The Antichrist, Nephilim & the State of the Church w/ Rick Renner

What is going to be the sign of your second coming and what is going to be the signs of the end of the age?

If you want to know what's going to happen between now and the end of the age, you've got to turn around to see what was happening in the world before the flood. There were some really dark, nefarious activities happening. The sons of God saw the daughters of men and that they were fair and took to them women to mate with, just like in the days before the flood. They mocked Noah. Today, people say, ah, these preachers, they've been talking about the second coming for 2,000 years when the truth is We are living in the shadow of the very end of this age. You know, people often say, well, when's the Antichrist going to show up? Well, first of all, he couldn't show up until—

Hey everybody, we'll get back to the episode in just a moment, but first I want to thank the patrons who make this podcast possible. I may be the one you hear, but as the Apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians, the unseen parts of the body are are just as important, if not more important, than the ones we see. Your support behind the scenes is critical to sharing these messages, so thank you. If this podcast has strengthened you and you're not a patron yet, we'd love for you to join the team. Your monthly contribution will help us reach more people with timeless truth, plus you get some great insider perks, including private Q&As with me, as well as other exclusive content. To become a patron, just click the link in the show description or go to johnbevere.com/patron. Now let's get back to the show. Hey everybody, welcome to the John Bevere Podcast. I can't even tell you how excited I am about this particular podcast. And you, I'm going to tell you, you're blessed being on here because he is a man of God that has stayed so true to the word of God for years and years and years. And I remember years ago when he and his dear wife Denise niece made the decision to move to Moscow. Now, we didn't know each other personally when they made that decision. That was right when the Iron Curtain fell. They went over there, they started a church, and now they have one of the most influential churches in all of Russia. But not only that, God has given him a global ministry. He has written so many books that all of us use, people, especially leaders in the ministry. He's done the Sparkling Gems, he's done, um, oh, I'm thinking of some of the others. Dressed to Kill is one of his big, big books. But I wanna introduce to you my dear friend, Rick Renner. Rick, what a pleasure it is to have you on today.

And what a pleasure it is for me to be with you. Denise and I love you and Lisa and all your kids. We just think it's amazing. And of course, we really identify with your family because our kids are in the ministry and we're kind of all doing the same thing. And thank you for what you all have done for decades and decades And John, to me, it seems like the older you get, the sharper the instrument becomes. You are just amazing.

Well, Rick, that leads us talking about mainstream media deception. We're living in the last days, and you have just written a book on the flood, on Noah's Ark and the flood, the Nephilim. I would love to touch on that, but I heard you on a podcast recently because I do listen to Rick. Guys, when I'm in the gym, Rick Renner is one of the guys I go to. But you were talking about the fact that what is the number one warning that Jesus gave His disciples when they asked Him, they said, "Hey, when is this going to happen?" Referring to every stone being torn down, which of course Titus did in 70 AD. "What is gonna be the sign of Your second coming? And what is gonna be the signs of the end of the age?" So 3 questions there asked. And Jesus's first response has always intrigued me. And I heard you talk about this recently, so I'm going to let you break the ice here. What was the number one thing Jesus— first thing out of His mouth, number one thing He warned the disciples about when they asked Him about the end of the age?

