John Cooper and Drew Hernandez Confront Woke Christianity and the Battle for America's Children at Dream City Church

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] waste our [Music] time in the morning [Music] [Music] okay [Music] [Music] tired of them [Music] [Music] in your eyes [Music] tonight [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] come on together slowly [Music] i didn't know forever [Music] got no choice [Music] is [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] i didn't say [Music] [Music] yes [Music] i am free [Music] i [Music] [Applause] forever [Music] who am i that you are is [Music] it's amazing [Music] i am [Music] [Music] it's so good [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] i am a friend of [Music] he god me [Applause] [Music] so good [Music] [Music] lord of you have called me [Music] and that is just to be called your friend is more than enough and we worship you we worship i'm caught up in your prayers [Music] and i just wanna sit here at your feet [Music] and i'm not here for blessings jesus you don't want me anything more than anything that you can do i just [Music] it's our prayer tonight [Music] [Applause] [Music] just will do [Music] [Applause] i just [Music] i just [Music] [Music] she [Music] [Music] i just want [Music] my soul [Music] oh it's [Music] it's okay put your hands together and just give our great god an applause and praise tonight for what he's done [Music] we want to welcome you tonight to freedom night in america it's kind of a night where freedom night in america meshes with the house of prayer jesus said that my house shall be a house of prayer so at the end of our program here tonight we're going to have a a time of prayer for you for your family for our nation for our elections coming up we're just gonna practice being a house of prayer for just about five minutes at the very end so we hope you all stay around for that that may not be your your tradition or the way you've done things but i promise you this you will just say when you leave tonight i was in god's presence i felt the presence of god when i was in uh church here tonight this is my wife angel i'm luke we're so glad to be hosting here tonight and there's uh for all the ladies a big night coming up saturday night it's girls night out and so uh i think there's a slide coming up somewhere and they're telling there's a slide maybe there's not a slide i don't know i just preach here i don't know but uh all the ladies are welcome for to come out for uh good vibes only it says so we hope you'll take advantage of that and you know there's so many great things happening i um you can be seated i was walking in here tonight and i saw about 75 people in our in a room down below and they were talking about an issue that's very important to i know the vast majority of you here's tonight what's going on right behind the wall here you know is a special opportunity to visually identify that the church is going to stand alongside a pregnancy resource clinic which is going to stand beside turning point usa and we believe yes amen that this unification we want to make this a stand that different non-profits good at what they are good at can impact an issue and we believe the church can bridge and stand in a gap to so many people that are looking for post-abortive care and the triage situation that happens with pregnancy resource clinics and the word is not out that that there's an option other than planned parenthood and we all have to get that out there and that turning point usa would stand beside us and take us to the nation we all together play a part and it was just a time of empowerment and sharing and positioning city church now is a partnership with choices and uh we have the leader of choices here tonight josh stand up josh real quick we appreciate you fighting for life in our state god bless you man we're not just talking about it we're actually collaborating on a brick and mortar prc clinic north phoenix valley which there are no clinics or abortion clinics in 10 mile radius right on 40th street and bell we're very excited about this opportunity so we're we're getting real yes it's we're getting real she's getting ready to preach i can tell she's getting she's getting wound up here tonight but uh so what we're gonna do is on these this is our regular wednesday night service and uh so we always take an offering for all of our outreach ministries such as this ministry but we also have a dream center downtown where 300 residents live free of charge they don't pay a penny to be there and people who are in prison people who are rescued from the streets uh young ladies who were victims of human sex trafficking it's the largest human sex trafficking relief organization in america today right here in phoenix so when you give here tonight you're not just given to air conditioning and lights and brick and mortar and carpet you're giving to help rescue lives we hope you all be generous and and just give uh to the work of the lord tonight jesus said there's one way you can give to me how many would like to give how many like to buy jesus a steak dinner tonight all of us would right he said when you do the least among me among you you've done it unto me so let's give to jesus tonight father we love you what a great joy it is to be part of something that's making a difference thank you for these amazing people bless their lives abundantly as they give lord tonight to a great cause we ask this in jesus name amen well uh tonight is the first week of a new series we're beginning here at dream city church we're calling kingdom lenses uh seeing this world through different lenses kingdom lenses now next next wednesday you're all invited back it's the official launch of this three-week teaching series but tonight the theme is seeing life through kingdom lenses and if there's anyone who i believe that god has raised up in america to share about life inside the kingdom and what it looks like um what it can look like to our nation today it's it's our host of of tonight uh charlie kirk for turning point usa and tonight this is a turning point faith sponsored event so one more time i'd like you all to stand to your feet and would you put your hands together and welcome our friend charlie kirk [Applause] [Music] hey everybody please take a seat thank you guys thank you it has been uh very eventful couple weeks for for us i'll tell you all about it um first i just want to reiterate how awesome dream city is and choices is um choices is doing such important work it really is and we just had a really nice event just in the other room here and i'm going to kind of touch on some of the same points i said there but kind of in a pr post row america it is on us as christians and believers to make sure that every single woman who is pregnant in arizona knows that there are options available that is not planned parenthood that are not these abortion clinics and choices are doing such a wonderful job and so we're going to support them any way we possibly can and uh just so honored be partnered with you guys you're doing such amazing work so kind of um on that theme so you know in the world that we live in almost everything is broadcasted and posted on social media and you know about nine months ago for those of you that are math majors out there um my wife and i decided to hey what if we didn't tell the world about every intimate detail that otherwise people you know put on social media all the time and again this is not to you know accuse or judge people you know people that do that it's just what if you decide to keep one thing private and one thing sacred while you still can um and so you might have noticed over the last four or five months erica wasn't at um any freedom night in america's here um and you know we did for a reason and obviously that reason is two weeks ago yesterday we welcomed a daughter into the world [Applause] thank you and for all the journalists out there that hate us that's right there's more kirks coming your way you better believe it [Applause] we are multiplying and uh obviously erica did so amazing