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The Persecution of Christians Is Getting Worse! | The Week in Bible Prophecy · Prophecy Watchers

0:01
Speaker 1: The Week in Bible Prophecy, a Prophecy Watchers podcast. Hello, everyone.
0:10
Speaker 1: Welcome to the podcast today. Monty Gonzalez here in the studio.
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Speaker 1: We have our good friend Joe Hawkins with us, and
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Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about what we've been seeing
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Speaker 1: in the prophetic world. Again, the goal is to keep
0:23
Speaker 1: you updated on the things that are happening prophetically. And Joe,
0:29
Speaker 1: this gives us an opportunity to really discuss some, I
0:34
Speaker 1: would say, some of the criticisms, some of the objections
0:37
Speaker 1: that people have made against, you know, the pre-trib idea
0:40
Speaker 1: and other things. And so, you know, we're going to
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Speaker 1: be talking about persecution, not just that, but specifically some
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Speaker 1: of the Muslim persecution that's happening. And so, you know, Joe,
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Speaker 1: I want to give a little theological background to this,
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Speaker 1: but I'm In your mind, maybe give us a one-minute
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Speaker 1: summary of what we got, what we want to talk
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Speaker 1: about as well from your perspective.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of people out there
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Speaker 2: that they don't believe that Christians are going to suffer
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Speaker 2: any type of persecution on this side of the rapture, right?
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Speaker 2: They call us escapists. Oh, you just think that you're
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Speaker 2: not going to go through any hard times. But, you know,
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Speaker 2: a lot of people, when they make those claims, they're
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Speaker 2: looking at it from a Western viewpoint, especially those here
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Speaker 2: in America, because have we really ever had it bad here?
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Speaker 2: But when you go out across the pond and you
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Speaker 2: look at what's going on across the world, especially in
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Speaker 2: some of these Muslim majority countries, and you see the
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Speaker 2: immense level of persecution that's going on in areas like Nigeria, Iran, Iraq,
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Speaker 2: areas like that, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, even areas like North
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Speaker 2: Korea and China, and you see how Christians are being
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Speaker 2: treated there. It's sad to see, but it's certainly a
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Speaker 2: high level of persecution. So as a Christian... we certainly
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Speaker 2: are seeing persecution happen on this side of the rapture.
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Speaker 2: Just because maybe you haven't experienced it here on our
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Speaker 2: home turf doesn't necessarily mean that it's not coming. I mean,
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Speaker 2: I think that we have seen some soft persecution over
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Speaker 2: the past few years, but that's what we're going to
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Speaker 2: talk about today. And I would just implore everybody to
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Speaker 2: really open your eyes and open your ears to hear
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Speaker 2: what's happening to our brothers and sisters across the pond.
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Speaker 1: Well, and The fact of the matter is, you know,
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Speaker 1: there's no doubt throughout church history, persecution has been a
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Speaker 1: real thing. Very, very early on, we know that as
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Speaker 1: early as Revelation chapter 2, the church of Smyrna, chapter 2,
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Speaker 1: verse 10, we see Jesus says, you know, that the
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Speaker 1: devil is going to put some of you into tribulation
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Speaker 1: for 10 days. What I want you to do is
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Speaker 1: be faithful unto death. I'll give you the crown of life.
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Speaker 1: So no doubt we see the various persecutions of Nero
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Speaker 1: and Ecclesian and others. But there's another issue. There's two
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Speaker 1: issues here, Joe. One of them is historical or even current.
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Speaker 1: The other one is prophetic. And so this is why
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Speaker 1: we're discussing this, because as you mentioned, we know people
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Speaker 1: will claim that all we care about or all we
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Speaker 1: think about is we're just going to escape. All we're
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Speaker 1: consumed to us in the pre-trib rapture is to escape.
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Speaker 1: And so I've discussed this recently in presentations here and there,
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Speaker 1: different conferences. And the first thing is, let's just say
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Speaker 1: up front that that's, in one sense, that is true.
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Speaker 1: We know in Luke 21, 36, that Jesus is warning
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Speaker 1: people to be watching, to be ready, because that day
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Speaker 1: of trouble, that day of judgment is going to come
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Speaker 1: upon a world as a trap. And then he says,
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Speaker 1: but pray that you'd be in a position to escape
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Speaker 1: all these things and to stand before the Son of Man.
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Speaker 1: So yes, I embrace escape. Jesus is the one that
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Speaker 1: brought it up, not me. In fact, Paul in 1
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Speaker 1: Thessalonians 5 is describing, again, the day of the Lord,
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Speaker 1: this day of trouble, this day of God's wrath, according
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Speaker 1: to chapter 5, verse 9. But he says, when they
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Speaker 1: are saying peace and safety, sudden destruction will come upon
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Speaker 1: them and they will not escape. So there again, Paul
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Speaker 1: is bringing up destruction upon them and they are not
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Speaker 1: able to escape. But we know from Jesus, others will be.
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Speaker 1: So this is very, very biblical. It's very thorough. So yes,
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Speaker 1: this also brings up the difference between tribulation and the
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Speaker 1: wrath of God, because we do know Jesus said in
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Speaker 1: John 16, 33, he talks about giving us his peace.
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Speaker 1: And he says, look, in this world, you're going to
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Speaker 1: have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world.
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Speaker 1: Now we know in Matthew 24, verse nine, and in
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Speaker 1: Matthew 24, 22, that, the seven year period of trouble,
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Speaker 1: the seventh week of Daniel, the time of Jacob's trouble,
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Speaker 1: the tribulation period of seven years, it's called tribulation. It's
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Speaker 1: called tribulation in Matthew 24, nine, which is the first half.
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Speaker 1: And then it's called great tribulation again in Matthew 24,
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Speaker 1: 20 through 22. So that period is called tribulation and
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Speaker 1: it's a progressive tribulation that goes from tribulation up to
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Speaker 1: great tribulation. So, We do have the word tribulation, but
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Speaker 1: when Jesus says in this world you're going to have tribulation,
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Speaker 1: he's talking about general trouble. He's not talking about the
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Speaker 1: wrath of God. And so this is what's important because
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Speaker 1: when Jesus is describing the tribulation, which turns into great tribulation,
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Speaker 1: he is describing this very specific period of time, which
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Speaker 1: we know, again, in 1 Thessalonians 5, 9, this day
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Speaker 1: of the Lord, it's called the wrath of God. We're
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Speaker 1: not appointed to wrath. We're rescued from wrath. 1 Thessalonians 1,
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Speaker 1: 10 describes this as well. those passages that we are
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Speaker 1: delivered from this wrath, a very specific wrath. So when
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Speaker 1: we think about persecution today, it's important that we recognize, yes,
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Speaker 1: this is historical. The American church is not immune to this. Now, well,
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Speaker 1: the second thing you mentioned, Joe, is the prophetic trend
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Speaker 1: here is this. We see Increasing amounts of persecution in
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Speaker 1: those places, and we're going to describe them. But this
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Speaker 1: is the spirit of the Antichrist. This is when you
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Speaker 1: go to Revelation 12. It talks about the dragon who
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Speaker 1: is cast down from heaven, and the second part of
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Speaker 1: the tribulation, as we discussed, the great tribulation. This is
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Speaker 1: the time of trouble that has never existed in the
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Speaker 1: history of the world. We see that in Daniel chapter 12,
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Speaker 1: as well as in Matthew 24. Jesus using and basically
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Speaker 1: quoting Daniel. But when the devil comes down for that
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Speaker 1: and he's cast down to earth at the midpoint and
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Speaker 1: he's there, he's stuck. Now he's mad. It says he's mad.
