WWUTT 2435 Q&A The Golden Ratio, Choosing Good Music, Jimmy Swaggart's Legacy

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Does the Fibonacci sequence teach us something about God? What can you do if you feel like you're being spiritually oppressed?

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And is there anything redeemable about Jimmy Swaggart's ministry? The answers to these questions, when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word, that we may be more like Christ Jesus.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Psalm 119, verse 9, how can a young man keep his way pure?

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By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments.

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I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you,

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O Lord. Teach me your statutes. And that's our commitment is to the word of Christ, that we may walk in holiness and godliness in the present day.

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At the end of the week, we take questions from the listeners and you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

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or send us a voicemail going to www .utt .com and click on that voicemail tab.

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We missed you for about a week. Yeah. So I had a toothache last week.

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Yes. It was pretty bad. Yeah. It was. And I decided I was just going to invest my voice and my energies in doing the sermon on Sunday and then we would pick up the

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Q &A basically where we left off. Yeah. Sorry about missing a week of podcasts.

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I still was, I was ahead far enough on Hear the Word of the Lord. That was still going on.

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Yes. Though I had to take a break here, but anyway. Now you're like behind or right on schedule?

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I don't know. It depends on how you look at it. Fair enough. So if that break was intentional,

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I'm way ahead now. Yay! But if it wasn't, I'm much behind. On the downside, we're not going to hit 2 ,500 episodes in the same month that we're celebrating 10 years on the air.

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So 2 ,500 episodes won't happen until September. Ah, yes. I've missed a couple of weeks this year now.

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That's okay. We can continue celebrating. It's fine. Yes. We appreciate you so much listening to the program, your support and telling other people about it.

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And we love hearing from you through voicemails. This is Scott. We've played Scott a couple of times, sends us goodies in the mail.

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Yes. So a couple of weeks ago, we had mentioned something about a Bible study teacher who was having trouble swearing.

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So Scott had some counsel regarding those who may struggle with that themselves.

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Oh, wonderful. So here's this message from Scott. Well, howdy to you,

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Pastor Gay, to Becky, your beautiful wife, and to your children. Blessings.

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They're in Casa Grande. This is Scott in the great Northwest where it's 74 degrees.

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Don't worry, we're supposed to heat up here soon. Anyway, a question and answer from last

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Friday where they found a pastor with a swearing in cussing. And I've had days where, not days, just one day where, for some reason,

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I started cussing. And I found myself asking, why did I do this?

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Why did I say this? And I found myself repenting of my sins, asking

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Jesus to forgive me, and then praying to the Holy Spirit to guide me, to humble me, be more

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Christ -like in my walk. And I just want to thank you guys for everything, the blessings

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I've received from question and answer, and especially from the Jeremiah studies. Anyway, you all have a great day.

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Enjoy the Cheez Whiz. Put it on some of those Pop -Tarts, and maybe put some of that hot sauce on there.

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No, don't do that. You all have a wonderful day, and I'll see you in about three months.

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Not that I'm coming to Casa Grande. I am. In about three months,

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I should be able to start sending some more stuff. Be blessed. I'm out of here. Scott.

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We thank you so much for the goodies you send us, Scott. Oh, it's been such a blessing. And our kids express their appreciation, too.

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We're not going to let them put that Cheez Whiz on the Pop -Tarts, though. No. No. You've already enjoyed some of that Cheez Whiz.

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I have, yes. Now, what did you use? What did you put it on? We had some frozen soft pretzels, and so I heated one of those up and enjoyed it.

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The Cheez Whiz was perfect for the soft pretzels. It was perfect, yes. There you go. I love my canned cheese.

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She does. I think I've talked about this before, but Becky likes cheap cheese.

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I do. So I tried to spoil her. Yep, when we were first married.

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When we first got married, I tried to get you like a smorgasbord of exotic cheeses.

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I don't know that exotic is the word, but they were high -end cheeses. Outside of my box. Yes.

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I thought, I'm going to show her a good time with a lot of great cheese. It was quite cheesy.

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Yes. I've been cheesy in plenty of other ways beyond that, but she didn't care for it.

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You did not like - No, I tried to smile through it. Yeah, you didn't like the expensive cheeses. She wants like Velveeta, which

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I think is like a block of plastic cheese. So fine,

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I'll enjoy the expensive cheeses. Some of our children do too. Enjoy the cheap cheese?

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Yes. Yes, they do. And others actually hate the cheap cheese. It's so strange.

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So some of them got your genes on the cheese and others got mine.

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But yes, we definitely enjoy those. The Pop -Tarts, by the way, so Sunday morning, since Sunday is so hectic for us, we don't cook on Sunday, so we do

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Pop -Tarts for breakfast. That's a typical Sunday meal. The kids can grab it fast and it doesn't take up a whole bunch of breakfast time as we're getting ready for church.

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I can't cook breakfast. I can't make anything on Sunday morning anyway. And then we do pizza after church, typically, because then we don't have to cook anything unless we're having a potluck at the church, which is this

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Sunday. Yay! We've got a potluck coming up. And let's see, what was I mentioning about the - And then, yeah,

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Sunday night is kind of leftovers or Sunday Sundays. We make

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Sundays. Sunday Sundays. On Sunday, yes. It's awesome. So that's our Sunday routine.

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So Scott, you've contributed to our breakfast on Sunday. Yes. With that gift of Pop -Tarts.

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With a variety. Yeah. And we sure appreciate that. If you want to send us a gift, you can.

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You can send it to the church. Anything that comes through the mail, that's where we tell you to send it.

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Otherwise, most of our questions come via email. Right. And this next email comes from Jenna.

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Hi, Pastor Gabe. Oh, hey, this is a math question. Oh, okay. And you like math. Yes. You're a math person.

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Sure. So when it comes to the subjects that Becky likes to teach, math is one of those.

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She enjoys teaching math. So here's Jenna's math question. Okay. I've always been curious about what's going on with the

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Fibonacci sequence. Do you know this? No. Okay, never mind. It's not a math question that Becky knows.

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You don't know the Fibonacci sequence? Maybe. The golden ratio? No. Okay. Okay. I know this mathematical sequence is said to appear all over from the human face to plants to trees to the spirals of seashells, et cetera.

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Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. You know what we're talking about now? I'm curious as to what your thoughts are on this in terms of how we are to understand this biblically.

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Did God create this sequence to illustrate his power or glory or something else? Is this sequence even real?

