Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 43 | Preaching with a Gun, Handling Disagreements in the Church, and Recognizing God's Spirit

Episode Date: January 8, 2020

Phil, Al, and Jase talk about the recent Texas church shooting, Jase explains disagreements on theology, Phil gives a lesson on recognizing God’s spirit and evil spirits, and we begin our study of the Book of John..   See episodes of "Unashamed with Phil Robertson": https://bit.ly/2J4XsiX   See clips from Phil's TV show "In the Woods with Phil": https://bit.ly/2PNM6k1   To take a FREE 30 Day Trial of Phil's TV show and the rest of BlazeTV: https://www.BlazeTV.com/Phil Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am Unachshamed What about you? I'm just saying, you know, I can never say, well, it can't it won't happen to me. I'm like, no, that's not good logic. Look, here's the... No one thinks it's going to happen to then.

We live on a planet with a lot of people. And we all at some time, once we get over the age of a child, do evil things. Some, especially those in the, you know, some are mentally child. And so when you look at school shootings and you look at guys going into church buildings and just unloading like what just happened in Texas, you think, well, what are we going to do about that? Well, there's a lot of people.

There's a lot of people that are evil. There's a lot of people with, you know, mental disorder. So is it possible? Yes. Here's my take. I read a verse like says the weapons we fight with are not the, you know, the weapons of the world. where's that at? 1 Corinthians 10 or 2 Corinthians 10 it's one of those so I'm when I'm at the church building

I am in the Ephesians 6 spiritual armor mode because God is using me to speak to lead worship to I'm that's what I'm focused on now look other members of the body that's not their thing they're not up in front as we say delivering lessons so I can't do both so I I'm letting them use their gift, which is watching my back. So when I'm at the church building, my point was, I don't have a bunch of weapons on me. Now, you do, and guess what? That's fine. You may can do both.

But I'm just like, you know what? I'm going to trust that maybe God is going to, you know, watch over me in this moment. And if someone does start firing, if I can make it to my truck, I will get an actual weapon. but I'm at the time, I just thought about it. I'm like, you know what? I'm not going to worry about it. So that was my take, and you kind of took that to me. What you're saying is you're for like the guys in the church,

in the Texas church that were prepared and ready to handle it. That was different than if you say you were preaching at that church or leading worship or whatever. Yeah. What I'm saying is you're going to let them handle it. I made a decision. I'm going to let them handle it at the church. Whereas dad's pretty much both because he's got, you know.

Phil's trying to do both. And look, I don't have a. problem with it. We got into this argument in the duck line because I said, I'm not worried about it because I look around at our church and there's a lot of people with weapons. And there's a lot of train people. Yeah, we're like the airport. We have a cop car parked in front. When you pull up to our churchville, there's a cop car sitting there, which why does the airports do that? They're saying, danger. If you have evil intent, there's a cop car and there's uniform officers and undercover.

So I just made a decision. I thought, you know what? I'm not going to worry about it. I'm going to go with the, because it takes a joint effort. You got to change the heart in people. And on Sundays, I'm there to serve and give lessons.

And I'm just not worried about it, you know. Now, if the shooting breaks out, I'm going to try to get to the truck because I have a weapon there. Yeah. You know, so I'm not going to be, you know, silly. Are you ready for the rebuttal? Yeah.

That's just my take. And it's nothing wrong with your logic. Okay. Here's my greatest fear. I don't mind being martyred. If God decides he wants me taken out that way. Right. I don't mind that at all.

Me, like the apostles. I think it's a privilege. Yep. I mean, the kind of death I might die. So if I'm on the premises where the brothers and somebody comes in a shooter comes in and I get whacked in the process, I don't mind that at all.

I have complete trust in God if he says, here's the way you're going out. Jesus told Peter, he said, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and you went where you wanted to go. But when you get old, somebody else is going to dress you and take you where you don't want to go.

Right. He said this to describe what kind of death Peter would, to glorify God. John 21. John 21. So I said, you know, that's, you know, to die for the cause. But my greatest fear is what I don't want to happen is the brothers, the sisters, the little children. Right.

In that congregation, to where I preach at, I just am going to do everything in my power to keep them from being hurt. Right. It's not so much, I'm worried about me if God wants to take me, you know, if God wants to take anybody out at whatever time, he decides you're going to be taken out with whatever method, it's fine with me. But if I'm there and the brothers and sister, they're little kids, old people

are sitting in there and somebody walks in there with a weapon and means to kill them all, I'm going to do everything of my power to be at least prepared to take that threat away. Swats on the premises, they're right

there. We have armed men, but I'm not thinking of, well, you know, I'm trying to protect myself here. Well, you're kind of like, my tendency. I just don't want to get the brothers and sisters of the almighty hurt. Well, I don't either, but I think what the point is...

