Happy Addison: From Slamming dope to Preaching Christ on The Dead Men Walking Podcast

The Show Opens and Happy Addison’s Testimony

Exploring theology, doctrine, and all of the fascinating subjects in between, broadcasting from an undisclosed location, Dead Men Walking starts now. Well hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Dead Men Walking podcast.

Thanks for listening, thanks for sharing with a friend, thanks for posting on social media. Couldn't do it without you all. Glory to God and everything that we do. Wow, it's been a great couple months, been very busy.

We've had a lot of good guests on here. You guys have been listening to some people that I met down in the in Tullahoma, Tennessee, and we got another one of those today. Usually I say a few few words and get right into it, but we are going to get right into it today.

On the other line I have Pastor Haps Addison. Happy, how are you sir? I'm pretty good, how you doing bro? Doing good man, it's good to talk to you again. We kind of had a friendship, kind of started our friendship down in Tullahoma at the Shadows to Substance Conference.

Got to hang out for a few days. I know you were on for a little 10-minute segment a few about a month ago now on on the podcast, but why don't I have you on for a little bit longer format. I just really enjoyed your fellowship, your testimony, and everything that you're doing for the kingdom of God.

So before we get into it just give us a little bio, give us a little background on who you are buddy.

Well, my real name is actually Todd Addison, but I go by Happy. It's a nickname I acquired a long time ago. It's like calling a fat man tiny, you know. Are you saying you're not happy? Yeah, I'm not happy.

No, I am now. Now I can like literally live up to the name, you know. But yeah, you know, I started, I was dead in my sins and trespasses. I was a hardcore heroin and speed addict for 34 years and got involved in the skinhead movement here in Southern California.

I was a separatist. It's a lot different than a racist. Same thing, same banner, you know. But yeah, you know, and here, you know, I was at the end of my ropes and I ended up going back to my hometown, which like every drug addict does, you know.

We always, right at the end of our ropes, we always go back home, you know. And here, you know, that the girl I chased for 18 years, the one that kept saying no, no, no every time I got out of incarceration, somehow I convinced her to marry me.

And it was all bad after that, you know. I started cheating on her, abusing her mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, all that. And she would just pray. She would just pray. My wife's a hardcore believer in Christ, was a missionary to China and Korea.

And in here, you know, I was just this lying piece of crap. I was just, I was just vile, a vile person, you know. And I didn't love her or anything. But make a long story short, you know, here, you know, I'd throw Bibles at her and say, where's your God now?

And say some bad word. And she would just sit there and pray. And I was just, there was something so attractive about that. And I don't mean in a, you know, a sexual area. Like a physical way. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It was just, it was just like, I'd never seen this before, you know. And here, I end up doing too much. I was doing what's called goofballs. So you got speedballs, which is cocaine and methamphetamine.

And then you got goofballs, which is heroin and speed. And I used to slam it intravenously. And here I did too much. No, let me back up a second. I did way too much. All right. And I ended up, ended up stroking out.

I had a full blown stroke and was paralyzed on the whole left side of my body. And I had to go to the, I couldn't speak, you know, I couldn't talk and I was, I was terrified. I was just trapped up here and I was just so mad.

You know, I've just lived this life of just hate in, I hated every race and including my own. I hated myself. And if there was a God, I hate him too. But here I had, I had a stroke. And after I got out of the rehabilitation they had to put a bed down in front of my, in the living room, uh, in front of our television.

And so my wife, uh, hooked up the laptop to our television and she went to YouTube and put it on repeat and typed in reform pastors.

And you couldn't do anything. You were incapacitated. There's nothing I could do.

I was so upset, dude. I was like, no, I'm not listening to this. No. And, um, a guy named Jeff Durbin from Apologia, uh, popped up and I, I heard the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it, it was like, you know, so when it comes to, let me tell you something, when it comes to the doctrines of grace, I really experienced that.

I mean, I, it was like, all of a sudden I came alive and I'm like, what's going on? And all of a sudden I'm given this faith and, uh, repentance. And it was, it was like that. Uh, it wasn't about, well, it was about like a year later I started walking again.

