February 18, 2019 Show with Pete Orta on “Confessions of a Renowned Christian Recording Artist Who Was Not a Christian” Part 2

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This is Chris Arnson, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 18th day

of February 2019, and I am thrilled to have back for the second time.

Pete Orta, the former lead guitarist for the renowned Christian rock

group and Gospel Hall of Fame inductees Petra between 1996

and 2000, winner of a gold record, a Dove Award nominee for three Grammys, and a

Grammy winner for Gospel Rock Album of the Year for the award -winning album Double Take,

a contributor of production techniques to the soundtrack for the film Left Behind,

World at War, and subsequent to a genuine rebirth in Christ,

Jesus, is now pastoring Cottonwood Creek Church in Denison, Texas.

Today we are addressing part two of a discussion that we began

last week.

In fact, it was last Friday, the discussion on

confessions of a renowned Christian recording artist who was not a Christian, and it's my honor and privilege to

welcome you back for the second time for part two of our discussion, Pete Orta.

Hey man, glad to be here.

Great.

By the way, what nationality is Orta?

Sounds Greek.

Orta, it's Mexican.

Really?

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

I was born in the States,.

But I'm third generation.

Oh, cool.

Well, basically, let's start off by summarizing in a big way

what we discussed last week because we want to leave time for things we didn't address last week.

You, when you were the lead guitarist for Petra between 1996 and 2000,

and even after that when you went on a solo career as a Christian recording artist,

you claimed last week, in fact, I'm kind of

putting two and two together, is this the first time during this two -part series on Iron Trip and Zion

Radio that you've ever publicly given this testimony about not being a Christian when you were in the

group Petra and even as a Christian recording artist?

Yes.

Wow.

Well, I mean, last Friday you started on the show and then today.

So, yeah, that's, well, I'm honored that you have chosen Iron Trip and Zion Radio as a

format, as a platform to let our listeners know about this, let the world know about this because I think it's very

important because of the way Christians idolize CCM

artists and do not think critically and do not use discernment

when adopting many of these folks as heroes and so on.

And we have to be very careful about that.

But to summarize, and I want you to obviously add anything in your own words, but

you, from what we have already discussed, were basically a

nominal Christian who didn't know much of anything about Christianity when you were hired by

Petra to be their lead guitarist.

Then you entered into Word of Faith Pentecostalism.

Your wife had already had that faith, she was raised in that faith of Word of

Faith Pentecostalism, which you and I agree is a heresy.

And then because of the letdown, because of the dashed hopes,

because of the realization that it was a lie referring to Word of Faith Pentecostalism,

you swung over to a heresy that's 180 degrees opposite of that.

The deist understanding of God and how he operates in the world,

not even as a knowing, apologetically informed deist, but you

later found out that that's really what the beliefs you had would, that's how they would be best

described under the umbrella of deism.

So have I got this right so far?

Yes, a little bit.

I always had to go back and double -check with my wife on timelines, she's way better.

Whenever we talk, I always look at her for dates and times, but she was raised in, I

believe, the Church of Trinity

in Lubbock, Texas.

That theology, which is charismatic, I met her at a charismatic church, that's

when I got exposed to it, and then it was later, so that was before it

started bleeding over to, I took some of that, I didn't know what it was, but that Word of Faith,

just blab it and grab it as they say, and it just seemed to

make sense as I was succeeding, but it didn't make sense anymore after that.

And I'm a pretty logical guy, I think I was told at the time that you know that

God is some type of a, you know, I never wanted to be one to

completely turn my face from God, as angry as I've been at Him, but

yeah, that's kind of the timeline there.

And Pete has recorded with the most well -known CCM recording

artists, and then I'd like to find out how the folks who created the film Left Behind,

World at War got a hold of you, because I'm wondering if you were a Christian at that time, but even if you were, I'm

assuming because you're Reformed today, that you have parted company with

the makers of that film.

Theologically.

Yeah man, I'm going to be honest, I never was Churched enough to even understand

eschatology.

I had no idea, you know, by default you're dispensational in America, that might be.

It seems to be the most loud voice in the media in America, at least.

With no education, you're free will and dispensational.

I mean, day one of being born again, it's, you know,

until you...

I didn't know anything about that.

I didn't even give much attention to any End Times stuff.

My wife read the entire series.

I just remember her getting book after book after book after book, and she

read it.

She tried to get me into reading that End Times and Left Behind.

For me, like, I am made to

even know.

Yeah, you said something key here.

It is fascinating that many churches and

pastors and media personalities who are Christian,

it's interesting how much is emphasized and how much

the imagination of Christians are titillated by events that they're

not even going.

To experience.

It's really tripped out, man.

If you're raptured before the Tribulation, most of.

What they're talking about isn't even something that we're going to know about or see.

I know, man.

It's a trip.

I first started at this church, and man, you know, almost week one, I had three

people come up to me and say, well, I'm an End Times teacher, and I would

like to get with you sometime.

And, you know, all three of them, you know, and

I would rather, if I have an End Times teacher at my church, I would rather somebody go over

Amillennialism and then, you know, Post Mill and, you know,

and Pre -Mill.

I would want everybody to kind of, you know, the teacher to kind of explain each one,

and that's how I got rid of them, because they, dispensational teachers, don't even understand what I

just said.

Crazy.

Well, we don't want to go too far, because some of my heroes, like John MacArthur, he's a

dispensationalist, and I have a number of very good friends, but that is not the focus of their

preaching and teaching in their overall ministry.

Let me say this, just to clean that up.