I'm going to have to protect them because a lot of them, I don't think about it. They don't know anything about weapons at all. They're just sitting there wishing to God out. I don't want them to get hurt. So I'm going to try to be there to keep that from happening. On the video footage of the incident, which I saw, you know, the guy I was watching it, he was like, man, that was almost a lucky shit.

shot, you know, the guy who took out the criminal. But I was like, I've heard people say the same thing about me shooting ducks at long distances. They're like, boy, that was lucky. And then, you know, it happens again. They're like, well, there's another lucky shot, you know. There's another luck. Well, after a while. It's like Burrow from LSU, the quarterback at first.

I said, a lot of that stuff looked like dog luck. Yeah. But after a football season, watching him, I said, no. No. No, the man. He keeps doing it. I mean, look, if our country, if we had to send a representative to put a football in a small space from like 60 yards away, I'm going to nominate him. Yeah.

So I get it because I'm the same way. I feel like we possess, you know, we're good with guns. And if that was a scrap, you know, I've always said, you know, if you shoot at me and I have a gun, you better not miss. You know, I'm coming. and I have skills with rifles and shotguns and pistols. But I was just saying I just made a decision since I'm up front so much. And, you know, it's just kind of, I just don't feel good about getting up with a pistol and a Bible. You know, I'm going to get a prayer with a Bible.

And there's people out there. And I feel completely the opposite. Yeah, I just don't want to worry about it is what I'm saying. I'm like, if they come in. I hate that I have to worry about it. But I'm looking around saying, well, I can't say it'll never happen to me because it's happening to other people. And they said it can't happen here. Well, I'm just saying I'm into the preparation.

Be prepared for the worst. Well, and it's interesting because our family and both of y'all are speaking more to just, I mean, one of the things, the reason there's a cop car at our church and has been for about five or six years now is because we got famous. And so we draw a lot of people in, and then we draw some people in that were unbalanced. That's why you're feeling a little more responsible because it's Phil Robertson who has drawn in some people from around the country. I don't want to get them hurt. Right. I understand.

So it's a little different for us. But the guy that walked into Texas, there was really not much rhyme reason. It was a little church. It was a... I've spoken at that church. Did you know that? No. Yeah, about 10 years ago.

It was multiracial church. You know, it was diverse. It was, you know, which... Well, the guy that the first, you know, the guy he shot first, I mean, he was just passing communion truck. We see it every Sunday at our church. I mean, he's just the guy at the end of the pew, and he just happened to be right there closest, and he gets shot, you know, passing a communion train. Just makes me sick. Oh, does it burn me up?

Yes. But here's the difference. So many people on the planet, and there's so much evil in our world, it's just going to happen. But think about it, but think about the difference, one thing we can all agree on. So I'm watching this last week. I'm watching Elizabeth Warren, for one. There were others that are running for president. And her logic was, I don't feel safer knowing that there's people at my church that

are armed. Nobody should be armed. So her logic is disarm everybody and we'll all be safer. Well, there would have been way more than two shot. That's the problem. She, I mean, look, having two shot is too many. but I'm glad somebody stood up with a weapon. And so a dozen weren't shot or more.

I mean, look, having said all that, the best way to fight this battle is introducing Jesus to people. Because when you... We're full speed ahead, Jason, on that. Well, I've just said that's the best way. But if somebody walks in with a gun, we need other people with good intentions with guns. that is your best chance to limit the damage.

I mean, I don't see how anybody can see that. It's called protective, a protective. Right. We're not trying to eliminate all. It's, you're not going to get rid of all the guns. No, and criminals find ways to arm themselves, and they always have. I believe that's the underlying reason we have the Second Amendment is because you have so many people. So what's your verse from John?

You were reading earlier? I mean, it's evil is what it is. And, you know, I love that shooter, the guy that killed the shooter in the church, that was when they interviewed him, which I thought he handled himself amazingly. You know, that guy to all of a sudden be thrust in the spotlight. He said, I shot evil today. Oh, I mean, that was right on target. Five thousand years after, give or take a few,

after Cain killed Abel. The way he killed him is not mentioned. They said they went into a field, read in the book of Genesis, and when they went out into the field, Kane killed his brother Abel. 5,000 years later, since we're discussing John today, John the Apostle said, This is the message you heard from,

this is the message you heard from the beginning. we should love one another. Do not be like Cain. He goes back five to six thousand years earlier to the first murder I know of that's ever been recorded. Do not be like Cain went out in the field and killed his brother over a tithing issue. Then it says, next little phrase,

who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. John the Apostle said people who murder, they belong to the evil one. Right. Jesus said it in John 8, and the Apostle John recorded what he said there. He's the father of murder. When you see murder, whether supporting children or killing old people in a church. And why did he murder him?

