WWUTT 1730 Q&A End Times Prophecy, Christian Rock, Social Media Woes

Was Hal Lindsey a false prophet or was he just mistaken? Can rock music be honoring to God?

And is social media trying to boot Christians off their platforms? The answers to these questions and others when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, helping you study God's Word, that we may give thanks in all things.

For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utd

.com Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. That introduction comes from 1

Thessalonians 5, beginning in verse 15. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks.

For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Amen. This is the

Friday edition of When We Understand The Text, and we respond to questions from listeners. You can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Becky, do you recall any time in your life when somebody made a prediction about the return of Christ?

Oh, yeah. Okay. Mm -hmm. Do you want me to explain it? Yeah, right. I thought you just wanted a yes or no.

It's not a very interesting story. No, you know. Okay, good. Yeah, sure. Yeah, great. Let me expound on that.

Okay, so I remember what first pops into my mind, probably not the first recollection.

I mean, first in the chronological order. Not the first time this happened, anyway.

Right, right, right. I'm sure there are many times. The one person who – we've talked about it before, even.

One guy who bought all the billboards across the nation for that one – Yeah, that was that Harold Camping episode.

Yeah. That wasn't the guy who bought the billboards. No, I know they're separate. Yeah. But it was one guy's prediction, and then one guy got all the billboards and put that all over the place.

Yeah, when was that? I've got to look that up. Was that 2012? So was that 10 years ago now? Oh, has it been that long?

It's been quite a while. It was about this time. It was like March or May or somewhere in there.

And it would have been – well, he died in 2013. So it would have had to have been before that.

Let's see. The End Times, whole thing. So it was – well, it was even before 2012.

His prediction was for May 21, 2011. Ah. So that was now over 10 years ago now.

Yeah. Yeah, he was the owner of American Family Radio. Is that right? Let's see.

Hang on. Let me see if I can find the – Beginning in 1958, he served as president of Family Radio, just Family Radio.

Okay. American Family Radio is a different organization. Okay. Actually did some work for them one time. Hmm. Neat.

But not Family Radio. Anyway, yeah, he made this prediction that the world was going to end on May 21, 2011.

That day came and went, and he said, no, Jesus is coming back.

And he revised the date. Let's see. Camping First predicted Judgment Day. Oh, well, this was – so this wasn't the first time.

No, it's been – I remember him doing it often. Yeah. This wasn't – So the first occasion was September 6, 1994.

Yeah. Then that happened. That came and went. Nothing happened. So we – then the next one was

May 21, 2011. Mm -hmm. Then that day came and went. Of course, Jesus didn't return.

You can always know when Christ is not going to return. It's going to be the day that's popularly broadcast as being the day that he's going to return.

Right. For Jesus said, no one knows the hour or the day. The next day he predicted then was going to be

October 21. Mm -hmm. So, okay, he didn't come back May 21, so it's going to be October 21. Now, I will hand it to Harold Camping.

When he got it wrong, when October 21 rolled around now – Yeah. And Jesus didn't return, he said, yeah,

I'm an idiot. Oh. So he did actually apologize for that.

Yeah. But, of course, that was after there was that one guy who spent his life savings on all these billboards.

So much money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. I mean, you're not going to take it with you, but surely there's a better way of – like, do the gospel, not do –

Well, that's what he thought he was doing. I mean, he thought he was buying billboards proclaiming the gospel to people so that they would be ready for that day that was coming.

Okay. But, you know, how many people are going to die between now and then anyway? Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. So there's always a need to share the gospel.

Of course. It's not just about when Christ is going to return. Right. That's not the whole story. It's because everyone needs a solution to this death problem that we have.

Yes. And the only solution is Christ. Otherwise, we perish under the judgment of God because of our sins.

That is a message everyone needs every day. Right. For you never know when your day will be up.

That's true. The Lord's day for you could be today. It could. It definitely could. Well, anyway, you said that was one, and it may not have been the first in chronological order.

What was another one? Probably the same guy back in 1994. I don't think

I was aware of things in 1994. Okay. I was alive, but I don't think

I cared. Well, I could tell you one. Yeah, go for it. I don't know if you're aware of this one or not, but Chuck Smith, who was the founder of the

Calvary churches. Okay. So you see, like, Calvary Bible Church. They're not all the same denomination, but most of them are.

