Episode 28 - Are Pokémon and Christianity Compatible?

- Tune in every Monday for a new episode of "The Saints That Serve Podcast" -

- If you want to watch the video version of this episode you can do so by going to https://tinyurl.com/ydfynh49 -

In this episode, we explore the world's highest-grossing media franchise from a biblical perspective. From its roots in Japanese yokai lore to unsettling spiritual connections, we examine the themes and concerns Christians should consider.

Hear about a missionary's account of a converted witch doctor recognizing Pokemon's spiritual functions and explore the shift from innocent beginnings to god-like entities and afterlife references.

Join the conversation on balancing entertainment with spiritual discernment. And don’t miss our worship livestream on April 4th at 7pm!

If you want to send us a question or a comment you can by texting us by clicking this link!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey everybody, it's Jairus with the Saints that
Serve.
I wanted to get on here realquick before we start episode 28
and let you know that thisparticular episode in the second
half of it, it is very heavywith the visuals.
So we created a video versionof this podcast with those

(00:23):
visuals inserted into theepisode.
So if you want to see that, youcan head over to our YouTube
channel, the Saints that ServePodcast, and enjoy it there.
Also, we will have a link tothat episode in the description
of this as well.
All right, I hope you enjoy itwell, all right.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I hope you enjoy it.
Welcome to the Saints thatServe podcast where each week,
your hosts dive into thecrossroads of faith, culture and
the unknown Christ is Lord andthe kingdom is now.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
We are the Saints that Serve.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Welcome to the Saints that Serve podcast with your
host.
My name is Johnny and my nameis Johnny.
All right, which one is which?
Can you tell by our voices?
I'm Johnny number one and I'mthe real Johnny.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
So you know, when you do username, I'm Jairus.
So you know, when you dousernames, it's always like the
first one without a number isthe real one, and then the
second one that has any kind ofnumber, even if there's number
one, is not the original one.
Yeah, that's what it is there.
It's my username and you'rejust the real Johnny.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Just Johnny, and then Johnny number one, which you
know I was like I.
I feel like I should have theright to you know, we'll talk
about it later In whatconversation, I don't know.
It'll come up organically.
Maybe we'll see We'll be, we'llbe super old and we'll be like
sitting in like a retirementhome, like, hey, I think I
should be Johnny number one, doyou?

Speaker 1 (02:20):
remember that time Eight or two years ago, when we
were talking yeah, we're over100.
At that point, I'm impressedwith future us.
Yeah, we really got our buttsin gear and got healthy.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I'm also impressed with our logistical coordination
between our families that ourkids would both put us in the
same retirement home.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
No, it's just going to be this house still.
You're still living in it 82years later.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Oh, don't put that on me, ricky baby.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, you're still sitting there.
Like I got to go get the wallput up and extra red room
upstairs, Just a90-something-year-old man is
like.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
I still got 10 projects left to finish on this
house.
Oh, man.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Welcome to episode 28 of the Saints to Serve podcast.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Heck yeah, two away from 30.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
That's right.
We're getting close to ouractual ages, that's right.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
The decades, the decades, our third decade.
We're getting close to it.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
That's right, anyways .
Do you ever like have you heardabout that logic that it's like
, that's right, anyways, do youever like have you heard about
that logic that it's like the 20, like, say, it's like 21 years,
but that's your third decade?

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
See what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
The logic of it is that we're now like if one We've
entered our third decade.
We've entered our third decadeeven though we're another 10
years away from being in ourthird decade, yeah, so right now
we are oh, even better of anexample.
The podcast is now two years,not two years old two years, you

(03:53):
mean 20, you mean two decadesno, the actual length of the
podcast, not the number ofepisodes.
Oh, because we are in.
We started in 2024 and now it's2025.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
We are now two years oh, okay, you went, uh, yeah
completely different direction Iwas like I don't think your
math is math and it might not beanyways, uh, yeah.
So announcements, we gotannouncements, guys.
Not a lot, but we got them.
Big, exciting things happeningthe first week of April.
Do you know what it is?

(04:24):
I know you know what it is.
April Fool's Day, that's right,april Fool's.
We are also, on April the 4th,going to be doing our first live
stream worship night, that'sright.
So make sure that you'refollowing us on social media, on
Instagram X, facebook Threads,youtube, we will be streaming

(04:50):
that on Twitch, YouTube andFacebook Live.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Correct, Yep.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
So make sure you're following us on any platform to
get up to date.
But then we will be on Twitch,youtube and Facebook with the
live stream.
It'll be about an hour long ofjust worship music that we'll be
playing just to try and helppeople get into the weekend with
their hearts filled with theSpirit of the Lord.
So make sure to tune in, andwe'll be posting updates on that

(05:20):
through our social accounts.
And if you need prayer foranything— that starts at 7
o'clock.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yes, sorry.
Yes, you're good.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
It starts at 7 pm on April the 4th, which is a Friday
night.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
So if y'all want to come hang out in the chat
beforehand, the actual streamwill start at 630.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
And we'll have kind of some lead up countdown.
But the actual worship nightstarts at 7, though the stream
technically starts at 6.30.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, there'll be a countdown on the screen, but
then we'll be live in the chatboard where you can make
comments and we'll be respondingto them.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, we'll be chatting with you at that point,
yep, so come chat with us andthen come worship with us.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Amen the.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Saints, that Worship, that's right.
Our music channel, if we everstart that.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, if we ever get into music, it'll be the Saints
that Worship.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Speaking of worship pray for you Friday yes pray for
you Friday.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
We're doing it every Friday.
If you you need prayer foranything, you can reach out to
us at the saints that serve pod,on Facebook threads and
Instagram.
Or you can reach out to us onTwitter or X, if you will STS
ministry.
Or you can email us at thesaints that serve at gmailcom

(06:42):
again, that's the saints thatserve at gmailcom.
Or if you scroll to the bottomof the description for this
episode on I'm going to.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
I'm going to go out on a limb and say any platform
you're on any platform thatyou're on.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Then there's a link for a SMS messaging option.
It'll just pull you up in atext right on your phone and
you'll be able to text us aprayer request and we will get
it and we will read it and wewill pray for you.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
So these prayers are not public.
This is not like a public typething.
This is a private time that weare praying for you, our
listeners.
So don't think that this issomething that we are going to
call out and sit there and talkabout on the podcast.
That's none of that.
This is strictly the Saintsthat Serve team praying for our

(07:32):
community.
That's right.
Privately, that's right, unlessyou specifically say that you
want your prayer request.
Tell everybody about it.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
Tell everybody about it.
So that's pretty much it forour announcements.
Shout out once again to Ashleyfor commenting on episode 26.
I think adding short formcontent from the podcast is a
great idea.
For sorry, I had to open thefull time for the podcast clips.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
Keep in mind John doesn't know how to read, that's
right, we'll probably have.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
We'll probably have to add some words and some
background imagery.
This is all.
Thank you, ashley, it's a greatcomment and thank you for
coming.
It's literally just a lot ofsuggestions, giving suggestions
on what we should do, andthey're all suggestions, and we
will figure out how to do them.

(08:28):
I guess what I'm getting at isgreat comment, great information
, but I don't know if everyonewants to sit here and listen to
me slowly read.
He sounded out yeah, yeah.
Cat it out.

(08:53):
Yeah, yeah, uh, I think cat, Idon't think.
Uh, I think that's the mostrecent as far as comments, I
believe so we have anything else, but if you comment on our
stuff, we read them and we wantto give you a shout out.
So we read them very slowly.
Yes, very slowly, with a lot ofthought.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
And a lot of well.
You got to think about whatyou're reading.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
A lot of thought, think it through, think it
through, sound it out, think itthrough.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Stu.
Anyways, without further ado,let's go ahead and get to them.
Yeah, can we talk about that?
Further ado, further to do.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Let's go ahead and get into them Can we talk about
that Further ado, further to do.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, you were right.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
I know I'm right.
I don't have any issues withyou being right.
It's just really funny to me.
Okay, it was so funny how quickin the episode you just skirted
away from that hazing oh, veryquickly.
I'm just like you made a hugemistake and you're like yeah, I
did All right, all right, movingon.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
I mean, okay, yeah, you know what You're right.
I'm sorry, let's linger more on.
When I make mistakes, it soundsgreat.
Let's make sure that we justdraw it out, yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
That's what everyone's here for, anyway.
Yes, so Mean jokes, yeah, okaythat sounds great to me.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
I actually think our viewership will increase because
of that, more than likely.
Yep, so you heard it here first.
The saints that serve like tomake fun of John for all his
mistakes.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
But we are the saints that serve.
That's right, you also make funof yourself, yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
I am self-deprecating , yeah, self-deprecation.
No breathing.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Don't give a honeysuckle plant if I cut my
arm bleeding.
This is my last book report.
This is my last vacation resort.
That is my last retort.
Are we ready now?
The people want to hear themeat, the meat of the of the

(10:53):
foam.
So we're going to play facebookmarketplace madness.
Yeah, okay hold on.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Just so I need to clarify this is not our main
topic tonight.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
It's not.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
We were building it up like it was.
So, Tyler, this is yourtransition into our mini game
Facebook Marketplace Madness.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
So it's just one, but this one I don't.
It's okay, so it's bad, butit's funny.
So I was scrolling throughFacebook Marketplace getting
material for the segment Correct, and so I click on this and I'm
going to give you two things.
I'm going to give you the titleOkay, and then I'm going to

(11:35):
give you what I didn't know youcould do.
I'm going to play a video.
What Facebook Marketplace canplay videos?
Oh, I mean, I knew that.
I mean it within the like andwithin the ad you can upload
videos, yeah, so this startedplaying and I'm like what in the
world?
so I'm gonna give you the titlethe video.

(11:55):
Okay, the actual item is notfunny, like we usually like to
do on this segment.
Yeah, but the video is to meokay.
So if it's not, we'll cut thiswhole thing out, okay, but so
the title is boat for sale.
Okay, boat for sale.
And here is the video hi, um,I'm Um.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
He died Last week and I I hope somebody can buy the
boat.
Thank you, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
I couldn't believe, watching that right, that she's
trying to sell her husband'sboat After him being dead for a
week.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
That just put a huge Bummer on the podcast.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
I'm just like watching.
I'm like this is so sad.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Is she selling it for 200 bucks?