throughout the entire pregnancy but it was so special to just keep it private and to keep it quiet for so many different reasons and the the one that was the big takeaway is that we knew that it was something that it wasn't for trying to get other people's attention um wasn't for trying to you know make it into some big social media thing um and obviously it was erica's decision to do it it was not easy though um matt who helps run turning point faith for us does an amazing job matt hey he kind of came to me like how did you keep that secret for nine months and it took effort on it honestly it really did um but it's just a good takeaway that if you have something special and something private i miss the days before social media uh you know honestly is it actually kind of refreshing and awesome and boy i'll tell you you know everyone tries to tell you in advance it's gonna change your life it's gonna change your life it's gonna change your life it's one thing to hear that and then when your life actually gets changed whoa okay wow and it really does and as for someone who's kind of been in this fight now for 10 years and all the things we're trying to do to save western civilization to try to restore the constitution all of a sudden there's a why oh okay now i get it and you know at all these events you would hear for years people say we're doing it for our kids and grandkids and it becomes very real very quickly and you know someone asked me a question the other day on a podcast or something where they said you know what what are you most excited about and you know i gave some cliche answer you know i'm excited for all the you know firsts and the memories and something and then i said charlie what are you most worried about and my answer i think all of you share is i'm really worried about the world that i'm raising a daughter in right now i'm worried about the country that she has to grow up in i'm worried about the public schools i'm worried about the decaying kind of lack of morality in our country i'm worried about this kind of inverse totalitarianism that we're seeing from our government and that worry and i know all of you share this belief is only going to motivate me more to fight harder and to do more and to and a win and you know for all of our wonderful fans out there that you know send us all of our death threats and stuff if you think we fought hard before it's going to be 2.0 just wait till you see a whole new gear is now gonna because the why has totally changed and so a couple things i just want to kind of keep on hitting with you here tonight and i'm not going to be doing the interview tonight first time i'm going back for newborn duty and i'm not going to apologize for that by the way so you're going to have a wonderful host here tonight phenomenal guests but just a couple things i want to kind of leave you all with um because we haven't we haven't really had a chance to talk um i think it's been five weeks since the last one if i'm not mistaken is that one of the defining characteristics of the american system of government of a free society is this idea of bottom up not top down and i truly believe that the elites the people that are running kind of the worst aspects of the american culture and the american government right now are increasingly worried that there is a reclamation of citizens starting to reclaim power that there's something that is happening at great momentum and you see this with the kind of unfounded terminology and accusations of calling half the country fascists and throwing around this term just so kind of loosely and i just want to encourage all of you because i know a lot of you are looking for hope is that there's something very special happening in the country right now where we and and we are seeing it not forget politics i'm talking about people that are rising up in record numbers to care about things that otherwise they would not be caring about whether it be city councils whether it be school boards whether it be caring about citizenship it's a very special thing and [Applause] the people in charge they don't like that they don't want all of a sudden questions to be asked of them they don't i mean we have an almost packed auditorium here tonight it's an amazing thing they don't like that they don't like the fact that the idea of a citizen is being reborn right now in america and what makes citizenship different is in america the idea of a citizen literally means that we are co-ruler of our nation and the more active the citizen the harder it is for a tyrant to be able to get away with their deceit with their theft with their lying and their stealing and their cheating now most of civilization human beings were not citizens they were subjects or they were serfs or they were slaves this idea of a citizen is totally unique but it takes exactly what you hear you being here tonight it takes you being here tonight kind of it plays into this idea of what a citizen is which is it takes the consumption of information you have to always be alert and aware of all the different ways they're trying to rob your freedoms and liberties obviously it takes voting but that's like the least of it by the way that's that's just the beginner's step it takes praying and fasting for your nation which we by the way going into this election regardless your political beliefs because you know tonight is not about politics it's not i want to encourage everyone at least once a week maybe you know once a month we got to pray and fast for our nation we got to pray and fast that righteous decisions are made coming into november and but you could see it in the behavior you could see it in the language that the unelected as we call it the fourth branch of government the administrative state they're increasingly nervous and acting out with desperate type last ditch efforts because there is a mass i believe once in a century realignment happening there's a great book called the fourth turning that talks about how generations kind of operate in 20 to 30-year cycles and i believe we're in the middle of a cycle right now where all of a sudden we could go one of two ways but every single leading indicator is showing us that it's actually it's going away that the davos crowd and the world economic forum crowd never would have possibly imagined which is it very easily could have gone towards the direction of apathy and cynicism that is so tempting isn't it it is so tempting to be apathetic and cynical i mean when when you watch the nightly news you say oh they're just doing it to get rich and to kind of you know serve their own interests and what good is it but instead we're defying the odds with what you're doing tonight with the organizing with those of you running for office with those of you that are leaning in and homeschooling your kids those you that are supporting the wonderful dream city christian turning point academy which is just getting started by the way all these amazing new projects that are rising up are dare i say kind of like a glitch in the matrix it's an unexpected development where they were counting on you just to stay at home stop watching the news stop caring stop showing up to events like this and just kind of watch netflix and hulu and just say whatever what difference does it make more evil has been done over the last 100 years based on the phrase what difference does it make more evil apathy of allowing bad people to do what they want to do while good people sit idly by and the moment that we are in it transcends politics because you know why i say it transcends politics not just because it's true because after the election are you just going to stop showing up and no of course not and that's the part that's the thing is that it's a long-term fight it's a long-term cultural educational spiritual religious fight where i think all of us are buying and say okay we understand the stakes that are in front of us that we believe in separation of powers and we believe in consent to the governed and we believe in all these different things and we're willing to do something about it and so the moment that