Why did Cain murder him? Here's what the Apostle John said, because his own actions were evil. and his brothers were righteous. To me, that sums it all up, tightly packed, where you can't miss it, because they come up with all these reasons on why the shooters do what they do and why the knife, people who carve people up, why they do it. And the spears and the swords go back before gunpowder. You say, what was this, do not murder, you know, 1,500 years before Jesus?

I mean, why would you have to tell them not to murder? They didn't have guns. They didn't have gunpowder. They had sharp sticks, spears, bow and arrows, but you say the murder rate, Al. Think about it. It was a slaughterhouse. They didn't even need guns for them to act on behalf of the evil one. It's evil or there's some, you know, you get that many people.

There's mentally challenged people and, you know, and it happens. But I'm for people with guns taking out people with evil intentions. I was just, we got in this huge argument in the duck line. saying on Sunday mornings, you know what? I've just decided there's a lot of people with weapons. And I'm going to focus on this weapon, which is awesome. Yep. And if they come in, I'm hoping somebody takes them out, you know.

And they will. I mean, we saw that. I personally say go with both and take your chances. There you go. All right. Well, we report. We report you decide. But there was a lot of people, you know, asking about that.

I mean, it's, I don't want us to touch on it. I mean, if Jason wants to do that, hey, that's bravery on his part. I'm not. I just made a decision. That's what I'm going to do. Well, I get out from there. Look, you know, the last time I went on a trip, it was midnight. I needed gas.

I probably should have got it before. I was distracted talking on the phone. I pull off the interstate. You know, now you can get gas where their stores open or closed. Everything was closed, but I pull in there. I don't even know where I'm at. Well, look, and here comes. comes a fellow walking toward me. I'm pumping gas. It's midnight. There's nobody around. I didn't panic.

I just opened my back door. I had a sawed-off shotgun. I pulled it out. When I got that about halfway out, his hands went up. And he said, Duck Dynasty fan. I said, okay. That was good. That was good thinking on his part before you asked for his ID. Well, that's what I thought is. It's like the guy that was coming in the motel room We were all duck hunting We had us a raggedy motel We're there

And at 2.30 in the morning I hear a little clicking sound And I sat up in bed It was a light in the hallway And I looked at that doornaub It was turning a little bit I said, okay, we're up here And I think it was Arnda

Idaho, wasn't it? Idaho, yeah, I was there. I'm sitting there. I'm sitting up, I guess you got up in bed. Did you say hotel? I'd say that was a motel. And I just happened to have a Bonelli shotgun there with me. And I reached over and picked it up.

There was probably a couple in the magazine, but nothing in a barrel. But I just got it. And I'm sitting there with the. In your underwear. In my underwear. And I'm looking toward that door. So he's got a be whiskered man with a shotgun in his hand. And somebody is coming through the door.

And we're all together in here. So we don't have any bristers. And you were like close. closest to the door because I leaned up and I thought, well, Bill's got this. The door opened like this, you know, it was like this and the door opened like that. So he's behind the door and I'm just sitting there. He takes a step past the door and he looks to his left and there I sit in my underwear with the shotgun aimed at his belly.

He said, without me saying a word, his hands came up and he said, wrong room. And I said, I didn't say, yeah, you're in the wrong room or give him a speech. I just said, not in my head. You are correct. Well, he backs up. I start moving toward him then in case he wanted to pull some stunt. And he was leaving the parking lot and he looked back at me and I'm still standing there. And his hands got higher.

It's like, I never told him to graze his hands, but he just decided he would do that. And he got him higher when you came out, which is a guilty con. Now, what was he doing? not know what was his motive i'm not sure but but it was wrong room maybe maybe he just got the wrong room i don't know but uh well he definitely got it's like that guy was telling some of that story because that that recently happened and we were talking he's like well you you should have shared jesus with him i said oh i did but if it's midnight and i'm in a dark place by myself and there's a guy come walking toward me I figure I better get the gun first and once he

declared oh I know who you are Doug dynasty fan well then it kind of set the stage for a good conversation what are the odds in a dark dimly lit spit stop for gas and you look up and some dudes coming towards you that's what I thought what's he doing there that's what I said he was taking a walk I said, oh, maybe he just became a Duck Dynasty fan once he saw that salary. He said Duck Dynasty fan and I had the gun there, but I thought, okay, but I was still watching him. I mean, I still had my hand on the gun when he walked up there. Because we had a boat in our neighborhood one night. We were coming home and he's standing there and you didn't know who he was, but then

you realize that he shouldn't have been in there, you know, hanging around our houses. Listen, what brings us to the question about the people who are saying, if you get rid of all guns, no one will ever be shot with a gun. If you get rid of all knives, no one will ever be stabbed with a knife. Right. But then you've got to pick up all the toothpicks. You've got to pick up the, what you call them. Ice picks.

