Latest / 4-Freedom Podcast / 203. WE ARE BACK!!!!! The Future of Fundamentalism - Jack Trieber and Golden State Bible College

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203. WE ARE BACK!!!!! The Future of Fundamentalism - Jack Trieber and Golden State Bible College · 4-Freedom Podcast

0:01
Welcome back and for Freedom Podcast.
0:03
So we're back from our Christmas break and I'm going to start out
0:08
this this episode this morning with a question.
0:11
James, were you a good little boy and did Santa come and visit
0:16
you? Did you get coal or did you get
0:18
what you wanted for Christmas? I never won anything but hanging
0:22
out with family, so I got that and so it was great.
0:24
Yeah, we had a good time. My wife hates buying Christmas
0:29
for me because there's like she doesn't know what to buy.
0:32
I don't have a lot. The only thing I only hobby I
0:34
have is cigars. So she's like, I don't want to
0:36
just buy you cigars because you do that all year long.
0:39
And so we had a good time. We had family over Brett.
0:42
The one thing that I got for Christmas that I didn't want was
0:46
I got sick at Christmas time. The day before Christmas,
0:49
Christmas Eve, I wake up and man, I'm not feeling well.
0:53
A friend of mine had told me that there's this new like over
0:56
the counter homeopathic medicine that you can take.
1:01
It's like a Sakalan or something.
1:03
It's little bitty pellets that you have a little tube of them.
1:07
You take them like every six hours they dissolve in your
1:09
mouth. And so I think I owed DD on
1:12
medicine just to get through Christmas Eve with my at my in
1:15
laws house. Finally got through that.
1:18
I got home that evening and I told my wife, I said I am
1:21
exhausted, I need to take a nap. And so I'd lay down from like
1:25
five to seven couple hours. I said I I hate to do this to
1:29
you. It's Christmas Eve.
1:31
We normally do like a Nerf gun or some type of battle with the
1:36
kids, but I just, I couldn't do it.
1:38
And she said I'd rather you feel better later and and skip right
1:42
now then be out for tomorrow for Christmas Day.
1:45
So the nap was good. I took some Nyquil.
1:48
I think I down like half a bottle that night just to get
1:51
better. Woke up the next morning.
1:53
We have 50 people at our house on Christmas Day.
1:55
My entire family came over mom dad made it through Christmas.
1:59
I never threw up once I just I felt bad And then by the day
2:03
after Christmas I was completely fine.
2:04
So I don't know if it was a 24 hour bug or whatever happened,
2:07
but dude, it was not fun. And I, I'm, I'm glad I'm over
2:12
that. But we had great time at
2:14
Christmas. If I did get coal as Donald
2:17
Trump, as Daddy Trump said, we, it's that beautiful clean
2:22
burning coal that we got with that.
2:24
I don't know if you saw that clip on the little girl he
2:27
called that little girl on Christmas.
2:28
Did you see that at all? Didn't.
2:30
See that? He called her and he said, he
2:33
said, were you a good little girl or bad little girl?
2:35
What are you getting for Christmas?
2:36
And she said, I don't know, I think I've been bad this year.
2:38
I might be getting cold. And he said, well, it'll be good
2:41
clean burning coal. I have to say that it was great.
2:45
So I got a good kick out of that.
2:48
But yeah, so we had a great Christmas.
2:51
We went on Christmas Day, we went two hours N to Emily's
2:57
family, and then that Saturday we went two hours South to my
3:01
family. So that's kind of what it's like
3:03
with us living in the middle of the state, and I'm from the
3:06
South of the state, she's from the north of the state and we
3:09
live right in the middle. So it kind of splits the
3:12
difference there for our family. We're about two, 2 1/2 hours
3:15
away from everything. And man, it was great.
3:18
I had my Christmas present, was watching my family get all their
3:23
Christmas presents. Of course, my wife got me a nice
3:25
knife, nice pocket knife, and I loved it.
3:29
But it was being able to, you know, get my family some stuff
3:33
that they really wanted. I gave my wife a espresso
3:37
machine that she wanted and my oldest son was able to get him a
3:42
car. And so now he's mobile, which it
3:46
has been super, super convenient to have another driver in the
3:50
family has been something that has the now, now he wants a job.
3:55
He says, Dad, I'm tired of sitting at the house.
3:58
I want to go work and so to fill out some job applications.
4:06
Good good home still. Kids work at Chick-fil-A for
4:09
their first job, so tell him to go get Chick-fil-A.
4:11
They'll they'll hire him tomorrow.
4:13
Well, if it wasn't, if it wasn't far away, that might be.
4:17
But I think you know where we're sending him.
4:19
We're going to send him. We're going to send him to the
4:21
Hoggly Woggly. Yeah, well, and some of our
4:24
listeners may not know the when you say another driver, Emily
4:27
is, is blind in one eye, so she can't drive.
4:30
That's why. Yeah.
4:33
So having him to be able to drive her around and manage that
4:37
driving definitely helps a little bit.
4:39
That's why Brett looks so good to Emily, because she's half
4:42
blind and. So I always sit on the on the
4:45
blind side that that's how we how we've made it as a couple.
4:50
But yeah, we're sending him to the Hoggly Woggly and see if we
4:53
can get a little Piggly Wiggly revival going on.
4:56
Here we go. So, but yeah, so we're, he's
4:59
going to be out there hopefully bagging groceries and things
5:02
like that. But man, other than that,
5:04
Christmas was, was great. We had a great time with our
5:08
church. We had a great time with family.
5:11
Holiday season was, is always a great time for us.
5:16
And I look, I don't know if it's, excuse me, I don't know if
5:20
it's like this for your church, but the Christmas season is so
5:25
busy. There's so much to do.
5:27
We can't even hardly fit it all in.
5:30
We, we didn't even go Carolyn this year and we didn't miss it
5:33
because we were so busy. And then we get to January, and
5:37
January is about the only month of the year for our church that
5:41
we've got a little bit of downtime, that there's not a lot
5:45
going on. I've got a little break from
5:48
school. I still don't start school till
5:50
next week. We were so busy during December
5:54
that January is kind of a chill time.
5:57
We don't have a whole lot planned.
6:00
And so January is just kind of chill for us.
6:03
Yeah, No. January is chill, but it's
6:07
slowly becoming more and more busy as as the church grows, as
6:11
things begin to move forward there.
