December 1, 2025 Show with Alexander Wright on “Declaring the Gospel in Asia”

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Today, we have a returning guest named Alexander Wright, who is founder and president of Vessels for Christ, and he's going to be addressing declaring the gospel in Asia, assessment of a recent missionary trip, the challenges believers face overseas, and reasons for optimism regarding the advancement of Christ's kingdom.

It's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Alexander Wright.

Thanks, Chris. I appreciate you having me back on the show. Well, before we get into your most recent mission trip to Asia, let our listeners know something about Vessels for Christ.

So Vessels for Christ is a nonprofit ministry. We started in 2017.

I was radically converted in 2014, and God put missions on my heart right away.

And after a few years, I decided to start the ministry and really had just had—we have a longing and a heart for the brothers and sisters overseas.

We have a lot of knowledge here in America. We have a lot of resources, and I feel like our time can be well spent helping those that need, you know, that we can give some of that knowledge and resources to the ones overseas, the brothers and sisters, and help equip the churches.

We do a lot of work in third world countries. We try to help the pastors financially. We support them with teaching and preaching, just trying to get them to understand sound theology, good doctrine, and really equip them to counter the cults and the false teachings in their different countries.

And if anybody wants to find out more about Vessels for Christ, go to VesselsforChrist .org.

VesselsforChrist .org, and God willing, we'll be repeating that towards the end of the show. Well, first of all, why the selection of Asia?

And tell us approximately when you launched this mission trip out there, and specifically where you went.

So, yeah, the last couple of years have been eventful. I had a baby almost 18 months ago.

We moved down to South Florida. So, we're part of Emanuel Baptist Church in South Florida, 1689

Reformed Baptist Church. I'm currently going to seminary, to Reformed Baptist Seminary, working on a

Master's of Theology. So, there were a lot of life changes happening, and I had to help out with my wife and the school.

So, it took about two years since the last trip to kind of organize this, work with the pastors overseas, see what they needed, see what kind of things we could offer to them.

And so, I was able to plan that trip this year. And finally, the baby was at a point where my wife could take care of her more.

I didn't need to be at the house for a month, and I was able to go out there and visit different churches, different partners we work with, and really just wanted to get them resources, see how

I can help them with preaching and teaching, and just how to flip their church members to boldly proclaim the gospel.

That was the emphasis of the trip. So, in Asia, it's a very safe -based type of culture.

So, they're very defensive. You know, they don't want confrontation. They want to be polite, even more so than America.

So, my thing that I was emphasizing on this trip was Christ over culture.

You know, we want to obey the command of the gospel, go out to the nations, disciple the nations, share the gospel, the law, the gospel, the cost, tell people what it means to take up their cross and follow

Him, and really be bold in our workplace, with our friends, out on the streets.

And so, that was a big emphasis of this trip. In South Florida, I open or preach at times.

I hand out tracts at times at the campus and the beach. I did some abortion ministry for a few years when

I used to live in Central Florida. I believe God's called me to be with my evangelistic gifts, you know, and to exercise them.

So, I wanted to, you know, emphasize that on this trip and try to teach them, help them, equip them to go out and give them just simple biblical truths about what it means to share the gospel, how to share the gospel, how to have those openings, and be obedient to Christ's command in the

New Testament. So, that was a big emphasis for this trip. Praise God. Well, tell us specifically about where you went in Asia, and tell us about both the challenges and the praise reports.

Yeah. So, I started off in Japan. So, I was actually in five countries in 30 days.

Me and my wife made a rule when we got married. She said, I don't want you to be gone more than a month once we got married because I used to travel a lot more.

So, I said, okay, I'm going to pack five countries in 30 days, which I probably won't do again because that was extremely exhausting, extremely taxing on me.

I praised the Lord that He sustained me during that trip, and my health was preserved. So, I didn't get sick on this trip, which was a huge blessing because that can really—you probably talk to some other people who go overseas and teach and preach and things.

It can really derail, you know, the trip. Well, I'm dying to hear about Japan because I know it has one of the lowest populations of Christians anywhere in the world.

I remember years ago when Iron Sharpens Iron Radio was broadcasting at a

WNYG radio in Babylon, New Orleans, I conducted an interview on the

Moonies with a thoroughly knowledgeable expert on that cult, and I got my first and only email from Japan.

And a woman was thanking me for the interview. She had become a Christian through listening to and reading the ministry and books of Dr.

James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries, and her and her husband were

Moonies. They were married in an arranged marriage, and although they did not have spousal affection for each other, they remained married even after leaving the cult, and she was dismayed because she could not find an evangelical

Bible -believing church anywhere near her, the closest church that even had some kind of an identity as Christian was a

Roman Catholic church, and she couldn't tolerate attending those services anymore, and I wouldn't advise any true

Bible -believing Christian to go to a Roman Catholic church. So she was just pleading for help to find one, and she said that less than 1 % of the population was

Christian, but pick up where I left off there. Yeah, sure, that is true, yeah, less than 1%, and that's including

Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics in that number, so it's even less, yeah, even less.

So Praise God, I'll give you the praise first, is that I know of 20 churches right now in Japan that are faithful Bible churches.

The gospel is flourishing there. It's still a very small percentage of Christians, but there are good faithful churches.

Actually, 15 of those, me and my friend, my friend is compiling a list of Reformed churches around the world, 1689, they hold the 1689 or the

Baptist Faith and Message, or are just Calvinistic, and 15 of those churches are actually, their pastors are 1689 confessional churches, but they can't report it because they could lose support from the people overseas that support them, so they have to keep that kind of secret.

And this is where specifically? This is in Japan. Really? Why would they have to?

Yeah. I wasn't aware of any government intolerance of Christianity there, especially since there's such a small group like there is in China and other places like that.

Well, yeah, no, it's not the government thing. It's the, they have support from overseas, and if they find out, the pastors find out, or the people overseas do support them, find out they're 1689, they lose that support.

So the threat comes from professing Christians. Exactly, yeah. And yeah, so this is pretty common if you do enough work overseas, where people kind of have to hide some of their

Calvinistic Reformed convictions from some of their supporting people overseas, or they will lose support because people just hate

Calvinism. So tell us a little bit more about your experiences in Japan, and was there frustration that they were such a small minority, their own efforts in evangelizing their neighbors, that kind of thing?

Yeah, so I went to visit Tokyo Bible Church, which is a

Reformed 1689 church. Cool. Yeah, the pastor is Pastor Shiro Nakayama, and it's interesting.

I want to tell the story about how that church came about. It's pretty, I think it'll be interesting for the listeners. So Timothy Peach was an

American who was IFB King James only in the 40s, and he went over to Japan to pass out tracts, share the gospel, and then the war broke out.

So he actually went back to the States, and then after the war was over, he went back to Japan, helped with all the aid after the bombs were dropped, and he actually got his first convert.

And the first convert he got, he sent him to a Bible school affiliated with Westminster.

So that convert in the early 50s became Reformed, and then actually shared

Reformed theology with this guy Timothy Peach, who was the guy sharing the gospel and wanting to, you know, see people saved in Japan.

