One in every eight Christians around the world faces persecution ranging from imprisonment and censorship to extrajudicial and government sanctions, martyrdom, according to a new report. Each year, an estimated 300 million Christians around the world are persecuted because of their faith in Jesus. Now, we're talking about 300 million Christians. Let's be clear about what we're talking about. By definition, they're talking about anybody who, whether it's liberal, whether it's denominational, whatever it may be, any church door that would have the name Christian associated with it is included in this. So many, and we just gotta be honest, and I heard a, I actually was quite disturbed by it. And I'm not gonna say which broadcast it is because I'm friends with the person who had the broadcast, but they had on one of their individuals that does commentary with them, and he was very offended, this individual that does commentary, because the person who runs this particular radio program had said, well, speaking of a denominational group that does not believe in salvation by grace, that they basically needed to come to Christ and they're not, a literal Christian group, which they're not. And this commentary person who they give, they like him on the show, so they gave him a spot, and basically he said, listen, I have, and he named a particular group that has the name Christian on the door, but they don't believe in salvation by faith, or salvation by works. And he was very offended, he made it known, and the, radio host actually apologized and said, well, you should be more careful how we say things. No, you shouldn't. Absolutely not. When it comes to trying to keep somebody on a broadcast or any other type of business acquaintance, you cannot, if you will, change the scriptures just because you want them to stay on your show. So I was very disturbed by that. And again, I'm not going to say who it is, but if you happen to have listened to it, I hope you're Blood-boiled a little bit. It's like wait a minute. We're not going to compromise on the gospel. You can't just can't We're not saved by works The only folks that can name the name Christians are those that know Christ is our personal Savior So we've got to stay strong on that not get into this inclusive And that's that when you hear yeah, I mean really you guys really push me tonight. I Diversity, equity, and inclusion, DEI, which is all about, I mean, it's 100% liberal, and it's all about everybody should be included, and everybody's part of our country, and it's socialism, basically, what it is. And when it gets down to the Christian message, it's not about inclusion. We don't include people just because we wanna make them feel good. The gospel is very, very specific. And I kinda hope the people that, said this are listening to me tonight, and they might be. When it comes to the Gospel, Jesus said, I am what? The way, the truth, the life. Nobody comes unto the Father except through what? Through faith in Christ. You cannot compromise on that. That is one of the tenets of the faith. Those that are trying to be inclusive and just to do it from a political or a business world, shame on you. It just shouldn't happen. So that's my spanking for tonight. Nobody in here should have felt it because you're all on the same page. But anyway, getting back off my hobby horse. Each year an estimated 300 million Christians around the world are persecuted because of their faith in Jesus. Our brothers and sisters in Christ are beaten, imprisoned, and even killed for their faith, said the International Christian Concerns ICC 2025 Global Persecution Index, which was released last Friday. It documents instances of governments denying rights to a share of the world's estimated 2.38 billion Christians. In many countries, it is illegal for them to share the gospel. The details of persecution you will read in our report are not isolated incidents, clarified the president. These repressive acts represent the reality of Christians worldwide who face daily threats to their lives and religious freedom. Just to accentuate that for a moment, and again, I gotta be careful using a person's name on the air, one of our missionaries who deals with folks in the Middle East, and this, he actually put it out on Telegram, so it was available to the entire, anybody that's on Telegram could read it, so I'm not violating your confidence, so to speak, put out that a young man and his mother in Iran were killed last week for their faith in Christ. Now, they were stabbed to death on the streets. So, I mean, that, it hits home when it's somebody you know or a missionary that you know and it's like they have a picture of the individual and folks, it's real. I mean, absolutely persecution exists today. and much of it coming out of the Middle East. 2024 was a harrowing year for a massive number of Christians worldwide, said the report, from underground house churches in China to remote villages in Nigeria. Four of the five deadliest nations for Christians are in sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Ethiopia. The ICC reports Red List also included Somalia and Eritrea. The Marxist dictatorship of North Korea, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan, now dominated by the Taliban, but excluded Ethiopia. The world's two most populous nations, China and India, fall just below the worst level of persecution, with Iran and Saudi Arabia. Azerbaijan, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Russia, and Vietnam are also at the top of the list. Both reports agree Christians face the greatest persecution in Africa's Sahel region. Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea, I'm not going to say it wrong, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal. Nigeria is now the world's deadliest nation for Christians. We documented 9,814 killings in a two-year period in Nigeria. Two-year period, 9,814 Christians martyred for their faith. A couple more pieces out of this report, and then we'll go to why we're concerned about this. India engages in mass suppression of the church. Property crimes are a key concern in India, which topped GCR's list for targeted attacks on Christian property with 4,949 attacks. The ancient Christian community in the region of Kerala believe the Apostle Thomas planted the Christian faith during his apostolic ministry in the first century. But today the Malankara Orthodox Church and Syrio-Malabar Catholic Church face targeted assaults. Now again, if you just heard what I just read, anything that has the name Christian on the door is classified as Christian in this particular report. not necessarily those who believe in salvation by faith. They could have a works religion, if you will, or a works gospel, which of course is a false gospel. This isn't random violence. Persecutors use violence to drive out Christians to take control and capture the culture in some of these countries. This is a decade of systematic, planned, organized occupation of some Christian areas, and it's now at the point where every single rung of civil society and government is armed against impoverished Christian community. Interesting, and I will not call this persecution at this point, but I got a call From a pastor. He's and I can say who it is. He's uh, and some of you might know him I think you might know him TJ Reddick He's a pastor at Layton Avenue Baptist Church. He took that over a year and a half two years ago And he called me because we're rather vocal here about things that Politically and he said somebody had put a sign on his property, which is on Layton Avenue which basically was pro-Palestinian and anti-Jewish, and basically said, we're coming, whatever that means. So he