The End Times Timeline Your Church Isn’t Talking About | John Bevere

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I think the number one thing for our physical health is our mindset and our spiritual health.

Why is it that 50% of the pastors in America right now only last 5 years? 50%.

Wow.

Because we have not taught healthy fear of God. The Holy Spirit spoke to me one day. He said, read Psalm 19. And I went there and he said, son, Lucifer led worship right before my throne. He didn't fear me. He did not endure in heaven forever.

What's the number one thing we need to do to prepare for the Lord's coming?

Walk in true, authentic, genuine holiness. It's the only description of the bride he's coming back for. The bride has made herself ready. Does not say God made her ready.

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Hey, it's so good to be with you. Lisa and I have loved you and Chelsea for so many years, and you helped us so much with our health. As you know, I am a health fanatic.

You are.

I really am. You are. Actually, Jordan Rubin paid me the highest compliment.

He said, "I think you might even eat cleaner than I do." I mean, listen, I've been so impressed with you and Lisa, and by the way, and you have your whole family, you know, you've got— Just such an amazing crew. Most people are into natural health, really health conscious. Of course, that comes from you and Lisa being, you know, so conscious there as well. But I love that, you know, one thing, of course, I love and appreciate as a health enthusiast is pastors and missionaries and people like yourself who really are doing, because you wanna honor God with your body. You wanna be preaching the gospel when you're 90-plus years old. And so, you guys are doing great.

Yeah. I mean, it all started with me when he said, your body's my temple, take care of it. I was in my 20s. I didn't know a thing about health food. There was no Josh Axe. There just wasn't Dr. Axe. I didn't— nobody I'd never heard. I just thought everything in the grocery store was fine.

Yeah.

And the Lord spoke to me one day and said— I was 22 years old— your body's my temple, take care of it. And the thought comes, if I had a Ferrari, would I put dirty gas and recycled oil in it? Would the Ferrari still run? Yes. Would it— would diminish its ability to perform?

Yeah.

Would I shorten its life? Yes. Now the thought hits me. Me my temple. And I now, I think, okay, this is Josh and Chelsea's Ferrari. They lend it to me for 9 months and I'm putting dirty gas and recycled oil. Now I have to answer to you on why I shorten the life of your car.

Well, it's like, you know, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? And whether you eat, drink, or whatever you do to offer the glory of God. So I love that. By the way, the first time we met, I don't know if you remember this, You know where we met? Tru Food Kitchen. Yes, I do remember that. So yeah, Jordan had set up a lunch, and so we were sitting there. By the way, I also remember one thing I appreciated about you, because I'd never met you before. I mean, you just dove right in. It's like I'd never met you before. And then all of a sudden we got in this conversation about— you'd just come back from a mission, from preaching in South America.

Okay.

And this, you said it was the fastest growing church in South America. And you asked the pastor, why is your church growing so quickly? And he had told you it's because we teach about heavenly crowns.

We teach about second coming, the resurrection of the dead, the millennium, and the eternal, and our positions in it.

Yeah, it was that. And, but it was, it was, but I think I'm trying to think your exact phrasing, but it was like heavenly rewards, like storing up crowns in heaven. Like this is a really big thing they were preaching about. That a lot of times pastors and churches shy away from today. But I'd love for you to share more about that because they're seeing so many lives transformed, such impact bigger than we're probably seeing here. So talk about that a little bit.

All right. So I was shaken to my core. This church was over 300,000 members. I spoke to the leaders. Wow. There was over 12,000 leaders. This is just pastors and leaders the night before. So it's not the church, it's the leaders.

What country is this in?

Pardon me?

What country was this?

It's Brazil.

Brazil.

Okay. And I mean, they're blowing the roof off the ceiling. And the next day at lunch, I'm with 8 of the top pastors and I said, how long have you guys been in existence and who founded your church? And I was expecting the founder went to heaven 70 years ago. It was founded in the 1800s. 300,000 people. I'm like, yeah, certainly this has been around a while. They said, oh no, we were founded 16 years ago by one man. And I wish you could have gotten a picture of my face. I went, wait a minute, you start with one man 16 years ago and there's over 300,000 people? I said, how do you do it? And they said, we teach our people on eternal rewards and judgment, the second coming, the millennium reign of Christ. And I went, "What?" And the guy saw that I was confused. And so the pastor who spoke the best English said, "Look, I go to America because I speak such good English. I get invited to do conferences 'cause there's a lot of Brazilian people in America." He said, "You American Christians," he said, "I've noticed have a 70 or 80 year timeframe, a perspective." He said, "We have an eternal perspective." Wow. Now think about this. If you go to a really, really nice buffet at a restaurant on Sunday morning, it's a brunch buffet. I mean, high-end, okay? We're talking, this is a Four Seasons Hotel or Ritz-Carlton, that kind of thing, right? And they have a whole table filled with unbelievable desserts. If you have a one-day perspective, what are you gonna do?

You're gonna eat it all.

Eat it all.

That's right.

Every one I can get in me, right? If you have a 1-year perspective, what are you gonna do?

Be a little more selective.

I'm gonna have zero.

Zero, okay.

Because I don't want excess fat on my body next week. I don't want compromised long-term health. Yeah. Right? So you and I are both either selective or zero.

Yeah.

And I suddenly realized what he was saying was true. You got a lot of American Christians, what they do, they go to church, it's 90 minutes, and then they basically go out and live the rest of their time for themselves. But when you think about the resurrection of the dead, death. That's the second coming of Christ. Paul writes that there are 6 foundations the whole church is built on. He calls them elementary doctrines or foundational doctrines. Hebrews 6:1-2. Think about what you get in elementary school: how to read, write, add, subtract. Can you imagine building your college education not knowing how to read, write, add, or subtract? So the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment are 2 of the 6. So one-third of the elementary teachings, one-third of the foundational teachings are on this very subject. Wow. So we have so many Americans that don't have a clue that there is a judgment seat for the believers. Yes, there's a judgment seat for the unbelievers. That's called the Great White Throne. But the judgment for the believers is called the bema. And Paul said in 2 Corinthians, He said, to be absent from the body— when we're absent from the body, we're present with the Lord. That's not unbelievers. Unbelievers, when they're absent from the body, they're not in the presence of the Lord. He makes a statement about only believers. He said, for we, those who are absent from the body and present with the Lord, must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, that word judgment is bema, which was a platform that, like when they had the Olympics or competition or judgment was made in a courtroom. It was a platform where the judgment was made. For we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the works done in the body, whether good or— I'm going to use the right translation—

worthless.

So in other words, did we spend our life living for worthless? What's the worthless? Everything temporal.

Yeah.

Was all of our life just, just, just saving our money and, and totally focusing on going to World Cup soccer, you know, and spending tens of thousands just to go there, and that's what we're living for? Or are we living to build the kingdom? Are we building people's lives? This is why I love what you do. You're building people's lives. You were building my life before we ever had that dinner at True Foods. I was watching your videos. Lisa and I were gleaning so much. We were growing. Our bodies were being kept protected from the junk that's out there just because of you being obedient to God, Because do you know what? When they found the Dead Sea Scrolls, you know Ezra actually wrote 3 books? Hmm. We have 1 book in the Bible called Ezra. There was 2 others. 1 was apocalyptic. Now I have heard this from Dr. Ken Johnson, who is a scholar. He has read every—

I've read a couple of his books. They're phenomenal.

They're unbelievable. He's read every Dead Sea Scroll fragment and book that they will permit him to read. And I love this guy, but he said on the apocalyptic book they wrote before Messiah returns. Now stop and think about that. Ezra's what, 600 years before Jesus was born? He writes in that book before Messiah returns, not comes, returns. Food will be polluted and it will shorten men's lives.

Are you serious?

Wow. Is that not crazy?

