Latest / Brett Keane and Eve Show / Eli Yoder Interview | Amish Man Paradise | By Brett Keane & Friends

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Eli Yoder Interview | Amish Man Paradise | By Brett Keane & Friends · Brett Keane and Eve Show

• 0:06
  Jesus reminds me I belong to Him.
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  This is who I am. I'm rescued and redeemed.
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  I was purchased by the Lamb, forgiven and set free.
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  Sin has been defeated. A new life's been created.
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  Everything I have is in this hands.
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  This is who I am. Good evening, everybody.
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  So good to have you all tonight. I think we're going to have a
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  wonderful evening. I think we're going to have a
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  very, very productive evening. And as always, I would like to
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  start us out with a word of prayer.
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  So, dear Lord, we just come to you tonight humbly asking for
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  your blessing on this broadcast this evening.
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  I just pray that it'll be a blessing and you'll minister to
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  everyone, everyone who hears it. Lord, thank you once again for
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  this opportunity. Thank you for putting this idea
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  in the proverb. Guys, proverbs, guys, head for
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  me to be doing this, and I just pray that your spirit will be
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  with us tonight. And it's your name.
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  I pray. Amen.
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  All right, all right. I trusted everyone.
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  Had a good Tuesday. Everyone had a We have a special
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  guest with us tonight. And this is a man that I
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  discovered on YouTube probably about a year ago.
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  I just happened to stumble across them on YouTube.
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  You know, YouTube suggests videos, and somehow they know
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  who you might like to see. And just as with Samuel, who was
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  on last week, I just stumbled across Eli.
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  He was giving his testimony on growing up Amish, and I was
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  fascinated by that because up to that point, I really didn't know
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  anything about the Amish. I don't live in Amish country.
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  I live in metro Atlanta. So there's not too many of them
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  around here. But I was just, oh, Eli, can you
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  try leaving and coming back? You don't hear me at all.
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  We're having a little bit of technical difficulty.
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  Hold on, Proverbs Guy. You may have to go into the
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  settings tab Eli and in settings tab you can go to audio and see
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  what your setting is at for speaker.
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  I don't know if he can hear us. OK, He left.
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  I think he's going to come back. We got you guys.
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  We got him. You guys thought Mr. Yoder was
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  going to stay for an interview. We'll get it figured out.
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  We'll get it figured out. All right.
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  Can you hear me? Now Sir.
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  I hear you. Yes, now I.
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  Can hear you. Yes.
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  All right, take it away right now.
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  Are you able to hear us? Were you able to hear us the
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  whole time? No, I could not earlier.
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  Okay, Okay. Well, I basically, I'll start
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  back at the beginning. I said a word of prayer and then
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  I told everybody about how I discovered your channel about a
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  year ago on YouTube. And, you know, YouTube just
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  suggests a video and it's like, it just pops up and and you,
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  your video that piqued my interest was growing up Amish.
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  Anything about the Amish, because I don't live in Amish
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  country. I live in metro Atlanta.
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  So we don't have a lot of Amish around here.
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  So I was just very intrigued to hear your story.
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  And then I just started watching.
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  I subscribed to you and started watching you.
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  And I was just so I was so impressed by your boldness and
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  the authority with which you speak God's word.
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  It's just really inspiring to me.
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  And you've even had people that you've interviewed who have
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  escaped the Amish, including one, one young lady named Liz.
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  Liz Byler, who I was so impressed with her testimony
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  that this thing right here, I take it wherever I go.
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  I had her make this for me and as well as several other people,
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  including including these guys right here, 3 Heath Brothers,
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  they each got one. And so, naturally, you've had
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  quite an influence on me, Brother Eli.
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  But if you'd like to tell us a little bit about your story
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  growing up, maybe just a little Reader's Digest.
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  Do you have much time tonight? You have like 30 minutes an hour
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  or. Yeah, I got about 45 minutes I
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  can spare here. Oh, he cut the difference, Ryan.
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  That's all right. Well, that sounds good.
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  We can do a lot in 45 minutes. So can you tell us a little bit
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  about your background and growing up Amish and everything?
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  Yeah, come come from a very conservative Old Order Amish.
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  We did not like the label Schwartz and Trooper.
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  But we pretty much had the same dress code and the same rules as
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  the Swartz and Tuber Amish. But at a very young age, I was
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  very prideful, believing that we were the special chosen people,
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  that God would favor us because we had more rules than even
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  other Amish communities did. So at a young age, I obviously
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  believed what I was taught, you know, that you had to live that
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  lifestyle in order to please God and get into heaven.
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  It was 100% workspace, you know, rules.
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  I never heard a salvation message any and at any time in
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  my Amish. Life until I left the Amish and
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  turned 18 and left. So I never really knew what what
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  know what it meant to be saved. I didn't know anything about the
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  true meaning of why Jesus died, why God sent his only begotten
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  son to die on lacrosse because he loved the whole world so
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  much. I never heard those messages.
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  But what I did hear a lot growing up was that, you know,
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  we are the special people. You know, we must be Amish in
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  order to please God. So we heard that all the time
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  now when I left. I didn't because of what I went
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  through, spiritual abuse, I call it.
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  I I ran from God, Anybody that tried to share the gospel,
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  anybody that mentioned church, Jesus, God, Bible.
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  I I ran the other way. I didn't want to hear it.
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  So for 19 years that's what I did.
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  I I was a little Jonah. I was running from God.
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  And I thought that if I just lived my life the best way I
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  know how, the way as I please, you know, in the flesh, live,
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  live how I want. That I would certainly find
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  peace. And I always came up empty.
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  It just never. It was not enough alcohol.
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  There was not enough drugs. There was not enough sex.
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  There was not enough things of this world that would bring me
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  that piece that I was looking for.
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  I always ended up empty. And then I got a bankruptcy
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  later on. And that is when I realized my
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  way really ain't working. Maybe I should try.
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  God. So I I picked up a Bible.
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  I started. I became a truck driver because
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  I had lost everything I had. And then I picked up the English
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  written Bible. Now in the Amish we had a Martin
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  Luther 1522 Martin Luther German Bible.
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  Now the Old Order Amish taught that it must be the German, but
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  most of them can't even interpret and translate that for
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  you. But they tried to preach out of
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  it. And so, because I wasn't allowed
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  to have an English Bible. I now for the first time decided
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  in 2017 that I would now pick up an English written Bible and and
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  read it because my my cousin was challenging me.
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  Hey, you know, I know you're a mess right now.
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  You're confused about what where you want to go next.
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  And I picked it up and started reading it and God just showed
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  me so much in that in that Bible that, you know, I wasn't even in
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  a church building, I'm in a semi truck.
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  And so I got saved just reading the word of God and that is why.
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  I preach the way I do with zeal. I say it the way it is because
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  God allowed my testimony to play out that way.
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  Amen. Amen.
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  So is that around 2017? Yeah, 2017, which was 19 years
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  after I had left the office. Yes, you know, I've noticed a
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  pattern, and this is interesting.
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  It's like God is really beginning to move.
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  I've noticed there have been several people who said that I
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  was not right with God and sometime in the late 20 teens is
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  when God grabbed hold of them. There's you.
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  Joe Kirby said that he got right with God in 2019, God chasing me
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  in 2019 and started getting me right with him that year.
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  And it's like it's like I'm seeing so many people who ride
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  around right around that time. 17/18/1920 is when Holy Spirit
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  said you know the time is coming and I I don't want to get you
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  all ready. And so and so if you want to
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  tell us a little bit more, Eli, about where you are today and
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  talk about your family. And I know you'd see your mother
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  like once a year and you have to take all these precautions when
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  you see her. So yeah, feel free to whatever
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  you want to share with us. Yeah, that's been that's been a
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  frustrating thing is trying to. You know, still love my mother
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  and just show up, even though that there's just so much that I
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  have to meet as far as her rules and requirements in order to
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  visit her. Thank God that I can still visit
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  her one time per year. But you know, I do wear my Amish
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  clothing. That is what she told me before
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  I left the Amish that if any of us siblings was to leave, that
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  you know that we would be viewed as condemned.
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  So therefore if we came back, we would have to wear the Amish
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  clothing in order to visit and we have to park our car next
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  door. We can't drive onto the
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  property. So I always follow those rules
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  and I go out and she, she, she told us me and my younger
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  brother that also left that just one time per year just limit,
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  you know, because she doesn't want any backlash from the
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  church. But at least she allows us to to
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  visit, you know one time per year.
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  So what I did when I got saved, when I when I came to the
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  knowledge of the truth, Ephesians 28 and nine was just
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  really something that I had to share with my mom.
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  So. I go out and I have an English
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  written Bible, you know, and I sit down and I I visited for
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  maybe 5 to 10 minutes and then I asked mom, I said I have some
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  scripture I want to share with you.
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  I came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, praise God.
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  And I said he touched my heart when I was reading the Bible,
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  but I didn't quite get to sharing it with her yet and she
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  just cut me off And she said son, that is very, very now
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  she's speaking German. She's the Pennsylvania Dutch
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  language was, which is a German dialect, and she said.
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  That is very prideful, son. To claim that you're saved, you
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  must have an ordinance, You must have the rules.
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  And she didn't want to hear too much about the salvation.
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  So I kind of backed off a little bit.
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  I didn't want to be too forceful.
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  So every year that I go out, I share a little bit of scripture
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  about salvation just to hopefully.
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  And then I pray. I pray under my tongue even
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  while I'm speaking with her because.
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  When I go home, that seed that was planted, I want God to just
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  cause her maybe to have a sleepless night that night and
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  search those scriptures I shared herself and see if God can just
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  maybe maybe reveal some truth to her.
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  Because in person that seems prideful to her.
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  But at least I share a couple of verses just to let her kind of
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  think about it. Yeah, you know, it's it's ironic
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  that she claims that it's prideful to know that you're
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  saved. It's it's really her own pride
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  that thinks that her good works will get her to heaven.
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  It's just ironic. Dustin, I hope you can come
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  back. I have a question if I could
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  yeah please. So I okay.
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  I grew up, my mom was Christian or is Christian and my dad was
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  Hebrew. He passed away.
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  So I grew up with the Hebrew side and when I got older and I
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  left the faith too for about 8 years.
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  And when I came back to the faith, I first came through the
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  Hebrew roots and from what I've observed and and studied for the
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  Amish community, it's sort of similar.
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  It's very, very work based salvation.
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  And they think they're also the chosen people because of all the
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  works they do. But they also connected to
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  genealogy. They firmly believe that they
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  are all the lost tribes of Israel.
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  And I was wondering if there was some kind of connection for the
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  Amish in that way to tie them into the chosen people.
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  Yeah, yeah. They believe they were the
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  chosen people, even occasionally.
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  It wasn't very often. But I did hear the 144,000 come
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  up, which now studying the Bible, I can, I can tell you
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  with certainty that that is the Jews and it's the from the 12
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  tribes of Israel. But I do remember at A at a
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  young age, this was very when I was very young.
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  They used to talk about this, and I heard it in a few sermons
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  on Sunday, but it all went away in my teenage years when there
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  ended up being clearly more than 144,000 Amish people.
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  So that kind of dissipated, you know, It just kind of had no
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  more, no more value that you didn't really hear.
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  It preached. But they still would teach that
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  they were the special people because of their ordinance,
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  because they kept the original. Traditions and values that were
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  inherited by their forefathers. That Jacob Almond had started
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  when he started the Amish religion and he wrote these
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  articles of faith. And as I just before I left the
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  Amish, as I listened to more of the sermons that they were
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  preaching, I realized that the articles of faith that were were
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  written by their forefathers, those rules and it's called
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  cherry picking. The scriptures.
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  They had certain scriptures they would use, but it was something
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  that they had hung on to and I can now I call it kind of a
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  replacement of salvation. They put their security in those
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  rules in that ordinance and that is why I was told by my mom and
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  other Amish that in the in the community that well Eli, it's
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  very priceful just to say that you're safe that means you can
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  just sin freely and. Basically they claimed I have a
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  license to I just used my salvation as a license to say in
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  my sin and live up the world and have clothes like this on.
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  So what what it is, is they they put their security in that and
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  those rules. They believe that that is what
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  aligns them with God. They're God's church.
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  They believe. So if the church votes on every
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  single rule, you know the the, the dress code, how long your
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  cuff on your shirt has to be, you can't have a lay down
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  collar. All of those rules that are
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  voted on and you get baptized at age 17 going on 18.
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  Then you make the oath that you swear to follow God's church,
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  the Amish. You make that between the church
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  and God. So now you can't break that.
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  So that is where they put their security in that if you make
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  that, they believe you were making it to God, so you should
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  never break that. So it doesn't matter if somebody
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  leaves and breaks that and then claims to be saved that has no
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  value to them. So yes, I heard a lot of
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  preaching about being the special chosen people.
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  And again the 144,000 kind of went away when there was more
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  than that. But that's just kind of gives
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  you an idea. Where they kind of put their
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  faith in is to keep like the 10 commandment talks about thou
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  shall honor your father and your mother.
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  And it's the only commandment that comes with a promise that
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  we should be blessed with long life.
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  They take that one more serious than any other commandment in
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  the 10 commandments. So they take the ordinance and
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  its rules and they say. Honoring your father, your
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  mother is to keep that tradition.
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  Yeah. Welcome.
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  Brett Keane. Good to see you.
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  Yeah. It's funny.
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  I mean, I think that the most important commandment is the
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  first commandment that's not have no other gods before me.
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  And I had broken that commandment, and I didn't
• 16:09
  realize it until earlier this year.
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  I had made an idol out of a person.
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  I put a person on a pedestal. And all I cared about was being
• 16:19
  friends with that person instead of my relationship with Jesus.
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  And so he what he did is he knocked that person right off
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  that pedestal. And it broke my heart when it
• 16:30
  happened. But my heart needed to be
• 16:32
  broken. It needed to be so God could
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  begin fixing it, so he could begin fixing it back the way he
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  wants it to be, you know? But yeah.
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  Thank you for joining us, Brett. We are talking with Eli Yoder,
• 16:47
  former Amish, now a now a man who's on fire for the Lord.
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  Do you have any questions for him, Brett?
• 16:55
  I would just how long has it been and what was that like?
• 17:00
  Well, it it's been since 2017 as a truck driver.
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  I was reading in my truck when it when it happened and what it
• 17:07
  was like is peace and joy. I remember when I for example, I
• 17:12
  was in in. The book of John when I got
• 17:15
  saved and I remember stopping reading and asking myself, why
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  do I all at once just want to read more and find out more.
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  Like something was no longer the way it used to be, where I
• 17:27
  wanted to just ask speed, read a couple verses, maybe they'll
• 17:29
  please God, and then go back to watching my porn or whatever
• 17:32
  have you. And so I wanted more like I was
• 17:35
  all at once. There was a thirst and there was
• 17:37
  a hunger. So I started writing these
• 17:39
  verses down. I went in John.