called me to let us, and asked if we had received that, and I said, no. And I said, I'm a little disappointed. I didn't get one of those signs on our property. I said, we're always fighting this. I'm on radio, TV, we're on the internet all the time, and nobody came and bothered to, and I'm being facetious. Bottom line is there's groups out there. It's definitely in the Milwaukee land area that are pro-Palestinian and they're starting to target some of the Christian churches. So target meaning they put a sign in there on their sidewalk. That's his total extent of it. So nothing severe, but even something as minor as that is like a big deal to us compared to what's taking place in these other countries where martyrdom is massive. A couple more things. Anti-Christian persecution fueled by communist dictatorships, Islamist extremism. China, Nicaragua, dictators everywhere appear to be increasing their focus on controlling religion or eliminating Christianity altogether. Very strong statements. Islamist persecution includes murderous raids from the Islamic State, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, and Boko Haram in Nigeria. The growth of radical Islamist insurgencies in the sub-Saharan Africa, the Sahel, and now deep into the southern and southeastern parts of Africa is uprooting things there. Mozambique is one of several places where there's been mass displacement of Christians. These are places where only 10 years ago, Christians and Muslims generally got along peaceably. There was not as much dissension and that whole landscape is changing. All right, we could go on and on with this, but what's what's the bottom line? Persecution specifically in Islamic run countries is running rampant. It's when you're talking about jihadists, when you're talking about individuals that are subscribing 100 percent to the Koran and to the Muslim way of doing business, there is no place in their faith for allowing Christians and Jewish people to live or considered infidels. That's why this massive movement in these countries is taking place the majority of all these people that we're talking about under persecution and that are being murdered and It's all due to if you will infiltration of those who subscribe to the jihadist terrorist type beliefs, so it's big I mean if you look on the picture that came along with this particular article and Many, of course, most of these places in the African areas are certainly getting hit, and many, of course, in some of the other countries, it's just horrific what's taking place. So how does this fit into the prophetic nexus? And again, definitely, 2 Timothy 3 tells us, yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer what? Persecution but evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse Deceiving and being deceived. So again, it's am I shocked by this? No and What I can say very strongly tonight is If the last administration or actually the current administration would have stayed in place My biggest fear was we would be next on on the target list Folks, the amount of extremists, jihadist extremists that live in our country is significant. Up to this point, we've been very fortunate that nothing major has taken place. And by major, I mean some massive assault. And something that our government needs to be aware of, something that the new administration is taking very seriously. And one of the main reasons why When you're talking about those borders being strengthened and getting the terrorists out of this country, it's huge So those that are involved in homeland security Those that are involved with national intelligence CIA all the different major federal agencies They know it's bad and it's got to be dealt with so I'm thankful it appears we might get a reprieve and we're trusting that The new president will indeed fulfill the things that he's promised to do. It's going to be tough. It's going to be hard. There's going to be a ton of pushback from the liberals and from the anti-Christian and anti-Jewish groups. But again, it's got to happen if our country is going to be preserved and allow us to at least have open religious freedom. All right, let's go to the next one. Israel plans for future conflicts, Turkey to become the new Iran. So this is quite interesting. When we think about Iran right now, and let's take a look at a little map here. So when we look at the complexion, if you will, of the Middle East, Most of us, again, Iran has been a huge piece of the puzzle, and now all of a sudden Turkey, because Iran has been weakened after the infiltration by Israel. So, it's just an amazing thing that's happening right now, and it's kind of a weird thing. Most of us are, when you're talking about what the complexion of who's going to attack Israel next, We've had a tremendous amount of discussion since October 7th of 2023 regarding Gog and Magog War where the Islamic nations are going to rise up and attack Israel. Well I've been making this statement for several weeks now specifically because of what just happened in Syria. What is taking place has, it's never been like this before. The whole complexion of the Middle East is all of a sudden changing. You say, what do you mean by that? What I'm saying is that the Middle East has been seriously, the Muslim communities, the terrorist groups have been seriously affected. I mean, they're suffering right now. Hamas has been all but taken out, Hezbollah, is all but taken out in Lebanon of course Hamas being in Gaza you have the Houthis down in Yemen that every time now that they attack Israel they get seared I mean if you watch the the clips I mean they've blown up a tremendous amount of Yemen's resources and then they took a little trip several months ago over to Iran the Israel Air Force and basically took out all of the monitoring systems in order to detect when airplanes are coming into Iran. So they significantly hurt them as well. So all of a sudden it's like, well, wait a minute. When we think about the Gog and Magog War, which is up now, we're looking at, and these of course are the biblical names, not the ones that we would use today, But if you look up where Turkey is, Meshach, Tubal, Gomorrah, and Targarmah, which are in Ezekiel 38, I'll mention, they're all places that were in ancient Turkey. So we're talking about Turkey becoming a major player before Ezekiel 38 and 39 happened, and all of a sudden Turkey is starting to rise up. We already know in Rosh and Magog, we're looking at Russia, southern areas of the Russian, we're looking at Persia, Of course, Israel's the point of attack and put and push out of Ezekiel 38. But what is happening? Every time Israel gets attacked by anyone in those areas, it's like, oh, is this the setup for Ezekiel 38 and 39? Ezekiel 38 makes it very, very clear that when Israel gets attacked, they will be a city of what kind of walls? unwalled villages. Now why would all of a sudden Israel have unwalled villages? What does that mean? It means there's a peace. It means things are good. It means they're not scared. It means they're not worried about the Islamic nations rising up to get them. So again, this part is speculation. That part, I mean, everything we just said is not. That's going to happen. How do we get to the place where Israel is a city of unwalled villages? And it's like, what is happening right now? All of the Islamic nations are slowly slithering backwards. They've been seriously impacted by what Israel has done. Plus America's been backing them up along with some other countries. Iran, I mean, when have you ever heard of Iran backing down? And they're significantly cowering right now, and the article that we're going through is expressing that. Turkey is now taking a stronger stand, if you will, than Iran when it comes to being a powerhouse of terrorism. All right, so again, this isn't something that I'm gonna put in a book and write for publication, is potentially, and I'm just going to use the word potentially, what's going on right now in the Middle East, setting the stage so that Israel indeed will be that powerhouse in the Middle East. All the nations are kind of cowering. Wait a minute. Is somebody in the new administration coming on the scene? Where is President Trump's, what is his position on Iran and the nuclear deal? down with it. So I'm, again, a little more speculation. Is the next four years with President Trump now being in office, is this going to be part of the setting of the stage whereby the Middle Eastern countries are going to be shaking in their boots and saying, we're not touching Israel, it's just too dangerous for us. And quite frankly, it'll be very dangerous for them. Because I don't believe President Trump will, if somebody's going after Israel in all likelihood, even though he doesn't want to be known for starting wars, I think there's going to be some serious things that'll happen in the Middle East. So again, I'm just throwing it out there. I find it to be very interesting because the scenario right now doesn't fit the Ezekiel 38 scenario. Israel is anything but sitting in a city of unwalled villages. Every single day they're running BIAF they're bombing Hamas. They're bombing whoever and It's definitely not quiet at this point. All right. So let me just give you a couple of quick things And again, let's go back to the article here On Monday and again, this was written January 9th on Monday then Nagel committee headed by professor Jacob Nagel, which is a supervisory and deliberative body Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set up in late 2024 to examine defense spending and IDF military force designed for the future, warned Israel should prepare for war with Turkey. For Michael Rubin, Director of Policy at the Middle East Forum, Turkey's current posturing is emblematic of the country under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's leadership. Again, if you're not familiar with that name, most of you probably are. You hear often of Erdogan, but it's Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the head of Turkey. He's labeled an engine of radicalism and irredentism. Turkey will now repeat the Iranian pattern. It will use proxies of which Syria's won. Who has been the one using proxies? Yeah, Iran. And now Turkey is the one that's setting things up and they're becoming more of the major player. All right. Turkey will now repeat the Iranian pattern. It will use proxies of which Syria is one. And of course, Syria has just been completely overtaken and has new leadership to attack Israel while preparing its own forces to eventually eradicate the Jewish state. Never going to happen, but they'll try. The fact Turkey may also follow Iran down the path of a covert nuclear program makes the parallels even greater. There's no doubt Turkey has been the main beneficiary of the demise of the Assad regime. Again, who is Assad? He was the former head of Syria and just got booted out, what is it, a month, two months ago for the new regime to come in. So Assad is hanging out in Russia now. Not because forces it's substantially backed whatever the ins and out of Syria's day-to-day Administration and the new guy now for if he can remember these names, which are hard Ahmad al-shara s h a r a a he is now basically the Assad of Syria their head of Syria and and is HTS, you'll see that a lot, the acronym HTS, which basically stands for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is a core, you got that down? All right, good. HTS works, is a coalition of northern Syria-based Sunni Islamist insurgent groups that evolved from Jabhat al-Nusra, or Nusra Front, Al Qaeda's former branch in Syria. Again, I know this stuff, it's hard to, remember the names, much less understand them, but you're familiar with Al-Qaeda, all these other names will eventually become household names based on what's taking place. So they're currently running the country, and Qara, basically the capital of Syria, is clearly feeling emboldened by several elements which play into its sense of self-confidence, and it has been, as it has seen the dominoes of many of the most powerful regional adversaries fall, In particular, the Islamic Republic of Iran. All right, so without getting too detailed and losing everybody, there's a major shift That Turkey is now becoming a major player. Iran is kind of getting pushed to the background. But again, when you look at the Ezekiel 38-39 scenario, it's always, I mean, it's the same countries. And things are being set up. Eventually, there'll be a coalition of those nations. They'll band together. They'll work together. Iran will be in concert with Turkey. as well as Russia, as well as Ethiopia, Persia, which, of course, involves a lot of the nations in that area. And it's just amazing how these things are coming together. But on the other hand, there's this power shift going on, which could and I'm saying could lead to that, if you will, Israel having dominance and thereby getting the it's set up where they are the city of unwalled villages What happens when they have the unwalled villages all of the nations that are that you see up there? They're going to all come up according to Ezekiel 39 on to the mountains of Israel and did they beat Israel? Did they beat Israel? No, God himself will basically, he says he's going to burn them up with sulfur, fire, and brimstone and take them out when they come up over the mountains. And that literally will be the end of the Islamic regime at that time. So, I mean, that is coming. Eventually, the jihadist Islamic regime, sometime after the rapture, potentially minutes before the tribulation comes into effect or shortly thereafter, that war will take place. That will set the stage then for the Antichrist to come on and bring peace to Israel after this attack takes place. And what is he going to do? Antichrist comes on the scene, Daniel 9.27, confirms a peace treaty or a covenant, confirms a covenant with the Jewish people, allows them to build the third temple and start the seven-year tribulation period. So again, these things are popping into view, how God is going to play this out. We don't know, but it's coming. So just again, when we're looking at what's happening, Iran and Turkey, major players. Russia, of course, is backing both groups. Isn't it interesting that Russia right now has pulled out of Syria or is in the process of pulling out of Syria after the new regime came in, but eventually all these guys are going to team up according to scripture and work together. So, interesting, setting the stage for things to come. All right, number three, I briefly touched on this Sunday morning or night. Facebook deletes censorship system, commits to free speech. Now folks, again, for those that weren't here Sunday, I touched on this just a little bit in the message. Wildest son is Mark Zuckerberg, who is basically running Facebook, Instagram, and the WhatsApp, all these different companies. Wildest son is he having a massive change of heart. I'm going to read a few things to you here from this article, and you make up your mind. Facebook deletes censorship system, commits to free speech. Really? A major social media outlight is pumping the brakes on censorship and doing away with fact-checking ahead of President, oh, wait a minute, what? Ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's return to office. How timely. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook and CEO of Meta, announced on Tuesday that his company runs Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Among others will get back to our rooks a brown free expression By replacing fact checkers with community notes Simplifying our policies and focusing on reducing mistakes too many mistakes and too much censorship are taking place according to zuckerberg One change Metal will make is ending its third-party fact-checking program and introducing a community notes system, similar to the one used on ex-formerly Twitter. The community notes system allows users to flag incorrect, deceptive, or misleading content and relies on a cadre of users to add notes correcting, clarifying, or providing context to the flagged posts. Our system then attached real consequences in the form of intrusive labels and reduced distribution. A program intended to inform too often became a tool to censor. No kidding. And as I stated, we have Facebook accounts that we use through the church. I have one with Prophecy Focus Ministries, personal accounts. And many times, a lot of our things that go out there All of a sudden, they disappear because the algorithms that they have put in place on Facebook and Instagram takes them down. All of a sudden, Mark Zuckerberg, who has been running all this stuff, and he's the implementer of all the censorship that's been taking place, why all of a sudden, because President Trump is now coming on the scene, does he decide to be a good boy and take all this nonsense down? Well, power, let's see, when power kind of gets to these big boy millionaires and basically can threaten their business, all of a sudden they decide they're going to change their colors a bit. And that's exactly what's happening. So as I said, uh, last, uh, last Sunday, did, uh, Mark Zuckerberg, uh, have a revival? Well, not a spiritual one, but I think a political one definitely hit him right in the pocket book. Like I need to knock it off or I'm going to be suffering. The good news here, Christians, regardless of, I mean, if you use these platforms, and then, I mean, probably the majority, if we took a survey, 90, I don't know what the number would be, but a large percentage of our folks use these media, social media outlets. And you've been censored, and it's like, well, are we gonna have freedom of speech or not? Well, again, oh, by the way, just so you know, Do not use Facebook anymore everything we do on Facebook. We do have our Facebook account we do Facebook live for our Messages so people can see those and it's a way to get it out to the public But if you write me on messenger and all that stuff, I I've got I don't know between two different counts like eight nine thousand people that will are on my accounts and If you write to me, I will not answer you because I don't read it So don't be offended like well. I'm dissing you. I just don't do it anymore, and I haven't for probably two years So just let you know I'm finally coming clean after two years I must be taking Zuckerberg anyway In addition to replacing fact-checking with community notes Kaplan noted that post which get fact-checked That was my problem. I was getting fact-checked No, I was not getting fact-checked as being censored Everything I said was true, but censorship was taking these things out. Community notes will no longer be demoted, suppressed, or censored, and will no longer be covered up by full-screen misinformation warnings. Instead, META will use a much less obtrusive label indicating that there's additional information for those who want to see it. Another change META will make is removing restrictions it currently has in place on certain topics, namely immigration, gender identity, Over time we have developed complex system to manage content on our platforms which are increasingly Complicated for us to enforce as a result. We have been over enforcing our rules. No kidding limiting legitimate political debate and Censoring too much trivial content and subjecting too many people to frustrating enforcement actions in other words we're getting caught and The public just decided to go conservative when they voted in the next administration. And let me see if I want to tick off the majority of the American people. No, probably not. I want to keep my company going. So again, it all makes sense. Am I happy about it? Yeah, of course I'm happy about it. But that's why I keep saying folks, and that's why we've been pushing it and Sunday morning. 2025 American Revival. We have four years, assuming that President Trump stays alive and assuming that he stays with the agenda that he set forth. We have four years to pick back up and get back to where we should be, getting the gospel out, Getting messages out, taking a stand on things we need to take a stand on, and this is important stuff. One last paragraph and then I'll get through the scripture here. Last year, Zuckerberg wrote a letter to Congress, catch this now, some of you know this, explaining that Facebook had been pressured by the FBI members of the Democratic Party and President Joe Biden's administration to censor and suppress conservative positions and posts, including an exclusive report from the New York Post detailing the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop, while Zuckerberg admitted that it was our decision whether or not to take content down and we own our decisions. He did note, I believe the government pressure was wrong. I do too. And I regret that we were not more outspoken about it. I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we would not make today. Well, when your life depends on the administration, when you have a worldwide company, yeah, all of a sudden it's like, well, you know, all of a sudden I feel I'm under conviction. I think I'm going to change. Yeah. Again, I don't trust the motives. I really don't care about his motives, but at least I'm glad that things are going in the right direction. Romans chapter 10. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. So again, the reason I put that verse up there Yes, those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution But when all of a sudden the guys that control our social media platforms are saying well, you know We've been a little too harsh on you conservative people and the other piece I wanted you to get was the importance of voting Did you catch that why all the sudden are things changing in 2025 because the conservatives and the conservative Christians said enough is enough. We're tired of the socialism. We're tired of the wall culture. We're tired of the divestment, equity and inclusion nonsense. And we're going to take it back and let's get a conservative in there and at least give us hopefully four years of a fighting chance of going in the right direction. So that's folks why you hear me and heard me say quite often, get out there and vote. The people did, the people have spoken, We finally have gotten back Mike to we the people and we've talked about the hit in the past We the people is finally the conservative group has Taken a major push forward. All right last thing. I Very quickly, Department of Justice releases former Special Counsel Jack Smith's report on investigation into Trump election interference case. Now, isn't it interesting? This is, of course, from last presidential election. Now here we are four years later, and Attorney General Merrick Garland and Special Counsel Jack Smith, of course, who was attempting to prosecute President Trump for multiple different things of course resigned knowing that he was going to get fired in a couple of days But there's a and I got the report. It's 174 page report That was written by these individuals basically trying to prove rather poorly about insurrection and criminal cases and all the rest so folks again, we pray for our leadership and and ask that our government would return back to doing things in a true and honorable way. And again, just because we got a conservative in the White House does not mean that it's going to turn into a Christian organization. That's not going to happen. But at least it allows the Christian community and the conservatives to move in the right direction. All right. Last verse. Again, we usually go here, but know this. in the last days last days of the church age perilous dangerous times will come and The only thing I can say is this I Was I mean every day for the last four years I've been thinking to raptures today It's coming. You can't go another step further the way our country's going and the international world's going We got to be out of here any second Well, we'll see what happens over the next four years. Could the rapture still happen in the next four years? Yeah, absolutely you could. And is this going to slow things down? Is it going to be a little change? Don't know. But it's going to be a very, very interesting four years. And let's take advantage of it and we'll see what takes place. 2 Thessalonians 2 reminds us now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the rapture, and our gathering together to Him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word of our letter, as if from us as though the day of Christ or the day of the Lord had come. Let no one deceive you by any means. For that day, speaking of this, then we're talking about the seven-year tribulation period, the day of the Lord, That day, that time period, will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin Antichrist is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember, Paul's kind of chewing out the Thessalonians now, that when I was still with you, I told you these things. And now you know what is restraining that he may be revealed in his own time. Now here's the key. For the mystery of what? Lawlessness is already at work. Is there any doubt in anyone's mind when you look at our country today that the lawlessness is running rampant? I mean, it is there. It's not a vengeance. Now we're going to hopefully see a little change in some of the governmental actions, but again, the federal government does not control the 50 states. They can push things, they can sanction, they can try and overcome some difficulties, but we still have many different states that are run by those that are 100% opposed to what the federal government is going to be trying to do over the next four years. So that fits right into the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. We are a lawless society in many different places. The rule of law is not the norm. But what's taking place the mystery of lawlessness is already at work only he speaking of the Holy Spirit who now restrains Will do so until he is taken out of the way. So folks of the Holy Spirit is working through whom today the church the body of Christ every individual that Put their faith and trust in Christ the Holy Spirit lives within them and I trust in you if you put your faith in Christ God uses the church, meaning the body of Christ, not speaking of the UGBC concept. Every single person, part of the body of Christ in America or around the world, what are we doing? The Holy Spirit uses the church, uses you to help restrain evil. Last comment, and I didn't put this article in. I'll probably do it next week. It is alleged by Particular article I read just a day or two ago that Congress and the Senate the majority are Christians and they try to make it stating that their Bible believing Christians and but it's like yeah cough cough and I'm going to go through it next time because I'm going to spend some time on it. But again, I Just because you say you're a Christian, are you truly a born again Christian that's following a biblical worldview? And the article even brings out, well, their actions don't show it and their voting doesn't show it and this doesn't show it. It's like, well, then why say it? You know, but it's that's our world. All right. For the time will come. And folks, it's here. When they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you, Christian, be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. And every week, I'm basically closing this segment with 1 Timothy 2. What does God say? Therefore, I exhort, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. I mean, that's everybody. For kings, for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and reverence. Folks, that we've been praying and we've been asking God for a change. I mean, I have been, and I think the majority of you have as well. And God said, okay, I'm giving it to you. And it's like, ooh, listen, and again, your perspective. I believe the next administration is an answer to prayer. I really do. And it's, again, I'm not saying President Trump is the savior of the world. I don't even know if he's a true born again believer. Some say he is, some say he's not, I don't know. All's I know is that he's gonna bring a different platform in, but I do know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that whether he's truly born again or not, God said to pray for him, that what? That you, me, Christians, might lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who what? Desires all men, and of course women, to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Alright Take your Bibles now. Let's go to the book of Ezekiel and I'm gonna set a few of you on edge tonight I don't know who the few are but I'm sure I'm gonna set a few on edge when we go through some things tonight based on biblical interpretation There's a particular passage that we're gonna get to, if I speak fast tonight, that quite frankly has been seriously misinterpreted, at least from many of our perspectives, and we'll try and show that to you tonight. But let's get started. Again, we're in the book of Ezekiel, the first 32 chapters or so. Ezekiel is just pounding the fact that Judah is going to be taken into captivity into Babylon. Again, 605 BC, 597 BC, captivities had already taken place. A good portion of the Jewish people were already in Babylon. But now Ezekiel is preaching about, listen, and coming up. And of course he didn't know the date. We know the date because it's history now. But it's coming that God is going to severely judge Judah and all of the people left basically in Judah, the southern part of Israel, will be taken into captivity. So again, this is all happened before the church age. We're way back on the timeline before Christ during the Babylonian deportations. So we're not gonna spend time in a timeline, but I wanna get into this. All right, so here's Ezekiel now preaching more to the people of Judah about judgment to come. The word of the Lord came to me again saying, what do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel? Saying the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. As I live, says the Lord God, you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel. All right, so there's a false teaching going on. There's a false teaching that if daddy sins, you're gonna be held accountable for it. And some of you have used verses to try and prove that, which I'm going to hopefully reverse in your minds tonight. God is going to make it very clear in Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and other passages that the children are not judged for what daddy or mama does. And this parable that the Jewish people were saying is like the children are being judged, are going to be judged because of what dad did. And God makes it very clear here and he says, as I live, says the Lord God, stop saying that. This proverb, this concept should no longer be used in Israel. Verse four, behold, All souls are mine. The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine. Catch the verbiage now and then he's going to explain it. The soul who, what? Sins shall die. All right, so again. Keep with me tonight or you're going to get lost or get preconceived ideas. The concept that we're going to see is God is going to make it very clear that if daddy sins, daddy gets punished. If the child sins, the child gets punished. If the grandson sins, the grandson gets punished and no one else. So some of you are already going to catch where we're going here. Individual responsibility and accountability is basically what God's saying. You're gonna get judged, he's speaking to the people of Judah now, for the people that committed the sin, not others. And we're, again, stick with me. Verse four, God deals with individuals and their behavior. In other words, if daddy sins, is the child also going to suffer the repercussions? Well, we're going to explain, yes, they can suffer repercussions, and we'll show you how. Jeremiah, just to fill in some blanks here before we get back to Ezekiel. In those days, they shall say no more. The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for what? His own iniquity, every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. All right, so the Jewish people are having this problem, Jeremiah addresses it, Ezekiel addresses it, that there's this false thing that's been put out there that if daddy does wrong, the children are automatically going to be judged for it and he's going to basically start fighting that, refuting that concept. All right, where did Ezekiel's listeners get the idea that God punished the children for the sins of their fathers? We're going to look at the verses because they're the same ones I've heard people use. This philosophy came from two sources. And by the way, this is from Warren Wearsby's commentary, former pastor of Moody Church, great theologians. The philosophy came from two sources, a misinterpretation of what the Lord had said in his law that he visited the sins of the fathers upon the children. All right, so we're going to look at these verses as we start to go through this. Exodus 20. Of course, this is part of the Ten Commandments. You shall not make for yourself the carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord God, am a jealous God. Now here's the passage that we're going to be working on tonight. visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. All right, so on the surface, some people said, well, you know, if daddy sends the third up to the third and fourth generations, they're gonna suffer for what daddy did. All right, now, I'm going to give you a very nebulous answer right now, yes and no. Okay, and we'll give you the two sides of the coin theologically. When parents sin, it often impacts the behavior of the children. Yes or no? Yes. Leaders, for example, may take several generations before the cycle of negative sinful behavior ceases. And that's very true. The principle is not that God judges the sinful behavior of the parents on their children than their children's children, even if they are living for the Lord. And we're gonna pull out verses that back up that statement. All right, so again, it's not, some people have taken that, and we're gonna look at three other passages that say the exact same thing. If daddy sins, mama sins, the parental people, if you will, sin, Does that mean that junior and junior ed are going to automatically be judged and suffer for what daddy did? The answer is no, but what God is saying, when leadership goes in a bad direction, mommy and daddy mess up. In all likelihood, there's the probability that the children are also going to follow in those steps. But again, stick with me, don't make a decision yet until we get through all of this. Exodus chapter 34 reiterates this, and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and bounteous in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children, Children being a literal first generation, children's children being the grandchildren to the third and the fourth generation. Numbers then gets into it. The Lord is long suffering, abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation. Deuteronomy. Therefore, Know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a what? A thousand generations. with those who love him and keep his commandments. Okay, look at it again. Therefore know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. Different scenario. And he repays those who hate him to their face to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. All right, so going back to the concept, the warning in Exodus chapter 20 verse five and 34, six to seven implies that the Lord punishes the children if they commit the sins their fathers committed. Furthermore, God also promised to bless those children who followed godly examples and obeyed the Lord. I mean, we're doing this real quick because I'm short on time, but we went through those verses already and that's exactly what they said. So he gave promises of blessing as well as warnings of chastening. All right. So the philosophy again, number one, came from misinterpreting the verses we just looked at. Secondly, the Jews had the idea of the oneness of the nation. In other words, if one person sins, everybody's guilty. So there was more of a corporate communal type approach to their theology at that time, which of course was not correct. So according to the law of Moses, innocent animals could suffer and die for guilty sinners. But nowhere was it taught, and this is Weersbe again, that innocent people should be punished for sins committed by guilty people. In fact, Moses taught just the opposite. The father shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall the children be put to death for their fathers. A person shall be put to death for his own sin. That's a quote from Deuteronomy. All right, we got a whole lot more verses that are gonna start to back this up. Deuteronomy 24 verse 16 is one of them. Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers. A person shall be put to death for whose sin? Their own. The concept being when we started out is, and again, here's, and I don't know how many commentaries I went through just to make sure. where everybody was at, but I mean, I've heard it and I've heard it preached in multiple different churches that, listen, and they'll get in the parents' faces and in the service. It's like, listen, if you mess up, if you do sin, you're condemning your children and your grandchildren and your grandchildren's grandchildren, basically your great-grandchildren. So if you mess up, you're destroying four generations. It's not what the verse is saying. Think back to culturally what was taking place back in these times. When a Jewish person got married, what did they do? The male, well first of all, there was a one-year betrothal. What would the male do? The male would then go back to daddy's home and he would build on an addition to daddy's home. That was just part of the culture back then. So you had, technically you could have, one, two, three, four different generations that were based on how long grandpa lives, living literally side by side in kind of like townhouses. So the culture of the day was you could have two, three generations literally living next door to each other. And it certainly had a cultural application at that time as well. And if the leadership, in other words, two doors down there's daddy and daddy's messing up and then the the grandchildren are watching it, the children are watching it, and the possibility, even the probability, of them following that inappropriate behavior is significant. So thereby why that verse is strong as it is. The guilt and condemnation for a parent's sin could not be passed on to the children but the consequences of parental sin could bring suffering to the family. All right, now you say, well, that's just Wiersbe's commentary, give us some Bible. All right, we will. In Old Testament days, the Jewish people lived in extended families and often four generations lived together. This meant that younger generations were influenced by the bad examples of their relatives as well as their good examples. Hereditary tendencies could be passed along as well as social diseases. But at the same time, a godly relative's example, teaching, and prayers could bring blessing to his or her descendants for years to come. Neither Ezekiel nor Jeremiah denied that innocent people were suffering because of the sins of the godless. Lamentations 5 says, our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their iniquities. In other words, when the leadership messes up, people suffer and there's repercussions for it. The thing they opposed was that the people were using the proverb as an excuse for their own sins, claiming that their generation wasn't guilty of disobedience. All right, now let's get into some specific things here. We're looking at Ezekiel now, and he's going to literally go through what in the world did... I mean, we just gave a quick summary of all these things. Now we're going to look at the Bible. The just person's description is going to be given right now, and there's 18, I think, no, 16 different things attached to this. This is all, this is just Bible, no commentary. But if a man is just and does what is lawful and right, If he has not eaten on the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, nor defiled his neighbor's wife, nor approached a woman during her impurity. He's just giving us five, if you're watching the screen at all, I've numbered them as we go through the scriptures. A just person will be following these specific things. Verse seven, if he has not oppressed anyone, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has robbed no one by violence, but has given his bread to the hungry, covered the naked with clothing, if he has not exacted usury, in other words, basically charging too much in interest, nor taken any increase, but has withdrawn his hand from iniquity and executed true judgment between man and man, he has walked in my statutes and kept my judgment faithfully. He is just, he shall what? Surely live, says the Lord God. Now again, what was Ezekiel pointing out here? Because what the Jewish people were doing is trying to blame mom and dad for their sin, and that's why they're under judgment. And Ezekiel's saying, no, that's not how this works. Because mommy and daddy did wrong, does that mean that it's on mom and dad and not on you and your sin? So he's pointing out, listen, if you're a just person, you do the 16 things that I just pointed out, you're not going to be judged. You'll live. But he's saying you are guilty of these things. You have been doing them. You have, instead of rejecting what your sinful parents did, you've also embraced it. And that's the point that he's making here. the unjust person's description. So he just said, listen, if you're a just person and you do those 16 things, and basically it's a, I mean, it's just a telltale that they're walking with God. Here's telltales that they're not walking with God. So the unjust person's description, if he begets a son. All right, so again, we're looking back at daddy. If daddy's boy does this, if he begets a son who is a robber or a shedder of blood, who does any of these things and does none of those duties, but he has eaten on the mountains, okay, meaning you're eating on the mountains as you're going up to sacrifice to idols, or defiled his neighbor's wife, basically adultery or fornication, oppressed the poor and needy, robbed by violence, not restored the pledge, lifted his eyes to the idols, or committed abomination, if he has executed usury or taken increase, shall he then live? Shall daddy's boy who practices these sins, and the question is, shall he live? And God's statement is, and there's even an exclamation point in the scriptures, which of course was not part of the original Hebrew, by the way, but the translators put it there, Shall he then live? He shall not live. If he has done any of these abominations, he shall surely die. His blood shall be upon him. All right, so Ezekiel is pointing out the children, again, and the grandchildren, they're saying, ah, you know, daddy messed up two generations ago. It's all on him. He messed up, and we've done nothing wrong. And God says, well, wait a minute. That's not how this works. All right, Ezekiel 18 verse 14. Now we get down to the explanation of this in a little more detail. If, however, he begets a son who sees all the sins which his father has done, here's the telltale and here's the one that makes it clear, and considers but does not do likewise. In other words, daddy's a mess up. He's messed up. He's a sinner. He's done wrong. Junior says, wait a second, guys. I don't want to be like what my dad did. I want to live for God. I want to do what's right. So if he considers, but he does not follow in his father's footsteps, that is the father who did wrong, verse 15, who has not eaten on the mountains, nor lifted his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, nor defiled his neighbor's wife, has not oppressed anyone, nor withheld a pledge, nor robbed by violence, but has given his bread to the hungry and covered the naked with clothing, who has withdrawn his hand from the poor and not received usury or increase, but has executed my judgments and walked in my statutes." God's conclusion. He shall what? Not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live. All right, so we look at the, again, we go back to the commandment, Exodus 20, verse five. Daddy sins. And it could be, if you will, from the four different passages we looked at, could indeed the children and the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren, could they indeed follow the steps of their, if you will, the first father? Could they do that? Is it possible that they'll do that? Yes. Is it even probable that that will take place? That's why the scripture keeps reiterating it. It's like, listen, dads, get your act together because you're not only affecting what you're doing, but the probability is you're going to affect the next generations to come. So straighten up. Now, If Junior happens to do, like in this scenario, in Ezekiel chapter 18, in the last several verses, and in definitely verse 17, when you all of a sudden have somebody who says, have you ever heard of a first-generation Christian? Somewhere along the pecking order, Either you're the first generation Christian or someone before you was a first generation Christian and may go back, you know, if you come from a long line of family where folks just, I mean, you just have a lot of folks that got saved and everybody, I've not seen too many of those families, but on occasion it happens. If you're a mom and dad and you're a quote-unquote a first-generation Christian and your children have gotten saved there would be second-generation Christians. So the probability of someone becoming a Christian doesn't increase if mom and dad are also Christians. I would suggest it does because mom and dad who are following the Lord, what are you going to do? You're gonna have a Bible in your home, you're probably gonna take them to church, they're gonna go to Awana, they're gonna go to Sunday school, they're gonna go Bible clubs, may have Christian school education, whatever it is. So the probability of a child of a Christian parent becoming a Christian is significantly higher than a child that has a parent that is not one. But the point here is, God is trying to make it very clear. Listen, don't try and blame grandpa or don't try, or great grandpa, don't blame everybody before you that it's their fault because you're a mess up. God's saying the soul that sins, it shall die. So he shall not die for the iniquity of his father. He shall surely live if indeed he stops the pattern and turns to the Lord. So again, if, and this happens all the time, Folks will be here, you'll bring folks in, maybe you'll see them at church, at school, wherever, or at school, at work, on the streets, and they have no idea what Christianity is, and they don't have Christian parents. And you start talking to them, and their mom or dad might've been a drug addict, they might've been a prostitute, might've been a murderer, and it happens. I mean, we run into people like that on occasion. Does that mean that they're gonna be a prostitute, or a murderer, or a robber, or end up in jail? No, absolutely not. Could, is the propensity higher if you come from a criminal family? Oh yeah, absolutely it is. So the concept here though, specific to the passage. Okay, so let's just go back to the passage right now. Forget about us. Let's just get myopic. God's point to the people in Judah was, do you, do not blame daddy because you're going to be judged. You're being judged because you're a mess up. Now if you would have changed, if you would have repented, if you would have gotten right with me, just like it says here, you will not die for the iniquity of your father. If you're doing right and you're living for God, you're gonna live. So that's God's statement here. Does this make sense? Hopefully it does. Verse 18, as for his father, now wait a minute, this son has already been given a clean bill of health because he turned to righteousness. As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother by violence, and did what is not good among his people. Behold, daddy is going to die for his iniquity. And again, we're talking now about Old Testament law. We're talking about Judah. We're not talking about in the current church age. Well, God's gonna kill you because you messed up. This was a issue with the Jewish people not following God. So we gotta separate the Old Testament concept from the New Testament age of grace, all right? That's why understanding how God dealt with people before the cross and how he dealt with people after the cross is also crucial. Is this a lot of stuff? It really is, it's heavy, and you've got to understand dispensationalism, and that's a word some people cringe at, but dispensation, how God works with certain people at certain times in a certain way to accomplish his will. And God works differently with the church age than he did back in Old Testament times. Verse 19, yet you say, why should the son not bear the guilt of the father? In other words, why shouldn't Junior be punished for what Daddy did? Because the Son has done what is lawful and right and has kept all my statutes and observed them, he shall surely live. All right, so again, what is my point here? Is the Bible contradictory? It can't be. There's got to be a reasonable explanation. When God's talking about sin that will be imparted, if you will, down to the third and the fourth generations, how does that synchronize, if you will, with what we're reading in Ezekiel and what we read in Jeremiah? Well, if you understand that God is basically saying the propensity for one who does wrong is that his descendants are in all likelihood going to do wrong, Don't you go blaming daddy for your sin. Now if you decide to turn and follow the Lord, you're gonna live. You will not be judged for what, if you will, the same sins that your daddy did. If you don't do them, you're not gonna be judged for them. Don't do them and live. It's that simple. All right, verse 20. We'll end with this. The soul who sins shall what? God's not playing games here now. He's making it very clear to the people in Judah, you guys sinned. You messed up. You forsook Me. You've not followed My commandments. You've gone into idolatry. You've followed in the ways of daddy and your daddy's daddy and your daddy's daddy's daddy. And because of that, and because you are guilty, then, because the soul who sins will die, the son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself." All right, so let's try and pull all this together now. So, we've got to be very careful making a blanket statement, and especially preachers and Bible teachers need to be very careful about what I've heard many of them say. And it's a wonder, it doesn't sound, I mean, the hellfire and damnation old-fashioned preacher who's like, ah, you sinned and you're going to send the next four generations to hell. Nonsense. Did you hear me? Nonsense. The son, the daughter is responsible for what they do. Not what daddy did, not what mama did. So again, the propensity and the challenge to me and you is, If we're doing right, if we're a good example, and we're living for the Lord, the opposite will be true. In all likelihood, our children and our grandchildren and so forth will see a godly mom and dad or grandpa and grandma or great-grandpa and great-grandma that are living for the Lord, and in all likelihood, they may follow suit. But listen, you stinkers in Judah, don't you dare blame daddy because you're a dirty, rotten sinner. You did that on your own and you're gonna be judged on your own. Make sense? All right, I hope it does. If it doesn't, let me see, what should you do? I don't know, I guess re-derival, that's it. All right, Father, thank you for your love for us. Oh, it's always easy to blame someone else when we do wrong. It's always easy to point fingers when it's really on us. And Father, I'm so thankful for the folks that are part of this church, this assembly. I'm thankful that they are good examples and that they set the tone for their children and for those that they have influence over. So Father, I pray that in the antithesis to what we saw in the Ten Commandments, that indeed we would be those that are walking with you, that we're setting good examples for those that follow, if you will, what we're doing. Help us to be good examples to our children, to our grandchildren, maybe someday to great-grandchildren. And Father, just please help us to be the best possible individuals we can, those that exemplify and honor Christ. And Father, we know it all starts at that point in time when we say yes to Jesus. It all started or will start when we realize that we're sinners, and because we've sinned, we don't deserve to go to heaven. But you made it so clear that every single person who puts their faith in Jesus, realizing that they can't get to heaven on their own, but that Jesus paid the entire cost through his death, burial, and resurrection for our sins. And Father, we're so thankful for that. If there's anyone listening tonight, Lord, that's never put their faith in Jesus and Jesus alone. They are traveling down a path that will lead to destruction and eternal damnation to be point blank. You know that, Lord. Maybe even tonight, would they stop the path of even previous generations and say yes to Jesus tonight and commit their life to him. So Father, we ask that you bless us, that you watch over us this week, help us to live for you. And Lord, we look forward to being back on the Lord's day, your day, the first day of the week, this coming Sunday. And we'll give you the praise for it. And all God's people said, amen. Thanks for being here, folks. Have a great night.