Well, in Matthew 24:3, they were sitting on the Mount of Olives and they said, Lord, when will these things be? What will be the sign of thy coming? And the word "what" in Greek is the little word "ti." It describes something very minute, very minuscule. It means they were saying, "Lord, we don't want a fuzzy answer. We want you to tell us precisely, exactly what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age." And it's interesting that they came to Jesus privately. And you know, when you get alone with the Lord and you speak to him privately, he will say things to you. And when no one else was listening, Jesus began to give them signs. They asked for one, but Jesus actually gave them many. But when you come to Matthew 24:4, He answered and said unto them, "Take heed that no man deceive you." And John, most people, when they read Matthew 24, they jump right down to verse 6, which says, "You'll hear of wars and rumors of wars." Verse 7, "Nations shall rise against nation, and famines and earthquakes and pestilence." And all of those are really important signs. But the first sign Jesus gave was the most important. And that's verse 4. And in verse 4, He said, "Take heed that no man deceive you." The words "take heed" in Greek are blepēte. It's the direct form of the word blepo, which means to see. But here Jesus used the direct form. It's like He was reaching out to grab them by the shirt and shake them up. Okay, you wanna know what is the sign? Heard this, take heed, really hear what I'm about to tell you. Take heed that no man deceive you. And that word deceive is the Greek word planao. That word planao here translated deceived became very, very popular in the intertestamental years between the Old and the New Testament when there was a great fascination with end-time events. And the rabbis at that time, just like Jesus said here, begin to prophesy in the very end of the age. You'll know when you've come to the end of the age because spirits of delusion will be released in the earth to cause a worldwide deception. And basically now Jesus says the same thing in this verse. And this word deceived, the Greek word planao, was a word which described primarily a moral wandering. But it was a person, a people, or a nation who one time walked on a very solid, traditional, well-worn path, but now for some reason they've elected to leave that path and to take another path that leads along a very dangerous, treacherous cliff. It is the most dangerous path they could take, but they have deliberately wandered from a moral path. And the same word deceived was used in an agricultural sense to describe an animal that got so lost it couldn't find its way back home. So when you carry all this into the verse, Jesus was saying, you'll know you've come to the end of the age when society as a whole has made a decision to veer from what it once believed, to leave a very traditional, solid moral path and begin to go a new direction. And of course, today we have progressives, And they're declaring that they're paving the way for a new world and a new kind of thinking. And they're taking this new moral path, which is absolutely treacherous. And if you look at what's taken place in society, you kind of wonder, has society lost its way so badly that it will never be able to find its way back home? And Jesus said, when you've come to the very end of the age, you will know it because delusion will be released into the earth. And this word, planao, describes delusionary spirits, which really create a mad kind of thinking. And we're really living in delusionary times. That's the times that we're living in.

Hey everyone, I wanna share the tool I use when I'm preparing messages, writing, or studying the Bible. It's called Logos. It is a powerful Bible study platform that lets you access commentaries, devotionals, and Bible dictionaries all in one place. The latest version actually uses AI to provide answers from your trusted biblical resources. Plus, it's now easier to use with plans starting at $9.99 a month. Visit logos.com/bivir to start your free extended trial today. Now let's get back to the podcast.

When people, for example, a man believes he can change his gender and become a woman, or a woman believes that she can become a man. I just read a report that Generation Z, 30% of those under 15 years of age are questioning their gender. 30%. Aye yi yi. I mean, that is just insane.

What's worse is the adults are encouraging it. And so you think about it, when we were in junior high school, we were stupid and we thought stupid things. And all it took was wise older adults, namely our parents usually, that would go, that's ridiculous. Let me tell you what the truth is. Unfortunately, now parents are being penalized in some of our states here in the United States for telling the truth to their children. They're being penalized in Australia and other Western nations. And it's being encouraged. It's like, it's lawless, lawlessness at its highest form to me. It's lawlessness is, okay, now I'm talking to the Greek expert, so correct me, anomia. It's the Greek word anomia. Did I say it right, Rick? Correct me.

You said it right.

Okay.

That's right. I just opened my Bible to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, where Paul describes lawlessness at the end of the age. Can I go there just for a minute?

Absolutely.

Okay, Paul says this in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. He says, let no man deceive you. There's that word deceive again. And John, you know what's really amazing? Every time you read about the coming of the Lord, a parallel verse or parallel word will always have to do with deception. The coming of the Lord and deception kind of run side by side. So when we're near to the coming of the Lord, there's going to be widespread deception. But in this verse, Paul said, "Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day," talking about the coming of the Lord, "will not come except first there is a falling away." And that word falling away is the Greek word apostasia. Now, some people today are trying to say that it describes the rapture of the church. It does not. That is so silly. The word apostasia is used throughout all kinds of literature to describe a mutinous attitude or an attitude that says we're no longer going to obey. And in this verse, Paul is prophesying the very end of the age, there's going to be a falling away, or there's going to be a mutinous attitude that emerges in society against the rule of God. And the result of it will be eventually the man of sin will be revealed. The Greek says the man of lawlessness, that's that word anomia that you just mentioned. Anomia, lawlessness, it's the word nomos, which is the word law, law with a privative A. So now they have shucked the law, that A reverses it or cancels it. So it was a people who were once God-fearing, a people who once lived by the law of God, but now for some reason they found it no longer fashionable, so they cancel it, they walk away from it, they become lawless. And you know, people often say, well, when's the Antichrist going to show up? Well, first of all, he couldn't show up until about now, because a lawless world has to produce this man of lawlessness. 50 years ago, he could have never made his appearance. But now the world has become so lawless, it's so veered from truth and has moved into deception of all different kinds, that the world will be ready for a man of lawlessness when he finally shows up. And this verse says, then a time will come when he shows up, but it's going to come in a period of lawlessness. That's that word anomia that you just mentioned.

So let's return back to deception and let's stay there in 2 Thessalonians, but You said it was actually a veering away from a morality. I just read 3 days ago the new studies that have been done on pornography of men in the church. 57% of the men in the church are looking at pornography on a regular basis. Here's what blew me away. I've seen those studies before, okay? But this is the one that blew me away. 47% of those men say they're not bothered by it. It doesn't, they're fine with it. And it reminds me of when God said to Jeremiah, the people can't even blush anymore when they sin. In other words, they've lost all that conviction. Their hearts have grown so hard and calloused. They're insensitive to the fact that they're breaking the heart of God. They're looking at a woman as a piece of meat or, you know, reduce their glory that God has placed on down to, mere giving out of themselves sexually in lawlessness and lusting after that. To me, that's a sure sign that we've walked away. Would you agree with that with Matthew 24:4?

I would agree with that. And you know, when Peter describes Lot living in Sodom and Gomorrah, it says he vexed his righteous soul with their unlawful deeds. And the word vexed really carries the idea that he calloused his soul. And Peter specifically writes, "In seeing and hearing," and the Greek tense means in seeing and seeing and seeing and hearing and hearing and hearing. So here was Lot that Peter amazingly calls twice a righteous man. Living in a very bad place, seeing very bad things, listening to very bad things, day after day after day after day until finally his soul became so calloused that he lost his sense of conviction about what was wrong. And that's what happens to people that watch pornography. They numb themselves, they callouse themselves until they no longer have a sense of regret or sorrow about what they're doing. And now they can freely look at what used to really bother them but by seeing and hearing and seeing and hearing, they've just calloused and vexed their righteous souls.

[Speaker] What's amazing to me is Lot started out in the tents on the plains of the Jordan Plains, but he ended up inside the city, which shows the draw that lawlessness has if you are not loving truth. Because what really amazes me is that these people will be deceived, he says right there in Thessalonians, because they will not love the truth. It's not that they don't have the truth. People that go to church say, well, I've got the truth, I hear my pastor preach it. No, the deception occurs because they didn't love the truth. And I find that this is what's lulling the Western church asleep, is the fact that they have truth. We think we have truth, It almost reminds me of when the disciples said, well, or excuse me, the Pharisees said, we have Abraham as our father. And John the Baptist made the statement, hey, God is able to raise up stones, right, from these children of Abraham, right, who will cry out. It's almost like people say, well, we prayed the sinner's prayer, our pastor preaches the scripture, you know, we go to church, we're fine, while they're getting pulled more and more and more into deception. I look at— it's interesting to me that in the very same book that he's writing to the Thessalonians, he says, hey, I'm going to give you a command here that you should live a holy life and you should live sexually pure. And he who rejects this commandment doesn't reject a commandment from men, but from God. So the whole thing ties together. And I will never forget back in the days, 40 years ago when I was driving my church van and taking care of our guest speakers, Lester Sumrall came in, and Lester came in like twice a year. Lisa and I absolutely loved Lester deeply. And Lester was in my vehicle that I'm driving him for the church, talking to another pastor of a very large church back in those days, and I can't remember who the pastor is. And Lester made this off-the-cuff comment, Rick, that I have remembered now for over 40 years. But he said, "The more I walk with God, the more I realize how all evil, all sin will eventually find its way to a sexual immoral, a sexual immorality." In other words, sexual immorality is almost like the basis of all sin that I see being done on the earth. And I've never forgotten that statement, but it's interesting to me how Paul talks about this massive deception to where the man of lawlessness is embraced, and then all of a sudden is talking about this command, if you reject it, you're not rejecting man's commandment, you're rejecting God's commandment, our Creator's commandment.

Well, John, I think one of the problems, to be honest, about the church is the Bible is no longer preached. I think that is really the root of the problem, because when the Bible is preached verse by verse, word by word, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, it refutes, it reproves, it convicts. But today the pulpit— and I'm a preacher, so I'm not trying to nitpick on preachers— but the pulpit is primarily filled today with motivational preaching, inspirational preaching, and there really is a place for that. But when there's no verse-by-verse, word-by-word exposition of the Scripture that deals with every single issue, every issue, when you teach verse by verse, you have to deal with everything in that book and in that verse. You cannot pick and choose. And when the Scripture is preached and taught under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, verse by verse, word by word, it literally brings people to a place of confrontation where God deals with them. And that kind of ministry has almost evaporated from the church. It's almost disappeared. But there are people hungry for that kind of preaching. And I think your ministry is proof of that. You just published your book, "The Awe of God." That is not what I would call a feel-good kind of book. But, you know, people really want to know the truth. People want to be told the truth. And it brings them to a place of transformation. And I think one reason the church is filled with sin, and the church is filled with sin, is because they're not hearing truth that really confronts and transforms. Pastors are in the business of just encouraging people, wanting people to feel better, you know, and again, there's a place for that, but that's not everything. We have to put everything on the table when we feed the people of God. And there's one major item on the menu that is missing, and that's the verse-by-verse, word-by-word teaching of the Scripture, which is essential. It's part of the meat and potatoes for the church to be healthy, and it's almost gone from the church. And I think that's one reason why people are looking at pornography, people are doing things they shouldn't do, because they're not being confronted are fed by the Scriptures when they go to church. And a lot of people don't even read their Bibles, to be honest. And so, I mean, if you don't have the strong input of the Word of God into your life, you're going to drift. You're going to drift and you're going to drift into error.

Okay, I look at Matthew 24, Jesus mentions deception 4 times. One of the times he mentions it, he said, "If possible, even the elect." It's almost as if, and let me ask you this, if you agree with me, our lack of preaching the Word of God, our reverting to inspiration and motivation, our lack of preaching the Scripture, because I look at 2 Timothy 3, last book Paul writes on earth, and he talks about the Scripture in the end of chapter 3, and he says, It will convict you, it will reprove you, it will exhort you. 2 out of 3 are corrective. Isn't that interesting?

It is.

And then he tells Timothy to preach the word. He makes it very strong. I charge you in the sight of God to preach the word. The fact that we're not, I mean, let's face it, I love inspiration. Okay, I'm gonna be transparent here. I watched the movie Maverick. A couple times. I cried, okay? My wife laughs at me because I cry every time I watch that movie because of the bravery of those young men and women. I love bravery. I love courage. I just love it, right? I cry, but it doesn't change me. 2 days later, I'm unaffected by it. And if we're leaning on inspiration and motivation, It's gonna last a day or two, but is it going to be enough to hold a man up when he's surfing the web at 11 o'clock on Wednesday night and he runs across porn? I don't believe it's strong enough to hold that man back. I believe the word of God is. I believe the word of God is powerful. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces down to the division of our soul and our spirit. And we've got to get back to preaching it because do you believe this is what's setting up the elect, if possible, to be deceived?

I do, John. And you know, I'm a preacher and I want to tell you that about 15, 17 years ago I went through a really rough time and God confronted me with the fact that I was not taking the Word of God into my life for me, I was just preparing messages for other people. And the Lord confronted me so seriously that I made a decision. I made a law. Now, this is not a biblical law. Some people may think it's legalistic, but I needed it. And my law was, if I don't read my Bible, then I don't eat. Why would I treat natural food more important than spiritual food? And making that decision really did something in my life. So now when I get up, First thing I do every morning is turn on the coffee, and then I get my cup of coffee, right, go straight to the living room where I sit down, grab my Bible, and I let the Word of God go into me. And I don't just read it to check off that I read it. I need the Word of God to feed me. I don't just need to prepare messages to feed others. You know, chefs sometimes prepare wonderful meals to feed people in the restaurant, but they never partake of the food themselves. And a lot of preachers are having to prepare so many messages, they're like chefs that are all the time coming up with a new menu, a new recipe, but they don't really have time to devour it themselves. We have to take the Word of God into us. We have to eat it. We have to let it go into us. We have to digest it. We have to let it become a part of who we are and change us and convict us. And then really the truth is, that's when you have the power to preach it under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That's the overflow of what's going on in my life. And if that's not going on in my life, if God's not speaking to me through His Word, really I forfeited my right to speak to others. If God's not speaking to me, who in the world am I to think I have a right to speak to others? And so I've just learned from my own life, I need the Word of God to keep me on track. The church needs the Word of God to stay on track. But when there's a wandering from the Word of God, it is our anchor, it is our foundation. And where it becomes nonexistent or rarely stressed, people begin to wander. And there's a lot of wandering that's going on today. So much wondering.

So I was with you 10 years ago in Chicago doing a conference, and you told me that you read the Bible before you eat any food.

I grabbed— I do.

I grabbed ahold of that and I made it a policy for me. And I went one step further. When I'm writing a book, I have a policy that I can't write that book that morning until I first of all read the Word of God for me. And it has helped me so much because you're right, I want the Word of God to read me. I want the Holy Spirit to speak to me and to address what needs to change in me before I can have the ability to be able to tell other people, hey, this is what God says. I want him constantly. You know, one of my goals is when I'm 80 years old, when I'm 90 years old, whatever, I wanna still be teachable. I wanna still be correctable. I still wanna be humble. I still wanna walk in the fear of God. I think this is why the fear of the Lord was Jesus' delight. Because it keeps you close to the Father. It keeps you from believing other people's press about you and thinking, oh, I've become somebody now. Uh-uh, I'm a servant. Jesus said, when you've done all these things you've been commanded to do, say, we are unprofitable servants, we've only done our duty. What a privilege. I mean, what a privilege. You know, Rick, I've been thinking so much lately about the fact that God makes this statement, who would dare to approach me unless they're invited? You know, he says that through one of the prophets, right? Who would dare to approach me unless they've been invited? And I think one man got to approach God one day a year out of 3 million people. One day a year, he got the privilege to go into the presence of God. And I think God has given us the privilege to come into his presence every single day. Man, when you just stop and think about that, that right there will just bring you back to ground zero. As far as understanding who we are and how blessed we are and what a great inheritance God has given us when we didn't deserve a thing. So, um, I want to, I want to talk a little bit about your book on what you've discovered with Noah. I know you've gone over to the site a few times. I know you've been doing some study on the Nephilim. I brought it up at the beginning of the podcast. First of all, let's say the name of the book so everybody can get it, because when you start talking about it, everybody's appetite's going to be wet and they're going to want to get this book. So say the name of The book, I have it, but I don't want to get it wrong.

Fallen Angels, Giants, Monsters, and the World Before the Flood.

Okay, it's a tough, it's a tough one. You can understand that, right? I didn't want to goof it up. Fallen Angels, Monsters, Giants, Giants, Monsters, and the World Before the Flood.

But if you look it up on Amazon, Amazon is called The World Before the Flood.

Okay, great. That's what I was looking for. Rick, tell me, highlight some of the things God's been showing you through this message.

Well, John, I was a little leery about writing that book because people who talk about the Nephilim usually also talk about UFOs and monsters and the Loch Ness Monster and werewolves, and they just get off on a lot of weird stuff. And I did not want to be identified with that group. But Jesus really said in Matthew 24:37, "As it was in the days of Noah." And when you read that in the Greek text, it uses the word "huspra," it means precisely as, exactly as it was in the days of Noah, "So shall it be also in the days before the coming of the Son of Man." So Jesus was saying that if you want to know what's going to happen between now and the end of the age, you've got to turn around to see what was happening in the world before the flood. So I said, hey, That's important. So what was happening in the world before the flood? And wow, there were some really dark, nefarious activities happening in the world before the flood. We know from Genesis 6:2-3 that the sons of God, that's an Old Testament expression for angels, saw the daughters of men and that they were fair and took to them women to mate with. That's what the Bible says. And if you read the writings of ancient church fathers and Jewish leaders from ancient times, they all speak in unison about that event. And they say that a group of angels that were called Watchers, whom God had set over the earth, kind of like guardian angels to help man in his fallen state, when those angels saw women they became enamored with the beauty of women, and they made a covenant together that they would defy God, abandon their positions. And by the way, Peter writes about this, Jude writes about this. And they descended into the earth and took women and mated with them. The women became pregnant and they gave birth to giants. The Hebrew word for Nephilim, Nephilim of the Old Testament. And that is the reason why God sent the flood. He wasn't trying to destroy the earth. He was trying— he was bringing a cleanup operation to get rid of this horrible thing which had been produced by fallen angels. And today, when you go to the lower mountains of Ararat, on one particular lower mountain called Mount Judi, there is laying the ruins of Noah's Ark. John, I have been there. I've been all over it. I probably spent about 2 months there if you add up all the days that I've been there. Took my whole film crew there. And wow, when you stand there and look at the ruins of Noah's Ark, it really makes the event of the flood become real to you. Wow, it is amazing. And Noah in his time was a preacher of righteousness. He preached for 100 years that judgment was coming. Every time he used his mallet and they hit the wood building that ark and the sound of that mallet hitting reverberated and people heard it, it was an announcement. Hey, that's that old man building that boat who says judgment is coming. And people were literally living in the shadow of the ark and in the shadow of judgment, nonchalantly not taking it serious. As Noah, as a preacher of righteousness, warned them judgment was coming. And here we are again at the end of the age where once again we've been preaching, we've been telling people that eventually judgment is coming and people don't even take it serious. If you come to 2 Peter chapter 3, Peter says, "Know this first." And the Greek says, "Know, know, know, know, know this first and foremost that in the very end of the age mockers will come." saying, where is the promise of His coming? And just like in the days before the Flood, they mocked Noah. Today people say, ah, these preachers, they've been talking about the Second Coming for 2,000 years. People are buying, selling, eating, giving in marriage, just going on with their life, living nonchalantly, when the truth is we are living in the shadow of the very end of this age, when things are going to really, really change. And our job is to preach. Our job is to help people, especially in this age when they're wandering because of deception. We are so needed. John, you are so needed in this hour. And this is our moment to rescue the perishing and care for the dying, because this thing really is about to be wrapped up. And I want to just tell you one more thing interesting to me. In the days before the flood— now, John, I just got a revelation on this lately. In the days before the flood, it was a period of transgression. The word transgression is a Greek word which means to intentionally cross a boundary or a barrier that you're not supposed to cross. Those angels crossed a boundary. They were not supposed to do what they did, and the result was monstrous things. Transgression. Well, now here we are at the end of the age, and what word has reemerged? Trans, trans. We're living in the age of trans, transsexuals, transgender, transhuman. When people, just like in the days before the flood, they're crossing all kinds of boundaries. They're doing what they absolutely are not supposed to do. They're messing with science, they're messing with their bodies, And what's the result? Really monstrous things. Monsters. You know, I don't want to sound offensive, but I was just in the United States, and walking through the mall or walking through the airport, sometimes you look at people and you don't know what you're looking at. Is this a man? Is this a woman? Is this somebody who was a man or was a woman, or what am I looking at? It is absolutely monstrous what people are doing to themselves And it's a result of transgression at the end of the age. That's the period we're living in, John.

That is a very powerful revelation. I want to return back to Noah. Here's a scripture that has intrigued me for years and years and years. But it says, who by faith built the ark in Hebrews 11. And he said, by it he condemned the world. Can you elaborate on that? I find it very interesting. By his actions, he condemned the world.

Well, he was preaching. He was preaching. I mean, here he was building the ark, telling them that judgment was coming. And you know what, John? God is so good. God is not in a hurry to judge anybody.

Right. He's patient.

Noah built the ark for 100 years. Talk about the patience of God.

Yes.

In fact, if you read Genesis chapter Numbers 6:2, it says, "My spirit will not always strive with man, yet his days will be 120 years." God literally started the clock and said, listen, I'm gonna give mankind 120 years to self-correct. Can you imagine saying to your boys, okay kids, I don't like what you're doing, I'm gonna give you 120 years to get this thing right. That is how patient God is. He's not willing that any would perish. But Noah, for those 100 years, he started building the ark when he was 500. He entered the ark when he was 600. So 100 years he was building that ark, and every day that he worked on that ark and preached, the world was listening to his message. And they were condemned because they did not listen. And it's interesting that in Matthew 24 it says they didn't know until the flood came. Well, if they didn't know, it's because they weren't listening. They weren't paying attention because Noah was a faithful preacher of righteousness.

Yes.

And John, that's our job, John. We've got to preach.

Okay, another one.

We need to wake up the world. We need to wake up the church.

Another one that really intrigues me is 2 Peter when Peter says, looking forward to and hastening the coming day of God. Ever think about that one very much? Hastening means to speed up the coming day of God. I look at two things that really— and Rick, I'm just, I'm kind of laying myself bare on this one, 'cause I trust you, right? I look at Jesus in the parable of the virgins while the bridegroom was delayed. That line, that little line has always intrigued me. And then the line of looking forward to and hastening the coming day of God. So it was like the two, You know, any thoughts on those?

I'd like to hear your thoughts on those.

I believe Noah, in his obedience to God, sped up the coming judgment. If Noah wouldn't have obeyed God, or if he would have delayed his obedience to God, I don't believe that judgment would have come. And judgment in our minds is always negative, but it's not always negative. Judgment is the Greek word krima, correct, which means a decision. For or against. So I look at Noah speeding up the decision of God, and God always makes a right decision. Now, He is patient, and Peter makes that very clear, knowing that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation because He's not willing that any should repent or come to the knowledge of the truth. James says, hey, look, wait patiently. The husband or the farmer of the earth is waiting patiently until the fruit of the earth gets the early and the latter rain. I mean, so I'm looking for the greatest move of God's Spirit that we have ever seen as a church. All right, that's what I— that's one of the things I'm looking for, right, before the catching of the way, the catching away of the church. But when I look at speed up the coming day of God, I think it's our obedience speeds things up, just as Noah sped things up I think our obedience can speed things up. So that's my thoughts. Any comments, anything, any thoughts on that that you've—

Well, I do believe that if we'll get out and preach and if we'll do what we're supposed to do, we will hasten the day of the Lord. It will come a lot quicker. You know, God is not willing that any should perish. The only reason God is holding out right now is He's waiting for that last person that's going to get saved.

Yes.

So if we are— if we get more people saved quicker and quicker and quicker, we're going to hasten the day of the Lord. We really can do that.

I believe that. Well, Rick, I have just thoroughly enjoyed this time together, and I want to thank you so much for proclaiming truth so faithfully. And anything that we can do to support you and Denise, your family, what you're doing over there, please don't ever hesitate to ask.

Thank you.

And any last closing thoughts before I close?

I just want to say thank you again for your ministry and thank you to those who support you. For providing books to people all over the world. Thank you so much for what you do.

We love you very much. Thank you, Rick.