Concerning The Times

Living for Jesus in a World That Calls Evil Good and Good Evil

• Season 3 • Episode 9

Share episode

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil! When Isaiah spoke these words, he warned the people of his day about moral and spiritual blindness. Here we are, nearly three millennia later, and not only is most of humanity in a moral free-fall, but it’s normal for evil to be called good and good called evil. Let’s explore the personal implications and how we should respond to a world full of people who think true Christians are the bad guys.

Read the article in Concerning The Times.

Here is the link to the Bono interview on The Joe Rogan Experience.

Text us for prayer, comments, or ministry questions.

Connect with us at: concerningthetimes.com

Concerning The Times


Bono:     Like I had grown up with a couple of, more than a few bumps with evangelicals. You know, was like, whoop.

Howard:    Hello friends. Welcome to concerning the times again. I'm Howard Green. So great to be with you today. I know it's been a few weeks, but we're back and I've got a great topic to discuss today. You're joining us by YouTube. Glad you're here in my podcast. Glad you're here also. Let's get started.

You think about the times we're living in. We're living in a day when people are calling evil good and calling good evil. It's never said that way. It's never explained that way. But let me read something to you out of Isaiah 5 20. And here it is. This is the word of the Lord. He says, woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Then he goes on who put darkness for light.

and light for darkness and bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter and woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight. but let's go back to the meat of the matter when Isaiah speaking and he said, woe to those who call evil good and good evil. And wow, I mean, aren't we living in that time? Now, this was obviously contextually speaking back in ancient Israel and they had some of the same problems then.

But doesn't it seem like as we get closer to the close of history, to the end of the age, or at a time when a lot of people are through their life, through their words, through the way they live, through who they're angry at, who they agree with, who they disagree with, I would actually go out and live and say, I think a majority of the population on this planet somehow, some way, through many ways actually, are calling evil good and good evil. Let me explain. Because of virtue signaling,

wokeness and skewed morality. I mean, we could blame a lot of people for stoking this calling evil good and good evil. mean, look, as I was thinking about this, as I wrote my article recently, I was thinking we could blame CNN. We could blame MSNBC. We could blame Sky News, the BBC, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter. I guess it's called X now fill in the blank, right? Because people can be whipped into a frenzy.

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (02:27.342)
and the things you think about your feed on social media or think about the news programs you watch. You can have a certain narrative and think a certain way or go the other direction, right? But the Bible's the standard of truth, not our opinions and not our good feelings or our bad feelings. The Bible, this book right here is the standard of truth. And here's the problem. Isaiah said it and it was happening back then, but it's it's crescendoing now, a much more accelerated degree that people are calling evil, good and good evil.

When I think of the world and I mean, not just the planet, not just the people, it's a big part of it, but this world system, I think of a mob of mentality. You see, it's easy to whip up a mob and get them excited about certain things and get people on your side and turn them, turn them loose on the other side. And aren't we seeing that today? I mean, in many ways, and I don't want to go into details at this point in the podcast or video, but you could think of the groups and the people and the

situations on the planet now that I'm talking about. You can whip mobs into frenzies, but see, here's the thing. We can blame the media, the big media, we can blame social media, but mobs are always made up of individuals, Individual people. people, these people have hearts, they have their own minds, and they have volition. They have the will to decide what's right and what's wrong. And here's the thing, if you cross the mob,

And if you don't agree with what the mob says is right and wrong and what is good and evil, you're the enemy. You're the enemy. Thinking about the world system, the people in the world and this mob mentality, these individuals, like I said, they have a choice to make. And the choice is this. Do I look at Christians? Do I look at people of faith, namely evangelical Christians? Do we look at these evangelical Christians with a objective eye?

Do I weigh the evidence and the truth and make my determination on these Christians based on the evidence and truth? Or do I believe what the mob says about them and just work myself into a frenzy and say evangelical bad, Christian bad, you everyone else open-minded and good? That's exactly what's happening. And the problem with the mob, with the world mentality is they can take the narrative and push it on otherwise respectable people.