You've got to get rid of all them, all sharp instruments. Yeah. If you go down that road and say, and that's the way we will have a safe world, I just don't think it's logical. It's not. All flammable products. The founders, they said, you have ever. right to protect yourself, your family, your home. You need, we're giving you that you have the right

to be armed. And for that time frame, I mean, not many governments were doing that. In fact, one of the founding fathers, I think it was Jefferson said most countries are not, they not, they not, the Second Amendment's not there. Said, but, and they all think we're going to have more trouble than it's worth. They said, but we, it's proven to be a very good. good right. It is. But look, you got some states right now, Virginia, for one, that are basically trying to confiscate guns.

They call it a gun buyback. The government didn't buy the gun. You bought the gun. It's your gun and you have the right constitution that they have it. There's no buyback, but they're trying to do, you know, what Australia did. I cannot fathom the United States, the people in the United States giving up their guns. I just cannot. It's not going to happen.

That would be the worst thing they ever did. This is one of the dumbest. Every one of these social takeovers, every one of them, it starts with they don't do it until they gather up the guns. What they don't realize is, okay, this happened in Texas. But what actually happened is a deterrent for that happening again. That's right. Somebody sees that. You are correct.

And they're like, man, that guy got off, you know, a couple shots. And somebody took him out. Six seconds. Six seconds. You're talking about dumb. You come down to the south and pull out a weapon. You're fixed to get shot. Yeah.

Because most people I know, almost everybody, they have a gun. And most of them have many guns. Multiple. You know, we were ducking yesterday. And, you know, there's a group of people pulled up on a bridge down there. And it sounded like a war. It's like, what were they doing? Oh, they just shooting.

Yeah. You know, I mean, they weren't. It wasn't. I didn't feel like we were under a. attack, I just thought, boy, if you run up on that crew, who, I heard it from the duck blind and I thought, boy, when are they going to run out of ammo? They finally did.

They were blowing up things. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's come boom. Now, we're down here deep in redneck bill. So, Dad mentioned it. We mentioned this last time. We're going to dive in, begin this year into the book of John. It's one of our favorite books.

We've often said before, I guess if you just had to peer. out one just to kind of get the story. This is a pretty good one. I always recommend the book of John to people that, especially people that have had bad church experiences because this whole Bible, and we've said this over and over and over again, it's a letter from a being. Right. And he's so awesome and so giant and big that the human mind cannot comprehend. So, and he knew that. So he became a man. his name is Jesus, to show you what God is like. Right.

I mean, he's the image of the invisible God. So when you go to one of the Gospels, and I like John in particular, and you say, well, what is God like? What is the Bible? What is the point of the Bible? He just reveals through the stories and through the inspired, you know, Holy Spirit, what God is like in Jesus. There's no agenda. there's no, you know, John wasn't trying to convince you anything. He basically just said, here's what God's like.

His name was Jesus. And you got 21 chapters. And so just for our, there may be a lot of our audience that's new to the Bible. And just to let you know, you know, we talked about basically Genesis through Malachi was pointing towards Jesus. And then you got Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which is referred to as the Gospels, because it's the story of Jesus. So that's why they call it the Gospels.

it was four different viewpoints, four different eyewitness viewpoints of what happened, and that's why there's four different books. A lot of people get, you know, like, well, this one didn't exactly say it the same way as that one, but that's why you have both is to give you a little more nuance. One of the greatest paragraphs in the entire Bible, in my opinion, the guy, the one Jesus loved, John, wrote the gospel of John. but once you read that he wrote three little letters over the end

first second and third john the first paragraph in first john is now listen to this and it goes to what jay said he couldn't really come up with a way to describe

what he had just the person he had run with for about 30 years he he could couldn't come up with a description of what it was. Right. So he described him as a that and as an it. You say he just really didn't know how to describe what he had just seen.

I agreed. That which was from the beginning. And this is first John. First John. Chapter 1. He goes back to the creation of the cosmos. Right. From the beginning.

