Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You know, Jesus is coming back someday and hey, the Bible says there's going to be an Antichrist and he's going to rule the whole world. And you look and you say, you know, for the first time in human history since the Tower of Babel, somebody could rule the world now with all the, you know, technology, AI and all the things we have. So just, you know, so people will say, wow, you know, that, that's, I mean, the Bible, what it predicted really is true. So it gives you confidence in other parts of the Bible that the Bible's really true. But, but I think one of the ways that disciples, you know, kind of disciples men is, is again to have, have them understand that, you know, Christ is coming back and that's going to be the great event in history. But it's not just he's coming back. After he comes back, we're going to have to stand before him and give an account. It's called the judgment seat of Christ. And that's a sobering thought.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Yeah, no, when you, when you stand there, yeah, you get one lawyer and unfortunately, you know, Dr. Hitchcock, it's not going to be you, it's not going to be anybody else. Jesus Christ. That's it. So, you know, in your books and I looked at, as I was looking back into them in 1994, a long time ago for some of our listeners, but after, it's called after the Empire Bible prophecy in light of the fall of the Soviet Union. And I thought, man, that's, that's, that's unique. 1994, the Soviet Union fell in 1991. And you know, you talk about things that kind of say, hey, this is true. To help add that validity, Russia was in a very rough place at that point, establishing a new political and economic structure. They had hyperinflation, they had a massive increase in crime and organized crime, unemployment, poverty, food, struggling, homelessness, large scale transfer of state owned enterprises into private owned enterprises. At that moment, at that moment when you wrote that book, that is not someone I would have picked and said, yep, that's, they play a part in that world power in the end. But like you said, now we see them coming on the scene or have for quite a while. But you know, and I was kind of thinking about what you had to say about prophecy is a form of credibility. Right. And just kind of looking at other, other things that the world is very interested. You know, like you and I were talking before the, the time, before the start.
I'm a big student of the psychology of, of, of large Groups, Right. Like where sociology and psychology kind of meet. And I've watched the popularity of the Mayan calendar with the end date in 2012 and how that right there just fell off. And then you take a look, a couple of years ago, there was this fabricated Nostradamus thing about a prophecy, a dancing horse. Right. But not that there was one, but it got a billion views.
So there is a. There's absolutely. I think it's ingrained in us just like, you know, it's written in our DNA that the longing for that, the, the second coming. Right. And people may not recognize it because they're lost, but I think it's there. What kind of significant events do you feel like have kind of set the stage, if you would. I know that's a popular question.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I think what you just said, though, people want a resolution. They want some idea that, hey, someday there's going to be justice. You know what I mean? Now, to be honest with you, I don't want justice. I want mercy. But we have a sense of, in the larger picture, you know, we want to see some, some kind of, you know, justice, and God's going to bring that. But no, you know, the signs of the times that we see, you know, I mentioned a few of them earlier, but the super sign of the end times is the nation of Israel, the regathering of the Jewish people to their homeland. I mean, it's in the news every day. Antisemitism's massively on the rise right now. But 1948, 6% of the Jews in the world lived in Israel. Now it's almost half of them. So there's about 16 million Jews in the world. About 7 million of these, 7 1/2 million of the Jews live in Israel.
