David Reagan - Discerning Between Good and Evil with Terry James
We are living in a confusing time when we are being bombarded with assertions that long-held beliefs about almost everything is wrong and must be changed. And we are finding out that if we are unwilling to give in to the new so-called progressive viewpoints, we will be dismissed and marginalized as intolerant bigots. The Bible says that the end times will be characterized by widespread deception, and we have arrived. The consequence is that there is an overwhelming need for discernment. Stay tuned.
David Reagan: Greetings in the name of Jesus, our Blessed Hope, and welcome to Christ in Prophecy!
My colleague, Nathan Jones, and I have a very special guest with us today. His name is Terry James. Terry has been our guest before, and we have always been blessed by his appearance on this program. Despite his blindness, Terry is a prolific author of books about Bible prophecy. And how he does it is beyond me; I think it is due to a very special anointing that he has received from the Holy Spirit. Terry, welcome to Christ in Prophecy.
Terry James: Well, thank you Dave for those kind words. It is always a pleasure to be with you and Nathan, and Christ in Prophecy.
Nathan Jones: Well, it is so great to have you on Terry. Good to have you on.
Terry James: Thank you, nice to be here.
Nathan Jones: Well, I am glad that we can talk about your new book, Discerners. Now you created a book called Deceivers and now we’ve got the sequel here Discerners, can you tell us the difference between the two books?
Terry James: Deceivers of course are among us as Isaiah has alluded to many times, and we have talked about last year in our book, when we did a program, deceivers are everywhere we look, and all we have to do is look at the political process today to know that.
Nathan Jones: That’s for sure.
Terry James: But, I believe that the Lord gave me that book, I try to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. And I believe He gave me that book, and the previous book Discerners and I think this was a natural follow up in order to deal with all of this deception going on, Christians need to be discerners. And we’ve been equipped for that, God says, through the Holy Spirit, and if we apply ourselves and study, and prayer we can be discerners. Jesus got onto the of course the Pharisees and Sadducees for not being discerning for the time when He appeared as Messiah. Jesus is about to come again, so we need to be discerning about the times surrounding His coming again.
David Reagan: Terry on page 21 of your new book in the introduction that you wrote you made this comment, “This generation, is indeed raging toward a precipice beyond which lurks the black abyss of apocalypse.” That’s a mouthful. What do you mean by that?
Terry James: Well, that is really a mouthful isn’t it? But I tell you.
Nathan Jones: So, creative, though.
Terry James: Yeah, but all you had to is look around and see what is going on today, just in America itself now, I know we have a worldwide problem too, but there seeming to be an anti-God mindset. Everybody is turning on God it looks like, in Christianity in particular. And I think we are living in Romans chapter 1, and I think God is in the process of maybe abandonment as a judgment. So, I think that is where we are at right now.
David Reagan: You also say on page 29, “Thinking in our generation has become so reprobate, that evil is now called good, and good is now called evil.” Could you give us some examples of that?
Terry James: Yeah, I can. Whenever just in the fact that they are trying to change all of the order that God put in place; trying to change even the order of man. You know we can be any gender that we want to now, we don’t have to go by our birth certificate. God is wrong in that. And what God has said good, man calls bad. We down Christians today in this society and culture for just simply putting out the Gospel, the Good News, the good news that is contained within God’s Word, and they call it hate speech. So, this is just a couple of example I think.
David Reagan: You could add many more like same-sex marriage.
Terry James: Yeah, exactly.
David Reagan: And abortion. Things that were unthinkable in this society just 20-25 years ago are now called good, and before for years, called evil.
Terry James: That’s right.
Nathan Jones: Not only is it supported, but it has to be celebrated, and if you are not celebrating evil, then you are not supporting it and you are a hater.
David Reagan: That is a very good point because when I was growing up tolerance meant that you just simply tolerated somebody who disagreed with you. But not any longer. Tolerance has been redefined; if you just accept them that is enough, tolerance means you must endorse them. And if you don’t endorse their evil, then you are a homophobe, or you are whatever. They have all kinds of names they call.
Nathan Jones: Yeah, to shame you into changing your mind. How many actors, Mario Lopez came out recently and supported conservative values, and immediately the progressive movement descended upon him, so much so that he was worried about losing his career and had to retract his statement. He was shamed for supporting something that was pro-family. Well, what about all this fake news that is going? President Trump has kind of coined the term fake news, we have fake news all over the place. Now, how can a Christian be discerning when there is so much deception out there?
