Participants:
Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR002112S
|
00:01 The COVID-19 pandemic
00:02 caused the deaths of over 600,000 people. 00:05 Words cannot describe the devastation 00:08 that COVID-19 has caused in the United States, 00:11 South America, Europe, Russia, and in Great Britain. 00:17 We've lost devoted members 00:18 of the Carter Report team in India 00:21 and thousands of precious souls continue to die 00:24 without vaccination. 00:25 Pastor Carter has a message for all those who are hurting 00:29 by the loss of their mothers and fathers, 00:31 sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, 00:34 husbands and wives, friends, neighbors, 00:37 doctors and nurses. 00:39 We are blessed to know that death is not the end 00:43 and that roses will bloom again. 00:52 "Pastor, 00:53 I would like your thoughts on why you think 00:56 the Soviet Union collapsed?" 01:02 That, Wayne, is a very, very good question. 01:05 That question was asked by Wayne Hackett. 01:08 One of the great voices 01:10 in the United States of America, 01:12 well-known voice 01:13 and a great friend of the Carter Reports. 01:16 Well, Wayne, I've been to the land of Russia 01:19 and Ukraine or the old Soviet Union, 01:22 no less than 49 times. 01:26 I went there to preach the resurrection of Christ 01:29 and to tell the people that roses will bloom again, 01:33 even though things may look pretty bad, 01:36 one day things are going to get a lot better. 01:40 And I believe in the resurrection of Christ, 01:43 but of course that's something 01:44 that the Soviets never taught the people. 01:47 They took hope out of the souls 01:50 of the Russian people. 01:53 When you take hope out of a person's soul, 01:57 you're killing that person. 01:58 It has been said, "The death of hope 02:02 always leads to the hope for death." 02:05 And the Soviet communist system had torn 02:08 the hope out of the hearts of the Russian people. 02:12 And it was a nation just filled with despair. 02:16 In 1991, I visited Moscow. 02:21 I ran a campaign, an evangelistic campaign, 02:23 just down the road from the Kremlin 02:26 in the great Palace of Culture. 02:29 And there we saw the mighty power of God. 02:32 We saw thousands and thousands of communists 02:35 and atheists and Marxists coming to the meetings. 02:39 The university professors 02:40 from the great Moscow University, 02:42 they came and they said to me, "What's happening to us? 02:45 What's happened to the Soviet Union? 02:47 Why there are so many suicides? 02:50 Why is our system collapsing?" 02:53 I said, "Because it is based upon a dead man." 02:57 They said, "What are you talking about?" 02:59 Well, I said to him, I just gave a talk 03:02 outside the tomb of Lenin, 03:05 because I went to the tomb of Lenin. 03:07 I joined a big queue, a big line of Russian people. 03:12 And I went and I stood there 03:14 and I looked down at the waxy form. 03:16 That's the real person, but he's embalmed. 03:20 And I saw the man 03:21 who'd caused the world to tremble. 03:25 He was the founder of communism in the Soviet Union, 03:31 very cold, very still, and very silent. 03:36 I went outside the tomb and with my television crew 03:40 I gave a talk on the resurrection of Christ. 03:45 In those days, you could do this. 03:46 This was 1991 and communism was going down, 03:51 but it was still sort of in Russia, 03:55 but it was, it was impotent, Gorbachev was there, 03:58 but communism was dying. 04:01 And I answered the question of those professors. 04:03 And I said, people have asked me the question, 04:06 "Why is communism dying? Why is Russia dying?" 04:11 I said, "Here's the answer. 04:14 Communism is dying in Russia 04:16 and the Russian economy is dying. 04:18 The Soviet system is going into 04:21 the dustbin of history 04:24 because it was based upon a dead man." 04:29 It was based upon Lenin and Lenin believe, 04:33 you believe me, my friend, 04:35 he's dead because I've just seen him. 04:38 But the Christian Church in Russia 04:40 is very much alive today. 04:42 Do you want don't know why? 04:44 Because it is not based upon a dead man, 04:47 it is based upon our living Christ. 04:53 Jesus walked out of the tomb and said, 04:56 "I am the resurrection and the life." 05:03 "We've often talked about the many times 05:05 you went to the Siberian concentration camps 05:08 and cemeteries. 05:10 Going there must have changed your life?" 05:18 It changed my life forever. 05:22 I don't think I can really describe to you how I felt. 05:27 I've been to Siberia on many occasions. 05:32 Did you know that in Siberia, 05:36 the communists, the atheists put to death 05:39 10 million innocent people. 05:43 They would send them on the Tran-Siberian Express. 05:46 I'd been on the train many, many times. 05:49 They would send them across 05:51 on many occasions to Vladivostok 05:54 and then they'd ship them north 05:57 up to a hell hole of a place. 06:01 They paved the roads 06:02 with the bones of the prisoners. 06:08 What can one say? 06:10 How can one describe one's feelings 06:13 of the prisoners who died in Magadan. 06:16 Ever heard of Magadan? 06:20 Oh, God have mercy upon us. 06:21 Magadan, the people went there 06:23 and they were brutalized. 06:27 And the streets of Magadan 06:29 were composed of the bones of the prisoners. 06:33 Tens of thousands of them were believers in Christ. 06:36 They were there 06:37 because of their faith in Christ. 06:43 I've seen things 06:45 that will never get out of my soul. 06:48 But when I went to Siberia, 06:50 when I went to Russia, when I went to Ukraine, 06:51 when I went to these communist countries, 06:54 these places that had had 06:57 their souls sucked out by atheism, 07:03 who'd been taught despair. 07:04 They'd been told, you're nothing, 07:08 at the most, you're an animal, 07:11 at the least, you're a machine, 07:13 you're simply the product of time plus matter, plus chance, 07:17 I went with a message. 07:18 I said, no, no. 07:21 You are a child of God. 07:23 You're made in the very image of God. 07:25 Christ came to this earth and He died for you. 07:31 I saw people atheists, communists by the thousands, 07:34 by the tens of the thousands 07:36 come forward to give their lives to Christ, 07:38 weeping and crying as they accepted Christ. 07:44 Now I'm going to read to you from the Apostle Paul, 07:46 this great Jewish scholar. 07:48 Without the Apostle Paul, we would have no, 07:52 none of the great democracies today. 07:54 Without the writings of the Apostle Paul, 07:56 we would not have had the Book of Romans. 07:58 And the Book of Romans gave us the reformation, 08:02 and the reformation gave us the great democracies, 08:05 and the great democracies gave us freedom and liberty. 08:10 Now, I'm going to read to you the words 08:12 of this great man, 08:13 who just changed the course of history. 08:16 He says in this book, 08:18 1 Corinthians 15:51 and onwards. 08:23 Listen carefully. 08:26 "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep." 08:30 That means we're not all going to die. 08:33 "But we shall all be changed in a moment, 08:36 in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. 08:40 For the trumpet will sound, 08:42 and the dead will be raised incorruptible, 08:45 and we shall be changed. 08:47 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, 08:50 and this mortal must put on immortality. 08:54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption 08:57 and this mortal has put on immortality, 08:59 then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: 09:03 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' 09:06 O Death, where is your sting? 09:09 O Hades, where is your victory? 09:12 The sting of death is sin, 09:14 and the strength of sin is the law. 09:17 But thanks be to God who gives us the victory 09:22 through our Lord Jesus Christ.'" 09:26 This tremendous scholar, the Apostle Paul, 09:30 who changed the course of history, 09:32 who gave us democracy and freedom, 09:35 all the things we take for granted. 09:38 He said, "The day is going to come. 09:39 And the trumpet is going to sound." 09:42 Christ is going to return. 09:43 The Almighty Christ is going to return, 09:46 and He's going to give a shout. 09:48 And the trumpet is going to sound 09:50 and the dead are going to come out of their tombs. 09:54 Yes, roses will bloom again. 09:57 And he said, "This corruptible, 09:59 this body which is corruptible, 10:01 this body which is mortal is going to become immortal. 10:05 Death is going to be swallowed up 10:07 in victory." 