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There is a lot of chaos out there. A lot of confusion. Anger. Division. It kind of makes you wonder — is the world falling apart? Or is everything just falling into place?
Because all the division we see in politics, in our communities, and even in our families — it's an ever-widening chasm. It's just getting bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper. And we're even seeing it within the visible church.
So why are we seeing this? That is the question. And when we turn to God's Word, it might settle some things in our mind and therefore settle our hearts a little bit.
Gramster Rant: The Demonic Is Out in the Open
It does seem like the world's getting more chaotic, more irrational, more confusing. Part of it is that there are counterfeits everywhere. And in the sermons on Salvaged by God — in fact, this Sunday the new episode, based on the sermon being preached at the congregation in Harlan, Iowa — it's going to cover part of that. We start talking about the wheat and the weeds. And counterfeits seem to be everywhere.
And then you've got Candace Owens doing straight up demonic stuff. She used to be one of us. And we're not talking just conservative — she's just going off the deep end. How does that happen?
You cannot look around the world and not see a demonic presence that just wasn't even there pre-COVID. Absolutely true. Just the State of the Union last night was pretty good evidence that there is just some really demonic stuff going on. When you've got representatives of the United States who refused to go to the State of the Union address and instead dress up like drafts and frogs and dance around on stages — and those are our elected officials. Your head wants to explode.
Last night was a turning point for the United States of America where we can no longer continue to coexist in a normal, rationalized way. The whole "come, let's dialogue together," "let's have a representative government" — that in this Republic died last night. One of the rallies that elected leaders from the Democratic side had — every time President Trump or Vice President Vance was shown on the screen, they just booed. They wouldn't listen. It's beyond the pale of rational human behavior. It's not just political now. It's spiritual. It's demonic.
This is precisely why we must take an honest and earnest approach to God's Word and understand it correctly. Because when we do, it all kind of starts to make sense when we correctly interpret the things around us. And we are better able to keep calm and carry on.
That's kind of an overused phrase right now. But there's a reason it resonates. It came out during World War II in the UK — a poster they would put up to kind of just calm the people, boost their morale a little bit, and just encourage them that we're going to get through this. The Bible helps us do exactly that. Keep calm and carry on.
Deconstruction vs. Reevaluation
There has been an overt and very powerful push to deconstruct all things. That term has been used in specific ways before, but it needs to be expanded — because that is precisely how Satan throws us into confusion and fear.
Now, a disclaimer. There is a difference between reevaluating and deconstruction. Some people will say, "Isn't it good to kind of deconstruct what happened when the project fails so you don't do it again on the next project?" That's more of a reevaluation. When you reevaluate something, you look at it — let's say you had a business plan and it just didn't work out. You go back and say, where did I go off? It's like when you would do long division and your teacher said "wrong" — you had to go back and figure out where you veered off. But you don't need to torch the whole thing.
Deconstruction is different. You deconstruct when it's really completely broken and there's no longer any value there. Then you clear out the rubble and build up something new and right and true.
But the word has been hijacked by people who want to deconstruct everything as if they think they're doing something very intelligent. When you look at it, they're really not. They're just kind of following the herd in ways where two plus two has to equal five — and then they go looking for how to get there because they've got to believe that two plus two equals five.
This matters because what we're looking at is Satan's plan to dismantle our understanding. It's a push to deconstruct the family, a push to deconstruct Christianity, and a push to deconstruct language. And these three are deeply interconnected.
Satan's Push to Deconstruct the Family
We use that word "deconstruct" because that's exactly the goal of Satan — to obliterate the very foundation of what a family is.
We're seeing it across all walks of life. Basically it's the mentality that a family can be anything. It doesn't matter who you are or what you are or where you came from. They literally want to deconstruct the family. And we've seen this in culture where there's been some perversion of things.
Divorce
Divorce is just a sad reality of life, and when we see someone going through it, we reach out to them because we know it's hard. But culture has not only told us that divorce is perfectly acceptable — they've taken it further to say divorce should be celebrated. There is now a cottage industry in America in the catering industry where they will cater your divorce celebration that you're going to have at your house with your friends. It's really sad to see that.