Okay. So anyway, the founder of the Calvary church movement, he predicted that Christ was going to return at midnight on December 31st, 2000.

Which midnight? So 1999. Yeah, which midnight? I know. That's ridiculous. Sorry. When people give times,

I'm like, which time zone are you talking about? That's right. Let's narrow this down. If you know, you know. Greenwich time.

Obviously, you don't know. Standard Meridian. Oh, my goodness. There's so many. Yeah. Even in the

United States, you got, what, five time zones? Yeah. Something. Something like that. So he predicted that it was going to be right at the stroke of midnight, rolling over into the year 2000.

He thought there was going to be, like, the big Y2K catastrophe that was going to set off the tribulation.

There was going to be worldwide panic. Yeah, I remember the Y2K panic. Everybody had panic about Y2K. I didn't.

I didn't either. I didn't care. I really didn't think it was going to happen. No. I'm like, why?

Why would all the computers shut down? Yeah. Like, that doesn't make any sense. I know. Like, they just keep counting.

At the radio station that I worked for, whenever we would enter songs or spots or something like that into the computer, you have to put an end date on everything.

And the end date was 37. I just happen to remember that. It was always 37. I don't know why.

There was, like, a logical reason why all the end dates had to be 37. But I finally asked my

PD, my program director, I was like, so we're entering these end dates as 37. Doesn't that mean in 2037 all of these songs are going to expire?

And he said, I'll be dead by then. Somebody else's problem whenever that rolls around. That's helpful. I would have been surprised if the

Christian station wouldn't have lasted that long anyway. Oh my goodness. At some point, you're surely replacing all that computer equipment.

That's true. There's no way it lasts that long. That's true. Anyway, so there's a couple of examples. Yeah. If you go on YouTube, you'll find a plethora.

Oh, really? Yeah. Guys standing in front of their whiteboards, and they have it, like, mapped out. Here's where Christ was crucified.

According to the math in Isaiah, you know, 68. All right.

There isn't an Isaiah 68. Yeah, I didn't think so. According to these numbers here,

Jesus is coming back on this day. And it's going to be, now we're looking at this date right here.

It's September 28, 2022. And I'm not saying that Jesus is coming back on that day.

But something big is going to happen on that day. Yeah. It'll be something big. That's pretty broad. Yeah. And then it's like the full moon is that day.

See? The moon is big. Something big happened on that day.

Yeah. That was exactly my prediction. Because you can't be wrong. You're right. You just throw out a bunch of prophecies.

What do you call it when you just scatter shot something? Broadcaster? Yeah. Sorry.

Yeah. That'll work. That works. That was the first thing that came to mind.

We'll go with that. Well, I brought that up because the most recent what video I did was on the late great planet

Earth. Oh, yeah? This was probably the biggest, the most expensive, maybe, the most widely broadcast, since that was the word you used.

I mean, it was a movie. It was a TV special. Oh, wow. And this went on through the 70s and 80s.

Okay. Because Hal Lindsey published the late great planet Earth in 1970. And he said that all of these things would happen within 40 years of when

Israel became a nation, which was in 1948. So the end of the world, essentially, was supposed to be 1988.

Gotcha. But then the 70s, we went through all of this in the 70s. Late great planet

Earth was published in 70. I think the movie that was narrated by Orson Welles, if memory serves, that was in 1979.

Okay. I wasn't alive then. I'm just trying to go off the dates off the top of my head.

And then in the 80s, he publishes another book, like right in 1980. Hal Lindsey?

Yeah. Okay. That was the follow up to the late great planet Earth. And in that book, he talked about how the 80s could very well be the last decade of history as we know it.

Oh, wow. Everybody's looking at 1988. Is that where everybody went crazy? It was very Zionistic.

I mean, it was all kind of centered around Israel coming together as a nation. Sure. Israel becomes a nation again.

They've got their territory back. So a lot of people thought this was the fulfillment of everything that was talked about in the

Bible regarding the nation of Israel. Interesting. So this was when you had probably the plethora of end times predictions.

