Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 776 | Jase Gets Burned Face-to-Face by a VIP & Phil Baptizes a Couple of Left-Wing Activists

Episode Date: October 26, 2023

Phil baptizes a mother and daughter who have spent their lives on picket lines as activists, and Jase gets dissed in person by someone who’s definitely not a fan. The guys use biblical clues from the story about the rich man and Lazarus to guess at the nature of heaven and hell. They also hazard a guess as to the powers Jesus’ resurrected body possessed, and Jase discovers a literal hell on earth. In this episode: Luke 16, verses 19-31; 2 Thessalonians, verse 7; Isaiah 52 & 53; Revelation 21, verses 7-8 — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So welcome back to Unashame. I'm still at the Southern Lair. We're still searching for Zach. He's in parts unknown. So maybe we'll discover him. He's trying to find his next project, Al. Yeah. I think I embarrassed him when the last time he was here because I was like, Zach, it's time to move on. You're only as good as your next project.

have not seen him since I said that. You've inspired him, Jay, to look. I was kind of kidding, but, you know, because I like that. What I love about Zach is he's, he's got thick skin. So it's good for him.

He does. Well, he's a dasher. They all do. So I've been, at least I've been heavy into our, our travel season. Because what we mostly speak at are

fundraising banquets. And we just did a marriage thing. well. So I've kind of been traveling around the fruited planes like you have, Jay's doing their show. And it's got me a little bit stopped up today. But it's the, I think it's the vast, um, different climates we have. You know, you don't realize it dad when you, if you don't travel a lot around the U.S. that, I mean, I'd never been to New Mexico before. So we went to, we flew into Roswell, New Mexico, which are, they're known for like aliens. You know, that's where area 54 is there.

What did you see? You see any? I didn't. I didn't. Well, I saw some strange people that maybe were. There could have possibly been aliens. I'm not sure. But what I thought was funny was the little town.

It's just a little Western town. They've leaned into it, you know, but on their little storefronts, you know, about every other store. They're selling T-shirts and little, you know, the eyes. They got the like sunglasses that look like alien eyes. And so I thought, well, I guess they've just leaned into it and thought, you know, it's a chance to have a little commerce. Well, that's the next idea right there. We have a, we, the next movie project for Zach, IFOs, identified flying objects, which would be us.

Because we have an identity in Christ. And part of that identity is the resurrection. IFOs. So is this going to be before or after your good zombie idea? Well, you know what? I think you name the zombie movie IFOs. So you combine that thought. And at some point, the good zombies, which are spirit-filled people, then levitate as their leader comes down to earth.

That's pretty good. Why wouldn't that work? I mean, we're putting all the people. We're doing the legwork here. Where are you going with all this? You said, well, we're studying when he appeared and before he flew away. But when he flew away, he said, I'll be back. So don't worry.

Well, the angel said he'll be back. Yeah, yeah. But actually, you know, only recently did I realize that he actually wasn't flying. or he wasn't levitating because if you had that kind of power, you wouldn't have to do that. He was only doing that, kind of like the picture of Luke 16. He created a picture that I'm bigger than the laws of gravity and nature.

I'm bigger than that. So watch this. This is a hold my wine. Yeah. You know, hold my wine and watch this. Her home my fermented grapes and watch it. levitate, but he didn't have to do that. You know, for years, I thought, oh, we're flying because of First Thessalonians 4.

We will meet the Lord in the air. But we are identified in Christ. So we would be identified with a name. This Luke 16, he gave Lazarus. You would be an identified flying object. It's flying objects. So I figured out, I think, why, that if there are these aliens, why they picked that particular part of our country because there's no trees there.

In fact, so we were speaking at the town, the little town we spoke at was called Artesia, which was like a neighboring town to Roswell. And I drove 45 minutes. I never saw a tree. And when I got there, I told the people, I said, I've got a deal for you guys. Like Louisiana, we got a lot of tree. We could loan y'all some trees because I'm assuming they could grow here. Does somebody just come through and say, no trees in New Mexico?