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (04:49.909)
And I would even say decent people in the world, your average Joe and Jane, and whip them into a frenzy and lie to them and create this false narrative about certain groups of people, whip them into a frenzy and they're just against whatever they're against. And here's the thing, the mob has a lot of enemies, a lot of big enemies list, but one of their biggest enemies are Christians and namely evangelical Christians. So it's easy for the mob.

to turn a large segment of the populace against certain people, namely evangelical Christians. I mean, I was talking to, and I'll tell you, listen, I was talking to my son the other night, we were having dinner at a local burger restaurant. And I asked him, said, so you think about all the things that I've preached about and talked about and written about, what are the pressing topics you would like me to discuss? And he actually said, you know, I got to tell you, Howard, it's this, and he didn't say it quite this way, I'm paraphrasing, but he said it, this mob mentality against,

He goes, this is, this is a 20 something young college age guy. And he said, just seems like a lot of these, a lot of this, I don't know, the world system, the media of social media, whatever they're against Republicans or they call them right wingers or conservatives or, Christians and what he was doing in his, in his 20 something mind is he could see it. He could see that there's definitely a bias against certain groups of people. And even the bias is interesting because they'll assume.

that, that because we, vote a certain way, we, we do things a certain way that, that we're like a bunch of zombies kind of, you know, walking along, you know, dripping from the mouth or, you know, our hands dragging down, you know, Trump good, Biden bad, we're Republicans and we got to do this and do that. And we hate Kamala. See, that's, that's the problem with media is they paint people with a certain brush and put us in a certain box and say that this is how it is. All these people are, are this way. And obviously that's not true, but we're going to break the mold a little bit as we go further.

So like I said, the mob needs good guys and bad guys and the bad guys for most of the time and really for most of history have been Christians. So let's go further. And they base this good guy, bad guy mentality on compliance or non-compliance. I'm going to give you a couple of examples here in just a minute. They look at you as if you don't comply, if you don't comply with what they say and what they say is right and wrong and what they believe, you're bad and you're going to pay the price.

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (07:18.914)
First Peter four four says, and I'll go back to verse three, he talks about different things for the time, the time that it is, it suffices for doing what the Gentiles want you to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. And then Peter says this, with respect to this, they are surprised when you don't join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you. So.

Put our finger right there in first Peter four four. And what does that mean? Now, Peter uses examples of drunken orgies, parties, you know, debauchery, drinking parties, the whole thing. And he, that's it. That's a summary. But I mean, you could expand that and say, well, it's this worldly hedonistic, I do what I want when I want how I went kind of behavior. Cheat on my taxes. Okay. Cheat on my wife. No problem. Little white lies to get ahead in business. We can do it. No worries, but it's wrong.

And the world looks at you like you're, I'm telling you, like you're a sucker or like you're nuts. If you don't join them in the same flood of debauchery and they'll malign you for it. Look at this guy's a boy scout, goody two shoes, a Bible thumper, know, right wing wing nut, whatever they, whatever they want to call you. We've heard it all right. But let's continue. Here are some of the things the mob thinks you should agree with. And if you don't, you're in a world of trouble. I'm going to talk about their talking points and their slogans, and then give you the

Christian response and what Christians really think. Okay? These are just a few examples. How about this? This is big today. Love is love. And you know what that means. Obviously we're talking about the homosexual community. That's when a lot of signs, a lot of shirts, it's really everywhere. This happens to be June 6th, I believe, and it's, we're in the beginning of what they would call Pride Month. And you see the shirts and the posters everywhere. Love is love. We know what it means. We know what the mob means. We know what the world means by that.

Love is love and you deal with it, you accept it. You not only accept it, you celebrate it with us or else. But here's the true Christian response. True Christians, and I'm speaking from my heart, true Christians love all people, including those in the gay community. And that's a fact. Dear friends, let me tell you something. If somebody tells you differently, just because we don't agree with your lifestyle, they're lying. Disagreement doesn't mean hate.

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (09:45.774)
Okay, we disagree with that, but we love you deeply. And I would tell anyone in the gay community that we love you dearly and that's a fact. People would like to turn the narrative around and those Christians, especially these evangelicals, watch out, they're hate filled group, they hate you, not true. Let's continue. Here's another one. And this is everywhere, everywhere. I was born this way, that lie is everywhere. But here's a true Christian response to that.

