Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 207 | Why Big Tech Can't Stop Us, the Christian Role in Fighting Tyranny & Conservative Humanism

Episode Date: January 13, 2021

Phil refuses to bow to any man and offers a timely reminder that God's Word can't be stopped by the forces of evil. Jase addresses the Christian role in battling tyranny. Al has a strong message for the tech oligarchs: We're unstoppable. Zach sees godly men and women forgetting the foundation of what God did for us and discusses why our faith isn't built on nationalism or socialism. The guys approach conspiracy theories from a biblical perspective. And Jase proposes a new political party. - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Today, so we got Zach. He's zooming in from North Carolina. No, you can only see half of his head. I know what that is. It's a duck. So I guess today we're going to talk about the difference in physical and spiritual, because I have that same duck in my head. But you can't see it. And I got it all might. There's a big. There's a big. difference in in and on zach's beard's looking looking full too like mine you kind of it's coming in are you putting just from in and that or you still aren't graying yet i've got no it's all natural well i got to ask you what was the decor designer's thought was were you trying to get the state of north

carolina over your left shoulder on the wall brick is that a was that an attempt that's a piece of of 120 year old plaster that's left on the brick wall the rest of us it's it's okay well I feel better because I was gonna say North Carolina doesn't look that way unless you've got it you need to turn it Zach's like in a so our restoration office there's like a historical building like it's been there for how long is that like 200 years or something yeah it's old I don't know it's well ever yeah in 1800s late 1800s it's it's cool when you walk in there because there's like these it's upstairs and it just looks like

on you know there's a little offices there just but it's kind of it's really a cool I don't know what you call it was an old boarding house back in the day right looks like a hotel that's what I thought like an old hotel yeah is what it reminded me of well are we in trouble I mean I feel like when you show up though you may have the pulse of unashamed nation have we have you are you cleaning up our messes Zach is the one Zach and the crew in North Carolina are the ones that get most of your feedback you know Some of it gets to us, but a lot of you guys are when you get it. So we're always... No, it's all being good.

We thought we might have messed up on that, the Capitol episode. I actually think that that episode did very well, because I think people are looking for an answer, and you're not going to find the answer in this political turmoil. I mean, the answer is Jesus. I mean, so I think what you got, I listened to the podcast. I thought it was great. And I think it's time, such a time as this.

Just a little tune up on it, the final word on it, I guess. Maybe not. This may be the first apostle fall. Phil's been thinking about this. Yeah, I have. Second Timothy chapter two. An apostle is training a young evangelist in one of the things he told him, Timothy. You then, my son, be strong in the grace that's in Christ Jesus.

And the things you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier in the kingdom of God gets involved in civilian affairs he wants to please his commanding officer. Our commanding officer is neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden. They're not our commanding officer. Now, I like this.

Similarly, if anyone competes at an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules, kingdom rules, godly rules. The hardworking farmers should be first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I'm saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this. Remember, and here's where we are. as we operate on planet earth as the kingdom within a constitutional republic. Our socialist country, our communist country, it doesn't make any difference. We operate the same.

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel. Now, listen, for which I'm suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. It's worse than censorship. Always sick of hearing them try to shut them up. Everybody needs to remember something. Therefore, why, and do everything for the sake of luck? But God's word is not chained.

They can't stop it. They've been trying to stop it, the forces of evil, for 2,000 years to no avail. The kingdom still marches forward, whether it's the brothers in China, the ones in North Korea, Venezuela, wherever we are, U.S., I mean, they're trying to compare, you know, we're going to burn the White House down. Well, the White House represents a constitutional republic. That's a far cry from old King George over there.

If it was his house, okay, burn it down. But our house, no. that's my take i'm glad look i'm glad you said that because look every store that i've been in in gas station in the last two or three days i have heard because i guess a lot of people listen to that podcast now there were some that said hey you know jesus is lower 2021 i thought okay but there were far more that were like now now what are you saying because then they would give me this conspiracy theory about what's fixed to happen and the tyranny and they were talking that's why they were at the gas station you know loading up and I said well

where did where did you hear this from and you know what the number one answer was Facebook Facebook I said well let me tell you where where do you find in the word of God where Jesus Christ said if you don't like the way the government's running burn it down Revolved and burn it down. I don't find that text in the Bible. That's right. I tell you what you do find in the Bible is this prophecy from Isaiah or a word that the Lord gave to Isaiah and Isaiah 8. Listen to this.