I mean, there's no trees there. No wonder the aliens can you can see for miles. It was amazing. I've never seen a place. There's no trees there. Maybe that's why they're seeing so many aliens because anything you see on the horizon becomes an unidentified object because they don't have trees. Yeah.

No woods, which is kind of strange. So we went from there literally from, I mean, New Mexico to Minnesota. Soda, and the Soda, and it was like an hour and a half north of Minneapolis. So we're way almost up toward Canada. And what was amazing about that, the shift, of course, when we got there, you're right on the Mississippi River, just like we are. So it looked just like it was a northern version of Louisiana. You got trees, you got rivers, you got lakes, completely different setup.

And a bunch of hunters, I found some Minnesota redneck stays where I was. Really? Yeah, and we did a marriage thing. But they had opening day of pheasant season the day we were there. And so those guys were sacrificed in pheasant to come here to speak about marriage. Well, that's kind of proud. Did they have the same accent where they say ducks like they're mad at them? They say duck hunting.

Yeah. Duck hunting. Yeah. Of course, and they were laughing at how slow we taught. But it was a great church, great group of people. And they had a couple of worship leaders had a little opening act. I called them the Velvet Bros. They were wearing velvet jackets and they had a little like a funny not-so-newly-wed game that led into every one of our segments.

I don't, that doesn't work. The contrast is more than I can bear. If you're going to set up in front of a semi-duck blind, and for you that are listening, we have a picture. it looks like kind of a 1980s disco band one of them has a mullet you know's there too he's working the old because the mullet is back you know so but those were the worship leaders and I don't know they were I don't know what the velvet jackets were for but you know it just kind of added to their flavor so yeah but they had the little

display set up for pictures which I thought was kind of funny and I didn't even notice it the first day but these this is because people. I mean, everywhere you go, and it seems like lately the Almighty dad has been taking us to blue states. I mean, these are states that politically, you know, kind of don't line up with us, but you meet the best people in the world that are there. And I just kind of always, you know, I hate that they're in some of these situations, but they're, they're godly, amazing people doing. One little team, a woman and her daughter, they came all the way from New York City. New York City

I said where are you from They said New York They said The mother of the two Said you've seen these people Running up and down the streets of New York New York City

If you've noticed that And they carry these signs And they were chanting and all that They said that's us right there Until we read one of your books And we said wait a minute here It's a little guy is talking about being lifted off the earth and spend eternity alive.

And she said, what am I doing? I'm running around graphing and complaining with a lot of other people. And I don't even know what I'm doing there. So they said, so we repented and we are ready to be baptized if you will do that. And I said, I will do that. I said, so I sat down. We studied. This is a little group there about 40 or 50.

But they were two of them. They said the ones you see with the signs and chanting this and that and other, that's what we've been doing. And we've run out of, we're done with it. So thanks to you, Dad, you've taken them right off the picket lines. Oh, I said, well, these kind of stories make me feel good, you know. Me too. The Lord can really tear down walls. I'll never forget, Jason, when the show was about to launch, the little bit of the little

duck show we used to do. It was about to launch. We went to New York City and to be there for some kind of event. And I was so amazed because about every four blocks, in fact, we stopped at one and took a picture. There was a, there would be on every bus stop, every few blocks, there would be a picture, a big giant picture of you or dad or Willie or Cy. And it was like all over the city. And I was just, I don't know why it intrigued me so much, but I was amazed because I thought, we're in New York City, but every four blocks, there's a picture of one of y'all four with the, you know, they kind of elongated your beards. And I thought, I wonder what the people who live here who have no idea what this shows about it.

Because it didn't even have anything else on it that I recall, just a picture of y'all. I thought, I wonder, what do they think when they're sitting there waiting on their bus and they're heading down to wherever? and they look over there and see a picture of dad. What are they thinking about that? I know what they're thinking. Those poor people. There's a little header.