When just about everybody in America was obsessed with some level of end time stuff, even if you didn't buy it.

Right. You still knew about it. Exactly. Hal Lindsey's just making money off of this. Like, maybe you were just skeptical enough to know this isn't a real thing, but there's a lot of people that are capitalizing off of it.

There was still probably a part of you that was going, I don't know. I hope. I mean, we know it could happen any time.

Yeah. So, yeah. Anyway. So I did that video. Let me go ahead and play that video, the one that I just did on The Late Great Planet Earth, and we'll take our first question here.

Sure. The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey was one of the best selling books of all time.

Well, until the end of the 1980s when all of its end of the world predictions turned out to be false. Lindsey took current events and read them into biblical prophecy, claiming that we were living in the days of Ezekiel 38 and 39.

Magog in Ezekiel 38 too was Russia. The king of the south in Daniel 1140 was from Africa.

The kings of the east in Revelation 1612 were China. He detailed exactly how the

Battle of Armageddon would play out, with Russia setting up their command headquarters on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, according to Daniel 1145.

These things would happen within 40 years of 1948 when Israel became a nation.

The book became a primetime TV special seen by millions, and a movie narrated by Orson Welles.

So many people thought Lindsey predicted the Mark of the Beast, the Antichrist, and the end of the world.

In a follow -up book, Lindsey said the decade of the 1980s could very well be the last decade of history as we know it.

Of course, all of that turned out to be wrong, but it made Lindsey a fortune. Unless he repented, he will be judged in the end as a false prophet.

Though Lindsey was a fraud, every prophecy in the Bible is still true. Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead.

Be ready, he said, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect when we understand the text.

Here's a bonus fact for you. The late great planet Earth is often cited as the book where Lindsey famously claimed that the strange locusts

John described in Revelation 9 were actually Apache helicopters. Where John said the locusts have crowns of gold,

Lindsey said those were the elaborate helmets worn by helicopter pilots, and the women's hair was the whirling propeller.

Lindsey didn't make that claim in the late great planet Earth. It's actually in his book Apocalypse Code, published in 1997.

Yes, though he was proven wrong, he continued to publish books and make TV appearances as a prophecy expert.

Deuteronomy 18 .22 says, when a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if that thing does not come about or come true, that's a thing

Yahweh has not spoken. And the penalty for false prophets was death. Ironically, Lindsey quoted that verse in the second chapter of the late great planet

Earth. Apparently he forgot about that. I like your gesture in that.

What was your gesture that you made there? Like chop your head off. It was a karate chop.

So I got to the part where I was reading from Deuteronomy 18 and Becky made a chop your head off gesture.

Yep. If you share a prophecy and it doesn't come true, you get killed.

Off with his head. Matthew 24 .36, but of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the sun, but the

Father alone. Of course, Lindsey would probably say, well, I didn't know the day. I knew the year. Right. But he didn't know the year either.

True. All right. So this question has to do with that video. This is from Charles in Knoxville, Tennessee.

All right. Dear what? The late great planet Earth. That takes me back. I remember all the hype back in the 70s.

People were crazy over in times predictions, most of which brought on by Zionism. I bit my tongue there.

Most of it brought on by Zionism. But I digress. With regards to how, Lindsey, you called him a false prophet.

And I'm inclined to agree. However, didn't he only interpret prophecy? He never actually made any new prophecies.

Right. So does this still mean he's a false prophet who would be condemned under the same laws in Deuteronomy 13 and 18?

Or was he just mistaken? Well, that's a good question.

Would Lindsey qualify as a false prophet? Or did he just get the interpretation of those prophecies wrong?

Well, he did say that the world would end in 1988. So. Yeah. I'm kind of inclined to say that that would be a prophecy.

Yeah. Because you're expounding. I mean, you think about all of the panic that causes, all of the suspicions that people have.

You know what I mean? Like, for example, with the shot. Yeah. With the

COVID shot. With the vaccine. How many people thought that was the mark of the beast? Yeah. That was at least.

That's true. A common enough myth that we were having to tell people, folks, it's not the mark of the beast.

Right. Now, I did not get the shot. I'm not going to let my kids get the shot. I don't recommend that you get the shot.

