Reviving Our Blessed Hope

We want to encourage you this hour. There is a hope no man can take away from you, though some are trying. We'll talk about it.

I have faced people and they say, well, you know, if I'd have known this Margaret McDonald 15-year-old lassie started this whole thing, I'm looking at him going, she didn't. Jan Markell talks for the first part of our program with Dr. Douglas Stauffer about the Blessed Hope, the Rapture of the Church. We carry Dr. Stauffer's book, Reviving the Blessed Hope of Thessalonians. There is a literal attack and a scoffing over the rapture and particularly the pre-tribulation rapture of the church, which the Bible supports. Jan and Doug Stauffer defend that in our first segment. While many churches remain silent on this and related topics, Olive Tree Ministries and Understanding the Times Radio will not remain silent. We are defenders of the truth of scripture.

Here's Jan Markell and Dr. Douglas Stauffer. How is it that the pre-tribulation rapture teaching, which states that Jesus will take the church to heaven before the tribulation, is so popular even though its leading advocates admit there is not one single verse of scripture that actually teaches this new doctrine? Several pre-trib leaders, say for instance John Walvoord and others, have mentioned that there's not a single verse that clearly teaches a pre-tribulation rapture.

I was going to say the same thing. I don't think there is a single verse that supports the pre-tribulation theory. We offered $10,000 to those holding to a pre-tribulation rapture if they could produce just one verse or passage that states that Jesus will rapture the church before the tribulation. And welcome to the program.

Well, that was just a little tease. Because we're carrying a book, as some of you are aware, we advertised it up to six weeks ago, Reviving the Blessed Hope of Thessalonians, the rapture commentary series. And I have the author of the book online with me from the East Coast. His name is Dr. Douglas Stauffer.

We'll give some contact information a little bit later, but I do recommend the book because the rapture is under attack, pre-trib is under attack. We'll spend the next 30 minutes talking about this. Dr. Doug Stauffer, welcome to the program for the first time. Oh, it is great to be on your program, Jan.

I can't wait to start commenting on that clip. Well, yeah, let's do that because you and I have already talked. Look, this is an accusation hurled against us. You can't find one verse that says there's a pre-trib rapture. Well, but there are books of the Bible talking about the pre-trib rapture. There's eight chapters in Thessalonians. Right, and every one of those chapters mentions the pre-tribulation rapture, along with three of them mentioning the day of the Lord or the tribulation period. But when we're looking at these comments that are being made about it being a theory or something like that, that's simply false. I mean, Titus 2 13 says, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Now, here's the problem. When you teach something that is contrary to people looking for Jesus Christ, and you tell them to be looking for the Antichrist, looking for the mark of the beast, the next verse says that believing in that blessed hope, people will purify themselves. They'll be zealous of good works. The verse before says, teaching us the denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope. So what people are doing that teach this false teaching of a post-trib, mid-trib, pre-wrath type of rapture is that they are getting their focus off of Jesus Christ. And that's why the church is becoming very carnal, because they are not focused on looking for Jesus every day. You say, and I'm quoting you here, you say, we believe the blessed hope of the church or the rapture, the imminent return of the Lord, for his body, the church, has a direct significant bearing on one's personal life and holiness. And I fear, Douglas Stauffer, that too many believers and pastors feel this is a side issue. In fact, it's a controversial issue. Therefore, we don't want to go here when it has everything to do with the future, with our eternity. I think they feel it has little to do with how we live today. And that's a huge miscalculation.

I agree. I'll quote another scripture for you, 1 John 3.2. Toward the end it says, When he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself.

The reason that we have such a carnal Christianity is because the church is not teaching about people looking for that blessed hope. Another one is 1 John 3.2. It says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself. I guess I just quoted the same two verses there, 1 John 3.2, but I quoted it earlier.

When he appears, we're going to be like him. With that hope, we purify ourself. In your book, which we carry, folks, it's in our store, allatreeviews.org, Reviving the Blessed Hope of Thessalonians.

Let me ask you this. Why do you think that this topic, first of all, has to be revived? Something that has to be revived has expired, or at the very least, it's on life support. And my opinion is that the topic of eschatology and times Bible prophecy has been on life support the last maybe 25 years. I hear from people almost daily looking for a church that will at least reference this topic, if not regularly, at least occasionally, frequently, and they're told again, as I already referenced, it's not relevant for a day-to-day living.

Or it's controversial, or no one can really understand the topic, or we don't know which version of the topic is correct. But why do you think it has to be revived? Well, I think it has to be revived because Daniel's a closed book till the time of the end. So the reason that we see a revival in it now, that's Daniel 12.4, is because Daniel is opening up during this time of the end that we're living in. Daniel opens Revelation. Conversely, further opening of Revelation opens Daniel.

It goes both ways. You and I, and many others like us, we've spent thousands of hours in study on this subject matter. The average pastor, he can't devote the entire time. He has to prepare for several sermons each week, counseling, visitation, funerals, weddings. We've done the work for him in our writings and our teachings.

That's why we put these things out. Now, why is it so important? Because what the devil does is he's gleeful when he robs Krishna of their rewards. 2 Timothy 4.8, henceforth there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing, his appearing, our disappearing, at the rapture of the church. We're not looking for the revealing of Jesus Christ or the revelation. That comes at the second coming. That comes during Daniel's 70th week and not at the rapture.

Well, and I'm going to play a clip here, and I kind of want to build a little bit on what we've already talked about. Here's where I got acquainted with you talking to Dr. Doug Stauffer because we're carrying his book Reviving the Blessed Hope of Thessalonians. It's a book defending the rapture. It's a book defending the pre-trib rapture, quite frankly. But I got acquainted with you because you did a most intriguing debate on rapture timing with Pastor Joe Schimmel. This is a few years ago, Pike's Peak Prophecy Conference.

A couple of things stood out at me, Doug, and that is, number one, I'm so glad you two guys were pretty respectful of each other. In other words, there was no sniping going back and forth. That's not always the case.

As a matter of fact, you can find things online. It goes beyond sniping. It's just plain contentious and mean-spirited when it comes to debating this topic. I got acquainted with you in that debate, and then I've also been aware, I'm referencing again Joe Schimmel, because he put out a four-hour film in 2014 called Left Behind or Led Astray, which is a horrific four hours. I'm sorry, I've got to be blunt here.

I want to play a part of the trailer for that, Doug, and then we're going to come back and talk about one angle of it. To say that the world is in a state of shock this morning would be to understate the situation. Suddenly and without warning, literally thousands, perhaps millions of people just disappeared. What if the end of the world really isn't as so many have portrayed it? What if the church is not raptured to heaven before the great tribulation, as many are teaching?

People from all over this planet seem to have vanished. What if the church has been left ill-prepared to face the antichrist and the mark of the beast? What if Tim LaHayes claimed that if the pre-tribulation rapture is false, then the blessed hope will become the blasted hope actually comes true for millions of pre-tribulationists? What if millions who have been led astray by the pre-trib teaching become part of the great falling away that Jesus warned would take place at that time? Left Behind or Led Astray, examining the origins of the secret pre-tribulation rapture, features vital end-time insights from prophecy teachers Joe Schimmel, Jacob Prash, and Joel Richardson. The issue of the pre-tribulational versus post-tribulational rapture is one of the premier pastoral issues of our day. If you're a pastor that's not preparing your people to face potentially the antichrist and the great tribulation in this hour simply because your denomination teaches it or whatever, personally I think you're failing in your role as a shepherd and a pastor.

That was part of the trailer. The voice you heard is Joel Richardson there. We need to prepare to meet the antichrist. I know Joel. He's a brother in the Lord. I really love him.

I think he does some good work by way of particularly his love for Muslims and winning them to faith. But Doug Stauffer never once are Christians told to prepare for tribulation, for Daniel's 70th week, or for facing the antichrist. Never! I agree with you and I am just as vehement in that expression as you are.

I mean, show me where. Oh, they'll take you to Matthew 24 where it's the nation of Israel being addressed by the Lord Jesus Christ talking about the last days when Christ is going to send back his angels to gather the elects because he's coming back behind them with the armies. But that's not the rapture. That's the second coming that sets his foot on this earth. The rapture is totally different. The rapture is not a reward for living right. The rapture is a promise given to the church who is going to be in a state of apostasy and I believe a lot of these mockers and people in these last days about the pre-tribulation rapture are actually going to disturb the truth or destroy the truth in such a way that people are mocking us. People are mocking the truth and that is dangerous.

That's dangerous whether you're Jacob Prash or Joel or Joe Schimmel. Never are we told to prepare for Daniel's 70th week. Again, the tribulation is for the salvation of the nation of Israel. And Doug, I just think this should be so obvious to everyone because the Bible makes it obvious that the tribulation is for judging the Christ-rejecting world. But secondly, it is to bring Israel to salvation and nowhere does the Bible talk about the church experiencing the wrath of God. The church is going to experience and is experiencing the wrath of man and the wrath of Satan. Never the wrath of God. Never.

No, that is correct. If you're in Revelation and you study it, as you know, Revelation chapters 1, 2, and 3 talk about the church. Revelation 4, 1 says after this.

After what? After that church age that's pictured there, John's caught up to heaven. Well, you see the church in chapters 1, 2, and 3. You see the wrath in chapters 6 through 18. You see the church returning in chapter 19. Where you see the church, you don't see the wrath.

And where you see the wrath, you don't see the church. That's as simple as anybody can see it. I do a chart and I throw it up on the board.

I say, look at this chart. Here's all 22 chapters. Here's the church.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Here's the wrath. Where you see the wrath, you don't see the church. And John is a picture of the rapture in Revelation 4, 1. That's one simple way in Revelation to show that. Now, I opened the program and you might not have heard that because that was part of our production earlier.

We played a clip. Actually, it's a clip of you talking about the so-called secret rapture, which of course is nonsense. Why don't you explain why the secret rapture is not going to be very secret? I think that terminology was come up with when they talk about a secret rapture, just meaning it's not the revealing of Jesus Christ like at the second coming. It's the appearing of Christ. But that doesn't mean that the world won't hear the trump, that they won't see or hear anything. They will. There's going to be millions of people missing.

It can't be a secret. The only thing that's different about the second coming versus the rapture, second coming, Christ touches down to this earth. He destroys all of his enemies. He protects those that have endured to the end of that seven-year period. He sends his angels to protect them.

With us, the Bible says Christ himself shall descend with the voice of God, the archangel and the trump of God. They may hear that voice. They may hear that trump. It's not going to be secret, as in the sense that the world doesn't know anything took place. Obviously, they're going to know.

Right. But in this production of Left Behind or Led Astray, there's a constant reference to a secret rapture. And I hear this from others as well. Just plain people who are anti-rapture, maybe the timing is not relevant to them. The fact that we even believe in one and they mockingly refer to it as a secret, which anything but a secret. You're right. I mean, it's just like saying it's an escapist doctrine as far as the rapture goes. And that's not true either. What they do is they vilify us by trying to control the terminology.

And it's a terrible thing for anybody to get away with unanswered. I want to play another clip. It is a view.

It's just 30 second clip here. And then when we come back, I'd like to talk to you a little bit about it, because I think that there are many who are accusing you and I, because we are pre-trib and staunchly so, that we think, OK, what about this persecution? How can you say we're not going to suffer persecution?

Obviously, persecution going on as we speak, Middle East, Africa and other places. And we which are alive remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord.

Wherefore comfort one another with these words. I don't know about you, but that's pretty comforting to know that I may never die. It doesn't say I'll escape some tribulation that's going to come or persecution or all those that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. It doesn't mean I'm going to escape all that. I mean, eventually you will. But it doesn't mean it's not coming.

And it is coming. I'm here to tell you, you better be right with God, because when it comes, maybe the only scripture you're going to be able to access is what you've memorized. OK, Judge Stauffer, but you're referring to the persecution coming from man, not from God.

That is correct. Paul wrote, he said, in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. He's saying that he's not bringing the persecutions and tribulation against the church. He's saying you're suffering because of man.

This is going to happen. This whole thing doesn't mean that we believe that the church now isn't going to suffer some tribulation and persecution. It certainly does.

Tribulation bringeth patience. They're framing these arguments to make us say something that we don't say. They're saying we believe something we don't believe. And really, it's a lie.

That's not being unkind. It's just saying, look, stop changing our words. Stop twisting our teaching. Yeah, twisting our teaching, which they're doing with this Margaret McDonald nonsense as well.

And that was a major, major part of that left behind or led astray four hour, really tough thing to have to watch. Margaret McDonald, she's responsible for the pre-trib rapture. She's post-trib for Pete's sake.

She is. I flew to Scotland and I got the original documentation, which I still have, which I, in the debate, I took a five minute portion of mine and I threw it up there. And Joe Schimmel backtracked and said, well, we don't take that position and you just build a straw man. I mean, you talk about the kettle calling the pot black. That's all they do is build straw men against us.

And I wasn't. He has an hour on his video on Margaret McDonald. And for him to say it was other people speaking, he produced the video. So he has to either believe that, endorse it, but he can't distance himself from that. He knows now that she's post-trib, whether he knew that before the debate or not.

But the other argument going along with that is what you and I believe. And by the way, folks, the book is Reviving the Blessed Hope of Thessalonians. And it is certainly a treatise on the pre-trib rapture is that this was not even, well, let's put it this way. A fellow by the name of John Darby brought it into prominence. Before that, nobody knew or talked about the rapture, the pre-trib rapture. It's all thanks to Margaret McDonald and John Darby. And that is a lie, a blatant lie.

It sure is. The point is, you can go back and you can find people that taught that. I have it, without a doubt, from original source documents back to the 1400s.

So you can't say it's brand new. Then they go back to the so-called church fathers and try quoting them. But many of their documents have been doctored by the Whore Church, and that's just the way it is. You can't look at things and say, well, this is older, this has been here since the beginning. You can find the pre-tribulation rapture all the way back.

The things they're looking at are dubious at best. I think another point that needs to be emphasized here is, for instance, let's just spend a moment here on this so-called pre-wrath rapture. Now, there are multiple rapture timing positions. You and I, as dispensationalists, believe in the pre-trib.

Then there's the mid-trib, there's the post-trib, going to go through all seven years. And then there's the pre-wrath. The pre-wrath would say that the rapture would happen before the outpouring of God's wrath in the tribulation. Well, Douglas Stauffer, in my mind and in my reading and studying, the entire tribulation is wrath. My goodness, when the church is gone, we're the restraining force on the earth right now. Once we're gone, I maintain within minutes, certainly days, all heck is going to break loose all around the globe. And there's not going to be a time that won't be, if I may say it, hell on earth. And that's true.

I give you an example along the same line. When the seals are opened, they say, well, the wrath starts in the sixth seal. Well, who's opening the seals but the Lamb of God?

That's right. So if you have the Lamb of God opening the first seal, you can't have the wrath starting at the sixth seal. It's debunked simply by just considering scripture with scripture. Folks, you can learn more at Dr. Doug Stauffer's website, BibleDoug.com. And again, the book is in my bookstore, Reviving the Blessed Hope of Thessalonians, OliveTreeViews.org, OliveTreeViews.org. You can call my office.

You can find it in my various newsletters, print and e-newsletter. We've been promoting it here for probably six weeks at least and having a tremendous response, because honestly, Doug, the remnant out there does want to understand this much more clearly. As we open the whole program, most churches, certainly the majority of churches, are not talking about any of this.

Just a couple of other issues while we have time, Doug. I think the verse in Revelation, Revelation 3.10, is significant, at least to me, because you have kept my word about patient endurance. I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth, Revelation 3.10. And then in the following chapters, of course, the tribulation begins and is, again, as I keep saying, it becomes hell on earth. But again, Revelation 3.10 says that he's going to keep the church from the hour or trial that is coming upon the whole world. And I certainly agree, as I pointed out, you've got the church in the first three chapters, and then he says after this, that is after the church age, because the last word in Revelation 3.22 says, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. After this, John is caught up into heaven showing a picture of the rapture. And I also point out that heaven is open twice. It's open in Revelation 4.1 with John going up, and then it's opened up again in Revelation chapter 19, and that is with the actual church itself following Jesus Christ on white horses coming back with him. Revelation 19.11, I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him, and talks about, verse 14, the armies which were in heaven. By the way, that dupes anybody that says we're raptured up to the clouds and float around and come back with Jesus, because it says the armies which were in heaven, not the armies floating around on a cloud for a couple of years. Quoting you here, I love this particular paragraph. You say, The New Testament church lives together, serves together, loves together, rejoices together, reaps rewards together, and one day will leave together to meet Christ in the clouds.

See, this is my words now. That is a hope worth reviving, I think, Doug, and that's why I wish our churches would present this message. Just what you just said, the church lives together, loves together, rejoices together, reaps rewards together, and one day will leave together to meet Jesus Christ in the clouds.

That is a hope worth reviving. And that's why it says, So shall we ever be with the Lord. Comfort one another with these words. It isn't so much that it's an escapist doctrine, it's a promise to the church.

I tell people this all the time. If we're in the Laodicean church age, we're out of the Philadelphia church age, the Philadelphia church age was a great time of revival. I tell people today all the time, you need to be a Philadelphia Christian in a Laodicean age. That's what I try to tell people to do. It's getting harder and harder to do as the church slips more and more into apostasy, and I've covered that on here recently.

Honestly, it's getting harder and harder because the church is not all of them, thankfully. Many are holding to truth, many are not holding to truth. And they're not, and that's why we put out the materials that we put out, and that's why you've looked at my book and you're making it a resource for others to get. And listen, I read, and I told you this, I read the majority of my material that I read now is against the pre-tribulation rapture. And the reason for that, and I don't suggest anybody else do it, I'm doing my homework. I want to know, where is my argument weak?

Is there anything that I need to consider that I haven't considered that the other side is making? And I go through there and, listen, sometimes it challenges me for weeks until I get an answer, but there is not one answer that God hasn't given me. And every time he points me to a pre-tribulation rapture of the church, because nothing has disproved it. Not one point that any of these writers or speakers have made has disproved the pre-tribulation rapture.

Doug, when I was growing up and just starting to learn about some of these issues, of course, the late great planet Earth influenced me as a young person significantly, plus a trip to Israel. But in my church, and most any other evangelical church I was aware of at that time, this wasn't a debate. It's become a debate in the last maybe 25 years or so, maybe in the 90s.

I'm not sure what happened. I mean, we had the pre-wrath people come along, Van Campen and others. Give me a minute or two on how you think this transition from once everyone kind of believing in this pre-trib to morphing into these other types of theologies. Well, I think the Bible prophesied it in 2 Peter 3-3, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lust and saying, where's the promise of his coming, for since the fathers fell asleep, etc. The Bible said there's going to be scoffers. I think what these people are, they're scoffers. They are looking at the pre-tribulation rapture and saying, listen, we believed it, and he didn't come, and things are getting worse. Look at all these people suffering tribulation all over the world and your escapist doctrine.

Listen, they just don't believe the Bible, because the Bible is very clear that the church is going to be raptured out before the wrath of God comes upon this earth. I think it's clear as well. I think it's crystal clear. By the way, the case is made for this, folks. It's in the book. We carry it.

It's in my store. You can give my office a call, Reviving the Blessed Hope of Thessalonians. And as I introduced this segment, I said something that has to be revived. See, it's probably on life support, and this topic, quite frankly, is on life support. The reasons for that are, well, Legion, number one, seminaries have dropped it.

Pastors aren't trained in it. There's just all sorts of reasons. We've had the Fringe crowd. We've had the Harold Campings and others come along, and they're an embarrassment to this topic.

There are all sorts of them. Edgar Weisenhunt, back in the 80s. 88 reasons the Lord is coming back in 1988. It didn't happen. It came out with another book. It'll be 1989.

Doug Stauffer, I'm down to admit it. If you want to wrap it up, be my guest. What I would say is that his name is spelled W-I-S-E-N-O-T, so it sounds like wise not. Anybody dating the rapture is causing the scoffers to have the fodder that they need to try to shoot at the truth of the pre-tribulation rapture. What we need to do, we need to be looking for Jesus every morning, every afternoon, every evening. And if he doesn't come back today, you wake up tomorrow, it'll help you to live right, because you're looking for Jesus Christ to come back.

You can learn more at BibleDoug.com, and again, find the book in my bookstore, Reviving the Blessed Hope of Thessalonians. Folks, this ministry will take a strong stand until the end. Anyway, we're going to take a strong stand on this topic. This is our only hope.

If you look at headlines day after day like I do, without the blessed hope of the any-minute return of the Lord Jesus Christ, the fact that it could be today, this evening, first thing in the morning, I mean, I think I'd lose my mind without that blessed hope. Doug Stauffer, thanks for everything you do. I appreciate it. We'll stay in touch.

Thank you. By the way, folks, I'm going to continue this topic next week, because I don't want to drop it. I'm going to have Dave Reagan on with me next week. We're going to talk about the very same thing, the blessed hope, the coming rapture of the church.

We'll see you next week. We return to discuss more rapture-related issues with Dr. Dave Reagan next week. It is now on the horizon, Understanding the Times 2019, Saturday, September 21st. Tickets will go on sale June 1st. They are general admission only and are $25 but include a lunch. After June 1st, we're asking that you call the Brushfire Agency at 888-338-5338 or sign up online at brushfire.com.

That number again is 888-338-5338 after June 1st. We are featuring six speakers, and we begin at 845 a.m. Church doors open at 7 a.m. The location is again Grace Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, just outside of Minneapolis.

Consult our website for hotel information. Our speakers include Dr. Robert Jeffress. These signs that have been around for a long time, they are increasing in frequency and intensity. I think something big is about to happen. I believe we're in the last days. I believe the Lord is going to return.

Amir Tsarfati. And at the last trumpet, we're going to be out of here. There will be certain events around the world, and there will be the last trumpet. And we don't know the day, and we don't know the hour, but we understand the times and the seasons. Pastor J.D.

Farag. Because there's coming a time, and I believe it's very soon, when that trumpet's going to sound, and everything here matters no more. I mean, shouldn't that affect us, the way we live our lives? Pastor Jack Hibbs. And he's not only spoken to us in his Word. He is speaking to us right now in world events.

He's requiring you and I to take what we're saying in the world and match it up against the Word of God. And Jan Markell. I believe that the world is longing for a man with a plan, for a Mr. Fix-It. It says down at the bottom of here, is there a leader who can stop the chaos? We will also have a greeting from Laurie Cardoza Moore from Proclaiming Justice to the Nations. The event will be live streamed at no cost.

Again, that's Saturday, September 21, just outside of Minneapolis. We invite all remnant believers to better understand the times and become watchmen on the wall. Make friends for life at this annual conference. Learn why things aren't falling apart, they are falling into place. Jan Markell has done regular updates in her I Never Thought I Would See the Day series. She spends the next segment here on Understanding the Times Radio with her latest. We live in challenging times and many of us never thought we would see what is happening in our world today. May we all be salt and light and delay the decay we see going around us daily.

Here's Jan for the balance of the program. You know, every few months, I like to bring an update in my I Never Thought I'd See the Day series. And indeed, there is so much I never thought I would live to see. Clearly, we're not in Kansas anymore. Times have changed.

So here's an updated list of things I didn't think I'd ever see, never thought I'd see. Politicians talk about the world ending in 12 years, but never in a biblical context. This end of the world mindset will get no one to heaven. I'm referring to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, making headlines when she said that she and other young Americans fear the world ending in 12 years if we don't address climate change.

Listen to her here. And we're like, the world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change. And your biggest issue is, your biggest issue is how are we going to pay for it? And like, this is the war. This is our World War II.

Well, here's the thing, Miss AOC. The world is going to end, but not the way you suggest. Jesus Christ is going to return. The unbelieving world will experience what is known as the Tribulation. And the world will take a terrible hit. And that's what you need to be talking about. The global warming of hell is far more serious than your make-believe global warming.

But the world has at least 1,007 years left, the duration of the Tribulation and the Millennium. Moving on, I didn't think I would live to see Fox News, the longtime go-to source for news we thought we could trust, feature town halls for raging liberals, including a town hall for Bernie Sanders who wants to see the socialist takedown of America? So Fox News censors Judge Jeanine Pirro last March for asking some legitimate questions about our Muslims in Congress. Yet now Fox News gives the spotlight to those who want to destroy our country. Have they lost their minds?

For sure they're going to start losing their viewers. Well, moving on, I never thought I would see the day when a Christian internet program, Rick Wiles of True News, which is hardly true, by the way, would rant and rave and offer a, get this, repent for standing with Israel prayer. Almost an altar call that includes repenting for being pro-Israel. Hear it for yourself. Why any believer would get hoodwinked and suckered into this? In fact, James says, who has bewitched you?

Who has put you under a spell? It says clearly here in Isaiah what Zion is. Why would you want dirt when you can have heaven? Why would you want a building made of stone when you can have the living temple that you dwell with forever?

Why would you trade something material for something heavenly and spiritual and you don't have to? Maybe you're watching this today and maybe you've said to yourself, you know, I don't know what to believe anymore. I'm so confused. Yes, Satan is confusing people today.

He's the author of confusion. He wants us to take our eyes off Jesus by looking at a third temple, by looking at building a greater piece of real estate extending from the Nile all the way to Euphrates and taking over all these nations. And that's the goal. That's the goal to take over all this region and to make that sphere of influence to last in their minds eternally. When they call Jerusalem the eternal capital of Israel, they're replacing God with Jerusalem because they're saying Jerusalem is eternal. There's only one thing that's truly eternal and that's God the Father. That's the only one, the only one. And so if you're watching this today and you say, Doc, I have never seen it before.

I've never understood it before. What do I do? You need to repent right now. You need to call out to God right now and say, God, Lord, I'm so sorry. I don't know how I was so deceived. I don't know how I was so bewitched by all of this. I thought it was a good thing to support the people of Israel. I thought it was a good thing to help Israel.

But now I see it's just people using the name of Israel, people using the people of Israel in order to line their own pockets, in order to build their own kingdoms, in order to make themselves feel important. But Lord, right now I repent. I turn away from it.

I look the other way now. Jesus, you are my Zion. Jesus, you are my Zion. Jesus, you are my promised land. Jesus, you are my temple. Jesus, you are my eternal capital, Lord. Amen. Right now in the name of Jesus, if you've said that and you've turned away from that, then the Lord's going to begin to do a work in your heart and your life.

Well, that was Rick Weil's sidekick, Doc Burkhardt. Folks, this is delusional at best as Jesus was born in Israel, Jewish man, yet this outfit daily rants against God's land and people and someday will be held accountable. Ironically, this program is called True News. I call it Sick News and wonder why any true believer listens to this untrue news.

Okay, moving on. I never thought I'd see the day when an Islamic imam would warn America about certain Muslims. Well, Mohammed Tahidi is doing just that. Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are dangerous, he says. Their real goals have nothing to do with defending America or protecting American values.

He says they are extremists and they threaten the safety of all America. Likewise, there is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The imam says it is ridiculous that she was ever voted into Congress. Did she condemn the attack on Christians in Sri Lanka? No. Does she condemn anti-Semitism?

No. This is an amazing Muslim imam. Risking his life to speak out and call out what he sees as anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Christianity again.

His name is Imam Mohammed Tahidi. Okay, moving on. I never thought I would see the day when dozens of abortion workers would quit the industry thanks to a fairly low-budget film titled Unplanned. Nor did I think I would see the day that such a compelling film that would save the lives of countless babies would face so many hurdles just to get an audience. Listen to writer and director Chuck Conzleman talk about the struggle to get this film shown to the public. Members of the committee, I appear here today with my lifelong friend and business partner, Carrie Solomon, who is my co-writer, co-director, co-producer of the film Unplanned, which is the true life story of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood surgical abortion clinic director, who, after seeing an abortion take place in real time on a sonogram screen, the image created via the ultrasound probe that Abby herself was holding, turned her entire worldview upside down and became a pro-life advocate.

That film is playing in theaters nationwide as we speak. From the outset, making a pro-life film in a pro-choice town, Los Angeles, we knew we would face a number of challenges. Moving past the challenges of production and post-production and limiting my comments to the marketing campaign, please allow me to highlight some of those. The MPAA saddled us with an R rating, which strongly discourages much of the Christian audience and all of The Church of Latter-day Saints from seeing our film, since they have a general prohibition against seeing R-rated films. It also precluded us from using the single most effective form of motion picture advertising, which made placement of our theatrical trailer before other films in theaters. But with an R rating, we were prohibited from advertising before anything other than other R-rated films without special permission, which we sought and were denied. We also looked to advertise on cable television, but with the exception of Fox News and CBN, we were systematically denied access to the outlets where we sought to advertise, among which were Lifetime, Uptv, Hallmark, HGTV, USA Network, Food Network, The Travel Channel, DIY, and The Cooking Channel. Lifetime, which is owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture of Walt Disney and Hearst Communications, told our buyers that they were refusing due to the, quote, sensitive nature of the film, unquote, but had previously promoted an interview with Scarlett Johansson in which she touted the benefits of Planned Parenthood. We consider these blanket refusals highly unusual and highly discriminatory and are formally petitioning the FCC to look further into the matter.

In this environment, we'd rather naturally looked to go to social media with our advertising spend. But once again, we found ourselves stymied. Google Ads, formerly known as Google AdWords, blocked the entirety of the unplanned pre-release banner ads, which I should probably point out consisted of a woman, half of her face with a tear coming down, and the words saying what she saw changed everything. I don't think they were particularly offensive.

Then in late May, Canada completely banned the film from being shown in that country. You know, the Bible said there'd be coming a day when good would be called evil, Isaiah 5-20. I think we're seeing that day as I speak. Moving on, I didn't think I'd see the day when half of America's pastors admit they are afraid to speak out on certain issues because they might offend church members. Thus, they dare not defend traditional marriage or offend the LGBTQ crowd again by their own admission. This is a new report from the Barna Group, and it revealed that nine out of ten pastors said they feel that helping Christians form biblical beliefs about specific issues is a major part of their job, but they feel pressure about these hot-button issues. They said they felt limited in their ability to speak about controversial issues, and we wonder why we have a confused nation? I think it should be obvious. Again, I am just reviewing some issues that I never thought I'd live to see the day.

I do this every few months. Moving on in my list here, I never thought I'd see the day that $235,000 of our tax dollars would be spent for a virulent anti-Semitic event at the University of North Carolina this past spring. Ami Horowitz, investigative filmmaker who often exposes campus madness, well, he produced a video that ought to terrify anyone familiar with the history of Weimar, Germany. Then and now universities were among the leaders in whipping up Jew hatred and actually persecuting Jews. And remember, such persecution, it never stops with Jews, but we seem to be there again. We're at a point where multiple academic departments at various universities and the most blatant, the University of North Carolina, a publicly owned and funded institution that is comfortable sponsoring an academic conference with open Jew hatred and government funds are allocated to sponsor it.

Let's hear Ami. I'm Ami Horowitz, and I'm here on the campus of the University of North Carolina, where UNC and Duke are holding a joint conference on the conflict in Gaza. So I came here to get a sense of the perspectives of the people attending the conference. This was a major conference with hundreds of students, professors and administrators who spent a weekend bashing Israel and whitewashing the terrorist organization Hamas, if it only stopped there. This is a professor who I asked about her views on the spate of attacks in New York by black teens on Jews and synagogues. Blacks have a lot of also reason to be angry at Jews now.

The conference wouldn't allow me to film inside, so my sound guy set me up with a hidden mic. With very little prodding, the veneer of being anti-Israel in an effort to hide their hatred of Jews was easily scratched away and devolved into open anti-Semitism. I first asked them about the most powerful modern anti-Semitic trope. Does Jewish money control U.S. government policy?

U.S. government policy? Oh, absolutely. Not you guys. Jewish lobbyists are very rich. The Jewish lobby is influencing our government and how that's changing U.S. policy.

This is strictly known for everyone. With you on that one. They're influencing our politics. You know, and the money rules the world. Yeah.

No, meaning like makes the decision. I appreciate your courage. Oh, this is interesting what you are doing. Yeah, yeah. Impressive. I'm Jewish.

I don't know. Yeah, I could already tell. You didn't have to tell me. I don't take offense to that at all.

No, no. I appreciate people who are questioning their own background. Look at the treatment of Ethiopian Jews, right? Jews that are supposedly in the club, but they're Ethiopian, they're black. Refugees who come to Israel, assuming it's a Jewish state, have actually been sterilized in the past. You're telling me that the Jewish government sterilized Ethiopian Jews coming into Israel?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's crazy. Just days after the conference, swastikas were found on campus. 38 of the largest departments and schools at the University of North Carolina sponsored this event.

It also got a federal grant of nearly a quarter of a million dollars. They should all be ashamed. If you just joined me, you are listening to Understanding the Times Radio. I'm Jan Markell. Going over a list, most current list of my I-never-thought-I'd-see-the-day items. Do this two, three times a year and share them in my e- and print newsletters and on air.

Sign up for those e- and print newsletters online at our website OliveTreeViews, views as in viewpoint, OliveTreeViews.org. Along this same theme, I never thought I'd live to see the day that one-third of Americans now disbelieve the fact that six million Jews perished in the Holocaust and almost 70% of millennials do not know what Auschwitz is. With the staggering rise, again, of anti-Semitism, this should trouble everyone, both Holocaust ignorance and denial while they're rampant today. Listen to these high schoolers who have no idea what happened just 80 years ago.

You went to public school in Pennsylvania. Yes. And I'm just going to ask you a few questions, some general history questions.

Okay. What was the Holocaust? The Holocaust, I'm on the spot now.

It was a, I don't know how to say it, it was something that happened in, like I know the answer but I don't know how to explain it. Where did the Holocaust happen? I have no idea.

Where did it start? Which country? I have no idea. Is it Europe? I don't think so. Which country was Adolf Hitler the leader of?

I think it's Amsterdam. I'm not sure. I forget. About how many years ago do you think? Um, I don't know, two.

Is that like 1800 or I want to say like 300 years ago maybe? What were the prison camps called, what are they commonly known as? I know this. Begins with a C. Concentration camps. There you go. Can you name one? No. Not one? Nope. Can you name a concentration camp? No.

What was Auschwitz? I don't know. Um, I'm not sure. What was the night of broken glass? I don't know.

What was the night of broken glass? I do not know. I don't know.

What were the Nuremberg Laws? Once again I'm not sure. Um, I don't know that one.

What were the Nuremberg Trials? I don't know. What was the significance of a ship called the St. Louis? Don't know.

Which United States president was responsible for sending a boatload of Jews back to a certain death in Europe? Not sure. Never heard that one.

I don't know. Have you ever heard that before? No, I haven't. Did you look surprised when I said that, you never heard that story?

No I didn't, I've never heard it. I have no idea. What was the final solution? I don't know. I think it was just at the end of the World War II, it was the Nuremberg Trials against the war crimes against the Nazi party. What do you mean by final solution?

What was his plan that he called the final solution? Oh, I don't know then. Do you know how many Jews were murdered? I'm not sure.

I want to say 3 million, but I have no idea. Higher? Higher? Is it 300? No. Hundreds of thousands. That would be my best guess. I want to say like a million.

I'm not sure. Well, then we have Representative Rashida Tlaib from Michigan who says that she gets a calming feeling when thinking of the Holocaust. She then went on to rewrite history and say that the Palestinians resettled the Jews fleeing the Holocaust when in fact, folks, the Palestinians were invented by Yasser Arafat in the 1960s.

I never thought I would see the day. I didn't think I'd live to see the day that the media would melt down because our president likes to hire people of faith, like Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence and many others. The New York Times says this causes them to be, quote, horrified.

When did it become a crime to do this? The media can't seem to wrap their minds around the idea that faith is not disqualifying for employment. The left cannot comprehend the fact that Christians are not only nominated for high appointments, but that people of faith are embraced in this administration. Of particular horror is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's regular Bible reading, his concern for religious liberty, and even his belief in a literal rapture. It is horrifying to the left that evangelical beliefs might be influencing America diplomacy and other public policy.

Moving on. I never thought I'd see the day when a Muslim in Congress would verbally condemn all Christian fundamentalists, and no one in Congress condemned this. Imagine if a Christian stood up in Congress and then slammed Islam, but Representative Ilhan Omar condemned evangelicals recently in the House of Representatives, and there was no outrage. Religious fundamentalists are currently trying to manipulate state laws in order to impose their beliefs on an entire society, all with complete disregard for voices and the rights of American women. Recent efforts, like those in Alabama and Georgia, are only the latest in a long history of efforts to criminalize women for simply existing, to punish us when we don't conform to their attempts to control us. But because it's happening here with the support of the ultra-conservative religious right, we call it religious freedom. It's simply unthinkable.

Well, moving on. I never thought I'd see the day that another entertainment outfit, CBS programming, it's called The Good Fight, would send out a tweet that encouraged the assassination of President Donald Trump. Now, this is a CBS crime drama about joining the resistance that used target words, including phrases such as, assassinate President Trump and eliminate Mar-a-Lago. The Secret Service had to be drawn into this controversy. What kind of a society, other than a banana republic, makes continuous jokes about taking out its leader when they are doing everything they can to make the country stronger? Clearly, our entertainment industry is more bankrupt than we could ever imagine.

Okay, moving on. I never thought I'd see the day when eight-year-olds would receive injections for their gender confusion. I mean, isn't this child abuse in any society? Medical doctors and a mom of a trans-identifying child are urging the government to shut down medical operations that are harming children. Their efforts to resist the medicalization of gender has led them to discover that government-funded research now allows sex hormones, such as testosterone, to be given to girls as young as eight. So I wasn't prepared to learn of the life of 11-year-old Jazz, she's a little older now, whose parents are proud that he is a she. Thanks to the progressive left, this kind of child abuse is happening all over the Western world in the name of tolerance and diversity. Let's listen.

Good evening. They are the words that any parent would want to hear about their daughter. She is such a remarkable little girl. For a girl named Jazz, the word remarkable doesn't begin to cover it. At just 11 years old, she has taken what most children and their families would regard as a terrible secret and brought it smashing into the open. She is the brave and beautiful new face of a child born in the wrong body.

She's got to love nobody. Describe Jazz to us. Vibrant, happy, full of life, self-confident, beautiful, glowing. Feminine? So feminine. She wears pink cleats on the soccer field. Do you like my new bra?

And padded bras. She not only dreams of mermaids, she swims like one. If you didn't know it, would you believe this 11-year-old girl was biologically a boy?

Let's get this straight, Jazz. Are you a boy or a girl? I am definitely a girl. Like, that's all I consider myself as. I'm sorry.

I know I never do anything with my hair, but. Jazz is transgender, a boy living as a girl. I have a girl brain and a boy body.

All right. When we first met Jazz in 2007, she was only six years old and one of the youngest documented cases of an early transition from male to female. Well, if the Equality Act is ever passed, it would pressure medical and counseling professionals to promote LGBT affirmation in their practice, even if the client wants a different outcome.

Doctors, counselors, medical facilities would be required to prescribe treatments and procedures such as puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, and sex reassignment surgeries to gender-confused children. I just never thought I would see the day. Before I wrap this up, let me remind you one more time. You can now get tickets for our Understanding the Times 2019 event. You've got to go through the Brushfire Agency.

Here's their number, 888-338-5338, 888-338-5338, or just do so online at brushfire.com. The Olive Tree Ministries Fall Conference, Saturday, September 21st, coming up here in just a few months. Tickets are $25 and include lunch.

Again, don't call Olive Tree, but rather the Brushfire Agency. And the tickets are general admission. We have plenty of seats, folks, almost 5,000. One more conference I'm going to recommend, and that is Hope for Our Times. I'll be there June 28th, 29th, 30th, Indian Wells, California. It will be live streamed, I'm told, 16 speakers, Billy Crone, Tom Hughes, Jack Hibbs, Ed Hindson, Dave Reagan, Barry Stagner, lots and lots of top speakers. HopeforOurTimes.com, HopeforOurTimes.com, Indian Wells, California, June 28th, 29th, 30th. Hope to meet some of you there. Let me remind you that on our YouTube channel, which is under Jan Markell, we're now inserting not only images, but in this program we're going to insert some of the video that you've just heard so you can watch things as well as listen to the audio.

Only on our YouTube channel, under Jan Markell, you'll see the actual video of some of the things we've talked about here. Well, let me wrap this up, because I've just gone over a bunch of bullet points that I never thought I'd live to see the day, and I know many of you feel the same way. And when we hear of the foolishness of man, I like to quote Isaiah 33. You hear me say it all the time, and God will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.

Politicians, kings, generals, even spiritual leaders will fail us because of their humanity. Only God is always to be trusted, always faithful, always full of wisdom, and very, very patient with fallen mankind. I want to thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next week. Thank you. God bless you. God bless you.