Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Brian Thomas: Media Ignores Persecution, Unrelenting Massacre Of Christians

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Brian Thomas: Media Ignores Persecution, Unrelenting Massacre Of Christians · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

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Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
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defending biblical Christianity, no topic, off limits.
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And now, here's your host, David Firazzo.
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Friends, family and Christ, thank you so much for tuning in.
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Boy, we're zipping through this week already.
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Happy New Year to you.
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You're doing very, very well, and we've got to change our focus, right?
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If you haven't yet, we've got to set our sights to what God's calling us to do this year.
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I want to kick off with some scripture today.
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And that is Philippians chapter 3, starting in verse 12.
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It says, not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on
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so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
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Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do,
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forgetting what lies behind.
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And reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of
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the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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I often go to some of these scriptures to kick off at the beginning of a New Year, just
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as a reminder, that sometimes it's hard to forget and let go of the past.
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We don't want to drag that any baggage into the New Year, but sometimes it's harder to
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let go.
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So that was Philippians 3, 12 through 14.
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Today, we're going to be talking about different things that we learned from last year and
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Barnard research and other polls that the state of the church or Americans view of either
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salvation or heaven or morality with my good friend Brian Thomas with blessings to Israel.
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And I want to give you the website, blessings to israel.com.
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You can find him on Facebook as well, blessings to Israel or blessings to Israel ministries.
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I also want to direct you to his YouTube channel and that is called discerning the times.
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That's on YouTube discerning the times on YouTube.
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There it is.
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So, friends, we're so thankful, brother Brian, good to see you.
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We appreciate your time today, nice to connect with you and happy New Year.
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Hey, likewise, David, happy New Year to you as well.
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And it's always a great day whenever I get to sit down and talk with you.
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Always look forward to it.
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So thanks for having me.
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It's great that we could connect.
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I mean, you're in North Carolina and we're up here in Wisconsin and I love that there
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are some good things about technology and there's some awful things about technology and
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the internet.
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But anyway, so this is really good how God's blessed our podcast by the people I get to
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connect with.
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I want to ask you, we kicked off, I think last time we had you on, we talked about your
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health and some of the challenges you've had.
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Now we entered into a new year, but toward the end of last year, you did a video and you
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just shared a little bit about your story and what you've been going through and it was
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called, it's been a tough year, but still thankful.
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And I think that has to be our attitude.
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I think I had a tough year myself.
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I think a lot of viewers and a lot of listeners to this program can relate to trials, suffering,
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something that they had a tough year last year.
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Speak to us about that and then share a little bit whatever you'd like to share about
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your personal health and then just your commitment to just, you know, press on.
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Yeah, but thank you, David.
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Yes.
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So last year, it's been almost a full years around February of last year, began just having
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pain in the lower regions of my body and just got progressively worse throughout the year.
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To the point that I could barely walk at times, I'm dragging my leg along and began walking
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with a cane a couple of months ago due to my leg just giving way.
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And we were really puzzled as to what was going on.
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And so where we stand today, my team of doctors, they've been going through a battery of tests
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and scans and they're looking at, is it possibly multiple sclerosis?
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And so that's pretty much where we are with that.
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And yeah, I write at Thanksgiving, I did that video to say it's been a tough year, it's been
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a challenging year, dealing with that was, was quite, has been quite frustrating.
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But you know, David, it seems as though every time I really start to, to sort of get a
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little down about it, I'll, I'll hear of someone else going through something that's
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by far worse than what I'm dealing with.
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And it makes me think how, how grateful and how blessed I am.
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And you know, I heard from one, one person out there who heard the video or and he was
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saying out his wife, 37 years old, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, I believe he said stage
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four.
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You know, those are just tough things to deal with.
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So it's sort of like when you start filling down or sorry for yourself, you can be reminded
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of, of yeah, there are a lot of people that are suffering.
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But the great thing, David, is we have hope in Jesus Christ.
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And I look forward to the fact that we have a eternity waiting.
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We're looking forward to the rapture of the church when that trumpet sounds.
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The Bible says we are going to receive a glorified body and I try to encourage people, man,
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that glorified body, no more pain, no more suffering, so much look forward to that.
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In the meantime, we occupy until he comes in and we do it with a cheerful and joyful
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heart in spite of maybe some of the struggles that we're dealing with.