Yeah. But it wasn't. It wasn't the mark of the beast. No. Definitely not. You know, and in those kinds of cases, that's not really prophecy either, because you're not really forecasting something that's coming in the future.

You're just seeing something and mistakenly attributing it to something that it's not. But with the case of Lindsay, I mean, he was making up stuff.

That becomes a movie and a TV special, and he's making money off of all this stuff.

Yeah. And I mean, clearly the locusts in Revelation 9 are not Apache helicopters. And is he,

I mean, was his heart really there to warn the people? No.

Because he was making money. Yeah. Well, look at the company that he keeps. Yeah. Well, exactly.

All of the people that are surrounding Hal Lindsay are all the prosperity theology nonsense guys.

That's the TV shows that he appears on are like TBN, Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Ah, yeah. So with the Benny Hens and with the Copelands, and well, now the Furticks are even on there.

Oh. Yeah, that's true. I forgot about that. He's on TBN now, too. This is the company that Hal Lindsay would keep.

These were the people that were calling him a prophecy expert, even after he was proven wrong, over and over and over again.

Right. Yep. So I don't, I think it's, what was his intent?

Was his intent to interpret what that means? No. He gave a specific day, like time, time frame.

Yeah. He, it was. Well, maybe he really did want people to know the gospel.

Maybe that really was his heart. But then why keep the company that you're keeping? Right. Exactly.

That doesn't make sense. That doesn't add up. I mean, these guys will still get that right sometimes.

Sure. Even the prosperity guys can still talk about, you know, you'll go to hell if you don't repent and turn to Jesus Christ. Right.

Even those guys can say at least that much. And I've heard stories from people that said, hey, because of all this hype back in the 70s and 80s,

I got caught up in it. End time stuff became interesting to me. But, you know, it was how

Lindsay that introduced me to Christ and I became a Christian through that. So then what would be the problem if there's people that are becoming

Christians even through this false prophecy? Because it's false. I know.

You're not supposed to add to. Playing devil's advocate here. You're not supposed to add to what the Bible says. Right.

That's in the Bible. Yeah, I mean. That says it in the Bible. What we have to test Lindsay by are the claims that he made.

And they're never right. They're never right. Right. Exactly. If how Lindsay's saying it, it's wrong. That's pretty much the test that you can put on anything that he's saying.

I think he's like 90 now. He's still alive. Oh, he is. Yeah. Okay. I was careful with how

I worded that video because he could pass soon. Yeah. So I left it kind of open as to, you know, even when he does pass away, the video would still be relevant.

Yeah. Oh, I was thinking of the previous guy we were talking about. We talked about him passing away. Oh, camping. Yeah, camping. Camping is dead.

Okay. So I was talking past tense. I did not mean that. He died just a year or two after his false prophecy.

Harold Camping did. Right. Okay. But Lindsay's still been around. You can find his How Lindsay Report on YouTube.

And I think they've been airing it on Trinity Broadcasting Network. Yeah. Okay. So he's still out there making prophecies, writing books.

Well, you're an expert, I guess. Yeah, that's right. When you can still make money off of it, that's what he's doing.

The last of his books were over 10 years ago, though. He hadn't done anything recent. Writing a book is a lot more intensive than you think it is.

It's a lot of work. It is. But most of the stuff that he does prophecy -wise is on that How Lindsay Report.

He may not be still doing that, but I've watched a few of those, and he's still making connections to things like, see, look at the advancements of technology today.

This is what John foresaw. Yeah. And it's like, well, clearly not, because if that's what

John saw, and you knew that's what John saw back in the 70s, then you would know the kind of technology that we're using today, and you didn't see that.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It's just, it's all false. Right. It's false.

He's just capitalizing on people's interest in time stuff. The Antichrist and Mark of the

Beast. Like I mentioned in the video, he takes current events, things that are happening right now, and he's going to take it and impose it on the

Bible. Which is wrong. Oh, see? That's what this was talking about right here. Right. The locusts. They're Apache helicopters.

You can do that with anything. Yeah, right. In any era, anyone could have done that. Right. With something.

I don't know. Let's go back to the 16th century and think of whatever their locusts were at that period of time.

I don't know. But yeah, when you're looking at it, everything's symbolically in that way and trying to impose stuff onto it.

Every generation thought that Christ was coming back. Well, sure, but nobody knows the hour of the day.

Right. Exactly. Everybody has to be prepared. Every generation. We are closer today than we were yesterday, though.

Definitely. Let's go to the next question here. This is from Adrian. Oh, you'll like this one.

Okay. Dear Pastor Gabe and Becky, greetings from an old rock show listener. Oh, wow.

Do you remember the rock show? I used to live in southeast Colorado. Nice.

And I would listen to you on radio station redacted. Uh -huh. I won't mention what the radio station was.

Uh -huh. You know what radio station was. I know what radio station was. Okay. Yep. But he says, I live in Boulder now.

I remember that you used to have to field calls from people who said that rock music was from the devil.

I think you even played one or two of those calls on the air. Here's my question. Given that it's been well over a decade since you've done that show, have your views about Christian rock music changed?

Would you go back and host a Christian rock show again if given the opportunity? Keep rocking out on the

World Wide Web. Thanks for being a blast from my past. Aw. Adrian. That's fun.

I think one of the catchphrases we had on the show was rocking the world on God's little boom box. The rock show.

I love it. Yeah. That was the Christian rock show that I used to do.

Becky used to listen to that. I did. Did you listen to it before we met? No. It was after.

It was after. Because I just wanted to hear you. I loved hearing you. That's fine. Your voice, you talking.

And then it was really weird when you got your brothers on there because I couldn't tell who was who. It sounded like you guys were, like it was one person talking to themselves until you laughed.

And then all of your laughs were different. All of our laughs were different. That's right. It's so strange. I've noticed that as I'm getting older, though, my laugh is starting to sound exactly like my dad's.

The kids are doing something funny and I'm cracking up. And the whole time I'm laughing, I'm going, I sound like my dad. I sound just like my dad.

Anyway, so do I think any differently about rock music than I did? So as I've gotten older, do

I think rock music is the devil's music? Right. Do you? No. I still like Christian rock music.

Yeah. I mean, I'm way more selective with what I listen to. Definitely. And really, rock music is not what

I listen to on a regular basis. Right. Most of the stuff I'm listening to is from the 80s and 90s. And my kids love my music, so.

Oh, yeah. It's great. We'll just jam to it in the car. It's 90s contemporary Christian music.

Yep. I mean, would you remember the big stuff being in CCM in the 90s? That's still what I listen to most of the time.

Now, when I'm by myself and the kids aren't around, I'm probably listening to either classical or soundtracks, movie soundtracks.

Yeah. That's what I listen to. But no, I'm still good with rock music, with Christian rock. There are bands now that, you know, if I got back on the show,

I wouldn't play. Sad to say, I would have a hard time playing DC Talk. Oh, really?

Because Kevin Max. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Is now pro -LGBTQ. And not just advocating for, like, same -sex marriage or something like that.

He's full swing pro -trans and all this stuff. Yeah. I mean, it's messy.

Jars of Clay, the same way. Those guys have gone that direction. Switchfoot. Of course, Jennifer Knapp did several years back.

Amy Grant. I wouldn't play her on the rock show, but. Well, no. Yeah. But she's pro -LGBTQ.

A lot of those guys have swung with, you know, the direction of progressivism.

So, I would be real careful with who I'm playing. I would probably be looking into, you know, who.

And at this point of time with the internet, the way that we have it. It's easier. It's easier, right, to find that kind of information.

It definitely is. Because it's out there. I mean, who doesn't have some sort of social media account?

Yeah. Minus you. Because I got booted off of Twitter. But, I mean, like, who's a public figure that doesn't have a social media account?

Yeah. There's usually very, very, very few. And everybody uses the social media accounts like they're their public diary.

Yeah. And then they get mad that people talk about them. Public diarrhea is what it is. Gross. Stop. It is.

It's just like. Stop. Poop in the mouth. Stop. Yeah. And you wonder where our children get it from.

Where do our children get it from? I appreciate the question, Adrienne. And great to hear from a former listener.

Yeah. Of the rock show from back in the day. Very cool. Yeah. No, I still feel the same way about Christian rock.

