The Eric Metaxas Show - Ask Me Anything

Episode Date: February 5, 2021

Folks, you're listening to Ask Me Anything. It's the Arkham Taxis Show, but we're playing what I did the other night. It was a live thing on YouTube and Facebook. Ask Me Anything. People ask me questions. Here it is. Well, good evening, everybody. And welcome to the first ever Salem, Ask Me Anything event.

And we decided to do this series of events called Ask Me Anything because we know that our listeners love to have a one-on-one opportunity and they never do get it. Usually you're calling in or maybe you're at an event with thousands of people. But tonight, we have 20 people that have chosen to pay a little extra money and get a chance to be one-on-one with our first host, Eric Metaxus. Well, first of all, thank you for having me. And thank you, Phil Boyce, for discovering me. I was a nobody until you put your finger on me. And you said, you, you, yes, you.

I want to make you a star. Eric, your subtitle is a search for the meaning of life. That's a big assignment for one. Well, searching for the meaning of life is not a big assignment. Finding the meaning of life is a big assignment. The book, honestly, this is like the story of my life up until I had this conversion experience at age 25. And let me tell you, it was dramatic.

It was miraculous. It's the end of the book. And when something like that happens to you, you'll never forget it. It changed my life literally overnight. It was an encounter with the God of the Bible. It was the kind of thing I thought happens to other people. It never happened to me. It happened to me.

And I thought, I need to tell that story. But in order for that dream to make sense, you have to tell everything coming up to that point. So I tell the story of growing up with my mom and dad and, you know, an immigrant household. My dad came from Greece. My mom came from Germany. And just what that experience was like. there are a lot of very funny stories in the book. It's all true. Every insane funny story is 100% true. I hate when people stretch the truth. But ultimately, you know, I get into my time at Yale

where I kind of was lost looking for the meaning of life. Is there, does life have meaning? The people at places like Yale act like they've kind of moved past the idea of meaning and truth. And that's kind of for the people in the heartland, you know, flyover people who cling to their guns and Bibles. And I I guessed that I thought, well, I don't know what I think. What I learned in the church growing up was not really clear. And so by the time I graduated, I was very lost. And that's the end of the book is my really longing to know what the meaning of life is. And being really unable to find it.

And God finds me. Let me put it that way. But I don't want to spoil the story. But I wrote it just because there are tons of people that are exactly the way I was then. You know what I mean? They're decent people, but they just don't know where to look or whatever. And I said, I want to reach those people. So people who are different from me, theologically, people who are different from me politically. I wrote this book for those people. And it doesn't mean that people who agree with me won't love it. I think you will. But I really hope that people who agree with me will give this book to people who are not on the same page. And don't say anything about it. Just say, this is a fun read. I think you'll enjoy it and see if, you know, I would say, you know, I would say, you know, I would say, you know, they see if God uses it in their lives. That's ultimately why I wrote the book. I want God to use my story to reach people in the way that he reached me. Well, all of our viewers tonight on our Ask Me Anything audience that you see many of them on the screen do have a copy of this book. We sent it to them

and let's hope that they enjoy it and recommend it to their friends. If you don't have a copy of the book, you can buy it on Amazon or anywhere where books are sold. And let's do everything we can to get your book to the top of the New York Times bestseller list, because we know how much that annoys them at the New York Times. Yeah, we hate them, and we want to annoy them as much as possible. And I was kidding. I was kidding about, you know, killing some people. I probably wouldn't do that.

I certainly wouldn't admit to it. Well, of course you were kidding. I am desperate, and this week is very, very important. So I know there are 20 people that have paid cash money. Maybe they stole that money. I don't want to know. All I know is you're here. You have questions.

So I'm here to answer any questions. And I'm excited. Let's go. And let me make one little announcement for those people. We started you off with your microphone and your camera muted. If you choose to unmute it, you may. And many of you, I see your faces. So you have done that.

