Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Brian Thomas: Persevering In 2026, Educating Believers On Israel

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Brian Thomas: Persevering In 2026, Educating Believers On Israel · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

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Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
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defending biblical Christianity.
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No topic, off limits.
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And now, here's your host, David Firazzo.
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Franz family and Christ, thank you so much for tuning in.
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Boy, we're zipping through this week already.
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Happy New Year to you.
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Hope you're doing very, very well, and we've got to change our focus, right?
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If you haven't yet, we've got to set our sights to what God's calling us to do this year.
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I want to kick off with some scripture today, and that is Philippians chapter 3, starting
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in verse 12.
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It says, not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press
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on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
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Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do,
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forgetting what lies behind.
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And reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of
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the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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I often go to some of these scriptures to kick off, at the beginning of a New Year,
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just as a reminder, that sometimes it's hard to forget and let go of the past.
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We don't want to drag that any baggage into the New Year, but sometimes it's harder
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to let go.
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So that was Philippians 3, 12 through 14.
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Today, we're going to be talking about different things that we learned from last year, and
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Barnard Research and other polls that the State of the Church or Americans view of either
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salvation or heaven or morality, with my good friend, Brian Thomas, with blessings to
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Israel.
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And I want to give you the website, BlessingsToIsrael.com.
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You can find him on Facebook as well, Blessings to Israel or Blessings to Israel Ministries.
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I also want to direct you to his YouTube channel, and that is called Descerning the Times.
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That's on YouTube Descerning the Times on YouTube.
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There it is.
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So, friends, we're so thankful, brother, Brian, good to see you.
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We appreciate your time today, nice to connect with you and Happy New Year.
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Hey, likewise, David, Happy New Year to you as well.
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And it's always a great day whenever I get to sit down and talk with you.
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Always look forward to it.
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So thanks for having me.
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It's great that we could connect.
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I mean, you're in North Carolina, and we're up here in Wisconsin, and I love that there
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are some good things about technology, and there are some awful things about technology
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in the internet.
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But anyway, so this is really good how God's blessed our podcast by the people I get to
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connect with.
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I want to ask you, we kicked off, I think, last time we had you on, we talked about
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your health, and some of the challenges you've had.
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Now, we entered into a new year, but toward the end of last year, you, you, you, you,
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did a video, and you just share a little bit about your story and what you've been going
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through.
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And it was called, it's been a tough year, but still thankful.
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And I think that has to be our attitude.
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I think I had a tough year myself.
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I think a lot of viewers and a lot of listeners to this program can relate to trials,
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suffering, something that they had a tough year last year.
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Speak to us about that and then share a little bit, whatever you'd like to share about
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your personal health that, and then just your commitment to just, you know, press on.
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Yeah, well, thank you, David.
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Yes.
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So last year, it's been almost the full years around February of last year.
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I began just having pain in the lower regions of my body and just got progressively worse
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throughout the year to the point that I could barely walk at times.
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I'm dragging my leg along and began walking with the cane a couple of months ago due to
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my leg just giving way.
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We were really puzzled as to what was going on.
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And so where we stand today, my team of doctors, they've been going through a battery of
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tests and scans and they're looking at, is it possibly multiple sclerosis?
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And so that's pretty much where we are with that.
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And yeah, I write at Thanksgiving, I did that video to say it's been a tough year, it's
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been a challenging year, dealing with that was, was quite, has been quite frustrating.
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But you know, David, it seems as though every time I really start to sort of get a little
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down about it, I'll hear of someone else going through something that's by far worse than
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what I'm dealing with.
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And it makes me think how grateful and how blessed I am.
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And you know, I heard from one person out there who heard the video and he was saying
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out his wife, 37 years old was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, I believe he said stage 4.
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And you know, those are just tough things to deal with.
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So it's sort of like when you start feeling down or sorry for yourself, you can be reminded
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of, yeah, there are a lot of people that are suffering.
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But the great thing, David, is we have hope in Jesus Christ.
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And I look forward to the fact that we have a eternity waiting, we're looking forward
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to the rapture of the church when that trumpet sounds.
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The Bible says we are going to receive a glorified body and I try to encourage people, man,
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that glorified body, no more pain, no more suffering, so much look forward to that.
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In the meantime, we occupy until he comes in and we do it with a cheerful and joyful heart
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in spite of maybe some of the struggles that we're dealing with.
