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Welcome to Worldview Matters. Discussing controversial issues. Discerning current events. Defending biblical Christianity. No topic. Off limits. And now, here's your host, David Fiorazzo.

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Hello, friends and family in Christ. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode. Our good friend, Dr. Pastor, Mr. J.B. Hickson is back with us, and I want to direct you to his website. You probably already know it, but if you're new to this podcast and unfamiliar with his ministry, notbyworks.org. Brother, thank you for your time today. Good to see you, J.B.

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Oh, my pleasure. Always an honor to talk with you. And yeah, thanks for having me on. Yep. You've got a new book out. Let's flash the cover right now so people can see it fade to black. Quite provocative rise of global tyranny. And Scott Townsend wrote the foreword for the book. Scott is a friend of this podcast as well. So mutual friends. Before we dive in, JB, over on your website, I want to ask you about something. We're going to talk about a conference that you're going to be speaking at.

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on August 1st, you have on the top of your website a tab called Host a Conference. So how does that work? People can host a conference at their church and bring you in to speak? Is there more to it than that?

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Yeah, that's what we do. We're on the road about 200 days a year, sometimes more, and speaking as God opens the door. A lot of times it's at larger conferences where we are one speaker among many, and that's the one that you're speaking of there on August 1st. For that one, we're going to be with Andy Woods and Tom Hughes. There it is.

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Yeah, Brandon Holthouse will be there, exactly. Brad Reeves, Olivier Melnick. And then other times, yeah, it's just a church where I'll come in and preach on a Sunday or over the weekend. Of course, I try to limit the number of Sundays that I'm away because I am the teaching pastor at our home church, Plum Creek Chapel.

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But yeah, you can reach out to us. Lacey is on our staff. She handles the request. We never charge a fee to speak. We just ask for help with travel costs and then a love offering. But we leave that in the Lord's hands. He always provides. But yeah, you can reach out to us at Not By Works, and we'd love to talk about coming to a church or conference near you.

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And JB will be coming to next year's Worldview Matters conference. We're going to keep the theme, I think, of redeem the time because we don't know how much time we have left here on this earth and for the body of Christ. It's so important that we redeem the time.

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Also, Jeff, why don't you bring up the conference, Abraham to Armageddon, Coming Soon Ministries. And JB, you introduced me to Brad Reeves. I'm so thankful. I've had him on many times, and he's such a great man of God. So I'm just really wanting to support your ministry and his ministry by mentioning his conference. Again, he's going to be speaking there with you, Brandon.

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Tom Hughes, who was just on a few days ago or a couple weeks ago here. Olivier Melnick, who came to our Worldview Matters conference this year. And Andy Woods, who will also be coming to our conference next year. So we're just excited to get these men of God just out there to speak to more people. And I want to speak to this, JB, before we dive into your book, and I have it in hand with markers to remind me what questions I wanted to ask you.

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Do you find that as you travel around, there is a very strong remnant of Bible-believing Christians who just really want to not only just be consumers, because we don't want to just consume information and be taught, right, to go to these conferences and then do nothing with the information, but do you find that the remnant is very active in going to the conferences and then wanting to actually try to apply what they learn differently?

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What's your take on the body of Christ as you travel around?

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Yeah, I definitely think there's a stark contrast between the remnant who is interested in what the Bible has to say and recognizes the urgency of the hour and wants to redeem the time versus a lot of the folks that are just asleep at the wheel in most churches. And I think what's great about the speakers at these conferences, and you've had many of them on your program, is they echo just what you said. They're giving you the so what message. They're not just passing on information. They're telling you,

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why it's important and what you can do with it. And so I do think people leave these events and conferences fired up and motivated and ready to serve the Lord more faithfully and do what we can to share the gospel and so forth. So yeah, I mean, obviously every conference is a little different, but by and large, that's been my experience for sure.

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Awesome. So we really need to get more Christians engaged, that's for sure. So part of our job is, I was going to say threefold, maybe even more than that, to equip the saints that aren't being equipped at their home churches, also to edify and encourage those who are feeling a little battle-weary, maybe overwhelmed by all that's going on in the world, and then the encouragement that comes with locking arms with fellow believers, like-minded believers who share our sound doctrine and biblical worldview,

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and just speaking about what's happening in our culture, in our country, and around the world, and trying to wake up the church, the sleepy believers. So let's dive right in, JB. Fade to Black, interesting title. Let's just talk about that. Where did it come from? If you look really close, friends, on the bottom, right above JB's name, you see the theater seating there, and then you see the snake right under the word global.

