March 11, 2024 Show with Tobias Riemenschneider on “Resisting Tyranny: A Christian Response to Government Overreach”

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March 12, 2024

00:03: Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer
00:10: George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend
00:16: Jim Thorpe. It's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,
00:23: Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.
00:31: Proverbs, chapter 27, verse 17, tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
00:38: Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.
00:50: It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.
00:58: And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,
01:10: Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth, listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.
01:20: This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 11th day of March 2024.
01:29: Before I introduce my guest and our topic for the day, I want to remind you that this
01:35: Friday, March 15th, at 7 p .m., I will be on Long Island, New York, at the
01:42: Coral House Catering Hall in Baldwin, Long Island, to emcee the
01:48: Grace Christian Academy of Long Island fundraising gala. The guest speaker that night will be author and educator
01:58: Dr. Ernie Zara, who's been on my program a number of times. And I hope that as many of you in the
02:05: Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listening audience can attend that as possible, especially those of you who live on Long Island or near there.
02:14: And if you want more details on registering for this fundraising gala, go to gcali .com.
02:24: G -C -A -L -I dot com forward slash gala.
02:30: Once again, that's gcali .com forward slash g -a -l -a.
02:38: And all the information that you'll need to register will be right there on that website.
02:45: And I hope to see as many of you as possible there. That's this Friday, March 15th, 7 p .m.,
02:51: at the Coral House Catering Hall, Baldwin, Long Island. But I'm absolutely thrilled to have a first -time guest today, whom
02:59: I was introduced to through the webcast of my very dear longtime friend,
03:06: Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries. I'm speaking, of course, about the dividing line.
03:14: And I saw the interview that James conducted with Tobias Rebenschneider, and I knew immediately that I wanted to have
03:23: Tobias on the program. Tobias is pastor of the Evangelical Reform Baptist Church in Frankfurt, Germany, where he is conducting this interview live right now.
03:34: He's also a trained lawyer, founder of Pro Reggae Ministries, and an anti -abortion activist.
03:44: He is also the co -author of the Frankfurt Declaration of Christian and Civil Liberties.
03:49: And today we're going to be addressing the theme of his book, Resisting Tyranny, a Christian Response to Government Overreach.
03:56: It's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time to Iron Trip and Zion Radio, Tobias Rebenschneider.
04:03: Thank you, brother. It's a great pleasure and honor for me to be here. Well, first of all, let our listeners know about the
04:09: Evangelical Reform Baptist Church of Frankfurt, Germany. Yes.
04:15: So, we started working on this church plant in April 2014.
04:22: That is my now co -pastor, Peter Schilt, and myself. And the church was officially constituted in November 2016.
04:33: And it's one of only very few Reformed, especially Reformed Baptist churches in Germany.
04:39: And by the grace of God, we grew and still are still growing quite a lot, at least for German dimensions, not for American dimensions,
04:48: I guess. So, currently, in our church service, we have about 150, 160, 170 people in our church services right now.
04:57: Wow. And the number is growing. So, this makes us the biggest
05:04: Reformed church in all of Germany. Well, you know, you're not far from being the biggest Reformed church in all of the
05:10: United States, because Reformed Baptist churches, I should say, tend to be rather comparatively small, not because of the stereotype of us not being interested in evangelism.
05:25: It's true. That's false. But because the things that we teach are, very often, depending upon where you live, they're very unpopular.
05:34: Yes. Because we really militate against the modern culture and the watered -down gospel of mainstream evangelicalism.
05:43: Yes, that's true. And so do we. I mean, just preaching
05:49: Calvinism that is, you know, no one in Germany really likes Calvinism.
05:54: That makes you a really strange guy. And, of course, other things.
06:00: But, actually, that is precisely why people, especially younger people, are drawn to us.
06:05: Because most churches in Germany are very liberal, are more about entertainment than actually about the
06:13: Bible and the Word of God. And they are charismatic and so on and so forth. So, if you're looking for something like a
06:22: Reformed church, where there's good Bible preaching and so on, where there's solid, robust theology, then you don't have many options.
06:31: And I guess that's why we are growing, because we are one of those few churches. And people, especially young people, are more and more yearning for this.
06:39: Because I think they realize how empty most churches are.
06:46: So, yeah, I think that's a good development. It's still a small development, but something is happening,
06:53: I hope. Amen. Well, if anybody wants to find out more about this fine congregation in Frankfurt, Germany, go to erb -frankfurt .de.
07:06: That's erb -frankfurt .de.
07:12: And God willing, we'll be repeating that throughout the show. And also, let us know about the
07:19: Frankfurt Declaration. Yes. So, during COVID, Germany was really hit hard.
07:29: Not so much by the virus, but more by the state measures. And I know there were a few states in America, like California, that also had very harsh restrictions.
07:44: But I guess Germany was probably even harsher. So, we ended up with every politician, basically, advocating for a general, mandatory vaccination for the entire populace.
08:00: And so, by God's grace, it never came. But it was a very frightening time.
08:08: The state was very aggressive and overreached.
08:16: And at first, I was a little scared. I mean, I knew right from the beginning, when they first started and said,
08:24: OK, there will be a lockdown in three days. No one is allowed to leave the house. And also, church services are not allowed.
08:31: Close your church. I knew right from the beginning, that's not right. I cannot do that.
08:36: We cannot stop worshipping God. So, we still met. We couldn't meet in the church building we were using, because it's not our own.
08:44: We rented it from another church. And they said, you can't have it. It's closed.
08:50: So, we met in the houses of brothers and sisters. We split up into smaller groups, met in the houses.
08:57: So, I knew right from the beginning, we cannot just do what the state is demanding. This would be wrong.
09:03: We have to worship God. We have to have fellowship. We have to continue to care for our sick and so on.
09:10: But I was a little afraid. This was the first time
09:16: I really went against the state, went against law. Normally, I didn't do that.
09:21: So, this was exciting. And I tried to basically do everything in secret.
09:30: So, hoping and praying that no one would find out, that the police wouldn't come, that the neighbors wouldn't call the police and so on.
09:39: But then something changed. And I can pinpoint that. It was exactly when
09:44: I heard that Pastor James Coates in Canada was thrown into jail, because his church stayed open.
09:55: And there I realized, okay, now they're really going aggressively against my brothers.
10:01: I cannot remain silent. I have to join the fight. And I have to raise my voice against this injustice.
10:09: So, together with my co -pastor, we draw a first statement.
10:18: Statement for Germany, where we basically said, okay, this is wrong from a biblical standpoint.
10:24: We brought biblical arguments, gave the Bible verses. Okay, this is wrong. We should not obey.
10:30: This is tyranny. We have to resist. And then came the time when, you know,
10:38: I was contacted by a brother from London. And he had this idea to bring together pastors from all around the world to write a joint declaration, a joint statement against those
10:56: COVID measures. And so I joined this group online.
11:02: But after a few weeks, I guess, it became clear that not everyone was going to the same direction.
11:09: So a group split up, which consisted of three pastors, including myself.
