Episode 240: The Penultimate Chapter - Chris from Tennessee

the future, and may we revisit it. Sure, but our plans are bigger, better things to come serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And you know you just have to follow God word and when he tells you to do something, you better listen. But let's bring on today's guest from the great state of Tennessee. Honored to have on today's show, Chris. Chris, how are you, sir?

I hope I can do justice to all the great interviewers that if you that you've had on the show. But before I introduced me, I want to say thank you, heartfelt thank you to you and what you've meant and the podcast has meant, and the guests have meant to me and my family and my brothers and sisters in Christ who I can share this with. It truly has been a blessing.

Both are all three adults now. I've been married to my bride for almost thirty years now. I am a former small business owner, have recently sold my business, so I have a little bit more free time on my hands now to be into the Word of God and to share. I have no excuses anymore, so I'm excited for what the future is going to hold for me

and my family. In that aspect of things. Let's see the first and foremost, I'm a Christian, as the Bible says, added to the Lord's Church about thirty six years ago. I have been going to worship really my whole life. There was a period probably in my mid twenties where I straight away probably wasn't as faithful as I felt like I needed to be, but never detached myself from

the Word. When I say unfaithful, I'm referencing maybe making excuses for not going to church or for not putting God first, just letting those worldly things get in the way. But thankfully I had a strong support system here at home and got me on the right track. I've been blessed with tremendous parents who have been married. Now for what fifty one fifty two years. It's this day in time.

It's incredible. And I was blessed with good, godly grandparents who you know, helped steer me in the right direction. So I feel like I want to say this as well, because lot of times when I listen to your guests, and I even even the ones that I may not necessarily agree with on a lot of things when it comes to our beliefs and scripture and things, I've often wondered that you know where their background is and things, and those guests challenge me because they make me dive

back into the word and look at things. And I think, I think that discussion is always great. And that's another compliment to you, that that you always let people lay out their beliefs and then it's up to the listener to go and you know, discern that information for themselves. So I come from it from a Christian background. I was born and raised and have always went to the churches of Christ. The churches of Christ do not do

not advertise themselves as a denomination. Each one is individually ran. If it's if it's the way the Bible set up is by you know, a group of men that we call elders. There's also deacons that serves. So there's been guests that you've had on there a lot of times that I can't never really peg where they're coming from. And I just want to put that out there that I am a Christian, this is my background, this is my influence. A lot of those things have been challenged

as I've got older and understand scripture. We don't have a creed or a code we go by. We have the Bible. So that's that's what I try to relay in my thoughts and teachings. And I hope I do a good job with that today.

stifling a conversation is a problematic. Whereas like I'm in seminary and you know, you're sitting listening to professors and you even don't agree with some of the things they say, and it's a perception issue and when we bring these topics up. It's exactly what you said, Chris. It forces people to go back into the Bible, and that's what it should be about. People say, what that doesn't make

sense to me. So what do they do? They go back and they pick up the Bible and maybe they reread something, or at least it gives them a different perspective on something. But what we're working on right now, let me see if I can find this a book called Exploring Our Hebraic Heritage by Marvin Wilson. It lays out the importance. I think obviously the Gospel of Jesus is first and foremost right, but I think a lot of people don't understand that most of the New Testament

was written on the basis of the Old Testament. Like when Jesus is on the cross and he's crying out to God, that is literally what is written verbatim inn Psalm twenty two. I think this conversation is important for people to number one, maybe they've never even heard of it.

And number two, again, it forces them to go back and to fortify their beliefs because I think a lot of the things people hear and believe they hear maybe on YouTube channel or or in a sub stack and instead of actually, and I'm not picking any particular individual, I think we're influenced by others too easily. I think it's solid for us to get back into the word and make these decisions and reinforce our beliefs that way. If you know what I mean, Yeah, I.

I really realized. I think a lot of people you'll say, well, I picked it up and I read it front to back. And I've heard you have other guests on there that say, you know, they have a chronological Bible. But the first thing that I would tell the reader if somebody asked me about the Bible, what do I need to know before I pick it up and read it is that the Bible basically tells three things. And this is a very broad broad view of it. But it tells the

story of somebody's coming. Then it tells the story of hey, somebody's here, and then it tells the story of hey, somebody's coming back. And who is that person that it's alluding to, Well, it's Jesus, you know, in every case. And when they sit down and read the Bible, if you don't know, if you don't know history, I always tell people start with and this is again my opinion, start with the New Testament, start with the Gospels, learn

about Jesus, and then go back to the beginning. In the beginning, God created and that word God, and I don't have this in front of him going off memory, but I believe it's elohem and it's God plural, so somebody was there with him. I personally believe it was. It was the son Jesus. And you get on down into Genesis where it says, let us make man. I don't know how old I was before I realized, you know, when we get into this topic of what the earth is?

You know, I had read over that so much. I had read over the word us until somebody pointed that out to me, probably in my teenage years. I was blown away by it because I was thinking God's singular, not God plural, and so knowing that and then knowing to or letting the average reader know that the Bible

is not written in chronological order. It's not a book that just picks up and you know, the beginning obviously actually flows a little bit, but then what do you do with the Book of Job And so I just I think it's a fascinating and I hate to use the word story, but I think it's a fascinating story to the average reader. But to the believers, it's a book of promises, a book of hope, and a book

of just unconditional love. And that's what I would hope that people that are maybe new to the scriptures would take and understand as they begin to open the pages and really dive in it, because it's it is a book that keeps giving. I feel like that I have read it fairly consistent for forty nine years. And if you would have told me a couple of years ago that I would have be challenged on something like the

topic we're going to talk about today. I would thought I've already known everything there is to know about that subject, and then not through this podcast, through my own studies that led me to this podcast, and I know we'll get to that store here shortly. But I soon realized that something's not adding up. And that's to me, that's the beauty of the scriptures. There's always something there. The

scripture is its own best commentary. So when you sit down and go to read it, the first thing I would say to is pray that God gives you an understanding, and then don't hurry through it. Take your time. If you don't know what something is, have a concordance. That is a very handy tool to have, and don't be afraid to ask, to ask questions and understand understand that

you may get a variety of opinions. But at the same time, I believe it's in the Book of Acts where it says that those in Bria were more noble than those in Thessalonaika because they search the scriptures daily. And I think that's a good example for us to keep our head in the book and search the scriptures daily because there's always something to be revealed on Yeah.

The Gospel Matthew, Mark and Luke and then John was actually written after that, so you know, it's obviously put in an order for a certain reason. Here's the Gospels, Acts creates the Church, and then Paul's letters and then the pastoral letters things of that nature there, and then of course Revelation, which kind of closes closes out everything. The one thing I've learned going back to school is that you're not going to get answers to the hard questions,

but what it teaches you. It teaches you how to read, how important journaling is, how to take every single word, every single verse, and to break it down understanding who was the intended audience, what was the intended audience. What were they going through at that time? Why was Paul writing the letters? And it Once you break down those things, then you can kind of better understand where all of

this is coming from. And like even me before I went deep back into the Bible, when you started, we look out into the world and we see, man, some of our churches around here have the gay Pride flags hanging from them. And I asked my pastor, I'm like, were things really worse back then? And then you actually read how things were actually worse back then. But it's

important to you know, once you understand the gospel. I think it's great to read it in kind of coal order, but journaling is something that's changed every time I read, I write, and I break down those things, and that has helped me tremendously.

They they know the word inside and out. And but but sadly, and you hit the nail on the head the hard questions. What I'm getting around to is this, I can remember asking a question of my preacher, and I don't all these years later, I still don't remember the question I ask him, but I remember the answer.

And I have sadly heard this answer several times in my life when it comes to these hard questions, and the answer will always go something like this, Well, that's not really beneficial to the cause or to the Gospel of Christ. So let's spend more time teaching salvation, teaching this, teaching that, and let's not focus so much on the other. And so you take a guy like me two or three years ago, I would have thought, I can see their point. Salvation is obviously number one, and so I

would have had that mindset. But I can never I can question beliefs and maybe question why people do what they do. I cannot question sincerity. I don't know their heart. I don't know you know. And so where I'm going with this is I could have easily been in that mindset and one of my very best friends basically, when I tried to approach him with this topic of what the earth really looks like biblical earth, I got basically

the same response with a little bit different answer. But I have heard through this podcast how many people through you have been brought to Christ through the means of creation. And you know, I've heard people say, well, the two aren't linked, and you've been adamant that it's linked. And forgive me, I don't. You may can look this up, you may not. I didn't know if I was going to give you anything to include in the podcast. But one of the and I hope nobody gets offended that

I'm going to use you know, these these sources. But one of the things that I've subscribed to as far as podcast and listening to, is something that it's a podcast that comes out of Texas. It's a guy by the name of Willis McAdams and he's from Radically Christian And I printed this off. I'm still in ink pen and paper and printed off guy. I printed this off

February eighteenth of twenty twenty five. So I don't know if this is when it come out, but this was part two in the Salvation series, and it was how salvation and creation are linked together. If you don't understand the story of creation, you can't get to salvation. And it was just like it's like working a puzzle and seeing all the pieces come together. I had heard you say numerous times that people were led to Jesus Christ through the podcast and getting interested in, Hey, we've been

lied to about where we live. What it really looks like. I'm going to dive into scripture. I'm going to learn to try a scripture more than man. And guess what that led me to Jesus Christ. And that generic answer that I got thirty something years ago, Well, it's not really worth diving into that question because there's more other things. You know, then I wouldn't have had the well I had too much respect just to say and maybe I was a little scared to just to say, hey, that's

a cop out. And you know, to today, if you can't if you can't approach a question with an open mind, whether you think it's the most silly question ever heard, you have a problem.

starting point is usually the teachings of Jesus and Paul. Right, makes sense. While these major figures of the New Testament were Jews and thus had their teachings lordly grounded in Judaism, Christians often missed the rich context of the scriptures out of which their teachings emerge. So, for example, every word in the Lord's Prayer spoken by Jesus to his disciples have an Old Testament origin.

pretty much know the Lord's Prayer. And then within ten seconds it's kind of like the Pride flag out in front of the church you mentioned earlier. Ten seconds of saying amen, they're having to bleep out cuss words. They're having to do this. There's a Satanic song playing in the back. It just it's it's stuff like and like I said, I know I'm chasing rabbits here, but stuff like that attracts the young viewer and go, Okay, I

can be in God because they are. And I can still run around in my underwear and act like an idiot, cuss and swear and do all this stuff on TV and that's okay because I'm putting God in it. Well, I would say you're serving the wrong serving the wrong God there, And like I said, I didn't mean to get off on that, but and you hit the nail on the head earlier too. With the books of the Bible and who they were written to. I have been blessed to be around solid elders in my life, and good,

good teachers of the Gospel. And if there's one thing they always preach its context. Where is the context of the scriptures coming from? Like you said, who is the audience? What's it about? You just can't plug and place scriptures into your And I'm guilty of this too, you know, plug and play scripture into my everyday life and make it fit neat because it was it was written to a certain people at a certain time, but about a certain thing.

do with anything, but it may resonate with somebody. One of my greatest regrets as a parent was thinking that I needed to work all the time to make money and I would just send my wife and kids on cation with family. One of the most precious things we have in this life is time and how we spend our time. And in my early twenties and even maybe into my early thirties, I was consumed with work and money and those work is a good thing. The Bible

talks about that. Money is a good thing, and the Bible talks about that, but it also gives a lot of warnings when it comes to that. So I say all that to say this. It wasn't until I got intentional about becoming a better steward of what God has blessed me with time and money. Into my thirties, I was still working like crazy and plugging church in there.

But it was honestly, I had got a question about when I thought the world may be lying to I mean, this may be a good time to go into this, but I'm one of the Wednesday Night teachers in our Bible class. You mentioned this in another Bible class. Why don't we take topics like you know, Biblical Earth or topics you know that are outside the norm of what we teach typically inside the walls of the of the

churches of Christ. I won't say all of them, because each congregation does its on thing but tries to abide by biblical principles. But inside the ones I have been to, Sundays are devoted to in the worship service. Typically there's one in the morning, one in the evening. It's devoted to teaching Jesus and trying to bring people closer together.

Now we have Bible classes where we may learn about major profits, minor profets, pause letter, whatever the case may be, Wednesday Nights seem to be more of a typical We could study books the Bible, we could take it a lot of different directions. So one of the Wednesday Night classes we decided to do a Q and A. Questions were submitted to the three or four teachers that we had and may actually just and two teachers at the time,

and we kind of divided those amongst ourselfs. And what got me that this world may not be what we have been told. The question I got, and I think this was in the email, it was I was asked to address two things. And this may sound silly, but I go back to the teenage me asking that question and it just getting put off. So if somebody asked me a question, I'm going to do my due diligence to answer. And the question was do you believe or

does scripture support Bigfoot or aliens? And you know, I told the other teacher in the class, I said, I've got that one. And other topics we discussed, you know, was suicide and ghosts and different phenomena we couldn't explain, you know, just whatever people had on their mind, and we tried to approach everything from what the scripture says. And so, you know, I tried to be funny with it. My wife ordered me a bigfoot in an alien shirt and I wore it the church that night, you know,

because you know, we're not prunes. We like to laugh, we like to have a good time, but at the same time we want to take God's words serious. So when my idea on Bigfoot has changed a little bit, especially after reading the Book of Enoch and come into a better understanding of it. But then going towards Aliens, I dove into scripture and it led me down many paths. But at the end of the class that night, here

was where my stance was on Aliens. I said something to the effect of, after reading about the firmament and really realizing then that the earth that the Bible describes, in my mind it was a snow globe. I'm just just you know, that's in my mind. That's what I was reading, That's what I was picturing. That's what I was,

you know, seeing, for lack of a better term. And then when you understand what the firmament is, and I understood that the firmament wasn't removed, that the that the windows of heaven were opened, and then it says the windows of heaven were closed. I come to the conclusion, and I told the class, I said, I can I say aliens exist. All I can say is I'm not worried about them. And how can I not be worried about them? Is because God put man on this earth to have dominion over it and is and as long

as we're here, I think we're fine. I said, I don't think God ever intended from man to leave this place that we call earth. And I said, I just I and I think I think the class could sense that. You know that just kind of like now, there's a lot of hesitation. There's a lot of unknown in what I was saying. But I was, I was puzzled. I was confused. And so that's that's where it kind of led me to. And then as my eyes have been

opened up a little bit more, I know. And of course these dates wouldn't have meant anything to me before George, but now, after diving into this for the last year and a half, two years here, I thought, and I want to give a shout out to a couple of people here too, real quick with this as I'm scrolling to get back to it. So that was a Wednesday night class and my brother in Christ, who's going to be listening to this when it drops. His name's Jason.

He approached me after the class and he said, and I make it known to the class. I love questions. Hit me with stuff I like to. I get more focused when I've got, you know, honed in when I've got something to focus on. And he asked me, he said, do you mind if I send you something? And I said, man, I don't mind a bit. You know, I didn't know what it was going to relate to, but he said, after your class the night, I got something I think

you may be interested in. And so on April the eighteenth of twenty twenty four, this will tell you how long my journey's been going. He sent me episode one, Why the Lie, and I'm just going to read you his message. He said, this podcast is called flat Earth Files. You can find it on Spotify. I thank YouTube and Rumble. I listened to it on Spotify. This is the first episode. I can remember showing that to my wife and she just shaking her head and I said, okay, I've done

what everybody does. I'm going to go immediately and debunk this.

No disrespect to either one of them. I just I usually do more of my studying through through podcasts and through reading and things like that. But the is it Professor Dave, the one that's just really arrogant and just talks. Yes. So I got through about fifteen or twenty minutes of this guy just belittling and just basically being rude to this other guy, and like, I didn't know whoither one of them was, and I thought, if they're trying that hard to silence this guy, you're just making me want

to listen to him even more. And so then on April twenty, which would have been the Saturday, I was going to look at a duck blind up in Illinois, and I hit play and I sent him a message. The after the first three episodes, I said, I've got to admit, I'm three episodes deep and doing research. Pretty

interesting stuff so far. And then he immediately responds back, and I'm just going to say this because it's a shout out to these guests, just because you know, the Bible tells us, you know, we we should produce fruit from our works. And I don't remember who each one of these people are. I've just got episode numbers. But

his response was, I'm in too deep. Episodes twenty eight, forty three, forty seven, fifty one, ninety one, and one hundred and forty two are the ones that I've just been absorbed with and have sent to his wife to listen to. And then he goes on to send me episode one, twenty and one twenty three is he's listening to them because these stick out in his mind. So if you have other guests that have wondered, have I

ever made an impact? Absolutely, you've made an impact. It may not be things that we agree on on every little thing, but you you had an impact on somebody that shared it with me. And you fast forward a year and a half or whatever now and I'm here getting to share my story and it's the same thing. With I want to throw it back to Christ. Now, it's the same thing. Once you find out the good

news of Christ, don't keep that to you. Tell your friends, tell them to tell them to look at it, tell them to hear, hear the word, believe the word, repent, be baptized, remain faithful, you know all of those good things. You know. It's it's it's the church is viewed as a family. This, this community of believers we have here on the podcast is viewed as a family.

could put our name to it. And I believe in the Holy scriptures enough that I'm not afraid to say my name is Chris Barrett, and I'll put my name to it. And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I'm just gonna dive in and study more and dive in more and want to learn more because i know I'm not right on everything, but I pray for wisdom. I pray

for understanding. I want to have a better knowledge of the scripture so I can share it with other people, whether it's the conversation like this that may lead somebody to Jesus or if it's Jesus just I want to be prepared and ready. So I wanted to give a shout out to Jason and all the other guys that have you know, got us to where we are to do through these podcasts, because you may not think you mattered,

but you really did. And the one for me and I've never really investigated him any farther but episode I think it's fifty right as you come back for season two, William Boot. I think I've probably listened to that one eight or nine times. I just found that interview just fantastic, a lot of good information there, So I'll give that one a shout out to.

And the other thing you mentioned earlier, I think as we get older, we kind of put the whole time in my any aspect. You mentioned that earlier, and we talked about trying to remember it's more fulfilling to work to live, not live to work. And obviously when we're young we can get caught up in that. Much of it is just difficult being a young person navigating our way.

But I think the older we get and realizing that time is not so much on our side, we try to prioritize, you know, living to work instead of working to live.

was to the day he died. And I just remember I actually I don't say I keep a diary, but I put it in a journal, if you will, and left it on my desk so I could see that every day as motivation. Uh, you know, how do you how do you spell? This is what I wrote in there? How How am I going to spell love? And that's love for my family, love for my fellow men, love

for my brothers and sisters in Christ. And the way I want to be able to spell love is t I m e with time because a lot of people will give money to you know, and and believe me, there's a time and place for money. But what is that expression? People don't care how much you know till they know how much you care. And that comes with spending time with people. And that's you know, that's we could talk all day about money and time and family.

Authority TVA. My grandfather that started the business I'm talking about, was in the area known as Land between the Lakes. When they put the dams up and flooded the dam, it flooded the family home and all that they had to move and relocate. They moved still within the area that it's land between the lakes. Started that business in nineteen fifty one and then in nineteen sixty seven had to up and move again because of I guess eminent

domain laws. But they were taking they were taking that property. So you know, when you look at the county on the map, the pretty much the northern half is land between the lakes and factor in Fort Campbell, Kentucky has some land in that region and then other TVA properties, so it looks like a bigger county, but it's a lot of government controlled lands. There's not a lot of people. So if you would have never flipped on the television for the news, you wouldn't have known anything was going on.

Honestly in our county. I would. At the time we were the congregation we were attending, there was a lady that had called in that and this this goes back to just the fear mongering on today's news. You never turn on the news and hear good news. It's always bad.

And the first time I ever heard the words COVID uttered was somebody calling on one of the wid old ladies from the church we were going to and she asked if I could lead a prayer on Sunday morning for this new virus that was out and that was my first exposure to it, and and had her request, you know, we did, and you know, just you know, prayed that God would look over us keep us healthy. And because again if somebody asked for prayers, guys, don't

take that for granted. Prayer is a powerful thing. And the second, the second time that it was that it came to my doorstep again was a church member who whose husband was in the military that was getting sent to New York to set up all these triadge things. And I mean she's called in a panic because her husband of thirty something years and that's on his way out of the military is getting sucked into this thing, but in her mind was just going to kill him.

But so if I hadn't have been exposed to those two things, just the people coming through on our door on a regular basis, you would occasionally have and it was typically somebody that was older that would come in wearing a mask, but rarely did we get asked to put on masks to sanitize or do anything. So from that, from that aspect, it was really nice. But on the flip side, if you wanted to go out and eat

or do something like that. Typically we have a few local restaurants and stuff here, but a lot of folks in the community here when they go somewhere on the weekends or something, they'll drive to, you know, clarks full or Murray, Kentucky, or Paducah, Kentucky, or Nashville. And when you got into the big cities is when you really

noticed it. So when you come of the lifestyle of I'm not wearing a mask five days a week and I want to go somewhere to you know, to eat on Saturday night or go do something you're telling me I can or I've got to do this or that. Uh, it will just you know, basically, okay, we'll just go to the grocery store, you know, grab and just you know, cook and do from here. And then from the the

church aspects of things, that was a challenging time. Uh. And I so admire that what you're, uh lord willing are fixing to do with uh starting a you know, starting a church. Uh. And I would I would encourage

you to look at the scripture. Well, you know, most people, I won't say most people a lot of people people know about the Reformation movement, but the thing within the Church of Christ, at least the two that I've been as socially in my life, we say restoration because we're trying to restore what to the best we can through God's word of what the church used to be. What did it look like, What does it look like through the acts of the apostles, what does it look like

through Paul's letters? What can we glean from scripture? We definitely don't add to scripture, and we try not to take anything away. So the way we conduct our worship service is the way that we believe God wanted it and commanded it through our understanding of scripture. And then think, you know, with our business, you know you got to love. Hey, we were deemed essential because we were in the automotive industry and so we didn't have to worry about clothing.

And thankfully at that time we had a good mayor a good sheriff that wasn't going to let anything like that happen. But when it comes to churches, it just and George no disrespect to anybody, but it drove me insane that I would see people get out and go to the grocery store, or you would see them at the gas pumps, or you would see them somewhere. But

I don't want to come to church. I don't want to get anybody sick, you know, And that just I don't know if it's a reflection on the person and where they're at spiritually, because I believe that we're commanded to come together. I believe that, you know, Christ died for the She died for forgiveness of our sins. But he died for the church. He talks about the church being his bride. He he loves the church and the church there's only one singular. That's what he died for.

And you know Paul's letters talks about each member has individual you know, I think he describes it as parts of the body. You know that each member plays an important part. And when you were in a congregation of you know, anywhere from eighty to one hundred and twenty people and you've had a bad week, somebody in that place is going to bring me up, whether it's through singing, teaching, that they're gonna they're gonna pray, they're gonna exhort me there,

they're gonna build me up. And that's that's the key that I think a lot of people miss when it comes to comes to church. Again. If if you're a listener and you say, well, I don't need church, I don't believe in church. I don't think God commands us to go there. I would challenge you to look at what Christ died for and and his kingdom here on this earth is is I believe his church. It's it's

where his saved ones are going. And then you can get in the rabbit hole of denominations in which one is the right church because there's one faith, one hope, one baptism, one church and and of you know, I'm not saying there's just physically one correct church. But but but I've heard you say in others we can't all

be right. Who is trying to follow that that gospel message the closest and and uh, I love you brother, and that would be my challenge to you follow it with with everything and all sincerity in your heart as you do this. And I pray that one day that I can break bread inside you know, the church with you, wherever that may be. We've never been to Delaware. The northeast is on our to do list, and I would I would love to worship God, the Father and Jesus with you.

We do not seek to undermine government. We pray for our leaders as noted in one Timothy to Verses one and two. We respect civil authority and desire peaceful relationships with AWE. But we want to be clear number one, these are all bullet points. We will never submit to any mandate that forces us to suspend or restrict our worship gatherings. We will never accept the classification of the

church is not essential. We will never require a proof of vaccination, compliance with MASK mandates, or any health past enter our sanctuary. We will never close our doors in the name of public health, political stability, or national emergency. We will always follow the Lord Jesus Christ and the unchanging truth of scripture, regardless of cost or consequence. So and the reason we wanted to do it up front.

So if this does ever happen again in our generation, which I have a feeling it could happen sooner than later, I don't want there to be any doubt where our church stood.

the time. We had decided what may be best, and I think we closed the doors for two or three weeks and we're doing And again you can talk Satan about being the prints of the air and airwaves and again going down that whole rabbit hole. If you don't think that that was a card that he has played, well, how many faithful members of the Lord's Church have we lost?

It used to just drive me in saying we realized we had a problem when we started broadcasting on Facebook and two or three weeks in it would say, you know, somebody would type, we're here in our pajamas with coffee, ready to worship. I'm sorry, that's not worship. No, And that's where we've seen it was going to be a problem, and do we need to not broadcast it live? Do we not need to do it at all? But then you've had those shut ins who were like, this is such a great tool. I'm not able to get out

because I physically do have something wrong with me. And then you know, you would have to go to you know, to your brother and sister in Christ and go, I'm not trying to be rude. I'm coming to you in love. You know, you've worked five days this week and you're

you're like the rest of us. You've drove thirty or forty miles, you know, back and forth one way because a lot of people in our town do you know, work out and and so you know, and you post your whole social media life here, but on Sunday you're gonna you're gonna play church instead of participate in church. And I hate to be rude and blunt like that,

but that that's coming from a place of love. So you know, that would be a challenge that I would have to any listener if if you think that you were going to church because you were watching it on TV, I would challenge you to drive into scripture and see if that aligns with God. Will I with that aligns with God's will? Or is that a deception tactic of Satan.

It's one of my greatest regrets in life that I was a part of a group that said we probably need to close the doors, and then it was quickly revealed to me that you've made the wrong decision and you have to be mad enough to say I screwed up, and I did. It's one of my greatest regrets. The congregation that we're going to now is governed by a group of fine biblically sound men and again that we

call elders. And I found out that when they went through that process, of course, that we're real close to the Kentucky line, so they're across the border in Kentucky, and Kentucky's governor at that time was I think, shutting down a lot of things, and they took the George hobstance. They closed for one week, they got together and said, this ain't right, this ain't gonna fly. Lord forgive us

and open the doors back up. And that's that's uh so, kudos to you for forgetting ahead of that and letting them know where you stand, because you know, we we think if we share the Gospel of Christ with somebody today and they say no where they close the door in our face, that we're being persecuted. You want to see persecution, you go back and look at the story of Stephen in the Book of Acts, and and and look at what history tells us happens outside of the Bible.

We'll have to go find a lot of this information. Look what happened to the apostles of.

into houses and it says reeking havoc on Christians. Well, that just to me shows me the beauty of God's plan because as these Christians were being dispersed in having to leave, they were carrying the good news of the Gospel with them. That's Satan meant that for bad, but God meant it for good because that gospel message spread as they were being persecuted. The word the word used there that you know he was wreaking havoc. And again this was this was the old Chris that would just

read over that word. But then when you dive into the concordance and realize that that word havoc has the implication of a wild animal tearing apart, pray, I'm not persecuted because I get a door shut in my face.

Those people were persecuted, And I just when, if in or not if when we get to heaven and if we get to have conversations about what took place on the earth, that those are going to be some of some of my questions to those to those heroes who have no name in the Bible, but but stood true in their faith, you know, until death and and that's just you know, that's just I don't know. It makes me emotional. It brings a tear to my eye because those are the examples that those are the people we

should have as heroes, not the people on TV. Not the people and in social media that these influencers and followers and things like that. People football, Yeah, exactly, exactly.

other things. When you step back and you want you realize that we should And again it's not saying that you shouldn't have outlets and you should be able to blow off steam and do this and that, but it can't be a primary focus of your life because you're commanded. God isn't asking you. He's commanding you. Whether you listen or not, that's up to you. But he's commanding us to share His good news. And I say all the time, you can't fix secular problems with secular secular ideals. You

have to come from a biblical avenue. You've got to come with a moral compass, and otherwise you're just trying to you know, you have the Tower of Peace as your foundational corner. It's just not going to work.

actually you know, have been studied at church. But if I can read a couple of Bible verses and talking about when you say when you step back and you see, and I'm talking about myself individually, when I take a step back and go, what am I working towards? What's the ultimate end goal? Well, the ultimate end goal for me is to get me into heaven, my family into heaven, and take as many people as I can with me.

I think that would be the goal of any Christian and the idea of the veiel, because as I've heard you say that in some episodes. Matthew thirteen's start in verse sixteen says, but blessed are you, or excuse me, blessed are your eyes, for they see in your ears, for they hear. So you're looking and you're listening, And he says, for suredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desire to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you

hear and did not hear it. There's so many people out there that I don't know if they're looking in the wrong places or if Satan has just got them deceived to the point that they believe they're in an okay state. And if I may, this is the verse that challenges of all of the verses in the Bible. So many verses mean so many things to so many people. And the friend that I referenced earlier, who I tried to share the Biblical earth with that just absolutely shut

me down. We had talked about this verse in other contexts because one of the somebody out there listen to this when they hear Church of Christ, one of the one of the myths I think that's out there about the Churches of Christ is well, they believe they're the only ones going to heaven. And that's a running joke that I've heard forever, and I can honestly say that I've never heard anybody within those walls say that. At least, you know, we pray for all men. We want everybody

to come to the truth. We're going to share the truth was used as we know it. And if we're wrong, we're gonna admit it. But you know we you know, I have challenged people, show me where I'm wrong in my faith, show me where I'm wrong in my worship practices, and so but this is the verse that keeps me in check. And it's from the Sermon on the Mount Matthew seven. Start in verse twenty one. And if you're a believer, this ought to always keep you in check.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord Shaw, enter the Kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

So that that verse has always kind of kept me in check to never think that I'm the end, all, know it all of everything when it comes to scripture. I'm just gonna keep my head in the book, and as I know better, I'm gonna do better. And that's that's not only my goal for me, but for all the listeners that will hear this. Don't don't ever, And I don't think anybody out there is really that arrogance. No, well,

I've read it once. I know it all. No, just keep your head in the book and keep plugging along.

But it's the influence of the Churches of Christ in the South seem to be, you know, really really strong. We at least the two congregations I have been a part of, you know, we try to do a lot of mission work overseas, different places. Like I said, it's growing up. I will say this about it, and this is again my experience, my opinion. Growing up, we weren't really allowed by our parents or anywhere else to go

anywhere or venture out. And when I would ask why, they had enough knowledge to say they practice this in their building. And we don't think that God commands that nine times out of ten for us. Because there's some there's some Churches of Christ now that will have instrumental music. But the thing that I think a lot of people when they think of Church of Christ, everything that we do.

I when I say we, I'm talking about our congregation and the ones that I know of around here, it's it's acapella singing that God said, make music with the melody of your heart. That's I should know that that's it's mentioned in Ephesians and Collausions about the heart being the instrument that makes the music. So again, we try not to add to scripture and we try not to take away. And I've been a part of a lot of studies when it comes to the idea of instrumental

music in worship. Instrumental music wasn't really a thing until probably around the eighteen hundreds when it started seeping its way in. And we talked about the Reformation movement and you know Martin Luther nailing that to the door, and you know John Calvin and some other guys, and there's one guy I wanted to ask you about if we have time today, that you know, they were solely against instrumental music and it and it slowly crept its way in.

And then you know, the argument that I would get from friends and people that I that I dearly love, that may be of the Baptist faith or you know whatever. Uh, for one, what what is the what is the name that you're wearing? It's I am a Baptist. Well for those that are members of the Church of Christ, like we typically say we're Christian, and we used to say we're non denominational, but now that term is kind of kind of everywhere now. But we're first and foremost of Christian.

You know, the Bible says that they were first called Christians and Antioch and that that's in the Book of Acts and then in the Book of Rome's. As paul Is is signing off, he says, the churches of Christ salute you. So the the idea of we we don't want to wear the label, uh, you know, Churches of Christ. We we are a Christian and to be a Christian you belong to Christ. And the church I think is I can never say eclestea. Uh, the called out were

to be we were to be separate. So being the church where a group of members that are in Christ or of Christ. And so that's that's kind of our mindset. And we're not going around trying to think that, hey, that we know more, we're better than you. There's problems

everywhere you go. I'm not going to say that any congregation you find is perfect, but it's we try real hard to love and build each other up and encourage and and like I said, so you know, growing up as a child, that was usually a instrumental reason why we couldn't go another big one. You know. I believe the Bible teaches and Acts twenty verse seven that on the first day of the week when the disciples were

together to break bread. I think communion is a huge part of what we do together, to break the bread and take the cup and remember in the Lord's death till he comes. Well, that's something that we do every

Sunday without exception. Uh, it's not something that we do once or twice a year, because it's it's important for us to remember what Jesus Christ went through, that that bread representing his body, that that cup representing his blood, and that he overcame the grave and we're we're waiting on him to come back, as you know, but the way we've been waiting for you know, two thousand years.

take it? When the Bible says this, why do you only do it? This? Help me understand. I'm not trying to you know, belittle or put down. You know, this is good honest conversation in dialog, and it wouldn't you know again, questions engage thoughts. It would get the wheels turning, and you know, they would come back and say, you know, I asked my you know, I ask my preacher, asked my pastor, asked you know, and they said, well, we know what that says, but we're afraid it's going to

lose its meaning. Well if if, if, if, the the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is going to lose its meaning if you partake and the emblems we're told to

partake of. I take issue with that. I challenge how much did My first thought would be, do you really know the price that was paid when when you when you look at how Christ give up all the glories of heaven and everything that he gave up to become mortal man and take on flesh, be born of woman, and come to this earth and lived a perfect sinless life and then was found guilty of whatever heresies they thought he committed and would rather have a murderer set

free than a man that they could find no fault in that. That kind of love that left all of that to come to this earth and take up on the sins of you and me and everyone was placed upon him to have his father turn his face away because you cannot look upon sin and and.

with you, George. I wrote it on my notes when he told me the names of the two men, I wrote your name next to one of them. The first one he said that was called good that he could find was Joseph of a Marathia, who went and asked for the body of Jesus to bury it in the tomb, again fulfilling prophecy. So he was called a good man. It says something about his character, about being a follower of Christ. The other one was Barnabas, and you probably know,

but for the listeners he may not know. Barnabas was called the son of Encouragement, and God called Barnabas good. And when he said that, I couldn't help but think of you and the podcast and the encouragement You've been through these two hundred and something episodes to other people to get them to study and learn for the for

the truth, you know, to seek out the truth. And uh so, I, just like I said, building up to this, my mind's been on a lot of scripture, it's been on you, it's been, you know, prayerful for you and your studies in the seminary and the church, and just just praying that God's message could be spread. But but I would say, my friend, that you you definitely are a Barnabas because you you do encourage so many people. You probably have no idea of the impact that you've had when your time is over.

here's a buzzword that I've learned to hate. If you catch me saying the word planet, just virtually slap me, because nowhere in scripture does God describe Earth as a planet. It's not there. So I'll just I'll get on this, my little soap box of Earth and so when I got on this topic of looking at Earth and how it was created and consuming all this information, the idea about sharing it. Here's where the bread crumb thing come in.

And so every time I get in the truck, you know, the phone connects to the radio, and the radio pops up Spotify and what's there, it's you know, the Flat Earth Files. Bible Mysteries is another podcast that I've listened to because those guys challenge my thinking on a lot. I disagree with them a lot on some things when it comes to salvation, once saved, always save, things like that. But I still like to listen to stuff that I don't agree with, just so it can challenge me to

dive deeper into scripture. So anyway, because again I may be wrong. I don't have all the answers, so I need to look and prove it. You know, Again, the Bible says test all things. So getting back to that, we get somewhere around Saint Louis. And so when you get when you get in the truck, people's vehicles may be this. It pops up the you know, the the icons on the screen and there would be you know, flat Earth files. And I thought, I don't know if I'm ready to have this conversation or not. So i'

you know, hit a button and make it disappear. Well, somewhere around Saint Louis, Kansas City somewhere. I got in and I didn't get that button hit fast enough, and my buddy tied me from the back. He goes, Chris, what in the world is flat Earth files? And so I tried my best to explain. You know. I went back to hey, you remember this class because he's one of the teachers in there. On Wednesday night with him as well, I was like, uh, you remember you know

this conversation? Yeah, I said, Man, after class, I got sent something and it has changed my life in the view of scripture, and I said, I think for the better. And one of my other buddies in there, Mike, who goes to church with me. Mike is an engineer by trade. So everything with Mike, and I love him dearly. He is polar opposite of me. He's very analytical, very you know, very by the book thinker.

you're a few years older than mere. They're in their early fifties, and you know, so I did my best to go into what I had learned about NASA and we've been lied to and just you know, just hashing all of those early episodes that had played in my mind and if and if this is a lie. This has got to be a lie. And at what at what point? And I would ask all the listeners this, at what point do you quit believing somebody when they lie to you? Is it after one lie? Two lies?

How many lies have to be told to you before you Okay, I've had enough. And when you can start pointing those out and punching holes in it, you know, I thought, well, maybe they'll grasp on. And so I kind of went through this little spill of of what I had learned up to that point, which you know, I didn't know how comfortable I would be getting my thoughts and stuff together, and so uh, anyway that he was. They were like, okay, that's interesting. You don't believe none

of that, do you? And this is this is where my faith was put to the test, And I said, I believe one hundred percent that we've been lied to. I believe that I serve a God who is such a great creator. If he would have wanted to make a round ball and have water stick to it, there is not a doubt in my mind that he could have created that. But the pages of my Bible, that's not what he said he created. And at this point in time. I hadn't looked into Enoch or anything else

at this point in time. And uh, and I said, And they said, so you you're a flat earther. And I said the phrase biblical earth. I said, that has such a negative connotation to it. Let's let's say And I said, I believe it's something different. And so you know, it got quiet for two or three hours, and then I done forgot which one. I ask, well, well, what

what what is? How do you explain eclipses? And they've been back there on their phone googling, you know, flat earth and this and that, And I said, guys, I'm still learning a lot of it. I said, there's you know, how they were wanting to know about if the Earth is flat, how can there be you know, how can the sun get around the Earth? And I knew that And and these guys that have devoted their life to

this teaching, forgive me. Is it David Weiss who has the the app or the map that shows how the sun can move inside the farm and the moon and you know it can it can you know basically on that gleasing map you know, illuminate everything. And and so anyway, they started hitting me with questions, and it would be like every two hours it would just be this random question, well what about this? What about that? What about? And

it was just kind of this back and forth. And forgive me, I don't remember all the details of the conversation that you know, we go out there and hunt, and of course this was hilarious. The house we were staying at had a literally george a floor to ceiling map of the world. It was it was, you know, rolled out like you've seen in the schools, and you know, here,

here is this map of the world. And of course that was I was sleeping in the basement with the other gentlemen and it was down there, and they come down there and just he hauled and they said, well, I guess that white border is going to be the ice wall. And you know, it was all this back and forth, but it was all in all in good fun. And here's the other thing. If you can't talk about the idea of a biblical earth or flat earth without

getting mad, don't talk about it. If they if they laugh, laugh with them, if they cut up, cut up with them. But because as you dive deeper into this, you can hit them with stuff and then you can kind of laugh at them, and but it's it's about knowing, knowing who you're with. But uh, you know, fast, you know, fast forward through that trip, the hunting trip, and on the way back, it was like every couple hours they were hitting me with something. So I had obviously you know,

planet planet a seed with them. And then I you know, I got to work and I started listening to the podcast some at work and some employees heard it, uh, and they were like, yeah, I'm on board with that. And and side note here with the younger generation, it's amazing how many of our younger generation may not be believe in a biblical earth, but they one hundred percent believe man never went to the moon.

I believe we're on this firm foundation. I don't think the firmament's ever left and when you start and in his response, and I don't know if it was your podcast or somebody else, And he was based like Chris with with working fifty hours a week and a wife that works fifty hours a week and two teenage boys. I don't have time to dive into that stuff. I know, Jesus, I want to keep sharing. Jesus, I think that's absolutely ridiculous.

And and he don't he doesn't know this, but you know his next comment was, he said, you need to be careful who you share this with because it could affect your influence, your reputation if people really believe and understand this when I say this. We're close enough friends that we are like brothers. And if there was something in his life, I would love him enough to tell him, and he would tell me. And he said, because you could say that to the wrong person and just you know,

basically be labble to quack. He said, you could really lose a lot of influence. And you know, I couldn't help,

but go back. We talked about persecution. But I was I sitting out here on the porch that night, staring at the staring at the moon, while I'm having this conversation with him, you know, And there was a little part of me that thought, well, is you know somebody I love dearly that don't know he's you know, throwing some darts at me, but he loves me enough that he's telling me what he thinks, and that much I appreciate.

But I'm not going to let that stop me. And I think I you know, in that original email that I sent you several months ago, just to thank you for what you were doing, you know, it wound up leading me to such a strong belief that we've been lied to that, like you alluded to on a prior podcast, we had the conversation in about four or five weeks of Wednesday night classes. We started with Genesis, and you know, we and you know the very beginning of the Book

of Genesis. In the beginning, God created the heavens in the earth. So right off of the bat, the reader has to make a decision do I believe in science or do I believe in what God says? And I don't know if you've ever heard this, I don't think this idea was original with me, but but I'm going to share it to you, share it with you right now.

So you know, when you ask somebody what the Earth looks like, you know their mind goes back to the globe in the classroom, the blue marble, whatever, whatever picture of Earth you want it to look like your program because of the globe. And you know that comes a parent in the early episodes where y'all are talking about that, because once you see it everywhere, you literally see it everywhere now And I don't think I ever touched on that.

When Jason sent me those text messages and I noticed they were on four eighteen and four twenty, the day I didn't respond was April the nineteenth. And then as you start having these rabbit holes and learn what you know, April nineteenth is yeah. I was like, you know that that day didn't mean nothing to me. I started down this, but but you get so this is the little experiment.

I may have heard this on your podcast, but I would challenge the listeners right now if I said, in your mind picture the Last Supper or Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper, I would dare to say that right now most people are probably thinking of I think it was Da Vinci that painted the Last Supper with you know, the Virgin Mary leaning on him, and or not the Virgin Mary Mary Magdalene leaning on him, and everybody's on the same out of the table, because that's the painting

that's been out there forever, and that's that's the picture that's in everybody's mind. So when I when I presented that question to the class that night, that okay, close your eyes and think of think of the Last Supper. And then I said, is this what come to your mind? Every hand in the classroom went up, Well, why is that? Because that's what you were programmed to think, that's what you've seen. So let's let's take all the notions of of what you think the earth looks like, and let's

look at it from a biblical perspective. And so we had we had three or four weeks, well four or five weeks excuse me of diving in and looking at that topic. But I didn't just fire hose the class with it. You know, I had to set it up to get to that point. You know, the question that I ask in every class was I would always, in some way, shape or form, you know, ask do you think those people were were not as intelligent as us?

When we're talking about the Old Testament scriptures, and in hands down the answer was always no, no, no, they they some you know some of that, you know, Abraham know you know these guys talk directly with God, you know. They you know, God was you know, dwelt among them in some sense. And the patriarchs would you know, they they fully knew because where we just have scripture that that is living and breathing and sharper than to it

edge sword, they they had God there, you know. And in New Testament days, the Jesus the word is self dwelt among them. So no, there's there's no way. And then when you get to the you know, the text that everybody wants to go to, which is a great text, you know, Joshua, you know the Sun and Moon stand still. I was like, you know, they were like, well, that's just the way they understood it. And I said, well, y'all are the same class that for four weeks have

said that they were more. They even used examples like they built the pyramids, they did this, They did that without any tools, So no, they weren't dumb. And I said, so you're rationale for believing that is that it's just the way they understood it. Well, yeah, because it looks like the sun rises and it looks like the sun sets, and it's what they would have interpreted it to be.

And I said, they're inspired writers. God could have just as easily said Earth stands still, Earth, you know, quit moving. But why didn't he say that? What it's because it goes against the rest of scripture that the earth is on foundations, it shall not be moved, you know, the the universe. You know it was the Genesis two to one. I think you know it was completed. It was finished, it was over and well and you can see their wheels turning that they don't want to say okay. But

the one that gets me. And I don't know how this this text, and this is where I say, I'm always learning. But if you've got your Bible and want

to go there Isaiah thirty eight eight mentions it. But first Kings twenty verses nine through eleven, And I here again, like I said, when you think you no, you know it all, you don't, the Bible humbles Yet I wish I would have had this verse because to me, when people last for you know, the six silver bullets, what's the number one proof to me, I think this verse is going to come to the top of my list. It this is excuse me, Second Kings, chapter twenty, verse

starting in verse nine. Then Isaiah said, this is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing which he has spoken. And he asked him, shall the shadow go four to ten degrees or backward ten degrees? And Hezekia answered genius answer, I think are here it's easy for it's easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees, because Son's going that way anyway. And he says, no, you know, asking and I'm reading out of the New Kings Jane version and it says,

but let the shadow go backwards ten degrees. Uh. So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord and brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sun dial of they has And here again, I have been blessed to have been born and raised in the church, you know, almost fifty years of my life now. And somehow that verse has either been skimmed over,

read over, not elaborated on or something. But it's it's just like the one in Joshua where sun and moon stands still there's to me, there's no way the reader can mistranslate that the sun went back? Did the Earth stop and go back? Because you know, if you want to believe in science, you know that scientifically, if the Earth was to come to a stop and rotate backwards,

what that's gonna do? I just uh and and and let me let me say this that you know, the the class of people that that I have the privilege to I hate to say teach, but I lead and thought is what I try to do because that's what I want to provoke. Thinking is a class of about twenty five people. On a good night, we may have thirty. Most of them are age fifty five to college age. And you know they're a very they're very They study

their Bible, is what I'm trying to say. And when you can challenge them on these things that they haven't heard from a pulpit, haven't really dwelt on people that normally don't speak out in class. After we started this session, you know, I would get text messages that say, you have you know, thank you for making me think. We've

wondered about this check out. You know, this podcast's what turned me on to the to the Bible Mysteries guy, because the very first episode is talking about the Earth and its creation and you know the idea that maybe this earth was created for angels. First, again, I don't necessarily agree with everything that these guys say, but they provoke a lot of thought, and something they say may link a piece of something together that I've heard somewhere

else that makes it makes perfect sense. I would I would encourage more listeners that if they have the opportunity to teach, and they're comfortable in front of a crowd, and if you're comfortable saying I don't know the answer to that, I'm just gonna speak where the Bible speaks, and I'm gonna be silent or it's silent if it don't engage some thought to make people go, well, is is Nasaaliine? Have I been lying to you the whole time?

Then then what's the purpose? I would invite them back to the original.

people traditionally do not like change. They like to be creatures of habit and I think subconsciously they know if they take this information in it's going to wholesale change their lives. But I think what they don't understand is how it changes it for the good and how in many ways for people to save their lives. Right that,

they start, well, maybe I should question everything. Oh well, maybe the this vaccine isn't a good ITEA, maybe this, maybe that, And we live in a world that is full of deceit, and we should absolutely one question everything. You also made a great point. I don't remember who brought it up before. I don't know if it was on this podcast or not, but the whole Da Vinci with the the Last Supper. Even when I remember when I heard it for the first time, I think I

actually heard it on another podcast or YouTube channel. Even when you research it on Google, if you ask it a question, it'll always the AI will always refer back to the image of Da Vinci. Not that correct me if I'm wrong, But it was like a U shaped table, and traditionally I do know this that the host never sat in the middle, and I think he sat between Jesus, sat between John and Judas, yes, but on the end, not in the middle of the table right right.

You know, we're blessed to have a lot of young children in our congregation, and maybe one of them, you know, crying out or something which babies in church is a good thing. Take take your crying babies to church. Church a church. Yeah, they need to be there, teach them early.

But a lot of times my mind will go back to Jesus instituting the Lord's Supper in Matthew, maybe even First Corinthians, Paul's account to the Corinthians and read what is said, and I'll catch my mind going back to the Da Vinci paint and I'll go Chris, you know it's not that way. But I've heard a few people mentioned this show to you. I don't know if you've watched it or not, because it's it's really hard to find what I would call good wholesome TV. But the

series The Chosen, Uh. I will give that my endorsement until I hear something bad on them. They they they do take liberties of filling in the gaps and adding some other stories there with it, but I don't think they get away from the core of the Bible. And we're we're not fully caught up on the series because we watch it, you know, free on the app or whatever. But you know, the other the other night they were

or the actually I think it's season five. They're they're in the upper room as as you know that with the Last Supper, and it is just what you said, the U shaped table in that you know, there's there's five disciples down one side, five down the other Jesus and this is in the center with John and Judas on each side. So it's uh it when I asked you to close your eyes and remember that those that

have watched that series may go to that picture. But you know, it's it's just what we've been ingrained to believe because we've seen it with their eyes or you know, we think we heard it with their ears. But like Jesus said, when that veil is removed, you can you can see clearly. And again I would, you know, say go to go to God in prayer and ask for that veil to be removed. Help help him to help you see the truth. You know. It's it's the conviction in people when you look at conviction is such a

strong word. When when those when those men and women on the Day of Pentecost and Acts chapter two realized that it was Jesus the Messiah, they had crucified. It says they were cut to the heart. That's still the power of the gospel today when they realize who Jesus is, that he can still cut you to the heart with his love and what he done for us. You know, he has men and brethren, what shall we do? And

Peter said, arise and be baptized, you know know. And it goes on to Satan that day, you know five I think it's five thousand souls. I should have this memorized,

but I don't. But but it's it's the fact of that conviction being being cut to the heart, that that veil has been removed and they have seen Jesus will put it on the biblical earth perspective, when when you take the veil of the globe away, and the veil of everything that you've been taught about, the moon and outer space and the blackness of space and things, you can you can realize then that that it's God is is literally right up above us. He's he's he's here,

He's close. God is omnipresent, he he you know, Satan doesn't have that advantage. Satan has to deceive others and lead others astray so that they may lead you astray, whether that's through TV, whether that's through music, whether that's through movies, what, whatever the case may be, Satan has to have agents to be everywhere where God doesn't. He is omnip present, He's everywhere. We can go to him now in prayer anywhere. And that's that should be a

beautiful comforting fact. Uh, to the to the reader, I think, so.

I'm going to do it. But but internally, if if it if it's if it's not going against scripture, I mean, you know, you're taught to bow your head and pray, and you're taught to to out out of respect and and and majority of my prayers come from a bowl position. But George, there's been times where I have looked up to Heaven with tears in my eyes or with joy or with sorrow, whatever the case may be, and prayed

looking up to my Father. And then there's been times I have been driven prostate down to my knees flat on the ground. So just I think the idea here is it is when you're when you're in prayer to God, you want you you want you know that you've got his attention. Give him your attention. I have caught myself so many times. You know the Bibles, We've had this conversation in the Wednesday night class, pray without ceasing. What

does that look like? Is it? Is it? You know, at the stop sign you're trying to say a quick prayer. I agree that those are prayers, and they may count as prayers, but I don't feel that close connection with my Father through Christ. Because again, Christ is our mediator. He is our go between between us and the Father. And when you realize the sacrifice that He made so you can have that relationship with the Father and be called a child of God. Take enough time out of

your day. The Bible says, go to your private place, your secret place, and and pray. Get away from all the cell phones, the worldly distray. And I'm preaching to self here too, get away from all of those distractions and have some one on one time with with the Father. And at different stages of your life. You may bow, you may look up, you may be driven to your knees. Uh, But but he is there.

the jar of the conspiracy coin. This took place in Centralia, Pennsylvania. I don't know if you're familiar with it. But there was a longstanding theory that there was a mind fire in Pennsylvania and why it was done. It goes back to nineteen sixty two. After the mind fire, the various government agencies along with private businesses, they all conspired to get this valuable coal that was under the town. So what they did they had no choice but to leave

their homes. I'm going to leave the link in the show notes for people, but you know, it's interesting here in the state of Delaware, we've seen eminent domain from highways and other ventures like that. We are very close with the family who Beckon the late seventies lost their farm due to eminent doname. And now people are very in this state are getting very upset. They've doubled tolls,

they've doubled property taxes. And again I'm that guy who over analyzes everything, but it's you know, God gave all of us the earth, you know, go forth multiply, and now it's gotten to in just sixty five hundred years overall, two thousand years after Christ, that we don't even own the land that we call home.

And you're delinquent. We're we're fortunate enough that we own our own house. But I said, you, you never truly own anything, because guess what if I don't, if I don't pay my property tax, they're gonna come take it. You know, if if you don't pay it, just you know, registration on your car exactly, your your your license, you know, uh you fill in the blank. And you know, people

people for the most part, uh have no idea. And I'm gonna I'm gonna sound the banner of the small business owner out there of you know, you may be open eight to five. They don't see you get there at six and then leave at seven or later, or phone ringing on the weekends or things like that. But you know, in the in the state of Tennessee, you know, you're you're collecting, you know, sales tax. In my case, I was collecting tire fees. You know, you've got property taxes.