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So thank you for that.
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And I'm really grateful for how you've been praying for me and encouraging your audience
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to pray for me as well.
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Amen, brother.
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We need to continue to lift up our family of God in ministry, brothers and sisters who are
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going through these things because you know, things may get worse before they get better.
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But right now we just have to keep the faith and keep doing what God has called us to do.
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And as that verse said, press on and toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, that's
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our focus.
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Let's seek first the kingdom of God together, friends.
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So Brian, I wanted to just mention a article you wrote over at BlessingsToIsrael.com and
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that's why bless Israel.
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I just want to make sure to people know that's there.
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It's so important.
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We're not going to get into it in depth today because we have other things to discuss.
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I was telling Brian before we got on the podcast, this subject is not going to go away.
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Why the church needs to understand the importance of supporting Israel from a biblical perspective.
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But here's what I want to say and I want you to share your heart on this.
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We don't support everything a secular government in Israel does.
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Just like we don't support everything, the American government, we have a secular government.
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There are some Christians in the Trump administration, but we don't support everything and every
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policy.
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That's the same thing.
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So Christians, we shouldn't have a naive approach to, yes, we support Israel no matter
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what.
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No, we don't, but we do have enough scripture to back up the fact that we need to understand
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God, Israel is God's chosen people.
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So Brian, speak to that for a moment before we get into some other things.
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Yeah, and I'm so glad, David.
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You pointed out that yes, it's not a matter of blindly supporting Israel and everything
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it does.
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I like to use the example when I teach on this subject for people who sort of scratch
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their heads about it.
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I say, well, you have a child, let's say you have a wayward child and that child will
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not obey their, they're still in your home and he or she is doing drugs.
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They're staying out all times at night, committing crimes.
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You will do some things that bring discipline to that child or correct them, but you're
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not going to just say, okay, well, I have to support them.
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So I'm going to go along with everything they're doing.
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No, you tell them, no, you shouldn't do those things, those things that are immoral.
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But with that said, you do not disown your child.
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You still love them and you want what's best for them and for people that are out there
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in the community, in the community, if they run into your child and they see your child
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has a need, you're going to want them to help that child.
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It was the same way with the nation of Israel and the Bible tells us that Israel would
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come back into the land, God would bring them back, but it would be in unbelief.
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And obviously when people are in unbelief, they're not going to make all the best decisions,
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but God said, still to support and to bless the nation of Israel.
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And where it started with us, when God called me to ministry many years ago, I was thinking
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about my wife and I, we were debating on what to name the ministry and we felt the Lord
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just say to honor the nation of Israel to share with people as to why Israel is important.
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We focus heavily on Bible prophecy and the nation of Israel is in the center of events
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that center around the return of Jesus Christ.
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And so we look at that and we decided to name our ministry blessings to Israel.
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And I recall one day when I was sitting home with my son at the time I was doing contract
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work in my profession.
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And I was in between contracts, so I was home with my son.
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He was about a year old and I was watching television.
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I can't remember the exact program, but it was something like a 700 club and they were
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showing Jews that were coming back to the land of Israel returning Ethiopian Jews making
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Aliyah that the Bible speaks of and they were departing from the plane and they were getting
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down on the tarmac and kissing the ground.
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And I sat there and I got so emotional and I'm not naturally an emotional person, but
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I started to choke up.
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And again, my little son was there and I didn't want him to see me with tears because he
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I didn't want him to think something was wrong, but I became emotional because I thought
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here is prophecy playing out right before my eyes Bible said that would happen.
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The Bible also says that would be an indicator of the return of Jesus Christ.
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And we go back to Genesis chapter 12 verse 3 says, I will bless those that bless you and
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I will curse those that curse you and end you all families of the earth will be blessed.
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All the world, David has been blessed because of Jesus Christ.
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He came through the tribe of Judah, the nation of Israel.
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He died for our sins without him.
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We would all be hit it for eternal damnation.
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So all have been blessed through Jesus Christ, but you have to receive his sacrifice.
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So that in the nutshell is why we focus on the nation of Israel and why it's important
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to bless and support Israel.
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Again, as you said, you don't agree with every single thing they do, but overall you support
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that nation.
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Absolutely.
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And you mentioned fulfilled prophecy and I want to go back to that and talk about that
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for another couple of minutes because people don't understand how huge this was that there
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was no land, there was no nation.
