact checking. Paul. They were the original fact checkers. So if the Bereans are fact checking Paul, just because someone standing in a pulpit. You
stay grounded in the word and you do the fact check. No, that's not what the word says. And test all things. It seems to me in these latter days, it's more important than ever to do a fact check on what you hear from the pulpit. Not in a condescending way, but to make sure that that word of life that's being held out is being handled carefully.
Yes, absolutely. The Bereans were more noble than the Jews in Thessalonica, in that they checked the scripture every day to see what Paul was saying, whether it was true. So you're right. And and if anybody ever called, as you know, anybody ever calls you a Berean Christian, that's a compliment.
I couldn't agree more. That's. And more than ever we need that. But again, if we want instant popcorn, if we want instant money out of a machine. Boy, the idea of studying to show ourselves approved unto God is so passé. We want quick stuff. We don't want time spent in the word. So I'm coming up to a break and afterwards I want to get your testimony. But, and I promise I will remember my question on the
other side of this break. How does one get into the routine of being in the word on a regular basis? For a lot of people, they'll grab their iPhone before the word, they'll check their email before they check what God has to say. So what's a good place to start for someone to say, okay, that's it. I realize I can't move forward and grow up in him unless I'm immersed in his word. How do you do that? Doctor Lon Solomon is with us of Lon Solomon Ministries.
We're going to hear his wonderful testimony. And he's got a thing or two to say about what's going on in the Middle East as well. As you can imagine, a man who's taken tours to Israel 67 times pretty good back after this with Lon Solomon. Tired of the endless, biased spin you hear on mainstream media and in the market, we're using God's Word as our guide as we examine today's events, and we want you to be informed and
bold about his truth. This is a listener supported program, so if you value what you hear and you want us to continue on your station, become a partial partner with your monthly support, call eight 7758. That's eight Than Janet, 58, or go online to in the market with Janet Parshall. We are spending the hour with Doctor Lon Solomon, who became the senior pastor at McLean Bible Church in 1980, was there 37 plus years, by the way, and then
he founded Lon Solomon Ministries. And his influence just continues to grow. And we're so pleased to know that, by the way, fact checking, I said 67 tours to Israel. He led 63. Lord willing, it'll be 67 in no time at all. But the question I left hanging before the break, Lon, was this idea of how do we encourage? First of all, I love what you said before if
you're not sensing an enthusiasm. And I referenced Jeremiah before this fire in your bones coming from the pulpit, it sure isn't going to be fire that gets caught by the people sitting in the pews. But for people who are listening to you now saying, okay, uncle, I can't put this off anymore, I will confess, I'm one of those people that grabs my iPhone before the Word of God. I really want to start spending time in that book
that doesn't contain but is the Word of God. Where do you tell people to start?
Well, I was very fortunate to have a man who led me to Christ in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1971. Excuse me, who drilled that into me? That if you will never amount to anything for the Lord, if you're not in the word. And so I had a great beginning, and he modeled it for me. And then, uh, so you need you you know, I think we need people around us who are doing it and people around us who are telling us to do it. And, uh, it's just a matter of of two things. One, understanding. For
without me you can do nothing. Jesus said. And number two, that the Word of God is living and alive and like a two edged sword. And it it it changes your life supernaturally. I don't know how. I don't need to know how, but I know it does. And it's like rebooting your computer when you're reading the word. And so, uh, you know, we need to have that sense of need for the word. And then we just need, frankly, to to just do it. Uh, you know, I think we're all tempted to get up and read the paper and
check our email and, you know, whatever, whatever. And, uh, but we just need the discipline to do it.
Yeah. Amen. Such wise counsel. Okay. Gave us a little sneak peek when you talked about Chapel Hill. We're going to talk more about that in a moment. But you came from Portsmouth, Virginia, raised in a Jewish home. Tell me what that was like.
Yes, that's exactly right. And can I say one quick thing that I forgot? Neither I nor any member of my family takes a dime from Lon Solomon Ministries. 92% of the money that comes in goes to radio time and not a sermon time. And I'm very happy that the Lord's Enabled me to to do that. So back to.
Wonderful.
Portsmouth. Yeah, I had Jewish parents, Jewish grandparents. I mean, you know, I'm as Jewish as lox and bagel.
