Today with Jeff Vines

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The whole point of this I mean, this whole series
is based on Ephesis, chapter six, where we said that
he is very organized, that our battle is not against
flesh and blood, but against rulers' powers and world forces,
against the arcists, the architects who plant out the evil
the excusius. Based on the word execute, they execute the
generals who execute the demonic plans, and then they need

(00:20):
world forces hosts through its to work.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Today, Today, Today, Today with Jeff Findes, pasta apologist and
Bible teaching.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
My name is Aaron, and welcome to Today with Jeff Finds.
All around us there's conflict between different influences. In this message,
Pastor Jeff speaks about the conflict between light and dark,
truth and lies, the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom
of the enemy. While he refers to America a lot
in this message, it does translate to much of the

(00:58):
Western world and modern culture around us. So I know
there's going to be something in here for you if
you don't live in America. Let's begin this next message
in the series with Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
So we're still in a Feesian six.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
We're in this series called under the Influence. Let me,
just share something quickly with tell you where we're going.
So last night it was about twelve thirty. I'd gotten
to sleep around ten ten thirty. And this has been happening.

Speaker 4 (01:36):
A lot lately.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
I go right out deep sleep and then I'm wide
to wake, like at twelve thirty one o'clock. So I
don't know how long it's been. It's been a long
time since I've had an anxiety attack now, given the
topic that we're in, and so it's it's about twelve.

(02:00):
I'd had a good Friday, a good Thursday, and Friday,
really good Thursday and Friday. So last night about twelve thirty,
woke up and at first of all, it was like
I was having a dream, and here's the dream. The
dream was that I felt. And you know, when you
dream than what you interpret and what is reality, You're
in the dream world. So I'm dreaming and it feels
like that the devil or something very evil is trying

(02:24):
to get in bed with me. But I can't move,
and I know it's happening, but I'm trying to think,
am I awake or am I asleep? And I can't
figure it out. So in my dream or am I
wake whatever it is. I start trying to say my
wife's name, say Rob, but I can't. I can't say
it loud enough to wake her up, or at least
that's what's happening in my dream, whether I'm a dream

(02:45):
where I'm awake. And I finally woke up and I
realized what was going on. Because when you have a
severe anxiety attack at night, you start it comes in
a dream and then it wakes you up. So I
stood up and I thought, oh no, not this again.
And it took me quite a long time. Now, it

(03:05):
was a tough one. It was a tough night, and
when you have one of those, it really zaps your energy.
So I had to get up, have a bowl of
corn flakes and try to gather myself.

Speaker 4 (03:14):
What happened, you know, I don't know, but.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
It makes perfect sense to me that doing a series
like this is not making the evil one happy. See,
the thing about the evil one is this, as long
as you just ignore them and go on with your
life and I leave you alone, you start trying to
trounce on his territory, He's gonna try to trounce on yours.
And the whole point of this, I mean This whole
series is based on Ephesians chapter six, where we said
that he is very organized, that our battle is not

(03:40):
against flesh and blood, but against rulers, powers and world forces,
against the arcists, the architects who plant out the evil
the excusiasts. Based on the word execute, they execute the
generals who execute the demonic plans, and then they need
world of forces hosts through its to work. So you
look at a culture right now. If you notice you
have a conversation with somebody about something like abortion, or

(04:04):
transgender issues or gay marriage. Have you noticed when you
have a conversation now, Fifteen years ago, if I had
a conversation with somebody about that, I could sit in
a cafe and talk to them and nobody was angry.
We just talk and respect each other. Those days are gone.
Now you start the conversation and immediate it's anger and

(04:24):
rage and screaming and yelling why.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
It's demonic, it's evil.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
For those of us who grew up in a nation
that we were taught that if you live by the
precepts of the Sermon on the Mountain, this is what
we were taught. If you live by the precepts of
the sermon on the Mount and culture embraces the ethics
of the judae of Christian faith, that it would lead
to prosperity. Now, just quickly, what is the most prosperus

(05:00):
first country or has been the most prosperous country on
the planet for hundreds of years?