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  I I go through John, I go through ass, I go through
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  Romans. And then when I got to Ephesians
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  I had written down verses that meant something to me.
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  And in in Romans 5-6 I found something that was the same as
• 17:53
  pretty much as Ephesians 28 and 9.
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  And when I both read them I literally came out of my semi
• 18:00
  truck and I shouted and praised God and I said Hallelujah.
• 18:04
  And I found another truck driver and he looked at me like I was
• 18:06
  crazy. I said, do you know where you're
• 18:08
  going if you died today and. That that verse in Ephesians
• 18:14
  2894, By grace are ye saved through faith?
• 18:17
  And then it goes on to say, you know it's a gift of God, not of
• 18:20
  works. And then I crossreference that
• 18:23
  to Romans sick or Romans 11/6 where it says And if by grace,
• 18:29
  then it cannot be based on works.
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  If it were grace would no longer be grace and man.
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  When that clicked in my mind, I come unglued.
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  It's it's it's amazing. What I've told people about you,
• 18:44
  Eli, is that you've you've lived in both worlds.
• 18:48
  There was the first half of your life that was strict legalism,
• 18:52
  that was the bondage of man's religion, and you escaped from
• 18:57
  that, and you went into the world and you got to experience
• 19:00
  the pleasures of this world. You know that.
• 19:03
  You know, what can I do to please my flesh?
• 19:05
  Which, by the way, is something I did too, for about that period
• 19:07
  of time. Or maybe even longer for me.
• 19:11
  And then you. Then.
• 19:12
  Then you found the true answer to life's problems.
• 19:15
  The true, the true reason why we're here on this earth.
• 19:20
  It's to have a relationship with Jesus.
• 19:23
  And I think that's cool that you were able to say, look, I've.
• 19:27
  I've been both places. Neither one of them is the
• 19:30
  answer. Only Jesus is now.
• 19:34
  Are you? You attend church regularly,
• 19:36
  Eli. Yeah, 2 miles from my house.
• 19:38
  Now there's a non denominational church and I started that about
• 19:42
  the same time. You know, I was still over the
• 19:43
  road and I couldn't go over Sunday because I was over the
• 19:45
  road. But I remember asking my
• 19:47
  neighbor he was a a born again Christian and I went to him
• 19:50
  right away when I was when I finally got saved, you know, and
• 19:53
  I came to him and I said, you know, I know you're a Christian.
• 19:56
  I said, you know, I come from the Amish and and I see all
• 19:58
  these labels on different church buildings and these names and
• 20:02
  denominations and I said. Can you help me?
• 20:04
  And he says well absolutely I can help you.
• 20:06
  I said you know I just want some some church out here that that
• 20:11
  has the truth, teaches the truth and and and wants to stay with
• 20:15
  what the Bible says and not change.
• 20:16
  He immediately said there's a New Hampshire Community Church
• 20:19
  it's a non denominational and when he said non denominational
• 20:22
  I said OK that is tickle in my ears.
• 20:24
  I I'm ready to check that out and I've been there since.
• 20:27
  Yeah, good. Yeah.
• 20:28
  I myself also attend a non denominational church and my
• 20:32
  pastor. Like you, he's on fire for the
• 20:35
  Lord. But he had been a his name is
• 20:38
  Grant Cole. He used to be a drug dealer and
• 20:41
  he got saved while he was in prison on a life sentence and
• 20:45
  was somehow miraculously freed after he got saved.
• 20:49
  And so yeah, I I attended non denominational, but you know
• 20:54
  some of the best videos, some of the funniest videos I've seen
• 20:57
  that that you have posted are the ones where when you first
• 21:01
  left the Amish. You know, it was such a
• 21:04
  sheltered environment. It was such a structured
• 21:07
  environment. You had to learn things that
• 21:10
  that us English people would consider basics, you know, like
• 21:14
  hygiene, dress. What kind of clothes am I?
• 21:19
  Does an English person wear? You know, you want to tell us a
• 21:22
  little bit more about that? Yeah, yeah, that was, that was
• 21:24
  definitely something that my, my buddies that helped me out got a
• 21:29
  kick out of and sometimes they'd laugh and you know they didn't
• 21:32
  mean it to to try to offend me. But they was just bizarre
• 21:35
  things, you know, taking me down the toothpaste aisle and and I
• 21:38
  had never had a toothbrush or toothpaste in my mouth so and
• 21:42
  and then getting a haircut, you know, the hair, the round bull
• 21:44
  Amish haircut was falling off. I remember I was about to just
• 21:48
  run right out of the the the barbershop there because it I
• 21:51
  felt such a sick feeling in my stomach when it started falling
• 21:55
  off that I looked over at my buddy that helped me leave the
• 21:58
  Amish. He says are you okay?
• 21:59
  And I said no, I feel like throwing up.
• 22:01
  He goes, just take a deep breath.
• 22:03
  It's fine. You're not going to go to hell
• 22:04
  for cutting those hair off. But see, it was embedded into my
• 22:08
  into my young innocent mind since, you know, a child.
• 22:12
  And and it was almost like it all at once.
• 22:13
  It hit me and I felt like I needed to run because the the
• 22:17
  hair's falling off and I was told that you must have that
• 22:21
  haircut that way. And according to the Amish.
• 22:24
  And so I had, I started feeling all this guilt.
• 22:27
  And then you know, after the haircut, we go into the store
• 22:29
  and you know, he, he's trying to buy me these underwear and
• 22:32
  stuff, which I wasn't used to either.
• 22:35
  And he, I was grabbing, not picking nothing out that match.
• 22:38
  And then I picked out a pair of women's jeans.
• 22:41
  And I as long as they were jeans and not Amish clothes, I was
• 22:44
  ready to go with it. And he's like, hey, hey, that's
• 22:47
  that's women's jeans, I'll help you.
• 22:49
  So if I didn't have people like that to help me, I just there
• 22:52
  was just no way I would have made it because being that kind
• 22:55
  of what I call cut off to society and that sheltered you
• 22:59
  really don't know those little things.
• 23:01
  You know, like the shower. You know we we got to his house
• 23:03
  there and of course we only got a we had a tradition of only get
• 23:06
  in the bath on Saturday night. So.
• 23:08
  So he he told me he says hey, if you're going to live here and
• 23:12
  and and enjoy the the English world.
• 23:14
  He called it and he says you're going to get a shower you're
• 23:16
  going to get cleaned up. I said OK I can do that.
• 23:19
  And I went in there and I remember he showed me where the
• 23:21
  shower was, you know, and he turned me loose and just walked
• 23:24
  away. And I remember I I sat in there
• 23:27
  and I was playing with the knob. I couldn't figure nothing out.
• 23:29
  An hour later he comes back and he says, I'm so sorry.
• 23:32
  You need help turning that on, don't you?
• 23:34
  And I said, yeah, I I need some water in here.
• 23:36
  I I don't know what I'm doing here.
• 23:37
  And and then he turned the water on and I said in it he goes,
• 23:40
  hey, you know, you can stand up that that'll come out.
• 23:43
  You turned the knob and comes out.
• 23:46
  And so just all those things is what he started realizing how
• 23:51
  little I knew and how he had to to show me all of that.
• 23:53
  And then for another, another example, he had to go somewhere.
• 23:56
  Him and his wife and his children left.
• 23:58
  And I was home this particular Sunday.
• 24:01
  And he said, now, now if you get hungry, here's the microwave and
• 24:04
  here's how it works. You push the button, you know,
• 24:06
  and it opened up and you put it in there.
• 24:08
  So he had some leftover pizza, and he also had some other foods
• 24:14
  that that was in there that I could have put in the microwave
• 24:17
  and warmed up. But I went up there and I had
• 24:19
  also a bag of popcorn. So I'm like, well, which one do
• 24:22
  I put in first while I went with the popcorn?
• 24:24
  But then I was like, hey, there's button that says pizza.
• 24:29
  There's a button that says popcorn, There's a button that
• 24:31
  says this and that. All of this.
• 24:32
  And I didn't know what this stuff, man.
• 24:34
  So I put my popcorn in, I closed the door and I thought for a
• 24:36
  minute, man, that pizza looks awfully good.
• 24:38
  So I hit pizza. Well, when it gets done, I'm
• 24:41
  like, it ain't pizza. I thought that much world had
• 24:45
  all this figured out, that it could.
• 24:46
  Turn a baked potato into. That is good.
• 24:51
  That is. That's the kind of stuff I had
• 24:53
  to learn. Yeah, yeah, I.
• 24:55
  Like that. I have a question for you, if
• 24:57
  you don't mind. You said that it was not that
• 25:01
  many years ago you had just started reading the English
• 25:04
  Bible, and I was curious what translation you preferred.
• 25:08
  Well, I was in my semi truck with the new international
• 25:12
  version and that that time that was the easiest one for me to
• 25:16
  read because it was just speaking in in English, you
• 25:20
  know. So that's what I got saved on
• 25:22
  was the new international version.
• 25:24
  Now when COVID hit, we all had a lot of time on our hands.
• 25:29
  During that time, I had already, you know, been doing videos and
• 25:32
  and sharing the gospel. And I noticed that there was a
• 25:35
  lot of denominations out here that started commenting on my
• 25:38
  content and just kind of attacking me, hey, you're using
• 25:41
  Satan's Bible. And see, now I'm open.
• 25:44
  I don't, I don't listen to humans.
• 25:45
  I listen to the word of God. So what I realized was a lot of
• 25:49
  people started making an idol out of certain versions.
• 25:52
  And so I said OK, because of that I'm going to read all of
• 25:55
  them. And I right now I have 7 Bibles
• 25:59
  in my semi truck and I read the new International version, the
• 26:03
  NASB and the NLT in the New American Standard Bible.
• 26:07
  The new King James is actually becoming my favorite and then
• 26:11
  the King James. And so I just go down to listen
• 26:13
  I in the ESV that's a really good one too.
• 26:15
  And so I I just started reading all of them.
• 26:17
  So if you ask me what Bible I read, guess what?
• 26:19
  I read all of them. Yeah, yeah, you made an
• 26:22
  interesting .1 that I hadn't thought of.
• 26:24
  There are people who do make idols out of their version of
• 26:29
  the Bible that they think this is the right one.
• 26:31
  And so even though I. I prefer the King James.
• 26:35
  I'm not going to be dogmatic about it.
• 26:37
  I refuse to be dogmatic about it.
• 26:39
  Proverbs Guy uses NASB and I'm sure he's not dogmatic either.
• 26:46
  You know I. Try not to talk about it so I
• 26:48
  don't get stoned by you King James only guys.
• 26:52
  There won't be any rocks thrown at you from me because it it's
• 26:58
  there's so many issues that Christians can agree to disagree
• 27:03
  on. And you know, the important
• 27:07
  thing is, do we have the basics down?
• 27:10
  Do we have Jesus at the very center and do we believe that he
• 27:17
  is came down as God in the flesh, born of a virgin, died
• 27:21
  for our sins and rose from the dead?
• 27:23
  You know, then, then it starts to go out from there.
• 27:25
  You know, maybe we can agree, disagree on some of these other
• 27:28
  things, but we have to have the basics down and and just.
• 27:34
  The entire Bible, all 66 books, is the word of God.
• 27:40
  And we may not like some of the stuff that's in there, You know,
• 27:46
  I used to attend a church that affirmed A sinful lifestyle, and
• 27:54
  I believed it. But in 2019, when God chased me
• 28:00
  and began to get me right with him, he began to show me.
• 28:04
  That that type of activity is sinful, whether you like it or
• 28:08
  not. You may not want to be sinful
• 28:11
  but if I say it's sinful, it's sinful.
• 28:14
  And if you love me, you're going to obey me.
• 28:17
  And and I will say that said this to me times that the the
• 28:21
  life I'm living now living for God to the best of my ability
• 28:27
  and surrounding myself with fellow believers who can
• 28:30
  encourage me. It's the.
• 28:32
  Best life I've ever lived. And all that stuff that I gave
• 28:36
  up, I don't need it. And of course I'm still human
• 28:40
  and I still stumble. I'm not going to ever be
• 28:42
  perfect. But you know, I've had a few
• 28:46
  friends say, oh, look at you, you're holier than now now.
• 28:49
  And I'm like, look, it's not anything I did.
• 28:52
  It's not me. I don't get the credit for this.
• 28:54
  God does. God gives the glory for it.
• 28:57
  You know Eli Brett Keen below you has a.
• 29:01
  A similar but total opposite testimony.
• 29:04
  Whereas you came from a real work based salvation.
• 29:09
  Would you describe it as a cult? You're asking me Yes Sir.
• 29:17
  Oh yes, yeah. I I absolutely describe that as
• 29:19
  a cult because it's it's a brainwashing, it's a deception.
• 29:23
  It's lying. And and when you use that when
• 29:26
  one man, when I looked up the first time the definition of a
• 29:29
  cult because I thought that was maybe too strong of a term that
• 29:32
  would be too offensive. But so I wanted to know the
• 29:34
  definition of it. And if you look at the
• 29:36
  definition of a cult, it's it's man starting something and and
• 29:40
  making people believe what he's teaching and saying and then
• 29:44
  getting those followers. So yes, not all Amish are
• 29:47
  because there are some new owners that are very open and
• 29:51
  they teach salvation. I cannot.
• 29:52
  I will never say that they're all a cult.
• 29:55
  But the the ones that keep the original Amish system, the
• 29:58
  original articles of faith because of how they teach it,
• 30:02
  Yes, absolutely. They are a cult.
• 30:04
  And see, Brett was also once part of the cult, but also a
• 30:07
  very influential cult leader. He was one of the leading
• 30:10
  atheists on YouTube and now he's a believer also.
• 30:14
  So you guys have kind of a similar background, even though
• 30:17
  they're like far different extremes on on spectrum.
• 30:21
  It's true. I later on started calling of
• 30:24
  the death cult as well. Very good point.
• 30:29
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. One of the things that really
• 30:33
  touched me about your testimony, Eli, was your relationship with
• 30:37
  your dad. And I know he ended up at one
• 30:40
  point taking his life, but do you want to share a little bit
• 30:43
  about that? It was a, it was a very brutal
• 30:49
  upbringing. It was not fun growing up in a
• 30:51
  very abusive house. Because you're talking about my
• 30:55
  father being shunned. You know, he did not meet the
• 30:59
  requirements, the standards that the church enforced.
• 31:03
  And so he was very depressed. And now his mom, my grandma, she
• 31:07
  left when he was just a little child.
• 31:09
  And there's a lot of reasons I found out later.
• 31:10
  Long story short, my dad's the impression basically started
• 31:14
  then he did not understand why mom would say she loves me and
• 31:18
  one day just disappeared. Now he is just being raised by
• 31:21
  my grandpa which was also very very abusive.
• 31:24
  Now when he started getting up there in age and you know he got
• 31:28
  married to my mom which I I still to this day don't
• 31:30
  understand how he was attracted to the Bishop's daughter.
• 31:32
  But my mom is the Bishop's daughter.