I think it's good stuff. Yeah. If it honors the Lord. Yeah, I know the roots of rock music go back to some bad stuff.

Right. But I think that's a style of music that's been redeemed. I mean, those. Well, yeah.

Stop. Those of you out there who listen to Just Thinking or James White, then you know that John Cooper's a big fan of both.

He's the lead singer of Skillet. I was listening to Skillet in high school. Yeah. It's amazing how long they've been around.

Their very first album came out, I think I was a junior. And I remember the song

Gasoline. Some friends of mine and I, we would run cross country to Gasoline. We'd just have that on repeat.

Another song was I Can off of that first Skillet album. I still remember that. And lo and behold, this stuff that I was told was the devil's music.

These guys are still rocking hard for Christ. Yeah, that's right. Strong in their walk.

I love what they're out there doing these days. Pray for them. Now, my kids really don't get into rock. They think it's loud and obnoxious.

They really do. Yeah. There is kind of a, I've noticed there's a line. Yep. Yeah. And I can't go beyond that line.

Because they're like, Daddy, I don't like this. Yep. This is too loud. And I'm all right with that.

Maybe they're just too young yet. They might. I'm still not convinced they won't like it in the future.

But. Yeah. It's, you know. My son loves video game music. Oh, my goodness.

And Becky just loves that. She loves hearing the video game soundtracks. I mean, even going back to old.

Soundtracks, people, soundtracks. Even going back to old Super Nintendo games.

Yes. Where the length of the track was like 40 seconds. And then it loops. Yes. So, she has to hear it constantly.

And if I turn it off, turn the music off. There's humming and singing and.

Sound effects. Sound effects. Oh, yes. And whistling. And it's constant. I was exactly the same way.

He gets it from his dad. I'm telling you. Well, I love you. So, that helps.

I love you, too. All right. We have this last one actually has to do with social media. This is from Sandra.

A few people sent me this, but it's Sandra's email that I'm going to read here. Okay. Hey, Pastor Gabe, did you know that you were on Answers in Genesis?

Here's the link. Congrats for getting kicked off Twitter for saying what the Bible says.

So, let's play it. This is the news report that Answers in Genesis covered on their news update thing that they do.

Sweet. Broadcasting from the Creation Museum, I think, is even where they record all of this news and everything.

So, here's that audio. I'm going to play this here, and then we'll wrap up. All right. And speaking of the suppression of truth and the attack on Christianity, as you just mentioned, that leads right into the next article from Twitter.

Twitter just permanently banned a pastor after he told people the wages of sin is death and implored them to turn to Christ.

And so, basically, this guy was just giving straightforward biblical truth. And by giving straightforward biblical truth, he's an associate pastor of a church over in Texas, has a decent influence on social media, evidently.

But by giving biblical truth, then Twitter said, no, we don't like that. We're going to shut you down. And here's what the actual tweet said.

He said this, question, what do abortion, adultery, bestiality, child sacrifice, homicide, homosexuality, idolatry, incest, and witchcraft all have in common?

According to the Bible, they all deserve death. Death is the penalty. They deserve the death penalty. Then he says this.

He doesn't stop there. He says, turn from your sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and live and be saved.

And so, his basic message is, we're all sinners. We need a Savior, which is the whole thrust of the

Bible. And so, just by giving this general teaching of the Bible, he was kicked off Twitter. Yeah, so much for the tolerance, right, of these so -called folks, right?

And so much for the free speech rights, of course, that they're always trying to talk about. But really, we need to be praying for this brother, Gabriel, that he keeps speaking truth, you know.

And for all of us as well as Christians, we need to make sure that we're continuing to proclaim that truth, not watered down, not compromised on the gospel because that is what true love does.

True love warns of the danger to come, right? True love warns of a judgment to come. And true love points to the only hope of forgiveness, that is, through Jesus Christ.

So, you know, just through and through, this just reminds me of some Bible verses here. Hebrew 4 .12, the Bible is sharper than any two -edged sword, dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow.

