Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
All right, we want to welcome everybody. Today we want to do just a short testimony video. Um I've been receiving some interesting emails. And we had a brother here, Jake Holdsworth. Is that Did I say that correctly? Jake That's correct. Jacob, I'm sorry. Visiting with us from Erie, Pennsylvania. And he was baptized this weekend and we just wanted him to be able to share his testimony as well. But before we do that, I want to read a testimony because of course as we have up here on the screen, flat Earth saved my life. You know, a lot of people think, even Christians think that this topic of flat Earth or what we call biblical cosmology, they think it's ridiculous. What does it matter? You know, I've heard a lot of many Christians say, "Well, you know, what does the shape of the Earth matter?" Um you know, what does it matter you know, if we believe the sun and the moon are close and and you know, and you know, what we've stated many times over is that truth is important. All truth is important. And I've tried to make this clear to Christians over the last few years that you know, God's word is true. Every every bit of it. And that the truth of creation, you know, Romans 1 tells us that the truth of creation is the greatest witness or evidence that there is a creator. And if, you know, if you look at the statistics and you even go out and talk to people, you find out that one of the for atheists and agnostics and people who don't believe the Bible is credible or true or divinely inspired, uh I mean, their biggest obstacle is that they believe science and they believe like the Big Bang theory and evolution and that they've believed the heliocentric model of the universe that we've been taught by science over the last 500 years and that that's discredited the Bible cuz the Bible tells a very different account of creation. And so as it you know most everyone knows it's familiar with our ministry here at Fire and Grace Church here in Opelika, Alabama and Dino Ministries. Of course I'm Pastor Dino Odell if you don't know who I am. Um but that you know God really there was really an awakening that kind of started in 2014 and really peaked huge got huge in 2015. There was just an awakening of people seeing that the earth really is flat when you can go out and test it across long distances especially large bodies of water with telescopes and high zoom cameras and and then people started doing you know high altitude balloon test. That's what we have the picture behind us is a high altitude balloon test without the fisheye lenses that creates the false curve um you know from the GoPro cameras and and some of the other you know sports cameras and stuff. All of them pretty much produce the wide angle lenses produce a fisheye effect that makes the the false curve but whenever you send up a high altitude balloon 100 110 120,000 ft um you see you get a perfectly you see a perfectly
flat horizon. There's no curvature. There's no bending away or falling away of the horizon. Um and so again the evidence is a flat earth uh started to get a lot of people who are not even Christians who are not even um they don't believe the Bible to be true. They don't believe in God. They don't believe in Jesus. They they hate Christianity. They don't they hate the church. I mean and people began to see this that we've been lied to and of course we've been lied to about a lot of things. So um you know Jake is going to share in a minute how you know he was atheist agnostic you know were you that way your whole life? Yeah, yeah, you Yeah, it's pretty much the same thing. Uh you know, people would you know, say there's a little just a smidgen difference in the two, but still Yeah, not believing, but but now he's a born-again Christian, loves the Lord, had a powerful experience, and and so he's going to share that in just a second, but I want to read this because I I received this email just last week right before you came, and then I shared it we the other night after church and he said the same thing cuz this guy, Richard, I won't give his last name, but he sent me an email from the UK. Um just a powerful testimony, and within this testimony he said flat Earth saved his life. And what he meant was brought him to know God and know the Lord Jesus as his Lord and savior, and saved him. He was going to commit suicide. I mean, this guy was at the end of his rope. So, I want to read that, and then I'm going to let you just share your testimony because I think it's powerful in the mouth of two or three witnesses. I get this testimony last week, then uh Jacob says, "Hey man, I want to come down and and will you baptize me?" And and we'd already been in communication. Um but um just a powerful story. So, um this I received let's see, what is the date on this? So, March 26th, so a little over a week ago. This is Richard, uh and he's from the UK. I won't give his last name or his hometown, but uh unless I hadn't got permission yet, but I know he doesn't mind me sharing this. But he said this, he said, "Hi Dean, I hope this finds you well. Um He said, "Richard messaging you all the way from the UK. Just wanted to let you know that all your work preaching the word and about our flat Earth creation has brought me closer uh to the Father. To God he's talking about. I have been having a tough time with life recently coming to terms with the oppression and the lies we are fed on a daily basis. Almost like I was being attacked by something external to me and since I have reignited my time in the word and listening to you share the words of the Bible, these feelings have subsided. Uh a bit about me, he said I'm now 41 years old and up until I was 39, I was an atheist. I was suicidal after losing both my
parents and my best friend and life going against me in general. I had no belief in Jesus at all, was 100% believer in science and the Big Bang until one day a stranger running past me while I was walking the dogs and he said and I was thinking about ending it all, he says here. Uh the man ran back and said, "Do you mind if we talk?" And I said yes and he proceeded to tell me that he felt compelled to speak to me for some reason. He ended up praying for me which I was apprehensive about as it, you know, wasn't what I believed. Nevertheless, the man was kind and very thoughtful and to be honest, in the mood I was, it came as a relief and I actually felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and had and I had light in my life. From there, he says, just receiving that prayer, this guy stopping to pray for him, that was just, you know, cool. What about flat Earth there? Or create, you know, the truth of creation. He says from there, he said, "I went on this obsessive truth mission which can only I can only say was something else guiding me on. I had some knowledge of conspiracies but nothing out of the box, if you know what I mean. I would wake up at 7:00 a.m. and go to bed about 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. He said something or someone, he said, "wanted me to know there's no way I would have had passion for this myself. Somebody wanted me to see something. And so this is I believe this, you know, after being prayed for, the Holy Spirit is just compelling him, pushing him, convicting him to search for the truth, right? And so he's staying up, you know, hours and hours, you know, searching. He said, "Then I got hit with what he said is the metaphorical steam train. It was the culmination of all the truths that had been revealed to me. And in big capital letters he wrote, 'Flat Earth' with exclamation points. He said, 'Literally broke down crying. It was like I saw and felt God the Father, the Creator. Flat Earth saved my life, my soul, and I have turned away from my life of old. I still struggle occasionally, uh, day, you know, on certain days and find myself still being imperfect and sinning, not intentionally, I might add. He said, 'But your preaching has helped me and will continue to do so. I feel like I am under attack as I write this. It is because of what I know. Please, Dean, could you pray for me?' And and and then he says, 'I I want to give everything to Jesus and feel as though I need some help.' So he was also saying, 'Hey, man.' He says, 'Thanks for everything. You are a special man. Blessings, brother. Kind regards, Richard.' So, you know, still struggling newborn believer, but, you know, here a guy was an atheist the 39 years of his life