Which we've heard, which we've seen. seen with our eyes which we've looked at our hands have touched him he's going through this thing like here's how close we were to this being

is what Jay's calling it this we proclaim concerning the word of life the life appeared just just appeared we've seen it we've testified to it I mean we've

seen it the life I mean he's trying to come up with a way to describe you can you can put this in the bank we proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and has appeared to us the virgin birth we proclaim to you what we've seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ, we write this to make our or your joy complete. This is a message we've heard from him and declare to you. God is light in him.

There's no darkness. Well, that's what he said in the gospel is over there. Right. But he starts out that, which was from the beginning. I've always found that humorous. Yeah, you'll describe a being and he calls him by that. He said, that was who was from the beginning. You got to remember, too, this is, as you're thinking about this chronologically

when they're writing it. He wrote, John wrote the gospel of John earlier, much closer to when Jesus was there, because they were writing on these outwitness accounts. First and second, third, John, were letters written later in his life to churches. So, you know, what you also have is him probably having 20 or 30 years to sort of ponder. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Wasn't he the one who said, wasn't it John who said, and look, we're just, we're just recorded enough so you can know. He was like, there's not enough. books in the world. Oh, I love that book's in the world. To write down everything. If you had seen it all, we're just giving you the little, little. That's the last verse in John, which,

because we're, you know, here we are saying, you know, if you want to study the Bible, start with John and go backwards or forwards. Yeah. Yep. And he says that right off the bat in verse 17 of chapter one, because he says the law was given through Moses, which is what you just mentioned. and you mentioned Genesis to Malachi. And John refers to that, but then he says, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. So he's already going back to the shadow of what happened with the law.

That's right. But the last verse in John 21, we're doing the same thing. But this to me is a very powerful verse because everybody's trying to find some sign or they say, if Jesus, you know, spoke to me or whispered in my ear. And it's not about something.

much of what he did because he made the point here he said Jesus did many other things as well if every one of them were written down I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written that's how you go from a he to a that yeah yeah you know it's it's just hard to describe what this being is and add to that I always say it but people like Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I always say this description of this particular being, it's a wild story, but we all are counting time by him. Yeah.

Love him or hate him. You say when it gets down to who are you counting time by, you say, well, some say Jesus, but we're saying it was the common error, which began at the same time, that same year Jesus showed up. I think it's also interesting that John was the only one of the main characters. I hate to say characters. That sounds like it's better. Sounds like it from my movie.

Yeah, but he wasn't martyred. He died of old age. But, you know, at first you hear that and you think, well, he made it. But then when you read, like, what some of the historical books say about him, oh, he was tortured. They put him in bowling. He was born, you know, whole. I mean, he probably was just a shell of a man when he died,

because they had attacked him so much. But the Lord had to decide, you know, he was just going to keep him alive. That's why he wrote first, second, third. He's the only one that died of an older man. Yeah. But, you know, another thing was the revelation came later in his life when he was kind of exiled to Patmos to an island. And so he wrote that, which, of course, is the last book we have in the Bible.

He kind of wrote that in that dreamlike state. Apocalyptic language and all that. I'm sure we'll get to that one day, which will be a fascinating podcast. I love the book of Revelation. Oh, it's really good. So John, you're right, and it's interesting because at the end of John, when Peter is reinstated right before that verse he was read, he asked about John, remember?

Because he was like, Peter, I mean, Jesus told Peter, he was like, you know, this was going to happen to you. So he looks over there at old John, he said, what about him? He's like, you know, if it's going to, if it sounds like it's going to end poorly for him, what about him? And he said, well, you know, that's not for us to decide, you know, time. I want to keep my life. Well, he was basically saying, you worry about you.

You don't worry about him. But I love it. But we do the same thing today. Sure we do. Because they're like, why do bad things happen to good people? I mean, we're eventually going to die. And the Lord could always step in there and say, no, I'm going to keep him alive. That's right.

But to us, I mean, dying. I mean, we started off talking about what happens if, you know, if you're martyred for the faith, I can, with full confidence, said, it's not going to bother any of us, you know. No. I'm like, okay, fine, great. If that's what happened to happen, it does. But I mentioned Revelation, but I'll make a key point because I do think this coincides with John. The first verse of Revelation says the revelation, singular, you know, a lot of people,

they call it Revelations. So it can keep going. Well, right. There's like, oh, let's get in here and see all these wild revelations. Nope, only one. And guess who's it is? Same Jesus we're talking about. The first four words, the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Yep. So it's the same being that we have a hard time comprehending and grasping. That's why people can get in there when it becomes your revelations or your interpretations or you got to stick with Jesus and that's why we're going with John. Another verse I had that I love in the book of John,

which kind of goes into what we're saying because there's a lot of, this is John 539, there's a lot of debate when it comes to, you know, here we are studying the Bible. A lot of people like to argue. And it's impossible for everyone to agree, even at one church. You're going to have disagreements. You know, people think the Bible says this and the Bible says that. And you say, what do you do?