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Are we putting emphasis on something that isn't as special as claimed? For example, the golden ratio was also coined the divine proportion by Luca Pacioli.

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Thank you for all you do, Jenna. Well, this is an interesting... I think this might be the first math question.

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I think so, yeah. That we've ever had. Now, in case there's anybody who, like Becky, doesn't know what we're talking about.

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It took me a minute. When you hear of Fibonacci sequence, I'm not a math person.

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I know what the sequence is, but I don't know how to explain it. So I pulled up this website. This gives a definition of the golden ratio.

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So the Fibonacci sequence, I know how to explain this one. It's two numbers, and then the next number is added to the previous number to come up with the next number.

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So you start with zero and one. Zero plus one, that's one. The previous number is one.

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You add it to the new number, one. So one plus one is two. Now you take the previous number, one plus two is three.

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Two plus three is five. Five plus three is eight. Eight plus five is 13.

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On and on it goes. Okay. Okay, so that's the Fibonacci sequence. And you can follow that on into infinity.

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So now for the golden ratio, and here's where I need some help describing the golden ratio. Designers everywhere should know about the golden ratio.

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It is a mathematical ratio that creates aesthetically pleasing designs. Since the golden ratio exists so frequently in nature, it's not a surprise that its results are natural looking.

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And the golden ratio kind of works in reverse. So whereas in the Fibonacci sequence you're increasing in numbers, the golden ratio would kind of more look at the decreasing of the pattern that is created by those ratios.

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So the golden ratio goes by several other names. The divine proportion, golden mean, golden section, phi, which is the

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Greek letter. The golden ratio is a number that's kind of equal to 1 .618, just like pi is approximately equal to 3 .14,

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but not exactly. You take a line and divide it into two parts, a long part A and a short part

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B. The entire length A plus B divided by A is equal to A divided by B.

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Are you following me? Sure. So think of a rectangle, and if you put a perfect square, which

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I guess all squares are perfect technically. So you put a square inside that rectangle, and now you have the leftover smaller rectangle off to the side.

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Now put another square there, and it creates another smaller rectangle. Put another square in it, another smaller rectangle, and on and on it goes.

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So that's the golden ratio. And again, it's kind of decreasing in number, whereas the

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Fibonacci sequence is increasing in number. Getting bigger. Right, sure. But in theory, these numbers are infinite.

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You can increase infinitely, you can decrease infinitely, which that decreasing number never comes to zero.

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So the ratio means it's constantly ratioed all the way down through infinity, however small that number would be.

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So how do we explain these kinds of things biblically? Well really, this kind of testifies to infinity, and that God is infinite.

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The math itself, it is something that we kind of postulate, or we might discover.

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So we see the consistency in those numbers as you follow the Fibonacci sequence out, or the golden ratio down.

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So we see a consistency there, because God has created everything to run consistently.

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God created math, when it comes down to it. But we create, or we discover the mathematical laws.

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So think of Sir Isaac Newton, who discovered gravity. Isaac Newton didn't invent gravity, he discovered it.

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And same with - Tested it, and got the numbers. Right, all the different laws concerning gravity, yes.

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So same with when he discovered the laws of motion. We don't say that Isaac Newton invented the laws of motion, he discovered them.

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Right. Well, I mean, they base their - his work - I mean, he based his work off of other people's discoveries and fine -tuned it.

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Right. And you're also talking about a man who had a fear of God.

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So Isaac Newton was a believer. And this man, love nature, knew that a

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God created this, who governed over all of this, and so therefore created the laws by which all these things exist.

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Yeah, God gave it order. Right, God gave it order. And Isaac Newton is giving definition to that order.

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So it's kind of, in a sense, the instruction that God gives to Adam to fill the earth and subdue it.

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And Isaac Newton, in coming up with or discovering these different laws, and not just those, laws of motion, laws of gravity, he discovered calculus, or basically invent - he did invent calculus to a certain degree.

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Fair. But all the laws that exist within calculus are defining the world as it exists mathematically.

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And then you also have the laws of optics. So Isaac Newton is the one who discovered that all the different colors, when put together, become white light.

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So the whole thing with the prism, you know, you can break out the light into colors or pull them all together and it creates white light.

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And incidentally, he discovered all of this before he was 26. So in his first 25 years of life, this guy was brilliant.

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I feel very lazy. What did

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I discover before age 26? Nothing, because Isaac Newton had already thought of all of that.

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Well, there you go. And he didn't think of Einstein. Yeah, that's right.

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Fine -tuned his work. There were other scientists that came along. Ecclesiastes 3 .11

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says that God has made everything beautiful in its time. Amen. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what

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God has done from beginning to the end. So we can look at something like the Fibonacci sequence and we know that it will go on into eternity, or the golden ratio will go down into infinity.

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Yet we cannot fathom the lowest number of the golden ratio or the highest number of the

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Fibonacci sequence. But we see where it starts. Right. We can start somewhere and we can see that it just goes on, but these things testify to God being an infinite

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God. Right. So an infinite God created the finite and the limitations in which we exist, but even within these limitations, we find hints of eternality and therefore can know that there is something beyond even the limited lifespan that we live.

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And so a person, even through natural revelation, can ponder these things and consider that there is something beyond just this limited experience.

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Right. And hopefully will draw them to recognizing, I'm a sinner in need of a savior.

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And the infinite God has provided that savior. I took a huge leap there, but that's as we kind of -

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Steps there. Right. As we follow the steps, eventually we're gonna come to find the primitiveness of man, how fallen we are compared to God.

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How big God is. Yeah, right. How unholy we are and how perfect he is.

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Yes. And then the need to be reconciled to God, which has been provided by Jesus Christ.

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Amen. So yeah, finding a biblical answer for that.

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Jenna, I hope that was satisfactory to you. This next one comes from Chris.

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He says, hey, Pastor Gabe, love the podcast. Thankful for your ministry. I was hoping to get some help with a situation that was posed to me.

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A friend of mine told me about an encounter they had with a being. They were laying in bed and I've gathered from this email that this is a girl.

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So she was laying in bed one night and had an experience where she believed there was a being standing at the foot of her bed.

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All sorts of fear and emotions and reactions that surrounded that, of course.

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She spoke of losing her vision. Her body felt like it was on fire, chills, et cetera.

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I had no earthly idea how to respond biblically to this. I was hoping that you could point me to some scriptures and resources so that I could be more informed about stuff like this.

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Thank you again for your time. So this, as we've talked about before, a

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Christian won't be demonically possessed. Right. But we might be oppressed by spirits.

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Right. Things that can haunt us and things of this nature. Now, what to make of her experience,

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I don't know. I can say personally, I've never experienced anything like this before. I've had experiences of feeling like there's another presence in the room.

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I have felt spiritual oppression. That's not like demons here and pushing on me somehow or something like that.

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Sure. But I have felt some sort of spiritual attack. I've felt the weight of some sense of spiritual dread.

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I've had that before. So however equal that might be to this, it seems like this has more physical symptoms to it, like losing vision, body felt like it was on fire, chills, things like that.

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What are some solutions to this? Pray. Yeah, definitely. Draw near to Christ.

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You know, it's kind of like what we read not long ago in Luke 11. I'm in Luke 15 now, which, by the way,

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I get back to that on the podcast Monday. But in Luke chapter 11, Jesus talked about an unclean spirit.

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When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest and finding none, it says,

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I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.

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Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself. And they enter and dwell there.

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And the last state of that person is worse than the first. As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed.

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But he said, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

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So the interesting thing regarding this unclean spirit that Jesus talks about, it finds seven other spirits more evil than itself.

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They come back to the person and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first. But this comment that he makes about blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

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Then hearing God's word, being obedient to the Lord, drawing near to Christ.

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These are going to be our best defenses against the schemes of Satan. Even when those schemes are spiritual attacks like this.

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Yeah, that's true. I know whenever I get into just a state of mind where it's, you know, like you feel like you're being spiritually attacked.

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Is it like a despair or an uncertainty or? Um, more like an emotional struggle with everything going on.

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Like it's, it's not that my day was bad. It's not that anything's going bad.

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It's just that my, my struggle to keep to the word, you know what

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I mean? Sure. Yeah. And pray to the Lord. I don't know what it is, but it's, it's usually hits all at once, you know, and it's, it's.

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It's like the comment I've made when you don't feel like praying. Yeah. That's when you pray. Right.

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Yes. Right. So that sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah. And so, um, not little, it's huge, you know, and then in moments like that, you know, the, the more

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I can get around the word, even if I can't,

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I don't know if it's not really can't bring myself to pray, but like, I don't think about praying as long as I'm with someone who will pray for me.

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Okay. Then I'm hearing the word still, you know what I mean? Right. And going to church regardless.

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Yeah. Being with. And. The fellowship. Yes. Yeah. And, um, listening to the sermons and just being there, it, it fills my spirit and, and brings me out of that.

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So for you, Chris, it could be that you have an opportunity here to pray for your friend. Yeah. To minister to her, to point her to the word that will hopefully give her some relief over whatever this is.

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James chapter four says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

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Yes. So passages like this drawing near to Christ is going to be your best resistance.

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Yes. To whatever this is. I know that there are, there are charismatic. Teachers out there will say things like, well, you just need to bind it in the name of Jesus or something like that.

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You could, you could certainly rebuke it in the name of Jesus. You could say something like that.

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But remember that Jude says Michael didn't presume to rebuke the devil when they were arguing over the body of Moses.

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Instead, he says the Lord rebuke you. So even Michael, though he's more powerful than Satan doesn't bind

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Satan. It's whatever is happening here. May it be the Lord's will that is done. The Lord rebuke you.

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Yeah. So for us, we draw near to Christ. Satan has no power over Christ. Right. So, so you draw near to the

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Lord and he will draw near to you. That's the promise we have from scripture. So we'll pray for you,

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Chris, and pray for your friend and hope that there will be a solution there that God will reveal something to you through his word.

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Amen. This last one comes from Jesse. Hey, Pastor Gabe. Thank you for sharing your experiences and insights regarding the

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Christian music industry. Lately, it has helped me start to think critically about my own music choices.

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My biggest question right now is what to do with mainstream artists who release beautiful hymn albums, but then continue to produce worldly secular music.

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For years, I've enjoyed Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley, even Elvis Presley's hymns.

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I am not presuming to know these men's personal walks with God, but just based on the other music they release,

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I cannot assume they are faithful followers of Christ. Should Christians avoid listening to these albums in their private worship?

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Well, I think the key thing that's in your question there, Jesse, is saying private worship.

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So most of the stuff that I've discouraged Christians getting into is the stuff that's quite blatantly sinful, like the language and the stuff they sing about in those songs is just wicked.

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We should not be entertained by that. So stay away from that. But then also, those songs that have been put out there by heretics, such as Bethel Music, Elevation, Maverick City, or Hillsong, they have said that they're putting that music out there to draw people into their teaching.

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And so we should have nothing to do with that. When it comes to corporate worship, especially, don't use those songs in your church.

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Right. Don't bring them into your congregation. You're singing songs that were written by heretics. We have no fellowship with them.

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There are better songs out there. You don't need those. Oh, yes. But if you're in your car, it comes on the radio, or it's a song you like.

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By the way, I came across this song recently. I really, really like the sound. And I heard it by accident.

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And so then remembering a few lyrics, I pulled it up on Google, found what the song is, pulled it up on YouTube, listened to it again.

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And then when I'm reading the lyrics, I'm going, man, the theology in this is bad. But the song is so catchy.

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I couldn't get over how catchy that song is. So for me, that's a private thing. Yeah. I'm not going to bring that into corporate worship because the theology in the song is not fit for the corporate gathering.

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But for private, yeah, you know. I mean, would you call that private worship though? I wouldn't say that.

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Or just enjoyment. Yeah, I wouldn't even say that's necessarily worship. It's just enjoyment. Yeah. Well, although there are hints in the song that are just almost there.

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Yeah. So I can appreciate those lyrics and say, see, I know where this needs to go that you won't take it.

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And so in that sense, I can have an appreciation for it. I'm not going to mention the artist though. I'm not going to mention the song because I don't want you to potentially listen to something and cause you to stumble.

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Right. But this is in that realm of what we've talked about before being Christian liberty.

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And if you can't listen to Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley or Elvis Presley with a clear conscience, then don't listen to them.

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Right. That's true. And that would be my counsel there. I gave my two cents about, you know, like, is it worship or is it not?

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Is it just enjoyment? Right. Because there's two totally different things there. Which even in our enjoyment.

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Well, yes, you can. You can give praise to God for your enjoyment. Sure. Right.

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But I wouldn't. I don't know some of the songs that I like that I think are catchy. I don't

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I don't consider that worship like other than being thankful for good music.

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Good music. There you go. Yes. That's right. Just like we're thankful for good food. You can be thankful for good music.

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Yes. Well, we thank you, everybody, for either writing into the program or sending us a voicemail.

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And don't forget, you can go online to the website and do that. WWUTT .com. This is a production of Providence Reformed Baptist Church here in Casa Grande, Arizona.

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And you can find out more info about our church going to ProvidenceCasaGrande .com.

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In the second half of the program, for those of you listening to the podcast, I've got another half hour coming up. I'm going to be responding to questions or comments that came that came in on the most recent video

26:48

I did on Jimmy Swaggart. If you listen on the radio, you got to look up the podcast to hear it.

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God bless you guys. We'll talk to you next week. On July 1st, 2025, televangelist, pastor and recording artist

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Jimmy Swaggart died at the age of 90. Swaggart was once as big as Billy Graham, holding massive crusades across America and around the world.

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He owned a television network, founded a Bible college, wrote more than 50 books and sold over 15 million gospel music albums.

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It's my job to carry out the great commission of Jesus Christ to take the gospel to the whole world.

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And that's exactly what I'm trying to do. I'm not a charlatan. I'm not a fake. I'm honest.

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No, Jimmy Swaggart was a complete hypocrite. In 1988, Swaggart was caught with a prostitute at a hotel in a

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New Orleans suburb. On February 21st, he delivered his infamous I Have Sin speech to his church in Baton Rouge, broadcast on live television.

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I have sinned against you, my Lord, and I would ask that your precious blood would wash and cleanse every stain.

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It may have been the most watched sermon on television in history, as his services were reaching over 500 million people in 145 countries.

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He gave no details as to what sin he had committed, but the world soon heard. Swaggart is stepping down from his powerful

28:28

TV ministry while the Assembly of God Church investigates him for having an affair with a prostitute.

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The Assemblies of God defrocked him as an ordained minister. So Swaggart became an independent Pentecostal and remained pastor of his church, the

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Family Worship Center. Then, on October 11th, 1991, Swaggart was caught again with a prostitute, this time in Indio, California.

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But instead of confessing, he told his Louisiana church, The Lord told me it's flat none of your business.

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Then, four years later, he was pulled over by police while cruising a prostitution district just a few miles from his church.

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Swaggart was pastor of the Family Worship Center for 70 years until his death. His ministry was celebrated by President Donald Trump and fellow televangelist hacks like Jesse Duplantis, Kenneth Copeland, and Benny Hinn.

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The Apostle Peter warned, Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.

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And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

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Learn from these charlatans what is said in Numbers 32 -23. Be sure your sin will find you out.

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Turn to Jesus Christ for forgiveness when we understand the text. That is the newest

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What video that was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, after Swaggart died on July 1st.

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You can find the video on YouTube, searching for The Death of Jimmy Swaggart, How Will He Be Remembered.

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That's the title that I put it under, or just go to our YouTube channel, WWUTT. Let me come back to that passage that's there at the end of the video.

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This is 2 Peter 2, but I'll start here in verse 1. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the

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Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.

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And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

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And I do believe that passage describes a man like Jimmy Swaggart and other teachers in his camp, who may not have died yet, but they will have to answer before God for the charlatans that they were.

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Swaggart committed sexual immorality in the 80s and the 90s, at least as far as we know, those were the occasions in which he sinned, those times that he got caught.

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But he continued in ministry until he died in 2025. Now, why would he be able to go through ministry that long?

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A lot of the comments that I got on the video were saying things like, how did he continue to be a pastor after all of that?

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Well, as mentioned in the video, he left the assemblies of God and just became an independent Pentecostal.

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So that way he could stay in his pulpit at his church and people continued to come. If they were going to continue to come and sit under his teaching, even though this was a man who was disqualified for that role, they were going to continue to give money into his ministry.

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Then, of course, he just kept right on going. Why would he stop if people were going to continue to pay him for doing it?

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But just because he enjoyed ministry for that long, that doesn't mean, as said here, that his condemnation is idle or that his destruction is asleep.

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He's had to stand before God and answer for what he did. Now, if Swaggart was genuinely repentant before he died, then the grace of God is great enough to forgive that man his sin and he will enter into eternal life.

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But that does not mean that there are not serious consequences for the wickedness that he did.

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There are many, many people who saw the life of Jimmy Swaggart and saw this man who committed sexual immorality, adultery with these prostitutes, and that he was able to continue on in ministry.

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And they thought to themselves, if Swaggart can do it, then I can too. And they followed his example and fell into great sin and condemnation as a result of their sin.

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And Swaggart has to answer for that before God. Yes, God's grace will cover all of his sin and he will enter into glory if he was genuinely repentant and truly followed

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Christ, though we don't have any indication of that. And I want to talk about that here in just a moment.

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Even though there was this tearful confession, it wasn't really a genuine confession.

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And even later times when he got caught doing other things, he totally blew it off or got angry at the people that would call him out for this stuff.

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So there was never, at least as far as a public display goes, there was never a genuine display of Swaggart's repentance, though many people continue to defend him as a solid teacher.

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So let me read a couple of those comments. This is responding to some of those comments that I got on the video. This first one comes from Eric.

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He said, I don't lump Swaggart in with some of the other well -known charlatans and fakes.

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By all accounts, he was a sincere believer and evangelist who just struggled with lust at times in his life.

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I'm going to come back to that. Eric goes on. There is no man of God on this earth who does not at times struggle with sin.

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What he did is not nearly as bad as many others who had multiple affairs in the church and engaged in predatory behavior with the women in his church.

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That does not excuse what he did. I'm just saying it's not the same thing. He was poor most of his life as a preacher until the later years when he sold all those records and books.

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But he sold those things at dirt cheap prices, comparatively speaking. Well, Swaggart lived in a mansion.

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So I don't know how much you can say about him being, you know, dirt cheap. I'm sure he was generous in the sense of just wanted people to have the music.

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I've known Christian artists like that. I grew up around contemporary Christian music. Becky and I have talked about that in previous weeks, grew up backstage with some of these guys.

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And I know many of those artists who would just give out albums and say, hey, if you can't afford it, then just take it.

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And from some of you others, if you can't afford it, pay for a couple of them so that you're helping to cover the cost of those that we just want to give records to.

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Keith Green was one of those guys that would do that. Bob Bennett was another one. He just wanted people to have the music, wasn't really interested in making a ton of money.

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So that may have been the case with Jimmy Swaggart. But yeah, he was he was definitely one of the name it and claim it prosperity preachers.

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And he did make a lot of money off of what it was that he did. In fact, a lot of his sermons,

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I listened to multiple sermons even leading up to the making of this particular video. I've listened to many

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Swaggart sermons in the past, but just about every sermon of Swaggart's that I ever heard, he had somewhere in there that he would say

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God told him something and he would say that God revealed to him something that they're going to do this, that or the other.

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He would do that to get people to donate more money, whether it was to support to support the

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Bible College or the building of churches or the television station getting out and broadcasting all over the world, whatever it might happen to be.

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Yes, he did a lot of genuine things for people building churches in some very poor areas of the world.

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He certainly did that. But this guy still heaped up great wealth for himself. You know, there's interviews with Joyce Meyer in which

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Joyce Meyer was called out in those interviews about being a prosperity preacher.

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And she would respond to those accusations by saying, why can't people see the good I'm doing? Do you know what we're doing in this country, in this country and how we're helping these people in that people?

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Listen, they will give a lot of money to help the poor in other regions, but they still live extremely lavish lifestyles and heap up a lot of that wealth for themselves.

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So don't think that don't think that just because they have helped the poor in the past or given away a lot of stuff for free, that that means that they were sincerely genuine gospel preachers.

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But let me come back up to a couple of other statements that Eric said here. So first of all, Eric, where you say there is no man of God on this earth who does not at times struggle with sin.

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That sounds like you're quoting Ecclesiastes 720, which says, surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

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That's certainly true. However, I don't agree with you that Swaggart merely struggled with lust.

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No, he was an adulterer. He gave into adultery and slept with with multiple prostitutes, not just one, not just two.

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How do we know that? Because there were other prostitutes that came forward once the first scandal broke and became national news, and they said that Swaggart was asking them for sexual favors and they did not know each other.

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They were not talking with one another, with one another, saying, hey, do you know this famous evangelist is coming and asking us to to do things with him?

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They weren't getting together and talking about that. They didn't even know each other a lot of times. And yet when they were asked about this, they all repeated the same dollar amount.

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He said, I will pay you this much money to do this. And so that's how we know that Swaggart really did have multiple prostitutes that he went to looking for people that would do the certain favors that he wanted.

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Even that first prostitute that came out about her affair with Jimmy Swaggart, and this would have been after the photos went public.

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Her name was Deborah Murphy, and she said that at one point Swaggart asked her to get her nine year old daughter involved in the relationship.

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I don't know what that means. And she didn't elaborate on that. But she said that's where she drew the line.

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She didn't stop meeting with him, but she was not going to go that far and include her nine year old daughter in whatever

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Swaggart wanted the nine year old daughter to do. But this man was a deeply disturbed, sin sick individual.

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He did not merely struggle with lust. He was a slave to his sin.

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As Jesus said in John 834, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

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Struggling with lust means you really want to do it, but you're fighting against it.

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I'm not going to do it. And you try to put those feelings to death, those urges, those sexual or those fleshly cravings.

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You feel it. It comes up to the surface, but you're not going to give into it. And you fight and you wrestle with it and you make it obedient to Christ instead of giving in.

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And in those occasions in which you stumble, you immediately come back to God and you ask for forgiveness.

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This is not a struggle with sin. Incidentally, I mean, we could say a lot of people struggle with sin, but never actually give it up.

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And they would still say they struggle with sin like a drug addict. A lot of times he hates his addiction.

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He wished that he did not need this fix in order to to satisfy these cravings that he has.

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But now he's enslaved to it. There's nothing that he can do about it. He feels like he has to go back to the drugs over and over and over again.

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So this is a common story with a lot of addicts and even alcoholics. They may hate it. They may struggle with it, but they're a slave to it because they keep giving into it.

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And that's the way it was with Swaggart. I mean, this was going on for years. You're talking about the first scandal that happened in 88.

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And then there was the next one that happened in 91. And then four years later, he gets caught driving around in a prostitution district just a few miles from his church.

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And so all of that happening in a span of seven years. And we know there were other prostitutes that he approached in that period of time as well.

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These were just the occasions in which he got caught. Do not minimize what he did.

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Don't do it. Because if you minimize what Swaggart did, well, he just struggled with lust, right?

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Like everybody struggles with lust. Folks, I've not gone looking for prostitutes. I've struggled with lust.

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I've had images pop up in front of me, creating thoughts in my mind that I want to dwell on, but then taking those thoughts captive and making it obedient to Christ.

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And over time of disciplining myself and growing in sanctification, it became easier to grab those thoughts quickly and put them to death and not dwell on them at all.

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But I've had times in my past where I had an addiction to these things. That's the struggle.

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The struggle is putting it to death so that you won't do it anymore. Struggling is not giving into it over and over and over again.

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That's not a struggle. Again, that's being a slave to sin. If you minimize what it is that Swaggart did, then you're going to excuse yourself when you do it.

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It's not that bad because Swaggart did it and look at him. He was able to continue as an evangelist, and he died and left a great legacy, and his church celebrated him, and he's gone to heaven to be with the

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Lord. My friends, we don't know that. We can certainly hope that that was the outcome, but we don't know that that was the outcome for Swaggart because this was not a man that ever demonstrated any genuine repentance over those wicked things that he did in his past.

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Beware minimizing stuff like this just because you like the guy, just because you tremble at the thought of thinking that a guy like that could go to hell.

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Now, you should tremble about that so that it keeps you from falling into sin like that and becoming a slave to it.

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Let me read a couple of other comments here. This one is from Louis. Louis or Louis?

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Probably Louis. Sorry, Louis. Louis said, I was a student there at Swaggart's church when he gave his confession in 1988.

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Wow. I'm no longer Pentecostal. I'm reformed now. Well, praise God for that,

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Louis. That's wonderful. This one from Rogers. It's frightening to think that there are so many people so close to the gospel who are yet so far from God and who enter eternity without Christ.

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We should all stand silent in introspection, testing ourselves to see whether we are in the faith and then get busy about the true gospel.

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That is a that's a great observation to make there. All stand silent in introspection.

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Yes. So, again, God is gracious enough that he will forgive even a great charlatan such as Jimmy Swaggart.

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And yes, if Swaggart was genuinely repentant and clung to Christ for the forgiveness of his sins, God is a merciful

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God and forgave him and he entered into glory. But we shouldn't be sitting around thinking about, oh, let's just say that he made it.

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All right. It's better for all of us to think of Swaggart made it and it makes his ministry look better and it won't cause anybody to doubt or things like, you know, don't try to excuse this away.

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This was a man who did extremely wicked sins while he was one of the most successful televangelists in American history.

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And he's going to have to stand before God to answer for those things that he did. That should make us tremble.

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To know that we can't hide our sins. As Jesus says in Revelation chapter two,

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I am he who searches mind and heart and I will render to each one of you according to your works.

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That should make us tremble in reverent fear before God and examining ourselves to see whether we are in the faith.

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You know, that statement that Paul makes at the end of 2 Corinthians in chapter 13, that's not meant to make us doubt our salvation.

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But that we would have this continual reminder to check ourselves, to check our behavior, to not wander off the path because it's real easy to give into the passions of the flesh and before long, even making excuses for it so that we can have those passions and still believe that we're going to get into heaven.

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Deceiving ourselves is what we do in those circumstances. As we read in Hebrews four, verse 11, let us therefore strive to enter into his rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

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For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

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And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

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This next comment from a guy named G -man, lots of Christians on here defending

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Swaggart. Don't confuse repentance and restoration of a believer with restoring someone to the office of pastor, elder, overseer.

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All of us sin and need varying degrees of restoration from time to time. Swaggart categorically disqualified himself from pastoral office, first Timothy three, and adamantly refused to submit to church discipline.

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When the assemblies of God church defrocked him, he just left the denomination and refused to step down, then was busted two more times with hookers.

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At no time did he ever step aside. That's pride and arrogance, not repentance and restoration.

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I don't care if he lived a squeaky clean life for the past 30 years. He was categorically disqualified from pastoral office due to not just his sexual sin, but his greater sin of pride.

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I think you make a great point there, but also I want to point out that Swaggart was not just a sexual deviant.

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He was also a false teacher. Yes, he preached the gospel and there were people that came to faith because Swaggart preached the gospel.

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I believe that I've listened to enough sermons of his that I've heard him proclaim the gospel, but he also said many things like God told me to tell you this and tell you that and whatever.

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And he was on the prosperity side of things. So he made false prophecies, falsely attributed words to God that God did not say and made promises to people that he couldn't fulfill.

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So he was a false teacher as well. Don't just see this as a guy that at least he preached the gospel soundly, even though he had trouble staying on the path.

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He was a false teacher and a hypocrite as well.

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This next comment comes from somebody named El Camino. Not at all surprised, but I'm disappointed about Trump's comments that I made a comment about in the video.

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He needs to disband his faith office and fully shut up when it comes to Christianity. Well, I'm all right with Trump having a faith office.

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I just wish that he would put someone sound in charge of it. Not Paula White, who is of the same camp that that Jimmy Swaggart was from this next comment from Jan.

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Understand as well that God wants nobody to perish. If he repented, you are not the judge.

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David is the unfortunate example for grave sin. I do are a Christian and have any hopes he is in hell.

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Check your salvation. That's a garbled sentence. I don't know what was attempting to be said there.

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But anyway, God's heart is to return and repent. The sin men fall into his grave.

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It is only broken by the Holy Spirit. I watch him after and he was a big part of my early

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Christian walk. Read Ezekiel. God has no pleasure in man remaining in sin. You should not either.

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There's nothing in that video in which I took any pleasure in Swaggart being in sin. So if that's what you're accusing me of, that's just a false accusation.

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There's no attitude like that in the video at all. And I'm sure that Swaggart played a big part in your

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Christian walk in some way, especially if you're a charismatic. He was hugely influential. But Jesus did say in Matthew chapter 7,

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Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

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And how did Jesus say that we would be able to identify them? You will know them by their fruit.

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What kind of fruit was Jimmy Swaggart producing? Oh, but he saved so many people.

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No, he didn't save anybody. God saved them. And the Holy Spirit would have been working contrary to many of the things that Swaggart taught and certainly against his lifestyle in order to bring people to the faith.

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There were many, many others that were led away into sensuality because of Jimmy Swaggart.

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And that's from the Bible. That's what 2 Peter chapter 2 says. This next comment from Greystone.

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And despite the discovery of his failings, his church still follows and pays tithes to him.

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Well, yeah, you know, in the videos that I was watching, researching for this video that I put together, there was one news report that I came across where some journalists were standing outside the

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Family Worship Center and they were interviewing people about Jimmy Swaggart's I have sinned speech.

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And the people that were coming out would say things like, oh, it just makes me love him more. I just have such admiration for this man.

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He was willing to come out and admit his sin. It takes a real godly man in order to do that.

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And that was the response of a lot of the people that were coming out of his church. That's what they thought of Jimmy Swaggart. That because he confessed, they thought of him as an even more godly individual.

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When again, as I said in the video, even in that tearful I have sinned sermon that he preached, he never said what he did.

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Never even admitted to the sin that he was supposedly confessing before his congregation.

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It was when all that stuff came out on the news later, but he never actually admitted to what he did.

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This next comment from A Precious Candle. Absolutely true. He and Jim Baker are two of the biggest hypocrites and embarrassments to the gospel.

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Both started out pure and sincere, but the allure of the world and all the lust thereof eventually broke them down.

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By the way, this whole thing kind of started with Jim Baker. Jimmy Swaggart had called out

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Baker because Baker had slept with his secretary. And so Swaggart was calling for Baker to be defrocked and removed from the ministry because of his adultery.

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And Baker was guilty of a lot of other stuff as well, even served some time in prison. There were other pastors that Swaggart went after in the assemblies of God, calling them out because of their sexual immorality.

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One of those pastors that got removed from his position because of Jimmy Swaggart decided to follow

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Swaggart. And that's how he caught him with the prostitute and took pictures of it. And it was his pictures that ended up on the news.

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So this began with Swaggart calling out a bunch of other people. And it turns out

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Swaggart was just as guilty as all the people that he was calling out. This next comment from Don, my problem with him was that he preached against rock and roll.

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But when he got going on the piano, he rocked like Jerry Lee Lewis. I don't know how he ever saw his own double standard, how he never sorry, how he never saw his own double standard.

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Yeah, even in the whole rock and roll thing. Remember that? So Swaggart called out rock and roll as being the devil's music.

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But then he's rocking on the piano, just like Jerry Lee Lewis, who was his cousin?

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Yeah, they were cousins. Jimmy Lee Swaggart, Jerry Lee Lewis. You can find videos of them talking to each other and even singing together on YouTube.

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This next comment from Valerie, I was wondering about him. I didn't know if he was genuine or not. I hope he's with the

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Lord. Same here, Valerie. I hope that he is. But that's not a ministry that should be celebrated.

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He should be regarded as a charlatan and a fraud. That's the way that his ministry should be remembered so that people will tremble with fear, that they won't repeat the same sins and wickedness that Jimmy Swaggart had done, which he has to stand before God and answer for.

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This next comment from the Bevandy, I don't know his heart. Only God does.

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But maybe it is not so much that he was a hypocrite as he was a man with an addiction. Come on.

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A person with an addiction can be a hypocrite just because a person has an addiction.

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That doesn't mean they're not a hypocrite. That's a strange dichotomy there. So anyway, the Bevandy goes on, a very strong addiction that at the time overtook him.

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I will say this. I will always be thankful for his ministry that my dad watched and got saved a short time before his death in the 1980s.

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He felt Mr. Swaggart was the real deal. And he studied the sermons and God was merciful to my dad.

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And we were able to see answered prayers for him. I pray he is with the

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Lord. He was not like that other preacher, Ravi Zacharias, in my humble opinion. Well, Zacharias was wicked too, but so was

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Jimmy Swaggart. And praise God that God called your dad home before your dad saw who

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Swaggart really was. And it may have caused your dad to doubt and fall into grief.

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So this is all by God's providential hand that it worked out this way. And again, I know that Swaggart preached the gospel.

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I've heard him preach the gospel, but he was still a hypocrite and he was still a false teacher.

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So just because he had an addiction, don't you dare say that a man with an addiction can't be a hypocrite as if that lets them off the hook somehow.

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Again, don't minimize this or else you're going to find an excuse to repeat the sin as well.

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A lot of these negative comments say something like, who are you to judge?

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You don't know where his soul went to heaven or hell. Right, I don't. And I've been saying that, but you don't know either.

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So when you're making that judgment of me, you're guilty of the same thing. When you want to say, hey, this man repented and we know he is forgiven and he's with Jesus now.

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We don't know that. We do not know that he genuinely repented and the

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Lord brought him home to be with him. We have to look at what's in front of us. All we've got to work with was his life in ministry that we see before us.

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And we examine the fruit. And when we see a wolf in sheep's clothing, we call that out so the rest of the sheep will not be devoured.

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His teaching lives on, even though he has died and he stands before God in judgment, yet the teaching continues.

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And there are other people that can come into this and be led astray and fall and stumble, just like Swaggart did and be led away into his sensuality, just like 2

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Peter 2 warns. And so it is necessary for us to call this out so that others will not repeat the same sins.

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This next comment from Batty has a Batman avatar. If our terroratics like Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn affirmed him,

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I have a hard time believing that he was genuinely saved. Yeah, well, that was his crowd. Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, as I had mentioned, he said that he was good friends with Pat Robertson.

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That was the crowd that Swaggart ran around with. This next comment from Trooper Man, he might have fallen to sin as we all do.

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My friend, I have not fallen into sin with a prostitute. I've not gone after multiple prostitutes and asked for all these sexual favors.

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And incidentally, it was unfortunate that in researching for this video,

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I happen to know some of the things that Swaggart did, at least according to the testimony of these prostitutes.

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So and Becky and I had even talked about this in previous weeks. It's silly how much detail gets put into some of these articles and things like that.

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Sometimes it's just stuff I don't want to know. And so I'm not going to repeat it. This is a family friendly program.

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I'm not going to tell you some of the things that the prostitutes said that Swaggart asked them to do. But again, he was really perverted, really bad.

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This was not he was he had a fleshly desire and I need to get this satisfied somehow.

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Oh, I can always go and ask a prostitute. No, this was a repeated offense over and over and over again.

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This was his pattern and it went on for years. So he didn't just fall into sin as we all do.

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He was a sick pervert and did not repent of his sin.

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As far as we know, he didn't repent of it. So Trooper Man goes on to say, but one thing

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I do understand is that he repented of those sins and went on to be greatly used to preach Christ and him crucified.

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We have no evidence of that. No evidence that Swaggart ever repented. I certainly hope that he did, but there's nowhere that says that he did.

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This one from Arzella. Well, Jimmy Swaggart and King David could compare notes. Whether Swaggart was genuine in his repentance,

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I don't know. If God forgave David, he would forgive Swaggart. Certainly he needed to be humbled by being publicly exposed and in that disgrace could still be used by God.

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Yeah, he could. And I hope that God has indeed used Swaggart's message to save many, many people.

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And that would be God by his providence and by his mercy and grace that he would do such a thing.

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Not because Swaggart was ever faithful to do it. So did

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Swaggart here when he stood before God, well done, good and faithful servant, or did he here?

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Depart from me, you worker of lawlessness. I never knew you. Remember those words from Matthew 7.

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They should cause us to tremble when we hear these words. Jesus said, not everyone who says to me,

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Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven.

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On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

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And by the way, Swaggart did all of that. He prophesied in his name, believed that he had casted out demons in his name, believed that he was doing many mighty works in Jesus' name.

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And Jesus will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

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Again, I hope he was saved, but we should look at the life of this man and fear enough to not repeat the wickedness that he did because we will have to answer before God for our actions also, whether we were great televangelists or not.

01:00:07

This next comment from Davy, all you detractors will give account one day for your opinions on a man of God who has passed away.

01:00:14

Most of the New Testament was written by a murderer named Paul. Sure, Pastor Swaggart had a time he fell.

01:00:20

Haven't we all? Jesus is writing in the dirt, all of your sins, read your Bible sinners.

01:00:27

Well, you know, we do need to reflect upon our own selves, our own conduct and confess ourselves before God, as David even prayed before God, forgive me for my hidden faults.

01:00:40

So what are those things? I don't even know that I've done that I need to bring before God, bring that to the surface that I may lay it before you and be cleansed.

01:00:48

And we should have that same sort of attitude. But it is right for us to look at this man's ministry and determine whether he was faithful or not.

01:00:57

Jesus told us, you will know them by their fruit. It is right for us to examine a man's fruit and Swaggart's was rotten.

01:01:05

This next one from Steven, we don't put our trust in man, we put our trust in God. You be careful how you stand lest you fall.

01:01:13

The bashing of a dead man is absolutely not Christ -like. You should be ashamed of yourself and obviously have no fear of the

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Lord whatsoever. Oh, please. Jesus is the righteous judge. You are lacking in compassion and obviously have never come to the understanding that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags before, you know,

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I have videos where I say exactly that. You repent for your unwise judgment against this man.

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Lest when you cry for mercy, there will be none for you. Well, Steven, again, you know, like I like I agreed with the previous commenter.

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Yes, I need to examine myself as well. And those things that I am guilty of, I do need to lay before God.

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So do you. And that's the reason why I made the video. So that you would examine your own heart, that you would not be led away by false teachers like Swaggart, but you need to examine yourself as well.

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And fear, tremble, because that passage in 2 Peter 2 applies to all of us.

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Do not be led astray by their sensuality. And judgment is coming. This next comment is from Joe.

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It does appear as if the YouTube algorithm puts the negative comments toward the bottom, because now I'm getting into the negative comments.

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So Joe says, I've always loved and respected your videos, but I had to give this one a thumbs down.

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How can you lump Jimmy Swaggart, who taught solid biblical principles, preached Jesus and the need for true repentance above all things, and wasn't a charlatan scammer in with Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn and T .D.

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Jakes, who preached none of those things? Dude, that was his camp. Yes, Swaggart did false miracles.

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He promised healings that he couldn't deliver on. He made false prophecies. He did all of that along with these guys.

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They were in the same camp. That's why he was celebrated by them when he died.

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Joe goes on. I was led to salvation from watching Swaggart's broadcast in 1983, and I watched his daily

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Bible studies for quite some time. His preaching and teaching created an enormous hunger for God in me.

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His downfall due to his struggles with lust. And there's that term again, struggle with lust. He was a slave to adultery.

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He did not merely struggle with lust. Joe says this was awful, inexcusable and tragic, and without question, it disqualified him from being a pastor or a church leader, which, unfortunately and sinfully, he disregarded.

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I stopped following him at that point and only saw a few moments from broadcast after that, but I never saw anything that would lead me to equate him with the outrageous false teachers and preachers you've associated him with.

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Did I miss something or have you done him a terrible disservice? Yes, Joe, you missed something because according to you, you stopped listening to him in 1988.

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There was 37 more years of ministry after that and plenty of other heresies and error that he preached in that amount of time.

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So yes, he was every bit as bad as Swaggart, Copeland, Benny Hinn, which by the way, so Benny Hinn did commit adultery.

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We know that with Paula White, as a matter of fact. Kenneth Copeland has never had any sort of sexual scandal against him, at least as far as I know, right?

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Never committed adultery or anything like that. So you're saying, how can I lump

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Swaggart in with Copeland? Swaggart was worse than Copeland. So I don't get this defense at all.

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I don't know why you think that Swaggart was head and shoulders above these guys. This is the group that he ran around with.

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These are the people he loved and who loved him. Last comment here. This one's in all caps.

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It's from a Reverend Wayne, according to the username here. Shame on you. This is old news.

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God has forgiven this man. Let's dig up your dirt. Shame, shame, shame on you. Who's casting the first stone here?

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Well, you don't understand what that passage means in John chapter 8. First of all, dig up my dirt.

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I've been open about the sins that I have committed and that God has forgiven me for. I've talked about those things before.

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Has God forgiven Jimmy Swaggart? Again, let's hope that he did. But in the meantime, we regard

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Jimmy Swaggart's ministry as completely disqualified. He should not be lauded and celebrated as a great man of God because he was not.

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You know, there was a man in the Old Testament, a king whose name was Manasseh. And if you read 1

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Kings or 2 Kings rather on Manasseh, all you see spoken about regarding Manasseh is the wicked things that he did.

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But Manasseh was actually forgiven by God. When you read about him in 2

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Chronicles 33, Manasseh was taken away in chains. And as Manasseh was enslaved, he begged

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God to forgive him. And 2 Chronicles 33, 13 says that Manasseh prayed to God and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.

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Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. So God forgave

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Manasseh when Manasseh called out to God. But again, in 2 Kings, we don't have that story of repentance in there.

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And God promises that he's going to bring judgment on Judah because of the wickedness that Manasseh did.

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He worshiped false gods. He even burned his own child as a sacrifice to those false gods.

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2 Kings 23, 26, the Lord did not turn from the burning of his great wrath by which his anger was kindled against Judah because of all the provocations with which

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Manasseh had provoked him. So even though God forgave

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Manasseh, he still brought judgment upon Judah because of Manasseh's wickedness.

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Could God have forgiven Jimmy Swaggart? Yes. Again, I say yes. But his legacy, his ministry should not be regarded as great.

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It should be regarded as having provoked the Lord to anger. And there were many who were led astray by his sensuality.

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And that's why this stuff needs to be called out so that people will be warned and they won't fall.

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They will not fall into those same sins and come to find themselves disqualified and unable to enter into God's rest as Hebrews 4 warns us about.

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As always, my commitment has been to the word of God. And I hope that you have enjoyed the teaching that has been presented here on when we understand the text.

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I'm looking at getting back into Luke chapter 15 on Monday, Jeremiah on Thursday, and then

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God willing, we'll be back for another Q &A next week. If you would like to submit questions to the broadcast, you can send them to when we understand the text at gmail .com

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or go to www .utt .com and click on that voicemail tab and record a voicemail to us using your phone or your computer.

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We we would love to hear from you. For my friends here in the United States of America, happy 4th of July.

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Happy Independence Day. May God be merciful to this nation and grant this nation repentance.

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May there be revival in this land because God's anger is certainly kindled against the wickedness of the sins of America.

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It's been a great nation. We have more freedoms here than pretty much any other nation in the world.

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But those freedoms have also turned into the practice of great sin. And so beware of that.

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Do not fall in with the temptations of your flesh or the allure of this world.

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Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. It's all going to be burned up in the judgment when Christ returns with his angels in flaming fire.

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So continue to turn to Christ and hold fast to him and preach the gospel. Because if we're ever going to see revival happen in this land, it's going to be because the gospel of Jesus Christ was proclaimed.