11:17: And then also a pastor from France, who is actually an
11:22: American missionary to France, but has been ministering in France for 40 years. And a pastor from South Africa.
11:29: And over the course of, I don't know, a few months, we met on a regular basis online and draw up this
11:36: Frankfurt Declaration. And, you know, of course, we had no idea if anyone would be interested in reading our declaration.
11:47: But I tried to pull my contacts. I tried to contact my friends.
11:54: For example, James White, a common friend we have. Also James Coates, who became my friend during COVID.
12:03: And everyone I contacted, almost everyone, one or two exceptions, of course, but almost everyone was really happy, was really delighted with this declaration.
12:15: And they said, I will sign it and I will help you to send it on to other guys who might also want to sign it.
12:22: And so this quickly became a much bigger thing than we had ever imagined. And probably the biggest surprise probably was when
12:33: I got an email in the middle of the night, 2 a .m. or 2 .30 a .m.,
12:39: from the office of John MacArthur. They were telling me John MacArthur wants to sign the declaration.
12:45: Wow. And this was really amazing because I was told in advance, you know, it would probably not happen because normally he wouldn't sign anything where he wasn't involved and so on.
12:55: So this was, I really got tears in my eyes. I was so amazed how
13:01: God was blessing this declaration we dropped. So, yes, this is basically the story behind this declaration.
13:10: Well, praise God. And if anybody wants to find out more information about the Frankfurt Declaration, you could go to frankfurtdeclaration .com,
13:19: frankfurtdeclaration .com. And before we go into the heart of our theme today, which is your book on resisting tyranny, a
13:30: Christian response to government overreach, we have a tradition here on Iron Trip and Zion Radio.
13:36: Whenever we have a first time guest, we have that guest give a summary of his or her salvation testimony, which would include any kind of religious upbringing in which that person may have been raised.
13:51: Also, what kind of providential circumstances our sovereign Lord raised up in their lives that drew them to himself and save them.
14:00: And I would love to hear your story. Yes, I'm happy, happy to give you my story.
14:06: So I was born in 1983 and I was born into a into the
14:13: New Apostolic Church, not the New Apostolic Reformation, the New Apostolic Church, that they trace their roots back to to England, 1830s
14:24: England. There was a group around Edward Irving. Maybe that name rings a bell with some.
14:31: Yeah, he's considered the grandfather of the charismatic movement. Exactly, exactly.
14:37: Yes. And I think John Nelson Darby also joined the meetings a few times.
14:44: So but this was this circle. And out of this circle came this. Well, they first called themselves the
14:51: Catholic Apostolic Church. So the basic idea was that there are new apostles right now, 12 apostles, which would basically lead the bride, lead the church to Christ.
15:06: So they thought that Christ was coming back during their lifetimes of those 12 apostles.
15:13: So that there were there were those 12 apostles who founded the church. And now there are 12 apostles who are the last in the last days when
15:22: Christ returns and they will present the bride to Christ. So obviously that did not happen.
15:29: This is almost 200 years ago. Those apostle apostles proclaimed the apostles started dying and Christ did not come back.
15:40: And when there was only one apostle left in England, this church has had already spread to Hamburg in Germany.
15:47: And the Germans said, OK, we need new apostles. And so there was a split. And this became a little later on the new apostolic church.
15:57: And they now have that they are a global church. They are especially big in Germany and Switzerland, but also in quite a few
16:06: African countries. They are also in America, but it's a small minority. By the way, are they anti -trinitarian?
16:13: No, no, they are not. No. So, you know, they have they have they have some some true teaching.
16:21: They believe in the Trinity. They believe that the Christ is the son of God. But it's still it's still a false church because you put your main trust not into Christ, but in those apostles.
16:34: They are basically like like the pope or like like the Catholic Church. Yeah. You need them as your mediators.
16:42: Right. Like the Jehovah's Witnesses as well. They do that with the Watchtower Society. Yeah.
16:48: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. So and and he would also not really hear the gospel proclaimed because, you know, sin wasn't really an issue.
16:59: At least not when I was in that church. I mean, it became more and more liberal and you wouldn't hear much about sin.
17:05: And if you don't hear about sin, if you don't hear about a righteous and righteous God, but only a loving
17:11: God who would forgive everyone freely, then you don't understand why why you need
17:16: Christ dying on a cross for your sins. So I never really heard the gospel presented in a truthful biblical way.
17:26: I thought I would earn my way to heaven. Just be a good Neapolitan Christian. Go to church.
17:32: Try to not be to be not as sinful as those outsiders. And and that's that's it.
17:40: So and so I was in that church for for 30 years. Wow. There was a there was a
17:46: I don't know if it's still there, but I was saved in a Reformed Baptist church in Amityville, Long Island.
17:54: At that time, it was called Calvary Baptist Church of Amityville. It later became Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island in Merrick after a merger with a
18:04: Reformed Baptist Church in Merrick. But when the church was in Amityville, it was right down the road from the
18:11: New Apostolic Church of North America. Oh, OK. On County Line Road in Amityville.
18:18: And I don't know if it's affiliated with the same group. But I remember I I brought flyers for a debate with James White over there once.
18:29: And every every man in the building, I was sneaking in during a worship service.
18:37: Every man was wearing a black suit, white shirt and black tie. And every woman was wearing a white blouse and a black skirt.
18:45: Yes. Yes. So that they did that in your group, too. Yes. So they don't do that anymore, except except for a really important church services.
18:59: So when an apostle actually comes to your church, to your congregation and preaches there, then you would still dress up in.
19:07: And also all the office bearers, they all they always wear a black shirt, black suits, black tie, white shirt.
19:14: So they still kept some of that. Right. So and and then what happens is, you know,
19:24: I I turned 18 and was about to to finish school.
19:29: And I wanted to use the last summer vacation to go to America and and be in a with a host family, an
19:39: American host family. And and my my sister wanted to join me.
19:44: She's two years younger. So I was 18. She was 16. And we contacted an organization that, you know, that found host families for you in America.
19:55: And they found a family for us in Florida. And everything really sounded great.
20:01: You know, they had a big house. They had a pool. And we are really looking forward to that. Yeah. So Florida sun and beach and everything.
20:09: And then about two weeks before our departure, this organization called us and said, well, they are very sorry, but something happened.
20:16: This family cannot take us. And they had had already made some inquiries. But on such short notice, only one family was willing to take us.
20:24: And that was a family not in Florida, but in Wisconsin. And that is quite quite something different.
20:32: Right. So and and they it was a family with seven small children at that time.
20:40: And my sister and I thought, well, that's not really what we what we were looking for. We wanted to have sun and beach and not seven small children in our vacation and during our vacation.
20:51: But we decided, well, before we have to stay at home, let's do this. So in God's providence, we ended up with this host family and this host family, the father and the mother.
21:04: They were the first born again Christians we ever met. And now they had six weeks, the entire summer vacation.
21:13: They had six weeks to talk to us about about the gospel or the word of God.
21:19: And they did. And we we had some discussions and I was very proud.