There's one floating around now out there. And it says he is not woke. Oh, I know. You told us about that last podcast. It sent your head into a tailspend. There's so many new words now that people are. are inventing for their beliefs. And I'm not really impressed with that.

I mean, I think IFOs are a little more creative and way more inspirational. Identified flying, identifiable flying. Yeah, you can play that song. I believe I can fly. Yeah. Well, I really do. If this is all a lie, this book that we've been looking at for the last 40 years, 50. if this is some kind of story somebody made up what a doozy of a story did they ever come up with

it's no it would be impossible for somebody to out to sit there and go back in time and put all these dates together and then you have people that will be raised from the dead so whoever that you couldn't make pull that off by just getting together by ten of you or 30 of you or whatever some learning center and come up with this i mean you just couldn't do it's like you said uh about the family from new york city so when we did the vip uh meeting greet at the mighty oaks event the other night this guy came up he had a vietnam hat on you know vietnam veteran and so you know everybody was bit you're in a vipe line they pay money i don't know what they paid, but I'm sure it was pretty substantial just to have their 10-second meeting greet here.

And this guy steps up here and he said, I never liked you. And it was just an awkward pause. Because usually I say the same things over and over, you know, because they're like, I'll watch the show. I didn't have a response to I never liked you. But the more I watched and the more I listened, I thought, maybe I should see for myself what this Jesus is all about. And so he said, the more I looked, the more I realize, I think they're right.

I said, and so now you're here and you paid a lot of money to tell me that. That's funny. He never said he liked you. He never did say he repented. I still don't think he likes me, but I don't care because he loves the Lord now. That's right. And a man shouldn't think of himself more highly than he ought. And but, you know, he was just a no-nonsense military guy.

Yeah, right. And he just, he doesn't like how I roll. And that is perfectly fine with me. As long as you're in the Lord, you know, we'll love each other in spite the fact that you just never have liked me. I thought it was funny. And I think if you can't laugh at yourself also, it was just his opinion. And by the way, he gave me a $400 bill from Vietnam. And he said, I want you to give this to your Uncle Si and tell him,

and whatever Vietnam president that he named, because I couldn't re-pronounce that, and he said it real quick. He said, you tell him that this. Vietnam president appreciates his service, which it caused me to laugh. So next time I see Sa, I'm going to give him $400. I think, weren't they called Dong? We did an episode on that. Yeah, Sao buried a bunch of dongs out in his yard of Vietnamese money because he thought

one day that might be worth something. And then he couldn't remember where he buried it. And so we tried to make an episode out of it, which turned out pretty, pretty funny. It was kind of like the story I told you when he lost the classified documents. And he actually defended that and still does to this day. Well, you know, it's so funny about that, Jay's. That episode, they actually, when they were filming it, they actually discovered in that episode, not, you know, not on camera, but that size house was riddled with termites.

and so, which was actually reality was even funnier. So he had to, they had to tear down that house. And that's when he got in McLeighton home, he lives in now. But when they were doing that episode, somebody on the crew discovered the termites and eaten size house. It was something as simple as,

Sai, your house is literally falling down. It's riddled with termites. And you know what Sye said? Hey. Let's take a break. Oh, that's funny. I had forgotten that.

I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, started as Clayton Holmes, but she has a nice place now. So we've been talking about Luke 16. And the last episode, Jason, we were talking about this story that Jesus tells about the rich man of Lazarus. And it really, you know, kind of opens up a lot of, you know, I guess conjecture that people have about what heaven's going to be like,

what hell's like. We established in our opinion that we think that wasn't the point of the story. The story is about judgment, about making a decision, about not waiting until it's too late, was what his point was in making your choice.