and now at 41 years old seeing the truth of Flat Earth and the evidences and the truth of creation and how it is what the Bible describes of creation. He said it saved his life. It brought him to Jesus and salvation. So, if anybody out there saying, "What does it matter?" This is why it matters. Because the truth, Jesus said, "You will know the truth and the truth will make you free in John 8. And this truth is making more atheists and agnostics and ancient alien believers and, you know, just people with odd beliefs that just don't want to believe the Bible or have, you know, fell for the lies of science. I've seen more come to Jesus, more more atheists come to Jesus in the last four years than I ever have in my over this truth. So, we're going to let Jacob share, you know, his testimony about this cuz it's powerful. So, go ahead, brother. Take it away. Yeah, just listening to that testimony there, it is just amazing how many similarities that has to my testimony. I was I'm almost 41 now, so the age is real close. I was an atheist up until about 37 years old and that's when I got turned to flat Earth. It was in uh kind of late summer of 2015. I had up to that point been an atheist and I guess started off as a child. Uh my parents, my dad, his my grandparents, all atheists, no real uh background in Christianity or the Bible or any anything of that sort. My mom was brought up in the Catholic church and that really turned her against religion and that cuz that's the taste that she had was, you know, the Catholic, so she had a belief in God, but it was kind of her belief, her way, kind of, you know, not backed by the Bible and she didn't push it on I have one sister, so there's just the two of us. She didn't push it on either of us and we were kind of left, you know, to figure things out for ourself. She wasn't too sure in her beliefs. My dad didn't believe in anything, so yeah, we just kind of I mean, my parents were excellent parents. They brought us up good, but we didn't I mean, we had a moral background between right and wrong, but it wasn't backed by the Bible or God. So, uh Yeah, I just uh as a kid growing up, I knew my friends at a young age that had to go to church on Sundays, and I made sure I didn't spend the night at their house because I knew that involved on Saturday night, you know, you don't go to a friend's house that had to go to church in the morning because I had to get up and then either they would take me home or I'd get dragged off to Sunday school or church, and I I couldn't stand it. And so, that stemmed uh growing up just kind of you know, being kind of indoctrinated in
the school system where you don't realize it at the time. It's just uh ingrained in you from day one and in school with the globe and, you know, evolution finding its way into the schools and, you know, the Bible being taken out and replaced with all this science and so, that gets ingrained into your head at an early age that it's uh science explains everything. Uh God is just you know, a story, fairy tales, and it's an old old book that, you know, so, I thought I was coming up with these ideas kind of myself, but here I was getting kind of just indoctrinated into the system, the science, the the the deception as I like to look at it now, now that my eyes have been opened, but without having God in me, I had this emptiness in me where God belonged, and I suppressed it or just denied it. And uh I wasn't necessarily a horrible kid, but I uh just kind of grew up and I had that emptiness in me where as time went on, I you know, happy-go-lucky started, you know, didn't have that happiness, and I was constantly searching to fill that that emptiness that was in me that God would where God was supposed to be dwelling. I didn't have that, so I turned to alcohol and drugs and at a very young age, about 12 years old, you know, I started drinking and then smoking marijuana. Both happened at 12 and then gradually got worse as high school went on and you know, just really started abusing it and through my 20s, 30s, I had the drinking became real heavy and just really searching uh searching for that to fill that void there and just not finding it and, you know, I had a good job. I had the American dream, so to speak, where, you know, I had things that should have made me happy as far as what people will tell you, oh, I wish I had your life. I wish this. I wish that, you know, I just to me it was I have all these things, but I'm not happy. I'm just not happy and you know, just further down, you know, start snowballing out of control, alcoholism, drug problems, some small run-ins with the law, DUIs and caught with drugs and never had to do any jail time or anything, but just, you know, kind of embarrassing to the family, name in the paper and Okay. just yeah, just kind of demoralizing somewhat, you know, just kind of but uh just couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, you know, I knew that I had a drinking problem, but yet I just kept on going back to the bars, going, you know, that like drink my sorrows away to the point where, yeah, it was just snowballing out of control where I kind of led me uh just led me just in this nightmare where, yeah, suicide was always kind of
a a thought. I think I always knew that that wasn't an option, but just constantly be driving and just like uh just so easy to just drive into this tree and just end it and you know, I just you when you don't have God, it's just I don't know. It just got darker and darker and darker. Uh as you get older and your life starts snowballing out of control and you're kind of like watching it, seeing it happen, but you have no control over it and you kind of just have this powerless feeling. And uh I was able to go to rehab for alcohol and got off most of the drugs and thank God was always there. He was watching over me even though I didn't believe in him. I think I somewhat deep down inside there was this belief, but I was suppressing it so badly, so hard because I knew that things I was doing was wrong and if I admitted there was a God, that I would be responsible for all the things I was doing, my sinful ways and even though I didn't really care to do them, I knew that ultimately I was going to have to change my life and that frightened me. So if I just went the course and you know, denied God and you know, I would actually get very angry with people that would bring up God or Jesus and I would like lash out, get very loud and vocal towards it and uh just uh really attacking, going to attack mode. And I can't explain it. Yeah, it's it's like the demons inside of me it kind of took me over and Hostile. Yeah, hostile and Not just I don't believe it, but Yeah, just hostile like yeah, where people were like, where did that come from and I didn't even notice it. Well, I have a kind of a deep voice that when I get passionate about something or you know, my voice raises it it carries and people tend to think that I'm yelling where I don't see that. I just kind of just like uh no, I'm just passionate. I'm I just don't understand. You know, you're so weak-minded and this and that and but all this stuff was just, you know, brainwashed part of the system now that I look back on I was into the, you know, ancient aliens and you know, just like I need science stuff they can prove to me, you know, I'm telling people, oh, you're going on blind faith on on a book that, you know, is written by man and this and that and, you know, just so into the whole science and, you know, I believe what people tell me about aliens and all this. I was all fascinated about this and all, you know, the stars, there's more stars than there are grains of sand on the earth and billions and trillions and, you know, just caught up in all of this and you know, it just looking back at you can really see how it takes you away from God and his creation and I had no friends that were Christians, no family members, immediate family members, my mom my mom's sister who lives in the Boston area was about the only one that I can think of in my whole
extended family that had any belief in God and like went to church. Everyone else was just kind of a So, I didn't didn't have that influence, anyone to, you know, pray for me or I'm sure there there had to been people praying for me that I don't know and I I pray for them that yeah someone saw how lost I was and I can't explain it because like I said, I didn't have any influences. I disassociated myself from anyone that was Christian, anyone that was believing in God and just went with people that had same belief system as me, the science, you know, atheism, God doesn't exist, partiers basically, bar friends and drinking buddies and just a mess and uh You know, let me say this real quick. Isn't it interesting how like, okay, you've never seen an alien? No. And never seen an alien spaceship, but you would believe in that. Which is means you would believe in that by faith. Exactly. Cuz that's really what you wanted to believe. Now, I'm not saying there's real UFO phenomena, and we know it's demonic and fallen angels stuff, but what I'm saying is is that it's amazing how an atheist or agnostic will ridicule Christians for faith, the faith aspect of Christianity, even though there's plenty of evidence and proof for Christianity and for Jesus and his life and crucifixion and resurrection, but if we dare take anything by faith, oh, you just blind faith. But then a lot of science is just theory, you faith. I'm putting I was putting my blind faith in guys that wrote the scientists that I just assumed had more knowledge than I did. Well, they said so, so I believed them rather than believing what God said, you know. So, yeah, looking back, I was putting my blind faith in the scientists and people that claimed all this information that I didn't prove my for myself. I didn't see with my own two eyes. It was all with the scientists, the science books, all of this, you know, it was all I just assumed that they knew what they were talking about. Well, they must be smart, you know, they went to college for six, 10, whatever how many they got these degrees, PhDs, and they're telling me, well, I'm not going to pour through all the math and do all that. I just put my faith in these guys. But who are you to put your faith in God, you weak-minded, you know. So, you know, it's just how it gets all twisted around. And yeah, it's just like I look back, scratch my head now. It's just like, oh, I have a lot of repenting to do for all those people that, you know, I just, you know, slammed down, you know, and thought I, you know, this this sense of pride that, you know, just gets instilled. That's another thing that gets instilled into you at a young age, especially in America, you know, take pride in what you do, take pride in I was just so prideful about the knowledge that I had that that was right, and whatever you got from this book of the Bible, you know, that's I don't know. It's just just amazing, yeah, the mindset. And so, yeah, so I was under this delusion until about 37 and I was I had quit drinking by the grace of God. I still hadn't believed in him,
but he was watching over me. I'm very faithful that he was watching over me my whole life because I should have died probably 12 times over with the lifestyle I lived and the things that I did and but uh he had plans for me even though I wasn't accepting him quite yet uh he knew what it was going to take to save me and I can say this now just looking back on how everything unfolded and I was still uh although I had quit drinking, I still had that hole where God belonged. So, I was still smoking marijuana on a daily basis, hooked on that still I think doing cocaine and you know, just things that just trying to ease the pain because I was in misery. I when you have a godless existence, there is no joy. There everything's fleeting. All that happiness is just it's fleeting happiness, you know, I chasing that, you know, I smoke some marijuana that would last for a little bit, but you had to keep on doing it, you know, I kept trying to fill that void where God belonged with just these material things with drugs and I said it's fleeting happiness. It never lasts and you know, it just leads to more and more despair and it's just this like it starts snowballing out of control. Well, I started kind of you know, as I'm sitting in my room, living room, smoking and you know, I'm like I'm going to start exercise my brain, start kind of getting into some of these conspiracies and uh yeah, just trying to I started getting into a few little conspiracies, opening up, nothing too crazy. I was never really into the whole conspiracies and this and that, but by opening a couple of them, this is in 2015 before YouTube really started censoring uh in my recommended thing, I started seeing a couple flat Earth things. Uh-oh. Well, yeah. I'm like, What is this crazy stuff? Yeah, yeah. I'm I'm laughing. I'm like, yeah, I'm not even going to get into that. It's 2015 and people still think the Earth is flat. Oh, yeah, yeah, you know, so you know, I I had done a couple things and uh you know, I kept kept coming across these flat Earth things. Well, I guess I got good and stoned one night. I'm like, all right, this is it and I am I'm going to open one and just get get a good laugh at. And I think the first one was Mark Sargent. Don't like to put names out there, but it is kind of important because I was uh led started with Mark Sargent, started watching a couple of his videos. I think the first video was like flat Earth clues and the first one I happened to open. First thing he said was, "Go to Google, type in Earth from space and find a find a real picture. Look with the discerning eye and find me a real real picture." Oh, this is easy enough. So, I'm I'm going through and I've I don't know, two, 300 pictures, just going through and there Wow.
You got to be kidding, you know, and then I started really looking, you know, with that discerning eye and it's just like, "You got to be kidding me. None of these are real, you know? I couldn't find one that Composite images, yeah. Yeah, I couldn't find one that I was satisfied that this Or full-blown cartoons, Photoshop cartoons. Yeah, it's just like, oh, they were just either so blatantly obvious or, you know, one, you know, it would look kind of then I'd start looking. I'm like, nah, that's I mean, it's better than the last few, but it's still not um So, it got my interest. I'm like, "What's going on here?" You know, so I uh started watching more and more flat Earth videos over the course of I'd say, I don't know, next couple months anyways. I would get home from work and you know, watch one and and it was Eric Dubay, Mark Sargent, Jeranism. I was purposely staying away from any of them that were bringing in the Bible. I still wasn't going down that road and that's one thing I think was kind of scaring me. I was kind of believing in this flat Earth, but then there's a piece of me that was just like I think what in the back of my mind just like, you know, if you believe in this flat Earth, you know, it that there's going to be a god coming in somewhere something Yeah, creator, you know, but I was I was I was suppressing I was suppressing it, you know, but I was still piqued an interest so, you know, I'm stuck in the Eric Dubay and you know, these guys that didn't use God at all that were, you know, just kind of just stuck on the flat Earth and you know, different Just talking about the proofs and the evidence. Yeah, the proofs and that so, you know, I it was over that couple months there, two, three months it was, well, you know, that's interesting then it was a uh it's kind of 50/50 uh might be could be flat, but I'm still kind of globe then it kind of I'm kind of leaning more towards the flat and then I was just like, I'm pretty sure it's flat, but still I don't know. I'm not ready to commit to that and then finally one night I'm sitting there. I couldn't tell you what video it was that just All right, that was it. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. That was, you know, I'm I was amassing just this mountain of evidence for flat Earth against the globe. Everything was just falling apart with the globe. Well, I watched something and I'm like, all right, that's it. I convinced the Earth is flat. I'm a flat-Earther. I will say that definitely don't live on a spinning ball going around 1,000 miles an hour. It makes no sense and there's no proof to back it up. So, my next logical question then was why the deception and how are they doing you know why are they doing it and how are they doing it. As I'm sitting there just kind of you know racking my brain over it all of a sudden at that moment God hit me. I was in my living room and like the testimony you just read all of a sudden it was just like boom I just got hit with a ton of bricks I found myself on my knees
just balling my eyes out weeping and God hit me and just like told me I'm here and it's so I just instantly knew that there was a creator and basically he placed it on me that this is the deception this is you've been lied to all these things are lies to keep you from me and here I am so I was just beside myself I'm just weeping I didn't know how to pray I didn't know how to do anything I said I had no no idea I had no Bible I no idea how to get a hold of one it was like 9:00 10:00 o'clock at night I'm just a mess you know balling I'm like I went flushed all my weed down the toilet I broke my pipes I got rid of my cigarettes I was just like I just felt this urge that I had I'm like I got to make up for 37 years of not believing and God is real and I'm like I need a Bible I need something to start and I'm racking my brain and my buddy on a motel I'm like motels have Bibles Right. So yeah the Gideons I didn't even know the Gideons but you know that they were Bibles Bibles yeah. So I I got on the phone I'm like hey do you have a Bible and he's just like you yeah you could just tell that my voice that something wasn't normal with me and he's like you all right I'm like yeah I just need a Bible like right now he's just like all right yeah I'll be right down." So, he was down there in my house like 10 minutes, and he pulled up, and I'm waiting at the door, you know, and before he even got out of his truck with the Bible, I had my door open, I had tears just pouring down my face, and I'm like, "The Earth is flat. There is a God." I'm like, "Oh." And he's just looking at me like, "What the heck has gotten into you?" He's just, you know, I said he was a friend that, you know, didn't really believe in God so much. Uh Just partier, you know, a friend. He thought that I was high on something, and he was just like, "What the heck did you take?" Because, yeah, I'm I just tearing, and he knew my stance on God and my background, and all of a sudden, yeah, I'm telling him the Earth is flat, and there is a God, and I got tears, and he's just Like, "Wow." Okay. Uh you He wasn't Yeah, he had no idea how to take I'm like, you know, and then once I started talking to him, he realized that, you know, I was of sound mind. I was probably the most sound mind he's ever talked to me because, you know, I just I had God working through me, and I was just like, "Wow, I need I need this Bible." And then, you know, he didn't hang around too long. I think I kind of scared him once he realized that I was I was all right. I was Yeah. God, man. I was serious about God. I wasn't like overdosing or something like that. You know, "You don't need me to call the hospital or an ambulance or anything?" I'm like, "Oh, I'm good. You know, I got this
Bible." Oh. Uh I just wanted to get like right into the word, so I just started with Genesis, and you know, I'm going down page one of Genesis. I'm like, "Firmament." You know, it's just like, yeah, firmament. I mean, water is what I mean, how did how does anyone get a globe Earth out of this? And then, you know, just being led by God. So, it was just kind of a saved my life. It was literally that's how God got to me. I mean, through my whole life, all the different things I'd come across, and just the flat Earth, coming to that, and then just opening my eyes to that. All right, so how is this possible then? Yeah, he touched me and just like then first thing he had me do was read Genesis. So, just like, wow, we everything we've been taught is a lie, and it's a deception from the devil himself. I mean, we're in an enclosed system, and God is right above us. We're his footstool. I mean, he's right there, you know, where everything else takes him so far away, you know, you have this huge universe with billions and trillions and billions and trillions, and you're just pounded with all these astronomical, pun intended, numbers that uh just take you it's like, where's heaven, you know? How how how can you have a heaven above you when, you know, you have outer space, and you're on this ball, you know? So, then I started realizing that everything was exact opposite of what the Bible said it was. You know, as I'm starting to read the Bible, it's just like, well, this is yeah, I mean, it just makes you feel so much more special when you read, you know, that God's there, and how he loves us, and we're individual. He knows the numbers on our head, and it made so much more sense, you know, coming from the the flat Earth aspect of it, where, yeah, we're his footstool, and I mean, you just look up, and he's right there. And it you know, it's not where this little speck in the vast universe that's just ever expansive, and so, yeah, it was just that was my introduction to God, and then it was a pretty much 3 and 1/2 years of kind of being in the wilderness, where uh God brought me up in his way. It's like, he had his hand on me, but he allowed me to go down all these different little avenues to kind of get a crash course and so I had spent 30 I felt like, you know, just I didn't know where to go. I had no one to associate with and anyone that I tried to that said they knew God was just this lukewarm, oh yeah, I went to I've been going to church since that but, you know, I had read the Bible, you know, started with the Old Testament and I started getting a little kind of caught up in Numbers and Leviticus and, you know, all these laws and everything. So, I was kind of like uh and then I you know, switched from the Mark Sargents and Eric Dubays to now I was like Rob Skiba because I saw some of this research he was doing and he seemed to be biblically based,
you know, so I'm like, all right, well, he knows God so and here I am a fresh, you know, atheist, agnostic, not believing into believing in God but not exactly knowing how to believe or what, you know, I was still trying to it out. walk that, you know, I was just so young in my walk with him and, you know, I I kind of fell into Rob Skiba and uh I said uh he seemed like he was pretty well versed in the Bible and he did really good flat Earth research. So, naturally I was drawn to him and started kind of you know, following him and some other, you know, he he stood out as far as the flat Earth, you know, in my early years with it as, you know, the one that I went to for the Bible and flat Earth. So, I kind of started phasing myself away from the Eric Dubays and the Mark Sargents cuz I wanted more God in my life. So, you know, if that they weren't talking about flat Earth and God then I was kind of like, you know, I'd listen to it. It still held a place but I was looking more instead of trying to figure out if the Earth was flat, I was trying to work on my walk with God and uh by reading the New Testament with, you know, without being contaminated by any church or any denomination or anyone else, I just had the Lord and I just I want I said I kind of got confused with the Old Testament, so I'm like, well, I'm going to see what the New Testament so God kind of led me to the New Testament, started with the Gospels, you know, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and then started just by reading that, Jesus' words and then it prompted me to start going try to find a church. I'm like, all right, I need to, you know, I'm still in this walk where I feel like I have all this time to make up and I'm confused, but at the same time, you know, God was kind of guiding me and uh went to a few, you know, Assembly of God, I talked to the pastor and, you know, privately and, you know, told him that, you know, flat earth had brought me to God and he kind of just chuckled and he's just like, well, I'm glad you found God, but uh I don't know about this flat earth and I'm like, how can I I just couldn't wrap my mind how you could be a professing, you know, Christian and even a pastor and not understand what the Bible I'm like, well, how do you explain Genesis 1 and, you know, and he's just like, well, uh you know, you can't take it all literal and there's different theories on this and you know, and I'm like, it just didn't sit right, but I still I felt like, well, I'll go to a couple of so a couple Sundays, you know, I went went to the sermons and the services and even went to a Bible study, I got to church an hour before and did a Bible study and I just something didn't feel right, you know, it just wasn't what I was reading in the Bible, it seemed like things were getting taken out of context and it was just the people there
they were like nice to your face, but I just felt like everyone was kind of, I don't know, just this empty show. I was just kind of like I felt like so cuz it is true. I mean most churches now and then, you know, I mean we have we have it. Jesus told us. I mean things would get very deception would be in the church. People would come He said people would come in my name and deceive many. And many false prophets will rise and deceive many. And so there is a big there's a large amount of deception in many churches. Not all, but most have been infiltrated or watered down or even just become lukewarm um in their faith and not taking the word. And I mean it's just to me it's amazing story especially sitting there with this pastor and going, you know, telling him this truth of creation that's in your Bible brought me from being an atheist to I'm sitting in your church as a believer in Jesus Christ. Yeah. Saved in Jesus Christ. Trying to, you know, wanting to deepen in my walk with God. And you don't even believe Genesis is what? Yeah, it's and just like the smile and like the almost like laughing in my face about it. just like I felt, you know, I'm like Wow. Yeah. What, you know, what is going on here, you know? I'm just kind of I said so new to the faith and here I have a pastor, a man of God that, you know, I'm like, well, who am I supposed to trust here, you know? This guy you know, it's I I was just kind of confused and taken back by that. So then I'm like, all right, I kind of got pulled out of that church and I went, you know, went to a Lutheran church for a service and I I'm like, I'm like I'm just getting so so I'm like none of this seems right. None of this is what the Bible is telling me. And like anytime I would bring up flat Earth, you know, I would just get these looks and laugh. I'm just like Wow. Yeah, I was just getting so lost. So then uh I even went to Jehovah Witnesses. You know, I said I was so confused and just so kind of trying to find my way and I said I had no one to fellowship with, no one that was I felt on the same page as me. I'm like, well, they say they claim to know God, but they are laughing at me about the flat Earth, but it just seems so clear that God is telling us that we live on a flat, stationary Earth on pillars and I mean separated by the dome Yeah, the dome separating the waters from the waters and you know and it's firm, it's solid. So, I'm kind of relying on YouTube and like, you know, they're, you know, didn't really have the discernment yet. So, I said God was allowing me to go down all these avenues, but he wouldn't allow me to get caught in any single one of them. He would, you know, it's like, yeah, spend a couple weeks at Assembly of God, spend a couple weeks, you know, I went a couple weeks to the Jehovah Witnesses and you know, there were a lot of the things, you know, that I was reading the Bible that I'm like, all right, yeah, I can seems right, that seems right until it got to the point where they told me that Jesus was the Archangel Michael. I'm like, Okay.
Time to get out of here. Yeah, I I ran and never looked back from that. So, yeah, once they started with on that, I'm like, well, this isn't right. So, I then yeah, just kind of relied on I gave up on the all the kind of local churches. They all seemed to be pretty much the same thing where it was uh just this lukewarmness. They, you know, they believe this and gone, but this was a fairy tale or this was don't take literal and it's just like, well, how can you take this literal but not this and you know, and So, And granted and you know, in their defense, I know there's a lot of them that are, you know, truly born again. They love Jesus, they're saved and like, I don't doubt that that first pastor was a man of God, but again, we were all brainwashed by you know, being indoctrinated with this, you know, heliocentric, you know, really anti-Bible, you know, philosophy presented to us from children as the truth by well-meaning people, mind you, but it's still hard to break free when that's been put in your face since a child, since, you know, you're taught that. And I mean, so I mean, had you run into me 5 years ago, you know, I might have said the same thing. You know, so and I know I'm truly saved and walking with Jesus, born again, and love him, but there was that area where I was blinded to it until God opened my eyes to it and so, you know, I think I I mean, really what we're experiencing here and what you're talking about is is and I've shared this like in a I wrote an article about this, you know, a few years ago that's on the our website called, you know, God's Flat Earth and the Firmament of His Power, where I talk about how God opened my eyes, but you know, we really are kind of in the midst of a move of God. This is a move of God. When God reveals, when the Holy Spirit begins to emphasize a truth that's in the Bible and bring it back to the forefront, either it was pushed aside or you know, people stop believing it or whatever, a revival's when God brings forth a truth and that truth begins to awaken the lost, the unsaved, and even causes an awakening, a fresh a fresh movement of His Spirit in the church and and people are getting saved. And see, and that's what happened. There's a there is a there is a revival going on because of flat Earth and it's happening outside of 95% or 99% of most of the churches. Now, that doesn't mean we hate churches or we hate pastors or we hate Christians that can't see this, but the fact is God is moving and bringing like people like you and like Richard that totally unbelievers wouldn't have walked into a church for any reason. You know. Absolutely. But God put this truth. So, you know, God's doing this is I guess I wanted to say this. This this thing is a move of
God. It is a work of God. I've never seen anything bringing atheists to tears and to believing the Bible and believing in Jesus and being saved What? Just like that. Just like that. I mean I mean without any That's that's fruit. That's Holy Spirit fruit right there. Yeah, someone made the term apex fruit. I was just like, yeah, I mean there was no one that, you know, guide me down this road. It was just like I mean it was God himself that touched me and it was like I said just like that where I just instantly I went from atheist to just breaking down in tears knowing for absolute fact that God was real. And And not just any God, but you knew in your heart it was the God of the Bible. The God that he was the true God of creation. And then you started reading Genesis. You knew instinctively when And that's what I'm saying, the Holy Spirit. You know this is the Holy Spirit when immediately he knows I need a Bible, not a Quran, not Buddhism, not any I need a Bible and it opens to Genesis and boom, there's the boom confirmation. Yeah. And then, of course, he can't get bogged down in the in the Old Testament as a new believer. And so God switches him over to the New Testament and he reads the words of Jesus and he's just more and more confirmed and and man and then and then boom, and then you're all of a sudden you're in Alabama. You're out in Alabama getting baptized. I said, yeah. I It took me a took me a few years to get to that point. It was a I said I don't want to put down churches, but it just held a special place in my heart because that's what saved me was the flat earth and then to just not hear any of these pastors not claiming that they aren't men of God, but it just it turned me off because that's what saved me and then they were basically almost put me down for it. And it's just like, you know, I I just instantly kind of turned me off or, you know, so that's where yeah, I had that 3 years of kind of in that wilderness where I was just testing waters on my walk and I felt so alone but at the same time I had I had the Holy Spirit guide me. I hadn't quite figured out the whole dynamic of it. I was still kind of lost but I didn't know that God had me test all these waters and that's where I found myself going down, you know, Skippah and you know, where he starts, you know, putting the law on you and, you know, it seemed like, well, it is God's word, you know, he obviously said this so I should be so I quit eating pork and that was a big one for me because I had a family restaurant. We made pork sausage. I I made over 10,000 pounds of pork sausage in my life and smoked so many slabs of bacon, so many hams, you know, so now I'm having to do this. I've given up where I'm trying to eat clean and trying to, you know, follow the dietary laws and, you know, I'm just trying to do all this to please God and um the understanding I was getting was I
had to do all these things to make myself a sinless person before Jesus would accept me. So I was going down this road and it was it was tough because no one can do that. And here I was, I was kind of under this deception, you know, and I look at it now is, you know, Satan has so many multi-layers, you know, to get through. So here I was, I found the flat Earth but then I had to find my way through this, you know, all these a minefield. all these snares and I said uh I was following Rabbi Skippah and I wasn't really getting the results, you know, I was trying to like I said uh come out of my sin on my own terms. I thought that I needed to you know, quit the drugs, quit you know, cuz I did eventually start smoking again. You know, I I said I threw out the cigarettes and I quit the marijuana for a while, but then I kind of got frustrated because I was trying to do everything on my own and I couldn't smoke quit smoking cigarettes and I kind of got back into the marijuana. I still believed in God, but I was like, I have to make I was putting all this pressure on myself to follow the law, to perfect myself before Jesus would accept me. And I was under this and then it was uh oh, just about a year ago when I started coming across your videos and Nathan Robertson you know, the the Christians, the true Christians, not the Torah heads and you know, all of that, but so then I started, you know, watching still