21:26: You know, when they first told me, yeah, we believe in a six day creation because the Bible says so. I thought, oh, well,
21:32: OK, they are stupid. I mean, I thought that's a that's a prejudice.
21:40: Some Europeans have, I guess. And you mean somewhere in the new apostolic church did not believe in a literal.
21:45: So no, no, no, no, no, no, no. They believe in science, you know.
21:51: OK. And yeah. So there's a prejudice some Europeans have, I guess, is when you meet someone in America on the countryside, they are probably not very well educated.
22:03: So and I thought, well, yeah, that's the proof. They believe in a six day creation. Have they not heard of science?
22:08: Yeah. So I was very proud. But. But, you know, what they said, they just stick with me and I saw their faith and I realized this faith is better than my faith.
22:20: They have actual faith. And there was a power to it because you could see how this really transformed their lives.
22:27: So everything they did, they did for Christ. And I'd never seen that before.
22:32: You know, just being in a McDonald's and praying loud and giving thanks for the food.
22:39: You would never do that as a new apostolic. That would be embarrassing. Right. So everything
22:46: I heard and saw from them really convinced me that this that there was something to that.
22:52: What they were telling me. So when I was back in Germany, I still was in the new apostolic church.
22:57: I didn't know where else to go. I, of course, knew of the Lutheran church, the Catholic church and the
23:04: Mormons and the witnesses. But I knew, OK, those are not the churches I want to go to.
23:10: I want to find a church like I like I experienced in America. But I didn't know where to turn to.
23:18: So I stayed in the new apostolic church. And then I don't think I was saved by that time, but God had began to work in me.
23:27: And then I, you know, I wanted to have this to see this faith again that I experienced in America.
23:33: So I started watching sermons by American preachers. I thought, well, maybe this kind of faith is an
23:40: American thing. Maybe it's an American faith. Yeah, I've never seen it here in Germany. So let's try to listen to American preachers.
23:47: And, you know, I think YouTube was just, you know, just started.
23:52: It was very new. And I went online and and found the shocking youth youth message by Paul Washer.
23:59: Oh, yeah. Yeah. And that got me. I understood that he was talking about me, that I was pretending to be a
24:07: Christian, but was actually on my way to hell. Isn't that the message where Paul said to the audience something like,
24:15: I don't know why you're smiling. I'm talking about you. I don't know why you're clapping. I'm talking about you.
24:21: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I understood he was talking about me.
24:27: You know, I wasn't I wasn't transformed. My heart wasn't changed. I was like just like the world.
24:33: I was just pretending outwardly to be something else. But I understood for the first time,
24:38: I really understood that God is an angry God and a just God and that he will judge me at the end of time.
24:44: And and I will not make it to heaven because I'm just a hypocrite. And something changed there.
24:52: So this this was my look looking back, at least I had no concept of of what a what the new birth really is.
25:00: Yeah. What conversation really is. But but but looking back, that that's where where I was saved.
25:08: Right. So and because things started to change, I began to read the Bible and actually believe it, including the six day creation and everything else.
25:18: Yes. And the more I read the Bible and believe the Bible, the more
25:23: I realized that what I heard from the pulpit and the Neapolitan church didn't align to what
25:29: I read in the Bible. It wasn't it wasn't the Bible they were preaching, wasn't the gospel they were preaching. So I got more and more upset with the
25:36: Neapolitan church. And of course, I tried to to convince people.
25:41: But of what I have newly found out, but they were not really interested in in having my thoughts.
25:50: So that there came the time when I just said to my wife, I was married by then. And I said to my wife, you know,
25:56: I actually I have no idea where to go now. I don't know what the alternative is, but I will not go to the
26:03: Neapolitan church again. I'm finished. I will not go there again. I don't know what to do.
26:10: Let's just pray and wait. What God will will show us. And two weeks later,
26:16: I heard that Peter Schilt, my now co -pastor, was coming to Frankfurt and was starting a church plant.
26:23: So I went there. And after about two minutes, I knew that's what
26:29: I was looking for. That's the faith I had seen in America. It's just faith in the
26:35: Bible and the word of God. And I knew I had found my new home. So God was very gracious.
26:41: It took only two weeks until I had had a new church. And maybe to add this, my wife was also saved.
26:50: My sister was also saved. And even my parents were saved. They had been in the
26:56: Neapolitan church for 61 or 63 years, 63 years. And, you know, my mother wanted when
27:04: I told my mother, I'm not going back to the Neapolitan church. I'm leaving that church. She cried through the entire night because she thought
27:10: I was lost. The Neapolitan church, you think, well, that is the only way you need those apostles, because only they can can proclaim the forgiveness of sin.
27:21: And only they can can give you the Holy Spirit by laying on of hands and so on. So we thought salvation is only with those apostles in the
27:29: Neapolitan church. So my mother cried for the entire night. And then she got really upset and said,
27:34: I want to go where you go. I want to see what's going on there. And she came with an attitude.
27:41: But she was convinced that this was actually the word of God that was spoken there. And she stayed. But my father didn't want to come.
27:50: I think it took another half a year or so or even longer. And my mother was always telling me, you have to come.
27:57: You have to come. And in the end, he said, OK, so just so that you would stop asking me and pressuring me,
28:04: I will come. And he came once and stayed. And he told me later, you know, he was a very successful businessman.
28:14: And he told me later that the thought, the sheer thought that he could have been wrong his entire life on something as important as the faith was just unbearable for him.
28:27: Because he always was right. He always had success. And and he couldn't he couldn't really bear this.
28:33: Even the thought that he might have been wrong in his entire life. But by the grace of God, he humbled himself and he came and he was also saved.
28:40: So the entire family was baptized in in January 2015. And yeah, they are all part of the church now.
28:50: And my father, my father is now 73 and he's a deacon in our church.
28:55: And I'm so grateful to God that that he that my father can can use his last his last years to really work for God and work in his kingdom.
29:05: So, yeah, that's my story. I love the story. And was that congregation even back then when you visited the
29:13: Evangelical Reform Baptist Church? Yes. So it was the church plant.
29:18: It was the beginning of the church plant, which then two years later, two and a half years later, resulted in the constitution of the
29:25: Evangelical Reform Baptist Church. Oh, praise God. Well, we're going to go to our first commercial break.
29:31: If you have a question for Tobias Riemenschneider, either on his testimony or on the
29:37: Frankfurt Declaration or on the congregation where he serves or on his book on tyranny.
29:47: We ask of you to submit that question to Chris Arnsen at gmail .com.
29:53: C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. As always, give us your first name, at least your city and state and your country of residence.
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38:52: We're now back with Tobias Riemenschneider. He is pastor of the
38:57: Evangelical Reform Baptist Church of Frankfurt, Germany, and he is also the co -author of the
39:07: Frankfurt Declaration and the author of Resisting Tyranny, A Christian Response to Government Overreach.
39:14: If you have a question for Tobias, send it to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. Give us a first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.
39:22: Tobias, a part of the testimony you have not revealed yet is when you realized the
39:29: Lord had placed a call upon your life to enter into pastoral ministry. How did that come about?