I mean, uh, yeah.
And so I was bar mitzvahed the whole nine yards. And, uh, then I had a girl. I was in acting. I did Thespian troupe in high school, and she began witnessing to me and telling me I needed Christ. So I asked my rabbi at the time, I said, hey, do Jews go to heaven or to hell? And he said he was a little taken aback. And he he told me, you know, no, hell is a Gentile problem. So I was like, wow, that's great. Uh. That's awesome. So that pretty well ended my my, um, uh, connection with the synagogue.
I figured if I was.
Going to heaven, then.
Then why go do this boring thing?
Exactly, exactly.
Yeah.
So, uh, but then I got to college and, um, got into a social fraternity, uh, partied hard, drank hard, womanized hard, did dope hard, sold dope hard. Uh, and my life was just. It was just emptier and emptier. And finally I just got to the point where I said, all right, something's not right here. I'm missing something somewhere. So I started trying to find, you know, trying to find whatever it was that would fix this, uh, emptiness inside of me. And I ran into this guy, Bob Eckhardt,
who would come to town every Saturday. He worked in Durham. He was in his 40s. And he would stand on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, and he would hand out tracts. And I thought he was the weirdest man in the world. I'd never seen anything like this. It looked like it was right out of a circus. Yes and.
No. But, but, but but.
I felt bad for the poor guy. People would curse at him and throw his tracks at him and spit at him. I felt bad for the poor guy. So we struck up a friendship and little by little he began to share the Lord with me. And I'll tell you what it was Janet. The first time I met him, I looked directly into his eyes. Our meeting wasn't 20s, but a minute. I looked in his eyes. I knew he had exactly what I was looking for.
I can't put it.
In words, but the Holy Spirit was shining through him, and I. My spirit leaped and I knew. I said to myself when I walked away, now that guy's got what I'm looking for. I didn't know it was Christ, but I knew it was something. So, you know, so often when we're out and about, I don't think we realize how often, if we're full of the spirit that day or that moment, I don't think how often we realize the impact that the Holy Spirit shining through our
life can have, even on a non-verbal level. But man, I knew and I knew he had it. And so that's why when he started talking to me about Jesus, I was willing to listen.
Wow. So how long from the you're willing to listen to? You decided to make the decision that Yeshua is exactly who he said he was.
I wasn't long, he gave me a Bible, which I still have to this day, 54 years later. And he encouraged me to read it. So I started reading it. I didn't know where. I didn't know what it was. Well, we never had I never had a Bible. I didn't know if this thing went. Introduction, main body, conclusion, anti-climax, and anthology of poems. I didn't know what this thing was. So I started at the beginning. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And I thought, okay,
I can deal with that. And then I read about this Adam guy, and I thought he, without a doubt, is the stupidest person I've ever heard of in the whole world. Only one thing he couldn't do, and he did it. What's wrong with this guy? And then I got to so and so begat so and so. And I thought, oh my gosh, how long does this go on? And so finally I said, all right, forget it, I'm going into the New Testament. Uh, because I knew that's where Jesus was. And I started reading Matthew's gospel, which
was very appropriate. And I got to Matthew 11, come to me, all ye that are heavy laden and burdened down, and I'll give you rest. You'll find peace for your soul. And I remember saying, bingo! That is exactly what I'm looking for. I couldn't have put it into words as well as Jesus did, but that's what I'm looking for. So that was maybe a month after I met this guy and I put the Bible down. I got on my knees in my bedroom and I said, okay, God, I don't even know for sure if you exist in
this Jesus character I'm really confused about. But my life isn't. I don't even know why I get up in the morning. So here's the deal. I'm going to give you my life for a month, and if you can give me this rest in this peace that you're promising here in Matthew 11, you can have my life for good. And if you can't, then I reserve the right to take my life back at the end of the month. Amen. Now that's the worst salvation prayer ever prayed. The worst.