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Explain the title and how you came up with this, JB. Yeah, so like almost every, in fact, I have to admit, every good idea that has ever come out of NBW Ministries, I have to give my wife credit for coming up with this title. Wendy and I brainstormed, as I was already well into writing the book, we started brainstorming titles. And literally, if I show you the texts back and forth...

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50 to 60 different titles. But when she sent that one to me, immediately I go, that's it. It stuck with me. Fade to black, of course, is a media term, a movie term. At the end of the movie, the screen fades to black and the credits roll. And that's kind of your indication that the movie is over. But as we say in the tagline for the book, and we have a little promo here,

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a video as well for it. The movie hasn't really ended. It's just getting started from the Luciferian perspective. We are headed into some dark days. It's always darkest right before dawn. And so the whole book is about rise of global tyranny. How do we see the stage being set for the coming...

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beast system. And so it's a lot of the same type of framework that I discussed several years ago in my Spirit of the Antichrist trilogy, but it's all new stuff. What's happened in the last two to three years specifically paving the way. And we set up a landing page, by the way, folks, you can go to FadeToBlackBook.com, FadeToBlackBook.com, and learn more about it.

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Okay, excellent. So I want to jump into the quote you have from Marie Curie right at the very beginning. Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more so that we may fear fear.

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less it sounds like a biblical concept very much so um but that's a very um i understand that that quote in light of what's going on um because a lot of people we have not been given a spirit of fear but of power love and a sound mind but there is that temptation to still be anxious or overwhelmed because of i mean god is sovereign but there's still so much we don't understand when you talk about global tyranny and other things could you speak to that before we dive into the chapters

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Yeah, absolutely. Fear is the devil's greatest weapon. It really is. And perfect love casts out all fear, so we don't have to have a spirit of fear. But I keep an Evernote on my phone, and anytime I come across phrases or words even or concepts or quotes that I think are interesting, I jot them down.

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And when I saw that one, I thought, that's the perfect epigraph for this book. You know, I don't know if Marie Curie was a believer, but if folks don't know the name, she was a famous scientist and chemist. She was the first woman to ever win a Nobel Prize and first...

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person, first person to win a Nobel Prize twice. But anyway, yeah, it's a great quote. Now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less. And that's what I've tried to do in Fade to Black is just expose people to the way the stage is being set in several ways for the coming 70th week of Daniel so that we can be prepared. You know, the Bible calls on us to be prepared. The wise person says,

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trouble coming and prepares for it. That's Proverbs 22.3. So yeah, lots to unpack in there. I hope folks will take to heart, you know, what's in there. You know, I use the seven spirits of the Antichrist that I've used before as sort of a framework based on 1 John 4.3, and I just talk about how each of those seven areas we see coming to a head as the, you know, God's last days come into view. Yeah.

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So can you lay out for us the seven spirits of the Antichrist? Yeah, so 1 John 4, 3, of course, says that the spirit of the future Antichrist is already at work in the world today. And so what I did is I looked up every passage of Scripture, this was several years ago, that deals with this future Antichrist. And I made a list of all of his characteristics. And then I sort of categorized them into seven broad categories, and then I'm calling those the seven spirits.

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spirits of the Antichrist, but it's the spirit of pretense, which is number one, it's deception. Everything Satan does is based on deception. The spirit of power, he wants to gain power, and so the beast system is all about taking power away from God and taking over the world. Psalm 2 talks about that. Then it's the spirit of phenomena, which is a big one, the rise of supernatural paranormal type activity. That happens to be the biggest chapter in this book,

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where I talk about the UFO, you know, phenomenon, all that stuff. Things are definitely heating up in the unseen realm. Spirit of pride, obviously the five I will statements of Satan, of pride is his undergirding, you know, motif. And so we talk about how pride and narcissism are on the rise. Again, all of this is just in the last two to three years. It's all very recent data in the new book. Spirit of persecution, you know, we don't need to say much about that. Christian and...