But there are some elements in there that are interesting when you think about what heaven's like, what hell's like. Because most people want to know, that and I get it. And we said on the podcast, the last podcast, that Jesus talks quite a bit about heaven and hell, but more about hell, actually, than he does about heaven. And there's a lot of different metaphors, a lot of different pictures. And one of those was fire. It was interesting. And you talked about Keller, kind of his view of that, which I tend to kind of agree with. Yeah, he made a

profound statement. I don't know if we ever said it on the main podcast, but we did an overtime that, you know he got up to preach this sermon on luke 16 and he was like you know i get questions about whether this fire is a literal fire and he said the more i've studied you know i don't think it's a literal fire i think it's a metaphor and so you could hear this collective relief murmur yeah everybody oh all right and then he pauses and says however what it represents do believe is way worse. And then it's like, oh, back to murmuring. And we're kind of being flippant with this,

but the bottom line is it is scary. And this is a picture. And I told you my take on why I think a real name is used here, Lazarus, which means, to your point, God helps. God helps. But if you're trying to obtain eternity, by any or just attain satisfaction on earth by anything other than God's help, it's not going to end well.

I mean, even if you don't believe, well, what is your thoughts? If you don't believe in God, you just end. That's it? Or, I mean, there's a few Hollywood thoughts that, like, I'll freeze my body, then maybe a thousand years from now, technology will catch up. They'll get me back going again. Or you believe that you're absorbed into whatever this energy is that's causing life to happen. I mean, even in the world of non-believers, they just don't have many ideas about how to continue.

They're trying to fix it via robots. Well, and then that's not you. We have the power now to put whatever, all these things in a robot's head. And he goes out and he does the work and he does this. And when he kind of falters a little bit, we'll just adjust a few little things in there and he'll kick back at it.

And he'll just live long as we're here, he'll just live on. Now, when we pass, we'll have other people coming along, making sure that the robot is still operating. Yeah. You know, good luck with that. Then you have the spirit. People who believe, well, I'm just going to be a spirit. But when you think about that, think about being only in spirit form.

I mean, even the Holy Spirit is connected in oneness with God, who has a visible image. you know, in the Bible, and you have Jesus who obviously became a man. Became a man. But if you were just a spirit, well, just think about this. You would have whatever that conscious dwelling would be without a way to express it, which sounds a little more like hell. Just imagine you have no way to express. So when you really, it comes back to Jesus and you start looking at the details of this,

to your point about who could make this up, the more you look at the details, the more you're convinced, this is coming from something outside of our universe. I mean, the Bible itself. It's like the writer and the creator has stepped into the creation and actually done something supernatural

where God becomes visible via a human from a virgin. So it starts off supernatural, but then he lives a human life. You know, he's a carpenter. He builds houses. He's helping kids. Then all of a sudden he starts doing supernatural things. He's doing miracles.

But the human side of him is he's getting tired. And so you're seeing the supernatural in an ordinary way, and we're ordinary humans. And then it culminates by him coming back from the dead. and then functioning as an ordinary human again, you know, eating the fish on the riverbank, having hugs, having conversations. That's why I love Acts 1 when it says, as you alluded to, Phil, as he levitates,

and the angels says that's real specific, it says this same Jesus, who you've seen taken up into heaven shall return. So just think about that statement. So look. This same Jesus. Yeah. So look, and before his arrival, 760 BC,

once somebody by the name of Isaiah said, see, my servant will act wisely. He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Now, how does this dude 760 years before Jesus died with red, red, red, How does he know this? Just as there were many who were appalled at him. Where are you at? Isaiah, where? I'm Isaiah 52, 53.

His form marred beyond human likeness. After they got done with him, Jace, you couldn't even tell what it was there. Yeah, so Isaiah's prophesying about what would happen to the son of man that predict Jesus, the Messiah. So will he sprinkle many nations? and kings will shut their mouths because of him. He's going to have a powerful influence on the human race. But what they were not told, they'll see.

And what they've not heard, they'll understand. Who's believed they're a message? Well, that message, this is 760 years before Jesus came and Virgin Mary died on a cross, buried in or two. Who's believed their message? to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him in like a tender chute, like a root out of dry ground. So it was very, a root out of dry ground.