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Speaker 1: He has great anger for the second half. He goes
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Speaker 1: into overtime and it says he goes to make war
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Speaker 1: with the offspring of the woman, which in this sense
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Speaker 1: is Israel, and those who obey the commandments. So these
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Speaker 1: are believers during this time. So I want us to
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Speaker 1: see something. What we're seeing right now with the hatred
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Speaker 1: of Christians around the world, this is the encroaching spirit
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Speaker 1: of the Antichrist. Because that is exactly what we see
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Speaker 1: in the book of Revelation. So, the question is, is
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Speaker 1: all this stuff that we're going to discuss now, this
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Speaker 1: is the spirit that is going to continue in to
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Speaker 1: the 70th week of Daniel after the rapture. But, The
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Speaker 1: precursor that we're seeing now is the spirit there of
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Speaker 1: hatred towards true Bible believers. Now, we know that at
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Speaker 1: the time of the rapture, the preacher rapture, all Christians
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Speaker 1: are going to be gone. But we also know that, well,
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Speaker 1: then what's happening during this time period? Well, what we
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Speaker 1: know is that other people get saved. There's a great
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Speaker 1: multitude that gets saved from the 144,000, the two witnesses, etc.,
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Speaker 1: or just other people who get saved after the rapture event.
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Speaker 1: But all those millions of people that get saved, they're
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Speaker 1: in for an even more difficult time than, let's say,
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Speaker 1: our brothers and sisters in China or other places right now.
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Speaker 1: Because what we see is many people say, well, as
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Speaker 1: a Christian, you need to prepare to meet the Antichrist.
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Speaker 1: There is no preparation. Revelation 13, 7, Daniel 7, other
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Speaker 1: passages over and over and over. During that seven-year period,
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Speaker 1: massive amounts of believers are dead. There is no way
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Speaker 1: to prepare for that. There is no way to escape
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Speaker 1: most of that. Most of the believers during that time
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Speaker 1: are going to be martyred. If you don't take the
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Speaker 1: mark of the beast, you're going to have your head
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Speaker 1: cut off. Massive amounts of horrible persecution that we see
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Speaker 1: Even in the first half, because we see the harlot
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Speaker 1: in Revelation 17, that she is drunk with the blood
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Speaker 1: of the Christians, of the saints. And then, of course,
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Speaker 1: we know after that the mark of the beast is implemented.
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Speaker 1: And so the second half is even worse because now
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Speaker 1: this is specific Antichrist beast persecution, whereas before it was
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Speaker 1: the harlot religion who was doing it under, of course,
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Speaker 1: the spirit of the Antichrist. So with that as a backdrop,
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Speaker 1: What we're saying is this spirit that we're observing right
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Speaker 1: now is going to continue right on in to the
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Speaker 1: tribulation period in the first half, increasingly into the second half.
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Speaker 1: And so, Joe, as we look at what we're observing
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Speaker 1: right now, let's talk about that spirit that is here
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Speaker 1: setting the stage for what is coming even more.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you hit the nail on the head there.
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Speaker 2: The spirit of the Antichrist, right? Think of what's going
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Speaker 2: on around the world right now. We're seeing open doors
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Speaker 2: reported that 388 million Christians live under high levels of persecution.
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Speaker 2: That's one in seven Christians around the world. That's one
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Speaker 2: in five in Africa and two in five in Asia.
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Speaker 2: This is happening everywhere. while the Holy Spirit-indwelt church is
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Speaker 2: still here. Think of what that's going to be like
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Speaker 2: whenever the church is no longer here, when the restraining
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Speaker 2: influence of the Holy Spirit church is no longer here
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Speaker 2: and evil is going to reign unchecked. It's going to
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Speaker 2: be unbelievable to see. We can't even really imagine the
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Speaker 2: levels of persecution and the levels of death that we're
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Speaker 2: going to see. Of course, we read it in Scripture.
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Speaker 2: We know from reading it's not going to be a
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Speaker 2: good time But we can't imagine what a Holy Spirit
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Speaker 2: and dwelt church removed, what this world is going to
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Speaker 2: look like. And like I mentioned, 388 million Christians live
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Speaker 2: under high levels of persecution. And a lot of those,
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Speaker 2: they live in these areas of Muslim majority countries, like
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Speaker 2: what I mentioned on the onset. Now, what really sparked
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Speaker 2: this conversation between you and I, because I'm sure we
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Speaker 2: were probably going to talk about something else like what
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Speaker 2: we normally do. I'm kind of the beast system guy.
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Speaker 2: But we shared on our Facebook recently that there was
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Speaker 2: this Australian Muslim preacher. He called up his parishioners to
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Speaker 2: take up arms against enemies, which included Jews and Christians.
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Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 2: That that post went bonkers. It was it was unbelievable
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Speaker 2: to see, you know, the interest that we got in
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Speaker 2: this post and how many people had not seen or
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Speaker 2: heard of this level of persecution. Now, we've documented on
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Speaker 2: this program numerous times the. the levels of persecution that
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Speaker 2: we've seen against Jews over the past three years, especially
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Speaker 2: after October the 7th. But, you know, what's going on
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Speaker 2: right now in areas like Nigeria, it's so sad to see.
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Speaker 2: I mean, just recently there was a report that came
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Speaker 2: out that said that one Christian dies every 86 minutes
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Speaker 2: for their faith. One Christian dies every 86 minutes in
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Speaker 2: the country of Nigeria. And we've seen reports coming out
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Speaker 2: over the past few years in Nigeria. It seems like
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Speaker 2: every week there's a new attack where a church has
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Speaker 2: been attacked by a terrorist organization and 20, 30 killed
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Speaker 2: at a time, people being kidnapped. We've seen schoolchildren being
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Speaker 2: kidnapped and held hostage. It's unbelievable to see these levels
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Speaker 2: of persecution and how Many people here in America and
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Speaker 2: even other parts of the world don't even take notice
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Speaker 2: to it. They don't even know that this stuff is
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Speaker 2: going on. And whenever we share these types of posts,
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Speaker 2: it blows their minds. And they wonder, you know, well,
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Speaker 2: is it really any type of persecution going on amongst
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Speaker 2: Christians because we don't see it here? You know, this
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Speaker 2: is the problem that I think that a lot of
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Speaker 2: Christians have with burying their heads in the sand and
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Speaker 2: not concerning themselves with the affairs of what's going on
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Speaker 2: around the world. Because what happens around the world, eventually
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Speaker 2: it finds its way over here. We've seen the immense
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Speaker 2: level of persecution in those African countries. It's creeped into Europe,
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Speaker 2: France and the UK. And of course, whatever happens in
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Speaker 2: those countries, it eventually winds up over here in America.
