John Bevere Reveals the Biggest End Times Deception (EP 204)

Summary

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The Bryce Crawford Podcast

Episode 204: John Bevere Reveals the Biggest End Times Deception
Date: June 29, 2026
Host: Bryce Crawford
Guest: John Bevere

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Episode Overview

In this deeply engaging episode, Bryce Crawford sits down with renowned author, pastor, and speaker John Bevere to discuss the return of Christ, "end times" prophecy, and the greatest deceptions facing the church today. Drawing from his latest book and decades of ministry, Bevere addresses why he avoided "end times" teachings for 40 years, what finally changed his perspective, and how Christians can be spiritually prepared in the last days. The conversation is a blend of scriptural depth, personal stories, candid warnings, and practical application, all delivered in a passionate, relatable tone.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why John Bevere Avoided End Times Teaching and What Changed

• [04:52] For decades, Bevere resisted teaching on the end times, viewing it as divisive and unhelpful:

  "This was my idea of speaking about the second coming of Jesus: think it's going to make people either lazy, have escape mentality, or argumentative..." (John Bevere)

• [05:33] In 2021, Bevere felt a strong prompting from the Holy Spirit to dive deep into the subject, spending thousands of hours in study. He found himself personally changed—more passionate, humble, and softened in character:

  "I started becoming more passionate about ministry than I had ever been before." (John Bevere) "My wife... starts calling me your favorite husband. She goes, I like this 2.0 version better than 1.0." (John Bevere)

2. The Return of Christ: Not Just an Event—A "Wedding"

• [08:43] Bevere reframes the second coming as "the wedding of the ages" and not merely an apocalyptic event:

  "It's about a groom who adores his bride... and it's about a bride who's lovesick for her groom. So it's really more about a wedding." (John Bevere)

• This shift removes fear and imbues anticipation, excitement, and a sense of relational preparation.

3. Why Every Generation Anticipates Christ’s Return

• [13:45]–[14:47] Bevere notes God wants every generation to live expecting Christ's return—to foster urgency, holiness, and spiritual vitality:

  "That's the way God wanted it." (John Bevere)

• Using biblical calculations and prophetic timelines, he shares why he personally believes this current generation may see Christ’s return (referencing Israel’s rebirth in 1948 and Jerusalem’s return to Jewish rule in 1967).

4. Interpreting Prophecy & Signs of the Times

• [16:18–25:36] Bevere unpacks various biblical timelines and prophecies—Genesis, Daniel, Hosea, and the Essenes’ writings—converging on a generational window between roughly 1967–2075.

  "Now, what's a generation... It's a given space of time that people live on Earth together... I believe what Jesus is talking about is a generation of 100 years." (John Bevere)

• Although he speculates on prophetic timing, he emphasizes preparedness and heart posture, not date-setting.

5. The Most Startling End Times Verse

• [10:20] Revelation 19:7-8 impacts Bevere most—highlighting that the bride (the church) “[makes] herself ready”:

  "It doesn't say God made her ready. It said she made herself ready." (John Bevere) "Our obedient actions... create the material we make our wedding dress out of." (John Bevere)

• He draws a vivid analogy to wedding preparation as a picture of personal spiritual readiness.

6. The Greatest End Times Deception

• [36:48–41:49] Both men identify self-deception within the Church as the scariest threat—thinking one can love Jesus while living in ongoing, unrepentant sin:

  "The scariest thing about deception is being deceived. Because the person who is deceived believes with all their heart they're right, when in reality they're wrong." (John Bevere, [36:48])

• Bevere draws from Scripture (James, Paul, Second Thessalonians) warning that loving the truth—not just possessing it—is essential.

  "It's not that they didn't have the truth. It's that they didn't love the truth." (John Bevere, [41:49])

7. Spiritual Calibrating: The Need for Daily Immersion in God’s Word

• [43:56–49:12] Bevere uses a unique analogy—chemical gas detectors require daily calibration in a clean air room, just as believers need daily time in the Word amidst a corrupted world:

  "We need to go to that clean air environment... every morning and get into the word which is able to build us up and give us our inheritance and recalibrate so we don't drift away." (John Bevere)

• Regular time in the Word keeps Christians from spiritual drift and susceptibility to deception.

8. False Teachers & Cheap Grace

• [77:14–79:51] Bevere highlights the mark of modern false teachers: avoiding any challenge to personal holiness and promoting a permission-giving, partial gospel.

  "A false teacher... will avoid anything that will call us to holiness... Their teaching will be a partial teaching. Partial truth can be just as dangerous." (John Bevere) "Jude says... there will be people who creep into our churches unnoticed who say that God's marvelous grace allows us to live sinful lives." (John Bevere)

9. Judgment, Repentance, and What the Church is Failing to Teach

• [66:11–77:04] The lack of teaching on repentance and the judgment of God is called out as a major shortcoming in the contemporary church:

  "It's not what we're saying, it's what we're not saying." (John Bevere) "You don't have true faith—you have a counterfeit faith—if you don't have repentance." (John Bevere)

• Using the marriage proposal analogy, Bevere shows how repentance is a total break with old attachments for exclusive devotion to Christ:

  "If we never tell people, in order to receive Jesus, you have to break up with everything that drove the nails through his hands, we're going to think I could still look at pornography and love Jesus." (John Bevere, [74:02])

10. Living as the Ready Bride: Holiness, Obedience, & the Fear of the Lord

• [25:53–26:15; 63:41–65:42; 80:23–83:57]
  • True readiness isn’t perfection but full-hearted, love-motivated devotion.
  • Holiness is simply being completely set apart as Christ’s bride.
  • The fear of the Lord is not being scared of God but being terrified to be apart from Him:

    "The fear of the Lord is not to be scared of God. It's actually being terrified of being away from God." (John Bevere, [80:23])

11. Eager Expectation and Its Transforming Power

• [55:07–57:27] Living in eager expectation of Christ's return is repeatedly described in Scripture as a motive for personal purity:

  "All who have this eager expectation purify themselves even as he is pure." (John Bevere)

• Lack of teaching on Christ’s return robs the Church of spiritual urgency and power over temptation.

12. Technology, AI, and End Times Readiness

• [57:49–62:26] Bevere and Bryce discuss how AI presents opportunities and dangers—potentially accelerating end times dynamics by undermining discernment and critical thinking if it replaces dependence on the Holy Spirit.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Deception:

  "The scariest thing about deception is being deceived. Because the person who is deceived believes with all their heart they're right, when in reality they're wrong." (John Bevere, [36:48])

• On Readiness:

  "The only description of the church that Jesus is coming back for is a holy church. Now, holy doesn't mean legalism or being dull... When you meet the real thing, you find out it's irresistible." (John Bevere, [25:53])

• On Daily Spiritual Calibration:

  "We need to go to that clean air environment... every morning and get into the word which is able to build us up and give us our inheritance and recalibrate so we don't drift away." (John Bevere, [49:12])

• On Cheap Grace:

  "If we never tell people, in order to receive Jesus, you have to break up with everything that drove the nails through his hands, we're going to think I could still look at pornography and love Jesus." (John Bevere, [74:02])

• On the Fear of the Lord:

  "The fear of the Lord is not to be scared of God. It's actually being terrified of being away from God." (John Bevere, [80:23])

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Timestamps & Segment Highlights

[02:57] Introduction of John Bevere and discussion of his avoidance of end times teaching
[05:33] What finally drew Bevere into end times study
[08:43] Redefining “end times” as a wedding, not merely an event
[13:45] Why every generation feels it’s the “last days”—and why that’s by design
[16:18] Biblical and historical timelines supporting end times expectation
[25:53] Holiness, readiness, and what Jesus is coming back for
[36:48] The nature of spiritual deception in the last days
[41:49] Loving the truth vs. merely possessing it
[43:56] Calibrating your spiritual life—daily in the Word
[55:07] Impact of silence about end times in the church
[66:11] Repentance as foundational, and why the modern church often neglects it
[77:14] What marks a false teacher today
[80:23] The healthy fear of the Lord
[86:14] If Jesus were to return in 60 seconds—John’s final warning
[92:06] Salvation invitation: Breaking up with worldly attachments and embracing Jesus as the Bridegroom

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Conclusion & Call to Action

The episode closes with a sincere prayer led by John Bevere, urging listeners to move beyond surface-level Christianity, repent of divided loyalties, and become the radiant, holy bride that Christ is returning for. Bevere encourages listeners that Jesus is not asking for behavioral perfection but for full-hearted devotion, repeated in his memorable analogy of the bride who leaves all old attachments for her beloved.

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For Listeners

If you haven’t already, consider reflecting on these questions:

• Am I eagerly anticipating Christ’s return in a way that changes how I live today?
• Do I simply possess truth, or do I love it and allow it to transform my life?
• Where might I be calibrating more to the world than to the Word?

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Recommended Next Step:
Spend intentional time daily in the Word, in prayer, and in honest self-examination. Consider reading John Bevere’s new book on the second coming for deeper study.

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Key Quote for Reflection:

“If we never tell people, in order to receive Jesus, you have to break up with everything that drove the nails through his hands, we're going to think I could still look at pornography and love Jesus. Jesus is not asking for you to be perfect in behavior. He is just saying he wants to be all yours.”
— John Bevere ([74:02], [93:59])

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Transcript

[John Bevere]

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[John Bevere]

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[John Bevere]

Compatibility and availability Various 18 Holy Spirit told me 50% of the church is not ready for the return of Jesus. Most people see it incorrectly. They see it as an event. It's not an event. It's the wedding of the ages. The wedding of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. The scariest thing about deception is being deceived. Because the person who deceived believes with all their heart they're right when in reality they're wrong. Why Paul? Because they didn't love the truth. It's not that they didn't have have the truth, it's that they didn't love the truth. We must pay very close attention to the Word we've heard lest we drift away. You never drift knowing you're drifting. We need to go to that clean air environment. We're in a corrupt atmosphere so we got to go to a clean air room every morning and get into the Word. If we never tell people in order to receive Jesus you have to break up with everything that drove the nails through his hands. We're going to think I can still look at pornography and love Jesus. Jesus is not asking for you to be perfect in behavior. He is just saying he wants to be all yours.

