August 18, 2023 Show with Ron Kronz on “The Gospel at War with Principalities”

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Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father

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James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister

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George Norcross, and sports legend Jim Thorpe, it's Iron Sharpens Iron.

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This is a radio platform in which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

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Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

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And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday on this 18th day of August, 2023.

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I ask of my listeners, as I have been doing for the last several episodes of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, to please pray for my brother,

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Andy, who is 75 and who lives in a nursing home here in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

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He has a life -threatening blood contamination called sepsis, and thankfully, he is being treated with antibiotics.

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And I have no idea how successful those treatments are at this point.

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I saw him yesterday, and he looked like his health did not yet decline in any way, but looks can be deceiving.

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So, I'm asking you all to please pray that either the Lord uses the physicians and nurses in that nursing home to bring him to a point of improved health, or that our

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Lord uses miraculous means to do so. And I am also asking you to pray for something infinitely more important than that, that my brother makes a very crystal clear and believable profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

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My brother has made professions, but not to the point where I am very confident that they are genuine.

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So, I really ask that both of those prayers be lifted up to the throne of grace, and I will give you updates on my brother next week when we return to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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But today, I'm very thrilled to have as a first -time guest Ron Kranz, who is a speaker, teacher, business owner, author, founder, and pastor of a church in the

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Washington, D .C. area called Street Church, whose motto is, No Walls, No Fear, No Retreat, and which stands for the rights of the king in matters of justice, mercy, truth at abortion mills, churches, schools, and the public square.

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Ron is also the principal overseer and founder of an overseas missions group called

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Bishop of Souls, primarily influencing South and Central Africa.

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Today, we're going to be discussing the gospel at war with principalities, and we'll also be announcing and promoting the three -day event that we have been advertising on this show for quite some time recently.

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The three -day event featuring Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries. This is the

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Future of Christendom conference that is being run by the

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Mid -Atlantic Reformation Society, and I arranged Dr. White's involvement for them, having been a dear, close friend of Dr.

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White since 1996, actually 1995. And Ron Kranz, my guest today, is one of the featured speakers at this three -day conference,

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September 15th, 16th, and 17th in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, more specifically Mannheim, Pennsylvania, at the

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Spooky Nook Sports and Events Complex. But it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to Iron Trip and Zion Radio, Ron Kranz.

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Yeah, thanks for having me, Chris. It's really a pleasure to be here, and thanks for all you're doing with the

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Mars conference and leveraging your friendship with Dr.

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White and all that you're doing, really, for the kingdom of God. And be assured of our prayers for your brother,

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Andy. I really appreciate that more than you will ever know. And tell our listeners something about Street Church.

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Yeah, it has this idea. We decided that the gospel of the kingdom was—the king deserved more than he was getting from the church, that the gospel was designed to be into conflict with the surroundings, with the culture, with the enemies of our day, whatever they may be.

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And so we started having church at abortion mills. We would have services there.

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And every other week we meet where they kill babies. And then we go to—we're in D .C.,

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so there are a lot of opportunities. We go to the parades, and we go downtown to evangelize, and we go to universities, and the whole nine.

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We're really all hands on deck with that. We've sought to develop a culture where every believer is engaged in some way or another of pressing the rights of Christ into the culture.

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Well, praise God. And also, tell us about this fascinating ministry, this overseas mission group called

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Bishop of Souls. Yeah, I got started with that a number of—it's quite a number of years ago now.

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I was invited by my friend, also a speaker at the Mars Conference, Charles van Wyk, a

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South African missionary. And he had heard me preaching in the United States, and we became friends, and he asked me to go to Africa.

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And I started going under the pretext of doing men's ministry, and then it just kind of blew up, and I found myself really like a duct of water.

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I've been there many, many times, and I have found my sea legs, if you will, going to war -torn places, places where nobody wants to go, that kind of thing—Democratic

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Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Burundi, Rwanda. Zambia and Zimbabwe are rather peaceful now, but South Africa is a mess.

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That's just the places we choose to go. And I find that the door is really open.

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It's almost like going to the abortion mill. If you want a ministry, go somewhere where nobody wants to be there, and you'll have a ministry.

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There's lots of opportunities to minister. So that's kind of the essentials of what we do there.

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Great. And now tell us, in summary form, about a couple of books you've written.

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One is titled The Beast, the Whore, and the Forgotten Vision, and the other one is called

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Fighting to Win and Other Things I Didn't Learn in Sunday School. Yeah, there's a lot to not learn.

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A lot doesn't get taught in Sunday school, that's for sure. That first book I wrote to chronicle some of my experiences in Africa and overcoming spiritual challenges.

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I took Nehemiah's life, the life of Nehemiah, as a template, and how he came into conflict, how he was surrounded by enemies, and he continued the good work that the

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Lord had given him, very much in contrast to the way the culture of Christianity is done now.

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That one, I really enjoyed reading it. It was an easy write because I went to a lot of my own experiences, and I've got stories, of course, for days.

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This is Fighting to Win? Yes, Fighting to Win and Other Things I Didn't Learn in Sunday School.

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That one was an easy write. That was not difficult. I churned that out in no time.

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The other one required more research, The Beast, the Whore, and the Forgotten Vision.

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I am post male, but it's not a book about eschatology proper.

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I take the template there is in the book of Judges where you have

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Samson. Samson, his mother, gets this vision from God, and she fails to tell the reason that Samson is coming.

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Remember, she knows that she's going to be given a child, and she knows that her shame is going to be taken away, but she doesn't understand the greater purpose, and so she fails to tell her husband,

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Manoah, the bigger vision, which is he will begin to deliver God's people from the

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Philistines. It's sort of the forgotten vision today. The gospel has only been reduced to personal benefits, personal favors, with no vision for the cultural influence that God has intended for the world.

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I mean, even the Word says that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea.

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That's sort of the forgotten vision, and I chronicled the descent of Western Christianity going back to the 1600s and forward.

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And I see that Martin Silbretti, who I've had on this program, it's been a while, but I had

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Martin Silbretti on the program a number of years ago when I had an eschatology marathon on the program.

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I believe it lasted eight days because we needed at least three different episodes to have three different representatives of post -millennialism since there is such a broad spectrum of viewpoints within post -millennialism.

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And Martin took one of the theonomic post -millennial positions that differed from most theonomic post -millennialist positions that I have become familiar with in that, from what

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I understand, and if Martin's listening, perhaps he can correct me, I believe that Martin did not view

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Nero as the beast of revelation, which most partial preterist theonomists do.

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And I can't remember if he also rejected the whore being

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Israel, as most partial preterist theonomists do. But do you recall what

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Martin's positions are on those and what yours are, more importantly? I don't know exactly what his position, what his nuanced position on that is.