we're in right now i believe is the last gasps of a dying regime of not of a regime that is not political it's it's something that is much deeper than that it's people that are in these unelected federal government bureaucracies it's people that believe that they can steal your earnings and your your wages without your consent and so this realignment is something that people do not get to see very often in fact i don't believe this has happened in our country in a very very long period of time and we're seeing it in public opinion polls we're seeing it in so many different ways and the mass media would like to have you believe to be cynical and to be apathetic and say what difference does it make you know who says it over and over again what difference does it make that is the poem of satan he would love nothing more than to have you say my action my behavior my language means absolutely nothing and now as a father i can say it actually makes a very big difference actually because there's a whole different generation that we're fighting for that we're contesting for one quick announcement then i'll close and i'll bring up our wonderful drew hernandez who will lead us through the evening here we have an event coming up all about the great reset it's a mini event coming up it's called how to defeat the great reset or defeating the great reset it's at the arizona grand hotel on september 16th and 17th i think i got that right um we have steve bannon speaking we have michael o'fallon james lindsey if you don't like to learn don't come okay this is not going to be a rally this is not this is going to be educational and very very information deep what is the great reset what is the world economic forum what are the 10 kind of tasks of the great reset lots of notes those you that are lifelong learners you guys can attend we have a discount code for all freedom square attendees so if you guys follow that qr code you guys can scan to register um i think it's a discount code uh freedom night i could be wrong with that so if you have any problems with that just email our team directly and will can help you through that it's a two-day event it's literally 24 hours we put this together in almost no time the reason being is i believe every christian and every american out there needs to know about the world economic forum and needs to know about davos and what's happening with these kind of global implications so we've we've assembled the team of experts to help you through that the 16th and the 17th and you might say charlie why'd you pick that weekend it's constitution day weekend what a great counter to say we're going to reset the constitution not reset the world economic forum so you guys are interested we'll we'll help get you guys there i'll say this in closing before i go back to uh to newborn duty and thank you to erica for allowing me to uh to be here so sweet and uh yes to answer all your questions not sleeping very much but it's awesome and still doing three hours of radio day and all that good stuff so i'll close on this which is as we continue this amazing program here at freedom night in america we have to remember and recognize that we as christians have to be held to a higher standard when it comes to all of these different issues i said this with the kind of the the roe issue that in a post row america i believe that it's a it's incredible it's amazing what the supreme court did but we also must recognize and understand that not every christian not every conservative is as pro-life as we would like them to be that we have a lot of work to do we have a lot of education work we have a lot of things to focus on but we have momentum and the people are our greatest hope but honestly it's not our greatest hope our greatest hope is in jesus and our greatest hope is in the eternal the greatest the greatest hope we have right now in organizing is in all of you continuing the energy the enthusiasm with motivation and so we have another amazing guest coming up next month that will be all about the row issue if you have any questions about abortion next month is it what's the date will october can you double check really quick the next next month we have seth gruber if you have that's what i thought october 5th he is in my opinion one of the top five experts when it comes to the abortion topic in the country bring a pro-abortion friend next month that's your call to action bring someone i know you're saying oh come on charlie no no and and have them come up to the microphone and they will be allowed to ask any question they want he is so skilled so graceful so compassionate on this issue of abortion maybe you have questions that will be all about next month and we're also going to be honoring choices pregnancy center uh through that as as we do that so in closing here everybody we're an amazing moment in time the stakes have never been higher and arizona is really where this is all unfolding in more ways than one i'm so honored i'm so honored to fight alongside all of you and the the notes and the messages that eric and i have received over the last couple weeks it's really touching to know how many people are praying for us how many people are supporting us uh it really has been an amazing moment in that regard just uh it's truly it's truly awesome and we're gonna win and the bad guys are gonna lose join me in welcoming drew hernandez as he comes up and continues the program here tonight god bless you guys we'll i'll see you next month that's all you men how's it going dream city how you guys doing tonight well my name is drew hernandez i'm the host of front lines powered by turning point usa uh you guys can watch it on real america's voice nightly at 7 p.m pacific standard time uh 7 30 pm pacific standard time 10 30 pm eastern it's an awesome time to get together and just push back on the evil in our culture in our world i'm gonna tell you man the worst thing that could have happened to the evil in this world is charlie kirk not only having a baby but a baby girl you know like this guy this guy's gonna be a force to be reckoned with well let's get this night started i wanted to introduce our guest for the tonight a man of god a musician a man on a mission and pursuit for truth pushing straight through all the lies the great john cooper what's up what's up here's the thing see i was hoping charlie was going to be here for a second because i prayed about this i got something for him hey i could give it to him i could give it to him i'll give it to the team i have one too it's awesome john let's just get straight into this i don't want to waste any time tonight let's let's let the people hear a little bit of your story your path how you got on this path kind of where you are now and where you're going sure okay great well it's really cool to be here thanks so much my name is john i play in a band called skillet that's what this onesie is that's my band oh some people so we have some people with good music taste here i didn't know but now i better not be listening toby mack or something anyway uh jk jk shot's fired yeah he's not here is he anyway um but i played a band called skillet uh we've been this is our 26th year as a as a rock band we're a christian rock band but we do about 70 percent of our business in the mainstream rock world so uh these days we're we're probably known more as a rock act even though people know that we are christians and um i'm married my wife corey is of 25 years is also in the band some people know that some people might not so i if people clapping have probably seen us live because she's amazing she's awesome uh that guy back there with the big beard was like yeah i've seen it exactly exactly i could see that thing from here man yeah that's space it's a pretty intimidating beard he's got going on anyway i have two kids my daughter is almost 20. my son is 17 and i became a follower of jesus as a kid my mom was a jesus fanatic and taught me about the bible and i've just had the privilege of knowing christ since i was a kid wanted to play music to share this amazing hope i have in jesus christ my mom passed away