John MacArthur, I have heard him, it is not the,

and that guy is...

Yes, I love John MacArthur,.

And in fact, pray about this, folks, but there is, from what I understand, there's a

strong likelihood that in the next several weeks to a

month that John will be returning to Iron Trip and Zion Radio for his second interview, so please pray that

that happens.

He's a very busy man, and his ministry keeps a

very tight hold on his schedule.

But I know, I know that the staff over there at Grace to You has become

thrilled and excited with my interview with the current president of Family Radio, Tom

Evans, because of his repentance over the heresies of Harold Camping, who is now

deceased, and Grace to You is now a part of the lineup on Family

Radio.

They were refusing invitations to join Family Radio's lineup until

Brother Flowers and Brother Johnson and others on staff there heard my interview, and

apparently they've been spreading word about Iron Trip and Zion interview with Tom Evans, so I'm very, very delighted

about that.

But that's not what we're talking about today.

It's wonderful.

What I'm going to do right now is I'm going to play another song by Pete Orta,

and this is just to give you an idea of the kind of music he played and recorded,

and I actually enjoy listening to it, even though I know after the fact that he

was not born again when he even created the solo album Born Again, but

here is a song that features some of his guitar work, and that is Broken

on the Born Again album, Pete's first solo album after leaving

Petra.

That was Broken from Pete Orta's solo album Born Again,

and I love that line, by the way, Pete.

I don't know if you wrote it or not, but you did.

I love the line, let my tears be, or let those tears be the Jordan for me.

I love that.

Yeah.

Oh, man.

Do you know why I wrote that?

You get asked the same questions on every interview.

I had a joke with the guys with Petra that I would cut off my pinky if I ever got asked a different

question ever on tour, and so as we were always being interviewed, I'd kind of stick my finger out on my leg, and they

would just start cracking up because, you know, what's your favorite color, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and, you know, what

character in the Bible do you identify with the most?

And of course, I didn't read the Bible.

And other than to, you know, pull a lyric, like that bridge, Chris Rodriguez

wrote that bridge, and he just pulled it, I think it's a scripture, is where he got that from, blessed are the pure in

heart, they were surely fonder of God.

He's the one that added that in, because I had, I don't know, I needed a little something in there,

and but I would always answer the thief on the cross.

That was my out, because I just knew that I was...

That's a good answer, though.

Yeah, I was just as messed up, and who knew where I was going.

When I died, you know?

Right.

Kind of messed up there.

Yeah, well, that should be the answer of every Christian, actually, because

that shows, in a very vivid way, that salvation story of that thief,

that salvation was purely of the mercy and grace of Christ.

He did not do anything to earn that at all.

And in fact, many people, when they refer to that story, and even in movies

and on television versions of it, you usually only see one thief mocking Christ.

It's almost like good cop, bad cop, where the other thief...

Both of the thieves were originally mocking Christ, but then one repented.

The movies usually leave out the fact that both of them initially were mocking Christ.

Yes, and both were in an extreme amount of excruciating pain, and a lot of

times we as Christians are even set out to evangelize to those that we can

visibly see hurting or poor or whatever, and we won't go to the person who's not in pain,

who's making a lot of money and in the middle of their success.

So they were both in pain, and one did not turn, so...

Right.

Now,.

When you were singing that song and many other songs, you know, it sounded like you

were singing with passion and with meaning.

What were you thinking about Christ, about God, about salvation, since you now

realize that you were not a Christian at all during those days and didn't even have an understanding of the gospel of who God was, who the

triune Godhead is?

What were you thinking about?

I was at the, let's see, Dark Horse Studio at the time, and Nashville

Rodriguez in the studio, and they were in

the SM7B short microphone, and

you know, I'm a passionate person, regardless.

I'm just made that way.

I'm an all -in type person, and everything I do is to an extreme.

When I was there performing and trying to lay down the best track possible,

you know, you sing with your guts, and that's exactly what I did.

As far as what I'm feeling, it's more about

making sure that it was, you know, a good performance, and

I've looked back, and I've kind of evaluated my solo record to think, just to kind of see, man, where

was my head at the time?

And they all seem like, if you really look at it, none of the

lyrics are as if I am, the songs that

I wrote are someone that is contemplating

understanding of it, like, and things like that.

So, man, just performance, you know, what's Tom Brady thinking about when he's dropping back in the

pocket, you know?

How does he look?

How does he feel?

I was like, no, man, there's a job that's got to get done.

I got to make contact.

So, yeah, that's what I'm thinking, just a professional.

Lost people can not only convince others that they're saved, they can deceive themselves that they are saved.

Oh, man, that's all around the world, especially in America.

I mean, we have to sell ourselves.

A lot of times, our belief is so deceiving because we just believe what we have.

That's the difference between what the Spirit gives us and

our own belief.

There's

not as much weight.

To it as we should.

Right.

Amen.

It's a gift of God, and it is miraculous that we even possess it when we do.

One of the things that I'd like to discuss with you that we didn't really get into last

Friday, and, of course, we are not going to name names unless you feel so

convinced of the certainty of what you're going to say that you care to name a name.

That's up to you.

But when you were in this CCM

world and you yourself had to be rebuked by a number of people for living

a life that was not reflective of somebody who was truly born again, being drunk and

high, and a public spectacle, if you will, and other things that may

have occurred that you didn't mention, how typical, how rampant is

licentious living that you were aware of in the world of CCM by the

CCM artists, the CCM lyricists, the CCM

producers, the record labor executives, all of that, as much as you

want to share?

Man, we're getting in on it.