And then there was some, obviously some arguments and tension for a few years regarding this, and then he eventually became

Reformed, and they started this church in the 50s. This Reformed Baptist church in Japan, and it's been standing ever since.

Hallelujah. Yeah, so it's pretty wild, and it's actually, it's a very good church.

I met a lot of the members there. I spent time at the service there, and there are a lot of needs.

There are things to pray for. I'd say there are evangelistic efforts. There's a challenge, like I said before, between the

Japanese culture and sharing the gospel, because they do like everyone to like them and things like that.

And then it's also a very isolationist culture. So actually there's a fellowship issue there too, because they work so much, and they like to spend time alone.

They don't really connect with the people in the church. So that's something we can pray for as well. The pastor's been trying to push that a little bit.

Now, did you get a fairly detailed understanding from the

Christians there as to why they believe the

Christian church is so microscopic in Japan?

I can remember seeing a movie about Catholic missionaries in Japan.

Oh, silence. And is that the one where the Japanese official rebukes one of the missionaries who

I think might have been imprisoned or something? And he said, Japan is not the soil for Christianity to grow or something like that.

That's a good accent. I don't know if your

Japanese friends or if they're listening, if they would agree with that or not. But do they share with you any thoughts on why this is?

I mean, it's interesting. I mean, you could perhaps disagree with me, but from what

I understand, never having been to Japan, but just seeing television programs and documentaries and things, it seems that in many ways

Japan loves the Western culture and seeks to mimic it.

Not that Christianity is Western necessarily, but it flourishes in many parts of the

West, and you would think that there would be more of an openness to explore that part of Western culture.

Am I correct on any of that? Yeah, a little bit.

They love Christmas and Halloween and the holidays and Hollywood and things like that that come from the

West. One of the issues in Japan is it's very materialistic.

It's becoming a little more progressive as well. So people love status and things, and that is a big hindrance to the gospel.

So that's one big hindrance. The other hindrance is the connection aspect.

People don't really have very deep relationships. They don't want to go very deep with spiritual things.

So it can take a while for them to open up to someone who they even have known just for two or three years.

Some of these people, their closest friends are people they grew up with. Like when they went to grade school with.

So that is another hindrance. And then you have to get kind of this off this

Christianity is a religion of the West type of thing. That is another hindrance to the gospel.

So in other words, even though they may love many aspects about the West, they don't want to adopt a spirituality or a religion that is inseparably linked in their minds to the

West. Yeah, exactly. And just like in a lot of other cultures and countries

I've been in, you lose a lot for the gospel. So if they do become Christians and actually get baptized, they get ostracized from their family.

They get looked down upon. A lot of the family members think they're just joining some sort of cult.

And of course, that happens here in the United States all the time. Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Exactly. So there is that aspect as well, where there's a cost to fall in Christ, as we know.

And they have to deal with that as well. Now, is the dominant religion their

Shintoism? Or am I misremembering that? And whatever their most prominent religion there, is it more nominal than really deeply believed and practiced?

So I would say that their prominent religions are Shintoism, Buddhism, and animism.

So ancestry, you know, worshiping ancestors. Most Japanese houses actually have a little shrine to your ancestors.

So those are the main religions. And yeah, it is very nominal. Most people don't really hold deeply to those roots.

They kind of entertain it. But most people are just atheists at the end of the day in the

Japanese culture. They don't really believe in anything. So if you can actually get them to open up and talk with them and share a tract or the gospel, you can start from the beginning to the end and actually share what the

Bible says. Because they've never even read a Bible. Most of them don't. They might have a concept of it, but they don't really know what's in it.

And by the way, before I forget, I would love to have the contact information of that Japanese pastor to get him on Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

Oh, sure. The Reformed Baptist one. Now, how are you welcomed in that country, even just walking around in public?

Did people immediately notice the fact that, hey, look, there's a

Caucasian here? Because obviously there are very few comparatively over there.

I mean, I don't know if there's a tourist area where there are dozens, if not hundreds, of Caucasians there at one time.

But tell us about that. Yeah. So, no, yeah, I stick out like a sore thumb. I'm a 6 '5", white

American. Wow. I met you and I don't remember you being that tall. Wow. In fact,

I ate dinner with you and I'm trying to remember if I was astonished by your height.

That was a long day. I think that was after the G3 Conference. Yes, it was. That was a long day.

But yeah, so I'm very tall, so I stick out. I'm a foreigner there. People definitely look at me.

And as far as the tourist areas, yeah, like I went to go see one of the biggest Buddhas in Japan.

It's probably like maybe 250 feet. It's really tall and it's a huge Buddha and that's a big tourist area.

Yeah, I blend in a little more there. There's more foreigners sightseeing and it's a tourist spot.

But, yeah, if I'm like, you know, going around the subway or going into some neighborhood where it's mostly

Japanese, yeah, people are always looking at me. And this is sometimes smiling. Yeah, they're sometimes smiling and laughing.

And I look at them in the eyes and they look back at me. It's like, I know you're staring at me.

They were probably laughing more because of your height, I'm assuming. Yeah. Yeah.

And everyone assumes I'm like a famous basketball player, like some sort of celebrity. We have to go to our first commercial break.

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and mention Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. We're now back with Alexander Wright of Vessels for Christ.

And Alexander, where we left off, we were discussing Japan, and do you have anything further to say?

Because I know you visited a lot of countries in Asia recently. So it's up to you if you want to move on or say anything else that you learned from your experience in Japan.

I just want to say one more thing, then we can move on. We're thinking about doing a conference there next year, so your listeners can be praying for that.

Like I said, evangelism is a little—they're a little soft on evangelism in Japan.

They're also kind of soft—some of the churches, not the ones I was talking about, but some of the churches are soft on abortion and homosexuality.

Even evangelicals? Yeah, even evangelicals. Wow. Yeah, yeah.

So there's some of that there. So me and some of the brothers and pastors were talking about maybe having a conference where we just talk about those topics.

I hope that that does not include that Reformed Baptist Church you were talking about. No, no, they're solid.

Their pastor teaches solid stuff. Okay, that would have been a shock otherwise.

No, yeah, no, no, they're good. But some other churches, and then we would have the conference and bring some of those guys in from the other churches.

Now, is the English language so common there that you didn't need to learn

Japanese? Or do you know Japanese? Tell us about that. I'm learning a little basic Japanese, but no,

I needed a translator. With some of the guys, they grow up learning

English, so you can speak to them like some of the Christian brothers. But even with the pastor that I was mentioning, he had a translator there.

He spoke pretty good English, but sometimes they had to translate because some of the phrases and concepts don't really translate well.

So you could easily get smacked across the face for saying something that you never intended.

That's definitely true. But yeah, so we'll see.

Okay, well, let's hear about some more of the countries you visited in Asia. Yeah, so the next country

I went to was Thailand. And there's a couple of things

I did there. One, I visited a missionary. I'm not going to mention his name on the air because he's done work in China for years.