Terry James: And they don’t want any sermons on the college campus, I mean they call it hate speech. They are trying to do away with the First Amendment on college campuses.
David Reagan: And college campuses should be the one place, of all places where all viewpoints are open, but not today.
Terry James: That’s right.
Nathan Jones: It is indoctrination instead.
David Reagan: Yeah, today it is no longer education, it is indoctrination.
Terry James: It’s the place for debate. And that is because this culture war has come to the reprobate mind of Romans 1:28, when you have a reprobate mindset.
David Reagan: Well I think your reference to Romans 1 is really good, because I believe that’s where we are. Romans 1 says that when a nation sets it jaw against God, revolts against God, and refuses to repent God will send remedial judgments. He will send prophetic voices. But if they refuse to repent it says He steps back and lowers the hedge of protection, and what’s the first thing that happens? A sexual revolution. Then it says if there is no repentance He steps back a second time and lowers the hedge of protection. And what happens? An outbreak of a plague of homosexuality. Then it says if there is no repentance He steps back the third and final time and deliverers the society over to a reprobate mind.
Terry James: Abandonment, yes.
David Reagan: Yeah.
Terry James: And judgment, and abandonment, yeah.
David Reagan: He just steps back and says, Okay, you want to live in a filthy nest? You can live in a filthy nest. And He lets evil takes its course.
Terry James: And there is one thing standing between that and taking over totally right now and that is the Holy Spirit’s, holding back evil, and the Church of course is resident here.
Nathan Jones: Would you say the Church and the Holy Spirit then is what is restraining the evil of this day?
Terry James: Restraining the evil, yes. I think that is where we are right now. That’s the reason they haven’t completely taken over.
David Reagan: Well, let’s go back to a point that you just made and elaborate on it a little bit, and that is when it comes to moral issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, those kinds of issues, how is a Christian to discern what is the correct viewpoint? How do they discern that?
Terry James: Well, of course it is just to stay in the Word of God, and to pray, and to try to understand what God is saying to us as a Christian, as a person who should be following His will.
David Reagan: And that’s the problem we have today. The average Christian does not know the Word of God. Isn’t it amazing how fast evangelical Christians have accepted same-sex marriage? When it is a direct violation of God’s Word. But they don’t know the Word anymore. We have a famine of the Word in this nation. People go to church and they hear little fuddy-duddy sermons about how to make yourself feel better, how to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. How to think positively, and they don’t hear the Word of God.
Terry James: That’s true.
Nathan Jones: Do you think that’s what’s fueling the culture war today? I mean it seems like our country is starting to split into two; we have kind of the conservative and a Christian on one side, and we have the new progressive movement that has taken over the Democratic party on the other. Where do you see that going, and how can Christians be discerning during that?
Terry James: Well, again we go back to prayer, and Bible reading, understanding what God’s Word has to say. And then you have to have a desire to get away from that culture, in the sense that you are not participating in it, and the sins of it. And too many Christians find it easy to just simply, we call it tolerance I guess in some ways, but they try to tolerate the lifestyle by just not opposing it. We don’t have enough opposition in our pulpits for one thing too, that is what is going on.
David Reagan: Yeah, Don Wildmon has often stated, you know he is head of the American Family Association, he’s often stated that the fundamental problem with this nation is that we’ve got 300,000 silent pulpits.
Terry James: Exactly.
David Reagan: That the people will not speak out, they will not speak out the ministers, against evil because they are afraid that they’ll step on somebody’s toes who is influential in the congregation or whatever.
Terry James: Exactly.
David Reagan: I was talking to Don Wildmon one time, I mean there’s a man who stepped out when God called him and he spoke out against evil in movies, and television and whatsoever. And he said, David, my greatest critics are pastors. I said, What?! He said, Yes. He said, I get nasty letters from pastors all the time saying, ‘You’re knocking your head against the wall, why don’t you just throw in the towel? You started in the 1970’s it is a hundred times worse today. You are not winning.’ And you know what he said to me? He said, I write them back and I say, ‘God didn’t call me to win. God called me to stand. We are not going to win until Jesus Christ returns, but we’ve got to stand.’
Terry James: Amen.
David Reagan: I mean if we don’t speak out, we are called to be salt and light, if we don’t speak out nobody is going to speak out.
Terry James: That’s right Ephesians 6:12, and then surrounding scriptures, We wrestle against powers and principalities, and high places, trying to destroy the whole culture, direct humanity is.
