Loving Response to Costi Hinn with Teeth

All right, let's get started today. Sorry for the no upload day yesterday. I was busy building raised bed gardens.

You might say, well, that's a quick job. You know, why'd that take you so long? And it's on a slope, pretty intense slope.

And so I've never done that kind of work before. It took a little time, but it was a pretty successful project. In any case,

I wanted to say before we got started that I think that this YouTube channel and my

Twitter page is having a pretty big effect on the world of Big Eva. I think we've got confirmed.

It's confirmed that I am now setting the agenda of at least part of the Gospel Coalition news cycle.

Last night, this is exhibit A. Last night, Joe Carter, the

CIA agent, I don't know. The more time that passes, the more I think about this, the more likely I think it is that Joe Carter is in fact a

CIA asset. I don't have any proof of it. It's just a thought, but I'm just gonna go with it.

Anyway, Joe Carter in a little cutesy message. You know, all of us here on YouTube and Twitter, we'll be serious, but we'll also put some cutesy messages out there.

That's why I do my chicken updates. You know, kind of cutesy, you know? I'm a real guy. I'm just a regular guy, just like you, you know?

Anyway, Joe Carter had a little cutesy tweet last night, which I trolled, totally trolled it.

Here's what his tweet says. It says, in an email from a pastor, what is the proper slash preferred recommendation, recommended complimentary closing?

You know, so people were responding like with, oh, you close your letter, you say blessings. You close your letter, you say grace and peace, you know, that kind of stuff.

And I trolled them. I said, follow the white rabbit. That's what I'm gonna do.

In my emails from now on, I'm gonna close them. Follow the white rabbit, A .D. Robles. And the reason why

I did that, you might not know, that is something that is used in the QAnon community. That's a, they talk about the white rabbit and a storm is coming and stuff like that.

And wouldn't you know it, not 12 hours later, the very next day, Agent Joe Carter releases a expose, if you will, about how

QAnon is actually another religion. Like if you're a Christian and you're in QAnon, really, you're actually not a

Christian. You can't be a Christian and be involved in the QAnon community. They are incompatible religions.

One is a cult, a satanic cult, Joe Carter even calls it, a satanic cult.

My goodness, if you know anything about QAnon, that is quite a claim. And so I think that he is,

I don't think he knew I was trolling and I think he took me seriously and thinks that I'm a big Christian influencer that's involved in QAnon.

Therefore, he wants to call me a satanist. That's what I think. I think it's confirmed. There's no other explanation for the

QAnon article that came out yesterday. We are going to go into the QAnon article, no question about it. Not today though.

Today is about Pastor Kosti Hinn. Now I know very little about Kosti Hinn.

I've never heard him speak. I've never read more than a tweet from Kosti Hinn.

I may have shared a tweet or two or something like that. I don't think I've ever heard him speak. Maybe I have,

I don't know. But what I do know about him is he's a relative of Benny Hinn, the charismatic guy, but he's not charismatic.

He's been calling out his uncle and stuff like that. That's what I heard. I didn't even know he was a pastor until today. Anyway, but he's done this video about conspiracies and constitutional rights and Christ likeness regarding Romans 13 and that kind of thing.

I thought we'd just respond to it. I mean, to some circles, I think he's a bit of a sacred cow.

I've noticed on Twitter, if you criticize Kosti Hinn, people will jump on you, especially people, including people that don't normally jump on you when you criticize this kind of a perspective.

So Kosti Hinn is a bit of a sacred cow. Not to me, he isn't, of course. Nothing against the man.

Listen, I know how it feels, Kosti. If you ever watch this video, I would recommend you watch my

Matt Chandler charismatic video. You see, you wanna go after charismatics, you gotta go after the big dogs, you know what I'm saying?

Benny Hinn, he's a punching bag for all kinds of people. I guess he's a big dog, depending on your circles. But in our circles, everybody makes fun of Benny Hinn.

But yeah, you should watch my Matt Chandler one. It's a good video, it's a very important video. Because Matt Chandler's not sowing seeds, necessarily, but he is engaged in all kinds of really dangerous charismatic practice.

And I think that video, it's probably my most popular video, Matt Chandler jumped the shark. Anyway, so I wanna talk about this.

Oh, and one more thing, Pastor Kosti Hinn. You mentioned you're kind of like a lass, my generation won't listen unless brevity is involved.