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Speaker 2: And I certainly think that we're going to see a
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Speaker 2: day and I think that we already have seen pretty good.
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Speaker 2: level of it here in America, but even here in America,
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Speaker 2: people are blind to what's happening in some of our
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Speaker 2: own cities like Dearborn, Michigan, Patterson, New Jersey. You're seeing
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Speaker 2: mosques shoot up all over the place. We're seeing the
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Speaker 2: influence of Islam taking hold here in America. And I
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Speaker 2: certainly think that that's going to play a role in
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Speaker 2: the persecution rising here in America. And I have a
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Speaker 2: few people that I communicate with pretty often, a couple
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Speaker 2: of friends. And then they ask me all the time,
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Speaker 2: you know, I just don't see persecution. I don't see
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Speaker 2: where you see this in the world. You know, I'm like, well,
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Speaker 2: just open your eyes. You know, how do you not
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Speaker 2: see it going on? And then they say, well, I
14:18
Speaker 2: really think that the time that Christians are going to
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Speaker 2: be persecuted is going to be during, you know, the
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Speaker 2: tribulation time. You know, I don't believe in a rapture
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Speaker 2: is what they'll tell me. And then it just blows
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Speaker 2: my mind because that's whenever they think persecution is going
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Speaker 2: to come. They don't believe that persecution is going to
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Speaker 2: come on this side of the rapture. And what they
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Speaker 2: don't realize is persecution is already here on this side
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Speaker 2: of the rapture. And like you mentioned, it's been here
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Speaker 2: since the inception of the church.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, 100%. I find that interesting that somebody who doesn't
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Speaker 1: believe in the rapture would deny persecution because for them,
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Speaker 1: if you don't believe in the rapture, then you're going
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Speaker 1: into the tribulation and as I demonstrated, there's scriptures per
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Speaker 1: crystal clear that there's going to be massive amounts of trouble.
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Speaker 1: The interesting thing too, as well is, you know, there's
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Speaker 1: this effort by those that I would certainly say the
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Speaker 1: world or those that are anti-Christian in so many ways.
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Speaker 1: And they will, this sort of conversation is going to
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Speaker 1: bring out from them. Well, you're an Islamophobe and you go, Well,
15:26
Speaker 1: let's define that, okay? Let's define what that means. Phobos,
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Speaker 1: the Greek word for fear, we know that appears in
15:35
Speaker 1: a lot of things. You know, I'm claustrophobic, I'm an
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Speaker 1: anacrophobe or whatever, you know? So, do I have a
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Speaker 1: fear of Islam? Are you just fearful of Islam?
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Speaker 2: Yes! Yes!
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Speaker 1: Ask somebody that lives in Nigeria. Ask somebody that lives
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Speaker 1: in Iran. when you start looking about the words that
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Speaker 1: are being spoken in some of these places, you don't
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Speaker 1: think that you take somebody who, the tens of thousands
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Speaker 1: of Christians that are being killed in Nigeria, you think
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Speaker 1: they're going to care about you throwing this pejorative word
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Speaker 1: on it or trying to make them feel bad because
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Speaker 1: they're scared of Islam? They're going to go, I just
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Speaker 1: lost my entire family. I barely escaped. Yeah, I'm scared
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Speaker 1: of Islam. And so to me, This is the important thing,
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Speaker 1: is that we all have, in any sort of group,
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Speaker 1: there's a lot of anti-Semitic people and whatever. All the Jews,
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Speaker 1: all they care about is money and interest and banks
16:37
Speaker 1: and Hollywood. And you go, look, I can find an evil,
16:41
Speaker 1: horrible Jew. I can find an evil, horrible American. I
16:44
Speaker 1: can find an evil, horrible French person. Fill in the blank.
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Speaker 1: But So in many ways, the opposite is true. I
16:56
Speaker 1: can find a great, a nice American. I can find
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Speaker 1: a nice German. I can find a nice Muslim. There's
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Speaker 1: no doubt we can find nice people of anything. So
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Speaker 1: when you speak of Islamophobia, it is not saying that
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Speaker 1: every last single Muslim individual is this radical jihadist murderer.
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Speaker 1: That's not what we're describing. What we're talking ultimately about
17:20
Speaker 1: is the theology. what the theology allows, what the theology commands,
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Speaker 1: what the theology produces, if someone who is, you don't
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Speaker 1: really have to be radical. You just have to be
17:35
Speaker 1: somebody who's loyal to the Quran. People just, this oftentimes
17:40
Speaker 1: I'll tell people, I was having a conversation with somebody recently,
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Speaker 1: and I said, have you ever read the Quran? I said, look,
17:48
Speaker 1: this is why never in the New Testament do you
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Speaker 1: ever see anywhere where Jesus says, go out and kill
17:55
Speaker 1: your enemy. Go out and fight with your enemy. It says,
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Speaker 1: bless them. It says, pray for them. It says, love them.
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Speaker 1: So Christianity, nowhere with the words of Jesus could be
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Speaker 1: described as promoting any sort of conversion by force. Well,
18:13
Speaker 1: that's not the case with the Koran. Anybody can just
18:16
Speaker 1: read it over and over and over. All you gotta
18:18
Speaker 1: do is look up which verses in the Koran promote
18:22
Speaker 1: violence towards unbelievers. Ding, ding, ding. It'll all come up.
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Speaker 1: But what you're seeing, though, is, and let's bring up
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Speaker 1: our first, you mentioned it already, this preacher. In all places, Australia. Okay?
18:39
Speaker 1: We tend to think of Australia, well, they're like us
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Speaker 1: because they speak English. They're from, they're under the, at
18:45
Speaker 1: least they were under the British Empire. In many ways,
18:47
Speaker 1: they still are in the sense as a as kind
18:50
Speaker 1: of a vassal state, if you want, even their own country.
18:53
Speaker 1: There's a specific word for it I'm missing at the moment,
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Speaker 1: under the king or the queen, the royalty. Why isn't
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Speaker 1: this guy being arrested? I mean, if you go there
19:03
Speaker 1: and you pray in an abortion center, you're getting arrested,
19:05
Speaker 1: but this guy has a call for arms against enemies?
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Speaker 1: And so this is what's interesting, is that people are going, wait, wait,
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Speaker 1: that only happens in Iran. That only happens in Nigeria.