6:13
We're starting to put some things in January because hey,
6:16
we didn't do it in December. Let's push it to January or move
6:19
things around. So we strategically moved our
6:21
calendar around this year, first time since I've been here that
6:24
we actually changed dates like hardcore.
6:28
We moved Bible school from July to June.
6:30
We moved homecoming from November to October.
6:33
So we we moved some things around to be able to accommodate
6:37
more and to be more strategic with our calendar.
6:41
And some of this was, David, my idea, this was some of our
6:43
church council planning. And so we just, we went with it.
6:47
We're going to see how it goes if things go well this year,
6:50
will continue for next year, but that we're just sort of
6:54
strategically changing some things to be a little more
6:57
advantageous with what we've got going on.
6:59
One of the things that we had to do this year because the schools
7:03
and our counties in Mississippi, they're going to year round
7:08
school and so our school starts back like in July, right before
7:15
July is over. That's why we had to move our
7:17
VBS because school starts back the third week of July.
7:23
And of course the half that we've got a fair here that
7:26
everybody goes to the Neshoba County Fair, Everybody's got
7:30
their little houses at the fairgrounds.
7:33
Well, that moved up to the same week as our VBS because of
7:36
school. And so we had to change our VBS
7:39
to the same week as every other church, which is going to hurt
7:42
our numbers. But you know, I know it's not
7:45
all about numbers, but at the same time, you know, we had to
7:48
rearrange some things. Yeah, no, that's, that's where
7:52
we're at. My my June has become the
7:54
busiest month of my, of my life. This year we'll be at the
7:58
convention in Orlando the first week or two of June.
8:02
I'll get back the the what is it the third week of June?
8:06
Yeah. The third week of June is
8:09
vacation Bible school for us. The 4th week of June is youth
8:13
camp. The last week of June going into
8:16
July is kids camp. So I've got four or five weeks.
8:19
They're just every single week packed full for the entire week.
8:23
So yeah, it's going to be great. We're we're praying for lots of
8:27
strength during that time and it's going to be a great time.
8:31
But yeah. Yeah, yeah.
8:34
But hey, we're back in the saddle.
8:35
Here then. Yeah, we're here, baby.
8:37
We're here, holidays are over, we are a present and accounted
8:42
for and man, by the time this comes out, we will be just less
8:48
than two weeks away from being in the Holy Land, Man.
8:52
Yeah, yeah. When this comes out, I think
8:54
this is going to come out the 22nd of January.
8:58
And so we're going to be like a week and a day away from I'm
9:02
going to the Holy Lands. It's going to be a phenomenal
9:05
time. We've already started looking at
9:07
where we're going to be speaking.
9:09
We've got a group, I think 32 of us going, 3233 of us going.
9:14
But we're, it's, it's packed full.
9:15
It's going to be a great time. We've got people from our that
9:19
we've signed up on our trip. We're combining with Marcus.
9:22
He's got a group of pastors that are going.
9:24
So it's going to be a great time.
9:26
Looking forward to been talking with Pari and some others.
9:30
And I mean, we're just excited about being there, stepping
9:33
where Jesus stepped. I'm excited about the places
9:35
that we didn't get to go that we're going to be able to go and
9:38
just leaving the trip and been able to listen.
9:42
Brad, I went to a Greek restaurant the other day.
9:45
I walked in and everything on the board was Israeli style
9:49
food. I mean, they had the falafels,
9:50
they have the shawarma, they had hummus, they had everything.
9:54
And I didn't order any of it on purpose because I didn't want to
9:58
be disappointed by it not been as good as when we go to Israel.
10:02
And so I just, I'm what it ordered that I ordered like a
10:04
burger or something that was it was still phenomenal what I had.
10:07
I don't even know what I had. It was a Philly steak.
10:10
That's what it was, a Philly cheese steak.
10:12
And so I'm excited about getting that chicken shawarma and
10:16
rolling that hummus all in it and having that hummus.
10:18
And my mouth is salivating just thinking about the food that
10:22
we're going to have while we're there.
10:23
My wife has said, man, what? What kind of buffet is it going
10:27
to be if it doesn't have fork on it?
10:29
I was like, Emily, you have no clue that there's plenty of
10:33
stuff you can have on a breakfast buffet that doesn't
10:37
involve pork, bacon, sausage, things like that.
10:40
But you can attest those buffet lines, they're just, they're as
10:44
long as the entire hall. There's there's four or five of
10:48
them. Man, that the food, they're just
10:51
just just the buffets in the morning and the evenings at the
10:55
at the hotels that we stay at are just unbelievable
10:59
phenomenal. And this time, James, we're
11:02
going to get there. You know, when we went last
11:04
time, we got there late and so they had our food in our rooms
11:10
wrapped up. But we're going to get there
11:13
Saturday afternoon with some daylight left, so that's going
11:16
to be really cool. Yeah, No, I'm, I'm pumped about
11:19
that. I think it's going to be
11:20
phenomenal. I'm excited about flying in and
11:23
seeing the terrain from the air that we got to sort of not get
11:27
to see because it was so dark and we sort of were just lost
11:31
riding because it's all dark. We're just on the bus.
11:34
You're riding the bus and you can't see nothing because it's
11:36
pit. Well, yeah, we went all the way
11:38
to our hotel, spend the night, and we hadn't seen Israel yet
11:41
because it was dark on. The bus we woke up and the first
11:43
thing we saw was the Sea of Galilee.
11:45
And we didn't really didn't even, I mean, we knew it was Sea
11:48
of Galilee, but like we, we didn't get to see it when we
11:50
came in and we're just like, it's just a body of water.
11:53
What is this? And and then we, our first night
11:56
we were there, we didn't, or the first tour, we didn't actually
11:59
go to the Sea of Galilee. We drove away from it and then
12:02
we came back that evening and did the Sea of Galilee.
12:04
I think we're on the boat that evening, if I remember right.
12:07
But like, we're going to know those things now.
12:09
We're going to see it. It's yeah, it's going to be.
12:12
I'm excited. I'm excited about.
12:15
I hate that our mirror won't be there to lead us.
12:17
We're going to have a meet. Who's going to be leading us
12:20
this time? So a different voice from a
12:22
different perspective. And so that'll be interesting to
12:26
see and hear and new information.