True Christians care deeply for all people, no matter who you are, regardless of how you identify. But here's the thing. We also believe that kids should be protected from indoctrination and gender ideology confusion at all cost. Kids should be protected from gender ideology confusion at all cost. How about this one? Here's another pipe of my body, my choice, my body, my choice. And here's the Christian response, the true Christian response.

True Christians care about the wellbeing of women, all women and their unborn babies. And that's a fact. My body, my choice. We don't want to get into the whole details of that today. It's for another podcast another time, but my body, choice. We know what that means. But true Christians care for the dignity of all women and the lives of their unborn babies. And we'll leave that at that. Here's another one. is, the next few we're going to read are very current. How about this one? From the river to the sea.

And you know how the rest of that goes. I'll tell you Palestine will be free. Okay. People are saying from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. True Christians. And you can put this on the record too. True Christians love both Jewish people and Muslims very deeply. We love all people, but since we're talking about the current crisis in the middle East, I want you to know on the record, this book is full of love. True Christians love both Jewish people and Muslims.

And that's a fact. But here's the thing. We will also stand, true Christians also stand against anti-Semitism. How about this one? Globalize the Intifada. Well, true Christians believe in the dignity and respect of all people, including all Jews and all Muslims. But here's the thing. We also see the reality of a concerted effort to destroy the Jewish people. Anyone tells you any different, they're a liar. They're lying to you. Here's another one.

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (12:15.414)
all religions lead to God or there are many paths to heaven or there are many paths to God. True Christians love people of all faiths and want to share the truth about Jesus in the gospel, which leads to eternal life. And that's a fact. Yeah, I respect all people and we love people of all faiths and all religions. But at the end of the day, true Christians love you enough to tell you the truth about who Jesus is and want to share the gospel with you.

friends, that's the only way to eternal life. The world or the mob says you have to agree with us or else that's their standard. If you deviate from the mob script, you are in a world of trouble because you'll be, you might be canceled, vilified, verbally or physically accosted, harmed or worse. Listen, here's the reality. As we're talking just a few weeks ago, we had a lovely young couple shot to death outside of a

the capital of the District of Columbia Holocaust Museum just a few weeks ago. Just a couple of days ago, we had a group of Jewish friends, fellow humans, get attacked by a very hateful man, cowardly man, at a park in Boulder, Colorado with Molotov cocktails. Burned severely. Friends, let's call this what it is. It's hate, okay? We cannot decide what is good and evil based on our good or bad opinions, based on our

Indigestion are based on what the mob says. We have a standard of truth. And it's not the mob's opinion. They're calling evil good and good evil. You take a stand for marriage. You take a stand for life. You take a stand for children not being groomed and indoctrinated. You take a stand for the love of the Jewish people. You take a stand for saying Jesus. I love all people. I love all people in all religions. But if you take a stand and say, no, no.

Jesus loves you enough and I love enough to tell you he's the only way not my words his words in John 14 6 you take a stand The truth better watch out because you were in a world of trouble but friends of trouble is the price to pay For telling the truth and telling the truth in love. So be it

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (14:35.278)
Here's a disturbing thing. I just listened to part of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast and the episode from May, I think I have it, I think I crumbled the paper up, but on May 20, I'm sorry, May 3rd, just a few weeks ago here of 2025, he had Bono on the program. Most people know Bono. He's the lead singer of U2, loved by many people, just a very popular guy. And Bono has a lot of clout. has a large following.

People will take what he says and sort of run with that. But when a guy with Bono's influence says things that are irresponsible or inflammatory, we got to take notice. So I'm going to go ahead and play a clip and Bono is going to tell you what he thinks about evangelical Christians and we back on the other side. 

Bono:   So. Growing up with a couple of, more than a few bumps with evangelicals, you know, like whoop.

