Provoked - Creating Christian Media for the Glory of God W/Marcus Pittman

Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity. I mean, this is what's wrong with the Christian church today. We don't know who God is, and we don't know who we are.

Officer, you need to repent of your lawless conduct. You don't know the law, and yet you pretend to represent it. That's not law enforcement, sir. That's being a thug.

We will not stop fighting and bothering you all until this monstrous, barbaric practice of legalized abortion ends. And we are teaching our children to do the same.

God's word says that the shed blood of innocent humans cries out for justice, and mark my words, they will have their day in court.

Nobody gets saved by being treated nicely. They get saved by hearing the gospel. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. If we don't open our mouths and commend Christ,.

We're not loving him, no matter what we're doing with our hands.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. That's what we got to do as Christians. Not lackluster type of stuff. We have to give it all that we have for his glory in every single aspect.

Hey, welcome to Provoked. We got a live show today.

Our first live show. What's up, guys?

Welcome to the show. We wanted to do a live show to hopefully address and answer some of your questions. Hopefully they're not crazy. We do have two redheads on the show today. So, it's probably going to be a mix of hopefully helpful stuff for you, maybe a little bit of dumpster fire and a train wreck all at the same time.

But hey, I'm Zach, and this is my sister, Desi.

Hello.

Thank you for joining us today. We are hoping that this podcast has been an encouragement to you guys to get out and preach the gospel, rescue babies, and destroy cultural idols. The first thing we have to always get into is encouraging you to get all access if you haven't yet.

Do you want to explain?

Yeah.

We got lights and we got bills we got to pay to keep this thing going. So, we would just pray and encourage you to support us with your prayer support, as we're trying to say. And also, if you can go to apologeastudios .com and become an all access member, that's going to help you in your attempt to study the scriptures and receive all the great information that we have via that great platform that we have.

Of course, we have Bonson U, which is absolutely incredible. Go get that. But as you become that all access member, you give us the support and really the financial help that we need to not only continue what we're doing, but to sail off in the future and accomplish all that God would have for us for his glory and his glory alone.

So, please do that. So, we got a cool show today. We have one of our favorite people on. We're going to bring him on now, because we want him to be a part of this entire discussion. And who that is, is Ginger Spice?

No, no, it's King Ginger. And it is Marcus Pittman. What's up, Marcus?

Hey, man. It's great to be here. I have my Christian attempt at green screening.

Oh, I like it.

Which is...

Lure TV. Good job. We're trying to get him to do the San Francisco Bridge.

Yeah, I figure this, even with being able to see through my headphones, is better than my grandma's room with all the doilies.

So, right on.

I like doilies, but, you know, I like the lure symbol.

Hey, we know you're super busy. We're excited about what you're doing. I'm super excited. I've always been a huge movie buff. And I'm excited about that platform and the future moving forward with lure.

We'll get more into that. But, yeah, thanks for taking your time and popping on the show. So, at any time, we can go look over at that live feed. And if we have any questions, we will try to answer them the best that we can.

The crazier that they are will probably be the most likely for us to answer on this episode.

Don't say that.

Hey, Marcus, how did you like Fight Lafitte?

How'd that go?

It was really great. It was a lot of people there, which was awesome. And then there was the best part, I think, about it is it wasn't just one of those normal theological discussions per se. Theological conferences where, you know, they just pick like a doctrine of God and they pull it out of a hat.

And then that's the theme of the conference. It was really they had a theological aspect to it with the politics of sex. But there's all this discussion that always seems to happen about building things and growing businesses and a theological framework around that.

They had a really good CEO lunch with people who are just building businesses. That was one of the things they had on the side. Just tons of stuff like that. You know, like there was just a bunch of different businesses that were set up as exhibitors that you wouldn't normally see at a bigger theology conference, or especially one of the Big Eva theology conferences.

You surely wouldn't see that sort of stuff, but it was really cool because it's sort of like I felt like it was the best way to describe it is it's like a it's a bunch of like blue collar Christians who are who just want to build things.

And, you know, there's, you know, millionaires that started plumbing businesses. So it's sort of like the dirty jobs of Christian conferences.

That's cool.

That's the best way to describe it.

That's cool.

And I can understand why it's so encouraging, especially in the state of our nation and what's going on globally. I think people want to tend to just batten down the hatches and, you know, kind of utilize a faulty eschatological system and just not build.

Right.

It's look what's happening. It's a fulfillment of a prospecy, of course, self-fulfillment. And let's not build. Let's just anchor down and see what happens when that is not the post-millennial view of victory.

The view of, of course, generational outlook. And that's that's super cool, man. That is exceptionally encouraging. And with the way things are going, that's what we have to do is move forward. Build, build, build for Christ.

I know that's what you're doing with what you're doing. So, hey, let's get into you wanted to get in some news. Yeah, I just wanted to ask Marcus.

Yeah, I just wanted to hear how it's going out there in Idaho. I know you guys had some crazy mandate stuff going on. So if you just want to share a little bit about what's going on in your state.

Well, they just actually just did the they did like some sort of crisis medical care. They were essentially now they ration out Medicare based on the urgency of your need. So it's essentially we've in like one fail swoop of become socialized medicine in Idaho.

And I haven't been there in a month because we've been traveling and road tripping for lore and stuff. But it is, from what I hear, really bad. And if I understand I could be interpreting this wrong, even if I'm saying it right, people would still say I'm wrong.

But what I heard was that they declared the emergency based on a staffing shortage and they fired a bunch of nurses beforehand. So it's like they fired a bunch of nurses for not getting the sacrament.

And then they went and declared a state of emergency based on a staffing shortage, which essentially gave them all sorts of federal money that the hospitals are more than glad to accept. So I don't believe any of it.

Yeah, I actually had a family member of ours just message me. She's an unbeliever, but she is a nurse. And she was telling me that people that she's vaccinated to actually, I shouldn't have said that word, but, you know, she got the thingy.

And she's saying that she's has some of her co-workers who have been working 10, 20 years getting fired because of their choice not to do it. And so she's just appalled, obviously. But it's just it's insane.

I mean, I can't even I sometimes I wake up and I'm like, this is just I can't even put my mind around that. This is actually real. This is this is going on in our country, you know, all around the world.

Yeah, it's true.

Yeah, but we're supposed to have a free country. I could see it in other socialist countries, but, you know, it's crazy.

It actually seems like it's happening the least in third world countries that have embraced the gospel recently. Like I was looking at, I think it was like one Latin country where they have they're actually passing.

You know what? They're just passing out certain things that help in medicine bags. So I'm trying to watch my language here. But I mean, you know, so and then and then. Yeah, yeah. So it's just it's interesting to see these third world countries who are actually not being as harmed as much as the first world countries where the humanists have taken over.

Yeah.

So I think there's a spiritual element to it.

Oh, totally. That's what I was going to say. It's just so hard to wrap your mind around it, which is I don't know if we can possibly do it and give a definitive answer because it's such a global reality.

You're like, are these all these nations and cahoots really just weaponize what's going on for their financial gain? And maybe that's a part of it. But I think what we can.

But the Reformation was a global reality, too.

That's true. And that's exactly. And I know we're getting to.

And there are these small pockets like in Scotland and stuff that actually were able to escape the tyranny of the Catholic Church. And it was they were really influential in helping with the Reformation during that time because they were kind of preserved.

There's a lot of cool stories about that. And so I think we're seeing those pockets right now. But it's a fun time.

Yeah, it's a wild time. And like you were talking about, the spiritual element behind it, really the blessing of the Reformation and God moving. I think what we can know for certain that we are a world under judgment, you know, and.

The whole world.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No question about it.

Exactly. And it's based upon the shedding of innocent blood and the chickens have just come to roost. I mean, the scriptures say God will not be mocked. A man will reap what he sows. And this is what we're dealing with it.

And so the best way to do to deal with it as Christians in the face of, you know, potential increasing persecution and judgment is just to be faithful, is to preach the gospel, to build, to do what we do the best that we can do.

And sometimes like Nehemiah, right? You have to have a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other because you're getting attacked, but it doesn't stop the building from happening. And I'm thankful, dude, that you're building in the midst of it.

Hey, I got a question from one of our brothers named Daniel of Smyrna. And he says, do you think a Christian themed beer company would take off? I have a beer called Reformed and feature flavors like Calvin and Zwingli.

What do you think, Marcus?

I think so. I think it's good. I think I would probably try not to market to such a small niche audience and try to just make a general good beer.

Yeah, that's what I would do, too. Yeah, definitely. Because I think within Christendom, a beer company taking off, I don't know. It's because I was just talking to my sister about this. We as Christians like to major on the minors, right?

We like to demonize things like beer and tattoo and cigars.

And long hair.

Spend a lot of long hair on men. We like to spend a lot of our time focused on that. And so I think within the broader, maybe American evangelical Christendom, and it's a false piety. I don't know if it would take off so much.

So I think you're right.

I have a flavor recommendation, though, if you do go that route, and it needs to have a label of the church lady, Dana Carvey, and it should be called the church lady.

IPA.

Come on. Yeah, that's a pretty good idea right there.

So hopefully that answered your question, Daniel. Yeah, just do it. Just focus on making a really good tasting beer and do it all for the glory of God and see where that takes off. But yeah.

All right.

What else did you want to talk about in the news?

Oh, I was just going to talk about California, our home state. They've just lost their mind. So Newsom, he beat the recall, right? Even though every single, almost every single California that I know, and I know a lot of Californians, they all wanted him out.

But somehow he beat it. And they've got some of the strictest mandates. LA County, I think they're enforcing kids 12 and up to get vaccinated to go to school. And yet they just had their Emmy awards and they're all there just laughing it up, having a good time, maskless.

It's like Hunger Games.

Yeah.

Rules only apply to the little people.

Right.

Yeah.

It's just the minions.

You know, of course we know that like we suppress the truth and unrighteousness and we're blind and we're dead in our sins. But sometimes you just look at it and you're like, they really, they can't see it.

Like the, just the blaring irony and just inconsistencies are so stark. And you would think that they could at least see that, but they can't, you know?

Yeah, absolutely.

The audio is getting weird. I feel like I'm super loud all of a sudden.

Yeah, audio is going crazy right now. But what do you mean, Marcus, when you said, of course they did? What do you mean by that?

Well, I meant that Gavin Newsom, peace be upon him, obviously won the election fair and square.

Right.

Right.

Absolutely. Well, I think what we're going to see is a mass exodus from California into the red states. So I think we're going to be having a lot.

I don't know if that's a good thing.

Yeah, I don't know because it turns them purple.

It's happened in Idaho too, right? And they're not like repenting and then coming to Idaho. I think there was actually a report that Mark Zuckerberg was, I don't know if you saw the image on the 4th of July of Mark Zuckerberg and he was like on the surfboard with the American flag, but that was taken at Coeur d 'Alene in Idaho, which is one of the most conservative cities, one of the most conservative big cities in the country.

And from what was being reported was that he is looking to buy up a bunch of property and maybe make a Facebook headquarters there. And people are worried that that'll convert it blue.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, so I don't understand why.

Like, well, I guess just price the cost of living in California. But like, why would somebody that's a liberal want to get out of California other than it?

Because they get to pay less taxes.

Right.

Of course. And it doesn't work. A socialistic governing system does not work.

They're like, I'm going to vote that way and then get the heck out of there.

Right.

You should see the homeless cities in L .A. right now.

Even in Silicon Valley, you have employees for these massive tech industries like Google and Facebook and that stuff. And you have employees just living in an RV on the property because they can't afford housing and they work for these major companies.

So the housing market is just so insane that even though they're paid well, they're like, it's better to live in RV than it is to buy one of these houses. But that's just going to force people. It really is going to force people to move into the country to the more rural areas and develop those rural areas because people can work from home.

We were in me and my wife maybe a year ago or several months ago. We were in Pennsylvania where my wife's dad lives in what do they call those mountains up there. But anyway, it's an hour and a half from New York City in Pennsylvania in the mountains and Poconos and the Poconos and their housing market's going crazy because everybody's like fleeing New York City.

And they're like buying up like houses because they're like they get paid a lot of money, but they're just they can work from home. They're tech developers. So you're going to have like these tech developers who are getting like, you know, six figure salaries, which is an insane amount of money for these little areas in the Poconos.

Like that's nobody makes that, you know, like they're just like small biker towns and the only businesses are really like small bars and restaurants for them, you know. And so but you're going to have these, you know, pretty much millionaires moving in and they're going to get bored and they're going to want to like build things and develop invest that money.

And so a lot of these rural communities are, I think, going to get a lot of great growth. And the good news is that a lot of these rural communities are pretty heavily churched. So it might actually work in scattering the pagans and getting them converted.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, even though we're kind of worried about the Arizona housing crisis or sorry, the market, you know, dropping a little bit. But with what with Gavin staying in on his throne, I don't think that's going to happen.

My own home increased in value 100 percent over 100 percent within just a couple of years. So because of that exodus out of California.

So that's a bubble here.

Yeah. Oh, totally. Yeah. Yeah. With all the people escaping these socialistic type of governing systems, I don't I don't I don't know if it's going to crash if people are seeking so much inventory in places like Arizona and Texas and Florida and stuff like that.

But yeah, we shall see.

It's probably going to crash because there's other economic factors that are happening with like, you know, the cost of goods and anything like this inflation.

Yeah.

Yeah. Like some somebody went and cooked us dinner today. My family cooked my family dinner and it was a Korean dinner. It's really good. And she said, I'm sorry, there's not more beef, but it was so expensive.

Oh, yeah, it is.

I was like, I understand. It's insane.

Yeah.

So that's what happens when you drop trillions of dollars on any type of national populace.

I mean, yeah, I was wondering if you saw the little meme we made you of AOC's dress.

Yeah.

What'd you think about that?

I did.

The taxation is theft.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's great. We were we wanted to see if you would comment on that because one of our listeners that said, you know, are you for zero taxation? So we thought, hey, you know what? Marcus can answer that and let us know your thoughts.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Based on how the government does it now. Yes. I think all taxation the American government does is theft. I think there's probably more biblical ways of taxation, but I would consider most taxation should be not by force, by sort of like by option, like you should have the choice of whether or not you want to give.

So like, you know, just like volunteer fire departments, right? Those are volunteer based. Most of that is. And I think, you know, we have so much taxation. It just creates, you know, police states. It creates, you know, massive armed police officers that are going to be the ones to enforce the mask and vaccine mandates.

So, you know, people say, well, what are we going to do about this? What are we going to do about that if we don't have taxes? And I think, you know, not having those things is, you know, probably the least of our concerns at the moment because we have so much of it.

So, yeah.

So you're talking about such an infrastructural breakdown already that we're experiencing. But I guess that question would be when it comes to like fire trucks and.

Well, yeah, I mean, I mean, the roads aren't good anyway right now, right? Like, you know, all the all, you know, the roads aren't good. Government itself is just not very beneficial at the moment. And so I feel like I always, always, you know, people say, well, who will build the roads?

And I always remember that Domino's Pizza did a campaign where they like went and like they filled in potholes to advertise like pizza insurance to guarantee that your pizza would be delivered without being destroyed.

So they so they did this. Domino's did this advertising campaign where they they would they paid someone to fill in some potholes in the road and then they spray painted the Domino's logo on it. And so it's like, see, the private industry can fix the roads like they'll find ways, you know, and that wasn't even based on need and they did it.

Yeah, yeah, that's really just for pure advertising.

Exactly.

So it's possible. I think there's a book called Who Will Build the Roads and it's like 400 pages long and it's talking about just all the benefits of privatized roads with like examples and stuff throughout history.

So so there's tons of information on that sort of stuff. But my concern really is, you know, I mean, you know, people say, well, what about, you know, Jesus and Romans 13, not Romans 13, but when Jesus was asked by the Pharisees and he and Jesus said, render unto Caesar what a Caesar and render to God what is God's.

People always forget the first part of that passage, where it says the Pharisees came to Jesus looking to entrap him. And it's like, well, what was the trap? I know people don't ask, what was the trap?

Because if if paying taxes is no big deal, then that was a stupid question that the Pharisees asked, but it wasn't a stupid question. So the the issue was that if if you say don't pay taxes to Caesar, he can be charged with insurrection.

But there's something there. There's a trap there, too, if he says do pay taxes to Caesar. So there there's a there's a question we have to ask. It's like, why didn't he just answer the question? You know, like, what was the trap?

And so I think the trap was because a few chapters later, I mean, earlier, just right before that. They they he gives the parable, the vineyard workers, and he says in that to the Pharisees, he says, does the vineyard worker not have a right to do with his money as he wishes?

And so then they come to him and say, well, now, if it's his money, you know, do you have to pay taxes? And so he couldn't say no. And then he didn't want to, you know, reverse course on what he said about property ownership in that passage.

So that's my that's my thought on that. But it's also he turned it into this whole thing about lordship because the pence had a coin on it, the denarius, not a pence, but the denarius. And it had Caesar's face on it.

And he he looked at, you know, he asked whose image is on this coin. And and and so and so I think that was the real trap because it said Caesar is Lord. And so when he said, give unto Caesar what is Caesar's, he was condemning and rebuking the Pharisees for handing Israel for for for for worshiping Caesar and not for worshiping the God of the Bible.

So there's there's a lot in that text. It's not just like a simple thing as just, you know.

Hey, that's great, man. I think that was a really good exegetical breakdown of that. And that's where we want to plant our feet on the certainty of good biblical exposition to come up with the answers that we're asking.

So that was good.

Yeah.

Just always ask what's the trap when the when the Pharisees come to entrap Jesus and he gives some like weird answer. You have to ask what the trap was. Why couldn't he just answer it? It's not he's not answering the question.

He can't be answering the question normally or else he wasn't in a trap.

So, well, thank you.

That's a good note. I hope that blessed our listener.

That was helpful. Hey, what if she gets her way, though? What if we just increase taxes on the rich? What if AOC gets away? What's going to happen?

Yeah.

If we just increase taxes on the rich.

By the way, her.

Like what she wants to do. That what what her what her dress was asking to do right at the end.

Well, her $30 ,000 dress.

But did you guys hear that? I saw the article, you know, you know. I mean, you never know if it's like real news or fake news at this point. But the article said that the lady who designed the dress is $100 ,000 in back taxes.

Yanks. So.

So there you go.

Yeah.

I think that's what will happen if you keep taxing the rich. You won't be able to get those nice dresses anymore.

Exactly.

All right.

Hey, let's just move into kind of our main segment here. And that's really just kind of focusing on you, dude. And you know that we love you. You used to be an apology. You always have a place at our table over here.

And we appreciate all the work, really the foundational work that you've done here. You continue to do. And it's great to just kind of go back and give us kind of your testimony of, you know, as much as you would like to say and can be as concise or as exhaustive as you'd like to make it.

But kind of go back and kind of want to hear how God saved you, you know, what kind of home you grew into and how God kind of developed your convictions and your passions to where.

You are now.

What you're doing now and kind of how we can support you.

Mm hmm.

Yeah.

So I was brought up in a Christian home. I remember, you know, saying the sinner's prayer when I was like four years old and was baptized, you know, when I was when I was really young. And then I think I was genuinely saved then looking back.

But there was this time when I started listening to like Way of the Master and Paul Washer and I started doing street preaching about 2004, 2006. And then so I just started, you know, really getting into that sort of stuff.

And, you know, really kind of like the doctrines of grace really hit me pretty hard. And so which which made me think I was getting saved again. But looking back, I can go, no, I think I was I was always from a young age saved.

But I think that's when the theology really started to take hold and like change me or at least it actually had some application to it. And then and so I started doing street preaching and stuff. And that just street preaching is what really made me reformed because you realize that no matter what you say, people just aren't going to care.

And so I got into video production when I was I went to Liberty University for a short time to do major in youth ministry. And then that was expensive. But I got during the summers, I would go to a Bible camp and then as a counselor and then the camp asked me one year to do video production.

So I did. I didn't know how to. I just told him I could. And so I spent about a month or two just trying to figure out how to do video production and stuff before I got to camp. And then I did video production.

I was able to use that to get a job at a at a government propaganda school channel, a school government propaganda propaganda channel. I didn't realize it at the time. I wasn't reformed enough to be pro home school.

But yeah, it was a propaganda channel for the school to see how great the school system.

Was.

So I'd make videos and news reports there and did that for about a year and then somehow got connected with Chocolate Knox. And then he invited me to come down and work at Wretched. And I worked for Wretched for like three weeks.

It was just like way out of my league. I didn't know what I was doing. I wasn't that good at the time. But that caused me and David to be friends. We started making videos out and made the edified videos that you guys have probably seen, like Gary DeMar and stuff like that.

And I got the attention of Darren Doan who started hiring us to do work. And then and then I went to Apologia and then David goes to.

Moscow.

And so that's sort of how a lot of, you know, I really do think it was me and David hanging out and making videos on the couch that led to, you know, what's happening with cross politic and what's happening with Apologia.

It was like in those moments that that was being formed. If you look at the providential kind of history of that. We were talking about the enemy and nobody knew what that was. And now it's, you know, common conversation.

So it's really kind of cool. So that's sort of how, you know, sort of really doing media, like really doing that sort of stuff. Of course, Babies Emerge here happened in between this. And then that got Jeff's attention, brought me to Apologia.

And so there's this really cool story of just this one moment that kind of built kind of what we've seen today. But yeah, so that happened, worked at Apologia for five years and then came up with this crazy idea for Lore.

And we decided to, you know, move to Moscow, Idaho. And that's sort of how Lore got started. But it got started actually because Babies Are Still Murdered here was banned from Amazon Prime. So we had it on Amazon Prime for a few months, had the big billboard.

And everything. And then that got pulled off Amazon Prime unexpectedly.

And you had so many good reviews on there, too.

Because it was over 300 five star reviews for Babies Are Still Murdered here. And then Amazon pulled it, said they pulled it, you know, because of the reviews, which isn't that the reviews are bad. It's that, you know, I remember I took screenshots of it, too.

The reviews showed like it tagged keywords in the reviews for people to search. And like pro-life was tagged and, you know, abortion was tagged and all these things were tagged. So I think that's what it was based on the reviews.

I think that's why they pulled it. But that got me just thinking about the problems with Christians being unable to make films. And, you know, I said, well, first I was like, well, we need it. We need a Christian streaming platform.

But then I thought, well, that won't work because you need a lot of funding. And Christians can't make movies because they don't really, they're not getting paid well to do that. And also, you know, in between Apology and Babies Are Still Murdered sequel, I worked for Pureflix for I did some for the ad agency that did Pureflix's ad.

So I got to really learn a lot about Christian film industry and stuff. And so that's sort of how Lore is all part of that process of just figuring out the two problems for Christians to make movies with funding and distribution.