Speaker 1 (12:54):
No, it's more than 200 bucks.
Oh it just to me.
The reason why I'm doing thisis, it seems fake and a lie.
500 bucks, You're stillincredibly off 13 000 you are
now over 8 000, 9 000 I'm givinghand motions to y'all now 8 500

(13:19):
, 8 500, really.
Yeah, that's why I'm just likewhat kind of boat is it?
Um, I don't have that detail.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Oh, because I took a screen grab or recording of her
talking you notice how much timeI spent like talking about how
much of a bummer it was comparedto how much time I tried to
figure out the info on the boat.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, it's a really bummer.
So what kind of boat is thisand how much is it?

Speaker 2 (13:44):
So what's the engine on the back of that bad boy?

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Glastron G-L-A-S-T-R-O-N.
Is that the name of a person?
That's the name.
Yeah, that's her name.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
If you want to find out, go ask her yourself.
It's Miss Glastron.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
No, that's the brand of the boat.
It's a Glastron G-L-A-S-T-R-O-N.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
I don't actually know boats, so it's okay, it doesn't
matter to me.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
If anybody wants a Glastron boat, contact this lady
.
She's selling it.
Her husband died.
It's awful, you know what?

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, reach out to Jairus and ask him for the info
and he'll get you hooked up, ifyou want a dead man's $8,500
boat.
Don't bring.
I mean, it's not the boat'sfault.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Or maybe, maybe you don't know it might have been a
boat accident.
She didn't say this is gettingreally dark, really quick.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
All right.
Well, you know what?
That was great.
Yeah, let's move on.
All right, tyler, this is yourtransition.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Now we're going to move into the topic the topic,
the main topic of this episode,which is a reoccurring topic of
this episode.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
Oh right, yeah, Of this episode I was like I don't
think we've ever talked aboutthis.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah, you remember when I said reoccurring topic of
this episode?
That, yeah, you remember when Isaid reoccurring topic of this
episode?

Speaker 2 (15:05):
That's what I meant was a reoccurring topic of this
episode.
Got it, got it.
So when you were talking, youmeant that it was a reoccurring
topic of this episode.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Yeah, so the reoccurring topic of this
episode is going to be the topicthat we're going to do Pokemon.
So, just so we're clear thereoccurring topic of this
episode will be reoccurring inthis episode.
Yes, in this episode.
Strictly okay, let's go,pokemon go anyways, yeah,
pokemon, yay.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
What do you know about pokemon jerseys?
Me personally a lot really,really cool.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
A reoccurring topic in my life good, good to know.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
So you've messed around with it once or twice, or
100, 200,000 times.
To get to relate to all the 90smoms, how many Pocket Monsters
have you got in your pocket?

Speaker 1 (15:55):
No, it's Pokeman, no Pocket.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Monsters.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, Pocket Monsters , but how's that relating to the
90s?

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Because all the Christian 90 moms that didn't
want their kids to play Pokemon.
Their one argument was if youtranslate it, it means pocket
monsters.
Do you want monsters?

Speaker 1 (16:14):
in your pocket?
No, and the people whosupported it but didn't actually
, or not supported it butallowed it, called it Pokeman.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
Pokeman yeah, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, pocket Monsters yeah,because it was like a really
hot thing in our house for oneweek, really yeah, because we
watched an episode or two andthen we kind of started getting
into the cards and stuff andwe're like, wow, this is awesome
.
And then a week later Momactually did some research and

(16:43):
she was like's, like nope, threwthem all in the trash.
Pokemon means pocket monster.
We're not gonna have monstersin our pockets.
And and then?

Speaker 1 (16:53):
you threw away about two million dollars worth of
cards.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
That today's prices I think that we I think that we
got like between all four of usboys we just got one pack of
cards and we're just kind oflike playing with one pack
together, and then that, andbecause we didn't have enough
money to get more, that devolvedinto us creating our own cards.
So we would sit down with paperand we'd like create our own

(17:16):
Pokemon.
I give it stats and stuff andthen, like cut it out like it
was a card.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
So you played Pokemon , but you just played your fake
Pokemon.
Yeah, we played the TimuPokemon for a week the 90s Timu
Pokemon yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
That sounds like a bit in itself.
90s Timu Pokemon.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
And it's just grown.
Men cutting out pieces of paper.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Drawing poorly with crayons, pokemon on pieces of
paper.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
And then laminating it, Laminating it.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
So on that topic, how like?

Speaker 2 (17:51):
How many people have a laminator in their house?
What's the percentage?

Speaker 1 (17:55):
Do you have a stat for that?
No, okay, no, I was going tosay the craze of the Pokemon
cards is as large as it has everbeen, if not bigger than the
90s craze.
Right now, right now, jeez, yougo into a kroger.
Have you seen the pokemonvending machine?
Yeah, I've seen.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yeah, yeah, I, I've, I've started noticing that and I
was like huh so they're tryingto like bring it back, but it's
not, they're trying to it's just, it's always been here.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, that's the thing is, pokemon has never what
am I trying to say?
It has never gotten as a whole,yeah, out of the craze.
Yeah, it's just the people whoare in the craze in the 90s grew
out of it, and so it createdthat illusion for a lot of
people that that craze and thatfad went away.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
It never went away well, yeah, I think that the
market number is like around 50billion in worldwide sales to
this date.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Pokemon is the highest grossing property ever.
Yeah, because you have cards,video games, movies, games, apps
, pokemon Go, like all thisnonsenseushies.
Plushies, yeah, um, puzzles,all just marching yeah,

(19:12):
seriously, merchandise ingeneral shirts, all this
nonsense it is.
It is the.
You say speakers, sneakers,sneakers, yeah, sneakers,
speakers.
Uh, they just announcedyesterday a collaboration with
lego, so they're gonna to haveLego Pokemon toys coming out.
To be honest, I'm surprisedthat it hasn't already.
It hasn't already.

(19:32):
Well, you know they had theLego Mario sets.
Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.
And so now they're going withLego Pokemon, which I think they
will be more less interactive,like the Mario sets were, yeah,
where you could play with themlike actual toys and create your
own levels and play thoselevels with Legos.
I think these are just going tobe the display Legos.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
The real question is when are we going to get a Lego
Bomberman set?
Never, It'd always blow upwhile playing with it.
Or maybe if they put it on themarket it would blow up, Maybe.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
So you came to me with, with your this idea
ironically because I'm the onewho so we're all clear I came up
with this.
John came up with thisepisode's topic and I'm like,
yeah, let's do it, let's go,let's get into it.
And that was maybe three orfour days ago, yeah, of this
recording, and you're like, man,let's do it, let's do this.
Where you know, we talk aboutpokemon and we debate on whether

(20:30):
or not it's good for christiansor not to interact with the
pokemon brand.
I'm like, let's do it, that's agreat idea.
Yeah, and so I called you todayand I'm like all right, I'm on
the way to your house.
I've got 13 pages of notes andyou're like, I wrote down some
stuff yeah, I've got.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
Okay, to be clear, I researched pokemon for about two
hours today, so I've only got.
I've got a page of notes, butthe information is like in my
head.
That's how I do it, like I, Iread a lot of stuff and then
like key points, I jot downsomething to remember the key
point.
So my notes are reallycondensed, but it's from all the

(21:08):
info that I reviewed.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
So to get into it real quick.
I don't know if you can tell,johnny doesn't have that much
knowledge with Pokemon.
I've been playing Pokemon sinceI was eight.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
To be clear, Johnny has, as of today, the most
information about Pokemon thathe has ever had in his entire
life.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
To be fair and for all who want to know it,
everything I had on this pieceof paper came from my brain.
No, I'm kidding.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Just so we're clear.
I am the real reason that theycreated Pokemon.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
No, All right, so disclaimer on this.
So again playing Pokemon mywhole life and I still do.
I'll still play the games.
They have a new pokemon tradingcard game app that I play every
day.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Okay, so you would say that you're a big satoshi
tashihari fan yes, okay, thecreator of pokemon?

Speaker 1 (22:01):
yep, yeah, after doing my research and looking
into this and comparing it tothe bible, like, and the morals
and our, what am I trying to say?
The things we should do aschristians?
Yes, and the data yes andpokemon.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
I don't know about that game this is okay, I'm
looking forward to getting intothis, okay.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
So we came to one another and said, all right,
we're going to come up witharguments for engaging with
pokemon, like, hey, this is whyit's okay to play pokemon, and
then arguments on why youshouldn't, as a christian, be
playing pokemon, yeah, orinteract I want to say
interacting, because it's thelargest media IP that there ever

(22:46):
was yeah, so there's so manydifferent ways to interact with
Pokemon yeah, so you can't justsay play Pokemon.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Correct.
Yeah.
I want to be clear, though,that when I'm presenting an
argument for it tonight, it'snot from a me personally.
This is my personal argumentfor it.
This is the best I could comeup with.
This is me taking the stance ofjust a average evangelical

(23:14):
American.
Okay, that that goes to churchonce a week on Sunday and does
not read their Bible, but has acouple of Bible verses on
standby.
Okay, so someone who's notreally devoutly pursuing Christ,
but someone who's affiliatedwith Christianity, because
that's the only way that I couldcome up with an argument for

(23:34):
Okay.
I hate to be that way.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
but so the way we should do this is we'll both
present a for argument and thenagainst argument.
I personally have five.
We don't have to do them all.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
No, I want to hear yours first.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
for the four Okay, so for the first one I have here,
pokemon fosters creativity,problem solving and community
interaction.
The concept of training andbonding with Pokemon promotes
imaginative storytelling andinteractive learning.
Fans often create artwork, fanfiction and even animations

(24:15):
inspired by their favoritecreatures.
Games like Pokemon Legends,arceus, offer players the chance
to explore the Pokemon world ina historical setting, fostering
curiosity about world buildingand lore.
And I have Bible verses to backup my points.
Okay, yeah so.
Philippians 4, verse 8,.
Finally, brothers, whatever istrue, whatever is honorable,

(24:39):
whatever is just, whatever ispure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is commend, commendable, if there is any excellence, if
there is anything worthy ofpraise, think about these things
okay so four, it's, it'simaginative, it promotes
imagination and creativity.
Yep, so what you?