And when you are called upon, you may unmute your mic and ask your question. So let's get started here because we only have. have 90 minutes and we don't want to go along or our taskmasters will get it up. I'll go long. I don't care. Listen, Suzanne, I can't face her after making her sit alone through her birthday evening. So I'm just, I'm happy to hang out with you guys. Well, since you're talking about Suzanne, let's go to Carol Ellis.

She lives in McGregor, Texas. She's a loyal fan of yours. And she has a great question. So Carol, we're going to throw it to you first. And you have a question about Suzanne. Come in, Carol. Is Carol there? Yeah, unfortunately, we don't hear her, so I'm going to ask that.

I've discussed it, Carol, and she's walked off. Well, let's ask another question. When Carol comes back, I'll apologize, whatever was you said to drive her away. We'll give her a chance. Let's go to another question, Alexis Harthill. She's in Louisville, Kentucky. Alexis, you're on with Eric Metaxus. And maybe your microphone is muted.

So far so good. All right. Well, we'll go to our first questioner, Paul Lindenberg. Paul is a listener out of St. Louis Park, Minnesota. We know he's here. He was here for the last 10 or 15 minutes. So, Paul, you're on the air with Eric Mataxis. He's on mute.

Paul, can you unmute? We actually want to hear your actual voice. Listen, guys, I'm going to take an app and once you get the brain down, just ring a bell. What's happening? This is spiritual warfare. If you have a prayer language, please use it. I'm happy to ask these questions, Eric. I don't know what you've done to offend my fans, Phil.

What have you done? We wanted them to have a chance because that's the way we build this. Maybe whoever is moderating this is supposed to unmute people or something. You ever think about that? I think they're trying to do it, but for whatever reason it's not working. As long as they're trying, we don't care of our results. Are you able to unmute the microphones of our 20 people? Would that be possible?

Your job is at stake. Should I go to another person? Hey, I'm the guest here. I don't want to tell anybody how to do their job, but you will be fired if this happens again. Well, I tell you what, let's just get started. And I think I'll go back to the question that Carol was going to ask. Okay. She wanted to know more about your wife and daughter, and since your wife's there with her birthday party,

I think it'd be a great time to tell about Suzanne and your daughter. Suzanne, the big news about Suzanne is when I married her, she was just built like a tank, big as a house. And I said, I'm not going to marry you. You need to lose that weight. And she did, and we've been married 25 years. It's a moving thing. No, in all seriousness, Suzanne's in the other room with friends. very thin friends. They're all thin. They're pathetically thin so I can make fun of their weight.

But Suzanne is having a nice time. And I think she loves, you know, having time alone with her friends because I tend to talk too much. And it's become a sore point in the marriage. But we're getting through it. But I want to say that we met in church, which is where, you know, it's not a bad place to meet your wife. I've met all three of my wives in church, actually. That was a joke. That's a joke. No, Suzanne and I met in church in the 90s. Times Square Church, David Wilkerson's church. And the greatest thing is to be on the same page theologically or politically as your spouse, to walk with them. Especially, this has been a really hard season, as most people know. So my wife, my current wife, Suzanne, actually she's my first wife, she's in the other room weeping quietly. And we've been together now like 25 years consecutively. Think about that. And we have one daughter who's, in college. And we don't get to see her as much as we would like, but, you know, that's what

happens when they go to college. But we've been in New York. We feel called to New York City. And Suzanne feels that. I feel that the rents in New York City are a challenge. But we really feel called by God to be in this Godforsaken city. And it's, you know, it's a big part of what makes us click as a couple, I think, is a love for similar things. And New York is one of those things. Not the godlessness, but the other stuff. Folks, welcome back. This is the Erkman Taxi Show, but we're playing what I did just the other night. It was live. It's asked me anything. People came on and they asked me questions and it's just me answering their questions. Here it is. Let's go on. And I'm going to ask that question that Alexis Hartheel of Louisville, Kentucky is wanting to ask, what are

your normal schedule with your work. Is it 40 hours a week or more? It's definitely more, but, you know, it's not like I dig ditches for a living. I'm not. My parents, you know, worked hard to raise us, my brother and me. My brother's name is John. And I have a different attitude toward work maybe than I would if I'd grown up with a silver spoon in my mouth. I have to say that Suzanne ran a crisis pregnancy center for 12 years in New York City. And before that, she was on the cosmetics business. But there are a lot of people in New York City who believe in standing up for the unborn and all that jazz. And Suzanne was a real hero in that world.