• 31:35
  And my dad, he ended up marrying her and now he became so
• 31:39
  depressed that he turned to alcohol, even when I was just a
• 31:42
  baby. So at a very young age, we saw
• 31:45
  some very horrible things in the home.
• 31:47
  Because if he got home on a Sunday and the church had
• 31:50
  shunned him because mom obviously had to be obedient to
• 31:53
  the church and tell them if dad did drink.
• 31:55
  And so they shunned him and maybe added more weeks to the
• 31:58
  shunning. And so he would come home.
• 32:00
  And, I mean, it was just the one I remember very vividly was mom
• 32:05
  laying on the floor being strangled and her whole face was
• 32:08
  turning blue. I thought she was dead.
• 32:09
  I thought she was gone. So things like that I saw
• 32:12
  throwing up. And then we also, all of my
• 32:14
  siblings, we endured a lot of physical abuse.
• 32:16
  So I say that to get you to realize how I feared my father
• 32:21
  all of my childhood. And then I get up in the teenage
• 32:24
  years where he would sometimes make me go with him to do work.
• 32:29
  Now there's some funny moments where I finally was like, wow,
• 32:32
  you know, this is fun. My dad is breaking church rules
• 32:34
  and he's like, hey son, you want to go break some some rules with
• 32:37
  me? And that I've shared some of
• 32:38
  those moments on TikTok and YouTube.
• 32:40
  And then the day came when I wanted to leave the Amish.
• 32:43
  And I remember leaving my diary behind because I I forgot it.
• 32:48
  I was wanting to take it, but I left it behind because I had
• 32:52
  other things that were more important to me and and that I
• 32:54
  wanted to take with me. So the diary had everything in
• 32:58
  it that I experienced since early teenage years.
• 33:01
  Showing emotions shows weakness. You don't cry, You hold that in.
• 33:06
  And so I had nobody to talk to. If you shared something you were
• 33:10
  told, well, you didn't forgive that.
• 33:11
  Then if you're sharing that and bringing that back up, you got
• 33:14
  to drop that, you got to forgive.
• 33:16
  So you always held it in. So once I got this diary I'm
• 33:20
  writing, all I'm speaking to the the pages, every day was filled.
• 33:24
  I had no room left. And so now the day comes where
• 33:27
  I'm leaving the Amish and my dad, when he came home from
• 33:31
  church, he sees he finds the diary and he reads this entire
• 33:35
  diary and I'm already left the Amish that day.
• 33:38
  The next day he comes down to the pallet shop which was next
• 33:40
  door and he was owned by the nonamish people.
• 33:42
  So they paid me under the table. They had to pay me cash because
• 33:45
  I didn't have no Social Security number.
• 33:46
  I had no and I wasn't part of the government system.
• 33:49
  So he comes walking down with that and I remember just feeling
• 33:53
  sick to my stomach. And I saw him starting to cry.
• 33:56
  And that's the first time I saw my dad get emotional to the
• 34:00
  point where he just walked up to me.
• 34:02
  And I mean, I couldn't believe the words that came out of his
• 34:05
  mouth. He said, son, I love you.
• 34:08
  And it was yes, get choked up even trying to say it again.
• 34:12
  But he, I realized that he was starting to blame himself.
• 34:14
  And I told him, I said, damn, it's not your fault, it's the
• 34:19
  church's fault. You know, I was joining getting
• 34:21
  ready to take the classes to to get baptized.
• 34:23
  And and I got caught breaking some rules and I even rode a
• 34:25
  bicycle. And they told me, I just, you
• 34:28
  know, I didn't qualify now to get baptized because that's
• 34:30
  breaking the church rules. So I told Dad, I said that's the
• 34:33
  reason I'm leaving because I felt bad that he was reading
• 34:36
  this all at once. I didn't want him to to see
• 34:40
  everything I was writing down that he did to me.
• 34:44
  And now it's like, whoa. But you know what?
• 34:46
  Look at that, guys. God wanted him to be aware what
• 34:51
  he was doing to his kids. He wanted my dad to see that.
• 34:55
  And and I remember I was so disgusted that I grabbed it out
• 34:58
  of his hand and there was a dumpster there.
• 34:59
  And I went over and I just threw the diary right in the dumpster.
• 35:02
  And I got rid of it. Now, right after that moment, my
• 35:06
  dad allowed me to sneak out on Sundays when nobody else was
• 35:09
  around. He'd stay home from church and I
• 35:11
  started visiting with him. Mom had a rule.
• 35:13
  You have to wear Amish clothing and you have to park next door.
• 35:16
  Dad is allowing me and and my wife now that is on the wall in
• 35:20
  the portrait behind me there. My I was dating her at the time
• 35:23
  so he allowed us to just drive the car right in when nobody
• 35:26
  else was there. So we start establishing a
• 35:30
  relationship. For five years we we did secret
• 35:36
  meetings. Sometimes he would even get a
• 35:38
  driver and come to my apartment in town and I realized something
• 35:43
  because I was no longer part of the system and I loved him.
• 35:47
  No matter how broken he was, no matter how drunk he was, no
• 35:50
  matter how angry and in a rage, he wasn't cussing.
• 35:53
  I just listened to him and that started drawing him to me.
• 35:57
  I was not bashing him. I was not telling him, hey, you
• 36:00
  should stop drinking. I loved him and even offered a
• 36:04
  home to him and said Dad if you just leave the Amish you're
• 36:08
  welcome here. And that's when it started
• 36:11
  clicking with me. I'm like, wait a minute.
• 36:13
  The church is rejecting him, shunning him.
• 36:15
  He just wants to be loved. And and he wasn't getting that.
• 36:21
  That's what he was searching for.
• 36:22
  That's what he was desiring. But he wasn't getting it.
• 36:24
  So he turns to alcohol. He turns to all these things
• 36:28
  that are destroying the body to to to find peace.
• 36:33
  And then the day came, which is now five years after I had left
• 36:36
  the Amish. And I'm just kind of skimming
• 36:38
  the surface here because eventually he said, OK, I'm
• 36:41
  done, I'm ready to go. I'm going to leave the Amish.
• 36:43
  And I was. I was very excited.
• 36:45
  This was in 2003, exactly five years after I left.
• 36:49
  And so I didn't really believe him at first.
• 36:51
  But then we had another in between Sunday before he was
• 36:53
  supposed to leave the date that he had set.
• 36:55
  And I reminded him, I said, now you told me a week ago that
• 36:59
  you're going to leave the Amish. Come live with me.
• 37:01
  I said, Are you still serious? Yep.
• 37:03
  I come out at 9:00 AM they'll be going to church, pick me up.
• 37:07
  I'm leaving the Amish and on Saturday I got the worst phone
• 37:10
  call of my entire life that he had ended his life by suicide.
• 37:15
  And I remember I wrestled with that.
• 37:17
  My alcoholism started heavy, heavy at that time.
• 37:20
  I couldn't make sense of it. And now looking back after I got
• 37:25
  saved, I always you know, it's like the God just gave me
• 37:28
  comfort in in realizing that okay he has one son that is
• 37:33
  exomish. But look at all the other
• 37:36
  siblings. He loved them too.
• 37:38
  So it it it was a tough decision for him to make.
• 37:42
  Do I go with the only one Eli that is not Amish and abandon
• 37:47
  all the rest? I thought he's over the hump
• 37:49
  where he's ready for that. But I I have to drop it.
• 37:51
  I I could not continue to be myself up over it because for a
• 37:55
  long time I was killing myself just by sitting out there the
• 37:58
  graveyard and just you know with with alcohol.
• 38:00
  I had cases of alcohol and I'm I'm drinking with dad even
• 38:03
  though he's in the grave and I'm dumping a case down in the
• 38:05
  ground and I'm drinking a case. And I realized my my wife was so
• 38:08
  affected that she didn't even want to sit there and watch me
• 38:11
  anymore. She was so torn that she went to
• 38:13
  the car and just left and let me sit there for a couple hours.
• 38:16
  And then I realized, wait a minute, I'm hurting her.
• 38:19
  I'm hurting her. She's now struggling because she
• 38:21
  sees my pain. And I had to quit doing that
• 38:25
  because I didn't know Jesus did at that time.
• 38:27
  So I didn't know that I could give that burden to Jesus.
• 38:30
  But for a long time I became a severe alcoholic just because I
• 38:34
  wanted answers for why, and I didn't have those.
• 38:37
  Answers do the Amish not teach about Jesus?
• 38:46
  They they preach Jesus, but they we were.
• 38:48
  We were taught that if you don't ask for forgiveness and get the
• 38:53
  Bishop and the congregation, the baptized church members to vote
• 38:57
  to forgive you, only then when they vote to forgive you, then
• 39:00
  Jesus cause either God's church they claim, so they have to vote
• 39:03
  to forgive you before Jesus can forgive you.
• 39:06
  But if they don't vote to forgive you and you die, no, no,
• 39:10
  they they believe Jesus did not forgive that person.
• 39:13
  Oh, wow. They're they're putting
• 39:16
  themselves above Jesus, actually, Yes.
• 39:19
  Yeah. And that's why they buried my
• 39:20
  father separately, you know in in the corner because they
• 39:23
  believe that he committed murder.
• 39:26
  So they they they fenced him off in a corner and put him
• 39:28
  separately in the any. I've got a lot of videos on
• 39:30
  that. And so they took judging in
• 39:33
  their own hands, and here's they don't know any better.
• 39:35
  Guys, put your mindset right into how they think, Okay.
• 39:39
  So they believe they're God's church and now they're going to
• 39:42
  judge for God, right? So they judged him and buried
• 39:45
  him separately, thinking it's going to favor them.
• 39:48
  You know, God's going to favor them for doing that for God.
• 39:53
  Ellie, I subscribe to your channel.
• 39:56
  I I want to say I'm sorry about the hell and pain that you've
• 39:59
  had to suffer. Terrible.
• 40:01
  It sounds like you've really come a long way, but wow, very
• 40:06
  tough story. Well, it's only, you know, I had
• 40:10
  to go through what I did because I wouldn't have the ZI.
• 40:13
  Praise God. This is God's testimony.
• 40:14
  I mean this. I wouldn't be on fire for the
• 40:16
  Word and be where I'm at today if I didn't go through those
• 40:19
  things. Those things were all meant to
• 40:21
  strengthen me, if you know what I mean.
• 40:23
  Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely.
• 40:25
  And you know I've seen some of your many of your videos, Eli,
• 40:29
  that I. I almost look at this as being
• 40:32
  before the other people. I would be doing everything, but
• 40:34
  I actually learned some things from you tonight that I didn't
• 40:38
  previously know. So that's really good.
• 40:41
  Jordan, thank you for joining us, brother.
• 40:45
  You have any anything to say and you have any, have you been
• 40:48
  listening? Do you have any questions for
• 40:50
  Eli? Can y'all hear me?
• 40:55
  Yes, and the feedback stops, so that's great.
• 41:09
  Well, Ellie, while we're waiting for him to get through his lag
• 41:11
  and delay, I want you to know. And I'm sure others feel the
• 41:15
  same or say the same. But anytime you need a friend or
• 41:18
  someone to talk to, I'm I'm all ears, all right?
• 41:24
  Well, I really appreciate that, man.
• 41:26
  Yeah, there's been a lot of. And my my real family now, it's
• 41:29
  just been amazing ever since I, you know, the local, not just
• 41:33
  the local church. I mean, I'm affiliate with a
• 41:34
  group called Truckers for Christ.
• 41:36
  I mean there's so many brothers and sisters out here that have
• 41:39
  the same in common. They love Jesus.
• 41:41
  And you know, that is where I got my strengths from all of
• 41:44
  that support. You know, all of those that just
• 41:47
  loved on me, prayed for me, encouraged me.
• 41:50
  I'm on as a truck driver. I'm on the phone every day with
• 41:52
  brothers and sisters in Christ and that just strengthens me
• 41:55
  every day. So all of you guys.
• 41:58
  Yeah, yeah. This is this.
• 42:00
  Is. You know, the family of God is
• 42:03
  the one that will endure forever, because sadly, we all
• 42:08
  have all of us have blood relatives that we're not going
• 42:11
  to be with an eternity, but our spiritual brothers and sisters
• 42:16
  will always be with us. And.
• 42:18
  That's what that's really what matters.
• 42:22
  And you guys are a pretty sweet Plan B.
• 42:27
  Absolutely. I'm sorry, you had a question,
• 42:31
  Brett. Well, I was going to ask him,
• 42:34
  what is it? If you don't mind me asking,
• 42:37
  what's it like being like in that closed in area and then
• 42:40
  suddenly being in a truck and just being able to see the world
• 42:44
  and the mornings and the dawns and all that kind of stuff.
• 42:50
  Well, it was overwhelming. I obviously doubted myself that
• 42:52
  I could even do such a thing as driving a truck and.
• 42:55
  So I did odd jobs here and there and I was working for a couple
• 42:59
  different contractors. And then obviously in 2008 as
• 43:03
  you all know the the major recession that we had and it
• 43:06
  seemed like everybody was losing their jobs and my company went
• 43:09
  bankrupt. And so that's kind of where I
• 43:11
  took the opportunity to get my GED.
• 43:13
  You know, I I only had an Amish 8th grade education.
• 43:15
  So I got my GED and then there was all these government grants,
• 43:18
  you know, and and they said. You know they'll give me a grant
• 43:22
  for anything I'm going to go to school for.
• 43:23
  And and I looked at all of you know, police officer doctor all
• 43:26
  of this stuff and firefighter and truck driver and I'm like
• 43:30
  okay, I I could probably try any of these but what's the highest
• 43:33
  demanding job in the country. And they said truck driver.
• 43:37
  I said okay I'll pick that one. And even though I doubted that I
• 43:40
  could pass the test, I just said, you know what if I put my
• 43:43
  all into it, let's see what happens.
• 43:45
  And I passed it pretty easily and.
• 43:47
  That was really when we didn't have a whole lot of history in
• 43:50
  the Amish school. So yeah, I knew of the States.
• 43:53
  I kind of kind of memorized them.
• 43:55
  We we did learn them. But I didn't realize how big the
• 43:59
  world was until I got out there as a truck driver.
• 44:01
  And I mean, it was just I I still love it.
• 44:04
  I don't see myself doing anything different.
• 44:06
  I just love going state to state, seeing God's beautiful
• 44:09
  creation out there. It's just a wonderful, beautiful
• 44:11
  thing. I have to tell you personally,
• 44:13
  brother, I think you may have made the wrong choice.
• 44:16
  If you had gone from Amish to cop, man, that would have been a
• 44:20
  sitcom Jerry signed. Well, my brother, Melvin Yoder
• 44:23
  left the Amish to get that he did.
• 44:26
  Yes, my brother, Melvin Yoder, he became a cop.