Oh,.

This is what I'll say.

I don't know if

I've done anything like that, but I

remember as the kid filling out a questionnaire, and one of the questions is, you know, how many people

in America, nobody can

answer that.

The only percentage, you're around a bunch, it's

a low percentage, you're probably pretty naive, and there's a less of chance of you being.

I always knew that I should answer that really low.

You know, 5 of people in the world, it's kind of like that,

it's

according only because it

was really can't speak for,

you know, big

favorites, you know, like a Stephen Curtis Chapman, you know, I've heard nothing but, and know

nothing of him, but just, just integrity.

You know, there's artists like that, that I have met, I mean, my bandmates are the real deal,

you know, Bob

Hartman, find your own.

And I, you gravitate towards that.

And I think that what happened, and I see a lot of this with young to

the deal, and you see

with my view at the time that there was these goody two -shoes

record executives, and they've grown up in this bubble.

And they're over here trying to do cheesy Christian music, and they've got the, they've got no roots on

anything.

They, their parents never, never let them to develop their

craft at all.

It's just shallow, and it's contrived, and you have all this stuff.

And so you, when you complain about that, because you're trying to put out some good quality music, and you're fighting against this

huge machine, and fighting against the radio, and who gets to approve the music, and things

like that, you, voicing yourself, you attract those other people.

And those other people, of course, you start off artistically saying, hey, you know what, we can, we should be

the creators of new music.

We should be setting the trends as, I mean, you look at Bach, you

look at those guys that were setting the trends back then.

And so you kind of come together, and you start talking like that.

And really, it starts off with musical style.

And then it, and then you start, get to know each other even more.

And you'll, you know, you'll say a cuss word here, or do this or that, and it'll make somebody laugh.

And you realize, oh, well, they're not uptight.

They're not legalistic.

You know, they're not real judgmental.

They're super cool people.

And they just let you be who you are.

And, you know, and

you just kind of,

who's in

there now, but the two,

their dressing room, and my dad

walked out.

And man, I was just, and I

don't blame them.

You know, I mean, I mean, who talks like that in this type of deal?

So it was kind of, yeah, those are these people, and they're the

goody, goody, whatever, whatever.

And then you've got the

best, and I can't name who was with me.

Well, we are going to our first break right now.

And if anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email

address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E

-N at gmail .com.

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And please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

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confessions of a renowned Christian recording artist who is not a Christian.

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Welcome back.

This is Chris Arnzen.

If you just.

Tuned us in, our guest today for the full two hours is Pete Orta.

This is his second guest appearance on Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

And I don't know, do you call a radio guest an appearance because nobody can see you?

But anyway, this is the second time Pete has been on Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

His first interview was last Friday, and this is part two of Confessions of a renowned

Christian recording artist who was not a Christian.

Thanks be to God he is a Christian now and pastoring Cottonwood Creek

Church in Denison, Texas.

Pete was a lead guitarist for Petra from

1996 to 2000, and then went out on a solo career as a Christian recording artist.

And he was not a Christian during any of those years while performing on stage or recording

under the label of a Christian recording artist in the CCM industry.

If you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own for Pete, our email address is chrisarnzen at gmail

.com c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n at gmail .com.

Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside of the USA.

And before I forget to do so, and I hope to repeat this later on, but you can always

find out more about Pete Orta at his website peteorta .com.

That's p -e -t -e -o -r -t -a dot com.

And one of the reasons I wanted you back on the show,

especially since there were things that we did not discuss in depth the first time, is that

I think that this is an important thing to do because

people, Christians, well -intentioned Christians, Christians

who miss the music, the secular music that

they may have abandoned when they became saved, or they didn't think

there would be anything musically resembling some of the instrumentality

that they loved in secular music and they have discovered it in Christian music, they are

too eager and ready and willing to embrace an artist who professes to be

Christian as the real deal.

And that can be dangerous, can't it?

Yes, I mean I think we.

Do it with books as well, just because it's got a stamp on it, it's okay.

And also televangelists.

And radio and television preachers, yeah?

Yes.

Now years ago, I remember hearing Michael Horton say something

profound on the White Horse Sin radio program, but he was talking about how

a century ago and even centuries ago,

when you picked up a hymnal, the songs of the church were

written by pastors, they were written by theologians, they were written by

biblically literate people who were truly born again, for the most part.

I'm not saying every single song necessarily, but that was basically the rule, and that is the

kind of music that fed the church and

gave the church voice to worship.

Music that had and has to this day are theologically rich

words, biblically deep words, words that exalt the

righteousness and holiness and majesty and sovereignty of God and

reveal the wretchedness and hopelessness and sinfulness of man.

And today, and for quite a while since the rise of

contemporary Christian music, you have marketing

teams and radio executives that aren't even saved, that

do not have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, involved in either writing or

deciding what words and what songs should be featured on

recordings and so on.

Do you concur with that assessment of Mike Horton and your response to what I just said, Vic?

I agree with him completely.

Like I said, I think there's two different, I think there's some things that shouldn't be brought into the church, and I think

that that doesn't mean that everything that's not brought in the church is necessarily bad.

You know, if I go to see some theater, somebody's going to put on a play,

or there's, like I said, you know, a Christian comedian, or, you know, I let my children, I know

one of my sons loves Christian rap, and I never, you know, got into that, but

he is, and, you know, he's allowed to look up the guys and show us the lyrics, and,

you know, like S .O. I think is one of his favorites, where they have, you know,

some sound doctrine to them, and the sound doctrine is in their lyric.

