Armageddon And Non-Jewish Leaders Among The Seven Shepherds – OpEd

The evangelical Southern Baptist Convention had a membership of 16.2 million in 2006. Today, that number stands at 13.2 million. Of those 3 million that have been lost in the last 16 years, 1.3 million members were shed in the Covid years of 2020, 2021, and 2022 combined. And the younger evangelicals seem to have become pro-Woke anti Israel. I will start with the evangelical tradition.

In a place called Armageddon, at a time of terrible violent wars and turmoil caused by Gog and Magog, Ya’juj and Ma’juj in Arabic, (Qur’an 18:92-99 and 21:96-97) the People and Land of Israel is destined, according to Prophet Micah,  to be protected by three non-Jewish leaders comparable spiritually to Prophets Abraham, Jacob and Moses; one of the three being Methuselah.

Methuselah could be a hidden reference to Prophet Muhammad; because in several rabbinic literary sources Methuselah was said to have been a very pious and righteous man, more than equal to Prophet Noah himself. Methuselah’s sword, which delivered the world from thousands of demons [superstitious beliefs] was passed down to Prophets Abraham, Jacob, Moses and David. 

But even with the hidden message that Methuselah could be a hidden reference to Prophet Muhammad, most Jews failed to understand that nowhere in the Hebrew Bible, or in the rabbinic tradition, does it state that there will never be any non-Jewish Prophets for all the hundreds of polytheistic nations and tribes that remained after the spread of unitarian Christianity. 

Prophet Muhammad is sometimes referred to in later Jewish literature as “the shepherd” (haroʿeh tzon). The biblical prophet Amos was himself a shepherd (Amos 1:1), and according to Islamic tradition itself , as a young boy Muhammad was sent out to live with Bedouin to learn the ways and mores of the traditional, pastoral Arabian life.

There is one passage in the Talmud that indicates that the three spiritually powerful individual non-Jews from the past; who in the future would help the Jews survive an evil occupation of the Land of Israel is a gloss of Prophet Micah who asserts that: “When the Assyrian shall come into our land, and tramples our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight princes among men” (Micah 5:4). 

The Talmud asks: Who are these seven shepherds, and explains: David is in the middle; Adam, Seth, and Methuselah to his right; Abraham, Jacob, and Moses to his left: and who are the eight princes among men? They are Yishai, Saul, Samuel, Amos, Zephania, Zedekiah, the Messiah, and Elijah.” (Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 55b, and Babylonian Talmud  Sukkah 52b)

The princes are all Jewish, but of the more important seven shepherds, the first three are non-Jews: Adam, Seth, and Methuselah who are placed on the right hand of King David. The next verse [6] states: “They will shepherd the land of Assyria with swords , the land of Nimrod [Mesopotamia] at its entrances; and He [God] will deliver us from the Assyrian when he attacks our land and when he tramples our territory.” 

Although the Quran makes no mention of Seth he is revered within Islamic tradition as the third  son of Adam and Eve; the gift bestowed on Adam and Eve after the death of Abel. God gave Revelation to Seth after the death of Adam. God revealed 50 booklets to Seth, as narrated by Ibn Hibban that Abu Dharr al-Ghifariyy heard this from Prophet Muhammad.

Before Prophet Adam died he had passed a will to his son Seth, ordering him to keep it sealed from Cain and Cain’s son. Prophet Seth lived in Makkah and performed Hajj and Umrah and stayed there until he died. Seth (Shith) was born to Adam and Eve, after Cain killed Abel. God gave the Revelation to Seth after the death of Adam.

This will be our peaceful one [Messiah]. When the Assyrian invades our land, When he tramples on our citadels, Then we will raise against him Seven shepherds and eight leaders of men.

Micah 5:2-7 New American Standard Bible states:
2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be a ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago, From ancient days
3 So He will give them up until the time When she who is in labor has 
borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel.
4 And he will arise and shepherd his flock In the strength of the Lord,
In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. And they will live in safety,
Because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth.
5 This will be our peaceful One.
When the Assyrian invades our land, When he tramples on our citadels,
Then We will raise against him
Seven shepherds and eight leaders of men.
6  They will shepherd the land of Assyria with swords.
The land of Nimrod at its entrances;
And he [the Messiah] will deliver us from the Assyrian
When he attacks our land and when he tramples our territory.
7 Then the remnant of Jacob Will be among many peoples
Like dew from the Lord, Like showers on vegetation
Which do not wait for man or delay for the sons of men.
Note: Micah 5:2 is Ch 5:1 in Hebrew Bible. The translation of  5:2-7 is from the Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB):