• 44:29
  He was a local city police officer right there in our
• 44:31
  hometown. Even gave a couple Amish people
• 44:33
  a ticket. And now he has upgraded to the
• 44:37
  Sheriff's Department. Now he's a K9 on the Sheriff's
• 44:39
  Department. So how many of your siblings
• 44:43
  have? Come away from that community
• 44:45
  and are they all saved, the ones who have left?
• 44:48
  Not just two of us, just me and Melvin that left.
• 44:50
  Now he's he's been struggling. I'm, I'm helping him along the
• 44:53
  way as well. He's struggling with some things
• 44:56
  and bitterness obviously because of what mom said.
• 44:58
  Mom told us recently that we could not, could not come to her
• 45:01
  funeral when she passes away and that really affected him and so
• 45:04
  I'm kind of helping him along the way with with that to try to
• 45:07
  overcome that and not hold a grudge or anything.
• 45:09
  But obviously the ones that are still Amish, which the rest of
• 45:12
  them all are. They don't really believe in
• 45:14
  salvation so that they're always in my prayers and and I keep on
• 45:17
  going out and visiting here and there just to I know God can do
• 45:20
  it. He did it to me.
• 45:21
  He saved me from the fence of hell.
• 45:22
  I know he can do it. Where did they?
• 45:25
  Where did they come up with this kind of stuff, saying that you
• 45:28
  can't sympathize or mourn or grieve your own loved ones?
• 45:33
  Where does that come from? This is all stuff handed down
• 45:36
  from their forefathers. This is stuff that their parents
• 45:39
  and their parents and their parents did.
• 45:41
  They practice this stuff and they don't know any better.
• 45:43
  It is something that they believe is the best system,
• 45:46
  God's system, God's church. So this original Old Order Amish
• 45:51
  system is something they put their faith in.
• 45:53
  I mean they they are willing and I want.
• 45:56
  There's a book called Martyrs Mirror.
• 45:58
  These individuals in this book called Martyrs Mirror are our
• 46:01
  Anna Baptist forefathers and they really, really look up to
• 46:05
  that they because those in Switzerland, the Anna Baptists,
• 46:08
  were being persecuted and martyred and killed.
• 46:10
  For their faith and even their rules.
• 46:12
  So the Amish faith in in their system and what they inherited,
• 46:16
  they believe they should die for that.
• 46:18
  So they're not going to change like for example in in my
• 46:20
  community right now they're refusing to follow the Ohio
• 46:23
  State law and putting a blinker on their buggy.
• 46:26
  So the sheriff department, they got a good relationship with him
• 46:28
  so that they let him be. But in Ashland County they they
• 46:31
  started arresting them. They started giving them tickets
• 46:33
  and they wouldn't pay paid the tickets.
• 46:35
  And the judge eventually realized he just has to let him
• 46:37
  off the hook because they were willing to go to prison, go to
• 46:40
  jail and even death for a blinker on the buggy because
• 46:46
  that is how they look up to their forefathers.
• 46:48
  So when you if you asked where it started, it started clear
• 46:51
  back into Anna Baptist movement in Switzerland and it came to
• 46:54
  America. They became Amish.
• 46:57
  They became Mennonites branched off of that, The Hutterites
• 46:59
  branched off of that. I mean, you have all of these
• 47:01
  groups that keep those values and they're willing to lay down
• 47:04
  their life for it. Interesting question for you.
• 47:08
  So you mentioned earlier that you would kind of sneak away and
• 47:11
  hang out with your friend who was an Englishman.
• 47:14
  Did you guys ever sneak any of the English into the community
• 47:18
  for a day to hang out with all of your community?
• 47:21
  Well, we had English friends that would stop by, but we would
• 47:23
  get backlash from the church because there's Amish houses are
• 47:27
  scattered all across the country, so they see if there's
• 47:29
  somebody. In our driveway, parked there
• 47:32
  with the car too long. Also, even in our property,
• 47:34
  there's a little County Road that went through our backwoods
• 47:37
  back there. And sometimes they wouldn't
• 47:39
  catch us right away. But we had some English friends
• 47:41
  that love coming, hanging out with us.
• 47:43
  We'd go ride horses back there and their children would play
• 47:45
  with us, but Dad always reminded us they don't don't make, don't
• 47:50
  make it known because of the army.
• 47:51
  See this? They do not want you being too.
• 47:54
  Close and friendly with those English people because they can
• 47:57
  have a bad influence on you. Where the US young boys could be
• 48:01
  tempted to want to live that life, well it worked because I
• 48:03
  did want to live that life. So I wouldn't say that we did
• 48:06
  would sneak them in for a long period of time, but it was just
• 48:09
  periodically. If we got the chance, we would
• 48:11
  hang out with some of our English friends.
• 48:15
  That's pretty cool. Can you share with us maybe like
• 48:18
  one of the most interesting times you were able to hang out
• 48:20
  with the English? Yeah.
• 48:23
  There was. Go ahead.
• 48:25
  Hey, how's it going, Lupin? Hey Lupin, how are you?
• 48:29
  Go ahead, Eli. Yeah, yeah, we had, we had some
• 48:31
  English neighbors that always enjoyed allowing us to break the
• 48:36
  Amish rules. And so we had some of them that
• 48:39
  would allow us to watch television.
• 48:40
  And so I would watch, you know, the westerns that the, the
• 48:44
  shows, the Western movies and and I would.
• 48:47
  I actually believed it was true. I thought it was happening right
• 48:50
  there at that time. So when I first started having
• 48:52
  thoughts of leaving the Amish, I knew that when I left I was
• 48:56
  going to do everything I could to find out where that's at and
• 48:59
  become a cowboy and be a Western with a gun because I was
• 49:02
  watching that on the television. So.
• 49:04
  So we always loved going back there to the English neighbors
• 49:07
  and especially after Dart where nobody would see us and and do
• 49:11
  stuff like that. Now they also loved taking us
• 49:13
  the rides and taking us to different places.
• 49:15
  And we would. Maybe tell mom and dad that
• 49:17
  we're doing construction and he they would take us some place
• 49:20
  like the fair. All that was just amazing.
• 49:22
  So many people everywhere. There's rides everywhere, but we
• 49:25
  didn't want to get busted because that would have been
• 49:27
  some harsh consequences. Yeah, wow.
• 49:30
  Do you want to take us up to the present day and talk about how
• 49:37
  you're ministering now to people who want to be freed from the
• 49:41
  honors community, or who? Who have been freed and and how
• 49:45
  they're how you're helping to adjust to to society.
• 49:49
  Yeah, it's just been amazing with technology.
• 49:51
  You know, I was, I was told growing up that smartphones are
• 49:55
  basically the mark of the beast. They called it you can't have
• 49:58
  phones. But yet because of technology
• 50:01
  and because of the phones, when I first started, you know, just
• 50:03
  sharing the word of God, and then I started interviewing
• 50:05
  former Amish, former Mennonite, and people from, you know,
• 50:08
  religious backgrounds. And then as I just kept
• 50:11
  preaching and sharing the word of God.
• 50:13
  More and more people that were out of those cultures, from my
• 50:17
  pupil, the Amish were stumbling across my videos and I had no
• 50:20
  idea what God was going to do. It just exploded.
• 50:23
  And I have multiple platforms where there's just hundreds of
• 50:26
  thousands of former Amish, former Mennonite, and by the
• 50:29
  way, even Amish, because now there are some Amish groups
• 50:32
  where they're sneaking around phones and they're watching me.
• 50:35
  Yeah, there's some negative ones, but you know, it's you're
• 50:39
  going to get a mixture of all of them.
• 50:40
  There's a lot of them that are searching for truth.
• 50:42
  Last 217 says God in the last days will pour out his spirit on
• 50:45
  all flesh. There's a lot of people
• 50:47
  searching for truth and when they stumble up on the truth and
• 50:50
  I'm sharing it out out of the Bible, they reach out.
• 50:52
  So it's been a beautiful wonderful thing to be able to
• 50:56
  minister to these people. Sometimes they're still in the
• 50:58
  communities and they want answers.
• 50:59
  They're asking, hey, what does this Bible verse mean?
• 51:02
  So along the way guys, we have been able, I'm now responsible
• 51:05
  since 2015. 14 to help more than 200 of them leave the Amish.
• 51:11
  And it's been amazing to put them on like there's so many
• 51:14
  former Amish construction crews out here.
• 51:16
  So we we get them out and we're able to get help them get their
• 51:19
  birth certificate, Social Security number and put them on
• 51:22
  those former Amish construction crews where they can start
• 51:24
  making money right away, help them get a car, get their
• 51:26
  apartments. And so it's just been absolutely
• 51:29
  amazing, yes. Wow.
• 51:31
  And this isn't just. Helping them get away from
• 51:34
  there, but this is helping them get a place to go.
• 51:37
  Teaching them the things like brushing your teeth, hygiene
• 51:40
  like you described earlier, 200 people.
• 51:44
  Yeah, yeah, we we really, we really kind of got well known
• 51:49
  when when I teamed up with a group in 2020, 2020, I teamed up
• 51:54
  with a group that was called Amish Rescue Mission and they
• 51:58
  were. Solely focused on helping
• 52:00
  victims coming out of the Amish because those women that started
• 52:04
  that group called Amish Rest Commission, they are victims
• 52:06
  that came from you know bad incest and and sexual abuse and
• 52:10
  stuff like that. So a lot of the members that are
• 52:12
  working with her, they wanted me to work with them.
• 52:14
  So I did there for a while And so you were able to really get
• 52:18
  some deep information from within the community and and
• 52:21
  once we get some of that information we would report that
• 52:24
  to law enforcement. So it was also.
• 52:26
  A wonderful thing to be able to help those victims that were
• 52:28
  trapped. You know, the church makes it go
• 52:30
  away. They they don't report that
• 52:31
  stuff to the outside. So we were able to sometimes
• 52:33
  report these crimes to law enforcement and actually get
• 52:36
  justice. Otherwise they would have never
• 52:38
  gotten justice. Is it?
• 52:39
  More men or women? Or is it a mixture of both?
• 52:44
  I did a video not long ago about this, but you're going to your
• 52:46
  mind is going to be blown out of 200 plus people I have helped
• 52:50
  leave the Amish. I have personally only helped
• 52:52
  two women leave the Amish. They are sheltered, they are
• 52:58
  making clothes, they are cooking, canning, gardening.
• 53:01
  They don't really get out, especially the old order of
• 53:03
  where I'm from. The women are very sheltered and
• 53:06
  the men are the ones going out doing construction.
• 53:08
  They're the ones that go do business with the English
• 53:10
  worldly people. They get to know those people to
• 53:12
  plan their escape, while the women just do not.
• 53:15
  So you'd say like the women are more or less kind of trapped in
• 53:19
  their. Just due to the nature of, you
• 53:22
  know, the Amish, people like that's that's their position is
• 53:25
  probably just to cook, clean, do all the things that a wife would
• 53:30
  do so they don't get a chance and go out right.
• 53:33
  Yes, absolutely. The one the women that are
• 53:35
  leaving are coming from more of the more liberal, you know, more
• 53:38
  modernized kind of Amish communities where they have
• 53:40
  stores and they allow them to go work with other people outside
• 53:43
  the community. Those are the ones that are more
• 53:45
  often leaving, like in northern Indiana.
• 53:46
  They're just much different than where I come from.
• 53:48
  So the schwartzing tuber in old order, where I come from, those
• 53:51
  are the ones that really keep the women kind of sheltered more
• 53:55
  than other Amish. Well, do you remember, Like,
• 53:58
  maybe what was the most confusing single thing to you?
• 54:02
  Coming from that world to the English world.
• 54:06
  About who God is. And I didn't know anything about
• 54:08
  salvation when I left. I'll be honest with you, I was
• 54:11
  very confused and I did believe when I left at age 18.
• 54:15
  I did believe I was going to hell.
• 54:17
  I didn't admit it to anybody at that time.
• 54:18
  Not until I got saved and knew the truth.
• 54:20
  I could openly tell anybody on a video or online to you guys
• 54:24
  right now that at that time at age 18.
• 54:26
  I thought if I just lived it up as fast as I could and and find
• 54:30
  peace and and live in sexual immorality and alcohol and live
• 54:33
  however I please before I go to hell.
• 54:36
  That's my thinking because I literally thought that if I left
• 54:39
  the Amish I'd go to hell. But I thought because of what I
• 54:42
  was going through, that hell would be better than staying in
• 54:45
  the situation I was in. Yeah, yeah.
• 54:49
  Welcome to the show, Jeremiah. Do you have anything you'd like
• 54:53
  to say? I'm.
• 54:54
  Just taking it all in. A couple questions I haven't
• 54:58
  been able to. Absolutely.
• 54:59
  Go ahead, Lupin. Same thing.
• 55:01
  So First off, hi Yoder and I've, I've seen, I've seen a couple of
• 55:06
  your shorts. You've actually, you've actually
• 55:09
  become pretty popular amongst the YouTube and social media
• 55:14
  crowd with your content and everything.
• 55:15
  So like that. So I want to say, First off,
• 55:18
  congratulations, you have a a real.
• 55:22
  Thank you very much. That's something I didn't see
• 55:24
  coming. I didn't know God, but give me
• 55:25
  that. It's amazing.
• 55:28
  It's amazing where life leads us and where God leads us to.
• 55:30
  Sometimes it could be the most unexpected places and and it's a
• 55:36
  it's a never, it's a never ending journey until it's over,
• 55:39
  over. And then even then it's like, is
• 55:42
  it the end or is that just the start of a new beginning?
• 55:46
  It is, it is. It is only a few months ago when
• 55:49
  Proverbs Guy and Jeremiah both came it to me almost at the same
• 55:54
  time. Been suggested that I start
• 55:56
  doing what I'm doing right now and you know, because up to that
• 55:59
  point, you know, I was sort of, you know, I said this last week,
• 56:02
  but I just, I would observe, I would, you know, I just kind of
• 56:07
  be behind the scenes, you know, I was just, you know, I've
• 56:11
  always been a little bit of a timid and shy person most of my
• 56:15
  life and just wanted to live a quiet little life but.
• 56:19
  God did not. It doesn't say in the Bible
• 56:21
  we're supposed to live like that, does it, Eli?
• 56:24
  No. It shows us.
• 56:26
  Yeah. And so God is giving me a new
• 56:29
  nature that is outgoing and wanting, a nature that wants
• 56:36
  other people to know about Jesus and to have a relationship with
• 56:40
  him. Ryan, can I ask the question?
• 56:42
  We all go out. There and spread the word.
• 56:45
  Yeah. Yeah, what is it?
• 56:47
  Proverbs Guy. Go ahead.
• 56:48
  OK, Eli, have you or have you not seen the Weird Al Yankovic
• 56:53
  music video for Amish Paradise? Yes, absolutely.
• 56:58
  I I shared that in a video not long ago where I got to
• 57:01
  experience that song and the music video before I left the
• 57:05
  Amish. And it was again our English
• 57:07
  neighbor that wanted us to come watch it.
• 57:10
  And it was me and several of my other brothers.
• 57:12
  And we went in the house there and he turned it on.