But I don't think that that should be a part of our worship time.

You know, I don't think that that kind of stuff should be in there.

I think if, you know, if it takes a performer to do it, even if it's singing, and

if it's in a register that, you know, hardly any man or woman can hit, I just don't think

it's meant for corporate worship.

And then it should be biblical, and some of the times with pop music, I'm not calling it all

bad at all.

I wouldn't do that, but just because it's not a part of worship, they've got a little bit more

creative liberty to not, I'm not saying not be doctrinally sound, but just take liberty

on maybe a situation, or a relationship thing, or how we should handle forgiveness, whatever, and take liberty in

writing those lyrics.

But when it comes to, man, it almost should be note

for note and word for word biblical.

I mean, I know you've got to make things rhyme, and not everything does, and if you pull the

songs out, it's written in a different language, so it translates different, but I

think there should be very...

Yeah, how do you feel about music?

I, for a number of years, my radio show was on a

radio station that highlighted, that was dominated by CCM

music, and I would be, like, sitting there waiting for my cue to go on

the air live, and there would be, you know, Christian music playing before the show, and

I would be listening to it, and I would say very often, if not most often to myself, I can't tell if that

woman is singing to her boyfriend or singing to Christ.

There's nothing in the lyrics that would be 100 clear

that she was singing to Christ, or he singing to his girlfriend or Christ,

and very often even the manner in which, for lack of a better term, the very

sexy manner with which men and women sometimes sing these

songs, and you can tell that this must be a song that was intended to be

a crossover song so that secular radio stations would pick it up and play it so people would

automatically think, well, that's not even a Christian song, that's a love.

Song.

Do you find any problem with that?

Yes, I do find a big problem with it.

You know, I think that this is what it is, and I was in there, I was in this crowd.

There's a crowd in, there's an, I don't know how big it is, I cannot say, I want people that, I

want people that are sensible to

speak for themselves, because they're not, I'm not going to throw the baby out

with the and it, what capture, what people, the people that

fall into it are the people that are wired just like me at that time,

where, you know, your opportunity is in Christian music.

That's just what unfolded for you.

You really do want to be in mainstream music, and if you can cross over

and catch a, you know, catch a hit on the other side, those artists will go

completely over and never come back.

The problem that they find themselves in is that they're too Christian for the world,

and not, you know, and too worldly for the church, and they end up ruining their career, and you can

see many of them who have just come crawling back, trying to

recalibrate and market things correctly, but there's a lot of

relationships.

Desmond Child wrote the very first song on my record, You Make Me Feel, and he is, you know,

he's, everybody knows that he's gay.

He's produced Kiss and Bon Jovi, and you know, he's a heavyweight when it comes to the mainstream

circuit, and I went and I met with him in Miami with my A &R director, and it was all about,

you know, getting the best of the best, and you know, he wrote that song.

You cannot tell me that's about glorifying God.

You cannot.

It's about a relationship, and it's probably about a gay.

Relationship.

Wow, I didn't know that.

Yeah, so you basically confirmed what I was saying.

Now, I want to also make it clear, and maybe you disagree with me, I don't know.

I don't think there's anything wrong with Christians who are

involved in secular art.

Like, for instance, I don't think there's anything wrong with a Christian who sings clean and wholesome

music that has nothing to do with Christianity, as long as whatever he or she is singing is not

offensive to God, but what gets me angry or disgusted or nauseous

is when it is.

Masquerading as Christian music.

That's where I'm coming from.

Yes, I agree.

I mean, there are some artists that could probably pull it off.

I don't know, you know, you could be Aboucelli, you know, or Pavarotti, or you could be,

say, a Céline Dion.

You know, I've never heard any lyrics like that that would, you know, that would cause you to just turn it off because, you

know, your kids can't hear it.

So, I believe that there probably are some artists out there like that, and maybe actors and

people in the liberal arts, but I'm going to tell you, I mean,

there's only so far that we can go in this world because it's not our world.

So, how many are there?

Probably not many.

How popular or famous are they?

Probably not the top tier of stars because it's not our world to.

Succeed in.

Well, so just out of curiosity, were you ever invited

to a smaller venue, like a church, or perhaps some mega churches are bigger than the major

stadiums and auditoriums, but were you ever invited to a church by a pastor

or a congregation who assumed you were a Christian, where you gave your testimony and that kind of thing publicly?

Because I know of churches and pastors, even at least

one who's a friend of mine, who invited a Christian recording artist

to his church to perform and to even, you know, speak and so on,

give his testimony.

And the man, unfortunately, did not do enough digging and enough investigation to

actually know what this person believed.

And right there on the stage at his church, he revealed how he went from being lost to

evangelical to now having embraced the Roman Catholic Church.

And he was horrified by that because he himself, this pastor, was a Roman Catholic who was

actually in the seminary intending to be a priest at one time, and he left the Roman

Catholic Church having realized that it had a false gospel after he was saved.

And he publicly, to this day, denounces the

gospel of the Church of Rome.

Now, I know that there are saved Roman Catholics, but they are saved because they believe in a gospel that is not the

dogmatic gospel of their own church.

But I was just curious if that ever happened with you or with any of your bandmates that weren't

believers, to your knowledge.

Well, I assume still to this day that all my bandmates are,

because, you know, I still know them today and they still profess their

faith.

So, you know, they just, gosh, gave me, I guess, too much rope.

But yeah, I was in a lot of churches.

I was in some churches, you know, there was just a communication barrier, like in South

Korea, doctors, and then smaller churches, you know,

in the

Midwest

or whatever.