It's not going to happen. Well, you look over there and you say, well, it does that. He had no beauty or a majesty to attract us to him. Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. And at about this point, most people would say, this actually happened, this being, like one from whom men hide their faces,

he'd come by, you'd just turn like, oh, my goodness, who in the world? He was despised. We esteemed him not. surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows yet we considered him stricken by god stricken by him smitten by him and afflicted he was pierced for our transgressions crushed for our iniquities the punishment that brought us peace was upon him by his wounds were healed we all like sheep have gone astray each of us has turned to his own way and the lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all. What a story. No, it's a fantastic point. It was kind of a Keller's point when he did the lesson, which is you don't appreciate the love of God to you understand there's a real hell because the punishment that was laid on Jesus' back should have been our punishment because we're all unworthy. This is a wild arrival any way you want to slice it.

Which is why Jude, you know, would say in, in his little book that by sharing Jesus, you know, you snatch people from the fire. Whether this fire is literal, we realize that, you know, what happens in fire? What picture are we given here? Whether it's literal or whether it's figurative. And you throw in the verses like, isn't it? Where's the one that says God will punish those who do not know God and who do not obey the gospel? uh yeah this is second thessalonians one seven he'll give relief to you who are troubled and

to us as well he'll pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are trouble which is this idea of justice and and judgment is really god making all the injustices of the world right now granted he made them right for for our sake on the cross but he's also going to hold to account all the injustices that evil people do, which is what the final judgment is all about. Well, that gives us relief and comfort and gives us a way to forgive on this earth. He's the perfect king.

Yeah. So then he makes this statement. King over what? He'd say, his followers. No, you're right, Phil. I mean, I wouldn't be for a judgment setting, or I wouldn't be for a king-led country if the king wasn't perfect. That's right.

The judge wasn't perfect. You know, the problem with having a king now is that we're all imperfect. There's not even to come close. Well, exactly. So every time we get into this, you know, people say, well, geez, I mean, I'm not for a monarchy. You know, that's why I don't follow Jesus. I had somebody say it one time. I was like, yeah, but what if the king was?

perfect. Yeah, and it would take more than a Jesus to invent a Jesus. It would take more than more than the... Well, if he was just a man, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, it's a valid point. But in that second third song, one passage, it says this will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven. Now look at here we go again in blazing fire with his powerful angels. Now, will it be a literal fire? I mean, will it be a fireball or is it just showing a power? A power of consuming fire, he will punish those who do not know God, who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Now listen to how this puts it. They'll be punished with everlasting destruction. Now, I'm not sure what everlasting destruction is, but I won't know part of it. I mean, because my mind has a hard time.

If you miss it and miss him and faith in him, it would be, it would fit right there. Well, and it actually clarifies that by saying, and shut out from the presence of the Lord. Yep. So, because you look at, there's other pictures, Al, about hell when you think about gnashing of teeth. That's a phrase you used. And you said, what, gnashing of teeth?

So you've got to get a visual on that. Well, the visual's uncomfortable. Because every time you've ever gnashed your teeth, you were in a lot of pain. You know, yeah, you're like, eh. Well, that's an incredible. credible visual to relate to your eternal death. I want nothing to do with that. So then I've had people argue, well, what about these passages that say hell is blackest

darkness or a pit of darkness? Yeah. Because they're like, well, if you got a fire, why would it be dark? How can you see, it's a contradiction. And that's why I think there has to be some metaphorical language being used here. That's right. because it's basically bringing up the scariest things we can relate to, saying that's where you're going to be.

Well, instead of trying to be prideful, why not first consider, I don't need to go there. It's just bad. It's bad, and it can't be any more clear in getting your picture. And very uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. I don't believe it because if I'm on fire, it wouldn't be dark. So I'm just not going to believe it.

Now, the real reason you don't want to believe it is because you don't want to deal the consequences of why and how people go there, which to your point, it's really, we see this in Luke 16 from the rich man. He was self-absorbed. He thought he had a power. He did not feel like an unworthy servant or human, which we're going to get into in the next chapter. He just thought he was somebody. and when you think you're somebody, you see no need for God. And when you think about it literally, we do make mistakes. Accidents do happen.