And he actually got kicked out of China, and now he's currently staying in Thailand.

But I actually met with him and was very encouraged. He gave me some encouraging words.

We're in the same type of Reformed Baptist circles, and he was just encouraging me to keep exhorting, encouraging people in those circles.

Sometimes I feel like even as Reformed Baptists in those circles, we can be a little soft on evangelism.

Sometimes we get comfortable in our churches, and we like our churches, but we don't kind of go outside of our churches.

So he was encouraging me in that regard to keep doing what I'm doing, keep encouraging the churches in the

Reformed world to share the gospel, proclaim the gospel. And also just to remember,

I think one thing that's important, and maybe I have a different viewpoint because I've been traveling a lot, and I don't really stick in one sort of camp, but it's always important.

We've got brothers and sisters across the camp, Presbyterians, Anglicans, evangelical, and even charismatic brothers.

We want to stay true. Our connection is on the essentials.

Do we believe in the deity of Christ? Do we believe in the resurrection? Do we believe it's the word of God? Do we believe that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone?

These are the important things that keep us united as brothers. But yeah, we have differences in baptism and different things, but we want to stay—we want to remember that just because we have those differences doesn't mean we shouldn't fellowship and partner and work with those brothers, with those differences.

Yes, obviously there is the balance, because some differences that are prevalent, unfortunately, in evangelicalism are so heretical that we have to avoid fellowship or break fellowship with certain people, depending upon how extreme the difference is.

Yeah, I mean, one of those would be like Seventh -day Adventism. I mean, that's clearly false.

You know, Ellen G. White was a false prophetess. She believed that Jesus is continually washing away our sins in heaven.

Justification is not once, but it's a continual process. I mean, that's clear break of fellowship.

That's heresy. Right, and of course, like the Word of Faith movement as well and things like that.

Yeah, prosperity, which is a big deal in Thailand and in other countries, is the prosperity stuff.

That's a lot of what I'm counteracting overseas, because people think those false teachers prey on those brothers and sisters overseas.

They think that they preach this, you know, name it and claim it, give and be blessed.

Your life's going to be great. Look at me. I fly in a jet. You can fly in a jet, too. They don't preach the whole counsel of God.

They just twist the scriptures. And that is something I'm constantly teaching against and constantly counteracting those ideas in those different countries.

Now, is there a much larger evangelical population in Thailand than in Japan?

So with Thailand, there is,

I'd say, a little bit more, but not much. In Thailand, yeah, the predominant viewpoint, it's primarily

Buddhists. It's about 95 percent Buddhists. And it's more of a nominal

Buddhism, you know, Buddhism by name. Some of them go to the temples and here and there. But there is a small faction of churches, because in Thailand, you have to register the church with the government.

You have to abide by certain rules. There's certain things that kind of restrict you from even worshiping there.

But you are free to evangelize. You're actually even free to open air preach there. You just can't say anything bad about the king.

If you say anything bad about the king, you're going to prison. So you just can't talk about the king of Thailand, but you can actually preach the gospel there.

Oh, praise God. Yeah, that's good. And just so I don't have to keep repeating the same question, how prevalent is the

English language in these Asian countries that you have visited where you are understood or you always have an interpreter with you?

Yeah, so I was in Japan. It was kind of a mix, you know. In Thailand, I actually spoke to a church there.

His name's Pastor Marcus Say. He has a small Baptist church in the border of Thailand and Myanmar. He had a mostly

Filipino congregation, so Filipinos speak English. So I actually just preached to anyone out there.

And then later that night, he had a Baptist church plant type of outreach thing that they were doing.

Sorry, Burmese, Myanmar Burmese Baptist church plant. So I had to have a translator.

I can understand. I lived in Myanmar for a while, so I can kind of understand 50%. I have 50 % comprehension level of Burmese, but I still need a translator when

I preach to Burmese people. And then in Cambodia, I had a translator the whole time.

They don't really know much English. And then in Myanmar, I had a translator as well because their

English is very limited as well. Oh, you know, it just occurred to me. I've got to hook you up with my friend,

Pastor Jeff Waddington, who is a Presbyterian pastor here in Pennsylvania.

But he provides online instruction in the

Christian faith to a church in Cambodia.

He does it via Zoom. And so I obviously have to get you to introduce to each other.

Yeah, that would be great. Actually, speaking of Presbyterians, Legionnaire, which is kind of loosely connected to St.

Andrews, they actually were gracious enough to donate almost 30 Reformation study

Bibles to our ministry. And I was able to get those to Myanmar and other countries in Asia.

Great Scott. So any other specific experience that you want to address in Thailand before you move on to another one of the countries you visited?

Yeah, so Thailand, I was saying, I was with Pastor Marcus Say, I preached on church membership there.

I preached a couple of evangelistic messages to lost people there as well. Some of the praises there, there are little faithful churches there and there's evangelism going on, which is great.

Some of the challenges there are that that is even worse than Japan.

And they think the Christianity is just the Western man's religion. So you really have to counteract that and say, no, no,

Christ died for all. He can be your savior, too. He forgave the sins of the people of the world,

John 3 .16. We can preach that and emphasize that.

And then on top of that, the Buddhist culture there, there's no beginning with Buddhism.

They think the world was people reincarnated, the world was renewed over and over and over again.

There's no starting point. So you have to counteract some of that. You really have to start from creation, from Genesis, go to Revelation with people there where it's a little different.

Like in America, we've been so exposed to Christianity and there's so many cults here.

And people have probably more of an understanding of who Jesus is, what the Bible is.

And you're dealing with a lot of nominal Christians here and you're dealing with a lot of people who are in cults.

So you're having to discuss and defend the faith like 1 Peter 3 .15

says and like the Apostle Paul did and really say, no, the resurrection did happen.

This is why it happened. You're having to do a Jesus is God like what you do with the

Job's Witnesses or the Mormons. And he was never created. He was always with the Father since the beginning.

You have to do that more here where in those countries, you're starting with a blank slate.

So it's refreshing being in Asia because here there's so much more strife when trying to share the gospel here than I do even have in Asia.

Because if you meet someone in Thailand or Cambodia or wherever and they don't know anything, you can just start from the beginning.

And they're like, wow, I've never heard this before. What's the Bible? Is it God's word?

Who's Jesus? And you can just go through the gospel like that. Praise God.

Well, what was the next agenda on your schedule in Asia? Yeah, so I went from Japan to Thailand, then to Cambodia.

I meant Cambodia, I'm sorry. Oh, that's okay. Yeah. So I went to Cambodia and actually

I went to a HeartCry conference a few years ago. Paul Washer's ministry. Yeah, Paul Washer's ministry.

They had a Southeast Asian conference in Bali, and they had a lot of pastors from all over Asia there.

And I met one from Cambodia. And so that was how I got the connection. And he does a lot of campus ministry.

So we were able to go out, go to the campuses there, share the gospel.

He was my main translator there. And I mean, I just remember, I can't remember his name.

But like I was just telling you, there was one guy there who he came from the village. There's a lot of rice fields in Cambodia.