Speaker 4 (05:04):
A couple hundred seventy percent? How much of the world's.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Wealth is in America? Do you know the answer to that? Yeah,
sixty five percent of the world's wealths in one country.
If you make seventy thousand dollars, which is the average
household income in the United States, you're in the top
four percent of wealth earners in the world.

Speaker 4 (05:21):
So we have been blessed.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
And those of us who grew up in this country,
with all of its mistakes, all of its horrible mistakes,
we've always equated the fact that the reason, one of
the reasons we've been so successful and so prosperous is
because Judeo Christianity, with its integrity, character, telling the truth,
the team commandments, even though we all break them to
some degree, but the foundation of the country based on

(05:47):
that led to prosperity. And it makes perfect sense, doesn't it.
I mean, if you can trust somebody, if there's integrity,
if there's a character, if men and women stay together
in marriage, raise children. I mean, it's common sense, will
tell you you're gonna have a prosperous country. But that
America was gone, folks. In fact, the turning away from
God achieved critical mass in the nineteen sixties.

Speaker 4 (06:10):
Do you remember when I when I was in school
and I got to move through this quickly? So this,
this is the sermon in the sermon.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
That's heavy, Okay, Miss Treadway fifth grade class. I remember
Miss Treadwait, primarily because I had a crush on her.
I mean Miss Treadway. I was fifth grade or ten
years old. But man, she was so beautiful.

Speaker 4 (06:30):
And we started the day with Bible reading.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Anybody remember this Bible reading pledge of allegiance and prayer.
Nobody was forced, It's just what you did, and primarily
you did it because in those days, there was this
thought that the Bible was actual history, and it's history
that we should know like all other history, and we
should understand who the central character Jesus Christ really.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
Was and o influence he had on mankind.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
And the Bible had always been part of the American
public school all.

Speaker 4 (07:02):
The way back to Massachusetts Bay. This is going back
a long, long time.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
And then suddenly, around the nineteen sixties, instructing children from
the Word of God was not only discouraged but banned.
Band wasn't just a minute, it was now, you can't
do it, or you'll be in big trouble. Now, for
those who go back another generation, you'll remember that on
Monday morning, the major newspapers of America would publish summations

(07:28):
of the weekend sermons. Imagine that the Los Angeles Times
publishing an assummation of my sermon every Monday morning. Never gonna happen,
isn't it. Used to the entertainment industry back in the
fifties and sixties would uphold biblical morality. There was a
line they would not cross. Politicians would speak openly about
Christian values. Television stations, do you remember when they would

(07:50):
close the day with prayer and scripture before signing off.
Now they'd never sign off, And it gets really bad
after midnight.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
This is the.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
World that we wanted our children to grow up. And
now you contrast that. And I'm not going to spend
too much time on this, but I told you I
was going to tell you why we are where we are,
and it's important that you know that. Contrast that with
the pastor in North Carolina, Pastor John Amanchuku, as he
addresses the Wake County, North Carolina school Board. He began

(08:19):
by reading Luke, chapter seventeen, verse one and two. Jesus
said to his disciples, things that cause people to stumble
are bound to come, But woe to anyone through whom
they come. It would be better for them to be
thrown into the sea with a milestone or millstone rather
tied around their neck than to cause one of these
little ones to stumble. And then pastor held up a
book for ten year olds and he'd began reading from it.

(08:41):
The title was It's Perfectly Normal. The book features two
men having sex, two women having sex, and just about
every other combination imaginable, with explicit drawings and explanations, all
of this for ten year olds. The book details things
I don't feel comfortable with. I've already probably said too much.
That's his that's as PG rated as.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
This sermon will get.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Okay, But I'm sure John felt uncomfortable too, But he
was trying to make a point, so he began reading
from the book, and it was so immoral and pornographic
that the school board stopped him, but he kept reading,
kept reading, and then finally he stopped.

Speaker 4 (09:17):
And he looked at him and said, was this something
I said?