We're flawed. We are perishable. We do not really have any power in and of ourselves. So I became kind of enamored with fire through this because I thought, you know, there's something about... While the fire's burning, you're out there in the middle of it. and if anybody's been watching, they just look at your flesh being buried in the dirt

in a slow process of where you basically disappear and just rot, you rot, and there's no sign of you anywhere. All this fire and all this, the ones that made it, that all is right over here, but all you see is they dig a hole and throw you in it.

Well, right. Well, you know, one thing Keller thought that I'm not sure I agree with, but I thought it was interesting because he kind of had a three-pronged attack, which is, you know, fire disintegrates in this context. It's about justice, you know, the refining fire that's used in various places in the Bible. Your heart stop, you disappear. Even when you go through suffering and persecution, it's, you're just a lot of, you, you're used as an analogy of fire.

And you remember when Peter in his letter did that. So it's like a refining process. So anything that doesn't really matter is burned up. But the things that do matter. Or the impurities. Yeah. Here are the impurities. You know, the idea that you would refine gold or silver, a lot of the New

Testament writers use that image of fire. You're right. He made an assertion that that's really what hell is. is about, it's more of a disintegrating eternity of what you escalated yourself to a point where you didn't want to be in the presence of God. And therefore, he's basically just allowing you to have the fulfillment of what your heart desired. And it's not going to hold up, and that's your eternity. I mean, it was a pretty profound thought, but I thought, hmm.

but what I wanted to read is another picture, and we talked about this in overtime, but I felt like it was important to bring up. You know, the book of Revelation, there's a letter or seven letters written to seven churches, which is not apocalyptic language in the first three chapters. And he basically starts off Revelation saying these things are about to occur, like there's some kind of judgment going to come on believers, and Christians followers of Jesus are going to be marked. martyred. Well, then from chapter 4 to chapter 22, there's all these pictures of this great war between good

and evil, between those who follow Jesus and those who do not, and the evil one is brought up, and the nations that are used by the evil one to oppress godly people. And look, it would take us a lot longer to go through that. And I hope one day we do get into it. But without getting into the details, the kind of things that we're talking about in Luke 16 come up. And just to give you an illustration of that, chapter 20, and about verse, let's see where am I, like the second part of six, it says the second death has no power over them. They will be priest of God and of Christ and will rain. And then it starts talking about Satan's doom.

And he sees this fire. It came down from heaven in verse 9. And the evil one who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented, day and night. Then he sees this great white throne. And these books are open. And we made the point about the book of life.

those whose name were written in the book of life, verse 15, if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. And then in chapter 21 and verse 8, which is a famous passage, it says, but the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexual immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. And he says, this is the second death. So then a lot of people say, what is the second death? So we know that Hebrews 9, 27, you know, man is destined to die once and then face judgment. Judgment. And that's all in the context of Jesus sacrificing for our sins so that when we stand before God, we will be deemed clean

based on his righteousness and not ours. So then all of a sudden you see this picture form of this this second death. And so the reason I'm bringing this up is because our world is obsessed with that yolo, you only live once. Well, after I read this, I'm thinking, I hope I only die once. And then face judgment. And I'm welcome because if you die twice, so what would that be yodoo? Yodoo.

We could start a new trend instead of yolo. You could have. Yodo. Yodo. Not to be confused with Yoda, the character on. Or baby Yoda. Yeah. So I just think it's interesting, though.