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So thank you for that.
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And I'm really grateful for how you've been praying for me and encouraging your audience
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to pray for me as well.
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Amen, brother.
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We need to continue to lift up our family of God in ministry, brothers and sisters who
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are going through these things because you know, things may get worse before they get
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better.
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But right now we just have to keep the faith and keep doing what God has called us to
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do.
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And as that verse said, press on and toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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That's our focus.
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Let's seek first the kingdom of God together, friends.
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So Brian, I wanted to just mention a article you wrote over at BlessingsToIsrael.com and
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that's why bless Israel.
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I just want to make sure to people know that's there.
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It's so important.
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We're not going to get into it in depth today because we have other things to discuss.
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But I was telling Brian before we got on the podcast, this, this subject is not going
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to go away.
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Why the church needs to understand the importance of supporting Israel from a biblical perspective.
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But here's what I want to say and I want you to share your heart on this.
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We don't support everything.
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A secular government in Israel does.
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Just like we don't support everything, the American government, we have a secular government.
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There are some Christians in the Trump administration, but we don't support everything and every
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policy.
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That's the same thing.
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So Christians, we shouldn't have a naive approach to, yes, we support Israel no matter
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what.
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No, we don't, but we do have enough scripture to back up the fact that we need to understand
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Israel is God's chosen people.
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So Brian, speak to that for a moment before we get into some other things.
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Yeah, and I'm so glad, David, you pointed out that yes, it's not a matter of blindly supporting
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Israel and everything it does.
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I like to use the example when I teach on this subject for people who sort of scratch
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their heads about it.
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I say, well, you have a child.
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Let's say you have a wayward child and that child will not obey their, they're still
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in your home and he or she is doing drugs.
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They're staying out all times a night, committing crimes.
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You will do some things that bring discipline to that child or correct them, but you're
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not going to just say, okay, well, I have to support them.
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So I'm going to go along with everything they're doing.
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No, you tell them, no, you shouldn't do those things, those things that are immoral.
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But with that said, you do not disown your child.
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You still love them and you want what's best for them and for people that are out there
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in the community, in the community, if they run into your child and they see your child
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has a need, you're going to want them to help that child.
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So it's the same way with the nation of Israel.
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And the Bible tells us that Israel would come back into the land.
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God would bring them back, but it would be in unbelief.
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And obviously when people are in unbelief, they're not going to make all the best decisions,
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but God said, still to support and to bless the nation of Israel.
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Where it started with us, when God called me to ministry many years ago, I was thinking
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about my wife and I, we were debating on what to name the ministry.
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And we felt the Lord just say to honor the nation of Israel to share with people
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as to why Israel is important.
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We focus heavily on Bible prophecy and the nation of Israel is in the center of events
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that center around the return of Jesus Christ.
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And so we look at that and we decided to name our ministry blessings to Israel.
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And I recall one day when I was sitting home with my son at the time I was doing contract
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work in my profession and I was in between contracts.
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I was home with my son.
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He was about a year old.
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And I was watching television.
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I can't remember the exact program, but it was something like a 700 club.
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And they were showing Jews that were coming back to the land of Israel, returning Ethiopian
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Jews making Aliah that the Bible speaks of and they were departing from the plane and
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they were getting down on the tarmac and kissing the ground.
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And I sat there and I got so emotional and I'm not naturally an emotional person, but
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I started to choke up.
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And again, my little son was there and I didn't want him to see me with tears because he
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I didn't want him to think something was wrong.
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But I became emotional because I thought here is prophecy playing out right before my
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eyes.
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The Bible said that would happen.
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The Bible also says that would be an indicator of the return of Jesus Christ.
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We go back to Genesis 12 verse 3 says, I will bless those that bless you and I will curse
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those that curse you and in you all families of the earth will be blessed.
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All the world David has been blessed because of Jesus Christ.
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He came through the tribe of Judah, the nation of Israel.
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He died for our sins without him.
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We would all be hit it for eternal damnation.
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You all have been blessed through Jesus Christ, but you have to receive his sacrifice.
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So that in the nutshell is why we focus on the nation of Israel and why it's important
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to bless and support Israel.
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Again, as you said, you don't agree with every single thing they do, but overall you support
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that nation.
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Absolutely.
