This Ship is Sinking

The Instagram culture is real.

So how do we reach them? This ship is sinking folks. There's a lot of people out there talking about prosperity and how good times are coming.

Really? Just look around you. Now God's in control. So everything's happening perfectly according to his perfect prophetic timeline and plan.

But you connect all the dots and this ship is sinking. Welcome to Understanding the Times Radio with Jan Markell. Radio for the Remnant. In part one of today's programming, Jan visits with prophecy advocate and YouTuber Chad Thomas. All of us have valued young people in our lives who can be distracted from the deeper issues just because they are coping with the new tide of our times.

Jan and Chad discuss this dilemma in part one of Understanding the Times Radio today. We also look at some prophecy highlights thus far in 2020. Life as we knew it.

It is not going back to normal. There's a whole new normal that's coming. A new world order. This ship is sinking and it's sinking fast. Everything is happening and it will happen according to God's perfect prophetic plan and his timeline. But we see where this is all headed. We don't know how much we're going to see before the rapture of the church of Jesus Christ.

All we know for sure, and I'm in good company when I say this, is that the rapture of the church of Jesus Christ will occur before the Antichrist is revealed and before he confirms the covenant with many for one week to start the seven-year tribulation period. Welcome to the program. Sometime in 2019, I did a program with today's guest, Chad Thomas. Chad does many times a week prophecy updates on YouTube, a media format for today's generation.

By the way, his title is Watchmen on the Wall 88. Can we reach the millennial generation or just say anyone under the age of 40 or 45 years old with the issues that are front and center today, but that the younger generation often finds to be inconvenient, a threat to their future, way too negative? Well, I believe we can. Chad Thomas also believes we can, and we're going to talk about that.

And he is reaching his generation very effectively. And by the way, Chad is 32 years old. Chad, welcome back to the program. Thanks for having me again, Jan.

It's great to be here. We're talking here about the Instagram culture, and it's kind of all about them. Even the church thinks that way. The seeker movement kind of encourages their way of thinking. You're talking to them. You're reaching them. They're listening.

What are they saying to you? Interesting that you mentioned the Instagram culture. We're told very clearly in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1 to 5, where the Apostle Paul tells us, in the last days, perilous time shall come. And he gives a whole list of what the state of the world is going to be like. And when you read through that entire list, you will see that's exactly what's happening right now. And with the increase in technology and the explosion of social media with Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, all these other forms of media, you're seeing, again, how obsessed people are with themselves. What's incredible about this, Jan, when you read through this entire list, you'll see that this is happening right here and right now. Again, like you said, with the Instagram culture, most people are, again, they're thinking that things are going to improve. That's what you said to me. They're thinking things are going to return to normal.

Now, I opened this program with a clip of you. This ship is sinking. Now, that's certainly on the negative side. It is, I think, somewhat realistic. Can we right a sinking ship?

Can we lift the Titanic? That's the assignment of the church is to be salt and light and delay the decay. Younger people want to believe they have a future. They want to believe that their future is not going to be interrupted, even by the rapture of the church. In other words, some of them, not all of them, I've got some emails here.

If I have time, I'll read a couple of them. They're younger people, and I think they're in their 20s even. And they're looking up exactly as you and I are. Absolutely, Jan. This ship is sinking. I know when you hear that term, like you said, it can be depressing. But the reality is the Bible tells us exactly what the state of the world is going to be like. Again, everything's going to happen according to God's perfect prophetic timeline and plan. But the ship is sinking regardless of how you want to view it.

And like you said, I mean, I'm around people my age all the time, and people see what is happening. They see something's going on. Automatically what they're thinking is, it's okay, this is just a little rough patch in humanity. We're going to get through this. We're going to get our lives back to normal. We're still going to plan our vacations next year and keep planning for the future. Even if we have to wear our masks or whatever we have to do to obey the government and the regulations, we're going to do it because we want our life back. I know many of them feel that they can have their best life now, the American dream.

I understand they can be earthly-minded. You said recently in one of your updates, this could be a September to remember. Tell me why you said that. The reason I said that, Jan, is because, especially this year in 2020, we know that for the last few years, we've been seeing the cry for Mideast peace and security, peace and safety, peace and prosperity. You see it with Pope Francis, more recently with Jared Kushner and French President Emmanuel Macron. More than ever, especially this year and this month in September, we're seeing they've had this Abraham Accord, this historic peace deal that was just made by the United Arab Emirates and Israel. And we see many Arab nations getting involved with this peace process, which is absolutely incredible because we're told in Daniel 927 that there will be a covenant that is confirmed with many for one week. Again, we can't be dogmatic and say this is the Daniel 927 covenant, but we see where this is all headed.

The stage is getting set for it. It could be a precursor. Let me just comment on all of that.

I don't want to take a lot of time because I want to give you the time. The peace talk in Israel, I mean, it has tremendous prophetic implications. There's no question about it. There's now talk that as many as 22 Arab nations could formulate some kind of a peace deal with Israel.

Think about that for a minute, folks. And at the very least, they would not go to war with Israel. Now, keep in mind, I just want to refer to a couple of verses here and then we'll move on from this, but it's important. Keep in mind, it says in Ezekiel 38, in the context being the Gog Magog War, the Russian invasion of Israel, with many accomplices, including Iran and Turkey, that when that war transpires, Israel will be living securely. Does securely mean she will just be trusting in the Antichrist or can we throw into the mix her Arab neighbors will not be on war ground with her or could it be both? So you want to highlight the words of Ezekiel 38 10 through 12 that she will be dwelling in peace and safety, dwelling securely. Chad, anyway, that jumped out at me as we're talking peace efforts here.