It's giving you this picture. And so what I did, I thought this is interesting. So I was looking up last night about why fire is so unique. You just think about the earth and all the things that are created. And it's the whole reason I was interested in God. was really when I was a kid, I just remember looking at creation itself, a person of the outdoors who was always drawn to that,

and just the details of life, and looking at the sky and seeing the stars, and I just thought, somebody had designed this. I mean, that was my draw. And your conversion, Phil, you know, kind of validated that because it's like, oh, the same God, who, the designer, who created this,

he also came to Earth in Jesus, And so I was putting all the pieces together. But I've always been enamored with fire because I'm like, how did this just happen? Because it's so mesmerized. You're thinking about how many times you've been sitting around a campfire and there's something about it that is just mesmerizing to me. And so I was looking up all the science of that. What I stumbled across, which I wanted to get y'all's comments on this. So there's a place called the Darvaza gas crater.

Have you ever heard of that? It's in a country, and I'm going to try to pronounce this country, Turkmenistan. It's right beside Afghanistan. It used to be under Russian rule for years because I started researching this. Now, before you go visit this Darvaza gas crater, it was like number two or three in like human rights violations. I mean, right behind North Korea. So just take that into consideration.

But what happened was over 50 years ago, they were doing some, they had some big equipment out there, and they were going to try it because it has a lot of natural gas deposits there in that country, and that's the way they make their money. Well, they had all this heavy equipment. And so when they were digging down a little bit, this crater formed. And all the machines just got thrown into the pit here. And miraculously, no one died over this.

Well, so they tried to get the machines out. But what they noticed is every time they would come up when they were trying to get the machines out, that all the wildlife that came up to this crater would just die. They just fall over dead. And so they realized that some kind of gas was emitting out of the crater. And so they got together and said, well, let's light this thing. Let's see if it's flammable. So they light the hole in the ground.

That was over 50 years ago. And the fire has never gone out. And they've dubbed it the pit of hell. And tourists go there and see it. This thing has been on fire for over 50 years. And it's big. It's about 240 feet across and about... But humans started the fire.

Humans started the fire. And now they can't put it out. Can't put it out. And if you look at a picture, if you Google it, it looks like the pit of hell. The pit of hell. And what I found fascinating as I was reading this, Of course, it's some kind of natural gas, you know, a fire that literally won't go out.

But what was the most fascinating is because this wildlife gets confused. And they say sometimes of the year, like thousands of spiders migrate to this. And they all just jump in the pit. And I mean, they all die. And there was a lot of fascinating articles. It's like one of the wonders of our world, but I thought, you know, if you really wanted to get a picture or try to explain, you know, from God's perspective, what being shut out from the presence of God is like, and you actually have a place on Earth that for 50 years just been burning due to human error or human mistake and just the very creation itself, it is just kind of interesting that there's a place in our way. where there's just a fire pit where you can't put it out you can't there it is look at there's the picture of it that's what it looks like good that night that's what it is and look and and

creatures keep falling in it to their death you're like why would they can't figure out that you shouldn't jump in there or and it just made me think about hell and how it relates to human beings being shut out from the presence of God is the worst possible scenario. You know, let's just say for a minute, there is a creator. It's God. This plan is true. How else is he going to describe not being in his, he's eternal. He's not on the same time scale as we are.

And he wants what's best for us, and he proved it throughout history by sending Jesus. Well, how else is he going to scratch? What else, what worst thing can you come up with? And the more I read about that pit, the more I realized, that's why he's using that literal or figurative. Because there are literally thousands of things dying when they get anywhere near that thing, and it won't go out. And so now they're trying to figure out how to put it out,

and they can't figure it out. I mean, they literally, you think technology has come to a place where we can figure out how to get a fire out. but they can't make it stop. When you go down that rabbit hole, you'll see they've pretty well tried everything possible. What's delayed it is the country is, you know, so poor and they have such a bad reputation that they are making a little money from tourists coming to look at because people are trying, other, you know, very smart people are trying to figure out scientists and different things.

What is, what, why won't this thing go out? Which is, you're right, the spiritual implications of it. And just the idea of it. And that maybe, because you think about fire itself, like, we're on the, we're on the crust of a planet. We're walking around every day. But like, if you just started drilling down, you're going to run into fire, ultimate. I mean, we're at the core of our planet is molten lava. You know, when we were out.

it's coming from both directions. That's right. Which is pretty amazing when you think about. There's fire coming out of sky. Coming out of heaven. I mean, I'm looking up, you know, you see a big ball of fire go across. What in the world was that? If something comes through the atmosphere, guess what it does?