[Bryce Crawford]

Hey, before we get into today's episode, I want to share two quick things with you. First, if these videos have meant anything to you, if they've encouraged your faith or helped you see the Gospel a little bit more clearly, I just want to ask you to subscribe. A lot of people tune in every single week and haven't hit the button yet. It only takes two seconds and it helps us keep putting these conversations in front of people who need them. And the second thing? This one I've honestly been really excited to say I'm officially announcing our ministry's biggest live event to date, Open Heaven Live Podcast tour. It's happening November 8th this year at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, Texas. This is going to be a night centered around worship, faith, real conversations and genuine community. I believe God is going to move in a powerful way and I would love for you to be in the room. Tickets are on sale right now. You can head to Bryce crawford.org tour or just click the link in the description below. And please only get your tickets through my official site or that link below. I recommend not buying from random resellers online. I believe this is going to be a really special night and I hope to see you there. All right, let's get into it. The episode. What's going on guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford Podcast. I'm Bryce and today I'm with a very special guest. We have John Bevere with us.

[John Bevere]

How are you doing, Bryce? It's so good to be with you. I'm doing very well.

[Bryce Crawford]

I'm so glad you're here. I, I admire a lot of the stuff that you do online and, and I think your podcast is awesome. You just had a new book come out which we're going to talk a lot about. I mean the subject of the book is something that I think people have been talking about for a long time.

[John Bevere]

Oh yeah.

[Bryce Crawford]

And, and so I'm, I'm really excited especially than ever. I feel like end time stuff is. And the return of Christ has become so popular so I'm really looking forward to.

[John Bevere]

Well, before you go, can I just say how proud I am of you? Thank you for the way you are representing Jesus so well, especially to the young generation. I'm just so. I want to say this as a 66 year old man, I am so proud of you.

[Bryce Crawford]

Oh, thanks for saying.

[John Bevere]

Honored to be on with you.

[Bryce Crawford]

I'm honored to be with you. Thank you for saying that. That was really sweet. You know, this is so random. Last year I remember it was really popular online where people were talking about how they thought Jesus was gonna return in September.

[John Bevere]

Yeah.

[Bryce Crawford]

And I remember watching this one guy in particular. I think he was from Australia.

[John Bevere]

No, he's South Africa.

[Bryce Crawford]

And you know exactly what I'm talking about. And he was selling his belongings online.

[John Bevere]

Oh no, no, no, no. I thought the guy that said it was gonna be started the date. No, I didn't know about it.

[Bryce Crawford]

So this young kid, he's probably about my age, started selling. He documented every Day, him selling everything that he had for this day in September, that Jesus was going to return. Then the day comes and then he woke up the next day and he went online and he said, guys, I'm sorry. I was, I was wrong. I was wrong. And I was like, wow, like I have a lot of respect, you know, you went hard and you own up to it. And not even kidding. A week later he was like, Jesus is going to come back this date next year.

[John Bevere]

Oh no.

[Bryce Crawford]

And I'm like, oh my goodness, what is going on?

[John Bevere]

Oh no.

[Bryce Crawford]

So, so I'm excited to get, get some clarity on end time stuff and hear your perspective.

[John Bevere]

Do you know, this is exactly what kept me from it. So I've been in ministry 43 years, right? And for four decades now. Think about this. This is two times older than you are, okay? Four decades. People are coming up to me, do you preach on the end times? I'm like, no, no. And I said, I'm not called to. And it's because of this very thing I saw people, this was my idea of speaking about the second coming of Jesus, think it's going to make people either lazy, have escape mentality, or argumentative, like they're going to argue pre, mid, post tribulation, catching away or rapture, whatever they want to call it. And so I just avoided it. I was more interested in making disciples than talking about this one. 2021 Bryce in prayer, the Holy Spirit starts drawing me. And so I didn't dive in for hundreds of hours. I dove in for thousands of hours. Wow. And I never thought I'd write a book on this. Like I thought I'm just being obedient. For me personally, well, what I started noticing actually was really good. I started becoming more passionate about ministry than I had ever been before. Now you gotta remember, I'm in ministry now. Four decades.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

I was literally weeping. Like there's, there's a couple of tennis courts by my house and I go there at five in the morning and that's where I pray. And I find myself weeping. Lord, just please let me win souls to you. And my family started saying, hey, dad, you're, you're getting a little bit, you know, calmer. You don't get so uptight about things as quickly as you used to. And then my wife, get ready for this, starts calling me your favorite husband. I said, what in the world does that mean, Lisa? Favorite husband? And she goes, I like this 2.0 version better than 1.0. So all of a sudden I realize I'm Completely wrong on the way. I see end times affecting people. And as I'm studying this, I find out that the second coming of Jesus. Now this is mind blowing. What I'm about to say is the second most talked about subject in the entire Bible. I found out that the early church fathers of the first three centuries wrote about it more than anything else other than salvation.

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Wow.

[John Bevere]

I found out there were 318 scriptures in the New Testament on the second coming. That's one out of every 30 verse. The there are 300 prophecies about his first coming. There's over 2400 about his second coming. The seven year tribulation is the most written about time period in the whole Bible, even more than the three and a half years Jesus first walked in the earth. So I. So, so now here's what goes through my head. Ready? Okay. It takes a little bit to get through. Here I go. Why does God talk about this so much? Number two, why aren't I talking about this so much? And most importantly, number three, what is the wisdom? And so that's what I had to find the answers on.

[Bryce Crawford]

So you spent, like you said, thousands of hours studying the second coming. Man, I love that. 40 years avoiding talking about it and then just a burden God put on your heart. And now it's become this alarm that you've been sounding in writing and sermons, on the podcast, everything, you name it. Which honestly, some. Something I've really been encouraged by is

[John Bevere]

I feel like a lot of stuff

[Bryce Crawford]

over the years, granted, you know, Pastor David Platt, he's plowed a lot of ground for end time stuff in years past. And so you have, you know, I remember him having like a super long series on it years ago. But you know, and then Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell, he talks about it a lot. But you know, the depth that you go into it is mind blowing. And that just comes from the burden that you have.

[John Bevere]

Well, first of all, most people see it incorrectly. They see it as an event. It's not an event. It's the wedding of the ages. It is all about a groom who adores his bride, who gave his life and suffered what we can't even imagine because he loves his bride so much and he's just waiting for his dad to say, go get your girl. And it's about a bride who's lovesick for her groom. So it's really more about a wedding. And so when people hear about end times, unfortunately, so many teachers have made it into fear, they've made it ambiguous, they have created uncertainty with people I find that it's more about a wedding. And when you think about a wedding, I wasn't fearful of my wedding. I was actually quite excited about my wedding. And so I think that paradigm shift and the other thing I found out is this.

[Bryce Crawford]

Why?

[John Bevere]

Why? Well, the other thing, if you're running a race, okay, it's a 5k race, and when you run the fastest in that race, probably at the.

[Bryce Crawford]

Is it at the end, at the

[John Bevere]

very end, the last hundred meters, when you see the finish line? So this might be some of the wisdom behind why God has. It has. Has it spoken about so much by leaders in the early church as well as in scripture, is to always create an urgency within us.

[Bryce Crawford]

Out of. Out of the thousands of hours and the commentaries and the scriptures that you read, what was the most shocking Bible verse about the end times that you read?

[John Bevere]

I think Revelation 19, 7 and 8. The wedding of the lamb has come, and his bride has made her self ready. Doesn't say God made her ready. It said she made herself ready. How did she do it? To her, it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous and acts of the saints. So we're talking about our obedient actions. They literally create the material we make our wedding dress out of. Now think about this, because what was the number one thing a girl did to get ready for her wedding? Up to 200 years ago, there was no Vogue magazine, There was no bridal magazine. There were no bridal shops. She made her wedding dress. So when I look at my own wedding, I remember walking into that church. Now, Lisa had to leave me to go up to Indiana, her hometown, and get ready for the wedding two months before we got married. And she was working like 40 hours a week. I was amazed. I'd call her and she would be like, so many things going on. I'm like, man. And when I got up in that church, I was, like, blown away. The flowers, the. The runner, the beautiful arch that was there. I mean, I realized, oh, gosh, she's been working so hard. The beautiful bridesmaids dresses, everything like that. But nothing, nothing caught my attention as when she showed up at the back door with her dad. I mean, that dress. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I mean, I had never seen anything so gorgeous in my entire life. And I lost it. Can you imagine if, when I flew up there, she had an old wrinkled dress on, her hair was unkept, and she showed up at that back door that way. What would that say to me? This wedding Day is not very important to her. Might be right now, but it wasn't two months ago. We're preparing for a wedding now. If you're an unbeliever and you never want to serve Jesus, you're preparing for a war because he's going to come back as a warrior, and he's going to come back with 10 thousands and thousands of his saints on white horses. That's one aspect of the second Coming. But believers don't need to fear that when he comes back. For us believers, those who absolutely love him with all of our heart, mind, soul, body and strength, who have been victorious, who've laid our life down to serve Him, It's a wedding.

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[John Bevere]

And I wasn't dreading my wedding. I was excited about my wedding.

[Bryce Crawford]

Wow.

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[Bryce Crawford]

That's beautiful. When you know, I guess something that I really have a hard time with when it comes to the return of Christ is every generation always believes that they're the generation.