39:35: Yeah. So, I was part of this church plant from 2014 on, and so I first had to learn a lot.
39:53: But only by the grace of God, I really made fast progress and to the point where people started to come to me with their questions.
40:07: And I was somehow able to answer them, and answer them biblically and correctly. And this development continued to the point where people said, well, he should be our pastor together with Peter.
40:24: And so I slowly grew into that role. I wanted to have some role in that new church that was going to be planted.
40:42: I knew I wanted to contribute, but I really didn't think of becoming a pastor.
40:48: But it just so happened that more and more people actually told me, well, we think you should be our pastor.
40:55: And this was very important for me. I mean, I think you should also have some sort of inner calling.
41:03: What is more important for me is the calling by the church, because I can deceive myself.
41:09: I know many young men who believe they are called by God to do great things, and I'm not sure if others agree.
41:16: So for me, it's important that others see this as well, that the church agrees and says we think you should be a pastor, because we see how
41:26: God is working in you and through you, and we see the progress you're making, and we think you meet the biblical qualifications.
41:35: So I was still a little afraid, because I knew what a great sinner
41:42: I was and still am, so I didn't feel fit for that ministry. But I think Paul says no one is fit.
41:48: So it was basically how this came about. Then also in my heart, the desire grew to be a shepherd for these people.
42:02: You know, it changed how I viewed those people. I began to view them as sheep.
42:08: I became a shepherd, and I got a shepherd's heart for them. And so I slowly just grew into this.
42:16: And then when the church was constituted in 2016, Peter and I were both ordained as pastors.
42:29: So I still worked full -time as a lawyer. So Peter was full -time pastoring the church.
42:35: I was just trying to do my best, but was still fully employed as a lawyer.
42:43: And just, I don't know exactly, maybe three years ago or so,
42:51: I was able to also become a full -time pastor, which also this desire, it just grew and grew stronger and stronger while the years passed.
43:03: So, yeah, this is just how it happened. God just slowly put me into that position, and I'm grateful for that.
43:12: I have no regrets whatsoever that I left my job as a lawyer.
43:18: I earned much more as a lawyer than I do now as a pastor. But I'm very grateful that I could actually make this transition and now work full -time as a pastor.
43:29: Amen. Now we enter into focusing on your book,
43:34: Resisting Tyranny, A Christian Response to Government Overreach. Did this book start in your writing process before the
43:46: Frankfurt Declaration, or during it, or after it? Yeah, so this book is a compilation of statements, including the
43:58: Frankfurt Declaration, but also sermons and talks at conferences and so on that I gave during the
44:07: COVID years. And they all have something to do with COVID. There's, for example, a long sermon.
44:13: It was a 90 -minute sermon, I think even 91 minutes, about Romans 13 and many other things.
44:22: So this is a compilation of what I did during COVID, and this wasn't even my idea. I never have ideas for books.
44:29: It's always other people, some publishers who come and say, well, I listened to your sermon.
44:35: Can we print that? And the same happened with this book. A Christian publisher came and said, you know,
44:41: I would like to make a book with everything you did on COVID, almost everything.
44:47: I said, well, that's a great idea. And I did that. I compiled everything.
44:54: And then it was first published in Germany. And somehow,
45:01: I don't even remember how exactly, but somehow Joe Boot got his hands on it and said he wanted to publish it in English with Ezra Press.
45:12: And so I translated everything into English, and then it was published, yeah, with the title
45:20: Resisting Tyranny in English. And so I think it is, for once, a good reminder of what happened during these years.
45:32: And I think you can often hear how emotional it was.
45:38: You know, this really happened to us. We really were afraid. We thought we have to flee our country when general vaccine mandates comes and so on.
45:49: So you can hear how emotional this was.
45:55: You can, I think, relive that. If someone wants to do that, I don't know. But I think it's a good witness, a good testimony for what happened during that time.
46:04: And then also, because I tried to do everything, everything I said and wrote to really be very
46:12: Bible -based, Bible -saturated, and to not just give my thoughts on the current situation, but to try to produce something that really is of some value, not just for the next two years, but hopefully for years to come.
46:32: Maybe when something like COVID returns or so. I don't know. But that was the idea, to work really on the basis of the
46:39: Bible, to be very, very precise, to produce something that would be of value for maybe even generations to come.
46:48: I don't know if that book is that good that generations to come want to read it. But that was the idea, to produce something really solid.
46:56: And so that's why I believe it's interesting to read, as a reminder to what happened, but also to give you a real good foundation to how to think about state -church relationship, or even state -citizen relationship.
47:14: What can the state actually do? And where are the limits,
47:20: God -given limits of its authority? And so on and so forth. So I believe this will be a valuable book, not just for COVID, but also beyond.
47:31: Well, praise God, and I am glad that that book is in print and available for the benefit of the body of Christ, and also the praise, honor, and glory of our
47:43: Lord, God, Savior, and King. And we do have some listener questions that have come in.
47:51: We have Gretchen in Mystic, Connecticut.
47:59: And Gretchen asks, You mentioned that there are hardly any
48:04: Reformed Baptist churches in Germany, and that Reformed theology in general is greatly despised by the majority of Germans.
48:13: But is there a reasonably large percentage of conservative evangelicalism at all in Germany?
48:22: Yeah. Yeah, that's a good question. So for the first time,
48:27: I think, a year or two ago, for the first time, the majority of Germans said they are not
48:34: Christian at all. So we are now, if you want to go with majorities, we are now officially an atheist country, or maybe turning into a
48:42: Muslim country, I don't know. But more than 50 percent of the population now says we are not
48:48: Christians. Those who still say they are
48:54: Christians, it's almost split equally between the
48:59: Lutheran state church, which in Germany is called the Evangelical Church, but it's the church basically that Luther founded, and the
49:09: Roman Catholic Church. And then you have some others. You, of course, have the New Apostolic Church, which has officially,
49:16: I think, still 350 ,000 members in Germany, and you have all the other cults and so on.
49:22: But those who would actually count as evangelicals are just 2 percent of the population.
49:31: And to be honest, many of them are probably also not really born -again
49:37: Christians. There are also many nominal Christians among those evangelical churches. So, yeah,
49:44: Germany is spiritually a very dark place. The Lutheran church is completely—they lost it completely.
49:53: They are woke. They have not just female preachers, but homosexual female preachers, and they are as woke as you can get.
50:03: Now, is that all Lutherans? There are no German Lutheran denominations that have any kind of an affiliation with, for instance, in America you have the very conservative
50:15: Missouri Synod Lutheran churches and the Wisconsin Synod and some others that are conservative.
50:21: There's no churches like that in Germany left? Well, so if you look at the
50:27: Evangelical Church, the big Lutheran church, the Lutheran state church, let's call them that, this is not completely homogenous.
50:38: You have some groups that are still more Bible -believing, that are more conservative.
50:44: You know, there's one pastor from the city of Bremen, which is in the north of Germany at the North Sea almost.
50:51: He got famous because he was accused, and actually his court case is still going.
51:05: So he was accused of incitement of the people because he said some clear but biblical words about homosexuality and transgenderism.