I could walk with a cane and, um, and so yeah, that's how I came to, uh, to know the Lord and, uh, never looked back. I never looked back, you know, I don't, there's nothing else I want to do besides serve Christ.

Nothing. So, so that Psalm where it says, he pulled me out of the muck and mirey clay and.

Put my feet on solid ground. You lived that. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like, because I was not a believer. I was not a believer. And, uh, and I grew up, my, my parents were part of the Calvary chapel movement. And so, uh, my dad was, uh, um, he was, uh, what's his name?

Chuck Smith's. Um, what's it called? A real estate agent. And, um, that's how my dad came to know the Lord and everything. But I was a runaway since I was like 12, 13, you know, something like that. So yeah.

Faithful Marriage, Suffering, and the Start of Conversion

Rough life. You know, when you, when you're telling that testimony to, uh, praise God for a faithful and godly wife, um, you know, so often now, and I've talked about this and I've been talking about it the last few weeks about how often we go in the modern evangelical church, how we want to go right to divorce.

If, uh, two people aren't getting along or even if there's abuse, uh, that's usually the first answer. Now this is a tough subject and you've lived through it, but it sounds like you were a pretty, uh, wretched depraved guy, like we all are.

Uh, and she was a faithful, uh, and godly and prayerful wife who's stuck with you. And I love that she put on reform preachers on YouTube and you couldn't do anything about it. She forced you.

To watch it, boy. Oh yeah. Yeah. She was, uh, she taught me all about Jesus. She taught me about forgiveness. She, she taught, she actually taught me how to pray. You know, I didn't, I kept hearing all these people.

We, she tried to take me to these churches and I'd hear, and they were like, you know, out here in Southern California, it's mainly charismatic or Methodists or, or whatever. Um, but, um, I keep hearing these people with these really fancy prayers and I was like, I don't, I don't even know how to pray.

You know, she taught me about the Bible and, and, um, and, and that was the start, you know, but yeah, it was through, uh, her, her faithfulness. I mean, she would, I mean, you want to hear something funny.

I'm dead serious. All right. So my house, I turned it into a drug house back in the day. So I always had the, I was selling dope and everything. And, um, uh, I had a roommate, we had a roommate here and everything.

And, and, um, and when I, I used to have this lower Jaguar, you know, I was like, you know, thinking I was cool or something. I don't know. And here I'd be going down the street and I'd be heading home and I'd call, call my boys on the phone and I go, Hey, where's Irene?

That's my wife's name. Where's Irene? And, um, they go, Oh dude, uh, she's on the roof. And so we have a flat roof and whenever she would cry out to the Lord, she'd go on top of her roof with a blanket and just sit up there and pray.

And I was like, Oh, I don't want to go to jail. I'm dead serious. I don't want to go to.

Jail. Yeah. So I know we're going to talk about something else in this episode. Uh, but I, I, I love testimonies and I just have to ask him for the sake of the listeners too. So you're radically saved.

Christ comes into your life, regenerate your heart. What was that first year or two years after that? I mean, you said you were, you were, you know, a drug user for decades. Was there relapse? Was there an instant change?

Did you have to cut out everyone in your life? Did you go into a period of the wilderness, so to speak, or how did you work through that?

You don't mind me asking? Well, it was, um, it was, it was, I mean, I was, I, okay, so it was crazy. So what happened, um, with me was, um, uh, I, I dove into the scriptures, you know, I mean, I just, I moved into them and it was just like, uh, coming off the paper to me, like I couldn't get enough.

And, um, I, I ended up, um, uh, the, the cops out here and everything, they had been building a case on me and, um, I, I didn't know it. And all of a sudden they raided our house and I ended up going to jail and I was looking at, um, 25 years to life.

They came at me over, over, uh, eight, 800 or 900 felonies felonies. I mean, yeah. And this is all documented, you know, this is all, this is all documented, you know? And, um, here, uh, my wife was falling out.