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And they were dispersed around the world for almost 2,000 years, isn't that right?
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They were Israel, the people of Israel, the Jews were dispersed.
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And then they started coming back from the, as Isaiah says from the north, south, east
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and west.
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They're starting to return.
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They were returning to Israel.
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And of course, when you know what happened in 1948, when Israel became a nation again.
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But how miraculous is that that the land was at the Bible calls it a wasteland.
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It was like a desert.
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Think about that.
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The fulfilled prophecy of the Jews returning to their homeland when it was a desert.
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And now they are like the number two nation in the world for exporting produce.
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You're going to win it, man.
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Huh?
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How do you grow produce in a desert?
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Because the irrigation systems that they've come up, just, and what God has done, believe
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me, miraculously, but it's fulfilled prophecy.
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Speak to us about that, how that is such a big issue that I think we'll forget how miraculous
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it is to have the Jews dispersed.
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There is no Israel and after 2,000 years, they're back in the land and more are coming.
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Go ahead, Brian.
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They're back in the land just as God said they would be.
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The Balfour Declaration was what kickstarted things to getting them back into that land.
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And as you said, yeah, there were travelers who they would travel through that land prior
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to Israel coming back.
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And they said it was a wasteland.
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They said, who would want to be here?
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There's nothing here of value.
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But look at today how it's bringing to life.
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And the only explanation that you can give as to why there's so much prosperity with Israel
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is the hand of God.
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One of the things they read that I point out to people, when you look at the Jewish population
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is only about 2% worldwide.
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But when you look at the Nobel Prize winners, it's well over 20%.
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The only explanation is God is doing that.
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And when we look at anti-Semitism, you look at that tiny nation.
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It's only about the size of New Jersey.
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You asked yourself the question, why is there so much emphasis on that?
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Why are so many people concerned about that little bit of peace of land?
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Well, it's because the Bible says Jesus is coming back there again and Satan knows that.
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And so he is constantly stirring up the forces of the dark kingdom to go against.
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Because he thinks that if he can destroy Israel, for one, he can try to make God out to
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be a liar in bringing Israel back into the land.
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But ultimately, it's to stop Jesus Christ from coming back to ruling reign on the earth.
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Because his reign will be headquartered in Israel.
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Amen, brother.
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Yeah.
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Well, there's so much to look forward to.
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And there's so much prophecy yet to be fulfilled.
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We're going to take a brief pause a little early today with Brian.
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Because when we come back, we're going to be talking about some of the surveys we mentioned
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and some of what's come out, really surprising that, for example, Barna, the church, a majority
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of us Christians believe that good works contribute to salvation.
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Now this came out at the end of last year.
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Also what the 2025, another report says about the church's worldview.
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And my eye-opening takeaway was how many identify as pro-life and that's going down.
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I wonder why?
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We'll talk about that.
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And more when we come back with Brian Thomas on World View Matters.
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Introducing the World View Matters Conference coming to Green Bay, Wisconsin May 1st and 2nd,
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2026.
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Here are some of the featured speakers, Ken Michael, Olivier Melnick, Tim Chafee, Mark
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and Amber Archer, Laura Perry Smalls, Dr. Jake Jacobs, Jay Seigert, Gary Caw, Scott
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Shera and Elijah Abraham.
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That's the World View Matters Conference May 1st and 2nd, 2026, Green Bay, Wisconsin.
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All right, friends.
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We're looking forward to that.
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It's coming.
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It'll be here before we know it.
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And right now, though, there's, you know, we've talked about the decline of the biblical
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literacy in the church and the biblical worldview and we're not surprised that the world
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believes certain things about morality, about sin, about evil, about God.
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But when the church starts believing these things or with the biblical worldview declines,
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that's where we need to pay attention and do what we can to get good truth and biblical
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teachings out there.
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Now, Brian, let's start with, I want to go back to one.
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I didn't send you this, but this was from October and it was American World View
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Inventor over at the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University.
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This one goes back to October, the redefinition of sin fuels social turbulence.
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I'm just going to give you two things.
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There's a lot of takeaways, a lot of things they found in this, but I want to give you
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two and then get your response in what we can do to try to wake up the church.
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These are Americans, nearly three-quarters of adults, 73%, say that lying, deceiving
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or manipulating others for personal gain is sinful.
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The highest of all behaviors tested in this survey, right?