[John Bevere]

That's the way God wanted it.

[Bryce Crawford]

Interesting.

[John Bevere]

Yes.

[Bryce Crawford]

So do you think that our generation now we'll see the return of Christ?

[John Bevere]

I absolutely do, without a shadow of a doubt. And the reason is, Jesus said, assuredly, I say to you, that generation will not pass until all these things are fulfilled. And talking about all the signs of a second coming, one of the big signs that no other generation has had is Israel came back and took back their land and they became a nation. May 14, 1948. Then Jesus looks at them and says, hey, you didn't recognize the time of your visitation. And he said, jerusalem, you will be torn down and you will be ruled or trampled on by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled. Now, if you look at all the history, the last 1800 years, Jerusalem has been ruled by gentile nations. But in 1967, the Jewish people got it back. Now, that's a super sign right there. That is the biggest sign any. No generation has ever seen that before. And so if you look at that, Jesus said, the generation will not pass. Away. Now, what's a generation I went to, the one I really like is Nelson's Bible Dictionary. It says it's a given space of time that people live on Earth together. Because you see, generation in the Bible is sometimes it's 40 years, sometimes it's. It's sometimes actually 20 years, sometimes 40, sometimes 70, sometimes 100. I believe what Jesus is talking about is a generation of 100 years. And the reason is of. Of what that word, how that word is defined, and also in Bible Dictionary. So if you think about it, today, we still have one or we have a handful of people that served in World War II. So World War II was 1945. Right. They had to be at least 15, 20 years old to serve in it. So that would have brought it back to 1925. They were born. Well, it's 20, 26. So you see, it's 100 years. They're pushing 99, 100 years old, these few veterans that are left. So when I look at Jerusalem coming under Jewish rule, I take it 100 years, and I come to 2067. Now, I'm not going to make that my only. I'm not going to make that my only reference point. I want to look at other reference points. You want me to go deep? Because this is a little geek geeking out here.

[Bryce Crawford]

I want you to go deep.

[John Bevere]

Okay. If you look at Adam was created, roughly, we actually know the years. So there are some people, Bible scholars, that say it's 39, 25, but anyway, roughly 4,000 years before Jesus was born. Let's go with one of the figures that a Bible scholar, brilliant Bible scholar, he said 3000, 925. If you add 2000 years, you come to Abraham. You add 2000 years, you come to Jesus. All right. The early church fathers wrote this regularly. You see it in the Book of Enoch. You see Job writing about it in the Bible that mankind had 7,000 years on the earth. It was broken up into four ages. The first one's the age of Chaos or the age of Creation. That's Adam To Abraham, 2,000 years. Abraham to Jesus is 2,000 years. That's the age of the law. If you take 1925 at 2000. Excuse me, 49, 39, 25 at 2000 years, you're at 1925. Add another 2000 years, you're at where, 75. Now, what's interesting is the Essenes, who were the people that actually saw the corruption in the Jewish leadership, pulled away and started their own community 150 years before Jesus was born. The Essenes predicted to the week that Jesus would ride in Jerusalem on a donkey because they valued the word of God. And from the prophecies of Zechariah and Daniel, they were able to figure it out because they had the accurate ancient Jewish calendar they predicted to the weak. But these. The same people always said they were so skillful with the word of God. They're the ones that hid the scrolls in the caves of Qumran. Okay, so when we discovered the scrolls in 1948, we now start discovering about this. This community. Well, they said that the last 50 years of a. An age is when most prophecies are fulfilled. So let's just look at Jesus's. The last 50 years of the age of the law would have been from 25 AD to 75 AD, correct?

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Correct.

[John Bevere]

All right, Jesus is crucified in 32 or 33 AD, right in there. We know that for sure. Right. But when is the temple destroyed? 70 A.D. all right, the second temple is destroyed in 7280. So the law is over at 72 A.D. no more sacrifices. Hadn't been since. Are you seeing where I'm going right now?

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

So 3925, 19, 25, 75. Last 50 years, you have the. The resur. The crucifixion, the resurrection. Then you have the destruction of the temples. Okay, now you go another 2,000 years. Where are you at?

[Bryce Crawford]

2075.

[John Bevere]

2075. That corresponds with our 1967 plus 100 years. You're in the same ballpark because Jesus said we would know the generation, we would know the season, we would not. And I can't emphasize enough, know the day or the hour. Now why is 2075 so important? Because if you go to Hosea, Chapter 5 and 6, you see the most remarkable thing. Hosea said that God was going to rend and tear the Jewish people. That happened in 70 A.D. when Titus came in. Almost. They. Some. Some historians say 600,000 Jewish people were killed in Jerusalem when Titus destroyed its walls in 70 A.D. others say a million. Not only did they destroy the Jewish people, they were hiding their valuables, their coins, by swallowing them. When the Roman soldiers found out, they started disemboweling them. It was a slaughter. Oh, my gosh. They tore every single brick down. They tore every single block down on the wall because they heard the Jewish people were hiding valuable things inside the wall. So it's a massacre. And as a result of what the Romans did, and that went from 70 A.D. to 135 A.D. the last stronghold in Jerusalem was the Bar Kobara rebellion in 135. Every single Jewish person had been cast out of the land, either by murder, by selling, into slavery, or they got out before the Romans came. And eventually they were in every nation of the world. Now stop and think about it. They're in every nation of the world for over 1800 years, right? They keep the same language. They're speaking Hebrew today in Israel. They keep their traditions, they keep their religion. I mean it is a miracle. And God said this. I'm going to gather in Isaiah 11, I'm going to gather my people back from the nations of the world for the second time. First time, he gathered them back from Persia, Remember when Israel. Am I getting too geeky?

[Bryce Crawford]

No, no, keep going.

[John Bevere]

Okay, keep going. So now we look at this. They've been, they've been away from their nation for 1800 years. So God says in Hosea chapter 5, I'm going to tear and rend the Jewish people, all right? And then I'm going to return back to where I came from. Now this is God speaking. Last two verses of Hosea 5, I'm going to return back to where I came from. Well wait a minute. To return back to where you came from and you had to leave, go somewhere and then you go back. Jesus left the Father came to this earth, provided our salvation by his love, and went back to the Father. Then God says, after two days I will revive you. Now who's the you? He's talking about the Jewish people. Now what does Peter tell us never to forget? Because scoffers are going to come up in the last days. They're going to mock, where's the promise of his coming? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, everything remains the same as from the beginning of creation. Atheists don't call church fathers fathers. Atheists don't call creation creation. They call it evolution. Yeah, he's saying you're actually going to have people in the church that are going to be scoffing about the second coming of Jesus and they're going to say every generation is talked about talking about it in the 12th cent. People set dates. They're like, I was okay, I wasn't an all out mocker or scoffer, but I didn't want anything to do with it. Yeah, okay.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

So now Peter said, but you cannot forget this one thing. A day with the Lord's a thousand years and a thousand years is a day. In other words, one of God's days is a thousand of our years. So if you apply that to Hosea and you go 2,000 years from the 70, remember when he rendered them in 70? Right. You're at 20 70. Okay, so this perfectly correlates. Now listen to what he says. After two days, he'll revive us, the Jewish people. Do you know when the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled? Paul writes in Genesis 9. Or excuse me, what am I saying In Romans chapter 9, 10, 11, when the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled, all of Israel will be saved. Israel right now is one of the most corrupt nations in the Western world. I mean, seriously, they're having the LGBT big, big world conference there because they want to be the LGB capital, LGBT capital of the world. I mean, they are so far away from God right now in a lot of respects. But Paul said they're all going to be saved. And that excites me. But he said the time of the Gentiles is going to be fulfilled. Which means the time in which God turned his heart, his passion to predominantly the Gentiles will be fulfilled. Then all of Israel is going to be saved. If you look at the book of Hosea, it says they're going to look at the one that they pierced and they're going to realize they're his Messiah. But the Antichrist will rise up and he will kill 2/3 of the Jews. One third will go through the fire. It's all in the book of Zechariah. All this is there. It's pieced together. It's a little bit complex. That's why I'm a little concerned. I'm a little geeking out on you right now. But it's like a puzzle. Prophecy is like a puzzle. My kids have 100 piece puzzle, right? And it's a picture of Noah's Ark. If you put a couple pieces together, it looks like it's in the Arctic. If you put. Because you get two polar bears, you put a couple of pieces together, looks like it's in India because there's two tigers.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

You put a couple of pieces together, there's two panda bears, looks like it's China. But you put the whole thing together. You know, it's the Middle East. It's where the Noah's Ark was. And that's the way prophecy is. The reason people get in arguments is because they don't put in the time to really study out the Scripture, which this revelation is the only book in the Bible that says you're blessed by hearing these words, by reading these words and by preaching these words. There's a special blessing. So God loves it when his people inquire. If you look at the old prophets in First Peter, chapter one, it says they searched and inquired diligently to see what manner and what manner of time the Messiah would come. Now, I can say also the Essenes did that. And here are the Essenes that predict to the week that Messiah comes because they were so serious about seeking God and studying His Word. It's remarkable.

[Bryce Crawford]

So when you're, when you're pondering the return of Christ or for you personally, are you looking at what the Essenes are saying? Or, like, where. Where do you hold? Because I know you said, you know, 2067 here, 2070, 2078, 2075, I think. Are you just saying in that ballpark,

[John Bevere]

generally, anytime between now and 2075. But here's what's more important. Keeping my heart right. The only description of the church that Jesus is coming back for is a holy church. Now, holy doesn't mean legalism or being dull. C.S. lewis wrote how. How misguided people are who think holiness is dull. When you meet the real thing, you find out it's irresistible.

[Bryce Crawford]

Hey, guys, I want to take a quick second to talk about Liberty University. As a lot of you know, I just graduated from Liberty, and for me, it was about a lot more than getting a degree. It really shaped the way I think about my work, my ministry, and the calling that God has placed on my life. Education can do one of two things. It can just hand you information, or it can actually form you. And I'm grateful that my time at Liberty prepared me personally, professionally and spiritually for what God has me doing right now. So whether you're trying to grow in your career, step into ministry, or just get more equipped for wherever God is leading you, liberty is worth looking into. If you've been thinking about taking the next step in your education, go to Liberty. Edu Bryce to learn more. And when you use that link, Liberty will waive your registration fee. That's Liberty. Edu Bryce. All right, let's get back into it.

[John Bevere]

What I find is it's more important to be prepared. Here's what the Holy Spirit challenged me on. When I first started writing this, I was like, lord, I don't want to get this wrong. I really don't want to get this wrong. And he said, go back to the first coming. And the Holy Spirit asked me, he said, was there controversy? Yeah. Was there ambiguity? Yeah. Was there mockery? Yeah. All I see about a second coming, I saw the first coming he said, do people miss it on the first coming? I said, yeah. Did people get it right? Well, yeah, study it up. Because, you know, Winston Churchill said, what did he say? The House of Commons, 1948. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. So I went back and I thought, who got it wrong? And who got it right?

[Bryce Crawford]

Wow.

[John Bevere]

So who are the obvious ones that got it wrong?

[Bryce Crawford]

Pharisees.

[John Bevere]

Pharisees.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

But before we throw stones at the Pharisees, to become a Pharisee, you know what you had to do? Memorize the first five books of the Bible. I had to quote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy from memory in order to become a Pharisee. Wow. Can you imagine how many people would not be in ministry today if we had to quote Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and Acts from memory? So these guys are serious. Yeah, but they can't recognize the Son of God when he's 30 years old raising the dead. Okay, now let's look at the Essenes. Remember I said the Essenes broke away because the corruption in the spiritual Leadership of Israel 150 years before Jesus, they took the word of God seriously. A lot of Bible scholars believe John the Baptist was in a scene. He was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation. A lot of Bible scholars believe that Simeon was an Essene. Now let me set up Simeon. He's only found in one gospel, the Gospel of Luke. I want to set this up. You got this young couple. I mean, Joseph's probably your age, Mary's probably a late teens. They got a 40 day old baby and they come from another state. Okay, so we're in California right now. They come from Arizona, they come to Los Angeles where the temple is, right?

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

Now the temple is not like a cathedral. There's probably a cathedral somewhere in downtown LA that has about two people in it on a Wednesday. The Temple is not one building, it's buildings. Herod greatly enhanced it 40 years before Jesus came. There are multitudes of people in the temple area every single day. So here comes this virtually unknown couple with a 40 day old baby. They walk into the temple and this guy Simeon does a beeline right towards him, holds up the baby and cries out the Messiah. It freaks Mary out. Freaks her out. So here's a guy who recognizes Messiah when he's 40 days old. And here's the people that could quote the first five books of the Bible and they can't recognize him when he's 30 years old performing amazing miracles.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

What's different about this guy. Simeon had a relationship with the Holy Spirit, but we have one verse and one verse only, and that is Luke 2:25, where it says that Simeon was righteous, he was devout, and he was eagerly waiting for the coming of Messiah. All right, three things. Righteous. What does righteous mean? Means he acted out of his constitutionally just character. That's the formal definition. My definition is he took obeying God seriously. Okay, so he's not one of those people that are like, ah, yeah, you know, if I feel like it, I'll obey him. If I don't, I won't if it interferes with my schedule or just he really takes obeying God seriously. Number two, he was devout. The definition of devout is one who takes the word of God seriously. Here's another definition. He fears God. All right, number three, he's eagerly waiting for the coming of Messiah. He holds up that baby, blows Mary away. Anna, who has been praying for 80 years in the temple, comes up, takes the baby. She doesn't talk to everybody in the temple. She talks to everybody who are eagerly waiting. Now, both those Greek words are the same, okay? Him eagerly waiting and her speaking to the people that were eagerly waiting. Come to where Jesus tells us what to do to be prepared for a second coming. It's Luke, chapter 12. Jesus said, Stay dressed for service, keep your lamps burning, and you be like men who are eagerly waiting for the Messiah's return. The reason I say eagerly, he just said waiting. It's the same Greek word. So one of the things we are told to do is to be eager about his second coming because that keeps us in a place where we will recognize it. Living obedience to God keeps us in the place. And our fear of the Lord keeps us in the place of being ready.

[Bryce Crawford]

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[Bryce Crawford]

We talked a little Bit about Israel here. Israel became a Nation in 1948.

[John Bevere]

Right.

[Bryce Crawford]

Big deal. How important is that prophecy of Israel establishing itself as a nation according to the return of Christ?

[John Bevere]

Isn't it interesting that Isaiah writes 600 years before Jesus is born that God will gather them back to their land for the second time. Now they're in captivity or about to go into captivity when he writes this. We all know the first time they return back to their land returned had to been after Babylonian captivity and then the Persians.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yep.

[John Bevere]

But God says, I'm going to do it a second time. So when was the second time? It could be none other than 1948. And if you look now, God has been gathering the Jewish people from all over the world, every nation, and in almost like. Like drawing them where they don't even understand why at times back to their land. You look at all the Russian Jews that came back when the Wall fell in 1990, 1989, actually, and communism kind of started releasing people. Millions of Jews have come from Russia, they've come from America, They've come from almost every known nation in the world. That is a miracle. And the fact that they kept their customs all those generations. They kept their religion, they kept their language, and now today, they're a nation again. I don't think we understand the scope of that miracle. No nation has ever, ever done that before. Not even come close, not even a hundred years that we know of.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Wow.

[John Bevere]

So it's a miracle. And that's exactly what Jesus said. This is the fig tree. If you look at it, he says, when the fig tree begins to bud and Israel is. Is talked about as a fig tree by God in the Old Testament. But then he says, and all the trees, if you look at the Ottoman Empire when it broke up, you have Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, all of them are named. They have national trees. They all became nations between 1940 and 1960. So all the trees started budding. It wasn't just Israel, the fig tree, he says in Luke's Gospel, the fig tree and all the trees. So all those nations started forming between 1940 and 1960. It's miraculous. I mean, this is what causes God to stand apart from all other idols and false gods. He said, I am the one that tells you the end from the beginning. No other false God does that. What I say will come to pass. And we have watched it before. I say Bryce, because we don't talk about it enough. We don't realize how great of a miracle it actually is. It's remarkable.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah, that's Powerful when now, you know, you've referenced before how, when the end times happen that, you know, a lot of people's perspective of end times is just going to be pure chaos. But it's not going to be pure chaos. It's going to start out normal. What do you think is going to be? Well, I don't know. I guess I think I reflect on my own life and many times that I've been deceived over the years before being a Christian. Even moments as I've been sanctified in the Lord knowing man, I've been deceived here. I've been deceived here. The nastiest thing about deception is that you don't know you're being deceived when you're being deceived. So what do you think is going to be the biggest deception amongst the end times? If, when the end times occur, it's not going to be all this chaos, it's just going to be like an average Tuesday?

[John Bevere]

Well, first of all, you've made a very powerful statement. The scariest thing about deception is being deceived. Because the person who deceived believes with all their heart they're right, when in reality they're wrong. If you look at James tells us, obey the word of God. Don't just hear it. Deceiving your own self. That. That should be one of the most alarming statements in the whole Bible, that literally you will deceive yourself. If you look at Paul, he writes to Timothy, said in the last days, imposters are going to come and they're going to deceive and they themselves are going to be deceived. So not only are they going to deceive others, they themselves. Now, God sends strong delusions, we are told in Second Thessalonians. Why does he send strong delusions? Why does he turn them over to deception? It's not that he makes them deceive. He turns them over to what their nature will be without him. Does that make sense?

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[John Bevere]

Okay, so when Eve sins. Right. Okay, let's just take it back. Before I talk about that, let's go back to the garden. The garden needs to be talked about by everybody because we really get the understanding of how dangerous sin is. By looking at the garden, you got the two main trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

What is the Tree of Life? God is my creator. He is perfect love. Therefore he knows what makes me and he knows what breaks me. When you have kids someday, Let me tell you what Christmas is going to become to you. It's going to become a work day. Okay? All right. I have four sons. When they were toddlers, Christmas Day was a work day. They opened the gifts, and dad is building the gifts all day long. Now, I'm your typical guy. You know what I do? I rip open the box, throw the pieces on the floor, throw the box in the instruction manual over in the corner, and I build the toy. Spend an hour building a toy. I'm finished. But there's still five pieces on the floor. I hit the switch and it doesn't work. Now I'm. Who am I mad at? I'm mad at the manufacturer, right? How dare you sell me a defective toy on Christmas. I can't even call your 8 number, 800 number and complain. I mean, I'm. I'm. I've wasted an hour of my time. What do I do? Because it's Christmas day, I go find the instruction manual, deconstruct the toy, build it the way the guy who built it built it. And oh, my goodness, now I'm finished. And there's no five pieces. I hit the switch and it works. That's the tree of life. God is my creator. He knows what makes me. He knows what breaks me. What is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? It doesn't say. When she saw the tree was evil and it would make her wicked. When she saw the tree was good and it would make her wise. It's when she chose and he chose what was good for them outside of what God says.

[Bryce Crawford]

Wow.

[John Bevere]

I know. That's a big wow. Okay. I choose what's good for me. Now what happens? A nature comes in and that nature is called sin. Right. Now we just reduce it down to, hey, doing wrong and doing what God doesn't want. No, no, no, no, no. Sin is to go off the mark of God. Remember? Now God knows what makes me and breaks me. Yeah. So now what? I'm. I have a nature that when I'm drawn to, is the very thing that will destroy me. Not instantly, because it has pleasure at the instantly. It eventually leads me down the road of destruction. Are you seeing this?

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

So God comes along and says, I'm going to give you my laws. But we can't keep those laws for 2000 years. Well, yeah. Was it two. No, 1500 years. We can't keep those laws. It proved. Hey. Because of the nature we have, I will naturally gravitate to what will destroy me. God gives the law and the law is what is good for me. So we look at the law as restrictive. It constrains my life. It ruins my life. It dulls my life. No, it is actually what will give you longevity and a healthy life. But we have a nature now, I'm talking about before the cross, that we're going to gravitate to what actually is going to destroy me.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

Jesus comes, not only does he pay the price to free us from the penalty of sin, he pays the price to give us a brand new nature. Peter calls it the divine nature. So God literally puts a brand new spirit in us. Now, our spirit is drawn to what God says because we know it's ultimately what. What is best for me.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

So a person who's actually walking in fellowship with God knows I want what God says because it's good. It is what's ultimately good for me. Yeah. Wow. When I disobey the word of God repeatedly, I now become dilute. I have a strong delusion. I am deceived. Right?

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

Now, why are they deceived? Second Thessalonians, Paul tells us, in the last days, they're going to be so deceived. Why Paul? Because they didn't listen to this, love the truth. It's not that they didn't have the truth. It's that they didn't love the truth.

[Bryce Crawford]

Wow.

[John Bevere]

See, there's a lot of people that attend churches in America. They have the truth. But the question is, do you love it?

[Bryce Crawford]

Wow, that's strong.

[John Bevere]

Okay, now if you don't, you're so susceptible to being deceived. See, this is what sets Simeon apart from the Pharisees. He valued greatly the word of God. So the word of God is actually what will bring me life. You know, I was talking to my son on the way here this morning. He's got a friend that, like, is really fighting pornography and really, really horrific thoughts. And I said, you know, I said to him, I said, Jesus said, you'll know the truth, and the truth will make you free. He said, yeah, dad, I'm very familiar with. I said, it's the truth. It's the truth that makes you free. I said, but can we talk about the words before that? He said, what? Jesus said, if you continue in my word, you'll know the truth. He went, dad, I never realized that. I said, yeah, listen, Paul gathers the leaders of Ephesus at the place called Miletus. And these are the elders that he ordained in Ephesus. Now, Ephesus was the biggest church in Asia, okay? And Paul, he started that church. Yeah. He looks at these leaders in Acts 20 and he said, you will not see me again until heaven. Now, Bryce, think about it. These are guys you really care about. They're your sons in the faith and they are the leaders of the church.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

You can't text them, you can't email them. You can't pick up the phone and call them. If you write a letter to them, it takes six months. Do you understand what he's saying to them? You're not going to hear from me, words out of my mouth again until we're in heaven. You're not going to see me. I can't call you. I can't send an email. Boy, are you going to be careful on what you say to them. You're going to really think hard. You know what he said, the final words he said to them. And now, guys, I commend you to God. And I said to my son this morning, stop right there. That's where your generation stops. I commend you to God. I love God. I want to have a relationship with God. That's not all he said, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you your inheritance. I said, do you understand? You have a lot. You have, you have a friend that wants to be free, but he's not putting in the hours of spending time with God in His Word. Yeah, See, I find this is the thing. I've been in ministry for 43 years and I've had people say, gosh, you're, you're still so passionate about Jesus. You still love him so much. You're in your. You're in. You're going to be 67 in two months right there. How. How did you keep this fire? And I have to say, it's my time in the morning. There are two tennis there, there. Excuse me. There's six tennis courts two blocks away from my house. I'm usually out there every morning at 5am and then I open up my Bible. And if my sons were sitting here right now with you and me, and you said, hey, what's your dad's favorite book? They go the Bible. Because I've been reading it for 47 years. When I wrote this book, I saw things I'd never seen before in the New Testament. And I've been reading it for 47 years. So Paul says, I commend you to the word of his grace. And that word of his grace will build you up and give you an inheritance. So in essence, listen what the writer of Hebrews says. He said, we must pay very close attention. Okay, that right there. Hebrews, chapter four. Okay. We must pay very close attention to the word we've heard, lest we drift away. Okay. I grew up in Michigan. I grew up on White Lake, Michigan. Okay. I loved fishing. Sometimes you're out there, you're so excited about fishing, you forget to throw down the anchor. I'm fishing away, and 30 minutes, I look up and I don't even recognize where I'm at. I drifted. You never drift, knowing you're drifting. That should put a healthy fear in us, right?

[Listener/Additional Voice]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

Okay. We must pay very close attention. That's why I keep reading the Bible over and over again for 47 years. And I actually enjoy it because before I read that Bible, we have a teacher. And I always say, holy Spirit, I can't understand this book without your help. Even in being saved for 47 years, I still say, please, please, please open my eyes and teach me. That's why I've seen things this year that I've never seen before in scripture. You know, I made a post. I've got close to a million followers on Instagram, and I made a post, and it was. It was. It was in a bad post, but there were hurting people, and it could have made the hurt a little more. Didn't think it through.

[Listener/Additional Voice]

Right.

[John Bevere]

It was a bad move. And I make that post, and the next day I'm reading Second Peter or First Peter, one of the two. Has nothing to do with Instagram, has nothing to do with what I posted. But all of a sudden, I go, that post, I need to take that down. It doesn't do any good, and it could upset some people, and it's not about the truth of Scripture, and it could be taken wrong. And I pulled it down. Ten minutes later, my wife walks up, she's got a national leader on the phone. And the national leader was so respectful, said, john, we've used your books for all of our discipleship of leaders. We love your ministry, but the post you put up yesterday, it could really hurt some people. I said, before you go any further, I took it down 10 minutes ago. And she goes, what? I said, I took it down 10 minutes ago. I said, I was reading the Bible, and I. All of a sudden, I knew. See, if you look at chemical factories in the United States, there's a federal law. You know what the federal law states? You must have a gas detector in every room in a chemical plant. Why? Because you got all these toxic chemicals and you got to protect the people in case there's a chemical leak. All right?

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

So the number one manufacturer, at least when I looked this up a few years ago, number one manufacturer of these gas detectors is Hewitt Packard. So I went to their website and I pretended like I'm a technician who's calibrating, right?

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

Because the Holy Spirit spoke to me and he said, son, my people aren't calibrating. They're not calibrating. And I'm like, okay, calibrating. I have an engineering background. I'm like, I remember, but I really don't. So I thought calibrating, Calibrating gas detectors. Okay, So I go to the technician's page on how to calibrate. Yeah, the gas detectors. Yeah. Do you know what it said? Bryce, you're gonna flip out when you hear this. In bold letters. We strongly recommend that you calibrate these gas detectors every day because the atmosphere will corrupt them. Oh, my gosh. In bold letters. So then I start reading about how they calibrate. They have to take them into a clean air room, clean environment. They reset them, recalculate, calibrate them, and then put them back up every day. We need to go to that clean air environment. We're in a corrupt atmosphere, right? It says the atmosphere will corrupt them. We live in a world that is ruled by the prince of the power of the air. We live in a world that is ruled by Satan. Okay? The whole course of this world is according to his ways. It's contrary to the kingdom. So we got to go to a clean air room every morning and get into the word which is able to build us up and give us our inheritance and recalibrate so we don't drift away. Because you know what, when those things get out of calibration, nobody's going to know until somebody dies. You're not going to know until somebody falls over or gets really, really sick. So the person who's backsliding doesn't know they're backsliding.

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[John Bevere]

Are you backsliding right now? You look at somebody and they go, oh no. But 33 million Americans walked away from the faith between 2000 and 2020. 33 million Americans.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

Why? We stopped reading our Bibles and we stopped praying.

[Bryce Crawford]

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[John Bevere]

And you're a big part of it, Bryce. You got, you got. Your whole generation is. Can't wait to hear your next podcast because why? I've watched you. You're a preacher of the truth, but you care about people and see, it's that combination. I'm sorry I interrupted you, but I

[Bryce Crawford]

have no, you're good.

[John Bevere]

I want to brag on. Bryce. I see preachers who love truth and they veer off into legalism. I see preachers that love love, but they don't put enough emphasis on truth and they veer off into wokeism. We have to preach the truth, but do it with a loving heart. And you're doing it, and I'm so proud of you.

[Bryce Crawford]

Oh, well, thank you for saying that. I appreciate that. And thank you for everything that you've been doing and all the resources and the impact that you've been doing, and for bringing wisdom to us too, today. Thanks for saying that. Something I think about is you mentioned earlier, you avoided talking about the end times for 40 years, and you're one of the few people that I think are humble enough to admit that and started talking. There's a lot of people that are just still not talking. What do you think it costs the church when they stay silent about the end times?

