Discerning Truth in an Age of Confusion

The devil made me do it. The devil made me do it. Well, friends, I got news for you. I've heard that my whole life. The devil made me eat that last piece of pie. The devil made me tell a story to my mother. The devil got me in trouble. I was speeding and going too fast. May I just tell you something? The devil didn't make you do any of that. You did it yourself. Welcome to becoming wiser with Dr. Robert A. Rome, author and world renowned public speaker, as he shares stories and involving his experiences and lessons learned in a good spirited, positive and fun way. Here's Dr. Robert A. Rome.

Hi, I'm Dr. Robert Rome. We're going to have a great time today. We have a special guest, Lou Souders. She's going to be with us. She's a wife, she's a mother, she's a grandmother, graduate of the University of South Carolina with a degree in education. And she has made it a lifelong goal, ministry and challenge to be part of helping other people grow in their faith and in their relationship to one another. She has a seminar that she has led and developed herself called Don't Buy the Lie. And that's why I started off with the devil made me do it. And you found out. No, he didn't make you do it. After all, you did it yourself. Lou, welcome. And tell us a little bit about your seminar, Don't Buy the lie.

Thank you, Dr. Rome. I started doing this seminar about late 80s, I guess is how long when I named it, because I was had a burden that the church was listening to the things from our culture and buying the lie. And it was, and I remember especially at the beginning I was doing what's happening in your children's cartoons, in the movies they're watching. And I remember telling the parents what was wrong with the Smurfs and things like that, you know that. And people didn't like being told what was wrong with the Smurfs. In fact, I got to be called the Smurf Buster. Nobody wanted to hear about that. But it was what's happening in our schools, what was happening in our government and the things that, that were very appealing to Christians. But without knowing the word of God, you, you buy into it innocently, not realizing you're being deceived. And I really love to study Bible prophecy. And I could see a lot of the things, the deception that it said that we will go under in the end times. I could see a lot of things that the church was believing and buying into and participating in that.

If we knew the word, we wouldn't be doing that. We'd take a stand against it.

You know, I know that you are very familiar with words like humanism or New Age movement or global governance, but those words aren't so familiar with everyone. Why don't you share a little bit about what you discovered as you look into the world of humanism and the New Age movement, as well as being an educator yourself. Global governance.

I learned as a young mother about humanism. I learned about the Humanist Manifesto. And it's a group of people, they are really atheist and they do not believe in God at all. And they actually had such beliefs that they. They wrote a manifesto in 1933 and it was like their Bible. It was what they believed, what happened. And it was. And part of the belief was there is no God, there's no supernatural man can create his own destiny, pretty much like the Tower of Babylon in a lot of ways. And that you don't need God anymore. And their goal was a one world government. And so in 1973, they wrote a manifesto to accentuate and agree with the 1933 one. And then they wrote another one in 2000. So they continued to develop their philosophy and. And I found that in education, as an education major, so much of the curriculum was atheistic or humanistic, so to speak. And I began to get concerned about that. In fact, as an education major at the University of South Carolina, a lot of my education classes were psychology. That was during the 60s is when psychology entered the schools of education. And that was a result of John Dewey, who wrote the help write the Humanist Manifesto. So all those beliefs of humanism entered the schools of teachers, colleges so those teachers could be humanized. They go out and teach generation after generation of students humanism, the way of thinking that way. Yeah.

You know, I've graduated myself from five different colleges and universities, and my PhD is in education. And it was shocking to me to read some of the things. And when I learned about humanism, I learned that it basically means man is the center. We're the center of all things. Everything revolves around us. And for those of us who are people of faith realize I once heard someone say, he who is all wrapped up in himself has a mighty small package. And so I don't want to be all wrapped up in me. I want to know how to be a blessing to other people and encourage others and have a relationship with God. Because my friend Zig Ziglar used to say, you're going to be dead a lot longer than you're going to be alive. So it's a good idea to consider what's going to happen to you. So as you've taught this, have you found it to be like well received or have you faced some challenges along the way? How's that been?

I would say mostly well received. People don't know and they are grateful to be taught the truth because we're not taught the truth and they're grateful to know it with the don't buy the lie. When you take, I do a week on humanism, a week on new Age, a week on education.

The church. I do a week on how we got where we are and that's the different organizations and groups that want a world government. And then I do a week on tactics. What are the tactics they use to make people believe and buy into their system? So it's very, it's been very well received through the years. People are grateful for the information and the knowledge.

If you can maybe share with our audience today, what would be some examples of the difference between having a biblical worldview versus having a non biblical worldview? What, what, what are some of those examples or that would help people understand the difference?

A biblical worldview is where you take whatever issue you are looking at us talking about or reading about and you filter that through God's word. For example, the global government, it's all, they're all world. No, there's no sovereignty in our nation. Well, God made the nation. So when you read the Bible and you begin to see he set the boundaries. He has nations named. He knows when he gave Israel the promised land, he set the boundaries. Every nation has boundaries. And now the United States is warring the boundaries and let everybody in. It's like we're not a sovereign nation in many ways. And the Bible speaks of nations. So it's very biblical when, when the, about, you know, abortion, life begins in the mother's womb. If you don't believe that then and believe what the Bible says that you, you will believe any, any lie that you're tell. Getting a mixed message in this world too. We're told that, you know, it's my body, I can do what I want to do with it. At the same time, they want to force you to take a vaccination. So is it your body or not? You get a double message there. And I go through a whole list of those that just to show, you know, people that like a child with the gender issue.

They'Re told that they can do anything at school be called pronouns and they don't have to tell their parents anything about this. The teachers go along with the. With the child feeling like they're opposite sex, but they can't give the child an aspirin without parental permission. So you get the mixed message there.

That's really just unbelievable when you stop and even think about that. It's almost laughable if it were not so sad. So tell me a little bit about. You got involved with the Moral Concerns ministry, and that was primarily through the church. And what did that do? Train other people.

What we did with the Moral Concerns ministry is mainly we started out educating our own congregation. And the first issue that we chose was abortion. And this was in the 80s, and this was before the Silent Scream movie. You know, you just didn't know that much about what was going on in the womb. And so we spent several months educating the congregation, having speakers, newsletters, bulletin boards, things like that, like this, and to let them know what abortion is and what it's doing. And one young lady came up after one of our talks presentations, and she was a single girl, and she was a professional. And she said, I had no idea. She said, I've had five abortions. And she said, I did. And so we opened her eyes. She began to see truth then she was not living under that lie that it's not really a baby, you know, a life. And several years later, she. She transferred to another city. But she wrote back and said how her life had been changed by learning the truth and hearing the truth. And two other people in. In the congregation at Eastside, one was a man and one was a woman. They just were so burdened that they began to stand outside of Planned Parenthood with a sign. And they were part of a group that open, that started the Cobb Pregnancy Services here in Cobb County. So just how God worked in those three lives was worth it all, you know, opening their eyes.

Well, so you have been sort of a trooper out there, a little bit ahead of the curve, trying to help situations at church and in the community. Have there been places like civic centers or.

You know, we think of the Rotary Club, the exchange club, and that sort of thing. Has. Has. Have you had the opportunity to get involved much in places like that, or has it been mostly through churches?

It's been mostly from churches. I haven't. The only place I would say I spoke at Emory twice. A professor had me come and speak to a student group, and then they are. The RUF group had me come and speak one time, but mainly because I use a lot of scripture in my talks, because I Want people to get the biblical worldview. And.

And then I give out like 15 pages of the biblical worldview on different issues so they can take it with them. And if. If an issue comes to mind, you just go look and say, what does the Bible say about this?

You know, that's so good. When I was at Dallas Seminary as a student there, I heard phrases and sentences and concepts and I didn't know what they meant. So we studied higher criticism and lower criticism. And, you know, I'm not the most academic person, so I would raise my hand and say, I don't understand what we're talking about here. Every. All the other students like sitting around me because I'm not afraid to say, I don't understand that. I'll never forget this. The professor held a Bible up. He held it and he put it over his head. He held it up over his head. He said, this is. I am showing you lower criticism. In other words, the Bible is above my head. I'm underneath it now. I can study it. I can ask questions. I can say, I don't know what this means. I can say, this seems to be. There's something wrong here that I don't understand. You can question it all day long as long as. As you realize I'm under its authority. If there's something that's wrong or I don't understand, I need to do further inquiry. I need to study more. One example that he gave us, you'll like this.

Jesus once said, if you have the faith of the grain of a grain of mustard seed, and he mentioned it is the smallest of seeds. Well, a person who does not believe in being under the scriptures. The professor took the Bible, I'll never forget it. He put it on the floor and he stood on it. He said, this is called higher criticism. I am above it. I get to make the final choice. So he used the example of the mustard seed. Research shows that the mustard seed is not the smallest seed. The smallest seeds, the orchid seed. So if you believe in higher criticism, you say, well, Jesus was wrong. But he. That's okay. He wasn't a farmer, he wasn't a florist. He didn't know that the smallest seed was the orchid seed. He thought the smallest seed in his day was the mustard seed. So you just have to forgive him because he didn't know the. He didn't know what the smallest seed was. But when you move the Scriptures and put it above your head now, you're able to say, well, what about that? I mean, was he wrong? Or not. And in the Greek language it says the mustard seed, which is the smallest among seeds. In other words, they're different seed groups. They're small seeds like mustard seed and orchid seeds, they're medium seeds like pumpkin seeds and watermelon seeds, and then they're big seeds like mango seeds. So it's not a mistake at all. And I'm so glad I understood, understand the fact that God is smarter than I am. So having said all that, what are, what are some of the things you're involved in now as you have been doing this for many years, to stay on this journey as you run into roadblocks or other challenges?

For a few years, I, it was like, well, New Age was big here in Atlanta for years. And I went to their. Because I had a press pass with the radio program. I could get into conferences that cost thousands of dollars and find out what they were teaching about schools, about the government, you know, just different organizations that I would go to and just such wonderful research to see where we were going with all this. And then about mid 2000s, I guess it was like New Age had hit mainstream. It wasn't different anymore. And no matter how much I warned about it, what their practices were, people were, you know, just. It was so common then. So nobody wanted to hear my talks anymore. I didn't get. Get invited anywhere anymore. So I went into women's ministry and began to speak to wives and mothers and encourage them in the Word. And then about a year ago, free women just kept from Bible studies. Kept. Because I taught precept Bible studies for many years. And they kept saying, you need to go and talk again. You, you know. And I thought, well, I've never gone and asked for a room anywhere to teach. I was always invited to do it. So I went to my church and I asked if I could have a room. This was a year ago. And I, I said, they said, well, how big? How many people? I said, I have no idea. Maybe 10.

I don't know. And it wasn't announced anywhere. The church didn't announce it or anything. So I just, I just went and 96 people attended that, those classes. So that showed that people wanted to hear it again. So that's. I thought God was through with me with communism and New Age and don't bother lie. And I thought, okay, people want to hear it again and they're hungry for it and, and they're so appreciative and grateful for, for the information now because we are closer. If you look at prophecy. I, I just See, I think we, the, the big pieces of the puzzle, it's almost put together. We're, we're going, you know, it's happening now in our lifetime. And I just begin to see people want to know that how are we going to be prepared? God warned us all through, through the Bible. And I started using this and I can't give credit because I have no idea where I got this from. I've used it so long, it's somewhere notes somewhere. But it's. God warns. Ignorance can't, evil won't. And if God warns us over and over and over about what's going to happen, ignorant, if you don't know it's going to happen, you can't warn anybody. And you fall for it. You buy the lie. And if you're evil, you want people to buy the lie. You are not going to warn anybody about it. And so my burden was to warn people because he tells us specifically what our role in living in this time or in our life is to stand firm and be alert, watch, wait, all these things that he, he gives us what we need to be doing. And I'm marching orders and it, and I, and I really, I do a whole lesson on spiritual warfare and that don't bother lie because it is a spiritual battle and we've got to learn how to fight it from the spiritual standpoint.

You're so very, very right. I heard something good the other day. Somebody's said, ask any woman if she could tell you the difference between what it's like being pregnant at two months and being pregnant at eight months. And I thought, well, I'm not a woman and I've never been pregnant. But, you know, I have four children, four grown children. And I know what seeing my wife at two months look like. Not much, not, not showing up maybe a little bit. But then eight months, you're getting pretty big. And all of a sudden, between eight months and nine months, a lot of things start to happen. And I think what you just said, you hit the nail on the head. It's. A lot's happening right now. I had a professor who said Israel is like God's barometer on the earth. And when things are hot in Israel, they're hot up in heaven. So it looks like things are really hot over there. Is amazing how we're talking about this and on the news we're looking at perhaps.

War or nuclear weapons. What do you think about all that? I mean, is that, does that scare you or does it give you hope or excitement? Where do you Feel about. How do you feel about all that hope?

And I'm excited because I see God's word is true. And when you read Daniel, I think it's 10 that I think it's 10. You see all these kingdoms that he talks about and how one king gives his stepdaughter to another king. I mean, it was so detailed that it's boring to read in a lot of ways. You know, if you look at history, you see it really did happen, though. Exactly. So it gives me hope that if God could, the prophets could predict exactly what happened in Daniel to the day of everything. He's got this worked out. He's on his throne, he's in control. When I look at Psalm 2 and it said the nations were raging against God, but God's on his throne, scoffing at them. He. He's got it under control. So it doesn't bring fear, it brings expectation. Because it's like with Esther, we are born to live at such a time as this. But Mordecai said, but if you choose not to speak up, he'll use somebody else. So we need to speak up and be standing firm on the truth and not fear fears of Satan. And if we get fearful and draw back, then we're not going to be as useful to God in that situation.

That's just very, very true. You know, this lifetime will be the only lifetime we get to demonstrate faith. When we are in heaven, we won't have to have any more faith. We'll be able to walk by sight because we will be known even as we are known. But right now our faith can be challenged and can be a little bit tested from time to time. And I think we in America have known God's blessings for so many years and we've really never faced much persecution like that has happened in other countries. But it may be coming. And that leads me, I want to begin to wind this down a little bit. You have done some study on the World Health Organization. And so not only is this a humanistic or a political issue, how does this relate to what's taking place with the teachings of health in the world?

I really began when, when the COVID started. I. I've been for years, I've been writing articles and I send them out to what I call my friends group is. And you know, lots of people that have wanted my information through the years. And in 20, in January, I mean in December 2019, I wrote a letter to them describing that I think the world is falling apart because I was looking back at 17 and 18, where all the street, the BLM riots and the cities burning down and just saying the world is in crisis. And then in March of 2020, I wrote. It was a long letter, but it was how I saw the pieces of the puzzle coming together and we were being deceived and lied to. And I took the different tactics that I've learned through the years that are used to control people and gave illustrations of what I was beginning to see starting in March of 2020, very early before the vaccines or anything else. I saw it was a scam then. I thought we were being lied to then, and I just didn't. It was a control issue, a totalitarian government taking over worldwide though, which made it to me feeling prophecy, because it wasn't local, it was worldwide. And so the World Health Organization I see as a tool.

With the United nations to bring us under control. And. And they are voting in May 27 on, I think it's 167 nations that will vote. Europe has already approved some of it, so they are already ahead of us. But that would put any health emergency under the control of the World Health Organization. And that would override any sovereign nations or their rules and laws which define health emergency, climate change, whatever. You know, the way they're burning up chicken farms and killing cows, it could be food, who knows what. But whatever they define as a health emergency, they put those nations under control. So it's another control issue, in my opinion.

Yeah, I think you're very, very right. Because the one thing that God has always wanted all of us to have is freedom. I mean, back as far as Moses telling the children of Israel once they had been delivered from slavery that they were free and they had the opportunity to create their own nation, to have their own lives, their own family. And it's just been, it's been interesting to watch. I totally agree with you. In these last maybe five or ten years, it's like the puzzle had the edges all the way around the border of it, but now a lot of it's being filled in. And so we're seeing. I'm excited about it. You know, my faith is in the one who has established. My wife and I were talking a few months ago is around Christmas. I'll never forget because sometimes I get in these political discussions and I get discouraged. And she said, remember when Jesus was born, Isaiah said, the government will be upon his shoulders. It's not on your shoulders. So that makes me feel good to know that I can participate. But at the end of the Day I believe that God's going to have his will and way and purpose. A couple other quick things here as we're wrapping up. You were taught teaching ladies Bible studies and precept Bible studies. Are you still doing that anymore? Are you pretty much focused on the moral concerns ministry or other things like that?

Well, I'm not on moral concerns anymore. That was at Eastside. But right now I'm focused on getting these seminars because I'm trying to get it updated. I've Learned to do PowerPoint, which is something new. I used to use the all overhead projector and I had to go to learn something new there. But. But I am in a inbound, a preset Bible study that I'm taking. I'm not leading it. And I'm also going to prayer group that we, we started out praying for our nation two, three years ago. And we now we meet every week and we, we have a full time of prayer. But we decided to go and we're going to. We're studying Zachariah also because we were all precept leaders. So we're using that method, you know, and just the four of us sit and do that once a week. But I just, I, I guess I'm just, I'm excited to see what God is doing and we don't know what he's going to do with our country because we're, we're not mentioned and we are not standing with Israel like we should. And so when I read Romans 1:18 through 32 shows God's wrath on our nation and his turning over our nation. So I kind of feel like we might be in that situation right now too.

You are just a breath of fresh air because you are so positive and upbeat because your faith is strong and it's in the right place. It's in the right thing. I was once wondering myself when the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith. He said, well, if you had the faith of a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain to be moved or thrown into the sea. And I wondered about that. I thought, I've never known anybody who could speak to a mountain or a bush to be uplifted and thrown into the sea. And her. So I inquired about that and someone shared to me, no, you're, you're. It's not how much, because he did not say, I'll give you more faith. What he did was teach us, make sure your faith is in the right thing. See if your faith is in the right thing. The one who controls the universe can Pick up a mountain or can throw a bush into the sea. So our faith is firmly rooted in the right place. Well, one last question and then we're going to wrap this up. If you've got years of experience, you, you are just a delight. You're a beautiful lady. What would you tell if, if you could just speak to a bunch of young girls today, maybe in high school or college, since you've been down that road, you've been a teacher, you've been a high school student, a college student, you married a, a marine pilot, and y' all have had a beautiful life together. But if you could speak to girls, and a lot of young girls listen to this broadcast, this podcast, what would you say to them? I mean, they, they get it from every corner today. Bad lies and false information. How would, how would you address them?

I would first try to address them because you got to remember that you are a female and that females have traits that God built into us to, to do special things that men can't do. And you are to take care of your body in a healthy way. You are to present yourself with grace and poise. And I want to say ladylikeness. That may sound like old fashioned thing, but I, I taught 11th grade Sunday school for years and one of the girls introduced me at one of the ladies events at her church several years ago and she said, Ms. Sounds even taught us how to get out of a car properly. You know, you just, I mean there's, there's a whole big sphere of being a woman. And God made our bodies perfectly to be able to, to have babies, to, to, to get married. He gave us a great mind to think he wants to, to know us, to be the nourisher of a family. You have a role to play. And so don't listen to the world tell you that homemaking is a waste of time or that you don't, I mean, you can have a career, but you can still be feminine and glorified God with that body and with, with your, I mean, God, when he looks into your eyes, that's the light of your soul. I mean, let people see and see that you are different because God is making you that way. Wow.

What a great word. What a great word. I'm probably sitting right here right now because of my mother. She devoted her life to being a mother. And when all of my friends, when they would come home from college, many of them would stop at my house because my mother always had cookies and milk. She made tea cakes. People don't even know what tea cakes are. My mother made cookies so hard. You could drive a nail in the wall with these cookies. And we'd have to dip them in milk because we couldn't eat them. They'd break our teeth. You are a delight. Our guest has been Lou Souders. She is a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a godly woman, and someone very, very special who has shared her heart with us today. I'm Dr. Robert Rome. I hope you've enjoyed our podcast today. We've had a great time thinking about where we are as a nation, where we are as individuals, our health, our relationships, and our family. We look forward to you being on a podcast with us again real soon. Until we meet again. God bless you. Have a great day. Thank you so much. For more information about this podcast, please visit www.becomingwiserpodcast.com.