For thus the Lord spoke to me with a mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people saying, you are not to say it's a conspiracy in regard that all this people cause a conspiracy. and you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the Lord of a host whom you should regard as holy, and he shall be your fear, and he shall be your dread, and then he will become your sanctuary. I'm not going to. Amen to that.

That's what we're saying. What was that? Isaiah 8, and I know that it's not popular right now because there's an obsession with being a patriot, but first and foremost, I'm a member of the kingdom of God, and this is not what we're. we're talking about right here is not a popular message right now, but I believe it is a message from God for such a time as this. I'm glad you guys are talking like this.

Well, look, Zach, it's hard not to when I get a text from people that I've known for 30 years saying, look, stock up on milk, you're not going to have the internet, you know, fill your truck up with gas. I got that text, which I thought, the first thought I thought was, what about water and toilet paper. But anyway, but I just responded back. I'm in a spiritual war. Of course, I didn't get a response back. And I was referring to Ephesion 6.

I didn't know you were going to read that. I don't even know if I had read that. You know, Isaiah was tough out when we were in school. Yeah. But I was going to read Ephesion 610, but it said the same phraseology as you did. It says, finally, be strong. in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Because people say, we are just weak, little weak Christians. And, you know, Paul wrote a letter to the Romans, and they considered love and sharing Jesus as weakness. They locked him up. And you get the book of Revelation, and you think, well, why do you all think that is victorious? When basically it was a vision saying, all you Christians are going to die.

Well, where's the victory in that? And that's the point I'm trying to say to my conspiracy, loving brothers that I love, is that, look, what we're in on in Jesus has the power to change hearts and minds. It changes eternal destiny. It's a power that's way beyond who's in charge of the governments

that Romans 12 and 13 says that God instituted any. That's correct. And you said, well, we got to make this wrong right. He addresses that too. When he said, leave room for God's wrath, you know, that whole section about, where's that out, Romans 12 at the end. Romans 12 at the end.

That's what it says. Well, and I think our position has been consistent. We said, we were saying the same thing a little later than this last year about coronavirus. I mean, all along, people are panicking. they're going crazy. We're all going to die. It's just going to be terrible. And we were saying, look, yeah, some people are going to die.

Some of us are going to get it. You got it. You're going to get sick. What I said is, did you ever just think, oh, my word, what's happening? Hey, back to Romans 12. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Don't burn the thing down like we've been watching the last six months before the election anyway. Be careful to do what is right in the way.

the eyes of everybody. If it's possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Don't take revenge. Leave room for God's wrath. It's written. It's mine to avenge. I will repay, says the Lord.

Be good to them. But point them all to Jesus. It's not a political fix here. Nope. It's a spiritual fix. Unless there's a mass repentance, I've said very often, and a turning to God, it will get worse, no matter who's in charge. And I don't know about y'all, but this hasn't changed my support that I've had for four years for Trump.

I voted for Donald Trump, and because of his policies, I said he's the best man for the job. That's exactly right. I preached the gospel to him. I appointed him to Jesus like all the rest of them I've met. Well, here we are now, and you say, well, let's all just burn it all down. I said, yeah, yeah, that's a great idea. Well, we've said all alone that we didn't, his rhetoric has never been my favorite. I mean, in the way he conducts himself sometimes, especially with other Republicans.

So that's been consistent. So, I mean, but these people that now are the cancel culture, they're like, oh, we've never liked it. You know, they're just running the other way. Oh, they've gone so far now. I mean, now you've got the president-elect. He's like, his big deal is he's going to unify the country. But then in every speech I've heard, he's basically. more division.

He's embellished what happened by saying, oh, he was never fit for office. I told you the whole time. And, you know, and I'm like, what happened to this? We're bringing everybody together. He did nothing where he deserves to be in a psych. With the first speech days,

he and Harris both did, tried to bring race into it. They were like, what if it's a midmilly? You know, you talk about device? Let's get back on that train. Let's start burning down cities again. So now they're like, oh, no, we got a peachy with, you know, a week left. Yeah, that's smart.