Because you can't approach the subject of God without metaphor, right? So literalism is by its nature anti-metaphor. And Jesus, all we know is that he spoke in parables because they're not literal. How do you explain these as poets, music? And I found it really difficult to be around evangelicals because they were so just literal.

with that thing. And then on that same tour where I Warren Buffett, I ended up at a college called Wheaton College, which is like a big, in Chicago, it's a big evangelical thing. And they were like, they were really helpful. And there was like, I realized that these were kind of, and this is not to be at all dismissive of some credible people, but it was like, I felt there was sort of narrow minded.

sort of, what would I say, sort of narrow, the vision, if I could just open the aperture of their vision, just a little bit wider, that they could be the most incredible force for good, because they just worked harder, they didn't tell lies, they were just great. He spoke about the least of these, which is a wild concept. I don't know if you know this, but it's like the,

Bono continued:     (17:05.91)
It's in Matthew, I think it is. It's the only time that Jesus speaks of judgment. It's not like what's going on in your pants. 

Howard:     So given Bono's influence, he creates a false narrative about true Christians. You know, automatically you just hear it from so many people. You can go to say, don't know, Colbert or Oprah or this person or that person Bono and all of a sudden you're like, evangelical bad.

true Christian bad. And then they say that these true Christians, these, these fanatics are off the chain. They're bad. They're evil because they hate everything else. It's not true. It's a lie. But let's continue. If Bono views evangelicals and he kind of comes off as uncomfortably tolerant of us, I'm going to read you something from an author and his name is Stephen Geist. I'm going to read this to you.

Here's his quote. Here's what he says about evangelical Christians. And he wrote this in Medium. So we'll continue. He says, call your attention to this movement within American Christianity because it plays a dangerous role in our politics and our culture. I consider evangelicals among the most fanatical religious groups in America today. And here's my word salad to encapsulate evangelicals. Listen to this. Thinking about the stereotypes my son talked about.

He hears everywhere far right, white, hypocritical, ignorant, gullible, naive, bigoted, racist, intolerant, anti-gay, anti-science, basically a large part of the MAGA minions. This is the subset of American. Citizenry who feels obliged to impose their bizarre beliefs on everyone else by force. And that's Stephen Geist.

That's his article, America's Pseudo-Christian Evangelicals. And he wrote that on the platform medium. Well, so you think about it. We have people, I mean, I mentioned a lot of people in pop culture and even politicians, different people had their views on true Christians. And that's one thing because, you you think about famous people and pundits and celebrities and writers and authors and all these people, but friends,

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (19:28.652)
That is really you look at an iceberg, right? 10 % on the top and 90 % on the bottom. But you think about all of the people in the world system. You think about the billions of people who form their own opinion about Christians, true Christians, based on what the mob at the top thinks. And it just trickles on down. I got a few, maybe five or six comments here that I read online, different people, different strata of life. Here's

Sort of the commonality, the common denominator about what they said about Christians. Ready? Number one, evangelicals interpret the Bible literally. Talking animals, walking on water, a man living in the belly of a fish, a 90 year old woman giving birth. They believe this stuff literally. You can see where we're going, right? Evangelicals are hypocrites. They will march against abortion rights, but never support the rights of the desperately poor. Never. Let's continue.

Religious people publicly adoring Trump, that's what I think of. Religious people publicly adoring Trump and calling him the most God-like president ever and other total nonsense about his completely anti-Christian behavior, it nauseates me. Again, presupposing that we're all like, Donald Trump, Donald Trump, we gotta worship him. No, again, it's a subset of so-called Christians, cultural Christians. Let's continue. These evangelicals, these Christians are cultists. They are delusional. They wanna force their religion on others.

They are welcome to their beliefs, but they should keep them to themselves. Here's another one. They're an embarrassing blemish on the face of America, hating everything that's not themselves. You see friends, this narrative that's being built and built and built, and this is just, these quotes are just scratching the surface. mean, tens of thousands online, hundreds of thousands in the streets. You got what I'm saying? Here's the last one I have here. About 80 % of these Christians are hypocrites.

And the other 20 % are dangerous. mean, honestly, I find some of that humorous because it's so silly and it's lies of course, but also find it very concerning. If it wasn't so serious, it'd be laughable. But to me, it just shows you kind of the problem that we're facing now. It's a serious problem. This is the world system, the people in the world, a lot of people, especially here in the West and America and Canada and, and, UK and Europe calling evil good, celebrating what's wrong.