when i was 15 and my my relationship with jesus is what brought me through that and so i thought music was a great way to do that and then a few years ago probably about eight years ago i got quite deadly serious about the bible i was already christian i loved god i loved i think i liked the bible and stuff eight years ago i got deadly serious about the bible because i was like i don't understand what's happening in the world i'm confused people are saying the weirdest stuff i've never heard before in the church i don't think that's exactly right and so i came out very very hard against the what we would call the deconstruction movement the christian apostasy movement progressive christianity false christianity that is selling a false lie of secular social justice to the church that's replacing the one and true salvation through jesus christ so i came out really hard about those things and that's why we're here now i have a podcast called cooper stuff and i wrote a book that i have here today called awaken alive to truth which was basically um the intent of that was basically to write a book to where teenagers and college students could hear just bible theology 101 in a way they can understand it and that's my truest passion teaching bible truth cultural apologetics to people who might not want to sit through a thousand page john calvin book yeah amen let's let's talk about that right because i think that's definitely the elephant in the room right um all of us are seeing on social media we're seeing in the mainstream news i don't even know if we can call it this but it's woke christianity and you see all this we can definitely call it that right but i mean it's almost blasphemous to even call it that right there's it's it's just christianity right um so what has your experience been going head-to-head inside of the music industry because obviously the christian music industry at some point will clash with the secular world right so how has your experience been kind of combating these things with the truth and gauging it head on because i think when people think about it or they watch it from afar it's like that's awesome but behind the scenes how has it really been just kind of engaging that stuff have people tried to cancel you silence you uh slander you how's your experience been yeah they've definitely tried to cancel me but they can't you know what i'm saying i don't know it's kind of weird it's been a weird time though let me ask you this because i'm guessing a lot of people will know what i mean how many people remember like the time maybe this is three years ago it might be five years ago it might be eight years ago i don't know 2012-13 i don't know how many people remember the time when you started hearing your christian friends saying things about the bible that you did not understand like does anybody know what i mean when i say that we see some hands this started happening for me and i started going wait a minute but you're saying you're pro-life and you think the best way to be pro-life is to be pro-choice it was like these kind of arguments right it was this no no no jesus jesus died on a cross but it wasn't a literal death like i was hearing these kind of things and i'm like i don't know what you're talking about and so i think what i started recognizing was this this is what i believe anyway in the christian music world i think is not that much different you guys know that jesus said hey don't be surprised if the world hates you they hated me first right that's what the bible says well guess what there is a work around to that sort of the work around to that is just to find out what the culture does not like about christianity and then shave those parts off shave them off and trim it down and trim it down and then present a christianity to the world that the world is like oh you're one of the good christians now this doesn't work but people think it works so they shaved off all the things that the bible says that might be inconvenient to us like jesus christ is the way the truth the life right he's not a way he's the truth no one comes to heaven except through the father that's what that's what our lord said that's just the truth of it well maybe we could shave that off a little bit we all know people that would say i can like the bible a little bit better if there wasn't all these impositions on my sexual life on the things i think on the things i watch on the people that i love on the people that i want to have sex with it'd be a lot easier if we shave all of that in the christian music world it's just like the christian church world people started saying okay then just shave it off we still have jesus but that's obviously a lie you cannot separate the word of god the written word of god from jesus the word become flesh you can't separate these things right so in the christian music world there is a unfortunately let me say this there's a lot of there's a lot of jesus freaks in the christian music world i do want you know there are some people that love god but there are a lot of forces now especially in the higher ups because they a lot of the christian labels are not owned by main or secular labels just like christian book books you know the christian publishing agencies now are owned by people who do not love god in fact lots of them hate god right so that is happening and there is a little bit of a price to pay but i have seen something happen in some young musicians when i meet them christian musicians who said dude you're like bombastic for jesus maybe i could be like that i'm like yes you can be like that the devil is a liar and he is trying to tamper you down so he can make you ineffective for the gospel but that's but if you preach the word of god you cannot lose it's an impossibility right because the word of god is living and active the bible says right so the word of god is going to go forth it is going to accomplish what god wanted to accomplish don't let these people shut you down and that's my mission absolutely what would you say right now if you just take a look at the world you take a look at the culture here in the united states of america from a biblical perspective i know we could pick anything but you your own heart through your own eyes what do you see that is concerning you the most right now in this moment in time that you see the culture just opening up their arms to from a biblical perspective how are you addressing that the biggest thing i see happening i think i'm gonna tell it from a church perspective if i can because i believe that if the church gets the truth of christ right then we will be a prophetic voice to the world that's what we have to do so it's got to start here and what i see happening is is the church wanting to dumb down i mean let's just say like this the church no longer believes in absolute truth that's what i'm trying to say we don't believe the bible is authoritative we don't believe that the bible is inerrant we think the bible has got some really good ideas but guess what the world's got some good ideas too but according to total depravity that's wrong the world does not have good ideas they are anti-christ they are anti-truth because they set themselves up against the gospel of jesus christ right so they actually we don't hate them but they don't have good ideas the truth of jesus christ will win so what i see happening is is the church getting like we don't want to offend people we don't want to make them mad it's going to give people the sads just be nice be happy and and and just yeah and in the end what is happening is that now we've got like what is it eight percent of professing christians believe in objective truth that that's really not good and i think another way that it is outworking itself if you guys don't mind if i preach a little bit because you guys care here about sex trafficking you guys care here about abortion you guys care about a lot of things that i care a lot about too so we just need to mention it now it is a travesty that the church just doesn't look that much different than the world it's remarkable to me and i think if we're going