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And you mentioned fulfilled prophecy and I want to go back to that and talk about that
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for another couple of minutes because people don't understand how huge this was that
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there was no land.
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There was no nation.
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And they were dispersed around the world for almost 2000 years, isn't that right?
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They were Israel, the people of Israel, the Jews were dispersed.
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And then they started coming back from the, as Isaiah says, from the north, south, east
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and west, they're starting to return.
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They were returning to Israel.
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And of course, when you know what happened in 1948, when Israel became a nation again.
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How miraculous is that that the land was at the Bible calls it a wasteland.
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It was like a desert.
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Think about that.
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The fulfilled prophecy of the Jews returning to their homeland when it was a desert.
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And now they are like the number two nation in the world for exporting produce.
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You're going to win it, man.
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How do you grow produce in a desert?
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Because the irrigation systems that they've come up, just, and what God has done,
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believe me, miraculously, but it's fulfilled prophecy.
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Speak to us about that.
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That is such a big issue that I think we'll forget how miraculous it is to have the Jews
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dispersed.
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There is no Israel and after 2000 years, they're back in the land and more are coming.
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Go ahead, Brian.
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They're back in the land.
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Just as God said, they would be the Balfour Declaration was what kickstarted things to
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getting them back into that land.
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And as you said, yeah, there were travelers who they would travel through that land prior
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to Israel coming back.
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And they said, it was a wasteland.
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They said, who would want to be here?
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There's nothing here of value.
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But look at today how it's bringing to life.
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And the only explanation that you can give as to why there's so much prosperity with Israel
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is the hand of God.
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One of the things they read that I point out to people, when you look at the Jewish population,
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it's only about 2% worldwide.
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But when you look at the Nobel Prize winners, it's well over 20%.
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The only explanation is God is doing that.
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And when we look at anti-Semitism, you look at that tiny nation.
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It's only about the size of New Jersey.
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And you ask yourself the question, why is there so much emphasis on that?
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Why are so many people concerned about that little beauty piece of land?
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Well, it's because the Bible says Jesus is coming back there again and Satan knows that.
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And so he is constantly stirring up the forces of the dark kingdom to go against.
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Because he thinks that if he can destroy Israel, for one, he can try to make God out to
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be a liar in bringing Israel back into the land.
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But ultimately, it's to stop Jesus Christ from coming back to ruling reign on the earth.
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Because his reign will be headquartered in Israel.
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Amen, brother.
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Yeah, well, there's so much to look forward to.
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And there's so much prophecy yet to be fulfilled.
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We're going to take a brief pause a little early today with Brian.
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Because when we come back, we're going to be talking about some of the surveys we mentioned.
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And some of what's come out really surprising that, for example,
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Barna, the church, a majority of US Christians believe that good works contribute to salvation.
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Now, this came out at the end of last year.
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Also, what the 2025, another report says about the church's worldview.
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And my eye opening takeaway was how many identify as pro life.
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And that's going down.
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I wonder why we'll talk about that.
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And more when we come back with Brian Thomas on World View Matters.
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Introducing the World View Matters conference coming to Green Bay, Wisconsin may first and
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second 2026.
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Here are some of the featured speakers.
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Ken Michael, Olivier Melnick, Tim Chafee, Mark and Amber Archer, Laura Perry Smalls,
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Dr. Jake Jacobs, Jay Seagard, Gary Cod, Scott Shera, and Elijah Abraham.
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That's the World View Matters conference may first and second, 2026, Green Bay, Wisconsin.
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All right, friends, we're looking forward to that.
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It's coming, it'll be here before we know it.
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And right now, though, there's, you know, we've talked about the decline of the biblical literacy
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in the church and the biblical worldview.
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And we're not surprised that the world believes certain things about morality, about sin,
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about evil, about God.
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But when the church starts believing these things or with the biblical worldview declines,
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that's where we need to pay attention and do what we can to get good truth
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and biblical teachings out there.
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Now, Brian, let's start with, I want to go back to one.
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I didn't send you this, but this was from October and it was American World View
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Inventory over at the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University.
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This one goes back to October.
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The redefinition of sin fuels social turbulence.
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I'm just going to give you two things.
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There's a lot of takeaways, a lot of things they found in this, but I want to give you two,
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and then get your response in what we can do to try to wake up the church.
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These are Americans.