So they just keep going. They're going back there. And Israel is the focus of the world. This little place the size of New Jersey, and yet there it is, a focus over the world every day. That's exactly. The Bible says that's going to be the kind of staging ground for the end times. So if we believe the Bible, we shouldn't be surprised by that. The Bible says, I believe that the tribulation period, this future seven year time after the rapture of the church of Christians to heaven, is going to start with some kind of a peace agreement or something with the nation of Israel that allows them to carry out their sacrifices and rebuilt temple. Well, what does the world want right now? Peace over there, Gaza, Hezbollah and Iran and all of that. You've got the nations in Ezekiel 38, you mentioned Russia a little bit ago, the fall of the Soviet Union. It mentions Roche Rush. Several places are in modern day Turkey, mentions Persia, which is modern day Iran. Those places are mentioned. Just the globalism that we have today with AI, with all the surveillance technology, with satellites, with the Internet, since the Tower of Babel, you know, man, God scattered man all over the earth and, And Satan's the master globalist who's been trying to bring the world back together again. He ruled the whole world under one man named Nimrod back in Genesis 11. And now he's been working inexorably. We've gone from tribalism to nationalism. Now we're back to globalism again. So these are a lot of the things that we see happening in our world today that I think are significant. Another one is apostasy within churches, within Christianity. The Bible says that apostasy, that false teaching, people abandoning the word of God and the gospel is going to increase as we get near the end and we see both doctrinal apostasy, but also moral apostasy as people morally are just falling away. You know, these are the, you know, I mean, again, that can always get worse. You know, I mean, it's, you know, apostasy can continue to deepen. But those are just some of the things that I see, you know, in our world today that, that are predicted. I believe in the Bible that we see happening unlike any time in history. And people say, well, you know, people were saying this 50 years ago, whatever. But again, Israel, the focus on Israel, the Middle east, they have the European Union. The Bible predicts, I think, a reunited Roman Empire in the end times. I think that the EU could be the embryonic form of that. So a lot of signs that are out there, I think, that point to the soon coming of Jesus.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: I think that's, you know, I think what you had to say was pretty important. You know, when you talked about the. The Tower of Babel and with the globalization, I believe it was said a couple of years ago that Internet is kind of like a basic right now. It's kind of where we're viewing it and, you know, that connectivity piece of it. And of course, AI, it's right. I thought what you had to say about apostasy was pretty unique. Colby and I have talked about this before. At 64% of America claims to be a Christian, but only 30% believe in the Holy Ghost. And then when you look at it, only 6% of those say, yep, I adhere to a biblical worldview and that number keeps getting smaller and smaller. And then what was scary, I think in one of the statistics I was reading when we did that episode, was that like one third of all pastors are pretty much like, I don't really believe in the Bible, which is extremely scary to me. That arise of apostasy is. It's definitely there. I mean, we, we see it more than we've seen it ever before. Right?
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And morally too, just what people, you know, with same sex marriage and transgenderism and all these different things that are accepted by a lot denominations and churches, you know, it's a, that's, that's moral apostasy where people are accepting things that, you know, even 30 years ago, I always tell everybody, when I was in high school, the worst person that I could think of in my high school still believed those things were wrong. Now it's not even considered wrong by people. It's celebrated by people. So it's just, you know, it's been just. And people that are a little bit younger don't, don't. Can't see and have an experience. Just that it's like a seismic shift that's taking place. And the only explanation for it is it's satanic. It has to be satanically inspired. You can't explain it. Human.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the feverishness, which it was supported at one point, you know, is.
Yeah, like that, that much emotion behind something and no, it's like you said, it went from, nope, that's a wrong thing to you think it's wrong, then you're wrong. Like that's a 180 flip in your moral judgment factors. So. No, I totally agree with you. Yeah.
[00:08:02] Speaker C: So just shifting gears a little bit on you, Dr. Hitchcock. You know, we've been talking about like a lot of these signs and I think that's really helpful for, you know, a lot of our listeners who may be uncomfortable, have been uncomfortable with this subject. They don't talk about it like in a church, because I know there are churches out there. They really don't touch this, you know. But there are some great examples and I would love to hear your thoughts on this. From Noah building the ark, you know, you have that remnant God always pulls aside like a man who in his generation is kind of that voice, you know, lot, you know, confronting, you know, corruption in his time. Daniel thriving under the pressure of Babylon. You know, how do those men or how can men take those examples? I given. It's probably many others that you even know. And look at that end time Fatherhood that leadership in such tough times and how to model that and how to get an understanding if you don't have it, of this very critical subject in what I believe at least we're in the final season now, how long the season lasts, I don't know. But I do believe we're in that final season. And how's Jedi as a father, other fathers kind of leap, lead and model?
[00:09:05] Speaker A: Well, you know, I think you take, you know, with Noah and all the, all those that you mentioned, you know, Noah heard from God. You know, he heard from God and he believed what God said, you know, against really all reason. And I think, you know, that the key for men today, I think to really lead their families in these times, you have to have spend time in the Bible. You have to read God's word. You know, it's interesting In Daniel, chapter nine, before God gives Daniel a massive revelation there, the 70 weeks prophecy, one of the great prophecies in the Bible, Daniel is praying, but before that even he was reading the book of Jeremiah. So Daniel studied prophecy and the prophet Daniel. So I always think that's interesting. But you know, to be a man of God in these times, you've got to read the Bible, you've got to pray, you've got to go to church regularly, you've got to find a place to serve, you've got to give, you've got to fellowship with God's people. You've got to do the basic things that God calls on us to do. And you have to do them over and over repeatedly and be growing spiritually and be passionate about your walk with God. And when you're doing that, you're going to be passionate about all the aspect. If you're passionate about knowing the Lord, you're going to be passionate about him coming back someday to see him and for him to come and take us away to heaven. So just to me, you know, the Christian life for everybody but for men comes down to those basics. You know, it's like if you're playing golf or if you're, you know, playing sports or whatever you're doing, there's some basic things you got to master. And if you master those things and keep doing them over and over again, you're going to get better at what you're doing, but you're also going to become passionate about, about, about it. And I think a lot of men today, just you look at Daniel, I mean, Daniel had a passion for God's glory. Noah had a passion to do what God asked him to do. You know, Lot, I mean, even, you know, says Lot was a righteous man living there in the midst of this city in Sodom. So you've got to have a passion about the Bible, about the Lord, about God's people, about the church. You can't live off there by yourself. That's what I, I see throughout church history, those who've really had an impact for the Lord. And I think that's what, that's what we have to do nowadays if we're really going to be men who are going stand in these times in which we find ourselves.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: You know, you said something pretty important. And as I've kind of was thinking here, you know, as we kind of move forward into this time, I was reading something the other day about the literacy rate in America and it was amazing. The number of people that can't read at a sixth grade level. Right. That's dangerous to me because at that point you can manipulate information super easily through a digital platform. Right. No one has to fact check that.
But when you look at the basics of just reading your Bible, you know, this is, I've got my old King James here, and it hasn't changed since it was printed in 2012. And I love this thing. But I think when you couple passion with just that extra step of, of reading and not just, oh, I'm gonna grab it on my phone or I'm gonna grab it here, and those are good platforms. But I think sometimes going back and actually taking time and spending time, it does, it draws you closer. You're validating that truth. I always think about T.S. eliot, you know, when he talked about, we're inundated with so much information, we lose that wisdom. I think as a dad or a husband or single mom or a mom period, or anybody, like, how do you maintain that truth? And you talked about a lot of passion in sticking with the basics.
Do you guys do a lot of. Did you do a lot of family Bible time at home?
[00:12:33] Speaker A: Yeah, every night for my boys to go to bed, I'd tell them about, have a Bible story. You know, I had that when I was a little boy growing up, we had that. I mean, I knew the Bible really well as a young boy. I was fascinated by it. And so, yeah, we had a time in doing that. But I'd go up and sometimes I wouldn't read the Bible. I just talked to him about things like tell them about a different area of prophecy or we talk about, you know, they'd ask me, you know, can you explain the Trinity to me or something. Like that.
Well, you know, so we just talk about theological topics, you know, things like that. And then they were at church growing up, so they would hear, you know, me preach and we would talk about those things. So to me, it's. It's the Deuteronomy, you know, Deuteronomy, chapter six. You know, when you're lying down, when you're walking in the way and just talk about those things. Make it a natural part of what you do. I tried to, you know, since I am a preacher, you know, pastor, you don't want to. You have to be careful with your kids, you know, because they can, you know, it can become just old hat to them, or they think this is just my dad's job or something. But. Yeah, that's why I, you know, I really tried very, very much to try to be consistent and try to live it out. And if I didn't live it out, let him see that I confess my sins and ask for forgiveness. And, you know, because there's no. The worst thing in the world I think a man can do for his kids, if he is a believer or professes to be, is to preach at him about it all the time and not to live it. I think he'd almost be better to not preach it to them. Yeah, I'm going to live it. Because then they're just seeing this. It doesn't seem real. It just seems fake and inauth and empty. And so that's. That's. That's the key thing, I think, you know, for men. Men to do is you gotta. And again, be an example when you fail, you're gonna fail, but be an example when you fail about how you man up to the thing and ask for forgiveness and go on and keep moving.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: I heard a. There was a guy speaking, and I can't remember his name, but he was talking about when he was a kid and he was playing ball. His coach was a devout Christian. He said they were out there, it was hot in summertime. Something. And things kept going bad. And somebody did something, something. He had something to say, and it was not reflective of our Lord and Savior. He let it fly. And he said the moment he did, though, he stopped. And he said, those kids looked at me. Says it wasn't. It was just a shock because it was so much out of his character. Right. Because he had lived it. And he said, he looked. He said what stuck with him was not that he said a bad word all those years, but that he stopped that moment. And he says, you know what? I'm wrong, boys. God knows I'm wrong too. And he, he owned it and moved on, right? And I think that's, that's important when you fail, you got to own it. That's it. God knows I'm wrong. I'm asking for forgiveness and move forward.
[00:15:10] Speaker C: You know, well, Dr. Hitchcock, you know, I want to be respective of your time and just thank you so much and graciously. We've, we've well exceeded what we call the parking lot for our viewers. But this was a bonus episode and we're glad to do it. But before I give it over to Jason for his final comments, I want to ask you, you know, to give us what you would say is a lightning kind of round of, of prophecy. What is a practical kind of start. What is a book besides the great books that you have? Again, we're gonna have a link to your latest one in time survival guide. But what else can men kind of dig into, kind of help start generating those conversations and getting that footing to kind of move forward and understand this very important aspect of Christian life?
[00:15:52] Speaker A: Well, you know, there's some good, there's some good podcasts out there, you know, some guys that are doing a good job and some proph stuff. I do a deal with a ministry called end times.com every week. I have a YouTube video that we do with that. There's a book I wrote back. Oh, in 2012. It's called, it's. It's 500 pages, but it's really easy to read. It's called the, it's called the End. It's called the End and you just, it takes you through. You know, what is a prophet? Why should we study prophecy? You know, just the rap just takes you all the way through all the key events. You know, that would really help somebody. A lot of people have read that book and it's been a real help to them. And you know, you can get a used copy for probably 10 bucks on, on Amazon or something. So I'm not trying to, you know, make money off of books. But anyway, the end, that's probably the book that I've written that I would recommend the most because you do need to sit down and just kind of get a, a little bit of a comprehensive view of what, you know, I always tell everybody, before you find the answers, you got to know the questions. You know, a lot of it's just figuring, okay, what, what are the issues in prophecy? And again, there's different, some different views on the timing of the Rapture and the timing of the millennium and some things like that. But again, go back to your look, Jesus is coming back. There's going to be a resurrection, there's going to be a final judgment and there's a real heaven and hell. Go back to those basic things. I think, you know, if you, if you can come to different views about how to tie those things in, but allow that to give you an understanding of the Bible, give you a passion for the Bible. But also, and I don't want to, I don't want to miss this in our time, just talking about this prophecy is an unbelievable tool for evangelism. Tons of people got saved from the late great planet Earth in 1970s. The, the Left behind books by Tim LaHaye and, and Jerry Jenkins. Because there's something about thinking about man, Jesus can come at any time. I'm going to stand before God someday and give an account of myself. There's a difficult time that's coming for this world in the future that cause. Causes people to think about what's going to happen to me. And so I think we want to use prophecy sometimes as a tool to, for evangelism to kind of. It can awaken people to a need for Christ that they may not sense in any other way. So I would encourage men that are listening to do that. And with your kids, again, you have to start telling them, you know, you need to receive Jesus, tell them about prophecy. I guarantee you they're going to be asking you, okay, now how do I make sure that I'm in heaven? You know, they'll begin to ask that. So use it. Use it in that way I think is very powerful.
[00:18:11] Speaker C: That's great. That is, that is great. Jason, final kind of thought?
[00:18:14] Speaker B: No, I was thinking about what he had to say about, you know, when those times came out in the 70s and so forth. I remember in 1988, it was the 40 years after Israel became a nation and there was this giant Jesus is coming back this year. It absolutely helped correct the young man from Alabama as I paid very close attention. But I agree with you. No, I really do. So just, just a quick question. So in the Rapture, who do you think is going to go first? You know, the Baptist church, Christ Catholics? I'm joking, I'm joking.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: Well, it says the dead in Christ will rise first. So that's. Each group says, well, you know, the Presbyterians will go first because the dead in Christ will go first. Or whatever group, you know, you're talking about.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: No, I just thought I'd throw that out there. We.
[00:18:59] Speaker C: Jason's got to get that, that's going to get some emails.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Look, we're, we're a big rock, I'm a big rock kind of guy, you know, Jesus, that's where we'll start. And that's where I'm, I'm real happy about. No, really do appreciate you taking time out to do this and if you guess, you know, kind of final some questions. If you, if you had about five minutes to discuss with somebody, what, what would you leave them with?
[00:19:21] Speaker A: You mean just a person to lead them to the Lord?
[00:19:23] Speaker B: Yeah, like you got five minutes, you're in the elevator with a person.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: Yeah, well, when I start out with people, a lot of times, you know, if I just, I'll just ask somebody to. Do you ever think about spiritual things? You know, what do you, what do you think about that? You know, about, about life where you're going. But I've got a little simple deal, you know, that you look around this world. Somebody had to make everything that's here, you know. Oh yeah, there has to be a God. And everybody seems to have a sense that God would communicate. If he's going to make everything, he'd communicate. Well, what book out there, what place has the fingerprints of God upon it? What's the Bible? Because The Bible has 500 prophecies in it that have come true, literally true. There's 500 yet to become 500. That's a track record. So there's a God, God spoken. The Bible gives the evidence and it's got that it has the handwriting of God because of prophecy. Fulfill prophecy. And the Bible, you know, what does it tell us? It tells us that we're lost. And you know, that we're born in this world lost and we're sinful and there's a redeemer that God sent that can wash away our sins and you can come to know him. He purchased a full pardon for you at the cross. All you have to do is take it. It's a gift. It's a free gift.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: I think it's no mistake why he used the term lost. As we see more people face loneliness today than they probably have ever faced in their life. And we got all this connectivity. People are lonely and I think that's because they're lost. Thank you very much. I really do appreciate it.
[00:20:43] Speaker A: Yeah, well, thank you guys. It's great, great to be with you guys and best wishes just in the future. Keep up the good work. A lot of men out there. I'm sure you're helping and encouraging. So keep. Keep it up. God bless you.
[00:20:52] Speaker C: Well, we appreciate it, Dr. Hitchcock. So, folks, that is that special episode that we've been talking about. Dr. Mark Hitchcock, senior pastor at the Faith Bible Church. We're gonna have all the links to the resources that he pointed out and some others that we're gonna hook you guys up with at the end of our episode summary. You can find this episode in every ep that's your favorite podcast platform. That could be iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, you name it. The Jonathan Project podcast is there. Please share this episode with men, families, women, whoever's out there that you want to encourage. Please reach out and share. You can also reach us if you have a men's event. You have something going on in a business, young people that you want to impact. Please contact us at the Jonathan Project podcast gmail.com Again the Jonathan Project podcast gmail.com Again, special thanks to Dr. Mark Hitchcock. Been is so gracious with his time and expertise, spending some time with us today. Thank you. Bless you and your families and I'll see you guys next week.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: All right, see you.