12:28
And so, yeah, I'm, I'm excited. I can't wait.
12:30
I can't wait for you as listeners because Brett, we're
12:34
going to be recording everything we do there, all the different
12:37
talks that we give. We're going to be doing some
12:40
special live interviews or not live, but we'll be on on
12:45
location interviews with Marcus and me and you and I'll be able
12:49
to talk through some stuff. And so that's going to be a
12:52
great time to get some of that content out to you guys as well.
12:56
Now, listen, I know they say that no non-Muslims can go into
13:02
the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, but when we tell
13:06
them we're going to record the Four Freedom Podcast inside the
13:10
Dome of the Rock. They're going to swing the doors
13:15
wide open. I mean, swing wide.
13:16
The gates here we come. It's going to happen.
13:18
Yeah. For freedom.
13:20
Come. Come for freedom, yes?
13:21
For freedom. Come on, come on.
13:23
You guys come. Come.
13:24
Yes. Come.
13:24
Yeah. So it's going to be great.
13:26
I'm excited about it, Brett transitioning from Israel.
13:31
I had some some sad news this last week that I found out.
13:35
I didn't even get to tell you yet, but one of our dear podcast
13:40
partners, Shana and Kristen with the Growing Grace podcast.
13:45
They've officially shut their podcast down and closed it down.
13:49
Five seasons, 89 episodes, I believe is what they recorded
13:55
over my Christmas break. I was using some of that time to
13:58
just catch up on fellow podcasters and, and listening to
14:01
some episodes as I was working or cleaning or, you know,
14:05
cleaning up and, and moving things around.
14:07
And they were one that I had on my pending or in my playlist to,
14:12
to get to. And they, they have officially
14:16
decided to disband the podcast. 89 great episodes.
14:21
Kristen is is trying to start her new family and and get
14:25
pregnant and Shana is busy with writing and other things.
14:29
And so I just want to thank them for their hard work, the things
14:32
that they've done to encourage women in ministry and women that
14:38
just often times conflict there on the island and the
14:40
encouragement they gave. I know for for me and my family,
14:44
meeting them there at the Danville meet up and other
14:48
places, I think we I met them the very first time when we were
14:53
in Missouri. Bourbon is where I met them for
14:58
the first time. That was sort of the launch of
15:00
the growing Grace podcast. And so I just want to thank you
15:03
guys, you ladies for all your hard work.
15:07
I know you're going to still do great things Go by check out
15:10
their episodes if you are struggling with things or want a
15:14
different perspective. Other episodes are still out
15:16
there. They're just not releasing
15:17
anything new. But thank you, growing grace,
15:20
for your faithfulness and your work over the last five years.
15:23
Absolutely. Awesome podcast, great great
15:27
ladies, good friends. We love to listen to them and we
15:32
wish them all the best in the world.
15:34
Yeah, we actually Brett, me and John.
15:37
I think it's being John, maybe me and you, I can't remember.
15:39
We have an unreleased episode of Growing Grace that we recorded a
15:44
long time ago that we did with them.
15:47
It's in my file somewhere. I remember we never put it out.
15:50
It was just one of those we did. And so we may pull that out here
15:54
in a couple weeks and drop it. If you know anything about me,
15:58
you've listened to us long enough.
16:00
You know that I never say names, right?
16:02
And so I think it's Shana, but I said Shana like 17 times.
16:05
Or maybe I'm saying it wrong right now.
16:06
I don't even know. But we are definitely saddened
16:11
to hear that, but excited for what they've got going on as
16:14
well, so. Absolutely.
16:17
And then, hey, then when we get back, we've got Orlando, we're
16:21
going to the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando, FL.
16:24
So if you or any of our listeners are going to be there
16:29
at the Southern Baptist Convention this year in Orlando,
16:31
hit us up, let us know you're going to be there.
16:35
We'll have a meet up, we'll get together and.
16:37
We've got a big house this year we're at.
16:39
We've just booked our house that me and you will be our churches
16:43
will be partnering with splitting that cost.
16:45
And so it's nice house. It's got its own pool as well.
16:48
So it's been a great time with our kids and come by hang out
16:52
with us. We'll let you know where we'll
16:54
be at for that. So.
16:56
Absolutely. I'm looking forward to that for
16:58
sure. Yeah.
16:59
Hey, if you haven't checked out our podcast, our our, our cigars
17:03
company, they're at 16 ounce cigars on our Full Freedom
17:06
podcast, Full Freedom Cigar Company, go by and check it out.
17:09
Thank you for all of you who made 2025 a great year.
17:13
We sold around 500 cigars, I believe, best number that I can
17:17
count. We've sold a lot of our boxes,
17:22
our experience boxes with our sampler of all four cigars,
17:25
coffee that helps our church plants in Nicaragua, our soap
17:29
company that the lady started there in Tennessee that were
17:31
partnered with Humble Soap. And so that that's all part of
17:35
that box and it's a great little box that you get so you get to
17:38
sort of sample all those. It's been great.
17:42
It's we had a great year. Looking forward to this next
17:44
year, 2026, and just seeing where the Lord takes that
17:48
company and how it's used. Brett, over this past Christmas
17:52
break, I've had so many conversations on about the Lord
17:55
just over a cigar and just been able to sit down with guys, have
17:59
a great time, talk, relax, and share the gospel with them
18:03
through this unordinary means of tint making, as Paul put it.
18:09
And so thankful for that, thankful for the opportunity
18:12
that we have for that. And so if you want to go by and
18:15
check out that, our link is in the description.
18:18
It's your little small way where you can support the podcast.
18:21
Our third quarter was the best quarter that we've done to date
18:25
during our big Thanksgiving Black Friday sale.
18:28
And so thank you. I think we sold multiple boxes
18:30
of cigars. And so please go by check it
18:34
out. We'll be running different promo
18:35
codes this year and so we'll let you know as those come out.
18:39
But thank you again for supporting us and supporting the
18:42
podcast the way you do. I've sent out several books that
18:46
were donated that we were able to give out.
18:50
And so we've still got just a couple of those left.
18:52
I know Brett got some and John got some and I gave some to our
18:57
church. And then there were a couple
18:59
that reached out to me that said, hey, I'd like a copy.
19:01
And so we put those in the mail couple of weeks ago.