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Jewish persecution is on the rise. I gave lots of data about that. Spirit of perversion and the spirit of pluralism, the one world religion, how is that coming together? And then the last chapter, those are the seven spirits. The last chapter is called If We're Still Here, and I sort of asked the question, hey, if we're still here five years from now, and boy, if you had to ask me to guess, I'd say we probably won't be. I just think we're that close. But if we are, what do I see happening

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Not a thus saith the Lord, it's more of my studied opinion and speculation about a number of scenarios that could unfold based on all the research I did for the book. Okay, I'm going to start there and go backwards because I had a bookmarker on chapter 9, if we're still here. I love just that idea.

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because we have to totally trust in God, and he knows the number of our days, and he has the end times all planned out. But I love the verse you shared, too, from Philippians 3, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it goes on. Talk to us a little bit more about that, JB, because we have dual citizenship. We are here for a purpose on this earth, for a season, for a time.

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And then, of course, our true citizenship, eternally, thank you, Lord, that we're secured. We have assurance. That's in heaven, our true citizenship. Could you speak to that to encourage the body a little bit more?

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Yeah, absolutely. We are not of this world, right? When we place our faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone for salvation as the only one who paid our sin debt and died and rose again on the cross, when we receive from Him forgiveness and eternal life, we become part of the family of God instantly. We're born again. That's what Jesus told Nicodemus. We become spiritually reborn. Jesus said in John 5, 24, you pass from death to life and shall never come into judgment, right?

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our citizenship really is in heaven. This earth is just a rite of passage. We have a job to do. God has a purpose for our earthly lives. We are to give Him glory, to share the gospel, to make a difference, to be salt and light, all of those things. So it's not that the earthly life is irrelevant at all. It's all part of God's plan.

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But we must always remember that our ultimate home is in heaven. And so for the believer, death is the golden key that unlocks the riches of eternity. It's one instant we're in this physical body. The next instant we're in the presence of our Savior. And so death is never to be feared. Death is the last enemy that's already been defeated. But yeah, it's really about perspective. It's about attitude. And, you know, Solomon talked about how everything under the sun is futile and

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vain. It's a dead end street. So if all you focus on is the stuff under the sun, it's pretty depressing. But for the believer, we rise above the sun and recognize there's a spiritual reality here that far outweighs any of the troubles and trials and tribulations of life.

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Excellent. Great word, brother. Thank you. So let's go back now. We're moving backwards now in the book to chapter 8, because I wanted to ask you about pluralism, the spirit of pluralism. Very interesting in light of Barna Research, Pew, Gallup, and others who do talk about religions and spirituality in America particularly. You see this pluralism. You see people going after other religions or trying to combine pluralism

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different, really contrasting theological beliefs or systems that really don't work. They contradict each other, but yet people are trying to believe in all these different things or align with different worldviews, and it just doesn't work. What do you get into in that chapter?

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Yeah, so one of the big pieces of the puzzle here for this coming beast system is there are three aspects of it. There's the economic aspect of it, the political aspect of it, but there's also the religious aspect of it, which is really what it's all about. Satan has always coveted worship. He wants the world to worship him instead of our creator. And so we see the stage being set by this ecumenicism and pluralism, ideological pluralism,

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where people are recognizing that, or being deceived into thinking that any religion is the same, that any religion will get you to paradise or utopia or heaven, whatever their religion calls it. And so we document in chapter 8 there in the book that, especially coming out of Rome, you see a

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Islam, Judaism, and apostate Christianity to come together. You know, we talk about the Abrahamic family house that opened on February 16, 2023. And I have a whole section about that called Not in My House. God's never going to share His glory with another.

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and he's not going to worship at the same altar. But we get into the mother of all harlots. Revelation talks about that in Revelation 17, and what does that look like? And then I have a really, I think, important section. There's a lot of really substantive doctrinal stuff that's not presented as if it's some kind of a doctrinal seminary stuff. It's more easily digested, but I still think very important. And that is my section in this chapter on religion.

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I call it a few remarks about the mark. And a lot of people have a misconception about the mark of the beast and really the role that it plays. I mean, we understand it in the big picture, but what does the Bible really have to say about it and how does it play a role in this coming one world religion? So, yeah, we talk about is the Pope still Catholic? I mean, some of the things the new Pope is doing makes you even wonder, is he even still Catholic anymore? So, yeah.