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Nearly three-quarters of adults, 73%, say that lying, deceiving, or manipulating others for
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personal gain is sinful.
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The highest of all behaviors tested in this survey, right?
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Now, the next one, listen to this, that's 73%.
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Let's talk about sexual morality.
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Only 55% view sex outside of marriage, pornography, and recreational drug use, for example, as sinful.
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So 73% think lying or deceiving, manipulating others is sinful, but only 55% say sex outside of
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marriage, and that would include homosexuality and adultery as being sinful.
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This was one that kind of surprised me that it's that low, that's almost half of Americans.
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So your thoughts on that will move on to the next one.
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Yeah, it's alarming, David. It's really sad. It's mind-boggling.
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I think about to the scriptures in the Old Testament when Israel,
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when they had no leader in the Bible, says they did what was right in their own eyes.
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And we see a lot of people today doing that. They totally ignore what the Bible says.
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I, David, just this week, heard of a pastor who on Sunday, he spoke at his church.
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He had a moment when he brought the youth up front to speak to them, to give them a message.
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And so when we say youth, we're talking about all minors from 18 years on down.
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So you know, you have some children there as young as like five years old.
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Well, I was told I wasn't there present, but someone who was there told me that this pastor
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told the children that although having sex outside of marriage is wrong, you're going to do it
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anyway. So here are safe ways to do it. And I was so heartbroken by that, David.
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You know, so he's telling them ways to get around the consequences of sin.
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You don't enable people to sin. And I thought how bad for those children that they're going to
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grow up and reap the consequences of those wrongdoings. And they're going to lean back on their
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pastor. And the Bible gives us a storm, a stern warning for shepherds who lead the sheep
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astray. And that is one of the major problems today is that pastors are not teaching the Bible.
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Yes, we all have a responsibility to teach and to learn on our own, but still pastors,
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God calls them to point us into the right direction. So when you have that type of thing coming
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from the pulpit, I know of another pastor who also said, you know, when it comes to to fornication,
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we got it wrong. And he started promoting it saying that it's okay. That is what we want
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with in society to where now half the people go against what the Bible clearly says is seen.
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And the Bible also says, David, that the marriage bed shall not be defiled. God is not mocked and
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said he will judge fornicators and adulterers. And yet people dismissed God's word and they just
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go on their way. So I want to clarify something you said, these guys are pastors. And sometimes
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you got to put pastors and air quotes because if they do not have a biblical worldview, they might
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be off on their own Christianity or salvation, perhaps, but only God knows their hearts. But Barna
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research, I believe it was Arizona Christian University again that did research. I think this
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was about three years ago that only 37% of America's pastors have a biblical worldview and youth
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pastors. It's either 12 or 13% of youth pastors. These are the young men that are teaching your
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kids on a Wednesday night or a Sunday, you know, morning youth pastors. So again, parents,
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be very discerning about your pastors at your church, especially who's teaching your kids.
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All right, onto the next one, Brian. Here's a key takeaway from this one about Christians now
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believing that good works contribute to salvation. So it's all about grace. Most people are
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information collectors rather than biblically consistent followers of Christ.
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More determined to be comfortable than biblically right. That preference will produce
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profound eternal effects for each of us. Yeah, we see a lot of focus on comfort in the church.
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But here it is, faith without understanding. In this one, a majority, a majority, not just of
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Americans of Christians. This says Brian Thomas, this was a survey of 84% of adults,
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including 95% of professing Christians believe there's such a thing as sin, right? So that's
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you okay. Well, at least that's a good thing. But millions of Americans do not believe their
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sinfulness will send them to hell, resign them to hell. And so there's a lot of confusion there.
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And I think maybe sometimes it starts in the church. Among those who say they are Christian,
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three out of four, 77% say they will enjoy eternal comfort and peace. And they say, okay,
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because of good works. So there's a lot of confusion here. There's a lot more details we don't
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have enough time to get into. But friends, this came out at the end of last year. And there's a lot
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of people who think they're good when what did Jesus say, Brian, who are you calling good?
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There's only one good God alone. Go ahead. Your thoughts on this because works,
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it's even says any Ephesians by grace we are saved through faith and is not by our works. Now
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good works are a result of authentic salvation. So we will do good works once we're saved,
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but they do not get us into heaven or a higher level heaven. Go ahead.