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (21:57.247)
and calling good, good people, good things, biblical things, evil. It's terrible. And I always knew it was here, but just not to this degree. And friends, it seems like as the days get closer to the end, to the climax of history, we're reaching a crescendo of just a flood of skewed morality. We're actually entering into what I would call this sort of moral abyss. But let's continue. You see, the world has a lot of false ideas about real Christians.

Like I said, we're all Trump worshipers. We want to build some sort of Christian utopia here in the United States or in Western Europe. And by the way, we, we hate gay people. We hate foreigners. We view women as second-class citizens. And by the way, we really don't care for the poor. Also, I mean, you can be silly. We also don't put the toilet seat down and we also don't take our cart back to the cart stall at the grocery store. You see what I'm saying? What I want to talk about now though, is I'm going to differentiate between

what the world has, the world's ideas about what Christians are versus what true Christians are. Here's the truth. We vote pro-life, true Christians vote pro-life. We vote pro-conservative values. And although cultural Christians idolize Donald Trump, many of us true Christians don't. Like I said, we vote pro-life, we vote pro-family, we vote pro-

conservative values But we're not out there worshipping Donald Trump. We're not there at his beck and call. Yes, Donald Trump He's our he's our God. He's a Messiah now in fairness. I've seen it I've seen people fall over themselves and laying hands on him and praying for him and people saying he's he's God's anointed and he's God's man and now they did the Lord put him in power Absolutely. God does raise kings and depose kings. We know that but what I'm this what I'm talking about is different this sort of messianic

Idolatry all around Donald Trump. He's God's man. And oh, he's so good. He's he's so righteous. He's a Christian that's between him and God actually but he's this and he's that and I'm much like he can do no wrong, but we listen not every Christians on that bandwagon friends, okay Let's continue many cultural Christians are concerned with enriching themselves to prosperity gospel to amassing riches You know, I'm not gonna pick on mega churches a lot of these bigger churches. We got people dressed to the hill and and

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (24:21.323)
fancy cars and you know, million dollar houses and things are great. God's blessed me. And meanwhile, you know, 60 to 70 % of this world doesn't have proper water, clean water to drink. There is a disconnect with that. But don't you think for a minute that true Christians of true Christians have turned their back on the poor? Because true Christians, whether you see it or not, behind the scenes, taking care and loving the least of these. Okay?

We're not there with our fancy cars and fancy houses and thinking we're going to bring America back to Jesus and we're going to create some Christian utopia and away with the rest of the world. No, real Christians are on the ground in places that you don't see doing the hard work of the gospel and taking care of the least of these. The system, the mob would like you to believe otherwise, but it's not the truth, friends. Let's continue. Cultural Christians, and you know what? I've seen it everywhere. Cultural Christians are very vocal.

and very competitive, especially on social media. Boy, they could get on Facebook and Twitter and wherever else, and boy, they could tell you how they feel. And this is what the Bible says. And they're very vocal about homosexuality and about abortion and about a million other things. But here's the hypocrisy. Most of the same people, the cultural Christians, are very quiet and virtually silent about the greed, materialism,

Pride, my goodness, pride, even among ministers. I've seen it. Fellow ministers. Quiet about gossip and the rampant adultery that's at pandemic levels in many local churches. And hardly anyone says a word. They make a big deal, and it is a big deal. And they focus on homosexuality and abortion, but are virtually silent on everything else. Not totally.

I'm not going to throw everybody in the same basket, but very silent when it comes to pride, greed, lust, adultery, all these things that happen in the local church, gossip. Can't talk about that. Listen, things are going good. We're filling seats. But friends, true Christians are like that. We give a loving warning about homosexuality or about abortion. We also see the other sins. People call them the small sins, but they're not.

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (26:45.825)
The white lies, the adultery, the gambling, the lust, the pride, the greed, the envy, the slander. It's all, listen, it's all equally worthless, right? So let's continue. But we don't want to beat up on the LGBTQ community or on women at abortion clinics. We'll come back to that in a few minutes. We'll talk about that a little bit more. But understand, this is not a social campaign. True Christians are worried about the heart of people and love people.

and explain the gospel winsomely to people. Why is all this important? Because the mob doesn't distinguish between cultural Christians and true Christians. In the end, we're going to be all, I mean, not even in the end, now we're all lumped together. But as pressure mounts, as society continues to crumble, and the mob gets louder, and things, you're going to pay with more than just your reputation, you might pay with

Like I said, getting verbally or physically accosted, you might pay with being physically harmed or worse. When the heat gets turned up and it begins to cost us more, the cultural Christians, the goats, the tares are going to fall, the religious people, in name only, are going to fall away en masse. But what is left are the true Christians serving the true Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible. And that's important because we're going to continue to be the object of the world's hate.

