TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - What Does the Holy Bible Say about Pornography?

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

Three-fourths of American teenagers have been exposed to online pornography by age 17, according to a newly released study by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit child advocacy group. Teenagers are accessing porn on their smartphones, school devices, social media, and online porn streaming websites. Fifty-eight percent of the teenagers polled in the study said they were not searching for porn the first time they saw it. Still, explicit videos or photographs appeared on social media or in search engine advertisements.Forty-one percent said they had watched porn while at school. Over half said they had watched porn videos that featured violent acts such as rape or choking. Over 50% said watching porn made them feel guilty or ashamed.Recently, a Common Sense Media report quoted a professor of community health sciences at Boston University. Dr. Emily Rothman said, "We have to be careful about saying all porn is good or bad. There is nuance here."Is there such as thing as good porn? What does the Holy Bible say about pornography?In this edition of TruNews, Jeremy Wiles joins Rick to talk about the impact pornography has on society, its effects on others, and how it dramatically impacts the user's brain. They'll discuss these things and how there is hope, through Jesus, to be set free and live a life free.Jeremy Wiles is the co-founder, along with his wife Tiana, of Soul Refiner. This online platform offers Christians top-quality courses on addictions, marriage, and family issues. Jeremy has helped over 1.5 million men break their addiction to pornography.Rick Wiles with special guest Jeremy Wiles, Co-Founder of Soul RefinerAirdate 1/20/23Addicted to porn? Start your journey to freedom - soulrefiner.com/You can partner with us by visiting TruNews.com/donate, calling 1-800-576-2116, or by mail at PO Box 690069 Vero Beach, FL 32969.The Fauci Elf is a hilarious gift guaranteed to make your friends laugh! Order yours today! https://tru.news/faucielfIt’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. You can order the second edition of Rick’s book, Final Day. https://www.rickwiles.com/final-day

You are listening to True News with Rick Wiles. We appreciate you tuning in. To find out more information regarding the broadcast, including prayer and financial support, please visit our website at www.truenews.com. Our mailing address for all correspondence is True News, P.O. Box 690069, Fairview Beach, Florida 32969. This is True News, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help us God. Three-fourths of American teenagers have been exposed to online pornography by age 17, according to a newly released study by Common Sense Media, a non-profit child advocacy group. Teenagers are accessing porn on their smartphones, on school devices, on social media, and on online porn streaming websites.

58% of the teenagers polled in the study said that they were not searching for porn the first time they saw it, but explicit videos or photographs appeared on social media or on search engine advertisements. 41% said they have watched porn while at school. Over half said that they have watched porn videos that featured violent acts such as rape or choking. Over 50% said watching porn made them feel guilty or ashamed. I read a comment in a news article about the Common Sense Media Report that quoted a professor of community health sciences at Boston University, Dr. Emily Rothman. She said, quote, we have to be careful about saying that all porn is good or bad. There is nuance here, end of quote. Well, is there such a thing as good porn?

What does the Holy Bible say about pornography? is the co-founder, along with his wife, Tiana, of Soul Refiner, an online platform that offers Christians top quality courses on addictions, marriage, and family issues. Jeremy has helped over 1.5 million men break their addiction to pornography. He's with us right now today. And Jeremy, good to have you back. What do you think about the study? What do you think about the study that three-fourths of American teenagers have seen pornography by the age 17? I'm not surprised. What should be surprising is the church doesn't know that, and we don't really have anything to help in this area of sexual integrity in the church. But, you know, if you think about it, an 11-year-old boy can see more naked women in 15 minutes than the richest king in history has seen in his entire life.

So you've got access to pornography at the touch of your finger. And here we are today in this society and we're handing out cell phones like it's candy to kids. When they come home from school, they're handed laptops, their gaming devices have access to the internet. And we're wondering why society is so screwed up and it's on the verge of collapse if it has not already collapsed, which I think it has. This is the great collapse. It's because we're feeding generation after generation access to pornography. Jeremy, one of the shocking things in that study is that nearly half of the teenagers said they watch pornography at school. And many of them said that they use school computers to watch it.

Yeah. Yep. And the schools, because I know someone who had this issue this past year, they went to the school and they said, hey, our kids are getting access to pornography here. Can't you put some type of a barrier in place, safeguard to protect the children from pornography? And they said, well, we don't want to do that because we want them to have access to information. How does a porn filter prevent children from finding facts and data about important issues? Not at all.