to lump all these things together sex trafficking abortion this we have to lump pornography in with this when are we going to see some godly men say enough pornography it's evil it's wicked no it's not okay it's all a part of the same thing and we have just you know if you look at the statistics of of people and sin in the church people to sin in the world they're not really that much different but i believe that if we were to flip that around i think the world would then see something different in us i think that we would have women in the world look and say how come those men are different than those men that'd be pretty powerful right how come those guys are different how come those men protect their family a lot better than those men maybe i want a little bit of a taste of that that's what the kingdom of god is righteousness peace joy in the holy spirit and when you live in that life it's like the pool and people that aren't they don't get to play in the pool but they get to be around the pool and sometimes somebody jumps in the pool and it splashes off into somebody that does not know jesus christ and they get a little bit of taste of righteousness a little bit of taste of peace a little taste of joy in the holy ghost and they say maybe i want to jump into that pool baby yes you do absolutely yes it requires total boldness you know right now i've been telling people i've been doing interviews and people have been asking me the same question like where really are we you know and right now there's there literally is no room for any lukewarmness i mean they're like when jesus made it very clear either with me or against me right now that rings true more than ever i mean the way that you could take the temperature of a culture and where they're really at is how they treat their children right and right now this whole groomer agenda these people literally want your kids they tell you out in the open disney is coming out and saying we have a not so secret gay agenda these people want to mutilate the genitals of your children these people literally want to take your kids away from you this is the society that you live in right now and they want to normalize that that's that's that's where we've gotten right now where yes this has been happening in society for thousands of years but right now here in 2022 you're living in a time in society where they are trying to normalize this out in the open in the culture i mean if anyone's gonna come out and say no it has to be the church if anyone's gonna come out if anyone's gonna come out with the loudest voice of righteousness against these doctrines of demons it has to be the church it has to be those filled with light it has to be those filled with the spirit of god that's every single one of you if you are born again tonight that is you that is you right now let's let's let's transition because speaking of the church i'm pretty sure you guys are seeing this all over social media there's this attack there's this this uh christian nationalism right christian nationalism is such a horrible and bad thing as if thou shall not kill to kill is is a bad thing right oh to love your neighbor as yourself is such a horrible and evil thing to implement in society right it's quite the opposite if you ask me what's your take on this christian nationalism thing and people coming out in the mainstream and saying oh this is a horrible fascist dictatorial takeover here in the united states of america yeah the christian nationalism thing is a complete a boogie boogeyman it's not real it's a red herring right now that's not to say that there isn't anybody that is involved in idolatry of america there are people like that but it's not actually that many what they want to do is they want to tie anyone that says well i have an opinion on morality i have an opinion on politics or something like that based on the word of god anybody that says that unless it's pointed in one direction if it's pointed in the direction of conservativism they want to say it's christian nationalism but if you say hey i actually think we need 70 taxes because jesus cared for the poor that's not considered christian nationalism so it only goes one way so it's a it's a complete red herring the reason i started speaking up so much about this stuff is really precisely what you're saying right now it has to be the church to say something it has to be the church because we believe in truth that is grounded in something our feet are on something solid they're not just ideas right they're not just well that's kind of how it was raised our feet are grounded in something extremely solid the reason i started speaking up was like all right you know what if i don't speak up now i might lose the right to ever speak up again absolutely right now that might sound you know to some people they go john that sounds crazy but i gotta tell you what i looked in 2020 when we started to have a country that said in uh california i got some friends from california some of them are over here um you're from california i was there that's right you when they start saying in california to pastor john mcarthur for instance hey you can go to a strip club you can go to an abortion clinic you can go buy weed you can go buy liquor but you may not go to church you gotta back off you do not have that kind of authority under the constitution but more importantly don't just back off you need to be rebuked because there is a king who is an authority above you the world is owned by king jesus it is not owned by you i couldn't i couldn't take it but what made me even more upset was the amount of christians rebuking pastor mcarthur christian's saying oh you shouldn't be making such a stink about this and this and this and i just think so you're making us look bad you're making us look bad like righteousness sake fine it's like they already hate you anyway bruh they don't like you anyway nothing you do is gonna make them like you you know that right absolutely so they're coming after you one way or the other that is when i just said okay you know what we we dude i'm writing a new book right now maybe i will for the first time announce the name of the book tonight this seems like the right audience to do that breaking news let's do it yeah the name of the new book i'm writing is this wimpy weak and woke that's the name of the new book and and and the subtitle is how weak christianity is destroying america and how truth will save her not can save her how truth will save her and the reason i'm writing is because i see so many churches afraid to stay they think that if we just do this and this the world's gonna like is what they don't understand is this if they can shut your church down they can shut you in your house if they can shut you in your house they can force you to get a a jab if they can force you to get a jab for this they can force you to get a jab for something else if they can force you to get a jab they can force you to have a one-child policy if they can force you to get a one-child policy they can force you to let your ten-year-old kid transition and mutilate their body or you just might have to go to jail we are not that far from that and that's not fear mongering that's just watching the news yes but there is a call for i believe for the people of god to rise up in love and say no you do not have that authority jesus christ is the king of the of the universe absolutely absolutely praise god amen i think uh we got some time to start setting up for our q and a but as they get set up for the q a john what what what is your message to this current generation right now what is your message to the church what is your encouragement what are you imploring to the church those that are possibly watching online those that are here sitting here tonight if you could if this was your last night alive what would you say to the church yeah you know what i i think i would love to answer that question directly to young people maybe college age high school junior high school age i think what i would just say is this like a lot of young people today believe and and i'm not making fun of