And now helping me a little bit, I need help badly. as you can tell from this meeting tonight. But back to the work thing, I honestly don't really like routine very, very much. I write books. I'm currently writing or finishing, I should say, the manuscript for a book that's going to come out in the fall

called Is Atheism Dead? And I'm very excited about it, but it's a weird thing to have a radio show and to be writing and then to be traveling and speaking. So my life is a jumble. It's really rare. that I have a routine. I try to record the radio program a little bit ahead in case I have to travel, so we've got great guests and stuff. So I know that's a non-answer, but that's the best

answer you're going to get at these prices. Thank you, sir. Gaylene Tiergium of Arlington, Texas, one of your big fans. There has been a lot of talk about conspiracy, but the one that really matters is the one that Dallas Willard calls in his own book titled The Divine Conspiracy. Our question is, have you read that book or watch the related 12-part video series his family has made available for free on YouTube? Do you need me to repeat him? His name? No. My answer to that, I'm going to keep this short.

No. Let's move on. You know what I was going to say? you know what the big conspiracy is for me? I haven't read that. I'm familiar with it, but no, I haven't read it. But what I was going to say is that the big conspiracy theory that I can't believe people believe this, but people around the country evidently believe, some people believe this,

that Biden was elected by the American people. That's the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life. So that's a conspiracy that I'm just amazed that people really, they really buy into that. It's like one step away from believing in mermaids. But there you go. Let's go to Tracy Carmack of Lenore, Texas. Should we recommend your camera to get a low-paying job so they are humbled enough to find Jesus or just not help them so much so they are more inclined to call out to him?

Say that again, because that's a good question. That's a deep question. Should we recommend to our college grads to get a low-paying boring job so they're humbled enough to find Jesus or just not help them so much? they are more inclined to call out to him. I think with fake President Biden, we're going to have an economy that's going to take care of that problem. They're going to be humbled.

I honestly think that there's no right answer for that. But I do think hard work is one of the blessings of life. It's grounding. And anybody who seeks pleasure and avoids work is very foolish. They're hurting themselves, actually, because there's something about work that really is a blessing in the same way that exercise is a blessing. I mean, you know, they say no pain, no gain. But there's a reality to that. God constructed the universe that way.

So I really think it is very valuable for young people to have different kinds of jobs and be put in different kinds of positions because that's part of the problem in a way with the younger generation today. I mean, it's always been a problem with the young generation, but it's worse today that we're very fractured. And young people can be on social media with only young people. And there's something very unhealthy about that. It's good for people always to be with people at different ages and different backgrounds. There's just something fundamentally healthy about that. So I don't know if that answered the question. But again, at these prices, what do you expect?

Okay, I think they're trying to fix the microphone. and I was going to call on Robert Perkins of Fargo, North Dakota. I'm going to give Robert a couple of seconds to pipe up here. Hi, Eric. Thank you so much for your ministry, for your witness. I've started your Bonhofer book. I appreciate him so much from a theological point of view. I'm a CEO of a private family business, 200 people, small business in North Dakota, Minnesota, and so

forth. And I, my question was, are there things about Trump that the general public is not aware of or hasn't been told about that results in so many of the Republicans turning against him and so forth? Well, that's one of those questions that you could talk for days about that. I think, look, I mean, I say this on my radio program, every day. It's one thing for people to be cowards. Many of us are cowardly. That's not good. But when leaders are cowardly, they ought to resign. I think we have a political class that genuinely doesn't understand that we are in tough times and that you have to be especially courageous. We've had leaders in the past like Churchill, who have been, you know, hated by, may we forget, Lincoln was despised by people. I think strong leaders are often hated and loved. And I think

Trump is somebody that, because he bucked the political class in a way, he had a lot of people that, you know, maybe he alienated. I think those are the people that should be alienated. I think they should be elected. I mean, they should be sent out of office. And I really think that people in the Republican Party, I've said on my program, Mitch McConnell is a gunk. I don't think much better of Kevin McCarthy, whom I've had the privilege of meeting. I think most of these people don't get it. They ought not to be in the positions they're in, but we have allowed them to be in those positions. But I think most people in the Republican Party are a sham. And if you want to know why liberals hate conservatives, a lot of it has to do with hypocrites in the Republican Party. I expect better of my tribe. And so if you're

some kind of a conservative or a Republican, I really think that you ought to have understood that God has given us a gift in Donald Trump and in his leadership. You don't have to like everything about him, but when you see what he was able to accomplish and his courage, that's just huge. Most Americans got that. That's why he won this election, although technically he didn't, but he did. I'm just throwing that out there. Thank you. Let's go on to Yvonne M. Paraded. She's in the Toura, Florida. Yvonne, you are on with Eric Metaxis. Hello, Eric.

Hello, from Miami, Florida. I'm actually in Miami right now. I'm a huge fan. I've been listening to you for the last several years. And I'm actually in the middle of reading your book on Bonhofer. and I wanted to know when you are writing these biographies and the process of it, while creating these biographies, do you find that it changes you as a person? And if so, how so? Does it change me? Nah.

It's just a gig. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I like to say that. I think it's inevitable that it changes. you because, I mean, the Bonhoeffer book really changed me dramatically. I used to be much taller. And that's a joke. No, how did it change me? It changed me because it made me realize that here's a guy who, because he was discerning of the Holy Spirit, he knew now is the time to fight. Now is the time

to go to war. I don't mean actual war, but to fight against the Nazis. Now is the time for the church to stand up and be counted. Now is the time for us to risk our lives. lives. He knew that and he tried to get the church to wake up. And most people in the church in Germany at that time, including serious Christians, like many serious Christians today, said, oh, no, I don't want to, I don't want to die on that hill. And he was trying to get them to understand, no, this is, God is telling us we've got to fight. And they didn't, they didn't really agree with him. And that made me see that you cannot keep your powder dry forever. You can't keep above the fray or out of the fray forever. There comes a time when you have to spend the capital God has given you.

And that happened to me in the last four years with the Trump situation. I just thought my country's at stake. I'm going to lose friends and I'm going to a lot of the woke evangelical folks and stuff that, you know, they're going to be scandalized because they don't understand where I'm coming from. But I thought, I have to do what I believe is right and what I believe God would have me to do. I have to worry about God's opinion of what I do. Folks, as you know, my new book is out. It's called Fish Out of Water. Go to Eric Mataxis.com. And now here we go with what we had the other night. It's called Ask Me Anything. Let's go on to Paul Lindenburg. He lives in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. And Paul, you're on with

Eric Mataxis. Okay. Can you hear me now? Okay. In your book, if you can keep it, they talk about recognizing that America requires a moral citizenry to work. There we go. And should we be surprised that instead, many are becoming violent against our cities, the police, and their fellow citizens when the left, Democrats, media, big tech, academia, Hollywood are continually telling them that our country perpetuates systematic racism and are continuously branding and silencing conservatives as white supremacists that spout hate. Telling them that our country perpetuates systemic racism. It kind of takes a little bit to get me angry, but what happened with the Reichstag fire on January 6th at the Capitol and the way instantly,

Trump supporters were demonized, unconscionably, despicably demonized. I thought, I have never, ever seen anything like this in my life, nothing to compare to it. It's despicable. And that's the kind of thing. I'm not going to be quiet. There is no way people should get away with that in the United States of America ever. And when people start blathering about white supremacy and white nationalism and and all that kind of stuff. Honestly, it's mostly garbage. And the reason I know it's garbage is because I've had tons of black friends and black guests on my radio program who tell me it's garbage. It is garbage. But the point is very few people have the courage to say it's garbage because they don't want to be called racist. Well, you need to know whether you're racist or not. I know I'm not a racist.

I wrote a book about the abolition of the slave trade. So if people are dumb enough that they have no argument and all they can do is call me a racist, that's on them. They're pathetic. That's pathetic if all you can do is call names. So to me, I'm going to say Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization. It is evil. If you actually care about black people, you will never have anything to do with Black Lives Matter, the movement, the phrase, whatever it is, because it's being used cynically by people who want to bring cultural Marxism into America and frankly couldn't care less about blacks. It's a joke. If they cared about blacks, they would not support Marxist socialist policies. But if we don't have the courage to say that, we have freedom in this country. Bonhoeffer

died for speaking the truth. And so I just want to say that we all have to stand up. When somebody says, you're a racist or that's white supremacy, whatever, you just got to say, excuse me, shut up, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Now, if you have something substantive to say, let's have a conversation. But we can't let people get away with name calling. It's not acceptable. It's also absurd. I mean, anybody who's experienced actual racism would not use those terms. It's only usually woke white people who really traffic in this kind of garbage. And the cancel culture, it's the same kind of thing. I mean, if you start saying, like, we're going to, we're going to shut you down. If you did this, you do that. That's not the American way. And it's happened to me. I was

knocked off of YouTube and Twitter and stuff for daring to say, suggest that maybe we should look into this election for really believing that there was something funny going on. Now, in America, even if you're wrong, I could be wrong, but it's a free country. But some of these, you know, oligarchs like Jack Dorsey and these folks, they don't understand how America works. They don't understand what freedom is. And it is why I wrote the book, if you can keep it, which the questioner referenced, because I didn't really understand this stuff clearly till a few years ago. And once I understood it, I thought we have several generations of Americans who don't understand this stuff. And it is why we are susceptible to the madness. Because when

somebody calls you racist, you don't know what to say. Well, I'm here to tell you, you need to know whether you're racist or not. And so if you know you're not and somebody calls you that, who do they think they are that they get to label you that way? That's not freedom when people are just bashing each other with labels and trying to shut up dissent. That's really what it is. They're trying to use a term as a bludgeon to silence dissent. And that's what gives you the tip off. They have no argument. They're afraid of losing an actual argument. So they're going to use these names to try to shut you down. And if you give into it, you become part of the problem. And so most people in America have given into it or they look the other way. I think we ought not to do that.

We have to keep the Republic, every American who has the ability to understand these things needs to say, no, I'm not going to put up with this. And we know that HR departments across America have gone insane. I think people need to raise hell over that. We have the academy has gone insane. But corporate America is the most pathetic. The idea that in corporate America, they have gone crazy woke. I mean, I want to know where are all the here.

with money and companies, whatever, to stand against this stuff. And why do people just fold, you know, like nothing when, you know, I mean, I think corporate leaders themselves think, like, oh, I don't want to be called a racist. I don't want to lose money. Well, it cuts both ways. If your company is built on avoiding controversy, well, you know, you're going to catch it from the other side. We can bring up Mike Lindell. You can see him standing behind me. He's the main sponsor of my show. And he's been attacked by Cole's department store, H-E-B department store, Wayfair Department Store, and Bed Bath and Beyond. They have all ceased to carry his product to silence him, to shut him up. That is the definition of anti-American. It's despicable. And I told my listeners,

I said, if you ever shop in one of those stores again, shame on you, because they are profiting in a way that, or I should say that they're making money, but they are throwing this guy under the bus just because they don't want to catch some of the flack or they don't want to. That's simply not the American way. Folks, you're listening to Ask Me Anything. This is the Arkham Taxi Show,

but we're playing what I did the other night. It was a live thing on YouTube and Facebook. Ask me anything. People ask me questions. Here it is. Let's go to Robert Davis. lives in Huntington Beach, California, the Republic of the Great State of California. Robert, you are on with Eric Metaxus.

Thank you. Greetings from the land of fruits and nuts. It's an honor to be here and greatly appreciate your ministry. I've become a devotee over the past year. Thank you so much. Thank you for the focus you have on the events, current events of our time. I know I only have one question, so I won't. ask you my second question to talk about social justice in the church today, that's not my one question.

But my one question is, it's really somewhat rhetorical. If we can't rely on the ballot to participate in government, what do we have? If we can't. And so, I didn't get that. If we can't rely on what? If we can't rely on the ballot to participate in government, what do we have? Yeah. Yeah. We're in a very difficult place, and it seems to me that Republican parties in total disarray, it reminds me of Israel running from the Philistines getting slaughtered. It feels like that's where we're at. And it seems like we're defense when we have every right to be on the... I've got to cut you off, Robert, because we're deviating, but I want to hear his answer. Well, that's a good series of questions, you cleverly. inserted, Robert. I think what you say is exactly what I've been saying on my program since the election. If you do not believe in the integrity of your vote, if you think that you waited in line and old people, like my mom and dad, waited in line to vote, but somebody played with that, maybe your vote got counted, maybe it didn't. Again, that is despicable. That is evil.

People died so that we could have the vote. People died. Now, if we're also ignorant and comfortable that we don't even think about that, we should be thinking about that all the time. People died. People were shot in the head and died because they were fighting for liberty through the last 250 years. And that, you honor that when you vote. You honor that when you're a citizen of this country, taking this privilege. of living in America seriously.

And when somebody would dare to play with votes and to try to steal votes, now here's the thing. The Democrats have been doing this for many, many decades. We know the JFK, in addition to bringing prostitutes into the White House, not that I'm judging, but this is a guy who was elected, we know, by using. corrupt methods, particularly in Chicago. They understood the whole swing state thing. You know, that's effectively documented. And Nixon was too much of a statesman to call him on it.

So he let him get away with it. But the Democrats have been doing that for a long time. And it is so wrong. And so when people kind of turn it into a joke or something like that, well, if you don't take that seriously, you're going to get what we had in this election. where at the very best, we don't know whether our votes counted. That's the looking at it the best way. My sister-in-law just told me to repeat the questions.

Viewers can't hear them. And my wife also sent that message to me. So I won't repeat this question, but I won't the future. But so the ballot, it is sacred. And when I believed that the Democrats had taken that lightly in this election, whether it is hauling out ballots, you know, from under tables and counting them or shutting things down when the vote doesn't look like it's going the direction they want, they shut everything down. And when they were covering up the windows so that observers could not see, how do you explain that? They haven't explained it. Now, because they haven't explained it, I think it's because they haven't explained it, I think it's because,

They really were hiding something. They think it's a big joke and they think they're going to get away with it. And guess what? They did get away with it because people refuse to fight. People said, oh, I don't want to get canceled. I don't want, you know, I don't want people to come after me the way come after Eric or Mike Lindell or whoever it is. Folks, if we do not have, and this is what Robert just asked me, if we do not have a guarantee that our ballot is sacred, that you know it's going to be counted, that's the end of America. There is no America if we do not have the voice of the people speaking in our elections.

And everybody in America needs to understand it is utterly unacceptable and it is utterly unacceptable that Joe Biden and the Democrats did not say, yes, we want to know that we won. Let's open the books. Let's make sure that we won because we want to have a legitimate election. Not only didn't they do that, they played games throughout the whole. process. They ran the clock out. And again, you had judges who lacked the courage to see the evidence. This happened over and over again. Why? Because they said, well, I don't want to get involved in that. Well, guess what? It's your job to get involved in that. It was John Roberts' job to get involved in that.

And they didn't do their job. And so I'm not sure where we go from here. But anybody in America, if you would allow somebody to mess with the votes and to effectively muzzle the American people, that is our voice. It's we the people, we vote. The idea that we don't know exactly what happened in the election, that is bad enough. That is sick. But the fact that people may have stolen an election and now we're not supposed to talk about it, no one will ever stop me from talking about it. I mean, people can do what they want. By God's grace, I'm on Salem Radio where the people who run that company have some courage.

Anyway, I've gone on too long, and I've already told you more than I know. Thank you. Let's see if Leah Hicks is here from Princeton, West Virginia. We don't see her here, but we might hear her. Hi, Eric. There's a lot of hopelessness in the world, as we can clearly see from the rise in suicide alone. I'm concerned that this gaping need for hope may make us vulnerable to buying into false promises and being otherwise manipulated, but it may also mean we are more open to truth. So regarding your new book, Fish Out of Water, how do you view your opportunity with this book to speak to this need for hope and why Jesus?

When you referred to my book, you weren't referring to this book, were you? You buy it or I'm going to hurt some people and it'll be on your conscience. If people watching this don't buy it, it's going to be on your conscience. Folks, welcome back. This is the Erkman Taxi Show, but we're playing what I did just the other night. It was live. It's asked me anything. People came on and they asked me questions and it's just me answering their questions. Here it is. I make no bones about the fact that the God of the Bible revealed himself to me. That's why I wrote this book. And I was like a lot of people that I didn't, you don't know where to look, you don't

know who to believe, you've got this religious fanatic living next door, you don't want to become like them or you don't, you know, but people are still longing for answers and they've got questions, they don't know where to go. A lot of what I write and do is to try to reach those people because I remember being one of those people. And I was just going to say, I make no bones about the fact that there is no question in my mind that Jesus is the answer to our problems. There's no doubt. And that can sound like a cliche, but it's not if you have a personal relationship with him and give him your heart and ask him

to show you how to live, to show you right from wrong. There are tons of Christians, so-called Christians, they're living in some kind of sin or they're kind of, they don't seem to understand, God cannot bless you if you, in a sense, take yourself away from him by, you know, indulging in some kind of behavior, whatever it is. We have to really earnestly say, God, I know your Lord. And whatever you say, I'm going to try to do it. I'll screw up. I'm a sinner, but I'm going to really try. That's the answer. Now, if you have any idea that that might be true that Jesus really was God sent to this planet to die for us so that he could make a way for us to have a relationship, a direct relationship with him as our Heavenly Father. First of all,

that's a really beautiful story. I think sometimes we forget that is a really beautiful, amazing story. And that is the answer. And if you don't have that, frankly, you should be hopeless because what is your hope in, some fake thing that's going to disappoint you? If your hope isn't in the God of the universe who created the universe and created the atomic structure and created everything and invented you. If your hope is not in that God, what is your hope in? You got a nice house, you got a good job, your kids are okay. Like that's your hope. That can all go away. And when you die, that's not going to be there. Like our hope needs to be in God. And I really think that one of the opportunities in this tough time is that people can find God.

But as I say, I mean, I literally wrote this book hoping that it can help people to find God because I don't feel like there are too many books like this. I mean, I wrote this again for people who are maybe not on the same pages I am. So it's not like a Jesus book. It gets there, but it's not going to put people off like in the first 20 pages or in the first 100 pages. It's kind of just a crazy story. But I do believe that that that is the answer. and there's there's no getting there's no getting around that you know we're all going to we're all going to face death alone we're all going to die like we all need to understand that's

real and we don't know when it's going to happen and we have to think about that where do you want to be for eternity most of us i would guess would want to be in heaven well jesus said i came so that you can be with me in heaven forever like he died to make that happen so he kind of wants that to happen, but we have to give him our lives. And I think a lot of people, they're just not willing to do that. And I just want to say, you have no idea what you're missing. If you don't take going to church seriously, reading the Bible seriously, hanging around people who take this stuff seriously, you are missing the very point of being on the planet. That's a fact. And it doesn't mean you're going to get everything right. But I know, you know, it's not like my philosophy. I know that this is real

and that there's a hope in God that you'll never find any other place. You just can't. I say this to everybody. Go to church on Sunday. Study the Bible. Hang out with people who love Jesus. Pray. It's literally the secret to everything.