And I'm sure God punched Gabriel in the ribs and said, oh, that poor boy, we need to go down and help this man. Uh, but you know, God looks on the outward. I mean, man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. First Samuel 16 seven and I think the Lord said, lon horrible prayer. But your heart is sincere, and I'm going to honor that. And, Janet, you know, all I can tell you is within a week I knew something had happened on the inside of
me that it never happened before. I can't, you know. You know, if you've come to Christ, you know what I'm talking about. And, uh. And I just came back a week later and I said, okay, God, I don't know what you're going to do with a hippie with hair out to his shoulders and love beads and bell bottoms and motorcycle boots and a goatee who stinks and smells. But, Lord, you got me, uh, for whatever you want to do with me. A deal was the deal. And, uh. And,
you know, God healed my dog. That was the other part that was so important. I had a dog named Noah. Big German shepherd. And he had mange. And the medicine wasn't working. I'd been using it for weeks. It was getting worse. So after I prayed that horrible salvation prayer, I got back on my knees and said, okay, God, one more thing. I need a God who's powerful enough to heal my dog. So I want you to heal
my dog. And then I got up and I thought, wow, you know, Lorne, you're kind of putting your dog's life, you know, on the line. I'm going to stop using the medicine. So I thought maybe I should have asked God to levitate the bed or something, you know? But but I said, no, no deals. Deal. And I'm telling you, three days later, you can believe it if you want to.
But I'm telling you, that dog's hair had come back, and I knew it was not the medicine because I'd been using the medicine for weeks and I knew God had healed my dog. I ran into one guy at Liberty University who tried to convince me theologically, God doesn't heal dogs. And I said to him, sir, I said, you know what? I'm not really interested in your theology. God doesn't live in those little cubbyholes you put him in. I'm telling you, God healed my dog. Now you can
believe it if you want or not. But God healed my dog, and and that was important because I figure if I don't have a God at least powerful enough to heal my dog, then what good is he going to be to me? Uh.
Exactly.
And so? So he showed himself strong in Christ.
Wow. Wow. Amazing. All right, so question I have to ask you, and then I do want you to give me some of your impressions of what's been going on in the Middle East. But you're a good Jewish boy from Portsmouth, Virginia, raised in a Jewish home. Now, you've said Yeshua is the much anticipated, much longer Messiah. How does that play when you tell your folks back home, I want to know about that, because this is something that particularly Jews for Jesus has to deal with on
a regular basis as well. So we'll get an answer when we return. All of the information you need to know more about Doctor Solomon is on our information page. Lon Solomon Ministries comm sermons. Great references. Check it out. Back after this. We're visiting with Doctor Lon Solomon of Lon Solomon Ministries. He's heard on radio all across the country. Just an absolutely fabulous teacher of the Word of God.
So you just gave us part of your testimony. And I just love the way you shared that and how you saw something. And that street evangelist in Chapel Hill that you said, boy, that's what I want. But now you've got to go home, and you've got to tell the people closest to you that Jesus is exactly who he said he was, the way, the truth, and the life, and that nobody comes to the father but through him. How does that play at home?
Oh, well, it didn't play well.
Um.
And, you know, I think when I told my parents I had come to believe in Jesus, I think they honestly would have preferred that I had told them that I was still on drugs. Well, because they weren't real fond of that. But, you know, Bob Eckhardt, the man who led me to Christ, told me, Lon. God saved you, at least in part, to be a missionary to your family, and nobody else is going to do it. And so I took him seriously. My mom came to Christ before she died. My dad came to Christ before he died.
My brother, my only sibling, is an active believer in Jesus and my whole nuclear family. Praise the Lord.
Came to Christ.
And and we had a maid. If you ever saw the movie The Help You, that's how it was with my family and so many Jewish families in Portsmouth that we knew. And her name was Callie Goodman, and she prayed for me for 22 years. I found this out after I came to Christ, I didn't know.
Oh, wow.
And she prayed for my whole nuclear family, uh, and prayed my whole nuclear family, uh, into the kingdom of God.
Praise God, what a story. Oh, what a reminder of the power of prayer. A very effectual right availeth much. So you graduate from Chapel Hill with a degree in chemistry. But then God is obviously changing your heart because you go on and you get a degree from Capitol Hill Seminary, but you focus on Hebrew and Old Testament. Then you go on and you get another master's degree, and this one is Near Eastern Studies. I find this fascinating. So
what is drawing you a to Hebrew. And the Old Testament might be a self-evident truth there, but I want to hear your answer. And also, why were you interested in Near Eastern studies?
