TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Independence Day 2024: The Patriot Pastor & Arthur Blessitt

Episode Date: July 4, 2024

In this special Independence Day edition of TruNews, host Rick Wiles explores the consequences of removing Bibles from American classrooms. Through a legacy interview from 2012 featuring Patriot Pastor Garrett Lear, they delve into the profound influence of the Bible on early American education and its role in shaping the nation. Later in today's TruNews, Rick Wiles interviews Arthur Blessitt in a legacy interview from 2014. In a remarkable journey spanning 56 years, Arthur Blessitt, known as the "Pilgrim with the Cross," has devoted his life to an unparalleled mission of Christian evangelism, walking an astounding 43,340 miles across 324 countries, island groups, and territories. Starting on Christmas Day in 1969 in Hollywood, California, Blessitt took on the daunting task of carrying a 12-foot, 45-pound cross on foot, earning him a Guinness World Record for the "World's Longest Walk."Rick Wiles. Airdate 07/04/2024Join the leading community for Conservative Christians! https://www.FaithandValues.comYou can partner with us by visiting https://www.TruNews.com/donate, calling 1-800-576-2116, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961.Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves!https://www.AmericanReserves.comGold & Silver Re-Imagined. Buy it. Break it. Trade it. Order your Prepper Bar now!https://trunewsbar.com/It’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today!https://www.amazon.com/Final-Day-Characteristics-Second-Coming/dp/0578260816/Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/final-day-10-characteristics-of-the-second-coming/id1687129858Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today.https://www.sacrificingliberty.com/watchThe Fauci Elf is a hilarious gift guaranteed to make your friends laugh! Order yours today!https://tru.news/faucielf

Attention True News listeners. Back by popular demand, we're excited to announce the return of a fan-favorite offer from our trusted sponsor, American Reserves. Just in time for the 4th of July, you can ensure your family has access to clean, pure water with an exclusive deal on the famous British Birkfeld Dalton filtration systems. From July 3rd to July 7th, purchase a 2.25-gallon or 3.17-gallon filtration system or bundle and receive two extra ceramic filters absolutely free. That's right, two additional filters to keep your water pristine for longer. If you opt for the one liter filtration system or bundle, you'll get one extra ceramic filter free. No codes, no hassle. Just choose your system and enjoy the added value.

During crisis, clean drinkable water is the most important factor to survival. It is imperative to keep your family hydrated and healthy during any emergency. And remember, this special offer is only available from July 3rd to July 7th. Visit AmericanReserves.com today. American-owned, American-made, American Reserves. noah webster born 1758 and died 1843 is known as the father of American education. And long before the socialists, evolutionists, and atheists took over our schools, Noah Webster influenced the education of American boys and girls more than any other person. His name is synonymous with the word dictionary. And many of you, in fact, many Americans,

have a Merriam-Webster dictionary in their home or office, and yet many people don't even know that it was authored by a devout Christian man. Now, here are some quotes by Noah Webster. He said, No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. Now, just compare those words with the educators of today, the leaders of the socialist, atheist, national education association. This is what Noah Webster said. He said, the Bible must be considered as the great source of all the truth by which men

are to be guided in government as well as in all social transactions. He went on to say, in my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children under a free government ought to be instructed. In my view, he said, before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed. As they are in almost every kingdom of Europe, the supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword, the whole body of the people are armed and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be on any pretense raised in the United States. Now today, if he said that on CNN or Fox News, he would be branded an extremist, a domestic terrorist. Janet Napolitano would order Homeland Security agents to track

Noah Webster, to read his emails, follow his searches on the Internet. He would be tagged as a domestic extremist. He also said every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country. Now think about those words, and then consider this.

The mentally deranged young man, Jared Loeffner, who shot and killed six people, wounded, I believe, another 19, shot Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords in the head, killed a federal judge, killed a nine-year-old child. That young man was educated in a school

that obtained its books and curriculum from a socialist Marxist outfit run by Bill Ayers, the communist, the friend of Barack Obama. That young man was educated in Marxism. In fact, his favorite books were The Communist Manifesto and Hitler's Mein Kampf. And the socialists, the Marxists in the media, and in Congress and the bloggers, they tried to put this shooting on the conservative patriotic people of this country.

The truth is, this young man is the product of their warped Marxist education system. And if we had retained Noah Webster's principles of education, that boy would never have turned out to be a monster. So who really is responsible for that tragic shooting? Mr. Garrett Lear is on the telephone to talk about reviving our Christian heritage before it's too late. He's known across America as the Patriot Pastor. He has a rich knowledge of the founding of America, the thoughts of the founding fathers,

and his understanding of the influence of Christianity on the colonies and the American Revolution in the early days of our nation. He can trace his family back nearly 390 years. He's a member of the National Society of Sons of the American Revolution, and he has served the Lord as a pastor, evangelist, chaplain, Bible college teacher, worship leader, revival speaker. He's also the founder of the Well of Living Water Ministries, and he was recommended to us by our good friend, gospel singer Ron Jones.

This is his first time on True News. The Patriot Pastor, Garrett Lear. Pastor, welcome to the program. Well, I will have no other king but King Jesus, and I am certainly honored for the opportunity to be with you today, Rick, on the program. And your intro certainly excited me. I have quoted many times Noah Webster myself, and it brought to mind something that most people in America don't know about, the derivation of public education in America. Because, just as you have said, our government schools, and I don't call them public schools anymore,

the debacle that we call public education is really a government school with an agenda that is not compatible with what our founding fathers gave us. But there was an act in Massachusetts colony in 1647, and it was called the Old Deluder Act or the Old Deluder Satan Act. This is for real. I mean, if anyone wants to do, any of our listeners want to do a Google search, they can find it. And basically it says, it being one chief project of that old deluder Satan to keep men from the knowledge of the scriptures as in former times by keeping them in an unknown tongue. So in these latter times, by persuading from the use of tongues, that so that at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted with false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers,

and to that end, that learning may not be buried in the grave of our forefathers in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors. Now, I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'm basically going to just surmise the rest of it, is that in any township in the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England, after the Lord had increased them to 50 households, they were to appoint within their town to teach all children how to read and write, and the wages of that person, that school master, would be paid by either the parents or the masters of such children, or the inhabitants in general. And the purpose was so they could read and write, read the Bible, and that they would know the scriptures and they would not be deceived by Satan. So let's

we fast forward it to what you just said, Rick, concerning this horrible tragedy that's happened in Tucson. What was this young man, all of the years he was in school, what was he learning? He obviously didn't learn the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not murder, and he certainly didn't learn to read and the way to read Scripture to know that this was a horrible thing to do, and he shouldn't have done it. From everything I have read about him, he spent most of his life buried in video games and online virtual reality rooms, pretending to be another person, living in a fantasy world. He was warped by the godless society that has risen up in this country. And so he is a

product of that society. And they are the ones who are responsible. They're trying to blame people like me. They're trying to blame Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio hosts. The guy didn't even listen to talk radio. He didn't watch news programs. He wasn't interested in the news. He was reading the Communist Manifesto. He is a product of the socialist engineering that has been going on in this country for decades.

And it's time, Pastor, we stand up and say it. We get beat up in this. The patriots, the Christians, the conservatives are getting beat up by the media all the time because we don't fight back on their level. And I say, let's give them a dose of their own medicine. Let's tell the public who they are and what they've done. Let's expose them. Let's pull the veil off and show the whole country what these people really are.

They're God-haters. They're God-haters. They're atheist God-haters. That's it. And what happens to people that are God-haters, that they're atheist God-haters. That's it. And what happens to people that are God-haters? We have been told as Christians, for the most part, we're supposed to be nice. We're not supposed to say anything that would be offensive to somebody. And incidentally, Scripture is very plain when it says that the gospel is an offense to them that perish. And so we know that many of these people that are offended by the gospel, that are God-haters and hate scripture and don't want to know about their actions, what it leads to,

that they are lost and they are living in darkness. And I think about Psalm chapter 3. It says, Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be that say of my soul, there is no help for him in God, say la. But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me, my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. And I can tell you, Rick, over the years, and I've been in ministry 37 years, I can tell you that I have spent more time outside the four walls of the buildings known as churches. And by the way, I consider the church to be us, the ecclesiastical people, meeting in different locations. And I've spent lots of time in revival tents, on the steps of Capitol buildings all over this country,

in parks, in meeting halls of all kinds, and I have made the same declaration, the things that I'm saying here on this broadcast, the same declaration, even in front of audience this past summer. I spoke in Jaffray, New Hampshire, I think for the fifth time. I was invited back to the Live Free or Die Festival, where 70% of the people identify themselves as atheists. And I told them that atheists have no part in America. They don't believe our foundational documents. And all of them were in open gun carry, which you can do here in New Hampshire. A lot of people said, that's pretty stupid to get up there in front of all these people and say things like that.

They could shoot you. Yes, they could. But I'll tell you one thing I'm more concerned with. I'm concerned with being a coward and stepping back from the things that I know that the Lord wants us to do. And, you know, you look at the first chapter of the book of Joshua. Four times the Lord had to say to the people, be of good courage, be of good courage. Yes, there's some scary things out there.

Yes, there are people in the mainstream liberal media that are trying to browbeat us and accuse us of being this and call us that and so forth. Well, you know, we're going to be persecuted for righteousness' sake. I've had many Christians tell me, well, I don't understand this when you're talking about persecution and i said well you don't understand it because you've never done anything to be persecuted for you haven't said anything that wasn't nice just simple nothing in scripture tells us we need to be nice we are exhorted john 8 32 and other places we need to make sure that what we're saying is true. Isn't that why this program is called True News?

That's right. That's right. We're going to tell the truth. Garrett, before we go a little bit deeper here into the Christian heritage of our country, I want to find out a little bit more about you and your background. You're in New England. You're in New Hampshire. I grew up in Western Maryland. And so I grew up in an area where I was just absolutely, totally surrounded by history, revolutionary war history and civil war history. I mean, the county that I lived in, Washington County, was the first jurisdiction named for George Washington. The first Washington's monument was in Boonesboro, Maryland, which was in the county where I lived.

It wasn't Washington, D.C. It was Boonesboro. The town of Williamsport, Maryland, was actually the original site for the nation's capital. George Washington, as the architect, laid out the streets that he was originally planning to put the capital at that part of the Potomac and then decided he was going to go further down the Potomac, and that's where he ended up, a place now called the District of Columbia. I mean, every place in my life growing up, it was history. You know, as a kid, I played in Fort Frederick, which still is the oldest French and Indian fort still remaining. Actually, the oldest colonial fort remaining in North America.

I often drank good, cool water from a spring where George Washington's troops were known to fill their canteens. I could just go on and on and on. Many times sitting at Antietam Battlefield at Bloody Lane and just thinking about the carnage that took place that day as men fought with one another. So I grew up with this history around me. But as I'm reading your biography, I realize, you know, you go, you get family roots going way back all the way to the Mayflower. Tell us, tell us about your, your family history. Well, you know, when I was growing up and I was born in the cradle of liberty, which is in the Boston area, I was born in Lexington, Massachusetts. And I walked by the Minuteman statue of John Parker, who was a deacon in that fine pastor Jonas Clark's church.