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Now the next one, listen to this, that's 73%, let's talk about sexual morality.
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Only 55% view sex outside of marriage, pornography and recreational drug use, for example, as sinful.
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So 73% think lying or deceiving, manipulating others is sinful, but only 55% say sex outside
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of marriage and that would include homosexuality and adultery as being sinful.
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This was one that kind of surprised me that it's that low, that's almost half of Americans.
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So your thoughts on that, we'll move on to the next one.
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Yeah, it's alarming David, it's really sad, it's mind-boggling.
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I think about to the scriptures in the Old Testament when Israel, when they had no leader
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in the Bible says they did what was right in their own eyes and we see a lot of people
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today doing that, they totally ignore what the Bible says.
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I, David, just this week heard of a pastor who on Sunday, he spoke at his church.
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He had a moment when he brought the youth up front to speak to them, to give them a message.
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And so when we say youth, we're talking about all minors from 18 years on down.
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So you know, you have some children there as young as like five years old.
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Well, I was told, I wasn't there present, but someone who was there told me that this
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pastor told the children that although having sex outside of marriage is wrong, you're
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going to do it anyway.
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So here are safe ways to do it.
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And I was so heartbroken by that David, you know, so he's telling them ways to get around
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the consequences of sin.
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You don't enable people to sin and I thought how bad for those those children that they're
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going to grow up and reap the consequences of those wrongdoings.
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And they're going to lean back on their pastor.
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And the Bible gives us a storm, a stern warning for shepherds who lead the sheep astray.
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And that is one of the major problems today is that pastors are not teaching the Bible.
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Yes, we all have a responsibility to teach and to learn on our own, but still pastors
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God calls them to point us into the right direction.
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So when you have that type of thing coming from the pulpit, I know of another pastor
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who also said, you know, when it comes to to fornication, we got it wrong and he started
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promoting it saying that it's okay.
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That is what we want with in society to where now half the people go against what the
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Bible clearly says is sin.
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And the Bible also says, David, that the marriage bed shall not be defiled.
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That is not mocked and said he will judge fornicators and adulterers.
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And yet people dismissed God's word and they just go on their way.
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So I want to clarify something you said, these guys are pastors and sometimes you got
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to put pastors and air quotes because if they do not have a biblical worldview, they
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might be off on their own Christianity or salvation perhaps, but only God knows their
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hearts.
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But Barna research, I believe it was Arizona Christian University again that did research.
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I think this was about three years ago that only 37% of America's pastors have a biblical
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worldview and youth pastors, it's either 12 or 13% of youth pastors.
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These are the young men that are teaching your kids on a Wednesday night or a Sunday,
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you know, morning youth pastors.
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So again, parents, be very discerning about your pastors at your church, especially who's
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teaching your kids.
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All right, onto the next one, Brian, here's a key takeaway from this one about Christians
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now believing that good works contribute to salvation.
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So it's all about grace.
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Most people are information collectors rather than biblically consistent followers of Christ.
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More determined to be comfortable than biblically right, that preference will produce profound
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eternal effects for each of us.
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Yeah, we see a lot of focus on comfort in the church, but here it is, faith without understanding.
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In this one, a majority, a majority, not just of Americans, of Christians.
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This says Brian Thomas, this was a survey of 84% of adults, including 95% of professing
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Christians believe there's such a thing as sin, right?
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So that's you, okay, well, at least that's a good thing, but millions of Americans do
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not believe their sinfulness will send them to hell, resign them to hell.
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And so there's a lot of confusion there, and I think maybe sometimes it starts in the
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church.
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Among those who say they are Christian, three out of four, 77% say they will enjoy eternal
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comfort and peace, and they say, okay, because of good works.
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So there's a lot of confusion here, there's a lot more details we don't have enough time
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to get into, but friends, this came out at the end of last year, and there's a lot of people
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who think they're good when, what did Jesus say, Brian, who are you calling good?
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There's only one good God alone.
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Go ahead, your thoughts on this, because works, it's even says any Ephesians by grace we
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are saved through faith and is not by our works.
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Now, good works are a result of authentic salvation.
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So we will do good works once you're saved, but they do not get us into heaven or a higher
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level of heaven.
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Go ahead.
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Exactly right, David.
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There's no way you can work your way in.
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As you said, Ephesians chapter 2 says, it's only by grace through faith.