So the farming is mostly rice. And he came from the rice field where his dad owned some land there.

By the way, before I forget, I had a brainstorm the other day to start an

Asian restaurant calling it Rice Rice Baby. How does that sound? It's catchy for here.

I'm sorry. Do the listeners even know who Vanilla Ice is? I'm sure that there are some who do.

Yeah, maybe. Maybe my generation. I don't think they know. The funny thing is that most of them are either too old or too young to know who

Vanilla Ice was. But anyway, go ahead. I'm sorry. That's true. No, no, no. I remember

James White always says in his program, there's people listening to my program now, they weren't even born when

I started. Right. I've met young people who don't even know what a

CD is. Oh, wow. That's, that's wild. See, I buy and sell on eBay in my part time.

So I buy and sell a lot of those old vintage electronics. So I have a lot of those. All right.

Well, I interrupted your flow there. Sorry. It's okay. So in Cambodia, so yeah.

So there's a guy in the countryside and he came to study in the city in Phnom Penh, which is the main city there, the biggest city in Cambodia.

Actually, you remember, probably in the late 70s with Pol Pot, the dictator. Yeah, I actually visited some of those killing fields while I was there.

Wow. And yeah, 300 ,000 people massacred in the one spot I was there.

Yeah, it was wild. They had all the skulls of all the people that they gathered together.

Yeah, it was pretty wild. I didn't know I was out there. They're like, oh, no, you're like 30 minutes away. You can go visit while you're there.

So this guy came from the countryside, about 20, studying at the campus. But we started talking to him.

He knew nothing about Christianity, never heard about the Bible, didn't know about Jesus. And we took him through the whole gospel.

I mean, we went from Genesis to Revelation. We must have had a good 30 minute conversation with him about what it means to believe in Christ, why

God's law came, why we can't follow it, how we broke it, why we need a

Savior, how to get everlasting life, how we need forgiveness through Christ alone. And we went through all these things.

And we connected to the pastor there, and I pray that he continues to go to some of the

Bible studies there. But it's just a blessing to be able to go through it and to have someone just listen.

Where here in the U .S., you know, a lot of times you're getting the attacks. They have the strong presuppositions.

I mean, they're holding on to whatever false ideology, like Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodox or Seventh -day

Adventists or Mormonism, you know, the list goes on. They're holding on to it with all their strength while you're trying to take them to the scriptures to go, no, this is what the

Bible says, you know? So it's really nice to be able to engage with people like that.

I mean, there were about three or four who had never heard about Christianity there as we talked in the campus and where he does the campus ministry.

So that was great. One of the things

I forgot to ask you, I think, not only regarding Cambodia, but even before that,

Thailand, is there any presence of Reformed theology there in either of those places?

Okay, so Thailand, there are some, like the church I was working with is a Reformed Baptist church that I preached at, and there's another one

I know of in Bangkok, and there's a few scattered throughout. It's not very strong there.

In Cambodia, there's a few. It's about maybe the same, small.

I know HeartCry, Paul Washer's organization, supports a few pastors in Cambodia and a few churches there.

So it's growing slowly in Thailand and Cambodia. The big resurgence of Reformed theology right now is in the

Philippines. They're having a huge resurgence where a lot of people are leading Landmark Baptists.

You know the Landmark Baptists? Yeah, they're leading the Landmark Baptists and they're becoming

Reformed. Huh. Now, there is a division amongst Landmark Baptists between sovereign grace -believing

Landmarkers and those that despise those teachings. They wouldn't call themselves

Arminian, but in essence, that's what they are. But I'm wondering if the

Calvinists that you've been hearing about in the Philippines, or should

I say the Landmarkers that you've been hearing about in the Philippines, are just becoming more

Reformed in their views? Like, for instance, the whole concept of tracing your lineage all the way back to John the

Baptist, which is quite amazing that anybody could say that. But were any of these

Reformed Baptists that are former Landmarkers, were they already Calvinists or no?

I think it's a little bit of both, but I'd say the ones I'm referring to primarily, the guys

I was working with were Landmark, Arminian, Trail of Blood, Trail of Tears guys that started to get introduced to guys like Spurgeon and Whitefield and guys like that.

Yeah, the guy that, believe it or not, the guy that wrote the Trail of Blood was a thoroughgoing Five -Point Calvinist.

Really? Yes. So I make the few

Landmarkers that I know that are anti -Calvinist, because they're out there too.

I've let them know that, much to their dismay, because that element does hate

Calvinism. But there is a considerable segment of them.

I mean, it's a small group to begin with, but there's a considerable segment of them that is thoroughly

Calvinistic. There was a well -known amongst

Landmark pastors, Jack Green, who pastored in Texas and published a newspaper and has a college there.

In fact, I think he may be a missionary now in Vietnam, but I'll have to check on that.

It's somewhere in Asia where Jack Green, the

Calvinist Landmarker, is doing missionary work. Really quick, so the

Trail of Blood book was written by a Five -Point Calvinist? Yes. Yep. A pastor in Kentucky.

So that was just a position you kind of took, because James White refuted that. Refuted what?

Landmarkism? The Trail of Blood. Yeah, well, that specific element of the

Baptists is believed by both

Calvinistic fundamentalists and Arminian. And of course, if you take the whole umbrella of fundamental

Baptists, Calvinism is a very tiny segment, but they do exist. Among fundamentalists, there are probably more

Calvinists that are Landmarker than those that are not. But anyway, we have to go to a midway break, and if anybody wants to join us, chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

Don't go away. We'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors. It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners from all over the world.

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Going back to 2005, one of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpens Iron is

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I'm Simon O'Mahony, pastor of Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Originally from Cork, Ireland, the Lord in his sovereign providence has called me to shepherd this new and growing congregation here in Cumberland County.

At TRBC, we joyfully uphold the Second London Baptist Confession. We embrace congregational church government, and we are committed to preaching the full counsel of God's word for the edification of believers, the salvation of the lost, and the glory of our triune

God. We are also devoted to living out the one another commands of scripture, loving, encouraging, and serving each other as the body of Christ.

In our worship, we sing psalms and the great hymns of the faith, and we gather around the Lord's table every

Sunday. We would love for you to visit and worship with us. You can find our details at trbccarlisle .org.

That's trbccarlisle .org. God willing, we'll see you soon.

Hello, my name is Anthony Uvino, and I'm one of the pastors at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corum, New York, and also the host of the reformrookie .com

website. I want you to know that if you enjoy listening to the Iron Sharpens Iron radio show like I do, you can now find it on the

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Just subscribe on the iTunes app and listen to the Iron Sharpens Iron radio show at any time, day or night.

Please be sure to also give it a good review and pass it along to anyone who would benefit from the teaching and the many solidly reformed guests that Chris Arnzen has on the show.

Truth is so hard to come by these days, so don't waste your time with fluff or fake news. Subscribe to the

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Doctrines of Grace to the Olivet Discourse and the Book of Leviticus, the Reform Rookie podcast and YouTube channel is sure to have something to offer everyone seeking biblical truth.