Listen, listen. I can listen to a 50 -minute sermon, but I think sermons that are 50 minutes, oftentimes, could have been 20 minutes.

And it's just a lot of words and extra stuff that a lot of people don't need. And I like 50 -minute sermons, but I don't bemoan anyone who doesn't like 50 -minute sermons.

It's hard to sit tight for 50 minutes. It is, it's not, this is not something to bemoan.

I think it's a practice that you need to cultivate in yourself. How do I say what I wanna say in 50 minutes in 20 minutes?

That's a skill, man, you shouldn't bemoan that. In fact, this video, it's a six -minute video. I don't think you should be ashamed of that.

I think you should be proud of yourself for fitting this much content into six minutes. That's very difficult to do. In fact,

I would argue it's more difficult to do than to have a 20 -minute, hour -long video and this kind of thing.

That's why all my videos are like half an hour. They should be five minutes. I'm just not smart enough to fit them in five minutes.

Anyway, let's get into it. Kosti Hinn, Conspiracy Theories in Romans 13. Whoa, hold on.

I'm not here, oh, there we go. Briefly about conspiracy theories, civil disobedience, and the general approach, right?

People, I've been bombarded with questions about this particular subject and thought it would be helpful if I put out a brief video talking about the heart that we should have as a believer.

Right now on the news, you've got people picket. Listen, this is a pet peeve. It's nothing against Kosti.

This is Big Eva speak. This is not Big Eva speak. This is evangelical speak. This is part of our lingo.

We have a heart for this. What kind of heart should we have? I just, that grates on me, man.

That's like nails on a chalkboard for me. Your boy doesn't like that. I have a heart for children.

Like, I understand what you're trying to say. It's cool to like children, that's fine. But that,

I have a heart for this. That's, I don't know, I don't like that. Marching, and you've got a lot of Christians that are up in arms saying that the government is fringing on our rights, that this is unconstitutional, that the church is being persecuted.

And I want to walk you through a few key truths that will at least frame a biblical perspective and help our hearts.

That's the goal. It's not really about, you know, you're right, this person's wrong or what. It's about the way we approach things.

So let's just stop right there because this is a very, like, it's a very pious thing to say.

It's not about who's right and wrong. It's about our hearts. Well, but it's also about who's right or wrong. Because the thing is, like, there is a right answer here.

Are your constitutional rights being infringed, yes or no? Definitively, yes. I mean, there's really no argument there.

But that's why most people don't talk about the Constitution, they talk about the Bible, because it's a little bit, at least in their opinion, it's a little bit more ambiguous.

Are your rights being violated in the Bible? Well, the Bible doesn't have a Bill of Rights, per se, but the

Bible does say a lot about this kind of thing. It says a lot about government's spheres of authority and overstepping those bounds and what a

Christian's supposed to do when the government oversteps its bounds and that kind of thing. So, you know, yes, it's more about, like, you know, your holiness before God, your heart and your heart's desires.

You want to have a heart for the Lord. But it is about who's right or wrong, too.

It's not an either -or thing here. You know, we got to disavow that from our line. We have to figure out who's right here.

It's not always what we say, but how we say it. But how you say it is, let's just say it's important, fine, but what you say is definitely important.

In fact, it is definitely more important. Because if you're wrong and you're lying about what

God says in a very lovely kind of voice, that's not going to save you. You know what I mean? But if you're a little too aggressive, but you're right about what

God says, I mean, that's a pretty big judgment call. You know what I mean? Like, to make,

I don't know. So the first thing is this. What about conspiracy theories? Here's the deal.

Forget them. They're a waste of time. A Christian is not called to nerd out on conspiracy theories.

A Christian is called to live according to God's word, based on God's will, and then respond to whatever the situation is, whether it be conspiracy or not.

This is another Big Eva, evangelical -ese type phrase. Kosti, I've never heard him speak before.

He likes these Big Eva phrases, I can see. Ah, a Christian is not called to this.

Well, yeah, I mean, you can't argue with that. There's no place in the Bible that says, Christian, I call you to nerd out on conspiracy theories.

That's true, but the thing is, that's not really what most, nobody's saying that a

Christian is called to look into conspiracy theories. What we're wondering, though, is that an awful lot of things get called conspiracy theories that are actually accurate, and an awful lot of things certainly seem to be conspiring against the

Church of God right now. That doesn't mean all of them are true, but it doesn't mean they're off -limits either.