I love this point. Jesus made in John 539, he says, you diligently study the scriptures because you think by them, you possess eternal life. Well, if I just stopped right there, you would think, well, isn't that true? That's what I was thinking. That's what I was thinking. That's why we got to study our Bible. You know, we had all these, when I was a kid, you know, give me the Bible.

You know, that's what I get eternal life. But then he makes this statement, which is our whole point. These, talking about the scriptures, the old scriptures, are the scriptures that testify about me. yet you refuse to come to me to have life. So point being, there are people who study the Bible and there's people who argue the Bible and they have, you know, what they call them, doctrinal matters and they have all these arguments. If you're studying the Bible and you've missed the point that it actually reveals and points to a being named Jesus, which determines what God is like, you've missed it.

It's not a manuscript. up. Maybe that's why, Jase, you don't see the word theologian in the Bible. Yeah, that's true. You know. In fact, when it brings up stuff like that, it says don't have anything to do with stupid controversies and arguments over the law and genealogies. But you go into church buildings and I'm like, why don't they take that verse with the same enthusiasm about the verses they're arguing about?

Yeah. I mean, I can read it. It says avoid all foolish controversy. She's in arguments about the law and genealogies. Where's that? Well, just take this. And it was causing a lot of problems then, and it still causes problems. John starts with, then the beginning was the Word.

The Word was with God. The Word was God. He's with God in the beginning. And the Word became flesh, verse 14. Well, we've seen His glory, the glory of the one and only son. Here's the Jesus, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Well, chapter 4 when he writes his little letters, 1 John 2nd, John, in 1 John 4th, he said, test the spirits.

This is how you can recognize the spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. He said, that's anti-Jesus when you say, God really didn't become flesh, become a human. John said, that's anti-Jesus. You've got to believe that he was who he said he was and who John said he was. Well, and I think that's a- God appeared in flesh.

That's right. So you think about Matthew, Mark, and Luke all basically start and have the full chronology of Jesus. But they start with him being born as a human, right? I mean, it goes through his birth and of the beginning. John, unlike the other three gospel, starts with his divinity. It starts the idea that, yeah, he was flesh, but he was God in flesh. So I feel like his whole book is more from that prism of his divinity and that he makes a case for that. And he gets over at first, second, third, John, and you got these Gnostic saying, well, he wasn't really, you know, in a human body because he couldn't be God and be in a human body.

And so John has taken that on because of his earlier work to say, oh, yeah, he was in a human body because flesh is not bad. You know, God. John 118 says what you're saying. It says no one has ever seen God, but God the one and only who is at the father's side has made him known. Right. I mean, that's basically what he was saying. You want to know what God's like? But for the intellectual philosophical mind,

That's a tough one for it. Oh, yeah. They're like, wait a minute here. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. How could I be looking at the exact representation, the Hebrew writer said, of God in a human body? Right. And right there, they say it's got to be some kind of fairy tale. It just can't be.

Plus, remember the prevailing philosophy at the time the Bible was written, and by the way, it's still here today. Oh, it's years later. is that flesh is bad, mind now is intellect, but spirit is good. Therefore, whatever you do in the body, the Greeks taught that the body, oh, you can have sex with little boys, whatever you want to do. That's all the body. That doesn't matter anyway. It's that intellect.

They kept going back to intellect. Well, you see the same thing today. This whole move toward atheism is it's all about intellect. The body, the flesh, there's nothing. Oh, yeah. But the Bible says just the opposite. It said God created that which is good. Yeah.

And then in us is the Spirit of God. So that's really John's whole point. That's why you notice when you get to John 14 through 16, it's all about, he says, look, when I leave, it's going to be better. And his disciples are saying, better, how can it be better? And he said, because I'm sending the spirit that's in me is going to live in you once I leave here. And it's going to be better for everybody.

You'll have the divine indwelling. So he does the whole introduction of the Holy Spirit. Which flies in the face of people said, we can be good. We don't need God. That's right. We'd be good with our God. They're missing the component that makes them good.