• 57:14
  We didn't know what he was doing.
• 57:15
  It was like, you know, a VCR at that time.
• 57:17
  And he plugged it in. And now we're hearing the song
• 57:20
  along with watching Weird Al doing the whole thing.
• 57:23
  You know, how the, you know, churn in the butter, Jebadiafes,
• 57:25
  the chicken and Jacob Cloud. I mean, we were just starting to
• 57:27
  jump up and down and snapping our suspenders and they were
• 57:30
  laughing at us, but we we thought they were laughing at
• 57:34
  the the song and the video. But they were laughing at us
• 57:37
  because of our reaction, and me and my brothers were just
• 57:40
  laughing, starting. We were actually laughing until
• 57:42
  it hurt. The Last Day I can't hear
• 57:47
  Gangster's Paradise and not sing the lyrics to Amish Paradise.
• 57:52
  I was wondering, We were talking about this episode the other day
• 57:56
  and I remember this show. It was called Breaking Amish.
• 57:59
  I don't know. Have you ever seen that show?
• 58:02
  Yeah, I I've talked to the producers with that show.
• 58:05
  They've actually wanted me to be a part of it at one point.
• 58:07
  And they here's the thing guys, there's too many things, you
• 58:12
  know, obviously ratings, views, there's money involved.
• 58:16
  So there's too many things that become staged.
• 58:18
  Many Amish television shows, they want you to do certain
• 58:22
  things and I'm not about that. I want to be truthful.
• 58:25
  I want the the true about portray the Amish in the
• 58:28
  truthful way and not add things. To, you know, for them to be.
• 58:34
  Able to sensationalize it and and then make it make it more TV
• 58:38
  appropriate and everything like that.
• 58:40
  You just want the raw deal. Yes, and that's why I couldn't
• 58:44
  stand Amish mafia, because 99% of that was faking stage.
• 58:48
  And by the way, that show was using former Amish actors.
• 58:50
  And I just, I just, it just put a bitter flavor in my mouth
• 58:53
  because it just badly portrayed the Amish.
• 58:55
  Amish don't have a mafia, you know?
• 58:58
  Is it possible to convert to Amish?
• 59:01
  Like is that heard of? There's some people that have
• 59:05
  not, not very few have actually made it because it's very hard
• 59:08
  after baptism because the old order system, if you try to join
• 59:11
  them, you have to 1st learn their language.
• 59:14
  Then you have to follow all the rules like a probation until you
• 59:17
  prove to them that you can follow the rules.
• 59:18
  And then you make the baptism oath to follow those rules in
• 59:22
  their ordinance for the rest of your life, usually right after
• 59:25
  baptism. That's when they drop back out.
• 59:27
  The several of them that I know that tried it, they.
• 59:29
  Drop back out because they started getting shunned for like
• 59:31
  simple little dress codes. The stuff they were breaking,
• 59:34
  they're like, what? That's a big deal.
• 59:36
  And by the way, guys, I just told you I helped a lot of them
• 59:38
  leave the Amish several months ago.
• 59:40
  Earlier this year, back in March, I got a call because of
• 59:43
  my TikTok channel. I got 1.5 million followers on
• 59:45
  TikTok and one of them reached out and said he joined the Amish
• 59:50
  and he's 44 years old. And after he made the baptism
• 59:53
  oath, he was being shunned for the dumbest stuff.
• 59:56
  And they cut him off from his family, his English family,
• 59:58
  where he came from. And he says, wait a minute,
• 1:00:01
  that's not loving. Why would you cut me off from my
• 1:00:04
  family? So I actually lined up a driver
• 1:00:06
  and picked him up out of his Amish community in the state of
• 1:00:08
  Maine. Wow, that is pretty cool.
• 1:00:14
  Have you ever seen the movie? Have you ever seen the Harrison
• 1:00:17
  Ford movie? The witness, Eli.
• 1:00:20
  I don't think I've seen that one.
• 1:00:22
  That one is that one is pretty good.
• 1:00:24
  There's there's actually a funny scene in the video in the movie
• 1:00:27
  where the amister going into town this this Amish.
• 1:00:35
  Well, let me Harrison Ford stars as a police officer who goes
• 1:00:39
  undercover in an Amish community to try to catch a murderer or
• 1:00:43
  something. It's it's I haven't seen the
• 1:00:45
  movie in years but there's one scene where he and the family
• 1:00:48
  are going into town and some of the local English guys come up
• 1:00:54
  and they start to, they start to harass them and pick on them and
• 1:00:59
  stuff, you know, because they know that they're not supposed
• 1:01:03
  to fight back. And so these English guys you
• 1:01:05
  know they're they're being mean to them and everything and and
• 1:01:08
  Harrison his character you know he's sitting in the buggy he
• 1:01:11
  starts to get up and the the guy beside him says no it is not our
• 1:01:14
  way and finally he can't take it anymore So he gets gets off that
• 1:01:20
  buggy and starts beating the tar out of these guys and and then
• 1:01:27
  when they get they finally go running off and and and the guy
• 1:01:30
  the other Amish guy says this is our cousin so he's from the I
• 1:01:35
  can't remember he's from the other Amish you know he's from.
• 1:01:38
  This it's just a funny scene. I should probably send it to
• 1:01:40
  you. How?
• 1:01:41
  Does how does marriage work in the community?
• 1:01:44
  Is it arranged marriages? And like, what is the typical
• 1:01:47
  age to get married? Typical age is usually 21 or
• 1:01:52
  above because we were not allowed to have our own money as
• 1:01:54
  an adult until we were 21. So usually in our community
• 1:01:57
  nobody really got married until 21 or above.
• 1:02:00
  Now, in our particular group, we were not.
• 1:02:04
  They it was if you stayed in the community.
• 1:02:07
  So it wasn't really arranged, but you had to stay within that
• 1:02:09
  ordinance. We had three other old order
• 1:02:11
  Amish churches that had almost a similar identical ordinance as
• 1:02:15
  we had. Now we could go to those
• 1:02:16
  churches and date someone and get married to someone, but we
• 1:02:19
  could not go to US church that had a more lesser like a
• 1:02:23
  lenient. Coordinates with less rules
• 1:02:25
  where maybe they use chainsaws and maybe they had the batteries
• 1:02:28
  in their buggies for the bright lights.
• 1:02:29
  We couldn't go there cuz that sent you straight to hell, so
• 1:02:32
  we. Were told we had to think there
• 1:02:33
  was like a higher church. Yes.
• 1:02:36
  Interesting. I imagine the more strict Amish
• 1:02:41
  sex probably considered themselves to be superior to the
• 1:02:44
  more modern. Amish sex, Yeah, yes.
• 1:02:47
  Sounds about can. I ask is there a social class
• 1:02:50
  within the particular sex? Like, is there a social class in
• 1:02:54
  the Amish community? If you're talking about the
• 1:02:57
  elders, they always are in in cahoots with one another.
• 1:02:59
  They're all the bishops, the elders, the deacons, the
• 1:03:02
  preachers. They're always socializing and
• 1:03:05
  keeping. Do they typically live better
• 1:03:08
  than the rest of the Amish community?
• 1:03:10
  They pretend to. They put on a good show.
• 1:03:13
  But here's the phrase that I'll use do as I say, not as I do.
• 1:03:19
  And I think another properties may have meant it in another
• 1:03:22
  way. I know you said in one of your
• 1:03:24
  videos that some of the Amish are quite wealthy.
• 1:03:28
  Some of them have. A lot.
• 1:03:29
  That is what I meant with social class and living better.
• 1:03:33
  Like, are some of them just wealthier than?
• 1:03:35
  What's your definition of wealthy?
• 1:03:38
  I would say own a lot more land, or have multiple homes, or have
• 1:03:43
  a home that is significantly bigger than your average home.
• 1:03:48
  Well there's a lot of Amish that have a lot a lot of money.
• 1:03:51
  They they don't appear to have a lot of money but they they know
• 1:03:53
  how to make money. But there's a there's a cutoff
• 1:03:57
  in in our. I can speak for my group that
• 1:03:58
  this is not for all of them. But I know if you make too much
• 1:04:01
  money they had a meeting with you.
• 1:04:03
  If you were very wealthy and you were succeeding above other
• 1:04:07
  families, you were cut off at a certain point.
• 1:04:09
  And if you continue to do increase business, that extra
• 1:04:12
  revenue had to go to the church. And and it was a very good thing
• 1:04:16
  how they were kind of what I call self insured.
• 1:04:18
  You know we our barn burned down when I was in fifth grade and it
• 1:04:21
  was all cleaned up in a new barn standing within just days and
• 1:04:24
  they paid for that. They came and helped us and then
• 1:04:27
  financially we were taken care of.
• 1:04:29
  Now there was one time when my my brother got older and and got
• 1:04:32
  married and he became one of the respected elders where he was
• 1:04:34
  trusted. They voted him in to take care
• 1:04:37
  of the the monetary funds and he told me one time when I was
• 1:04:41
  visiting him back when I was still allowed to.
• 1:04:44
  That there was more than $200 million invested in that church.
• 1:04:48
  But they were tied with other ordinances of churches that were
• 1:04:51
  the same ordinance. Them all together as a system
• 1:04:54
  was more than 200 million. Wow.
• 1:04:58
  Sounds to me a little bit like kind of like the Jewish, like
• 1:05:01
  bureaus in like in New York and everything like that.
• 1:05:05
  Like it seems, like the community.
• 1:05:06
  Just has their own community with it.
• 1:05:09
  Like they they're living there, but they have their own specific
• 1:05:12
  kind of community where they take care of each other and
• 1:05:18
  that's kind of what sustains them.
• 1:05:20
  It's a it's a pretty it's it's an interesting thing.
• 1:05:22
  It's a very interesting way of living that the Amish do, yes.
• 1:05:29
  Yeah, it's actually hard for your community.
• 1:05:32
  We had 250 families when I left, but now it and we only had four
• 1:05:36
  churches in our there's a E district, W District S, all of
• 1:05:39
  that. But now they rename them because
• 1:05:41
  they're they're trebled in size. There's more than a dozen
• 1:05:44
  churches now so they've really multiplied.
• 1:05:47
  And and so there there's every other Sunday they go to church,
• 1:05:50
  they don't go every Sunday. It's always every other Sunday
• 1:05:52
  because of different different districts.
• 1:05:54
  The preachers and bishops go to the other district.
• 1:05:56
  So you always get a break and in between Sunday.
• 1:05:59
  You mind if I ask you a question, Mr. Ellie?
• 1:06:03
  If you were given the opportunity to get behind, let's
• 1:06:06
  say, Magic Microphone and be able to speak to all the Amish
• 1:06:10
  folks around the world, and you had like 10 minutes to point out
• 1:06:14
  some of the things you'd like to see change, what would that be?
• 1:06:18
  Well, I would let the people be free to speak on their own
• 1:06:21
  behalf questions about the Bible that they are reading.
• 1:06:25
  And let let them reason with you that that is, that is the key.
• 1:06:30
  You you couldn't really reason with the elders in my church it
• 1:06:32
  was their way or the highway. So the people were in bondage.
• 1:06:36
  They were not free. I would say please allow them to
• 1:06:39
  bring up Bible verses and ask those questions and allow them
• 1:06:42
  to have a voice rather than just silencing them.
• 1:06:45
  Rather than saying, hey, don't question us, just do as you're
• 1:06:47
  told. That's the key to the whole
• 1:06:49
  thing, Eli. Sorry I had some Internet here.
• 1:06:55
  I had to leave it. I know you said you'd give us 45
• 1:06:59
  minutes and you've blessed us with over an hour of your time,
• 1:07:02
  so if you do need to go, feel free.
• 1:07:05
  But we've been, I've been enjoying every minute of you
• 1:07:08
  being with us, I will say that. I want to ask one more question
• 1:07:11
  before you go. If you do go.
• 1:07:15
  As far as that show, Breaking Amish, like I was telling them,
• 1:07:17
  dude, that was like a guilty pleasure of mine, dude, because
• 1:07:19
  that show was, it was so out of there and it was so it was like
• 1:07:23
  the Jersey Shore but with like Amish people.
• 1:07:25
  And it was such a funny, it was a funny concept.
• 1:07:28
  But according to you said, if you said you've seen it, would
• 1:07:31
  you say that that one was somewhat accurate or do you
• 1:07:34
  think that that was dramaticized?
• 1:07:36
  I'm sure there was a lot of scripted moments and
• 1:07:39
  dramaticized moments, but do you think?
• 1:07:41
  That was somewhat accurate of kind of how people would break
• 1:07:45
  Amish or whatnot. They were certainly more
• 1:07:49
  truthful than all of the other Amish.
• 1:07:52
  They had more truth in it. They were more about getting the
• 1:07:55
  truth out there, about the Amish lifestyle.
• 1:07:57
  But there were some stage scenes.
• 1:07:59
  I'm, I'm one of my friends, Johnny.
• 1:08:01
  You'll see him on TLC. I've been communicating with
• 1:08:03
  him. Johnny Detweiler, he's being
• 1:08:05
  he's being filmed right now. He's done multiple episodes, him
• 1:08:07
  and his girlfriend. And you know some of the things,
• 1:08:09
  I know the community where he's from, you know, you can tell
• 1:08:11
  that some of the things that he was kind of out of his comfort
• 1:08:14
  zone, but they kind of wanted to stage and want him to follow
• 1:08:16
  through with it. That is really not true
• 1:08:18
  according to his community. But for the majority of it, I'd
• 1:08:21
  say Breaking Amish is more truthful than any of the other
• 1:08:24
  shows though. Interesting.
• 1:08:26
  Yeah man. I remember watching that show
• 1:08:28
  and I was like why am I watching this?
• 1:08:31
  This is so silly. But man, did I was so invested
• 1:08:34
  in that show. Like I would watch all the new
• 1:08:36
  episodes when they came out, you know?
• 1:08:39
  But it was, it was a very, it was interesting eye opening.
• 1:08:42
  I I wanted to hear from somebody who actually lived that life to
• 1:08:46
  see how accurate that was. So yeah, I I think I think you
• 1:08:52
  explained it very well. And I recommend some of you guys
• 1:08:55
  go see it if you haven't seen it it's it's it's funny and it's an
• 1:08:58
  interesting in look you know but just be be be conscience that
• 1:09:03
  you know that some not everything that you see on there
• 1:09:06
  is going to be 100%. Accurate, right?
• 1:09:09
  Right. Well Ellie, I really enjoyed
• 1:09:11
  talking to you and listening to you and I hope that you
• 1:09:14
  understand even though there are a lot of people out there that
• 1:09:18
  are not Amish, there are many people who feel trapped.
• 1:09:21
  Where they feel like what they have to say and what's going on
• 1:09:24
  in their heart is not being able to be said.
• 1:09:27
  They're not being appreciated for the person that they are.
• 1:09:30
  And I think you're in an extraordinary position where
• 1:09:33
  you'd be able to reach not only Amish people, but folks who feel
• 1:09:37
  as though they're in a cage and they need to be released.