My testimony at

a Baptist church, and, you know, the

president gave his heart over, and I was

like, man, I guess I'm going to hell.

So I said the ask Jesus in your heart type thing, and that was good.

You know, that was a checklist, and, you know, I moved on, and now look

at my life now.

It's wonderful.

It was glory, and I

mean, nobody protected the Pope, and I would not let myself in my own church,

you know, if I had to meet myself.

Back then.

He wouldn't have passed at all.

One other thing that comes to mind is the danger of

the fascination that Christians have, and that includes pastors

and leaders, the utter fascination they have with celebrities that become Christian, and

they want to rush that person who makes any kind of lame

profession into the spotlight, as if, look at this trophy

for Christianity that we have won out from the realm

of darkness, and they do that with sports figures.

They do that with Hollywood actors, and they do it with musicians, and that is another thing that is

not only dangerous for the audiences that witness this, but it's dangerous for the person

himself or herself who is being paraded around as a new.

Trophy for Christ, isn't it?

Yeah, I've seen it.

I've been a part of it when I was a kid.

I used to play shows with a guy named Jeff Finholt, and he had

claims to being a part of Black Sabbath to some extent,

singing Jesus Christ Superstar.

I was a kid.

I was 16, 17.

I saw him on the 700 Club years ago.

Yeah, that just reminds me of them just grabbing somebody like that, and of course,

you can Google on your own and find out where he ended up, but they do

that.

They just take off with this.

Talent covers a multitude of sin, and to defend to defend on the other side,

the Christian music industry, because I know that it's easy to

quarterback and find everything that's wrong, but I think what pastors need

to realize, too, in order to have the life you need

for these people, you know, we were children.

I mean, we're really young.

I mean, I've got a friend of mine, Jackie Velasquez.

I think she signed a contract when she was 15, 16 years old.

You know, I was in my early 20s, and I look back now, and we were kids.

I mean, we're not supposed to be wise or smart.

I mean, we're working on our craft, and you know, we need

discipleship.

It's an easy fix if the Christian music industry starts

from the top of the CEOs that are running it and understanding what is their statement of faith, you know, just like you

would vet anybody else that is in leadership.

They're representing the universal church as a whole.

I mean, they're a big part of how they're serving the body, and for

CEOs instead of pastors these days, even in our own church, not

defending anything, and it's

definitely to blame in my behavior and what my motive was being in music, but

at the same time, there is just nothing.

I remember one time, I thought it was real to think about it, but when I was out

touring with them, I have

no idea what they're doing or anything like that, but I

look back at that, and I'm thinking, man, you

know what?

That's not a bad idea, and he would do devotionals with them, like little Bible studies daily with them,

and they're crazy probably, and they

were, as far as I know, and they just

seem to be one of those that is sincere, you know, and like I said, I don't know.

I'm thinking about, you know, my memory isn't all that clear, but

those things aren't set up, and they should be, the people in leadership, my

CEO of the label at that time, the A &R directors at that time, the head of marketing at that time, they're all grown

men.

They were all my age or older, and women.

They should know.

They should help.

Like some of these, any star that you might see, even in the mainstream, you see it happen.

They gain popularity and power and money, and

it's...

Yeah, in fact, as you have already said, there are quite a number

of people who are executives in the CCM industry who are not even Christian at all.

They have no place to make wise decisions in regarding the nurturing and protection and

preservation of artists in the faith.

I know for a fact, if I, you know, if I was held down to name names, I could name

several that.

Were not in...

Well, that's okay, because I already recorded a private conversation we had.

I'll air those streams later.

I'm only kidding.

Oh, man.

I'm just kidding.

I'm sorry if I offended anybody.

But anyway, we're going to go to our midway break right now.

It's the longer than normal break that we have, because Grace Life Radio, 90 .1 FM in Lake City, Florida, needs to

localize Iron Sharp and Zion Radio to Lake City, Florida, by airing their own commercials and public service

announcements during this break.

So, please, use this time wisely by writing down the

information provided by my advertisers, the global advertisers that support this

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Write down that information so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize them, because the more you

patronize our advertisers, the more likely they're going to remain our

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So, please write down the information provided by our advertisers and patronize them as much as you can.

Also write down information...

I should say, write down questions for Pete Orta about his testimony, about

anything else within the realm of the Christian music industry, or about his life that you would

like to ask, and the address, the email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

And please, as always, give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your

country of residence, if you live outside the USA.

Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

Don't go away.

We'll be right back after these messages with more of Pete Orta, and part two of his

confessions of a renowned Christian recording artist who was not a Christian, part two of the two -part

interview that we began last Friday.

So, we hope to hear from you with questions for our guests after these messages.

Don't go away.

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Chris Orensen, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio here.

I want to tell you about a man I have personally known for many years.

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My name is Steve Lawson, founder and president of One.

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Have a great day.

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We are back now with our guest Pete Orta and Pete Orta is

the former lead guitarist for Petra.

That was from 1996 to 2000.

Petra is a renowned Christian rock group and gospel hall of fame

inductees and Pete Orta has also won all kinds of awards

and a grammy and many other things.

And by the way, I want to make sure our listeners know this before I forget, you can

hear the sermons of Pete Orta by going to iTunes

and that is under the heading Pete Orta's sermons and his

last name is Orta.

Pete Orta's sermons at iTunes and I'm sure you will be blessed by

that.

Our subject today is part two of a discussion we began last Friday.