you you believe it because you've been taught it in your schools and your whatever i don't know but you've been taught that humans are good we are good people we can fix all of our own problems these things are not true by the way we need jesus so bad and we need a fresh dose of mercy every single morning thank god that his mercies are new every single morning but we are not born good and i guess what i would say to young people is just this one one simple question how's it going how's it going do you feel like you have peace in your life when every single day you get new rules for what you're allowed to say what you are not allowed to say who you have to call by by a new name or a new this or you're going to get canceled how's it going how's it going when you don't even know what is actually moral and what is immoral our young people are being taught right now for instance you should never feel shame about anything i i don't think that's actually accurate actually i think that shame can be a good thing because it could just be the holy spirit in your heart saying hey you're not supposed to be doing that but good news there is a god who will forgive you and empower you to say no the next time shame is not a terrible thing i would say to young people how's it going wouldn't you love to have something under your feet to plant your feet into so first of all so you even know that you matter because without jesus without god without a god that created this world how do you know that you matter i believe that you matter but how do you know that you why would you matter if all of this is random chance and just a chaotic universe and it just spit us out magically then maybe you don't matter that's my question how do you even know that you matter what do you want to live for wouldn't it be great to know the creator of the universe wouldn't it be great to find out that with all this stuff that we see all this the all this galaxy wouldn't it be great to know that he also knows your name and he knows your pain he knows what you're going through at school your anxiety and your depression and your friends that don't like you and all the pressure you're under his school he knows those things and he cares about those things wouldn't it be great to have something to put your feet in that you say this is the word of god and it is right and it never changes and it is alive today and it is going to give me not just hope for the future when i die it's going to give me hope for today to order my life that i can live in a way that's going to not only please my creator but is going to cause me to flourish and that's what the word of god is when you go to the word of god you have come to god himself that's what i would tell young people absolutely amen to that you know the bible says always be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you one thing i will say is we have an entire generation that is being lied to on a grand mass scale to the point of mutilating their own bodies you know at some point they're going to come running looking for answers and when they come running looking for answers they're going to come looking for truth absolute truth because they're going to be so disillusioned that everywhere they went to their closest friends even their own parents doctors that they look up to that told them to do this kind of stuff they're going to realize that everyone around them has lied to them but when they come looking for the truth they're going to find it this is why you are the light of the world because when darkness is at his all-time high the church is always going to shine brightest in the universe that's itself so i'll leave that with you guys let's get started with this q a if you guys have any questions for myself or for john as well uh let's transition into a time of that we got some right here john hi i'd like to ask what's your name buddy micah welcome hi i wanted to ask are you gonna come visit our school am i gonna come play at your school yeah i don't know i don't think i am what if i sing something now for it i'll do this hey you make me feel invincible earthquake powerful just like a turtle wave you're making me break your my titanium fight song raising up like the roar of victory and a stadium who can't touch me cause i'm who kiss me cause i you make me feel that was for free you don't have to pay me for that you did not have to pay me for that i know a lot of parents are like what is that singing that's my voice i'm sorry my mom doesn't like it either okay who's next hi my name is anderson um so i want to like do music as a career i want to be a singer as well and i was wondering how did you kind of like stay strong with your faith and also kind of like navigate through the music industry when there's a bunch of like to see and deception in it yeah that's awesome good luck to you i hope it goes really great you know i think for me always knowing who you are on the front end it's so important because the the the entertainment industry does not care about you they just want to make money off of you they want to chew you up and spit you out as long as they get some some money at the end of the day so you have to know who you are and i think there's some practical things you can do with that i have i have a christian manager i'm telling you it's really hard to find christian management and i'll tell you what i'll tell you what the devil can do in case you don't know the devil will say a lot of things that sound true but they are lies but they sound really kind of like something god might say you know like yeah but did god really say that's from the bible by the way but that's what the devil does and i've i've had lots of christian friends and bands and they have not had christian managers and their managers have taken them in in bad situations and one little compromise takes you to the next compromise takes you to the next and before you know it you you don't recognize yourself anymore so know who you are do something wise get a christian manager and uh make decisions on the front end so you're not in this situation going i don't know who i am you got to know who you are be rooted in the word of god that's what i would say [Applause] hi john just like you i'm also from southeast wisconsin and as i'm watching all these things like what happened in kenosha a couple years ago i'm kind of wondering how as christians we can approach people who are involved in things like that people who are involved in these kind of horrific events and how we can still show love amidst all of that that's great yeah you know what either i was so nervous when i first came i'm not used to having a guitar and singing really loud so this was a little weird uh i forgot to say i live in kenosha wisconsin where you are doing the things so kyle rittenhouse is that was three blocks from my house all right so um that was a very unusual time my city got destroyed i saw christian people uh supporting the violence frankly i saw christian people mad at people like me that were saying you can't go burn buildings down it was a really difficult time and i will not lie to you i did not i do not always handle this the right way because i i get really riled up when it comes to truth and i just get kind of john the baptist i mean it which is can be good but it's not always the best so i will be honest i'm working i'm working i'm trying to be a better me pastor anyway uh i don't always do the best but so let me let me tell you the one thing i think that i am good at and then i will just be honest with me and you're going to figure that out together because i don't know but i will tell you what the answer is not i believe i believe the answer is not being so polite that we don't say stuff that's true not being so nice that we don't stand up for what's right so truth is truth right you know what i mean john the baptist probably could have said stuff a little nicer to herod maybe he wouldn't had his head on a plate at the end of the day he probably could have found a nicer way to say it but you know the prophet doesn't always go that way i'm not saying i'm a prophet john