So it's like, why shouldn't a Christian look into the idea that governments are conspiring to make the

Church last in line to reopen and all that kind of stuff? And it's not every government. It's certain governments.

So why shouldn't a Christian look into that? I'm not, just because I'm not called to it, like, that's so weird. Like, I could say that you're not called to make this

YouTube video or Facebook video, and it would be true. Like, I guess you're not technically called to it, but it doesn't mean you can't make it.

I don't like that phrase. Two phrases I don't like in this. I have a heart for missions, and then a

Christian's not called to this. I don't like that. I don't like it. Maybe, it's okay,

I guess. God's way. So while we may spend countless hours watching

Netflix or looking up, you know, data here and there, data and thinking through, oh, this is a

Chinese conspiracy. Oh, this is a government conspiracy. This is the, this, this, that, and the other. Listen, we have a calling and a purpose here on earth, and our job is to follow

God's word, God's way. That's number one. Okay, but again, this is just so simplistic.

Like, I know what you're trying to do, Kosti. You've got this image of a conspiracy theorist with his tinfoil hat in his grandmother's basement all day, every day, just like, you know, something like that.

And the thing is, like, but you know that's the minority. Like, there's very few people doing that.

Most people that you're targeting with this video are people that just casually know about some of this stuff, and they're casually interested in like, yeah, but what did the

Chinese government know? What was the timeline there? Because this is an awful situation. We ought to get to the bottom of it, right?

And that's the thing. Like, I did a video the other day that I don't trust anyone that just rejects conspiracy theories to the point where they can't even admit something is a little fishy.

Like, the whole timeline of coronavirus and what the Chinese government officially said versus what was probably actually the case, that's fishy.

We ought to get to the bottom of that. We don't have to lie that that's fishy. Now, it's very different from saying that than saying, and Bill Gates was the one who planned the whole thing, and he was in there.

That's a very different thing. Unless you have evidence of that, you probably shouldn't say that. But let's be honest with ourselves.

It's really fun to be honest with yourself. When something stinks, how about we just get to the bottom of it?

There's nothing incongruent with the Christian worldview and getting to the bottom of things that stink.

In fact, we ought to expose, a Christian is called to expose the darkness, right?

So I see where you're going. In your mind, you've got the image of the guy, the incel in his basement, but there's just hardly any people like that.

Hardly any people like that. And the fact that that's where your mind goes, that's propaganda that's working on you. Number two, this idea that we've got kind of a

Bible in one hand and the American flag in the other, and people are, you know, America, and no one's gonna tread on our rights, and this is unconstitutional.

From a church perspective, the bottom line is, nobody is showing up at our doors and at our churches, putting us all in prison for practicing

Christianity. Nowhere have they said. Yeah, they're just not letting you practice Christianity. Like this is the thing, like it's never time.

It's never time. This is the kind of guy that's just like, no matter what's going on, it's like, well, it's not time yet.

Let's be patient, slow to speak. And it's like, okay, I like the push that way.

We need people to slow us down, of course, but we also need people to be like, hey, sound the alarm, let's go.

We need people on that wall to say, dude, we gotta watch out for this. Like, oh yeah, they're not rounding us up in jail, fine.

Maybe I believe you that you'd be up in arms if they were. I'm not so sure I believe most people. I'm pretty sure we'd get think pieces about how it's loving your neighbor and being like Christ to just submit to everything, go to jail, and don't say, don't even sue, because if you sue, then you're resisting the evil one.

And like, there are options available to Christians. Yeah, it would be, if the government came to my house and they said, hey, we're gonna take you away,

I'd probably just go because it'd be prudent to not be killed in resisting an officer kind of thing.

But the thing is like, that's not the only option available. There are other options available, and that's the reality.

And so it's not like Christians are like, well, we've got the American flag, we've got the Bible, and they're both equal. No, it's like, we understand that the country was founded in a

Christian way, like our founding documents, they're not perfect, and they don't go far enough in my opinion, but they're based on biblical principles of government.

And so those are good things that we ought to hold on to, we're called to hold on to as Christians. We ought to have a heart for the government according to God's standards.

We ought to have a heart for upholding rights according to God's standards. That's something that we ought to have a heart for.