• 1:09:41
  Yes, yeah you you hit the nail right on the head the the
• 1:09:44
  beautiful thing about this online and and just sometimes
• 1:09:47
  just saying something encouraging.
• 1:09:50
  And and just share the word of God and pray.
• 1:09:52
  Sometimes I should do prayer videos.
• 1:09:54
  And you know, it's from all backgrounds.
• 1:09:56
  I have heard from people all over different countries, all
• 1:09:59
  over America. And there's people that are
• 1:10:01
  searching for truth. And in a sad part is what I
• 1:10:04
  realized more than anything is there's so many people that were
• 1:10:06
  hurt by church. And when I share certain things
• 1:10:10
  to encourage them, it really resonates with them.
• 1:10:13
  They're like, wow, that was so encouraging because they kind
• 1:10:16
  of. Threw everything in the towel.
• 1:10:18
  Threw the baby out with the bathwater when they got hurt by
• 1:10:20
  church, so they didn't return back.
• 1:10:22
  And that's my goal. And that is one thing.
• 1:10:24
  My goal is to try to share the truth and try to bring some of
• 1:10:28
  those people back to Jesus. Not necessarily back to church,
• 1:10:31
  but allow Jesus to work in your heart.
• 1:10:33
  Come back and read the word of God.
• 1:10:34
  And I know I've had a lot of backlash because I'm.
• 1:10:37
  Telling people not to go to church but come to Jesus first
• 1:10:40
  read the word of God. Read the Bible first in your own
• 1:10:42
  homes and then the Holy Spirit will lead you.
• 1:10:45
  He will give you spiritual determine.
• 1:10:46
  Whoo, I'm about to start preaching.
• 1:10:48
  Hey, we, we are the we are the church.
• 1:10:50
  We are the church. We are the church.
• 1:10:53
  There's no building that is the church.
• 1:10:55
  We are the church. It's it's our relationship with
• 1:10:57
  Lord and Jesus Christ. One of the biggest problems in
• 1:11:03
  the church is people practicing churchianity.
• 1:11:07
  It it, and and they need to. They need to practice true
• 1:11:12
  Christianity. We've replaced a relationship
• 1:11:15
  with a religion, yeah, yeah. Absolutely nailed it.
• 1:11:20
  Yeah. All right, guys.
• 1:11:21
  Well, hey, I'm gonna get off of here.
• 1:11:22
  And my son. Just you know I can ask can ask
• 1:11:25
  one more quick question. We gotta let him go loop and
• 1:11:27
  he's a. Little it's it's gonna be a yes
• 1:11:29
  or no question. Just real quick, do do do Do
• 1:11:34
  Amish believe that Jesus died? For Jesus was God in human form
• 1:11:39
  and died for our sins on the cross?
• 1:11:41
  Do they believe that? Yes, they actually teach it just
• 1:11:44
  like that. But they say that Jesus cannot
• 1:11:47
  forgive anyone until God's church deems then forgiven and
• 1:11:50
  votes on them to be forgiven. That is where they get it wrong,
• 1:11:52
  yeah. Interesting.
• 1:11:54
  OK, that was my only question. And if.
• 1:11:56
  You and by the way, that is very, very similar to what the
• 1:11:58
  Catholics do. The Catholics kind of go through
• 1:12:00
  the priests, you know, for their answers.
• 1:12:02
  The Amish go to the Bishop and once that the Bishop and the
• 1:12:05
  priests socalled priests and Bishop once they deem them
• 1:12:08
  forgiven and vote on their forgiveness.
• 1:12:10
  That's when they actually feel like they're forgiven.
• 1:12:12
  But yet in our own homes guys, we can do first John chapter
• 1:12:14
  one, verse 9. If we confess our sins to Jesus,
• 1:12:17
  he is faithful and Justin forgive us our sins and cleanse
• 1:12:20
  us from all unrighteousness. Amen, brother.
• 1:12:22
  Amen. Thank you so much for being with
• 1:12:25
  us, brother Eli. And as I said to Samuel Spoon
• 1:12:28
  our last week, I'll say it to you when I first discovered you
• 1:12:31
  on on YouTube, if someone had told me that and I'd say you're
• 1:12:36
  crazy, but it happened because of God.
• 1:12:39
  God made it happen. So you have been spend the rest
• 1:12:42
  of the night with your family, brother Eli.
• 1:12:44
  And you, you have a good night, and God bless you, I.
• 1:12:46
  Hope you can come back and teach us your peanut butter Amish
• 1:12:49
  Peanut butter. Absolutely.
• 1:12:51
  That was that was a nutty. I gave them diabetes when they
• 1:12:55
  watched that video. Bro, I was one of them.
• 1:13:00
  Alrighty. Well, hey, before I let y'all
• 1:13:02
  go, can I just pray for y'all? You sure can.
• 1:13:05
  Yes. Heavenly Father, I just lift all
• 1:13:07
  of these special folks up to you, Lord, tonight.
• 1:13:10
  That Lord, that whatever your planning will is for their life,
• 1:13:12
  that Lord, that that plan and will would be walked out.
• 1:13:16
  Lord, any any schemes and any enemy attacks that the enemy
• 1:13:19
  has. Lord, I pray for a heads of
• 1:13:21
  protection around each and every one of them.
• 1:13:23
  Lord, as they serve you, Lord, I pray that you'd bless them and
• 1:13:26
  guide them with your Holy Spirit.
• 1:13:28
  Lord, I pray Luke 1019 over the all of them right now, where you
• 1:13:32
  give us power and authority to trampoline snakes and scorpions,
• 1:13:34
  and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall harm
• 1:13:37
  us. Lord, I I plead that I pray that
• 1:13:40
  verse and plead that verse over them right now, Lord, that they
• 1:13:43
  would have all of that power, all of that authority in Jesus
• 1:13:46
  Christ. They can do all things through
• 1:13:47
  Christ Jesus who strengthens them.
• 1:13:49
  Lord, I pray that you would guide them with your Holy Spirit
• 1:13:52
  and reveal the truth when they're reading the scriptures.
• 1:13:54
  Lord, we are in a unique time right now.
• 1:13:56
  Lord, I just pray for your anointing on each individual on
• 1:13:59
  this video right now and those that are listening later.
• 1:14:01
  Lord, I pray that you would just anoint them with your Holy
• 1:14:04
  Spirit, Lord, and reveal the truth to them concerning the
• 1:14:06
  Scriptures for such a time as this that we would all rise up
• 1:14:09
  as bold soldiers for Jesus Christ.
• 1:14:11
  And I ask it in Jesus mighty name.
• 1:14:13
  Amen. Amen.
• 1:14:16
  Brother, you're welcome to join us anytime.
• 1:14:18
  All right. God bless you all.
• 1:14:20
  God bless Brother Eli. Wow, we had church tonight.
• 1:14:28
  We sure did. He's.
• 1:14:30
  Very, very articulate man he's he's he's grown a lot you know
• 1:14:35
  and and he's become a very, very influential mouthpiece to the to
• 1:14:42
  the word of the scripture you know he's.
• 1:14:48
  And you told me that God called God.
• 1:14:51
  God picked on him. God God.
• 1:14:53
  God picked. God picked on him for a certain
• 1:14:55
  reason. He sure did.
• 1:14:58
  You know, it's kind of sad some of the regulars weren't here,
• 1:15:00
  like stumping Pastor Chuck, and but they can watch later.
• 1:15:06
  This was a power special night and I thank all of y'all for
• 1:15:10
  joining us. And we don't necessarily have to
• 1:15:13
  go yet if somebody's got some other things to share.
• 1:15:17
  I almost missed it because I thought you said it was on
• 1:15:19
  Wednesday. I used to be on Wednesday
• 1:15:22
  nights, but that conflicted with some people's church schedules.
• 1:15:27
  So I asked Proverbs if we could, if I could switch it to another
• 1:15:30
  night and he gave me Tuesday because I.
• 1:15:34
  Gave him my night. So he's Tuesday night now.
• 1:15:38
  Yeah. You know, if if, if people can't
• 1:15:41
  come on the show because of church, then we got to do
• 1:15:44
  something about that. Now, typically, I'm Wednesday
• 1:15:48
  night, but I switched with stump this Wednesday night because I
• 1:15:53
  want to watch the Republican primary debate tomorrow.
• 1:15:57
  And that's just that. I love you.
• 1:15:59
  Watch De Santis get beat up on. How are you going to beat up on
• 1:16:03
  De Santis with his record? Yeah, you're lucky you got He's
• 1:16:08
  lucky that Trump skipped it. But.
• 1:16:11
  I think Trump's the lucky 1. Trump was going to be the
• 1:16:14
  punching bag in the butt of every Republican joke.
• 1:16:18
  And if he can handle. It.
• 1:16:19
  I know he can, but she? Has to answer for it.
• 1:16:22
  And that's the interesting part. Trump was smart to schedule his
• 1:16:27
  turning himself in the morning very next day, because he knows
• 1:16:31
  that all the news people have been talking about him.
• 1:16:34
  Not Wednesday night. He knows a lot.
• 1:16:37
  He's he's a strategist, man. He's a.
• 1:16:39
  He's a. You can say a lot of things
• 1:16:42
  about Trump, you know, man. But that man, he's he's very
• 1:16:45
  business oriented. He knows he knows how to work
• 1:16:50
  media and he he he's a he's a big player in the game, man.
• 1:16:55
  He's a very big player in the game and you can't take that
• 1:16:58
  away from them, man. Yeah, Yeah.
• 1:17:00
  So he, he timed that exactly when he should have timed it.
• 1:17:03
  So cameras are going to be on him.
• 1:17:06
  All the newscasters, they're gonna be talking about him.
• 1:17:09
  They won't be talking about tomorrow night.
• 1:17:11
  I think it's it's kind of humorous, but anyway.
• 1:17:17
  That was a cool episode. Ryan.
• 1:17:18
  Man, I'm I'm glad that you were able.
• 1:17:20
  I I would never have. I would never have guessed that
• 1:17:24
  I would be on here speaking to this guy.
• 1:17:27
  Like, you know, that's so random.
• 1:17:29
  I know, I know, and it's all because you know, Proverbs
• 1:17:32
  asked. How he and I connected with one
• 1:17:33
  another is because I found out about that mission.
• 1:17:38
  It might have been on one of his videos or something.
• 1:17:41
  And so I said, well, let me look them up and maybe I can get a
• 1:17:43
  hold of them this way. And the lady answered the phone.
• 1:17:46
  Well, Eli's not here, but I can. I can refer you to him.
• 1:17:50
  And so. So then my phone rings and it
• 1:17:52
  says Nicole Yoder on the screen, I guess his wife's name.
• 1:17:56
  And I said, oh, he's calling me. And so we started talking.
• 1:18:00
  And I said, hey, I want to send you a donation.
• 1:18:02
  And I did. And that was where it all
• 1:18:04
  started. And I mean you know and I think
• 1:18:08
  like I said I'm going to, I want to try for for Jason Lyle and I
• 1:18:13
  want to I've already put word out to these guys here to come
• 1:18:16
  on maybe next week or the week after I need to follow up on
• 1:18:20
  that but. Jason Lyle Jason Lyle is an
• 1:18:24
  astrophysicist who is also a Young Earth Creationist.
• 1:18:28
  He used to be part of a IG Ken Hams ministry in a street
• 1:18:33
  Biblical Science Institute and he is like his brain.
• 1:18:40
  I don't know how it fits in his head.
• 1:18:43
  He is very, very intelligent and he he he knows, you know, he
• 1:18:50
  would. He's the perfect antidote for
• 1:18:52
  the atheist who thinks that we're all uneducated and
• 1:18:55
  ignorant and don't know anything.
• 1:18:58
  They can't tell him that. They really can't.
• 1:19:02
  I think that this show, this show, the more it gets exposed
• 1:19:05
  to atheists and everything like that, the more it's opening that
• 1:19:09
  their eyes that yeah, all these these Christians aren't all like
• 1:19:16
  wacky, you know, You know, just believing the Bible just off
• 1:19:22
  blind faith alone. Like we just trust this book
• 1:19:25
  just because the book say so. No, it's because the book has
• 1:19:27
  been proven to be true and that we're not.
• 1:19:31
  We're not people who just go out and deny science and everything
• 1:19:35
  like that. We're we're normal people.
• 1:19:36
  We just have, we have this understanding and really, you
• 1:19:42
  know, once you become a believer, like you know, if if
• 1:19:45
  honestly it kind of makes your life, it makes your life so much
• 1:19:50
  simpler. Answers so, so many of these
• 1:19:52
  questions that we have, like who am I?
• 1:19:56
  What am I? Why am I here on this planet?
• 1:19:59
  Why? You know, you know, all of that
• 1:20:02
  stuff becomes a lot more simplified and you become more
• 1:20:06
  reassured using the. Well, Luke and I was thinking of
• 1:20:10
  something the other day. Most people can cannot answer 3
• 1:20:14
  simple questions. Where did I come from?
• 1:20:18
  Where am I good? Why am I here?
• 1:20:22
  Most people just have to say I don't know to all those
• 1:20:24
  questions and they live their life that way.
• 1:20:27
  And I I kind of used to be that way.
• 1:20:29
  I was just like. Well, I sure hope I'm saved, you
• 1:20:32
  know? And I sure hope that God's OK
• 1:20:34
  with this life I'm living. But now I know he wasn't OK with
• 1:20:38
  it. And you know, there there comes
• 1:20:42
  down to a very simple question that's been an age-old man man,
• 1:20:47
  age-old question. You know what came first, the
• 1:20:49
  chicken or the egg for For creationists, there's no issue.
• 1:20:55
  There you automatically use be like the chicken came first and
• 1:20:59
  it God created the chicken with the power to reproduce and and
• 1:21:04
  do anything like that And then an atheist will never they will
• 1:21:08
  struggle with that for so long that we can answer it.
• 1:21:12
  We can answer it and they're going to write it off saying,
• 1:21:14
  well, God, you can't answer with God did it.
• 1:21:16
  Well, you know what? We are and we can.
• 1:21:18
  Yeah, the atheist will have to say that a creature, a bird type
• 1:21:23
  bird that was almost a chicken, almost a chicken.
• 1:21:27
  It laid an egg and the first chick was born Let.
• 1:21:29
  Me play Brett King for a moment. Tell me what the variable in the
• 1:21:34
  environment would be to cause a chicken to lay an egg.
• 1:21:39
  And why did that environment and all of those variables not
• 1:21:43
  affect anything else? Why is the chicken the one that
• 1:21:46
  lays the egg? There you go.
• 1:21:50
  I mean, that was good, right? Yeah.
• 1:21:55
  See, now we need, we gotta go on to the more important questions.
• 1:21:58
  And now we gotta figure out why the chicken crossed the road.
• 1:22:02
  That one, that one, is still up for debate.