And finally, if you're looking to worship in a Reformed church that holds to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, please join us at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corum, New York.

Again, I'm Pastor Anthony Uvino and thanks for listening. Hello, my name is

Anthony Uvino and I'm one of the pastors at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corum, New York and also the host of the reformrookie .com

website. I want you to know that if you enjoy listening to the Iron Sharpens Iron radio show like I do, you can now find it on the

Apple's iTunes app by typing Iron Sharpens Iron radio in the search bar. You no longer have to worry about missing a show or a special guest because you're in your car or still at work.

Just subscribe on the iTunes app and listen to the Iron Sharpens Iron radio show at any time, day or night.

Please be sure to also give it a good review and pass it along to anyone who would benefit from the teaching and the many solidly reformed guests that Chris Arnzen has on the show.

Truth is so hard to come by these days, so don't waste your time with fluff or fake news. Subscribe to the

Iron Sharpens Iron radio podcast right now. And while you're at it, you can also sign up for the reformrookie .com

podcast and visit our website and the YouTube page. We are dedicated to teaching Christian theology from a

Reformed Baptist perspective to beginners in the faith as well as seasoned believers. From Keach's Catechism and the doctrines of grace to the

Olivet Discourse and the book of Leviticus, the Reform Rookie podcast and YouTube channel is sure to have something to offer everyone seeking biblical truth.

And finally, if you're looking to worship in a Reformed church that holds to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, please join us at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram, New York.

Again, I'm Pastor Anthony Invidio, and thanks for listening. When Iron Sharpens Iron radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the

Iron Sharpens Iron radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the NASB.

I'm Pastor Nate Pickowitz of Harvest Bible Church in Gilmont and Ironworks, New Hampshire, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Rich Jensen of Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram, New York, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Sule Prince of Oakwood Wesleyan Church in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor John Sampson of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona, and the

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Here's a great way for your church to help keep Iron Sharpens Iron radio on the air. Pastors, are your pew

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And tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron radio. Go to nasbible .com,

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I believe this podcast needs to be heard far and wide. This is a day of great spiritual compromise, and yet God has raised

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I'm pleased to do so, and would like to ask you to prayerfully consider joining me in supporting

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I know it would be a huge encouragement to Chris if you would. All the details can be found at ironsharpensironradio .com,

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Before I return to my conversation with Alexander Wright of Vessels for Christ and his missionary trip to Asia, we have some important reminders for you folks.

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I'm urging you, go to ironsharpensironradio .com, click support, then click click to donate now.

You could donate instantly with a debit or credit card in that fashion.

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So if that's you, no matter where you live, if you're without a church home that's biblically faithful, please send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com.

chrisarnson at gmail .com. But I need a church in the subject line. That's also the email address where you can send in a question to my guest

Alexander Wright of Vessels for Christ as we continue our conversation on his recent mission trip to Asia.

And by the way, just not that this is the main focus of our conversation, but I did find out that the author of Trail of Blood, James Milton Carroll, pastored in Waco, Texas, and he lived in the late 19th and early 20th century, having gone home to the

Lord in 1930s, in fact, 1931. And he did confirm that he was a five -point

Calvinist. So that is something that I'm sure most anti -Calvinist landmark

Baptists are completely ignorant of that fact. Interesting.

But where would you like to pick up now in your travels in Asia? Oh, yeah.

No, I wanted to say with your promo about giving, I actually stole that from you. As I tell people when they want to give for my ministry,

I say, make sure you give to your local church first. I don't want to take that money. So not only do we have advertisers that aren't promoting, or should

I say advertising with Iron Trip and Zion Radio anymore, we have guests that are stealing from us.

I am honored that you would imitate that aspect of what I say during the show.

So where did, unless you want to wrap up something about Cambodia. Do we, oh, sorry.

Do we have any questions that have come in at all? Yes. And I was going to wait until the near the last segment to begin asking them.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. No, I'll, yeah. Cambodia. Yeah. Like I was saying, I'll just wrap that up.

Some of the things your listeners can pray for in Cambodia, this was kind of an exploratory trip for us, where we were, you know, meeting with the pastor, seeing what the needs were.

They really just need, you know, pray for good teaching, simple truths they need to understand about the scriptures in order to promote that to their members.

And really just the gospel. That's one of the things that's very lacking there, even among professing

Christians and pastors and churches. You know, even in Asia, I run across a lot of Bible schools, quote unquote, in different Asian countries, but a lot of them aren't good.

You know, there's very few faithful Bible schools that are actually churning out good pastors who can actually exposit the scriptures, rightly divide the word, and actually preach the whole counsel of God.

So that's something you can pray for that I noticed, and you can pray for in Cambodia, your listeners can be praying for.

All right, well, let me take a listener from Amethyst in Jupiter, Florida. Amethyst asks,

Are China and North Korea the only Asian nations left on the planet that still violently persecute

Christians? Violently?

No, I would say that Christians are very persecuted and imprisoned in Mongolia, Bhutan, parts of Indonesia.

I'm trying to think of all the other Asian countries out there. Yeah, Indonesia.

A lot of people don't know that Indonesia is the most heavily populated

Muslim nation in the entire world. And very few of those folks speak

Arabic, which is interesting because if you are an Orthodox Muslim, if there could be such a thing, but if you are a true

Muslim, your Koran has to be in Arabic. So that makes it kind of interesting that Indonesia is the most heavily populated

Muslim place in the world. But anyway, I'm sorry I interrupted you. No, that's OK.

Yeah, while you're talking, I was thinking also people forget India. You know, India is a very persecuted place.

We used to do some work in India. We don't as much anymore. But one of the people we supported was a widow of a guy.

Let me tell the story. There were a lot of guys, people getting converted in his village. His church was growing.

And the villagers spread rumors to him to a cult group, a terrorist group.

They spread rumors to a terrorist group that he was working with the police against the terrorist group. So the terrorist group actually took him out of there and shot him dead in the street.

And I saw his picture of the bullet in his head, and I still remember what that looked like.

And we actually helped support his widow during that time. So India, there's very violent persecution.

Basically, if you go to a lot of rural areas in India, the villagers take things in their own hands.

It's not like here where there's more law and order. The villagers, if they see a lot of people converting, people saying the gods are false,

Hindu gods are false, whatever, they'll take it in their own hands and they'll attack them. And it can be violent where things are thrown at, people are killed.

It can get pretty bad. But yeah, in the countries I met, more rural areas, in more of the cities, not as much violent persecution.

But like I was saying before in the program, it's a cost to fall in Christ. So they get ostracized, they get demeaned in their families for actually following Christ and serving him as Lord.

Yeah, you reminded me in India how many people here in the

States are very ignorant of how violent and anti -Christian the

Hindus can be because they have this wrong impression that it's only the

Muslims who are persecuting violently Christians in Pakistan and the

Middle East and so on. And the

Hindus in India, from what I've heard from missionaries, although they are completely fine with someone believing

Jesus Christ is their Lord, God, and Savior, what they vehemently object to is when you say

Jesus is the only way to salvation and you could criticize Hinduism in any way.