And he was the captain of the Minutemen or the local militia. And, of course, Pastor Clark was one of the most important people in the colony and one of the finest Christian men that you could ever find. Most all the people who were the Minutemen who fought in the Battle of Lexington were in his church. I mean, I saw the reenactment year after year, and of course, as I traveled to all these different historical sites I have to say that as a boy growing up they meant something to me and I knew it was important but you know like everyone else in in that time and I grew up in the the 50s I wanted to play baseball and I wanted to make my way in the world and didn't give a whole lot of thought to some of the things that my mother actually,

my ancestry going back to the Mayflowers through my maternal side, through my mother. And my mother told me things. And I remember the things that she told me. And it didn't seem like any of the other relatives cared too much about those things. They were more concerned with modern endeavor, like being successful in business or whatever. But for some reason with me, and I started to read when I was four years of age, and I always wanted to read historical books. I mean, I just adored history in school. I wanted to read biographies of people. And I did not realize at that time, it wasn't really until I was an adult, a grown-up man,

and after having traveled to different parts of the country, I actually graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy, Wayne, Pennsylvania, and the nation's shrine in Valley Forge, have an ancestor buried there, that I am American-made, and I'm all American parts. And this is in my DNA. When I think about what my ancestors, and I had four ancestors that I'm descended from, who were on the Mayflower, what they went through to come to this continent. What they survived, and actually a couple of them didn't even survive the first winter, as many didn't, and yet when the Mayflower was setting sail to go back to England as the contract was in the spring, not one of the survivors got back on that ship to go back to England.

They said, no, by divine providence, and if we read the Mayflower Compact. See, Rick, when I read these documents or I go to these places, I don't just go there anymore as a historian. And I belong to a number of very notable historical societies and so forth. I don't go there just for facts. When I go there, it's, I am a modern-day founding father. I am coming saying the same things they said, talking about the same things that they were dealing with, and so forth, because we are dealing with many of the same things that they dealt with then. That's right, Garrett.

You know that those godly men and women prayed awesome prayers. They prayed for their sons and daughters and their grandchildren and great-great-great-grandchildren. And I believe those prayers are still active. I believe they're still before the Lord. And when we stand as sons and daughters of those men and women and say we are the descendants of the godly men who came here, and we, Father, are asking you to remember their prayers, remember their sacrifice, remember their loyalty

and their commitment to you, and help us today, Father. Help us to live for you like they did. I believe the Lord answers those prayers today. I do, and I believe that in the very way of Elijah and Elisha, their mantle has fallen upon those of us who understand what they're saying. And let's just say, Rick, that at one point in time, and I can't say specifically what day it happened or what week or even what month that it happened, but quite a number of years ago, I started to understand what they went through. I started to look at it not as ancient history, but even a modern-day struggle, because it's part and parcel with the nature of the fallen world that we live in, some of the

circumstances we find ourselves in, and recognize the fact that I needed to take the same stand as they would. And I found something very interesting. By taking the stand that they did and taking a stand myself for this culture and in this civil war of values and so forth that we're in, I found a special anointing in the Lord. I found that the more I stood up, the straighter I became. The more I stood up, the more courage I had. The more that I spoke out, the more I understood what I needed to speak out about. And recently, back in June, I believe it was the 26th of June of 2010, I had been requested by David Barton of Wall Builders and Jim Garlow of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, if I would give a tour of the Lexington Green for a group,

they were calling it the Next Great Awakening Tour. And they put a group together, a very fine group of people, and they brought them across the country. And I was doing the, let's say, the Lexington phase of their trip. And it was interesting, one of the fellows that came there, I had known him, he actually does some tours in Boston. And so I said to them, folks, look over and there written in stone, paid for by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the story of what happened here, what these people believed in. The eight who died here, the martyrs who died for the cause of Christ and

freedom in America, are buried right over there. But the spot that I am standing on right now, the spot where I've gathered all of you together in the northwest corner of the lexington common is the place where the eight of them fell the blood of the martyrs is in the dirt that we're standing on it's in the soil when i said that i mean that's the first time i recall ever saying that and when i said it this fellow that came up from boston to join in the tour he later told me that when you said that, I felt a shock go from the heel of my feet through the top of my head, thinking, cemetery, is Pastor Jonas Clark, Captain John Parker, and John Hancock, Pastor John Hancock, the grandfather of John Hancock, the signer of the Declaration of American Independence. I mean, everybody was so exhilarated as I stood there and portrayed Jonas Clark and read his account of what happened and his actual affidavit

of what happened and prayed the prayer that he prayed. These people were so excited when the bus driver said, we've got to get on the bus and get going. Nobody would get on the bus. They were just all around me as if they wanted, and they were touching me, and I had a musket, I had my Bible out, and they just, it was like wanting to touch the history that's so important. And I have stood on that tree. It's because, Garrett, we have been stripped of our identity. The socialists, the atheists in this country over the last 40, 50 years have deprogrammed us. They have erased our consciousness of memories of who we are. And so the American people, many of them are reaching out.

They're trying to connect with their ancestors. They're trying to connect with their ancestors. They're trying to connect with their origins as a people. And I've never been on a foreign battlefield, like from World War I or World War II, but I've been on many Revolutionary War and Civil War

battlefields, and I have felt that same sense of awe and reverence and humility as you stand at a place knowing that the blood of American men are in the soil. I've had that feeling. I've been in these places. You can't go to Bloody Lane in Antietam and not think about the fact that they said blood flowed down the wagon tracks of that lane. You know, what you were just saying, Rick, about how the socialists and the Marxists and the

fascists and the communists and all the other ones that have tried to strip us of who we are. Well, you have to brainwash somebody and you have to strip them of who they are so that you can program them to be who you want them to be. And I can tell you my experience, and I'm in my 63rd year of life. I am a very loyal friend, and I am a good compatriot to those that are compatriots, but I am the worst nightmare of somebody who wants to try to strip me of who I know that the Lord has made me and who the Lord has told me that I am. Every one of us need to know who the Lord has made us to be, and we need to know and understand, and there are many people out there that try to make me feel ashamed for America. I said, I'm not ashamed of America. I know America's

not perfect. America's not my God. Christ is my God. Christ is my Savior. America's not my Savior. But at the same time, look at the history of the world and say, have there ever been a people that have been so blessed as Americans have been, and what's the reason why? And I can explain that. Let me ask you that question. Many of the founding fathers, many ordained this land to be settled, and it would be a city on a shining hill. It would be as a new Israel, a new Jerusalem. Well, they had experience. They had lots of experience of tyranny, of divine right monarchs, and how people were kept in bondage. And they said, this will not happen in this new land. And you just mentioned,

Rick, when you mentioned about the shining city on the hill, that was a speech given in 1630 by John Winthrop, governor of the Mass Bay Colony, on the deck of the sailing ship the Arabella. And I defy anyone out there. It's easy to find these things these days on the internet. Read the City on the Hill speech by John Winthrop and see that it's a prophetic word. It's a challenge. It's also the quintessential vision for America, What America? The founders believed. And when I say founders, I look at the Mayflower Compact as the true birth certificate of America. I believe that the Declaration of American Independence is just that. It's a declaration of independence. It's sort of, in a sense, the declaration that we have come of age. So when you look at all these foundational documents, for example, if you look at the

Constitution of the Plymouth Colony in 1643, it talked about the republican form of government requires the consent of the governed. Now this later, I mean, here we are, you know, in the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration, this similar wording comes forward. Because this is something birthed in the heart of God, we can find it in Scripture, and they look through, they search through the Scriptures saying, we will have a government unlike any government the world has ever known. Not perfect, because men are part of it. And it's also interesting, as we look at, you know, what the Founding Fathers were studying, and how they were very fluent in reading the Bible, and what they planned. In the early 19th century,

okay, in the early 1800s, a man was sent from France named Alexis de Tocqueville. He wrote a book called Democracy in America. He gave a glowing report. Now, he was being paid by the French because they had had a revolution, we had a revolution. Their revolution was nothing but chaos, and even the author of the revolution, which was Robespierre, died on his own guillotine. And so they said, how is it that America is so much newer than we are? They had a revolution, and they're so strong.

And we had a revolution, and we're an ancient culture, and we're so weak. Find out what they're doing. And what he said was this, and the phrase has become known as American exceptionalism, that America is strong because America is good. When America ceases to be good, America will cease to be strong. Now, many of our listeners may be saying, well, what about this? And what about that? And what about that in our history?

Yes, we've had some very bad things that have happened in our history in America, but it's a fallen world, and imperfect people were involved. But historically, there's never been a country that has had so much good and so much strength from that good because of the place they put the Lord. He said that the pulpits, and talking about de Tocqueville again, the pulpits are ablaze with righteousness, and the people in America have combined civil government and Christianity in a way that's unheard of and unknown in Europe. Not so that people would have their freedom of Christianity

to put them in some kind of bondage. They were free to worship God in spirit and truth. But today, as we're being told, well, you can't pray here, you can't say that here. And I've gone before the legislature in New Hampshire, opened the Bible many times, like I did last week, and started to read where somebody would yell out, you can't do that, stop that. Or I'd read the Constitution, you can't do that, stop that. And I'd say, no, I'm not going to stop. Really? You've had people telling you to stop reading? Yeah. I've had that happen in the legislature. I've been on the streets of Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, and other places where I've been told, you cannot preach the gospel here. You can't hand out Bible tracts. And I said, yes, I can. Because my master and my Lord has sent me here, and he's

asked me to be a witness for him. And so I can do it. And I was threatened with arrest for nine years in a row at Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, a big beach here in New Hampshire. Nine years in a row. And I told them, look, if I'm really breaking the law, then you need to handcuff me and take me in, and I'm going to go. But just remember, I'm going to sue, and I'm going to the law, then you need to handcuff me and take me in, and I'm going to go. But just remember, I'm going to sue, and I'm going to uphold my rights. I'm not voluntarily giving my rights away, which I don't think you really can do anyway. They never arrested me because I wasn't breaking the law. I said they knew that, I knew that.

It's just simple intimidation. And they listened, and they just stop doing what they're doing. They don't know what their rights are. Gary, let me ask you this. Are the words and phrases and terminology and concepts that are found in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, are they the products of sermons that were preached by Christian pastors years before? Oh, absolutely. I know that there

are a lot of people that will thump me for this, and by the way, for any of our listeners, I have had every kind of debate you can name under the sun, I believe. You know, all the radio that I've done and open forum, I take questions. I mean, I just was on a speaking tour, a lengthy speaking tour in Illinois. I open up a question sometimes for two hours, which most speakers know is a dangerous thing to do. So I've heard many things. But I can tell you, Rick, that many people would say it's an Enlightenment document and it was influenced by the French Enlightenment and so forth and so on.

But if you look at the sermons that were preached in the founding era, let's say 1700 till maybe 1800, that 100-year period of time. How about one that I mentioned last Wednesday? Civil magistrates must rule in the fear of God, which the scriptural site of that is 2 Samuel chapter 23, it was preached by Charles Chauncey, Jonathan Mayhew, Samuel West, who I am a descendant of, preached these things. The Stamp Act, I mean, think about a sermon, Rick, that would be preached today from the pulpit somewhere that would affect government and people in government so much that they would repeal Obamacare or they would repeal, you know, some act that they had just done.

And that's what happened with the Stamp Act, with the preaching of Jonathan Mayhew in 1764 in Boston. So it was a preacher sermon who instigated the opposition to the Stamp Act. Absolutely. Oh, and it was the... Well, I hope he wasn't a 501c3 church. No. Because the IRS would come in and lock him up for opposing public policy. Well, here's what Jonathan Mayhew said.

Come and get me. In fact, he preached many times in front of the royal governor sitting in the front row. You know, they also understood way back what had happened in England with Henry VIII. And if anyone knows the story of Hugh Latimer, Hugh Latimer was a bishop and King Henry liked to come in here and preach and sit in the front row. And, you know, King Henry, if he didn't like you, you'd be dead before sunset. If he didn't like what you said and you offended him, you'd be dead before the day was out. And not only dead, so would your family, and he'd take away all your family estate and whatever.

And Hugh Latimer would stand there and he'd say, King Henry, Latimer, Latimer, King Henry is here. Latimer, Latimer, King Henry is here. Latimer, Latimer, King Henry is here. Latimer, Latimer, King Henry is here. But then the Holy Spirit would lay on his heart and say, Latimer, Latimer, King Jesus is here. This was the kind of preaching that caused people like Peter Oliver, who was a Tory loyalist sympathizer in Boston, to tell the royal governor, it's the preachers. This Black Robe Regiment. And I consider myself one of the leaders of the 21st century Black Robe Regiment in America today.

And also in England, the prime minister, Waldo, was asked by King George III, what is happening to our colonies? Why are they fighting me? I'm their king. And Sir Oliver, I mean Sir Waldo, said to him, the Lord me thinks that cousin America has been led astray by a Presbyterian parson. He was the Presbyterians. Well, they just said it that way. I know. They were still rocking and reeling from John Knox in Scotland, and it was because of the wearing of the Geneva robes.

So they just classified. But there were Episcopalians who were preaching this. There were Lutherans. There were Moravians. There were Quakers. There were other—there were Congregationalists, lots of Congregationalists. They were preaching, of course, Baptists and so forth. They just lumped them all together. And the way that he explained it, and being the King Henry being the head of the church,

King George, I meant, George III, the head of the Anglican church, wouldn't have understood all this. He just said it in a convenient way. Those guys, like the Presbyterians, you know, that are always fighting and telling us that we have a covenant with God and we have to honor the covenant and that no man rules over God. And by the way, when we make the statement, we'll have no other king but King Jesus, that was one of the most prominent things during the war for American independence. When Samuel Adams signed the Declaration of American Independence, he said, we have today restored the sovereign to whom all men owe their obedience.

Well, you know, those were fighting words back then, and they're still fighting words today. Oh, yeah. You just stand up in public and say, I have no king but Jesus, and watch the uproar that will ensue because of your stand for the Lord Jesus Christ. The government does it. the federal government in this country does not like people saying

they have no king but Jesus. Well, that's true. And I can tell you, Rick, it isn't just been when I've stood in the government, you know, halls of government and said those things, which I do and have done lots of. I mean, I've been in Washington, D.C. in front of cameras and did these things and challenged many different people that way. But you know what has been the real heartbreak, Rick, is when I have stood amongst a congregation of dozens upon dozens of Christian clergy,

preachers of the gospel, and said the very same thing, and they all just sit there and look at me like I have two heads? I know. And I say to them, what is the matter with you? Every one of you should be on your feet, clapping, or on your face before God, or kneeling, or whatever it is in your Christian tradition that you do, but you should be doing it now. When you hear that declaration, we will have no other king but King Jesus.

That is the declaration over America. And of course, as I also add to, someone has stolen my country, and I want her back, and I want her back now. A lot of people say, what do you say that for? I said, because I didn't give this country away. I haven't given my country away. Somebody's stolen her. And it's a her because America is identified in the female gender. And of course, the issue that when I say that, it's not just me saying it. I believe that the Lord is saying that to us. This country belongs to me, and someone has stolen it. It's time to get her back. I think, you know, as we're down here to just a few seconds, you know, the politest words that I

can use about what's happened is too many of our pastors have been neutered. That's true. That's about it. They're neutered. And they're not men. They don't have backbone. And they're unwilling to put their life on the line for God and country. They've become hirelings and and the reason america is has ceased to be great is because we are ceasing to be good and so the solution to our national ills is to return to the passion and the fire that this nation had for jesus christ hundreds years ago. And we will restore our nation's greatness and, and,

and our glory as a, as a people. That is the only choice we have. That's it. And I, I'm going to spend the rest of my life proclaiming that message. I, I'd love to have you back on.

We, we, you know, I'm, I'm just going to have you on throughout this year. My, I've got a mission this year. Um, this is life and death for our country. We really don't have the luxury of a lot of time to, to just sit around and talk about this stuff. Uh, we,

we're going to lose our country soon. Uh, I, you know, the, the image I've got is that we, you know, we're, we're swirling around in the toilet bowl right now. I see it as like years ago when I started this ministry, I was trying to tell people if we don't get it together, we're going to be tossed in the toilet bowl. Well, now somebody has flushed it, and we're starting to swirl around, and we're getting real dangerously close to that big black hole of no return. But we're not going down that hole. No, we're not.

I declare that in Jesus' name. We're not going down there. We're going to be like the frog that is being, that the heron is trying to swallow the frog, and the frog is in the heron's mouth, but the frog's got his hands around the heron's throat. That's right. You may have me in your mouth, but you're not going to swallow me., and the frog is in the heron's mouth, but the frog's got his hands around the heron's throat, saying, you may have me in your mouth, but you're not going to swallow me. That's right.

You know, Garrett, I said to you a few days ago, last week on the program, listen, I know that the number of Christians who know who we are in Christ in America, I know that number has dwindled greatly in recent years, over the decades. But truthfully, what does it matter with our God? As long as there are some of us... He's used a remnant in the wilderness many times. That's right. As long as there are some of us who will believe Him. Yeah. Just like...

Take Him at His word and believe Him for what He said with good old-fashioned chutzpah. That's right. You know, that's guts. That's, you know, when I stood on the platform for three, the third time in the last three years, commemorating the original 1773 Boston Tea Party and Fannel Hall in Boston, which this past December I did that, when I'm there and I'm standing and I'm being looked at by statues, so to speak, of all the greats, you know, Samuel Adams and John Adams and so forth, and declaring to the group that they came out there, let me tell you,

there are people that are catching what we're saying. So what you're doing, Rick, is very important. It's not in vain. It's what the Lord has called you to do, and people are receiving it, and we're not necessarily looking for a multitude. We're looking, as Samuel Adams said, we don't need a multitude. We just need an irate minority that are willing to set brush fires in men's minds. Amen. The website is thewelloflivingwater.com. Do you have another website, or is that the main website? Patriotpastor.org, thepatriotpastor.org. And we have lots of videos there of different speeches that I've given in different places.

We try to keep that on there pretty much all the time. And different radio programs and so forth and so on, and different pictures and different statements. So that'd be the welloflivingwater.com or thepatriotpastor.org, or also freechurchministry.net. So any of those three, and they all link together, so you can find us. We're not hiding. You're one of those free churchers. Okay, I'm going to have to have another conversation with you on that subject. Free church ministry. We're the free New Testament church in America. All right.

We'll have another conversation about free churches, too. My guest today, Garrett Lear, the Patriot Pastor. The website is thepatriotpastor.org. Thank you, Garrett. Appreciate you coming on True News. Well, thank you, Rick, and I will be praying for you and looking forward to joining you again. You're listening to WWCR International Shortwave Radio. You can find True News on frequency 12.160 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern and on frequency 4.840 from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern. Connect with us on Rumble,

Facebook, X, and Getter. Attention True News listeners. Back by popular demand, we're excited to announce the return of a fan-favorite offer from our trusted sponsor, American Reserves. Just in time for the 4th of July, you can ensure your family has access to clean, pure water with an exclusive deal on the famous British Birkfeld Dalton filtration systems. From July 3rd to July 7th, purchase a 2.25-gallon or 3.17-gallon filtration system or bundle and receive two extra ceramic filters absolutely free. That's right, two additional filters to keep your water pristine

for longer. If you opt for the one liter filtration system or bundle, you'll get one extra ceramic filter free. No codes, no hassle. Just choose your system and enjoy the added value. During crisis, clean drinkable water is the most important factor to survival. It is imperative to keep your family hydrated and healthy during any emergency. And remember, this special offer is only available from July 3rd to July 7th. Visit AmericanReserves.com today. American-owned, American-made, American Reserves. Jesus said, Whosoever therefore shall confess me before man, him will I confess also before my Father, which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before I read an article just a few minutes ago that simultaneously moved me to tears and filled me with courage and hope.

The article was focused on an interview that Anglican canon Andrew White recently gave to an Orthodox church network. Many of you remember canon white on true news last summer. He was the last remaining Anglican pastor in Iraq. And when we spoke to him, he was hiding in the mountains from ISIS jihadists. And if you recall that interview, he said that he only had about 1,500 members remaining

of his 5,000-member congregation. He said he didn't know where the rest of them had gone or if they were still alive. And the saddest thing that he told us in that interview, when he broke down weeping, he said that the Muslims cut in half with a sword a little boy whom Cannon White had baptized. And, in fact, that little boy had been named for him. Now, in this most recent interview, Cannon White told the interviewer a true story about four Iraqi children who were kidnapped by ISIS jihadists.

The Muslims told the children to convert to Islam. They responded, no, we love Yeshua. We have always loved Yeshua. We have always followed Yeshua. Yeshua has always been with us. The four children were given a second opportunity to renounce Jesus Christ and convert to Islam. Once again, they steadfastly refused

to renounce their Savior. The Muslims cut off the heads of all four children. Jesus also said that if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. The man on the telephone is the only human being I know who literally obeyed Jesus' words and carried his cross to every nation in the world. Arthur Blessed's journey started in 1968. He walked over 41,000 miles carrying a large wooden, and a total of 323 nations, islands, and territories. His website is blessed.com. Arthur, welcome back to True News. Well, it's wonderful to hear you, and God bless you, and thank you for what you're doing.

And I'm so moved with your stories there in Iraq, and of course I carried the cross through there. What was your thoughts as I talked about the four children who refused to renounce Christ and were beheaded? Right. Well, it reminded me that we have to remember that at the birth of Jesus Christ, right after the birth, when Herod had all of the male children killed in Bethlehem, I mean, the persecution began with the birth of Christ. And when Jesus began his ministry, John the Baptist was beheaded.

And Jesus went off and withdrew himself to pray. He was so moved by that. And the first deacon was stoned to death. So it's almost a repeat of early history. And it is so sad and so sorrowful. And I have been in every one of the nations in the world and every island group and have seen the persecution of believers, and it's only by the sovereign will of God that I've survived and my wife and my children that have been with me from time to time and to go into all the world.

And I like that scripture you said of confessing openly. I was in a service just the other day, a big church, and they prayed in his name, and the other minister prayed in your name, and they didn't even say whose name. And so on one hand, we have people standing strong and open and bold, and on the other hand, we have believers that don't even want to say the name of Jesus. When you hear about four children standing up to adults with swords, threatening to kill them, and they have the courage and the commitment to Jesus Christ to say, we will not bow, we will not convert.

And they lost their heads, they lost their lives. It's a terribly depressing story, yet at the same time, Arthur, it is an inspiring story. Because what excuse do we have here in the United States to not shout the name of Jesus Christ? Nobody's cutting off our heads yet, and yet, as you say, we've got people in this country who are not even willing to say his name publicly. I know, I know. I guess the most moving thing with me of that was when my son Joshua and I were going into Beirut in 1982. And as we were driving, we'd rented a car in Israel and had the cross tied on top.

It's a long story, but we finally got up to Beirut near the airport, and the road just disintegrated and fighting. The Israelis were there attacking the city, and there were the PLO and all that war exploded in front of us. And Joshua was 12, and he had felt Jesus tell him to go with me into Beirut with the cross. And so I said to Joshua, as the road just exploded and all the fighting in front of us and I said Joshua if we go ahead there's no turning back and and he was crying and he said wait a minute dad and and I I looked at him and and he just looked straight ahead I'll never forget his eyes and and and he he he closed his eyes like he was praying and then and then he opened his eyes like he was praying

and then he opened his eyes and he said, let's go, Daddy. And I said, there's no way back. If we go in, we got to go in all the way with the cross. There's no turning back. He said, let's go. And we did. And we went in and he and I walked

through two blocks of landmines to go into Beirut. And there we met Yasser Arafat. CNN happened to come up and see and recorded that interview. And it's in the movie The Cross. Did you speak with him? Yes, I spoke with Arafat for over two—I met with him three different times. I spoke with him for several hours total, but one time over two hours. I've read various stories that, yes, Arafat was very interested in Jesus Christ. That is absolutely true. I met him the first time in 1980. About two o'clock in the morning, was taken by gunmen. I was in there carrying the cross, but I was at a place at night,

and he wanted to meet me. They brought me to him in the night in a building with blacked-out windows. And when I walked into the room where he was, he got up and he walked toward me, and he knew I was carrying a 12-foot cross, but I didn't have it at that moment. Now, the other time when I went in with my son, I was carrying it open there, but they had taken me a night. And when I looked at Arafat, I said, it's one fanatic meeting another.

And he broke into a big grin, and he hugged me. And I said, I've come to share with you about Jesus. And I sat down, and he sat down, and I read the red words of Jesus. And I read the whole Beatitudes to him. And then I got down on my knees and prayed, holding his hand for about 10 minutes, and then invited him to pray, and I led in the sinner's prayer. And he didn't say anything, But you gave him the opportunity. I don't know whether he prayed in his mind or if he didn't or what, but when I asked him if he prayed the prayer, he looked at the people around him and he said,

I can't say. But I talked for hours about Jesus. I just read an article about two weeks ago, and I don't recall the Christian who was quoted in the article, but it was somebody who knew Arafat, and this gentleman said, like you, he said, although I never heard with my own ears Arafat confess Jesus Christ, he said, I would not be surprised to find out that before he died, he was saved. Yes, R.T. Kendall, who was a former pastor of Westminster Chapel,

I think that's who was in the article. Right, and he was a friend of mine, and I was preaching at the chapel during those days, or those years, and he went over and actually showed the Passion of the Christ movie to Arafat, and also invited him to pray. But he was there where Arafat was before where he got sick and took him to Paris, but he still had on his desk the cross that I gave him. Did he really? In 1982. But he said to me, the cross is more powerful than the sword.

God was after that old boy, wasn't he? He was, he was, and he was very hungry. We talked about Jesus. I said to Yasser Arafat, sharing my heart and soul, and I said, if you'll lay your pistol, he had his pistol on. I said, if you'll put your pistol on the table, I'll walk with you and I'll carry the cross and walk beside you to Jerusalem or as far as we go. But you got to lay the gun down. And he looked at me and I looked at him and we understood each other because I was there with a 12-foot cross. And actually, the clip that CNN broadcast with Peter Arnett showed me the second time praying with Yasser Arafat and with Joshua, my son.

We've gone into the world to share the message of Jesus with people. And I can tell you that in spite of people thinking you can't go, you can't do these things, like you said, in 1968 when I made the cross, I've now carried it all over the world openly in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea, all of these places. And I've been carrying the cross this morning. I just came back here for your program. I'm 74 years old and have now walked over 41,000 miles. And the new Guinness Book of World Records says it's the longest documented walk in human

history. And you were carrying the cross today. Arthur, is it now so ingrained in your being that you have to carry the cross continuously? Well, yes. I grew up, I was saved when I was seven, and I started preaching when I was 15. And my dad had a problem with drinking, and I was in bars many times from the time I was four years old when he came back from World War II. And I prayed with Dad when I was 13 years old. And then I went with him into bars sharing Christ. But I have a burden for the world, but I never dreamed about carrying a cross.

I was in Hollywood ministering with the hippies on Sunset Strip in the 60s, preaching in the nightclubs, rock festivals. I preached on stage with Janis Joplin, the Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf, Ted Nugent, all those old singers back those days. And then Jesus said, open a coffee house as a follow-up and make the cross, put it on the wall of the building. And I didn't even want to do that because I preached the message of the cross. And I didn't want, I never owned a cross before then. And then the Lord showed me the power of symbolism in the Bible, baptism, communion, all of these things that are symbols as well as Old Testament symbols.

And he said, I want you to make a big cross, like the kind of cross Christ would have been crucified on, and put it on the wall of the building. And I did, and then would carry it on short walks in Hollywood back in 68, in 1969, and then in 69, Jesus said, take it off the wall and carry it across America, and I've now been, what, 36 years now will be completing on Christmas day of walking with the cross and and it the cars stop out here in the streets and and they said do you will you do you pray they got they all holler out the passenger window, and I'll say, yes, I pray, and people get out of their car. I'm here in Denver in Douglas County. They'll get out of the car right in the middle of the traffic, and housewives with Lexus and Mercedes and all kind

of cars, and weeping. And the people behind don't even blow the horn. They see somebody being ministered to. And the police just go around. They don't stop either. And people are so hungry. Business people, office buildings, they're just CEOs of office buildings. They said, bring your cross up, and they helped me carry it up the stairwell up to their offices and call other CEOs in and have me share Christ with them. People in the neighborhoods right here in America, people

are so hungry. It is so ripe. And yet, Arthur, they're not getting fed in the churches. No, I know. And I say, well, what? And they say, I say, do you go to church? And they say, I don't feel comfortable there. I can't get through. It takes so much staff before I get to somebody. And I don't, and so people, I'm not condemning the church. I'm just saying, when Jesus was here, Rick, the sinners came to him. They saw in him hope and life and change and his love for them. And today, people are scared of the church. And they don't want to go. They don't feel it relates.

But the people are hungry for Jesus. And, I mean, we've got churches now that never give an invitation. They never call people to Christ. I know. I've been there I've been in the services there'll be a card maybe behind and a pew to fill out

if you want to have somebody contact you about knowing Jesus and we need voices like yours and mine and to get out that's how the gospel went out into the world, and it's the only hope of the world

is to go and confront people person to person and face to face. Arthur, the story you told about Yasser Arafat, I've heard other stories about other world leaders. I remember about seven or eight years ago reading a mainstream newspaper article. It was an interview with Hugo Chavez, the late president of Venezuela. And in that interview, he said, whenever I'm with Fidel Castro, we always talk about Jesus. And, you know, I read that line several times.

Like, is this in this news article? Hugo Chavez meets with Fidel Castro, and their favorite topic is Jesus Christ. Yes. So that tells me the hunger is there even among people that we think would be hardened rebels. But privately, they want to talk about Jesus. And that also tells me that, again, we as the church, we're failing to recognize it and connect with those people. Exactly. I have been through all of these Muslim countries, every Muslim country in the world, openly with a 12-foot cross. And Pakistan was taken out before Sharia Council, them to determine what to do with my wife

and I, because we'd just been over in Afghanistan. We were coming back. There were miracles happening. And I said, I'm a follower of Jesus. And then the man that spoke English and him interpreting, we spent the whole time talking about Jesus. And I'll never forget, he said, will you pray for my brother over here to be healed? And let's see if this Jesus can heal my brother. And I went out, and I was like, oh, oh, wow. And I talked to his brother, and his brother spoke English. And I just went through the whole gospel with him.

He got on his knees. I said, get on your knees, pray pray this jesus wash me with your holy blood that was shed on the cross for my sins all the you're born the virgin mary live without sin he prayed everything and the lord healed him and they said you can go freely and and and the guy that was my interpreter is still there. That was 1997. It's still in that area. And entire mountain villages in the Hindu Kush are followers of Jesus. Arthur, yes, sir, go ahead. an article from the newspaper in Chitral celebrating the birthday of Jesus, December the 25th,

in an area in Chitral there in Northwest Province that has never had a church building in history. And so people are hungry to know about Jesus. In Libya, I met with the leaders of the Islamic Call Society for three days, sharing the Bible and the Koran. We were talking. And Dr. Ali, they said at the end of three days that I didn't convert them and they didn't convert me. They said, we want to oppose you. You're welcome.

And you're just a bit deceived about the resurrection. I mean, the crucifixion, resurrection of Christ may have been born of the Virgin Mary, but I don't know. I've got in, I've seen the people in the bar rooms and on drugs, world leaders, everybody I talk to, I talk about Jesus. I have been five times at the United Nations as guest of the Arab League and the Libyans and with my Bible, and they know I carry the cross. And I get phone calls from ambassadors in Muslim countries saying, pray for me. I said, pray for me. I said, and I started to say, just pray for me, pray for me. And God bless you. Bye-bye. And I found the world hungry for Jesus. Arthur, I have followed you for so many years.

I've heard you speak numerous times. In fact, the first time I heard you speak was in the mid-'80s when I was working for Pat Robertson. And you were speaking in the chapel there in Virginia Beach. Yes. And I was there in the audience, and you had just come back. I think you had just come back from Central America, if I recall. That's when the war with the Sandinistas was going on in Nicaragua. Right.

And you told a story about you and a missionary there, you were carrying boxes of Bibles, and you got surrounded by Sandinista soldiers. Do you remember that story? They were going to shoot you? Of course. I was walking from North America to South America carrying the cross. And I had a vehicle, and at that time, I mean, I had gone down and was going into Nicaragua. And Mike Uten, who's still living today, and Don Price, who's a veterinarian doctor in Key Largo, Florida, were with me. Don was teaching me Spanish. And the war was there between the Sandinistas and the Somoza, I mean, the government of Nicaragua. And a short version of this story, at 2 o'clock in the night,

there's a bang on the door of the trailer that was hooked on behind our four-wheel drive vehicle. And I opened the door, and there were gunmen. And they said, you know, narcotics police. They were looking in the cabinets at the food. And then they said, you know, narcotics policia, and they were looking in the cabinets at the food, and then they said, come outside, and I grabbed the truck keys because I thought maybe they wanted to rob, you know, take the truck, they could have it, and no, they stood me near the truck, and there were about seven gunmen with rifles and pistols, and I was preaching in Spanish, the bit I knew in Spanish. My cross was on the other side of the truck, and I realized this was a firing squad. They were going

to shoot me, and when they said, uno, I figured dos tres, and I don't know what the word for fire is. I never wanted to know, but it just flashed through my mind. I'm not going to die without my Bible, and it was a moon night. It was a clear, bright, moonlit night, and I just stuck the key in the truck door, and there was a box of Bibles there that we were going to give out to the village people in the morning. And I grabbed that box of Bibles and I set them down and they had that cord with kind of a cord tape. And you couldn't hardly get your fingers in it to pull. And I set the box down and I'm pulling. Finally, I got a hole in the box and I grab grab a Bible, and I'm so excited. Then I'm alive, and I think, well, I'll get them all a Bible.

I loaded my arm up with Bibles, and I could see their feet around me. I started to stand up, and when I stood up, I promise you, there was no one there about 15 feet away there were uh six of them laying on the ground and one laying in the trailer door uh with his feet sticking out and i went up and i said what what do you do curio um biblia uh necessita agua do you need some and they got up stunned and they ran jumped on the back of a truck and that truck with two guys with machine guns on it they just drove off down the road i went in and mike and don said they heard blows like being hit and like the air knocked out and and I said no the they thought I was fighting and I said no I didn't do anything I just looked up there on the ground and the people in the village came up to the door and they were all out there kneeling and they said we saw a bright light, God was here. And so, I mean, and I went on through the country,

and I remember the next day after I was walking, and I thought, Lord, I thought I was going to die, and they were going to shoot me. And it seemed like Jesus said, you're not getting out this easy, buddy. I got a lot of roads for you to walk, a lot of miles for you to travel. You're going to keep going. I'm going to take care of you. Keep on walking. Keep on talking.

Keep on preaching. But the Lord miraculously delivered down in Miami years later at the airport. A guy came up hollering at baggage, and he saw me there, and he was there with the gunman that night. My wife and I and daughter, Sophia, we adopted Sophia. She's 10 years old now. She's Guatemalan, Maya Indian. Wonderful. And we went down to Nicaragua and I went back to that area. And that was a few years ago. And I got the recording. I found an old man that was there that night and saw what happened and, um, and got an interview with him. But that was an awesome miracle. But I was like, either just keep going.

So I've just gone. To me, the will of God is wherever he says to go. But if he doesn't say go there, I'm not going. But when he says go, it doesn't matter whether it's Honolulu or Baghdad or a war or a jungle or what. Jesus is there, and he has a mission. I remember, Arthur, you telling a story about in a Middle Eastern country, and you were surrounded by a crowd of angry Arab men who were getting ready to stone you. And if I recall, you had some one or more mysterious visitors appeared. That was my first walk into a Muslim country, and that was in 1972.

And I went in from Spain into Morocco. And there were, I was going into a town, and the children started hollering and things. And then they started throwing rocks, and then it built and built and built. And that was before I learned how to deal with this. I didn't know. Now when I go, and what I did later was I started playing with the kids. I started letting them ride on the cross and whatever and making friends, but I didn't know at that time.

So I just kept walking, and then it built, and built, and built, instead of going over and asking somebody to get me some water, or something else, and make contact, so I was walking, and finally a mob built up, and they were, they have these sticks there in Morocco, and they usually have a knot on the end, and they were beating on the cross, and they were beating on the cross and on the wheel of the cross that keeps it from wearing off. And I was surrounded, and I remember saying, get supper ready, Lord. I think I'm coming home. And I was getting hit, and then there was a building. It was in the street, and there were two men stepped out of the doorway, and there was a little concrete step, and they were dressed in white,

which was not unusual because some wore white in that area, but this was an awesome white. And they started speaking to the people and hollering, and everybody looked at them. And I just felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit go. And so I just literally pushed people out of the way and walked right through the crowd. And when I got about 100 yards or more down the road, one or two rocks rolled by me, and I was down the road, and the crowd never came. And then that was the only time that I ever had an event like that happen. But those two men, I think, were angels. But they, you know, God made provision to get through to deliver the message.

And I went on through Morocco and then on across Africa. Have you ever been kidnapped? Detained? You know how to punch by button. I don't talk about a lot of these things. Okay, all right. No, let me, I'll answer your question. I mean, I married Denise in 1990. And I remember saying to her, I'll never fight for you.

And we'll never get kidnapped. I said, we'll die, but we're not going to get kidnapped. I said, we'll walk out. They can shoot us, do whatever, but we're going to, you know, I said, we'll walk out. They can shoot us, do whatever, but we're going to, you know, and if you don't want to live that life, okay, because we can't win anyway. I can't fight. You know, we don't have guns and we don't have security and we're going to all the dangerous places. So she said that that's fine with me. And we were down in Guyana in South America. And when we got out at the airport, we were going to go into town. And then it was in the afternoon, we're going to go into town and then start walking with the cross the next day.

So the cross, I had to cut it years ago in half, so it's in three six-foot sections. So it was in our sleeping bag, and it was this big, long bag, and then had both had backpacks. And so when we went outside, there was a big, you know, push or whatever to get us in this taxi or whatever was trying. And and and there was a bus that was sitting over on the side. And so I walked over there and it was empty. And I, and I asked in Spanish if they, if he could take me to town and my wife, and he said, yes. And as we stepped on the bus, there were these group of men that stepped on the, ooh. And as he started driving out of the airport, then the guys went up to him directing, and they were saying, Vamanos, I mean, come with us. And about half of them stepped off the bus, and the other half were on and pointed for us to get our bags.

And I grabbed the cross bag, and I said, okay, Denise, you know what it is. We walk out. And as we stepped off, they started to point the guns at us. And I grabbed her and we started walking and they were hollering. And we started walking back down this trail. And I was just ready any moment for bullets to come flying. They were hollering. And Denise said, I want to see what's happening. And I said, don't look back. Remember Lot's wife. I said, don't look back. But she looked back anyway. And she said, the bus is coming. And the bus driver drove up. And he opened the door and he motioned for us to get in. And I looked under the seats to see if there was any more gunmen hid under there, and it wasn't.

And so we got jumped on the bus, and I pointed and said to town, and we went. And that was the only time we were officially, I guess you'd say, tried to be kidnapped. We were taken in by the military in Burundi during a military coup, but that was kind of an unofficial taking. And finally we met the head of the coup and he became the acting president. It was on TV that night and he let us go. You know, I was thinking as you were talking, I interviewed a missionary in Colombia. And he's in a very dangerous area where the FARC guerrillas are at, the drug dealers and such and revolutionaries. And I asked him about being kidnapped.

He goes, yeah, yeah, I think I've been kidnapped about 15 times. And he said, it's no big deal anymore. He said, they tie you to a tree. They put a gun to your head. He goes, it's the same routine every time. And he said, so I know if I just stay there at the tree for three or four days, they're eventually going to untie me and let me go. But, you know, I'm thinking, you know, okay, you've been tied to a tree 15 times, you know, and it's just routine to you now. Hey, one last question.

I was thinking another story. This one I always thought was very humorous. and I don't recall, again, the location. It was a rainforest or a jungle. There was a scientific team going through the rainforest, and they kind of got bogged down on the journey. They couldn't make it. Do you know which story I'm talking about? You're talking about the Darien jungle. People need to get my book, I mean, the movie The Cross, the Arthur Blessed story, and The Cross Museum.

It tells some of these stories. But anyway, I'll tell you that, a brief. I was still on that journey where I'd gone through Nicaragua in the firing squad. And finally, you get to Panama, and that's the canal zone. And this was in the 70s. And you had the U.S. forces still there. And they had me speak at the chapel. But they said, you cannot go through the Darien jungle. It's impenetrable, and especially with a 12-foot cross, and you need to take a boat around to fly over to Colombia. And I said, Jesus said, walk. And anyway, I had two friends. I had tried to be normal one of the few times in my life. I had gone back to

America, and I got two people to come down there. And one was a marathon runner, and the other was a doctor, and they were going to go with me and spoke back and left me in the middle in the in the darien and you can look on you know on the internet on the wikipedia about the darien jungle the few people that have gone through it and and um and so anyway when the when the the second guy left uh left and laid down his backpack and everything, take what you want, and he was heading back. And for me, that was not the question, if, but how. tears running down my cheek, and I kept my Bible and my passport and a little money and a couple of canteens of water and whatever, and I said, in the name of Jesus, the devil isn't going to kill me. I'll see Columbia. If you want me to die, Jesus, I'll die for you, but the devil isn't going to do it.

You'll call me home. And so and I walked into the water with the cross on my shoulder. And I mean, I fell through down cliffs and vines. And then you have Bushmaster snakes and snakes and fertile ant snakes and five layer forest and and i was going through and and one day i was i heard and it was like a chainsaw and one of the they they say the locals uh will say the Choco and Cuda Indians, they would say, anybody that spoke English in some of the little villages, they'd say, if you're not, you know, if you're out there at night, you'll never come back because you go crazy. It's the pressure of the aloneness and the density of the forest and everything.

And I think I may be hallucinating. I was just living off of one container of lemon drops, fruit drops and iguana eggs and whatever. And I thought, that sounds like a chainsaw. I grew up down in Mississippi and Louisiana, and we had a sawmill and a cotton plantation, and I know what a chainsaw sounds like. And when it died off, I hollered, hey, anybody speak English? And I screamed that out, and suddenly I heard somebody holler back, blank to blank, blank, yes. I thought, yeah, they really blank to blank, blank, yes. I thought, yeah, they really do speak English if they know those words.

And so I was hollering and they were hollering. And finally I had my machete and I came. I'm sitting here looking over. There's my machete right there. And I came down with that machete, and somebody else did, and now we cut through the vegetation. We were looking at one another, and it was a group from National Geographic Exploring, where he, white man, never been. Permitive villages untouched by humans. And there's Arthur Blessed in a cross. And I said, where are y'all going? They said, well, we're on the way through the Dari. And I said, well, just follow my trail. There's a path all the way back.

I've got my way. And I started talking to them about Jesus. And they said, you can do anything but baptize us. And they took pictures. And that picture that they took is what is on the cover of the movie, The Cross. Later on, they sent me some photographs. And they showed me, well, they had helicopter support. The helicopters would come in and bring them in support.

They had about 20-something locals that were helping them cross the streams and whatever. And they were all sponsored by, you know, this. They had patches all over them with all their stuff. They said, who's sponsoring you? I said, Jesus. I said, you know, I hadn't got any badges, just got a cross. And so when they sent me the pictures that they had, they showed me, I mean, they said, open the pictures in the order. And there was first when they first saw me and then when I was leaving and then they were going to a village and there were these people that they were just wearing G-strings and wearing Jesus stickers.

And so there were these Dayglo Jesus stickers. They're red, Dayglo, Jesus, smile, God loves you, Jesus loves you. And they said, you know, these people are so primitive and all. They've got these stickers on. So they had to catch them and peel the stickers off so they could take the pictures. So it would be like they were the first ones there were these primitive people. And then, but yeah, that was. Oh, my.

What a story. What a story. Every village, I would do a drama of the crucifixion of Christ. And I got letters later, years later, when missionaries went into those villages, people would say, oh, we already heard. And they would tell them about Jesus dying on the cross. And I'd teach them the name Jesus. And when I'd finally leave the village, I'd go, Jesus!

And everybody would shout, Jesus! That was all I knew and all they knew. But do it the best you can for the Lord. Well, Arthur, I know our radio audience is wishing that I had another hour, that we could continue so that we would hear more of these amazing stories. But I want our listeners to know, you can get the DVD, The Cross, and these stories and a lot more are on that DVD. And also, Arthur, you have another DVD, The Cross Museum.

What is this about? Well, The Cross Museum is something that my children and my wife and other people who have seen the museum, and it's really the basement of our house. And it has memorabilia from the world's longest walk, the Guinness Book of Records. And Guinness Book came came and they sent three people over and they photographed. And there's a feature in the 2015 book of Guinness World Records of me. And they were photographing all these objects and telling little stories about just a few, one paragraph each of different items that I have in here. And my kids, and then seeing what Dick Guinness was interested in, I thought they were saying,

you can't die and leave all this. I'm 74 years old now and still going strong, because we don't know the story behind all of these things you got any shrunken heads from Africa? no I hadn't got that but I do have a piranha that's dried

but I have the crosses and right now I reach back and I put my hand on the first cross I carried out of Hollywood. And then there is like a big pile, probably four foot around and piled up of broken crosses. And when people see that, they just start crying. They can't believe it. I was carrying the cross. Every one of those crosses were broken. And from one, and my machete and the cross that Yasser Arafat gave me, a big mother of pearl cross with his signature. And I tell the stories of all the items that's here.

And we did this ourself. Now, the movie The Cross was done by Matt Crouch with TBN now, but it was with Generation at the time. But we did this. I've learned enough with my wife and with Sophia, our daughter, we filmed because I wanted to open my heart and tell the story. I've got a picture here with me sharing Christ with Bob Dylan and Charlie Daniels and taking Billy Graham into a bar in Northern Ireland and sharing Christ there and all these awesome things that are unbelievable. And I tell those stories and it's in a DVD set, seven hours and 48 minutes. So it's four DVDs with two hours on each. And it's not made for,

I mean, it's well done. We got a professional editor, but it's well done. But it's the stories, the stories. And when I felt like crying, I cried. When I felt like laughing, I laughed. And I was looking at my wife filming me, our Sophia filming. And when she was talking, I was filming her. And little Sophia, she's on fire. She's been in 43 countries, and she's on fire for Jesus. And so that's what the Cross Museum is, is the history. And I feel such peace that I've told the story behind

the story. When you watch the movie, The Cross, it kind of, Matt did a thing where it goes up like a Google, you know, it goes up and then it goes down and then you show up in the Darien jungle. Or you show up in Nicaragua. Or you show up over with Yasser Arafat. And it's a great movie, but you don't know how I got there. You don't know all the details. Well, with the Cross Museum, you got the details. So they're reliving the journey.

Yes. Yes. And it goes by items. Yes, yes. my throat, two different experiences. People came to slit my throat, and I led them to the Lord and got the knives. And so you click on the items that you want to see, or you can just click one time and go through a whole DVD. Amazing. And they are available at your website, blessed.com. telling him what to put, but he knew the computer thing, how to move it, and got it because it was so personal. It's like the inside of my heart and soul. There's all the memorabilia from all the years of travel,

and it's right there in your home. And it's so like if people watch the DVD, it's like coming into your home and seeing what you have from all the years of travel. Right. Every pair of shoes that I've worn, and you just look at those 46 pair of shoes and you just like, I mean, you see the condition there. And you see those broken crosses, my backpacks and stuff.

And by the grace of God, I'm talking to you today, feeling great, just been out walking and still heading out again. God is good. And going and serving the Lord. And I love it. I'm happy. I'm at peace. And I'm blessed. And I want people to share Jesus with others that if anybody has never received Christ, invite him into your heart. Repent. Say, Jesus, cleanse me. Be my Savior. I want to follow you. I'm not ashamed of you.

I confess you as my Savior. Tell your wife, your husband, your friends, I'm saved. I'm a follower of Jesus. Hallelujah. Amen. Arthur, you are an original, and I am so honored to have the opportunity to talk to you. Well, I am looking at your picture here, and I remember you, and I look back, and all your service at Christian Broadcasting and with TBN and everything you did and now what you're doing.

God bless you, and thank you for having me. Thank you for asking the questions you did and touching my heart, and I love you, brother, and keep up the witness for Christ. Thank you. We love you too, Arthur, and people all over the world love you. You've made a mark on more people than you'll ever know. And so until you're home with the Lord, you'll find out how many people you touched. Arthur, bless it. God bless you, friend. Hey, thank you. God bless you too. And God bless everybody. What an honor to talk with Arthur Blissett. deal on the famous British Birkfeld Dalton filtration systems. From July 3rd to July 7th, purchase a 2.25-gallon or 3.17-gallon filtration system or bundle and receive two extra ceramic

filters absolutely free. That's right, two additional filters to keep your water pristine for longer. If you opt for the one-liter filtration system or bundle, you'll get one extra ceramic filter free. No codes, no hassle. Just choose your system and enjoy the added value. During crisis, clean drinkable water is the most important factor to survival. It is imperative to keep your family hydrated and healthy during any emergency. And remember, this special offer is only available from July 3rd to July 7th. Visit AmericanReserves.com today. American owned, American made, American reserves. Good morning. Welcome to Morning Manna. This is the weekday Bible study sponsored by Faith

and Values Fellowship in Vero Beach, Florida. Your Bible teachers are Dr. Burkhardt and myself, Rick Wiles. This is your very first time we welcome you. There are people gathered from many nations around the world in a real-time class at 8 a.m. Eastern Time, where we gather at faithandvalues.com. And so if you are watching or listening by another platform, we invite you to join the class at 8 a.m., faithandvalues.com. We are in the 13th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. This is the chapter of parables. And I could stay in this chapter for months. I love it. Today, we're going to be studying the parable of the leaven,

and this is found in verse 33. So we only have a very short verse, but I think we can spend the entire one hour talking about this one parable. um i'm going to pray and doc will read the verse and then we will begin our study dear gracious father father we love you we thank you for this awesome beautiful day we thank you that we are saved through faith in jesus christ and that we are part of your family. Father, we come to you this Monday morning hungry, thirsty, desiring to be fed from your word. We ask the Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us throughout this Bible study, illuminate our hearts and minds to understand your word. Make us strong, disciples. And make us a blessing to everybody we meet.

In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. As Rick said, we are in Matthew chapter 13, verse 33. Just one verse today. But it's chock full of good stuff today. And it helps explain the previous parables as well so let's get into it here if you got your bibles open up matthew chapter 13 and one verse today verse 33 another parable spake he unto them the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. Okay?

Now, one verse. Yeah, one verse. Let's begin by summarizing the popular interpretation of the parable of the leaven. And, Doc, you can jump in here. You know, traditionally, what is taught in churches about the parable of the leaven? What would you say, Don? Traditionally, it's taught that the, and it goes along with the previous parable, the mustard seed too, that this leaven that's being put into the meal, that the woman puts in the meal, that this leaven is a good thing because what it's going to do is it's going to cause that meal to grow and to expand and to become something much bigger than it was before. And the way the modern interpretation, and I would say the majority interpretation out there

is that this leaven is a good influence within the meal. That it explains the ever-expanding role of the gospel as it expands and the kingdom of heaven is expanded throughout all of this. And so the general interpretation is that this leaven that's in the meal is a very good thing, just like the birds in the branches of the mustard seed tree are a good thing. But these two parables go hand in hand with each other. They don't stand alone, do they, Rick? No, they don't.

And, you know, the popular interpretation, in addition to saying that the leaven, the yeast, is a good thing, that it's been, that it's Jesus that hides the yeast in the dough because that's what this woman does she she she has no to make bread and she hides yeast in the dough and the yeast spreads throughout the dough and causes the dough to expand therefore the the teaching the popular teaching is this is how the church of god is quietly expanding and growing worldwide right and it's going to level the whole it's going to live in the whole world it's going to expand the whole world is going to eventually be affected by it um typically and not, but the popular interpretation sees the I've heard various explanations some say they represent the the descendants of Noah's three sons and that the leaven is going throughout the world through Noah's three sons yeah I heard that the another one is they represent the Jew the Greek

and the barbarian meaning all of humanity some have said the three measures of meal symbolized body soul and spirit so these are variations of the popular interpretation but the popular interpretation, but the popular interpretation always says that the leaven is a good thing. Right. It is the church expanding in the world. Right. So is that the correct interpretation?

Well, I would humbly say, and respectfully, no, I don't think it is correct. And I agree with you, Rick. Absolutely. I do not think that that is the correct interpretation. If we let Scripture interpret Scripture, if we let Scripture interpret Scripture,

then that is not the correct interpretation. That is simply the opinion of man trying to make sense of this verse. I think what it is, they don't know what it means, and so they have to make up an interpretation. But if you let Scripture interpret Scripture, this does not have to be complicated, and you can have the right interpretation. Doc, every morning when I am working on morning Bama lessons, I begin by praying,

Father, help me teach from your point of view. I don't want to teach from my point of view or my denomination's point of view. I want to teach from God's point of view. What's his point of view about these scriptures? Because he has the original intention. We know the original purpose of the scripture if we ask God for his interpretation. So the problem with the popular interpretation is that its proponents focus and concentrate on the first part of the parable. The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven but you cannot accurately interpret the parable unless you include Jesus's

entire statement the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened so the proponents of the popular interpretation make two big mistakes. Firstly, they omit two of the three figures in the parable. Right. And secondly, they violate the rule about maintaining the same meaning of parabolic figures is leaven itself the full representation of the kingdom or does the full representation also include the woman and the hiding of three measures of meal all three of those components are part of jesus's parable about the kingdom not just 11. yes you've got to have it all so the proponents of the popular interpretation violate a a rule of parabolic interpretation they willfully change the meaning of a figure

and they will openly tell you yes leaven in the bible always represents something unholy and evil but in the parable 11 11 now represents something good. Doc, I read countless commentaries where they said exactly those words. Yes. Yes, we admit leaven is always, always represents

something evil, something negative in the Bible. But in this case, Jesus turned it around and made it good. See, that's a major mistake. Right. Once you

say that you can unlock a door with a wrong key, all you're going to do is get in the wrong room. i like that that key will open up a door somewhere but it's not the door you're trying to get in it's the wrong key so is the kingdom like leaven or is the kingdom like leaven plus the meal flour plus the woman plus the hiding of three measures of meal flour? Leaven is mentioned 29 is in a negative manner.

Right. I'll give you some examples. Exodus 12, 15. Old Testament. Seven days. This is God speaking to the Hebrews. Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread. Even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses.

For whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. Exodus 34 25 God speaking to the Hebrews thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left unto the morning Hosea 7 4 God speaking to the Prophet they are all adulterers as an oven heated by the Baker who ceases from raising after he hath needed the dough until it be leavened. New Testament. Matthew 16, 6. Jesus said, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Mark 8, 15. Jesus. And he charged them saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod. 1 Corinthians. Chapter 5 5 verse 6 and 8 apostle paul your glorying is not good know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our

Passover is sacrifice for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And there, like you said, there are nearly 40 different scriptures that talk about leaven. Leaven itself isn't inherently bad, but when it comes to figures in the Bible, leaven represents evil. Leaven represents corruption. You know, the Jews, before Passover, they do a thorough cleaning of their entire house. This is before Passover. They clean their house. Why?

Well, the scripture tells us the reason why is there cannot be any leaven in the house at all. They've got to scrub the corners. They've got to scrub the baseboards. Every nook and cranny throughout the house leading up to Passover. There cannot be a trace of corruption or, the Bible says, leaven in the whole house. So we have 40 examples here, nearly 40 examples of leaven in a negative context when it comes to Scripture. But this one instance, according to the commentators and the popular preachers and the TV folks and everything

say all those other times yes it is corrupt but this time it's not corrupt so something doesn't something's not right there Rick you got it doc if you accept the teaching methods of the supporters of the popular interpretation

the Jesus who said take heed beware Doc, if you accept the teaching methods of the supporters of the popular interpretation, the Jesus who said, take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod, is the same Jesus who said leaven is a good thing. Right. See, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't. It's out of line with all the other teachings in the scripture as doc said leaven in itself is not evil it's not bad it's it's like birds are not evil but in the bible birds represent unclean spirits

so what does leaven represent in the Bible? I mean, all of us eat leaven every day. If you eat bread, you've eaten leaven. Bread is made with yeast. Right. So leaven is yeast, and yeast itself is not evil. It's used every day in baking. But why is it used in the Bible as a representation of something evil? Here's why. Leaven causes disintegration and corruption of its host.

Right. Whenever leaven is added to dough, its fermentation process immediately goes to work to change the composition of the dough yeast mingles and permeates the dough to modify it and that's why throughout the old testament leaven is a symbol of spiritual corruption def defilement, mixture, and sin. So proponents of the popular interpretation say the gospel is like yeast because it is silently mingling and permeating the world to modify it. They say God made an exception, and in the case of this parable, leaven is a good thing, even though it's a bad thing everywhere else in the Bible. So the popular interpretation also contradicts the preceding parables.

The parable of the sower teaches us that three out of four people sowed by the Lord will not produce a harvest for his kingdom. The parable of the tares teaches us that Satan will deliberately and maliciously sow tares among the wheat that was sowed by Jesus. The parable of the mustard seed teaches us that the-made the man-made church the man-made religious system will grow into an abnormal freakish plant instead of the lowly humble herbal plant the lord intended the church to be on earth and this abnormally large mustard tree will house birds. As we said, birds always represent evil spirits. So the popular interpretation of the parable of the mustard seed teaches that Jesus intended the lowly mustard seed herbal plant to grow upward

into an abnormally large freakish tree so that birds would represent various denominations and roost in its branches because the popular interpretation doesn't see the birds as evil spirits they see them as denominations so the same people who claim the parable of the leaven means the gospel will get inside the world and quietly permeate the world and modify it to become more like what Jesus originally desired the world to be someday. These are the same people that misinterpret the other parables. Right. that that misinterpret the other parables right their viewpoint contradicts the other parables that teach us that there will be a spiritual mixture spiritual pollution spiritual corruption at work inside the church until the final day when the reapers separate the wheat and tares right and when you understand this it relieves your mind and your soul of a lot of stress and worry about things that we know are wrong in the

church yes because you come to understand jesus said it was going to be like this he said i'll know about it this is not a surprise to me i'll take care of it when i come back in the meantime you just do what i told you to do it takes a lot of stress off of you right and it's it's simple it's easy to understand you don't have to play uh gospel twister in order to make it fit. Gospel twister. So the previous parables, they all either speak about the failure of a seed or corruption of the field or tares being planted, birds in the trees. So all these other parables talk about corruption or failure, yet somehow in the modern mindset, oh, we got a happy little parable here. You know, yeast, you know,

how it goes through all the wonder bread. You know, you like wonder bread, right? And nice white bread. And, you know, and bread's a good thing, right? Except for the fact that the woman hid the yeast, hid the leaven in the bread, in the meal. If it's the gospel, why is it being hid? That's a good question. So, you know, to summarize all these other parables that we've talked about, Jesus is teaching us that the church age, the church age is from the resurrection, Pentecost, to the second coming of Christ. That's the church age. He's teaching us that the church age would not be characterized by perfection, purity, and victory.

Instead, the true church is growing and doing God's will, even as it is weighted down and polluted with various people, doctrines, and things that are not from God it's it's it's like a whale covered with barnacles it's still going to get to its destination but it's got barnacles all over it so what about the woman and the hiding of the leaven in three measures of meal the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leaven so who is the woman in parables, the sower is a man. And the man always represents Jesus.

Suddenly, in the parable of the leaven, the figure is a woman. Now, she's sowing. She's sowing yeast. She's sowing leaven into the dough. But it's not a man. It's now a woman. Whenever the sower is a man, it's not a man. It's now a woman. Whenever the, whenever the sower is a man, it's Jesus. So what do we have here? We have, we now have a female figure.

Who is she? What does she represent? Well, when you have questions about the Bible, you'll find the answers to your Bible questions in the Bible. Imagine that. Yes, the Bible answers its own questions. So let's look to scriptures for the answers. Isaiah 47, God speaks to the daughter of Babylon. Ezekiel 16, God speaks of Israel as being a harlot.

Zechariah 5, 7 and 8, God speaks of Israel's wickedness he said here is a lead disc lifted up and this is a woman sitting inside the basket then he said this is wickedness and he thrust her down into the basket and threw the lid over lid cover over its mouth revelation 2 20 jesus said nevertheless i have a few things against you because you allow that woman jezebel who calls herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols so in revelation 2 the woman is Jezebel. So we see she's the daughter of Babylon. She's a harlot. She's wickedness. She's Jezebel.

Revelation 12. Let me go to Revelation 17. A fallen woman. She's a fallen woman, and she represents the harlot church. And there came one of the seven angels, which had the seven vows, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. This is a harlot's tip.

It's interesting that yeast is also used to make alcoholic beverages, including wine. That's right good point doc so what is the meaning each of the symbols mentioned above have a have a common denominator. They represent a belief system and behavior that negatively influences people to turn away from God. Right. A harlot church, a whorish Babylonian society, believes in practices that are contrary to Almighty God Jezebel so this woman and it remember this this this this can't be Jesus right and it can't be it can't be the church and I would say I can't say it can't be Satan

either it's not Satan a different character so the how do we how do we identify who the woman represents we look at all the other scriptures where a woman not women in general but a representation of religious mixture that's what this woman represents religious mixture seducing seducing doctrines taking people away from God so the woman took she took it the Greek word for took is lambano it's a verb that means to actively lay hold of, to take or receive. And the full meaning of lambano emphasizes the assertiveness, the aggressiveness of accepting or taking what is available. For example, if I handed my phone to Doc and he gently, kindly received it, that would not be lambano.

If he grabbed it out of my hands, that would be lambano. Because he aggressively grabbed it. It was available. He grabbed it. He took control of it that's lambano so this woman lambano she aggressively takes hold of the leaven so this woman aggressively took the leaven that was available and the next action she took was to hide the leaven in the flour meal the leaven that she aggressively seized is now mixed secretly into the myth.

So she goes from being aggressive to being coy. Yes. Secretive. Yes. Devious. Probably be a better word. Because you can't be aggressive and devious at the same time. You'll give it away.

You have to change your style. But she's aggressive in taking the leaven but she's very coy in how she mixes it into the flour meal now listen to this the the Greek word for hiding it is in crypto it's where we get the word encryption yes or crypto yes hidden secret yes it means to hide in to mix with to bury within to conceal it implies doing something covert or surreptitious. You know, when you encrypt, when you send an encrypted email, you have used technology to bury and conceal the true contents of the message so that it can only be read by somebody who has the encryption key to decode it. And the same thing with cryptocurrency, too. The value of the currency is hidden, and in order to unlock the value of the currency,

the hidden currency inside of that, you need a special key to unlock it. That's right. So Rick, if we were to follow the modern interpretation of this particular parable here, it should mean that the woman joyfully put yeast in the bread, right? I mean, after all, leaven is a good thing. The more leaven we have, the more bread we've got, right? I mean, if we're to think about that, if we're to use a modern interpretation. But the scripture makes sense. How do we secretly share the gospel?

Right. We're supposed to. We are instructed to shout it from the housetop. Amen. Amen. And she hid in three measures of meal again the emphasis is not on the woman we'll miss the parables meaning if we focus on the woman the emphasis is on the result of hiding three measures of meal. What was the result?

The whole batch was leavened. Yes. The emphasis in this parable is on till the whole was leavened. So, this is where I had to really spend a lot of time praying and studying why three measures of meal let's see what you came up with rick i came up with one too okay we're on let's see so why not two why not four right three is there a significance in three measures of meal? Is the term three measures of meal mentioned anywhere else in the Bible? So when you have a question about the Bible, you go to the Bible to find an answer.

So I was praying, God, why three measures of meal so you find in Genesis 18 6 and Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah and said make ready quickly three measures of fine meal need it and make cakes upon the hearth there it is but then after I found that it's like okay what does this mean and I know it I know I the Lord has shown me here's here's where it's first mentioned it's in the book of Genesis and what's the meaning of it all right so let's start with the basic three measures what What's a measure? A measure in ancient times among the Hebrews was a seah. A seah is S-E-A-H. It's one-third of an ephah. E-P-H-A-H. Ephah.

Three seahs equal one f up in in the put it in connotation for our so for us today one SIA is about nine courts now here's the way they they measured it it was measured by its capacity to hold eggs one sia can hold 144 medium-sized eggs and an epa can hold 432 medium-sized eggs three times 144 so if a measuring device think about if you had a measuring device in your kitchen that could hold 432 eggs how big is it pretty big so that's how much flour this woman in the parable mixed that's a lot more than make a couple loaves of bread she mixed leaven into a substantial substantial amount of flour. So let's go back. Doc, I'm going to have you read Genesis 18, verses 1 through 8. Genesis 18, 1 through 8. Now this gives us the context of why Abraham told his wife Sarah, go quickly and measure,

get three measures of fine meal and knead it and make cakes. Why did he tell Sarah, do this quickly? So we find it in Genesis 18, verses 1 through 8. Okay. And this is Genesis 18,

reading from the King James. And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. And this is Genesis 18, reading from the King James. Verse 5, And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah and said, make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it and make cakes upon the heart. And Abraham ran into the herd and fetched a calf tender and good and gave it unto a young man and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter and milk and the calf, which he had dressed, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree, and they

did eat. Yes, okay, so the context here is Abraham sitting in the door of his tent. It's a hot day. It's in the heat of the day. It's mid-afternoon. He looked up and he saw three men standing near him. And he realized that one of them was God. Abraham had already had an encounter with the Lord. So this is a pre-incarnate visitation of jesus christ and how do we know it was god he said my lord yes and he bowed down to

worship him and if it was an angel an angel would say hey don't do that that's right So we know this was God. This is a pre-incarnate visitation of Jesus Christ on earth to man. Right. I am of the view that each time in the Old Testament that God appeared on earth, it was Jesus. I think so too, Rick. Yes. Because Jesus is the way God has communicated to mankind. So, Abraham recognizes this is God, and he's got two angelic friends with him, servants. And the first thing Abraham says is, Lord, now I have found favor with you. You've come to visit my humble tent

please don't go away let me get some water i'll wash your feet please sit down here by the tree i'll go get some bread and they said the three men very well do as you have said. Abraham took off, ran to the tent. Sarah, Sarah, get three seals of fine meal. Knead it, make cakes, do it right away. Then he runs over and he finds his young servant. Get a calf, butcher it, and grill it. We're going to have a meal. And he got butter and milk. And then he set all this food before the three men, one of them being Jesus Christ. That's what happened in this scripture. So when Jesus spoke the parable of the leaven, the Jews in the house with Jesus immediately recognized the significance of the three measures of

flour meal. Right. They knew what he was referencing to. He was referencing that. Yes. I agree that. Immediately knew. He's talking about Abraham. Abraham so we must read the entire 18th chapter of Genesis to glean the fuller

relationship of the flour mill to the parable of eleven the doc if you could now read Genesis 18 16 through well through 33. Okay. Alright. So, still in Genesis chapter 18, starting back up at verse 16. And the men, these are the three men that came to visit Abraham,

rose up from thence and looked towards Sodom. And Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him for I know him that he will command his children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now, and see whether they will come together according to the cry of it which has come unto me. If not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before the Lord. And Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Perventure, there be fifty righteous within the city.

Wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee to do after this manner to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. And Abraham answered and said, Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes.

Peradventure, there shall lack five of the fifty righteous. Will thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there are forty and five, I will not destroy it. And he spake unto him yet again and said, Peradventure, there shall be forty found there. And he said,

I will not do it for forty's sake. And he said unto him, Don't let the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Peradventure, there shall be 30 found there. And he said, I will not do it if I find 30 there. And he said, behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord. Peradventure, there be 20 found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for 20's sake. And then Abraham once again said,

now, don't let the Lord be angry. I'll speak yet, but this once. Peradventure, 10 shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for 10's sake. And the Lord went his way as soon as he had left communing with Abraham and Abraham returned unto his place. So when Jesus spoke the parable in the house,

the Jews who heard it immediately knew that the three measures of meal was connected to this amazing story of Abraham interceding with God on behalf of sinners what are some of the other lessons we can find in Genesis 18 verses 1 through 8 we've already read this is the preparing the meal the bread of the morsel of bread the calf the butter the milk all this was brought before the three divine visitors so lesson number one is fellowship with God. The three measures of meal represent fellowship and relationship with God. They represent hospitality.

Who were the three men who visited Abraham's tent? One was the pre-incarnate Christ and the other two were angels. And Abraham recognized God. He immediately offered his humble hospitality to the three divine visitors. He ran to the tent to tell his wife, quickly prepare three measures of fine meal. Knead it and make cakes.

And then he told the servant to bring the calf, and he presented the meal to the visitors who were standing under a tree for shade. Abraham was excited that God had visited his home. And his first instinct was to show warm hospitality to his divine visitor. Nowhere do we read that Sarah secretly mixed leaven into the flour meal. Of course not. Yet Jesus told the Jews in the house that the woman covertly mixed yeast into the flour. So the Jews listening to this are thinking Sarah wouldn't do that. There's no way Sarah mixed leaven into the flour. Right.

They knew that such an action was contrary to God's ways. They knew that yeast would corrupt the flour and cause it to artificially expand through gases caused by fermentation. And the artificial expansion was similar to the abnormal growth of the mustard seed plant that turned it into a strangely shaped tree that housed evil spirits. Therefore, the introduction of the yeast into the bread dough would interrupt and corrupt their pure fellowship with God because something foreign had been secretly mixed into the dough. Right. And although it was concealed, the enlarged shape of the loaves of bread would reveal its presence.

Absolutely. Now, verses 9 through 15. And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. Verse 10. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life. And lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.

Now, Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age. And it ceased to be with Sarah after the man or women. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying, am I waxed old? Shall I have pleasure, my Lord being also old? And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of surety bear a child which am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son

then sarah denied saying i laughed not for she was afraid and he said nay but thou did laugh so the second lesson here is the meal made with three measures of flour made by Sarah. Preceded God's promise to Abraham to give him and Sarah a child in their old age. The child would be the fulfillment of God's promise in the covenant he made with Abraham to make him a great nation. Yes. in the covenant he made with Abraham to make him a great nation yes Isaac's miraculous conception in Sarah's old age was a forerunner of the miraculous conception of Jesus and Mary Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham and in Christ is the true Israel promised to Abraham. So once again,

when the Jews standing in that house with Jesus heard him talk about three measures of meal, they understood all these things. Wait a minute. That's when Abraham and Sarah served the meal. That was at the time

that God made the promise to Sarah. You're going to have a baby. That's right. The promise. And that baby represents what? Represents Christ's coming and also represents our future resurrection too. That's right. Now, the next one.

Verse 22 of Genesis and the men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom but Abraham stood yet before the Lord so the third lesson is the mixture of sin the three heavenly beings one of them being Jesus Christ turned their faces away from abraham and sarah and began walking towards sodom jesus warns us in the parable of 11 that he is the pure bread of life but his church on earth would constantly face corrupting influences by people secretly and covertly mixing false doctrines and rituals into his church so would you say that the that the three measures rick are the church or the church's teachings no the three well the the meal, the three measures of meal.

Yes, the dough. Yes, the dough itself. The bread. Because a system of false beliefs would damage a person's relationship and fellowship with Almighty God. See, the meal was about God visiting Abraham and Sarah. That's right. It was about their fellowship with God, the promise of God to them. Because of the fellowship, God chose Abraham. He chose Sarah.

They had fellowship with God. And God made a promise to them. So, first, false beliefs, which is the leaven, will damage your relationship with God. Second, false beliefs will split churches and families and friends to all was leaven could be construed as meaning that left unchecked false beliefs planted in the church of god will

eventually make many church members cold uncaring self, self-centered, selfish, instead of loving and serving each other and having fellowship with God. Now, love is the antidote to the woman's leaven. See, the leaven eventually causes people to be cold and uncaring. But love is the antidote to the leaven. Yes. Doc, 2 Kings, we've taught on this one before. 2 Kings 4, chapter 4, 2 second Kings 4 verses 38 to 41 okay

you ready yes here we go second King chapter 4 verse 38 King James and Elisha came to Gilgal and there was a dearth in the land and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, and he sat unto his servants, sat on the great pot, and see the pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds as lap full,

and came and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not. So they poured out for the man to eat, and it came to pass as they were eating the pottage that they cried out and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot, and they could not eat thereof. But he said,

then bring meal, and he cast it into the pot, and he said, pour out for the people that they may eat, and there was no harm in the pot. So, as we've taught on this scripture before Elijah the Prophet shows up at a prophet school gives instructions get the big pot and let's make some soup but somebody somebody in the crowd went went into the field and gathered a wild vine it's poisonous that's what this means it's it's poisonous it's toxic and gathered wild gourds. These are toxic plants. And he shred them into small pieces and put them

into the pot, the kettle. And nobody knew about it. You could almost say this is a representation of Satan sowing tares. And it came to pass that as they were eating somebody cried out don't eat this stuff you'll die it's got poison plants in it but the Prophet said bring the meal bring the flower the flower is the gospel the the flower is the gospel the flower is the truth he put truth into the pot they didn't take time to pick out all the little pieces of the poison they couldn't it was already in there and that had already been mixed into the pot. And there was no way to separate. Yes, go ahead, Doc.

And Rick, hang on, buckle up. You're going to like this. You ready? Okay. Yeah. That word for meal there in verse 41 is equivalent to the word for ephah in the Old Testament, the measure of flour. Guess how many parts are there in one ephah? Three. Three measures of meal in one ephah. Yes. Wow. Wow. There it is again. So to understand what happened with elijah somebody secretly put toxic plants in the kettle if you if you ate the soup you would die

the prophet didn't say throw the whole thing out let's start over and he also didn't say okay everybody we're gonna everybody's gonna get a bowl and we're gonna pick out all of the toxic plants now see that was the tares mixed in with the wheat right instead he, the solution to this is more meal. The meal is the truth, the gospel. Bring more truth. Let's put more truth into the pot. We need more truth to counterbalance the toxic material. That's the lesson here.

And as Doc just pointed out, it's the same amount, the same measure. So the Jews in the house with Jesus knew the history of their people, and they recognized the reference of the three measures of flour. They recognized that the introduction of leaven into the dough represented spiritual corruption. So Jesus was teaching them that something went awry along the way. The Israelites had accepted and embraced pagan beliefs and rituals. They permitted their sons and daughters to marry pagans. They understood that Jesus was telling them through the parable that the relationship between Abraham's family and God had been polluted when Israel took pagan belief systems and idols and rituals

from the surrounding nations and introduced it into Israel and called it Babylonian Judaism. Right. And several times Jesus told his disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, beware the leaven of Herod. Yeah. The religious establishment. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry, I just, I'm just so excited about this lesson today. I preached a message several years ago, and I was reminded of it over the weekend, called The Three Types of Leaven. The Three Types of Leaven. There are three times

that Jesus mentions leaven in the scriptures. The first one is in Matthew 16, 16. And I'll read it here. Simon Peter answered, and hang on here, Matthew 16, 16.

Where is it at? Oh, I messed up here somewhere. But there's three types of leaven. Let me do Luke 12, 1 first. That one I know. Luke 12, 1. In the meantime,

there were gathered together a numeral multitude of people insomuch they trod upon one and he began to say unto the disciples beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy that's one then Mark 8 15 over here, Mark 8, 15

and it says there and he charts them saying take heed, beware the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod. So there's their second type, the leaven of Herod there. And then the Matthew 16, 16 I'm missing it here somewhere. I apologize for that. But there were three types of leaven of herod there and then the matthew 16 16 i'm missing it here somewhere

apologize for that but there were three types of leaven that were mentioned and so if we have three measures of meal there are three types of leaven that correspond to the three measures of meal three types of corruption that uh and once again you know the scripture says yeast and leaven is corruption. Why can't we just take what the Bible says? Right. So, Dr., based on what you're saying, I can tell you that the first two leavens, one, leaven of the Pharisees, hypocrisy, false doctrines, false teachings the 11 of Herod the introduction of the the mingling of state and in church church and state the mingling together Herod

represented the state Matthew 7 15 Jesus said beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. And then in Acts 20, verse 29, Apostle Paul said, for I know this, that after my departing, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. So, both Jesus and Paul told the church, there are false teachers trying to get into the church. They are ravening wolves. What's a wolf do? It devours. It shreds. It rips apart.

So, the parable of the sower, the parable of the tares the tares the parable the mustard seed the parable of the leaven and we'll see the parable the net all these parables tell us that Jesus's kingdom on earth will not be free of mixture and impurity yes so to wrap this up what is the lump of dough? I believe it's the true church. Yes. Who is the woman? She's false Christianity. The harlot church.

The harlot church. The true church feeds the people the bread of life, but the false harlot church corrupts the food the false harlot church is rich and prosperous she's a harlot that wears gold and precious stones and pearls she drinks from a golden cup she serves her poisonous wine to the nations, and they become drunk with the wine of her fornication. Jesus' true church serves the cup of blessing, the communion cup of the blood of Christ. The harlot religious system serves a golden wine cup of fornication. Jesus serves his pure body.

The harlot serves leavened bread. So let's not look for an organization or denomination to specifically be the woman. Instead, let's look at any man or woman who teaches false doctrines that corrupt the church. And personally, I believe right now in this age, Christian Zionism is the most pervasive, destructive leaven in the church today. And it is fermenting and releasing gases in churches and ministries today. And producing alcohol. Yes. In other ages of the church history, there have been other types of leaven. But right now, in our age, the leaven is Christian Zionism.

And I think in church history, we see a pattern of cycles and waves. We can see waves of false doctrine and apostasy followed by waves of Reformation in sound doctrine and revival one last verse I'm all three minutes over second Peter chapter 2 verse 1 but there were false prophets among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily, I mean secretly, privately, shall bring in damnable heresies,

even denying the Lord that brought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. The leaven is false doctrines and the woman is the false religious system of the world the dough is the true church the false doctrines have been mixed into the dough but though as Elijah taught us the solution is not to throw the dough out it's not to pick out the toxic materials is to add more truth into the dough yes more preaching more teaching sound doctrine that's what we're doing here in morning manna we're doing our part to add more meal to the dough to counterbalance to counterbalance the 11th okay that's it for today

one verse one verse folks and we could talk another hour on this verse easily hey folks over the weekend Doc I wonder how are we going to do one hour of one verse this is a great verse because it opens up so much now it fits in with all the other parables it's not like a stand alone parable anymore

and I hope everyone I hope everyone that's watching and listening today really appreciates this approach on this particular passage because undoubtedly you've been told something completely different all your life. But when you really get into the

word and study it and let the word interpret itself, this is the revelation that you come up with. And it's not hidden false doctrines hidden in the meal this isn't hidden this is right out in the open you just need to know the word amen that's right tomorrow we'll study the parable of the treasure buried in the field and it goes right along with this so and we're going to blow away the traditional

popular beliefs. Amen. Folks, we're a little bit over time today. We're going to have to let you go. We've got to get ready for the True News broadcast today. We appreciate you. God bless you. you're listening to wwcr international shortwave radio you can find true news on frequency 12.160 from 12 p.m to 4 p.m eastern and on frequency 4.840 from 10 p.m to 2 p.m eastern connect with us on rumble facebook x and getter