Chad Jordan No, absolutely, Jan. I mean, this is amazing things. And I know you've said frequently, the tribulation period is casting its shadow on the earth. And folks, if we know we're out of here before the Antichrist is revealed and before that covenant is confirmed, that just shows you how close we are. Jan of peace deals. There are voices, frankly, on both sides of this issue. What's important to believers is what does the Bible say about Israel's status in the last days as it concerns war or peace with her neighbors? Clearly, there'll be last days war with Israel and also peace concerning Israel. Frankly, anything, I'll be blunt, anything Jared Kushner is involved in, I'm not impressed with.

He makes me extremely nervous. I think we'll leave it at that. Let me ask you a few direct questions. Talking to Chad Thomas for this first segment of Understanding the Times radio, Chad's very active on social media, particularly he's active on YouTube.

And so are we. We're also active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, very active on his channel, hischannel.com, lightsource.com. Just a quick heads up here, because of censorship, we're posting obviously our radio program to our website, but now we're posting our radio videos to our website as well. OliveTreeViews.org, OliveTreeViews.org. Just go to radio and then complete archives and you'll find our radio program and the video of the program. If you're a visual person, you might want to watch it. Still on YouTube until they censor us, so we also post it to our website.

Go to radio and then complete archives for the complete programming, both audio and video, OliveTreeViews.org. Chad, you told me that partly because, this is a little bit shocking, partly because of your pre-trib position. In other words, you believe the church will be taken in the rapture of the church before the tribulation begins. You have literally had death threats. Now, let me back up and just say that not everybody who does not hold to a pre-trib position is violent, but I'm just a little shocked to hear that, so talk to me about it. Well, Jan, I know one of the things that you've said frequently is the blessed hope has become the blasted hope and it can get pretty violent, especially in comments and emails. And yes, there was emails and messages I had received threatening my life and people saying that they're not going to like it when they get a hold of me.

Also, people emailing me that they have my address and they literally sent me my address and gave me the square footage of my home. And did they go on and explain why they were so troubled? Well, yeah, it's because I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture and they didn't hold that view. They're upset. They're claiming I'm deceiving people.

I'm a false prophet that I need to be taken care of. Why can't we sit down and reason with one another? Now we've deteriorated to death threats when we disagree.

I didn't think I'd see the day, folks. So how did you handle it? Originally, in my original channel, when I had close to 100,000 subscribers, I had nobody working with me, like helping me control the page. What I did in the meantime was I had shut my channel down just until I could rebuild a new team and deal with all the war and madness that was coming against the channel. Now I have a whole new team.

I have moderators and things are being controlled. So that way, when nasty stuff gets sent that it's dealt with, I'm moving on and I've gotten tougher skin too. And you actually had said the same thing.

One of my sister in Christ, her name was Cheryl. She said, you need to get your rhino skin on. You do, absolutely. I'm learning through all this too, folks. I've got to be tougher because it's not easy what we do. You know that too. We're going to play a little clip of you, Chad.

This is you and one of your little updates here. And we can talk about it after we play it. I believe the rapture of the church itself is the trigger that's going to cause complete worldwide civil unrest, complete chaos, and complete worldwide economic collapse. And the Antichrist will come onto the world stage and he'll make order out of chaos. And everyone's going to be looking to him as the Messiah, the false Messiah.

He's going to solve all the world's problems, Mr. Fix-It-All. But you see a lot of people right now putting their faith and their trust in world leaders to get us through bad times and everything's going to go back to normal. No, this ship is sinking and you need to get on the lifeboat. That lifeboat is Jesus Christ. So if you're somebody that thinks things are just going to go back to normal, we got years and years and years and years left.

Again, just look around you and look at what the Bible says. And when you connect all the dots and everything that's converging right now, especially what's happening right now with the nation of Israel, we see the call for peace and security, peace and safety in the Middle East. I mean, heck, you have this signing ceremony that's supposed to take place this month. I think they're trying to do it before Rosh Hashanah, the signing ceremony of the historic peace deal just made between the United Arab Emirates and Israel. And you're starting to see other Arab nations getting on board with this. And we're supposed to have a wide Mideast peace summit this month. Can you see the continued cries for peace and safety, peace and security? You will see where this is all headed.

Chad, what I'd like to ask you, and I'm going to preclude it. First of all, we just heard your clip there about the stunning things that are going on. And I am looking at the tide of our times. The thing that stands out the most to me in our year 2020, 2020 is literally winding down here.

We're going to look at October in a week or two now. Looking at the tide of our times, I think the most significant thing I've observed is the stunning rise of lawlessness, the spirit of Antichrist. I saw the spark begin here in my hometown of Minneapolis. At least I saw it in the media.

I wasn't at the location of the George Floyd incident. From there, the lawlessness has spread to about 50 US cities and then all the way to Europe and Australia, causing a mass exodus of people out of these cities. I don't see things returning to normal either.

These riots are going to lead to a rapidly sinking ship. And then I talked to you privately and I said, okay, now you tell me what you've seen this year that just stands out the most. And I couldn't agree with you more in your observation. Talk to us about what you've perceived and observed here in 2020. Absolutely, Jan. And what you just mentioned in terms of the lawlessness, I couldn't agree more with what we're seeing right now in 2020, the spirit of Antichrist. I had mentioned to you, I think one of the things that stood out to me the most in 2020 was you have this coronavirus pandemic, or plandemic as a lot of us like to call it, that basically shuts down the whole world for three months.