• 1:22:06
  The chicken crossed the road because it's all Baptist coming
• 1:22:09
  down the street. At I think the.
• 1:22:12
  Funny one. I think the funny one is that
• 1:22:14
  they say that dinosaurs evolved up into chickens.
• 1:22:19
  Right. Who in its right mind would want
• 1:22:22
  to go from a T Rex to a chicken? I mean, we do have Dino nuggies
• 1:22:26
  that. Was our good.
• 1:22:29
  Is it? Strong.
• 1:22:29
  Enough evidence though I. Was telling Dinosaur eventually
• 1:22:32
  and that they should turn their cafeteria into Mcdino's.
• 1:22:36
  Do you miss it there? Do you miss it there at all?
• 1:22:40
  Oh, I miss it so much. It was it was my dream to work
• 1:22:44
  there. Yeah, I woke up every day just,
• 1:22:47
  you know, serving God and being excited to, you know, do
• 1:22:49
  whatever was needed to be done next.
• 1:22:52
  The views, the getting away from it all and not having to deal
• 1:22:57
  with money really at all was was just amazing.
• 1:23:00
  But you know, family, family started taking a high role and I
• 1:23:03
  needed to, you know, make sure I could provide for myself so.
• 1:23:05
  You're right, man. Well.
• 1:23:07
  When I first met you on November of in November of 21, Jeremiah,
• 1:23:11
  I could just see instantly that you loved being there.
• 1:23:15
  You had this glow, you had this look on your face.
• 1:23:18
  You know, I love being here and I love being the hospitality
• 1:23:21
  guy. You just you had an out you.
• 1:23:25
  It was my dream. And.
• 1:23:27
  After a year and a half of being there, I'll say I loved
• 1:23:30
  virtually every day of it. I mean, we had a little bit of
• 1:23:32
  drama and there were, you know, just like any, you know,
• 1:23:34
  community of people. There was definitely people who
• 1:23:37
  didn't like each other and rub each other a long way.
• 1:23:39
  But like, you can't avoid that. Yeah, Like it was just so great
• 1:23:43
  as far as an atmosphere and an environment, and you got to live
• 1:23:47
  out your Christian life every day and it really strengthened
• 1:23:50
  you and kind of, you know. Just like, made you more, like,
• 1:23:55
  culturally Christian, even. Because.
• 1:23:58
  Real Get the world. Rubbed off on you and like when
• 1:24:00
  you when you go and put yourself in a situation like that, the
• 1:24:03
  world can't rub on you anymore. And I feel like maybe God was
• 1:24:06
  like, OK, now that I, you know, now that I put you back with the
• 1:24:09
  rest of the salt and now you're, you know, getting, you know, as
• 1:24:11
  salty like a Christian, I need to take you back out and put you
• 1:24:14
  back in the world and use you somewhere else.
• 1:24:16
  But. Yeah, it's like and you know,
• 1:24:18
  you hear the all this people talk about Dal and a bad light
• 1:24:22
  and me being there a year and a half and getting to see
• 1:24:25
  everybody inside. Not like that.
• 1:24:26
  I'll just say a lot of the people there have true hearts
• 1:24:29
  for Christ and would never want to do you wrong.
• 1:24:32
  And yeah, it's just a great place.
• 1:24:35
  Same for my same for my two months of being there.
• 1:24:39
  Very, very great place. I wouldn't hesitate to visit.
• 1:24:43
  I wish. I wish more atheists would show
• 1:24:45
  up. Well, and I'll tell you, my
• 1:24:47
  family was there at the beginning of the big epidemic.
• 1:24:51
  We all survived and we were totally sheltered from it.
• 1:24:55
  We knew about face masks, but we didn't really understand what
• 1:25:00
  was going on with that because it didn't affect us.
• 1:25:02
  We stayed at camp except once a week to go into town.
• 1:25:07
  Man, it was great. Like we walked around in total
• 1:25:11
  freedom at camp. Yeah, didn't you do a Walmart
• 1:25:15
  run about every once a week? We would do a Walmart run about
• 1:25:18
  once a week and we'd go out to eat while we were in town.
• 1:25:22
  Yeah. But like Jeremiah was saying,
• 1:25:24
  dude, you have no worries about money and it it was great as
• 1:25:31
  long as you knew your place and you know you you follow that
• 1:25:35
  sounds. Terrible.
• 1:25:37
  I. Mean, though, You got to know
• 1:25:38
  your you got to know your place there sometimes.
• 1:25:41
  You don't run it. That's what you mean, right?
• 1:25:44
  Yeah, you you can't Like some. People want to tell.
• 1:25:48
  The bishops, some people want to tell Kent Hoven you know how to
• 1:25:51
  run his place and everything like that.
• 1:25:53
  It's it's Kent Hoven's place. Just know your place, get along
• 1:25:57
  with people, be respectful and give glory to the Lord and
• 1:26:01
  you'll have a wonderful time there.
• 1:26:03
  You will have an excellent time. The only thing, the only concern
• 1:26:06
  I would have concerning Kent is. I mean, it is possible.
• 1:26:13
  I'm not saying he's doing this. I can't get in his head.
• 1:26:15
  But you have to be careful because a lot of ministers and
• 1:26:19
  evangelists and pastors, they've made their ministry into an
• 1:26:22
  idol. And I, you know, I hope that
• 1:26:26
  really ultimately he has to view it as God's ministry.
• 1:26:30
  It belongs to God and he totally.
• 1:26:33
  Does that. He does that.
• 1:26:35
  He does that. Yeah, I.
• 1:26:37
  Like, maybe he's a little proud of what he did, but I mean, who
• 1:26:40
  wouldn't? Be yeah.
• 1:26:41
  Well, who wouldn't be? I you know what?
• 1:26:42
  I would. Be proud.
• 1:26:43
  Head over heels over that. If, if that was what I did and
• 1:26:46
  that's what I achieved, I'd be like, I mean, it would be hard
• 1:26:49
  not to say. God, look what I did.
• 1:26:51
  You know what I mean like. Yeah, I know it needs to be.
• 1:26:54
  Careful, because God humbled him once already.
• 1:26:57
  You know, he allowed the government to wrongfully humble
• 1:27:02
  him because he had a really big head back when he was doing his
• 1:27:05
  seminars. And it was a terrible thing,
• 1:27:07
  don't get me wrong, but I just. I don't ever want God to humble
• 1:27:11
  him again. No, I don't either.
• 1:27:13
  And creating idols is one of the hardest things not to do.
• 1:27:21
  I noticed you. You have a.
• 1:27:23
  You have a very you're I, I making idols and idolizing
• 1:27:35
  people is weighs very heavy on your mind.
• 1:27:37
  I guess maybe because you had a personal experience with it and.
• 1:27:41
  Even you, I did. I did.
• 1:27:44
  You know, I there's this young man I worked with that I
• 1:27:49
  developed a strong emotional attachment to.
• 1:27:52
  And you know, he turned on me. And when he did, I didn't think
• 1:27:58
  I'd done anything wrong. What did I do?
• 1:28:01
  I I was respectful. I didn't try to be more than
• 1:28:03
  friends, and so I didn't think I'd done anything wrong.
• 1:28:06
  And it wasn't until this year that I realized that I did sin
• 1:28:11
  concerning him, and it was creating an idol out of him that
• 1:28:15
  was my sin. And I realized I had several
• 1:28:18
  idols. I had college football was a
• 1:28:22
  huge idol in my life. Republicanism was a gigantic
• 1:28:27
  idol in my life for. The.
• 1:28:29
  Majority of my life. And even patriotism, like, it's
• 1:28:32
  fine to be patriotic and love your country and support the
• 1:28:36
  troops, but I took it too far, you know, like 4th of July was
• 1:28:41
  my favorite holiday and I just it was on hold.
• 1:28:45
  For me, hold up, you said Republicanism like your friends,
• 1:28:49
  like being a fan of the Republic party or something, or like.
• 1:28:52
  Yes, like I watched every Republican debate going as far
• 1:28:59
  back as I could. I've watched the early Kennedy
• 1:29:03
  debate when Kennedy was debating Nixon.
• 1:29:05
  Like I knew all the history. Like I loved the GOP.
• 1:29:10
  Yeah, and I see what you think. Because I'm from the South.
• 1:29:14
  Well, you know, it's funny, Proverbs guy.
• 1:29:17
  When I was living in my condo, I I had DIRECTV satellite service
• 1:29:24
  and the TV was on Fox News every night and.
• 1:29:30
  Now that I live here, I don't have that and so now I'm mostly
• 1:29:33
  watching Christmas Christian Youtubers and in all honesty
• 1:29:39
  that's where the focus needs to be, is on Christ centered things
• 1:29:43
  and not so much politics. Because almost every day I'm
• 1:29:47
  tempted to make a political post like.
• 1:29:50
  You know? Attempted to say you know,
• 1:29:51
  Brandon Fiddles while Maui burns.
• 1:29:54
  I have a personal rule that I only post on you to on Facebook
• 1:29:59
  scripture or I post about our shows.
• 1:30:02
  Yeah, yeah, I, you know, I I have to stop myself.
• 1:30:06
  You know when I want to, when I want to say something like that
• 1:30:11
  it it's it's hard, but but you know I I just want to keep it
• 1:30:15
  about. And one thing that Eli Yoder
• 1:30:18
  does that I really admire is he makes these very these very
• 1:30:22
  spiritual posts on Facebook where he quotes scripture and he
• 1:30:25
  has like almost like a little mini sermon.
• 1:30:27
  And unfortunately, I don't have time to read most of them.
• 1:30:30
  But you'll have a post about this long where it's filled with
• 1:30:32
  scripture. And he does this every day,
• 1:30:35
  almost sometimes several times a day.
• 1:30:38
  And I really admire him for that.
• 1:30:39
  I meant to tell him that, But hey, stump's here, I just
• 1:30:42
  noticed. Welcome Stump.
• 1:30:45
  I just now saw. Stuff were you able to watch?
• 1:30:49
  Were you Were you able to watch Brother Eli?
• 1:30:51
  Stop. Yeah, I did watch a bit of it.
• 1:30:54
  He is amazing and I'm asking. Any questions?
• 1:31:01
  I don't have any questions really.
• 1:31:03
  That would that's kind of a situation.
• 1:31:08
  I mean, I understand that you have a need to live your own
• 1:31:14
  life. I watched some of his earlier
• 1:31:19
  videos and I didn't like the way he was regarding his parents, so
• 1:31:23
  I didn't really have much to say.
• 1:31:26
  What were you saying regarding his parents?
• 1:31:28
  You didn't like the way, What now?
• 1:31:34
  Some of his earlier videos kind of put me off because of the way
• 1:31:37
  he was talking about his parents.
• 1:31:42
  Well, I mean he he loved, I mean his dad.
• 1:31:45
  He loved his dad. He loves his mom, but she she
• 1:31:51
  loves the her church more than she loves him and that's hurtful
• 1:31:58
  to him. She loves and I understand that
• 1:32:02
  that's all good and well. It's just I don't agree with him
• 1:32:05
  on every point and it's not worth confronting him over it.
• 1:32:09
  So Oh yeah, it it is what it is. Would you consider converting to
• 1:32:14
  Amish so that you can leave the community and be able to see
• 1:32:18
  from his shoes? Well, no, I and that's the other
• 1:32:22
  thing is that I wouldn't have any basis for comparison for his
• 1:32:26
  point of view. So if I couldn't be honest about
• 1:32:30
  his perspective, I don't think I should interject mine.
• 1:32:33
  Yeah, it's probably probably the best way to go about it.
• 1:32:36
  If you don't, if you, if you're not aware of the situation,
• 1:32:42
  sometimes it's best to just listen instead of, you know,
• 1:32:47
  interject. Because we don't, we don't know,
• 1:32:51
  we don't know the relationship with this family and everything
• 1:32:54
  like that. And especially in that
• 1:32:55
  community, things get extra critical.
• 1:33:01
  So it's hard. It's hard to say whether what he
• 1:33:05
  did with his family was the right thing or the wrong thing
• 1:33:08
  to do. Because it's so complicated with
• 1:33:11
  all the rules that they have. Sometimes it's probably best
• 1:33:14
  just to be silent on the matter. Just listen so I don't blame
• 1:33:21
  you. Go ahead.
• 1:33:28
  I tell you, Christian Pike sure does.
• 1:33:32
  Take a lot of fun family vacations, doesn't he?
• 1:33:36
  Oh yeah, that's why the trips. That's why the chicken crossed
• 1:33:39
  the road. Because his name was Christian
• 1:33:41
  Pike and he was running. That's not fair.
• 1:33:46
  He actually has a debate coming up with Nathaniel from
• 1:33:49
  Tomorrow's End. The band I.
• 1:33:51
  Interviewed, right. That'd be good.
• 1:33:53
  He's got a debate and it's going to be awesome about what?
• 1:34:01
  It's about the law. Oh boy.
• 1:34:09
  Why do you say like that, Lupin? We've never had that debate on
• 1:34:13
  this channel ever. Are you being sarcastic?
• 1:34:16
  No, I'm not. We've never had that debate.
• 1:34:19
  We've we've brought it up in conversations a couple times,
• 1:34:23
  but I'm talking about this is an official debate between
• 1:34:26
  Christian and Nathaniel. OK, maybe I'm getting maybe I'm
• 1:34:30
  getting conversations and debates confused because
• 1:34:33
  sometimes it's hard to tell. They kind of blend in with each
• 1:34:35
  other sometimes. Well, with the debates, there's
• 1:34:39
  only three of us up there, the two people debating and me
• 1:34:42
  moderating like I've done Christian and Stump.
• 1:34:47
  Christian has debated Kent twice.
• 1:34:50
  You've you've watched those debates?
• 1:34:52
  Yeah. It'll be the same format, just
• 1:34:55
  the three of us, yeah. It's just sometimes, just
• 1:34:59
  sometimes on here we'll just be conversation conversating and
• 1:35:03
  then sometimes you'll throw up your little debate splash screen
• 1:35:06
  and everything. And sometimes it just it evolves
• 1:35:09
  into, it evolves into an impromptu debate.
• 1:35:14
  Yeah, I mean, I do that. OK.
• 1:35:16
  So if you're counting that, then yes, you are correct and I'm
• 1:35:19
  wrong. Because I wasn't considering
• 1:35:21
  that. So there's those like Spur, the
• 1:35:23
  moments when we're all in a room and two people are going at it
• 1:35:26
  and I'm like, all right, we're going to make it official with
• 1:35:29
  rules. Ding, Ding, Ding.
• 1:35:31
  Fair man. Yeah.
• 1:35:32
  Fair you. You did get me there.
• 1:35:34
  I mean always, but yeah, just. What?
• 1:35:40
  Christian Pike is the only man I know who would wear a long
• 1:35:43
  sleeve button up shirt to the beach in the summertime.
• 1:35:48
  It's kind of fun. Yeah, yeah, at Orange Beach.
• 1:35:51
  He and his family went to Orange Beach and he's wearing that
• 1:35:53
  trademark long sleeve shirt. Bless him.