It's going to take that long to even start the process, but they can't help it because of what happened. They're just using it from a political angle to somehow thwart him from ever and again. Right, they want to crush him. So that's why we, look, I answered one of the, I don't know how y'all forwarded me an email or something. And it was a legitimate, I thought, question. And so I answered it. But it was basically like, where's the Christians role in fighting tyranny among Christians? And I read that Ephesian 6.

I was like, look, it's not that I do not love America. It's not that I don't see your point about, you know, the direction of the country. And, you know, I voted for Trump just like you did. It's all about how. how the fight, because he got up talking about the fight, how do we fight this? I'm like, I got Ephesian 6, it's a spiritual fight. It's a spiritual, he said, you want to fight? Here's your armor.

And you read every one of those things. That's how I plan on fighting, which was the same way before all this happened. Elected officials, whether by hook or crook, they cannot remove your sin out. None of them can. And they can't raise you from the dead. Unless you can do those two things, I'm not bowing down to you, ever. Correct. Jesus and Jesus alone, he's our king all the time forevermore.

And I said that this summer when people were kneeling in front of other people, I said, I bow for no man. That's right. I bow the need to Christ. Hang on that. Let's take a break. All right. It's the same argument that we would have had, you know, six months ago or three months ago,

the same argument that we would have made for why the Portland riots were immoral, why we would reject critical race theory and this idea that I'm guilty for somebody else's sin. It's the same argument that we would use today that you can't tie your identity to your race. You can't tie your identity to your nationality. You can't tie your identity to that you're an American. Like if you're a believer, you can't. Our identity is rooted in number one, the fact that we're made in God's image, Genesis 126.

So we're all our common anthropology is at. We're all members of the race that God made. Number two, we all sin and fallen short of his glory. That's our commonality. And then three, we can have the potential of being in relationship with him if we repent and turn to Jesus. I just believe that what people are trying to bypass with all of this stuff, they're trying to bypass that one word that we all want to avoid. And that word is repentance.

You want to see the nation healed. It's going to take free. And nobody wants to repent, including myself. I mean, we all struggle with that. But I think that's the roadblock. Well, and to Jason's point, I like that, the idea of how you fight, because it's a war of convincing people. I mean, that's what we do with the gospel.

You remember in the Middle Ages, I mean, Christianity, some people had this idea that we would just go in and conquer nations and then force them to become Christians. That didn't work out well at all. No. Because it's about convincing people. So that's why the whole violent. The volunteer force. It's a volunteer force.

It's a war of ideas. I mean, that's the main thing. You've got to convince a person in their heart to what Zach said, I have to want this. I can't just go out and we line up with shotguns across a field and say, you're going to become a Christian, you're going to become godly or else. I mean, you can't do that. What happens when you get off the big picture, which is Jesus,

the spiritual warfare that goes on every day that we're all a part of, when you lose sight of that, you start. thinking, okay, now we've been done wrong here, so let's storm the Capitol. And I'm like, if I wanted to go down that road, I can think of some better ideas. How about let's organize and move people to Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona, just move them in mass.

Let's all have some meetings peacefully and say, who's going where? Let's try this. We're going to ship some rednecks. Now, if we still, you know, and let's take it from California. You've got to take them from California. because we're going to lose that anyway. Well, a third of them, yeah, are in California, is conservative.

I mean, I'm just saying if we were, I have some ideas on how you can take it back. You know, they're like, oh, no, well, they're cheated. Okay, there might have been some, but it looked like a close race that we lost. And four years ago, it looked like a close race that we won. That's what it looked like to me. Now, I don't read Facebook, so I don't know the conspiracy theories. but I got a picture on my phone from a buddy of mine. He said, hey, and it said something like,

who knew Duck Dynasty and Chabaca take over the Capitol? And I just looked at the picture, and there were some of these, you know, patriots. Okay, but a lot of people say, hey, you defend these Patriots. It looked like some kind of Duck Dynasty frat party gone wrong. It's what the picture looked. They were standing there. The guy had horns on his head.

And I just, my first impression was, okay, that you went a little too far. But people were like, well, no, I mean, and they started to get into the political thing. But I'm saying maybe it was, but it just seemed like they were mad and they got whipped up and said, hey, we're taking the Capitol. And there was, you know, a few hundred thousand people. That's what it seemed like to me. And I'm on Trump side. Right.