Confessions of a renowned Christian recording artist who was not a Christian and obviously now Pete Orta by the

saving mercy and grace of God is a Christian and he's not only a Christian, he's a pastor and he's not only a

pastor but he is a reformed pastor which always brings joy to my heart.

And why don't you let our listeners know a little bit more about Coconut Creek Church in Denison,

Texas.

Something about what you are preaching on, what they can look forward to if.

They go to iTunes and look for Pete Orta's sermons.

Yeah, Cottonwood Creek Church, we're

in a small town here in Denison, Texas and you know, I

think that what I have introduced this church to is

expository and just unboxing one scripture,

sometimes even one word at a time and right now we're in the Book of Romans.

What does that book have to do with reformed theology?

Just kidding, obviously.

Yeah, I told him, I said, you know, we won't be.

Skipping chapter 9.

By the way, I have to tell you this, I know a pastor, I'm not going to mention his name, he's a friend of

mine who is a five -point Calvinist.

He used to be a free will believing fundamentalist, King James only,

independent kind of a guy and he came out of that.

His father -in -law is also a pastor who is still an

independent fundamentalist, King James only pastor and when he heard that my friend was preaching on Romans

9, he said to him, listen to me, you got to use my sermon notes.

I'm going to give you my sermon notes.

So he says, he's looking at the sermon notes and in the comments in the margins of

the paper, it says, you've got to go through this chapter real quick.

It's like tearing off a band -aid because if you dwell too long in any of these verses in Romans

9, you may lead people wrongly into an understanding of Calvinism.

So you've got to read through this real fast and he actually put, where

Jacob I loved and Esau I hated, he actually put in red pen, do not read this.

You're talking about somebody who has a wooden literal understanding of how to

interpret scripture and yet with Romans 9, he's telling his son -in -law, don't read this and

avoid this at all costs and read it quickly.

But anyway,.

I couldn't help but find that hilarious.

Yeah, we're going to park on that chapter for.

A few Sundays, I'm sure.

Now how can, in addition to the iTunes, how can somebody who lives in Denison, Texas nearby

or are visiting there or they have family, friends, and loved ones there, how can they locate information on

the Cottonwood Creek Church in Denison, Texas?

Yeah,.

They can go to CCCDenison, that's D -E -N -I

-S -O -N .org.

You can go there or you can find it on my website.

My website leads people to our In Triumph ministry and the church.

Yeah, we're going to go into In.

Triumph ministry in greater detail than we had time for last week, but let me go

to some listener questions.

First, we have Joseph in Little Rock, Arkansas, who wants

to know, to your knowledge, were or are any of your former bandmates in Petra

now theologically reformed?

Not to my knowledge, no.

Okay, that was a quick answer for you, Joe.

I don't know any.

Okay,

well thank you for submitting that excellent question, Joseph, and guess what?

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Bible, compliments of the publishers of the NASB and

also compliments of CVBBS .com.

We'll be shipping that out to you at no cost to you or to Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

Make sure we have your full mailing address in Arkansas so that CVBBS can get that out to you.

You're nicer to Razorbacks than I am.

Well, we try to keep college sports out of the show because of the ugliness that

comes to the surface.

I mean, it's worse than professional sports.

Oh man, that's awesome.

We have, let's see, we have Gary

in Naalehu, Hawaii, and Gary says,

Roger Breland, and I'm assuming that's how to pronounce it, founded a traveling ensemble group,

Truth, in 1971 that traveled worldwide until the early 2000s.

What influence have you seen Roger Breland and Truth have in the Christian music industry?

I am not familiar with Roger.

Breland, so I'm not sure who he's referring to.

Yeah, I think Truth was a revolving door where they kept the name going and

they hired several musicians.

I cannot speak on that at all, but I have a good friend named John Thorne who

I toured with and a good friend of mine who

played bass for them for

some time.

That's all the knowledge I know on Truth.

Okay, Gary, keep listening to Iron Sherpa Design Radio there in Hawaii and keep spreading the word about it in

Hawaii and beyond.

Well, let us now enter into a discussion on this fascinating ministry

in triumph that we just basically touched the very tip of the iceberg with last Friday when we were running out

of time.

Tell our listeners about this very valuable ministry.

I'm very.

Impressed by what you're doing within Truth, and in triumph.

Yes, it started first and

then being instructed, discipled in the word, and my

wife in the word, just basically regurgitating what I've learned and, you know,

raising our kids in a godly home.

It's always wonderful to hear.

Things about ministry referred to as regurgitation.

That's all I knew how to do,.

Really.

I would write notes down there in the Bible study and go, look what I learned here.

That's about all it was.

I didn't even know what the commentary was at that time.

So yeah, so after that season, and I got my

legs under me and my faith and my, as far as just my

boldness and just even comprehending what happened to me, that took a little while.

We just agreed on this, and

because of the background that I came from, I wanted to help just

young people, all the advantages that

other people might have had and ended up on the street homeless most of the time.

What I did was I called up the foster,

you know, anybody that was aging out,

detention centers and jails and places, you know,

downtown, and I said, listen, if there's anybody between the ages of 18 and 24,

that you're, this is word for word,

you don't know how to pay your worst.

I started getting emails

amongst the homeless youth, and they needed a

place to stay.

They needed food.

They needed clothes, and my exchange was, well, you've got to sit down.

The mandatory thing here is you got to sit down and hear me preach the gospel every day, and I

did, and that was part of it,.

And that's how it started.

So tell us more about the physical details of this ministry.

You know, where do these folks stay, and you know, what do they do while they are under your supervision?

Well, they live with me, and that's where it started, and it's still like that now.