And there were some notorious murders of Christians there, including an

Australian missionary family who were burned alive in their automobile as Hindus stood with these long poles keeping the door shut of the car, the length of the pole to keep the persecutors free from harm as they burned the missionaries alive.

But that's just one example. And so people have to get out of their mind the tranquil, peaceful Hindu caricature in their head.

Yeah, it's true. Demons really stir these people up. They stir them up to kill

God's people. And it's been happening for years and years and years. So the last part of my trip

I'll touch on, if you don't mind, is Myanmar. And that was the last country.

We went to Myanmar and then I also stopped in Dubai for a few days. I did kind of find out the climate of the church there.

But in Myanmar, that's where we've been doing a lot of work in. We support three pastors, an orphanage.

Three pastors, an orphanage there. And the one main pastor, we've been supporting him fully financially for the last almost three years now.

He has a church two hours north of Viengon. And the people there,

I mean, I was very surprised when I went this time. I hadn't been there since 2019 because of COVID.

I never got the vaccine, so I had to not travel for three years. And then the military coup in Myanmar.

The military took over the country. They're pretty much destroying it.

They're snatching people in the middle of the night to join the military. They're selling kids on the border to China.

There's just terrible things happening there right now. So when I got in there, there's barbed wire around the airport.

There's checkpoints you have to go through. It's such a different place than when I used to go.

I was nervous at times. I was in my hotel room thinking, are they going to break in and take me and take me to jail?

Because it's so different. And I mean, even though I'm doing ministry work, there's still a level of discretion that I have to have there and a level of I have to be careful while I'm there.

They're more after rebels and journalists there who are giving propaganda against the government, the military government.

But yeah, it was encouraging to see the church. They have daily prayer meetings.

They're really devoted to the Lord there, and they've become very orthodox. The pastor

I worked with is a big fan of R .C. Sproul, so he's listened to a lot of his teachings. And actually, you know, he was the one who received some of the

Reformation Study Bibles, and I actually sent him some church history books too to teach his congregation.

And it was very encouraging to see how close they are to God and how they're standing strong despite the inflation, despite the breakdown of their country, you know, despite, you know, people in their, some people in their church or husbands try to go into Thailand or other countries for work, and then they just disappear.

You know, there's just so many challenges there right now for God's people, and I do want to bring attention to that because a lot of people aren't familiar with that country.

It's right next to Thailand. It's like 60 million people. It's small percentage are Christian, but there's still

Christians there, and they're still faithful. And we really need to be lifting up that country in prayer.

And I was fortunate that they gave me a visa to get in, and I was able to get out and teach and preach there and really help that church while I was there.

All right, let me read another listener question from Bert in Walla Walla, Washington.

Bert asks, I know that some missionaries who labor on mission fields in lands where proselytizing the

Christian faith is illegal have secular jobs like teaching

English to use as a means by which they can also evangelize people in whatever community where they are living and working.

Is that something that you have noticed is a common way of evangelism? Oh, yeah, 100%.

In certain areas, like in Japan, for example, the missionary who is an

American guy there, he actually served a need for the people, which was religion.

So he got a visa, a religious visa, and he was able to live there, supported by churches overseas, no problem.

But in countries like Thailand, thinking of India, China, more hostile countries, yeah,

I know brothers who start businesses in order for them, even in Myanmar, I know a brother who has a business in order for him to stay in that country legally.

And then, yes, some are English teachers too that I've met as well.

Kind of do what you have to do in order to be able to share the gospel. Yes, I had a close friend.

I haven't spoken with him in years. I don't know if he's still there, but he was a missionary in Vietnam, and he was teaching

English as well. And he met the

Christian daughter of a couple that owned a restaurant there, and they fell in love, and he married her, has children.

And one of the things that was interesting that he told me was that this restaurant was in an area of Vietnam, and I believe it was

South Vietnam. It was in an area that is restricted to tourists or one of the areas where tourists are restricted to go.

The tourists could not roam around anywhere. The government did not want

American and Western European tourists to see the more impoverished areas and that kind of thing.

Is that something that's also widespread in Asia? Yes, I definitely think there's different countries that definitely block off access to foreigners, even in Japan, there's certain cities that don't want foreigners to go through, so they might say no foreigners are allowed at the restaurant or even in the blocks of certain cities.

And then I'm thinking there's definitely restricted areas that you're not supposed to go to in certain rural spots that can be hostile to people.

They don't want international incidences in these countries.

So they do want to protect the people and the people who are visiting the countries. And just out of curiosity, what cuisine is your favorite in your travels in Asia?

What country has their ethnic cuisine that is among your favorites?

Well, I mean, I love Japanese food. I mean, I can eat that every day, whether it be sushi or ramen or katsu or teriyaki or sashimi.

You know, I can eat Japanese food all the time. I love, I really love katsu. What's that?

So katsu is fried pork or fried chicken in like panko crust.

Oh, now that you say that, I remember it on the menu at one of my favorite restaurants here locally in Karloff.

Issei, I -S -S -E -I, Japanese noodle. And that's one of the things on the menu now that you say that,

I remember it. Yeah, yeah. And it has a sweet sauce with it and usually a pile of cabbage.

And then there's some fermented vegetables too that you eat it with and then rice. And so, yeah,

I love that food. My favorite country is Myanmar. God drew me to Myanmar years ago.

I love that country. I love the people there. I was great being back there for the first time in years.

But I have to say, and they're not going to like this, Japan, nothing beats the food like Japan.

Myanmar food is a little different. Burmese food is a little different to the average

American. But the Japanese food just has so many options and the sweets, the desserts and the ice cream is some of the best

I've had in the world in Japan. Well, I am absolutely sure I can confidently say that if James White never does a missionary trip to Japan, he will be eating at McDonald's every day.

That's what I heard. I heard that and I heard he loves chilies too. He's a big chili fan.

Oh, that's a new one that I didn't know about. But I know that he also loves Taco Bell and he loves

Long John Silver's and Arby's.

Yeah, he's very similar to my dad in that regard. My dad also loves all those places. Yeah, James was telling me about his visits to such places as Rome, Italy, and he is eating at McDonald's in Rome.

Unbelievable. That's funny. You know, to be fair to Dr. White, when

I am in these countries, I do like to try the fast food just to see how it compares to the

U .S. And in Japan, I went to the McDonald's and I had a sashimi burger. So they put raw fish on the burger.

You're kidding. And it wasn't that bad. No, it wasn't that bad. It was pretty good. Wow. Well, before we go to the final break,

I want to make sure that you highlight moments and things that you've learned from your trip to Asia that we haven't addressed already before we go to the final break.

I think the two big things I learned on this trip, one was that the church overseas needs simple truths, simple teachings, just the basics.

You know, it's like a building. You want to start from the foundation up. So that was one thing

I learned. I got very good advice before I went. So I really, you know, sometimes in our

Reformed churches or whatever, we can make sermons very intricate, sometimes complicated.