51:15: And so he is one of the few pastors within this Lutheran state church that is still a real believer.
51:22: And he himself says that he believes that 96, I think he said, 96 % of the pastors in the
51:30: Lutheran state church are not born -again Christians. They would mock the virgin birth and so on and so forth.
51:38: So they are just atheists. There are also a few other small denominations.
51:44: There's, for example, an independent Lutheran church. I think they are still more conservative.
51:50: But if I remember correctly, they only have 30 ,000 members in all of Germany.
51:56: So they are really small. So if you're looking for really born -again
52:03: Bible -believing Christians, you'll probably have to go to these 2 % of evangelical free churches.
52:10: We call them free churches because they're not state churches. And even then, you have some denominations there, which
52:18: I would probably not call very Bible -believing. But that's the situation.
52:27: I was just asked by a sister who was newly saved, got saved, and he lives in Leipzig.
52:34: Leipzig is one of the biggest German cities. More than 500 ,000 people live there. He asked me, do you know any good church in that region?
52:44: I said, no, I don't. Actually, we have two brothers who moved from Leipzig to Frankfurt to join our church because they were not able to find a church in Leipzig.
52:54: And that's not so uncommon. You know, people move to our church from almost everywhere, from Munich and from Hamburg.
53:00: And so it's really difficult to find a good church, let alone a Reformed church.
53:07: That's really difficult in Germany. Okay, by the way, Gretchen, you have won a free copy of the book we are addressing,
53:14: Resisting Tyranny, so please make sure we have your full mailing address in Mystic, Connecticut.
53:21: We have to go to our midway break right now. Please use this time wisely. Write down as much of the contact information as you possibly can for as many of our advertisers as you can so that you can more frequently and successfully respond to our advertisers, keeping in mind that they are responsible for the existence of our program.
53:46: And also send in your questions to chrisarnson at gmail .com. We'll be right back. Don't go away.
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55:19: I'm Pastor Keith Allen of Lindbrook Baptist Church, a
55:40: Christ -centered, gospel -driven church looking to spread the gospel in the southwest portion of Long Island, New York, and play our role in fulfilling the
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55:59: At Lindbrook Baptist Church, we believe the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired
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56:17: We believe in salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This salvation is based upon the sovereign grace of God, was purchased by Christ on the cross, and is received through faith alone, apart from any human merit, works, or ritual.
56:33: Salvation in Christ also results in righteous living, good works, and appropriate respect and concern to all who bear
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56:47: Lord's Day, we'd love to have you come and join us in worship. For details, visit LindbrookBaptist .org.
56:53: That's L -Y -N -BrookBaptist .org. This is Pastor Keith Allen of Lindbrook Baptist Church reminding you that by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
57:06: It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
57:12: May the Lord bless you in the knowledge of Himself. It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners from all over the world.
57:33: Here's Joe Riley, a listener in Ireland, who wants you to know about a guest on the show he really loves hearing interviewed,
57:41: Dr. Joe Moorcraft. I'm Joe Riley, a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listener here in Atai, in County Kildare, Ireland.
57:49: Going back to 2005, one of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpens Iron is
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58:07: Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming is in Forsyth County, a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area.
58:14: Heritage is a thoroughly biblical church, unwaveringly committed to Westminster standards, and Dr.
58:19: Joe Moorcraft is the author of an eight -volume commentary on the larger catechism. Heritage is a member of the
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58:47: Their primary goal is the worship of the Triune God that continues in eternity. For more details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit
58:55: HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com. That's HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com
59:00: or call 678 -954 -7831. That's 678 -954 -7831.
59:09: If you visit, tell them Joe Reilly, an Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listener, from a tie in County Kildare, Ireland, sends you.
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01:09:46: Before I return to Tobias Riemenschneider I have just a couple of announcements to make
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01:12:18: Earth. So no matter where you live in the world if you are without a church home that is biblically faithful send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com
01:12:26: but I need a church in the subject line. That's also the email address where you can send in a question for Tobias Riemenschneider chrisarnson at gmail .com
01:12:35: give us your first name at least, city and state and country of residence. By the way, Tobias how close is
01:12:43: Munich to Frankfurt? Ah, that's about a three and a half to four hours drive on the autobahn.
01:12:52: Not going too slow. Well, I don't know if a listener who contacted me about two years ago
01:13:02: Indira originally from India, I don't know if she is listening today perhaps providentially if she's not listening live, she'll eventually listen on the podcast but she had contacted me saying that she was moving from India to Munich and I did give her a couple of recommendations that were recommended to me and one of them is
01:13:30: Soli Deo Gloria Church in the Munich area and another one is
01:13:40: I don't think I'll be pronouncing this correctly, but it looks like in English it would say the
01:13:47: Free Evangelical Church the Freie Evangelische Gemeinde I don't know how to pronounce it.
01:13:57: That was good, the last one was good. The last one is good? Yeah, yeah. Do you know of any other churches in Munich that you recommend,
01:14:06: I mean? Yeah, I mean there are at least two more churches and I guess probably the
01:14:14: Free Evangelical Church is probably the one I was thinking of. They are, well they are not really reformed, but at least they have a
01:14:22: Calvinistic soteriology they are a little more aligned to Tim Keller and Russell Moore and so on, so yeah, if you are in Munich and have to stay there, then go to that church.
01:14:37: Okay. Alrighty. But the Soli Deo Gloria Church we know them we help them actually really reform their church.
01:14:47: So yeah, that is a good idea to go there.
01:14:53: I was just going to say after the show I could forward you
01:14:58: Indira's original email to me and maybe you'd want to reach out to her and who knows, she might even want to just visit because she is living in Germany.
01:15:07: People often travel. Yeah, just a few months ago a brother from India who had moved to Munich, moved to us to Frankfurt to join our church.
01:15:19: Oh wow. I would be happy to be in touch with her. Great. Let's see here, we have an interesting question from Rockford in Bating Hallow, Long Island, New York.
01:15:35: And Rockford says it seems to me from what I have heard that the government in Germany is very embarrassed about their history involving the
01:15:49: Third Reich and Adolf Hitler and they seek to overcome those horrific sins of the past in that nation but it also seems that they are oblivious to the authoritarian steps they are taking in a left leaning direction.
01:16:09: Are they not aware that they could be one day just returning to the crimes and horrors of their past by going in this direction?
01:16:21: What a great question. Yes, so first of all
01:16:27: Jan, we are very aware of what happened in the Third Reich, what the
01:16:34: Nazis did. I mean, I'm still the generation where it was my grandparents who participated in this, right?
01:16:41: So younger people don't have this direct connection anymore but I still have this direct connection with my grandparents.
01:16:48: Are they still alive? Your grandparents? No, not anymore. Okay. I was born in 83 so that was not too far away from the end of World War II.
01:16:59: Three years after I graduated from high school. Now I feel young again, thank you.
01:17:09: So yeah, some even call it a cult where we are really into our sins and so we are really talking a lot about our guilt.
01:17:23: Right in the city, in the middle of our capital city of Berlin, we built a huge well, it's a huge monument but it's just meant to remind us of the evils the
01:17:41: Germans committed during the Third Reich. I'm not sure if that's true but someone once said the
01:17:48: Germans they are the only people who actually built monuments to remind them of their own guilt.
01:17:56: As I said, I'm not sure if that's true but that is certainly something we are very aware of and now comes this twist.
01:18:05: That's why I love this question. We have not what we don't understand is that this can also come from the left.
01:18:15: You know, right now there is a rather new party in Germany, a political party that is just conservative.
01:18:25: It's probably not even as conservative as the American Republicans but probably in that direction and everyone is afraid of them that they will bring about another
01:18:37: Third Reich, that they will become those Nazis. Just like they're claiming about conservative
01:18:43: Christians in the United States. Yeah, they are all Nazis, right? Exactly. They are all extremists and so on.
01:18:50: That's what they think. What they don't see is that you know, the
01:18:56: Nazis, it's short, it's an abbreviation for National Socialists.
01:19:01: Right. So those guys were socialists. Yes. And what they don't they don't understand that.
01:19:06: They were left -wing, they weren't right -wing. Yeah, yes, yes. So they had this national thing going on, yeah?
01:19:14: But they were socialists, so they believed in a strong state. In a state doctrine, a state ideology and in the oppression of all other religions and ideologies.
01:19:25: And that's actually not what just right -wing people do, who are actually freedom -loving.
01:19:33: You know, most right -wing guys, at least in Germany today, they are just freedom -loving.
01:19:39: And they are just sensible. They are not out of their mind. They are not crazy, as many others are.
01:19:47: But the left would frame them, even the German government, they are very much, you know, the
01:19:53: German government organized protests against this conservative party.
01:20:01: So a country where the government organizes protests, that's normally not in a democratic country, right?
01:20:09: That's strange. So that's where we are already. That the government is organizing protests against this conservative party.
01:20:18: And what they don't see is exactly that they are the ones who are right now using the state power to impose their ideology on others.
01:20:27: And they did that, of course, especially during COVID. So they are actually the socialists, the leftists, they are the socialists who are willing to trample on the freedoms of people and make the state strong and have a state ideology, which is always an anti -
01:20:43: Christian ideology. And that is exactly what I think where the problem lies. We are very much afraid of racism, of anyone saying anything against some foreigners, which is good.
01:20:59: Racism is a great evil. But what we don't see is that socialism is actually what makes racism so dangerous.
01:21:08: Socialism is what uses the state power to do injustice.
01:21:15: Well, thank you so much, Rockford, in baiting hollow
01:21:21: Long Island. And you have also won a free copy of the book that we are addressing resisting tyranny by my guest, my dear brother,
01:21:33: Tobias Riemenschneider. And so make sure that we get your full mailing address in Baiting Hollow, New York, so that Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, cvbbs .com,
01:21:44: can ship that book out to you. I am very glad that you are fully aware,
01:21:52: Tobias, about the left -leaning history of the
01:21:58: Nazis, because it is most frequently portrayed in the opposite direction in order to tie in conservatives like evangelical
01:22:08: Christians into their slander. And no one will tell you about this at school.
01:22:14: You have to find out yourself. Not even here. Not even in the United States, they won't tell you.
01:22:21: And most Christians are ignorant of this as well. Even though it's common knowledge that they were called the
01:22:28: National Socialists. Let's see. We have
01:22:34: Boyd in Apache Junction, Arizona. And Boyd asks,
01:22:41: I was wondering if your guest today, Tobias, is aware of the book by Scott Lively, The Pink Swastika, Homosexuality in the
01:22:51: Nazi Party, which you have conducted an interview on in the past.
01:22:57: Yes, I've had Scott Lively on the program and we addressed his book. Are you familiar with that book that reveals, and it's a fascinating book because it's heavily footnoted and much of the information proving that the early
01:23:13: Nazis were flooded with homosexuals, that the historic resources that Scott Lively and his
01:23:28: Orthodox Jewish co -author used were not only Jewish contemporaries of the
01:23:36: Nazis, but homosexual contemporaries of the Nazis. So, I don't know if you've read the book,
01:23:41: I found it fascinating. I've heard of that book, but I haven't read it. But it doesn't really amaze me too much because if you have a biblical worldview, and you just read
01:23:56: Romans 1, then you know that if someone is so evil it's because they are denying
01:24:04: God, and God gives them over, and part of that giving over is also being given over to homosexuality.
01:24:13: So, I wouldn't be too surprised, but I haven't read the book. I think you can read the entire book online for free, so I will try to get you that information.
01:24:26: Thanks, Boyd, and make sure we get your full mailing address in Apache Junction, Arizona, because you have also won a free copy of the book by Tobias Riemenschneider on Resisting Tyranny.
01:24:39: And by the way, that reminds me of something before I forget. I don't know how close
01:24:44: Apache Junction is to Mesa, Arizona, but you are going to be in Mesa, Arizona at Apologia Church next week, aren't you?
01:24:56: Yes, yeah, Boyd, I will be close to you, whatever that means in America. I mean, you have much—of course, you have much bigger distances than we have in Germany, but yeah,
01:25:06: I will be flying to Arizona on Tuesday next week, so in about a week from now,
01:25:13: I will be in Phoenix. I will be visiting James White and Jeff Durbin.
01:25:20: We are planning to record a few podcasts there, hopefully also the
01:25:25: Dividing Line and then the Apologia podcast. They even say they will let me preach at Apologia Church.
01:25:33: I don't know why, but I will be— God willing,
01:25:38: I will be able to preach there, which is a little exciting. It will be the second time for me preaching in English.
01:25:46: I've done so once, about a year ago at a conference in Scotland with Conrad and Baver and Tim Conway and some others, but this is much bigger, of course.
01:25:59: Apologia is well -known, so I'm a little excited. This will be the first time where we'll be probably able to speak to a bigger audience and have to preach in English, which is a little scary, but I'm looking forward to it.
01:26:14: And if anybody wants more information about that, go to ApologiaChurch .com.
01:26:21: ApologiaChurch .com. ApologiaChurch .com. And is that the only place where you'll be speaking in the
01:26:29: States? No. So, I will stay in Arizona, in Phoenix, for five or six days, and then
01:26:40: I fly to Washington, but only to be picked up and taken to Roanoke.
01:26:49: I think that's how it's pronounced. It's probably wrong. But that's a city in Virginia, and that's where Hard Cry Missionary Society is located.
01:26:58: Paul Washer's Missionary Society. Hard Cry has been supporting us financially for over a decade now.
01:27:07: And this is the first time Peter and I, Peter will accompany, Peter and I will be there and see the office and talk to Paul and the other brothers there.
01:27:17: And we will also, on Wednesday, so in about, what is it? So on Wednesday the 28th,
01:27:25: I think, or 27th, we will also be speaking there in the church. I couldn't give you the name right now, but it's the church where most of the
01:27:34: Hard Cry staff also is. So we will give an update on the work in Germany.
