: America's 250th birthday. It's a great excuse to have some extra cake and ice cream, but we can help your celebration go well beyond that. Show your patriotism with America 250 apparel that will become a memento of this special year. We also have special episodes on AFA Stream to help underscore that America is a Christian nation and help you find God in the Constitution. Find all of this and more in one place. Afa.net topics250. Welcome to Real Truth for Today with Pastor Jeff Schrieve, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Texarkana, Texas. Now, here's Pastor Jeff.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Well, good Friday morning, and welcome to Real Truth for today. Pastor Jeff Schrieve here, back from vacation in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. And we, had a great time. Got everyone together, all the grandkids together, and, it was just a lot of fun. And we rented an Airbnb and just kind of hung out and went in the pool with the kids. And my little grandsons, Jack and Chase, are learning how to swim and doing really, really well. And, so we have all the ages. We, go from 16, Emmy, our oldest, to Lyndon, who's 11, to Leila, who is 8 and Benny is 6. And then Jack is getting ready to be 5, and then Miles is 4 and Chase is 3, and little Drew is 1. And so, we have quite a crew. But it is, it's just a great time to be together. There's nothing quite like family. And so we give the Lord all the praise for that. Well, I wanted to read to you. Oh, and I do want to say thank you to Bishop, P.W. jackson, my dear and wonderful friend, for filling in for me. And he always does such a great job. I got an email from a listener who said, man, Bishop Jackson is great. I said, he really is. And, I counted a privilege to have him as a good friend. Well, I wanted to read to you from second Timothy, chapter two, beginning in verse 24, here's what the scripture says. The Lord's bondservant, his Doulos, that's the slave. The Lord's slave must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. Such a great passage of scripture. It's a, Command to the Lord's bondservants, the Lord's doulosses, and especially as it relates to a pastor. this is the letter to Timothy, Paul's son, according to the faith, and Son in the faith. And so he's telling them, this is what you need to do. let no one, as he told them in one Timothy, let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in faith, conduct, love and purity, be an example to those who believe. And so now he's saying, hey, you need to teach and you need to be patient when wronged. All pastors know that, you're going to get opposition, especially if you preach the truth. You're going to get a lot of opposition from, the people in the church that, that are not for change. With the Lord, there's growth and change, because he's at work in us. if your life is not changing, if you're not moving forward in the Christian life, guess what, you're not staying, in the same spot. You're going backward. And so you have to constantly be fighting, the world, the flesh and the devil and the power of the Holy Spirit and being changed, as it says in Romans, chapter 12. I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold, but be transformed. That's a, constant. Transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. As Jon the Baptist said, he must increase, increase, and I must decrease. Jon 3:30. The Christian life in a nutshell. What is it? It's the Lord who lives inside. He came to live inside. When you repented and believe, believed, it's him increasing in you and you decreasing and life becoming more and more and more about Jesus and less and less and less about you. Now, that that doesn't happen just bam, just like that. that's the process called sanctification. Justification happens the moment you believe you are justified before the Lord and you are transferred, as it says in Colossians 1, from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom, of his light. And you're no longer. You've transferred out of death into life. Jon 5:24. That happens immediately, the moment you believe your name is written in the Lamb's book of life. But what happens, step by step, day by day is our growth in the Lord. Colossians 2, 6 is a great verse. Ah, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. How did we receive Christ Jesus the Lord? Through repentance and faith. How do we walk in him? Through repentance and faith. And we go from a, newborn babe, as Peter said, as newborn babes long for the pure milk of the Word, that by it you may grow with respect to salvation. And we go from a newborn babe to a toddler, to a young, adult, so to speak, or teenager, let's put it in those terms. And then to a young adult, and then to a mature man, a mature woman. That's spiritual growth. And then the fruit of the Spirit is evident in your life. The sweet aroma, the knowledge of Jesus is evident wherever you go. And people can recognize that you have been with JEs. Acts, chapter 4, verse 13. That's what they said about the apostles. They recognized them as having been with Jesus. And the more time you spend with Jesus, the more people recognize and the way you act and react. Now, being around my grandchildren, especially my youngest, little Drew. Well, Drew's a year old. If Drew doesn't get what Drew wants, he starts crying, he throws a fit. Now, the others can do that a little bit too, but Drew especially, because he's only one. And, what do you notice with kids as they get older, hopefully they get out of those tantrums. As we get older and grow in the Christian life, we, start to mature and we don't respond in a selfish little baby way. Well, the Lord's bond servant, he's not to be a quarrelsome guy. He's to be kind to all. I think one of the base things in Christianity is just being kind to people, able to teach, patient when wronged. And I love this. With gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition. If perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, God has to grant the ability to repent. we respond to the Lord. You know, Jesus said Jon 6, you know, unless the Father draws you, you can't come. No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And the Lord draws by his Holy Spirit, he grants us the ability to understand and to respond to him. Now, I don't believe in irresistible grace. I don't believe in unconditional election where God just chooses us and we have no choice in the matter. I think when the Lord draws and when the Lord convicts, and when the Lord shows us, who he is, that then at that point we need to freely, by a choice of our will, say, yes, Lord, and repent and believe. But God has to grant that, we can't do that on our own. We have to respond to him. And then it says, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil. The snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his work. Will, that word snare means a trap. It means a noose. It's a, picture of catching an animal. And that animal comes across that snare unawares. he didn't know that there was a, the fish didn't know that there was a hook on that bait. All he saw was the morsel. He didn't see the hook. If he saw the hook, he's not going to bite it. And the animal that gets snared gets snared not knowing that there was a trap there. Well, the devil is constantly laying out traps and he is blinding the minds of the unbelieving. And I was thinking about this as it relates to what's going on in our world today, what's going on in our country. You know, Islam. We have the unholy alliance on the left between socialism and Islamism. and they've come together to use one another to gain power. And I ran across a, really interesting video and I'll play it in the second segment. But it's of this medical, Dr. Sheila Nazarian, and she talks about escaping from Iran in 1979. Her family escaped from Iran and what Iran was like under the Shah and how, the elites in Iran and the progressives in Iran got together with the Islamic, jihadists and they formed an alliance to overthrow the Shah. And how interesting it was when you look back at history that when they did that and they overthrew the Shah and the Islamists got power, well, the socialists got killed, the elites got imprisoned or murdered. Those guys don't play ball. They'll pretend to play ball for a while, but Islam does not play ball long term with anybody. They'll use people. And the socialists were thinking we're using the Islamists. And the Islamists were rightly thinking we're using the socialists because as soon as we get power, we're going to kill them. And that's what they did. And so as we're going to hear in that quote, Sheila is going to tell us that, hey, that's what happens. And I've seen this movie before and this is what's coming to, to a theater near you. This is what's coming to America if we don't wake up. Now. Jesus said In Jon chapter 10, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But I have come that they might have life and might have it abundantly. The devil is the thief who comes to do those things as a threefold action plan for your life, my life, your family, my family, for all of us. He wants to steal, to take away, stealthily. That's what that word means. He is a thief. And he comes to steal your joy, steal your peace, steal away your opportunities to put your faith and trust in God. To kill. That means to slaughter, to slay, to sacrifice. And he wants to totally destroy you. To steal and to kill and destroy. And the word for destroy in the Greek is apollumi. I'm sorry, apollumi, which means to put out of the way entirely, to be lost. Jon 3:16 uses it and it translates that word apollumi as perish. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The Lord doesn't want you to perish. He doesn't want to see you destroyed. Ezekiel 18:32. do I have any pleasure? The Lord says in the death of anyone who dies. No is the obvious answer. Therefore repent and live. And the message that we have to share with people is God is good and God loves you. And God sent his only begotten son to pay a price that you couldn't pay as he sent his son to die on the cross for your sins. And he, conquered death, hell and the grave when he raised him. On the third day, he offers salvation to anyone who will turn from sin, turn from self, and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. That's the message that we have to share. Now people are, they, they are blinded by the enemy and the enemy is at work. And so when we talk to people about their souls, just know, we need to be praying God, open their eyes to truth, help them to come to their senses so that they can see that they are ensnared by the dev, and that they're being held captive by him to do his will. You know, as we think about the billions, you know, hundreds and hundreds and Hundreds of millions, 1.9 billion people in the world or so that are identify as Muslims, well they are blinded by the devil. Islam is a demonic religion. It's satanic. It comes to steal and kill and destroy. The devil's fingerprints are all over it. Muslims are not the enemy. They're the mission field. But they believe lies. And we're here to speak the truth in love. Well, you're listening to Real Truth for today. Pastor Jeff Schrieve here. We're up against a break, but we'll be right back on American Family Radio. Don't go away.