the baptist was but i'm just you know i'm making you get it i'm not i'm just saying if i were no i'm kidding i i know i didn't even answer your question i'm being honest to say i'm not nice enough to know the answer to that actually that's not true i will tell you one thing i am trying to do now is to not always assume that i know what that person thinks like how many let me i'll say this you guys know uh that right now there's a lot of there's a lot of words we all use systemic racism that's a good example we all use these words but we don't all mean the same things when we say those words like for instance when joe biden says democracy he doesn't mean what i mean when i say democracy i'm not being rude i'm just saying yeah he's kind of into the french revolution i'm kind of into the american revolution it's it's a thing but we don't always mean the same things so if somebody if i'm if somebody's said blah blah blah and systemic racism i don't need to automatically jump and go oh okay they've been reading ibram kindy and what they mean by that is this and white privilege and this and critical race theory and stokely carmichael you know you don't have to do that and i do that because i just like to get to the foundation so what i've been trying to do with people is be like okay that's interesting and inside i'm like and on my face i'm like what do you mean when you say systemic racism and then i make notes no i'm kidding [Laughter] but you you know what i mean that's what i'm trying to do i don't always do the best i think i'm probably nicer than him that's the feeling i got i heard him doing his podcast that might be nicer than you it's uh it's not for everyone i'll tell you that right now but uh you know i i watched kyle rittenhouse shoot and kill in self-defense when i was in kenosha and so as a christian watching these things in the 2020 riots it was really kind of like a test on my heart and my faith and learning how to deal with certain people like this being undercover in antifa literally hunting me on twitter trying to find me and not to have a polite conversation with me so it's kind of like this this balance right because you take a look at the bible and on one hand you are called to be a righteous light exposing darkness on the other hand you're called to love the world as christ gave his life for us at the same time right so as you are casting out your seed as you are casting out the word of god you might be having an interaction with one person it might be an unbeliever in your home it might be an unbeliever at work or it might be an unbeliever who knows right but your behavior and your character never changes this is why you have to be above reproach right so as you're having these interactions you never know and i'm just telling you guys what's happened to me i've had one-on-one interactions with people at leftist protests who hate me and then all of a sudden there's like 20 other people standing around me actually listening to what i'm saying and their and their minds are just like unlocked so you never know who your audience is you never know who's watching you never know who's listening your character your message and your heart should never change um hey so i was wondering how do you take a leap of faith um to just like if you don't have that platform so how do you take that leap of faith to just proclaim that truth you know the truth but you like how do you proclaim it without like being shut down sure sure yeah i think that you know i think it's one of those things when um not everybody's maybe called to the same thing right you know some people were called to to do this public thing whatever you know i have two kids that are both teenagers my daughter's almost 20. and i just try to encourage my kids like you just need to stand for truth where you're at you stand with truth with your friends you love them and if they don't agree with you you hang out with them still you love them you're the friend but you begin to stand for radical truth-telling wherever you're at and that's usually what i encourage people to do it's not for everybody to jump on those public platforms and you know people get really mad and stuff like that you know i think skillet was i'm proud to say the for either the first or the second band and one of the only bands in the world that went on social media and i said i refuse to play vaccine mandated shows will not do it it's a matter it's conviction will not do it right and at the time we didn't know if we that means we would ever get to play in other words we know if there's gonna be a time when when those shows would open up is this gonna cost you money it definitely costs you fans that's not always a great thing to do but but you'll know it in your heart you'll know when that time comes in your heart when you go ah this is the moment that god wants me to say something this is the moment i'm supposed to say it now and that's what i believe anyway do i stop or do i stay where i'm at until god says skull i would always stop until god says go that is a great way keep praying about it because if god wants you to do it he's i believe he's going to lead you it would be counterintuitive for his spirit not to do so so i would think that if he wants you to speak he's going to put it in your heart and and maybe it's hard to describe but that kind of that kind of burning feeling when it's not out of anger but you're like oh i just feel like god's just he's doing something and i got to get it out to me i found that that's usually the voice of the lord amen all right guys we got about 10 minutes left so let's get our questions quick and to the point okay hi i'm ed good evening by the way and i would like to get both of you guys opinion on this question what is your outlook and your position on this new radical moment for the underage kids to get sex changes and things like that i'll take this one i hate it i hate it with every righteous fiber inside of me i'm just gonna be honest um and when i say that you know you take a look at the book of proverbs there are things that god hates you look at proverbs chapter seven there's this righteous indignation and despising towards these things i mean i could take it as far as even jesus saying for anyone that causes one of these little ones that believes in me to stumble let a millstone be tied around their neck and thrown down into the middle of the ocean is that offensive to you [Applause] so this targeting of the youth this targeting of children their bodies to sexualize them whether it's gay straight or trans is from satan himself to take a child and prop them up like that right now like i said earlier my personal opinion is i righteously hate it because i see it for what it is and what pisses me off the most as a christian is that you see kids buying into it and at the same time it breaks my heart and it shatters me on a daily basis because you know exactly what path this is going down that gonna take them right you know that how abusers work abusers gain the trust of their victims they isolate them they put them in a corner they get them to believe that everything that they're saying is true and then they turn on them they violate them they destroy them and they cast them by the wayside as if they're a piece of trash that is what is happening am i too aggressive for you because i'm talking about children being violated i pray i pray that every single one of you i pray that every single one of you gets so loud and so righteously angry at this agenda that's targeting the innocence of children on a daily on a nightly basis so these people know that it's not okay and it will not be tolerated in the united states of america or the world [Applause] i think that says it i told charlie i'd be a little reserved tonight but you know they asked the question charlie okay you know you know i wasn't listening no i would i wouldn't mind adding one quick thing if i can because uh for people who know my music you probably won't be surprised to hear this but skillet has a load of transgender fans it's probably to do with the emotion of our music and uh i i don't know how