[John Bevere]

It costs them being eagerly anticipating. Why is it one of the things that I saw in the Bible that I didn't realize until just the end of last year, in the beginning of this year, is how many times we're told to be eagerly waiting for the coming of Jesus. Corinthians 1:7. 1 Corinthians 1:7. Paul writes to the Corinthians, as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul writes to Timothy. He said, the crown is not only for me. He's talking about the crown of righteousness, but for everyone who is eagerly looking for his coming. Hebrews, chapter nine. Christ will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly looking for him. Okay. It's all over the New Testament. I was like, oh, my gosh. Just like Simeon. Right? Okay, so here's the question. Why is that so important? First, John, chapter three. John is the one who saw the entire book of Revelation, right? Yeah. He said when Christ comes first. John 3, 2 and 3. When Christ comes, we will see him as he is. And all who have this eager expectation listen to this. Will purify themselves even as he is pure. Oh my gosh. Wait a minute. Listen to this. Purify themselves doesn't say God's going to purify him. Does God purify us? Absolutely. But the Bible says that we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We have to cooperate with his grace to work what's done inside of us out. All who have this eager expectation purify themselves even as Jesus Christ is pure. Do you understand why God wanted to have every generation looking forward to the second coming? Even in the 12th century, even in the 14th. To give them the power to protect them from the forces of this world that will cause them to drift. Remember, you drift unknowingly away. That eager expectation gives you the power to walk away from pornography, walk away from substance abuse, walk away from divorcing your spouse for no reason at all, no biblical reason at all. Walk away from all the things that would allure us away. And with the information age, with the information doubling every 13 hours now, isn't that crazy?

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

Hours with all that we have available. The. The world has such a power to pull people away from the truth because of all we're putting in front of us every single day. I'm not saying stay away from it. I look, I keep my pulse on, but I want to make sure I'm more rooted in the word than I am what everybody's saying on Instagram.

[Bryce Crawford]

No, true, true. I mean, I think the hardest thing for me has been, you know, like for example, AI, which I'd love to hear your thoughts on too. You know, if, if you think that there's some correl with it, you know, I have a question there. But you know, I. AI is a cool tool, right? Because it's an instant robot. I can ask that thing a question, whether it's. What's the address here? Give me five recommendations. Tell me 10 things about John Bevere, you know, and it'll tell you spit it. But it's causing. I've been seeing a lot of my generation lose critical thinking skills and lean on like a robot. And so I think me personally, that's causing a lot of people to lose this anti anticipation and eagerness because I see the temptation. I mean, I'm Gen Z. It's like, I get it. Just in general, it can be hard to read your Bible. There's days you don't feel like reading your Bible. There's days that you don't feel like doing this, but then when you do it. I love what David Platt says. He says there's spoils, new spoils every day in the Word. And when I, I'm like, the same way as you were. Like, the thing that sets me up best in the morning for Bryce to be the best version of Bryce, to be the best child of God, is working out and Bible time in the morning. When Bryce gets those two things, I'm better husband, better friend, better everything. If Bryce doesn't get the Bible time and the workout, then I'm the worst version of Bryce. And, and so I think AI calibrate. Yeah, you gotta calibrate. I loved that analogy. That you just gotta. Because the atmosphere, it is real. So with AI, I mean, what are you seeing with AI? Do you think that AI plays big into the end times?

[John Bevere]

Yes, absolutely. But now I'm gonna say that, that with a caution. Don't go to the fact that it's evil, because I said it's going to play into the end times. I think it's a great tool. Like you said, it's got to be an assistant. It can never replace the Holy Spirit's leading. So you have to constantly ask yourself, is this something that I should be really more seeking out from the Holy Spirit? Like, I'll be honest with you. My Bible program has AI. I have 75,000 books in my Bible program. My AI will read all 75,000 books like that. Well, what does it give me? The tools. But then I'm looking for the holy or the research. Then I'm looking for the Holy Spirit to say, oh, focus in on that one.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

Like, I was getting ready to speak to my staff just recently, and I said, I want all the writings from my commentaries on what is evil. And I got, and, you know, I started looking at it and I, and I pulled parts out that I felt like the Holy Spirit was saying that, that, that. And I, I, I read it before we, because we do staff prayer every morning. We have 50 staff members here in the United States, and we do staff. We're all on zoom, we're praying. And I, you know, one person leads for about five minutes. And it was my day to lead, and I led. And my son, my oldest son, got so excited. He said, I actually just got the part of my message for this weekend in Colorado that I'm preaching that I was looking for. Oh, my gosh. And so I used AI as a tool.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yep.

[John Bevere]

But I depended on the Holy Spirit. For what am I going to share? Right. So I'll never, ever, ever write a book using AI. I'll use AI to do the research. When I did the Essenes.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

In this, I was asking my. Because my AI on my Bible program, they put walls up on it, so it can't go to chat GBT or Claude or any of the outside Y. It can only read the 75,000 books I have in my library. Okay, So I did the study on the Essenes. But Bryce, what happens is, every book I've written. This is number 25 or 24. Every book I've written, the Holy Spirit, I did. I didn't know one third to one half of what I wrote in every book the Holy. The Holy Spirit gave it as I was writing. I mean, there was one chapter in this book. It took me three days to find out what he was saying. I literally was stumped for three days. And I was at a standstill. And I said, lord, what's going on? And three days later, I went, oh, my gosh. And so I tell people, you know, one third of this book, I've never heard, never heard somebody preach, never thought of before in my life. I always say my name's on these books because I was the first guy to get to read them. I mean, if God can talk through a donkey, he can certainly write through a human being, right? So, you know, what do we have that God didn't give us?

[Bryce Crawford]

Right?

[John Bevere]

So why do we act as if he didn't give it to us? So that's why I get so excited when I'm writing. I mean, there's been times I've jumped up in my hotel room going, oh, my gosh, that is so good. And you'd see me, and you go, what an arrogant guy. I'm not being arrogant. I just read something I've never heard or seen before, and I'm so excited about it, I can hardly stand it. Right? That's the word of God. The word of God is such depth that you can read a book for 47 years and still love it.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah. Wow.

[John Bevere]

I heard one of the most famous evangelists on the planet in the end of the 1980s make a statement. He was speaking in front of a stadium of people, and he said, look, I've been reading my Bible for 40 years. It kind of gets old. And. And, you know, one year later, he fell from ministry because of immorality that he had been engaged in, that was undercover for a while. And I thought, okay, there's why the Bible became kind of a boring book to him. See, the only description of the church he's come back for is holy. Let's, let's, let's talk about that elephant in the room. Holy. What does that mean? It just means I'm completely his. Okay, let me give you an example. The Bible tells us to remain in fellowship with Jesus. And you know what it says?

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Says?

[John Bevere]

It says in First John, those who keep his commandments remain in fellowship. Okay. Now let's talk about. We talked about the law. The law proved that I could not keep his commandments. Even though they were what was best for me, my nature couldn't keep them. The New Covenant, it's totally different. We have the divine nature now. We have the ability to keep his commandments. But the question is, are we going to yield to our flesh or are we going to yield to our spirit? Right. All right. I've been married 44 years. I am more in love with Lisa than the day we married. And I say that honestly. Why don't I commit adultery against my wife? Why? Well, number one, I fear God. Number two, Lisa is a sharpshooter. She actually is a sharpshooter. And she told me she would make it painless. Okay. She's Sicilian, bro. Okay. She's a. She's a strong woman. Okay.

[Bryce Crawford]

I believe it.

[John Bevere]

She. She knocked her 14 point buck down. Knocked him down in his tracks. My 8 point buck ran and ran and ran. Somebody took us hunting, and I couldn't believe it. You know, she. She put the bull. She put the bullet in the bullseye that, that big. From 115 yards. I was all over the map. Anyway, enough said. What's the big reason I don't commit adultery? Because I don't ever want to lose those moments that her head's on the pillow and mine heads on the pillow. And she whispers intimate secrets from her heart that I've. She wouldn't tell anybody else.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

I don't ever want to lose those moments with this magnificent woman because if I sleep with a couple women in my neighborhood, that's the first thing that goes. I'm not. My head's not going to be in the pillow next to hers.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

And if I keep it up, I lose the marriage.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

Why don't I want to commit adultery against Jesus? Now, James makes it clear. You seek a relationship with the world. You make yourself an enemy with God because you're an adulterer. You're committing adultery against his son who died for you.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

Why Don't I commit adultery against Jesus because I don't want to ever lose those times that he whispers something in my heart that I've never ever known before.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

People ask me all the time, where did you. How did you come up with 24 books? That's. It's those. Those intimate times, and if you lose that,

[Bryce Crawford]

you start drifting and then the deception, and then it all. It all boils down.

[John Bevere]

That's what happens.

[Bryce Crawford]

So what you just said about people being an enemy of God. I love Dr. Frank Turek. He says, you either get justice or grace. And he's like, and I don't want justice. It's like for some reason, judgment, the judgment of God seems to be a sensitive topic within the church. Why doesn't the church talk about the judgment of God as much?

[John Bevere]

Think about it. What is going to put more butts in the seat on a Sunday morning when we talk about the inspiring aspects of scripture? We talk about the encouragement of scripture. But if you look at Paul, he says to Timothy, I charge you in the sight of God who will judge the living and the dead, preach the Word. And then he tells what the word of God will do. It will rebuke, it will convict, and it will encourage. Two out of three are corrective, he said, because the time will come, and we're in that time, that they will not endure sound teaching, but they'll find teachers who will tell them what their itching ears want to hear. All right. We are in a time period where I can build a church big and fast by using the inspiring and the encouraging only scriptures. If you look at Acts 20, he looks at those leaders. Let's go back there. We were there a little while ago. Paul looks at him and says, if anybody suffers eternal death, it's not my fault. Fault. New Living Translation. If anybody suffers eternal death, it's not my fault. Why isn't it your fault? Because I didn't hold back what was needed for your relationship with God. Listen to the word, hold back what I believe is getting us in trouble right now in the church in America. It's not what we're saying, it's what we're not saying.

[Bryce Crawford]

Wow.

[John Bevere]

So we're not. We're not. Okay, well, nobody talks about.

[Listener/Additional Voice]

I'm.

[John Bevere]

I'm going to go a little deeper into this. This is actually going to be my next podcast, and it's on my heart. So can I talk about it?

[Bryce Crawford]

Talk about it?

[John Bevere]

What's the foundation, the first foundation of our relationship with God? Okay. It's. It's a hard question, but I'm going to give you a hint. Think Hebrews 6. What's the first foundation? Okay, I don't want. I don't put you on the spot.

[Bryce Crawford]

Love. Would it be love?

[John Bevere]

No. The writer of Hebrews says in chapter six, verse one and two, let us leave the elementary teachings of Jesus and move past the foundational teachings. Foundational. And he lists them. There's six of them. The first one is repentance from dead works. The second one is faith in God. You know what he just said? You don't have true faith. You have a counterfeit faith if you don't have repentance. Now, we don't hear repentance talked about. Why? Because it's scary to people, because their lack of understanding. But let me. Let me go a little one step further before I talk about this word repentance. What was the first words out of John the Baptist's mouth? Repent. What was the first words out of Jesus mouth? Publicly? Matthew 4:17. Repent. Repent of your sins. Turn to God for the kingdom of heaven's at hand. When Jesus sent out his 12 and they went everywhere preaching, what did they preach?

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Everywhere.

[John Bevere]

That men should repent of their sins and turn to God. When Peter on the day of Pentecost has, thousands of people are saying, I want to get saved. I want to get saved. I want to get saved. What does he say? Repent. First word. What does Paul preach not only to the Jews, but to the Gentiles? Acts 20. Again, in Acts 26, I preached that men should repent of their sins, turn to God and bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. Okay, what is this word? Repent. So I'm in prayer one day and I said, God, it's so religious now because people made it legalistic. How do I share repentance in a way where it's not religious? Yeah, right. And he gave me the answer. Jesus is the groom, we are the bride, Right?

[Bryce Crawford]

Yep.

[John Bevere]

Okay. Paul makes a statement. Ephesians 5. A man shall leave his father and mother be joined to his wife. The two shall become one. But, you know, his next statement is, this is new living translation. This is actually an illustration of the way the church and Jesus went. So God gives us a living illustration that we see every day, how a man and woman are joined together. Right. Okay. Can you imagine? I'm not going to use you and your wife. I'm going to use a fictitious name. Matt. Matt has been dating Sarah and he's deeply in love with her. They've been dating for like two years.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yep.

[John Bevere]

Okay, so he knows she's the one, right? So he goes out and buys the ring, Plans the evening that moment comes, he gets down on one knee, opens up the ring box. Sarah, I love you with all my heart. Will you be my wife? She squeals with delight, Jumps up and down. Yes, yes, yes. This is the most exciting day in my life. She jumps into him, all fours, kissing him, like, this is so amazing. So they start talking about their married life, right? And she looks at him and she says, now, Matt, I dated Kevin in high school for two years. I'd like just maybe a night or two with him a year. And then Tony was my college beau and we dated three years. I'd like just a night or two with him. Now, Matt, you will be my favorite. You'll be my favorite. I love you more than Tony. I love you more than Kevin. You'll have me 360 nights a year. I just want, you know, three, four, five nights with those guys a year. Is there any guy in America that would say yes to that?

[Listener/Additional Voice]

No.

[John Bevere]

You're my favorite. I love you more than matter or more than Kevin or Tony. Nobody would say yes yet. I look at Jesus, our groom. How does he open up the little ring box? First of all, he leaves what we can only imagine right now with our mind. And he comes to this earth. And he is allowed to be tempted in every single sin. Yet he doesn't sin. And all points, he was tempted then. This is what I discovered when writing this book. The king is coming. He got turned over to the temple guard about nine o' clock at night. He stood in front of four squadrons of soldiers. First one was Annas. Second one was Caiaphas. Third one was Herod. Fourth one was Pilate. Three of the four beat him until they were physically exhausted. Isaiah actually prophesied 600 years earlier. They would beat him so severely, his face would be so disfigured from the beating, he wouldn't even look like a human being. Then they put these thorns in him. Those thorns literally pierced right into your skull. They were so. So blood's dripping down. They rip out his beard. They blindfold him while they're beating him too, by the way. Then he's in front of the Romans. And the Bible says that the captain of the guard calls all of them. They're all mad. This Passover is making me work double shifts. So they're really mad at this Jew and they start wailing on him until they're exhausted. Then Comes the scourging, which he is tied naked to a two foot tall stone and they shackle him in so he can't budge. I held a scourging whip. It was so sharp that it literally dug into my skin. Just the weight of it.

[Bryce Crawford]

Whoa.

[John Bevere]

You've got a left handed Roman and a right handed Roman and they're going wham, wham, wham, wham. And they don't do it 40 times, 39 times. The Jews did that, but not the Romans. They went until you went through the skin, the muscle and exposed the spine as well as the hip bones. Because he's naked and they're hitting him all down back there. Okay. Then he goes to the cross and they put the nail right where the median nerve is. And the median nerve is the most sensitive nerve in your entire body. Do you realize every time he pulls up to keep from suffocating, the pain is unbelievably excruciating? Our Creator knows he's going to go through that. And the Bible says he could have called for 12 legions of angels at any moment and he didn't because of the joy set before him. Who was the joy? His bride. Us. You, Bryce, me. We were the joy set before him. Now we think he's going to come back for a bride that says, let me, let me flirt with. Let me give my number two. Let me sleep with the very things that drove the nails in your hand. That is, is. That is deception to the max. If you never told a young girl if her friends, her parents, her teachers, never ever, ever told a girl, in order to get married, you have to break up with all old boyfriends. You can't date any new guys, you're done dating. If you never told her that. When Sarah looks at Matt and says, yeah, I just want a couple nights, you'll be my favorite, she thinks everything's fine. She doesn't think anything's wrong. What did our families teach us? What did our teachers teach us? What did society? It taught us you had to break up. Yeah, we don't preach that. See, that's repentance. When a girl walks down an aisle of a church with a white dress on, you know what she's saying? She's saying goodbye to 3.9 billion guys. This is the one and only guy I'm flirting with for the rest of my life. I'm giving my phone number to the rest, right? Yeah. If we never tell people, in order to receive Jesus, you have to break up with everything that drove the nails through his hands. We're going to think I could still look at pornography and love Jesus. I could still get plastered drunk three times a week and still love Jesus. It's okay, because my teachers have told me that. My teachers have never said it's wrong. My teachers have never told me that my behavior is actually going to destroy me. They're withholding from me that which will save me. He saved us. Don't get me wrong. We don't earn a relationship with Jesus. However, it never said that we couldn't go back into bondage. And that's what I mean by he didn't teach me what would. So that's why Paul says rebuke, correct with all authority.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah, yeah. So talking about those, the false teachers that teach the doctrine that itch the ears, what does a false teacher look like in 2026?

[John Bevere]

Not only he. He will avoid anything that will call us to holiness, to being set apart for Jesus, he or she, their lifestyle will be compromised. Their teaching will be a partial teaching. Partial truth can be just as dangerous. If we omit all the things that call us to be completely his, we are allowing people to just wander off and be sucked in by the world. I'm going to give you an example. Jude. Jude, Chapter four. Jude says, in the coming days, he said, and what's happening now? And in the last days, there will be people who creep into our churches unnoticed who say that God's marvelous grace allows us to live sinful lives. I have a staff member who went to a wedding six months ago. When he was at the wedding, he met one of the groomsmen. It was a big wedding party. Groomsman found out he worked for Lisa and I and Messenger International. He was so excited, the groomsmen, he was like, oh, my gosh, I love their ministry. So then the groomsman has to go back to where the groom is, the dressing room. And in there is the pastor officiating the wedding. And it's a big, big lots of groomsmen. I don't know how many I should ask them, but it was a big wedding party. And the pastor looks at him and goes, guys, have a great time tonight. It's all covered by grace. My team member told me later on that evening at the reception, that same young man was so plastered drunk, he couldn't even dance right anymore. He pulled him aside, got him sobered up, and said, what are you doing? And he said, the pastor told us what he told us, hey, tonight, have a great time. It's all covered by grace. That pastor crept in unnoticed, telling him that the grace of God allows him to live an immoral life.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

So in essence, a false teacher will lead you down a life of disobedience, whereas a. Here's. Here's what? Here's what a false prophet does. He'll draw you to himself. She'll draw you to themself. A true prophet will draw you to the heart of God. When you leave the meeting of a true prophet, you'll want to go seek Jesus more than you've ever wanted to seek him before, because he draws you to Jesus heart.

[Bryce Crawford]

Wow.

[John Bevere]

And doesn't compromise his word to do it.

[Bryce Crawford]

That's good. You mentioned the fear of the Lord earlier. You have one of these books here that you wrote specifically on the fear of the Lord. My favorite verse in all of scripture, if I could pick 1, is Psalm 25, verse 14. It says, the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear Him.

[John Bevere]

Him. With them he shares his secrets.

[Bryce Crawford]

What does a healthy fear of the Lord look like? Especially in an age that is either scared or eagerly waiting with all the buzz around the end times. What does a healthy fear of the Lord look like?