Well, I mean, I happen to be fairly good at Hebrew because I'd taken it, you know, in Hebrew school as, as a kid. So it was easy for me where so many of the Gentile students, I mean, Hebrew is tough, uh, if you've never done it before. So I was just good at it. Uh, so, um, uh, but I also taught some Greek, uh, some homiletics. I mean, I, you know, I just loved being involved in, in the Bible. And so, yeah,
Hopkins they didn't really have a department called Hebrew. They had Near Eastern Studies, which included Egyptology and Assyriology, and Hebrew and Aramaic. So that, you know, that was the department I had to major in.
Wow.
How absolutely fascinating. And then I should point out, also, you go on to get a Doctorate of Divinity from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. Hence the doctor, Lon Solomon. But let me in an hour. That's going far too quickly. Lon, let me take your love of all things Hebrew, your understanding of Near East studies, and what's going on in the world today as you're watching what's going on? You know, it's so fascinating. It's causing a lot of people to say, well,
is this it? Is this the beginning of the end? I don't know about that, but all I do know is that people need to understand that Israel is the only country on planet Earth that was built with a shovel in one hand and the rifle in the other. This tiny little piece of land the size of new Jersey has been fighting for its life since its inception, and it just continues to this day. Give me your take on what you're seeing in today's headlines.
Well, sure. I think you said it well. The people in Jesus's day should have been able to look back at the Old Testament prophecies and put together what was going on, but they weren't. I'm sure we're going to look back one day and say, my gosh, this was we should have been able to put all this together for the end of the age. But but I don't know anybody who can. I mean, you know, we see through a glass darkly. So I don't know what all of this has to do with, you know, that. Does
that mean the return of the Lord is more imminent? Less? I don't know, I'm not that smart. What I do know is that, uh, God has promised the land that the that the Jewish people are occupying today to them started with Abraham. Genesis 15 repeated to Isaac, repeated to Jacob, and all the way down repeated to David, you know that they once they were gathered back in 1948, that they were never leaving that land again. So that I
do know. So if I, if I. If you know, if I had any money to bet, I'd bet on. If I were you. I'd bet on Israel staying there.
Me too. Me too. So in parallel to that, and I couldn't agree with your perspective more. Talk to me about what is this unbelievable increase in anti-Semitism. You know, one would have thought that after the Holocaust, when the clarion cry was never again, we meant never again. But the voracity with which this has come back, particularly after October 7th, 2023. For me as a gentile is absolutely stunning. Why do you think the uptick in anti-Semitism right now?
Well, you know, that is a really good question. It is so disturbing to see it in our country is so disturbing among our young people who have been corrupted by these liberal college professors and whoever, uh, these activists. I mean, it is. I don't have another word. It's just disturbing. And but but you know what? Satan hates the Jewish people. Always has. Always will. And revelation 12, when he gets thrown out of heaven in revelation 12, it's there's a warning there to for the earth to
look out because he's coming angry. He has wrath. And one of the places that wrath is directed is the Jewish people. He hates.
Them.
And he is out to get them. And I just think all of this goes back to him. He's behind all of this.
And exactly what do you think? And I couldn't agree with your assessment more. At its core, I always say this. This is a spiritual battle. And if you're not looking at this through spiritual lenses, you're blind. You don't understand what's going on. How what should the church do? And I've got about 30s left. But what does the church need to do when they hear anti-Semitism.
Well, the first thing we need to do is know our Bible and understand what the Jewish people represent to God and the promises he's made to them. And the second thing we need to do is, is be convinced that Satan is out there causing all of this. Remember, the greatest victory Satan ever had is convincing the world he doesn't exist.
And exactly right.
But he's out there, and he. And we have to, you know, we need to fight back.
Amen. I want to note to end on. This went far too quickly. There are a thousand more questions I want to ask. Let's talk again soon in the future, because you have such a wonderful perspective. And I do want to talk about more about the Middle East and Bible and prophecy. And I just want more and more people to know about Lon Solomon Ministries. So in the meantime, let me direct them to my information page in the market with Janet parshall.org red box. It says program details, audio.
Clicking on takes you to the page where you're going to get all the information you need on Lon Solomon. Thank you Lon. Thank you friends. We'll see you next time.