This is not a martyr mentality. This is not licking our wounds because Jesus said it. He goes, they hated me. They're going to hate you. I'm telling you what Jesus said. This is not my opinion. This is what Jesus said. Let me give you a few more differences between cultural Christians and true Christians. I think this is very, very important and I'm going to take a couple of minutes to discuss this and I to home in on this just a little bit. Okay. I've seen, and I've seen this personally friends when I'm involved, I'm involved in ministry. a, I'm a preacher. I do some.

some local pastoring at some different places. I preach open air on the streets. I preach at churches, Bible studies, any place people have the conferences, you name it. But I've seen cultural Christians, social issue Christians literally scream at women entering abortion clinics and just yell at them and say the most hurtful things and you're this and you're that. And let me tell you, but on the other hand, I've seen

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (29:06.871)
True Christians minister outside of these same places, lovingly giving young ladies and women pamphlets about how to get tangible help to carry your baby to full term, places to get diapers, places to get formula, places to get a, I almost forgot the term, an ultrasound. You know what I mean? I've seen Christians, listen, I'll tell you personally, I've seen firsthand Christians,

pray for young women, for the Lord's leading and compassion outside of abortion clinics, friends, the shouting, the screaming, the getting on Facebook and Twitter and social media, and we're gonna stand against this, hogwash. Do what Jesus did and get with people one-on-one, and minister to them in a love and the grace of the Lord, in mercy of the Lord. I've seen Christians take a stand against abortion, but do it in a way that's biblical and loving, and actually might make a difference. But let's continue.

I've seen Christians think with the last election cycle. Wow, right? I've seen Christians say some of the most horrible, unloving and awful things about other people with different political views. They become, here's the thing, they become so mesmerized with bringing America back to Jesus or bringing Europe back to Jesus and making America or Europe or the UK or Canada some Christian utopia.

It's like this Kingdom Now effort. got to, if we could just get the right guy in, if we could just make all these things happen, then we can just make this place awesome. And, boy, everybody will get saved. It'll be perfect. And that's Kingdom Now theology. That's NAR garbage. That's, that's, it's not biblical because the only way to win people to Jesus and even geographical areas to do it has to do with the apostles did do with the early church did do it.

wonderful Christian men and women have done all through the centuries and that's get out there with a great commission and evangelize them and and give them the truth of the gospel and that's the whole gospel. That's the bad news and the good news. You're not going to legislate righteousness. You're not going to legislate Christianity. I'm not saying to sit back on your hands and not vote. No, you vote your values. You vote pro-life. You do this. You do that. But at the end of the day, what did Jesus say? Give the Caesar what Caesar's he wasn't there in Jerusalem or what?

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (31:24.969)
over to Rome and try to make Rome a Christian empire, Jesus is worried about spreading the gospel, his gospel, and making a difference right where he was in bringing people to saving faith. Friends, that's our job. The people that fight people when it comes to politics, by and large, they ignore the Great Commission. It's not going to happen through Facebook or X or your Instagram or these huge rallies. Who cares? That's Rome. We take care of God's business. Amen?

And here's something I want to actually really emphasize. I've seen and I've witnessed some of the most unloving, prideful, arrogant preaching directed at homosexual people and their supporters. It's the most unbelievable. I've heard cultural Christian preachers in churches, online, and especially in the public square, personally, friends, say things that are so vulgar and so reprehensible, they shouldn't be in the mouth.

of gospel preacher. And this is a public podcast and a public YouTube video. It's not going to go too much into what some of the things that I heard said, but awful about body parts and about what people do. Jesus didn't do that. The apostles didn't do that. The early church didn't do that. Moody didn't do that. Spurgeon didn't do that. Tozer, Billy Graham, that'll be fill in the blank. Dave Hunt, Roger Oakland, any preacher you want to think of didn't do that. They preached the gospel and spoke about the different sins.

but didn't break it down as ridiculous so bad that it's in technicolor and you're going to inflame people's emotions out there on the street. I've witnessed it, screaming at people about how dirty they are and the things they do with their bodies, friends. That stuff does not have its place in the mouth of a loving, Holy Spirit-filled, bold preacher of the gospel. And I'll say that anytime, anywhere. And I'll debate you on that because it's not biblical. But I've seen other

Christians and other Christian ministers, other preachers in the church, online, out in the public square out there that can boldly with the Holy Spirit and lovingly confront sin, talk about sin, do it in context. And like I said, talk about sexual and moral sexual behavior. Talk about perversion. Talk about the homosexual lifestyle. Talk about greed. Talk about slander. Talk about gossip. Talk about

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (33:47.433)
even the problems in the church, because they're all, like I said, equally worthless, all sin is sin. All these things that we do are like filthy rags in the eyes of the Lord. All sin is sin. We just don't focus on two things and run with it. We can talk about homosexuality and can lovingly confront sexual morality. And we can lovingly talk about abortion.

And lovely, confront that and talk about the importance of life and the unborn babies and all these things that are going on. They're very important, but so is greed, so is pride, so is slander, so is gossip, so is adultery, all these other things. Go out there and give them the gospel and let the chips fall where they fall with the love and compassion of the Lord, like Peter says, when he said to give everyone a reason for the hope we have within us, but do it with gentleness and respect. Be led by the Holy Spirit.

Not your bravado, not your pride, not your attitude. You gotta be right, everybody else is wrong. Friends, this is our standard of righteousness. just, when I see that kind of preaching and I see that kind of vitriol, even online, I'm thinking, how many people do you really expect to win with that? That kind of unloving attitude. You gotta be right, you don't have to be loving.

Listen, friends, you can be right and truthful and bold and loving. I just, when I see that, it makes me sad because here's the problem. The mob, the world system sees that and says, look, all Christians are like that. Look at them. Does that mean we back down? We don't preach the gospel. We don't confront sin and we don't talk about that. Of course we do. But friends be like Paul, be like Peter, be like James, be like John. When you preach, preach for the Holy ghost, preach for the Holy spirit lovingly, winsomely, preach for the spirit of the Lord, not full of yourself.

So let's continue. is it? Why is all this important? Just as they maligned and persecuted and ridiculed the prophets before you, just like they maligned and ridiculed John the Baptist and Jesus and the apostles and all the Christians, the middle ages and the Christians in just a few centuries before us up till this latest century, it's always the same. Now,

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (36:00.501)
Are there Christians? there brothers and sisters in places like Nigeria, North Korea, Iran, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Far East, all over the world, China being persecuted, true persecution for their faith? Absolutely. So this is not a martyr's complex. We know what's going on over there and we're praying for them. We stand with them. I'm not saying we here in America or in the West or in Europe or in England are being persecuted like that. No, but what I'm saying is the bar is being lowered.

The stage is being set and it's happening now. Right now you're paying with your reputation. You're paying with ridicule, with slander and other things. But we've seen just recently, as we discussed earlier, people are starting to not only become vocal about their opposition to versus evil, they're starting to vote with their feet now. People are getting firebombed. People are getting shot. We don't want that. But friends, these things, as Jesus said, lawlessness will increase. The love of many

Human compassion for other humans will grow cold. How dare you disagree with me? It's gonna get ugly. As we approach the end of the age, it's gonna get bad. But in the meantime, what do we do? Our response, like I said, as a great cloud of witnesses, our response should be love. And friends, this is not love you can conjure up because the very moment somebody gets in your grill or gets in your face or confronts you and you're not a true Christian, you're gonna go off or you're gonna leave the faith or whatever.

but you be full of the Holy Spirit and you like what Peter said, you explain to them the reason for the hope you have within you with gentleness and respect. So love number one, you walk in the gospel of peace and you give the gospel of peace and you do it in the boldness and the clarity of the Holy Spirit. Remember when, when Peter and the rest of the guys, were arrested, they were, they were beaten and told not to speak in that name again. They were threatened just like out there in the world. Hey, these evangelicals don't talk like that. Don't.