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Speaker 1: That only happens in Pakistan. or other places. No, it's happening, quote, quote,
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Speaker 1: in the West. Not that Australia is the West, but
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Speaker 1: it is a Western culture. So, and what do you think?
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Speaker 1: Give me your thoughts on this, Joe. As you mentioned,
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Speaker 1: this was posted on our Facebook page. Just, hey, if
19:40
Speaker 1: you didn't hear this, and the response, the interaction has
19:46
Speaker 1: been pretty amazing. Just now. to, you know, again, in
19:52
Speaker 1: the different things. Why do you think this particular article
19:56
Speaker 1: created such a interest for people to interact with?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely think a lot of it has to
20:01
Speaker 2: do with the topic of Islam, because it's a hot
20:05
Speaker 2: button topic. It seems like that's the go-to with what's
20:10
Speaker 2: going on in the political system right now. You have
20:12
Speaker 2: a lot of candidates that are currently up for election that's,
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Speaker 2: you know, prescribed to Islam, a lot of Muslim candidates.
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Speaker 2: So I certainly think that that has a lot to
20:21
Speaker 2: do with it. But the religious aspect of it too,
20:24
Speaker 2: because a lot of the comments, I mean, you know,
20:27
Speaker 2: I would probably advise against going into the comments because
20:30
Speaker 2: there's tons of them and a lot of them are
20:32
Speaker 2: pretty derogatory in nature. And a lot of them is,
20:36
Speaker 2: you know, calling us out for, you know, we're liars
20:39
Speaker 2: and things like this because we share this and that
20:42
Speaker 2: we're not tolerant, right? The word tolerance comes up a
20:45
Speaker 2: lot whenever it comes to these types of posts that
20:49
Speaker 2: we put out there.
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Speaker 1: We weren't the ones. We're just reporting the news. Exactly.
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Speaker 2: That's the thing. We're just reporting what we see. And
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Speaker 2: this comes from, I believe that the article was from
21:00
Speaker 2: the Christian Post. The the rare foundation, R-A-I-R foundation, they
21:06
Speaker 2: do a good job of really documenting, you know, the,
21:09
Speaker 2: the rise of Islam in Western culture. You know, they're
21:12
Speaker 2: all out on the forefront reporting these types of incidents.
21:16
Speaker 2: And then, like you said, why isn't this guy being arrested?
21:19
Speaker 2: You would think that Australia of all places would have
21:22
Speaker 2: been arrested. You would think that even here in America,
21:25
Speaker 2: but we've even seen this type of rhetoric here in
21:27
Speaker 2: America and from some of the imams in some of
21:31
Speaker 2: the cities that i mentioned earlier definitely in dearborn having
21:35
Speaker 2: and saying you know similar things now you know with
21:40
Speaker 2: the the type of response that we get and unfortunately
21:45
Speaker 2: a lot of it comes from professing christians you know
21:49
Speaker 2: when it comes to tolerance why can't we be tolerant
21:51
Speaker 2: of other religions you know this progressive form of quote-unquote
21:55
Speaker 2: Christianity that has crept in, you have guys out there
21:58
Speaker 2: that's running for Senate right now like James Tallarico, right?
22:02
Speaker 2: I mean, he's openly admitted that, you know, all faiths
22:08
Speaker 2: lead to the same place, right? Whether you're Muslim, whether
22:11
Speaker 2: you're Christian, whether you're Buddhist, whether you serve Allah, God, Yahweh, Nirvana,
22:16
Speaker 2: whatever it may be, it all takes us to the
22:18
Speaker 2: same place, right? Obviously, he's incorrect. But he's becoming tolerant
22:24
Speaker 2: and he's trying to push tolerance on his constituents and
22:28
Speaker 2: push tolerance on his believers. And what they don't realize is,
22:31
Speaker 2: and this is the irony of it, let me pull
22:34
Speaker 2: up a stat right here. It looks like over the
22:37
Speaker 2: past 20 years, there have been nearly, in 2020, I
22:43
Speaker 2: have to do, because the last stats we have here
22:44
Speaker 2: is in 2020, there was 1,200 mosques here in America.
22:51
Speaker 2: In 2020, so 20 years later, there was 2,800 mosques.
22:55
Speaker 2: So in 20 years, we've seen a doubling in that.
22:59
Speaker 2: And I'm certain that in the past six years, we've
23:01
Speaker 2: seen that increase to well over 3,000. In 2007, we
23:03
Speaker 2: had 2.4 million Muslims in America. And in 2026, we
23:08
Speaker 2: have 5.5 million Muslims in America. So another doubling within
23:11
Speaker 2: a 20-year time period. So When you start becoming tolerant
23:23
Speaker 2: of these particular religions and they start pushing their ideology
23:28
Speaker 2: on you, I mean, when do we become a, you know,
23:32
Speaker 2: I know a lot of people say that we're a
23:33
Speaker 2: Christian majority country, but at what point do we become,
23:37
Speaker 2: you know, a Muslim majority country? Now, of course, we
23:39
Speaker 2: know that that'll most likely happen at the rapture. You know,
23:43
Speaker 2: at least I hope it doesn't happen prior to the rapture.
23:45
Speaker 2: But there's something to say that there's nothing to say
23:48
Speaker 2: that it can't because, you In 20 years, we've seen
23:51
Speaker 2: it double. I mean, what if this number doubles again,
23:53
Speaker 2: especially with what we see going on with the mass
23:56
Speaker 2: influx of illegal immigration? And I know that we're probably
23:58
Speaker 2: going to get a lot of people that don't like
24:00
Speaker 2: us saying that, but it's just a fact of the matter.
24:03
Speaker 2: Whenever we see this coming in, I mean, are we
24:05
Speaker 2: going to see that number double in another 20 years
24:07
Speaker 2: if we're still here? Now, I would hope the Lord
24:09
Speaker 2: would take us out before then, but there's no guarantee
24:12
Speaker 2: that the Lord's going to take us out in 20 years.
24:14
Speaker 2: So we can certainly see a.
24:17
Speaker 2: A time during our life where we have 20 million
24:21
Speaker 2: Muslims in America, and the problem that we can see
24:24
Speaker 2: is you have a bunch of progressive Christians or Christians
24:28
Speaker 2: that are tolerant of other religions that are just silent
24:31
Speaker 2: on it. That's exactly what happened with abortion. You had
24:35
Speaker 2: a bunch of pastors and a bunch of Christians that
24:37
Speaker 2: were silent on abortion back in the 70s. They just said,
24:41
Speaker 2: you know what, that's a political thing. that's a political topic.
24:45
Speaker 2: We need to stay out of that. We don't need
24:46
Speaker 2: to get involved in this type of, you know, atmosphere.