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Pastor Jeff Schreve: Welcome back to the program. Pastor Jeff here. And, we're talking about the lies of the devil, how he holds people captive to do his will, how he blinds the minds of the unbelieving. Now, Jesus in Jon chapter 8 exposed him, and as he was arguing back and forth with the Jewish religious leaders, he said, let me find a good place to jump in here. Jesus said, if God were your father, this is Jon 8:42. You would love me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come of my own initiative. He sent me. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear my word. Okay, they can't hear. Their ears are stopped up. another picture for, the blindness, their deafness too, to the word of God. He said, you, Jon 8:44, are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a Lie. He speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. It was a few months back I wrote the book the Devil's Muting Satan's Fake News and Tuning into God's Truth. Well, that's what the devil does. He's the OG of fake news. He lies about everything. That's the only way the devil can get his devilish, work done is by lying to people. What did he say to Eve? He deceived her. you eat of this fruit, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. You're not going to die. God is lying to you, Eve, saying that if you eat of this fruit, you'll die. You surely will not die, for God knows in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, doing good and evil. He is the tempter, and his temptations are always wrapped in lies. having we escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive to do his will. Well, how does a. How does a hunter, a fisherman. How do they. How do they put their traps out? Well, they. They disguise them. the fisherman puts the bait on the hook. He doesn't expose the hook. He doesn't want the fish to know that there's a hook there. the trapper doesn't want the animal to know this is a trap. Well, the devil does the exact same thing. Now, when it comes to the issue of Islam, I'm very concerned about Islam in America because as I was listening to a message from my friend Bill Federer, just yesterday, where he was talking about the history of Islam, and he said, you know, how do you find out what Islam is all about? Go back to the founder. How do you find out what Christianity is all about? Go back to the founder. Look at the life of Jesus and look at the life of Muhammad if you want to know what those movements are all about. And so he started to show the differences. Now, we have people today, namely one guy who's running for. For the Senate in Texas, James Talarico, who is a seminarian, is Presbyterian, if I'm going off memory here, but, he's a heretic. He's a total heretic who calls himself a Christian and tries to tell us what the Bible means, about this, that, and the other. Well, he was talking about Islam and how he enjoys getting to go to mosques. Here is James Tallarico in his own words. This guy is deceived and deceiving, as the Bible says. 2 Timothy, 3:13. But evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. Here's what James Tallarico had to say.

James Talarico: I'm always so thrilled when I get invited to the Divinity Festival. I think I've gone two years in a row now. and, you know, also m have gotten a chance to speak at some of our local mosques. And I find such wisdom and comfort and inspiration from faith traditions all over the world. and I find that they're all kind of equal pathways to truth. You know, that's how I think. You know, I always think of all of the world's faith traditions as like a circle with, you know, that divine mystery of the universe in the middle. And we all have different names for that mystery, whether it's God or Yahweh or Allah or, Nirvana, the, Great Spirit, whatever you call it. this is all different pathways to the same kind of fundamental truth of reality. So, yeah, it's something. It's, how I try to stay grounded and stay rooted.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Well, he's not grounded or rooted. He believes the lies of the enemy. And, that's how the world believes. Oh, yeah, all religions are the same. one of the things Bill Federer said, in his message on the history of Islam is people. I mean, how foolish can you be to say that Christianity and Islam, we worship the same God? Nothing, could be further from the truth. if you read about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Christians worship the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, Islam worships the God of Ishmael and Abraham. Ishmael. That's not the God of the Bible. And in Islam, Allah doesn't have any children. Allah is not a knowable God. the things that Allah tells the Muslims to do versus what God tells Christians to do, I mean, couldn't be any different. But, people like James Tallarico, they say, well, this is, you know, I just learned from all these faith traditions, and it's so, so wonderful and blah, blah, blah. What does Paul say about that? Galatians, chapter 1, verse 8. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed, he is to be anathema, he is to be eternally condemned. He is to go to hell because he's doing the work of the devil. And he says it again, verse nine, as we have said before. So I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received. He is to be accursed. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. Not a way, not a truth, not a life. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me, through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is salvation. Acts 4:12 in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. James Talarico is poison, as I've told you before. He's putting cyanide in the Tylenol capsules. He's lying to people. Now, he may believe his own lies. Evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. And so some of these guys that start out, they are the deceivers, they know what they're saying is not true. And then others are just deceived by them. And then they start to, I think a lot of the guys that go out, preaching heresy and falsehood, a lot of times, they know it's heresy and falsehood. They make these things up about all these dramatic healings and raising people from the dead and all this stuff that's not verifiable, and they'll tell you all about that. I heard Benny Hinn say one time he was overseas somewhere and they prayed for somebody, and the cancer actually came out of this person's body and fell on the floor. I was like, yeah, I don't believe that happened. And you're making this up. You know, that didn't happen. And so you're deceiving people. And so it gets all jumbled up there. you're being a deceiver. Then you believe you're on baloney. but the bottom line is you are leading people astray. You are deceiving people. Now, we have lots of people today who are deceived into thinking that, this alliance that we're seeing in the United States between socialists and Islamists coming together and in the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is being taken over by these folks, by the Zoram Mandanis of the Democrat Party, an Islamist socialist. You don't see a danger in that because the Bernie Sanders and the Elizabeth Warrens and the aoc. Oh, that's great. Yeah. Because they just want power, and they don't understand who they're aligning with. Well, this is the testimony of Sheila Nazarian, who escaped from Iran. She's a medical doctor in, California. This is what she had to say. And remember this. Those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. It's very important for people to take the time to study about what has happened in other countries when they buy into the lies that are coming right now from the left.

Caller: When I speak to you about revolution, I'm not speaking from a textbook. I am speaking about the revolution that stole Iran. I'm speaking about the revolution that forced my family to leave our home and everything my parents spent a lifetime building. I'm speaking about the revolution that turned one of the oldest civilizations in the world into a prison for women, a torture chamber for dissidents, and the leading state sponsor of terrorism. And tonight, I'm here to tell you something that may make some people feel uncomfortable. I have seen this movie before, and I know how it ends. In 1979, the Shah of Iran was overthrown by an alliance that should never have made sense. The Islamists joined forces with the Marxists and socialists. Think about that. Sound familiar, huh? The leftists believed religion was backwards. The Islamists wanted religious rule. The leftists claimed to support women's liberation. The Islamists wanted to control how women dress, how they behave, and where they could go. The leftists talked about sexual freedom. The Islamists would build a regime that terrorized and murdered gay people. They had almost nothing in common except for two things. They hated Israel and America. And they wanted to bring the regime down. My family lived through what happens next in Iran. The leftists thought they were using the Islamists. They thought the Islamists were useful. They thought, we will join forces now. We will tear down the Shah. We will destroy the existing system. We will have our revolution, and then we will take power. They were so arrogant and they were so naive. The Islamists were using them. And when the Islamists no longer needed them, they turned on them. The college students who helped bring the revolution to power, they were purged. The professors purged, the intellectuals imprisoned. The leftists tortured and executed. The universities themselves were shut down. The Islamists used the college students to take power. And then they crushed the very college students who helped put them there. And you know what the Islamists told them? They said, if you will turn on your own country, how do we trust you not to turn on us? If you don't stand for your own country, you stand for nothing. That is the part of the Iranian revolution that every American college student should be forced to study, not what our indoctrination camps we call college education are teaching them.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: That was Dr. Sheila Nazarian. And, it's impossible to argue with what she's saying, because she's telling you, this is what the history shows. Now, you can ask AI. You can say, hey, what happened to, the people, the leftists, after the, the revolution in Iran in 1979? Were they tortured and killed and imprisoned? Yes, by the tens of thousands. Because now this is what I believe. I think it was Rod Martin or somebody I had on the program not too long ago. I said, okay, so you have this weird alliance between, as she said, between the, Marxists and the Islamists. They get together. Well, which one is worse? I think Islam, is worse because Islam is, as my friend Bill Federer likes to say, remember rpm? Islam is not, just a religion. As one, Islamic, follower who came to Christ said, you guys get it wrong. You think that Islam is a religion. Islam has a religion, but it's not just a religion. It's like saying, you know, you have a kitchen in your house, but your kitchen is not your house. Islam is a package. It is religion. It is a political movement. It's a military conquest. Rpm, all three of those are seen in the life of Muhammad. Yeah, it starts out religious, but then he went into, the political movement and the military conquest. And all three of those are involved in Islam. And so this idea that, you know, you can use Islam for your political gains, you can't. And that's one of the reasons why, as we're finding out, and President Trump is finding out, and Pete Hegseth, we need to be praying Marco Rubio for those guys, because when you are at war with Iran, all that they know is smash mouth. And if you deal with them like you would sit down negotiating with a, normal person who doesn't want to die, they want to die. They're okay with death. We love death as much as you love life. That's their motto. That's the motto of Hamas. That's the motto of the Iranian regime. And so all they know is you. You have to crush them. And, you can't negotiate with them. They will not negotiate in good faith because they are of their father, the devil. He was a murderer from the beginning. He's a liar, and the fingerprints of the devil are all over that religion. Well, you're listening to Real Truth for today. Pastor Jeff Schrieve here on American Family Radio. When we come back from the break, we'll be taking your calls. 888-589-884. 0. That's 888-589-8840. If you have a question or comment, I'd love to hear from you. So pick up the phone, let's talk.

 : If you'd like to contact Pastor Jeff, email pastor jeffromhishheart.org now back to Real Truth for today with Pastor Jeff Schrieve.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Welcome back to the program. Pastor Jeff here. And, we are going to open up the phone lines. 888-589-8840. That's 885-89840. If you have a question or comment, love to hear from you and give you some time to call in. I wanted to play this clip. this is from Professor Saad S aad, and he was giving the Playbook of the Muslims. And this is what is happening in America today.

Caller: The playbook is very clear. Depending on the number of Muslims in a society, you can exactly predict the level of conflict. And that statement that I just said holds true, notwithstanding the fact that most Muslims are perfectly lovely. Both those statements are both veridical. So, so when you are 0 to 2%, you're just a quiet, exotic minority. When you're 3 to 5%, you become a lot more engaged politically. When you become 6 to 10%, you start creating Sharia, no go zones. We don't want your dogs here. This is not tolerated in our zone. Look at Britain, look at France. So in the same way that I can predict the trajectory of diabetes and no, I'm not saying that, that Muslims are. I'm drawing an analogy, okay? I am, explaining a trajectory. So if you wish to protect the liberties that make the United States so uniquely wonderful in the full range of societies that have ever existed, recognize that all religions are not equally likely to be congruent with the American experience. If you do, you'll survive. If you won't, your future descendants will rue the day you were born.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Wow, what a warning. And this is, former Muslim Danny, Bermaoui. He warns us that we, need to understand that Islam is not just a religion. It has a religion, but it's not just a religion. It has come to take over.

James Talarico: We have a long tradition in this country of freedom, of religion, and that the state doesn't engage in critiques of religious theology.

Caller: That's the problem. You think Islam is a religion? Islam has a religion. Think of it as your house. It has a kitchen, but your house is not a kitchen. Islam has a religion. It's not a religion. Can Islam coexist in Such a system where consensus is going to determine the laws of the land. The answer is no, because Islam doesn't accept criticism. Wherever Islam has the upper hand, no one can criticize Islam. If they do, they get killed or jailed immediately. Wherever Islam doesn't have the upper hand, like the west, what happens? They try to smuggle the blasphemy laws through different doors. One of the doors is self censorship. They use your kindness, your tolerance to force you not to criticize Islam. But once they have the upper hand, you get the same treatment as Salman Rushdie. You get the same treatment as the people who Muhammad ordered to be massacred immediately because they just criticized him. And this is what happens today in Egypt, in Pakistan, if a Christian is accused of blasphemy, of criticizing Muhammad, they don't only burn his house and kick them out of the village or whatever, they confiscate their lands, their businesses. But when they don't have the upper hand, they say, we just want to

Pastor Jeff Schreve: respect, so we need to wake up. This is how the devil is at work. And as I've said and restated, Muslims are not the enemy. We're not out there trying to attack them. They are the mission field. But Islam is the enemy, and we can't let that have any more ground in America, lest we cease to exist. And if you love your closest neighbor, mainly your wife, your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren, you're going to do what Nehemiah, told the people to do when they were building the wall. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight for your wives, your sons, your daughters, your children, your houses. don't let that just go away. our founding fathers and those who bled fighting the American Revolution, they fought to give us something. We need to pass the baton of freedom to the next generation. And, as that one man said, hey, if you don't wake up to what's going on, you're going to rue the day. And, your children are going to rue the day that you didn't stand up to fight. Well, the number to call is 888-589-8840. And we have our friend Linda on the line from Texas. Linda, welcome to Real Truth for today.

Caller: Thank you. Number one. Welcome home. And I'm here smiling because every time I love how something, is said, and then, you know, I get to talk. And I wouldn't have even thought of this part of it with the Islamic thing, but God has really been speaking to me about, you said, open their eyes and he's been speaking to me. Open the eyes of their hearts. You know, heart is that issue there. And so this scripture is the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness? And, I'm connecting this with Islam and everything that person said, it's like, God, open the eyes of our hearts, let us see a little deeper than this is just a possible threat. And so I just, I wanted to call in and share that.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Well, I appreciate that, Linda. You always have good insights on things. And so I appreciate you, for listening and always being such an encouragement to me. God bless you. We have Krish on the line from Texas. Krish, welcome to Real Truth for today.

Caller: Yes, thank you for taking my call. I want to also get your opinion on. about three weeks ago, there was a Pastor Tony Steller, who was at his church, and some people across the street were. His neighbors were yelling at them, profanities, making friends, you know, persecuting them. And he, he went over and beat the boy pretty much. and he came back to church and said, he said, in the name of. In dying name, I laid my hands on the sick today. I still felt scriptured and laid hands on a sick boy and he beat him. What was your opinion of that incident?

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Yeah, I think you email. Emailed me that, didn't you?

Caller: Yes, I did.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: And I think I hopefully, I know I responded. I don't know if my secretary sent that back to you or not. yeah, obviously I thought that was way over the top. you know, I realized this guy had been doing that for a while from what the news reports said, that he had reported them to the police. They hadn't done anything. to me as a pastor, you can't do that. You can't go and just be, I'm going to get in a fight with you now. The kid threw the first punch. But you could say the pastor engaged that situation by coming at him in an aggressive manner. But after a fight, doesn't normally you just don't beat on a guy. I just can't see anywhere in scripture where that's how we're supposed to handle things. you know, that was just wrong. And then he tried to make a joke about it to his church. And you know, the people that like that kind of stuff, they like, pastors to be, you know, like Samson or something. Like that, they seem to jump on the bandwagon. I'd like to go to this guy's church. That's what needs to happen in our country. you know, I make a distinction in Nehemiah 4:14, as we apply that to today, remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight, the average person, Jon Q. Public Christian in the pew, the pastor in the pulpit. We fight as the song says. And when I fight, I fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. O Lord, the battle belongs to you. If somebody's coming to hurt our family, yes, you're going to have to physically, fight. But the fighting that takes place in our country is not a fight like that. It's a fight. It's a spiritual battle. We call upon the name of the Lord and we ask God, to show, to open blind eyes and show just as Elijah did on Mount Carmel. Lord, answer by fire so that these people would know that you are God. And so that's how we are to engage the enemy. And so I would totally disagree with what that guy did. All right, well, thank you for the question, Krish, and God bless you. We have Mark on the line from Kentucky. Mark, welcome to Real Truth for today.

Caller: Yes, good morning and appreciate you taking my call. and the battle is indeed in the spirit. I'm not telling you that we know that and we know that supernaturally which is really just almost like fantastical. It's like we know these things because just like the piling father says, these things are self evidence. Well, it's self evident to the, those who have been born again. So when we see the people who do have their, their father is Abraham, they have a legitimate claim to that fact. I mean now the problem is, right, because this is what tripped me to call was that you know, saying that their, their God all is not of the Bible. I said, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Because it's true that there, that whole people comes from the illegitimate, Sarah, you know, and Abraham getting a little impatient, right? And so, but the difficult part is I guess the combination and really I didn't know how to formulate question but you know, to me the church in America sadly has so failed so miserably in standing firm. And even though say the founding documents and my wife and I went through a fantastic biblical civics course that wall builders, those guys, put together and I don't remember hearing anything or seeing myself about this enemy called Islam. and how to address, approach that. But it is infiltrated. I mean, mosques to me are spooky inside the boundaries of America, but yet we've let it creep in and the church is just doing the same old thing that they've been doing since it was institutionalized. Can you help me understand, sir, what should our, role be as a church? To essentially cut along the lines of what you said about earlier and try to address the difficult question of should we fight back? Should we want to pick a fight? But they started it first and we need to fight back and push those folks back out of here. I don't know. What are your thoughts on that, sir?

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Great. Question mark? Yeah, we do need to fight back because we love our neighbor, because we love our children and our grandchildren and Americans, and we love this land. And we know what Islam does to a country. It subjugates it. And you turn into Iran. You know, that's one of the reasons why the, the average people on the street, when America declared war on Iran, we went after Iran, started bombing Iran. They're rejoicing in the streets because life is horrible there under that, demonic regime. And so this idea that you have to be friends with and friendly and just welcome everyone in and you wouldn't let a rabbit dog in your house, because that dog is going to do damage. And, you know, the people, they're under this lie and this, deception from the devil. We want them to come to their senses, having escaped the snare of the devil, to do his will. they kill people, thinking that they're serving God, they are so deceived. their God is the devil. They're serving the devil, thinking they're serving God. And they do it with gusto and they do it with all their hearts. And they're willing to die for this lie, but they die for what they think is true. And they've been lied to. Evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. And so these people are deceived. I think the way that, we deal with this is, we pray God would open the eyes of the blind. I wrote about this in my email encouragement. You can go to from his heart.org and get that sent to you free. Every Friday, I write an article and I talked about America's worth saving, it's worth fighting for. And so how do we fight? We fight on our knees. We fight, we pray, we ask God to open blind eyes. We get involved in the political process. We understand, the issues of the day as the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times and what Israel should do. And we stand up and we speak up. And this idea, like the James Tallaricos of the world that just say, oh, you know, this is all great, and every faith you learn from, it's like baloney. You don't. There is one that is true. There's one that's true north, and that is, biblical Christianity. Everything else is a lie. It's a lie from the enemy. And so we sound off and, we tell people, hey, this world is a sinking ship. I told my church this last week. I said, this world is a sinking ship. And so we fight for America. We love America. we want to see America continue. But. But just so that we know every country and everything in this world is a sinking ship. It's like the days of Noah. the Lord is our only salvation. And so we keep pointing people to Jesus, because eventually this world is going to go the way of the devil. He's going to have his man who takes charge of the Antichrist, and the Lord is going to come back and defeat him at the battle of Armageddon. So between now and then, we need to shine. We need to share. We need to live it out. We need to speak the truth in love. We need to vote. We need to get involved in the political process. We need to make our voices heard. And, we can't sit on the sidelines. We need to be actively involved. And that's why I love American Family Association, American Family Radio, because we encourage Christians and help enlighten Christians to the truth. Well, great question, mark. Well, God bless you. Thanks for listening to Real Truth for today. Pastor Jeff Schrieve here. Go out, shine and share for Christ, and let him use you as his witness. God bless you. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.

2 Timothy 2:24-26

"The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will."

In this episode, Pastor Jeff Schreve explores the reality of spiritual warfare and the importance of standing firm in God's truth. Drawing from 2 Timothy 2, he explains how the devil deceives people, blinds minds, and traps individuals in lies that lead them away from Christ.

Pastor Jeff discusses the growing influence of false ideologies, the dangers of deception in both culture and religion, and the need for Christians to respond with truth, prayer, and biblical conviction. He also examines lessons from history, the relationship between faith and freedom, and the responsibility believers have to stand for truth in a confused world.