We'll throw the Greek in there. We'll quote famous Reformers, which there's nothing wrong with that. But sometimes it can be a little too much.

So I really just tried to focus on basic, simple truths out there. So that was one thing

I learned. The other thing is that evangelism and the church universally, we need to share the gospel more despite whatever culture we're in.

We need to be more bold. You know, it's a lost and dying world out there.

People are going to hell every day. I just learned about a few people that I know, you know, that have passed away recently in the last couple months.

And some were believers, some were not. Well, the ones that are not believers, they're lost and going to hell for all eternity.

And it's like the parable of the pearl. God gave us a pearl.

Do we just hold on to that pearl? No, we give that to other people. We share people the truth and the hope of the gospel.

It's the only thing that can save. This life is temporary. It's short. It's a vapor.

And eternity is forever. And so that is one of the things I learned over there, emphasizing being bold, being strong, relying on the

Lord, learning the scriptures in order to share those scriptures with people and pointing people to Christ despite how someone might attack us or not like us or even violently persecute us in some cases.

But we need to be strong. And I always say to people, we imitate Paul as he imitates

Christ. You know, we want to be strong and courageous with the gospel because the devil is trying to bring as many as he can to hell.

And we are the hope and the light and the salt of the earth to this lost and dying world.

And we want to be in the world, preach to the world, but not of the world.

So these are two of the biggest points I think I learned on this trip. A funny thing, though,

I also learned I probably won't do four or five countries in 30 days. I was on 14 planes, two trains, two buses in around the world in 30 days.

And that was exhausting. So I will probably limit my trips in the near future, maybe do a few weeks at a time.

But, you know, it was a good trip. It was fruitful, but that was just a personal thing that I kind of learned.

Okay, we have Flynn, who is located in Fort Thomas, Kentucky.

And Flynn asks, I have heard for some missionaries overseas that are tempted at times to cooperate more than they should with other religions claiming to be

Christian, at least on certain projects that may involve physical activity like digging wells and so on.

They do so because of the starvation for like -minded people in a place where they are tiny minorities while doing their mission work.

Is this something that you have battled? And what have you witnessed in regard to the heretical extremes of ecumenism on the mission field?

I personally haven't battled this. I'm very against ecumenism.

I see it even rising in the U .S. today where people are compromising. But I don't think it's good to partner with other religions that don't believe that Christ is the only way, that Christ is

God, these essentials of the faith. Because, yeah, eventually you might compromise or you might go south or,

God forbid, apostatize from spending so much time with them. I think there's a...

I would never encourage someone to do that despite how lonely you may be on the field.

I mean, being friends with someone is one thing, but actually partnering with them, almost looking like it's some sort of Christian endeavor together,

I don't think we should be doing that at all. I can apply this to abortion ministry.

A lot of times when you're doing abortion ministry, you have Roman Catholics there. You don't want to be with the

Roman Catholics. You don't want to be working with the Roman Catholics. Even though you're both trying to save babies' lives, as a

Christian, you're going to be giving them the straight gospel and the truth of the gospel. Well, Roman Catholics are going to tell them, well, you need to be baptized, you need to trust the sacraments, you need to trust the

Church and trust in grace to be saved. And that's a totally different gospel. So we want to stay true to what the

Scriptures say. So that's kind of what I would say to those. Yeah, again,

I'm bringing up James White. I think it may have been Operation Rescue or another prominent pro -life organization that he was involved in,

I think, in the late 80s, perhaps. It might have been early 90s.

And he had to leave, and I can't remember right now if he voluntarily left or was asked to leave.

But either way, he left because he was forbidden to evangelize the Roman Catholics who were in his midst.

And he realized that the gospel, as savage and satanic as killing an unborn baby is, the gospel is even more important than that.

I mean, yeah, the gospel is the— I mean, saving babies' lives is great, but the gospel—saving people's souls is more important.

You know, that's the most important thing. And you don't want to be with people who do not have the true gospel. I would never go with— in Japan, the

Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses are big. Well, I would never partner with the Mormons to do some sort of food outreach to maybe some poor area there or something like that.

I would just never do that, because I would eventually be sharing the gospel with them. But what about—and of course, this would be a case -by -case situation.

But what about—the listener mentioned digging wells.

Now, if people in a community where you are are digging a well or doing something like that, rebuilding a building, home, or barn, or something that had collapsed in a storm, and you just join in the efforts, even though you may know some

Mormons or Catholics or others are involved, and you use it as an opportunity to evangelize them and everyone else, isn't that completely appropriate?

Yeah, that's completely appropriate. You don't want to be viewed as somebody who is uncaring and lacking compassion for somebody in a certain area who needs these physical things.

Yeah, that's true. Like, when I was doing the abortion ministry, there was a Roman Catholic there that would go every day, and I can't prevent him from going there.

I can't tell him not to go. But I did share the gospel with him very firmly one night, and I told him, look, we are not on the same side, you know?

You need to trust in Christ. The Catholic Church teaches a false, damning gospel.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches a false, damning gospel. You need to trust in Christ. So on your work—because he said to us before,

I'm doing this for my works. My work saved me. He said this to us. And I'm like, that is not what the gospel is.

You are not saved by your works. Your works are like filthy rags. But, you know,

I kept going there to share the gospel with them, and we would be cordial and everything, but no,

I would be sharing Christ with them first and foremost. Yeah, I am in kind of a dilemma in that I have a desire to invite

Patricia Heaton on the program. Patricia Heaton, who portrayed

Deborah in Everybody Loves Raymond. A very sweet lady.

I met her at a book signing once. She used to belong to a

Reformed church in Brooklyn, and she reverted back to Roman Catholicism.

And I was trying to contemplate a way that I could have her on and acknowledge that I'm not an accused humanist and don't agree with Patricia on some very serious issues, but just have her describe what it's like in Hollywood being against the murder of unborn babies and that kind of thing.

And from what I understand, she is conservative in many of her political views.

So I think it would make an interesting conversation, but I just don't know if it would be stirring up too much trouble in my audience to have her on.

I just don't know. When I met her, she was a very humble and sweet lady. She was once pastored by a friend of mine who is no longer with us.

He died somewhere in the neighborhood of a year or two ago. But it was just interesting how warm and gracious she was in our conversation there in the bookstore.

But anyway, we've got to go to our final break right now. And if you'd like to join us on the air with a question, now's your time to do it because we're rapidly running out of time.

ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.

Don't go away. We'll be right back. I'm Dr.

Tony Costa, Professor of Apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary. I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love,

Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Coram, Long Island, New York, pastored by Rich Jensen and Christopher McDowell.

It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God like the dear saints at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Coram, who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ in His Holy Word, and to enthusiastically proclaim

Christ Jesus the King and His doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island, and beyond.

I hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love, as I have.

For more information on Hope Reformed Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net.

That's hopereformedli .net. Or call 631 -696 -5711.

That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island, New York that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.