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I tend to, and I'm certainly no eschatology academic,

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I tend to side with Kaiser. I believe that there was a change in Nero's life in the early 60s when he was possessed by a demon, and then that demon then possessed

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Vespasian and Titus at their death. There was this kind of the death of the ruler initiated repossession, if you will.

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But again, I don't want to get in over my head. I mean, you know, but Martin, let's just say this, when

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Martin speaks about eschatology, matter of fact, when Martin speaks about anything, I sit forward and listen. Yeah, he's a brilliant guy, that's for sure.

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Well, if anybody wants to find out more about my guest Ron Kronz, about his activities, labors for the kingdom of Christ, his books, go to ronkronz .com.

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That actually kind of rhymes, ronkronz .com. And that's R -O -N -K -R -O -N -Z dot com.

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And we will hopefully repeat that later on in the broadcast. Well, we have a tradition on Iron Sharpens Iron radio.

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Whenever we have a first -time guest, we have that guest give a summary of their salvation testimony that would include the kind of religious atmosphere, if any, in which they were raised, and the kinds of providential circumstances our sovereign

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Lord raised up in their lives that drew them to himself and saved them. And we would love to hear a summary of your story.

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Yeah, I'd be delighted. I knew from a very young age, I mean, a very young age that I was a sinner.

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I was aware of my guilt before God. Even as a young,

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I mean, like four years old, I can remember being terrified of the reality, thinking that I was in trouble with God.

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I didn't know why. I didn't have any answer for that. Now, my parents were casual

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Christians, and they eventually divorced. And I think my mom became a

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Christian before she died, and my dad has since become a Christian. But I don't know that they were Christians then. At any rate, we went to church, but there was never any mention of the

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Lord. The Bible, the Word of God wasn't central to our lives at all.

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I had a praying grandmother, and I would go to Indiana and work for my uncles during the summer as a teenager.

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And she took me to a camp meeting, a Nazarene camp meeting. And I loved the Nazarenes, but my theology almost couldn't be further from those guys now.

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But if you know anything about the Nazarenes, they had an altar call for everything. I mean, if you had a men's prayer breakfast, you had an altar call.

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So I came to the thing, and I was probably 16 or so.

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And I was like every other young man. I was there to look at girls and meet my future wife or my future ex -wife.

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And I was struck by the preaching, the clarity of the reality that hell was a real place.

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And Jesus is a real Savior, a real person. He paid a real price. And this convicted me so much that I was sitting in the back of the room, and I took an altar call.

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And as I got close to the altar, I began—I was terrified, so terrified of hell, that I was afraid that I might have an aneurysm or something on my way to the altar.

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I mean, can you imagine? I'm thinking, oh no, like what happens if I trip and I bump my head and I die?

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Do I get credit for trying to get to the altar?

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I'm trying to get there. And, of course, this is horrible theology, but I was—

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And, of course, you were not really approaching an altar at all. That's exactly right.

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The altar had approached me, but I didn't know that. I learned that many, many years later.

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And I threw myself, but I threw myself across the man -made altar, as you indicated, and I really wept over my sins and asked the

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Lord to save me. I believe that was a salvific moment, although, you know, you know of your salvation through the fruit, obviously, which came later.

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I began reading the Bible voraciously, but I was confused by the theology that I was getting, because the

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Nazarenes then told me that now I needed to be sanctified. And I didn't know what that meant.

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Of course, I had no idea what sanctification meant. I thought that everything had been done in the exchange at Calvary.

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I thought it was a complete deal. Well, actually, I was right. But they, of course, believe in the second baptism, the baptism of the

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Holy Spirit. And this set me into a stage of confusion. And afterwards, and again, this is why

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I say I think I was saved. I got into drug addiction. I was actively using drugs daily.

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I got, I went into the Navy. I got flown out of the Navy for failure to rehabilitate.

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And I, but I signed with Augustine on this. I think Augustine wrote in Confession something to the effect of that in all of his debauchery, nothing, absolutely nothing could wholeheartedly hold him captive but the lordship of Jesus Christ.

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And that's, I place a lot more emphasis on that than I do on me falling across an altar in 1979.

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So that's sort of it in a, that's the three -minute version of my salvation.

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Now, how did you come to discover and embrace the Reformed faith? Yeah, I have

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Ligonier Ministries, R .C. Spruill to thank for that. I began listening to Renewing Your Mind in the, must have been the late 80s, early 90s.

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And it brought so much together for me because remember,

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I was operating in kind of a fear -based man -centered salvation where I had chosen

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God. And of course, if you can choose God, you can choose to un -choose God.

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And so I was forever kind of measuring whether or not I'm really saved.

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And it was thanks in great part to Dr. Spruill and his teaching that kept, made a very simple appeal to the fact that salvation is of the

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Lord. It's his work. He who began a good work and you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.

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And so that was the, that was my initiation. Well, praise God for that. Well, I'm going to turn to a passage of Scripture that is connected very strongly to our discussion today.

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Ephesians 6, verse 12, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

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And as I announced in the beginning of the program, our discussion is involving the, actually the session where you will be speaking at the upcoming

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Future of Christendom conference on the Gospel at War with Principalities. If you could please define for our listeners, especially those of our listeners who are babes in Christ, or perhaps they're not even

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Christians at all, they're not very familiar with the Scriptures yet, what exactly is meant by principalities?

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Yeah, principalities are governing rulers who seek to rule particularly at, as trespassing beings over and above the authority of Christ.

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Anything that holds themselves up and above the final authority of Christ is that type of principality against which we must, against which we must wrestle.

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We have to be coming into conflict with them. The idea that we're to escape principalities, when you saw it in the, think about it in 2020, when the governors around the nation,

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I think with the exception of South Dakota maybe, gave mandates to shut churches down.

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Well, that was an ungodly mandate. There was no reason for us to shut the doors, not one day, because we already had a mandate from God to continue gathering together.

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But people by force just listened to those, that was a principality against which we should have been wrestling.

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And it has been said before is that was a golden opportunity for the church to exert her muscles and declare the supremacy of Christ, but we failed.

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We didn't do that. We weren't ready for that fight. No reasons for that. So everything, and I should add this,

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Chris, that once it's defined, once the idea is accepted that there is some principality that does not have to answer to Christ, then every principality tries to become one of those principalities.

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So then you become the CDC as its own principality. And then in the eyes of,

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I'm talking about in the eyes of Christians, there are Christians who think that the CDC doesn't have to answer to Christ, or that the

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World Health Organization, the United Nations doesn't have to answer to Christ, or NATO doesn't have to answer to Christ, or the governor doesn't have to answer to Christ.

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And now you're left wondering, well, what exactly does have to answer to Christ? And pretty soon the authority of Christ has been abandoned completely, and we need to change that.

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We need to change that narrative. Yes, I'm assuming that most professing

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Christians would never verbalize it in that way, but what they believe and say and do actually boils down to them not requiring those principalities to bow to the lordship of Christ.

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Right. Well, I think it was Shakespeare who said, paraphrased, what you do is so loud

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I can't hear what you say. Right. They told us who they think is the highest principality.

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They told us. They were very clear about who they thought was the highest authority, in spite of the words of Christ who said, all authority is given me, and heaven and earth go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.

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In spite of the words of John the Revelator who said that Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth, they still rolled over.

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Yes. And that's a big problem. Yeah, there are multitudes of Christians, even those that are truly regenerate, who foolishly over and over and over again will still believe, even though they have the

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Holy Spirit indwelling them, that there are certain things in this life that you've got to delegate to the experts.

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And even though you'll have doctors supported by the

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White House that believe there is absolutely nothing wrong with ripping a baby apart in the womb while it's alive, and even putting a baby in a shoebox and putting it in a storage room to die of malnutrition if it's born alive during an abortion attempt, even though the

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White House and the leftists support those in the field of medicine that will agree that a man can be a woman and a woman can be a man and that a man can have a baby, we're supposed to trust those people with other vital and important areas of health.

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That's a great point. Yeah, that's a fantastic point, Chris. Because you're trusting the guys who kill babies.

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You're trusting the guys who create foreign wars. You're trusting the guys who castrate boys.

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That's what they're talking about. Castrating little boys and cutting off the breasts of little girls.

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That's what they're talking about. And we're saying they're going to somehow be neutral, or even unimaginably out of character with themselves and be good.

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And these things have to be taken on. What happens, Chris, frequently in Christendom is guys like you and me who think like we do and are probably most of the listenership, your listenership, tend to hang out in what they call echo chambers.

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And we talk to one another about this. But this stuff needs to be brought to bear on the culture.

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An example of that, since we're talking about the war with the gospel of conflict and war with principalities, we go to universities.

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And we were at a university. We do anti -abort type stuff there. And they get pretty frenetic and angry about us being there.

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And there's a woman there, and I can remember her. She's telling me, well, you need to trust the experts, just what you had said.

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Because these technocracies somehow, these guys who have become multibillionaires selling pharmaceuticals are going to be neutral about that.

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But she's telling me we need to trust these experts and so forth and so on.

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And I, me, of course, I'm a science denier. And I said, she said, and not only that, you're a man, and you can't tell a woman what to do.

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And then she caught herself, Chris, and she said, wait a minute. You are a man, right?

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And I said, who's the science denier? I mean, like, you don't know.

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You know I'm a man. I said, you know, notice you didn't say you are a woman. She knows I'm a man.

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She's suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. She's drifting into absurdity. And for all of her degrees at George Mason, wherever she goes, she can't overcome her own absurdity.

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And we need to bring that stuff out. We need to be, we need boots on the ground who will take that on instead of sitting in the back of the narthex of our churches murmuring quietly, well out of earshot of any real enemy.

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And, of course, we all know that the only man who should ever tell a woman to do with what her body, the only man who should tell a woman to do something with her body,

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I should say, is Anthony Fauci. That's the only man. Right, right, right. Exactly.

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Well, I assume he's a man. Not a real man. But we're going to our first commercial break.

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If anyone has a question for Ron Crons on the Gospel at War with Our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

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chrisarnson at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least. City and state and country of residence only remain anonymous.

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If your question involves a personal and private matter, don't go away. We'll be right back. The Mid -Atlantic Reformation Society presents the

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Future of Christendom 2023, the Gospel at War. September 15th to the 16th in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, featuring

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Dr. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries. We are excited to be including a formal debate in this year's conference.

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Dr. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries will be debating Dr. Gregory Coles, author of Single Gay Christian, a

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Personal Journey of Faith and Sexual Identity. The debate topic, is gay Christian a biblically acceptable identity for a member of Christ's church?

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So come join us for the sixth Future of Christendom conference. The event will take place at Spooky Nook Sports in Mannheim, Pennsylvania, and will run from Friday evening through all day

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Saturday with an invitation to the Sunday morning worship service of the Independence Reform Bible Church. This will be a weekend packed with practical teaching with a theme of the

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Gospel at War in many areas of our culture, including government schools, the Supreme Court, missions, feminism, and even the church pulpits.

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Head to futureofchristendom .org. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries here.

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I'm very excited to announce that my longtime friend, Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, and I are heading down to Atlanta, Georgia again for the

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G3 National Conference. That's Thursday, September 21st through Saturday, the 23rd on a theme that I've been preaching, teaching, writing about and defending in live public debates for most of my life, the sovereignty of God.

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I'll be joined on the speaking roster by Steve Lawson, Vody Baucom, Paul Washer, Virgil Walker, Scott Anuel and Josh Bice, founder of G3 Ministries.

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And there's more great news. Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio can get you a 30 % discount off the registration fee.

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Go to g3min .org. That's g3min .org and enter promo code

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Chris Arnson and I look forward to seeing you all Thursday, September 21st through Saturday, the 23rd in the

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G3 National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on the sovereignty of God. Make sure you stop by the

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Exhibitor booth and say hi to Chris Arnson while you're there.

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Go to g3min .org and enter promo code G3ISIR for your 30 % discount off the registration fee.

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soon because we have no idea when they're going to pull the plug on this offer where we get 100 % of the profits from that sale.

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That's royaldiadem .com. Make sure you mention Chris Aronson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. We're now back with Ron Kranz, who is one of the speakers at the upcoming

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Future of Christendom conference, also featuring keynote speaker

39:11

Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries. This conference is being held in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, September 15th, 16th, and 17th.

39:20

It's a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And the specific theme that my guest Ron Kranz is speaking on is the gospel at war with principalities.

39:30

And if you have a question, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com.

39:36

We have a listener in Perry County, Pennsylvania, Arnie, who says,

39:43

I have always heard of the gospel in relationship to bringing peace between those who are at enmity with God, that peace and the love and mercy and grace of God are the things that should be conjured up in our minds when we hear of the gospel.

40:02

Can you explain how you believe the gospel at war is an appropriate phrase and concept? Yeah, there's no doubt that he's the prince of peace.

40:13

There is no peace apart from the prince of peace. There's no love. Love is the fulfillment of the law.

40:20

The point that's critical to understanding is that those things must be on his terms.

40:26

Peace is not on the term of the enemy. It's on the term of the

40:32

Savior. By his stripes, we're healed. He determines. He is the one who determines right from wrong.

40:38

He's the one who determines the peace. And until that point, there is a point of conflict.