That is crazy.

And he said the only thing that would protect God's people is herbs. Okay. And God would raise people up to teach his people about herbs. He said that every congregation would have, just like they'd got a pastor, they would have somebody that would help their congregation with herbs.

That's amazing.

Now I look at what you do and I'm like, hello. I mean, yeah, you're not for one particular congregation, but you are teaching the body of Christ on how to stay healthy because we are stewards of the temple.

You know, I think this is critically important. You know, when I— there are so many doctors out there, and I think the best doctors have a Christian worldview, because if you see the body as a piece of machinery, even, even a term like biohacking that people are using today, it's kind of like we're going to hack, like computer hacking, hack into the body versus saying we are a temple. We are this unique, you know, design of God, this supernatural being. I think it changes the way you view the body, changes the way you treat the body. And so I think that my faith in Jesus has really impacted me as a physician, one, making me focus more on being a good Samaritan and caring for people and pouring in more, but also seeing all of nature, knowing we were created to live in tune with nature. I mean, the sun is so critical for our health. You know, what the leaves are giving off, you know, of course herbs we're eating, foods we're eating. You know, as Jordan and I wrote, The BiblioDiet book, and we were writing that book, it was so fascinating to learn that two-thirds of the parables are about farming and food. I mean, if you go through the Old Testament, it's talking about food constantly. And so these are topics really important for the Bible, but it's not the primary, and it shouldn't be. It's— you need to eat to glorify God. That's why you're eating. And you're eating, you're doing something here in this temporal place that actually is going to determine part of your eternity.

You know, I, I did— you're my third podcast today, and I've had a really busy day, but you know what I carved time out for? To get my O2 organic flour from Italy. I cracked 4 eggs and I rolled out my pasta for tonight. I mean, Lisa's got it, she's gonna have it ready when I get home.

I mean, you're Italian, she's Sicilian, it's— you have to.

I have to, but I'm not going to eat the pasta that our stores carry because I don't want any chance of eating that genetically modified grain. Yeah, I don't want to eat bleached flour. And so, you know, It takes a little time today. It takes a little extra money. It takes some effort. But Josh, I turned 67 this year and I still beat half the 30-year-olds. No, what am I saying? 80% of 30-year-olds in my neighborhood in pickleball. Okay. Like they, they're all like, how do you move so fast? It's amazing. And I know God, when he spoke to me when I was 22 years old, It's so funny, when I went to get the full physical at 60, you know, they did the skeleton, you know, the thing that examines your whole skeleton, literally.

Yeah.

Took 7 vials of blood, all that stuff.

Yeah.

I said, Lord, you know, I obeyed you when I was 22 years old. Can I have some evidence that I really did hear from you? And he just looked at me and he's like, your heart's like you're in your 40s, your bones are like you're in your 40s, on and on and on and on.

You're 20 years younger. Biological. That's amazing.

Yeah. So it, you know, it does— it, it's stewardship. God is entrusting me his body. This is our body.

Yeah.

So this is why what you guys do is so valuable. It's so important because we need— Americans, it's, it's like they are trying to figure out how to poison our food, put the, all the stuff in there that they, they want It's just, I don't wanna get on it. You're the expert, but thank you for what you're doing.

Oh, thanks so much. Well, you know, if you're physically healthy, it's, you can think more clearly. Yeah. I mean, for myself, it's like, think about when you have a cold or flu, it's almost, it's more difficult. Not that you can't, we all should and can, but it's, I feel like it's harder to sometimes connect, harder to connect and hear from God when I am in this state of just brain fog, not thinking clearly in that way. Hey, so if you've ever thought, something is wrong with me, but I just can't prove it, then this is for you. Now, you might be eating clean, even what you feel like is perfect, working out, taking all of the right supplements, but you're still exhausted, still foggy, gaining weight, and you're not sleeping. And every time you ask for help, you hear the same thing, but your labs are normal. Here's what that actually means. Standard blood work only shows what's in your blood, not whether your cells can actually access it or not. You can give your body all the right inputs, but if your cells are in danger mode, chronically stressed or inflamed, they can't absorb or use those nutrients properly. If you're finally ready to heal, go to mybloodwork.com. You'll get an at-home cellular bloodwork panel shipped straight to your home and reviewed on a private call with one of my senior health advisors at the Health Institute., and this will help you finally connect the dots between your symptoms at the cellular level. We'll also determine if you're a good candidate for one of our cellular healing protocols so you can finally experience lasting healing. Once again, go to mybloodwork.com to check it out. You know, I, uh, you know, I think for one of the areas of medicine I've really dove into a lot over the past 10 years or so is ancient Asian medicine. And the reason I think it's really interesting is you look at the longest living culture today, for the most part, it's Japan. They're living a really long time. And the type of medicine they practice, they use this term in China, it's called qi. But basically today we'd call that cellular energy or ATP. But one of the things that they would say, the ancients would say, fuel this, all your cellular energy is having a purpose. Like having a sense of purpose and identity. I mean, I listen, I believe food is incredibly important and I think it's probably number 2 overall thing for our health. Yeah, physical health. Yeah. But I think the number 1 thing for our physical health is our mindset and our spiritual health. Because if somebody is dealing with shame and guilt and childhood trauma, that's linked to autoimmune disease and cancer and anxiety and all of these other conditions. That pile up on the body. So I think I'm, I'm believing we're going to continue to see more and more of a shift to this awareness of, if I'm going to be physically healthy, the single greatest thing I can do is take care of my spiritual health. Wow. And so that's one of the reasons, again, I'm excited to talk to you.

The only place you find true peace is in Jesus. Yeah. I mean, I lay my head down, sleep at night. Lisa sometimes gets upset because within 30 seconds I'm gone, right? I'm, I'm out. And it's because I don't carry burdens. I give them to him. And that time I spend in the morning is so important. The time that I spend with him, walking with him. Yeah, I just offload anything. I mean, we've— let me tell you something. When you have a ministry and we have given away like 65.5 million resources to pastors and leaders all over the world in 146 languages. The end— the devil doesn't like that. Yeah. So what I'm trying to say is we've had our fair share of attacks. Yeah. We've had our share, fair share of times that I could be completely weighed down by pressure, by stress. There's been times CFO will come and say, John, we, we, we're— if we don't have a miracle, we're going to— I said, just relax. Watch what God does.

Yeah.

It's not my ministry, it's his. It's not your ministry, it's his. Watch. And every time he comes through. Now, I could have stressed about that.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh, how am I gonna make payroll? I got 50 families depending on us, right? No, I don't even care. I don't even worry about it because I give my care to him.

I pray. Yeah.

The Bible says that. And if you look at what 1 Peter says, Peter writes this in chapter 5. He said, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. You know what the next statement is? Casting all your care on him because he cares for you. In other words, when you take on the care, that is a form of pride. You are saying, God, I've got this. I don't trust you with it. I'm gonna take care of this by stressing, by worrying, by trying to take control of things you can't control. Yeah. Yep. Instead of saying, God, I'm yours. You said you take care of me. You said all I had to do is pray about it. Now I'm leaving it with you. I have literally at times said, okay, Lord, if everything falls apart, it's not my fault. It's your fault. Yeah. Now I'm not being irreverent because I have a deep fear of God, but I actually feel his pleasure when I have that kind of attitude because that attitude is not built out of me, my confidence. It's built out of trusting him that he will take care of me.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I was going to share. So I just, uh, I, I had a— I have prayed more just recently over the past, let's call it, 18 hours than I probably had for a year, for quite a bit of time, because my, my sister-in-law just had a baby today, um, midday today, and she had been pushing for like 48 hours. I mean, it was one of those things where she started at home.

Oh my God.