Nobody can be there for me in court. Cause my story, but I'll just really just make it a lot simple. I saw my lawyer who, um, was a court appointed, uh, um, attorney. Sure. He, he came over to me and he goes, you need to sign an initial this, this form.

And I was like, well, I'm going upstate for 25 anyways, you know? So, well then, uh, but, uh, but I had peace that I wasn't, I wasn't asking the Lord to get me out because I was guilty of all of it, you know, all of it.

And here, my lawyer goes over and puts his hand on the district attorney's, uh, shoulder and this guy starts to pray and my heart is beating out of.

My neck. I'm like, what's going on? Wait, your lawyer starts to pray. Or the district attorney.

Starts to pray? No, my lawyer. Yeah. And I don't even know this guy and, and I'm tripping out, dude. And all of a sudden these, uh, the, the, uh, these cops come in and they sit down and they're all making fun of me and laughing.

I'm like, really God, I'm going to go out like this. And anyways, uh, the papers, uh, the, the, it comes, the form comes like in three sheets. Sure. Yep. Yep. Broke one off and gave it to my lawyer and then went over there and started talking to the other, uh, the district attorney started talking to the cops and these cops were very upset and left.

And my lawyer came up to me and he goes, I got three and a half years. And I go, that's impossible. That's, that's completely impossible, dude. And he goes, I got you three and a half years. You're still going to go upstate.

And I was like, okay, that's better than 25 years, you know? And I was like, you're a good lawyer. You should go into private practice, man. And he goes, I was like, I was like, God bless you, man. And he put his hand on my shoulder and he goes, no, God bless you.

And I go, Hey, what's your name? And he said, my name's Mr. Cross CRO. Wow. Like I said, document. And I was, my floor hit the ground, dude. Five days later, five days later, they let me out of jail.

And what, how did it like. Just time served? No, uh, they have down here in California,.

They have something called a federal kick. That means when there's too many people incarcerated,.

They, they let you out. Yep. They let you out then just on probation, essentially.

Yeah. And so I came out, yeah, I came out and man, it was like, there was a fire under my butt.

And I started to evangelize me, you know? Yeah. Yeah. How, how do you not wake up every morning? Just, uh, so grateful to the Lord for how good he treated you, huh? Yeah. That's great. Yeah. His grace upon grace.

Yeah. And it's, uh, and I've seen it in my life too. There's, I've talked about it many times on this podcast, so I won't get into it, but, you know, uh, basically putting it, putting anything in my mouth, I could pills and drugs, and I didn't care if I lived or died and running from the Lord, grew up in church and the Lord got ahold of me at 24 years old, man, and just, uh, floored me, you know?

Yeah. And, and somehow worked everything out to where I should, I should to either be in prison or dead. Uh, but by the grace of God, his mercies are new every morning. It's undeserved. And, uh, that's when my feet hit the floor in the morning.

Uh, you look up, you say, thank you, Lord. And it's, it's with that gratefulness that we then go out and evangelize, you know? Yeah. Um, cause I have a real big thing with people who, when they start picking on my theology and they say, well, you reformed folk, we're all robots anyway.

Why even evangelize if there's predestination? And I say, it is the gratefulness that, that compels us to tell others of God's love. Uh, you've, you've clearly, you clearly don't know how wretched you are and how great and, and, and, uh, righteous he is.

Um, if you don't understand why we tell other people about the good news and the gospel, but, uh, man, what a, I, oh, go ahead. No, no, go ahead. I was going to say, we can sit here and talk an hour for you about your testimony, because I love hearing testimonies.

Um, you know, a year and a half ago or so we were tossing around an idea, Jason, who's sometimes on the podcast, uh, talking about, uh, testimony Tuesdays, just have someone on every Tuesday so we can just hear the goodness of God.

But, um, yeah. So, so you're pastoring now out in California, correct? Yes. Yeah. And you're, and you're with Irene, your wife. That's who I met down in Tullahoma was Irene. Yeah. My little redhead. Yep.