24:50
Speaker 2: And what happened? Abortion became rampant all over America and
24:54
Speaker 2: it still is because Christians were silent. I mean, you
24:57
Speaker 2: have these same types of Christians that are silent right
25:00
Speaker 2: now whenever it comes to this influx of a dangerous ideology.
25:05
Speaker 2: And like you said, it has nothing to do with
25:07
Speaker 2: Islam itself or the people that prescribe to Islam. But
25:10
Speaker 2: if they are true, if they're true to the nature
25:13
Speaker 2: of what they believe, then they're radical. I mean, it's
25:16
Speaker 2: not even about it just being radical. If they're true
25:18
Speaker 2: to the nature of what the Quran pushes, it's radical.
25:22
Speaker 2: And like you said, we can see what's going on
25:24
Speaker 2: in these other countries to know that it's radical. They're pushing,
25:27
Speaker 2: you're seeing these governments in these countries pushing these restrictive
25:33
Speaker 2: interpretations of their law. They're pushing these blasphemy laws. They're
25:37
Speaker 2: you know, social persecution of these Christian converts. You know,
25:40
Speaker 2: if you convert to Christianity, I mean, off with your
25:44
Speaker 2: head basically is what it comes out to be.
25:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting that people would come on our Facebook
25:53
Speaker 1: page or whatever and make an accusation of us being
25:58
Speaker 1: intolerant simply for reporting, you know, again, facts. Which is
26:05
Speaker 1: interesting that they They missed the whole point in that
26:11
Speaker 1: here's a guy asking or promoting and encouraging his followers
26:18
Speaker 1: to take up weapons against Christians and Jews to kill them.
26:26
Speaker 1: And yet this person didn't have the spiritual ability or
26:32
Speaker 1: logical ability, I don't know, to say, wow, It's not
26:37
Speaker 1: you who are intolerant. It's that guy. Because, you know, tolerance,
26:43
Speaker 1: it's interesting. Tolerance is a good word. It's a good word.
26:47
Speaker 1: I decided, you know, here's the definition. Okay? Here's the
26:51
Speaker 1: Cambridge definition. Tolerance is the willingness to accept, respect, or
26:57
Speaker 1: endure things you may not necessarily agree with, such as
27:01
Speaker 1: different beliefs, physical conditions, or material measurements. I think even
27:11
Speaker 1: those words need to be defined a little bit to
27:13
Speaker 1: accept or respect. Look, if somebody has a different viewpoint,
27:18
Speaker 1: say about Jesus, I respect their constitutional right to have
27:24
Speaker 1: a difference of opinion and I'm not out to kill them.
27:28
Speaker 1: And we can just like, hey, whatever, you believe what
27:30
Speaker 1: you want and I'm going to believe what I want.
27:32
Speaker 1: So in that sense, I'm going to tolerate the difference
27:35
Speaker 1: of views. Now I'm going to, vehemently disagree, use my words.
27:40
Speaker 1: I can appeal to them to come to an understanding
27:45
Speaker 1: of what the Bible says, how the Bible is the
27:48
Speaker 1: Word of God, and how it can be objectively demonstrated,
27:51
Speaker 1: you know, again, through prophecy and archaeology, again, in historical testimony.
27:57
Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean if respect means I have to
28:01
Speaker 1: acknowledge that their view is right, well, I can't do that.
28:06
Speaker 1: But again, if that still isn't going to turn me
28:09
Speaker 1: into somebody who's violent. And that's the difference here is that,
28:14
Speaker 1: and if you look at UNESCO, okay, not our favorite
28:18
Speaker 1: people in the world in the sense of the stuff
28:20
Speaker 1: that they've done in the United Nations, but their definition
28:25
Speaker 1: is practicing tolerance does not mean abandoning your own beliefs.
28:29
Speaker 1: It means refusing to oppress or persecute others for theirs.
28:35
Speaker 1: I agree with that. Why not? That's fine. But then
28:39
Speaker 1: what happens is this. Well, the fact that you disagree
28:44
Speaker 1: with that guy, that's oppression. The fact that you verbally disagree,
28:49
Speaker 1: that's a form of persecution. It's a form of hate speech, right? Again,
28:53
Speaker 1: if you go to the UK today and you warn
28:56
Speaker 1: against immigration and you warn against all the rapes that
29:00
Speaker 1: are happening by the Pakistani men, who happen to be
29:04
Speaker 1: all Islamic and they're raping white women, hundreds of thousands
29:07
Speaker 1: of them, you're going to get arrested because that's hate speech.
29:11
Speaker 1: And you're like, I'm just reporting what the facts are.
29:14
Speaker 1: So this is where oftentimes the blur happens between definitions
29:20
Speaker 1: of what tolerance means. It means different things to different people,
29:23
Speaker 1: including the UK government. So in this sense, you know,
29:29
Speaker 1: from our perspective, no. Tolerance is saying we'd agree to disagree.
29:35
Speaker 1: But the problem is, is that same level of tolerance
29:39
Speaker 1: that I might have. for Islamic theology is not reciprocated.
29:45
Speaker 1: And that's the key, is that when, by definition, this
29:51
Speaker 1: is why I find it very fascinating, a Muslim who
29:55
Speaker 1: is faithful... to the Quran and to what they understand
29:58
Speaker 1: as Sharia law. Okay. They say, oh yeah, our goal
30:03
Speaker 1: is absolute Sharia law, which is the law of Allah everywhere. Well,
30:08
Speaker 1: that's by definition is contradictory to our constitution. And so
30:14
Speaker 1: to me, I probably should be, I don't know if
30:18
Speaker 1: it ever would pass, but maybe it should have been originally,
30:21
Speaker 1: is that if you will come in here and you
30:22
Speaker 1: want to become a United States citizen and you can't
30:24
Speaker 1: affirm and agree that that the Constitution is going to
30:28
Speaker 1: be the supreme law of the land, and you're never
30:29
Speaker 1: going to make efforts to undo that as the supreme
30:33
Speaker 1: law of the land, you can't become a citizen. I mean,
30:35
Speaker 1: that's pretty easy. It's pretty straightforward. But this is what
30:39
Speaker 1: you're seeing, surprisingly, as you and I have talked. 25
30:44
Speaker 1: years later, after 9-11, you have a Muslim mayor who
30:50
Speaker 1: is absolutely committed to Sharia law and doing anything he
30:54
Speaker 1: can to try to bring it in Now, granted, we
30:58
Speaker 1: do have the we have the courts and we have
30:59
Speaker 1: the things that are that are very, very helpful in
31:04
Speaker 1: preventing it being implemented in many places. But you also
31:10
Speaker 1: have those courts or judges that are bribed or compromised.