(25:01):
What you're writing there?
Bud, I forgot to write downthese verses, so I gotta write
them you got verses.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
I have to have verses no, no, I had some for the for
but for the against.
I didn't write those down.
I have verses for everything aswe should.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Yes, we should.
So what is your for okay?

Speaker 2 (25:21):
so my for is very close to yours, like it's in the
game or the original Game Boygames.
It does promote kind of acommunity.
It's one of the first gamesthat kind of promotes
intercooperative gameplay.
So it creates community.

(25:42):
It promotes competition becauseyou can battle each other.
You can battle, you can tradetrade, yep.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
And then the start fights over those trades because
because you stole yourbrother's game boy and traded
all his good pokemon over to you, yep yep and the pokemon go.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
It promotes people getting out into the world and
walking around and, you know,finding new areas in the real
world while playing theaugmented right.
The TV show promoted teamworkand friendship.
There is an aspect ofcreativity in there.
And then the Bible verse that Ihad for it was Galatians 5.1a

(26:22):
For freedom.
Christ has set us free.
So that's the idea is, we're nolonger bound to slavery or to
be like you can do this, youcan't do this, you can do this,
you can't do this.
We're free in Christ, right, uh, and then first Corinthians 10,
23,.
All things are lawful, not allthings are helpful.

(26:42):
All things are lawful, but notall things build up.
So you know, it's not that it'sagainst the law, as a Christian
, to play Pokemon, but you justgot to gauge, you know, is it
beneficial to me, is it helpfulto me?
Does it build up, is itcreative?
You know, does it help me insome way?
So those are the arguments youcould take with those two Bible

(27:03):
verses so you want me to startwith my negatives?

Speaker 1 (27:10):
oh, boy do I no, here we go, guys, again it is.
It's bad.
Yeah, go for it.
The bad side of pokemon bro,we're a christian is awful.
Yeah, after looking at it, I'vealways known these things, but
it's like after doing deeperresearch into the deep lore of

(27:32):
Pokemon, it's crazy.
So, avoiding idolatry?
Some argue that Pokemonintroduces godlike entities that
could be perceived as promotingidolatry.
Pokemon like Arceus, describedas the God of Pokemon, could
lead to confusion or discomfortfor Christians.

(27:53):
Mindful of the firstcommandment, the concern is that
engaging with fictionalrepresentations of divinity
could diminish reverence for God, and my Bible verse is Exodus
20, verse 3.
You shall have no other godsbefore me.
Bang, boom, okay, do you haveanything else?
That's all I have for that one.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
Okay, do I do another ?
No, you would now do a negative, a negative, okay.
So the Bible makes it clearthat we're not supposed to be
like imitators of the world.
Right, we're supposed to beimitators of Christ, and so
embodying just things that theworld does just for the sake of

(28:37):
entertainment isn't truly livingin Christ.
Living in Christ, I mean.
The creator of Pokemon evensaid in an interview that our
game's not really compatiblewith a Christian lens.
I'm paraphrasing how he said it.
But because the game takes onthat, they're openly saying like
, yeah, we took inspiration fromEastern Asian mythology and

(29:02):
these things don't line up withthe christian faith.
And so if you're trying to lookat pokemon through the lens of
christian faith, you might havean issue with it.
But our game's not bad, it'sfor it's fun and free for people
, or whatever is the way he.
He worded it.
Kind, of.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Initially, he created pokemon based off of his
childhood of going into thewoods and collecting insects.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
Yep, yeah, which was what I was going to use for a
four argument is that thecreation of it was not some dark
, sinister thing.
It was just a joy of videogames and a childhood hobby of
collecting and identifyinginsects.
Yeah, so, john, 17.
I've got 15 through 21.

(29:47):
I don't think I'm going to readall that, but the idea is that
it's like don't take them out ofthe world.
Let them stand out from theworld while they live in it.
So I do not ask that you takethem out of the world, but that
you keep them from the evil one.
They're not of the world, justas I am not of the world.
Sanctify them in the truth.

(30:08):
Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,so I have sent them into the
world and for their sake Iconsecrate myself that they also
may be sanctified in truth.
Yeah, so that was Jesus talkingabout his apostles.
He's going to send them outinto the world and but be
sanctified, he doesn't want.
They're not of the world, justlike christ is not of the world.

(30:31):
And so we take that mentalityof we are not of this world and
so we shouldn't embody thethings of this world.
We should embody christ.
We should embrace thatsanctification that only comes
from God.
And we'll find that.
And this is all.
So let me clarify this is allhinging on the idea that there

(30:51):
is an actual demonic force thatis active within the realm of
Pokemon.
So, at surface level, it's justa game, it's just a TV series.
It's just a game, it's just atv series, it's just a form of
entertainment.
But when you start usingspiritual discernment in the
spiritual realm, what is theessence or the spirit that

(31:14):
hovers around the idea ofpokemon?
What is going in hand in handwith the paraphernalia, with the
games, with the trading cards?
What is it?
Because the spiritual world is?
I mean it's, it's like whatwe've talked about in the past.
It's like the upside down fromstranger things, like it's a
mirrored realm.
Right, it's, it's going hand inhand with what's going on here.

(31:37):
So what is clouding overpokemon?
Is it the spirit of light andtruth or it is a more nefarious
spirit?
So that's the discernment wehave to use, and I would argue
that there's not the spirit oflight and truth hovering over
the world of Pokemon.

(31:58):
I would say that it is verymuch of this world, even though
it's not like super blatantlydark and ominous, you know, it
still has a spiritual force thatis moving in it.
And so what is that spiritualforce?
I would say that it's of theworld, and as Christians, we
need to be set apart.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
So, for my positive, many Pokemon stories promote
friendship, loyalty andperseverance.
Characters like ash ketchumoften display qualities of
courage, resilience andselflessness, sacrificing for
the sake of his friends andpokemon.
His determination to helpothers exemplifies positive

(32:42):
moral lessons and my Bible versethat supports that is Galatians
5, 22 through 23.
But the fruit of the Spirit islove, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such things, there isno law.
There you go, there you go.
So what's your positive?
One big guy.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
It was that what we talked about earlier, that the
original inspiration for thegame wasn't from some sort of
dark, occult.
That was like go into the worldand make a video game worthy of
Satan.
It was just a young man whoenjoyed a hobby of getting out
into nature and collecting andidentifying insects and then

(33:24):
thought like, hey, it would befun to incorporate that into a
video game.
So, yeah, I think that Satoshi,I think that it wasn't from a
dark to furious place.
I think he was just trying toincorporate a bunch of his
different likes and enjoymentsto make an enjoyable game.

(33:45):
Yeah, right so, but from thatoriginal inspiration he created,
but with the help of, you know,other designers like I think
the main one was ken sigamoni,sigamori, sigamon mori, he was
the like creative director forred green and blue.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Yeah, so red, green and blue is the original release
games in japan, yeah, and thenwe got red, blue and yellow here
, okay, okay.
So they always okay pokemonhistory or patterns.
They will release two gameswhen a new Pokemon generation

(34:28):
comes out and there will beslight differences between the
games, but it's typically thesame story, the same structure
and the difference is so thatpeople can interact with one
another.
So, okay, I can't get thisPokemon in red, but you can in
blue.
You have to trade to get themall Got it.
Yeah, 100%, you have to trade.
That way.
It promotes that communitywithin Pokemon.

(34:51):
Sure, yep, and then whatthey'll do is, a couple years
after those two pair of gameswill come out.
Then they'll come out with whatis kind of a director's cut.
Yeah, for that yellow isactually more in line to the
story of the anime where youhave pikachu following you
around, and originally thecharacters in the anime are

(35:15):
different in the games.
Ash isn't the main character.
He's original to the anime,okay, stuff like that.
Um, the, his two companions atmisty and Brock they are in the
original games, but they're justgym leaders, they're bosses,
gotcha, okay, but in that gameyou have Pikachu following you

(35:35):
around, you have the charactersfrom the anime with you.
It's promoting.
Not promoting it is along thelines of the anime, but still
playing the same original gameat the same time yeah, the same
areas you go to, and that kindof sort of thing yeah, okay,
yeah, it's um, but do you wantto talk about the game boy cord

(35:58):
link real quick the the linkcable yeah, just just for people
who don't know.
So back in the day, when you hadto trade, you didn't have a
Wi-Fi signal, somethingconnecting your devices.
You had to have your link cable.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
Specifically with a Game Boy Special cable.
Yeah, but like, okay, what's aGame Boy?
For those who don't know A Game.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
Boy is a Nintendo handheld device.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Yeah, it's a gaming console.
That was one of the first right, One of the first handheld
gaming devices.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
Pretty close, I feel like Not 100% on that.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
I don't think so.
No, okay, well, it was one ofthe.
It was one of the first majorconsumer versions yeah, it was
the one that everybody had backin the 90s.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
So there is.
So my first Game Boy was a GameBoy Color.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Mine too.
My first Game Boy was a GameBoy Color, and my very first
game was Monsters Inc.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah, mine was a game called Rats.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Rats, rats with a Z.
It was fun because it was aChristmas gift and it was me and
two other brothers.
We all got game boy colors andwe each got an individual game.
So it was like already built in.
We had three games starting out.
Yeah, because we could just,you know, pop a cartridge out,
put a cartridge in, kind of deal.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
So I got rats and my brother got pokemon blue yeah,
that's funny.
And so I was playing his gameand I messed something up on his
game.
I was, I'm young, I was young,I was maybe six or seven, maybe
eight, yeah, and I messed up hisgame.
So not long after that, I gotmy own copy of pokemon so I

(37:41):
wouldn't have to mess up mybrothers.
There you, there you go.
That's awesome.
I got Pokemon Red.
Yeah, came with a Charizard onthe cover.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
So yeah.
So Game Boy was a handheldgaming device.
And then there was an optionwhere you could plug a cable
from your Game Boy into yourfriend's Game Boy and then y'all
could share data.
Mm-hmm Between your two littlehandheld consoles.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
Right, which is sharing data.
That ran on AA batteries, sosharing data in that sense would
have been you could only tradePokemon and battle.
That's it.
That's it.
Yeah, there wasn't any realtrue cooperative gameplay in the
first game.
Okay, you would go against oneanother and that was it.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
That's as far as it went you would go against one
another, and that was that, wasit?
That's as far as it went, yeah,so, but yeah, that's my pro is
that the, the origins of it,wasn't nefarious.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
It was, yeah, no, it's you, you can you'll hear it
in my voice a lot.
It's a very fond memory, dumbthing that we me and my brother
both played a lot of growing up.
Yeah, he got out of it, Ireally didn't.
Yeah, yeah, anytime a newpokemon game just comes out,
I'll still play it what do youthink your brother's stance is
on it now?
It's probably of the devil.