They started pulling them in, and we gave them a home.

And how big is your home?

At that time, it was just an average home.

I don't know.

And so I would pull them in, and

the first guy that came in, you know, he got the sofa, and the second guy came in, he got the second sofa, and then

before you know it, they're sleeping in the kitchen floor and the living room,

and we've got to kind of,

you know,

keep this under wraps until we could find a place.

Man, it was just day by day, and I didn't have, there's not a

rule book on this, or there's not a, you know, you can't go to set

up a ministry like this.

You know, how do you protect yourself, and how

do you, you know, have some

way, and I had so much gratitude.

I wanted everybody to have Jesus, and I knew that,

I didn't even know it was a ministry.

I told people they would support you.

They'd see all these kids here and everything, and they would make the checkout to In Triumph Ministries, and

I'm like, we're not a ministry.

You know, I didn't see it as a legit ministry.

I was just pulling in kids and feeding, clothing them,

giving them studies every day.

I mean, I've had kids that,

I've had a young man say, man, the only thing my dad ever did was hit me across the O

.D. and just got out of the emergency room

or place, and

man, the stories are

really did, because I look back on how we started

and how underdeveloped we were and unprepared we were, and I'm just surprised that

nothing really, really dangerous ever happened.

Now, what's it like today?

Today, we have a vetting process, and we do interviews.

We've got people that

are definitely part of the community that help

out, and we don't take everybody in.

We want to make sure that nobody's just taking advantage or, you know, just using us for

resources and calling it ministry, but they

go through and interview us.

We do the Myers -Briggs personality all the way up to criminal profiling to make sure, you know, and it doesn't

mean that we won't take in felons.

We do.

We've had youth group kids

come in, and

we go

through that process, and so they check in, and for about, you know, I don't

talk to them too much.

I let them get acclimated, and they have kitchen detail and duties that they do and

things that keep them busy, and they've got classes that they've got to be a part of.

They help serve the church as well, and there's just a

part of who Jesus is of the

ministry that I

have seen and I

experienced, which I had no idea that this would be a part of it, but,

you know, when you're doing the Lord's work, that God is doing great things, when we

get to see a salvation, when we get to see somebody come to the Lord and learn the Bible and shine to

themselves, and we see that.

What mostly happens, because of the area of the world that we're working

in, is we see them

reject the Lord.

We see their hearts hardened by the gospel.

We see kind of the threshing floor.

The hardest part of ministry is understanding that God used me to preach them

to hell.

He's just.

That's to be used that way, and when you're

in a ministry like this where you're dealing with most of the people have been handed over to their own demise,

the percentage on that is really high, and it's...

I have had people that I have called to repentance, that I have preached the gospel to, that I've begged, that I've done everything

to serve them in any way I can, and

dying right after, getting in, you know,

getting run over, and me,

that, no, I'll never serve your God.

Wow.

And it's tough to know that, because I used to look back and question, well, God, what is this for?

Is most of this in vain?

And it's not.

I mean, I'm helping the Lord in His...not that He needs any help to be just, but He's

using me to prove He's just on Judgment Day when He reminds.

Them of the gospel I preached to them.

Hard part of ministry.

Amen.

Now, again, as far as the physical nature of this

ministry, this outreach that you have, are you still inviting these folks into your own home for this?

Yes.

And has the home grown in size at all, or how many people can you.

Handle at once for this ministry?

Yeah, we can physically handle more than I can mentally handle.

And it just depends on the...now we're a 501c3, we're a non -profit,

and the ministry has bought a home, you know, bought a hotel, it's a

traveler's hotel, you can find it online, we're at 300 East Main Street in Denison, Texas,

and it was about a 120 -year -old hotel built by a German sea captain.

And so we have taken some of the rooms for

our...we are on the ground.

I mean, they are living...they are eating breakfast with their pastor, they are

eating dinner, they have to be done around the place, and it is

true, like biblical discipleship back in the day where, you shadow me, you

know, I'll follow Christ, you follow me, and pray that the

Lord, you know, honors my effort, and I feel like that right now.

It's a big enough place we could handle quite a bit.

At one time I had 14 young people.

If you can imagine 14 of the toughest...

That probably won't happen again.

I mean, usually, you know, five to six, we try to keep it around.

You know, if we've got a really, really difficult person, man, I can only handle three in

everybody's heart.

You know, I can handle seven,

said the people that are a part of the community that provide,

you know, toiletry things and stuff like that, but it is

a...it's a beast to run,.

I'll just be honest with you.

Well, if anybody wants more information about InTriumph, you can go to InTriumph .org,

InTriumph .org, and of course you can also go to PeteOrta .com, PeteOrta .com, and we're going to

go to our final break right now.

It's much briefer than the last one, so please send in your emails now if you

intend to have a question asked on the air.

We're running out of time rapidly.

Send it to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

Don't go away.

We will be right back after these messages with the conclusion of part two of our discussion,

Confessions of a Renowned Christian Recording Artist Who Was Not a Christian, and I'm speaking of Pete Orta,

the former lead guitarist for Petra.

Don't go away.

We will be right back after these.

Messages.

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Chris Sorensen, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio here.

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Welcome back, this is Chris Arnzen.

If you just tuned us in for the nearly last two hours, we've been interviewing Pete

Orta, former lead guitarist for the Grammy award -winning

group Petra, who has been inducted into the Gospel Hall of Fame, and we have been

discussing confessions of a renowned Christian recording artist who was not a Christian, and today, thankfully, Pete

is a Christian, and he is the pastor of Cottonwood Creek Church in Denison, Texas.