But, I mean, that's my opinion. Because I haven't given it too much thought, because I'm looking at the more weighty matters. Right. I mean, it's like what Phil read. This is not my commanding officer. When I read what Jesus did and how he operated, it may come across his week. He may seem like he didn't have anything. He was a bit sheepish.

He died in the end. Oh, wait. But then he come back. So that one move pretty much made the, you know, you're acting like the verse says sheep to be slaughtered is so weak to people that it nauseates them. But you know, that's the hand we're dealt because we don't live for this life. Some things you trust God, but in practical ways on how to do things from a political perspective, look, I'm open. It is interesting that the Bible refers to Jesus as the lion, but us as sheep. I mean, there is a mindset there about that.

Because everybody wants to be alive. You've heard the argument. People are like, well, you're just weak, knee, Christians, you know, falling. The Apostle Paul finally at the end of Jesus being our commanding officer said, here's a trustworthy saying, if we died with him, speaking of your new birth, we'll also live with him. If we endure the kind of junk you see going on now and before this, we'll also. reign with him. If we disown him, he will disown us. You never put anything, including governments, ahead of Christ Jesus. If we're faithless, you say, boy, we're done. He'll remain faithful,

for he cannot disown himself. Now, that right there is the one I want to follow literally till they put my body in the grave and my departure to go be with God. So that's the hope we have. I'm not budging on it. And to say governments of men can somehow take the place of that is nonsense. Well, even these tech oligarchs out in California, they're going to try to suppress, but you can't stop. We're unstoppable.

They've been trying to suppress the good news. I mean, think about what we're talking about in the book, acts. These boys not only had they had the Roman overlords, but then they had Jewish over. They were doubled down. And no one would have said, yeah, they'll pull it off. Yeah. Started with 12 men.

12 guys. Handpicked men in a low-tech world and with living daily under tyrants. The Roman Empire was a rough bunch. And look, look what came out of all that. One of what ever happened to the Roman Empire? But the kingdom of God is still

here. That's right. So. And look, they may, Jack, Zach and I've been talking about this, they may try to shut us down. There's probably going to come a day when we may have to do something else or find another place. But God's going to provide that. Don't you think so, Zach? Right now, the Romans are making great shotguns. We shoot on bananas and they're making pretty good peaches. Other than that, I just don't see the empire status like it was 2,000 years ago.

Things change. I think we got to remember, we got to remember kingdom people that we do belong to a kingdom that cannot be shaken nor destroyed. We forget that. And I think another thing that we're forgetting in this is the very nature of Christ. You mentioned that he was a lion and we're the sheep. But it reminded me that passage in Revelation 5 where John is weeping because there's no one worthy to open the scroll. And the elder came up and put his hand on him and said,

I don't be afraid. Behold the lion from the tribe of Judah. And when I first read that, I got that picture of Aslan from. from Narnia, you know, it's a big lion. But John says when he turned around to see this lion from the tribe of Judah, he said, I saw a lamb that looked as though it had been slain. So Christ is a lion by nature, but he chose to take on the form of a lamb and humbled himself and became obedient to death.

I don't know how we get around Philippians chapter 2. And what I'm seeing happening in some of this nationalistic movement is, is that good, godly men and women are forgetting the very foundation of of what Christ did for us. We need to have that humble spirit. I know it's not popular. I don't even like to hear it. It's offensive.

By the way. I would much rather fight. By the way, Zach, and a good point to interject in what you're saying right there, there is a difference. You can be conservative, but not a Christian. But you can't be, you can't claim Jesus and you live like the devil. So, in other words, someone said, well, if you're, if you're a conservative, you're automatically a good godly person.

Not true. Not true. There's a lot of people who are conservatives who don't even put their faith in Jesus, Zach. You see what I'm saying? Professor Chaper said at liberty, he said conservative humanism is still humanism. That's right. And we got to remember that. We're not conservatives first.

We're Christians first, and our conservative understanding of things flows from that, not the other way around. That's why I overlook the character or the way, you know, Trump. would speak because those policies, the more they line up with what lines up with God, Almighty, well, that's who I'm going to vote for. Let's take another break. But in the end, our guy lost. I hate it, but the bigger guy.