This is

Pastor Bill Sousa, of Grace Church at Franklin, here in the beautiful state of Tennessee. Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support

Iron Sharpens Iron radio financially. Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, autonomous body of believers which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture through the person and work of our

Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, the end for which we strive is the glory of God.

If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes, or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will join us some

Lord's Day in worshiping our God and Savior. Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about Grace Church at Franklin.

Our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org That's gracechurchatfranklin .org

This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our sovereign

Lord, God, Savior, and King Jesus Christ today and always.

Truly grateful for many things that the Trump administration has ushered in. But here's something that seriously concerns me.

On July 18th, President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act into law.

This new law allows financial institutions to convert your hard -earned dollars into stable coins, a digital token backed by $37 trillion in national debt.

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How stable is a stable coin? If your account is hacked or if the power grid goes down for a period of time, you can instantly be locked out.

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Tell them Chris from Iron Sharpens Iron Radio sent you. Puritan Reformed is a

Bible -believing, kingdom -building, devil -fighting church. We are devoted to upholding the apostolic doctrine and practice preserved in Scripture alone.

Puritan Reformed teaches men to rule and lead as image -bearing prophets, priests, and kings.

We teach families to worship together as families. Puritan is committed to teaching the whole counsel of God so that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.

We sing the Psalms, teach the law, proclaim the gospel, make disciples, maintain discipline, and exalt

Christ. This is Pastor David Reis of Puritan Reformed in Phoenix, Arizona.

Join us in the glorious cause of advancing Christ's crown and covenant over the kings of the earth.

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I'm Pastor Keith Allen of Lindbrook Baptist Church, a

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

Great Commission, supporting and sending for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. We're delighted to be a part of Chris Arnzen's Iron Sharpens Iron Radio advertising family.

At Lindbrook Baptist Church, we believe the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired word of God, inerrant in the original writings, complete as the revelation of God's will for salvation, and the supreme and final authority in all matters to which they speak.

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.

Salvation in Christ also results in righteous living, good works, and appropriate respect and concern for all who bear

God's image. If you live near Lindbrook, Long Island, or if you're just passing through on the

Lord's Day, we'd love to have you come and join us in worship. For details, visit lindbrookbaptist .org.

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.

It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast of the

Lord's blessing in the knowledge of himself. Greetings.

This is Brian McLaughlin, President of the SecureComm Group, and supporter of Chris Armson's Iron Shopping Zion radio program.

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That's securecommgroup .com. But today, I want to introduce you to my senior pastor,

Doug McMasters, of New High Park Baptist Church on Long Island.

Doug McMasters here, former director of pastoral correspondence at Grace to You, the radio ministry of John MacArthur.

In the film, Chariots of Fire, the Olympic gold medalist runner Eric Liddell, remarked that he felt

God's pleasure when he ran. He knew his efforts sprang from the gifts and calling of God.

I sensed that same God -given pleasure when ministering the word and helping others gain a deeper knowledge and love for God.

That love starts with the wonderful news that the Lord Jesus Christ is a savior who died for sinners, and that God forgives all who come to him in repentance, trusting solely in Christ to deliver them.

I would be delighted to have the honor and privilege of ministering to you if you live in the Long Island area or Queens or Brooklyn or the

Bronx in New York City. For details on New High Park Baptist Church, visit nhpbc .com.

That's nhpbc .com. You can also call us at 516 -352 -9672.

That's 516 -352 -9672. That's New High Park Baptist Church, a congregation in love with each other, passionate for Christ, committed to learning and being shaped by God's word and delighting in the gospel of God's sovereign grace.

God bless you. When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the NASB.

I'm Pastor Nate Pickowitz of Harvest Bible Church in Gilmanton Iron Works, New Hampshire, and the

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I also want to remind all Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners that if you are a man in ministry leadership, my next biannual free

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Pastors Luncheon will be held on Thursday, March the 5th, 2026, 11 a .m.

to 2 p .m. at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania. My featured keynote speaker for the second time is my very dear friend whose friendship

I have cherished since 1996, Dr. Conrad Mbewe, pastor of Kobata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, and founding chancellor of the

African Christian University. He will be the keynote speaker. Everything is free, not only your admission, not only your lunch, not only your opportunity to hear

Dr. Mbewe preach, but every man that attends will receive a heavy sack, maybe even two heavy sacks of free brand -new books personally selected by me and donated by generous

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The night before that, Dr. Mbewe will be preaching at the church where I am a member,

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That event is open to everyone, men, women, and children. So if you'd like to find out more about Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Carlisle and how to get there, go to that website for Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Carlisle, trbccarlisle .org,

trbccarlisle .org, and we have June in South Hamilton, Ohio, and June says,

I know that this may differ from country to country, but in your visits to Asia, did the average person have a hatred towards what they believed

America to be, or was it the opposite, or somewhere in between or spanning the spectrum?

That's a good question. Yeah, different parts of the world are different when it comes to Americans, but in Asia, they love

America. Yeah, they love Americans. They love America. I mean,

China has their own disposition. And of course, what people really believe as opposed to what the government will let them say publicly might be two different things.

Exactly, exactly. But as far as Southeast Asia, India, they really love

America. They love the idea of freedom, especially I was in Myanmar. They were very glued to that Charlie Kirk thing there because he stood up for freedom.

He stood up for truth. And they were asking me about it. I wasn't a big follower of his by any means or anything, but they were really encouraged and emboldened to see someone so publicly proclaim what is true against the liberal false ideologies and the control of the government.

And CJ in Lindenhurst, Long Island wants to know, what are the favorite

American sports, if any, of the average person that you have met in the different countries in Asia?

That's great. Well, I know Japan has its own Major League Baseball team or should

I say Major League. I'm sure they have more than one team. Yeah, baseball is very popular there.

Golf is very popular in Japan as well. There's a big golf tournament going on when

I was there in basketball. And then in Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, I mean, football is soccer.

You know, we call it American. It's called soccer. It's very popular. Yeah, but that's not really an American sport.

Oh, yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah, American sport. Oh, here's another thing for the person who asked the question.

Football. American football. Yeah, American football.

They had teams in Japan. And if I remember correctly, even in Thailand, too, it's gaining more popularity across Asia.

Yeah, they're having teams. Well, I was shocked to see that we are nearly out of time.

If you want to just give us a summary of what you most want etched in our hearts and minds before we go off the air.

Sure, yeah. I just appreciate the time today. I want you, your listeners, to be praying for Asia, for these countries

I was in, for Japan and Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand. Really pray for Myanmar, for the military to be overthrown, for some government intervention to help the people there.

Pray for the believers in these countries that they remain strong. And for my ministry, for Vessels for Christ, for provision, if your listeners would like to donate, they can go to the website vesselsforchrist .org

or zellawright at vesselsforchrist .org. All donations are tax deductible.

We would really appreciate your prayers and your support as we continue. That's vesselsforchrist .org.

Thank you so much, Alexander. For being a wonderful guest today. I want to thank everybody who is listening.

And I want to thank everybody, especially who sent in questions today. I always love that when we've got listeners out there eager to ask my guests questions.

And I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater