Robert Jeffress: Why Christians Shouldn’t Fear the Book of Revelation

Why do so many Christians avoid the book of Revelation—and is it really as difficult to understand as we sometimes think?

On this episode of The Steve Marston Show, Steve sits down with Pastor Robert Jeffress, longtime pastor of First Baptist Church Dallas and Bible teacher on Pathway to Victory, to talk about his book The Final Conquest, a verse-by-verse study of Revelation. Jeffress explains why Revelation isn’t ultimately a book about fear, confusing symbols or trying to predict dates—it’s about Jesus Christ, His return and the ultimate victory believers have in Him.

They also discuss why Christians shouldn’t be intimidated by biblical prophecy, how to approach the signs and symbols found in Revelation, why understanding the end times helps us better understand the rest of Scripture, and how the return of Christ should affect the way we live right now.

Plus, Steve goes Seek and Find in the often-overlooked book of Zephaniah, exploring God’s judgment, His discipline of His people, the consequences of disobedience and the promise that God never forgets those who remain faithful to Him.

Also on this episode: an encouraging perspective on walking through grief, Christian entrepreneurs using everyday products to point people toward Jesus, Terry Bradshaw reflecting on cancer, death and eternity, another Dad Joke of the Day, and this week’s Faith Between Our Ears verse from 1 Peter 5:5.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

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He's just a regular guy with a cool job that God loves for some reason. Welcome to The Steve Marston Show, a daily journey in learning how to live more like Jesus, conversations with those that God is working through and dad jokes. It's the most unique show you'll hear today. Now here's Steve. All right. Thanks so much for joining us. We are underway again. It's a Steve Marston Show and we want to say a special thank you to those of you listening on radio.

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Radio will always have a special place in my heart. It's the first place this program was heard in Little Rock on our OG station. 99.5 The Word there in central Arkansas. A little bit later on, we added AM 630 The Word in San Antonio.

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So we're grateful to be on both of those stations every single day, Monday through Friday at 3pm. And then the rest of you may be listening on the podcast, on your own schedule, on your own time. And we're grateful for you being here. In fact, the podcast numbers continue to be encouraging. They're growing and growing every week, every month. We're really starting to see some traction there. So it's all thanks to you. So we appreciate each one of you, no matter how you consume us. We're glad to be consumed.

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I know that's odd sounding, isn't it? But it's true. It's absolutely true. So you know how I am. I like to just mind my own business and scroll through social media on a daily basis just to find things to talk about. And as I was doing so, I came across one of my favorite on X, the platform, used to be Twitter. It's called TalkChurch. That's the name of the handle. And they have from time to time some really

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pithy and kind of thought-provoking little statements. And this one, I thought, needed to be fleshed out a little bit, because it's true that this is a question that comes up a whole lot, and it has a complete answer, but I think sometimes we maybe miss it. And the fact is that sometimes as believers, and maybe even non-believers, I guess, to a certain extent, would say, well, why doesn't God just

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show himself. Why doesn't he just reveal himself to humanity right here, right now? I can remember as a kid, I attended a Christian elementary school, really it went all the way up through high school. I never went to public school in my, you know, growing up secondary education and consequently I don't remember a time in my life where I ever

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did not know who Jesus was. From the reason why he came and what he did on the cross and that he was coming back soon and all of that has always been in my memory. I've never known a time without that. And I do remember, however, being in elementary school and just wondering why God wouldn't just come down right then and there.

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Why wouldn't he just show himself to everyone and make the case that, he really is God and that he really is loving and that all the people who are bashing him and making fun and the whole thing would see God for who he is and would come to know him as Savior? I can remember having those thoughts as like an eight or nine-year-old. And the fact of the matter is,

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We want to have that, don't we? Especially when we are faced with trials and we're faced with kind of some hard times that come and people may look at us with the side eye and maybe think we're a bit strange because of the way we're reacting to situations. And we just would wish God would reveal himself to those people because we feel a lot of times put down, we feel

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Like, they just don't understand, they just don't get it. And I would like to have a little vindication if we're really getting down to brass tacks. I really would like just God to not zap them and hurt them in any way, but just to reveal himself to say, what my child over here is doing is correct and you shouldn't be doing that. You shouldn't be ridiculing them. You shouldn't be mocking them. You shouldn't be taking the things that I have instructed them to do.

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and treating them as second class. But do know what's ultimately wrong with that way of thinking? It's selfish. It's just us not wanting to look like the butt of the joke or to be looked at as a fool. It comes from a selfish heart. But let's just even suppose though that Jesus were to step into humanity again here before the afternoon or evening is over. How do you think he would be received?

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See, I don't know that he would be received positively because of a story that's told in the book of Luke. You know, the rich man and Lazarus, right? Rich man had everything this world had to offer. Lazarus had to beg at the rich man's feet for just daily sustenance. Both of them wind up passing away and the rich man goes to hell, Lazarus goes to heaven, which is described as the bosom of Abraham.

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And Lazarus is conscious in hell and he looks over and he sees Father Abraham with Lazarus and he tells Abraham, hey look, have Lazarus come over here and dip his finger in water to cool my tongue because I'm in agony in this flame. And Father Abraham says, well can't do that because there's this great gulf between us. I can't go over there even if I wanted to. And then he says, well go tell Lazarus to go tell my brothers.

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about this place of amazing and eternal torment. I don't want them to have to come here either." And Abraham's response was telling because Abraham said, no, they won't believe. He said, oh yeah, if someone from the dead came back, they would believe. And Abraham said, no, not even if someone were to rise from the dead, would they...

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understand or believe. See, I think we're too cynical. I think we, especially in this Western culture, we would find some kind of way to explain away who this person, Jesus, was and why what he was saying and doing was just so far either evil or off the beaten path or reckless or some other kind of terrible thing. I don't think we would

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treat him with respect or see him as the son of God at all if he were to step down. Because he was the one who ultimately came back from the dead, showed himself, revealed himself, and people still rejected him. And people still to this day are saying, eh, no, I don't believe in all that. So when you're made to feel the fool and you're made to feel kind of weird and kind of the outcast because of your beliefs and having your faith in

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a God that you can't see or taste or touch, I think the best thing to do is just go back to the scripture and remind yourself that Jesus did reveal Himself, that Jesus did come to this earth to show us exactly what God the Father was, because that's what He said, right? If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. So there's no ambiguity, there's no wondering, well, I wonder what God the Father would think about this or what He would have me to do

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in this situation or how am I supposed to live? We get everything we need to know about God the Father through looking at Jesus the Son. We've got a big show planned for you today. Coming up we're going to be joined by Pastor Robert Jeffress. He is the longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas. He's also the Bible teacher that you hear on Pathway to Victory which is heard on both of our radio stations, AM 630 The Word in San Antonio.

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and 99.5 the word in Little Rock. We're going to be talking to him about his new book called The Final Conquest. It's a verse by verse breakdown of the book of Revelation. It's really good and it's really easy to understand and powerful and we're going to give you a chance to win a copy of that when we talk to Dr. Jeffress coming up here in just a little bit. And also I want to let you know that you can

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head to our website and check it out. It's all new and we stripped it down to the studs back a couple of months ago and the website really is now becoming a repository for Christian faith. It's really good because we are starting to show up on Google and YouTube and the search engines because of all of the topics we are referencing and people can find hope. So it's so much bigger than just what we're doing as this radio show and podcast.

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So we encourage you to go check it out for yourself. SteveMarsdenShow.com. You'll find a lot of encouragement there. Back in a minute.

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The Steve Marsden Show continues. We're grateful that you're listening. Discipleship has never been more fun. On Wednesdays, we like to do a little thing called Seek and Find, just exploring and finding some hidden gems in the Word of God. And here's the thing, we are promised that when we seek and continually seek, we will find. So that's the basis for this little segment.

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And over the last several weeks, we've done a lot with the minor prophets. Now, the Old Testament, I don't know if you know or not, is broken down into like categories. And the final part of the Old Testament is what's deemed the minor prophets as juxtaposed to the major prophets. Well, the minor prophets are only that way because of their length. It's not necessarily for any other reason other than they're just one, two, three chapters in length, whereas

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major prophets are multiple chapters. And we've done a bunch of them to this point. I mean, we have done Hosea, we have done Amos, we have done Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and now we are up to Zephaniah. And we want to be able to tell you a little bit about this book that is right toward the end of the Old Testament. Zephaniah's message was about judgment.

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but it was also about encouragement as well. And it's kind of broken down into three kind of segments. One is that God is sovereign over all the nations. Two is the wicked will be punished and the righteous will be vindicated on the day of judgment, which is something that we all are looking forward to, right? I mean, we talked a little bit about that earlier in the first segment, but that is...

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something our human heart is just wired to. We are just wired to want to have justice, whether it's in court cases that we see or just in the everyday unfairness of life. We want to see those things made right. Well, this is one of the promises or this is one of the books that God promises that He will do that. And then the third kind of little topic that's covered is that God will bless those who repent.

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and trust in him. So Zephaniah pronounces God's judgment on all the earth, and especially on Judah, who was the northern kingdom of Israel. You remember, if you know your Bible, that the kingdom was united under Saul and under David and under Solomon, but then starting with Solomon's kiddos that took the throne, it was split. Ten of the twelve tribes in the north are called Israel. Two tribes are in the south called Judah.

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So God pronounces judgment on Judah, but also on the surrounding nations, on Jerusalem, and then on all the nations. And then followed up by God's proclamation of the Lord's blessing on all the nations, especially to the faithful remnant of his people, Judah. Because that's what happens is, you know, they're sent off to Babylon in a captivity, and there's a remnant that comes back to rebuild the land, to rebuild the wall, to rebuild...

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the temple and all of that, and that's who he's talking about, a promise of restoration right there. And it's also a great reminder that God is really offended when you have moral and religious sins of His own people. Because when you stop to think about the outside world, I mean, they don't know God. Their sins are kind of what they do. They don't have any kind of a...

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bad feelings about it or our conviction over it because they're just doing what comes naturally to them. For us, however, as born-again believers having the Holy Spirit living inside of us, it ought to bother us when we are falling short of what God has called us to be. And it says that God's people will not escape punishment when they sin willfully. And punishment can be painful, of course, and it says but the purpose is redemptive.

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instead of punitive. And that's something we've got to understand too. Such a good point that when God does kind of punish us for the sins that we commit that we don't immediately repent of and we have maybe his hand kind of taken off of our life, it's not for punitive measures. It's not to be a bully or mean, but it's to say a wake-up call. Hey, you're messing up here. You're...

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having things get in between me and you, and I want that to be removed, God says. I want to be number one and be first in your life. Therefore, the punishment I'm giving is just a corrective manner. And if we can look at it that way, it would again help us so much. I talk about a lot on this program, our faith being a mindset, being something in between our ears. That's another aspect of it. When we see God kind of disciplining us,

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We need to understand that it's not for anything more than our good to get us back following Him the way He wants us to. And then the book of Zephaniah continues on with the inevitability of the punishment of the wicked, gives comfort in a time when it seems like evil is unbridled and is victorious. Don't we feel like that a lot of times? You look around society, you look around the world and you see

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evil and people who don't give a rip about God or the things of God getting away with stuff and it looking like There's never gonna be any day of reckoning or any kind of come up ins for those people They just get to do and live and act the way they want to with no regard for anybody's feelings much less God's Yeah, it bothers you doesn't it? know it bothers me too. But again It's inevitable God will

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deal with those people when the time comes. And it says in Zephaniah that we also have freedom to disobey God, but not the freedom to escape the consequences of that disobedience. Which again, it goes back to that whole punishment thing. It's not necessarily punishment in the classic way, but punishment just to get us back on course. And he says those that are faithful to God may be relatively few. Zephaniah says,

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but he does not forget them. And that is such a comfort because I think if we were to think about the grand picture, even in the society we live in, in America in 2026, we would feel that way as well, that there's relatively few of us and we can seem like we're just falling through the cracks and society doesn't care one little bit about what we think or who we are.

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In fact, they're more more hostile to the things of God and the things that we believe in. But Zephaniah reminds us that he still sees us and it's not going to go unnoticed. And then Zephaniah concludes with what I think is some beautiful words, maybe some of the most powerful and encouraging words in all of scripture describing God's ultimate justice for His people. Now, what are those words?

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Well, that's where you seek and you find. Check it out, Zephaniah chapter 3 verses 19 and 20. I think you'll be really encouraged by it.

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Welcome back to Steve Marston Show Continues. It's the Christian radio show and podcast that truly matters. We're going to be joined by Robert Jeffress. He is the longtime pastor of First Baptist Church Dallas. You see him a lot on Fox News and some other conservative news outlets as well. He's also the Bible teacher on Pathway to Victory, which is heard on amazing radio stations all over the country, including our two great ones.

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AM 6 30 the word in San Antonio and the word 99.5 in Little Rock. So we'll be getting to him here in just a second. First, I want to tell you about how you can partner with us here at the Steve Marston show. Our audience is growing steadily every single day, every single week, every single month. And we want to partner with you to get the word out about your business, because here's the thing. Our audience.

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is all about following Jesus. They are people committed to going a layer or two deeper in their walk with Jesus every single day. And that's what we're all about on this program. So if you want to get your message to that audience, we would love to partner up with you. It's crazy inexpensive and we've got all kinds of ways you can do that from our radio show to digital assets. And look, you don't have to be

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in Little Rock or San Antonio to take advantage of this. If you're listening on the podcast, just anywhere across the country, we can help you out. All you have to do is send me an email, steve at Salem media.com, steve at Salem media.com and we can hook you up with the people that can make it happen. So, uh, if that sounds good to you, if that sounds like something that you want to look into, then please shoot me an email.

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and we'll get you in contact with the correct people who can help you. And again, it looks like website media or any other kind of digital asset we can take care of you here at the Steve Marston Show. Alright, and we are now joined by Pastor Robert Jeffress. He is the author of a book called The Final Conquest. It's available now. In fact, we're going to give you a chance to win a copy of the book as we move through this conversation. So stay tuned.

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and I want to give you a chance to take it home. But Pastor Jeffress, it is a pleasure to have you here again on the program, my friend. And let's talk a little bit about the final conquest, because this is a very intriguing book. Right. The book of Revelation is the subject of a final conquest. people think the book of Revelation is a mystery that can't be understood. But Steve, it's interesting. It's the only book of the Bible.

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that God has promised a special blessing for reading and applying the truth of its words. the fact is you can't read the Bible and understand it without understanding how it all ends and how it all begins in Genesis. And a lot of people are wary of a study of Revelation. They think it's about fear and about terrible things, but ultimately it's not about events. The book of Revelation is about the unveiling of Jesus Christ.

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And that's the greatest hope we all have is that Christ is coming back one day to reward the righteous and judge the unrighteous. You're so right. That is the ultimate hope that we have as believers. mean, without the book of Revelation, we wouldn't have that assurance of victory. mean, Christ has won victory at the cross, but this shows the ultimate victory and that all of the injustices and all of the wrongs will eventually be made right.

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As we look around our area and our world, it seems like we are getting closer and closer to that day coming, doesn't it? That's right. And of course, we're not to set dates. I hear people all the time, Bible teachers said, now I know the Bible says we're not supposed to set dates for the return of Jesus, but... And then they give you some intricate calculation they've made using numbers and signs. Look, we're not to do that. Jesus said...

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not even the Son of God, at least in His incarnate form, knew the time of Christ's return. He's going to come on His timetable, not ours. But, you know, I tell people, Steve, the reason we need to be ready for the coming of Christ is either He's coming or we're going, but the end is near for all of us in the next decades, and we need to be prepared and ready to meet Christ. And that's why, that's the theme of the book of Revelation is

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in light of who Jesus is, in light of the fact that He's coming back again, what sort of people ought we to be in holy conduct and righteousness, as the apostle Peter wrote? Yeah, there's no doubt He needs to be finding us busy working for His kingdom when He comes back. Pastor Robert Jeffress is our guest here on the Steve Marston show. He is the Bible teacher on Pathway to Victory on our two amazing radio stations, AM 630, The Word in San Antonio, and 99.5, The Word in Little Rock.

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He's also the longtime pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, and we're talking about his latest book called The Final Conquest. Dr. Jeffress, don't you find that a lot of people get spooked and shy away from studying the book of Revelation because they think it's written in maybe some kind of code or some kind of way that we can't understand it, but that's really not the truth at all, is it? No.

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And look, I think there's a good rule for interpreting Scripture. When the plain sense makes good sense, seek no other sense. I mean, if there's not a reason not to take it literally, then we ought to take it at face value, what Jesus is saying. And look, the book of Revelation is filled with signs and symbols. John says it was if or like words that describe

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comparison and I think about you know John here he was living in the first century on the island of Patmos and he's trying to look down the corridors of history to see things that are happening thousands and thousands of years later as he looks at the scene of Armageddon the final world battle in Revelation 16 just think if John saw an

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Apache helicopter, how would he describe it? He would use signs and symbols of what it looked like to him. And again, the fact that God uses symbols doesn't mean things are any less real. It really means they're so real that there's no human way to even describe it. How do you describe the eternality of hell and the lake of fire? You can't describe it.

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without using signs and symbols. Again, not because it's not true and going to happen, but because it really is true. You know, Dr. Jeffress, my wife and I work with young adults at our church, and we were talking about the book of Revelation, and they just got to the point where they thought it's so prophetical and that it was so filled with all of these allusions and references to different things that it was going to be completely impossible for them to understand and that they couldn't do it on their own.

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That's just not the case. I mean, it is written for us to know what's going to take place at the very end. again, this is the only book of the Bible with a special blessing attached to these who read and obey the words in it. you know, Steve, it is impossible for people to read the rest of the Bible and make any sense of it without a framework of the end times. It's talked about so often in Scripture.

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You can never understand Isaiah or Jeremiah or Daniel in the Old Testament or even the book of Genesis. You can't understand Paul's epistles. You can't understand Jesus' parables without understanding Bible prophecy. And it's all one theme. Jesus is coming back again, and it's found on every page of the Old and New Testament. Pastor Robert Jeffress of the First Baptist Church Dallas, Georgia is here.

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on the Steve Marston show. also is the Bible teaching host on the program Pathway to Victory that you hear on both of our radio stations, AM 630 The Word and the 99.5 The Word in Little Rock. And on top of all that, he's also the author of The Final Conquest, which is a new book about the book of Revelation that he has written. And we are going to be giving away a copy of it before our conversation is over with. So you want to hang on.

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and have your chance to win in just a moment. Dr. Jeffers, when it gets down to it, the message of Revelation is needed for all of us, believers and non-believers alike, right? Well, that's right. And it's a message every Christian needs to hear, but also every non-Christian. I tell the story in Final Conquest and in my book, Perfect Ending, true story about President Kennedy.

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In 1961, he was getting ready to be inaugurated, January of 1961, and a few days before the inauguration, he went down to West Palm to the Kennedy compound down there and was going to play golf, and he invited Billy Graham to come and play golf with him for a day. And so Billy Graham, the great evangelist, who, by the way, was a member of our church for 54 years, he went down to Florida to play with...

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President-elect Kennedy, and as they were riding back from the golf course to the compound, Kennedy was driving. He pulled the car over to the side, stopped the engine, looked at Billy Graham and said, Billy, do you believe Jesus is coming back to earth one day? And Billy Graham said, yes, sir, I do. And then Kennedy said, well, then why do I hear so little about it today?

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This ought to be the message we are proclaiming and shouting from the rooftops. It ought to be heard in every pulpit today that Jesus Christ is coming back again. That is great news for those who have invested their lives in serving Jesus Christ. And it's the ultimate answer to every conflict, every disappointment, every hardship we're facing today. Jesus is coming again. Again, you're so right. I don't understand why more churches aren't

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proclaiming this fact because it is a part of the foundation of what our faith is. mean, yes, Jesus came to earth. Yes, He died. Yes, He rose again. Yes, all of that secured our salvation and made us right with God. But the ultimate final piece of that is Him coming back to get us and that we can live and rule and reign with Him forever and ever of all of eternity.

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Why in the world we don't trumpet that more? I have no idea. We're talking with Robert Jeffress of the First Baptist Church Dallas. He's the author of the book called, Final Conquest, which here in just another minute or so, I'm gonna give you a chance to win, so keep listening. But Pastor Jeffress, as our time starts to run out a little bit here, let me ask you about other things that are going on with the ministry of Pathway to Victory. What other things do you have on the horizon?

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Well, I'm really excited because in October, which is right around the corner, we are going to be airing a brand new series based on my new book called Divine Invasions. Experience God's miracles in your life today. It's a book about miracles. Does God still work miracles in the lives of His children today? I was trained in a seminary that basically said, there are no more miracles today. We've got the Bible. We don't need miracles.

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There are other people who, know, every time there's a parking spot open at Dunkin' Donuts, they say it's a miracle. Well, I'm looking at a biblical perspective of miracles, and I do believe God works supernaturally in His people's lives today, and that book, Divine Invasions, is released on September 29th, and will be airing it every day on your station on Pathway to Victory in October. Definitely a lot to look forward to, some great Bible teaching, as always, from Pastor Robert Jeffress.

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Pathway to Victory. We appreciate your time and best of success with you with this book and everything else that you guys are doing at Pathway to Victory. And of course, you can check it all out at ptv.org. ptv.org. I know you're a busy man, Pastor Jeffress, so we appreciate you elbowing out some time for us today. Have a great rest of your day and may God bless you, my friend. Thanks so much, Steve, for having us. Wow, how cool was that?

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getting to talk to Robert Jeffress. It's great. And I don't know why it is, but that guy intimidates me so much. And I don't know why. I've had a chance to meet him a couple of times. I've talked to him on our show a couple of times. it seems like every time I do, I feel like so inadequate. I feel like I can't get the words to come out that I want to say. And he's like the only person that does that to me. It's crazy. I don't understand why that is. But

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It was fun. I think he did an awesome job. I'm not sure how great a job I did as host, but he did amazing. We do have this book that we want to give to you. It's called The Final Conquest. And one of the things I guess I failed to mention while talking to him is it's more than just a summary of the book of Revelation. It's actually a verse by verse study of the book because it can be intimidating. And it says the sensational imagery John uses in his Revelation.

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feels foreign and sometimes frightening to us, but yet these spectacular moments in Revelation give us a rare glimpse of Jesus and the Kingdom of our God. It's so true because we see Jesus so much in the New Testament as the suffering servant, the one who came to sacrifice himself for the good of others and all of that. Revelation turns it on its ear and

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presents Jesus as what he is, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and the ultimate judge that's going to come in and rule and reign over all of the nations. it's something, again, we don't need to be frightened of. It's something that we don't need to shy away from. And this book, think, will really help you if you want to go a little bit deeper and find out what exactly the book of Revelation

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is all about. We've got copies of it for you to take home. You can send me an email steve at Salemmedia.com. Steve at Salemmedia.com. say I want the Robert Jeffress book. That's all you've got to do and we'll send you a copy out free of charge. And look, it doesn't have to be those of you listening on the radio during the airtimes that we're on in San Antonio and in Little Rock. All you have to do

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is just join us whenever and we'll send it out to you, okay? So again, if you want that book, send me an email, steve at Salemmedia.com. And I'll tell you this too, speaking of Bible study and going deeper in God's Word, we have a PDF that we would like to put into your hands as well. It is Five Tips for Bible Study. This is more of an overview. This is kind of things to do.

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while you're getting ready to study the Bible, things to look for and things to pay attention to. It's five strategies and I didn't come up with them but I have kind of refined them to fit my tastes and I think they will work extremely well for you and you can check it out and use it for yourself. Again, it's five tips for Bible study. It's available for free at SteveMarsdenShow.com. You just go to the website, click on it,

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and it'll be a free digital download for you. It won't cost you anything whatsoever, and we want to get it into your hands so that you can make the most of the time that you have in God's Word. Because look, it's great to have workbooks, it's great to do devotionals, it's great to have commentaries like the Final Conquest. But if you want to be able to open God's Word and look for yourself and gain knowledge for yourself and be able to really put some of these principles of Bible study

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in place, you could do it. It's not hard. It really is a lot simpler than you think. So, just go to SteveMarsdenShow.com, get that free PDF. More in a minute.

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The Steve Marsha Show rolling on. It's where faith and fun are both taken seriously. Thank you for being a part of today's program and want to check out some of the stories that you may have missed. This one is from the New York Times. Erica Kirk has written an essay for the paper about the grief that she has been going through over the last year after losing Charlie Kirk, her husband, and such a

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horrific way. And I thought it was really interesting, some of the things she said, because I think it's going to bring a lot of comfort to those who have experienced grief, whether it be the loss of a spouse, loss of a child, grief is grief, and it's hard and it's heavy. But Erica Kirk does have some words of encouragement as she walks through this difficult time in her life. She said in the essay that as she walked through the front door,

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There was a tightening in her chest that she didn't recognize. Is this what grief feels like? She said, I sit on the couch where Charlie sat two nights ago watching the Cubs with our kids. I feel a wave building inside of me and I know it's about to crash. She also talked about having an encounter with Usha Vance, who is the vice president's wife. And she was really a rock that Erica was able to lean on.

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during the initial time of this tragedy after it first unfolded. said, she told Mrs. Vance that, I don't know how I'm gonna get through this. And listen to what Mrs. Vance said. She said, you know how when you're on an airplane with your kids and you're going to land in 15 minutes, but the kids are just going crazy, screaming, throwing things, and then the plane lands and the kids relax and everything is fine again? She goes, that's how this is gonna be.

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You just need to get through the next 15 minutes." And then Erica Kirk went on to write that, is strange. She said, at first I needed to survive the next 15 minutes, but then over time I realized that Charlie would want me to live them. When you lose someone you love, she said, it's easy to struggle to understand God's plan. One of the hardest tests of our faith occurs when bad things happen. True faith means accepting that we won't get every answer

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but finding peace in that. I'm going to read that again because I think that is such words of wisdom. True faith means accepting that we won't get every answer and finding peace in that. She goes on to say, grief is universal. I don't care whom you voted for, where you come from or what you believe. Those who have walked through grief know that the waves will never completely disappear and they aren't supposed to.

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I'm learning that grieving Charlie and living life at the same time are a part of the rhythm of grief. I can miss him with every part of me and still laugh with our children. I can have a broken heart and still experience joy." And she says, one day, maybe when you least expect it, you'll start to see that those 15 minutes hold more than just grief. The grief is always there, but so is the beautiful gift of life. Wow, that is a...

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amazing perspective and amazing words of wisdom from a lady going through some horrible grief herself, but just a beautiful written piece from Charlie Kirk's wife, Erica. Another story you might have missed comes from our friends over at ChurchLeaders.com. They interviewed Dave Wolf. Now Dave and his wife are Christian entrepreneurs. They have brands called Faith and Love.

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which is the largest of, or one of the largest Christian apparel brands. They also have GLO, which stands for God's Love Overcomes. And they have a Christian branded energy drink called Forgiven, the number four GVN. And Dave was talking to the folks over at churchleaders.com and told them, said, you know, we will be completely unsuccessful if our brands don't point other people to Jesus.

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He said, we hear it all the time explaining their approach to customer service. They say, like, we'll have someone wearing one of our t-shirts, and boom, right there's the opportunity. Like, you don't have to go seeking it anymore. The opportunity just came to you. What he means is, wearing a Christian t-shirt, the people will automatically strike up conversations with you about, what does that shirt mean? And it gives you a chance to open up with the gospel.

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Wolf said, the mission is simple. We use products people already consume as opportunities to point them to Christ. T-shirts already exist, energy drinks already exist, music is going to exist. So why let any of that attention say nothing? It's a point. And I didn't know really about this guy, Dave Wolf, before reading this article, but I'm encouraged and thankful that he and his wife are taking the opportunity to do that. Although,

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I will say, as much as I do like Christian t-shirts, and I do, I have plenty of them in my own little wardrobe, people ought to be able to see that we're Christians without that. They ought to be able to know who we are without necessarily wearing a Jesus t-shirt. You know what I mean? Let's see. One more story you may have missed comes from the William Shatner podcast. Just like everybody else and their brother, William Shatner has a podcast called No Time

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but now and he had Terry Bradshaw on. Now, Terry Bradshaw was a great NFL quarterback back in the day. Most people now know him from the pregame shows that he's been on for, I gosh, about 30 years now. Well, Bradshaw was diagnosed with bladder cancer back in 2021 and he went under with surgery and treatment. And then a few months after that, he started experiencing neck pain and he found out he had cell cancer and his

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in one of his glands in his neck. So Bradshaw underwent another surgery, which included having 27 lymph nodes removed and then six weeks of radiation. And all through that time, Bradshaw said, my thoughts were about dying. Am I going to heaven? Am I good enough as a man? Have I been a good enough Christian? Have I been kind to people? Am I going to heaven? Is what he said. But I didn't feel panic. I didn't think death, he said.

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when the doctors were telling him that he had the cancer and what the treatment was needed to be able to battle it. He says, cancer twice, Bradshaw has thought more deeply about death and his relationship with God. And while his first question centered on whether he's been a good enough Christian, now Bradshaw speaks with confidence about eternity, with that confidence being rooted in his faith. He said, look, I know I'm going to die. And when that time comes, how will I handle that?

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with grace and strength and an understanding that God loves me and that I am going to heaven and that I am going to see my family again. He said that's the ultimate goal. And that should be all of our ultimate goals. That God would give us the strength and the courage to live out our final days living for His glory so that people will see even facing the shadow of death that we're rooted in Christ Jesus. So good for Terry. And he's got a new book coming out too.

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Looking for Terry, a memoir hits October 13th to bookstore shelves. It's good stuff. Back in a minute.

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Here at the Steve Marston show, we're serious about faith, but we love a good dad joke too. The dad joke of the day comes to us from the home office in Lone Oak, Arkansas, and it's a classic. Why don't skeletons fight each other? Why don't skeletons fight each other? Because they don't have any guts. You can't beat the classic right? The Steve Marston show.

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continues. Thank you for being a part of it. Want to let you know that we've got our YouTube page is all new. We've got tons of videos up for you. Great conversations with people from all walks of life that are just doing their thing. And God is doing some amazing things in and through them in our communities. Would love for you to check that out. And also our full episodes are there plus some more stuff to it's a fun page.

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to check out. a fun page to follow. In fact, if you would follow it, it would be very helpful to us to make sure that algorithm that the computer nerds always talk about grows so that people will be able to see it more and more. So if you are so inclined the next time you're on YouTube, because look, you know you're going to be on YouTube probably later today, well head over to SteveMarsdenShow.com, click subscribe, click the notifications bell and all that fun stuff. And it will again,

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greatly help us if you would be so inclined to do that. Okay, Faith Between Our Ears is our Bible verse that we learn every single week. We take one on Monday and we start to learn it all through the week and have it memorized so it's in between our ears. You know, the Bible talks about hiding His Word in your heart so that you don't sin against Him, but I do think having it in between your ears also helps fight the everyday battles of life. I mean, think about how Jesus

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fought Satan in the temptations that he presented. What did he do? He fought him with scripture because Jesus knew the scripture. Now you think, well, he was Jesus. Well, but it's not something that he could do that we can't. Just because he was the son of God doesn't mean we can't learn to memorize. So let's do that with this verse. 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 5 is our Faith Between Your Ears verse of the week. And it says, humble yourselves under the mighty power of God.

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then at the right time, He will lift you up in honor." Now sometimes we want that timetable to be speeded up, I get, but if we will humble ourselves, that's our part, and then His part is at the right time when He deems it necessary, will He lift us up. So that's our Faith Between Your Ears verse for this week. Learn it, memorize it, put it into practice. 1st Peter chapter 5

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verse five. Okay, and as we get ready to close up today's show, it's always something we like to do is to give you a call to action. We call it your next step. So your next step after listening to this particular podcast and episode will be not to be afraid of the book of Revelation. I think there are too many Christians who read that book or are scared off from reading that book.

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because they think it's too hard to understand and that the language is too figurative and I don't know that I'll be able to handle it. Well, the bottom line is, like Pastor Robert Jeffress said, it's the only book in the Bible that's guaranteed a blessing for everyone who reads it. So you want to miss out on God's blessing? I don't think so. Yeah, right. Go and read the book of Revelation and get a better understanding.

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We're out of time. We'll be back on the radio tomorrow at three o'clock everywhere else at Steve Marston show.com adios.

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Church Hurt Is Real: Forgiveness, Healing & Holding On to Jesus