Those are all pragmatic things that are not going to really change anything ultimately. The issue is that the American culture and the fabric of our society does. not believe in the Amago Day that man's made the image of God. We don't believe that as a country. So this whole system is, if you build a system on a certain idea, and then the majority of people that are under that system no longer will believe that idea, then the system that's built on top of it doesn't work. And that's why Donald Trump is not our answer,

because the Republican Party or whatever it is. We have a rotten foundation now. I mean, that is, and no one wants to hear that because what that means is the answer is not going to come from cutting the head of the snake off. And, no, everything is good now. The answer is going to come from Zach Dasher and Phil Robertson and Jace Rock, me putting my hand on a person that I know and telling them about the sovereign king, Jesus Christ, who died for him. And it starts there. Amen. And that's a lot more work, and I have no control over the outcome.

Yeah. And I think that's why people don't want this. And I had one more point, too, that kingdom people. do not have to choose between socialism and nationalism. We don't have to choose between those two things. We choose the kingdom. We seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all the other things are added unto us. But we seek first as kingdom. That's what we're messing. If you had the majority of our country believe in that, Zach, which is our job to convince them, it's the church's job, to convince them of what Zach just said.

then you can change it from the bottom up. You know, but you're right. I mean, one of the things you've got to realize is so many of these people are so happy, conservatives too, or Republicans, I should say, that Biden's back in because it's back to business as usual. It's about money, making money. It's about having the machine. I mean, look, they've been doing this thing.

This rotten systems, I was talking about it. It's been going on for quite a while. Oh. No matter who was sitting in the big chair. And Trump was a disruptor, no doubt about it. But I agree with everything we said. he's not a savior. No. He's a guy from New York that you shared the gospel with, yet hopefully will, that'll change his life, you know, forever. So that's how you do it. Yeah. I mean,

look, you just can't get wrapped up in conspiracy theories and things you're reading on the internet to where you're actually functioning in a spirit of panic over who's in the White House. Yeah. Or controlling Congress or whatever. And it's not just panic. It's a spirit of deceit. These conspiracy... These are Jesus-loving people who all of a sudden are like...

Well, you know... Here's what it is, though. These conspiracy theories are informational Ponzi schemes. That's what they are. And they haven't delivered. All these crazy predictions in Q&on, I mean, the stuff's just...

They haven't delivered on the evidence. And they really haven't. And God's people have to be about truth over fear. Like I can't advocate the truth and say, just because I want this to be true, because I don't want where we're headed. I don't like it either. Our whole business is tied up in

technology, and it's very likely that this podcast, along with some of the things I'm working on, will be censored. It's very possible that I'll lose all my income. So I'm all in. I'm going to lose a lot with what's going on. But I can't abdicate my commitment to the truth

in the process because I'm fearful. You know what I'm saying? Well, and Zach, you're on to a practical point, I blame a lot of this, during this since the election, until right up just recently, you had a lot of surrogates that were supposedly digging into it, you know, attorneys, and they were going public with information that they said was true, but there was never any proof of the evidence. Nobody said, here's where it is. So I think it just, it confused people to a great degree, which is what you're talking about

does. I mean, one's confused, and once you're going into this, there's no doubt about it, then you'll do, then you'll go to panic mode. Do you know how many times I've either texted or said vocally, I'm just going to share Jesus. I'm riding with King Jesus. I'm going with Jesus. That's what I've done since this happened. And the last week, we have a conversation. Oh, no, I'm like, I'm going to go with Jesus. So what if some wicked government comes along and, They're knocking on our door right now. You said, what if they come along?

And they get out and burn all the church buildings, Zach, burn them all. Anything with a steeple on, the French Revolution, that's what they did. They said, oh, we're going to do away with all of it. Love the question. Well, Jesus is still here. God's still in control. And you say, well, if they go down and they burn the church building down, Al, is that going to change your mode of operandi?

Well, first I would be thrilled because our building is an old monstrosity that I've told all of the staff, if this thing ever catches on fire and somebody calls the fire department, you're fired. Yeah. So I would love to go on here. I have to tell this story. I all knows about it. When I was working with Missy being the worship team members, which is something I probably

shouldn't have said, but I said, look, now what we're going to do is probably going to make a lot of the members uncomfortable. And so one of the leaders said, well, I mean, Jace, how radical? would you go? Well, the way he phrased that question, when he said, how radical would you go? I said, as in burn the building. That probably was too far.

But I was trying to make a point. And I'm kidding, by the way. We became so ritualistic that I thought, you can't snuff the church out by that. Where two or three are gathered in my name, I will be there, Jesus said. That's enough for me right there. I think we offend them every time we say this, but Act 17 is in the book. God does not, God, the Lord of Heaven and the earth, does not live in temples, buildings built by human hands.

Right. He doesn't live in. And he also doesn't live in 501C tax structures. He doesn't live in our organizational tax structure. I don't know what that is. Hang on, Zach. Let's take a break. Explain to Jason what that is.

A 501c3 is a nonprofit that most churches have filed as for tax purposes. That's why you're able to donate to the church and you get your tax. But even that. Jay thought that was a character on Star Wars. I had no idea. I thought I owed somebody some money. By the way, they're going to ax that, whatever you just said. They'll like that.

They'll get rid of that. Well, they've been using that for a long time to hold it over pastors, too, to not speak truth from the pulpit. That's right. For things. Because, like, we'll take away your state. You can't talk about this. You can't talk about that. I said this recently before the election.

I was like, here's why I'm voting for Trump. I would never tell you who to vote for. That's not my job. That's your job. You're an American. But here's why I'm voting for it. And I made my case. And years ago, I was bullied not to do that from the pulpit.

But I thought to myself, no more. One is I'm not being paid, so I'm volunteering anyway. But why would I do that? Oh, take this tax status away. This isn't about money for me. Ultimately, yeah. I mean, we remember that when the controversy happened in that Dynasty. They're like, oh, we're going to take away all your sponsors

because you quoted a verse when asked about homosexuality. You quoted a Bible verse, which they didn't know as a verse. But I just remember Phil's response. They said, oh, all the sponsors are leaving. Phil's like, okay. You don't make a spiritual decision based on some kind of financial fear mongering. Pils, that's easy for you to say you got plenty. Well, when we didn't, it didn't affect me one way or nothing.

And many, many, many corporations that were lined up because of our popularity to make money off of us, backed right away from that table. Millions and millions lost. but we do it again. How many times did people tell you when you invented Duck Commander and you were going around, they said,

if you keep giving that testimony or whatever they called it after your duck call seminar, it's going to hurt your business. Hundreds and hundreds. Over and over. They said the same thing to me until, you know, we became known.

They were like, well, you know, because you're alienating people, that's going to hurt your business. Yeah. I thought, well, you've got this backwards. my business is to share Jesus. This duck call thing? That's just something I do.

That's why the ungodly came up with the old thing. You can't mix religion and politics. I said, oh, they need mixing and shaking up and tamped down and run it over. Just like schools and... That's why we're in the mess we're in right now. But you said, what would you do if they burn the buildings and declared war? You know, you read, started off in Second Timothy, Paul's right now.

He's chained up. Yeah. I mean, they literally have him changed. And he said, we're good to go here. Yeah, he's like, you can't change the word of God, but at the end of 2nd Timothy 4, he said these words, and this is what I would do because he had the idea. He says, this is 417, but the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed. that all the Gentiles may hear it, which we're in the Gentile category, and I was delivered from the lion's mouth. And then this phrase,

the Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to His Heavenly Kingdom. I mean, I don't just read that. I believe it. I do too. So somebody says, we're going to declare a war on you, and you may lose your life. Yeah, we'll shut you up.

Yeah. Okay. Go for it. Not going to happen. Yeah, they try. They tried that with Stephen in the book of Acts, and they did shut Stephen up, and the fierce persecution broke out against the church. And what happened is they ended up scattering the church to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

They couldn't stop it. But the thing they thought was going to stamp it out, actually spread it like ambers from a wildfire. I think about the greatest revival in the world right now is going on in Iran. and I couldn't tell you one church, one Christian leader there, but yet somehow the Spirit of God is moving in an area that you would never think possible and people are coming to Jesus left and right, anything happening in China. So, you know, I'm not saying that I'm wishing persecution so that the kingdom can grow,

but what I am saying is that God's kingdom, even in the most tyrannical regimes, not only is it not stamped out, that's actually the place where the kingdom's thriving the most. So that's just, I find comfort in that. I really do. I admonish my fellow Americans and the ones who are listening here. Hey, just do this. I'll make it real, this is real complex. Do your job.

Do your job. I can go call. Whatever you were called to do, do it. So doing your job, this is exactly what it is. And in fact, you know, we talked about this some last year. one of our one kingdom ministries was you know these people are fleeing Syria, Iran, all these, you know, tyranny. And they're going through Athens, Greece. And so some of our brothers, you know, just set up there and said, you know, we're going to minister to these Muslims

that are fleeing other Muslims. So because of that ministry, guy named Larry Bowles, they started beaming back in, which is actually what Zach was talking about, back into Iran. Now look, this is at risk of life because you talk about a, I mean, these people kill you in a heartbeat. It's illegal to talk about Christianity. And yet they're just beaming back in saying, you know what? We're followers of Jesus. This is all we know. And so they're converting a lot of people in Zach's rights.

That's why it's unstoppable. When we were in the Ukraine, those soldiers would come down and declare, you know, no Christianity or whatever. and they just made a show, a spectacle. I didn't know what they were saying because I couldn't understand them. So then it was like, as soon as they left, I mean, literally, out of earshot,

it was like, we were having the Bible talks in the dorms. Yeah. It was like, okay, now, there was no stopping or whatever. It was just a threat. And I think in the end,

that's what this becomes when you're worried about being cancer. or somebody down in you on Facebook. And they're like, oh, but, you know, we may not have the Internet. And this is where we make our move. And I make moves for Jesus. Fear is a dangerous thing. Yeah.

If I'm going to go down, I want to go down for the name of Jesus. Oh, that's right. I mean, you think about purpose in life. You think about the grace. You know, people want to bring people together. there's more in this Bible about bringing all walks of race and the sexes together than any place I know of on the planet. That makes sense. I mean, you read Galatian Street.

We always go back to that. But I mean, there's no male, there's no female, there's no Jew, there's no Gentile. There's no class. God does not show favoritism. Doesn't show favoritism. That's what everybody's after in the name of even the far left. They're like, if we could just all be the same. and one in the perfect energy of life.

I'm like, we have that. That's right. We have it. Well, and what you don't want to do is Zach said this earlier. What's happened is leftism, socialism, whatever this current brand is, it is their religion. These people worship it. Oh, yeah. Why do you think that is?

Well, because they don't. Because they don't have God. So you're always certain, you know, we're made in the image of God. But let's get that. What's their top five benefits? I mean, because I just spit out ours, grace. I think it's one benefit. It's not a bit that it's a curse, but they think it's a benefit.

But I'll say it. Educate me. I just want to know. It's the same thing on the right. That was the point I wanted to make. You don't want nationalism to become your religion. But what are they selling? What are the benefits?

The same thing that they were selling in the Garden of Eden. The God's holding out on you, and he doesn't want you to know what he does. They're worshipping themselves. It's the Romans want. It's humanism. It's just, I'm beginning with, it's just humanism packaged in two different ways. And when I say humanism, I mean, that's when we begin with ourselves to make meaning of the world. And that's what both of these sides are doing.

One side is saying that I get my identity from the collective whatever of the people. And the other side has said, no, my identity comes from the way I grew up or the way things used to be or the fact that I'm an American. Well, the only thing that doesn't change, I think somebody read this earlier, is God himself. Everything else is going to change. So if I'm worshipping all these systems and I'm worshipping these, that's not for God's people.

It's just humanism. Yeah, yeah. I mean, because what, you know, the reason I asked that question is, I was really shocked at the way the left is attacking Trump now. I mean, they won. He's only going to be in office just a few more days. And I thought, why don't you just wait? You've won.

Now, let's do whatever your agenda is. But no, they're just viciously attacking him now. We're going to impeach him. We're everywhere we go. We're talking. I'm like, well, weren't these the same people that said, you know, Trump's all about him, and he wants to dominate the news coverage? And so when you won, all that I've seen is an attack on Trump.