You've got you know something. For four twenty five years I done business at my granddad's old shop, and then we built a new one. When we built a new shop, I had a state inspector come in and said, I'm the buller inspector and I said, we don't have a buller. He said, well, you've got air compressors and they have to be certified. And I said, I've had them for twenty five years. Right down the road that the new building got somebody's attention. Well for the next you know,

five years. Once a year, here comes the guy in to put a little sticker on the on the air compressor tank in the back, saying he's been he's checked it, and then saying, the state of tennessee one hundred and fifty dollars for that. Uh, you know it just everywhere you look, you're nickeled and down the desk. So between payroll taxes and property taxes or excuse me, payroll insurance,

property taxes and everything. You know, I've heard people talk and I forget what the term is it's in what may when, like all of your taxes, you basically work five months out of the year paying taxes and then you get the seven months. Well, that just in my mind keeps getting worse, worse and worse, because I heard my uncle say years ago when they were trying to get a wheel tax voted in this county. He said, you never vote yourself in new taxes because they'll never

take it away. And the taxes just you know, kept getting voted down, voted down, voted down, and then they took it away from the voters and put it in front of the commissioners, if I remember right, and the commissioners wound up voting it through. And so it's just it's just never ending. And of course that's that's another rabbit hole.

take the scripture and see what it says. But I know what the general consensus is says of Rowan's thirteen and how we should look at government, but I want to hear his version, and then, you know, I had a really good conversation via email with our preacher because I typically have I typically do better through writing or email because I can get my thoughts down on paper or clearly, where sometimes I don't convey it good with voice.

But he was talking about the three types of covenants that we have, uh, you know that are that are spiritual covenants, And it was the covenant we have with Christ, the covenant of marriage, uh, and the covenant with government. And you know, with with Christ, if that covenant is broke, it's not Christ who broke it. Uh, it's us the covenant of marriage, you know, if and and you can always come back to Christ. Uh. The way the Bible, you know, talks about marriage. You know, it even says

in the Old Testament that God hates divorce. And you know, man was to have one wife. And when you talk about which is a touchy subject this day and age, but you've got to look at scripture for what it says. You know, the covenant of marriage, you know, by scripture the way that I read and understand scripture, the the guilty party of breaking that covenant, the innocent party is allowed to remarry where the guilty the guilty party no, based on scripture, they can repent and be forgiven, but

sins has consequences. Again, if that goes against your belief, Uh, email me. Let's let's let's have a good conversation on marriage, divorce, remarriage. That's a whole nother topic. But I would rather, I would rather. I would rather have the topic and make sure somebody is going to heaven an inter right state of mind. And I didn't mean to get off on that. But the third one was government and the idea of

you know, be subject to all authorities. Well, what my question to him was, what if what if government breaks that covenant? It's not it's not me, I'm paying the taxes. What if government makes that, you know, breaks that covenant? And so and and with with the idea of government, I dove into that in my own personal studies, reading everything else, I come to the and I didn't tell my family or nobody this. I didn't tell nobody till

the Wednesday night I taught. I said, and it was after the election, but I said, I, in good conscience, will no longer vote because and again you can challenge me on this, George, that the people out there listening, can this is the conclusion I come to. I'm not saying I'm right, this is what I have come to. So I need guidance on this. But if God ordains government, and I even went back to the point, if I'm

wrong on this one, let me know. But God's people were ruled by God until they decided they wanted a king and King Saul. And ever since King sauls God's people has been under some kind of government, whether it's you know, the Israelites through the years, you know, with under a king or under captivity or one under whatever, and then you fast forward to the New Testament being under Rome. But we were always subject to some kind of government before Saul, we were just subject to God.

So if God, God ordains governments and gives them power, if I cast my vote against and this may sound un to people, but if I cast my vote against somebody in office, am I technically voting against God? What God has ordained? My answer to that would be yes, I have. And I thought, I've just got a violation of conscience. Now when it comes to elections. After looking at the scriptures, and I've had people tell me, Chris, you're looking at them too deep. We have our constitution.

Our constitution says that we that we can vote, and this is how we get new people in and out. And I said, well, the Bible says the ordained by God. And I'm not saying if your vote, if you're voting, you're committing a sin. I just think that there's a higher power involved in your votes. Absolutely the useless. It's decided before you ever get there. Again, that's Chris Barrat's opinion, nobody else's. But when it comes to when it comes to that, my next question was well, that document also

says I can form a well regulated militia and change it. No, no, no, you know, so you can't have it both ways. So I go back and I'm gonna try to remember. I think it's First Timothy two, and I'm just gonna paraphrase scripture. I think it's First Timothy two, probably somewhere around verse ten. Maybe it says that the authorities just don't let me butcher scripture. I'm sorry, George, I know, but this is

where this is where I came to my conclusion. Yeah, right here, First Timothy two is starting in verse one. Therefore I exert exhort first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. That's that's everybody on the earth, for kings and all who are in our authority. So pray for our leaders, obviously. And then why are we doing that? That we may lead a quiet, peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.

For this is good and exceptable in the sight of God, our savior, who think goes on talk about who desires men everywhere to be safe. So if we can lead what I gleaned from that, if we can lead a quiet, peaceable life that gives us the opportunity if we've got good rulers to spread the Gospel of Christ. And it's hard to lead a good, peaceable life when you have to work five months out of the year to pay taxes. And I know taxes have their purpose and everything else.

I'm not saying abotish I'm doing away with them, although that may not be a bad idea. But the dirty secret they don't want anybody to know is the more you work, the more money you make, the more you're gonna pay. And it's just this cycle that gets you so plugged into maybe that society norms, I don't know, but it's just taking you further and further away from God. You know how many people out there can honestly say

they're living a why and peaceable life. Maybe if you turned off the TV or get a little quater, a little bit more peaceable, but I don't know. Again, I'm apologize for getting off on my soapbox.

follow Jesus Christ. And what it just frustrates me to see people with that much right, that much power, that much of an audience, and they fail to use it. And that's why I completely and again I was part of that. I was pulled in emotionally. We can't let the most evil woman in the world take over this country, so I'm going to put And then you've realized it's meet the new boss, same as the old boss, and

they all answer to the same people. And then you start to understand that it's rules for thee, not for me. And then you keep digging deeper and deeper, and then you understand it's spiritual warfare and to me, like yourself and many other people, you know, biblical cosmology has opened. Right, You've really I thought I could see before, right, I was hit to nine to eleven in these things. And then you truly understand how great the lie is. And then that takes me to my final question for you

is I guess this is where I'm at now? Right?

You go back to Genesis six, verse four. I think it is when they talk about the Nephelem and it says that they were on the earth in those days and also afterward, and you know, you think about the conspiracies like nine to eleven, like burning all those men, women and children in Waco in ninety three, you know, insert you know, bringing freedom to iraqis through bombings and those type of things, and you realize, you know, people like you and I, even people I don't get along with,

we all have that switch right that these crimes that these people commit are they of the seed of Satan? Is this a seed war? Are they trying to exterminate us? Are they trying to alter God's seeds? You see mRNA technology, you see GMO technology on the foods that we eat. What are your thoughts on all that?

But if you skip down to verse sixteen, it says these six things the Lord hates. So don't gloss that over. If God hates something, you better stand up and take notice and beware. And then it goes on to say, yes, seven are an abomination to him. Look at number one, a proud look every presidential picture to me, and maybe again I don't know the sincerity of their heart, but how many times have you seen our current president, our former president have that proud look about them?

what you talked about with with wars. You know, why are we going to you know, to war in You know, my father in law served, you know, twenty three years military. Have the greatest respect in the in the world for him. He passed away way too soon after he retired.

if you haven't checked that out, checked that out. But you can start at least World War two and come up through the tiwers falling and see hands that shed innocent blood. And why the people that have come up with enough evidence to present a case you know that you know that the world's under somebody else's control because there's just too much condemning evidence out there to turn the blind eye to it. Not ask a question why so a lying tongue excuse me hands that shed innocent blood.

And then look at eighteen verse eighteen. A heart that devises wicked plans, it's that all the time, feet that are swift and running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among the brethren. And you look at that in Proverbs. If you want to talk of it, brethren in a worldly sense. That's what the news does. It sows discord. You've said it a million times. You know you've got left or right. There is nothing else, So you look at the discord.

Those things that God hates is what our government is. And that's that's just again. Part of the problem today is nobody wants to offend anybody. And I heard a preacher say one time, he said if when he was preaching from the pulpit, he said, if I'm stepping on your toes, I'm sorry. I was aiming for your heart. You know, you've got to have some conviction and and be fearless when it comes to the Word of God and sharing it. And if it offends somebody, let him know.

I'm not trying to be this arrogant prick. I love you and I want to see you in heaven and and this this isn't right. And I want you to keep me in check and love me enough and come tell me if if I'm not living the way I should should should live. We we should have that kind of communication you know amongst our brethren, uh, that we

can we can go to each other. And you know, later on in the New Testament it says, if you've got fault against your brother, you don't go to social media and say, guess what so and so did to me today. No, the Bible says you go to your brother. And then if it says he won't have you, what do you do. You don't go to social media again and complain. You take somebody else with you and then you go and confront that brother. And if these still won't hear you, I think this is a beautiful statement.

It says you bring it before the church, or bring it before you know, the congregation, if you will. And that's the idea of family, a community that is together as one. And I'm not naive to think that everybody's going to be in agreement. I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. The churches across this

world are full of people that have disagreements. I would say in our congregation of you know, potentially of about one hundred and fifty people, when it comes to the idea of biblical earth, that there may be fifteen to twenty that would agree with me. There may and that's not saying I'm right. They just agree with my person. There may be only four or five that would stand up and proclaim it. But I think the other's faith

will come along. But does that mean that the other one hundred and thirty don't love me, don't support me, don't agree with me. No, they'll sit there and they will listen to what I've said, and they'll be like the Brians. They'll go to the scripture and they'll discern it for themselves, or they may not even think about it again. But that's the idea and the people I

truly do. The people that don't have that kind of family, church family, I want to call it that, those that they can rely on and go to, I am so sorry you don't have that in your life, because it is to have a congregation of God's people that love the Lord first and then love me and want to see me get to heaven. That's something that too many people don't have, and that I hope and pray that they could all have. It's amazing to have that kind of support staff around you.

One is again they're introverts that don't trust people. Number Two, Uh, like the situation that's led me to doing what I'm doing is just there's not a lot of great doctionally, you know, foundational churches and.

to heaven. Yeah, yet you haven't accomplished anything. And and and what you hit the what you touched on there earlier, just because I know how my mind is Genesis six. There were giants in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Now, I don't know if this is an original idea with me or not just in my I really this idea came to me

through reading of the scripture. I'm not I know that I can't be the first person to have this idea, but I don't think I've ever had anybody else heard it discussed. But you know, I may get flooded with emails that go, yes, this guy has discussed or this or that, and if they have, send it to me. So when when we talked way back when when the podcast started about the timeline of the Bible and your opinion, Uh,

where do you feel like job fits in? Because I struggle with this and I'll tell you where I'm going with it.

it through the end of the chapter. But you talk, I've read this, and this is I preached a lot out of this, uh, you know, and and leading the class in thought on you know what what he was said, And I got to say this, this has nothing to do with anything but verse three it says, now, prepare yourself like a man. I will question you. That's God talking to Job basically saying, okay, buddy, I'm fixing the question. You know, I'm paraphrasing obviously, but prepare yourself like a man.

And that's again another soapbox I can get on. We need more godly men today that prepare themself like a man, or like men and lead. There's the God give us roles as men. He give women roles as women. And it doesn't mean a man's more important than a woman. We're both both valuable, both have jobs to do, but the men are tasked with a little bit more, I

truly believe. But where I'm going with that when you read that out and talking about the giants and the nepheline, and I'm fresh off a study of Enoch that I've been in that book for about a week highlighting and circling things I probably aren't. I'll talk about the parts of it. If you've got something in particular, I would love to know your thoughts on it. I've been Enochous to me is a crucial book in helping to understand

whether you think it's Kennon or not. The people. The people in the pages of the Holy Scripture obviously looked to the Book of Enoch for something. Now you can glean out of it what you want to. But I have found it fascinating. But where I was going with this job, I'm sorry, Job George. In job chapter forty two, here's just a random thought by Chris. Go to the chap last chapter verse forty two. Excuse me, Chapter forty two, Verse fifteen it says, and this is talking about Job,

after everything that had been restored to him. It says, in all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job, and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And it goes on to say Job lived one hundred and forty years and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. Job was old. So I've done the old Google thing. How old was Job when he died? Apparently? Well, what I seen in the Google machine that I used was he lived one

hundred and forty years. He was believed to be. The principal idea I think here of what I was reading was, well, if Job was one hundred and forty years, God doubled everything. So in their mind, it's feasible to think that he was seventy when Satan came upon the earth and took everything away from him. And so Job was probably around two hundred and ten years old, and they think that

that puts him somewhere around the patriarch age with Abraham. Exactly. Well, where my mind went was if you go back to Genesis six, there were giants in the earth in those days, and also afterward when the sons of God, which are are are the fallen angels, I truly believe, came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them, well, the Job's daughters. The Again that I can't prove this

as fact. This is just Chris Barrett's opinion. What if to get back at God, because if you go back to the beginning of Job, it says, and I think this has glossed over a lot of times. You know, if you go back to Job one, this actually happens twice in chapter one. In chapter two, now, there was a day when the sons of God, there's that term again in Genesis six talking about those fallen angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came

among them. And then it said it echoes the same thing in two. So this again, rabbit Hole thought with Chris, I'd love George's opinion on it, or just dwell on it. If if Satan tempted Job, and Job never chose to curse God and died, then you know, you get to the end of the chapter and God has blessed him, blessed him with with beauty, you know, basically the most

beautiful daughters in all the land? It would it be Would it be a fair thought or rabbit hole to go down to say that those nepheline, those giants, what better way could they get back at God by breeding with the daughters of Joel. I don't have no proofs of that, but you know it's I like things that challenge my thinking, and that one definitely challenged my thinking. You know, the parts that I have problems with is you know, Enoch is written in a pre flood context, idea.

I also I also have the question of I was taught to believe, or inferred to believe, that it had never rained on the earth until until the flood happened. I don't know that that's true anymore, because when when God says, just like the just like there was giants on the earth in those days, Moses didn't have to explain what giants was because the readers knew it. When Noah, when God told Noah it was going to rain on the earth, he didn't have to explain to and what

rain was. He knew it. And so you know, there's a there's a passage in Enoch that talks about or excuse me and job that talks about the flood had wiped out some wicked men, and they believe that that passage leads you to think it was the flood of Noah that wiped out the wicked men, and therefore Job has to come after Noah. And then there's the uh, there's the idea of one of Job's friends being from a town that was a descendant named after one of

basically Abraham's grandkids. Uh. So I can see how people would definitely put it in context of post Abraham. But the Bible goes on to say in Job that he was basically the wealthiest man in the East. And you know, there was not a man as good as Job in the East and all of the East. So I find that hard to put him in the Abraham Isaac Jacob, Joseph Timeline. Given the stories in Genesis, we know about them.

So again, two years ago, three years ago. This is the beauty of this podcast and the work you're doing. Those questions never enter my mind. I just read it and gloss over it. If if the seed hadn't been planned to dive into my Bible deeper and look and so and I'm again I'm not saying I'm right and I very well could be wrong. I'm not saying it is fact and I believe it. I'm saying is I've

still got some more studying to do. Because if Job, if God talks so highly about Job and he's in the Abraham timeline, those things in my mind don't And I'm a real simple person, so those things don't add up together in my mind, because you know, Abraham was from I think it was err and that was either far farther east than any came up and over and around and with the five Kings story and all that.

So I've struggled with and looking I keep wanting to go to the tier of Bible because the things I've heard, and I haven't got around reading Jasper and jubileeze but the idea that it took three days to walk around the tower. You know, in Bible class, we made the back in the day when it was felt stuck on the board. You know, I can remember the little old tower that we would build and God come knocked it down.

But now you hear it took you know, it was built on a plane, and that it took you know, three days to walk around and it took a year to a sin to the It just I'm like, those aren't Bible stories that I was, you know, it just it's a whole nother world of information out there that I think will help complete and bring the picture together. But then, George, I couldn't help but laugh, as I've in the last you know, a couple of weeks really studying Enoch. There's there's a central theme in there that

I kept noticing that the aim. Every time Enoch would ask a question, if you'll notice one of the archangels would go, why are you wanting to know this? Why are you so? I can't kind of skip myself on guard, going do I need to be asking these questions? Right?

I guess twenty twenty. And I remember when you Hauld mention that being in a military uniform standing outside the Cigarette of Her in Iraq, you know, the House of Abraham built, you know, as as a soldier, I felt so uncomfortable.

points today. And by the way, I did include a link everything as rich Man's Trick documentary, which is on YouTube two million views. It's three and a half hours, so you may have to watch it in pieces. And also, you know, get to know true history, right, you know, I can't. I didn't question these things in high school

or I guess college. I remember taking classes at Texas A and M was transitioning out of the military ten years ago and history two class had a paragraph on the USS liberty, like literally a paragraph.

and Pat Gray. Of course. You know, I've heard you use the term gatekeepers there, and if i'd have heard that term before, I'd have probably never really thought about it. But but when somebody like you said, takes that veil from your eyes, you can when you watch those shows, you can see exactly what it is. And then, uh, somebody was talking about the USS liberty.

platform is. I know it it goes around the world, right, that's right, but uh, as far as east is the West, I use Bible.

be at the forefront of everyone's mind. We should be as comfortable talking about that as we are talking about the baseball game last night. And then now that after two hundred and thirty some episodes, I think it's safe to say that the cosmology is important. Biblical cosmology is important. It's changed a lot of people's lives. So was there anything else that you wanted to touch on before we parted?

that so desperately needs it. Father, we thank you for this place that you created and give to us that we call Earth. We pray that we don't take it for granted. We pray that we can see you as the ultimate creator, the giver of all things good and most important, the giver of your son, your only begotten son, Jesus, and through him we may have salvation. In hoping you, Father, we just say we love you. We thank you for George and his heart and his ability to discern the

truth and get the truth out there. Pray that you give him long life and your service. And again we just thank you for Jesus name. We pray Amen a man.

And thank you so much Chris. To our listeners, God bless each and every one of you, remember keep your head on a swivel. And again, God bless every single one of you. And until we meet again, my friends, we will see.