19:03
If you'd like one of those copies, a free copy, if you want
19:06
to support us by going and buying a copy, of course, that's
19:09
on Amazon as well and definitely be a way of supporting us as
19:13
well. And let me say that I had some
19:15
people reach out to me for some copies of the book and I've yet
19:20
to, I'm about to drop those in the mail this week.
19:23
So if you've asked me for a book and you haven't gotten it yet,
19:26
they're about to be in the wind. I just, I just got them in a
19:30
week or so ago. And so we're getting ready to
19:32
send those out. But I am looking forward to
19:34
that. I've had people reach out to me
19:36
for copies of the book as well. And we're looking forward to
19:39
that. I'm looking forward to this new
19:40
season. We're starting a brand new
19:41
season. We've got some somewhere we're
19:44
closing finishing up foot our our footprints fundamentalism,
19:49
we've got some other things that.
19:51
We're. Really, really looking forward
19:53
to this season of going into, we're looking forward to letting
19:57
you guys know about that, but we are ready to go for another
20:02
season Before Freedom podcast. Absolutely, we're going to jump
20:06
right into it today. And we've we've had a longer
20:09
opening banter, but it was a good time.
20:12
But we are closing the chapter on the future of fundamentalism
20:15
for the fundamental footprints. And today we're going to be
20:20
going to a different character. And so it's the last one here.
20:24
This one. We we put him in this category
20:27
because he's still pastoring. But Brett, why don't you get
20:32
started? Tell us who we're who we're
20:33
heading out to. For freedom, you set me free.
20:36
Not for change, not for guilt, not for Pharisee.
20:39
Grace lit the flame. Now I'm puffing peace, cigars
20:42
and victory. Justified.
20:44
Released. Welcome to the For Freedom
20:47
podcast. This podcast exists to bring the
20:51
freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with
20:54
everyday issues. I ain't.
20:56
Saved by dress codes, not about what I eat.
20:58
I'm covered in the righteousness, washed from head
21:00
to feet. No tally of tradition.
21:02
No man made code. Blood bought my freedom.
21:05
Now I ride that road. They clutch pearls when they see
21:07
smoke rings rise. But my praise still ascends past
21:11
the legalist cries. Christ plus nothing.
21:13
That's the real math. So miss me with your fence laws
21:16
and your extra path. He sat with sinners, I'm sitting
21:19
with Saints, sipping grace from the bottle.
21:21
No room for face. I like one for liberty.
21:24
Toast to the king. Every ash of sermon.
21:27
Death has lost its sting. For freedom He set me free.
21:31
Not for change, not for guilt, not for Pharisee Grace.
21:34
Let the flame, Now I'm puffing peace, cigars and victory
21:37
justified released. For freedom He set me free.
21:41
Not for change, not for guilt, not for Pharisee grace.
21:45
Let the flame now. I'm puffing peace, cigars and
21:47
victory Justified, released. Let grace begin for fruit on me,
21:53
threaten me free. Not for change, not for guilt,
21:55
not for Pharisee. Grace, lift the flame now.
21:58
Here are your hosts, James Seyfried and Brett Martin.
22:02
Well today we are heading out to the West Coast to Santa Clara,
22:06
CA talk about Doctor Jack Treiber, North Valley Baptist
22:12
Church, and of course Golden State Baptist College.
22:16
Yeah, now Brett, so he's been there 50 years, just celebrated
22:19
50 years and pastor there. This was one of those colleges
22:23
that I looked into going. I was very close to going to
22:27
Golden State. It was Golden State champion.
22:30
And then there was a college up north that I was looking at,
22:33
can't remember the name of it right now, but the Golden State
22:35
was one of those top line that I had strongly considered.
22:39
I've looked into California was the, the main reason I didn't go
22:43
there was because of, I wouldn't have been able to drive back and
22:48
forth. I'm a big, big proponent of
22:52
being within driving distance of things.
22:55
And so every time I would have came home would have been a
22:57
plane ticket. And so that was just one of
23:00
those cross country negatives for me that that put Golden
23:05
Santa. But I was very interested in
23:07
Golden State as a kid, as a young person looking up to Jack
23:11
Treiber and hearing what was going on there.
23:13
Treiber has been a * in the West Coast IFB for decades.
23:19
Pastor, author, broadcaster, college founder, I mean the list
23:24
goes on and on. The college launched in 96 and
23:28
the sense trained generations. He he claims that they've had
23:32
like 6,000,000 individual people come to their bus ministry at
23:36
any given time. Don't know if that's true or
23:40
not, but he said that that's different.
23:43
Individual unique people. 6,000,000 have come through
23:46
their bus, minister to their church.
23:47
So big stalwart out there. Absolutely.
23:51
And what makes him fascinating James is his commitment to old
23:57
school IFP distinctives, but kind of mixed with this polished
24:01
media presence. I've seen so much of him on, on
24:07
Twitter and Facebook and social media and things like that.
24:12
You know, I during, and we might talk about this later, but I'll
24:15
bring it up now. He became kind of famous across
24:20
the country back in COVID because he was one of those
24:24
churches that refused to close. And a lot of the Southern
24:29
Baptist churches that I knew were talking about him and
24:34
praying for him and his church, not understanding.
24:38
They didn't know that he was an independent fundamental Baptist.
24:41
They were just seeing the government try to tell the
24:43
church what to do. And so he kind of got a little
24:46
notoriety. I heard the local on my local
24:50
news channel talk about Jack Treaver and talk about, you
24:54
know, 2 worlds coming together is like what in the world?
24:57
Because I knew who Jack going to House of Anderson.
24:59
I knew who Jack Trieber was. I knew Golden State and so it
25:02
was kind of weird to him get that notoriety and that fame
25:05
during that time. But we're also going to talk
25:08
about today a few of the serious controversies.
25:11
We're going to unpack those, but I think we got to start with the
25:15
roots. We got to find out who is Jack
25:19
Trieber? How?
25:19
How did he come to be who he is, where he is?
25:24
Yeah, well, we'll start at the closer to the beginning of his
25:28
ministry. So Jack Schumer was called the
25:30
pastor of what would become North Valley Baptist Church
25:34
around the mid 1970s. I was listening to something by
25:37
him today, just in research. And one of the things he they do
25:42
often is like this day in church history, which I think is pretty
25:45
cool. But they had mentioned like a
25:47
vote that was made to do something in the church.
25:51
One of those founding years that he was there in the mid 70s and
25:55
it was like 98 to 1 was the vote.
25:58
So like 99 people voted. So it wasn't a large church when
26:02
he took it. It was a relatively smaller
26:04
church there in north there in Santa Clara, CA.
26:09
And it was struggling near the San Jose area.
26:14
And from the small beginnings, he began to grow this church
26:18
into a major IFB hub. Hundreds and thousands of
26:21
pastors have got training and came in and out of this church.
26:26
One of our good friends or one of my good pastors who was in
26:30
college graduated from Golden State.
26:32
Love that. Love the ministry there still
26:35
goes there. His son graduated from there.
26:38
So. So there is this heritage of
26:40
people going and retaining this love for Golden State Baptist
26:45
Bible College. Right.
26:46
And you mentioned this alongside the church, he launched North
26:50
Valley Schools, which was the KC 12 educational ministry.
26:54
You've got the Canyon NVBC Revival Radio, a broadcast
26:59
network to, you know, extend preaching and teaching to the
27:03
area and has exerted a lot of influence that way.
27:08
Yeah, he's he's also an author. Pastors, pastorals, devotionals,
27:13
leadership books that he's put out.
27:15
They do a leadership conference every year.
27:17
They do a youth workers conference every year.
27:20
And he also runs what is called the North Valley Publications,
27:25
which keeps all of his material in circulation.
27:28
And it's a way for him to be in the IFP circles.
27:32
Everyone's always looking for literature, right?
27:34
Everyone's always looking for clear for, for a good
27:37
curriculum. And so, hey, if we can provide
27:39
that to our publications, hey, let's do that.
27:42
And so that's, that's sort of one of his ways of been out
27:45
there and he learned that from the great right.
27:47
He learned that from Jack House. Jack House learned if you can
27:50
put out books and curriculum and things that people can buy, you
27:55
can really help profit what you're doing through what you're
28:00
saying and and then promulgate your ideology.
28:04
I think the statistic was, and this was pre social media, This
28:08
is pre anything but Jack House. Every time he put a book out, it
28:12
sold 1,000,000 copies just because it had the name Jack
28:16
House on it. So if he made a dollar off every
28:18
book, he's making $1,000,000 off every book he puts out.
28:21
And, and we know he may, he, he made more than just a dollar off
28:24
a book. And so there's, there's a lot
28:27
there. I mean, I've still got Jack
28:29
House books on my shelf that I bought while I was in college.
28:32
And so that's, that's a big thing.
28:35
So he he's pushing his ideas through his publication company.
28:39
Everybody else was throwing their house books away, but I
28:41
kept mine because you never know, especially when I was
28:45
doing tick tock and things, you know, I might need props and
28:48
whatnot. Go back to refer to them.
28:51
So I kept on. I don't have.
28:52
Them on my shelf, but I've. Got Hey, I've got a I've got a
28:54
box of them and it's labeled IFB research.
28:58
It's all the IFB books it. Is right in, in Treeberry North
29:02
Valley. They've got a lot of different
29:04
layers of influence. I mean, you've got the church,
29:08
schooling, media, publishing, They're all under the same
29:12
leadership umbrella. This is a a church and a pastor
29:17
that has a lot of irons in the fire.
29:20
Yeah, well, we Fast forward from his founding and and how he went
29:24
through all that to 1996. We said this sort of in the
29:28
opening part 1996, Jack Truber founded Golden State Bible
29:32
College, GSBC, as a lot of people call it, to train
29:35
pastors, missionaries and music workers.
29:38
Those are the three keys that they have.
29:40
And they emphasize music. If you know, if you watch any of
29:44
their bad picture clips of Jack Truber, I mean tons of music
29:48
clips, tons of things that are involving music and the way
29:51
music style is anytime Tony Hudson comes out there, he
29:55
preaches on music. I mean, it's like every single
29:58
time he's out there, he preaches on music, a sermon on music.
30:02
They they also say that they're for Christian educators and more
30:06
but but those first 3 pastors, missionaries and music workers
30:10
are the three big things that they really harp on a lot.
30:14
You know, we back growing up in church, we didn't get a whole, I
30:18
mean, we've got singing groups come through.
30:20
We would have hit like Crown and Hiles and things like that, but
30:24
they would be hit and miss. They wouldn't come every year.
30:26
The Golden State came every year.
30:29
You know, they're out there in California.
30:31
If they're going to get people there, they've got to promote.
30:34
And that's what their singing group was around for, to go out
30:38
promote the college and Golden State would come every year.
30:42
So they do have a lot of influence in music and very
30:46
musical. And the college, you know, it
30:48
wasn't just an academic add on. It wasn't an afterthought.
30:52
GSPC embrace the IFB college model, Unaccredited church
30:57
sponsored spirituality in spiritually immersive, strict
31:02
lifestyle standards, the whole 9 yards, the whole kit and
31:06
caboodle. They went all in in the IFB
31:10
college model. Yeah, I was able to come across
31:14
a catalog or a policy manual, a guideline book and this is what
31:23
their guideline said that they teach.
31:25
They clearly that they teach soul winning.
31:28
They require Chapel daily, that they enforce modest dress
31:32
standards, they restrict dating to supervise college dates,
31:38
church dates, and maintain a curfew and music screening.
31:42
Ultimately their goal was to make ministers, not scholars and
31:48
so very heavily legalistic in their mindsets academically.
31:52
They they are not in the idea of we're going to be heavy on the
31:56
academics, which is which is true to the IB model, right.
31:59
Me and you, me and John have talked about this often being
32:01
when we, we had on a couple of guests with talking through this
32:06
college mindset college model is we're going to give you
32:09
ministry. We're not going to give you any
32:11
mental stress on your mind. And so a lot of this is
32:15
afterwards where we challenge ourselves to reading and
32:18
studying and we, we didn't get that while we were in college.
32:22
Now there's a balance, I think the both, but they they stressed
32:26
the idea of maintaining a a high moral standard versus a high
32:32
mental standard. I'm, I'm be honest that, that
32:37
saying right there, that statement that you just made, it
32:41
kind of hits me the wrong way. Make ministers, not scholars,
32:45
says to me, the word of God is not that important.
32:49
You know it. I mean, how can you be a
32:52
effective minister if you're not a scholar of the word of God?
32:56
The word of God is central to what we do.
32:59
Yeah, I, I talked about Sunday. You know, you, you've got
33:02
pastors out there that are same up in the pulpit and they make
33:06
Ted talks and they do motivational speeches and they,
33:09
you know, wax eloquent on psychology.
33:12
But where's the Bible? Where's the word of God?
33:16
You know, I, I, I just, I'm, I believe too much in text.
33:20
Driven preaching. Well, you know, and and I don't
33:23
think Paul ever said to Timothy study to sell yourself approved.
33:27
I don't he ever said that. Yeah, obviously, you know, no,
33:30
no, he just said, hey, get up and and preach whatever you
33:33
decide to preach on whatever is big in the day, you know,
33:38
whatever your whatever's in your crawl that day, you just get up
33:41
and you preach it. That's that's what he was
33:42
telling Timothy to do. Right.
33:44
OK, OK. Yeah, now we get that clear.
33:46
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, as we continue on, part of
33:52
the what we want to do at this moment is share just a couple of
33:55
clips, some some idea of of what he is and who he is.
34:00
Maybe never heard of Jack Krieber.
34:02
I I will say Brett, listening to him in this research, he looks
34:07
like he's going to cry every time he says a word.
34:10
He's got that like just emotional face the whole time.
34:13
And a lot of time he he is crying.
34:16
But but he is polished in his performance, in his delivery of
34:19
his preaching. He's been doing it for 50 years
34:21
in one church. He is passionate about his
34:24
preaching. He has a strong emphasis on, and
34:28
I'm going to say these three things.
34:29
And it's his version of sound doctrine, his version of
34:33
holiness and his idea of revival style preaching.
34:38
And what I say about that is it's his version of sound
34:40
doctrine. He's going to preach a sermon
34:43
where it's not maybe like we just said, the doctrine is not
34:47
there in in a traditional sense of doctrine of Scripture.
34:52
The doctrine of the holiness is his version of making sure the
34:56
outside is right in the holiness of God is right on the outside,
34:59
not necessarily on the inside. And so and then revival
35:04
preaching. He mentions a lot of old names
35:06
all the time. And so we've got a couple of
35:10
sermon clips that we'll drop at this time. 1 was from June that
35:15
was on. I've played the full and that's
35:17
the first one that you'll hear. And so let's play that one real
35:20
quick. A 32nd clip on just family and
35:23
heritage and I don't have anything to disagree too much
35:26
about this little clip, but but listen to it right here.
35:29
Hey young people, stop complaining about your parents.
35:35
I I think that the parents God has given to you and how God has
35:39
blessed you with the father or with the mother or perhaps even
35:42
both. Or perhaps you don't have a
35:44
family, you live with your grandparents or your aunt or
35:47
uncle or a foster home. But God give you somebody that
35:51
loves you, love your family. Brett, what's your thoughts on
35:56
that? You know nothing, you know, like
35:59
you said nothing to disagree with.
36:00
You know, he kind of was loud the whole time, but that was
36:03
just probably, I don't think he's like screams the whole
36:06
time. He preaches every time, but you
36:09
know nothing to disagree with there.
36:12
Yeah, and I think, you know, as you listen to that, Yeah.
36:14
I mean, family's important. Respect your mom.
36:16
Respect your dad. There's going to be a time
36:20
where, and I know all young people do this, all teenagers
36:23
rebel against mom and dad. And so it's a good idea to to
36:27
preach this, honoring your parents.
36:28
I think it's biblical. The next clip we're going to
36:31
play is 1, courtesy of IFB Sermon clips.
36:34
I thank you for them bad sermon clips.
36:37
They pulled this one out and it is the idea or the sermon that
36:41
he preached on believing in the hope of not this generation but
36:47
the next generation that's coming up, not in his
36:50
generation. And he dropped some names of
36:53
guys that have passed away. And so listen this little 2
36:56
minute clip that they pulled out for.
36:57
It see, I really believe, I believe the hope's not in my
37:01
generation. I think the hope's in your
37:04
generation. There's very few left in my
37:08
generation. You know, I had all these
37:09
heroes. I have all these letters from
37:12
Brother Roloff and Lee Robertson, Tom Malone, Jack
37:17
Kyles and, and, and from the great preachers of yesteryear's
37:23
whole file of them. I've thrown almost everything
37:27
away, but I've kept those letters.
37:29
I've kept the letters from all my grandkids and my wife and,
37:33
and from our family. And I want you to know that most
37:38
of all the fellas that I look to are all gone.
37:42
But I, I, I think we're in good shape.
37:45
We got some young men that are raising up.
37:48
You say, well, aren't you embarrassed being a independent
37:51
fundamental Baptist, you young preachers.
37:53
Listen, it's just the opposite. As I see what's happening, I am
37:58
more wanting to identify as an independent, separated, pre
38:02
millennial, King James Version separated Baptist preacher.
38:08
I'm glad I'm an independent. If you say, well I'm trying to
38:11
figure it out if I'm a contemporary or you better flee
38:14
to what's going to what has some heritage and what's going to
38:17
endure in these last days. We need your churches.
38:21
Young people, don't go home and fight your pastor.
38:25
He says, hey, let's all sit up front, then sit up front.
38:29
Life is not that difficult, but when we rebuilt all the time,
38:33
you know, if a police officer pulls me over and I really
38:36
wasn't speeding, I was just speeding, but going with the the
38:39
flow of traffic and it gives me a ticket.
38:42
I'm not going to debate with them because they have missed so
38:45
many opportunities to give me tickets.
38:48
Brett, we got the name Roloff and Jack Howells, and you know,
38:53
he's thrown away a bunch of stuff over the.
38:55
Years man dropping dude. Yeah, but man, I will.
38:59
I will never throw away my Jack Howells note that he gave me.
39:04
I'll keep it in my book. I'm going to keep it there to
39:06
read it because Jack gave it to me.
39:08
Like I mean man worship man. I just you know when I listen to
39:13
it, I don't listen to these clips often but man though the
39:16
amount of man worship that comes out of these guys mouth, it
39:20
blows my mind. And you know, James, with the
39:24
state of our world and our country and where we're headed,
39:30
it's good to know that their church is out there that stand
39:35
for the that make the main thing the main thing and stand for
39:38
premillennialism, man, when you want to identify, that's how
39:42
you're going to make a difference for Christ is
39:44
standing for premillennialism. Oh, and of course, King James,
39:48
only we got to make sure we get that in there because that's one
39:51
of the most important monitors we can put on there.
39:54
And I listen I am a premillennialist but and I get a
39:58
lot of Flack from from some of my friends for it, but I don't.
40:03
Like make that part of my identity.
40:05
It's it's just my eschatology. It's it's not, you know, with
40:09
the main thing needs to be Christ, not your eschatological
40:12
views. And of course, KJV only ISM is
40:15
idol worship and you'll never convince me otherwise or just
40:19
making that making that just your main identity.
40:22
That's what we are. I'm proud to be this, you know,
40:26
so I don't know. Yeah, no, I agree with you man.
40:29
I think that's that is a that is a a moniker of we're going to
40:34
say these things because it's going to give us the IFB sound
40:39
doctrine right. We are these 17 things
40:42
independent fundamental premier little preacher of King James
40:45
only's Bible. So went in preaching church.
40:47
You know, this is the idea that they give and it it gives this
40:53
this thought that we are sound doctrinally when that has
40:58
nothing to do with doctrine. Nowhere in Scripture does it it
41:01
it's a premillennial. Nowhere does it say you have to
41:03
be King James only. And so this is some of the style
41:07
that you'll hear when you do some your own research and look
41:10
up and what these guys are saying and doing.
41:14
So yeah, next is the harder part.
41:15
Brett, what's up next? The hard part, we've got some
41:17
things, some some controversy, some accountability challenges
41:22
that we want to talk about. GSBC in North Valley have not
41:26
been immune to broader IFB controversies.
41:30
That's around abuse, a lack of accountability, which is kind of
41:35
par for the course for IFB, the IFB realm, and IFB churches.
41:41
Yeah, absolutely. The investigative outlet like
41:44
the Star Telegraph, Star Telegram mapped dozens of abuse
41:49
cases across IFB institutions. While IFB, Church, Golden State
41:56
and North Valley weren't specifically singled out, they
41:59
were in that ecosystem of names that have been associated with
42:02
that ministry but had not had anything alleged happened during
42:07
that time. Right.
42:09
More specifically, in the mid 2010, survivor counts came out
42:14
accusing a formal former faculty member, Cameron Giovanelli.
42:20
I don't know if I have sexual misconduct.
42:22
These were raised in blogs, YouTube exposes for, and forums
42:28
criticizing how GSPC leadership reportedly handled this matter.
42:34
Yeah. And Cameron Juvenali, he has
42:37
been out there specifically on multiple different races.
42:41
There's a Stacey Shifflett brought that to the attention of
42:45
social media during that time and called out what Cameron was
42:49
doing. They moved him to Florida and he
42:52
opened a college there. And then all of a sudden, again,
42:56
Stacey Shifflett brought it back up again.
42:59
And so that is a big, big issue that has been brought up over
43:03
the years of Golden State, the. Old the old let's ship them to
43:08
another to my buddy in one state over or ship them across the
43:11
country, sweep it under the rug and that's always a that's a
43:16
IFBMO. Yeah, Before I get to this last
43:19
one, Brett, let's talk through the COVID situation, the
43:23
controversy that happened there. Again, this was during the 2000
43:27
times CBN, the Christian Broadcasters Network talks about
43:31
it. They said that they had up to
43:33
$52,000 in fines. They were facing penalties for
43:37
holding in service services on Sunday mornings and evenings and
43:41
Wednesday nights. The county edition issued
43:45
additional fines and violations for not social distancing during
43:49
this time, and Truber said these are bogus charges.
43:53
They told them that they did not immediately correct the
43:56
violation. They would take additional legal
43:58
actions, including civil or criminal prosecutions.
44:02
I remember there was a picture that was out where Jack Truber
44:06
was out in front of his church and there was an American flag
44:10
and a Christian flag, and he's on his knees out in front of the
44:12
church and he said America's in a serious moment.
44:16
The government must stop. It cannot continue this way.
44:21
And he continued to do what he was doing and I applaud him for
44:25
doing that. But but I believe that the the
44:27
spirit about what he was doing was was different and almost in
44:32
a way to pump himself up. If, if I were under serious
44:37
litigation from the state, I don't know if I would go out in
44:40
front of my church and and take a picture and and pray for the
44:43
world to. I just don't see the social side
44:46
of that. Like this is a this a local
44:48
church issue. It's not a national situation
44:51
that I can bring everyone in on so.
44:55
It was a serious issue. It was something that a lot of
44:57
people were dealing with. A lot of people resonated with
45:01
what the his church was going through and the stand that he
45:04
was taking. But at the same time, he was
45:07
using it as a platform, as a as a platform to grandstand.
45:11
And so that's what I think about the situation.
45:15
Yeah. And this was during Gavin
45:18
Newsom's reign there as governor.
45:20
He was the one that was pushing all this.
45:22
And this was simultaneously the same time what was going on at
45:27
Grace Community Church under the the late, great John MacArthur,
45:31
who passed away just recently. He was going through the same
45:34
thing. And his fines were 250 three,
45:37
$100,000 fines because they were using parking lots that the the
45:43
government allowed them to use. And so Gavin was doing this on a
45:48
massive scale to church is not just Jack Treiber.
45:51
And you can sort of, if you follow John MacArthur, you can
45:54
see how his response was a little bit different than Jack
45:57
Treiber's response to what he was doing.
46:00
He was specifically going to the government versus social media.
46:04
And so you can see a little bit of that.
46:07
One other important note that I want to make is no public
46:11
criminal charges have ever been confirmed or appeared confirmed
46:15
to what we can see. There have been alleges that
46:17
have allegations that have been widely circulated online and in
46:23
some investigations were inadequate.
46:26
And so we want to handle these properly and adequately as we
46:30
address them. There is one lady on the
46:33
Preacher Boys podcast. I know her specifically.
46:36
I'm not going to give her name, but she was actually at the
46:39
church that I was at in Arkansas, her and her husband.
46:43
And I believe in that podcast, she had talked about how they
46:47
had settled A lawsuit where she was, there was an alligator.