01:27:40: Would that be Christ Church, where Anthony Metheny is the pastor? No, not anymore.
01:27:46: It's now a new church. But I forgot the name now.
01:27:53: But it's near Roanoke. Yes, I have been to Roanoke many years ago.
01:27:59: Trinity Trinity Reformed Baptist Church, which I know is still there because my pastor recently prayed for that church from the pulpit.
01:28:10: So, oh, I want you to, I want you to remind
01:28:16: Paul Washer, who I interviewed once, and he wrote a very wonderful commendation for my show. I want you to remind
01:28:23: Paul Washer that he promised me another interview because he said he loved the first one so much.
01:28:32: And so far, I have been unsuccessful in getting him back on the show. So I want you to shame him and embarrass him into agreeing.
01:28:43: Yeah, I will do so. I call into question his entire character over this. The last time...
01:28:51: Go ahead, I'm sorry. Yeah, actually, I'm not sure if you're aware of this. His health isn't too good.
01:28:58: So he had a surgery done and so on. So maybe that's part of the problem.
01:29:04: Yes, I do know that he's been battling health problems for many years. Yes. Well, let's see.
01:29:12: We have another listener. This is another listener in Arizona, Quentin in Paradise Valley, Arizona.
01:29:25: And Quentin says, do you share the postmillennial and theonomic eschatology of our brothers
01:29:33: Jeff Durbin and James White? Is there another eschatology?
01:29:40: No. I do share that. No, I share.
01:29:46: I am a theonomist and a postmillennialist. Yes, and when I was a new
01:29:52: Christian in the 1980s, you had to search far and wide to find a
01:29:59: Reformed Baptist church that was theonomic. In fact, I only knew of one of them, which is here in Pennsylvania, pastored by Bill Einwechter.
01:30:11: But now, they seem to be fairly reasonably common, at least in Reformed Baptist circles.
01:30:20: Yeah, I think that it's a I think it's also at least partly due to the situation we found ourselves in.
01:30:29: I mean, I became a postmillennialist during COVID. Not because of COVID, not because I said, well,
01:30:36: I need some hope, so let's become a postmillennialist. I mean, hope has to be founded in the
01:30:42: Bible to be true. Otherwise, it's not. So, I was convinced by the
01:30:47: Bible, especially by 1 Corinthians 15. But it had something to do with COVID, and also with the entire transgenderism stuff, and so on, that also happened basically at the same time, and is still happening of course.
01:31:07: I had to think about these things. So, what do I actually believe will happen? Will our country, will the entire world just go to hell in a handbasket?
01:31:17: There's nothing we can do. Will we just lose? Or is there actually does it actually make sense to fight these things?
01:31:26: To be brave, to stand up and to fight? I came to the conclusion that it makes sense to fight, because we'll probably not lose here, but win here.
01:31:35: So, this gave me strength and made me courageous, and I think that's what many, especially young Christians, young pastors, feel that they have to battle eschatology because of the times we are in.
01:31:52: We have to think about these things, and I think it's good. If you come to a post -millennial understanding, this is certainly something which can give you hope and can make you courageous.
01:32:03: If you believe that Christ is actually reigning now, and that he might win, that makes you strong.
01:32:11: I'm not saying that others are not strong. I guess John MacArthur is a very good example that you can be strong, even though you're not a post -millennialist, even though you're opposed to post -millennialism, but it is certainly helpful.
01:32:23: Great. And we have Tina Marie in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, who says, are you aware of any kind of focus that your government may have on your church and its activities, just as it seems is occurring here in the
01:32:42: United States, where our government seems to be, in some way, even in a stealth or secretive fashion, focusing upon and tracking the activities of conservatives?
01:32:56: Yes. So, the only thing which I know for sure is that it was during COVID the state of Baden -Württemberg.
01:33:08: Germany, similar to the US, consists of 16 states, and one of the biggest ones is
01:33:14: Baden -Württemberg. And they issued a brochure where they warned against conspiracy theorists, or however they called it.
01:33:24: So, people who opposed the state's measures during COVID. And they mentioned me specifically, they mentioned me by name, and warned against me.
01:33:35: So, this happens. I know that this is true. To be honest, we are probably one of the few churches that really addresses all the critical issues.
01:33:55: Within the last year, I preached on homosexuality, I preached on transgenderism,
01:34:01: I preached on politics, and didn't say what the government likes, I guess. And many other things.
01:34:09: Right yesterday, I preached on the manliness of Christ, and also said a few things that probably render me dangerous in the eyes of some.
01:34:17: So, I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that actually there's some focus on our church.
01:34:24: But as I said, the only thing I know for sure is this brochure by one state. Great. Well, we are going to our final commercial break.
01:34:35: If anybody wants to submit a question, and you want to get in line, there are a couple of people already waiting to have their questions asked and answered.
01:34:44: If you want to get in line, send your question to chrisarnson at gmail .com. chrisarnson at gmail .com.
01:34:50: Give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence. And by the way, all of our listeners who have submitted questions to my guest today, that you are also winners of the book that we have been addressing,
01:35:03: Resisting Tyranny by Tobias Riemenschneider. Don't go away, we'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors.
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01:37:52: or visit liyfc .org or visit liyfc .org Music Chris Aronson here, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
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01:47:32: And that just reminded me, I've got to see if my friend and sponsor, Pastor David Reis of Puritan Reformed Church in Phoenix, can make sure he schedules an appointment to meet you,
01:47:45: Tobias. I think he shares a lot in common with your theology and worldview.
01:47:53: I absolutely loved his ad. He seems to be a great guy with a great church. Yes. We have
01:48:01: Boris in Orchard Homes, Montana. And Boris asks,
01:48:07: You mentioned in the early part of the program that Germans typically have a great disdain for Calvinism.
01:48:15: Would that include even conservative Christians there? There are many here in the
01:48:21: United States that treat Calvinism as if it is the doctrine of demons.
01:48:27: Yeah, the same in Germany. Maybe with the exception that we have even less
01:48:33: Reformed churches than you do. So, yeah, that is very common. It seems like if you want to be a good pastor, you have to have—you have to say something against Calvinism at least once, maybe more often.
01:48:50: But this is very common. Yeah, you would always warn against Calvinism. Yeah, a doctrine of demons, certainly a false doctrine.
01:49:00: You know, I can give you just one example, which I find hilarious. You know, we have many
01:49:06: German -Russian churches in Germany, and they are conservative.
01:49:12: But normally—not everyone, every church is the same— normally they really despise
01:49:18: Calvinism. But they love Spurgeon. And there was an instance where a brother from one of those churches became a
01:49:30: Calvinist. And they had a church meeting to expel him from the church, to excommunicate him because of Calvinism.
01:49:36: And he said, yeah, but don't you think Spurgeon was a great guy? Yeah, Spurgeon was great. But he was a Calvinist. No, that can't be true.
01:49:45: Well, then he's also a false teacher. Okay, so it's—that's really—yeah, most people will think that Calvinism, as the brother said, is a doctrine of demons.