David Reagan: And of course, the reason we have a culture war today, the fundamental reason a cultural war is going on is because this nation is rejecting Christianity. I was looking at the statistics yesterday and they were just enough to make you want to cry. The latest Pew Poll Research, the PEW organization research center that focuses on religion, their latest poll shows that only about 64% of Americans claim to be Christians. Ten years ago, it was 77%. In the 1950’s when I was growing up it was over 85%. So, we’ve gone from 85% to 77% to 64% and the greatest increase has been among atheists, agnostics, and nones; 26% of Americans on the last poll said they were either atheists, agnostics, or nones; nones meaning they have no religion whatsoever.
Nathan Jones: Not Catholics nuns.
David Reagan: And 64% who say they are Christians how many of those are not Christians at all? They just claim to be Christians, but they have never been born again. And if you ask them, Why are you a Christian? Well, I was born into a Christian family. I go to church, or whatever. What are you going to say when you stand before the Lord? Well, I am going to say I lived a pretty good life.
Nathan Jones: Barna didn’t they say that 9% of professing Christians are actually evangelical with their Christian worldview.
David Reagan: Well, it was 9% of the entire population has a biblical worldview, and only 17% of those who claim to be Christians have a biblical worldview. There are evangelicals who say that Jesus sinned. That Satan does not exist. And they claim to be evangelicals. So, we’ve lost the Word of God in this nation.
Terry James: We are sometimes asked that question: How many people are actually going to be raptured? I’ve heard that question asked a lot of time. Well, we see is maybe a diminishing number here as we go further and further.
David Reagan: Well when the Rapture occurs I guarantee you there is going to be a lot of churches meeting the next Sunday with the pastor in the pulpit giving some sort of New Age explanation of UFO’s or whatever as an explanation of the Rapture itself.
Terry James: I believe that, yes.
Part 2
Nathan Jones: Welcome back to Christ in Prophecy and our interview with Terry James who is the editor of a new book called, Discerners. Well, Terry you have 16 chapters written by 16 authors, I’m curious about your process. How did you choose the topics, and the clever titles by the way, and the authors to write them?
Terry James: Well, again I try to depend on the Holy Spirit, and go to Him in prayer before I even think about a project. And He has always been faithful to bring me authors who I believe He has prepared their hearts for the books. And Deceivers was the first one, and this is a natural follow-up the Discerners book. And so, I first of all pray about it. And I’ve never had one yet refuse, well not very many, I’ve had a few, not many though, refuse to.
Nathan Jones: Oh, it is a great honor.
Terry James: Well, I don’t know about that, but it gives you kind of a hesitation to call them because you don’t know how it is going to go. But that is the way I do it. I usually just pray about it, and then I get on the phone usually with them like I did with you guys or through e-mail and that is the way it develops. And it has always worked out. I’ve done I don’t know how many books now, probably I’ve done 20 books of this sort which we call–
Nathan Jones: A collaborative?
Terry James: A collaborative effort, yeah. Just a number of authors in these books and it is a joint effort.
Nathan Jones: That’s what I like about the books too because you get so many different styles of writing in them, so it is really creative to have all the different types of views and talents.
Terry James: Oh, it is. And you learn so much too. As a general editor, as I term myself on these books, you learn so much. So, it is quite an experience and I’ve enjoyed every one of them. And God has been very good to us.
David Reagan: The one that I enjoyed the most was Don McGee, who lives down near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and we call him the Rajin’ Cajun, and he’s a great guy. But he has a really excellent chapter in here titled, Escalating Evil Seducers. And in that chapter his thesis is that humanism is being fueled by the exponential increase in knowledge that is going on through the internet. And he said that has given people the illusion that because they have so much knowledge available that they don’t need God anymore, man can do it on his own. Any comments about that chapter?
Terry James: Well, I think that is exactly what’s happening. Man is getting further and further away from God because he thinks he is the answer to his own problems, and they need no deities to rule over them. That is kind of what Psalm chapter 2 says Let us break their bands asunder. And that is kind of where we are as a generation. And Don’s chapter was a great one. And Nathan a while ago was asking me how I plan these chapter, well, I think the Lord gave me the foresight I guess you say to ask Don to write on this particular topic. Just like the other titles you asked me how I put them together, well that is the same way I do it, whether it is Don’s chapter or Descending Dark Delusions with Jeff Kinley, or Dave’s on God’s Cosmic Teddy Bear chapter or whatever, that is the way I do it. And Don, I think really hit the nail on the head because we see what has happened ever since evolution has become more or less the model, and man has taken over, God has been ferreted out of the society and culture. So, I think that Don’s chapter is one of the finest.
Nathan Jones: Well, you talked about an exponential increase in evil and that kind of goes along with Larry Spargimino’s, Perilous Times Prophecy Beyond Amazing. And he’s talking about all these signs coming into this word, convergence. Maybe you can tell us a little about convergence.
Terry James: We talk about convergence a lot. I know Dave has talked about it. And I’ve talked about it and written about in books and so forth. Of course, convergence is all these signs coming together at once. Larry’s chapter, the very first chapter, I think speaks to what Paul’s perilous times was all about, and that gives us characteristics of end time man. And also, he throws in at the same time current issues and events that more or less shows where we are in God’s prophetic timeline. It is a very timely chapter, and one that again I think the Lord gave us to put in this book.
David Reagan: You know Terry every time you come out with a new book one of the things I am most interested in, the first thing I do is I look to see what the chapter titles are. You used to be in marketing right?
Terry James: Advertising, yes.
David Reagan: Before you had your blindness you were in marketing, ok. Well, I can feel that when I look at your titles because you come up with such fascinating, interesting, titillating titles. And, Nathan’s, I’m sure you came up with this title it says, Daniel’s Last Days To and Fro Frenzy, is the title you gave to Nathan’s.
Nathan Jones: I was a little worried when he gave it to me to, I am like what is he talking about? But Terry–
David Reagan: Well, tell us about it, Nathan.
Nathan Jones: Well, you wanted me to, well he was talking about different signs, all these categories of signs eventually going into convergence, they are all happening at once. And so, one of the categories of signs is the end time signs of technology. I don’t know everyone always wants me to talk about technology, I wonder why? And what it is, is the different categories of signs that relate to technology foretold in the Bible. Like take for instance the mark of the beast. How does the mark of the beast work? And so, we have different technologies today; ecommerce and satellite, and computers where someone could just turn off someone’s credit or turn off their bank account and then they would starve. And that’s what the Antichrist does. Or the fact that the whole world sees the two witnesses when they are killed and then resurrected. Well how could the whole world see it unless we have television, and mobile phones, and satellite technology? And I go through nine different signs. And then conclude with some of the technologies that are funny that are past now because you know technology is on an exponential curve, it is getting better and better. So, thanks for letting me write about that. I had a lot of fun writing about that.
Terry James: Terrific chapter. Just fantastic.
Nathan Jones: Well, praise the Lord.
Terry James: I’ve had a lot of feedback on that chapter, good feedback.
Nathan Jones: Well, you wrote a chapter you ended the book with a chapter about the wrath of God. Why did you feel the need to end it?
David Reagan: No, that was mine.
Terry James: And that was his title.
Nathan Jones: Oh, that was your chapter.
David Reagan: Are you trying to give my chapter to him?
Nathan Jones: That’s right.
Terry James: That was his own title, yes.
Nathan Jones: Sorry about that Dave, yes, that was your chapter.
David Reagan: That is like when I steal your lines on TV, you know.
Nathan Jones: Cosmic Teddy Bears don’t make me think of wrath of God. Can you explain then what the cosmic teddy bear has to do with it?
David Reagan: Well, yeah, the title he gave that chapter is God’s Wrath? The Effort to Convert God into a Cosmic Teddy Bear.
Nathan Jones: Yes.
David Reagan: Only Terry could come with the title.
Nathan Jones: Yes.
David Reagan: Well, basically he wraps it up in the title. I pointed out that we hear so much preaching today about the love of God, and that’s important, I mean God is a God of love. But we just never hear anything about the wrath of God. And whenever I mention the wrath of God people go berserk. I mean they really go berserk. I preached at a large church in Arlington, Texas and talked about how Hurricane Katrina was a remedial judgment of God on this nation for the way we were treating Israel, it came at the time we were forcing them out of Gaza. When they were getting ready to have the annual homosexual festival in New Orleans, and this was God’s wrath. And the pastor there got so upset he said, I’ll never have you at this church again. The God that I worship is not a God of wrath; He is a God of love. The God of wrath is the Old Testament God; the God of love is the New Testament God, the God of grace and love. And I find this, I run into this over, and over, and over and you know this is a denial of one of the fundamental things that the Bible teaches, that God is immutable; He never changes. The God of the Old Testament is a God of grace, and He’s also a God of wrath. And the God of the New Testament is a God of grace, but He is also a God of wrath. And in fact, one time I was on a radio interview with a guy from Oklahoma and the guys asked me, Well, tell me about your ministry? And I said, Well, our ministry is here to proclaim that we are living in the season of the Lord’s return. We don’t know the date, but we are living in the season. It is like a two-edged sword the message for the believer is commit your life to holiness and commit your life to evangelism because Jesus is coming soon. And the message for the unbeliever is flee from the wrath that is to come by fleeing into the loving arms of Jesus right now. And he said, What do you mean the wrath to come? And I said, Well, Jesus is going to return in wrath. He is going to pour out the wrath of God upon those who have rejected the grace, mercy, and love of God. He said, Your God is a monster, and hung up. And that was it. You know I would have read to him from the book of Revelation where Jesus tells one of those seven churches, You know, you either get your act together or I’m going to do this, and this, and this to you. In fact, he said, My God is Jesus he would never hurt a fly.