on, you know, watching Rob Skiba and you know, the Torah and kind of following God's laws cuz the way he put it, you know, I should be following and they were God's law. Why would he make them if we're not supposed to follow them and you know, I wasn't quite understanding the whole grace thing and uh you know, New covenant. Yeah, Jesus being God in the flesh, you know, I was kind of like, well, and Jesus, he's praying to his father, so how is he praying to himself? You know, so I was kind of caught in this little confusion for a bit. And then there's that kind of transition where I started listening to more of your videos. Praise Jesus you put your Sunday ministry or your Sunday sermons up live stream, so that was my church, you know, I'm like, well, finally, you know, someone that a pastor that knows the flat earth and I mean, he's reading the Bible how I'm reading it and you know, I just felt like you were what I was looking for and unfortunately you're 12 hours away in Alabama, and but I could watch you know, I could turn into YouTube and you know, it's just like I felt like I was there, and um I still was still trying to figure it out, but then I I started like, all right, you know, it's grace, not by works, and by watching you and Nathan, I slowly all of a sudden, I figured it out. It was just like, oh, here I am trying to do all these things, but God doesn't take glory in that. He wants me to come
to him, and submit these burdens onto him so that he can cleanse me, and that's what he takes glory in is, you know, taking the all of our all of our sin, and, you know, our works and what you're describing righteousness by faith in the blood of Jesus, not my righteousness by trying to keep the old covenant. It's a new covenant. Now, granted, we can't live immoral. The new covenant spells out how we're supposed to live. We're not supposed to be fornicators and drug addicts and drunkards and all that. The Bible, you know, Galatians 5, Ephesians 5, I mean, Revelation 21. It lays all that out. So, it's just it's it's cool. I mean, a lot of people, and believe me, I hear it from a lot of people that's taken a very similar journey, you know, with the Lord, and uh but uh you know, praise God, the truth The Holy Spirit will lead you to the truth that will set you free for free. Not free to not free to be immoral, but free from this this condemnation and trying to create an own my own righteousness by doing all these Old Testament things when we live in a new covenant. So, But I I think it's awesome. I mean, that it. once I found, you know, faith grace through faith, and I placed that on Jesus, I found myself instantly transformed and living a better life than I ever had. Whereas, when I was trying to obey the laws and trying to do it on my accord, I got so it was such a burden, I got so stressed that I fell back in, you know, I was stumbling on all of these things. I couldn't quit smoking, so that would that led me to start smoking marijuana again. And, you know, by me I was constantly trying to perfect myself in order for God for Jesus to accept me. That when I finally laid it down upon him, then he took them from me and I found myself living the life of a godly life, you know, so he took those off. So, it wasn't a license to go sin where oh, I'm saved and I can go No, it's he gives you a new heart and you don't want to, you know, it's he convicts you. The second I try, you know, the second I did something wrong, you know, my heart gets convicted. And, as I said, we're not going to live sinless life. We're going to stumble, but it's not that willful sin. It's not the practicing just keep on doing, you know, that sin over and over, you know, when you do stumble, you get I get instantly convicted now. It's just like I feel in my heart and I know that, you know, it's like oh, that was wrong. I got to repent. You know, so it's a totally different I said, I got my heart was changed once I, you know, came to Christ and understanding that I lay it down before him and that I'm saved by his grace and his doing, not by my works and me perfecting myself. And it was that's what really changed my life and then I really started following I mean I praise Jesus because you were very instrumental in me understanding
that. I I said, I never had anyone to kind of mentor me or guide me in that direction. I had the Holy Spirit guide me and he guided me towards you and that's why I then I was able to reach out. I was really kind of reserved. I didn't uh didn't read comments on any videos. I didn't post comments. I you know, I was just really reserved just trying to, you know, focus on the videos and but uh once I allowed Jesus into my heart and he changed my heart, I then felt compelled to reach out to you via email. And you know, I kind of gave you a short testimony and left my number and you called the very next day and I was just so grateful, you know, to be able to talk to you and by that and then I, you know, reached out to Nathan Roberts. I, you know, emailed him and then I started, you know, reading comments and leaving comments and getting involved in chats and it just opened up some different doorways and, you know, it was God working through me to help, you know, I don't know. I found to felt people to fellowship with now, like-minded people where before I was just by myself and I just kept constantly praying like, "Why am I all by myself? Why can I not just have one person to fellowship with, you know? You You sent the apostles out two by two. Why am I, you know, why am I alone, you know?" I just I'm pleased, you know, and then I said, "Once I truly turn my faith over to Jesus and all of a sudden it was like the floodgates were open. It wasn't just one person. All of a sudden I found myself in this family of uh there was 18 of us and you know, just the fellowship and the love and being able to interact uh through uh like Marco Polo. I mean, we use technology, Satan's technology against them, you know, use it for good to fellowship and connect While we can. Yeah. Yeah, all across. I mean, I I now know, you know, fellow believers in Australia and England and France and Netherlands and all across the United States, Hawaii, Washington, you know, and so yeah, reaching out to Pastor Dean here, he was very instrumental just by you know, just blessed that he put his sermons on that I was able to watch them and, you know, have a That was my church, you know, I just Sunday, you know, in my room, you know, I just feel like, "Ah, I got to go to church, you know, I'm busy, you know." And I'm like, "What do you mean you go to church? You haven't left the house." I'm like, "No, my church is Ah, I got to go to my church." that's been a tremendous blessing. I mean, we've come to know I mean, I thank God for the technology that, you know, we can reach out to different people. And I Like I said, Sunday morning, we have such a an extended church family beyond here that's uh you know, when the when the technology's cut off from us, I'm going to miss that. I'm going to miss them, you know, and but I told them because a lot of them I mean, even though we Some of them we haven't met face to face, but um man, it's been
great cuz I feel like I know these people. You know, we talk about They'll call or they'll you know, we'll chat or email and talk about their issues and pray for them and stuff. And it's so you know, you do kind of have this broader church family a lot of times than just where you are. But um that's been a blessing. But um I think probably I don't know how long we've been here. We probably need to to get out of here, but I want to say thank you for coming. Thank you for sharing your story. And let me tell you, I know this, man. I know God's going to use you mightily. I know man, just you're you just, you know, coming from it's it's good it's refreshing. What I'm saying, for us who've been in Christianity, been in the church for a lot of years, um it's refreshing to see someone that was never involved and just come fresh and new and have an experience with God, a true born-again experience, a true awakening, and and start reading the Bible and go, "Hey, why don't you guys believe this? Yeah. Why don't you believe the Bible, you Christians?" And um I truly feel like I came as a child of Jesus, you know? I didn't have all this preconceived, you know, you know, filled with doctrine, you know, church doctrine of various sorts. I just was led by God, so I just transformed you and then he led you through this, you know, minefield, you know, I mean it's so fun. Assembly of God, now Lutheran, now you Jehovah Witnesses, then Torah then Torah Yeah, it was just I said he just said, "All right, you know, I'm going to give you a lifetime's worth of experience over those, you know, 3 years." And I said I was I was in the wilderness, but God was my guide and, you know, he led me to where I needed to be and yeah, by the grace of God he led me down to Alabama here and got baptized Sunday and, you know, it's just it's just an amazing thing. was And what was cool, Nathan Robertson and his family were here. That's It didn't It didn't coordinate that. That just happened and then we got to hang out after church and Two very integral parts of where I am today was, yeah, Nathan Roberts and Pastor Dean and they both happened to be here when I when Yeah, it's there's no coincidences. God has his design had Yeah, brought us all together and, yeah, we we were able to fellowship and that was just great, you know, it was great We had a great Sunday night. We spent We went to my house and built a fire in my fire pit and hung out for hours and did s'mores and the kids went wild in the yard. We had a good time. Listen, before we go, I want to say this. Um you know, you've heard a powerful testimony of how the biblical truth of creation, true biblical cosmology, enclosed cosmology, stationary flat covered, that's what the Bible teaches. Um that may be new to you. You may think, "What are these crazy people talking about?" Um there's plenty You got plenty of teaching sermons and digging into this. We've been digging into this now, you know, 4 years and there's there's plenty of scriptural proof. There's plenty of evidence outside, just like
we've talked about. And lives are being changed. I mean, we had a guy, you know, come from Sweden back in 2017, come from Sweden, atheist all of his life and it was Earth and led him back to the Bible and to salvation and he's born again and he he wanted to come all the way from Sweden to be baptized. You came from Pennsylvania. He came Paul, uh, from Sweden came all the way and he even came to the conference. He came twice. So, he's come to Alabama twice and he came to the Skyfall conference last year and shared his testimony there again. Uh, so folks, atheists are being saved um, because of this truth. God is taking the truth of the biblical truth and the true nature of creation a flat, stationary, enclosed Earth with a firmament, with pillars, with heaven above and hell beneath and God's throne right there and the Earth his footstool and that he is close and he is watching and he he's not uh, billions and billions and billions of light-years away in some remote place or some other dimension. He's right there and, um, I just want to say if you don't know Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior and, uh, you you doubt any of this, dig into it. At least at least look into it, research it read the Bible for yourself, quit believing what the the people are saying, read the Bible for yourself, look into the truth of a flat Earth. Look at the for the evidence. I know cuz there's a lot of people trying to debunk it and throw it out this argument and that argument but I'm just telling you it is biblical truth and there's evidence and, um, and and regardless, bottom line is that there is a creator, he is the God of the Bible his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. He died on the cross for your sins. He rose from the dead on the third day. He's the only way to have your sins forgiven. He's the only way to fill that void that Jacob was talking about that he lived with all of his life as an atheist and he kept trying to fill with, you know, drugs and alcohol and everything else. He's the only one because he's the creator. So, he's the only one that can truly give satisfaction, peace joy, New Age stuff, you can get counterfeit peace for a little while, but you're just opening yourself up to demons with false religion. Jesus Christ is the true God. He God came in the flesh, died on the cross to pay for our sins, to save us from ourselves, from our own evil and wickedness and, you know, just addictions that we all have to, you know, have had to bad things. And he's the one that died and rose from the dead. And if you'll believe that, if you'll come to him, if you'll seek him, you'll find him. And he will It's not just blind faith. He will give you evidence to prove it. Just like today in our our ministry school class, we were talking about the evidence of fulfilled prophecies, how prophecies were written centuries ago, some thousands of years ago in great detail that are fulfilled only in Jesus Christ. The Bible is a very unique book that has hundreds and
hundreds of prophecies in it that are being Some that were fulfilled, 300 of which fulfilled when Jesus came the first time. Many are be being fulfilled now to let us know that we are approaching his second coming. So, if there was ever a time to give your life to Jesus, to search and seek for the truth, and to find him, and to and to know what's about to happen in the world, the time's now. So, wanted to just say, thanks for watching. Uh thanks for listening. If you need help, you can go to uh fireandgracechurch.org, deanodle.org. Um I think we'll we'll put these things in the uh description of the show of the video. But, uh anyway, thank you, Jake. Thank you. Kevin, for helping us do this. And like I said, if you need help, contact us. Fire and gracechurch.org, deanodle.org. Um we'd love to hear from you. God bless. Amen.