That is correct. I love it when I'm studying with somebody and they're like, I mean, I've tried counseling and I'm like, oh, but there's, I have the ultimate counselor. And they're like, well, how do I get a hold of him? I'm like, well, I'm getting there. Let me introduce you to Jesus. I was going to John. We just talking about I'll give you a counselor.

Yeah. I'm like, oh, it's the ultimate counselor. Because it's day by day. You don't have to make an appointment. You wake up every day with the council. And the fees is low. The charge is super low. Fees real low.

I think it's free. Yeah. All it takes is accepting of it. I keep telling people, you know, Neil Cavuto, he said, and I argued, when I said, he had a show the next day to just kind of go through what's in my little head. But, you know, he was talking about, you know, something about, well, you know, you don't really, I mean, not everybody's sinful and all that and have to make a big turn.

Yeah, it is. I said, everybody's sinful. Right. They have to turn and, you know, do what's right, be good. I said, Kavuto, everybody has sins, even you. He said, oh, not me, never. I thought maybe a few. He said, it's getting hot in here.

Because he was thinking or trying to get on me that you could actually be good without God. Right. You know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah. Well, I think everybody, and look, I think people do good things. Yeah.

But people do good things. things that are not following Jesus. But that doesn't mean they're flawlessly perfect. At some point, we mess up. It's evil, which is an evidence that there is a God. Well, one of the things that's going to come a bunch in the book, once we get into it, is that this was one of the things I think John was trying to impress upon people that he was writing to, is that it was for people that other people looked at and thought were

worthless. You look at John 4 whenever he comes up on this Samaritan woman at the, well, which the Samaritans were basically half-breed. That's the mindset from the Jewish mindset, because they had been taken away into captivity. And so, like, they weren't worthy of a discussion. I mean, it was against Jewish law to even have their shadow cross. And yet, here's Jesus sitting here. She's at this well.

And he's talking to her about her life. I mean, that's why the disciples rolled up when he's talking to her. And they're like, what's he doing, talking to that woman? And a Samaritan woman on that. But he's showing something because they were all ignorant. and they're like, well, he hadn't even eating. You know, they're all thinking, though, now she went off and brought the whole town out. Yeah.

And then you see the same thing in John Nye. Remember the guy's there and he's blind? And the disciples say, Lord, what caused this man to be born blind? Was it his sin or the sin of his parents or somebody else thinking retribution? Every bad thing is because you messed up. So we're a lot of like, he said neither. Yeah, he really didn't answer the question. No, he said neither.

He just said, this happened so that the work of God might be displayed. It might be displayed in his life. So here's a blind guy that's been sitting there. for 40 years blind and Jesus says this guy is going to he's fixing to show you something and then of course he could see I've read that many times I love to say why did this happen and I was like look Jesus addressed it I read John 9 and he said a better question is what are you going to do about it that's right he didn't answer why if he had answered it I'd give you an answer but they said why did it happened and he said what are you going to do about it so so last week you know our buddy tim lawson

and you know played golf with us so he finds out cancers just racked his body you know inside organs so i'd drive down to baton rouge and to see him because i just wanted to pray for him and you know you never know when you get news like that and so we sat there and we talked for a while and you know lawson's a good guy but he was like what i loved about is just he said just what you just what you just what you're hoping for a miracle i'm hoping God just takes this away. And that's what we prayed for. But he said, you know what? As long as he's glorified in the struggle, that's all that matters. So he was saying what Jesus was saying, I don't know why in terms of that it happened to me, but since it did, I just want to make sure God gets glory through the

struggle. I'd like him to take it away because, you know, I'd like to see my grandkids. I'd like to hang around. He just got married, you know, three or four years ago. But he said, God gets the glory no matter what. Well, you take a heart like that. That's what it's all about. That way, if it takes you, it takes. And one of the things people need to understand, they'll, I've heard this over and over and over, and almost identical, I think, to what Peter said.

I believe it was Peter. There's a lot of people and everyone listening to this. What they're basically saying, Phil, I believe, or I believe, but I need some help with my unbelief. Yeah. I need something. So I usually tell them, well, what do you want them to do, write you a letter?

I said, which he did. Which he did. I said, he's written you a series of letters, personal letters, where you can give you some insight on who he is, becoming flesh, his death on a cross to remove your sin, his resurrection, all your problems are falling like dominoes. He solved mankind's problems, things that we cannot fix. Think about it. And the nature of, like, Al, you mentioned those two stories at the women at the well.

Look. That's what his letters are saying about him. So you have to read them. You automatically, though, deduct from John 4, Jesus, who's God in, he's the image of God. He's not a racist. That's right. There's not a racist bone in his body. No.