40:46

It's widely believed that in Christendom that if you make people mad, you must be doing something wrong, that you need to be calm.

40:57

And you should be calm. I'm not taking away from that. But they need to be calm. You need to soothe them and assuage their desires.

41:06

Well, that's to put God on trial and make them the judge. They still need to wave the white flag.

41:14

And until we need to make it our business to get in these kind of, to bring the conflict.

41:23

Because here's the thing about conflict with the gospel is the conflict already exists.

41:30

I'm not bringing conflict. All I'm doing is bringing Jesus into the discussion.

41:36

The conflict, they already, the Bible says there's a preexisting hatred that the unbeliever has with the

41:44

Lord. You don't have to do that much. An example, I mean, if you don't think so, get yourself a sign that says

41:53

Jesus Christ is King. And take it to a campus and hold it up over your head and look for all that peace.

42:02

You'll find out there is no peace. I'll give you another example. We were,

42:07

I was at a conference, I was speaking at a conference in Wichita and an abolitionist conference and an abolitionist of abortion conference.

42:18

And the Satanists came and followed us there. Well, the

42:23

Satanists were already in Wichita, Kansas. They didn't come there.

42:29

They didn't just appear out of thin air. What provoked them was the true proclamation of the gospel.

42:36

The question isn't why are people agitated by the gospel?

42:42

Maybe the more clear question is, is why aren't they provoked when your pastor teaches, when your pastor, if your church doesn't bring any, if nobody's agitated, there are no enemies to your preaching, to the programs of your churches.

43:00

Friends, you're not really being true to the gospel. Yeah, in fact,

43:09

I like to look at it just as an army standing for a righteous cause will go into the enemy territory and liberate the captives.

43:24

That is exactly what Christ is doing when he rescues his elect, when he rescues his own people.

43:32

He is liberating us from enslavement to the enemy, which is Satan. And we have to remember also that the only reason why grace is amazing and why the gospel is good news and why the most horrendous event in the history of humanity, the death of Jesus Christ, was a glorious and beautiful thing, is because of the flip side of the good news is the bad news.

44:10

The bad news is without Christ, we are going to spend an eternity in hell.

44:17

And it's like the difference between telling a death row inmate that you have been exonerated and you will be set free, the difference between what will be going on in his heart and mind and for you to be sitting across the enormous desk of the

44:40

CEO of a Fortune 500 company, the man's a billionaire, and without you giving any bad news to him, you're sitting across from him and saying to him, by the way,

44:51

I just want to let you know the wonderful news, you've been exonerated and liberated and you are going to be set free.

44:57

And he'll be staring at you like, what on earth are you talking about? Get out of my office. I don't care about that.

45:03

I am as free as can be. I can do anything I want. I'm one of the richest men in the world. So the only reason that that would be of any value to that person and would be glorious news to that person is if there was a very dark and devastating and horribly bad side of the story.

45:27

Am I making sense here? Absolutely. And just read the gospel.

45:32

Just read the gospel account. Read the things that Jesus said. Go to the 23rd chapter of Matthew.

45:38

Whoa, whoa, whoa, you Pharisees and scribes. They bind heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

45:50

And on and on. Woe to you, Pharisees, hypocrites. You shut up the kingdom of heaven against them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

45:58

You devour widows' houses and for pretense make long prayers. He is laying the wood on these guys.

46:06

You see him saying that salt that loses its flavor is good for nothing to be thrown out and trampled on the foot of men.

46:14

You see him coming into conflict with each and every. You see this in the book of Acts.

46:21

When they contended, the Bible says at the Areopagus that Paul, his spirit was provoked within him.

46:29

People were known to riot when they made their discourses.

46:38

Think about it like also this, just a tip into that, Chris, is we love to say, and we're right to do it, that we're always to be ready to give a reason for the hope that's within you.

46:52

Well, I've been married for 35 almost years, and I hold the door open for my wife.

47:00

Nobody in 35 years plus of watching me be nice to my wife and hold the door open for her has ever asked me, what's the reason for the hope that's within you?

47:11

They don't care about our niceness. They don't care about our politeness. That's not what draws the question.

47:18

What draws the question is that when we do something that's sufficiently Christ -like, something like rescuing babies at an abortion mill, something like openly proclaiming the gospel on the streets where we're not welcome, then we get that question.

47:35

Now, they may not phrase it that way. They'll say, they'll cuss us out. They may say, what do you think you're doing here?

47:41

How dare you tell people what to do? You're hateful. But what's underpinning that question is what's the reason for the hope that's within you?

47:51

It's in those settings that we make those presentations. So, yeah, the gospel is designed to come into conflict with darkness.

48:02

There's no question about it. You know, Chris, if you'll indulge me, just something from history that I think will shed some light on this idea.

48:15

For the Civil War aficionados out there, you may know this, is that General McClellan, general of the

48:23

Army of the Potomac, he camped outside of Washington, D .C. for quite some time at the beginning of the

48:29

Civil War. He downright refused to engage the enemy. Lincoln was so frustrated with him after a period of time, he said something,

48:37

I can't quote him exactly, he said something like, if General McClellan does not want to use the

48:43

Army, I should like to borrow them for a time. He just was not fighting.

48:49

He had no fight in him at all. He was envisioning great enemies out there. And finally,

48:56

Lincoln infamously fired him. Well, here's the thing, is I trim and remove trees in Alexandria where McClellan was, and there are no old trees there.

49:08

And the reason there are no old trees there is McClellan and his troops, while they were on their camping jamboree, were cutting down everything the size of a toothpick to throw into the fire.

49:19

So now here we are, 160 years later, we're suffering the results of the people of God refusing to do just what you said, be an army, invading, doing what we were commanded and told to do.

49:33

Now we're generationally suffering from this. I cannot wait.

49:39

Let me just tell you, I cannot wait for this debate with James White. I can't wait. I'm looking forward to it.

49:46

But let's be really direct here for a second. If the church had been doing what she was supposed to do, this debate would have never had to happen.

49:55

You would have never heard the term gay Christian. You would have never heard of the

50:03

CDC or public education or IRS or personal property tax.

50:09

All of those things would be foreign concepts to you. It's only because we've been systematically retreating now literally for hundreds of years.

50:21

And I chronicle that in The Beast, the Whore and the Forgotten Vision, not to give myself a shameless plug, but I chronicle that.

50:30

I mean, you go back and you look at John Nelson Darby's rapture madness. What do we have?

50:35

Retreat. And then you go, well, what do we have now? We have conservative Christian bookworm retreat and pietistic gushing retreat and information briefs that pass for sermons retreat, but nobody's really fighting.

50:50

It's been asked, and I won't give an altar call now. I won't preach. I won't continue preaching.

50:56

But it's been said, what cultural victory has the church won?

51:04

And I'm 60 years old. And what cultural victory have we won?

51:10

I'm hard pressed to think of anything, but that's not even really the question. It's not.

51:17

The question is, what cultural battle have we even fought?

51:22

Chris, what have we fought? What if we strenuously, vigorously, have we strenuously and vigorously fought abortion?

51:31

Have we strenuously and vigorously opposed personal property tax?

51:37

Have we come into battle with anything, the public education? Have we done any of that?

51:43

We don't do battle with any of that stuff. We just have this Hezekiah complex. At least there'll be peace in my day.

51:49

And we push it down the road. And now our children and our grandchildren are going to suffer because of it.

51:54

We have to get in those fights. Amen. We have to go to our midway break right now.

52:00

And, folks, please be patient with us because, as always, the middle break of the show is a little longer than the other breaks because Grace Life Radio, 90 .1

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FM in Lake City, Florida, requires of us a longer break in the middle of the show because the FCC requires of them to localize this program geographically to Lake City, Florida, where they're located.

52:21

And they do so with their own public service announcements and other local things that they air in the middle of our show while we simultaneously, on the other hand, air our globally heard commercials.

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But when you cannot do any of those things, please do one thing that everybody listening to this show can do if you really love the show and are grateful to God that there are people and organizations out there that share their wealth with Iron Sharpens Iron Radio in order for us to stay on the air.

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That should go a long way to convince our advertisers that their money is not being spent in vain keeping this program on the air.

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And, of course, use this time to write your email and then send it to ChrisArnson at gmail .com

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featuring your question for my guest today, Ron Kronz. That's ChrisArnson at gmail .com.

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Give us your first name at least, city and state and country of residence. We'll be right back with Ron Kronz and the

53:53

Gospel at War with Principalities right after these messages from our sponsors.

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It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners from all over the world.

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Here's Joe Riley, a listener in Ireland who wants you to know about a guest on the show he really loves hearing interviewed.

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Dr. Joe Moorcraft. I'm Joe Riley, a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listener here in Atai in County Kildare, Ireland.

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

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We are not commanded to provide for my radio show, which is obvious. But if you love the show, you benefit from the show, you listen to it daily, you can't wait to hear the guests and the topics we discuss, sometimes that are never heard anywhere else.

01:11:46

You love the fact that you can win books when I'm interviewing authors, if you submit questions.

01:11:51

You love the fact that we give away Bibles to first -time questioners. If you love all of that, please help us to remain on the air.

01:12:01

If you are blessed financially above and beyond your ability to provide for your church and family, if you have extra money collecting interest in the bank, you have extra money for benevolent, recreational, and trivial purposes, please share some of that money with us if you want us to continue.

01:12:15

Go to irontrepanzyonradio .com, click Support, then click Click to Donate Now. We have never recovered financially ever since the insane and tyrannical mandates of the federal and local governments began destroying the livelihoods, or at least seriously negatively affecting the livelihoods of many people throughout the world.

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The giving plummeted. The giving to Iron Trepanzyon Radio plummeted. It has never bounced back.

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To this day, it has never bounced back. We need your help more than ever. Go to irontrepanzyonradio .com, click

01:12:48

Support, then click Click to Donate Now. Also, folks, I want to remind you about the three -day event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania that I have helped to arrange with Mid -Atlantic

01:12:59

Reformation Society. This is the Future of Christendom conference that we are discussing with my guest,

01:13:05

Bron Crons. This is 15th, 16th, and 17th of September, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

01:13:12

And on Saturday, September 16th, will be the debate that Dr. White is having with Dr. Gregory Coles on the theme,

01:13:18

Is Gay Christian a Biblically Acceptable Identity for a Member of Christ's Church?

01:13:24

If you want to register for this three -day event, go to futureofchristendom .org, futureofchristendom .org.

01:13:30

Also, don't forget about my free pastor's luncheon coming up on Thursday, October 5th, featuring

01:13:40

Jeff Knoblet, the founder and president of Anchored in Truth Ministries and the pastor of Grace Life Church of the

01:13:48

Shoals in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Pastor Jeff is one of the most powerful preachers

01:13:53

I've ever heard in my life, a lover of the doctrines of sovereign grace. He financially supports churches all over the world, and I love this brother, and I can't wait for him to preach to the men who are gathered at my free pastor's luncheon on Thursday, October 5th, 11 a .m.

01:14:10

to 2 p .m. at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania, which is Perry County, Pennsylvania. And on top of everything being for free, including your meal, everybody who attends that event, as always, leaves there with a heavy sack, sometimes two heavy sacks, of free brand -new books personally selected by me, donated by generous

01:14:32

Christian publishers all over the United States and the United Kingdom. So if you are a man in ministry leadership, this is a men's -only event, please send me an e -mail to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com

01:14:44

and put Pastor's Luncheon in the subject line if you'd like to register. That's ChrisArnzen at gmail .com,

01:14:50

Pastor's Luncheon in the subject line. And last but not least, if you are not a member of a biblically faithful,

01:14:56

Christ -honoring, theologically sound church, no matter where in the world you live, I have extensive lists spanning the globe of faithful churches, and I've helped many people in our audience all over the planet

01:15:08

Earth find churches, sometimes even within just a couple of minutes from where they live. That may be you, too.

01:15:13

If you are without a solid church home, I may be able to help you find one. So send me an e -mail to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com

01:15:19

and put I Need a Church in the subject line. That's also the e -mail address where you can send in a question to Ron Crons on the theme

01:15:27

The Gospel at War with Principalities. That's ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence.

01:15:37

And we have Morgan in Forest, Virginia, who has a question for you.

01:15:45

The text that was cited at the beginning of this program, Ephesians 6 -12, seems to appear to teach that we are wrestling against invisible things, supernatural things of the realm of darkness and evil.

01:16:01

I was wondering if you agree with me that we who are reformed tend to shy away with such in -depth conversations on the invisible and supernatural because we are afraid of appearing too much like we are charismatics or nut jobs.

01:16:19

I've actually said that a number of times in this program. I agree with our listener. I don't know if you do, Ron. I do.

01:16:25

I actually do. And I will tell you that the unseen forces don't stay unseen.

01:16:35

They always manifest themselves in the physical. Going to Africa all these years,

01:16:42

I've had ample opportunity to see some really remarkable and disturbing manifestations of the demonic, almost to the point that I joke with Charlotte about it.

01:16:55

I feel like everybody who listens to us in the reform circle would reject us just because we testified these experiences.