The thinking is: if we celebrate it and make it a happy occasion, then it won't hurt so much. Wrong. That is not how it works. What we inadvertently end up doing is minimizing the pain and the sorrow when divorce does actually happen, when people actually need to be ministered to — not throwing parties.
And when people say "50% of all Christian marriages end in divorce" — that's not true. It's 50% of people who call themselves Christians end in divorce. It's really probably 7 to 8, 9% of actual Christians, because sin does splatter and Christians still do fall into sin even if they're soundly saved. But it's a different deal entirely. There's a movie in production right now — kind of a quasi follow-up to Bible Idiots — and one of the questions that documentary is going to answer is this exact myth. It's going to explain the meaning of life. In 80 minutes plus credits. Hey, if you can speak around the world in 80 days, you can do the meaning of life in 80 minutes.
Marriage
Marriage has not just become no longer valuable — we've taken a further step to say marriage is outright oppressive. Deconstructing the patriarchy. It's insane. We are now moving from common sense and actual reality into whatever we want it to be.
Abortion
Children became not just an inconvenient responsibility — they became a downright hindrance to the adult in the room. Which is a horrible way to view children. And then they reduce children still in the womb to just a clump of cells.
There's a huge push going on with some really good people throughout the globe to actually put the unborn child as part of the Great Commission. Think about that. Reaching people in the womb, affirming that they have value. And then reaching mothers on both sides of the abortion issue — those who've had one and are trying to recover from it, and those who are considering it. Nobody talks about the emotional impact on thousands of women a year or two or three after the abortion. Some have seared their conscience and they don't care, but it's not a good thing for the woman.
Why the Family Matters So Much
Here's the thing — the family is a mirror image of the relationships between God and man. So when you take a dive into that, you see that while they're perverting these things, that is a direct thumb into the eye of God.
Satan needs to obscure these realities. Obscure them at the least. Obliterate them at best. Because it obscures and obliterates our vision of God.
How does the family unit actually help us learn about God? Let's go through just a few:
Husband & Wife — The relationship of covenant, dedication, faithfulness. This is the God He wants us to see. He wants us to see that He is faithful, that He's a covenant God, that He doesn't break covenant. And He gives us the ability to demonstrate that as believers here on earth. So if you obliterate the husband and wife, you're obliterating that picture of God.
Father & Child — You're also seeing a demonstration of God's protection, God's provision, God's patience with those that don't understand things. Obliterate that and then you wonder why children are being abused. That is just off the chart globally, particularly in the United States.
Mother & Child — A really good illustration of the nurturing, caring, loving God. He intimately takes care of us. Our every little tiny need, He concerns Himself with. That healthy mother-child relationship is a picture, once again, into a loving God.
Siblings — We can get into the realm of being co-heirs with Christ, children of God. We're seeing similarities in these relationships, and we can better understand the call that Christ has on us when we've actually lived through those relationships.
Adoption — When we see children who are adopted formally into families, that's an amazing thing. But we also see it on other levels — a lonely elderly woman who no longer has her family near, and another family just kind of adopts her as their grandma. They literally start calling her grandma. There's no formal legal adoption, but there is an adoption which demonstrates what it is like to be grafted into the family of God.
No wonder Satan wants to deconstruct the family unit. Destroying the family and "it takes a village" and destroying the patriarchy — all these things are from the evil one. He's trying to sow weeds in our wheat field.
Satan's Push to Deconstruct Christianity
If Jesus is what He claims to be — the one true God in the flesh — then the enemy needs to do something about it. Satan will obscure it, pervert it. And just like in the Garden of Eden, Satan comes along and says, "Did God really say that?" He starts twisting — sometimes very subtly, sometimes overtly because we're just so naive — and leads us to believe something that God never said or God never meant.
Speaking in Tongues: What the Bible Actually Says
A really good example of this is the modern-day interpretation of speaking in tongues. This is a hot topic. But there are people holding fast that no, this is not what is meant by the Scriptures. And when we look at church history, we can see that from the very beginning, when these things were observed and taught about scripturally, these were known languages that were understood by the hearers of the message. All through the centuries, it has been understood as just that.