And so why make someone feel bad for that? And so, yeah, they're not dragging you off to jail, but they're just not letting you meet in some instances.

Some governments are, but some aren't. They're just saying, no, you can't do it. You can't worship God the way

God has prescribed on the Lord's day, you can't do it. It's not safe, man. So if that's not time to at least have the conversation, that's the other thing.

Nobody's saying, we gotta get our AR -15s out and start shooting. Nobody's saying that.

All we're saying is like, shouldn't we at least have the conversation about when do we meet anyway?

And these people are saying, no, no, that's not, we shouldn't have a heart for that. That's not the inclination of our heart.

Like what? Why? Why is this happening? Kosti, what are you up to?

You cannot be a Christian. I can't trust you because you're associated with the hens. What are you up to,

Kosti? You cannot have faith in this God. Nowhere are we being scapegoated like Nero would have scapegoated the early church around first Peter's time of being written.

No. That's false. We are being scapegoated. We are. That's false,

Kosti. Maybe you just don't know. Maybe you just don't know. Yeah, we're not being scapegoated like in Nero's time.

Here's the other thing. Again, he's setting the goalposts so far. You know, one way that you'll never meet it. Yeah, we're not literally being burned at the stake.

True. Granted, Kosti, nobody's saying that. But we are being scapegoated.

Yeah, you know how dangerous it is for people to sing together? I mean, look at that one in Seattle.

That could have been stomped out, that outbreak, if those little old ladies didn't meet for choir practice.

Oh, by the way, homeschooling is extremely dangerous. Homeschooling is one of the worst things ever.

We are being scapegoated. Maybe not to the degree of Nero. Granted, Kosti. But we're not also thinking of responding in that way either.

Like, we're not responding in kind. All we're trying to do is have a conversation here. But I guess that's not, we don't have a heart for that.

Right now, we could have a church of 5 ,000 people meeting in homes, meeting in house churches, honoring the recommendations, by the way, of governors and of the

CDC to simply. But it's not just recommendations, Kosti, and you know that. That's what, in some instances, it's just recommendations, and in some instances, it's orders.

It's completely different, depending on where you live. And by the way, house church is not the same as regular church.

Video church is not adequate. And you know that too, Kosti. I'm sure you seem like a smart guy. Video church is not gathering as a church.

That's not honoring the Lord's day the way he's commanded it to be honored. It's not adequate. It's not adequate.

Right? Be considerate. Yes, this is tough for small business owners.

Yes, this is a difficult time, and that's really valid and important to hear. But the way that we approach this is so vital.

So I wanna share - It's tough, but the thing is, you can even just see the language that he uses. This guy is bought into the propaganda.

This is tough for small business owners. No, this is absolutely unjust for small business owners.

This is absolutely unjust. Like this is, like the Bible, it's not a perfect equation, but the reason why we call it a livelihood is because that's your life.

That's your life. God takes that seriously. And so it's not just a minor inconvenience.

It's not just a little tough. It's not just tough. This is an injustice according to the constitution and according, more importantly, to God's scripture.

People are being banned from making a living. Banned from making a living. So you could see how he's framing it.

It's tough. It's a tough, it's a difficulty. Yeah, it's all those things, but it's more importantly an injustice to God's standards.

It's not something Christians should tolerate for their neighbor. If we're gonna have a heart for loving our neighbor, right?

If we're gonna have a heart for that, then we need to at least speak up about it.

Share a couple passages with you and then we'll wrap this up. First, 1 Peter 2 .7, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear

God, honor the king. Where in a Christian's repertoire is a recipe for revolt in a dishonorable way?

It's not there. Honor the king. Even Peter writes to a bunch of people that are dealing with an emperor who is vile and repulsive.

A guy setting up humans on stakes, lighting them on fire to torchlight his backyard parties.

Nero, he's telling them honor the king. By the way, I've heard that that itself is a conspiracy theory.

I've heard the idea of these Roman candles. That's a Christian conspiracy theory.

Okay, so I guess Christians ought to not even talk about that, right? Because I've now labeled it a conspiracy theory.

I've heard people label it a conspiracy theory. Now I'm labeling it a conspiracy theory. So we're not allowed to talk about that. A Christian should not have a heart for that.

A Christian's not called the conspiracy theories, Kosti. But the thing is like, okay, fine, he's got a good point.

We should honor the governor. And I think people like me need to hear that because I do have a tendency to say things about some civil governing authorities that are probably inappropriate.

Let's just say that. So people on my side of this do need to hear that we need to honor the king, right?

Honor our civil governing authorities. But there's two problems with that, Kosti. And the thing is, I know that in the beginning, you've already kind of said it's not about who's right or wrong.

No, but it is though, because the details actually matter, Kosti, because here's the reality. Honor the king doesn't mean always obey him because especially in a situation where the king is saying, you can't worship

God the way he's prescribed, like we should at least have the conversation about, do we obey that?

At least have the conversation, right? So that's number one. Honor doesn't always mean obey.

And number two, we have to understand in this country, the way we've set up our system, and this is a way that a lot of people think is very biblical, and the founders certainly thought was very biblical, is that we don't have kings.

And our authority here, this is where I think the constitution messed up, it needed to be identified as Christ.

It wasn't clearly identified as Christ, but we set up this document that is our final kind of arbiter, so to speak, right?

And so the reality is that honoring that document sometimes requires you to not consent to things that don't honor that document.

And so if we're gonna submit to our civil governing authorities, the constitution is part of that, and I would say the primary part of that in our country.

And so when the governor says, do something unconstitutional, we gotta honor our leaders, our king, we gotta honor that document.

That's how it works, Costi, in this country. And so either way, whatever way you slice it, even if you just wanna go biblically and forget the constitution for a minute, which

I don't think you can biblically, but that's another conversation, it doesn't always mean obey.

And so we should at least have the conversation about disobeying the order to not meet, or even just the guidelines, if you wanna put it that way.

You look at 1 Peter 2 .18, servants be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

Wow, so even unreasonable leaders, unreasonable bosses are to be shown respect and reverence.

And so shouting fake news and throwing conspiracy theory everywhere and saying, oh, this is just a bunch of fear -mongering is not really helpful.

Even if some of it was right, or even if something ended up being a conspiracy theory, a Christian simply sits back and says,

I'm ready to respond based on God's word. Right, but the thing is though, like this is the problem,

Kosti, that we have, because the way you characterize this is so ridiculous. Kosti, this is ridiculous what you've done, because this is what you've said.

You said the responses are throwing conspiracy theory, shouting fake news, and it just makes it sound so unreasonable.

But the thing is the pastors that you're speaking to here and you have to understand this is the majority are not doing that.

What they're saying is, yeah, but you see, I'm looking at the data very reasonably, looking at the data here and like there's a lot of inconsistency, not even in just the data, but even in the recommendations, like I don't wear the mask,

I don't wear the mask. Like, it doesn't sound like you really know what you're talking about. And then the data certainly seems incomplete.

Like this seems kind of comparable as far as like the death toll, very comparable to the seasonal flu, which we're able to navigate and still worship

God normally every season, every single freaking season.

You know what I mean? And that's how it's normally going. People are reasoning things out in a very rational, reasonable kind of way.

They're not just shouting fake news. Some people do that. That's fine, you know. They're not just doing that,

Kosti. And the thing is that this video, like you're talking about a certain kind of person, but you have to understand that people are gonna apply this to all kinds of very, very reasonable brethren that all they're doing is just saying, you know, like, but the time's gonna come where we're just gonna have to meet anyway.

Like the time's gonna come when we realize that we've been lied to by Caesar and we shouldn't be fooled into not honoring the

Sabbath the way God has told us to honor the Sabbath. I mean, what could be more important than worshiping

God the way he's commanded to be worshiped? And so this is a conversation we need to have.

Yes, we should have it reasonably, but this video, Kosti, serves to kind of shut down that conversation and characterize the opposition in the most ridiculous kind of way.

It's not helpful, Kosti. If anything's not helpful, this isn't helpful. I'd rather hear people say fake news when the news is a little bit, you know, fuzzy than to hear you say, don't shout fake news and just submit even when the situation is as serious as, hey guys, you can't meet for worship the way

God has commanded you. Another one, Romans 12 .10, be devoted to one another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor.

What about the people who have had coronavirus? What about our church members who've been in the hospital with coronavirus and nearly died?

What about them, Kosti? What about them, Kosti? Because this is the thing, I could say the same exact thing to you about our brethren that have died of the flu.