Well, the one comment, Jeremy, this article had this Dr. Emily Rothman. She says, we have to be careful about saying that all porn is good or bad. Is there such thing as good porn? It's like saying there's good cocaine. Porn is digital cocaine. You can't take it in any amount and say that you're living a balanced lifestyle in your consumption of porn. It's deadly. It's going to fry your brain. See, I don't understand because the scientists will say that porn is okay. Masturbation is okay, it's a natural thing that humans do, but they're looking at the brain scans of porn addicts. And so how can you look at the scan, which is data and facts, which clearly shows that their brain has areas of deactivation, and then come back to the conclusion that pornography is okay. Jeremy, what does excessive, well, I say excessive, what does consumption of pornography do physically to the brain? Well, it's highly addictive. So

very quickly, the brain starts to create trails in the brain and synapses wire together and neurons fire together and they wire together. And so over time, that area of the brain becomes deactivated where you go back down this path over and over again. So the brain basically has superhighways, right? And the more you access a particular thought, the thicker and the better road that you carve through your brain. And so as you go back to pornography over and over again, you create an addiction, and an addiction has a visible fingerprint to it. You can see what an addiction looks like inside the human brain. And eventually it leads to every malady that you can imagine in that person's life. And the scripture is very clear in what happens. Sin leads to death. And it may not be a physical death, but it can be a death of your marriage, your relationships, your job, many things.

So you're saying that repeated exposure to pornography literally creates a physical deformity in the brain. It creates trails in the brain. Absolutely. I went to this guy, scientist in Dallas, Texas, and he showed me the brain scans. He had this big laboratory. He showed me the brain scans of a cocaine addict, a healthy brain, and a porn brain. And the cocaine brain and the porn brain were nearly identical. Nearly identical.

You couldn't tell the difference between the two. And it has major areas of deactivation in the prefrontal cortex, which is the front part of your brain. That's what regulates good moral decisions. So if that part of your brain isn't working because it's become deactivated from the use of pornography, you start to make stupid decisions in life. Porn literally makes you dumb.

Okay, so the Bible would say that the conscience is seared. That's right. So you're saying that there is a part of your brain that we use to make decisions and viewing pornography actually deactivates that part of your brain? It sears that part of your brain. And that part of your brain is used for executive function, right? It's the prefrontal cortex. And so that's the part of your brain that's not really fully developed until you're about the age of 25. And that's why you

can't rent a car until you're 26, because the accident rate for a 25 and younger person is much higher than a person who has a fully developed prefrontal cortex. So it's also the reason that you shouldn't be giving cell phones to kids because they don't have the physical wiring in that part of their brain to make good decisions. I mean, they'd live off a candy diet if they could, right? Give them candy, they'll eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That part of the brain does not make good decisions yet. And so it's through the study of scripture and life experiences that that part of the brain begins to build good neural pathways. But if you're growing up in pornography, in sexual

acting out, that part of your brain basically goes offline. You have very little good executive reasoning at that point, good moral decisions. So what starts off as a bad moral decision to watch pornography now becomes a brain problem. And you got to get your brain renewed. So you could have a man in his 30s, 40s, 50s who has become a porn addict. Let's say he's a business executive, a manager, a professor,

a doctor, whatever profession. But because he's a secret porn addict, the effects of the pornography addiction actually spills over into his profession and he starts making bad decisions? Is that what you're saying? Maybe not bad decisions in business, but bad decisions in every other aspect of their life. Their wife becomes the,

kind of the casualty of war in their life. Their wife becomes the kind of the casualty of war in their life. And so if you were to take that brain and get it healthy, the amount of creativity and success that can come from that is massive. But they often see this as a thing that they do on the side. It's their own private secret sin. And it's just between them and themselves. And it's not going to hurt anyone because no one knows about it. But it does. It hurts everyone, including your wife and your family. All right, your office, your team, you obviously can't give, I don't want you to give uh personal details names but

you deal with men every day all over all over america and many other countries what are some of the uh real true life stories the damage that porn has done what have you seen like just guys that you would look at them and you think they're great, they're family men, they're going to church, they got a good business, they got a good career, but something goes wrong in their life and they lose their family, they lose their job. What are you seeing? Half the time, if not more, probably 70% of the time, when we see guys come to us and say, hey, I need help with this area, I actually say it's quite more than 70%, most of those guys have gotten caught. And their wife has been gracious enough to say, hey, look,

if you don't deal with this, I'm out of here. And so they're being scared into this decision to deal with it. And that's a good thing. If that's what it takes, fine, right? But I've seen marriages make it. I've seen marriages not make it. Many of them don't make it unless the guy's really willing to get help. I've got a guy in our office who he made the right decision, which was, hey, this is a serious issue in my life and I need help with it. He was living an unfaithful life and was with his affair partner and her husband showed up with a gun and ended up killing two people in the house that he was at, tried to kill him. And, um, he had left there and they caught the guy. And, uh, so, I mean, that, that's a situation where it actually led to

murder, but he, he finally found what freedom looks like. He got into a conker Group in his church. And there's another guy here that he was led very deceptively to, I don't know how to phrase it. It's basically, he was exposing himself online to someone who had come to him and enticed him. And it led to sexual exploitation where that person was not a female, ended up being a male that he did not know, and they held the video and the pictures and then used it against him as a bribe. And so, unfortunately, that came out and he got exposed. And God was gracious enough to allow him to be exposed because it's led to his freedom. And I think if you'd ask him today, he'd say, I'm glad it happened because he was going down a path in his life that was hellish, really.