46:53
That was the situation that happened while she was a
46:54
teenager. And so she had sued the church
46:58
and the church had settled that out on under the insurance laws
47:03
investigation later and working to try to get her own to share
47:07
her story about what happened and and her involvement there
47:11
under Jack Truber. But but a, what a horrible
47:15
situation. And so there are some of those
47:18
like again, this, this wasn't in court, so it's not public, but
47:21
it was handled outside. And so that's how they were able
47:24
to not have any public allegations against them because
47:28
they handled them outside of court.
47:30
Right now, regardless of controversy, GSBC has trained
47:35
countless pastors and workers who now serve in independent
47:39
Baptist churches across the West and beyond.
47:44
We know several people, several missionaries, several pastors.
47:48
Golden State has had a large reach.
47:52
Yeah, absolutely. You know, you can.
47:55
They they put all their Chapel messages, youth conferences,
47:58
their choir stuff, all that's out there, revival radios Golden
48:03
State continues to shape West Coast fundamentals identity.
48:08
They, they are really the gold standard, Golden State gold
48:11
standard for the, the production quality and the way they do a
48:17
lot of what they do. And so a lot of people try to
48:19
emulate that. They see that they try to do a
48:23
lot of what they're doing in their area because their reach
48:26
is so big. I mean, even their online stuff
48:29
during COVID, I mean, they built like outside churches where
48:33
church where cars could pull up and they had this, the elevated
48:37
place. They still did Sunday morning,
48:38
Sunday night, Wednesday night, they did their revival services
48:41
outside. I mean, they did all that.
48:43
They didn't stop anything. They just went to outside church
48:46
and and it was crazy to see. Right, you know, and Fever's
48:50
survival of multiple decades in Northern California, shifting
48:55
culture landscape, it's notable for sure.
48:58
It shows a sustained core despite cultural and
49:01
institutional headwinds. And I give my hat to any church
49:06
in California. Yeah, when you, when you're
49:10
ministering in California, whether you're ISB or not, or
49:14
you got a good church or whatnot, when you're in
49:17
California, you're fighting against the system.
49:19
California has got some of the most progressive laws in our
49:24
country and probably most anti church laws there there are in
49:30
the country and you know my hat is off to anyone who is willing
49:36
to minister and fight those battles in the state of
49:39
California. Absolutely.
49:41
So where as we wrap this up, where does Golden State sit on
49:46
the IFP map? All right, it, it represents
49:50
continuity, right? Preserving the separatist
49:54
doctrine and training the next generation.
49:57
It's institutionally streamlined.
50:00
It has a college, Chapel services, school, radio, all
50:03
under one roof, right? They, they have learned the
50:05
idea. He has modeled Jack Howells.
50:08
He, he went to a pastor school all the time and he is modeling
50:12
Golden State after House Anderson, the way Jack House
50:15
institutionalized everything and streamlined everything.
50:19
Yet it's also vulnerable. They've been called in many
50:23
controversies and scrutiny because of their lack of
50:26
oversight. And as we heard and, and we, we
50:29
had a couple of the clips that I didn't play, but here's one
50:32
clip. It's, I think it's the top clip
50:33
on Bad future clips if you type in his name where he says that
50:37
the man of God should be respected.
50:39
The the wife of the man of God shouldn't even be slandered
50:43
against. And if I tell you to do
50:46
something as the man of God, you should listen no questions
50:48
asked. I mean, he, he lays the wall
50:51
down in that episode, that clip. And so there is this
50:55
vulnerability when there is no oversight, when there is no type
50:59
of accountability, when you are the sole authority of structure
51:02
where abuse can happen and cover up can happen as well.
51:08
And so it's vital to have that council of people around you
51:11
and. Where did you get that from?
51:15
The man that I'm never going to throw away, his note that he
51:19
gave me, you know, that's, that's what.
51:21
That's right, that's right. Never throw it away.
51:23
It makes me pay for it. Right.
51:25
We're going to, we're going to. I mean, when he said that again,
51:28
I'm getting back to it. I'm getting off this rabbit
51:29
again. It's like he's elevating this
51:32
note by Jack House that's greater than even Scripture,
51:35
right? It's like the Apostle Paul
51:37
handwritten note to him. The apostle Jack wrote a note to
51:40
me and I'm never going to get rid of it.
51:43
I don't care about the scandals and the the immorality that he
51:47
lived and the the debauchery that he had in his life.
51:51
You know, this is a note by Jack Howells.
51:53
I can't get rid of it. Well, guess what?
51:55
Hey, I I got a note from the Apostle Paul.
51:58
I'm not going to throw away brother.
52:02
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
52:04
But, you know, the key question is, will Golden State, North
52:07
Valley, will they remain relevant as younger Christians
52:11
gravitate toward mainstream evangelicalism or more open
52:16
ecumenical spaces? It's traditional.
52:19
It's a traditional model. It's traditional model appeals
52:23
to each kind of a shrinking niche group.
52:27
And you know, is that for the best?
52:31
Yeah. You know, that's a question
52:32
we're going to ask yourself and that's a question that we'll be
52:34
exploring over the years of the podcast as the IFB.
52:40
It is a shrinking movement. We've got some big, big stalwart
52:45
things that are going on. But Jack Frumer is nearing the
52:47
end of his life, right? He's he's served 50 years
52:51
faithfully. What's going to happen to Golden
52:53
State when he's no longer on the scene?
52:55
When the manipulation of the man of God, you know, we, we saw the
52:59
same thing happened with Jack Howles and and Howles Anderson,
53:01
how the church in the school struggled for many years with
53:05
abuse and scandal with Scott and others.
53:08
What's going to happen when he steps off the scene and what
53:12
happens to the church there be interesting to see.
53:16
But that's our dive into Jack Treuber, North Valley and Golden
53:19
State. Thank you for listening.
53:21
We've got some exciting things coming up with our episodes
53:25
coming out from Israel and some other things that we'll be
53:27
dropping. We hope you enjoyed it today.
53:30
Until next time, to God be the glory.
53:32
Great things he has done found. My new name found that good
53:37
grace found that healing in the tears fell down my face when I
53:43
from my beginning that has no ending.
53:45
I from my second chance, from my best friend, from my
53:47
forgiveness, from my happiness. I've been singing ever since
53:49
about my freedom. Thanks for listening to the Four
54:07
Freedom Podcast. If you enjoyed our content, do
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