01:49:57: Yes, I have experienced exactly that. In fact, I worked for a radio station, and a friend of mine, who's an independent fundamentalist
01:50:08: Baptist, went on the air on his show. And was slandering my church, even though we were friends.
01:50:18: And he said, that church is deceiving people into believing that Charles Spurgeon agreed with them on theology.
01:50:26: So I wrote him a 13 -page letter, which include many quotes by Spurgeon.
01:50:35: And he had the audacity to respond to my letter with one sentence. Your letter contains little
01:50:41: Scripture, and much thus saith Spurgeon. So I said, how do you prove what
01:50:48: Spurgeon believed by quoting the Scripture? And I said to him, if somebody said to me that you believe in speaking in tongues, how would
01:50:58: I refute that? By quoting the Bible, or by quoting you? Of course, of course. He didn't answer.
01:51:04: Yeah, and I mean, Spurgeon, when he wrote his autobiography, he included a chapter, which normally doesn't really fit into a biography, but he included a chapter entitled,
01:51:15: A Defense of Calvinism. Yes. So he was serious on this. Chapel Library printed that into a booklet.
01:51:23: Yeah. You know, he even said, Calvinism is the gospel. Yes. And I would agree.
01:51:29: Of course, he did not mean that anyone who doesn't believe Calvinism can't be saved, because they don't have the gospel. But Calvinism is essentially the gospel.
01:51:36: That's what it's all about. In saving people, in soteriology, everything is about the grace of God.
01:51:44: So it is a very important doctrine. So this is one goal I have.
01:51:49: You know, when I close my eyes here and be with the Lord, I would like to have made a difference in Germany.
01:51:58: And one thing I really want to do is to advance reform theology, to teach
01:52:04: Calvinism, make people understand it, see that it is actually biblical, and not a doctrine of demons, but a doctrine of Christ.
01:52:11: Amen. Let's see here. We have either Clevin or Cleavon in Winooski, Vermont.
01:52:22: And Clevin or Cleavon asks, Are there great heroes of German church history other than Martin Luther, whose writings you use to evangelize those in your area?
01:52:37: Yes, there are. Of course, many of them haven't gained international fame, because, of course, they wrote and spoke in German.
01:52:50: But there are. Luther, for sure, is the most important one. But there have been others.
01:52:58: I mean, I could give you a few names. That would be helpful. But there's Hofacker or Krummacher.
01:53:06: One who you surely know is Bonhoeffer. I mean,
01:53:14: Bonhoeffer, you know, he was killed in a concentration camp because he resisted the
01:53:19: Nazi regime. He probably was part of the man who wanted to kill
01:53:27: Hitler. Right. The problem with Bonhoeffer, though, is that even though I admire him for what he did.
01:53:33: Neo -Orthodox, right? Yeah, yeah. He was a liberal, you know. But there are other men, for example,
01:53:41: Paul Schneider. He's not very well known, but he was a really solid Christian. And he also died in a concentration camp because he also would resist the tyranny of the
01:53:50: Nazis. So there are a few. The only problem is that there are very few reformed ones because, as I said,
01:54:00: Germany never was really reformed. It was very much influenced by the two big state churches, the
01:54:07: Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran State Church. And just to throw this out there, from what
01:54:14: I understand is that Bonhoeffer, even though he may have drawn erroneous conclusions theologically, was he not responding against, responding to and militating against the dead liberalism of Germany?
01:54:34: Isn't that why they would consider themselves confessing Christians because they were actually putting their beliefs into action?
01:54:43: Yes, that is true. And that is what I appreciate that he did not have a death faith, but a faith that actually encouraged him to act accordingly.
01:54:55: He would never be embracing the liberal lunacy of today.
01:55:02: I don't hope so. By the way,
01:55:08: Cleavon or Clevin, give me your full mailing address in Winooski, Vermont, because you've also won a free copy of Resisting Tyranny by my guest
01:55:16: Tobias Riemenschneider. Well, I want to make sure that you have several minutes to summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today before we run out of time.
01:55:28: Yes. So, a few things. First of all, I know most of your listeners probably are from America.
01:55:37: And I want to say that I'm very grateful to the Americans and to the
01:55:42: American church and the American pastors. I know you also have issues in the church, right?
01:55:49: But most of what I know, what I've learned, I learned from good men from America, especially
01:55:57: James White and a few others. There is no real solid theology in Germany.
01:56:03: There's no theological debate and so on and so forth. So almost everything I learned, I learned from American pastors,
01:56:09: American teachers. I was first brought into contact with Christianity in America.
01:56:15: So I am grateful to the Americans, at least to the American Christians, and how
01:56:22: God is using them even to save me and to build me up as a pastor and so on.
01:56:27: Then I would ask you to pray for us, because we are in a very difficult situation.
01:56:34: I think I mentioned that a few times. There are only very few really good churches, churches that would be willing to fight.
01:56:41: And we have so much we need to do, especially, maybe I can mention that, you know, in Germany, homeschooling is outlawed.
01:56:49: So you have to send your kids to school. And the schools haven't gotten any better in the last years.
01:56:56: They have, it's just awful. It's probably the same as it is in America, pretty much the same, with homosexuality and transgenderism and everything.
01:57:04: So what we want to do is to build a private Christian school.
01:57:10: That is possible in Germany. It's not easy to do that, but it is possible. We have a constitutional right to build private schools.
01:57:19: And this is something I would appreciate prayers for. And maybe, if I may dare to say so, maybe in half a year or a year's time, when we are really at the point where we can start building this school, we will probably also need funds.
01:57:34: And I don't know where these can come from, except from America. So I hope you don't get me wrong, but I want to get that out there.
01:57:44: Well, give all the details for our listeners who may want to financially support what you're doing.
01:57:52: If you want to do that, you can go to our website, erb -frankfurt .de.
01:57:57: It is in English, it is in German, but I guess you can probably switch to English somehow. And there is a donation page.
01:58:03: If you want to donate something, you can do that. I think it's PayPal and some credit cards. So it will probably work for you.
01:58:10: You can go to that donation site and send us something. Maybe let me know it's for the school.
01:58:16: That would be very helpful. And then the last thing probably I would like to say is, you know, we've been talking about COVID, about state overreach and so on.
01:58:27: I would want to encourage everyone to stay strong in the faith that has been delivered to us.
01:58:33: And not be afraid of men who can only kill the body. Don't be afraid of the state.
01:58:40: Whatever will come in the future, and maybe a few bad things will happen, but don't lose focus on Christ.
01:58:48: Don't be discouraged, but be willing to fight to further his kingdom. Amen. I want to repeat your websites for our listeners, erb -frankfurt .de.
01:59:02: That's E -R -B for Evangelical Reformed Baptist, dash frankfurt .de.
01:59:09: And also frankfurtdeclaration .com, frankfurtdeclaration .com. You even exceeded my already high expectations for being such a superb guest today,
01:59:21: Tobias. I hope that you enjoyed yourself as much as I did and want to return to my show frequently.
01:59:27: I would love to interview as often as I can. I want to thank everybody who listened, and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater