| Time | Text |
|---|---|
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25% Bible Readers Crisis
00:05:50
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| The crisis after crisis after crisis. | |
| What do you have to say? | |
| In your message that you gave around New Year's saying God's judgment is coming, one thing that immediately jumps out to me about that is the fact that we live in a day and age where this statistic really bothers me. | |
| And because it bothers me so much, I keep saying it on every interview that I do with anybody. | |
| We are in a day and age where 25% of Bible-believing, self-professed Christians claim they read their Bible on a weekly basis. | |
| So our church is not in tune with what the Word of God says right now. | |
| And so when you give a message like God's judgment is coming, not only do you offend the secular crowd, but you're offending part of the church because nobody wants to think about God's wrath and nobody wants to think about judgment. | |
| Everybody wants for things to be just kind of fluffy and happy. | |
| And unfortunately, our modern church, for a large part, is very disconnected from the word and the message, especially the message of prophecy. | |
| And so I appreciate that you're willing to tackle that message head on. | |
| It's not going to win you a popularity contest, but I think that it shows that Jim is strategically positioned, along with all of you, to say some things that need to be said to a world that doesn't want to hear it, including a church that wants to put their fingers in their ears and go, la la la, this isn't happening. | |
| And I don't mean to be offensive by saying that, but when you talk about coming under attack and having these things happen, you know, where you're giving a very unpopular message, and yet you are giving a very necessary message because we don't control whether or not biblical prophecy is going to come true. | |
| God has said it. | |
| This happens in a realm far beyond our jurisdiction. | |
| And, you know, I just really quickly, while I was watching your, what you had shown, you know, Psalm 8 came to mind, and I just want to really briefly read a piece of this. | |
| Oh, Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth who has set thy glory above the heavens. | |
| I'm going to jump down to verse 3. | |
| When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him? | |
| Now, that might seem disconnected, but I'm looking at the world and what is going on. | |
| I mean, we're talking volcanoes and floods and just, I mean, it's like the world itself. | |
| This is beyond some kind of a socioeconomic crisis, which we have also had this year. | |
| But when we're talking about the actual natural elements of this earth and they are all kind of, you know, dealing with this terrible upset right now, and there's all these natural disasters. | |
| And we have to remember that in our lifetime, we see, you know, 40, 60, 80, maybe 100 years, if we're lucky, we see it's a very narrow scope of the overview of God's plan and what is really going to take place from the beginning of his plan until the very final final chapter of Revelation. | |
| And so what we have to understand is that God is so much bigger than this little view we're seeing today. | |
| And it's an overwhelming view. | |
| You know, I have to give myself a pep talk sometimes because it's a lot to watch. | |
| But at the same time, we have to remember that even now, with all of these things going on, you know, we're so little. | |
| This moment in time is so little. | |
| What is man that God is mindful of us? | |
| And yet, he has given us everything. | |
| He died on the cross for us. | |
| He's given an opportunity for salvation and eternity with him. | |
| And we really need to keep the big picture in mind and not lose hope as believers. | |
| We really need to remember that we're in this moment in time for such a time as this, but we are here to serve and to give a Christian response. | |
| And remember that there's a much bigger view than this narrow thing we see. | |
| What blows me away, I hear Jim months before any of this happened saying these are revelation days. | |
| You know, it takes me to those moments. | |
| I think about those, like the Left Behind movies and series of books, where you're looking back on the voices that were timeless, on the voices that blasted through the history books and made a stamp on a warning time. | |
| And in these particular cases, these movies and these books, they show people looking back and saying, I wish that I would have been listening. | |
| I wish we would have heard that voice. | |
| This is the voice. | |
| And Ali said, you know, it doesn't make you popular to be the voice of the nations that's willing to stand up and say, while the whole world sees Christianity in general as hate speech, I see that this is a time for warning. | |
| And I think that Jesus Christ had the perfect example. | |
| There's somewhere between, you know, knowing that every time somebody does something that you don't agree with in society, it's a time to overthrow tables like Jesus did, versus the other extreme, which is, well, we've just got to love and tolerate forever. | |
| There's a balance, a balance between overreaction and underreaction. | |
| And I think that we're in a state of godlessness right now. | |
| I think that the godlessness is in a dangerous increase, a rapid increase. | |
| Voices like Jim Baker are huge. | |
| They're saying we are in the day. | |
| Perk up, people. | |
| Listen, tune in. | |
| We're there. | |
| And I think that it's so crucial right now that rather than for Christians to get caught up in the political, the social atmosphere of what is or is not their legislative ideal or what they want to see happen or rather than to take part in a riot. | |
|
Fighting Hate with Love
00:01:51
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| I think, because the video footage that you played, these are not necessarily all people that are saying, an innocent man died, a cop did something bad. | |
| I'm angry. | |
| They're shouting, and I quote, free phones. | |
| To me, this does not scream. | |
| We are in a state where people are angry for justice, but we have transitioned over into something that is just massive crowd hysteria. | |
| They don't stand for anything. | |
| They're writing for free phones. | |
| They see that they can get their hind end in on a big free phone parade that's happening. | |
| And this is what Jim is talking about when he says these are the revelation days. | |
| People are fighting and they don't even know what they're fighting for. | |
| Christians are. | |
| This is the time. | |
| Absolutely. | |
| Right now, no, not now. | |
| Yesterday is the time for you to understand what you are fighting for and pick your battles. | |
| I would remind you of Romans 12, 17 through 21. | |
| Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. | |
| If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. | |
| We should be focusing on peace. | |
| Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. | |
| For it is written, vengeance is mine. | |
| I will repay, says the Lord. | |
| Not you, Christians will repay on my behalf because I'm powerless. | |
| I will repay, says the Lord. | |
| And it goes on to say, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. | |
| If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. | |
| Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. | |
| In other words, when the voice of hate is so loud, the voice of love needs to be so much louder. | |
| Absolutely. | |