Do they think these are bad people? Listen, when you're threatened, when you're spoken ill against, evil against, what do the apostles do? They went back and they prayed. They didn't pray that would stop. They didn't go back and pray that maybe Lord we're doing this wrong. We better ease up on our message. No, they prayed for boldness. They prayed for boldness. And friends, that's my prayer for you and for me. We pray for boldness, the boldness and love and clarity and discernment of the Holy Spirit that only he could give.

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (38:19.765)
to finish well and endure to the end. I'm going to read one more thing to you because I want you to be encouraged and understand how serious this is. This is out of Philippians 1 verse 28 and it says this. Let go back a little bit. Paul said, standing firm in the spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. And then he goes on and says this, and do not be frightened by anything in your opponents. Different translations I read.

The last couple of days, don't be frightened. Don't be intimidated by anything in your opponents. That's the mob. That's the world system. It's a sure sign of their destruction and of your salvation. And friends, here's the thing. What should our heart be for people in the world? As I call them sort of this, this mob mentality. They're not nameless, faceless people. Listen, my worst enemies I love and I care for and I pray for. What is the heart of the Lord? Forgive them, Father.

They know not what they do. What did Stephen say? Lord, lay not the sin against them, against their charge. That's the heart of the believer. We love people. Love your enemies. Doesn't mean you agree with them. Doesn't mean you lay down, but you love them. You pray for them. You plead with them. You go out to the highways and hedges. You plead with people, whether it's in the church, whether it's online, whether it's out there in the public forum or in the marketplace, you plead with people. That's the heart of the Lord.

So friends, as the heat gets turned up and this world continues to call good evil and evil good, my loving advice for you and for me is to endure to the end and finish well, but do it in the power and love of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Friends, we were blind once. Now we see. We've had new hearts, a heart of flesh for a heart of stone was replaced. And we had the blinders fall off of our eyes. These people in the world, the world system, they're blind.

They are blind as blind can be and instead of treating them like your enemy, treat them like they're lost. Someone resent it, someone hates you for it. That's okay, we get it. Love them anyway. Pray for them, witness boldly and finish well. Amen. God bless you. When the world calls you evil, remember you're good. And the only reason you're good is because we have the blood of Jesus in the spirit of the Lord, his Holy Spirit living inside of us. Amen. Friends, real quick before we go, would you please remember if you're watching us on YouTube to comment,

Concerning The Times: Howard Green (40:45.438)
and like the video and subscribe to our YouTube channel. That helps us tremendously by getting the gospel out. I mean, that helps us more than you'll ever know, amen? And also, if you're listening to my podcast, would you do the same? you remember to, please do this? Would you remember to rate the podcast? Remember to subscribe to the podcast. Again, that helps us tremendously both ways to get the gospel out to more people, amen? Well, God bless you. Have a wonderful week. Remember to pray for our ministry. As I pray for...

all of you collectively, and we'll see you next time. Take care. Now, one more thing, and this is important. If you happen upon this podcast and you don't know Jesus, I'm gonna do two things. First of all, I wanna have you please go to concerningthetimes.com. That's our website for our ministry. And I want you to go to the top of the menu bar and click on, you saved? Friends, that talks about everything we talked about today that will tell you about how to have a relationship with Jesus.

and how to come from death to life and how to find saving faith in the only one who can save you for eternity. So go to ConcernedInTheTimes.com, click on Are You Saved? And I'm gonna actually talk to each of you very quickly and just tell you how much now you may not like me. You may not agree with everything I said and probably a lot of what I said, but friends, I'm gonna tell you, I love you and all Christians are not your enemy. There's some true Christians out there who love you no matter what.

No matter who you are, no matter where you come from, no matter what you've done, because friends, that's how Jesus once loved us. He saw what we were and he changed us and made us new. And friends, he can do that for you too. So God bless you. I would pray that you come to Saving Faith in Jesus today. But like I said, go to the website and I explain more that there at concerningthetimes.com. Are you saved? God bless you guys. Have a great week. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.