31:15
Speaker 1: And so they're they're going to be they're going to
31:17
Speaker 1: legislate from the bench, so to speak, and they're going
31:19
Speaker 1: to undo or they're going to just not care. And
31:23
Speaker 1: they're going to allow certain things to happen until it's
31:25
Speaker 1: overruled through the system. But, again, by definition, there is
31:30
Speaker 1: no place for radical Sharia law here, again, legally, not
31:36
Speaker 1: only spiritually.
31:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, 100%. And, you know, one of the
31:41
Speaker 2: things that I think people really need to take into
31:43
Speaker 2: consideration is the frog in the boiling pot, you know, metaphor, right?
31:49
Speaker 2: That's what I think we're seeing happen in America. They're
31:52
Speaker 2: not going to come in. Islam is not going to
31:54
Speaker 2: come in, guns a-blazing, chopping people's heads off whenever they're
31:57
Speaker 2: trying to get their stronghold set here in America. Because
32:01
Speaker 2: if they did, what's going to happen? I mean, we're
32:03
Speaker 2: going to see people have an open revolt of what
32:06
Speaker 2: is actually happening. You're seeing a very strategic level of
32:12
Speaker 2: deception going on. You're seeing these Muslims come in, they're
32:17
Speaker 2: I would say, in a sense, they're conquering cities one
32:20
Speaker 2: by one. They're setting up their Islamic strongholds. And then
32:25
Speaker 2: at some point in the future, you're going to see
32:28
Speaker 2: them act on that. And how do we know that?
32:31
Speaker 2: Because that's their motive. That's what they do all over
32:34
Speaker 2: the world. And like I said, hopefully that's after the rapture,
32:40
Speaker 2: not prior to the rapture. But like I said, there's
32:43
Speaker 2: no guarantee that that's not going to happen. And I
32:44
Speaker 2: think that we as Christians, we should... be aware of this.
32:49
Speaker 2: We should be ready for this. We should certainly speak
32:54
Speaker 2: out against it, especially whenever they want to push some
32:58
Speaker 2: of their insane traditions on us. We shouldn't be tolerant
33:02
Speaker 2: of those particular traditions. We shouldn't be acceptable to them
33:07
Speaker 2: to push Sharia law in a particular community. We've seen
33:10
Speaker 2: recent headlines come out where there have been some of
33:13
Speaker 2: those in some of the territories, I think in Texas,
33:16
Speaker 2: where they're trying to build you know, one of their
33:18
Speaker 2: major Islamic centers, you know, where those guys would go
33:22
Speaker 2: out into the neighborhoods and they would try to push
33:24
Speaker 2: Sharia law on people there. We've certainly seen it in,
33:27
Speaker 2: like I said, Dearborn and Patterson, New Jersey and other areas.
33:31
Speaker 2: And of course in Minnesota as well. Now, one thing
33:36
Speaker 2: that Islam is known for, they're known for coming at
33:41
Speaker 2: it with a hammer, basically. They're going to come at
33:42
Speaker 2: it with a sword. It's a very violent religion. They're
33:46
Speaker 2: very open about that. But like I said, they're also
33:49
Speaker 2: very strategic in the way that they do things. They're
33:51
Speaker 2: very deceptive. I mean, they will absolutely lie to get
33:56
Speaker 2: their way. And I think that's what we're seeing here
33:58
Speaker 2: in America. You're seeing a lot of these politicians that
34:01
Speaker 2: prescribe to Islam that are pushing forth Islamic ideology through
34:08
Speaker 2: their local jurisdictions, through the cities, through the municipalities, through
34:13
Speaker 2: the counties, through the state houses. Eventually, we're going to
34:16
Speaker 2: see this enter into the.
34:19
Speaker 1: U.S.
34:20
Speaker 2: House, into the federal side. But, you know, it's like
34:24
Speaker 2: I said, it's a strong, they're going to strong arm
34:28
Speaker 2: their way into doing this. Now, another one that we
34:33
Speaker 2: could talk about before we get off of here is China.
34:36
Speaker 2: China is a little bit more technological in their way
34:39
Speaker 2: of cracking down on.
34:43
Speaker 1: Persecution.
34:44
Speaker 2: And One of the things that they've recently done is
34:50
Speaker 2: they had an underground church that was not registered. And
34:53
Speaker 2: of course, in China, all of the churches have to
34:55
Speaker 2: be registered because they have to prescribe to the Chinese
34:58
Speaker 2: Communist Party's manifesto, basically. Now, this underground church, these kids,
35:06
Speaker 2: these young believers, they took their phones and they removed
35:09
Speaker 2: the hymns off of their phones. And they only put
35:12
Speaker 2: the approved music on there from the Chinese Communist Party. Now,
35:18
Speaker 2: that's where I think it's very important for us as
35:21
Speaker 2: believers to make sure that you always have a physical
35:25
Speaker 2: copy of your Bible, because there's going to be nothing
35:27
Speaker 2: that stops them one day from just hacking into your
35:30
Speaker 2: device or preventing these apps from coming out there that
35:33
Speaker 2: will even allow you to download Bibles, that will allow
35:36
Speaker 2: you to download hymns on your phone. But the fact
35:39
Speaker 2: of the matter is that a government entity is taking
35:43
Speaker 2: your personal device, removing something on it that they don't
35:46
Speaker 2: agree with, and placing something that they would call, you know,
35:49
Speaker 2: part of the, I think the Chinification of religion is
35:53
Speaker 2: the way that they put it. You know, that's another
35:55
Speaker 2: dangerous aspect of persecution that we see going on in
35:59
Speaker 2: the world. And it's not really reported on that much
36:01
Speaker 2: because you really can't get a lot of information out
36:04
Speaker 2: of China because of the amount of, of how strict
36:07
Speaker 2: it is to get information out of China and how,
36:11
Speaker 2: I guess, not willing people are to report out of
36:13
Speaker 2: China because of the intense level of persecution that they
36:17
Speaker 2: are suffering there.
36:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, 100%. I mean, and this is, I think you
36:21
Speaker 1: said it well, that there's, China's been very shrewd over
36:27
Speaker 1: the years, especially in its efforts against true biblical Christianity.
36:35
Speaker 1: And in the eyes of the world, the United Nations,
36:38
Speaker 1: et cetera, in the way that it's done it, we see,
36:43
Speaker 1: you know, again, the control through, as you mentioned, technology.
36:47
Speaker 1: Many of the, what we understand now, we've discussed a
36:50
Speaker 1: lot is the social credit score, which would include how
36:53
Speaker 1: faithful you are, again, in your words, in your actions.
36:58
Speaker 1: You know, if you do a certain thing, you're going
37:00
Speaker 1: to be, you're going to have less of a credit score.