01:17:07

But just, again, and I know I've said this, but when you go to, it just becomes most apparent when you go to a woman's march and get yourself a sign that says, the

01:17:26

Lord says you shall not kill and you shall not murder. Just do that, and you'll see the demonic.

01:17:34

You'll see those manifestations, and they will froth at the mouth, and they'll have herky -jerky, sometimes violent tendencies.

01:17:45

Yeah, I absolutely support that. And part of it is because we haven't come against them, is that they've been given free reign.

01:17:56

I've noticed this in the years, again, that I've been going to Africa, is that more and more

01:18:02

I'm seeing those manifestations here in the United States, and I believe that they're happening as the direct result.

01:18:09

They're following our path of retreat. Yes, and we who are reformed should never fear appearing like something that embarrasses us just because we're speaking biblical truth.

01:18:27

We should never abandon biblical truth, vital, important, urgently needed biblical truth just because some other group of people professing to be

01:18:38

Christians may be abusing those things. And it's about time that we grow up and stop worrying about who we look like and sound like at the expense of truth.

01:18:55

And that just happens far, far too often. Well said, and having, again, spent my – if you go to Africa, and you go to Central Africa particularly, you're going to be the lion's share of Christianity is going to be charismatic.

01:19:14

They're going to be really hardcore charismatic, and there's a big teaching opportunity in that.

01:19:23

And they'll do hours and hours of deliverance services in the whole nine, and I found out that those are excellent teaching opportunities to talk about the supremacy of Christ over those things.

01:19:40

So rather than just running away from them, say, okay, yes, there are powers of darkness in high places and so forth and so on, but what does it mean to deal with them?

01:19:55

And that's a big part of our ministry for sure. I mean, just getting involved with politics from a theonomic position, you'll see the demonic.

01:20:07

You'll see the unseen forces at work. You'll see them. Yeah, I have had an interview in the past with someone in a key position of leadership to every tribe ministries, a reformed ministry that goes to the most, or should

01:20:32

I say the least evangelized places on the planet, and I have heard things that will make your hair curl or straighten it out if it's already curly in regard to the demonic realm.

01:20:45

In fact, we have another question that involves that. We have

01:20:51

Peter in Mattatuck, Long Island, New York, and Peter asks, it seems that most reformed people do not believe that there is such a thing as exorcism today.

01:21:05

Do you agree with that? Yeah, no, I don't.

01:21:10

The key to deliverance ministries, I think, is understanding the terms.

01:21:17

Again, the terms are set by Christ. What happens is in deliverance ministries that I've seen way plenty enough of is you will cast the demon out, and the demon, because I have the

01:21:34

Spirit of God, isn't able to deal with the Spirit of God within me, and the demon will flee, but the person doesn't want that deliverance.

01:21:44

They still love their sin. They love their darkness. And so you can have a sort of a sense of relief from deliverance ministries, but there's no actual deliverance.

01:21:56

Again, like I said at the outset, the evidence, and every reformed listener should know this, is that the evidence of saving faith is the fruit of a changed life.

01:22:09

If you don't think differently, you don't talk differently, you don't act differently, you haven't been delivered.

01:22:16

You can make professions of faith. You can even go through some deliverance experience where hands are laid on you and you fall on the ground and fry like bacon and go through all that stuff, but you'll be back the next night looking for more deliverance.

01:22:33

It's an overlooked thing, and I think when I deal with that stuff in Africa, and I don't really even like to talk about it very much because I'm not titillated by it.

01:22:43

I don't enjoy it. I will counsel the person, and I'll tell them, look, if you don't want to change anything, you don't want a different life, you don't want to think differently and act differently, don't play with God.

01:22:58

Don't play games with the Spirit of God. And I think we need to have a more robust view towards dealing with the demonic.

01:23:08

Amen. And what else would you like to state that is significantly attached to your actual theme at the conference?

01:23:19

Yeah, I haven't completely decided what

01:23:27

I'm going to talk about. It's a bit in my wheelhouse. I think I'm going to chronicle the life of Elijah as he came into conflict.

01:23:38

As you know, he came into conflict with Ahab and Jezebel and the prophets of Baal, and then ensuingly

01:23:46

Ahaziah, the son of Jezebel and Ahab.

01:23:51

And he was kind of perpetually in their face, bringing to bear the truth of God's authority over them and their form of worship.

01:24:03

And I'm essentially going to ask the question, where's that prophetic witness?

01:24:09

Let's say I was going through, let's say I was in Lancaster and somebody, what would be the evidence of the authority of Jesus other than there are churches and there are church programs?

01:24:26

Who is out there declaring the supremacy of Christ in the public square?

01:24:32

And the answer to that is all too frequently, like hardly anybody. And we need to reverse that trend.

01:24:41

Amen. And let's see here, we have an anonymous listener.

01:24:49

And the anonymous listener asks, as a pastor and minister of the gospel, how do you counsel those of us who seriously struggle with hatred when we witness how hateful those who are enemies of Christ are towards him, his word, his gospel, and to us?

01:25:13

I know that we are to understand that these are lost people enslaved to sin and they need the gospel and they need to be born again before they begin thinking and acting and behaving rightly.

01:25:26

But there is still a struggle, at least on my part, and I'm sure other people, where hatred actually boils up in us and we can think of nothing but negative things about these people and happening to these people.

01:25:42

Yeah, that's a thing. That's real. The past couple weeks have not been good for me.

01:25:53

I've had probably almost every other day one of my friends has been arrested for preaching.

01:26:02

I'm glad you followed up with the second half of that statement. And these are not

01:26:08

Facebook distant friends. These are close friends with whom I've read.

01:26:13

Dear beloved Christians who are being persecuted right now in D .C.

01:26:19

There's a face trial for people allegedly blocking abortion access.

01:26:28

The penalty for that is 11 years in a federal penitentiary.

01:26:33

Some of them are my friends. I know them. I've had people attacked.

01:26:40

I've been threatened. Things have been stolen from us. As the Apostle Paul said it so well, he said,

01:26:48

I bear on my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ.

01:26:55

I'm well aware. I know the conflict. In fact, when I went to Africa, the first time

01:27:02

I went into Congo, I went across no man's land. I was stopped by child soldiers.

01:27:09

Our car was taken from us. I mean, seven times I've walked across no man's land. Five times they were fighting.

01:27:15

The first time I preached in Congo, they were rioting out front. I'm well aware of the conflict.

01:27:24

I think it's the key to this is to look again at Christ.

01:27:30

Look again. You said it so well, Chris, the most deplorable, the most horrible injustice that was ever committed was the cross of Christ, where he was scourged and crucified.

01:27:44

Compare yourself. Don't compare yourself. Compare yourself to him. You're a sinner, friend.

01:27:52

I'm a sinner. We're in need of forgiveness. Christ had done no sin and endured, willingly endured those things.

01:28:00

We have to hold those things in that light. And maybe just finally, I think that there is value.

01:28:09

It's easy to say, and I'm just going to spit this out. It's easy to have self -control when you never actually come into conflict with people who really hate

01:28:23

Christ, who openly hate Christ. It's when we find out what's inside of us, who's inside of us, is when we enter into those situations.

01:28:35

So I would say, yeah, so go anyway. Christ went to a cross. Go into those hard places.

01:28:42

Endure the hatred. Endure it. And what did the apostles do?

01:28:50

When they were beaten, they rejoiced that they were worthy of being beaten, being persecuted for the glory of Christ.

01:29:02

Remember those things. Like, okay, when you're, as I started to say, you, everybody can say, when you're sitting with a bunch of people who agree with you, and you're staring at a screen and a pastor saying things you agree with, self -control is no challenge.

01:29:18

But when you get spat on by a 19 -year -old and you're 60, that's a different thing.

01:29:28

Now you find out if you really have self -control. And I know the struggle.

01:29:34

One of the things that I do in our street missions is I usually wear a body cam.

01:29:40

And the reason is, part of the reason is, is I want to make sure if somebody attacks me or if the police seek to tyrannize me,

01:29:49

I have some evidence. But one of the reasons I do that is because I look back on that footage and make sure that I was under self -control.

01:29:57

Did I treat my opponent with gentleness and respect? Did I answer them tenderly and lovingly and in a way that was conducive, that was a good, solid ambassadorship of who

01:30:13

Christ really is? Those are some of the things I might say. Great. We have to go to our final break right now.

01:30:19

And if you have a question, I would strongly urge you to submit it immediately, because we're rapidly running out of time.

01:30:26

Our email address again is chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com. Give us a first name at least, city and state and country of residence.

01:30:34

We'll be right back with Ron Crons right after these messages. Please do not go away. The Mid -Atlantic Reformation Society presents

01:30:40

The Future of Christendom 2023, The Gospel at War, September 15th to the 16th in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, featuring

01:30:49

Dr. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries. We are excited to be including a formal debate in this year's conference.

01:30:56

Dr. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries will be debating Dr. Gregory Coles, author of Single Gay Christian, A Personal Journey of Faith and Sexual Identity.

01:31:05

The debate topic, Is Gay Christian a Biblically Acceptable Identity for a Member of Christ's Church?

01:31:11

So come join us for the 6th Future of Christendom Conference. The event will take place at Spooky Nook Sports in Mannheim, Pennsylvania, and will run from Friday evening through all day

01:31:19

Saturday, with an invitation to the Sunday morning worship service of the Independence Reform Bible Church. This will be a weekend packed with practical teaching, with a theme of the

01:31:28

Gospel at War in many areas of our culture, including government schools, the Supreme Court, missions, feminism, and even the church pulpits.

01:31:36

Head to futureofchristendom .org. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries here.

01:31:53

I'm very excited to announce that my longtime friend Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I are heading down to Atlanta, Georgia again for the

01:32:02

G3 National Conference. That's Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd, on a theme that I've been preaching, teaching, writing about, and defending in live public debates for most of my life, the sovereignty of God.

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I'll be joined on the speaking roster by Steve Lawson, Voti Baucom, Paul Washer, Virgil Walker, Scott Anuel, and Josh Bice, founder of G3 Ministries.

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Chris Arnzen and I look forward to seeing you all Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd at the

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Please visit us at TruthLoveParent .com. And keep in mind, folks, that A .M.

01:46:39

Brewster, the man that you just heard in that commercial, a dear friend and sponsor of Iron Trip and Zion Radio, in addition to being a biblical counselor, he will be our guest this

01:46:50

Monday on the theme, What Christians Don't Understand About Worship.

01:46:55

That's this Monday, 4 to 6 p .m. Eastern on Iron Trip and Zion Radio. We're now back with my guest today,

01:47:03

Ron Crons, and we have another listener question for Ron from a very faithful, loyal, and generous supporter of Iron Trip and Zion Radio, Grady in Asheboro, North Carolina.

01:47:18

Grady says, Greetings, brothers. I see two things that I don't understand in the church when it comes to the authority of our

01:47:25

Lord Jesus Christ. The first is we have those who believe we have two kingdoms, the kingdom of Christ, which they believe is future because their eschatology is wrong and that we're in a kingdom controlled by Satan.

01:47:39

They seem to overlook the verses that we're in a war of principalities and our king was victorious at Calvary, and I believe the early 1800s in upper state

01:47:52

New York proves it. Perhaps Grady can send us another email to explain that statement.

01:47:58

Look at how the demonic activity controlled that area. Oh, I see. He's doing that now. We had the cults of Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian science,

01:48:07

Seventh -day Adventists, and Charles Finney and his false teachings at the time. The second thing I see is the church said we needed to come out and be separate from the world and left politics, the arts, music, and everything else for the world to decide.

01:48:22

As Psalm 24 verse 1 says, The earth is the

01:48:27

Lord's and the fullness thereof. We need to glorify Him in all we do. Do you agree with these assessments?

01:48:35

I do. The Bible says regarding two -kingdom theology, which is radical two -kingdom theology, is really a blight on,

01:48:45

I think, the way we practice Christianity. The Bible's clear. He must reign until all of his enemies are placed under his footstool.

01:48:54

That intimates that he's reigning right now. He must reign until. So he is reigning. We shouldn't pretend.

01:49:02

We shouldn't compromise on that point. And the second point is

01:49:07

I think the bookend of that, the opposite side of the coin, which is one of pietism, it's just me and my

01:49:17

Bible, and I have good behavior, and as I said earlier, I hold the door open for my wife, and I have a prayer journal, and I don't swear, and I don't want to look at porn, and, you know, these kinds of things.

01:49:30

And it limits the weighing of Jesus Christ to the individual strictly.

01:49:37

You see that in, for instance, Fanny Crosby's songs. Remember, her songs were used for the altar calls, for the tent meetings.

01:49:47

One that comes to mind is take the world, but give me Jesus. Well, the world was never

01:49:55

Fanny's Crosby's to give. It already belonged to the Lord. But that's become sort of the model for the way we do

01:50:03

Christianity. You take the world. You decide what to do with ethics and laws and education and science.

01:50:11

All of those are in some Jesus -free zone, and we who know our Bibles and have,

01:50:17

I believe, Biblical eschatology on this matter, understand nonsense.

01:50:23

Every single principality must wave the white flag, and we need to call them to it.

01:50:32

Well, thank you, Grady, and keep listening to Iron Trip and Zion Radio, and keep sending in those great questions, and thank you again for being such a faithful and loyal and generous financial supporter of this program.

01:50:47

I want to also just give a little caveat of my own. Although I disagree with two -kingdom theology, as much as I understand of it anyway,

01:50:57

I do know that there are faithful brethren who do endorse that system, so I don't want to give the impression that we're overly vilifying or even vilifying at all people who just have a misunderstanding, in our opinion, over a certain aspect of theology.

01:51:16

So I just want to make sure that I throw that out there because I happen to personally know folks, some of whom may even support this show, who hold to things.

01:51:26

In fact, I have listeners and supporters who definitely disagree with some of my own views, and unfortunately, even though I am not yet anyway a post -millennialist or a theonomist,

01:51:43

I've actually lost financial support from people who take that so offensively, and to me,

01:51:50

I'm mystified by that, why a premillennial or amillennial individual would take post -millennialism so offensively that they would drop support of this program.

01:52:03

It's just bizarre to me because it's an area of the faith, I believe, that we should definitely be passionate about things that we are convinced the

01:52:13

Bible teaches, and we don't have to be wishy -washy and water down our beliefs, but at the same time,

01:52:19

I think we have to treat brethren in Christ with grace. So I hope that those of you who are listening, who are offended by the fact that I frequently have post -millennial and theonomic guests on this program, that you will reconsider sponsoring the program anyway.

01:52:38

But anyway, I'm just totally, I'm an amillennialist, but I've always had friends, even going back to my earliest days of Christianity, I have had friends, close friends, who were post -millennial and theonomic, and I never saw that as an area for disfellowship, and I've even had, in my early days of radio, working for WMCA, I had as a client, a radio client,

01:53:07

R .J. Rushdoony. So I don't know if you agree with me that eschatology, although important, shouldn't be something that we disfellowship one another over these issues?

01:53:19

I absolutely, it's not salvific. Some of my, you know, some of my,

01:53:25

I have friends who are dispensationalists, and we disagree with one another. They're stuck.

01:53:31

For one instant, it doesn't dawn on me that they're not believers. It has a matter to do more with our orthopraxy.

01:53:40

So then what do we do? If you don't see the idea of the kingdom of God advancing on earth, you're going to approach your practice of the

01:53:52

Christian faith differently. I'll give you an example, just briefly. I was in Zambia, it's got to have been over 10 years ago, and we were doing an orphanage, we were ministering to a group of orphans doing a feeding program.

01:54:06

It was not my program. It was a short -term group of missionaries from Arizona, as I recall, had come.

01:54:16

But the guy in charge of it knew me, and he wanted me to be there. So I came, and they do this feeding program, and after the program, they ask these missionaries if they wanted to say something to the orphans.

01:54:28

And to cut the story short, finally one of them stood. Now, mind you, they'd come a long way, and spent a lot of money to go there and be there a week, a week and a half, to talk to these orphans.

01:54:40

And the guy says, well, we just want you to know we love you, and we've come to help in some small way.

01:54:49

And I was so offended by that, that the gospel of Jesus Christ had been reduced.

01:54:57

Jesus, who went to a cross, who became incarnate, went to a cross, went to a grave, died a real death, went to a grave, descended into heaven, he reigns with the right hand of the

01:55:07

Father of God, is reduced to helping in some small way. We have a tendency of hitting what we aim at.

01:55:16

If we're aiming to help in some small way, and just be a band -aid for the culture until the return of Christ, well, that's what we'll do.

01:55:24

And we will abandon education and science and other areas of commerce.

01:55:31

We'll abandon all those things. And I think, and I hold to the idea that Christ deserves all of them.

01:55:38

Well, I'd like you to summarize right now what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners before we go off the air today.

01:55:45

Yeah, I said it. He must reign until all of his enemies are placed under his footstool.

01:55:53

Maybe finally, just in closing, I really appreciated all of the questions, and thank you for those, and for the interview.

01:56:02

There was a question about dealing with hatred and being angry about people who push back, who hate the gospel of Christ.

01:56:11

And I just want to give this maybe as a close. When Christ took the

01:56:16

Last Supper, he took the bread, he gave thanks, and he broke it.

01:56:22

He gave thanks. Now, he's on his way to a cross, and he's breaking bread, and he's giving thanks.

01:56:28

And then on the way to the cross, the Bible says that they sang a hymn, and they went to the

01:56:34

Mount of Olives. Now, think about that, and I'll just leave this, just let this be the last word of mine, is that he went to a cross with thanks and with praise.

01:56:44

And that must always be that which undergirds of this. Jesus Christ can go to a cross singing praises, and in thanksgiving, we can go through our affairs of life, coming into conflict with the hard things that we have to deal with, with thanks and with praise.

01:57:01

So that'd be my final thought. Well, thank you so much for being a superb guest,

01:57:07

Brother Ron. I look forward to your return to this program. I want to remind our listeners that Ron's website is ronkrons .com,

01:57:16

and that's Ron, K -R -O -N, as in Nancy, Z as in zebra, dot com.

01:57:22

And I also want to remind you folks about the three -day event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, coming up September 15th, 16th, and 17th,

01:57:30

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, in Lancaster, more specifically Mannheim, Pennsylvania.

01:57:36

That is the Future of Christendom Conference being hosted by Mid -Atlantic Reformation Society, and featuring not only my guest today,

01:57:44

Ron Krons, and a number of other speakers, but our keynote speaker will be Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries, and that three -day conference also includes a live, moderated debate between Dr.

01:57:58

James R. White and Dr. Gregory Coles on the theme, Is Gay Christian a

01:58:03

Biblically Acceptable Identity for a Member of Christ's Church? If you want to register for that event, go to futureofchristendom .org,

01:58:11

futureofchristendom .org. And don't forget about my pastor's luncheon coming up on Thursday, October 5th, 11 a .m.

01:58:17

to 2 p .m., at Church of the Living Christ in Lloydsville, Pennsylvania. That event is absolutely free of charge, which includes free admission, free meal, free being a member of the audience when you're hearing a powerful preacher like Jeff Noblitt of Grace Life Church of the

01:58:35

Shoals in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. And also, everybody leaves with a heavy sack, maybe even two heavy sacks, of free brand -new books selected personally by me, donated by major Christian publishers all over the

01:58:46

United States and United Kingdom. Send me an email if you'd like to attend that, to chrisarnson at gmail .com,

01:58:52

and put pastor's luncheon in the subject line. Last but not least, please don't forget that Iron Trip and Zion Radio is in urgent need of your financial help like never before.

01:59:01

So please go to irontripandzionradio .com, click support, then click, click to donate now. We really, really need your help.

01:59:08

I hope you all have a very safe, blessed, and joyful weekend and Lord's Day, and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater