Jesus Christ Show | Hour 2 [12/31]

You're listening to KFI on demand. Mark, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Hello Jesus Him Mark, what's going on my pleasure? Well, my wife and I we just recently went through bankruptcy and I'm self employed, she's self employed, and we've had a real rough year and we've you know, we've lost everything. We've lost our house, our cars, pretty much everything. So we're starting over. We're already at the bottom, so the only way we can go is up. So I'm just calling for encouragement and we

continually, you know, try. I'm still a contractor, have a masony and concrete business, and we've been faithful Tithers. We've always gone to church, We've been involved in our church, but we we just haven't gone because we don't have a car anymore. And I'm just trying to figure out what can I learn from this. I mean, I I have a relationship with you. I look forward to talking to you throughout the day. I go to bed, I pray to you. I'm just I don't know, I

just I'm confused right now. And I know you're not the author of confusion, but I just need clarity on when I'm supposed to get out of this, and if if we're going for experiencing a like a fruit of I'm going through bankruptcy being Christians, and maybe we're still suffering repercussions of it with our our work. I mean, we just can't we can't see me get a paycheck. And it's not the lack I'm trying. I don't know. I don't know what to do. I have kids and it's just got a lot

of my shoulders right now. I just I don't know what to do. Mark, what what does your wife do? You say she's self employed as well. Yeah, she's a realator. Oh boy, so you guys are getting tag teamed on this one. And she approaches her work as a ministry. She true truthfully likes to help people because she's we've lost her house, so she likes to counsel people that have gone through that. And we're we're approaching everything with the right perspective. But it's just every door keeps shutting.

And these businesses were prosperous at one time. Yes they were. My mind was my wife's recently went back to work about a little bit over a year ago. Yeah, that's a tough time to go back into real estate. Yeah, as far as being a contractor. And you called and you're being incredibly brave and honest, and I appreciate that, Mark, and I know that it's it's hard for you. And men tend to tie a lot of their value and worth up into their job and how they're providing for their family.

And I realize you're being hit on many different levels physically, the stress of it emotionally, that those battles that you go on with yourself about oh gosh, I'm less of a man because I'm not providing any of these things then, and that's of the devil, by the way, sure, and all those things are going to beat on, uh, you know, come at you from different sides in addition to you know, really the the finances being falling out from underneath you. But you you built that from nothing,

Okay, so you've been at nothing before. This is probably the first time, with a wife and kids to be in a situation where you're going, oh my goodness. And a lot of times when people get to that that that die or place of having to make such a decision as bankruptcy. And I know that there's Christians that go back and forth, whether it's a Christian option. Some people argue, you know, bankruptcy is a legal option,

not a moral option. All these things, let's push that aside to look at what's going on in your life and the fact that you own it. To look around at the best thing is there's only so much more you can lose, uh, And also how you're going to rebuild this and what you're going to do differently, because that's where you're at. You're at a rebuilding stage. You can't really salvage, you continue to hemorrhage and all these things

money and you're you're saying you can't pull a paycheck. This is the time to look at what you do for a living and whether you want to do something else or whether you're just going to do a hold me over and jump into any job and that's fast food, that's anything to be in the workplace again. And also what methods you you used that didn't work as far as

putting money aside. I we have many different friends of the Jesus Christ Show, and they have are from many different walks of life, and I talk to them all about the things that they do, whether it's saving money or investing or whatever they do and why they do it. And we have friends of the show that are are that are actors, and that's not a very sturdy line of work. And I know some athletes and these types where you look, gosh, that's a very temporal that's very limited as to how long

you're going to be able to work. And I fear that sometimes although the mindset of those types of jobs is, hey, we have to save now, we have to work as much as we can, we have to do what we can now because it's not always going to be there, whereas some of your more traditional jobs tend to think, oh, well, the work's always going to be there, or the money, the income is always going

to be there, and that's not necessarily the case either. Did you build a plan, did you have a savings account, did you have things that as far as a safety net. No, Well, we moved and I moved into a new region where it was booming with construction. And the problem is we bought a big house that we could not afford. And you know, when I bought the house, my income was great. I didn't plan

ahead for the future. So the house, you know, was the first step and going causing the bankruptcy, and I did not have a plan for our future idea. I assumed, you know, I go, well, just once again, our house get established and I'll start that. And I didn't do that, And this is where I am. Well. Buying a house is a strange thing. As you'll find a lot of people say, hey, listen, you want to stretch your your comfort zone in buying a

home. But as we've seen the evidence of in the past that a lot of people did that when they couldn't and they stretched themselves beyond a normal limit and went to a limit that it's not practically. You point that out yourself, and that's a that's a healthy statement for you to make. Say hey, this is where I think we did went wrong. So now you have a better outline of how to do it right this time. And that's kind

of where your mindset has to be. You have to switch from the mindset of gosh, I need to make money as a masonry and say, okay, as a mason, I'm not bringing in this money. Now, I need to look and find out any kind of work I can do anything you're looking at getting work. I've even talked to people on the program that are out of work, and I tell them to do voluntary work because you shouldn't

be you shouldn't be stagnant. You need to be up and around and you need to be interacting with people, and you need to be meeting them, and they need to be meeting you, and you need to be using skills, and you need to find ways to do that now, otherwise you're going to continue to wither. As far as it being a punishment, it's not a punishment. It's a consequence. It's a consequence to the things that you

did. There were some things that you did that weren't very smart. You said, Okay, we're gonna put I'm gonna put us in a house that that's over extending us and you're not going to save and you put yourself in a situation where if there was a problem, it's okay, you can't staff the firehouse as if there's never going to be a fire. Yeah, and

that's that's the problem. But the best thing I hear, Mark is that you you are in charge of this, You and your wife are partners, and that you are already making note of the things that you did wrong. So it's a matter of jumping back in just differently. You're people try and jump back in where they where they stopped, and that's not what you're doing. You have to jump back in at the beginning, and you got to

kind of start over again, but better. It's like the old saying, Oh, going back, I wish I knew now what I or I wish I knew then what I know now? Well now you do, so start over clean, but start over smart. Mary Ellen, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Hi. Either we recognize the anti Christ? What are his most obvious elderly signs? Well, yeah, traits or behaviors. How do we get away from him? Well, in scripture, there's there's not a

whole lot given. There's throughout the centuries, you've had people think anybody in political power or prominence is the Antichrist. The President's always been believed to be the Antichrist by someone you go to Vladimir Putin, you go to Pope's. People always are trying to attribute the anti Christ moniker to people throughout history. Even Martin Luther was convinced way back when the Pope in his time was the Antichrist. So in the nineteen forties, when you believed it was Adolf Hitler.

And these don't, as sssarily point to the specifics of scripture, because Scripture doesn't have a whole lot of specifics when it comes to the Antichrist, doesn't say anything too specific about where he, she it will come from. But a lot of Bible scholars do speculate, and through that speculation, people start hearing things and thinking, wollow, Okay, well, it's got to

come from this group board, it's got to come from that. Some believe that it's going to be a rebirth of the Roman Empire, that through that

rebirth the Antichrist will come. Scripture talks about the fact that there will be certain attributes, certain things that the the the Beast, or the Antichrist will do and or say, their blasphemies against God, putting themselves above God, these types of things, and many many Biblical scholars have stated that it's probably most unlikely that the majority of people would even really get an idea who the Antichrist was until the Antichrist was in full form, and there's tons of speculation

so on things like this where there's so much speculation, I say this, if you know enough about the truth, if you spend enough time in God's Word with God's people, then it will stand out. It will be juxtaposed, and you will see it more vibrant that there is something amiss and it's

people look for the anti Christ under every rock, and there's problems. Everybody in the history up into this point that is claimed to think somebody was the Antichrist has been wrong, and how that individual comes to power is not essentially known. But the hope is that you will have a good understanding of the truth of the Word of God to know the difference to know that something is wrong, because the anti Christ is probably going to use a lot of terms

about God and religion and all of these things. There are some that believe that the anti Christ has to be a Jew because he has to claim messiahship, so things like that. People go back and forth, but really it's all speculation. And Mary Ellen, it's not that you should fear the Antichrist. It's that you should adhere to God and to God's word and God's truth and to be rooted in that. It's like asking, how can I tell

a counterfeit? Well, you can spend a lot of time learning about what a counterfeit is like and the details of a counterfeit and the different processes that go into making a counterfeit bill. Or you can be around real money enough to wear. The minute something that is just a little off crosses your fingertips, he'll know. And that's the best way to do it, because there's

too much speculation back and forth as to what it is. And there's you know that people worry about all every little nook and cranny anything it's a little different. That's why throughout the history of the Church, people have gone, oh, there's the Antichrist. No, there's the Antichrist. No, there's the Antichrist. It's not going to be a guessing guy. When the anti

Christ comes and is in full force, that Christians should know. Christians should know not just a gut feeling, but there should be a tremendous sense and understanding that what that person is doing is against scripture and against the Holy Word of God, and that the Word of God is going to be the measuring rod of what is right or what is wrong, and that's that's going to be the test. Tom. Welcome to the Jesus Christia. Hello Jesus,

I have a question for you. Well, actually, a couple of I went to Catholic school for twelve years, and I'd heard the term agnostic. It wasn't until recently that, you know, with the advent of the Da Vinci Code and the recent letters that were found in Hagnamatti, that there were Gnostics, the Saint James, sat Philip Thom, Saint Thomas. What what? Why did it seem like the Catholic religion was against that particular offshoot of

Christianity? And is it possible to have a relationship with God, with Jesus, with you without an organized religion? Now are you're talking about the scenes or the agnostics? Because agnosis or agnostics means without knowledge. That's that means that they were they don't necessarily believe in God or don't believe in God. They're not sure. That's not really a sect, that's that's just a it's

a worldview. But the the scenes there there's difference. And see, this is why a lot of these books unfortunate Dan Brown and uh and a lot of keep in mind their their fiction and a lot of the stuff that's taught in them is is not historic. And I know a lot of people think that it is, and they get confused because there's a little bit of history here, a little bit of history there, and they're using you know, actual street names and actual museums and all these things, and uh, and

then they kind of compile them. But it's for entertainment purposes, and unfortunately, people start to consume those things, or they hear certain words or certain names being thrown around and they feel that they have an understanding. But as we say on the show over and over, Tom, there's a major difference between good sound reasoning and reasons that sound good, and so people get those

two confused. I'm not sure what you're asking. Well, my question is basically, Okay, the gossips that were according to Saint Tom and Saint Philip, Okay, those were apocryphal. So that's a whole different word. Apocryphal means hidden or in this case, these were works that did not cut the mustard as far as the canonization, meaning that there was something wrong either with the way they were written or the authorship or the timeline, or something wrong

with them that pointed to them most likely not being scripture. And doesn't mean that they're bad, they're bad writings, or that they aren't you know, they wouldn't be of interest to read. However, they don't fit with scripture, meaning that there was some problem with them. The same way you look at any work of antiquity. This isn't just the Bible, but you look

any work of antiquity. If you were to make claim that this was written by so and so, or it was written about such and such, that they have to kind of jive with other bibliographical tests to make them considered part of a homogeneoust or you know, hermeneutical work. It's like, well, this all works, and it all has the same theme, and the authorship

can be pointed to. There's things that would cast it out from a group, and a lot of people assume that those things are mysterious or that the church did it because it said something about reincarnation, or the church did it because it said something about women or men or whatever, and really that's just not the case. And and and then who who actually made that determination? Well, be the actual Catholic Church. Well, no, it's it's the

truth. It was groups of bishops. There's not really it's not as formal as people think that it is. Really it's a matter of it's it's more like it's more organic than that, and a lot of people think, oh, well, gosh, the bibliographical tests, yes, they hold up on their own. But as far as the canonization, yes, we're their councils absolutely there. There's many councils. You've got the Council and I see of

the Council of Trent, the Council of calcied On. All these councils had a purpose to refine or to agree upon one thing, but it was more more like a group, I don't know, a team of any kind and coming together and saying this is the way we've been doing it for all these years. Is everybody in agreement that this is the way we're going to continue to do it, And everybody goes yes, and then they move on.

It's not a change per se, or or them sitting down and saying I don't like this part, let's get rid of it, or I like this part, let's add it's it's more a way of checks and balances to keep the purity of it, saying hey, we've been doing this, there's no reason to add anything. We don't want to add anything, and we're not

going to take anything away. Everybody in agreement, let's move on. So the assumption is that there was these big and books like that Dan Brown put out, and there's a lot of books like that that even precede the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons and the like. But a lot of these books kind of allude to these secret societies and things that were underground, and

really it wasn't. You're talking about oral history being passed down and then in written form in a way that's much different than how you experience things now. Now everyone goes, oh, well, you know, there can be could be a twist, or you know, imagine the internet. How ten years from now, Tom, You're not going to be You're going to be able to find a the truth differently than you've ever found it before, because you'll

be able to pull up files. Now you're going to have to gauge whether those files are real or not, because, as you've seen in recent history, even newspapers have printed photographs that were doctored. Even trusted newspapers and news programs have printed or run with stories about presidents, about cabinets, about all kinds of things going on, war stories and things like that that were lies

or untruth. So what they ended up what people end up doing is finding the original somewhere, finding that there was a contradiction in the original, and therefore the truth is preserved by the investigation. And those similar things took place with scripture. Whereas people passed down things from generation to generation, they had to make sure that they didn't change. And so our Jewish brothers and sisters, the scribes that are the originated and wrote down what the Christians refer to

as the Old Testament. That was done not page for page, not sentence for sentence, but character by character, and if there was a mistake made, it was crumpled and tossed or buried, essentially ceremoniously, but it was removed and start they started over. And if it was at the beginning of a chapter, then that and they at the end of the chapter they made the mistake, the entire chapter was buried. The painstaking process to make sure

that it was the same and that it didn't change. And these kind of filters ended up doing that. It wasn't that there was you know, agnostics or this or that, or it wasn't about any of that. You're always going to have fringe groups that are trying to steer things. The interesting thing is that you have this main artery of truth going through and that even today, Tom, you're curious about these fringe groups. Whereas you wouldn't do that's

kind of backwards thinking. You wouldn't do that on any other process, you wouldn't say, oh, but what about this this one? Nowadays you look at them and you go, oh, they're fringe groups. They're the they're

the wackadoodles, they're the wing nuts. But that you know, Jesus, with the with the like you said, with the internet, and you know, with all the information that's available so quickly, I guess my ultimate question would be, then, with with the information that you've given me, is can you have a relationship with you without an organized being part of an organized religion? Yes, that's the easy answer. The quick and simple answer is

absolutely. You don't need a building with stained glass to know me. Absolutely. However, I would say this, how productive do you think a person is that that doesn't use their checkbook, that never looks at the balance, never knows what they make, and they just you know, can you balance a checkbook never looking at it or knowing what you make? Not? Really?

Does that mean you're always going to go into overdraft. No, but you really don't have an understanding or really good grip on the process of your money. You're just kind of winging it. So is the relationship real? Can it be real? Absolutely without a building or structure. But you have two choices in your spiritual life, Tom, and that is organized religion or

disorganized religion. And organized religion has gotten a bad rap because, unfortunately, organized religion has to be run by human beings and you guys tend to do things a certain way, and in the process of doing that, have your own bias and these types of things, and it perverts the process. And there's going to be imperfections. But there's as many hypocrites in the Church of Tom if you're the only one there, as there is in any other church

that's filled. Thank you, because you have those problems as well. Tom, wouldn't you say, oh, yeah, okay, So it's a matter of I know it's a pain. My producer Neil not a big fan of it either. He is, you know, going to church is like poin teeth for him. But but there is something about that. You wouldn't Can you lose weight by not being on an active program or exercising. Yeah, it's possibility. Is it the best way? No? Can you stop drinking

and not go to AA? Absolutely? But there's a there's a structure and a process in those twelve steps that can be become beneficial if you're using them properly. You see what I'm saying. They all have They all have this purpose to structure. And you like structure in every other part of your life. You know, you want the food that you order to come out on time, You want the bank to take out the right amount of money for

the check that you wrote. You want also you want structure in everything except your spiritual life. And I think it's legitimate to ask yourself why, Benjamin Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Yes, hi, Jesus, thanks for taking my call, my pleasure. I had a question in regards to wearing of the cross. I had a member in my church who who loves to wear the cross, and he wears the cross with the the image of yourself

on the cross and nailed to the cross and the whole whole thing. And and I told him, I said, I said, do you feel comfortable honestly wearing the cross? He said, well, yeah, that said that's a Christian image. I said, well, think of it like this. Save your relative got murdered by a group of thugs like the Romans, and and got murdered, you know, pretty much for appreation the Gospel, which

which which is a graving crime outside of the Roman law. Now, would you feel comfortable of put in your relative that was murdered on the cross? And he even he got silent evening, matter of fact, you look like he wanted to cry. Well, it's an ugly image, the image. There were two thieves that died on either side of me that day by the very same method. And there were many thousands and thousands of people who were killed by way of execution, by way of crucifixion. So it takes place.

What I'd like you to see is that the expression of faith in that and the reason why something that's so horrific becomes a point of glory to many. And you know, a lot of our Catholic brothers and sisters wear crucifixes, and there's a lot of of our Protestant brothers and sisters that prefer not to that, don't they If they wear cross, it's a blank cross, that's not a crucifix with the actual Corpus CHRISTI that the body of Christ on it, so it's personal taste, but really the belief is the same.

Some people say the empty cross is where is is where the glory is. Ultimately, if you want to wear something that shows the glory, it would be the empty tomb, not the cross at all. But the process, the bloodshed on the cross and the death on that cross is what brought that glory that you experienced today via salvation. And if somebody wants to wear a cross with the crucifixion on it, so be it. Berry, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Yes, I've got a question about the Conservative Bible

Project run by Philip Shockley's son. I've only heard about this. Talked about secular liberals and people weren't Christians, but they when I got on the website, said that the you know, the NIV, your name, and the es V are corrupted not because of lack of translational stuff, but because they have socialist influences in them. And to me it seems to be pretty outrageous, even though I don't read those translations. Would you have to say about

it? Well, as far as the Conservative Bible Project goes. I'm always leery of any group that looks is looking at scripture from a particular bent, liberal, conservative, black, white, any group that looks at the Bible from a particular bent can be a problem when it comes to translation. The thing that I find interesting about the Conservative Bible Project is that it's not the truth Bible Project. It's not about saying we want the best translation possible,

and those do exist. The ISV is a new translation that you can find out. I think it's IV dot org. But you can see the nesscient processes. They are not so nescient at this point, but the beginning processes of Scripture being translated, and the desire was to get the best translation possible, not the most conservative translation or the most liberal translation. So I'm bothered

by that because it should be the most godly accurate translation. And for years you've heard the arguments against liberal bias and scripture and people saying, oh, you're emasculating it by having the unisex terms or anything that's gender inclusive and all these things, and really it's about the content. Is the content still there? Are you hearing the importance of it? It can be bothersome that people say, oh, well, it says mankind here, and that's offensive.

You know, you understand the context of what's being said. So to try and mutate or force into scripture something you feel more comfortable with is not the way to go. What does scripture actually say. Now, there's better scholars and people that are more efficient and translating now than ever before, and that should be utilized, and new translations should come out. And what a lot of people don't tell you, And what a lot of people don't know about

scriptures. They're often like you know, software, and they have newer versions, but like the NIV, for instance, will say it's the NIV, but you don't know that it's the NIV two point h or three point oho or four point zher because when they change it, they don't necessarily let you know. This happens with a lot of translations, that there's changes or modifications

as they get better or they correct things. And this the attitude though, that it's got to be a conservative bent or a liberal bent is missing completely missing the point. Are there those that read into it yes? Are they those that read into it conservatively yes, And that's always going to be that case. But look for the truth of the scripture in the best translation first. Don't look for the political version first that seems backwards. Kf I AM six forty on demand