This podcast is of a dialog between the well-known Christian evangelical Pastor John MacArthur, Jr. and the equally well-known and brilliant Orthodox Jew and conservative commentator, Ben Shapiro.
The snippets and a few lengthier segments which I have seen of Shapiro “dueling” with liberals and Leftists cause me to admire his considerable knowledge of all things political. Shapiro’s keen and quick-witted capability to verbally destroy the lame liberal arguments is something to behold.
As with his fellow neo-con Zionist, Mark Levin, I agree with nearly everything I have heard them say—except when it comes to Israel and the whole arena of politics and religion involving the Middle East and America (which are actually some very major differences which I have with both men).
I am not sure when this conversation occurred; MacArthur died July 14, 2025. The MacArthur-Shapiro dialog is edited and then hosted by “Pastor Daniel,” about whom I know nothing.
Yet, this is an excellent example of Christian apologetics in action as MacArthur focuses on Isaiah 53 and kindly shares and then challenges Shapiro to look beyond Jesus as merely a good teacher.
Jesus was either who He said He was—the Son of God, which the Jewish religious authorities of Christ’s day fully understood was a claim to deity—or Jesus was a raving lunatic. Those were the choices then, and they are still the choices to this day.
For anyone who wants to study the deity of Christ from a biblical and historical perspective, I have a series of 21 posts which explore the subject thoroughly (but not exhaustively because the Word of God is inexhaustible). Here is a link to the first in the series.
Readers who understand who true Israel is today, and that the Israeli state has no connection with the Israel of the Old Testament (except as a remnant of Esau-Edom, twin brother of Jacob-Israel), will know precisely where Pastor MacArthur could have benefitted from a fuller understanding of who’s who in the Bible today…
Ah, but that would likely have given a whole different tone and tenor to the conversation. A better-informed MacArthur would probably not have been able to sustain a pleasant dialog for long because that truth would have been a non-starter for the Zionist apologist Ben Shapiro.
To inform him that “his people” are not the Israel people of the Old Testament would probably have been a bridge too far. Nonetheless, we offer this conversation for what it is worth.
~END~