And just fighting and fighting and fighting. She wanted to do a home birth, and sometimes this happens. People are really into natural health. I know a lot of people who are functional medicine doctors or chiropractors, and they did everything they could to have a home birth and they weren't able to. And so went to hospital and she just was determined. And the heartbeat, they stopped hearing it a few times. And so, I mean, I was down on my knees. I came in the office this morning and I'm like, you know what? I'm in the conference room, I'm on my face, hands and knees, just Jesus, rescue this baby. I pray that this baby can come out now. Praise God it did, you know. And, um, but I, but I, my sister-in-law Brooke, I mean, 99% of people would've probably sort of in her situation, stop pushing, give up. And she ended up having, you know, a natural birth there in the, uh, in the hospital. But all that, all that to say is, you know, um, one thing that I think a lot of times people don't maybe realize for some reason, I'd love for you to talk on this is, that prayer matters. Yes, it does. I mean, a lot of times, you know, I think we pray and we think, you know, is he hearing this? You know, does it make any difference at all? And I look back at my life and if we really look, I'm like, wow, I prayed, God came through. Wow. But I think sometimes it's really hard to know or feel like that's happening.

I like to say that you pray until the peace comes. Sometimes you have to pray things through a little stronger 'cause you're interceding for somebody else.

Yeah.

Right. And when it comes to, things for us, I, I just go, Lord, this is your care. I give it to him, and it's like, I receive this in Jesus' name. When you're praying for somebody else, you have to pray until you have a peace. Once you have the peace, it's like my mom and dad. I, um, my dad got saved at 79. My mom was in probably her 60s, but I was saved for quite a while. My mom actually didn't even invite me to my dad's retirement party because she was concerned I was going to witness to the guests. I mean, and you would And, and don't get me wrong, I probably— yeah, uh, she was giving my books away before she left this earth, you know, 3 years ago. But I was crying out to God for my parents' salvation, my siblings' salvation. I mean, my little sister was married by Wiccans, literally calling for the spirits of the north, the south, the east, and the west, right, in, in Scottish kilts and doing all this crazy demonic stuff. And my other sister was married by an a New Age witch who was a lesbian. And so, you know, I'm crying out to God for my family, and all of a sudden one day I got this complete peace. I was so burdened before, but I got this complete peace, and I thought, it's done. It's done. Wow. I didn't pray for my family anymore. I knew it was done. And sure enough, you know, my sister, they got married by the New Age witch. When she turned 50, they diagnosed her with breast cancer. She called me crying. God heals her. My other sister, she gets in a car wreck, severs the nerve. Doctor goes, you're not gonna have any feeling in these two fingers the rest of your life. She calls me at 4 in the morning crying. God heals her. Then my wife goes to her city shortly later and she's the first one down to get saved, you know? And I had had a piece on that a decade before. Wow. So you were right to stay on your face until you had a release. Now the problem is, People say the release for me comes when I actually heard the baby was born. You have to look inside. I had to look inside and went, I don't have a burden to pray for my parents anymore. It's just, it's done. And so no matter how my sisters behave, how my parents were, I didn't care anymore. 'Cause I was like, this has been prayed through. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's something, you know, I think sometimes people get confused. I remember growing up, somebody sharing with me like, 'Cause in Christian speak, you hear a lot, I heard from God, right? And so, and today when people in our language, when you hear the word hear, you think, oh, this is, I heard something audibly versus there's this still small voice for me, like a conscience, right? That's happening. There's, to your point, there's feelings we get. There's also, you know, looking at signs and wonders. I mean, there's been so many times where I'm like, I prayed for something and all of a sudden I meet somebody and I could be like, oh, this is a random coincidence or, No, this is a divine meeting. God's setting this up. I'm gonna pay extra close attention here.

Number one way God speaks to us is through the scripture.

Yeah.

But what about the person I'm supposed to marry? Well, of course you and I are married, but that's not found in chapter and verse. So the number one way he leads us is the inward peace. Colossians 3:16 says, let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. And the Amplified, it brings it out like this: let it rule in your heart as an umpire. So an umpire calls the shots. So when you have a piece about something, it's like Lisa and I, we were engaged. I mean, some people may really laugh at this, but I said, you know what, Lisa, I'm, I'm really in love with you, and, and, uh, we've been talking marriage, but I, I got— we, we gotta know. So this is what we're gonna do. We, we, we were separate, and I said, I want to pray 30 minutes a day for 30 days. And if you feel any unrest, no peace, we're not going to marry. If I feel any unrest, unpeace, we're not going to marry. After 30 days, I said, okay, did you pray? She said, yes. I said, I did too. Did you feel any unrest? Did you feel any kind of— she said, no. I said, I didn't either. We're getting married. Now, I proposed to her formally. It was a really beautiful night, but I was like, okay, this is done. We're to be— that you're my wife, I'm your husband.

That's so good. It's so good. I was talking about my sister-in-law giving birth, and one of the things that I think creeps up for so many people is this sense of that there's fear, right? There's the fear of death. There's the fear of the unknown. There's a fear of all kinds of things. And the Bible speaks really clearly about fear. You know what's interesting? I love for you to share this though. There's both the healthy fear and there's an unhealthy fear, right? And if you go back and read the Bible, what's talked about, and maybe you know this number, I don't, but I'll just share. I feel like it's close to equally, but the Bible talks about fearing God as much as it does loving God.

I know it's 200 and some times the fear of God appears in the Bible.

But let me say this, it talks about both a lot. A lot. And so talk to me about fear of God, 'cause I think we're in a world today where, especially in a Protestant church, where the word fear of God, I think a lot of Protestants would be like, well, I shouldn't fear God. That's not appropriate.

Right?

But I think I see a lot of, we've had so many pastors fall, right? There's been so many of these issues happening. And a lot of it, and I heard you preach a message on this, that some of it might be coming from the lack of fear of God.

Yes, without a doubt.

Oh wow.

You just opened up a great, great can here. So let's talk about healthy fears, 'cause first of all, let's diffuse the thought that all fear is bad. The healthy fear of not being mauled by a mother grizzly bear will gimme the wisdom to not mess with her cubs in front of her.

That's a healthy fear.

Yeah. All right, so the fear of the Lord is not unhealthy, it's actually very healthy. So the fear of the Lord, I would say, if you wanna, what is, how do you define it? Because the Bible does talk over 200 times in the Bible about that we should fear God and the rewards are amazing. Wow. Like there's over 40 promises. I just read in my Bible reading this morning, the fear of the Lord prolongs life. It gives you a longer life.

Yes, yeah.

Okay, so there are other rewards. I could go on and on and on. The fear of the Lord, those who fear God will never lack any bread. I mean, I could go on and on and on. The fear of the Lord, if you want to give the first definition, is not to be scared of God. It's actually being terrified of being away from God. See, does that make sense? Yeah, I don't want to be away from him. Um, I remember a minister who was one of the best-known ministers on the planet who was sentenced to 5 years in prison asked me to come visit him, and I asked him the question. I said, when did you stop loving Jesus? And he said to me, I didn't. I said, hold on a minute, like you committed adultery. This is known by public. You were doing all this, this illegal stuff that you're put in jail for, for 7 years. What do you mean you didn't stop? Look, he said, John, I loved him all the way through it. And he saw confusion on my face. I was only 36 years old when he said it. He said, John, I didn't fear God. And he said, there are millions of Christians, they love Jesus, they do not fear God. So if you look at the love of God, the love of God keeps us from becoming legalistic and mean-spirited, right? The fear of God keeps us from becoming lawless, sinning. Okay. The Bible says by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil. It does not say by the love of God, one departs from evil. He loved Jesus deeply while he was in his 7 years of— because he actually said to me when I walked into the the prison, the, the, the visiting area. And this is a federal penitentiary. He said, if I would have kept living the way I was living, I would have ended up in hell forever. Wow. He said, I was so wicked. And I could tell there was a great transformation. I mean, he, he said they were spending 3 hours a day reading scripture in the prison. Wow. Okay, so the fear of the Lord, if you look at Isaiah 11:3, is what Jesus delighted in. Wow. Now stop and think about it. If he delighted in the fear of the Lord, shouldn't we? Isaiah 33:6 tells us the fear of the Lord is God's treasure. It actually says in another version, it is the key to the treasure house of God. Wow. If you look at what Paul writes in Philippians, he said, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, not love and kindness. Wow. In other words, we mature salvation through the holy, healthy fear of the Lord.