Catches on fire. Yeah. Well, I read an interesting article about so a few years ago, you know, there's a guy. It was almost, you know, the story was like the equivalent of the, you know, the first, us first landing on. the moon you know some guy got in a suit that was supposedly fireproof and all and i guess it was as it turned out and a guy went to the bottom of the pit some scientists he said we got to figure it out you know of course he went down there and walked around on the fire and they made a big deal of it

and uh and lived to tell about it didn't incinerate which was incredible and but then he still can't figure it out so you know it's like i was so fascinated by by this place because it's literally in the middle of nowhere. I mean, have you ever heard of Turkmenistan? I didn't even know it was a country. Never heard of it. I've heard of it, but yeah. Then I read about it.

It's not like they're well known. Yeah. And it's like it's a remote country already. And then this fire pit is in like the most remote place of the country. It's no life. And so, uh, and everything that is alive, every time they go around that pit, they wind up dying. And it's just a, it's a phenomenon on our earth.

But I just thought it's interesting to me to read something written 2,000 years ago. And you have a living illustration 2,000 years later. And you're like, make sense to me. I need to see what God's all about. I mean, it's a perfect illustration. That's why I wanted to bring it up. Because before I, you know, before we had that, I remember thinking ever, you know, when I was younger,

every time I heard that Bob Sear song, that Fire Lake, you know, he made a song about it. And I thought, how could the man not pursue Jesus? Because it was an interesting song. And because he took things that didn't seem, you know, he had the bronze beauties. He had the eights and aces. Uncle Joe, you remember Uncle Joe.

His big thing was he wouldn't cut the, the cake. Yeah. So as a kid, I couldn't understand that. I thought the man went to Fire Lake because he wouldn't cut a cake. But later on, I figured out, I thought, oh, he wouldn't get married. You know, so evidently he was like, I guess he was thinking, oh, this guy's like wanting to sleep with as many women as possible, but he wouldn't get married.

I mean, that's the only thing I'd come up with because I don't think there's anything wrong cutting a cake. So I thought he had to become a way. Unless I always thought it was he would. He didn't want to recognize he was getting older, like cut the birthday cake. Who's heading out to Fire Lake, he keeps asking. Who's heading out to Fire Lake? Yeah, so if you're not unfamiliar with that song and you want to be motivated to give your life to Jesus.

And like we said, the fire lake is not the motivation for coming to Christ. The rest of the Bible, the most, is all about God's grace for you. And there's not a whole lot in there about hell. as compared to God's love in the New Testament. Would you agree with that? Yep. Because that's how God calls people. That's what will really change your heart

and give you motivation to be used by God, which is live a life of love. That's why when I preach, I share God's grace in Jesus. I might mention hell as an alternative place to live instead of with God forever. But I know that I've read this enough to know that God wants new creations based on his love and grace. And that's then going to go out to people as you minister to them. You know, standing on the street corner saying Turner Byrne was not God's idea.

It's the gospel of Jesus, the good news of Jesus. He said, going to the world, preach. No doubt. But he did mention this in Luke 16. If you think you're going to find satisfaction on this earth. And, you know, even in Luke 12, remember when we read when he said, don't fear those who can kill the body, but fear the one who has the power to throw your whole self into hell. Right.

Which is, of course, the entire point we're trying to make. So we're out of time. but a couple of thoughts I had. I thought you were going to sing another song from Revelation 21-8. I'm going to sing it in our overtime. If you want to check that out. We need to get the Bob Seeger song, Al. Yeah, that's right.

See if we can get him to support our podcast so we can play that. But go listen to Fire Lake. We'll get Maddie to work on that. So we'll see you in overtime. 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 new episodes.

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