It couldn't be any more evident where this is pushing us toward. You connect all the dots with this pandemic that shuts down the world. It's setting the stage for a coming new world order, a coming one world government, this one world religion, and this coming one world currency, the mark of the B system, which the B system, the technology is here for it now, but it's not going to be implemented until during the tribulation. What this whole pandemic has done is it just pushed us that much closer to the tribulation period. You're absolutely right. And look how fast it's happened. It took only months to literally change the dynamic of the entire world. The other amazing part too is, Jan, people want to live and they're going to do whatever they have to to live.

This is just showing us when the time does come during the tribulation period where they're going to require you to have this mark of the beast in your right hand or on your forehead, how easy deceived people are going to be to accept this. You're listening to Understanding the Times Radio. I'm Jan Markell. I have on the line from the East Coast, Chad Thomas. Some of you are watching his updates. They're a couple times a week, if not more.

Watchman on the Wall 88. He actually took his channel down. This is a few months ago now, and that was over some consternation that was going on online. The online community can be friendly. It can also be an attacking community.

Some unfortunate things happened, and Chad was able to rebuild as he is now. I encourage you to check it out and to be supportive of him. And Chad, you're talking to all ages, am I right, when you're on your online outreach?

Is it all ages? Absolutely. What are they saying about what you just spoke about? Frankly, we've talked about a number of things here in just about 17 minutes. We've talked about the upcoming peace in the Middle East. We've talked about the spirit of Antichrist. We've talked about the coming New World Order.

Some of these are a little bit daunting. So tell me what your listeners think about this. Are they looking up or are they looking in fear? Jan, what's amazing with a lot of my viewers and commenters, what I'm seeing a lot of is people are excited. They see what's happening. They're saying they know their redemption draws near, that the day is approaching because we're told we will see that day approaching. Like it says in 1 Thessalonians 4.18, we're to comfort one another, comfort one another with these words.

People are excited. Now, I know that there are some people that may be in fear over this. If you're in Christ, you have nothing to fear.

Amen. Because you're not going to be here. Now, I got to reiterate, folks, we don't know how much we're going to see before the rapture. We're just told we're not going to be here for the tribulation period, which is a horrific time frame. We don't know how much we're going to see before the rapture of the church. Now, I tell all of my viewers, you need to live each day as if today could be the day, but also prepare to occupy it if it's years from now. And I'm not saying it is years from now.

I mean, you can agree it could be a lot sooner, the way things are moving. I do see, from my experience on how long I've been on YouTube especially, that there seems to be a lot more of the younger generation that's rising up, Jan, that are getting interested in end times eschatology. They see something's going on. They're encouraged, but at the same time, there's a discouragement because their friends, they're laughing at them, and they can't seem to get their family members on board. They're discouraged because they want people to get saved, those that they love and they care about. I want to read a couple of emails.

These are from younger people. I want to start, and I can't name him. I can tell you that he's in Dubai, and I got this email this morning, and I just feel I have to at least read it. I'm not going to name him, be too dangerous, but you can pray for this young man.

He says, I'm a 16-year-old and living in Dubai. I've been a regular listener to your program for the past few months during the summer and always enjoy the words of encouragement from your prophecy updates and so on. I'm writing this email to inform you about what is occurring here in Dubai. Beginning with my experiences at school today, there has probably never been more struggle from a single day in my entire life. Upon praying a few weeks ago about what my place is at school and what it means to truly be the only Christian out of a class of 150 students, I had decided to take a stand and no longer bow to the majority on ideological, theological, or political issues in order to appeal to the mob. He says, this was not easy, and today after asking the Lord repeatedly for the right opportunity, certain remarks made by my peers and teachers around me warranted a respectful response, and I exposed myself as a believer in Christ, a supporter of your president, and strongly against abortion. I condemned the Black Lives Matter movement.

This came at a price that, to be honest, I was expecting. I have now been labeled a racist, Islamophobia, sexist, hateful, and many other names, and have lost many friends I consider dear and close. Despite not being popular in any sense of the word, the entire class now knows, nevertheless, I never have been happier or more content and feel as though what I did was completely right. I always remember Matthew 5-11 when faced with such ridicule. Jesus Christ is with me till the end, and I'd rather stand with God and be judged by the world than stand with the world and be judged by God. What I believe, I hold near in my heart, and it will not change regardless of my current situation.

Even though this pandemic, my faith has grown even greater despite the new challenges of being a student this year. Chad, that's a 16-year-old. He's in Dubai. That's not his home country. He's there from another country I'm not naming. Look, would you encourage this young man, please?

Absolutely. What I can tell you, young man, just remember that we're told in these times that people are going to call good evil and evil good, and that's exactly what's happening today, but you're an ambassador for Christ. He's chosen you for such a time as this to rise up, and he tells you in his word that you're going to be persecuted, but your reward is going to be great in heaven.

I'm just going to encourage you that you are loved so much by our King, and like I said, you are his ambassador. You've been born for such a time as this. He's called you for such a time as this to rise up, and there's millions of young adults in this world right now that are going through similar things to you.

They're faced with this opposition. Again, you're called evil for the good, for what God has called us to do, but you're taking a stand, and you're going to be rewarded. You just need to hang in there, keep the faith, keep doing what God has called you to do, and keep planting the seeds. It might seem like the seeds you're planting right now are falling on deaf ears, but God will provide the increase in his timing, whether it's now or during the tribulation, because millions come to Christ during the tribulation period, and it could be that the seed you plant, young man, is the seed that God will use.

He'll provide that increase at some point during the tribulation period. You are making a difference. You encourage me. What Jan just read that email, that encourages for me to be stronger in my faith. I want to read another one, Chad, talking to Chad Thomas. This is from an atheist.

He's another young man. He says, I'm an atheist, but I listen to your show nearly every week. For about 10 years when I lived in Minneapolis, I listened as well, religiously. Seriously, I didn't miss a single week. Even attended Understanding the Times conference in 2014.

Now with children and such, I'm having a more difficult time keeping up with the podcast. I want to drop you this note to say keep up the good work. Religiously, I'm a non-believer. Culturally, I couldn't be more aligned with your messages. I'm dismayed at the direction of this country, but I'm given hope when I see you standing tall and strong for what is right and good for this nation.

Best wishes to you and your loved ones. That's Greg in Seattle. Chad, we need to encourage Greg, and we've already done this, I think, throughout this half hour. The time is very, very short, and that Greg in Seattle, declaring himself an atheist, a rather proud atheist, but a kind and gentle one, needs the Lord Jesus Christ before it's too late. Jan, first off, it's amazing that you have unbelievers and believers, both that watch your channel, that follow you. I used to be an atheist.

I used to be somebody just like that, and it wasn't until I read the Bible and I saw that every word in there is true, and how much God loves us, what he has in store for us, and that salvation to me, and everything I was involved with before Jesus saved me, that he would love me enough to go to the cross for me and pay the full penalty for our sin, so that we can be forgiven and be with him forever. Greg, I used to be someone that didn't believe, but from the bottom of my heart, this is all real. This is all real. You see something's going on. This is all in the Bible.

You've been listening to Jan, and you're listening to this now for a reason. Jesus is waiting there with his arms wide open, and you can be saved right now. It says in 2 Corinthians 6-2 that now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation.

You put your faith and your trust that he shed his precious blood for you on that cross at Calvary, believing that he died for you, was buried and resurrected on the third day as it is written in the scriptures, and he can save you right here and right now. I'm imploring you to make that decision now because it's the best one you're ever going to make. Thank you, Chad. I appreciate your encouraging of Greg.

Greg in Seattle. And one more email. This is Danielle. She says, I listened to your program from 2019 with Chad Thomas.

I was encouraged to keep telling my friends about the Lord and his goodness. Your program has also shed light for me that there are other younger people my age who are interested. My generation is not all lost. Oh, I agree with you, Danielle.

It's not. I wanted to send this note to encourage you and to let you know that there is a portion of the younger generation who are listening to you, listening to Chad and the other watchmen, and we are encouraged to continue speaking to our families, friends, co-workers, and the like. We young people need outlets like yours to stay encouraged and stay focused on God and his word and his promises. That's from Danielle.

Chad, wrap it up. We got a couple minutes and you've given a good gospel message, a gospel call to salvation, which of course, that's the point. That's why you're doing what you're doing.

It's why I'm doing what I'm doing. Yes, we're looking at signs of the times and the signs of the times. We're looking at them because they indicate that Jesus is coming back and time is going to run out as we know it. And as we said, opening this program, suddenly things are happening at an astounding pace that we haven't seen happen before.

We're just trying to highlight them and the various methods that we have to do that. But I give you a minute or two if you want to sum up. Jan, you couldn't have said any better. Jesus is coming, folks.

We don't know exactly when, but man, that day is approaching rapidly. And here's the bottom line, guys. If you're listening to this right now again, and you don't have Jesus Christ, but you see what's happening around the world, the truth is, again, this ship is sinking and you need to get on that lifeboat. Me and Jan, we're not telling you to get religious. This isn't about religion. This is about a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ that can start for you right now. It's all about putting your faith and your trust in His shed blood, the penalty that He paid you on the cross at Calvary that we can never pay on our own.

He says, believe. Put your faith and trust in Me again in My death, burial, and resurrection, and you can be saved right now. And don't wait on this, folks, because the most important thing is none of us are promised our next breath on this planet.

The bottom line is heaven and hell, they are very real, literal places. And each one of us, we're going to spend an eternity in one of those destinations, and Jesus Christ is the only way to the kingdom of heaven, and He's the only name that can save us. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation, but the King is coming, and I just want to see everybody rise up. And keep planting seeds, and don't be discouraged. It may seem that the seeds you're planting are falling on deaf ears, but don't be discouraged. Keep planting those seeds and telling people about Jesus and giving them the gospel of their salvation and telling them they can be saved right now, because again, you don't know who's listening. God gives the increase in His time, and so we all need to be encouraged, but we don't know how short time is.

And like Jan said, we need to get busy, folks, because that trumpet cuts out at any moment. Chad, thank you for all you do. Look him up online, Watchman on the Wall 88 on his YouTube channel. You can find him at least twice a week with very short updates that are commenting on the tide of our times. Very cutting edge, very insightful. If you've got younger people in your life, direct them to Chad, would you? Because he's going to connect with them.

I promise you he's going to do that. We're changing topics at the other side of our break. Don't go away.

I'm coming back in just a couple of minutes. 1452 Maple Grove, Minnesota 55311. That's box 1452 Maple Grove, Minnesota 55311.

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Sign up online. Have we done a good job generally at preserving this nation as salt? No. Have we done a good job as shining the light of Christ, being ambassadors for Christ, and influence every aspect of our culture?

No. We have three dozen cutting-edge products in our online store. Check them out at olivetreeviews.org. That's olivetreeviews.org. We post daily headlines seven days a week on our website as well, looking at stories that affect the Christian today, the culture, politics, and more. Jan changes topics and guests in part two of our programming. She welcomes radio host and author David Fiorazzo to wrap up today's programming. Why have we let the church be beaten down the last many months, and why are too many pulpits silent on critical issues?

Here is Jan Markell and David Fiorazzo. In addition to the gospel and teaching the whole counsel of God, if your pastor is not talking about the importance of liberty, cultural impact, worldview, the role of government, and politics from the pulpit, please encourage him to do so. We've got work to do, friends, because many have been deceived. They fell for the lie that we've got to keep church and state separate, but that's a misunderstanding not only of the U.S. Constitution but of the truth. And we don't have time to get into the Johnson Amendment here.

It's unconstitutional. But Christians are to infiltrate culture, not isolate from it. Don't believe rewritten history that suggests America's founders and early pastors didn't intend to live in a country influenced by God and Judeo-Christian values. That's what our Constitution is based upon, the laws of nature and nature's God. But millions of professing religious Americans don't even care because they don't even bother to vote.

And now we're in danger of losing this republic. Welcome to part two of my programming this week. My guest for the next segment is pretty concerned, as am I, about silence of many pulpits. And while there certainly are some truth-telling pastors out there, many pulpits are silent about a lot of important issues. And I have said two dozen times on this program that we are in the most—well, I'll just refer here to prophecy fulfilling days in the history of civilization with the pulpits seldom talking about it.

We're not quite going in that direction for this segment, however. My guest is broadcaster and author David Fiorazzo. He's host of the popular radio programs Stand Up for the Truth online and Q90 out of Green Bay, Wisconsin. He says, quote, Where does your pastor stand? Some of you think we shouldn't be discussing issues dealing with government and elections and politics and church. The truth is someone's morality will be legislated in Washington that will affect our lives, and we have a say. And he says in just a few weeks, a huge election is going to happen at a pivotal time in our history. Thanks to outfits like American Family Association, Family Research Council, and others, there are serious efforts to reach Christian leaders across the country and encourage them to understand the times to prepare and rally their congregations. May I add to get indifferent Christians to understand the issues and then vote.

The consequences of not voting every year, we have an election, and particularly this year are staggering. We'll get into that in the minutes I have with David Fiorazzo. Welcome back to the programming, David. Thank you so much for having me, Jan. Great to be here. Yeah, and you told me about an event you were at. A lot of pastors were present. Talk to me a little bit about it and what they talked about, and let's encourage the audience here by sharing what they talked about. It was phenomenal, Jan, and that clip you played was the day after I returned from this conference, so I was really stirred up.

When I said we're now in danger of losing this republic, as your listeners and you well know, this is not an exaggeration. You're at a pivotal time in our nation's history and in the church, actually. So this conference, wow, it was put on by Liberty Pastors.

They're based out of Oklahoma, and it was called America at the Crossroads, a 9-1-1 call to pastors. And what I came away with several things, but first off, let your listeners be encouraged that so many pastors attended this for the purpose of going back to their congregations and speaking on all of these, quote, cultural, social, political issues, right? We know they're all moral issues.

They all have to do with morality. They're planning on talking more about this because there's been a hesitancy, as you know, in the last however many decades to not speak about other issues from the pulpit when we need to let our congregations know what's happening out there. I was really encouraged, 350 pastors, a lot of them I talked to wanted to be there because they wanted to know how to articulate some of this information on Marxism, on Black Lives Matter, on social justice issues, critical race theory, and the biblical worldview, and of course, politics, the blessings of our government and the Constitution, and how it's practically being shredded. A lot of pastors have feared away from these things, just sticking to the Bible, which is great if you're preaching the whole counsel of God, but I believe you're looking at this country now. Some cities are on fire, and you're just going through the book of whatever it is, Genesis.

Not that that's a bad thing to go through, Genesis. Some of the most articulate pastors I've known that I've followed, John MacArthur, Jack Hibbs, they paused for at least one week, and they just addressed these issues. By the way, Jack Hibbs was one of the speakers there. Yes, who are some other speakers? Dr. Robert Jeffress, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Rick Scarborough was there, Pastor Dan Fisher, who was the black-robed regiment, pastor, also Liberty Council, Matt Staver, Trevor Loudon. We've got a new movie coming out with Curtis Bowers, by the way.

Right, I'm going to be featuring that here in the next few weeks. David, I've had Curtis Bowers on my program, actually many times, and every time he is, he comes on the program, he stirs up a lot of trouble, and I say that in a good way, in a respectful way, because he wakes people up. And he said on my program here just a couple of months ago, he said that if the progressive left gets into office on November 3rd, that they will accomplish more in 100 days than they have accomplished in the last 100 years. And that's just because progressive leftism is now on overdrive, and they're extremely destructive.

And we've seen some of the work of their hands here in the destruction in our cities, including my hometown, Minneapolis. That was a warning by Curtis that he gave on my program, and that he's given other places. And I'm sure that kind of sentiment was given at the meeting you were at.

Absolutely. Like I said, it was called a 911 call to pastors, because we are at a crossroads. So we have to mobilize individually. We've got to make sure that we're on that solid foundation. Then we've got to affect people in our sphere of influence with some of these things.

Talk about these issues that you and I take for granted. It's me on Standard for the Truth, you on Understanding the Times. We know we're very familiar with a lot of these cultural issues, a lot of these movements that are against Christ, against God.

This is very fascinating. It seems like there's almost a coalition now going against. It's really against America. Really, obviously, on the surface, it's against Donald Trump. It's all spiritual at the core.

It is demonic. You're talking about Antifa, big tech, Black Lives Matter, communists. You've got the Democrats, the education system, environmentalists, globalists, Hollywood, Islam, LGBT, Marxists. You've got the media, Planned Parenthood, socialists, the university system, witches, the economy putting spells on Trump, the World Economic Forum, the United Nations. All of these, they might not be locking arms physically, but they are working together for a common goal. The underlying goal is this great republic under God that was built on the Constitution based on biblical values and the laws of God. Here we are at the surface.

We've got an election on November 3rd, and it is a Republican or Democrat. This is what bugs me, Jan. So many Christians say, oh, well, Donald Trump is so rough. He has to comment. He's got his past, right? Well, we all have a past, first of all.

Secondly, stop talking about personality and look at platforms. You're not voting for Trump. You're not voting for Biden. Biden won't even be there. If he gets elected, he won't be there for long. It's either going to be President Kamala Harris or it's going to be a whole other leftist movement that's going to take this country in a different direction.

I know. And some of the issues that we're dealing with, the socialization of America, the loss of all religious liberty, it'll be gone, folks. It'll be gone. I'm going to play a clip in just a minute of what we're dealing with now.

If you think it's bad now, just wait. We're going to have the abandonment of Israel. We're going to have the celebration of everything aberrant. And what's next?

We're going to honor pedophilia next. If you're not careful, folks, it's coming. The opening of all our borders to hardened criminals, thugs, and murderers, it's coming. Folks, if things go haywire and paying for their health care, by the way, at the same time and more church closures. And I just want to play a clip and get your feedback, your comment, David. This is Pastor Jack Treiber, North Valley Baptist Church, Santa Clara, California. I just posted a headline to my website that California is quickly turning into a third world country. And I say that with great grief because I've spent several weeks of winters there in the last few years. And I love the state, but because of its liberalism, because it's just got to go with government being God out there.

Let's play a quick clip. The first three words of the constitution is we, the people, not we, the government. The government works for the people.

I'm Pastor Jack Treiber of North Valley Baptist Church in Santa Clara, California. Well, the government's done it again. They've ratcheted this thing up. They just posted more signs on our building because they said we're having an indoor gathering. We are not social distancing, which is not true by the way. We are refusing to wear face masks and we're now again singing in church.

And we've not given them a protocol or we're not allowed to give them a protocol because they won't accept it. So they fined us $250 for one day. The next day, $500. The next day, $1,000. The next day, $2,000. The next day, $4,000. And now the last four days, they've just given to us $5,000 a day.

In addition to having Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night church, that's $5,000 each time. Every single day, we don't give them a protocol. What protocol can we give them? America, this is a serious moment. In just these few days, we're up to $52,000.

52,750. Government, it must stop. It cannot continue this way. It's we the people. I read to you from the Bill of Rights.

I'm going to try to make this quick. Congress shall make no law, no law establishing the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging. Abridging, we know, means to lessen or to diminish or to reduce. They cannot reduce our rights. It's not the government's right to do that. Or the freedom of speech, the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble. That refers also to this idea of religion in the first part of this amendment. We have the right to assemble before God. Not only do we have a constitutional right, we have a biblical command.

Now, several things. America, thank you for joining us in prayer. America, will you please help us? This has to stop. This has to cease. You have given us government cease and desist. I'm asking you on this day, cease and desist.

This is harassment. To do this to a church, to close down a church in California, preachers, if we don't stop it here, it's going to sweep all over, which it already has in our state, and it's going to sweep all over the United States of America. Government cannot take away our freedom.

You cannot take our right to assemble. County, state of California, it must stop. One, I'm asking you to stop all fines.

And two, I'm asking you to remove all fines. This is not Caesar's money. This is God's money.

We have rendered under Caesar the things that are Caesar, and we have rendered under God through our tithes and offerings, which is His. I'm not threatening at all today, but I'm going to tell you this. All the more, we are not closing down this church. I hope you get this message. I don't know what the consequences on your part is going to be, but I know that America, I know America does not want this to happen in her country and at this church. God bless you, America. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your encouragement. David Fierazzo, you heard the desperation in his voice?

Yes. I wish I could say I was surprised, especially in California. All of us, I think, were caught off guard when a virus was used by the left and those who would want to push globalism and control in the country to cause us to willingly give up some of our freedoms. And I think we caved generally as a church and as a nation.

And I want to go back. There's a quote I came across from Pastor Joseph Lathrop in 1787. He said, is there no case in which a people may resist government?

Yes, there is one such case, and that is when rulers usurp a power oppressive to the people. And so many other pastors and leaders at the time, early in the 1700s, 1800s, were so strong on this issue of religious freedom, standing on the Constitution. And the government is for the people. It's not supposed to be against. It's not supposed to have power over the people.

And he was right. We the people, right? When these pastors are dealing with some things that may come to our doors, depending on what state you're in. Jan, this is another thing.

I see the sheep from the goats being separated here. And what's interesting about this is in the church itself, we're seeing a division over maybe politics, but it's the COVID issue, how the church responded to that, then the mask men and then other things. I want to go back to this conference that I was at, America at the Crossroads down in Dallas, Texas. There is a pastor there from New Mexico Legacy Church. His name is Steve Smotherman. He's got a mega church. He's a very solid evangelical pastor and preacher. He spoke at this conference. It was an amazing testimony. But part of the message he shared was in 2016, he was asked to pray for a Trump rally, to lead off in prayer than maybe do a little M.C.

He did that. Following that, thousands of people from his church left. He said it really hurt him at the time, surprised him. But then after thinking about it, he thought, wow, some of these people either didn't know where the church stood on abortion, marriage, free markets versus socialism and many other things, or either they just didn't want to hear, they just wanted to be part of a mega church. But he said this is like the sheep and the goats being separated.

And it's not just because of Republicans and Democrats. He really learned, he said, this is a warning to the pastors. Remember, he spoke to pastors at this conference. He said, there are people in your church and probably in every church that do not have the same world view as you do. And your job is to teach them, lead them to the Bible, equip the saints. You can't force them to change their worldview.

Some people do not want to change. But that was an eye opener for him. You're listening to Understanding the Times Radio. I'm Jan Markell. I have on the line from Green Bay, Wisconsin, David Fierrazzo. You can learn more at his website, davidfierrazzo.com, davidfierrazzo.com. He's the host of Stand Up for the Truth radio program on Q90. And then he's got a significant podcasting audience to Stand Up for the Truth as well, which I have the privilege of being a guest on now and then.

Again, out of Green Bay, Wisconsin. David, did they talk about, and I know this is a mystery because I'll never understand it, but I know part of the strategy here is to get pastors to go home and get their congregations to go and vote because every year huge numbers of evangelicals do not vote. Why is this? Does anybody understand this phenomenon? Is it indifference? Is it because they think this world doesn't matter? What is it that causes the Christian not to vote?

Yes to both of what you just said. Part of it is indifference and apathy. The other part is maybe they think it's too worldly of a thing, politics and government.

These things that we're talking about, legislation, as you mentioned at the very beginning, someone's morality will be legislated. Do you want the left and an anti-God morality to be legislated in Washington? Or do you want something more based on traditional biblical values? I think people say, well, it's the lesser of two evils.

I'm so tired of that one personally. Or we're just too wrapped up into politics. We should be about God's word.

There's a disconnect with how to apply the ideas in the Bible about being salt and light. Have we done a good job generally at preserving this nation as salt? No. Have we done a good job as shining the light of Christ, being ambassadors for Christ, and influence every aspect of our culture?

No. We backed out of culture. And I know we did a program a couple of years ago, Jan, on the Johnson Amendment, which I wrote about in the past. That's one of the reasons pastors backed out and didn't want to talk about that.

They didn't know whether their 501c3 would be effective. But let me get back to Christians and voting. There are numbers. Some high estimates are 54 million Christians.

I know. Or Evangel Christians did not show up to vote in the last election. And this is a big problem. If even a fraction of those would show up, elections wouldn't even be close.

Why? When we hold a true biblical worldview, the choices in the worldviews we're voting for are incredibly clear, because there's such a stark contrast now between the two parties, the two different versions of America that we're voting for. This is our calling now, I think, to all of you who are listening. If your pastor is not talking about these things, please approach him in love. Don't make claims on him that you're not doing your job.

That's not productive. Lovingly approach him and say, Pastor, I'm really concerned about the direction America could go and how Christians might be persecuted if, for example, Joe Biden gets elected. Can you please talk about some of these moral issues and social issues from the Bible from that aspect and inform the congregation?

Because I think it's the responsible thing to do. So if your pastor is not, we've got to do it no matter what. I pray that we're all talking about it on our social media, just sharing articles, information on what these two worldviews would represent and look like. Please encourage your pastors to talk about these things. Quoting you here in an article you've written on your blog at DavidFirazzo.com, you say, Sadly, culture has influenced too many Christians rather than the other way around, and liberalism has infected the church like a virus.

Since we dropped the ball and backed out of the culture a half century ago, here's the residual effect. Truth has been redefined. God is mocked. Prayer and the Bible expelled from public schools. God's laws from the public square. Sin is celebrated.

Pleasure exalted. Abortion legalized. We've seen the increase of adultery, divorce, homosexuality, rampant promiscuity, and tolerance of Christianity. And then you say, Hollywood has poisoned the minds of children. Public schools push a progressive, godless agenda.

Record-high suicide rates among young people. Radical feminism. Witchcraft. Legalized same-sex marriage. Government corruption. Political gridlock. Gender confusion. Sexual anarchy. Racial division and riots in our cities. Paid for by America haters and globalists.

And this is an abbreviated list, but you still have a say. And I think, David, and you would probably have made the same observation I have. It's always been an underlying agenda, and it is in every culture, but in the last 10 years, it has gone off the rails, and it is just exaggerated. Now, to the point where it's quite terrifying. Can the church be salt and light and delay this kind of decay, or at least minimize and limit this decay?

We've got to try. Yes, and I'm one to say, to be honest, I don't think it's going to happen for America as far as the church. But I'm also one to say, with God, all things are possible.

And the Holy Spirit, we don't often remember the power that we have access to, the Holy Spirit of God. And I really think that we need repentance in the church, we need a revival, we could see pockets of revival. I almost think we have to get our backs up against the wall first.

And I think if we're not up against the wall now, I can't imagine what's coming down the road, Jan. I think we need to go back really quickly about why this started happening, why Christians stopped engaging, why pastors stopped talking about this. The Johnson Amendment in 1954. Do you remember who came against Lyndon Johnson before he was president? He was a senator. It was anti-communist groups and conservative groups. And you go, wow, anti-communist? Lyndon Johnson?

The Great Society and all the promises of the big government? Why do you think they were coming against him? They were trying to point out his policies that would take us down a road closer to socialism. He checked with the IRS, what they were doing was legal, speaking about his campaign and his policies. He slipped in this amendment on the Texas Senate floor when they were debating a tax code bill, and he slipped in the Johnson Amendment, which would affect people, particularly pastors, but nonprofits, speaking about candidates or political issues. And that is what changed everything, because there was this misunderstanding and misapplication of what that meant regarding a church's 501c3.

But let me just cut to the chase. To this day, to my knowledge, there hasn't been one church that has lost a nonprofit status, and I've got my views on that to begin with. But there's not one church that was sued by the IRS or lost their nonprofit status for speaking about politics. In my opinion, you can say anything from the pulpit. As far as the law goes, the only thing you cannot do from the pulpit is endorse a candidate and give them campaign church money.

That's the only thing you cannot do. So now a lot of your listeners go, whoa, I can't believe my pastor's not talking about Planned Parenthood or socialism, but the communism behind Black Lives Matter. Well, Black Lives Matter, this is the issue of 2020, and churches are on board. I've talked about it on Understanding the Times radio here this spring and summer. Churches are on board with Black Lives Matter, and they are a Marxist terrorist group.

It's hard to imagine that they don't know this. What's fascinating, Jan, is the flip we've just seen. If you just recognize what we just talked about, the 1960s, and Lyndon Johnson and the Johnson Amendment, and that was a catalyst, I believe, in not only pastors, but the congregations backing out our culture, not talking about political issues as much.

Some people still did, but I think that was a catalyst. And now you have pastors, they're not talking about biblical issues from the biblical worldview anymore. And now today you've got pastors practically endorsing communism and socialism and anti-God Marxism. And what's ironic is in the name of ridding the world of oppression, Marxism creates more oppression.

It's just amazing. And by the way, we all stand before God, our Creator, one day. And you can tell your pastor, you can tell a Christian who promotes BLM, God is not going to ask whether or not someone was on the side of the oppressed or the oppressor when we stand before Christ. Some people, David, would say that our problems in this country are more daunting than one election could possibly fix. In fact, our problems, we have spiritual issues, a spiritual battle going on, to be honest. Some of the things you're talking about, well, maybe it's too late. The issues aren't political, they're spiritual. I'm down to just a couple of minutes, but why don't you address this? Well, here's the thing.

We know it's daunting. We know we dropped the ball decades and decades ago. Otherwise, that list that you read about how we've lost our influence. Politics, it's interesting.

People want to avoid that because they think it's just so yucky because of all the corruption. But we need to understand that that's where you're going to influence people. Politics are downstream from culture, which means culture influences government. Ideally, our Christian faith, the light of Christ being ambassadors, being salt, ideally faith and religion should be shaping our culture, which in turn would then vote and shape government and politics. But it hasn't been going that way.

So even if Donald Trump gets reelected, and I would say he would, aside from some bizarre act of the left they're going to pull off, but I think he will. But we can't rest after that election. We've got to be soldiers in battle. This conference I went to, they called it a boot camp for pastors.

A boot camp is like military. We've got to have our armor on. We've got to be ready to fight soldiers. Remember in the book of Nehemiah when they were building the wall, they were working with one hand, they had a weapon in the other hand. We've got to be battle ready. We've got to work while we're ready to fight.

I think that's a great analogy for not only pastors, but for individual Christians in this time. You gave a lineup of who the enemies are. From Antifa, BLM, you've got big tech, you've got environmentalists, globalists, you gave this rundown.

I mean, it's significant. Hollywood, who were pushing back against LGBT, the Marxists, the mainstream media, Planned Parenthood, socialists, the witches, the occult, the World Economic Forum, United Nations. And then we've got outfits that some of my listeners deal with all the time.

I'm going to be blunt here. We've got the World Council of Churches, we've got the Vatican, you've got evangelical outfits that have gone left. You've got people like Russell Moore with an evangelicalism who've never met a liberal cause they don't love. You've got the leftward leaning of many denominations, one solid but no longer. You've got the religious left we're pushing back against, the social cause that they have picked up from Jim Wallace, Tony Campolo, Shane Claiborne. In other words, David Fierrazzo, all I'm saying is we're pushing back against quite a lot of forces.

I'm down to a minute. Darkness. And by the way, Joe Biden is now saying, vote for me, I'll give you a hope and light. He's associating himself with light. But he's saying we don't want any of the destruction and darkness of the Trump administration. So he's associating Donald Trump with darkness. Well, that's calling evil good and good evil.

If you look at Trump's policies. One thing that I want to point out in that list, Islam and LGBT are in that list working against America, Donald Trump, and of course, they're against Christ. Islam, they would kill homosexuals, right? But LGBT, they're working together in this.

Fascinating. Some of these entities that are in this movement against Trump, you know, it is dark, you know, it is demonic at its core, but we've got the light of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. We know who wins in the end. We've just got to be reminded, keep looking up. But yes, be effective while we're here.

Don't just check out friends. We need to do the work God calls us to do while we're here. It's going to take a lot of prayer to do that. Just want to encourage your listeners to keep on plugging away.

There are more with us than there are with them. Thank you. That's a good summary. Learn more at davishearazzo.com and check out his radio program, Stand Up For the Truth. You can get that as an online podcast.

Headquarters out of Green Bay, Wisconsin. I want to go out of the program today. Pastor sent this to me and it's so appropriate.

I've used it in various places. It says, we don't live in uncertain times. Not at all. These times are as certain as any time in all of human history and the God of the universe laid out this time in great detail point by point. And in fact, with all the detail needed by his people to live in times of absolute certainty.

So no, there's nothing uncertain about the times we live in to the believer who is seeking to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Thanks for listening folks. We will talk to you again next week. We will talk to you again next week. by surprise and everything is falling into place.