You're a little redhead. And, uh, that's crazy. You guys made the trek for a, what was it? Took you four or five days to, from California to Tennessee road trip.

Yeah. My butt still hurts really, really still hurt all the way there. And I tell you, we, we got, I, man, let me tell you, dude, that was, I, I've only been to one conference and that was reform con.

And I, and I went there and I saw all my homies, all my friends, you know, because over the years I became friends with all the guys of apology and, and, um, uh, and the cultists show and provoked and, and all of them still, man, we went down there and it was an absolute blast.

But when, when, when we got to Tullahoma, it was, it was way different, man. It was different. I got friends for life there. I got, you know, I mean, it was, it was incredible, you know, just the love and, uh, people out doing one another and honor and the way his church, the covenant reform Baptist church, the way they served everybody.

Yeah. It's just tripped me out.

Unity, Orthodox Boundaries, and Secondary Issues

But, um, so I, I said this to a couple of people and I said it on a podcast I was on a few weeks ago. Um, there was just such a softness and spirit of unity there and, uh, brotherly love for all three of those days.

And it was something that, you know, it's those glimpses you get of, of, of heaven or of a new heaven and new earth. When, when we're ruling and reigning with Christ, it's like, wow, this is, this is what that means when you say brothers and sisters in the Lord.

This will be a good segue into what we want to talk about here, but unity among, among brothers and sisters. There's a lot of division, uh, in, in churches right now, uh, among churches, but I would say, and I want to preference this as well, because we call out, we call out wolves here.

We call out false doctrine. We don't want anyone preaching a false Christ. We don't go along to get along. Right. Just because we say, Oh, well, we're supposed to love each other. So we're going to put up with a false Christ, a false gospel or heuristic.

We absolutely don't do that. And I know we're a little heavy on that sometimes in reform circles. We, we get that kind of image of, of being those guys that are out there pointing the finger and calling it out.

But one, I think most people do it because, uh, they love the body of Christ. Uh, they love Christ himself and they don't want him to be misrepresented and they don't want his, his name blasphemed. Uh, so it is from a motivation of truth and love.

But at the same time, I also see a lot of division within, uh, within the church. Now, you know, with me, there's going to be things prime. You always have to align on primary issues. I would say we probably need to kind of establish that first.

We're talking about those who, who, who hold to the confessions and creeds and Orthodox Christianity, though. I think you would agree. Those are the ones we're calling brothers and sisters in the Lord.

We're not, we're, we're, we're probably, uh, you know, if, if you're talking about a oneness Pentecostal that doesn't believe in the Trinity, that's outside of Orthodoxy. If you're talking about Jehovah witness or Mormon or some of those, those are outside of Orthodoxy.

We are, uh, we are told commanded to call those to them, to repentance. Uh, but within that Orthodoxy, um, you know, we, we saw a lot of division through the COVID stuff and how churches handled that.

We're now three, you know, three years removed from the beginning of that. Um, how important is unity? Uh, and, and what do, and what can we do? Like, where's the line, I guess, to like, how important is it?

I would say it's important, but where's that line of where we don't unify with another, uh, another believer or, or is there a line at all? What do you think?

Oh, there's, there's a definite line, you know, uh, but just giving you, uh, an example of what a healthy, uh, what healthy, um, Orthodox, uh, um, uh, just, uh, uh, unity really looks like is I remember when we were all at the cigar shop and we were going around talking about eschatologies and you said the funniest thing that I, I, I, I've told so many people this man, but we were all going around and here, we all have these different eschatologies.

All right. Some are Presbyterian, some are reformed Baptist, some are Calvinistic Baptist and everything like that. And all of a sudden when it, when it got to you, you were like, wait a second, you guys have been picking on me this whole time because I'm a Presbyterian and we got a dis be right there.

Let's get them. And everybody was cracking up, you know, and we were just, yeah, it was just so beautiful, you know? And, um, yeah,.

That was Andrew Rappaport. Good, good brother in the Lord too. Yeah.

Yeah. Rapture port. That's what we call them. Old rapture port.

I would say too, it, you know, and just for the listeners too, I think we have to, once again, make a distinction between primary doctor doctrinal issues and then secondary issues, right? Um, I can sit, I can sit in a room with my reformed Baptist brethren and I would, I would identified as a reformed Baptist probably up until about two years ago.

So I'm, I'm freshly minted as a reformed Presbyterian. I made that crossover into the baptism covenant, but, uh, and we, we, we, and we've had some conversations on that on the podcast, but there's a difference between primary and secondary issues.

Um, if it is, if it's a baptism issue about age, credo versus pedo, well, that's a secondary issue in absolutely your 1689, uh, um, Westminster, guess what? We both believe, uh, the, the Orthodox of Christianity.

Um, when we will, when we're getting into, um, uh, primary issues is where I would say that unity starts to split, like I just said before, but secondary issues is where I see a lot of people splitting on.

Now I even have some personal feelings on this because for a long time I, uh, attended, uh, assemblies of God church, and they have a doctrine on the baptism of the Holy spirit, a second baptism saying you're baptized in water, but you also have a spiritual baptism of, uh, of, of the Holy spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues and in some ag churches and within their denomination have made that a primary doctrine, which I have to disagree with on.

So I even have some personal issues on that to where like, where are even within the secondary issues, um, you know, I can stand side by side with those, with my AG brothers on social issues like abortion and trans rights and, you know, uh, homosexuality and, and all these things.

But even that is a pretty major secondary issue to me because they're, you know, the denomination essentially takes one verse, uh, and they wrap a whole doctrine around the second baptism and the, and everyone should, uh, speak in tongues.

And some of them even go to far as to say, and this is where I think we would disagree on that, that now it's a primary issue that tongues is an evidence of salvation, which you and I both don't agree to that.

And we would say that's a, that's a primary form of heresy. So it's like sometimes, you know, interdenominational, uh, even different theologies. I'm always curious, like, where is that? Where is, where does the unity stop?

And I don't know what, what do you think that that's kind of what I've been wrestling with? You know, that's not a very good question, but no, no, no, no.

I totally hear what you're saying. You know, I'm a teacher now. So I go to different churches and I teach on Colts apologetics and, um, rolled religions. And, um, what I've noticed from the home that the Lord, this, this ministry that the Lord has blessed me with all the branch ministries.

Um, I've had over a thousand people come here and they always come, they always come out of, you know, like Jehovah's witnesses, Mormon seven day Adventists, um, or the charismatic movement. And what it comes down to is, do you believe, uh, I mean, uh, that, that Jesus Christ is God.

Do you believe, uh, in the, the Jesus Christ of this Bible right here? You know, the one that that's preached faithfully every Lord's day from this right here. Do you believe in the triune God, the father, son, and the Holy spirit?

Do you believe, um, in, uh, have you, have you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ? Cause nine times out of 10, and I've been doing this for years now, nine times out of 10, they've, they've heard a different gospel, have a different Jesus and received a different spirit every single time.

And, um, and, and so we, I've noticed that if they don't hold to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is the power of God into salvation. And they don't know that, that, uh, unless you believe ego, I mean, he, you two will die in your sins.

And if you don't, you don't understand that the core at the core of the doctrine, the, um, the, um, of the scriptures, excuse me, if you don't understand the basics and stuff like that, um, you're, you're either off into heresy or you're a full blown cult.

And I, I honestly believe that, um, you know, like, I mean, I know I got Baptist friends, you know, like independent fundamental Baptist friends down the street, you know, I don't agree with, you know, but they're still my brothers, you know?

Right. I mean, we just, we just call them crazy cousins, you know, it's just,.

You know, that's kind of like my King James only church around the corner from me. Oh yeah. I know a few of them and they're, they're, they're a little, they're a little crazy with that, uh, preservation theology, kind of like what, uh, that, uh, Dr. James White was arguing down in, uh,.

Oh yeah. Tell a home, but yeah, still my brothers, but I think just a little confused. You know, I got the, I got so much, uh, I wouldn't say hate, but people were kind of mad at me because last year I had a gentleman on who's on, on, uh, Instagram and we kind of been conversing back and forth and he was a straight up Lutheran.

He was reformed in his theology, but guess the two big things. Christ is physically present in the Eucharist and baptism is salvific at birth, you know,.

Infant infant baptism. Well, don't they believe that. Don't they believe. He's like around, uh, you know, crisis somewhere around the bread and wine.

Well, so there's, so there's different shades of Lutheranism too. It's like the spirit is there or well, it's physically that, you know, physically in the, in the, uh, in the, uh, wine and the bread, uh, the spirit is there.

And then just kind of a memorial, like we do it in remembrance. Right. Um, so even within Lutheranism, there are different shades of that, but I just wanted to have a conversation about his theology. And I got so many people that we don't really like that.

You had a Lutheran on there and I went, man, I must not be doing my job. If I'm talking about the same things, uh, I started this podcast so I can bring other people on and kind of talk about those things in no way was I promoting him or, um, you know, agreeing with him.

And we disagreed on those and we talked about it, but at the same time, I'm kind of on the fence there. I look at those things as, is he a brother in Christ? He's got an idea about the Eucharist and he's got an idea about baptism.

And I went, I think I still call him brother in the Lord and he's out there, you know, he's in. So there was something where I went probably in my cage stage, you know, 15 years ago, I would have been like you heretic, you repent, look what the Bible says about baptism.

What look what the Bible says about the Eucharist, you know? Uh, but at the same time I go, okay, I think both of those are secondary issues. I don't know the infant baptism that's so VIFIC that could be teetering on, uh, maybe not secondary that could get into primary.

But, uh, at the same time I look at that and I say, there has to be some unity. I would much, I would much rather have unity with someone like that than probably, you know, someone who attends Bethel.

Uh, I can probably get through to the Lutheran better than I can get through to the, uh, word of faith, barking like a dog, a gold dust coming from the heavens, feathers growing on my arm, uh, pull your leg out and lengthen it, uh, healing, uh, ministry.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Jesus is my boyfriend. Worship shamble. I'm a ding dong came in a Honda left in a Mazda, you know, uh, speaking in tongues, you know, all that stuff. So it's like, and I'm making kind of light of that, but we've talked about Bethel quite a lot on this podcast.

Everyone knows where I stand on that. To be honest, I, I, I, and I, you know, I'm, I'm, I just gotta be honest with it. Uh, I, I really don't, I, I think the, the whole Bethel and this whole charismatic movement, um, are, are cults.

They're outside of Orthodox Christianity. I mean, just, just straight up, you know, I mean, it's, it's disgusting what they do. And, but I think that Lutherans are the closest we have to brothers within the Christian realm.

So, you know, we got the, you know, a Presbyterian, you know, we've got the Presbyterians, uh, Dutch reform, Lutheran, you know, uh, Calvinistic Baptist reform, Baptist and everything. And, and, um, and, and I think we're, we're more like this cause we're, we're actually holding to, um, confessions.

Now I don't agree with a lot of stuff that the Lutherans, you know, talk about and stuff, but when it comes to, to unity, it's these core things, the core, not a, not a twisting of the scriptures. Like, like it says in was it second Peter, you know, where some come in and they, they, they, they take what Paul says and they twist it to their own destruction, you know,.

People that are ignorant and, but yeah. So it's, it's good to note too. And I've said it on the podcast before, you know, uh, you and I, a reformed Presbyterian and a reformed Baptist 200 years ago, we were the majority in the United States, uh, 80%.

Um, it's only in the last 120 years that charismatic and Pentecostalism has even been a thing. If you would have took the, uh, the doctrines of an average charismatic or Pentecostal church, and you take that back just 250 years ago, they would have laughed you out of the sanctuary.

They would have said, what are you talking about? Second baptism? What are you talking about? Uh, tongues can be practiced. Uh, if you repeat a saying over and over, what, what are you talking about? God has to heal every single person.

Like that wasn't the norm because it wasn't the Bible. Uh, so I think it's good to know too, that sometimes you and I feel like we're in the minority. Uh, when you look at Western Christian church and you see the majority of non-denominational churches are essentially charismatic.

Uh, we were the majority in history and we are the majority throughout church history, uh, which kind of puts it into perspective a little bit. We're kind of going through this little wave. And like I said, especially in what in the Western world of this crazy charismatic boom, uh, which, which you have to kind of explain to people because they think that's all there is.

Um, like you said, when, when the Lord saved me at 24, I said the sinner's prayer at seven got saved at 24. Um, it was like, I just had to keep eating man. Like reading that Bible. It was like, what this is in the Bible.

My eyes were opened. Um, my heart of stone was removed. It was a heart of flesh. Now it was this revelation upon revelation of the doctrines of grace. And then of course, you know, as we all joke, we go into a cage stage and you just want.

Everyone to know about it because you're just so excited. You know, no, I have, um, I'm sorry.

Go ahead. No, I, I have, we have a t-shirts on our website that says, uh, wine, I'm dying. I'm Romans nine. Um, so there's a little bit of my, there's a little bit of my cage stage still left. If you want to, you know, for anyone out there, you can buy the t-shirt.

It's a good conversation starter, but shameless self-promotion. But, uh, what were you going to say there?

That, well, you know, what amazes me is that when you look through church history, when I first started studying church history, I was shocked. I was absolutely shocked, you know, because, uh, you know, non-denominational churches, which is like the majority of big Eva now, you know, it's non-denominational.

We don't hold your confessions. We all have the same statement of faith that we just copy and paste on each other's, uh, web pages. And, and, but when you start to go back and look at where these, these, uh, um, certain denominations started and everything, and, and you, you start to find out like in the 1800s, you know, prior to the civil war, I mean, you, you had, you had, uh, Mormonism start Jehovah's witnesses start, Hey, we, we got to get away from the creeds and confessions, man.

And we, we got to reinterpret the scriptures and Christian science, uh, you know, and also got started at the exact same time was, uh, dispensationalism at the exact same time, you know, seven day Adventist.

And, and so, I mean, you had like the, another one, like the, the second great awakening, you know, yeah. Charles Finney denying original sin and had, it's just all this orchestrated stuff. But when we go back and we like, look at real revivals and stuff that happened in, in history, like Jonathan Edwards, Oh, to be a sinner in the hands of an angry God, the preaching of God's word, wreck people.

Now it's all about experience and reason and, and all this. And we, and it's, it's made the, um, it, it, it makes, um, I think it's, uh, first off it's, uh, uh, emasculated the men in the church. Uh, that's what I believe.

And I believe it's, uh, made, uh, people, um, uh, spiritually impotent, you know, I mean, just, I'm being real, you know, uh, yeah. And effective. Absolutely. Yeah. And, and so when I, I, I have heard from several people that, uh, they kept telling me like, oh yeah, reform people aren't known to evangelize.

I'm like, uh, that's all I know is, is evangelists that I, I don't, that, that you're literally, you're literally part of.

Open air theology where you guys do open air preaching like every week. Oh yeah. You couldn't.

Be more evangelistic. Oh yeah. You know, this is just, I mean, you know, Christ commanded us to do it. So we do it, you know? Yeah. And, um, you know, that's just what it is. You, you bring up.

A really good point about creeds and confessions too. And I was talking to some of the guys down in Tullahoma about this. You know, if, if you're on a, you're on a country road and let's say it's freshly paved, you know, you got that fresh pavement, you're on a country road, uh, and it's just flat.

You're going to go, man. And you're going to, you're going to open up that throttle a little bit. You catch yourself going heck 60, 70, 80 miles an hour on a back road, maybe on your bike, maybe on your, in your car or truck.

Uh, and you can get reckless a little bit, you know, curve comes up. Guess what? You're going off the road. You didn't realize it. Now imagine that same country road. It's, it's freshly paved. It's very smooth, but you got 12 foot ditches on either side.