• 1:35:56
  That man stands on his convictions.
• 1:35:59
  I don't want to talk to Christian.
• 1:36:00
  Go ahead. I say I once wore a jacket at
• 1:36:04
  Myrtle Beach, but it was February.
• 1:36:07
  It was cold. And I know it's illegal in
• 1:36:09
  Pennsylvania, but it's for charity and I consider myself a
• 1:36:14
  great philanderer. OK, one thing I wanna whenever
• 1:36:22
  Christian gets on one of these days, I just, I want to talk
• 1:36:25
  about some things like like heresy and maybe things that we
• 1:36:29
  might think of like heretical statements that maybe some
• 1:36:33
  people have said. I probably said some I know I've
• 1:36:36
  heard. I know I've what I I've heard
• 1:36:39
  some that I consider to be heretical and everything like
• 1:36:41
  that from and all of us. I think we're all almost guilty
• 1:36:47
  of it and not gonna lie. I think if you if you would ask
• 1:36:51
  me, I would say Christian had to be probably one of the worst
• 1:36:54
  offenders. I got a kind of a little list
• 1:36:56
  that I'm building up. What's on your list?
• 1:36:59
  If you don't mind me asking, I'm not putting you on the I mean
• 1:37:02
  that you. Cannot answer if you don't want,
• 1:37:04
  that's gonna spoil the fun. Oh, wow.
• 1:37:08
  OK. I mean.
• 1:37:10
  There is doctrine where I disagree with him on, especially
• 1:37:15
  with free will versus predestination.
• 1:37:19
  But let me let me give you an example.
• 1:37:22
  I'll give you one example. I'll give you a little teaser.
• 1:37:24
  How about that? Sure.
• 1:37:27
  So you know how we're talking about the Nephilim and the
• 1:37:29
  giants and everything like that? See.
• 1:37:33
  And and Chris. OK, the Oh no, it sounded like
• 1:37:39
  the audio went out and Christian was like, man, y'all got to quit
• 1:37:44
  believing the giants, you know, like roam that there were like
• 1:37:48
  literal giants and everything. It's like, wait a minute, Why
• 1:37:51
  would we have to? Why would we have to denounce
• 1:37:53
  that when in the Bible it describes giants we have, We
• 1:37:58
  have images and sculptures of giants we have.
• 1:38:04
  I I I'm not going to hold his feet to the fire.
• 1:38:07
  And here's why. If he was to acknowledge giants,
• 1:38:14
  he would be an outcast from the evolution.
• 1:38:18
  So that's that's that's the thing, OK, that's the biggest
• 1:38:21
  issue that I have with Christian is that Christian is a perfect
• 1:38:24
  example of the Christian who wants to be on both the side of
• 1:38:29
  the Bible and the side of like the evolutionist scientist kind
• 1:38:34
  of thing. So much to a point where he'll
• 1:38:36
  twist the word of God to make it try and fit the the scientific
• 1:38:43
  and evolutionary side when we most of us have agreed that
• 1:38:49
  there's some things in the Bible that cannot be explained through
• 1:38:53
  science. Yeah, at a certain point you got
• 1:38:55
  to pick a side. Yes, but I I want to acknowledge
• 1:39:00
  that I know for a fact he loves the Lord Jesus Christ with all
• 1:39:04
  his heart, and he is a servant of the Lord.
• 1:39:07
  And I know he's filled with the Holy Spirit.
• 1:39:10
  I do differ with him on multiple points of doctrine and other
• 1:39:17
  points like evolution. He believes in the whole model.
• 1:39:21
  I believe in speciation and that's where we draw lines
• 1:39:26
  differently. And but I do think because he
• 1:39:30
  believes in that narrative, he does have to make a lot of
• 1:39:33
  concessions. And I believe when he has to
• 1:39:35
  make those concessions. More often than not he takes
• 1:39:38
  them from the Word, but he will find a way to with scripture to
• 1:39:43
  try to justify it. So you think that what I said it
• 1:39:48
  was kind of an accurate statement that?
• 1:39:53
  He tries to be. I think it was.
• 1:39:55
  I think it was a little harsh maybe, but it was.
• 1:39:58
  It was. Several of the points were
• 1:40:02
  accurate. I mean I'm not condemning him or
• 1:40:06
  anything like that. I just I think it's kind of
• 1:40:09
  because like I said I even I I may have said some heretical
• 1:40:13
  statements I think but for me it's kind of either out of the
• 1:40:17
  lack of knowledge or maybe understanding and I may say
• 1:40:22
  something and I may be say something heretical not not
• 1:40:29
  intentionally knowing the the difference between Christian is
• 1:40:33
  he claims to be a scholar and and learn it on these things
• 1:40:37
  which I think is a little bit different because he's claiming
• 1:40:40
  to have an authority on it and I think that puts.
• 1:40:43
  A little claims to be a scholar. I mean he.
• 1:40:47
  Admits he's not been through seminary.
• 1:40:49
  He's self-taught and and he is very knowledgeable so I don't
• 1:40:53
  want to make him sound like a country bumpkin either.
• 1:40:57
  I thought I heard different. I thought he like.
• 1:40:59
  I thought he studied like he's taking classes and everything
• 1:41:03
  like that. Well, he studied like for
• 1:41:07
  school, like with evolution. He studied a lot of books.
• 1:41:10
  In all for science, in all fairness, Christian is a country
• 1:41:14
  bumpkin, though. Well, he's Southern, but he's
• 1:41:18
  not a country bumpkin like he's capable of more than milking a
• 1:41:21
  cow, that that boy is clever. So.
• 1:41:24
  I'd personally love to have a discussion with him about
• 1:41:27
  abiogenesis and evolution myself.
• 1:41:30
  I'm not one of these type of folks that's going to say if you
• 1:41:33
  have some unusual thoughts outside the Bible that this just
• 1:41:36
  suddenly hurts your salvation or something.
• 1:41:39
  But I would love to get into an indepth conversation on that.
• 1:41:46
  Yeah. And I'm not.
• 1:41:47
  I'm not trying to come off as rude or or mean or anything.
• 1:41:50
  Like I said, I probably, I think there's been a point at one time
• 1:41:54
  where all of us have said something heretical, whether
• 1:41:57
  we're aware of it or not. You know, to be to be fair,
• 1:42:03
  there's just some things that Christian says that I want to
• 1:42:11
  have a conversation with them about.
• 1:42:12
  Not necessarily a debate, but just a conversation.
• 1:42:16
  Luke and I used to have some really wrong beliefs, and the
• 1:42:21
  Lord is straightening out. Yeah, yeah, I used to.
• 1:42:29
  Thank the Lord we have stump to help us along the way.
• 1:42:34
  Amen. Yes.
• 1:42:36
  Yes, I know we're thankful. You guys don't even believe when
• 1:42:40
  I when I talk about creation what you talking about?
• 1:42:42
  You. Know what I think for the most
• 1:42:44
  part that's one of the only areas we differ on stump.
• 1:42:47
  So once we get out of. Just the beginning.
• 1:42:50
  Once we get out of just. The beginning we don't.
• 1:42:52
  Agree. I'm sure we're gonna agree from
• 1:42:54
  X to this on. I feel good about it.
• 1:42:57
  I doubt it. If you guys really wanted to
• 1:43:00
  talk about the Nephilim and everything like that man, I
• 1:43:03
  really recommend you guys check out some of tracing this stuffs.
• 1:43:06
  And actually Trace Trace Smith just uploaded a couple new
• 1:43:09
  stuff. It's not as good as his older
• 1:43:11
  stuff, but Trace Smith has a lot of good insight on like the
• 1:43:15
  Nephilim and and and the fallen angels and everything like that.
• 1:43:20
  And he does a real good job of taking like the a numa leash,
• 1:43:26
  the the King's list, the Sumerians King's list, all these
• 1:43:31
  other texts and then referencing them to the Bible, kind of
• 1:43:36
  fitting them together like a like a puzzle.
• 1:43:40
  Because they're telling Trace Smith, Trace Smith is awesome.
• 1:43:44
  Like I've I've seen so many of his videos so many times and I
• 1:43:50
  can't really, I really can't poke, I can't find any real big
• 1:43:54
  flaws in what he says. About the universe and genetics
• 1:44:00
  really appealed to me as well. It's very interesting.
• 1:44:04
  Like you said, he kind of fits it together like a puzzle.
• 1:44:07
  It's it's pretty neat, yeah, because we all know that the,
• 1:44:12
  the, the people who write histories are the ones that win
• 1:44:15
  the wars. But there's still, there's still
• 1:44:19
  other documentation from the loser.
• 1:44:21
  So if you can get that those and then you can compare those to
• 1:44:25
  the winning, the winning scripture, which would be what's
• 1:44:28
  in the Bible, and you can you can compare them.
• 1:44:31
  That adds validation to the actual history itself.
• 1:44:37
  Yeah, yeah. And I go ahead, I.
• 1:44:42
  Was gonna say this last one I saw was about.
• 1:44:45
  Expedition that was in Nashville in 1898, I think it was or or 90
• 1:44:49
  something. Was it one day?
• 1:44:51
  Was it one that was recently up there?
• 1:44:53
  Yeah. Like the last.
• 1:44:55
  One like the last day or so with the Parson on that they made a
• 1:44:58
  copy of Yeah, that was with. Yeah.
• 1:45:01
  With the. Yeah.
• 1:45:02
  I didn't know that. I didn't.
• 1:45:03
  First of all, I never heard that there was expedition in
• 1:45:05
  Nashville, and I'm up on these types of things.
• 1:45:08
  I've never heard that. And I didn't know they had a
• 1:45:10
  building there for that expedition still.
• 1:45:12
  That was a copy of the Greek partner.
• 1:45:14
  I never knew that I'm the first time I heard it was.
• 1:45:17
  Today. I was excellent.
• 1:45:22
  I mean if if you're interested in like world fairs and stuff,
• 1:45:23
  when they happened this, I never heard of it.
• 1:45:26
  But did it happen like five or six years after Chicago World
• 1:45:29
  Fair, which is was 1892 and I think said that one was 1898 in
• 1:45:33
  Nashville. I've never heard and I know they
• 1:45:35
  had another world fair during the 80s.
• 1:45:36
  I believe in Nashville. OK.
• 1:45:39
  OK, it was the Tennessee Centennial and International
• 1:45:42
  Exposition. It was in 1897 in what is now
• 1:45:47
  Centennial Park. And yeah, let me see if I can
• 1:45:52
  find the parcel on. Later, right?
• 1:45:56
  You heard yourself. Have you ever heard of this
• 1:45:57
  before? This.
• 1:45:58
  This. Not really.
• 1:46:00
  That's. What I've really heard of
• 1:46:01
  Nashville once. I've never heard of it.
• 1:46:04
  What's it called again? Strong.
• 1:46:08
  There's some kind of tenure Centennial it tends to.
• 1:46:11
  Be part and Parthenon in Nashville OK, never mind, I
• 1:46:14
  think. I got it real.
• 1:46:16
  Quick and Wikipedia says the Parthenon replica built for the
• 1:46:19
  exhibition was made of temporary materials.
• 1:46:22
  Because of its popularity, it was reconstructed in permanent
• 1:46:26
  materials and a project lasting from 1920 to 1931 today is used
• 1:46:31
  as an Art Museum. Among its exhibits is.
• 1:46:34
  Allen Laquire's 1990 recreation of the Athena Parthenos statue.
• 1:46:40
  And of course then it says, and I knew about this one.
• 1:46:41
  Nearly a century later, the United States held the 1982
• 1:46:45
  World's Fair in Knoxville, TN. And of course the sunsphere
• 1:46:49
  survives from from that one. And is my screen, is my screen
• 1:46:57
  being shared. I don't.
• 1:46:59
  It's not yet, not now. I see it over here, but.
• 1:47:02
  You may have to click on him Ryan to share it.
• 1:47:05
  Oh, OK, OK. I'm.
• 1:47:06
  I'm doing that. There you go.
• 1:47:09
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:47:12
  Are these all different Parthenon replicas around the
• 1:47:14
  world, or is it just one picture?
• 1:47:16
  No, this. This is the one in Nashville,
• 1:47:18
  TN. Oh wow, that's very nice.
• 1:47:21
  I did not know it was there. This is that little statue in
• 1:47:24
  our hand is 6 feet tall. So imagine how big that that
• 1:47:26
  statue is. Just a little.
• 1:47:27
  The little one. The Angel looking thing is the
• 1:47:29
  one in the hands supposed. To be nikey, I think nikey.
• 1:47:32
  Yeah, it's six feet over 6 feet tall, so imagine how huge that
• 1:47:35
  statue is in the building that houses that statue.
• 1:47:39
  That's really cool. I I was not aware of that.
• 1:47:43
  I've never heard of this building.
• 1:47:44
  You know, people think of Nashville, they think of the
• 1:47:46
  Grand Old Opry and country music.
• 1:47:48
  But there's more to it than that, you know.
• 1:47:50
  Definitely more to it than that. Yeah.
• 1:47:54
  If, if, if you can tolerate like me personally, I really like
• 1:48:00
  Trey Smith's like storytelling. Like I like the quirky kind of
• 1:48:05
  like way he tells the stories and everything like that.
• 1:48:08
  So it doesn't bother me. I can definitely understand that
• 1:48:11
  some people might be turned off by that.
• 1:48:14
  But if you if you can, either if you either enjoy it or you can
• 1:48:18
  tolerate it, there's a lot of, there's a lot of interesting
• 1:48:23
  knowledge that they have on that, especially whenever it
• 1:48:25
  comes to like the bloodlines and and the nephalem and and you
• 1:48:31
  know some of the Apopka books like Enoch and all of that
• 1:48:35
  stuff, so. Yeah, I would like to know more
• 1:48:39
  about some of that stuff. It's interesting.
• 1:48:40
  But guys, people are starting to drop like flies.
• 1:48:43
  Do you want to go ahead and call it a night?
• 1:48:45
  Oh. Yeah, I think I do.
• 1:48:48
  Yeah, you can do that. Yeah.
• 1:48:51
  Let me say a prayer real quick. All right, If y'all don't mind.
• 1:48:57
  Dear Lord, I just come to you humbly now.
• 1:48:59
  And I just want to thank you for for tonight.
• 1:49:02
  I know that you you moved tonight through Eli and through
• 1:49:06
  the things that he said. And I know your spirit was among
• 1:49:09
  us. And I just pray that all of
• 1:49:11
  those who watch this after tonight will be blessed by you
• 1:49:14
  and ministered. And if anyone watches this who
• 1:49:17
  doesn't know you, I pray that you will do a work in their
• 1:49:19
  heart, Lord, and draw them to you.
• 1:49:21
  I just pray all this in your name.
• 1:49:23
  In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
• 1:49:27
  Good night. Good to see you.
• 1:49:29
  Ryan Stump, Dustin. God bless.
• 1:49:32
  God bless you.