Judges thoughts, attitudes of the heart. Jeremiah 23 .29 says, is not my word like fire, declares the

Lord like a hammer that breaks the rocks in pieces. So, we're seeing that right there. And it just reminds me, just a few weeks ago, me and a few other brothers, we decided to go out to the

Pride event in Cincinnati. And we were out there just doing some preaching. And as soon as we opened up our Bible and started quoting

Scripture, that's when you saw everyone just losing their mind because that is the Bible, because it's the word of God, right?

Going out, actually accomplishing God's word, accomplishing its will, and just showing that exactly what the

Bible says, that the darkness hates the light, right? Lest its deeds be exposed. And just some encouragement as well, if you're out there and you're continuing to proclaim truth, just know that Jesus said, if the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.

So, we're promise, you know, persecution. And he also says in John 12, the one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge.

The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. So, it's just a reminder that those that hear

God's word and reject it and get angry, they're not getting angry at you. They're getting angry at the one that created them, right?

They're in rebellion against their creator. And what I love about this, too, is he included the gospel message so simply, right?

He ended it with the promise of salvation. There is an answer for those of you who are in, you know, experiencing all these sins and everything that, you know, the pleasures, we like to say, of the world.

And, you know, the Bible's living and active. It tells us that. And that's what I love. Just opening the Bible sometimes to people is almost like holding up a mirror in front of their face and making them realize, right?

Because as we said, it's an inborn. You're born with the knowledge of God. You can try and suppress it, but it's there.

You can't deny it. And when you start reading scripture or opening your Bible to people, that mirror starts to reflect that right back in their face, and it makes them extremely uncomfortable.

They don't like what they see. They don't like what they see. They can't escape being made in the image of God and living in God's created world.

No matter how far they run, no matter how much they close their eyes and pretend like it doesn't exist, it's always going to be there.

So, that's what it comes down to. Interesting. I saw a little quote on some social media platform the other day. It said this, that real Christianity is not popular, and that popular

Christianity isn't Christianity. Right? We need to understand that and be okay with that being unpopular.

Now, we want to be loving and engaging and winsome as we do proclaim truth, but we want to be bold in that proclamation and expect it to be unpopular in a very secular culture.

That's right. Yeah, we want to make sure we're persecuted for preaching God's word, for preaching the gospel, but not for our own attitude, right?

We're not being a jerk out there, but we're actually treating these people with gentleness and respect and pointing them to the truth, and naturally, like Jesus says, we're going to be persecuted for that because the world hates

God. All right. Thank you to Answers in Genesis for giving me some fair coverage there.

Yeah, thanks. There were plenty of others that did not deal with that issue fairly. Very true.

Not the Bee did well, though. Yeah. So, Answers in Genesis and Not the Bee. They gave me some good coverage.

Yeah. All right. Let's pray. Oh, before getting there, don't forget, email us whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Email the questions you have, and we'll read them on the Friday broadcast. Yeah. God willing,

Becky will be back on with me next week, which will be the last Friday in July.

Yeah. And then in the month of August, it'll be seven years that we've been on this broadcast.

Very cool. Seven years. We started in August of 2015. I don't remember the exact date, but I think it was the first week of August.

Yeah. 2015. Yep. So, seven years. You tried to get me as close to the first as possible.

We've already well exceeded the average length of a podcast. Yeah. It's pretty neat.

So, still going on. And we would not be able to do this without your wonderful support. Oh, definitely. So, just share this with other people.

It's all we ask that you do. Mm -hmm. Let other folks know about the Bible teaching that you can get right here, and be sure to post those videos on social media.

Yes, please. Because I'm not on social media anymore. Yeah. I got booted off. All right, let's pray.

Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness that you show to us day by day, the forgiveness of sins that we have in Christ Jesus our

Lord. And as we read at the top of the program from 1 Thessalonians 5,

I pray that we would give thanks to you in all things, that we would show kindness toward one another.

We don't repay others' evil for evil. We seek after that which is good for others and for all people, even unbelievers, so that they might see the way that we live by the love of Christ that has been given to us, and hear the message that we proclaim of a

God who so loved the world that he gave his only Son. And whoever believes in him will not perish under the judgment of God, but will have everlasting life.

Teach us to give thanks in everything, for this is God's will for us in Christ Jesus. It's in his name that we pray.