Trump, which made me think, what exactly are you for? You know, you're going to do what now that you've won? Well, if you could force yourself without, you know, cutting out your own eyeballs to go back and watch every speech that Biden has made since he created an office of the president of a let. I've never heard of that before, but he's created signs up behind him. Every speech has been like a criticism of Trump. I mean, like you said you. won, okay. So start acting like he won. I mean, every speech is an attack on Trump. That and, and we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna get on the coronavirus. But I'm like, well, by the time you get to be the actual

president, most of the people at this rate are gonna have a vaccine shot. So I'm like, well, that's all, we got that. That's what we're running on. But here's the deal. When you, when you build any movement on division, then all you can ever talk about is things that divide. And we're in a culture of the... Okay. You may... I'm starting to see. I think that's a good point. But it's both sides. Because because, like I said earlier, the foundation is right. We don't have a progressive thing to build from. And I don't mean progressive as a liberal. I mean something that's that moves things forward because we don't, we're not building

on the Amago Day. We're not building on a high view of humanity. We're actually building on a very a low view of humanity that says we're nothing more than material that randomly occurred. And so because of that, everybody is building their case on how pissed off they can get the other side at how that's what it seems like. Yeah. That's why they say we're a divided country. Well, okay. Yeah. But so I was trying to figure out exactly what their side is for. Well, you look at it. How could you be not more divided? I mean, the kind of, Congress is split right down the middle, pretty much. I mean, there's a small majority in the House.

Senate's right down the middle. The vote was down to counten handfuls of votes. I mean, there were people that won by six, eight, 12 votes in the slide. I mean, it could not be more divided than it is right now, except maybe the Civil War, obviously, because. But Zach said it's on both sides. So maybe we should introduce the Christian Party, you know, just a thought. The Christian Party.

Why not? It's never been never. for. I think you can do it. Well, I think the politics is downstream of culture. So if the church acts as the church, if the church does what the church is supposed to do, then you don't have these things that society's in advance. When the church advocates her responsibility to seek and save the loss,

like by sharing the blood of Jesus of people, like when we're not doing that, when we're being partisan in our own lives and we're buying in the things that we know really aren't true, but we're committed to them because we want them to be true. like when we're not showing the manifold wisdom of God, I mean, what do you,

we're the light of the world. Jesus chose us to bring his light into the world. And if we're not doing that as a church, there's just a shortcut. Yeah. Everybody wants a shortcut. I agree. But you could get around the fact,

because they're like, well, you've got to have separation of church and state, and I'll be like, that's fine. I just want to unite Jesus and state policies. There's a difference. Well, that's right. And that's our responsibility, Zach's right, to be sought, to be light. I mean, that's what we do, individual or otherwise. So I guess next time we get together, it really is a pretty good shift back to what we're talking about in Acts, because these folks were under much more severe persecution. They went into it wide open. As we get into Acts 3 and Acts 4, you're going to see that begin to ramp up. And then by the time you get over to, like Zach was talking, in Acts 8, you're seeing people murdered, you know, for speaking truth, but at the same time,

it was unstoppable. I mean, all that did was fan it out, which is going to be the same with us. I think to draw the parallel to what's going on here today, because I've quoted Acts 1 in the last week several times, Jesus, right before he leaves, he spoke about the kingdom of God. He showed me, any convincing proofs that he was lying. He spoke. about the kingdom of God. And they said, oh, are you now going to restore the kingdom to Israel? They're thinking politics. Are we? So now, even today, people are telling me, oh, you know, this is the signs. You know, there's things going on in Israel. There's things going on in America. And I'm like, we're the new Jerusalem. We're the new Israel. There's about who, the kingdom of heaven.

It's us. We're the ones. We're the ones. stirring these things. Read Acts 1. When they asked him about time, he said, it's not up to you. You don't need to worry about that. Well, they thought he was going to go by force. That's right.

I hope I'm able to say, when my time comes and y'all should be the same, I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come, the Apostle Paul is talking to Timothy. Last few verses. While chained up. Yeah, while chained up.

Now the time has come for my depot. departure, not my dying being beheaded and dry a brutal death for my departure. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now, because of that, there is in store for me the crown of righteousness with the Lord, the righteous judge of all men, I'd add, will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. Well, fast forward 2,000 years, and we're still waiting on the appearing of Jesus,

and the home of righteousness finally comes out, and we're like, who I'm glad I didn't get too deep in the man-made politics. That's exactly right. This is worth it here. I can't they have a better final take. That's perfect. So, Zach, good to have you on today with the four of us.

Be sure and hold down the kingdom up there in the liberal land you live in. I work on it. Zach, I know you're a good boy because your mama was my sister and she still is and she's departed. So we're next, my man. Amen. Good word.

Thank you, guys. Good seeing y'all. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about. episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to blazed TV at blaisTV.com slash unashamed.