You know, I want to mention this. I had Michael Knowles on the podcast. You know Michael Knowles?

I love Michael. He's hilarious.

He's so good. I think he's Sicilian too. Oh yeah. Like, okay. Yeah. So, so, uh, I love him. He's awesome.

I felt so bad. Can I give you a funny story?

Yeah, yeah.

We were at Lila Rose's fundraiser for, uh, Live Action.

Yeah.

And she put us at the dinner table with Michael Knowles. I had no idea who he was. Oh, just like, where do you live? Where do we go to church? Where do you fellowship? And he's like, and I, you know, he was so kind 'cause he could see I didn't know him from Adam, right?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he, he's got just, uh, I mean, if you're comparing him to like Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh who are just very hard fact rugged and he's kind of like the, you know, the, the warmer one. And so, um, but, but we had a great conversation because he's Catholic and I grew up with half my family Catholic, half Protestant. So we've talked a lot about kind of the differences there. But one of the things we talked about is, you know, growing up for me, I, when I saw my, the Catholic side of my family, it was fear of the Lord. And some of it was really healthy, but there was the missing love. But then growing up in some Protestant churches, one I'm thinking about in particular was a Methodist church. It was all love, absolutely no fear, right? None at all. And so I think it's so easy for Catholic, you know, churches or Protestant churches to get in the ditch of those things when it's like you've got to have— you got to have both. And I think, you know, I even think about this makes you think of Genesis a little bit. Listen, you need to have night and day. You need to work hard. You need to rest. Like, if you're missing one of those elements, you end up in a ditch.

Yeah. Yeah. I was raised Catholic.

Oh, you were?

Okay. I always say that I'm so grateful for my Catholic roots because it taught me two things. Respect for authority, and the fear of the Lord. Now, I walked away from it 'cause I got around people who were Protestant who weren't that way.

Yeah.

And it took an encounter with God that was profound in 1994 that caused me to awaken how important the fear of the Lord is. The fear of the Lord's the beginning of wisdom. It's also the fountain of wisdom. It's the beginning of understanding. It's the beginning of knowing God intimately. Do you know that Psalm 25, Verse 14 in the New Living Translation says, "Friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who fear him." If you look at Abraham, he feared God. God told him to go sacrifice his son. He didn't know why. It didn't make any sense. Isaac's supposed to be the one the promise comes through. And yet we read the next morning after God spoke to him, he was on his way to do it. The fear of the Lord means we put him and his word above everything and everyone else.

Hey, if you want practical, science-backed guidance for living a healthier, longer, more vibrant life, you need to check out the Biohack It podcast. It is hosted by my good friend Iman Hassan, and it brings a thoughtful, compassionate perspective to wellness that so many women have been looking for. Every week, Iman breaks down the latest research in longevity, hormones, and metabolic health in a way that's clear and easy to understand. Leads to important conversations around women's health, fertility, and the steps women can take to protect their energy, balance their hormones, and support long-term well-being. She talks with top doctors, scientists, and health experts about natural healing, nutrition, lifestyle choices that make a real difference, and sits down with entrepreneurs and thought leaders to explore how they stay strong, grounded, and resilient in their personal lives and their work. If you want a show that speaks directly to health challenges women are navigating today, while offering hope, clarity, and real solutions. Tune in to Biohack It every Thursday wherever you listen to podcasts. It is one of the most educational and uplifting shows in the wellness space, and I think you're going to love it. Well, I want to, I want to share two things here, and I'd love, I love for you to the second one to, to, to, to, to share. So, you know, fear, when you look at medicine today, it drives one major thing in your body and it's cortisol up. And that is the hormone that causes you to age. It is the single— it's your body's master hormone, where when that hormone gets off, it's the domino. Insulin's off, now estrogen, now testosterone, now thyroid hormones. It wrecks your entire body. And so fear is really, again, so closely tied to a fight-or-flight state. You're in the sympathetic state, you're in fight-or-flight, and it makes you sick if you live there all the time. Now, you want a little bit of that, for alertness and activity and actually saving yourself. I mean, it's— this is so biblical. It's like to save yourself from a threat and from danger, you have to have a level of fear, right? But if it's too high and on all the time, yep, it makes you sick, you know? So, so a very, you know, a very, very similar thing there. Now, one thing I know from, you know, busting out my concordance so much over the years is that the word fear, and especially in Hebrew, It has such a deep, rich meaning. So there is a level of actual fear, like from a grizzly bear, but it also means other things, right? Like reverence and respect and some of those other things too, right?

Honor, awe.

Yeah.

A-W-E, awe is a big part of it. Wonder. It is, you know, when you, okay, you look at Isaiah, he's the most godly man in all of Israel. He sees the throne room. God transports him out of his body to the throne room. He sees the massive seraphim. When he sees the Lord, he falls on his face and says, "Woe is me, I am completely undone," which means in our terminology, I'm coming apart at the seams. So here he is groveling on the floor, and this is the most godly man in Israel. What happened? For the first time in his life, he realizes who this, who this God is he's serving. The first time in his life he realizes who I am before this holy God. If you look at Moses, he's the most godly man in his generation. But Hebrews tells us when God manifested, Moses quaked with fear. If you look at Job, God said about Job, there's not a more righteous man on the planet. Can you— I mean, if somebody says that Josh Axe is the most godly man in Franklin, Tennessee, you would be like, oh my gosh, what an honor. Right? God says, this is the most godly man on the entire planet Earth. Wow. Job. Job 44, God comes and Job says, I've heard about you by the hearing of the ear. My eye sees you. I abhor myself. What's happened? He just realizes who he is before this holy God. If you look at John the Apostle, he's the closest disciple to Jesus, right? He's right next to him at the Last Supper. He puts his head on his chest, right? Jesus appears to him on the island of Patmos. He falls down like a dead man. We must remember who it is we are serving. The one who put the stars in the universe with his fingers and called everyone by name. The one who measured the universe with the span of his hand. He weighed every drop of earth in the palm of his hands. He has chosen to make us his sons and daughters. Wow. That's why John writes, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that God Almighty would look at us, that the angels go, what is mere mortals, and call us his sons and daughters. Oh, what a salvation.

It's amazing. It's amazing. You know, you wrote an amazing book called The Awe of God. And, and I love that book. You know, it reminds me there is a book I wrote by a guy named Abraham Joshua Heschel. I think it's called God's Search for Man, or it's something like that., but the book is all about Judaism and the awe and wonder of God in terms of like, what is one of the first, like when you're talking about what is the first thing when it comes to relationship with God, it's this awe of wonder of sitting there like marveling and wow. And on, I can't believe this is sort of Isaiah of the unraveling there. And that's part of fear, right? And I thought about it like this, like Chelsea and I actually had this conversation 'cause we, my wife is so deep and so theological and philosophical too. And we were talking about, a conversation came up at like a date night, like, should our kids fear us? And part of what I was sharing was, was yes, in a very specific way. A lot of what you talked about, well, you know, in terms of like, um, you want your kids to respect you or else, you know, they don't listen to you, right? If you don't respect someone, you don't listen to them. But there also should be a fear in the sense of knowing, like, okay, for my daughters right now that are 2 and 5, at least, like I'm kind of like in control of their life, their success, all kinds of things. And the same thing, like my relationship with God, there's a level of fear of knowing like you are the sole person for the most part. I mean, obviously I have free will, but you're the person that most determines whether I'm successful or I fail my entire future, my entire eternity. How could I not fear that person?

It's a healthy fear. And I think a reason a lot of our kids have gone astray.

Well, by the way, this is also the reason why more people are flocking into the Catholic Church for the first time and forever is because Protestantism got way too far over. And it's— I truly believe it's that single factor. It's the lack of fear.

Yeah, I looked at my— our children, we were raising them, all four serving God. And Lisa and I said, look, We're your friends second, we're your parents first. And when we need to have that parent hat on, if you cross the line, you break, you break the laws we've established for this household, you will be disciplined. So they carried a fear, a healthy fear. Yeah. And, you know, the writer of Hebrews actually says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of judgment of the hands of a living God. Yeah. And, you know, that, that doesn't motivate us. It protects us.

Can I ask you this? Because I think this is interesting. When I went back and studied, I love going back and reading about the early saints and many of the preachers who were part of the founding of America and things. When I go back and read about people like Jonathan Edwards as an example of this.

Yeah.

Their sermons were focused less on the love of God. Now that was woven in, but if you've ever heard a Jonathan Edwards sermon, it was— Sinners in the hands of an angry God. Yeah. So I am interested, 'cause here's what it's making me think of. Like if I'm at a place where, like if I wanna create transformation in someone's life, okay, is it more effective, do you think, to help somebody reach the bottom and humble them? Or do you think to make them feel great at first? Because, because here's the thing, like, like if somebody's saying God loves you so much, you're amazing, he's got a plan for your life, that's motivating to me. But like if somebody's in a tough place in life, I think it's more motivating to bring you down because it's like if you're at the bottom, there's only one place to look that's up, right? I mean, that's when people see the greatest transformation, when they're at the bottom. So I'm curious.

Anyways, the Apostle Jude writes, some saved with with compassion, others say with fear.

Wow.

Okay. Alice Cooper is a friend of ours. Alice and Sheryl Cooper. Okay. You know, School's Out forever.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I remember when he called our office, our 22-year-old receptionist who was in the executive office, she's hanging up the phone, she goes, I've heard everything now, a guy named Alice wants to meet John. And my assistant, who was 55 at the time— I was about— I was— it was in my early 50s, she was 55— she goes, Alice Cooper? And she goes, yeah, how did you know? She goes, give me his number, right? So anyway, he loves golf and he wanted to play golf with me because he knew I, you know, I like golf. Yeah. So Lisa and I, before we played golf, we just so happened we were both in Hawaii. We were ministering, they were just resting. And he asked to have dinner with us, he and Cheryl, and we had a 3-hour dinner. You know what he said to He said, I didn't get saved through the love of God. He said, now I love Jesus with all my heart now. He said, I got saved by the fear of God. He said, I came home from a concert one night in 1992, and I knew I was going straight to hell and I was going to be judged by God. Wow. I started seeking diligently to find the truth. He said, I started going to churches, and eventually I found a church that preached the truth to me. And so, you know, he and his wife still, you know, walk with Jesus. And it was the fear of the Lord that brought him in.

And so, I mean, you know, it reminds me of this. So like, in, in my— what makes a really good practitioner and physician, like, like I'm talking about the next level. So there's, there's one level and there's— but then there's another level, is when they can personalize something. Because a lot, a lot of doctors today are like, you know, one, a lot don't even recommend diet, but then some are like, everyone should be keto, everyone should be carnivore, everybody should be vegan.

But the thing you got to realize is when you're working off patients, you're like, everyone is a unique individual.

We've gotta customize what this person needs. And from what I'm hearing is some people need to know about the love of God, and that's gonna be transformation. And for some people, they need to know the fear of God. Right. And everybody to reach their optimal potential needs both.

Now, eventually it— 'cause there are a lot of people that need to be won by the love of God, right?

Yeah.

There's a lot of people that need to be won by the fear of God. But as they walk shortly after in their walk, they'll learn the other. Yeah. So if you came in by the fear of God, just as Alice said, he said, now I love Jesus. If you come in the love of God, you better learn the fear of the Lord. Because if you look at, um, if you look at Adam and Eve, they didn't fear God. They fell. They didn't endure forever in the garden. See, the Bible says in Psalm 19, verse 8, the fear of the Lord is clean. Enduring forever. So the Holy Spirit spoke to me one day. He said, read Psalm 19. And I went there, and he said, son, Lucifer led worship right before my throne. He didn't fear me. He did not endure in heaven forever. He said, a third of the angels surrounded my throne. They beheld my glory. They didn't fear me. They didn't endure forever. Adam and Eve walked with me in the cool of the garden. They didn't fear me. They They didn't endure forever. Why is it that 50% of the pastors in America right now only last 5 years? 50%.

Wow.

Because we have not taught healthy fear of God.

You know, this brings me into— and by the way, your books are so phenomenal. I'd encourage people— The Awe of God is an unbelievable book. In fact, my family was going to your conferences listening. I was— I've read the book. It was amazing. You got a new book called The King Is Coming.

Yeah.

And I think this is sort of like part two. This is the other part of this fear of God, because that's what my editor said. That's amazing.

You just said that after he edited it.

He said, this is all of God, part two, because it's like, you know what? Like, there's a principle of success and it's this: the longer you can think out and plan out, the more successful you'll be. Right. And so the book The King Is Coming is this is we're preparing But we're acting like eternity's now. Like, we gotta get ready now. You know, I've noticed this, like, in, in, in business and in health, we, we, if you're gonna be successful or be the best at anything or live your best life, you have to have a sense of urgency. And for a lot of people, it's kind of floating through life and like, well, you know, I'll get to it one day. Or, you know, if you go about that way in business, you're gonna fall flat on your face.

Yes.

If you go about that way in education, if you go about it in your health, well, I'll get to it in 10 years. Versus, no, I'm going to urgently focus. You know, you know who does this mostly? When I have a patient come in with cancer. And I mean this to say there's an urgency of, okay, like there is something really serious here and I've got to take action now. So I'm going to change. I'm going to go do Gerson therapy. I'm going to go from eating, you know, Frosted Flakes and cream cheese and pizza to now juicing vegetables every single meal and doing supplements and hyperbaric chamber and all the things. There's an urgency. But you know what? I, I, I wrote this in my last, and, and I'm, I'm, I put this in an upcoming book I have coming out. I eat like I have cancer every day. Like if you're gonna be your healthiest version. And so if you can really tap into that thing, and so your books remind me of this, The King Is Coming. So talk to me about this a little bit. How do we start to act with urgency every day to live our best life?

Well, you're absolutely right on urgency. I, I used to watch people and I thought they got apathetic when they talked about his second coming.. And I realized, no, when you're at the end of a 5K race and you're at the 100 meters left and you see the finish line, you run the fastest you've run the whole race, right? A football team is down 10 points at half, doesn't do much. They're down 10 points with 5 minutes left, they're in a hurry-up offense. That's right. So it creates a sense of urgency. Now, I stayed away from this subject for 4 decades. Do you know that this is the first year In 42 years of ministry, I've preached a message on the second coming in an American church. Wow. The reason is I didn't like what I saw. I saw people arguing over pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib, all that stuff. I saw people when, uh, who was it, um, anyway, the guy wrote the book 88 Reasons Why Jesus Is Coming Back in 1988. Now this is, this is before your time, okay? Yeah, Edgar Winsett. And, um, I watched my friends, you know, buy it hook, line, and sinker. We all did. I watched them run up their credit cards. I mean, he's coming in September of '88. They ran up, they stopped paying their mortgage, they stopped eating healthy, they didn't take care of the body, stopped going to the gym. So I didn't like what I saw. I didn't like the arguments. I didn't like this. And so in 20— people used to ask me, they'd say, don't you preach on the second coming? I said, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not called to do 2020, God had me, really drew me in. And he said, son, I— it was like I almost felt like he was saying, study my second coming. Well, Josh, the first thing I noticed is that I became kinder to my wife. I became more tender to my family. I didn't get upset at my staff so easily. I started weeping that I would get the opportunity to win souls to Jesus. I became more passionate about misery, and I thought, wait a minute, this is good fruit. I'm not getting lazier. I'm actually getting more passionate. Wow. And so the other thing I found out is that it's the second most talked about subject in the entire Bible.

Well, by the way, I watch a lot of your YouTube videos and these are your most popular topics. It's the end times, from what I've seen, or at least up there, because everybody has a sense that we're in the final days of the last days.

The last days began on the day of Pentecost, but we're in the final days of the last days. And so it was, it was the number, it was number 2 subject early church fathers wrote about, uh, 320 scriptures in the New Testament on the second coming. That's 1 out of every 30 scriptures. So the first question that comes to me is, what's the wisdom of God in doing this? And I realized, okay, we're the bride. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Because the Bible makes a statement: the marriage of the Lamb has come, the bride has made herself ready. To her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous works of the saints. Now we're saved by grace, can't earn our salvation, but it's interesting that we're making our wedding gown, our gown, by our obedience and our works to God. Okay, so here you are, you're doing podcasts, you're helping people with their health. God is gifting you in this area. You are working for him, you're doing it for his glory, right? This is what he's called you to do. I believe you've got a beautiful wedding gown ready for this day, right? Okay, most Christians probably don't have enough material to make a bikini, let alone a wedding gown. All right, but the bride has made herself ready. Yeah. Now can you imagine When Lisa and I were engaged, we were living in Dallas, both working in Dallas, and we were engaged for 4 months, which is far too long.

Oh gosh. I agree. Chelsea and I were 6 months and that was too long. So yeah, way too long.

Guys, if you're single, do short engagements. Anyway, the last 2 months of that 4 months, she went back to Indiana to get the church ready, the, what was it, a historic home ready for the reception.. And I flew up and sure enough, my gosh, I mean, she made the church so pretty. But when I lost it is when she showed up the back door with that gorgeous gown on.

Yeah.

I'd never seen anything so pretty in my entire life and still haven't. What if she showed up at that back? What if I got to the church, there was nothing, and she showed up the back door with just a rundown old dress that had grime on it, stains on it, peanut butter stains, torn in a few places. Her hair was all unkempt. She had no makeup on. What, what would— what, what would have gone through me? This day is not very important to her now. It might be important right now at the moment, but she didn't plan for it. She didn't prepare for it. Yeah. The wife has made herself ready. He's our groom. We're his bride.

It's so important to remember it's a relationship.

It's a relationship, not an event. The second coming has been treated like an event.

It's your wedding.

It's the reuniting of two lovers. Do you know that he doesn't even know the day? The Father does. And this is— I have a whole chapter in here on the ancient Jewish wedding. They would get betrothed, not engaged. Betrothed is actually married, but they'd leave each other for about a year. And he would build the room off his dad's house.

Yeah.

In my house, there are many rooms, right? I mean, Jesus said it. These guys know what he's talking about. It's wedding talk. And he said, and I, if I've told you there's enough rooms, I will come and receive you. The word receive is paralambano, which is also used when he said two people will be in the field, one will be taken, the other left. Yeah. Two women at the mill, one taken, another left. Same Greek word, paralambano. Okay, so what Jesus is saying, these disciples, they know exactly what he's saying. I'm your groom. He's been talking about being the groom, remember? He said when the bridegroom's with them, they don't need to fast. He's been talking about this, and now he's saying, I'm gonna come back and get you because you're my bride. Now, the groom in the ancient Jewish wedding, these guys all knew they would be separated for a year. They're married. This, you, when you're engaged, You just break the engagement, give the wedding ring, the engagement ring back, and it's done. Back then, when you're betrothed, you're married. You have to go through a divorce. Remember when Joseph found out Mary was pregnant during their betrothal? Yeah.

Right.

They're separated. He finds out. And there was two ways you divorce publicly or privately. Private embarrasses the bride. Public embarrasses the whole family. He chose to do it privately because he was a just man. So here, here's Jesus, doesn't even know the day or the hour, and he's waiting for the Father to say, go get your girl. Wow. So if I can say this without being irreverent, it's a lovesick groom coming back for a lovesick bride. Wow. And they can't wait. When she and I were separated that 2 months, it was the longest 2 months of my entire life. I never have known 2 months that are longer. A day seemed like a week, and a week seemed like a month. And all I could think about was that wedding. All I could think about is the day I'm gonna fly up there and see her.

Yeah.

And I remember when we were 2 days away, I'm on the phone with her, and I said, I'm gonna see you soon, babe. Not— that 2 days was nothing compared to the 2 months.

Yeah, right.

The Bible says a day with the Lord's a thousand years, and a thousand years is a day. He's been gone 2 days. Because in Revelation, he says 4 times, I am coming soon. The apostles wrote, I am coming soon. When you look at 2,000 years compared to eternity, bam. I mean, if you look at our life, our life, our entire life, if I live to be 84 years old, I've lived 2 hours.

Wow.

Because 1 hour to God is 42.6 years.

That's crazy.

All right, so, but when you look at it through the scope of eternity, so what he's looking for is a bride he can trust. Lucifer turned on God, right? Yeah, we have been tested in enemy territory. We stay faithful in enemy territory. We long for his return. We eagerly look for his return. We build that bond of trust.

You know, this is making me think of as well is, uh, I, uh, a lot of times when people go about trying to find their spouse, they're just, they're out there looking for the right person, and you should do that. But there's also an element of, I'm going to become the right type of person that's going to attract the right type, right? I'm going to try and become the person that's going to attract that type of person. And, you know, I, uh, for, for Jesus, we know it's somebody that has the same character he does. That's what he's going to find attractive, somebody who's loving and kind and patient and feeding his sheep, taking care of, you know, it's just, and so I love that you're sharing this perspective because I think it's so helpful to think in these terms when it comes to eternity, what it is. 'Cause I think, to be honest, I think when most people think of eternity, maybe they're thinking of heaven even before Jesus. I'm gonna go up to heaven. And I don't think most people know what that's even, I don't think anybody knows necessarily what it's gonna be like.

You know, when people talk about eschatology, which eschatology is the study of end times, and it's reduced down to dates, timelines, signs, wonders, blood moons. That's important. But what's more important is being prepared. Think about it. When we were in college, I know we didn't have cell phones when I was in college. When I'm studying engineering at Purdue University, the dreaded finals week, we had to go to the engineering mall, go to the mechanical engineering building. They had a big post., and it had all my classrooms, buildings, and times of each of my finals. That took me 10 minutes. Yeah, but I spent days preparing. Yeah. So this book is really not about timelines and dates, although I do talk about it because it's still important. That 5, 10 minutes to get those classroom times, I could have prepared all I could, but if I didn't know that, right, I'm in trouble, right? I do talk about it, but the bulk of this book is How are we supposed to prepare ourselves? The bride has made herself ready. Does not say God made her ready. And I— that's what the real message of this book is. How do we— because the Bible says this: when Jesus returns, I'm going to quote to you 1 John 2:28. My little children, stop. Who's he talking to? Everybody. Or just Christians?

Just Christians.

My little children, remain in fellowship with him, that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink back in shame. He just told Christians one of two responses when he returns. A believer is either going to be ashamed or confident. Well, I want people confident. That's why I believe God really dealt with me to write this book. I, when I, when I dove in, I spent thousands of hours on this, not hundreds, in 2020. I didn't think I was ever going to write a book on this. And when the Lord dealt with me and then had two major ministers confirm it, I thought, oh my goodness, so okay. And I spent the entire year of 2025 writing it. And no book I've written— this is the 25th book I've written and I've written every single one of the books except for two. I had collaborators on two of them. One was a fiction, one was a little tiny book. Um, no book impacted me personally like this one more. Wow. No book more— it was more impactful. I remember mornings I went to breakfast and I came downstairs because I do most of my writing in the morning, and I looked at Lisa and I said, I'm so sorry, I'm so quiet right now. I am so riveted by what the Holy Spirit's doing in from this message. It really is a transforming message.

What would you say to believers? Because I think some believers, because to your point, eschatology feels so unknown and so kind of, there's so many disagreements on, to your point, premill, you know, which is, it's so interesting. Kirk Cameron came on the show pretty recently and, you know, he was in the Left Behind series, which is premill, right?

I know.

Yep. And then now, you know, and then now he's coming out saying, I don't believe premill. I'm more probably post-mill, but I'll actually, I'm not sure what he said. He said, yeah, post-trib.

And, um, I'll talk about that in there, 4 chapters, but go ahead.

Yeah. So, but, but anyways, I think a lot of times it's like people, a lot of Christians are like, I, it's confusing. I just don't even want to hear about it or, or read it altogether. But why should people still pay attention to this?

This is a really good question.

All right.

My kids have a 100-piece puzzle. The Holy Spirit showed me this. It was magnificent. Okay, first of all, before I talk about that puzzle, let's look at his first coming. There was a lot of ambiguity, a lot of uncertainty. Yeah, a lot of controversy, a lot of mockery. But the Essenes got it right. The Essenes recognized him and predicted his execution to the week. They're the ones that were very protective over the Dead Sea Scrolls, right? They were in a community called Qumran, but they were also scattered throughout Israel. Many believe John the Baptist was an Essene. The Essenes started in the 150 years before Jesus, right? Another guy that was an Essene was Simeon. And Simeon is this guy that recognizes the Messiah when he's 40 days old in the temple. The Pharisees can't recognize him when he's 30 years old, casting out demons. That's remarkable. The Pharisees could quote the first 5 books of the Bible, but they can't recognize God manifested in the flesh when he's right in front of them. Wow.

Wow.

I mean, that is remarkable. Yeah. So if you look at the Essenes—

can I say, because, man, it's making me think of this, and I just think it's a really big deal. So when I think about the Essenes. This group was a little bit more removed, right? They were a little bit more— we're focusing on scripture and we're not getting caught up in the media and the Pharisees and the, you know, the Roman government. Like, they weren't getting caught up in all of that stuff as much. They were more focused on scripture.

They love God. The Pharisees love money. The Pharisees love their positions. But anyway, let's get back to this because you asked a really good question. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1:10 about his first coming, the prophets and the Essenes— I'm going to add the Essenes because they were like the prophets— inquired and searched diligently of what manner of time and what time Jesus would come in his first coming. So listen to the word inquired. That means really cried out to God and prayed. And they searched diligently. That means searching the scriptures, the sacred writings, right? That's what the Essenes did. All right. So my kids got this 100-piece puzzle, my grandkids, and I laid all the puzzle pieces out. And God put this in my heart. I took a picture of it and I showed it to people and I said, what is that? They go, we don't know. That's the person who doesn't look at all at prophecy. It's all so ambiguous. I don't even want— I have a board member who told me the only— he's He's a great guy. He said, the only book of the Bible, John, I have not read is Revelation. I said, why? He said, it scares me. Why does it scare him? Because it's all those puzzle pieces. Mm-hmm. All right. Now a teacher gives those 100 puzzle pieces to the classroom, has the classroom divide up into 8 groups of 4. Okay? Now, and this is a real puzzle. I actually have pictures of this on my phone. Yeah. And the teacher says, the first group that tells me what region of the world this puzzle is a picture of, you win. So one group assembles a picture, and I've got a picture of it, it's two polar bears. They go, Arctic! The teacher goes, no. Another group assembles a couple, about 5 pieces, and it's got two panda bears. China? No. No. Another group assembles a picture and it's got a bunch of horses and donkeys. Oh, McDonald's farm, North America. No. Another group, two tigers, China or India. No. Okay. Another group assembles about 8 pieces and they get elephants and giraffes and this, they go Africa. No. But the smart group assembles the whole puzzle and you know what it's a picture of? Noah's Ark. Mm-hmm. The answer was Armenia, Turkey, the Middle— Southeast Asia or Middle East. This is what happens. This is why you have the ambiguity, because people are doing it more out of feelings, what they think, instead of diligently inquiring. Now, I've got a couple thousand hours of seeking God. So there's a lot in here that could save people time. So what I've learned is find the people that you know, they've really sought God and not just listen to what everybody else said, but they have found in the scripture why they believe it's a pre-tribulation rapture or whatever, mid or post. I put it in there because I use Scripture and it's so clear. The Scripture is so clear on it, but it's not clear to most people. They go, give me the one verse, one verse that shows me when the rapture is going to happen, right? I've had people say that, right? That's like taking one of those 100 pieces, holding it up and saying, oh yeah, you're going to tell me what that, that's a picture of that one piece.

Yeah.

God made it this way. Do you know what the early church had? They had prophecy meals. This is something they did frequently. The first 3 centuries, they basically would get together, eat, fellowship, and then they would do nothing but talk about the prophetic scripture. 28% of the scripture when it was written was prophetic. Wow. Look at the frequency it's written about. God intended us to search diligently and inquire about his coming. Yeah, it keeps us hungry.

Yeah, that's so good. You know, one of the things I think that I see, uh, today a lot of Christians taking part in— I'd love to hear your thoughts on this— I mean, if you go on social media today, it's hard to not get distracted by something. You know, I, I, you and I were talking about this just for a few minutes before. There's this giant feud going on, even like the Republican Party. You got like Candace Owens here and Ben Shapiro here, and then Tucker Carlson, and you know, all the people, all of these people arguing. I see Christians getting caught up in, oh, you know, taking a side on, you know, this person or this person or whatever. And it feels to me like it's so divisive and such a distraction and taking away from this.

The enemy loves because a house divided cannot stand. We're in a propaganda war right now. And you know what? People are so wise if they just keep a pulse on what's happening in society and not get involved in what people are saying and their opinions, because so much of what they're saying isn't even true when you go and you really research it. Oh yeah. So this is the way I see it. I'm like, Lord, what's really important? Help me, help me, help me see what's really important that I need to know. You know what's really interesting to me? I watch people get more upset over a racial, what appears to be a racial issue, what appears, appears, may not even be, than 60,000 Iranians being slaughtered right now by their government. They're more up in arms about these things. Than they are about people being slaughtered. What is going on? I'm talking about believers. I'm not talking about unbelievers. I'm talking about believers who are giving more attention on social media, talking more about this or the, you know, is the president oracious, is he not? You know what? Is that really important? What's really important is about 60,000 people in Iran have been slaughtered. Little boys, little girls, Christians, Yeah, wow. And, and, and we're not giving our time and attention to that. Yeah, we're slaughtering babies every day. We're not— in mother's wombs. Yeah, thank God for Lila Rose and others. We're not giving attention to that. We have hundreds of Christians being slaughtered in Nigeria. We're not talking about that. We have billions who've never heard the gospel, and we're not talking about— we're talking about Is President Trump a racist? We are so sick. I'm talking about in the way we view things in the church, in America. You want to know what it is? We're not like the South American Brazilian church we were just talking about. They're looking at eternity. They're like, how do we get people saved and discipled? Jesus said, go make disciples of, of every nation, right? Go into all the world, make disciples of all nations. And we're arguing about is somebody a racist or not. And I mean consuming social media for 2 days.