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Good stuff. So in a minute, we're going to jump back all the way back to chapter four. But first, I want to remind people that Freedom Project Academy is enrolling students for the fall, and they've been doing this for 16 years. They've delivered a fully accredited classical online education rooted firmly in Judeo-Christian values for kids in pre-kindergarten through high school.

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They offer live, anytime, and homeschool courses to fit your child's needs. So visit freedomforschool.com. That's freedomforschool.com. Save 10%, by the way, on tuition when you use the code DAVID. Again, use the code DAVID. Save 10% on all courses at Freedom Project Academy. Get started at freedomforschool.com. J.B. Hickson, our guest today, Fade to Black, the brand-new book,

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And chapter four is the spirit of phenomena. I had to ask you about this because as we talked a little bit on the phone recently, this topic is no longer fringe when you talk about UFOs and aliens and other life, different things like that. But it is all rooted in spirituality, isn't it? Are these demons? Talk to us about the spirit of phenomena and why you decided to add that chapter. Yeah.

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Yeah, that's the biggest chapter in the book. Again, it's one of the seven spirits of the Antichrist that I think is paving the way for the rise of the future beast, the Antichrist. But yeah, you're right. You know, I no longer have to wear my tinfoil hat when I talk about this.

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Whenever I talked about anything related to ufology, I had to, you know, but I've retired it. It's on a shelf in my closet, and now I can speak freely. But no, look, I mean, everything has to be viewed through the lens of Scripture. And yeah, there's a lot of misinformation, a lot of hoaxes, a lot of stuff that's not true. But what do we know from Scripture? Well, first of all, the battle that we're talking about, this cosmic battle between God and Satan that will culminate in Daniel's 70th week and ultimately at the Battle of Armageddon,

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It started in the heavenlies. It was first and foremost a celestial battle in the unseen realm when Satan rebelled against God in heaven, took one-third of the angels with him, and came to the earth. So it has spilled over into the earth, and absolutely all that I've written and talked about for years exposes Satan's agenda on earth to take control of the world.

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But as it started in the celestial realm, it's going to end in the celestial realm. And so the closer we get to the tribulation period, the 70th week of Daniel, the more of an upsurge we see in this sort of paranormal, supernatural type activities. Not just UFOs, although I talk a lot about that and give a lot of data and examples from mainstream media, from politics, from Congress, from the presidents, and so forth. But there's a lot of other...

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strange phenomena happening as well. Cryptids, other shape-shifting and skinwalking and all that kind of stuff. And so I run that through a biblical grid, explain what's really going on. And yeah, as it relates to UFOs and aliens, these are not little green men from some planet. It's funny, as Hollywood has conditioned people more and more about the alien agenda,

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the source of the, quote, aliens has gotten further and further away. Back in the 50s, they were from the moon. Then we went to the moon, and there's nothing here. So now then they said they're from Venus, and you go back and watch old TV shows and movies. And then they realized Venus was too hot. That couldn't work. So then they saw they're from Mars. And then now they're from Zeta Reticuli or some other. The further out they get, because they don't want people to be able to go there and examine and realize there aren't other

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lives on other planets. It's all demonic spiritual battles. And that's what we see, you know, burgeoning right now, the closer we get to the end times. Yeah.

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Do you think part of the deception or part of the agenda behind pushing this, is it to confuse people? Is it to instill fear of the unknown? What do you think that is in part, JB? Well, so it's two things. First of all, from a practical logistical standpoint from the enemy's side, it is real demonic beings doing reconnaissance missions, influencing leaders and world leaders, influencing territories.

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So it's a real reality. But Satan, the great deceiver, is also paving a narrative that will serve him well after the rapture, according to which he's going to be able to claim that aliens from another planet abducted a bunch of people that disappeared.

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So I think he's smart enough in his deceptive plan to plan ahead. He knows the Bible. He knows the rapture's coming, and he wants to have an excuse for it. And I believe that after the rapture, there's going to be the great deception that I think will catapult the Antichrist into world fame, lead him to become the one who signs the covenant with—confirms the covenant with Israel, and that starts the clock ticking on the final seven years. So it's all about deception.

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But that doesn't mean that everything in the UFO world is made up. It's real stuff. It's just not people from another planet. Right, exactly. Thank you. So I'm glad we clarified that a little bit for those who hear all this other noise out there. And you're right. Hollywood has conditioned people in a certain way when it comes. Going back to E.T. and other movies. But let's go before we run out of time. I wanted to ask you about the timing of the Antichrist since...

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believers will not be here when the Antichrist arises to power. Why does it matter what the Antichrist will do? Yeah, that's a great question, and I talk about that in the introduction. So obviously I have a lot of other books that I—this is number 15, by the way, by God's grace— and so I have other books that break down biblically why I believe the pre-tribulational, dispensational understanding of Scripture is accurate.

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But this book I wanted to really, you know, cut right to the chase of the setting of the stage, the seven spirits of the Antichrist, what's happening in this rise of global tyranny. So in the first chapter of the introduction, I sort of asked that and answered that very question. Look, what if I don't believe in a pre-tribulation or rapture? Do I still need to read this book? The answer is absolutely. Whether you believe in a pre-trib rapture or something else,

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we don't know when that rapture is going to happen. We don't know when the Antichrist is going to rise to power. So things are rapidly taking form, and for a lot of practical reasons, we want to know the enemy, right? I mean, that's the number one rule in warfare, and this is a spiritual battle, is know your enemy. Don't ever underestimate the enemy. So, you know, if we're still here, how do we handle the...

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the full spectrum hacking, tracking, and bushwhacking system that they're rolling out right now. It's already a reality. How do we handle AI? How do we handle if America collapses, and if religion becomes oppressed and Christianity is no longer illegal in our country like it is in other countries? So there's a value to keeping your finger on the pulse of what's going on geopolitically and otherwise, rather than sticking your head in the sand.

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What you just said, and part of it, the fact that persecution is increasing. I mean, the Bible warns about it all over the place, from Jesus to Paul to Peter to others. And we have been so spoiled in America, in our country.

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thanks to our Constitution and the religious freedoms, the First Amendment. But you can see clampdowns, depending on who gets elected and who passes legislation, about hate speech or whatever, because truth is hate to those who hate the truth. And so we've got a limited time, I think, and that window may be closing. But I love the introduction scripture you quoted, John 12, 35. Jesus said to them,

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A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. He who walks in darkness does not know where he's going. Great way to kick off the introduction. Great way to kick off your book, JB. About two and a half minutes left. Just share whatever you'd like about that.

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Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. So, you know, again, Fade to Black is the name of the book, Fade to Black Book dot com, Fade to Black Book dot com. But that whole light darkness motif that you just referenced there in John 12 that I referenced in the introduction, it really is a running theme throughout the book, and it's a running theme throughout Scripture, right?

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The world is definitely getting darker the closer we get to the rise of the Antichrist. It's always darkest right before dawn. And so Christ is going to come back at the end of the tribulation. The church will come back with him. He's going to inaugurate the long-awaited kingdom. It's going to be a glorious time. In fact, Adrian Rogers famously said that the world is growing gloriously dark. I love that. It's been often repeated by Bible teachers because it's such a perfect way to say it. For the believer...

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things aren't just growing dark, they're growing gloriously dark. And so I think that's part of the fade to black is it's, yes, it's fading to black, but what comes next? The movie hasn't really ended. It's just getting started both from the enemy's perspective and from God's plan of the age's perspective. So yeah, I think it's a helpful reminder that we are not

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in the dark. 1 Thess 5, 6 talks about that. We're not of the darkness, we're of the light, so we should be awake and paying attention and praising God through it all. Amen. And Jesus said, we are the light of the world, and it's up to us to shine that light in our sphere of influence. I want to mention, again, Scott Townsend wrote the foreword, Joe Hawkins on the back covered, Dr. Brad Reeves, Mondo Gonzalez,

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endorse the book. Great endorsements. And JB, thank you for putting out great material that will help the body of Christ and wish you continued good success. And a lot of our friends will see you at that conference coming up on August 1st.

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in Gettysburg. And brother, thanks for your ministry. Thanks for all you do. Your main website, I want to give that for those of you that might be new to this program, notbyworks.org. And follow JB. And we appreciate your voice very much and your time today, brother. God bless your ministry. Hey, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. You're most welcome, friends. All right. Share this one too. God bless you. And as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter. We'll see you next time.