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Exactly right, David. There's no way you can work your way in. As you said, Ephesians chapter
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two says it's only by grace through faith. It's not by works because if it was by works,
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then we could boast. But none of us can. It was only through the shared blood of Jesus Christ
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that we can be saved. You mentioned that as Jesus said, there's none good. No, not one. Only
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God is good. Romans 3, 10 says there is none righteous. No, not one. And when I look at people who
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think that they can through good works, get themselves into heaven, I'm sure your audience,
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you've seen the videos that Ray Comfort does when he goes out on the streets and he'll ask people,
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are you going to heaven? Most of the time they'll say yes. And when he says why, they'll say,
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well, I'm a good person or I do good things. But David, the Bible is very clear. Jesus said
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that in his word that the best that we can do is ask filthy rags because we're all fallen
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sinners. So none of us are good. And we often have this mindset that we deserve something or
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that we are generally good people. I've heard surveys that say, well, most people are just good
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but not by God's standards, maybe by man's standard, but by God's standard, all of us deserve
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damnation. But thanks be to God, he made a way that we could be forgiven, that we could be found
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justified to be with him for eternity through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The sad thing about
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it is all we have to do, Romans 10 and 9 says confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe
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in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved. That is all we have to do
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to be saved, repent of our sins. So many people though think that they can do good works. And
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someday when they stand before God, he's going to sort of weigh things in the scales and their good
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is going to outweigh their bad. And therefore they'll get in. That is not how this works. And that
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is the sad reality that a lot of people are deceived by. Amen, brother. Now we're running out of time.
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So let's jump to this last one real quick. And we should actually put the links in the description
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for the podcast today. But Brian, this one is over at the Washington stand and it says what the
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2025 CBW report reveals about the church, the church's worldview, the CBW is the family research
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counsel's center for biblical worldview CBW. It says, and this goes along with Pew Research who
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released a poll as well, that a third of US adults believe religions, influences growing in
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America. This is interesting because this is post Charlie Kirk assassination. What's interesting
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about this is there's a 36% increase in Bible sales in just one, 2.4 million Bible's
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were sold in that month after Charlie Kirk and then more and more people are going to church.
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We talked about that before another podcast. But what interesting, what's interesting about this
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is generation Z, Gen Z and millennials seem to be driving a resurgence in church attendance.
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But then there's always a downside to what people believe, even though they're going to church
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buying Bibles or they think they're maybe thinking, okay, anybody, I believe in God,
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maybe people are going to have a problem with my worldview too. But what do they believe?
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Only 45% now identify as pro life. So with all the people that are going to church, maybe buying
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Bibles, maybe open to spiritual things and that includes the youngest, you know, the Gen Zers,
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there's still some confusion about what the Bible teaches on life, gender, marriage, family,
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sexuality and civil government. Brian, I know I left you with just a minute and a half,
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but just share your quick thoughts and then we'll have to wrap it up. Sorry, bro.
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Yeah, no problem. And that is the thing you made a great point, David, is that we see they say,
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okay, religion is increasing, but I ask myself the question, okay, what religion? The Bible talks
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about false religions. When we talk about this conversation about works, how you are saved,
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well, false religions like Islam, they stress works, but we know that does not get you into heaven.
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There's no work you can do to get into heaven is only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ,
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accepting his sacrifice. So my prayer is that if people are becoming more religious, well,
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let's hope they're choosing the true religion that is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
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That is what they're following. Jesus said before he went back to heaven, go into the world,
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make disciples. That means we need to teach people how to live out the faith. And I think that's
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something that's greatly missing in many churches today. So I pray that that will happen.
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Thanks, brother. Amen. Amen. And I know there were so many different stats and percentages and
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things we could have got into from these surveys. But there's just a lot of information out there.
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And I think the church needs to be discerning on how we process what's going on. Because there is
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now an uptick in interest in spiritual things. We've got to be open to sharing the gospel.
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But we also have to understand they're going to church. What church are they going to?
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And who's going to be the pastor there? And all my goodness, Brian, we have a lot of work to do.
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But we've got a new year to do it. Brother, thanks for your time. God bless you.
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God bless you as well, David. Pray, bless us upon your ministry and good to be with you once again.
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Thank you so much. And friends, happy new year. God bless you. And as always, keep speaking the truth
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about things that matter.