I'm so glad you said that because this is where I was going to go next. I— my point was going to be, who are you following, right? I mean, I think social media especially, we start following these people and we don't even realize we're being discipled by somebody who's evil, somebody who's following a lie, somebody who's just wandering off versus to your— one of the things again that I've loved so much about this book and what you've been preaching for the past few years is this focusing on the eternal, focusing on Jesus' second coming, focusing on that, that, and what a difference it'll make.

You know, I have a pastor who pastors a very large church, and his father turned it over to him, and he got up and just spoke something very godly, very true, and lost 500 families. And I was on the phone with him. He said, John, I realize they're being discipled by culture, not by Scripture. If they were discipled by Scripture, he wouldn't have lost any families. He just simply got up and prayed for someone. That's all he did. He prayed for someone and lost 500 families. Wow. That's how divisive social media I used to think mainstream media was evil. Now I understand social media is a lot more effective in getting people divided. And Jesus said a house divided won't stand. Our nation, if we don't have a move of God and we get away from this divisiveness and this, this offense, we're, we're in big trouble.

There's a— I don't know if you know who Ray Dalio is. He's this, uh, financial expert. What he does is he, he studies patterns from the past and how those apply today. So financial systems, when system— like, he studied Rome, like, why did it rise? Why did it fall? It happened. And so, I mean, he shared, he's like, right now, the United States, China, these countries, he's like, right now we're on the— he's like, it's part of the pattern of the US. If we don't fix something soon because the divisiveness, it's very, very close to all-out civil war, crumbling. He's like, we're on that path unless something radically changes, right? It's not a matter of if, it's just when.

We're in a civil war right now. It's men's souls. We don't have guns yet, but words are, words are so deadly.

Yeah.

And so we need a move of God. If we don't have a move of God, I don't know how much longer the backbone that our founding fathers have established can hold up. It's only, I think it's because we have been a friend to Israel and because we have given so much to world missions I think it's keeping us afloat. I think, yeah, I think we've touched the heart of God. Remember, Cornelius gave to the poor. America has— I was told one time, and I wish I would have researched this before I say it, so please check me out— I was told Americans' philanthropy, a billion dollars a day.

Wow.

If you put all the Americans together, the foundations, all the giving, the churches, the tithing, whatever, everything We give $1 billion a day, and we have done so much for nations that are so hurting, you know, as far as reaching them with the gospel, drilling wells, building orphanages. I mean, some of the most beautiful believers I've met in the world— I've been to 61 nations preaching the gospel— some of the most beautiful are right here in the United States.

Wow.

They pray diligently. And it reminds me of the Church of Sardis. I talk about this. This is one of the chapters. The church of Sardis was a very opulent city. Even the other cities in the ancient world envied Sardis because they had so much wealth. In Sardis, they didn't persecute you for your faith. They didn't care who you served. They just wanted to be rich and live, live, have a good time. It affected the church negatively. And Jesus says to this church, you have a reputation for being alive. But you're dead. Oh my goodness. What gives the church a reputation for being alive? Great songs, good music, good foyer, great coffee in the foyer, good inspiring messages. He said, you have a reputation for being alive. You're dead. And he said, why are they dead? Because he said, I find that your actions don't meet the requirements of my God. That's what Jesus said to them. Wow. And he said, wake up. He said, before that which— he said, you have some things that are almost dead. They haven't died yet. If you don't wake up, they're going to die. But then he makes the statement. This is the whole reason I went to this. He said, but there are some in Sardis who have not stained their clothes, their wedding garment. They've not stained. How do you stain your wedding garment? Jude said hating the garment defiled by the flesh. James said true, true religion is to stay unspotted from the world. Jesus said there's a few in Sardis. There's some in Sardis. Who haven't stained their garment. They will walk with me in white. I look at this nation and there are some of the greatest believers I've ever met in the world, and they're the some. But there are so many that say, I'm a Christian, but yet they're fighting on social media about their tribe, about their conditions, about their church, about their pastor. You know, maybe they're not talking well. I mean, it's, it's really sad. And you look and you go, how are we not any different than society? Yeah. How are we not any different? Jesus said they'll know us by our love one for another. Yet you're so divided.

It's interesting because if you look at a lot of these social media followers that profess to be Christians, I think about, are you taking care of the widows? Are you taking care of the orphans? Are you being kind? Yeah. You know, are you being— are you giving people grace? They messed up. Okay. Is there grace there? Are you, you know, attacking them and beating them down and trying to shame them? And, you know, it just— it's so— but, but that's what's happening. I mean, it's, it's really, um, it's become so divisive. Last question for you. What do we need to do? What's the number one thing we need to do to prepare for, for, for the Lord's coming?

Walk in true, authentic Genuine holiness. It's the only description of the bride he's coming back for. It's not a relevant church. It's not a community church. All that's important.

How do we prepare?

You, you, you stay in the word, you stay in prayer, and you keep— the Bible says, set your affections on things above. So just as I set my sights on my wedding day and it caused me to think about my wife nonstop for 4 months, especially the 2 months she was gone, I wouldn't even interested in looking at another girl. The most beautiful girl in the world is up in Indiana getting ready to be joined to me. I'm like, great, you know, you're, you're a pretty blonde, you're a pretty brunette, you're not attractive to me. My sights are set on my girl.

Yeah.

Okay, when our eye— when our eyes get set set our sights on the things of heaven, not the things of this earth, we'll start living a more godly life. You know, I look at C.S. Lewis. He said, the people that actually do the most in this life are the people who actually have their sights on heaven.

Yeah.

And so he wrote that, and I thought that was very insightful. That's why I believe this book has helped me so much personally, uh, what God has shown me. It's got my sights in the right place.

It's so powerful. Yeah. C.S. Lewis, I think, and maybe this is a different quote, but it's basically essentially the same thing. He says, you know, the people that do the most in this life are the ones that think the most about the next.

That's exactly the quote.

And it's so, so good and it's so powerful. You know, I remember Chelsea and I, we got married down in 30A, and I remember when I saw her, I was like, my breath caught, you know, I was like, oh, wow, you know? And there it was, that sense of like, Awe and wonder. Wow. You know, and that's the same way we should feel about Jesus. I think if you really spend time in God's word and meditating and realizing what he's done for you, how much he loves you, who he is.

Yeah.

To your point, holding the world in the palm of his hand. There's a sense of awe in a similar fashion. That he would die for me. That he would die. Yeah, that's right. That he would die for me.

My creator.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's overwhelming, it's transforming, and it's powerful. And I wanna encourage everybody, go out and get John's book here. It's called "The King Is Coming: It's Time to Prepare for the Return of Christ." Here, I wanna encourage you guys to get it. It's in bookstores nationwide, it's on amazon.com. I wanna encourage you guys to get the book. There's something so powerful about just educating yourself and digging in and acting with urgency because the time is now. I wanna say thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. Remember, each week we're diving deep into the science and principles of how you can heal physically, mentally, and spiritually, and take your health and your life to the next level. Thanks so much, uh, to my friend John here. John, um, I love you. You're the best. And, uh, and thanks so much. I wanna encourage you also, John's got an amazing— his YouTube channel's unbelievable. So I'd encourage you to check out his YouTube. He's really dug deeper in some of these topics there. Share as well. And by the way, the number one thing you can do to support the show here as well is subscribe and share it. There are millions, billions of people that aren't prepared, and so I want to encourage you, help them prepare for the return of Christ and to, uh, to have a relationship with him. And, uh, and you can do that by sharing and subscribing here to the show as well. Thanks so much for watching. Thanks again to John here, and we'll see you on the next episode.