(38:56):
He's not wrong, though to adegree I yeah, we'll get into
that, okay.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
So what's your against argument?

Speaker 1 (39:06):
occult and spiritual concerns.
Hey, all right, go for it.
Some pokemon have powers linkedto psychic abilities, ghosts
and spiritual elements.
Hey, we've talked about psychicabilities before.
Yeah, we did, don't do it.
Yeah, don't do it.
Pokemon like gengar and dustsnore are associated with the

(39:26):
afterlife and spirits, whilealakazam uses psychic powers
which can be perceived aspromoting occult practices.
Christians who wish to avoidmedia that trivializes spiritual
warfare may feel uncomfortablewith these elements.
There shall not be found amongyou anyone who burns his son or
his daughter as an offering,anyone who practices divination

(39:49):
or tells fortunes or interpretsomens, or a sorcerer.
That's Deuteronomy, chapter 18,verses 10 through 12.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yep, and we've talked about that before too like not
practicing divination, notpracticing sorcery, not doing
those things.
Hey, don't do it.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
Stop it.
Yeah, look it's God.
And he says't do it.
Stop it.
Yeah, look it's God.
And he says stop it.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yeah, that was kind of the thing for me.
For another big argumentagainst it is the idea of
spiritual warfare.
So there's an article that alady wrote about.
In my research for Pokemon Icould find very few things.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
That was like as a Christian can.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
I play Pokemon Very few things.
That was like pro Pokemon as aChristian.
Now, one of the articles was alady writing about a story that
they had gotten from herhusband's dad, who is a
full-time missionary in SouthAmerica dad who was a full-time
missionary in South America.
And this is hearsay, becauseonce again, I mean, it's just a.

(40:58):
It's a story from an onlineblogger, like who's to say how
legit it actually is.
But in South America theirfather did full-time ministry.
He converted a lot of people toChristianity, one of them being
a witch doctor from a localvillage who had reached a
certain like the pinnacle of thepractice.
So he was like a level, youknow whatever, but he had this

(41:19):
he had the ability to step intothe spiritual realm and steal
the spirit of a child, and thatchild in real life would die
soon after, and so they calledthat level.
I think they called it like thechild eater or something like
that, like something really dark, right, but anyway.
So this guy like that's howdeep he is in the occult, being

(41:41):
a witch doctor, and he getsconverted, he finds deliverance
from that bondage of being inthe dark, and so he's living
with the Christians.
He's got a relationship withthe missionary.
Someone sends him a codex bookof the Pokemon when it came out
and basically like hey, we'rehaving a debate at our church

(42:02):
about whether or not we shouldbe involved, like, say like it's
okay or no, don't do it.
And he, that former witchdoctor, happened to visit and so
they brought in the book.
He doesn't.
This witch doctor does not readenglish, doesn't know what the
pages say, but they would openit up and point to a random one

(42:24):
and he would tell you what itsspiritual name is and what it
would do.
And the abilities of thePokemon were very similar to
what the actual spirit would doand the characteristics were
almost identical because itwould be a picture of the
Pokemon.
And the guy would say like, ohyeah, I know what spirit that is
.
That demon does this.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
It's crazy because spoiler to the episode.
We have a corner segment alittle bit coming up that talks
about yokai.
Yeah, which is a deepinspiration to the designs of
Pokemon.
Yeah, and that might be what itis.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
He's seen these yokai demons is he's seen these yokai
demons.
Yeah, so that's that's so.
That's.
My argument is that maybe notevery single one of the pokemon
created for the game, but thereis a decent amount of them that
are taking inspiration fromdemonic forces that are real,
that are active, and so, forthat, ephesians 6, 12, and it

(43:30):
says this is a classic one, forwe do not wrestle against flesh
and blood, but against therulers, against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers overthis present darkness, against
the spiritual forces of evil inthe heavenly places, and then it
goes into taking on the armorof God.
But it's that we need to beaware of the spiritual enemy

(43:55):
that is around us.
Satan is the authority on earthright now, and the only thing
that trumps his authority isChrist.
And so we're at battle with theauthority of this earth, which
is Satan, and we invoke the nameof Jesus to combat his every
conniving, interloping,attacking movement that he does.

(44:17):
And we are called to shine thelight into people's lives and
let them know that Christ willrescue them from the darkness
that Satan has authority over ifthey will put their faith in
Jesus Christ.
So that's our battle, and weneed to be aware of who we're
fighting, and part of that isknowing the demonic forces that

(44:39):
are around us.
So we can't be naive and saylike, oh, it's just to combat
the previous argument that Imade.
Oh, it's just coming from aplace of innocence, it's just a
game for fun that promotes funand creativity.
Okay, that's great, but it isincluding demonic forces inside

(44:59):
it.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
So there you go, so I'm going to go to a negative on
this one, even though I thinkI'm supposed to be doing a
positive.
Because I want to end onpositive.
Okay, yeah, it's always nice tobe doing a positive because I
want to end on positive.
Okay, yeah, it's always nice toend on a positive, yeah, yeah,
yeah.
So my little segment here is alittle long-winded, that's okay,
so bear with me here.
All right, so I did a bit of aresearch on the whole episode,

(45:28):
sure, but, but I looked intocorrelations, like things that
you can tell are inspiration topokemon, that correlate to the
bible okay so I'm going to kindof go through this and it's more
about kind of a very specifickind of line around pokemon.

(45:49):
so there are legendary pokemon,right, yeah, so those are
typically really hard to catch.
They're the big ones that youwant to get the end goal pokemon
in the lore, they're typicallyof higher power one way or
another.
Okay, so, very specifically,we're going to start with and
and again, we're Christians,right, we are, we don't worship

(46:12):
Pokemon, correct, but whentalking about it, I'm going to
give kind of like a bit of alore and talk about this line
and the connection to all thesePokemon.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
So Arceus, arceus, arceus, okay, I mentioned him
earlier.
He is.
It is, I don't know what you, Idon't put a gender to Pokemon,
but he is, in the lore ofPokemon, considered the god of
Pokemon.
He is the creator of Pokemon.
Okay, arceus is considered thecreator of the Pokemon universe,

(46:47):
similar to God in the Bible.
Considered the creator of thePokemon universe, similar to God
in the Bible, arceus shaped theworld and brought forth time,
space and antimatter through thePokemon.
He created these three PokemonDialga, palkia and Giratina.
This mirrors the concept of Godas the creator in Genesis.
In Genesis 1, god created theheavens and the earth.

(47:08):
Just in the beginning.
God created the heavens and theearth, just a correlation Bible
verse.
Okay, the creation trio Dialga,palkia and Giratina.
The quote unquote Trinity.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
Hold on.
Are these actual Pokemon?
Yes, that you can catch in thegame.
Okay, because this would havenothing to do with the bible
creation story.
This would be more of anegyptian creation story well,
correlation of egypt.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Well, god creating, with him being the holy trinity,
creating all things, and thencorrelating that into pokemon,
where they mirrored that fromthe Bible.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
Okay, keep going.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
Yes, god is the only single God.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
In Pokemon they branch out, so yes, yeah, okay,
so that's what I'm saying isbecause in the Egyptian creation
story, the starting point isthere's a deity or one or two
deities that are in the void andthey start procreating and

(48:14):
creating other gods, and thoseother gods are the symbols of
different creations.
So, like the nile, the land,trees and creation inside trees,
biological, all these thingsthey're attributing to different
gods that are the offspring oftheir parent, god, who created

(48:37):
them, and they're therepresentation of the creation,
and then they continue on andcreate other things.
So that's why I was saying that, because in the creation story
of Genesis, god is outside ofall things.
There is no time, matter, space, nothing and he, in the Holy

(48:58):
Trinity, they, if you will,father, son, holy Spirit they
create all things throughspeaking it into existence, and
none of it has identity.
It all has what God gives it.
Yes, right, so that's why I'msaying it doesn't— I wouldn't
use a parallel to the creationstory from the Bible, because it

(49:22):
sounds like there's individualsthat represent— so the better
comparison on this, because itdoes actually kind of come back
around is they're not God,they're angels doing God's work.
Okay, that would be a bettercorrelation, because Giratina

(49:43):
sins against Arceus and Arceusbanishes him to the distortion
world, the hell okay so that'sonce again we ought to be closer
to yes, I understand, to theegyptian, because, because god
doesn't use any of his angelsfor creation no, he doesn't, you

(50:05):
know, but you could, you couldcorrelate those to the Egyptian
creation story.
It's not like, because in thatHorus I'm not going to remember
their names but Anubis kills hisbrother and that's like the sin
against the creation right andthe son of I can't remember his

(50:31):
name, who the sun god is, but Ithink it's anyways he kills him
and then Horus, his son, the sonof the killed god, goes into an
epic battle against Anubis andultimately defeats Anubis and
sends him to be the caretaker ofthe dead.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
But one could argue that all of these inspirations
come from biblical facts, thoughPeople writing these Egyptian
stories writing the Greekmythology, it all stems from the
truth, which is God.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
I wouldn't say it stems from the truth, which is
God.
I wouldn't say it stems fromthe truth.
I mean, in a sense, that it'strying to make sense of the
truth.
Yeah, but in a demonic way,sure, because all these
different religions that centeraround polytheism a pantheon of
gods, if you will, they havetheir own creation story.

(51:29):
Pantheon of gods, if you will,they have their own creation
story, and it has to do with aplethora of gods coming into
existence and battling eachother and creating mischief and
arguing and bickering andcreating disorder and creating
their own little kingdoms andthis, that and the other, and so
it that?
That would be what it is.
So the the only I mean the onlyconnection it would have to the

(51:51):
true creation story would bethe fact that there was a
beginning.
You know, that's really it.
The demonic does not want toattribute anything to God,
because then it would put peoplein submission to God.
They're going to take thingsfrom the truth and distort it.
So that's what I would say.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
So, to bring it back all around, this is in a
children's game.
So whether you agree with thatcorrelation or not, it is taking
aspects of biblical truths of acreation and warping it and
putting it into a piece of mediathat is designed for children.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
Was this your ending on a good note, or is this?

Speaker 1 (52:37):
your bad.
This is my bad note.
Okay, all right, I'll end on apositive.
Okay, go ahead.
But you understand what I'msaying, yeah, that the entire
point of us talking about thisis and that'll go into my
positive note it's a children'sgame and there's so much more to
it, and, as parents, asguardians, as whoever you're

(52:58):
letting your, as adults, playingpokemon, as children, adults,
letting your children playpokemon, you need to be aware of
the content within these games,for sure, and and knowing that,
okay, it is more than achildren's collectible game.
There is so much more hidden inthis stuff, yeah, so I got you

(53:21):
and then so, ending on mypositive, hold on let me.
Oh, sorry, you got a negativewe're exchanging.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
Well, I'm going to actually end on a negative, so
I'm going to give my otherpositive.
Okay, do it.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
So I'll let you do your positive, then your
negative, and I'll end on mypositive.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
No, no, you need to end on your positive so that I
can end on my negative, becausemy negative, I know that my
negative is going to combat yourpositive, so it doesn't make
sense if I go first.
Okay, go ahead's a fictionalgame.

(53:54):
It's a fictional world, likethey take inspiration from our
world, just like every otherfictional thing out there.
But it's not real.
It is, it is made up and it'smade for the enjoyment of
children to play a game.
So that's the positive, youknow, because I mean they made
up this imaginary world.
They focus the story on Kanto,which draws creation from the

(54:19):
Japanese region Kanto.
But it's not.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
It's not a real place , but it's not a real place.
Every single Pokemon game isbased off of a real place.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
Yeah, it's based off of a real place, but it's not.
It's a fictional alternative.
Yeah, yeah, and so in all ofthe Pokemon, they're based off
or they gain inspiration fromthings in our reality, but it's
in their fictional reality.
And we've talked about themtaking inspiration from Eastern

(54:53):
mythology or, as we would callit, demonic forces, but they
also take inspiration fromcreatures in our world.
Like you know I think I wrotedown Charmander is a giant
Chinese salamander, yep, becausehe's a fire type.
And he giant Chinese salamander, yep.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Because he's a fire type and he's a salamander, so
it's a charred salamanderCharmander.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
Magnemite, magnemite, yeah, boy Takes inspiration
from a magnet.
It's literally a ball with twomagnets on it.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
Yeah, do you have electrode in there?
I do not have electrode inthere, it's literally a ball.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
It's just a ball with eyes.
And then the other one I hadwas Pikachu is based off of a
mythological creature calledRaiju, which is a kami.
Am I saying that right?
Kami yep, which is a kami?
It's Japanese folklore, right?
All right, how do I?

Speaker 1 (55:48):
remember it Pika Pika , Pika Pika is in Japanese, I
believe is mouse, Okay.
And then chu is the Japaneseonomatopoeia for the sound a
mouse makes.
So where we say mew like orsorry, not mew Kik, kik, kik,
kik, so if we say squeak, theysay chu, yeah so if we we say

(56:15):
squeak, they say chew, yeah,okay.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
So mouse, mouse, noise, pikachu, yeah, so it gets
in.
So raju the kami is a deitythat can turn itself into a
squirrel-like creature, but canalso turn into a electric, a
ball of electricity.
So it's, I mean literally justtaking, it's just yeah, and
that's how all of them are.
They're.
They're literally takingwhatever their inspiration is

(56:38):
and just making a creature,making a creature out of it.
There's, there's, no, there'snot really any big difference
from whatever they're inspiredfrom, right it.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
It's all very basic designs Like the.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
What's the one with?
It's the duck, something, aPsyduck, psyduck.
It looks like a platypus andits inspiration is a platypus.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
Mm-hmm, and it's a psychic duck, psyduck.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
A psychic duck?
Yeah, psyduck, so platypus,maybe platypuses are psychic we?
Yeah, psyduck, so platypus,maybe platypuses are psychic.
We should do some research intothat.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
Yeah, I'll let you know next time.
Tune in next week when we findout if ducks are psychic.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Yeah, all right.
Do you want me to go ahead andgive my negative?
No, I'll give my positive.
Are?

Speaker 1 (57:24):
you sure I don't.
I promise I won't cry.
I feel like I hurt your innerchild you did.
This is my episode, sorry, no.
So something that we alwaystalk about, every single time.
We talk about these propertiesthat are a little bit
controversial, whether it beHarry Potter or watching Disney

(57:45):
movies or whatever.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
Wow, way to throw them all.
Every single Disney movie.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Every single Disney movie in the last 10 years.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Okay, no.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
But you know what I mean, every single property that
we've talked about on this show.
Christians can enjoyentertainment that does not lead
them into sin.
Yeah, pokemon, for many, is aharmless form of storytelling
and strategy.
It's a strategy game.
Yeah, for example, games likepokemon snap and pokemon go
encourage exploring nature andappreciating god's creation

(58:20):
through digital means.
Players often marvel atlandscapes in the games
mirroring the beauty of thenatural world.
Yep, pokemon can provide arelaxation and stress relief,
which can be beneficial formental well-being, as we said,
as always, 1 Corinthians,chapter 10, verse 31.
So, whatever you eat or drinkor whatever you do, do all to

(58:44):
the glory of God.
Okay.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
You didn't have a sound bite for that.
What Is your sound bite forlater?
I don't have a bit a soundbitefor that.
What as your soundbite forlater?

Speaker 1 (58:54):
I don't have any.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
Oh, I'll play that later, okay alright, that's why
I thought this was going to comeback, what you were saying.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
I'm sorry do you want me to play the funny soundbite
first, and then you can have?

Speaker 2 (59:07):
your.
Maybe I'm wrong now.
Maybe I don't know what you'replaying.
I thought you were going to beplaying the bit from the TV, the
episode, yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
I'll play it right now, okay, so this is to me very
humorous, right?
So there is an episode ofPokemon, yeah, and it's about a
30-second clip or so.
I'm going to play it real quick, okay, quick, okay.
Let's see nothing but ocean inevery direction and no way to
tell which direction to go.
I remember the story of noahwhen he had to find dry land,

(59:36):
sent a bird to find it andreturn with a branch what a
great idea.
We're gonna do the same thing asnoah you heard it here first,
folks noah's in the pokemon.
That means god is real inpokemon.
That's right.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
So that's my argument against it.
Yeah, okay.
So just because things of theworld incorporate truths, or
incorporate truths we find inscripture, does not mean that
therefore it is scriptural.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Okay, and my example for that is and that can go back
to my point before where, eventhough it has some aspects of
the bible within it, yeah, likeoh, a deity, a trinity, a flood,
because one of my other pointswas there is a flood in the
pokemon game where two pokemonfight and it floods the earth
okay yeah, so it's just becausethere's aspects of different

(01:00:36):
points in the bible.
Yeah, does not make itscriptural yeah, and so we're.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
I go to matthew, chapter four.
It's four, one through eleven.
This is when j Jesus is in thewilderness, fasting for 40 days
and 40 nights and he'sconfronted by Satan to be
tempted.
Let's see it's verse 6.
And he said to him if you arethe son of God, throw yourself

(01:01:03):
down.
For it is written, he willcommand his angels concerning
you and on their hands they willbear you up lest you strike
your foot against a stone.
So that's Satan.
And he is quoting scripture toJesus to tell Jesus why Jesus

(01:01:24):
should test God and to provethat Jesus truly is the son of
God and Jesus's responses.
Jesus said to him again, it iswritten you should not put the
Lord, your God, to the test.
So there you go.
It's Satan.
It's Satan knows scripture.
Yeah, and there's a lot ofpeople in darkness and there are

(01:01:47):
a lot of things that are theservants of the darkness that
will use truths from the Bibleand distort them and use them as
an argument against whateverthey're trying to say.
Right, so it's our job to knowGod's word, it's our job to know
the context of God's word.
That way we can combat whenevera wolf in sheep's clothing

(01:02:11):
tries to come alongside and leadthe flock astray.
So a little plug, shamelessplug here.
That's why it's important forpeople to inductively study the
Word of God.
So if you want to know how toinductively study the Word of
God, reach out to us.
Thesaintsthatserve at gmailcom.
We are putting together theresources now.
We actually have a course goingon right now.

(01:02:32):
It's a four-week course thatwe're doing in person in our
community, but we're puttingtogether all of the information.
So we'll have notes andeventually we'll have videos.
Hopefully, If you can get yourcamera to work, yeah, I can get
my camera to work.
Yeah, I can get my camera towork.
But no, we'll have videos andwe'll have notes and
walkthroughs and just we'llexplain how to inductively study

(01:02:55):
God's word and we'll give youstep by step ways to accomplish
that and we'll have handouts andthings like that that you can
utilize to be able to approachGod's word with confidence and
get the context out of it.
And get the context out of itso that if anyone ever confronts
you and tries to use the wordto manipulate.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
The word manipulate or attack.

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
To prove their point, but it's not correct.
Correct, you'll have the ammoto be able to stand for truth.
So anyways okay, shameless plugover, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
All right, yeah, yeah , that's it, that's it Seriously
.

Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
You can enjoy something yeah, I think it comes
back around to what we've saidbefore is you're not going to
hell because you play pokemon,but you need to be in touch with
this holy spirit and whateverthis spirit convicts you of,
humble yourself to that.
If you're not feeling convicted, then I don't know if it's

(01:03:54):
necessarily something you needto be like.
Am I just not a Christianbecause I don't feel convicted
about this?
I don't think it's that.
But make sure you're testingall things against the spirit
and against the truth of God andtry to walk in that, against
the spirit and against the truthof God, and try to walk in that
.
You know, because things likewe've talked about with Pokemon,
you can build goodrelationships with people by

(01:04:15):
playing the game and that's anopportunity to be a testament
and a witness to them.
My biggest argument againstPokemon and we didn't really
explicitly go into this my thingis I do not think it's wise for
Christian children to beplaying Pokemon because of the
doors that could be opened andthey're not necessarily mature

(01:04:39):
in the spirit to practice thediscernment to say no and so it
could be opening in doors forspiritual conditioning that the
demonic forces will use right.
And so, as Christian parents,it's our job to practice that
spirit discernment for our kids.
So as an adult where you've gotthe ability to be mature in the

(01:05:01):
spirit and you know when you'rebeing convicted, I think
there's a little bit morefreedom.
I guess you could say in thataspect.
Little bit more freedom, Iguess you could say in that
aspect.
But as a child I would verystrongly walk very carefully and
be very, very controlled overwhat your kid plays.
Let's not limit it to Pokemon,let's put it for everything.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
Didn't you tell me that the reason why you stopped
letting Bigfoot play Fortniteand the reason why you cut
Fortnite out of your family thisis long after I stopped playing
it?
Yeah, was that there was afeature.
They added that you have tosell your soul or something to
that effect essentially it theidea of one of the seasons.

Speaker 2 (01:05:40):
There's a special character that you can go to and
he's sitting on a golden throneand you essentially I do in air
quotes sell your soul and theygive you like a beefed up weapon
, but it's it's imaging sellyour soul to satan and he'll
give you the greatest desires ofyour heart or whatever.
But it really was a very closeimagery of a satanic environment

(01:06:04):
, like the things that they weredecorating it with and all that
stuff.
So, yeah, we just stepped awayfrom the game entirely, which
you know kind of a bummer,because it's a fun game and we
have some I mean you and I havesome investment.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Yeah, we put a lot of money into.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
Fortnite.
We put money into Fortnite, soit kind of sucks, but it's the
and again, that's a children'sgame.
Yeah, it's supposed to be forkids, like young teens and stuff
, so it was a bummer, but thereality is they, the creators of
the game, opened the door tothe demonic, and so we, as

(01:06:40):
Christians, are pulling backbecause we don't want that
influence in our home.

Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
Yeah, so a little bit of defense on pokemon to a
degree.
Pokemon a lot of the thingsthat made it deities and gods
and creation and hell and allthis stuff yeah, was not in the
first two or three generationsof the game.

(01:07:06):
It was years down the linebefore they started adding these
things.
From the get-go it was prettybare-bones, basic.
You're just walking aroundtrying to get Pokemon and become
the Pokemon champion.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
So the first 151 Pokemon that Game Freak created.
The lore of the creation wasn'tthere, right, it was just the
game, right, it was just thegame.

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
Right, it was just the game, it was just this world
, and they are just animals.
They're not deities or anythinglike that.
And there was some.
There was one that wasgenetically modified and that
was like.
That was the one you wanted toget.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
You know what I mean I remember when I was doing my
research that mew in the gamewas a was a joke like one of the
designers.
He.
Mew in the game was a joke Likeone of the designers.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
He put it in there as a practical joke and they ran
with it, and so it was actuallythe first 150 and Mew came into
play later on as the 151stPokemon.
Yeah, even so, mew 2,ironically, was 50, mew is 51,
150, 151.
Okay, I just remember readingit and they were like yeah was
50.
Mew is 51.
150.
151.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
Okay, I just remember reading it, and they were like,
yeah, this one designer guy, heput it in there as a practical
joke on the other guys and itended up just staying as a
glitch and then everybody wantedit.

Speaker 1 (01:08:23):
Back then there was a lot of lore that's passed down
from kid to kid on theplayground type thing.
Yeah, yeah, lore that's passeddown from kid to kid on the
playground type thing.
Yeah, yeah, so it's that mewwas under a truck in one of
these levels, because ofsomething that was word, was
hidden in a library somewherelike oh, the pokemon mew, oh,
he's under this truck.

(01:08:43):
And everybody thought that thispokemon was under this truck.
It it never was.
Oh really, yeah, so there yougo crazy things.
So yeah, pokemon, it's, it'sfun to play and it's fun to
collect, but don't let it engulfyour soul yeah, because it
could easily, it could become avery financial.

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
You could spend a lot of money on pokemon, yeah, so,
and a lot of time.
You could spend a lot of time alot of time I spent two hours
today and I barely scratched thesurface oh, it's okay.

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
There is over a thousand pokemon now.
Yeah, that's ridiculous.
There's a lot, and I've caughtthem all you've caught them all.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
No, you've coughed them all, so should we create
the christian pokemon?

Speaker 1 (01:09:30):
there's already a pokemon called coughing.
No, I'm saying, should wecreate the christian version?
What's that, I don't know?
Gotta been gotta banish themall.
Gotta exercise them all.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
oh, they've already got that with the game we talked
about last time.
The darkness, oh yeah, theunholy trinity, or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
All right.
So hey, bud, hey, you want totransition?
Hey, tyler, we're going totransition.

Speaker 2 (01:10:01):
So this is your transition, Tyler.

Speaker 1 (01:10:05):
Step inside if you dare.
Shadows move, mysteries whisper, and the unknown awaits.
Welcome to the Corner.

Speaker 2 (01:10:28):
I'm actually really excited for this, because this
is Jairus' first corner.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
I've had a corner before.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
No, really, this is your first one.

Speaker 1 (01:10:36):
This is my corner, yeah, wow.
So we talked about it alreadyearlier.
In the podcast, we're talkingabout yokai Yokai.
In the podcast, we're talkingabout yokai yokai.
So yokai are supernaturalcreatures from japanese
mythology, often portrayed asspirits, demons or mischievous
entities.
They vary greatly in form andbehavior.

(01:10:59):
Some are malevolent, whileothers are more playful and
protective.
Stories of yokai have beenpassed down through generations,
serving as a cautionary tale orexplanation for unexplained
phenomena.

Speaker 2 (01:11:15):
Many Pokemon are directly inspired by these
mythical beings, so let's I havea question for you, and if you

(01:11:35):
don't have it, as the Christianswould right, no, the demon is
not an outcast, fallen angelfrom God's presence.

Speaker 1 (01:11:44):
No, so a better way to view it, even though I think
it's spelled D-E-M-O-N, m-o-m.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:11:52):
D-E-M-O-N.
Sorry, yeah, it's morepronounced Damon Damon.
So I think the only other thingI've personally seen that has
quote unquote Damons in it andit confused the heck out of me
is the Golden Compass, which isalso something we should
probably talk about at somepoint.
Just, we should have an episodethat's strictly devoted to

(01:12:14):
Christian media controversies,one like large media thing like
yeah.
Harry Potter, pokemon, theGolden Compass was a major one,
the Da Vinci Code I rememberthat A lot of like of major
Christian community issues.
Yeah, so look forward to thatepisode because I just came up
with that on the spot and Ithink that's a great idea.

(01:12:35):
There we go, episode 30.
No, let's do it Anyways.
So they view them, it's a demon, but, like you said, they don't
view demons as a demonicpresence.

Speaker 2 (01:12:50):
It's just more of a spiritual being but leans more
towards like mischievous evil.

Speaker 1 (01:12:57):
They're not necessarily like evil all the
time, but it's just more of justthe same way that we use the
phrase ghost.
We all know that ghost, so wecould say like chaotic neutral.
That would be probably theclosest, because I think there
is good yokai, there's bad yokai, you know that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
I love how we went to a D&D referencing chart when
neither of us played D&D.

Speaker 1 (01:13:27):
Maybe one day, jk, we're Christians, I'm kidding,
I'm kidding.
So what I did was you know, Igot a list of 10 Pokemon, okay,
and then I have the Yo-Kaiinspiration to that Pokemon.
We don't have to hit them all,okay you?

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
mean we don't have to hit them all okay, but I mean
we don't have to catch them all,but these, to me, are really
interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
Okay, because a lot of these are very you were
talking about.
You know the correlation thisguy I, he could recognize the
pokemon in the inspiration to it.
Some of these are very closeand some of these is like you
have to squint your eyes andtilt your head, but it's like
you get it, yeah, yeah.
So the first one we're lookingat is Jinx, and Jinx is inspired

(01:14:17):
by Yami Uba.
Yami Uba, a mountain witchknown for her supernatural
powers and eerie appearance.
Much like Yami Uba, jinx has anunsettling yet ematic presence.
So I'm going to read two ofthese to you, okay, and then, so
you can look at the picturesafterwards and not be surprised,
okay.
So, because I have pictures,hey, and anybody listening on

(01:14:41):
the audio podcast, thesepictures will be on a video
version of this episode.
I will put forth the effort andhave these pictures ready.

Speaker 2 (01:14:48):
So you can listen on YouTube or you can go over to
YouTube and look and you can seethe pictures.
Is this something we couldupload to the website too, in
the notes, maybe, picture.
I don't know if we could dopictures.
We can't.
I don't think so, not right now, sorry guys.

Speaker 1 (01:15:04):
So the other one, this one is so between the two.
One is kind of like okay, I cankind of see that, and the other
one, uh, this one is so betweenthe two.
One is kind of like, okay, Ican kind of see that, and the
other one's like, yeah, spot on,okay.
So the other one is the pokemonnine tails and that is modeled
after the kitsune, a magical foxspirit that gains tails as it
grows.
Older kitsune are often seen asshapeshifters, sometimes

(01:15:28):
appearing as beautiful women.
Ew Yuck.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
Ew.