In fact, there was an old lady in my church who had the flu and people were very worried about her. It was before the coronavirus thing happened, although maybe not because a lot of people think coronavirus came a lot earlier than has been officially told and that's not a conspiracy theory.

That's just looking at the data and realizing what's happened here, right? But anyway, she was an older lady and people were worried about her.

My whole church is old and so there was some concern about that. And so it's like, okay, but then, so all those years where we just dealt with the flu and we were responsible as much as we could be and we took care of what we could take care of and we trusted

God with what we couldn't, all those years we were hating our brethren by still worshiping

God. My goodness, how could worshiping God during flu season, during a time of sickness, how could that be hating your brethren, not caring about your brethren?

Like, so whatever your answer, Kosti, would be for normal flu seasons when an older person gets sick in your congregation and there's some concern about their health and stuff like that.

There was some serious concern in my church about this lady. If that's, so whatever your answer is,

Kosti, to that, that's likely what our answer is for this one. You understand what

I'm trying to say? Like, I see what you're saying. We ought to consider everybody, but it seems like before coronavirus, we knew the answers here, but then we forgot them as soon as the government propaganda machine got going and got us really scared, unnecessarily now that the data has come out.

What about the elderly in our congregation who are vulnerable? What about those with cancer or diabetes?

What about those who are extreme asthmatics? Even if you're fine, or you don't like the way the situation's going, the way that you carry yourself.

Kosti, I'm an extreme asthmatic. Okay? So you're talking to me here.

And here's what I say, okay? When it was a little unsure about what was going on with coronavirus,

I was highly skeptical based on the information we did have, but we didn't have a lot of information at the time.

And so you know what I did? Kosti, you know what I did? I took necessary precautions.

You know, if I was sick, I wasn't going anywhere. If somebody else was sick, I was asking them not to come. Things like that.

I was taking reasonable precautions that don't require me to shut down my life.

And more importantly, forget about my life for a second, shut down the worship of the Lord of glory, right?

Like that's what I want to happen. If the choice is my life or God's worship goes the way he's commanded it to go, guess what

I'm gonna choose, Kosti? By the way, I'm willing to bet that the elderly that love the

Lord at our churches, many of them would also make the same choice. They'd rather stay.

I'd be willing to bet. I haven't taken a poll here, but if we decided to start our church up again, which they've closed it down, and I supported the elders for that.

You know, we have a very specific situation and you know, I'm not 100 % convinced it was necessary, but I support my elders, right?

And I'm patient and all that kind of stuff. That being said, if we decided to meet up again, we said to the elderly in our church, which is most of the people, we said, look, we're gonna meet for the worship of God.

We think it's just too important. We're not gonna insist that you come. You know, if you have cancer, you've got diabetes, you're immune compromised, don't worry about coming.

You can still do video church, but the younger are gonna meet. What do you think about that? I'm pretty sure that almost 100 % would be like, yeah, we can make our own decisions.

You guys meet, we'll stay home, that kind of thing. That's what I'm pretty sure what would happen. And if it didn't, and somebody was like, no, if I'm not meeting, you're not meeting.

Like if somebody was gonna take that position, that'd probably be a spiritual problem to address.

Self can show preference and give preference to others who may choose to social distance themselves for a while, or who may not be in the picket line shouting, this is against our rights.

And this is exactly why you keep your church open, Costi, because each person defers to the other, right?

So the elderly defer to the young, the young defer to the elderly. You wanna stay home, you stay home. This is what, this is the thing like, like people present this as two extremes.

And this is so frustrating to me because a lot of people like, it's not either extreme, it's somewhere in the middle.

But the thing is like, the extremes are presented like this. The people that wanna keep the church open are extremists.

The people that wanna shut down church are extremists. And the answer is somewhere in the middle. No, it's not. That's not where the answer is.

The answer is already on the side of keeping it open because nobody on the keep it open side is saying, and you have to come, otherwise we're gonna excommunicate you.

No, you keep it open. Whoever doesn't wanna come can social distance. Whoever does wanna come, can come and worship the

Lord of glory, the way he's commanded to be worshiped on the Lord's day. That's the middle ground already.

We're already at the middle. Everyone that you're criticizing here is already in the middle ground. The people that don't want churches to be open, they're the extremists.

You see what I'm saying? Like it's presented like, well, there's some kind of middle ground, a magical middle ground that nobody can figure. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

The middle ground's already there. Keep the church open, worship the Lord. That's what we're supposed to do.

And if you have a reason to not come, like for example, if I was sick, I have severe asthma,

I probably wouldn't come because I'd be like, man, maybe I've got the coronavirus and I don't wanna spread it or whatever the situation may be.

Like everyone can make their own decisions here, but that's why you keep it open.

That's not an extreme position. That's the compromise position. They just be waiting and seeing, not fearful, just cautious.

It's important to think through that. That's true, but some are fearful and we need to understand the difference and we need to be able to address that with each person.

Some people aren't fearful, they're just cautious, fine. But some people are deathly afraid. Some people are saying,

I'm not coming back to church until there's a vaccine. That's a spiritual problem that ought to be addressed. And we should know that we need to address that.

Here's another one. 1 Peter 3 .15, to the same group of Christians being persecuted, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.

So yes, make an account. Yes, by all means, share your faith. Explain why you're so bold and courageous about the things you're bold and courageous about that center on Christ.

He says, yet with gentleness and reverence. Excellent, that's right. That's exactly right.

And the thing is though, that we have to be living in such a way that shows that we have hope. And I don't think that cowering at your house when there's nothing wrong with you physically, when you're a young man where the death rate is below,

I mean, I don't even know how low it's gotten at this point. It's low. The chances of you dying are low from coronavirus if you catch it.

Cowering in your house when you have none of the, you know, whatever they're called, pre comorbidities, whatever it's called, that's probably not going to elicit or solicit many, hey, what's the deal with the hope that's within you?

I don't think so. When you're in despair like the rest of the world, probably not going to get asked for the hope that's within you very much.

Just saying. By the way, if you want to show how much you do not have despair, go to Confessional Wear and purchase a

No Despair 2020 T -shirt. 80 Robas would appreciate it. And you will have a conversation piece that will start these kinds of conversations with you that Kosti's talking about here.

Kosti, if you want one, I'll send you one. No Despair 2020, baby, woo! Be gentle.

Be reverent. It's not what you say or what you do, but how you say it and the way you do it.

It's both, Kosti. It's both. I hate when people say this. It's not what you say, but how you say it.

It's both. Every time I turn on this camera, I consider both. And we have to consider both.

We can't just pop off at the mouth. It is what you say. You have to be right. You can't lie about what

God's word says. If God's word says something, and I say it says something else, but I say it gently and reverently, that doesn't do me any good.

It doesn't do anyone any good. And so there are times when I'll raise my voice, and there are times when

I'm pleading, and there are times when I'm quiet, and there's times for all this stuff, but I wanna say the right thing too, and I think everyone should.

We need to be right about what the Lord says. We need to be right about which civil governing authorities we are to submit to, because they don't all agree.

That's another thing. We've got presidents that don't agree with the governors, and governors that don't agree with the city mayors, and mayors, and city governors, and senators, and representatives, and presidents that don't agree with the

Constitution, which in this country is our civil governing authority. So what, how do we navigate that,

Costi? How do we navigate that? That's where we need, there's a lot of meat that we need to go into, and we wanna have these conversations, but the thing is, videos like this, they really serve to shut down conversation, and say, well, it's not really what you say.

It's how you say it. That's false, Costi. That's not true. It's both. It's both,

Costi. Stop saying this kind of stuff. I really hate when people say this. It's not true. It's a lie. It is about what you say, as well as how you say it.

Let me push in one step further. The church is not a platform for your anti -vaxxer campaign.

The church is not a platform for your small business. The church is not a place where you hand out business cards and manipulate people into a

Ponzi scheme. The church is not a place where we set up our picket signs. The church is not a place where we vote for Trump or Biden or anti -Hillary or anti -Trump.

The church is not a political forum. The church is the place that Jesus is building to point to Him and Him alone as the

King. This is another frustration of mine, because there's a lot to agree with there, because strictly speaking, there's some things that he's right about.

But Costi, brother, the church is about Jesus Christ, right?

That's true. But brother, Jesus Christ is building a kingdom.

It's about the kingdom of God, the kingdom. And what is Christ but the King of kings and the

Lord of lords. When we say Christ is Lord, right? When we say Christos Churias, the way

James White likes to say it. When we say that, brother, what could be a more political statement?

Jesus is the King. Jesus is the Lord. He's building a kingdom, a real kingdom.

A real kingdom with a real King. And Christ is a real King. And He does kingly things and He rules as King.

And He's got commands like a normal King, except He's the ultimate King, the King of kings.

And He's a good King. And His rules and His commands and His orders are good and right and just and perfect.

What could be more political than that? And so yeah, you know, it's not the place to stump

Republican party. I don't care about the Republican party as such. I only care as far as they're in line with what

Christ commands. That's all I care about. Because if the Republican party has to change its position on certain things like abortion and stuff like that and immigration in order to get elected,

I don't give two rips if they get elected or not. I care about how they comport with God's standard of justice, which they most certainly do way more than the

Democrats. And we need to acknowledge that. That doesn't mean that we should be like, okay, well, the church is an arm of the Republican party.

No, we need to call out insanity when we see it from the Republican party. Like this socialism scheme that we've been getting, the

Trump cash and stuff like that. You know, we call that stuff out. We call that stuff out. That's unacceptable for a

Christian. And so like, brother, hear me say this, man. You're kinda right, but you're also kinda wrong.

Like when we talk about the church being about Christ, that is a political position.

Christ is king. What could be more political than that? King of kings and the Lord of lords. You just said it.

In fact, it's important for us to be aware of politics. Oh, it's important for us to have consent for medical procedures.

It's important for the Christian to speak up when the government is infringing on our biblical mandates.

But be careful that you don't take the American flag and wrap it around your Bible and start reading

God's word through the lens of red, white, and blue. Brothers and sisters, we are cut from a different cloth.

We are sojourners. We are not of this world. We are passing through it to our true heavenly home.

I hope that challenges you and sharpens you as you do care. It would sharpen me,

Kosti. Let's let you finish and then I'll. But that you do so in a godly way and I also in a godly way.

Love you, praying for you, and praying that this is all over soon and we can make much of Christ no matter what.

So the thing is like it would sharpen us, Kosti, if you gave us some meat. And I know this is just a six minute video,

I get it. But you say, don't look at your Bible through a red, white, and blue lens. Okay, granted, fine.

But it would be nice to get an example of that. Is like the right to assemble part of that?

Is that what you think looking at the Bible through an American lens is? Because that's actually not that at all.

Like is the right to worship the Lord on Sunday looking at the Bible through an American flag lens?

I don't think that that's how it is, brother. And I think that the reality is that you've really misconstrued the opposition here.

Because what the opposition says is that these rights that are not created by the

Constitution, but recognized by the Constitution ultimately come from God. And the reason we know they come from God is because they're in that word.

And so we look at our word and we come up with these, we can identify these rights. And then we say, okay, our constitution is gonna recognize that these rights exist.

They came from the Lord, they came from God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. Nothing could be more political than that statement, by the way.

And so we're gonna honor those rights and recognize those rights. And so when we look, point to the

Constitution, a lot of times when we point to the Constitution, we're really not pointing to the Constitution, we're pointing to the

Lord. We're saying this Constitution identifies that God has given his people these rights and these commands and these kinds of things.

That's what we're talking about here. So it'd be nice to see an example. How are we looking at the

Bible through the red, white, and blue lens? Because I don't really know what you're talking about here, but more than anything, brother, this kind of video is so unhelpful because it really paints the other side in the most unreasonable, ridiculous light.

And everybody on that side knows that that's not what it's all about. And so all you're trying to do here is to shut down conversation.

Look, nobody's picking up arms here. Nobody's picking up their AR -15s and saying we gotta storm the castle.

Nobody's doing that. And you act like that's never appropriate. There could be a time when that's appropriate. It's not right now.

All we're doing is having the conversation. You're almost like you just wanna shut that down. It's not what you say, it's how you say it.

Look, not everybody has to communicate like a Vulcan English professor, with no emotions and just like, oh, this is a lovely conversation we're having.

Sometimes it's time to get fired up, right? It's time to get fired up. There's a time for that. There's a proverb about that,

I think, right? Yeah, a time to build up, a time to tear down, that kind of stuff, yeah. Anyway, Kosti, listen, that was a good video in some ways, but ultimately,

I just, I can't approve it. Hope you watch this and yeah, hope to interact with you more, brother.