He's also a theologically reformed minister of the gospel.

If you want to join us, we are going to be out of time before you can blink an eye, so please email us quickly at

chrisarnzen at gmail .com if you have a question.

We have Susan Margaret in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, who has a question that is very similar to

one that you and I were discussing off the air before the show, Pete.

Okay.

She says, I have an understanding of the South where Calvinism is a tiny

minority.

I don't know if that's a stereotype or not, but I was wondering what it's like to be a reformed pastor in Denison,

Texas.

Do you receive much flack for preaching these truths that seem

to be in the minority?

In fact, I'm sure that many of our listeners will concur.

Reformed theology is a minority everywhere in the world right now in the 21st century.

Perhaps other than Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Anywhere else, it's a tiny minority.

That wasn't always the case, but if you could, Pete, let us know about this.

Yes. Just

give you exactly

Sunday

behind the pulpit.

Was that because people knew that you were the former lead guitarist?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

They wanted to, and even some people asked me if I was going to

sing, and they were just expecting an amazing morning.

Little did they

know, unboxing every verse

that we had planned that Sunday, half that number the next Sunday,

and half that the next.

And it was on

purpose.

I just have not ever even joined in, nothing like that,

just to not even give anybody any hope.

But yes, the moment they hear the doctrines of grace at

here, matter of fact, I think we are the—on

our area.

Wow. Thank you, Susan Margaret.

Keep listening to—.

Pray for us.

Yeah.

Keep praying for Pete Orta, and keep listening to Orange Represents Iron Radio in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania and

beyond.

Well, I want to make sure that you have three minutes approximately to close the program with what you

most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today.

I have—in my experience and my frustration that I

hear is that

we're

raised

in church, that we're preacher's kids that,

you know, didn't have one conversation about Jesus with me.

And when I had to get over that season, and it didn't last very long, it softened

my heart and made me realize that I'm blessed to understand the Bible

at the depth that I do.

That it's a blessing, and it's something that I think at the beginning I got really upset,

like, why don't people get this, and why don't they understand?

And I hear a lot of people, a lot of Reformed people get in the stage, and some of them never, ever click

out of it.

And they're just frustrated, and they've got a microscope on everybody, and they're skeptical about everything, which we should

test all things.

We should weigh the fruit out.

I'm not saying not do that, but we get stuck in this thing.

This is a blessing.

Some people that understand the doctrines of grace, to understand it

to a level that we can minister with this understanding, and that not

everybody, like, you know, like where I am at, there's hardly

anywhere around that you could drive to.

And it's an honor for the Lord to say, you know what, I'm choosing you, and I'm placing you in this area where

it is bleak, and you're going to be the one to figure out

a way how to—.

Yeah, you're talking about cage -stage Calvinism, as it's often called, before you

had a much more merciful approach to those around you?

I did not.

I was slaughtering goats and sheep all of my life.

It didn't matter, you know?

And then I would say to the believer where I was most offended after I

did become saved is that nobody approached me, and I've even had some talks with my peers and said, why

couldn't you preach the gospel to me?

You know the gospel.

Why weren't you bold enough?

I mean, I know that I'm a very bold person, and I know that I don't pull any punches, saved or unsaved,

but they never did, and I encourage them, don't do that again.

You know, you need to express your faith and not be ashamed of it and not be ashamed of any type of persecution

that can happen.

So I would just tell people this, especially if you're in the Bible Belt, when people say they're a Christian, you just

can't assume that.

I mean, we have to preach the gospel.

We have to talk about Christ.

We have to talk about the attributes of our Holy Father, and we've got to talk about repentance.

We've got to talk about humility.

We've got to talk about serving, because it's all of these things that

show that we are saved, and I think the conversation stops when we ask, so what church do you go

to?

Church?

Well, I go to this church, and that's the end of talking about anything.

Nobody's talking about Jesus.

Yeah, and we who are Reformed have to be reminded constantly

not to violate the very precious truths we believe in the way that we react

to people who don't agree with us.

We act as if very often it is because of our own brilliance or keen insight

or wisdom that we come to these conclusions, but even understanding the doctrines of grace is a gift of God.

Yes, and I'm going to tell you,

I don't use buzzwords.

I don't spearhead with it.

I preach the gospel.

I preach the text, and if you were to go and ask them, they

wouldn't agree, but, you know, we're just here to serve as we can,

and we are preaching the gospel,

and, you know, when I show up before the beam of feet, I want him to look at me and just say, you know,

I'm proud of you, good and faithful servant or slave, you know, come

into my kingdom.

I love not earning

nosebleeds when I get to heaven.

I won't be, you know, anywhere.

I'll never cross paths in heaven, you know.

I'm going to be in the nosebleeds, but it's not to earn anything at all.

It's grateful he saved me.

I cannot get that burned on my conscience,

and I cannot.

Amen.

Well, we are out of time, brother, and I want to make sure that our listeners know that they can find out more about you at PeteOrta

.com, PeteOrta .com.

You can also find out more about the church where Pete pastors at

CCCDenison .org, at CCCD as in David, E -N as in Nancy, I -S

-O -N .org, and you can also find out more about InTriumph at Intriumph .org,

and you can find out more about Pete's sermons on iTunes under the heading Pete Orta's

Sermons.

Pete, this has been a blast, these last two interviews.

Yes, I've enjoyed it.

I look forward to you returning to Iron Trip and Zion Radio, not only soon but often, and I want to thank

everybody who listened today, especially those who took the time to write in.

I hope you all always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.