You get to John 9. you're like he's compassionate that's right if someone's going through a problem not by their own control i mean it just happened he was born blind he's compassionate toward that but i mean we're we're just the first two stories you mentioned if you were just reading it without an agenda without an attack on the christian faith and you said what was jesus like you're not going to see anything that the church is maligned about you know people that's right differentiate that they're They used these things like, oh, but when you just read John and say, what was Jesus like? Loved everybody.

He was compassionate to people. Always forgiving, even at the point of death. Always forgiving. Always sharing. Reinstate people that were betrayed him. So a lot of the problems we bring it on ourselves. I mean, you really think about it. You go to the doctor tomorrow and he tells you you got six months to live.

Well, he didn't tell you anything you didn't already know. That's right. We ain't going to be here. At some point, you're only going to have six months to live. At some point, you're all on the clock. At some point, you get to the end of the clock. But all of a sudden, you're like, well, I'm not on the clock. That is precisely when I zoned in on the resurrection of the dead,

when I looked at that at 28 years old, I'm 73 now, but at 28, I looked at that and I said, if there's ever an opportunity, a chance to get off this planet alive, that's what it's going to be right there. That's what's going to happen right there. If that doesn't happen, I'm not getting out of here. That's right. Well, I just zoned in on it because I'd never heard it.

When I heard that, I said, okay, all right. I was going wide open one way. I'm going wide open the other. That's enough for me right there. Well, if you think about it, Al, that's all we have. It's all we have. Well, one of the things we'll see as we continue this is in John 1, where it says he is life.

in him was life. You know, it's not like he decided to live. He just is life. That's why when it got to Acts 2 and Peter was trying to describe him, it said it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him because he just is life. You know, he became a human so he could die for us. But it's impossible for Jesus to die.

Could fallible men, how if they have they sure haven't proved it could fallible men dream up a infallible god could they do it not in this detail i've done a lot of reading no most people are shocked but i've done a lot of reading i've never come close to anybody you know prognosticating on this and that and the other i've never read a story like this human imagination is pretty powerful but to dream this up well my point is look, when people, they link God, they blame God for death. Yep. When he's life.

So it's not a problem. If you were just life, not you decided to live or that you were living, if you just were life, it was impossible for you to stop living. You would never view death as a problem. At all. There's no problem there. So I can't believe these people died and they were good people. That's right. All things are possible.

To go back to where we started, you know, when the Columbine shooting happened, the guy was going class to class and he was like, anybody followed Jesus? I'm not sure exactly what he said, but he was saying something along those lines. Well, nobody would standing up, you know, well, one girl did, and he killed her. And so, you know, I heard people say, I mean, why would God let that happen? Well, to her, she would rather be dead than deny Jesus. I mean, he put her on the spot. she made a decision that I support honestly as a believer because she knew her faith was so strong that she thought this was a moment and look it encouraged my faith and I'm a million miles away

I never met her but I thought I tell you what and to prove the point that was 20 years ago and we're still talking about her we're still talking about it because she believed that death was not a problem in Jesus you know why John 1 says in him's life there is no death I'm not going to deny it. You can go ahead and shoot me. So we're going to be making the case for Jesus. We're excited about it. We're also going to be preaching through the Book of John at our church at WFR.

So we're looking forward to diving. We want to encourage you to read along with us. This is a great, you know where we're going. So we encourage you to read the Book of John. If, you know, if this is all new to you, just read, you know, a little bit along as you go through. We're going to explain a lot of stuff and just have some fun really diving into the the word this year because I think it would have been encouragement to you. I'm calling it the case for Jesus. I mean, it's a pretty good case. I'll give you a farewell bumper sticker. I've always said,

you know, if you're shooting me, you better not miss. But even if you don't miss, I'll be back. He's like MacArthur. All right, we'll see you next time on Unashamed, the Book of John. So, you know, our family from the beginning, even Duck Dynasty, everything, has been about getting the Word of God to as many people as possible. And YouTube has been a big part. part of that, which we're grateful for. Unfortunately, we're hearing from some of you that they aren't necessarily showing you every episode. So we basically got to let them know that you love this podcast and you want to listen to it.

So there's a way you can help us out as well as yourselves. If you're not subscribed, subscribe to Dad's YouTube channel on YouTube.com slash Phil Robertson on Blaze TV. It's a lot of information. YouTube.com slash Phil Robertson on Blaze TV. That's all one. You hit the notification bell icon. This tells YouTube that this is content that you want.

And we want to try to give them a thumbs up on the videos as well. So do that. That keeps us being able to make sure we get everything out because we want you to keep watching and listening to our podcast, Unashamed.