2 (5:1) But you Beit-lechem Ephratah, though you be little among the thousands of Yehudah, yet out of you shall He [a Moshiach] come forth unto Me [God] that is to be Moshel Yisroel; whose goings forth (i.e. origins) have been from ancient and remote days.
3 (5:2) Therefore will He give them up, until the time when she who is in labor gave birth; then the rest of His [Moshiach’s] Brethren shall return unto Bnei Yisroel.
4 (5:3) And He [Moshiach] shall stand and shall shepherd in the strength of God, in the majesty of the name of God and they [Bnei Yisroel] shall live; for then shall He [Moshiach] be great unto the ends of the land.
5 (5:4) And this shall be Shalom. When the Assyrian shall invade our land; and when he shall set foot on our citadels, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight leaders [tribal princes] of men).
6 (5:5) And they shall shepherd the Land of Assyria with the sword  and the land of Nimrod at its gates; thus shall [Moshiach] deliver us from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land, and when he sets foot within our borders.
7 (5:6) And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people like dew from God, like showers upon the grass, that does not await man’s bidding, nor tarry for mankind’s response. 

Then Malachi 3:24 will become an universal statement: “He [Elijah] shall return the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers.” Yet as a Rabbi I believe that dangerous elements are now bringing Anti Israel Evangelicals into the scene. 

Aaron David Fruh points out in Middle East Quarterly that opinions concerning Israel among young US Evangelicals are shifting to negativity. A survey conducted between March 22, 2021, and April 2, 2021, by the Barna Group, a social and religious research organization, and by Mordechai Inbari and Kirill Humin, two professors at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, found that support for Israel among US Evangelicals aged 18 to 29 dropped by half between 2018 and 2021. In their 2021 survey, only 33.6 percent of respondents expressed positive support for Israel—down from 69 percent in 2018.

The 2021 survey also indicated that 42 percent of young Evangelicals in that age group identified as neutral, supporting neither Israel nor Palestine. There is no polling data that specifically tracks the attitudes of young Evangelicals toward Israel from 2021 onward. However, an existing recent poll does capture general American attitudes toward Israel across different age groups. 

Conducted in August 2025 by Harvard University and the Harris Research Foundation, this poll found that a majority of Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) support Hamas. When asked whether Hamas should remain in power if it released the remaining Israeli hostages, 60 percent of Gen Z respondents answered in the affirmative.

The 2021 survey was conducted four years prior to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. One could reasonably speculate that the anti-Israel social media tsunami that followed the Israel–Hamas conflict is likely to have played a significant role in further transforming the views of young US Evangelicals from neutral in 2021 to predominantly negative four years later. The 2025 survey itself demonstrates that 60 percent of American Gen Z members from all backgrounds favor Hamas over Israel. 

The number of young Evangelicals opposed to Israel is likely to have grown beyond what the 2021 polling indicated. Aaron David Fruh states that several factors have contributed to this decline of support for Israel among younger Evangelicals, the most significant being what I will refer to here as deconstructionism, the spread of woke ideology and biblical illiteracy.

The rise of woke ideology among young Evangelicals across the political spectrum, both left and right, is a significant development. A form of intersectionality is emerging in which for many young Evangelicals, both liberal and conservative, victimhood has become the primary issue. 

On the question of Israel and the Jewish people, left-leaning young Evangelicals view Palestinians as victims and Israel as the oppressor. Increasingly, right-leaning young Evangelicals view white American Christians as victims and the conspiratorial “globalist Jew” as the oppressor.

The rise of deconstructionism and woke ideology is, in part, the product of a sad phenomenon: the decline of biblical study and knowledge among young Evangelicals, a trend I refer to as biblical illiteracy. As Hosea warns, “my people perish for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6).  

The Jerusalem Post, tracking this trend, recently reviewed the American Bible Society’s April 2024 survey State of the Bible USA, 2024. 

One of its reported findings is a sharp decline in Bible knowledge among Gen Z Americans, both religious and non-religious: “Generational trends explain the phenomenon. This spiritual decline is most pronounced among younger generations, with only 11% of Generation Z adults (people born between 1997 and 2012) considered scripture-engaged, the lowest among all age groups surveyed. This demographic is also the least likely to view the Bible as a significant influence in their lives.” 

This general trend is apparent among Evangelicals. In a recent survey measuring Bible reading among young Evangelicals, 89 percent of respondents reported that they gain their biblical understanding primarily from hearing sermons rather than from reading the Bible on their own. Many evangelical pastors, striving to remain culturally relevant, craft their sermons to be more motivational and less rooted in biblical teaching. 

The Old Testament repeatedly emphasizes a core tenet of the faith: God’s eternal and unconditional love for the Jewish people, including God’s enduring plan to restore them to the land he promised to Abraham and his son Isaac’s descendants; a land given to them as an ongoing possession. 

But if young Evangelicals neither read the Old Testament nor listen to sermons inspired by it, they will lack the biblical teachings necessary to support Israel. The evidence suggests that this lack of serious engagement with biblical texts is contributing to declining support for Israel.

Even some young Jews lack a serious engagement with biblical texts and that is contributing to some declining support for Israel.