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It's not by works, because if it was by works, then we could boast, but none of us can.
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It's only through the shared blood of Jesus Christ that we can be saved.
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You mentioned that, as Jesus said, there's none good, no not one, only God is good.
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There's 3, 10 says there is none righteous, no not one.
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And when I look at people who think that they can, through good works, get themselves
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into heaven, I'm sure your audience, you've seen the videos that Ray Comfort does when
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he goes out on the streets and he'll ask people, are you going to heaven?
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Most of the time, they'll say yes.
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And when he says why, they'll say, well, I'm a good person or I do good things.
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But David, the Bible is very clear.
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Jesus said that in his word that the best that we can do is ask filthy rags because we're
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all fallen sinners.
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So none of us are good.
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And we often have this mindset that we deserve something or that we are generally good
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people.
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I've heard surveys to say, well, most people are just good people, but not by God's
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standards, maybe by man's standard, but by God's standard, all of us deserve damnation.
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But thanks be to God, he made a way that we could be forgiven, that we could be found
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justified to be with him for eternity through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
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The sad thing about it is all we have to do, Romans 10 and I says, confess with your mouth
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that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you
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will be saved.
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That is all we have to do to be saved, repent of our sins.
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So many people, though, think that they can do good works.
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And some day when they stand before God, he's going to sort of weigh things in the scales
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and they're good is going to outweigh their bad and therefore they'll get in.
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That is not how this works and that is the sad reality that a lot of people are deceived
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by.
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Amen, brother.
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Now we're running out of time.
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So let's jump to this last one real quick and we should actually put the links in the
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description for the podcast today.
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But Brian, this one is over at the Washington stand and it says what the 2025 C B W report
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reveals about the church, the church's worldview, the C B W is the Family Research Council's
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Center for Biblical World View, C B W. It says, and this goes along with Pew Research
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who released a poll as well, that a third of U.S. adults believe religions, influences
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growing in America.
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This is interesting because this is post Charlie Kirk assassination.
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This is interesting about this is there's a 36% increase in Bible sales in just one,
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2.4 million Bible's were sold in that month after Charlie Kirk and then more and more
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people are going to church.
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We talked about that before another podcast.
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But what's interesting about this is generation Z, Gen Z and millennials seem to be driving
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a resurgence in church attendance.
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But then there's always a downside to what people believe, even though they're going
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to church buying Bibles or they think they're maybe thinking, okay, anybody, I believe in
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God, maybe people are going to have a problem with my worldview too.
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But what do they believe, only 45% now identify as pro life.
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So with all the people that are going to church, maybe buying Bibles, maybe open to spiritual
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things and that includes the youngest, you know, the Gen Zers, there's still some confusion
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about what the Bible teaches on life, gender, marriage, family, sexuality, and civil
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government.
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Brian, I know I left you with just a minute and a half, but just share your quick thoughts
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and then we'll have to wrap it up.
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Sorry, bro.
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Yeah.
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No problem.
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And that is the thing you made a great point, David, is that we see they say, okay, religion
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is increasing.
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But I ask myself the question, okay, what religion the Bible talks about false religions.
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And we talk about this conversation about works, how you are saved, well, false religions
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like Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholicism, they stress works.
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But we know that does not get you into heaven.
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There's no work you can do to get into heaven is only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ
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accepting His sacrifice.
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So my prayer is that if people are becoming more religious, well, let's hope they're choosing
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the true religion, that is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, that is what they're
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following.
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Jesus said before he went back to heaven, go into the world, make disciples.
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That means we need to teach people how to live out the faith.
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And I think that's something that's greatly missing in many churches today.
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So I pray that that will happen.
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Thanks, brother.
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Amen.
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Amen.
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And I know there were so many different stats and percentages and things we could have
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got into from these surveys.
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But there's just a lot of information out there.
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And I think the church needs to be discerning on how we process what's going on.
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Because there is now an uptick in interest in spiritual things.
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We've got to be open to sharing the gospel, but we also have to understand they're going
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to church.
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What church are they going to and who's going to be the pastor there and all my goodness
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Brian?
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That we have a lot of work to do, but we've got a new year to do it.
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Brother, thanks for your time.
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God bless you.
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God bless you as well, David.
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Pray, bless us upon your ministry and good to be with you once again.
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Thank you so much.
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And friends, happy new year.
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God bless you.
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And as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.