37:01
Speaker 1: You're going to have less freedoms. You might have less
37:04
Speaker 1: opportunities for economics and other things. So there's no doubt that, again, worldwide,
37:11
Speaker 1: this is important. The church is being persecuted worldwide. This
37:16
Speaker 1: is the spirit of Antichrist that we're seeing right now
37:20
Speaker 1: in front of us. And this is a spirit that's
37:23
Speaker 1: going to continue to increase up until the time of
37:26
Speaker 1: Jesus' return at the second coming, where he will squash
37:31
Speaker 1: the Antichrist. and destroy him in blazing fire. So the
37:37
Speaker 1: point being is that as we're watching these prophetic trends,
37:41
Speaker 1: the Spirit is going to continue to gain a foothold.
37:44
Speaker 1: And we're looking out and we're watching it happen. I think, too,
37:49
Speaker 1: that I want to go back to something because you
37:53
Speaker 1: had sent this kind of some data. And the comment
37:59
Speaker 1: is that, yes, again, I'm going to reiterate what I
38:01
Speaker 1: said before. You're at work. You got, you know, a guy,
38:06
Speaker 1: you know, a girl over there. They're Muslim. They're not
38:09
Speaker 1: bringing guns. Okay, yes. And many of them, and you
38:13
Speaker 1: see this often in some places, where you have those
38:17
Speaker 1: that would be considered moderate. They're harassed by, we saw that,
38:22
Speaker 1: we see this in Gaza, where many of the normal Palestinians,
38:28
Speaker 1: they are trying to get out from under the thumb
38:30
Speaker 1: of Hamas. And so many of them want economic, you know,
38:34
Speaker 1: some people just want economic prosperity. But if they don't
38:37
Speaker 1: toe the party line or they speak out, and there
38:40
Speaker 1: were many videos of many of the Palestinians speaking out
38:43
Speaker 1: against Hamas, and then, you know, next day they're dead.
38:45
Speaker 1: And so you do have these radicals. So you do
38:49
Speaker 1: have that, of course. But the point being is that, unfortunately,
38:54
Speaker 1: when you're looking out and you see your neighbor and
38:59
Speaker 1: you're like, where do I put them? Obviously, they affirm
39:03
Speaker 1: an allegiance to the Islamic religion and the Quran, but
39:08
Speaker 1: I don't trust that. So where are they at? Are
39:13
Speaker 1: they lying? Are they pretending? It's really kind of hard
39:16
Speaker 1: because many of the things as we saw, think about
39:19
Speaker 1: going back to 9-11. These were people that were being
39:23
Speaker 1: trained in aeronautic schools and everything else with everybody else.
39:28
Speaker 1: And then one day, they go fly planes into there.
39:33
Speaker 1: And you're like, I knew that guy. I went to
39:35
Speaker 1: school with him. He was a nice guy. But you
39:38
Speaker 1: have the potential, again, because of the Islamic religion and
39:43
Speaker 1: the Quran itself promoting these things of not knowing. It's
39:47
Speaker 1: hard to trust. But You shared some statistics as it
39:51
Speaker 1: relates to a 2026 world watch list. And if you
39:55
Speaker 1: go through these countries, two through 20, it's starting at
40:02
Speaker 1: number two, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, number four, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan, Libya, Iran, Afghanistan,
40:10
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, Mali, Iraq, the Maldives, Algeria, Mauritania. How many
40:19
Speaker 1: of those are Muslim? Yeah, every single one of them.
40:22
Speaker 1: I mean, you're like, so this is where you go, listen,
40:26
Speaker 1: this isn't simply just a Islamophobic rant. This is going, hey,
40:31
Speaker 1: look around at the data. The data is presenting a picture.
40:38
Speaker 1: And that's all what we're saying is this truly has
40:41
Speaker 1: the spirit of Antichrist going in. And so when, again,
40:44
Speaker 1: when we come into the, what we see in the
40:46
Speaker 1: tribulation period in the first half we see this this
40:50
Speaker 1: religion this world religion whatever it is i don't think
40:52
Speaker 1: it's only islam i think it's a it's a world
40:55
Speaker 1: religion in one sense that is persecuting the saints the
41:00
Speaker 1: woman is drunk with the blood of the martyrs and
41:04
Speaker 1: then in you know matthew 21 21 you have the
41:06
Speaker 1: great tribulation and persecution against the jews and all the
41:10
Speaker 1: rest of those who are obedient to the commandments of
41:13
Speaker 1: god the believers in revelation 13 7 it says that
41:16
Speaker 1: the beast overcomes the saints, overcomes the believers. So by persecution,
41:23
Speaker 1: and again, the mark of the beast, as we said.
41:24
Speaker 1: So what we're seeing right now is indicative of what
41:30
Speaker 1: is coming. And that's really what we wanted to talk
41:33
Speaker 1: about is, let's look around. Of course, I've interviewed people
41:38
Speaker 1: from different ministries recently about talking about the persecution in
41:45
Speaker 1: In Nigeria, we've encouraged people to donate and to support
41:49
Speaker 1: those ministries. And that's really important. And that's one of
41:54
Speaker 1: the reasons why we've talked about it. We've encouraged for
41:57
Speaker 1: people to be praying for our brothers and sisters around
41:59
Speaker 1: the world for this exact thing. Absolutely.
42:02
Speaker 2: And it's definitely something that we don't want. You know,
42:04
Speaker 2: this is probably one of those episodes that would be
42:06
Speaker 2: considered a downer, right? You know, we're talking about a
42:09
Speaker 2: bunch of things that's really heavy, and we don't want
42:12
Speaker 2: to leave you just with a heavy message. know burden
42:14
Speaker 2: on your heart thinking that you know well i'm just
42:17
Speaker 2: not going to be able to escape this persecution i
42:19
Speaker 2: mean paul tells timothy that that all who desire to
42:26
Speaker 2: live godly in christ will suffer persecution so i mean
42:30
Speaker 2: there's no doubt about it that you know as a
42:32
Speaker 2: christian we're most likely going to suffer persecution you know
42:36
Speaker 2: on this side of the rapture now at what level
42:40
Speaker 2: We don't know. We can't give you that response. But
42:43
Speaker 2: what I can tell you is, even though that we
42:45
Speaker 2: may be able, we may suffer persecution on this side
42:48
Speaker 2: of the rapture, there's numerous things that the persecutor cannot
42:52
Speaker 2: take away from us. The persecutor can't take away our comfort.
42:56
Speaker 2: That's only in Christ. The persecutor, they can take away
43:00
Speaker 2: our possessions, but they can't take away our inheritance. They
43:03
Speaker 2: can take away our freedoms, but they can't take away
43:06
Speaker 2: our hope. And they can even take away our physical
43:08
Speaker 2: life but they can't take away our eternal life. You know,
43:12
Speaker 2: those are just some things that we can find joy
43:14
Speaker 2: and find hope in. And that's what I would want
43:17
Speaker 2: to leave people with. Don't be afraid. You know, don't
43:20
Speaker 2: be afraid to speak up. Don't be afraid to, you know,
43:23
Speaker 2: look at what's going on in the world. Because I
43:24
Speaker 2: know a lot of people, they tend to bury their
43:27
Speaker 2: heads in the sand and thinking that if they bury
43:28
Speaker 2: their heads and if they don't see it happen, then
43:31
Speaker 2: it's not really happening. And before it's too late, you know,
43:34
Speaker 2: it's happening in their own backyard. You know, we tell
43:37
Speaker 2: you these things because we want you to be properly
43:39
Speaker 2: prepared for a possibility of what it could look like
43:42
Speaker 2: in the future. And if it is going to look
43:44
Speaker 2: like this in the future, we want you to know
43:45
Speaker 2: that your hope is not in anything else other than
43:48
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ.
43:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, the connecting point, whether it's today, again, with our
43:54
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters around the world, or throughout church history.
43:59
Speaker 1: I mean, you look at church history and the church,
44:02
Speaker 1: of course, you know, the church is a very broad term.
44:06
Speaker 1: I think of, you know, the, some of the, the
44:09
Speaker 1: ways in which, whether it was the crusaders or the
44:12
Speaker 1: Catholic church, uh, with inquisitions and other things that there's
44:17
Speaker 1: been a lot of people under the name of church
44:20
Speaker 1: or the name of Jesus have committed horrible things, done
44:23
Speaker 1: horrible things. And I wonder whether, I mean, I wonder,
44:26
Speaker 1: I don't know anybody's sorry, but it's, I just can't
44:29
Speaker 1: imagine anybody that would do that is actually a genuine
44:31
Speaker 1: believer in Jesus or followed his words. Cause, Jesus never
44:34
Speaker 1: said that to do that to anybody. So anybody that
44:37
Speaker 1: would claim to do that has abandoned or has denied
44:41
Speaker 1: or rejected or contradicted the very teachings of the one
44:45
Speaker 1: they claim to follow. So we're certainly not here to
44:48
Speaker 1: defend any of that. But at the end of the day,
44:52
Speaker 1: what we say is anybody that is going to promote
44:56
Speaker 1: violence in the name of religion, whether Christian or Islam
45:00
Speaker 1: or Buddhist or Hindu, That is horrible. That is not
45:06
Speaker 1: of what we understand. That is not of Jesus Christ
45:10
Speaker 1: by any means. And again, Jesus told us to love,
45:13
Speaker 1: to bless, and to pray for those who aren't like us.
45:16
Speaker 1: But as we know, there are many of those who
45:20
Speaker 1: have died in history and that are dying today. And
45:23
Speaker 1: that as we continue on, we expect this to get
45:27
Speaker 1: even more pronounced. And this is why When you look
45:32
Speaker 1: at this, it just goes back to having the courage
45:38
Speaker 1: and the grace, trusting in the grace of God to
45:42
Speaker 1: stay faithful. Revelation 2.10, as I mentioned, Jesus says, the
45:45
Speaker 1: devil's going to throw some of you into prison for
45:47
Speaker 1: 10 days. Be faithful unto death, and I'll give you
45:51
Speaker 1: the crown of life. And so, now granted, I don't
45:56
Speaker 1: know what I would do in that situation, right? I mean,
45:59
Speaker 1: but I don't need to worry about that situation because
46:04
Speaker 1: the lord will provide me the grace i need on
46:06
Speaker 1: that day he's not going to give me the grace
46:07
Speaker 1: i need on that day today because i don't need
46:09
Speaker 1: it the jesus said in second is 12 to paul
46:13
Speaker 1: who was suffering buffeting from satan i mean very supernaturally
46:18
Speaker 1: and he said my grace is sufficient for you and
46:21
Speaker 1: uh i might you know it'll carry you through and
46:24
Speaker 1: so but the grace to be a martyr is not
46:27
Speaker 1: something i need today and at the time You know,
46:30
Speaker 1: for all those people, brothers and sisters that did give
46:32
Speaker 1: their life, no doubt the Lord was with them and
46:34
Speaker 1: the Lord has his reasons. And so, again, this isn't
46:39
Speaker 1: a downer. This is another, our goal in talking about
46:42
Speaker 1: this was to say, look, this is what scripture teaches.
46:46
Speaker 1: This is what's prophetically relevant. This is what is prophetically coming.
46:50
Speaker 1: And so the spirit of what is there is here
46:55
Speaker 1: and we're seeing it. And that's the thing. That's what
46:58
Speaker 1: tells us that we are strongly approaching the end of
47:01
Speaker 1: the age. Not simply that alone, but that in convergence
47:05
Speaker 1: with all the other signs of the end of the
47:07
Speaker 1: age shows us that why are we surprised by this?
47:10
Speaker 1: Any final words for us, Joe?
47:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think you just knocked it out
47:13
Speaker 2: of the park. I mean, that's, you know, persecution is
47:15
Speaker 2: one of my hot zones that I look at all over.
47:17
Speaker 2: You know, I look at apostasy. I look at the
47:19
Speaker 2: global wars and disasters. We look at what's going on
47:22
Speaker 2: with Israel, of course. We look at the deception, the
47:25
Speaker 2: beast system infrastructure. And you put all of that together
47:29
Speaker 2: and you add persecution on top of it. Like you said,
47:31
Speaker 2: what do we have? We have convergence. And that's just
47:34
Speaker 2: a Bible prophecy term that says, hey, all of these
47:37
Speaker 2: things are converging at once. What do we need to
47:40
Speaker 2: be doing? We need to be looking up because our
47:42
Speaker 2: redemption draws nigh.
47:44
Speaker 1: Amen. Amen, brother. And we appreciate you guys listening today.
47:47
Speaker 1: As always, we appreciate your prayers and support for what
47:50
Speaker 1: we do here. Our goal is to get the word out,
47:52
Speaker 1: to get the gospel out, to get the good news out.
47:54
Speaker 1: Not only can you be saved through Jesus Christ, but
47:57
Speaker 1: you can escape using Jesus' words and Paul's words. You
48:00
Speaker 1: can escape the coming wrath of God. That is the goal.
48:04
Speaker 1: And Jesus promised that in Revelation 3.10. I'll keep you
48:07
Speaker 1: from that hour of trial. That's coming upon the whole
48:09
Speaker 1: earth to test those who dwell on the earth. And
48:11
Speaker 1: so that really is the hope. That's the promise. It
48:14
Speaker 1: is the blessed hope of the Lord's return. And ultimately, again,
48:18
Speaker 1: we're not guaranteed we're going to live tomorrow. So the
48:20
Speaker 1: goal is to be ready today. to meet Jesus, to
48:23
Speaker 1: meet our maker. And then if we're still alive at
48:25
Speaker 1: the time that we get pulled out and we get
48:28
Speaker 1: drawn where Jesus comes again and draws us and brings
48:32
Speaker 1: us to himself, how awesome is that going to be?
48:34
Speaker 1: So thank you for listening this week. We will catch
48:36
Speaker 1: you next time.