Let's jump into the book of Acts chapter 2. Verse 4 says that the apostles began speaking in tongues — and the word means known language. In verse 5, the hearers were Jews from "every nation under heaven." That's interesting. And that's an actual event being described — that's not a prescriptive for how we're supposed to live after we're saved. It's a descriptive passage. They're describing an actual event that happened. This is not "you need to do this."
Verses 6 and 7 are really very telling:
"When the sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, 'Look, are not all these who speak Galileans?'" — Acts 2:6-7
How is it that we hear each of us in our own language? It was perplexing to them. And verse 9 makes it very clear — it goes on to literally list the languages that were understood being spoken there. The Parthians, the Medes, the Elamites. There's a lot of languages. This is how it was understood. It wasn't speaking gibberish.
There have been a handful of times over the centuries where some false teachers tried to bring in the idea that we should still be speaking in tongues. But even those people acknowledged that we should be speaking in tongues in known languages. Every single time that has occurred throughout Christian history, it has been soundly rejected by the church.
Cessationist vs. Continuationist
For those who may not understand, there are two schools of thought going down the tracks right now. One is called cessationist and the other is called continuationist. The continuationists believe that all the spiritual gifts are prescriptive in the Bible, even though an easy understanding of language shows that's not true. They don't care. They need this experience to justify what they believe. And when they find out that it's not real, some of them still continue on in it because of the human condition.
The cessationist side believes that the apostles built the foundation with Jesus Christ. His Word is sufficient. Sola Scriptura. And so these spiritual gifts have ceased. Some would call themselves "God-sovereigntists" — acknowledging that God, in His sovereignty, could still use the gift of tongues in rare, extraordinary circumstances.
There's a powerful testimony of this. A youth group goes down to Guatemala, a Spanish-speaking area. They're having a campfire gathering, talking about Jesus. One of the American kids goes off to the side, sits on a log at the edge of the gathering, and starts talking with a local girl. Another youth pastor walks over, overhears them, and they're speaking in Spanish back and forth to each other. About five minutes in, the girl bows her head and prays, gets up with tears in her eyes, gets a brief hug, and walks away. The kid turns around and says, "Isn't that awesome? She just accepted Jesus." And the youth pastor says, "I didn't know you spoke Spanish." The kid goes, "I don't speak Spanish. I've never spoken Spanish."
That's the sovereignty of God in a moment in time to redeem one of His creation and draw them to Himself. But here's the thing — that is such an anomaly. That is such a rarity. And the thing about that story that sticks the most is this kid didn't know he was even doing it. It wasn't like he was searching for the gift. He wasn't going to go on wielding it. It was a one-time thing. And who got the glory through it all? God did.
The Damage of the "You Don't Have the Spirit" Game
So if it's gibberish, if the gospel isn't being shared, if it's not a known language — if you want to walk authentically in biblical Christianity, you have to set it aside as most likely false. And here's the thing — nobody's denying that some of these gibberish speakers are having an experience. It's just not the Holy Spirit. That's what they claim, but that's not what it is. Some have gone so far as to say if you don't speak the gibberish, you don't have the Spirit.
And I'm one who's never going to contrive. In the late 90s, early 2000s, there was a moment — bowed our heads, baptized in the Spirit. Waiting for the tongues to come. And I'm waiting for it to come because it's got to be from God. It's not going to be from me. "Oh, just relax your mind. Open your throat. Just start making guttural sounds." What? No. And so I don't have the gift. Did you start doubting — do I even have the love of Christ? And so it's this game that needs to be eradicated from authentic Christianity.
We were serving on the mission field in 2004, 2005, and early 2006. And there was a Pentecostal church in the village we were in. The pastor was literally telling people that if you don't have this gift of gibberish, you don't have the Spirit. It's not that people aren't having an experience — it's just not biblical speaking in the Spirit. And again, it's a works-based thing.
They twist what God has said. That's what Satan loves to do. He just twists it — just like he did back in the Garden of Eden. They have twisted or redefined what a prophet is. They've redefined what an apostle is. They've redefined what prophecy is. And just this week, they're actually trying to twist what revival is. Because we've been watching all the horrible uncovering of what's been going on at Bethel Church down in Redding, California. They're describing it different than what it is. Now they're saying they're having a "repentant revival" — even though all they're trying to do is save their skin. They're just not credible.