i say hello i don't know how many transgender people i've met at concerts and the truth is i really love them but they're great they're sweet i shake their hands i hug them and i think that what happens is sometimes people think that that the for for how evil we think this is for evil we think it's translated into a hatred of a person which is not accurate in any way as you said it breaks your heart it breaks my heart what i have noticed and i think what's so frustrating about this is that the medical institutions our institutions are all in this together they know the statistics that something like 80 to 85 percent of all people who suffer gender dysphoria will naturally stay with their biological sex by the time they turn what 18 or 19 years old the medical institutions know this and that's what's so very frustrating about it what i have found with a lot of people is when i've met them is that they just feel lost and i tell you my mom died when i was 15 me and my dad started fighting i hated my dad for a long time i felt lost i know what it's like to feel lost and feel like not a single person's listening or knows what i'm going through i know what it's like to pray in my room at night and say god i'm praying and you're not listening because nothing's changing where are you i know what that's like and that's why it's so infuriating to meet these precious people the concerts that we meet and to say these people are lying to them for what who knows what godless agenda as you just what godless agenda is it money are they trying to make who knows what is going on but they know the same statistics that we do and so i do think for the church to reach out create a community my daughter just said to me last night she went through this thing this college group thing she came back she's like dad there's so many people here suffering transgender people there's so many people like this she's like i just don't think they have community they don't know what family is like and she's like we're going to try to create a family where people feel comfortable and we are going to share the gospel of jesus christ that gives you an identity a god that knows who you are and it was really a special night for me so i want to just want to throw that out there hi i just had a quick question on what your take would be with a 20 year old young man grew up in a christian home and is now saying he does not believe in organized religion whatsoever there's a lot of that going on right now isn't there i mean it's an epidemic it really is i've never seen anything like it in my lifetime um and i i i think what you're seeing in america no no no what you're seeing in the world in the western world it's just revolution right it's just revolution against anything that came before us that's what progressivism is anyway it's just like a denial that anything in the past matters and i think what you're seeing with a lot of young people they and they a lot of they they follow a lot of influencers and a lot of influencers have been burned or maybe somebody gave them the sads at a church meeting i don't know what their thing is but they get really like and then they go online and they just bash the church and they they in and and they don't just say like like i came to church and you were mean to me but i'm not mad at you i'm mad at the church everybody in christendom the visible and invisible church all of them and it's really unfair and so i think what we have to do is just keep preaching the truth of the word of god they're trying to find a third way option a lot of people which is well no i still kind of believe in god but i'm done with that you know yada yada in the end it's not going to be tenable because god has ordained his church to be in an institution in the earth to proclaim the good news of christ right the church is the vehicle for the power of god on the earth really i believe so it's not going to be a tenable solution but we do have to really keep fighting to keep those people tethered to truth because as soon as they they kind of move out of out of organized religion they just end up drifting away but this is an epidemic right now you know so that's what i think thank you for your question i think we have time for maybe one more hi i was wondering how do i deal with kids and teachers at my school bashing me and hating me for me being a christian well that just makes me angry and proud mixed emotions brother you keep being a christian that's right that's right you love go you go for it go i didn't mean to brother no i i just think it's just man i know it's it's hard to say especially your age and i know you probably hate when people say that and i'm not that old i'm like 22. listen [Applause] what a privilege it is i am telling you what a privilege it is to suffer for the name of jesus christ you will never ever you will never be like i wish i hadn't done that it is such a privilege that christ would count you worthy to suffer for that for him and so i would just say to you that you know what do not stop for an inch let that be the fire what did charlie say early never as a kid you thought it was bad before and now i got a little girl son you know it's about to get real and i would just say let it drive you let that drive you it's a privilege to suffer for jesus christ that's what world changers do some of my heroes dietrich bonhoeffer one of the only christians in germany saying to the church how come you're not saying anything about hitler this guy is pretty bad and the rest of the church is like dude dietrich dietch i'm just kidding dietrich you're getting a little too crazy it's not that big of a deal and he's like yes it is we're gonna take this guy out he suffered for the gospel so you'll you know what man let them do their thing you just keep living and i will tell you one more thing you said it early which i loved you raise the standard in your life so that you make yourself a teflon when people look at your life this is what i believe the old testament god says this covenant when you keep god's law let's say like this when you keep god's law he commands a blessing on your life if you do not keep his law he commands a curse on your life that's what the bible teaches right so guess what if you keep god's law in your life people will end up noticing how come you're more blessed than me how come you have more peace in your life than i do how come your relationships are not tainted with sexual immorality in all of mine are how come you can sleep at night and i can't because i got so many demons in my head there's going to be a blessing attached to the not just you the people of god this is what i believe the people of god that begin to live out the moral law of god are going to become so blessed in the earth it's going to be super bright and super dark and eventually the dark is either going to turn to the light or they're going to try to imitate the light so that they can receive the blessing but but but god commands a blessing on your life so what i believe is that you keep doing what you're doing people will end up noticing there's something about you that i don't have and i want a little taste of it don't stop amen amen alrighty ladies and gentlemen we want to thank you guys tonight was awesome praise god amazing conversations john cooper man give it up for john you guys incredible night john is there anywhere that the people could continue to follow your work anything specific your book that's about to release is there anything that you would like them to know to be on the lookout for sure i'll do it really quick so if you want to follow up skillet music that's where all my music is some of you if you've never heard skillet music you heard me sing tonight which means you probably won't dig it but but um but if you want to follow my podcast to hear more things we talk about like this i talk about cultural apologetics theology and how that works out into life and i think that i do it in a way that you could watch with your kids there's never any cussing on it it's just i meet parents i meet men with with their sons that listen to my podcast could we ta