Yeah, so Jeremy, guys, they started looking secretly at pornography and not, and I'm talking about Christian men, not realizing or denying what they already know is the truth, that Satan has laid a trap for them. And it could be years later until Satan pulls that trap and has them. And suddenly they can't get out and they lose their wife and their children,

their home, their job, they lose everything. And they're out on the street and it's all over a sexual addiction that they did not deal with. And they could have reversed it had they just confronted it. So there's no shame in a man saying, I have this addiction. And you've got to overcome that shame factor, don't you? A lot of guys who want help don't ask for help because there's a shame factor. There's a shame factor, but keep in mind, Satan wants you addicted. His strategy is basically to bring you idols in your life for you to worship. Instead of worshiping the creator, he wants you to worship these idols like pornography. So he leads men into thinking that there's comfort in these things. But look what Jesus did with the

woman who touched the hem of his garment. He said immediately to his disciples, hey, someone touched me, right? We know that this woman had been bleeding for a long time. She was kind of an outcast in her neighborhood, in her village. And there's this big crowd around Jesus. And he stops and says, hey, someone touched me. And his disciples say, Jesus, there's a lot of people around you. There's a lot of people touching you. He said, no, I felt power come out from me. Someone touched me.

He knew who touched him. He's not asking for information. He knew exactly who did it. But what he was doing is he was calling the courage out of this woman. Come forth, tell me what's wrong. I can heal you. And finally, she admits to what's going wrong, that she's been bleeding.

And she said that as soon as she touched him, she stopped. And so that's dealing with the shame. And think of it, Dad, you got this lady who is ritually unclean touching a man, a holy man, who could potentially make him unclean. And of course, you can't make Jesus unclean. And she had the faith to touch him. But she had the courage to come out and admit what was going on. And he was drawing that courage out of her. That's what he's doing to men.

You've got to come forward and admit. And he immediately reordered her thinking because he called her daughter. Daughter, yeah. Yeah, he immediately, he embraced her and said daughter. He reformed her identity. Yes, that's good.

We're going to talk about what the Bible says about pornography. And by the way, if you're watching us on the Word Network, this interview will continue after it goes off the Word Network and you can watch the second half of the interview at truenews.com. And we're very glad to be back on the Word Network. So, Jeremy, also before we get into the Bible discussion, several states are taking action to make it more difficult for teenagers to get access to porn. One state, Louisiana, has already passed a law. It's in effect right now. And this is from WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

And the headline says, watching porn now requires age verification in Louisiana because of new law. And then in Arkansas, this is Arkansas Times, the headline is, a new bill would force Arkansas adults And then in Arkansas, this is Arkansas Times, the headline is, new bill would force Arkansas adults to verify age with digital ID to view porn. So one state has already taken action.

Another state, Arkansas, getting ready to take action. What do you think about these states passing these identification laws? Well, it's about time. I mean, it's a step in the right direction. But we need Washington to ban porn outright. You don't have – their logic is, well, you should have the freedom to do what you want. If you think that our freedom is by watching porn, then we're totally lost. We're a decrepit nation.

And so they don't want to ban porn. And think about where is the highest consumption of pornography in the nation? It's Washington, D.C. That's where more porn is consumed in Washington, D.C. per capita than any place in the entire country. And then outside of that, the Bible Belt. So the Bible Belt's totally addicted and Washington, D.C. leads the way. But we can ban pornography. That's totally doable.

And you do it through the internet service providers. They're the gateway to the internet. And if you crack down on the service providers by making them filter it or at least giving families the option so when the isp comes to your house and they come to plug in your internet and they gave you a contract imagine this they give you a contract that says do you want us to allow pornography to enter your home? Check yes or no. That's it. Problem fixed. I mean, if the house checks yes, then you got it. If the house says no, you shouldn't have access to pornography. Go back 40, 50 years, 50, 60 years. I mean, there was an outright ban on pornography

in certain places. You couldn't even talk about this stuff openly. And, you know, you had magazines that are covered up in stores, and now two clicks and you're on a porn website. It's crazy. Well, hopefully people in their home states will contact their state legislators and the governor and say, hey, we want this type of a law in our state also. Until we get an outright national ban, the least we can do is get states to require that the users of porn must prove that they're adults. That would at least make it very difficult for children and teenagers to get access to porn. Jeremy, I want to talk about, our topic is the Bible. What does the Bible say about pornography? I want to start with 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body,

but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. What does that mean, son? You're sinning against your brain. So it's not just that if you sin sexually, you're catching STDs. That's sinning against your brain. So it's not just that if you sin sexually, you're catching STDs, that's sinning against your body. But really what it's referring to is you're sinning against your brain. You're creating neural pathways in your brain that lead to addiction. So here you're heading down a path in life that's really, really ugly. And a lot of times these guys are, and women as well now, they're setting themselves up for destruction at 10, 12, 13 years old. And they're sinning against their brain and they're creating a brain structure that is going to lead to a lot of trouble and heartache in life, not just in relationships and in their own body,

but in every facet of life, how they handle stress and how they deal with their kids and how they handle issues at work. Like you're totally in a bad position. Yeah, so 1 Corinthians 6, 18, obviously includes any sexual immorality such as adultery, fornication, anything like that, where it's physical contact with someone. But you're saying it also, when the Bible says sexual immorality is a sin against your own body, pornography is a sin against your brain. Sin against your brain.

Exactly. You're polluting your brain. Sin against your brain. Exactly. You're polluting your brain with sinful images. Next one, Galatians chapter five, verse 19. Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness. Jeremy, several months ago, I don't recall what the program was. Doc and I, we mentioned pornography addiction among Christians. And we actually got a flurry of emails from men who said, hey, Rick, get off my back. I'm a Christian.

Don't judge me. I watch porn and you're not going to tell me I'm not a Christian. What is your reaction when you hear something like that? And at first I thought this can't be real. I actually thought it was a joke, but then there were more than one email, but that message came in.

Then I realized there's a problem out there. There's a problem. If there's more than one email, there's a problem. What do you think of men talking like that? If you really want to get someone worked up, take away their idol. Because this is the thing that they go to, to help themselves medicate the pain of life, right? They find this little idol early on. Most of the time, it's early on in life, and they just keep this little idol with them, and they can access it anytime they want.

Your brain is like an internal pharmacy, and it's open 24-7. So if you can access dopamine and other neurochemicals to make yourself feel good, that becomes an addiction. But you have to go and look at what does the scripture say? It's very clear. I mean, have you opened up your Bible? The first major recorded sermon that Jesus gave, he addressed sexual immorality. It's a Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five. And most people don't know this, but he actually addressed masturbation.

Did you know that one? No. He addressed masturbation, in my opinion, he addressed it in the Sermon on the Mount. It's Matthew five, I think verse 27, where he says, you shall not commit adultery. And he says, anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in their heart. Then he goes on to say, if your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away.

And then a verse or so later, he says, and if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. There you go. What's he talking about when he says the eyes? He's talking about lust. What's he talking about when he says the hand? Jerry, that's a good point. I've never heard that before. We're going to take a break.

And again, if you're watching on the Word Network to see the rest of the interview, you have to go to truenews.com. What we're going to show you is a promo from soulrefiner.com. And if your church, if you're a pastor, get in touch with Soul Refiner. If you're an individual, go to that website and watch the courses. We'll be back in a few minutes. I was a rageaholic, I was an alcoholic, and I was a sex addict. You have to understand the addictive dynamics that you're fighting. You'll renew the structure of your mind.

The Conquer series is the most successful small group series ever made. And we're just getting started. We spent the past seven years working on something that will totally transform the church. Wounded and broken people are flooding our pews, enslaved to addictions. Marriages, families, lives are falling apart. So we decided to come alongside the church and do something about it. It's called Soul Refiner.

We're putting something big in small groups. Hey! You have been prisoners long enough. How much longer are you gonna let those chains bind you? This is a turnkey ministry for your church, a powerful tool to help people deal with life's deepest struggles. Soulrefiner.com is a website where you or your church

can stream cinematic small group videos that focus on lifelong healing and freedom. We're not going for short-term band-aid stuff. We're going for permanent leadership. We've gathered the top Christian teachers and experts and created original content to provide answers and solutions to the tough and messy issues of life. Sometimes we bring some things into our families

that maybe shouldn't be there. I had to face it. I had to do the hard stuff today. I can teach you all kinds of parenting techniques, but the key is you need to be a healthy person. Let's make church the place where you heal from whatever life throws at you. No fluff, no cheese.

Jesus didn't die on the cross to give us the ability to cope. He died on the cross to give us the ability to conquer. He died on the cross to give us the ability to conquer. Grace covers our sins, but it doesn't take away our problems. Soulrefiner.com is more than a website where you can stream cinematic small group series on inner healing. It's a platform for you to safely and easily create, manage, and lead groups.

Learn together, hold each other accountable, track progress, and experience true discipleship anywhere, anytime, on any device. The essence of Soul Refinery is sanctification. It's to disciple men, women, and children to become conquerors, overcomers, and leaders in Christ. Transformation happens by the renewing of the mind. If you want God to do something new,

you have to have a different approach. We hope you'll join us. Let's bring healing to the broken and freedom to the captives. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed! Sign up at soulrefiner.com, where true transformation begins in the refiner's fire. I'm talking with my son, Jeremy Wiles, and Jeremy and his wife, our daughter-in-law, Tiana, are the co-founders of SoulRefiner.com. And they are impacting millions of people around the world. As I said in the beginning of the program, over 1.5 million men have already gone through the Conquer series, which is the foundational program that's on Soul Refinery. It's the first course that Jeremy and Tiana produced.

But Jeremy, you're beyond the Conquer series now. You have a growing library of video courses well-produced that are on Soul Refiner. Yeah, we've got quite a few more that we've come out with since then. Marriage series, a series, an advanced series beyond the Conquer series called Warpath for men on sexual integrity, a parenting series called Legacy, and we're constantly producing new content all the time. Yeah. And there's one coming. Well,

actually two. You've got two movies coming. I've been waiting for it because I've seen some of the footage, and it is spectacular, especially the one that was recorded in Ireland. And what is that one going to be? That's called From the Ashes. It's a series for women who've faced the pain of betrayal. And the story is about a woman who was sentenced for a crime she didn't commit. And she's taken off to this 500-year-old prison in Ireland that we got to shoot at and put behind bars. And, yeah, it's a feature film as well so we're going

to use it as a course in a feature film but you had just awesome actors and actresses in that film and uh then also uh uh happily even after is another film you just just weeks ago, you released the Marriage Toolkit, the Marriage Toolbox. Tell us about this new product. Yeah, we've been working on that for about a year. It's a toolkit, comes in a metal vintage-looking toolbox, and it's packed with all these fun and activities and games. And it's designed to build intimacy but to grow connection. But it's got 14 Bible-based tools packed into a single metal vintage toolbox, really designed to draw you and your partner closer together.

Well, you know, Valentine's Day is coming up in a few weeks. And I think a lot of guys watching me right now, you'd surprise your wife if you bought a marriage toolbox and presented it to her on Valentine's Day. What do you think, Jerry? What do you think about that? I think it's a great idea. We actually got a 20% off coupon for True News listeners. We do? Yeah. If you use the coupon TRUENEWS, it gets you 20% off coupon for True News listeners. We do? Yeah, if you use the coupon TRUENEWS, it gets you 20% off. Hey, thank you. I appreciate that.

All right, so they go to soulrefiner.com. Just go to, yeah, you can go to soulrefiner.com or marriagetoolkit.com. Oh, you got a separate website on it, marriagetoolkit.com? Yeah, it's on both websites. Okay, and they can enter the promo code. The promo code is TRUE NEWS and they get 20% off their order. Good? That's it. Hey, that's good. It's a good Valentine's Day gift. So if you're a wife, you could buy one

for your husband. If you're a husband, buy one for your wife. You're buying it for yourselves as a couple. And what's another bouquet of roses or another box of chocolate you're going to do on Valentine's Day? I know, right? It's the same thing every year. Right. So the marriage toolkit would be something totally different. We've made it a lot of fun. It comes packed with like, it's very rich in brain science, but we've got a lot of biblical exercises and card games and devotionals. And I think there's four or five books in there.

So it's really good value for price. Good, good. And I appreciate the 20% discount for the True News audience. Okay, let's get back to the discussion of what does the Bible say about pornography? Because I've had people, as I said in the first part of the show, I actually had people argue with me and say, it's not in the Bible. It's not there.

You're meddling in things that none of your business. As you said, you know, if you touch somebody's idol, you'll get that reaction out of them. So the next scripture is, this is, let's see. First Peter, second verse 11. First Peter, chapter two, verse 11. Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.

Jeremy, explain to us how pornography fits in with that scripture. Well, you're warring against your own brain and your thinking and, you know, your own soul. And so think of the destruction that it does to who you are in your identity in Christ. So what men have done is they have objectified women. And here you have, you know, you're married to this woman her, if she's God's daughter and you're married to his daughter, then he's your father-in-law. So here you are treating her father-in-law in a very objectified and degrading manner by breaking this contract that you've made with her by lusting after another woman. And it's breaking the contract

because Jesus made it very clear that he said, look, it's not just lust, it's adultery. I think you mentioned God as father-in-law. I think a lot of Christian married couples forget that not only is God the father of the husband, but he's the father of the wife, and that makes him father-in-law of both. That's it. Right. So wives, when you're criticizing, when you're complaining about your husband, you're trash-talking God's son. And men, when you're trash-talking God's son.

And men, when you're trash-talking your wife, you're trash-talking God's daughter. He's the father-in-law and the father. The only being in the universe. He's father and father-in-law of both people in a marriage. And I think people tend to forget, oh, he loves the other partner just as much as he loves you.

That's right. And be careful of the criticism that you're telling him about your partner because, hey, you're talking about his son or his daughter. But as you say, if one partner is lusting after somebody else, they are violating the contract, the covenant that they made with Almighty God.

And that's the sin that's in it. You know, Jeremy, sexual sin is, to the best of my knowledge, is the only sin that comes with a death penalty. Yeah. There are several scriptures that says that sexual sin leads to death. That's right. Yep.

And I don't know if people grasp how serious it is that eventually you will die. And that is spiritually death and it may not just be... Spiritually death, and it may be physical death. Sometimes we say, I wonder why that young Christian guy died so young in life. That's a big surprise. What we don't know is what he was doing in secret.

And it can be the reverse for a woman. What happened to him? He got sick and died so young. And what we don't know is the secret life that they're living. But it also will bring death to your soul. I know that there are people out there who believe once saved, always saved. You can commit any sin and you'll never lose your salvation. I don't see that. I don't see that. I don't live day to day thinking I'm going to lose my salvation, but I also am not arrogant thinking I can do anything I want and I'll never lose my salvation.

I think that's very arrogant. If you go and look at James 1, chapter 1, I think verse 14 says, but each person is tempted when they're dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. If you look at that there, that's a baited hook. God says, look, don't go here or you're going to get hooked. Then it goes on to say, then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. So now you're trapped in sin and it becomes this pre-programmed pattern in your brain. You're hooked, right? Then it goes on to say in sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. There you go.

Now the person hooked on porn is they're doing things that are contrary to their beliefs. Things around him are starting to die. His marriage, relationship, children, family, church. He loses his job. He goes to jail, right? The list goes on. It's not just a physical death. Things die because of this sin. So sin will take you further than you want to go and make you pay more than you want to pay. You may not die physically. Some will, like Alfred Kinsey. He was a child molesting pervert who died a horrific death of, I can't remember the scientific term for it, but he was basically the father of the sexual revolution who made this stuff so rampant in our nation in terms of pornography and our sexual natural feelings, as though he had to say. But he died of a disease to the testicles because that's all he did all

day, you know, messing with himself. Yeah, well, I mean, while you were talking about Kenzie, I was thinking about Herod the Great. And he had a horrible death. And he had maggots, he had worms in his testicle. Yeah. That's a nasty way to go. That's a pretty bad way to go. That's the truth about Herod. He lived a horrible life and he paid for it. I want to put James chapter 1, 14 and 15 back

up on the screen because there's a lot in there. So when one is tempted, okay, so there is no sin in the temptation. Because you're tempted does not mean you have sinned. Now what Satan wants you to believe is because he was able to tempt you, he brought temptation to you that you are automatically sinful. No, he's tempting you to sin. So it says when one is tempted, tempted by the devil, tempted by the evil spirits, when he is drawn away by his own lust. Okay. You're not going to be drawn away from God, um, without your participation in it. So the temptation comes first, but Satan is only able to draw you away from God's presence because he uses your own lust. Then you're enticed by the temptation, but you have the lust. That's what Satan's working with. It's not the temptation.

He has to grab hold of the lust that's in your heart to make the temptation work. Then it says, then the lust, and that's the lust that's in your heart, when it has conceived, meaning it bears fruit, it produces something. What does it produce? Now you've got the sin. So first the temptation, you give into the temptation because you have lust in your heart for that temptation, then you're enticed, then the lust that's in your heart, it conceives and it produces sin. And then the sin, after it grows up, produces death. That's the death cycle, Jeremy. That's it. That's the death cycle, Jeremy. That's it. That's the death cycle.

And that's the death cycle for not just sexual sin, but for sin, for sin altogether. I mean, God did not design us to die. First came sin, then death, right? Yes. So, I mean, death entered the world through sin, and it hasn't stopped. We keep sinning and things keep dying.

Yes. Jeremy, when I was a kid in elementary school, I was like maybe fifth, sixth grade, fourth, fifth, sixth grade. I'd come home from school and I, back then, this is like, we're talking early 60s, okay? And the TV shows that were popular with boys were Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, shows like that, right? And a lot of boys wanted to grow up and be Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, shows like that, right?

And a lot of boys wanted to grow up and be Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett. And these were Disney produced shows, back when Disney wasn't controlled by sex perverts, and they actually produced nice, clean shows that were wholesome for children to watch. And so it was normal for was, you know, it was normal for boys to, you know, want to be Roy Rogers or Davy Crockett or, you know, Daniel Boone, whatever. And so when I, as a, you know, elementary

school kid, I'd come home fourth, fifth, sixth grade, and I would get my, my granddad's traps. So Papin, you know, he's where his garage was at. And in his garage, he had these old traps. I mean, these were old. I don't even know. They probably came from the 1800s. They were old

back then. They were old. And I would take these traps out into the farm fields. And in my mind, you know, I'm Davy Crockett and I'm laying these traps. I'm going to catch a bear. One of these days I'm going to come home from school. There's going to be a bear in one of these traps, you know.

And I couldn't wait. I couldn't wait to get off the school bus and run back into the fields and check all my traps to see what I caught, you know? The one thing I learned out of that is you just don't throw traps anywhere. You know, you just don't lay traps anywhere in the field, okay? You know what you do? You look for footprints. You put the trap where the animal's footprints appear. So when men say, when they get caught in sexual assault,

they go, well, the devil trapped me. I'm really not guilty. The devil trapped me. Well, you're guilty. Well, the reply is, he put the trap where he saw your footprints. If you get caught coming out of a massage parlor, it's because you've been going around that massage parlor a lot.

Your footprints were all around it. You know, if you got caught at a strip bar, it's because your footprints were there. If you get caught at pornography, you've got footprints there. Don't blame it on the devil saying he trapped me. He laid a trap for me. He put the trap where you were going.

You were enticed by your lust. It's the lust that he, that's, his entrapment required the presence of your lust. I'll tell you something else Satan does is in 1 Peter 5, he says, your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. And so he's, if you think of how does a lion hunt a buffalo, what they typically do, they don't look for the strongest, most fierce buffalo in the herd.

They look for the wounded buffalo. They're going after the weak one, the one who's been wounded. And Satan knows these strategies. He's looking for the one who's wounded and wounds weaken us. They limit us. And so what happens is at a very young age, a lot of times these men are being wounded in their identity and Satan is exploiting that. And he's then enticing them with this poison of pornography or sexual acting out. And so he's watching our footsteps. He's watching where we go, the things that we do. But he's also saying, look, I know what happened, and I've got a way for you to medicate that. I'll help you feel good. Just drink a little little bit of this and you're going to feel good. And they start to rely on this thing. It becomes this intoxicating drink

that they go back to because it washes their brain with dopamine and they get hooked on it. And Satan knows psychology. I think he's a master psychologist. So if you were treated worthless, you'll believe you're worthless. And when you feel worthless, you'll behave worthless. And that's what the power of Jesus was. He didn't come to transform our behavior. He came to transform our heart. It's not about behavior modification, but heart transformation. And he did that by dealing with the wounds. I came to heal the brokenhearted and set the captives free. I think he did it in that order. I think he didn't say, I came to set the captives free and heal the brokenhearted.

Maybe I'm looking too far into it, but I think that he heals those broken areas of someone's life and he forms their identity in him, and that brings freedom. But it comes from the healing that God can provide and the deepest wounds that we might have in our lives. And that's so crucial to that whole process of helping people get free from addiction is it's often driven by a sense of worthlessness, wounds from the past, and Satan dangles a baited hook. He says, look, I'm going to entice you with this. This is going to make you feel good. He leads you down a path that's of death. Isaiah said Jesus was wounded for our transgressions,

bruised for our iniquities. What I hear you saying, Jeremy, is that a man could be in his 30s or 40s, any age, adulthood, and he's become addicted. It doesn't have to be porn. It could be liquor. It could be pursuing money, just a lust for wealth. He's addicted to something. And what you're saying is that that behavior is the medication for a deep wound that may go back to when that boy was eight, nine, 10 years old, could be younger, four or five years old. And they were traumatized. They were wounded.

Many times Satan made sure that that child was wounded. Satan is going after the children when they're little. Yes. Maybe through an adult molesting them or a divorce or something. Some tragedy happens in that child's life. They're little children. They're just innocent little boys and girls. And Satan wounds them. And he traumatizes them. And they can't process what's going on.

And their innocent little minds suppress the pain, the agony, the trauma, the shock, and they suppress it deep down in them. And then they grow up and they don't even remember the trauma, but their subconscious mind remembers it. Is that what's happening, son? Is that what's going on in people that they're 30, 40 years old and they're acting out all kinds of wrong behavior, but it's actually them trying to vomit up this pain that's in them. Most of the time, the guys that I've worked with, they don't even know the trauma that they have.

They have no idea. Look, man, I got a problem with porn. I don't have a problem with my past. I say, look, no, you're acting out of your past. When you go to pornography, you're acting out of your past. When you go to pornography, you're doing it because there's sin in you. We're not denying that there's not a sin problem here, but you're medicating something. I don't have any problems. I don't have any hurts in my past. And then you start peeling this onion back and you find out that there is stuff there. And it's not always in the form of this big T trauma.

It can be small trauma too, life of neglect and degrading and other sorts of things. But there's often a lot of abuse and neglect and sexual abuse. So what happens is at that time, that trauma, which becomes PTSD, it gets wedged deep down into the limbic part of the brain. And that's your survival brain. It's your fight or flight response. And your survival brain is the most powerful part of your brain. And so if your prefrontal cortex doesn't have

the strength, which remember, your cortex is where you make good moral decisions. If it doesn't have the strength to calm the limbic brain, in times of stress, the limbic brain's firing. It's going to say, hey, go back to that medicine that made you feel good when you were 17 years old. It doesn't give you that exact sense, but you know what I mean. Hey, this is the thing that you've gotten used to to make you feel good. And so you go to that and you medicate with it. It doesn't mean, hey, I'm thinking back to what happened to me when I was 12 and I need to go medicate. No, the thing that happened to

you at 12 was horrible and you found a way to survive, to heal that part of your, not to heal, but to leave that part of your brain that's on fire, which is your limbic brain, and you found pornography or masturbation. And that just becomes a way that you deal with pain the rest of your life, unless you do something about it. Jeremy, we've got about two minutes remaining. I want to talk about triggers. So, as you said, it doesn't always have to be a severe physical trauma, whether it's molestation or divorce or a death in the family, something like that, that traumatized the child. It could be the child had a negative, domineering, critical parent who just spoke constant condemnation, criticism, rejection of the child. There was never any physical abuse, never a divorce, anything like that. But maybe one or both parents

were just very negative, very critical of that child throughout his or her life. And then when they're adults, they've got this sense of worthlessness. And does that play into where people are acting out, whether it's alcoholism or drug addiction or pornography addiction, where they're acting out of a sense of worthlessness? Yeah. And it's not just what a parent might say. It can also be what a parent doesn't say. Because you think of what a father does. He gives, father gives love, acceptance, worth, intimacy. You know, God comes to heal those father wounds

that so many people often have. But then on the other side of it, you have fathers that don't even exist. And so what's the message that gives to a child? Hey, you know, something must be wrong with me. Dad wasn't even around. Or he was there, but he wasn't really home. You know, he was sitting there, but he wasn't there. So they download that. Your limbic brain is growing for many years. And that first six, seven years of your life, it's like wet cement. Whatever you push into that, it's going to harden and that becomes your operating system, your template for the rest of your life unless you get into a place that can heal. And so most of the time, what I'm seeing,

like 90 plus percent of the time, you've got guys that have got deep issues stemming back from their family of origin. But what we're seeing today are young people just getting addicted. They've got a semi-healthy home, right? But they're getting addicted because they're stumbling into pornography. It's accessed right on their phone, their iPad, whatever device. They have easy access to it. So it's not always wounds. Most of the time it is. But I think this new generation is probably

the most addicted we've ever seen in the world so far. And we have a society that's deliberately, consciously addicting them. They want them addicted because there's money in it and there's control and domination. One last question. I mentioned triggers. Explain what an emotional trigger is and how people can be provoked to do something and they don't even know why they just started doing something or saying something. What is an emotional trigger? Well, an emotional trigger is something that typically activates something that has imprinted inside of you from the past. And I'm trying to think of a good example, but emotional trigger is really a hot button that you might have that maybe your spouse has said something specifically that man you'd say that thing and it just that sets me off and she knows okay that's his hot button that's his emotional triggers it could be just a roll of the eyes it could be a scornful

look it could be anything that triggers an emotional reaction. Yeah, it could just be a phrase. Like, you know, you act like your mother. Ooh, say that one once. Yeah, these are triggers, you know. Okay, I want to go back to just for the sake of the

people watching who are interested in Soul Refiner and the Conquer series. So if you're an individual guy and you want to get in the Conquer series program, you can do it as an individual, but you can also participate in a church group or any group that has formed. Jeremy, on any given day, how many groups do you have operating in the world? Thousands. Thousands? Over a hundred nations, yeah.

And we've got over a thousand men on a waiting list right now too. You know, we're filling them as fast as we can, getting them into groups, but there are tens of thousands of groups. You actually need group leaders, don't you? That's our biggest need, yeah. So if there are men watching right now

and you have a passion in your heart to help men deal with this problem, you could become a group leader. You ought to contact Soul Refiner and volunteer to be a group leader and get a group going in your community. If your local church won't sponsor it, just start it yourself.

Let this be your ministry and get it going. So Jeremy, if there are pastors, I know there are pastors watching and they have to, a lot of pastors don't want to admit that they have a porn problem in their church because they think that reflects poorly on their leadership.

But every church has porn addicts and it's hidden, it's kept quiet. Sometimes the pastor is the porn addict. So what can pastors do to begin a Conquer series course in their church? Well, there was a study that came out in 2009, 56% of pastors admitted that they were struggling with pornography. So it's a big problem. To get a Conquer series started, it's as simple as signing up on Soul Refiner. And if you can get a guy in

your church or you want to lead the group, we've made it super easy. Walk through 10 episodes. It's got a study guide, a printed or an online version. And we walk through basically the battle plan for purity. This is what it looks like. This is how you deal with this trash from your past. This is how you heal from it and find freedom. Excellent. So they go to soulrefiner.com and they can contact you through soulrefiner.com. They can. And if they need to get into a group, we can help them with that as well.

Okay. One last thing, the marriage toolkit. And it's a great, there it is right there. That's awesome looking, Jeremy. Thank you. Fantastic. And again, that will make a great Valentine's Day gift coming up in just a few weeks.

Why buy flowers and chocolate? All you're going to do is eat the chocolate and throw the flowers in the trash can. The marriage toolkit will last for many, many years. And it will impact your marriage. So surprise your spouse on Valentine's Day with a marriage toolkit. And Jeremy made an offer for True News fans.

If you enter in True News as a promo code, he will give you 20% off on your order. That's very nice. And we're giving a portion of those sales to support True News as well. Oh, that's even nicer. Thank you. Thank you, son.

I appreciate that. Appreciate that. I think you're going to get a lot of people who are going to respond to that. Well, so I am very proud of you. You know that. I am very proud of you. You and Tiana have done something awesome,

and you're changing lives, and it's very rewarding. The two greatest things I've done in my life, I've made a lot of mistakes, but the two greatest things I did was produce a daughter and a son who grew up and become champions for the Lord. And that's my legacy. That's my legacy. I'm very proud of you, son.

We want to talk about your mistakes sometime on here as well. No, we're not. No, we're not. We're not going to do that. Not going to do that? No. Not today.

Maybe tomorrow, but not today. All right. That's it for today's True News. Love you very much. We'll see you tomorrow. You have been listening to True News with Rick Wiles. Thank you for listening. To find out more information

regarding the broadcast, including prayer and financial support, please visit our website at www.truenews.com. Our mailing address for all correspondence is True News, PO Box 690069, Vero Beach, Florida 32969.