The Azusa Street Revival: Where It All Changed
Christians have never asserted that speaking in tongues was anything but known languages until 1906. That's the 20th century. This is a completely new idea. Never thought of this way before.
If you've never heard of the Azusa Street revival, do some research on it and know that it is one of the worst things that's ever happened to authentic Christianity in America. It is actually the beginning of the Pentecostal movement. And here's the thing — they believed the same thing. They believed that tongues was the ability to speak a known language.
So much so that a woman named Agnes Osman claimed she was given the gift of tongues. She only communicated in Chinese for a short period of time — whether she was speaking or whether she was writing. She claimed she had the ability to speak and write this language. And supposedly this was the evidence that Agnes Osman had the Spirit within her.
But here's the problem. They kept all this stuff. It's historically recorded. Her claim to "Chinese writing"? For audio listeners, you really need to go look this up — because what she actually wrote was just a bunch of chicken scratches. Modern-day Americans, we can look at that and know that's not Chinese because we've been exposed to Chinese writing pretty regularly. We can't read it, we don't know what the letters are, but we have a good idea of what it looks like. And that ain't it.
But people in this bizarre Pentecostal sect — they believed that this was true. They wanted to believe what they were being told. So much so that a group of people sold everything they had, gave it to the church to fund a mission trip to China. They got aboard a boat — remember, this is early 20th century, it wasn't easy to just go — sailed to China, got off the boat, started speaking their gibberish to Chinese people. Nobody knew what they were saying. No one understood.
Now these people are disillusioned. They're broke. Many of them are sick from the journey. They've got to make their way back to the United States. And eventually they did, but not all of them made it. Some of them died.
Read between the lines here. These are people that have faith. These are people that are sincere. These are people that have love in their heart. They were going to give up this world for the next by going all the way to China to share this supernatural gift — that they've been duped into believing is real. These are not nut jobs. They were sincere people. And so you could be deceived. Any of us could be deceived. That's why we lay everything down next to Scripture.
But the leadership? They could not acknowledge they were wrong or their ministries would be over. Their coffers would be empty. So what did they do? They changed the meaning of the word. They had to. They couldn't admit it was a lie because they didn't want to lose their station, their influence, their money.
John Collins has put together some amazing videos that take you through the history, the inception, and the changes that Pentecostalism went through. His grandfather was a pastor in Branham Tabernacle, which was one of their big flagship churches. He was raised in this stuff. His dad was raised in this stuff. And they came out of it, and he is really shining a light on the cult that it is and the different cults that have spawned off of it. The modern-day charismatics and Pentecostals call their founders "God's generals." When you take a closer look, they're really Satan's generals. Check out the link in the description — it's a series of not very long videos that's going to give you a whole bunch of information.
It is, my friends, very difficult for all human beings of any walk of life to come clean when the veil has been lifted. When something you've believed for 10 years, 20 years, 40 years turns out to be empty and false — it's the spiritual equivalent of the atheist who works hard to get to his dreams, finally makes it, gets everything he ever hoped for, sits on top of it, and realizes it's a mirage. It didn't satisfy. Twenty years building toward something, and he's miserable.
When the veil is lifted, one of two things happens. People either take the hit on the chin — "I guess I was kind of a moron, but I'm so glad I have the truth now" — or they double down. Searching, digging through the rubble looking for any little glimpse that they might have been right, instead of accepting it and acknowledging that they were wrong. That's a tough thing to do.
"Praying in the Spirit" and "Tongues of Angels"
These phrases get hijacked too. "Praying in the spirit" — they say it must mean speaking in tongues, some heavenly language that only God understands. They've just drawn this absurd picture of what speaking in tongues is. It's not that. Speaking in the spirit is not speaking in tongues. Two different things.
Praying in the spirit is actually praying in saving faith. Go to the start of the Sermon on the Mount:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God." — Matthew 5:3
Do you know what that means? Poor in the spirit — the words there literally mean bankrupt. You are bankrupt in the spirit. There's nothing that you can offer.
At the core, we don't have a proper view of who we really are in Christ. So when you're praying with that saving faith, coming from that bankrupt spirit, as God's growing you in your sanctification — you'd never strut around saying "I'm a saint of God" and just go at it. No. Because you're bankrupt in spirit and the kingdom of God is yours. Why? Because Jesus becomes everything.
When you're praying in the spirit — praying by saving faith — what dies is any thoughts that you're ever going to be anything significant. It's all about Him and His glory. And that's when you hear phrases like "I must decrease, He must increase" and it makes total sense. That's when unity of the brothers and sisters matters — it's like eating a sweet cake at a wedding. It's just so satisfying.
Don't let people fool you. Praying in the spirit is not speaking gibberish. It's praying in saving faith from a bankrupt spirit, because the kingdom of God is yours, given to you because He's your substitute. He's your everything. In the gulf between you and God that man could never bridge — He brings you to the other side. And in your bankrupt, broken, sinful self, He presents you in front of a holy God as if you're perfect and never sinned. That's the miracle. That's praying in saving faith.
As for "tongues of angels" — the idea that God has this secret language that only Him and the angels understand — the problem with that is pretty straightforward. Number one, God gave us language. He understands everything. So do His angels. Number two, Satan is an angel. You're not hiding anything. If you really want to understand the language of God, your primary source is God's Word. Go to it. Study it. Study to show thyself approved. There's also natural revelation — the Bible says the world and everything in it is the Lord's and it declares the glory of God. Our conscience, when something bad happens, just recoils. That's God revealing there is right and wrong.
The Real Question: Is Jesus Enough?
At the end of the day, what's really going on is this: the Jesus of the Bible isn't enough for them. They have to have more. They need more juice. And that comes from selfishness. Because when you're bankrupt in spirit, you know that you can't save yourself. You know that you are lucky to even be in the room.
They want to lift us up through our justification and make us into these super saints. And if you're a super saint and you're really walking with Jesus, you'll be given these gifts, you'll be doing this and that. No. Here's what happens when Jesus of the Bible is enough: when Sola Scriptura, when you're bankrupt in spirit and you come with repentance and you're praying in the spirit in saving faith — you can't help but serve the Lord. You have to find a way to continue to serve Him. Even if you are in an isolated situation, you're praying, you're reading Scripture, you're doing something.
The flip side of that coin is people who want to add to their faith. They want to add what they've got going on to Jesus. So they have just as many works as the saved person. It's hard to tell them apart. That's wheat and weeds right there.
Answer this question straight up: Is Jesus of the Bible your substitute — the one who took your deserved punishment upon Himself? And you know you need to be punished because you're bankrupt in spirit, and the kingdom of heaven is now yours, given to you by Jesus. Is that enough for you? Or do you need some extra juice? Because you're so special?
What it really comes down to is this: are you talking about what you can do, or are you talking about what Jesus has done? That's the big definer right there.
Satan's Push to Deconstruct Language
This is really the base of all deconstructions. If you can destruct the meaning of words, you can actually conjure up the most absurd scenarios and then actually believe that is reality.
All you've got to do is watch news headlines for 10 minutes. The most fascist people in the world are calling themselves anti-fascists. The most Nazi-behaving folks are calling others Nazis. Because they're trying to redefine what the words mean. And it's happening in real time.
Redefining Love, God, and Truth
We watched it with marriage. It was not that long ago where they broke through that one man, one woman barrier. And now we've got people marrying their computers and their dogs. "Love is love. You can't control who you love." That brings us to another thing — when you redefine God, you can make anything mean anything. A lot of people point to the verse that says "God is love." But they've twisted it. What they really mean is love is God. What they're really saying is "my view of love is God." And so it's very subtle sometimes, but it changes everything.
At the end of the day, there could be no heaven, there could be no hell. There could be heaven, there could be hell. "What is your truth? Yours doesn't have to be my truth." This started a while back. The song "Imagine" by John Lennon was one of the early deconstructions. Imagine there's no heaven. Imagine this. Imagine that. It all sounded like really nice platitudes that we all should sing along to. And the tune itself is catchy enough to where you just think, "That's kind of cool." Until you realize — oh my word, what does he actually say in here? This is a horrible song. No one should be singing it.
But when you get to that point where you're defining your own God, basically, we all become gods ourselves — to the point where we can even pick our gender. And if you don't use my pronouns, you deserve to be punished.
When Confusion Becomes Dangerous
We live in a culture where educated, elected officials cannot look into the barrel of a camera and say what a woman is. We have judges that can't do it. They refuse. They are now so confused — the darkness and the demonic, it's just so awful. They redefined what species are. "I'm a furry." No, you're a human being. They redefined the baby in the womb to just a clump of cells.
And it's no wonder when you have people in the public like Steven Furtick who is teaching that we are gods — that we just have to come to the realization that we're God. He literally teaches that.
One cult of Christianity teaches that Jesus is just a consciousness. He's not a real person. He's not really God. No, there was a Jesus, but he just came to the consciousness that he's God and we need to come to that same consciousness. But here's the thing — there is no scenario under the blue sky where Jesus could be just "a good teacher." Either He was the Messiah, the Son of God, or He was an absolute lunatic. There's no great middle ground where He was just a good teacher.
Look at the Old Testament prophecies. Look at how all the disciples — the apostles — went to their death without even a blink of an eye because this was in fact stone cold true. They saw Him die and they saw Him raise again from the dead. As Abdu Murray said in the movie Bible Idiots — a guy who raises himself from the dead has credibility. Scriptures claimed several times that He was God. If He wasn't really God and He was claiming He was God, then He'd have to have been a lunatic. All you have to do is look at every other single person who claimed to be God — they were an obvious, overt lunatic who was a danger not just to themselves, but to other people.
This isn't silly confusion. It leads somewhere devastating. Nazi Germany did this exact thing — redefining what a human being is. The "favored" Aryan race and the "subhumans." Some were considered not human at all. A German person and a Jew who got married and had kids — the Jew is a nonhuman, the German is the perfect human, and the baby is subhuman because they're a combination. That's how sick it is.
If you think this is just interesting, silly little confusion — no. It leads to something absolutely devastating where people commit the most awful atrocities.
That is Satan's M.O. — great confusion. We know from 1 Corinthians 14:33 that God is not the author of confusion.
The Rise of the Apostate Church
An apostate church refers to a religious body or institution that was once aligned with orthodox Christian doctrines but has consciously, intentionally, and fundamentally abandoned or rejected those core beliefs. It represents a departure from essential biblical truth such as Sola Scriptura, the authority of Scripture, and the divinity of Christ.
There's a big distinction here. A cult might rise up just because they have weird things that they believe. But the apostate church starts out accepting biblical reality, accepting a biblical worldview, and slowly, over time, veers off — and they take people with them. They are counterfeit. They look like the real thing, but they're not.
We are seeing this in the NAR — the New Apostolic Reformation — the hyper-charismatic and Pentecostal movements. They are cherry-picking scriptures, twisting words. And we are also watching as these people's abuses and horrible things going on behind the scenes are being uncovered. They've created a pseudo reality that's not real, and now we're all supposed to buy into it.
Bethel, Jim Jones, and the Bible-Based Cult
Bethel Church was involved in things called "grave soaking" where they laid on graves to soak up the energy of dead people. They claimed they were going to resurrect a baby that died — Olive, I think was her name. This is human abuse. This is just devastating. And they convinced people that this is reality.
In the late 1970s, early 80s, a new phrase entered our vocabulary as Christians: "Bible-based cult." It seemed like an oxymoron — how can you study the Bible and yet say it's a cult if you believe what the Bible says? But it is the result of what happens when truth gets twisted incrementally.
Reverend Jim Jones was enthralled with Pentecostalism as a child. He was ordained as a minister by the Independent Assemblies of God church and was involved in the latter rain movement and healing revivals. It all culminated when this guy gathers his own following, starts believing he's more than just a man, and people follow him down to Jonestown, Guyana — where the biggest mass suicide and murderous rampage took place, all under the guise of Christianity. That's how you get a Bible-based cult.
It's Not a One-Off
You might be tempted to think Jim Jones was just a one-off. He was not. Whether it's Pentecostalism, the latter rain movement, the People's Temple, Word of Faith, the NAR, the Branch Davidians in Waco — it's everywhere. We cannot just assume that everybody who comes and says "Hey, I'm a Christian and I'm involved in this great church" is credible.
You compare the things that have happened in the past to what's happening right now, and you can see things haven't changed much. People have the same tendencies — they start claiming they're a prophet, claiming they're Isaiah incarnate, claiming they're an apostle, or even claiming they're Jesus himself. I've said it before on the show and publicly — one of the great problems they have in Jerusalem is that people, like weekly, something like one out of every 1,000 people that go to the temple mount, they get a delusion that they're one of the two witnesses in Revelation chapter 11. And you just feel bad for folks. God speaks to us through His Word, which is why preachers are given the command to preach the Word, to exegete the Word.
The Sufficiency of Scripture
The Bible has a word that people really need to get their mind around: sufficient.
The closed canon of Scripture is all God needs for us to have. Genesis through Revelation, in your Bible — an ESV translation, the LSB, John MacArthur study Bible, whatever you've got — you have the Word of God from start to finish and it is sufficient. You don't need anything else. You don't need some guide to come along saying "I'm a prophet, I'm a new apostle." The only reason someone says he's an apostle is he wants authority over pastors and others and wants to claim that God told him. What do you do when he says God told him? You say, "You're a liar." You reject that. And then what the Bible says is you mark and avoid. It's not that hard.
Church history is a helpful tool — not essential to salvation, but helpful. Whatever it is that Christians have hung on to from the time of Christ until today, that's what you can hang your hat on. And remember, this whole Pentecostalism was nonexistent until the early 20th century.
A Perspective Forged by Experience
There's a unique advantage that comes from having hosted talk shows and morning shows in major markets with huge audiences. One audience was 250,000 people every day. And you think they were all authentic Christians living a born-again life? They were from every walk of life and every denomination possible. They would call the show. A lot of times the question would be written before the show, the question asked on-air, and watch the eight phone lines light up. You'd get every walk of life. Everybody always wanted to debate baptism and the Lord's supper and all these things.
And through all that experience — taking those calls, hearing those perspectives for years — life gets reduced down to the most narrow road. And that comes from Sola Scriptura. The Bible is sufficient. It's complete. It's enough for us. If you want to hear God speak, read the Bible. If you want to hear Him speak audibly, read it out loud.
There Is Hope
Now that we've thoroughly depressed you — what do we do?
Just a reminder: these things are not unexpected. The church, the bride of Christ — the true bride of Christ is not becoming corrupt or falling apart. No, no, no, no, no. The church is being sifted. The church is being purified while the apostate church is being exposed. The true church is being held together.
We know this because God promised it:
"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." — John 6:37-40
Jesus is saving His own and He's not going to lose one. Not a one.
What Scripture Tells Us to Expect
Those two beasts in Revelation — the political beast out of the seas and the religious beast out of the land, the one that looks like a lamb but speaks with the tongue of the dragon — we don't need to be afraid of them. They are accomplishing something for God's perfect plan. It is sorting the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats, the apostate church from the true church.
When we read through the Scriptures, four passages really tell us specific things that are going to happen, and we don't need to fear them:
2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 — A great falling away. We're watching that right now.
2 Timothy 4:3 — False teachers are going to gather multitudes of people that just have itching ears. They want to hear the things they want to hear, and it doesn't really matter if that's not really Chinese.
Matthew 7:22 — They will look very similar and identify as Christians. They're hiding in plain sight. Like we said, 50% of all Christian marriages don't end in divorce — it's 50% of people who claim they're Christians. Their marriages end in divorce. Same as the world. Same as the world. They are not.
Matthew 7:23 — The very next verse. They're not.
You can't swing a dead cat on YouTube and not hit a false teacher. If you're searching "Bible" or "Christianity," the first five of the first seven are going to be false teachers. Go to the trusted and true. Don't be looking for the newest, flashiest guy or gal that pops up. And when you see that bonafide false teacher — that gross dude that when you look at him, you're like, he probably smells — and he's got two million YouTube followers, don't be envious. Your heart should break for the people watching.
If you're wondering, do the Pentecostals show up in the Bible? Yes, they do. Matthew 7:21-24 — read it for yourself in its entirety. That's where you will see them. It literally describes them.
God's Word is continuing through all these things to prove itself reliable, to prove itself trustworthy. What Jesus has said He will do, He will do. What Jesus has taught will remain forever.
What Do We Do: 2 Thessalonians 2:14-15
We love turning to prescriptive verses after we have read through the descriptive verses — what is it we're supposed to do?
"He called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter." — 2 Thessalonians 2:14-15
Notice there's a whole lot of our, we, us going on there. This is Paul speaking. And what is he telling us? He's telling us to hold fast. Whose gospel? Their gospel. Whose letters? Their letters. Whose word? Their word. Because why? Because they were eyewitnesses. They know better than anybody. They were there and they gave good, accurate testimony.
That's what we do. Go back to God's Word. Sola Scriptura. God's Word is sufficient.
If you keep going back to that original source — that original source — you're not going to get twisted and turned into a different direction. The true church will hold fast to what the original apostles taught. And it's sad that you have to say "original apostles" in our culture — but the only apostles of Jesus Christ are in Scripture.
The Bible also says that if anyone teaches you a gospel other than what the Apostles Paul, Peter, John — all the apostles — taught, let them be accursed. Even if it's angels, let them be accursed. If you hear any other gospel — and that's what we are seeing — we are seeing the accursed teachings out there, and we're supposed to be nice. The 11th commandment: "Blessed be the nice." You shouldn't say anything. Why? You can say what you want to say. I'll say what I want to say. Let the people decide. We're open to dialogue. We'll share with you the truth as we know it. We're not here to debate. We're here to proclaim.
The fruit of the Spirit — love, gentleness, the right temperament — that's what we're called to. We proclaim the truth, but we proclaim it with the character of Christ. And that's the struggle, honestly. Because sometimes you just want to shake the camera. Wake up! It's simple faith. Why is that not enough for you?
Focus. Jesus has put your treasures in heaven where they'll be safe. Seek the kingdom of God first and all this other stuff will be added on to you. Scripture interprets Scripture.
Final Thoughts
Do your own study. Know the Word of God. Let no one deceive you, nor deconstruct family, faith, or language. And hold fast to what you were first taught.
Don't Be Afraid to Ask, "Was I Wrong?"
For those struggling with the realization that something they've believed for years might not be right — you don't have to be afraid of considering it. You don't have to be afraid of asking, "Was I wrong?" Trust that the Holy Spirit is going to lead you in the right way. Any embarrassment you might feel is nothing compared to being wrong eternally. If life and death is on the line — which it is — then who cares if I had it wrong and now I have it right?
When people walk in error and realize they're walking in error, one of two things happen. They either turn and take the hit on the chin — "I guess I was kind of a moron, but I'm so glad I have the truth now" — or they double down. "I've been doing this for decades. I know what I know." And then they try to piece-meal stuff together. A great example of this is evolutionists who go to Kentucky to the Creation Museum or to the Ark. They realize that a lot of what they've believed for years is false. And yet how do they go back to their world that's paying them a couple hundred thousand dollars a year and now not follow the evolutionary line? All of us have disruptions in our life. And when we are humble and bankrupt in spirit before the Lord, when our eyes are opened, we can make that adjustment a little bit quicker.
Experience vs. Truth
A lot of people get hung up on their experience. "This is what I experienced, so this is what I know is true." But can you always trust your experiences? Not always. You can trust God's Word.
A prime example is Todd White running around growing people's legs and stuff. It's nothing but a parlor trick. And yet if you're sitting there and it appears that happened to you — that was your experience — you're going to want to hang onto that. You're going to want to say, "No, no, this is true. Because I saw it." Well, what if your back pain lifted? You kind of believe it, even though a week later the back pain comes right back.
We can't always even believe our own experiences. We have to compare them — have to compare them — to the Word of God. And if somebody approaches you with something that might not be quite right, you don't have to be afraid of re-examining it.
Keep Calm and Carry On
Hold fast to what you were first taught in the Scriptures by the apostles that Jesus Himself chose. Because our redemption is drawing near. There is no question about that.
And in a world that feels like it is indeed falling apart — wearing out like an old garment, which is how the Bible describes it — remember that God has said this is all going to happen. This is all going to take place.
And so in reality, things are just falling perfectly into place. We do not need to fear, just as He has promised.
Keep calm and carry on.
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