Speaker 1 (09:20):
He said, and I quote, if you don't want to
hear it in a school board meeting, why should children
be exposed to it at school? And then he said
something in most of the state but are afraid to say.
He says, we have perverts perverting our kids. And you
all sit back and celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion. You're

(09:41):
cowards man. You can celebrate one without violating the other.
But the point is, this is the way it always happens.
If you eradicate the word of God, if you eradicate
the word of God from the public arena, there will
be another absolute.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
That takes its place.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
And the absolute that is present now is very demonic.
It's this, There are no absolutes. Do whatever you want
to do. Did God really say?

Speaker 3 (10:05):
That?

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Goes all the way back to Genesis one, two, and three.
The America where prayer in God's word were imparted to
scripture or were imparted to children, where scripture was respected
in the media, and the culture and where central tenets
of scripture were taught.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
Those days are gone. You have to make your peace
with it. Well, just stay with me at the Grammys this.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
Year, that stalwarth of morality. Sam Smith decides to dress
up in satanic garb and glorified the demonic world, and
when he and his partner Kim Petris born Tim Petris
received their award, the place erupted. It was the huge
celebration for a man who dressed and identified as a woman. Ironically,

(10:48):
the name of the song he performed was Unholy Shocker,
no kidding, and the world watches as Sam Smith enters
into a blatantly demonic performance that exemplified a satanic sexual ritual.
I'm not sure most of America knew that, but those
of us who've studied in the occult and tried to
understand what's going on religiously in our world, we knew

(11:10):
exactly what was going on.

Speaker 4 (11:13):
Celebrating a satanic sex ritual.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
I can't read the lyrics, but he starts out, Mommy
don't know, Daddy's getting hot at the body shop doing
something unholy.

Speaker 4 (11:23):
That's the most benignous. Just leave it there. The rest
of it's way too vulgar, and it's being celebrated.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Imagine a major broadcast network broadcasting a Satanic ritual live
on air, and the reason is because Satanism is running.

Speaker 4 (11:39):
Rapid in our country.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
Not theological Satanism, although the Satanic Church is growing as well,
but it's still very minimal. I'm talking about practical Satanists,
which is the denial of God and the worship of self.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
That's our culture. Satanism.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Did God say that life is about what I want
without any parameters, the worship of Self, the Jesus. This
movement ushered in love and sacrifice for one's neighbor. Satanism
ushers in love for self without sacrifice for anybody.

Speaker 4 (12:08):
And now here we have Disney. I know I'm sounding
very political at the moment. Just sit tight.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Disney, in the movie's light Year and Strange World, is
promoting gay and lesbian relationships to our kids. In fact,
Disney now has men dressed as women greeting your kids
when they come to designated places in the park. And
Disney's latest project, the movie Pauline, features an eighteen year
old girl who falls in love with and is impregnated

(12:36):
by Satan. Oh yeah, good, old down home fun at Disney.
The spirits have returned. The falling away began decades ago,
and now we're witnessing the most widespread and massive falling
away from Judeo Christian values in the entire history of
the Christian Age. Right now, now, I could go on,

(13:00):
who are these spirits who have returned? We said, the
Jesus Movement relegated them to the fringes of society.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
Who are they?

Speaker 1 (13:07):
And can we identify them? I'm here to tell you,
yes we can. They're not new, been around since Mesopotamia,
since civilization. They've been around an alternative to Yahweh. They
pulled the Israel away from faith and commitment to God,
the One True God, and they ended up destroying the
nation of Israel. For instance, here we go focus. A

(13:30):
major player in the apostasy was a god named Bail.
You've heard about him, read about him. He is the
king of gods, the leader of spirits. The Bible talks
about him often. He's the god of fertility. You worship
and pray to him when you want your crops to grow.
When you give up on God, you turn to Bail.
He's called the Lord of Rain, and he's often pictured

(13:51):
with a lightning bolt in his hand, getting ready to
send the rain and the thunder to the earth. He's
also Bail that is referred to as the chief God,
the Lord, the master of the gods. When the Israelites
came into the land of Canaan, Bail was the false
god of the land, part of the Canaan not pantheon,
so that in Judges chapter two, verse eleven, then the
Israelites did evil in the side of the Lord and

(14:12):
served the Bales. They forsook the Lord, the god of
their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They
followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them.
They aroused the Lord's anger. So rather than turn to
Yahweh for fertility and faithfulness and increase in gain, they
made idols out of clay, the balim, that's just the
plural for Bail, the balem, and prayed to and worshiped

(14:33):
them instead. Now you and I read the Bible story.
When we come across this, we say, how on earth
could they do that? They had witnessed God opened the
Red Sea and fall the walls of Jericho. And my question,
how could we do what we're doing. Many Israelites turned
away from God and followed. The Bible tells us the
balem so that by the ninth century, now we're going
all the way up. By the ninth century, the worship

(14:55):
of Bel had made such inroads into Israel.

Speaker 4 (14:58):
This is part of the history that most of us
don't know. So that if.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
You refuse to worship Bell, you were persecuted and sometimes killed.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
Bell. Now are these this God Bell? Is he real?

Speaker 1 (15:10):
Remember the story I've always told you about the little
Indian boy who comes and he sees his father kneeled
down in front of the mantle, and there are two
statues there on the mantle, and the father prais to
the men, praised to them. And finally, before he goes
off to work, the little boy says, Dad, why do
you pray to these idols? They're lifeless, motionless, they can't see,
they can't do anything, They're powerless, And he slaps the
boy claps them. Boy, the ears says, don't say that,

(15:31):
that's sacrilege.

Speaker 4 (15:32):
I'll do with you when I get home.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
So while he's away, the boy takes a stick and
puts the stick in one of the hands of the idols.
And smashes the other idol, and the father returns and
he says to the young man, what is this?

Speaker 4 (15:47):
What have you done?

Speaker 1 (15:48):
And the son says, isn't it obvious the one idol
smashed the other idol, see the stick in his hand.
And the father said, don't be silly. Those idols are powerless.
They can't see, they can't do, they can't feel anything.
And the boy says, that's what I've been trying to
tell you. And the point is the idols themselves have
no power. But according to scripture, the demonic forces are
behind the worship of the idols. So the statues of

(16:13):
the images and the idols are lifeless, but the demonic
forces behind them are not. In fact, beil manifests itself himself. However,
we want to describe this all the way up into
the Greek pantheon in the god Zeus. Zeus is really
the Old Testament bel an ancient Nabatean text. Nabatian is

(16:34):
an Arab people that lived east of the Jordan somewhere
around the sixth century. In that text we have these
words they regarded as God, the Lord of heaven, calling
him Beelsman, which in the Venetian language Lord of Heaven
and in Greek Zeus. So the Greek gods of Jupiter
and Zeus were often referred to as one Zeus Bellus
or Zeus bell or Jupiter Bellus or Jupiter bell and

(16:58):
both appeared as idols, standing in the same position with
arms outstretched lifted up, ready to hurl down a thunderbolt.
When the gods were cast out of the Greco Roman
world by the Jesus Movement, these gods, Zeus, all these
gods were relegated to the fringes and really not heard
of again. But once again the primary false god in

(17:21):
the ancient world, Bell, the supreme false god, the god
who turns people away from yah Weegh, the real god,
the god who promises economic flourishing but never delivers. The Baleen,
who were once relegated to the fringes have now returned
back into the city of Man. Has Bell, who's been
on the fringes for so long, has he now returned
because of the Jesus Movement? Has he returned to America?

(17:44):
You bet your life he has. Franklin Graham, and I
don't agree with everything about Franklin. He is a little
bit too political for me. However, God uses all people.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
Right.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Here's what he said to a group of Christian media recently.
He said, and I quote, every demon from Hell has
been turned loose in society. There is a storm coming
and we all have to be prepared. The world has
deteriorated so quickly. We cannot be deceived, we cannot be fooled.
We need to get ready and be prepared alike. The
focus is on the church, not the secular world. He's

(18:14):
simply saying this, You better be ready, you better be prepared,
You better not be deceived. Don't be led astray, don't
take the mark of the beast, don't do the deeds
of the evil one, don't think the thoughts of the
evil one. As culture tries to take you away from
God towards something else.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
Now, listen to what the Old.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Testament says about the relationship between God's people and or
the beliem or bellism. I'm reading out of Second King seventeen,
verse fifteen. They rejected his decrees, that is, God, and
the covenant he made with their ancestors, and the statutes
he warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and
themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them. Although

(18:56):
the Lord had ordered them do not do as they do.
They forsook all the commands of the Lord, their god,
and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape
of calves, which we're gonna talk about, and an.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
Asher a pole.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they
worshiped Bel. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire.
They practiced divination and sought omens, and sold themselves to
do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.

Speaker 4 (19:23):
So the mission of Bel.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
All the way back in the early days is to
go into a culture, not Bel himself, not the statue.
The demonic forces behind the idea is to draw men
and women away from God, away from his word, away
from his law, and to trust in things that can
never deliver, and to live as though they never knew
the real God. Now, interestingly, when Bell was unable in

(19:49):
the past, now let's take a pause here. I'm saying
that Bell has been around for thousands of years, just
in different forms. But it's the same demonic force. The
Greek gods, behind the Roman gods, behind the gods of
Mesopotamia been around for a long time, but the Jesus
Movement placed them on the fringes. Before the Jesus movement,
think about all the mythology, all the child sacrifice, all

(20:12):
the worship that you had, and then the Jesus Movement
starts to change things.

Speaker 4 (20:17):
And so now here we are. When Bell historically.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Has been unable to infiltrate the adult war, he goes
after his children.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
He goes after the children of any generation. And by removing.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
The Bible and prayer from the classroom, the demonic forces
knew that they could weaken the transmission of faith from
parent to child, that they could separate an entire nation
from prayer in the Word of God and ultimately from faith.
But it's not just in America. That's how they've always operated.
Can't get the adults, go after the kids. The schools

(20:55):
may have been the beginning, but Bel's effort has not
been limited at you because you know as well as
I do, if you're alive in this generation, that every
public arena was under the influence of demonic forces In
nineteen eighty do you think it's incidental that the Supreme
Court of the United States ruled that it is no
longer legal to display the Ten Commandments in public schools.

Speaker 4 (21:18):
To make them visible would be illegal.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
Don't want to talk about We're not talking about proselytizing anybody.

Speaker 4 (21:23):
We're not talking about trying to convert about.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
We're just talking about taking the Ten Commandments upon which
the country was built morally speaking and Western civilization and
making it illegal to display them. But the eradication didn't
stop at the schools. The nation then was striking down
the Ten Commandments again and again, would ultimately.

Speaker 4 (21:41):
Banish them from any public square. So where are we now.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
We've removed the commandment thou shalt have no other gods
before me, So now we have other gods before us.
And the God of the Bible has bestowed his blessing
into this imperfect nation. And now we've removed his precepts
from the ears of our children and have replaced it
with sheer rubbish. I mean, this is totally demondic. Come on, guys,

(22:06):
it's not just eradicating the Ten Commandments of the Bible.
Now we're filling their hands with all kinds of rubbish
instead of just teaching the math and science. Has Bell
returned from the fringes, are there clear signs? Okay, Now,
let's put the second log on the fire and get
up to eighty eight miles an hour. Okay, those of

(22:27):
you born after nineteen eighty five, we'll get that.

Speaker 4 (22:32):
The mission of.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Bel Or the Bailien has always been to cause a
nation to draw away from God's word, draw away from
God's law, and live as though they never knew his ways.
How he does that?

Speaker 4 (22:43):
Okay? Now, when I wrote this, I thought.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
They're gonna really like the first part, and the second
part not so much, because we also are told how
Bell can do that? How can he turn a culture
away from Yahweh? Because it's reflected in his title, because
Bell is the god apross verity.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
You've been listening to today with Jeff Finds. Thanks for
joining us. Next time we'll bring you the rest of
this message from Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
I wonder if when Jesus said pay attention, watch look
for the signs, if this is part of it. No
more tank commandments in public. Crosses are also being banned
now it's coming and Christians are being told to hold
their religious views in private, while the profits and tenants
of bail are taking center stage and then one more sign.

Speaker 4 (23:33):
There's the art of.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
You can listen to more messages like this, just search
for Today with Jeff Finds. Wherever you listen.

Speaker 5 (23:40):
To podcasts, you with Everything

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Today, Today, Today, Today with Jeff Fines.