[John Bevere]

Well, first of all, let's say this. The fear of the Lord is not to be scared of God. It's actually being terrified of being away from God. If you look at Moses, Moses leads Israel out of Egypt. Right. Where's his destination? Sinai. Remember he said to Pharaoh seven times, thus saith the Lord, let my people go that might worship me in the desert. He didn't say, let my people go, that they can have their own land. Why do you want to bring them to their own land before you first bring them to the Promiser? If you bring them to the promised land before bringing the promise. Or they make the promised land into a place of idolatry. So Moses wants to go see, because I see something amazing about Moses. Moses had the most beautiful homes in the entire world he lived in. He could have anything he wanted. He could have any Ferrari in the collection.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

He could throw a party anytime he wanted. He leaves Egypt and he never once says, I want to go back. It was better for me. I look at Israel, who's abused by Egypt. Their kids are put to death. They leave Egypt and they're constantly saying, we want to go back. It was better for us in Egypt.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

Wow. What a difference. Why is that? Because Moses had one encounter with God at the bush. Israel had a chance, but they ran away. Because God looks at Moses in Exodus 19 and God says, Go down and tell all 3 million of them. The whole reason I delivered you out of Egypt was to bring you to me. I want you to be a kingdom of priests. Do you know what God said to all 3 million people? I want you to be able to approach me for yourself and for others. He wanted them all to be a kingdom of priests. So he said, moses, go down, tell them to get ready for the next two days anyway, because on the beginning of the third day, I'm going to come down in their sight. He comes down the third day, and the people all scream and run away.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

Moses makes this statement. He looks at the people. He says, do not fear, because God's come to test you. To see if his fear is in you. You. So that you may not say. Now wait a minute. Are you talking out of two sides of your mouth? Do not fear, because God's come to see if his fear is in you. He's saying, don't be scared of God because you can't have intimacy with somebody you're scared of.

[Bryce Crawford]

Wow, that's so good.

[John Bevere]

He said, don't be scared of God because God's come to see if his holy fear is in you. Do you know that the fear of the Lord was Jesus's delight? His delight? Isaiah 11:3. Shouldn't we delight in what he delights in? Do you know the fear of the Lord? The Bible says it's the fear of the Lord. By the power of the fear of the Lord that we work out our salvation. We mature our salvation. So what is the fear of the Lord? It's when we stand in awe of him. It's when we venerate him. That's a big word. We honor, esteem, respect him above everything or anyone else. When we. When we walk in holy fear, now we take his heart. And now we love what he loves and we hate. Yeah, listen to the word hate what he hates. Yeah. Bryce, you say God hates. Yes, God hates. There are several times in the scripture it says God hates things. Now I'm going to tell you who he doesn't hate, is people. You ever hear a religious person, a legalist, say, I fear God. That's why I hate those sinners. You don't fear God at all because you hate who he loves. God loves those sinners so much, he sent his son to die for them. Yeah. You actually hate who he loves. Don't tell me you fear God. You don't fear God. You're religious.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

Okay. You. You hate what he hates. You hate the sin that destroys the people he loves.

[Bryce Crawford]

That's good.

[John Bevere]

So I'm going to bring you back to when I was your age. I'm a young minister. I've walked away from a very, very high paying job as a mechanical engineer for a big corporation in America. And I'm working for my church. And now I'm, you know that I do that for four and a half years and then I'm a youth pastor for two years. And then we start Messenger International in 1990. The first year I'm out preaching, I'm going to these churches. And my words were hollow. Do you understand what I mean by hollow?

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

There wasn't any power in them.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

I mean, I'm preaching the Bible and I'm spending two hours a morning in prayer. And I'm like, I was frustrated. One day I said I didn't even want to go into ministry. I left an engineering job. I didn't even want to do this. And yet I go out and preach and my words are hollow. And I screamed this out, Bryce. I said, why isn't there a stronger anointing on my life? And the Holy Spirit spoke to me and he said, because you tolerate sin. I went, what? He said, you tolerate sin not only in your own life, but in other people's lives.

[Bryce Crawford]

Wow.

[John Bevere]

Then he said, read Hebrews 1. I remember I was in a church sanctuary. I was on a trip. I went and grabbed my Bible off the altar. Nobody was in the building. And I opened up to Hebrews 1. I started reading and I realized Hebrews 1 is when God the Father inaugurates Jesus as king of the universe. It's the day he's raised from the dead. And so God the Father looks at the Son in verse nine. Now listen to these words. Because you have loved righteousness. He said, stop right there. Every Christian loves righteousness. He said, but that's not all. I said, because you have loved righteousness and hated sin. Therefore God, even your God, has anointed you beyond your companions. I went, whoa. He said, you learn to hate sin the way I hate sin. You'll see the anointing of God increase upon your life. Wow. So powerful.

[Bryce Crawford]

I mean, combining everything we've really talked about today. End times, deception, fear of the Lord and everything thing. If Jesus were to return in the next 60 seconds, what would be your final warning or encouragement to people watching or listening?

[John Bevere]

He told a parable about 10 virgins.

[Bryce Crawford]

Oh, I love that parable.

[John Bevere]

They have light. He never said to agnostics, you're the light of the world. They are looking for the bridegroom. They're not harlots, they're virgins. Five were wise, five were foolish. That kept me up at night last year. Why didn't you say nine were wise? Why did you say five? I spoke to 10,000 people on being offended. 8,000 people responded. God's presence manifested so strong. And I remember after I was done, I walked over to where one of the other ministers was in that conference. Yeah. He looked at me with tears running down his face. He said, the Holy spirit told me 50% of the church is not ready for the return of Jesus. I was speaking at a church where a pastor was older than I am. I had a lot. I have a lot of respect for this pastor. He looked at me in the green room and he said, john, I was in prayer and God told me, 50% of the church is not ready for Jesus return. The only reason I repeat those two men's words is because the they exactly line up with what Jesus said. Five were wise, five were foolish. Paul said, don't let anyone fool you who tries to excuse sin. This is Ephesians 5. Don't let anyone fool you by excusing these sins. And he listed these sins, right? And he said, don't live as fools, but live as wise. So what he's saying is, don't allow somebody to fool you by telling you the grace of God gives you the permission to live an immoral life. We have so many today that because we're not warning and teaching. Paul said, to present every man in Christ, perfect, you have to warn and teach Colossians 1:27. Because we're not warning, we're not correcting, we're not rebuking. Remember, doing it with a heart of love. Because you're really, really distasteful if you rebuke and you don't love the person.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

The reason Jesus could speak to the Pharisees the way he did is because he was willing to die for them. When you're going to go correct somebody, you need to ask yourself, would I die for that person? If you're not willing to die for them, you don't need to be correcting them.

[Bryce Crawford]

Wow, that's so good.

[John Bevere]

Okay, so. But we're not correcting. We're not rebuking. I stood up in a man's church and I preached. I preached on First Corinthians 6. Don't let anyone fool you. Talking about foolish virgins, those that are immoral. I said, stop right there. I'm first on the list. I was bound to pornography at 11 years of age and I got free. I got married and I was in the ministry and I still wasn't free. I was bound to it. But on May 6, 1985, after a four day fast, I got set free. And I'm still free today. Thank God. That's a horrible, horrible bondage. And I said, I'm first on the list, so I'm not throwing stones. I said, those that are immoral, those that are adulterers, those that are homosexuals, those that are idolaters, those that are thieves. I started reading the list will not inherit the kingdom of God. And I remember the Supreme Court had just ruled on same sex marriage. So this is 2015. I'm preaching this. I'm in a 9,000 member church. The pastor was away and he called me, he called me, he said, don't. On the next services, don't talk about that, just let me talk about it. Well, I don't know that he did. But anyway, I said, okay, I'm a guest in your house. There's lots of other things for me to preach on. And my son was working the resource table. I was preaching on the book Killing Kryptonite that I wrote years ago. Two women walk up to the table to my son with tears coming down their eyes. So we've been in relationship for 20 years. In a lesbian relationship. I'm a policewoman. We need what that man said. Can we please have that book while the pastor tells me not to preach that.

[Bryce Crawford]

Wow.

[John Bevere]

Now, did I preach on it in the next three services? No, Because I'm in somebody else's house and there is a lot of other truth I can preach. Okay, but that is an example. If we don't talk about these hard things. I mean, I had a. I had a billionaire look at me. I was in his ranch and he said, why aren't preachers talking about the relevant subjects? Why is it all just inspiration? And what I learned, Bryce, is the stronger I preached it, the more the people your age loved it. Because the people your age got to know three things. This is the three things you have to know. And you correct me because I'm talking about you. I believe in what I'm preaching. I live what I'm preaching. And I really love you. If I have those three things, you guys will take it stronger than any. Any most people in my generation.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

If you know those three things.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah. Wow. Gosh, man, that's so crazy about the pastor. I praise God for everything you're doing. The plowing the ground, making people aware Sounding the alarm, encouraging people in the fear of the Lord. Would you just pray for everyone watching and listening that we can like sit and soak on it and allow, allow this message to drive us into deeper love with Jesus?

[John Bevere]

Absolutely.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah.

[John Bevere]

Please, so honor. You heard me talk about what a bride does in order to marry a groom. This doesn't mean you're perfect. When my wife married me, she wasn't perfect the first day, the first week, the first year, the first 50 years. But I'm going to tell you something. She never flirted with any guy. I've been halfway around the world and I know my the heart of her husband safely trusts in my wife because I'm her man. I'm not ask. Jesus is not asking for you to be perfect in behavior. He is just saying he wants to be. He wants to be all yours. That's repentance. Will you miss it? Yes. Have I missed it? Yes. We quickly confess it and say if I ever have the chance again, I'm not going to miss it.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

It.

[John Bevere]

So all I want you to do is make the decision that that bride makes. I want you to say, jesus, you're all mine. All mine. From this day forward, forever. You're my king, my lord, my groom, you're all mine and I'm all yours. So just say this with me. Dear Lord God, thank you for speaking to me in this podcast. I'm so deeply, deeply sorry for the way I have flirted with and engaged with the very things that drove the nails in your hands. I repent. Today I break up with those things. And this very moment, Jesus, I give you my spirit, I give you my soul, I give you my body. I give you everything I am. I give you everything I have. From this moment and forever, I am all yours. I'm your bride, I'm your girl. I'm your loyal subject. I want to be a friend to you. I receive you as my king and I look forward to your return as my bridegroom. And it's in Jesus name I pray. Amen.

[Bryce Crawford]

Amen.