Speaker 1 (01:15:35):
A characteristic Nantels also shares in its lore,
so that top one is Jinx, nextto the Yama-Kuna, whatever it
was, and then the Kune.

Speaker 2 (01:15:47):
Yama-Uba and Kitsune.
Yeah, yeah, I can see that.
So Nine Tails.
So the Kitsune is ashapeshifter.

Speaker 1 (01:16:00):
Mm-hmm Okay, which in a lot of anime you also see a
lot of inspiration on that umyokai yeah, uh, we need to
eventually.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
We need to get into north american shapeshifters
because we need eventually.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
We've got to talk about skinwalkers and and stuff
that can be yours next week, butthis is my segment today.

Speaker 2 (01:16:24):
Yeah, that's right.
That's right, well, but mypoint I'm sorry, but my point
with that is like I don't thinkwe can do just a corner segment.
If you want a whole episode.
There's so much like we've gotto spend a whole because we've
got to watch Skinwalker Ranchand talk about that as a
documentary and like there's somuch on.

Speaker 1 (01:16:41):
Skinwalkers.
So we'll just call it theunknown episode.
It's the episode where we divedeep into the unknown, that's
right.

Speaker 2 (01:16:52):
What we've been promising we'd do, but we
haven't.
We haven't dived that deep, orcannonball into a kiddie pool.

Speaker 1 (01:16:59):
So I'm not going to do dust noir.
But if you want to talk aboutit when I hand you the paper,
you can.

Speaker 2 (01:17:04):
Dust noir.
I want to talk about.

Speaker 1 (01:17:07):
Frostlass.
Frost lass is derived from theyuki ona, a ghostly snow woman
who haunts blizzards and preyson travelers.
Frost lass's icy, elegance andghostly nature align closely
with the yuki ona legend whyhave I heard that before yuki

(01:17:27):
ona?

Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
I feel like I've heard that before yuki ona now
we're going to move on to.

Speaker 1 (01:17:34):
This one is a shiftery.
It resembles the pokemon.
Shiftery resembles the tengu, abird-like spirit with powerful
abilities.
Tengu are often seen asprotectors of forests, which
mirrors shifry's role as aguardian of nature, and what's
crazy to me is how similar itactually is to the Pokemon.

(01:17:57):
Wow, that is funny.
It's like like some of these islike okay, maybe if you squint
your eyes and then on this oneit's just like oh yeah, no,
that's, that's it, that's it.
That's it.
That's funny.
Which is crazy, because itactually looks different if you
look at them separate, but whenyou're looking at the
inspiration, oh yeah, for sure,that's what that was inspired by

(01:18:19):
.

Speaker 2 (01:18:19):
Yeah when you put them side by side.

Speaker 1 (01:18:22):
I like this one as well A wish cache.
The Pokemon is modeled afterthe Namazu, a giant catfish
believed to cause earthquakes.
The Pokemon's earthquake attackand aquatic form directly
linked to this mythologicalcreature.

Speaker 2 (01:18:42):
Hey, just so everybody knows, Jiris does not
speak conversational Japanese.
So Ohio, he knows more than me.

Speaker 1 (01:18:51):
But namazu, namazu and namazu and you can see a I
mean, but it's not hard to havea catfish looking creature yeah,
yeah, except their catfish hasteeth.

Speaker 2 (01:19:05):
This one doesn't have any teeth.
Well, he's not smiling in thatpicture.
So that's true.
This one, the Japanese creature, he looks like Sonic.
He's got them animated.
Sonic teeth, the original.

Speaker 1 (01:19:19):
Oh, those teeth.
You're talking about the movieSonic.

Speaker 2 (01:19:22):
Movie Sonic original design.
That's the kind of teeth he'sgot for all the listeners out
there.

Speaker 1 (01:19:28):
Mm-hmm, and then then all the listeners that are in
the know.
In the know, I'm in the know.
So I want to end on mawile.
Mawile, because of how creepythis one is, but how crazy
accurate.
How different the two are, buthow you can see the inspiration,

(01:19:48):
yeah, yeah.
So mawile, based on the futafuta kuchi una, futa kuchi ona
that's the only time I'm sayingthat one.
Okay, a woman cursed with asecond mouth hidden in her hair.
Mawile's design, with jawsextending from the back of its
head, is a direct homage to thisunsettling yokai.

Speaker 2 (01:20:11):
Oh my gosh dude.

Speaker 1 (01:20:13):
It's messed up, but you see it, don't you?

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
Yeah, definitely see it.
Definitely see the link.

Speaker 1 (01:20:22):
So, again, if you want to see these pictures, go
ahead and just head on over tothe YouTube version of this
episode.

Speaker 2 (01:20:30):
And you can comment on the YouTube episode.

Speaker 1 (01:20:34):
So make sure you like and comment and, while you're
there, go ahead and subscribeand subscribe.

Speaker 2 (01:20:40):
We need all those things to happen on our YouTube
channel.
Yes, please, because right now,my personal YouTube channel
that I have zero commitment to,is doing better than the saints
that serve.

Speaker 1 (01:20:53):
Something that you barely put work into your
personal stuff, and then you puthours of work into this Exactly
.

Speaker 2 (01:20:59):
And mine.
There is no work put into it,it's literally 15-second videos,
and I just say something that Ithink would be funnier,
relatable in the moment, andpeople are viewing and liking
that more than our YouTube thatwe put a lot of effort into.

Speaker 1 (01:21:17):
Yeah, so yeah, that's a, that's Yo-Kai, that's the
corner.
Yo-kai, in the corner Yo-Kai inthe corner, so that's the
corner Awesome.
Kai in the corner, so that'sthe corner Awesome.
But before we end the episode,I wanted to leave you with some
Pokemon facts, like some weirdPokemon lore Could you just

(01:21:39):
email it to me.

Speaker 2 (01:21:40):
I don't have a fax machine.

Speaker 1 (01:21:43):
Yeah, okay, so this has been the same.
So, facts, f-a-c-t, not F-A-X.
And it's sometimes, you know,confused with a saxophone.
You know the sax.

Speaker 2 (01:21:58):
I'm a sax man.

Speaker 1 (01:22:01):
So you know the Pokemon episode.
I'm going to read some.
So Pokemon, you know, like yousaid, they have the databases in
the games and all theinformation in the lore and all
that kind of thing.
So these are some relatedPokemon lore stuff that is weird
and creepy.
So again, kind of going back tokids might not should be

(01:22:25):
playing this if this is likehidden lore in the game, but
also interesting.
So the Pokemon Yaw Mask carriesa mask that was once its human
face, symbolizing its tragicpast, Yuck.
And then another PokemonPhantom said to be the spirit of

(01:22:48):
a child who died in the forest.
Its cries are believed to lureothers to the same fate.
Which generation are thesecoming from?
Um, a lot of these.

Speaker 2 (01:22:58):
Let me see because I feel like the first generation
is like very surfacy and like,and then now the talking about
other ones that are like someonejust spent all day researching,
like dark.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
So this spans from the Pokemon themselves, from the
first one to the newest game.

Speaker 2 (01:23:20):
Oh, okay, so literally every generation.

Speaker 1 (01:23:22):
Every generation.
But just because it's thatPokemon from that generation
does not mean this is itsPokedex entry and the lore of it
in that game.
Because later on they mighthave changed it.
There's no way to really tellat this juncture, but it's
spanning all Pokemon.

Speaker 2 (01:23:39):
Yeah, that first one you read made me think of that
episode in Avatar, the LastAirbender, when he has to go
into the spiritual realm, sortof.
So that's a picture of.

Speaker 1 (01:23:49):
Yom-Esk the top one.

Speaker 2 (01:23:52):
Yeah, yeah, but you remember when I'm talking about
that creature, that's like theface snatcher, or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:23:56):
Yeah, yeah yeah, what was it?
Ko or something like that wasthe name of it.
Yeah, I think it was Ko.

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
I like that show.

Speaker 1 (01:24:14):
That was a good show.
Uh, benete benete, luigi benete, do I keep going?
Benete benete is formed from anabandoned doll.
It seeks revenge on the childwho discarded it.
Wow, chucky, much chucky thedoll.

Speaker 2 (01:24:21):
And I don't know if you saw it before, but yeah,
that's essentially what I wouldthink chucky would look like as
a pokemon, even though I haven'twatched a single movie with
chucky in it.
Well, no, no, that's not.
That's essentially what I wouldthink Chucky would look like as
a Pokemon, mm-hmm, even thoughI haven't watched a single movie
with Chucky in it.
Well, no, no, that's not true.
Because I watched Ready PlayerOne, I had Chucky.
Chucky was in that movieTechnically.

Speaker 1 (01:24:37):
Chucky was in that movie.
Me and Ashley went through allthe Chucky movies.
Why do you keep on?
They're actually really funny.
Oh, okay, they're not likespooky, like they're like it's
horror comedy.
Yeah, it's not.
I think the closest one thatwould be a scary movie is the
first one, but watching it it'sjust like a doll jumping.
I'm going, I'm gonna get you.

(01:24:57):
It's like watching leprechaunto me.
Oh man.
So now we're talking aboutcadabra.
So now we're talking aboutKadabra.

Speaker 2 (01:25:09):
What Remember when we were going to make a comic book
?

Speaker 1 (01:25:15):
Oh yeah, Abra-Kadabra , abra-kadabra, we might still
do that One day, one day.

Speaker 2 (01:25:21):
So don't take our idea, guys.

Speaker 1 (01:25:23):
So Kadabra?
It's Pokedex states that itonce was a boy who woke up,
transformed into a psychicPokemon, so just randomly woke
up and now he's a PokemonPsychic abilities.
So fun fact about KadabraKadabra, for decades because

(01:25:50):
Pokemon is that old at thispoint was not allowed to be put
on Pokemon cards because theybased his design around a famous
Japanese psychic.
He was like one of those guyswho bends spoons those kind of
psychics, like a fake, obviouslyfake psychic.
Yeah, well, an entertainer.
Yeah, well, an entertainer.
Yeah, and he claimed that youknow, you based your design off

(01:26:14):
of me and he sued Pokemon andwon so that they couldn't use
Kadabra anymore on Pokemon cardsand promotional material and
toys.
And that got lifted not toolong ago, like last year.
Okay, show me a picture of it,of Kadabra, yeah, yeah, how does
this look like the dude?
Which one is it?
The top one?

Speaker 2 (01:26:34):
Oh, because it has a spoon.

Speaker 1 (01:26:37):
Because it has a spoon.
No dude.
That's something we'll have tolook into another time.

Speaker 2 (01:26:44):
Okay, not to throw shade on the Japanese court
system, but that's pretty silly.

Speaker 1 (01:26:49):
I think that the symbol on its stomach is also a
symbol that he utilizes a lot.
Oh, okay, so there's somesmaller things he might have,
like a mustache and that kind ofthing.

Speaker 2 (01:27:02):
Still, that's like.

Speaker 1 (01:27:04):
Yeah, I agree with you, Anyways, so I think I'm
gonna do you what he should havedone.

Speaker 2 (01:27:13):
He should have sued and tried to get royalty,
royalties instead pokemon, anygame that cadabra is in he would
get a percentage of sales.

Speaker 1 (01:27:23):
He would get a percentage of sale no, he just
didn't want the pokemon aroundanymore.
Yeah, he's kind of stupid.
So, moving on, we're going totalk about Drifloom.
Drifloom this one is like theone that comes to my mind every
time I hear about bad like darkPokemon.
Lore, okay, and this Drifloomattempts to kidnap children by

(01:27:44):
latching onto their hands,though it often fails due to its
light, to its lightweight.
Essentially it looks like aballoon, so kids grab a hold of
it and will drift off with thekids.
That is, in pokemon lore jeezdude mimikyu wears a disguise
resembling pikachu, to be loved,but anyone who sees its true

(01:28:06):
form is said to meet a terriblefate.

Speaker 2 (01:28:09):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:28:10):
Yeah, and then there you go.
There's Mimikyu.
Yeah, that is a newer Pokemonthat people who like Pokemon
have greatly attached to.
There's a lot of merchandisewith Mimikyu on it now.
Oh really, yeah, gengar.
Gengar Legend says it was oncea human who turned into a ghost

(01:28:30):
and now seeks companionship bypretending to be shadows.
So it was a person who died, Iguess, okay, who turned into a
ghost and now seekscompanionship by pretending to
be shadows.

Speaker 2 (01:28:45):
Isn't Pokemon, though like.
The idea is that if you collecta certain amount of them, you
can merge them together tocreate an evolution of the of
that pokemon.

Speaker 1 (01:28:56):
No, that's just pokemon go no, yeah, so that, so
that, okay.
So, pokemon in the games, youjust battle them and they level
up and when they hit certainlevels, they evolve into the
next stage, which is somethingwe didn't actually talk about.
Okay, funny enough, we didn'ttalk about gameplay.
No, we didn't talk aboutevolution in pokemon oh yeah at

(01:29:16):
all.
Yeah, you know everybody knowsit's not real yeah so, but so in
pokemon go you get a bunch ofthe pokemon and then to level up
pokemon and pokemon go, you getthe other ones and then you get
a material yeah, that Pokemonand then to level up Pokemon in
Pokemon Go, you get the otherones and then you get a material
that allows you to then levelup your Pokemon.
That is a very specificmechanic in Pokemon Go and not

(01:29:38):
in any other Pokemon media.

Speaker 2 (01:29:41):
Yeah, yeah, because you remember when we played
Power World, which is, you know,something we didn't talk about
either, but we didn't talk aboutit at all.
But like that was a big thingin pal world is, if you collect
a bunch of one kind of a pal,yeah, slap them all together and
then you can get a stronger pal, you can upgrade your, that is.

Speaker 1 (01:30:00):
That is something also very specific in pal world,
which is funny, because I Iguess from your what the two
things that pokemon s games thatyou've played, that yeah, no,
it's about collecting and reallykeeping the one pokemon.
Once you collect it, yeah, I am, you can get multiple ones, but
there's no getting rid of it toput gain on another pokemon,

(01:30:24):
sure gotcha.
So, lamp it is, it a lamp it is, it stills the life force from
people often lingering aroundhospitals to harvest souls.

Speaker 2 (01:30:35):
That's really dark.
But before you were going tosay that, I was going to say it
just sounds like a Christiancuss slang Like lamp it, lamp it
Gross.

Speaker 1 (01:30:44):
So now we're going to talk about froslass, froslass.
These get like progressively,progressively darker.
In my opinion it sounds like ituh, frost last we.
We looked at frost last earlieras one of the yokai.
Yeah, yeah, it freezes itsvictims and displays their
frozen bodies as chillingdecorations in what its house in

(01:31:05):
its cave on.
Okay, yeah, it's quote unquotehouse.

Speaker 2 (01:31:10):
Yes, I've got a three bedroom, two bathroom, with a
garage.

Speaker 1 (01:31:14):
And if you come over here you can see this hiker I
killed last week.

Speaker 2 (01:31:22):
Great access to trails in the local area, so not
far to transport any of myvictims.

Speaker 1 (01:31:28):
And then we're going to end on the saddest one.
Okay, cubone, cubone, mm-hmm.
Cubone wears the skull of itsdeceased mother and is known to
cry at night mourning its loss.
That's pretty sad, it is.
That's really sad.
So, so sad, so, very, very sad.
I don't know what to do there.

Speaker 2 (01:31:50):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:31:51):
I'm just bringing the sadness yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:31:56):
All right.
Well, this has been a.

Speaker 1 (01:32:00):
Hey, thanks for joining me on my Pokemon episode
.
Hey, thanks for letting me behere.
Thanks for contributing.
I tried no.
I didn't mean it like that?

Speaker 2 (01:32:10):
no, I mean.
No, I mean it was goodinformation, um, and I mean I
think that that, like everythingyou've presented, it's like
it's the two sides that we'retrying to get at.
Like you need to be cautious,you need to be concerned and you
need to stay focused on makingsure you're pursuing Christ, but

(01:32:34):
you got to realize that.
Pokemon is an enjoyable hobbythat people have, and so you
can't just look at somebody andsay, Satan, worshiper.
You know like you've got toapproach it with gentleness and
with love and you know, reallybring the truth of Christ's love
into somebody's life Before youget into the.
You know, is that reallybeneficial for you?
Is that really building you up,Right?

(01:32:55):
So yeah, All around, I feellike that was a pretty good
conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:33:00):
Yeah.
So at the end of the day, as alistener, I'll ask you this
question, but also listeners whowon the argument.
What side do you think it landson?
Do you think that it's okay forPokemon to be played based off
our evidence, or do you thinkthat it shouldn't be played?
For Christians playing Pokemon,yes or no?

Speaker 2 (01:33:24):
Yeah, we want to hear what your input is and if there
were things that you wanted tobring to the argument, points
that you have for or against,you should comment those so that
we can see what your points are, because we will respond Ten
points to Gryffindor.

Speaker 1 (01:33:42):
There we go, but yeah .
So what's your final verdict?

Speaker 2 (01:33:45):
Mine.
Yes, oh, you didn't change mymind.
I'm not playing Pokemon, yeahsame.

Speaker 1 (01:33:49):
Oh, you didn't change my mind.
I'm not playing Pokemon.
Yeah, same here.
You didn't change my mind, I'mnot going to stop playing
Pokemon.
Okay, as a Christian with adult, an adult Christian, I have
discerned that it is notinterfering with my spiritual
well-being.
There you go.
That's fine, and that's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:34:06):
I'm just.
All I'm going to do is kind ofchallenge you when it seems like
you're not pursuing Christ.
So as long as you're pursuingChrist and it's evident, we're
good friend.

Speaker 1 (01:34:16):
Like I said, I pull out that game every day on my
phone and I collect some Pokemoncards digitally, and then I
move on with my life.

Speaker 2 (01:34:22):
Yep, and you pull your Bible out just as much.

Speaker 1 (01:34:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:34:30):
So there you go, no problem, if not more, if not
more.
People keep that in mind.
The Jairus standard is equal tomore, equal and or more.
There we go, not less, not less.
That's right, all right.
Well, this has been episode 28.
29.

Speaker 1 (01:34:45):
No, this is 28.
I know.

Speaker 2 (01:34:51):
I was seeing if I could catch you off guard.
You almost did.
Anyways, episode 28, talkedabout Pokemon, had a good time.
We're looking forward to thenext one and, once again, guys,
make sure you're following us onsocial media.
We're going to be postingupdates on our live worship
night coming April 4th at 7 pm.
Be there Early at 6.30 to chatwithth at 7 pm.

Speaker 1 (01:35:09):
Be there Early at 6.30 to chat with us in the chat
.
Yeah, all right, you have to bethere, no matter what?

Speaker 2 (01:35:16):
Yeah, you have to show up, it's mandatory,
mandatory.

Speaker 1 (01:35:20):
If you don't show up and we see that you're watching,
john will hunt you down andcatch you like a Pokemon.

Speaker 2 (01:35:27):
I'm going to throw a Pokeball through your screen and
catch you.

Speaker 1 (01:35:31):
I do feel like that we didn't really talk, like we
went into the lore of Pokemonbut didn't really talk about the
mechanics as much as we shouldhave.
Maybe another time.

Speaker 2 (01:35:40):
Yeah, maybe another time.
Maybe we'll do a Pokemon parttwo.
Christ is Lord and the kingdomis now.
We are the saints that serve.
I want to be the very best.

(01:36:14):
I don't remember the rest.
Pokemon gotta catch them all.
I know it's my destiny.
I'm just saying random wordsthat I know from the song
Something, something, something,something, pokemon, pokemon

(01:36:34):
Gotta catch them all.