Nathan Jones: Is that where, Terry, you get this cosmic Teddy Bear? It’s a God who would never hurt a fly?
Terry James: Yeah, I think most people think God is a cosmic Teddy Bear.
Nathan Jones: Okay.
David Reagan: Yeah. He’s going to wink at sin. And He’s going to say, Well, you know you didn’t ever accept my Son as your Lord and savior, but you lived a life a whole lot better than you next door neighbor, so you come on into My kingdom.
Nathan Jones: I had an encounter like that recently. I was getting a haircut by a woman, and she revealed she was a lesbian. And we started talking about the Bible and all and I said, Well, where do you see yourself when you die? She said, Well, I’ll go to heaven. I said, Well, have you accepted Jesus as your savior? She said, Well, I don’t need to do that. When I get there God will look at all the good stuff I’ve done, and He’ll let me in. It’s not a problem. I said, Will you beat your eternity on that? And she was silent.
David Reagan: Terry I thought two of the best chapters in the book were the ones that were written by Daymond Duck and Tom Hughes. They went together. I mean one is talking about the final world empire, and the other one is talking about a final world religion. Tell us about those two chapters.
Terry James: Yeah, chapters 5 and 6 Daymond Duck wrote a chapter, he is a great one to talk about, and he studies a lot and done a lot of things on the coming new world order, how the UN fits into all of it, and all this kind of thing. The building up of the Antichrist platform for the Antichrist to come on the scene, and Daymond did a great job in that chapter. He talks about in Daniel chapters 7, 11, chapter 9, and chapter 2 and so forth about Nebuchadnezzar’s dream all the way up through the current, I think the current state of things, and where the European Union may very well be kind of a platform for the Antichrist to launch from. He goes into great detail. And again bringing in issues and events, and news reports to make the book, quite understandable of what is happening and what is going to happen in the near future according to what God’s Word says; not according to what Daymond Duck says, but according to what God’s Word says. And again, from the religious standpoint, and the building of the Antichrist platform to launch His regime, Tom Hughes wrote on religion and how its being used to put everything in a system that is anything but biblical, and it is anti-Christianity in almost every sense. Even the Catholic Pope and so forth, and all the things he’s proclaimed. Just lately he’s proclaimed that Jesus did not rise bodily, He rose in spirit and appeared as a body to those who saw Him for a time and then He disappeared.
Nathan Jones: Well people used to ask if the pope was Catholic? That doesn’t mean anything anymore now does it?
Terry James: They even consider him to be heretical. Tom covers these things. And all of the imaginations that go on with trying to form this one world religion, and certainly we see a lot of those things happening today.
David Reagan: Well, these two authors are really exemplary of the fine authors that you have in this book. Because Tom Hughes is one that we’ve had on this program a couple of times he is an outstanding teacher on Bible prophecy. And Daymond Duck, wow. When I don’t understand something in Bible prophecy I call Daymond. And Daymond starts, he says, Well, I’ll send you a little note on it. He sends me five pages of scriptures and all. And we’ve got Daymond coming up to be interviewed on this program very soon. So, you really have some outstanding authors in here and we compliment you on the fact that you were able to get all of this together.
Terry James: I appreciate each and every one of you.
Closing
Nathan Jones: Welcome back to Christ in Prophecy and our interview with Terry James who is the editor of a new book called, Discerners. Hey, Terry if someone wants to purchase this book where do they go?
Terry James: Go to our website: raptureready.com and go to the link and it will take you and give you details of the book, and place to order.
David Reagan: Well, thank you, Terry for being on the program today. It is always a blessing to have you.
Terry James: Thank you, sir.
David Reagan: Folks, that is our program for this week. I hope it’s been a blessing to you, I’m sure it has. Until next week, the Lord willing, this is Dave Reagan saying, Look up, be watchful, for our redemption is drawing near.