10:09 And God's people are going to get, 10:11 wait for this. 10:13 God's people are going to get brand new bodies, 10:18 glorious bodies. 10:20 They will never get old. They will never get white hair. 10:25 They will never get fatigued. They will never suffer pain. 10:29 They will never go through the suffering of depression. 10:33 They won't have any of those things. 10:36 Those things are going to be passed away. 10:43 Roses will bloom again, just wait and see. 10:47 Christ is going to return 10:49 and the dead are going to be raised. 10:51 This is the word of the Lord. 10:58 "The message of Jesus Christ transformed the lives of many 11:02 Russians and communists. 11:05 Can you tell us about them?" 11:11 Yes. 11:13 I think of Olga. 11:16 Olga was a young woman when she lived in Ukraine, 11:20 but not a young woman 11:21 when we met her in Nizhny Novgorod. 11:25 But when she was an elderly woman, 11:27 she came to our meetings in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. 11:32 She came and she found Christ 11:34 and she found salvation and she found hope. 11:38 And she told me this amazing story. 11:41 When she was a young woman, she lived in Ukraine 11:45 and she lived there during the time 11:47 of the invasion of Ukraine by the Nazis. 11:52 When they came into her village, 11:54 because her village resisted them. 11:57 All the people, all the Ukrainians 11:59 were marched. 12:00 This was in the middle of winter, 12:02 out into the snow. 12:03 And they were made to build or dig this tremendous grave, 12:09 dig out this big hole in the ground. 12:12 And then with hundreds 12:14 and hundreds of other Ukrainians, 12:15 men and women, boys and girls, they were made to stand 12:19 around this big drain, this big ditch, 12:22 this big hole in the frozen ground. 12:26 And then the Germans 12:28 turned on them their machine guns, 12:30 and they machine gunned them to death. 12:33 And the bodies fell down into the ditch, 12:38 but Olga, just a slip of a girl, 12:40 just a young girl and a young man 12:42 ran for their lives. 12:44 They ran as fast as they could. 12:46 They ran into the forest 12:48 and amazingly they escaped. 12:53 Olga was able to get on a train. 12:56 And after some weeks 12:57 she found a way to the city of Gorky, 13:00 as it was called. 13:02 It was called Gorky by the communists. 13:06 It is now called Nizhny Novgorod. 13:09 And so she got there 13:11 and she married the love of her life. 13:13 And they lived together for several years. 13:17 And then one day 13:18 there was a knocking on the door. 13:20 In fact, it was at the middle of the night. 13:23 Her husband went to the door 13:25 and they said, the KGB said, come with us. 13:30 Olga never saw him again. 13:31 He was taken away 13:32 and he was put to death by the communists. 13:36 And for the rest of her life, she lived a life 13:39 of quiet desperation. 13:42 No hope because she'd been taught 13:43 by the communists, there is no God. 13:47 She was an atheist through and through. 13:51 Then she came to our meetings. 13:53 When she came to our meetings, 13:56 she heard what you've heard today. 13:58 She'd heard the truth that the Bible is true. 14:01 That Christ is true. 14:02 That Christ died for our sins. 14:05 And that Christ was raised from the dead. 14:09 And she gave her life to Christ. 14:12 I had the privilege of baptizing her 14:14 in the frigid waters of the Volga River. 14:16 As she came up out of the water, 14:18 her face was shining with the glory of God. 14:23 My friend, 14:25 I want you to have that joy today. 14:27 I want you to know today that Christ is alive 14:31 and that the dead are going to live again. 14:33 I want you to know that by the grace of God, 14:35 if you believe in Christ with all of your heart, 14:39 you are going to be raised from the dead 14:41 and you are going to live for eternity 14:42 in the kingdom of God. 14:45 I want to read you a text, 14:46 and this is a text that 14:48 I have never grown tired of reading to people. 14:52 I'm going to come over here to the Gospel of John. 14:55 And I'm going to turn 14:57 to John 14:1-3. 15:02 Now, just listen, listen to this 15:05 because it's gonna do you a lot of good. 15:07 John Chapter 14, Jesus said, 15:10 "Let not your hearts be troubled, 15:12 you believe in God, believe also in Me. 15:15 In My Father's house are many mansions, 15:18 if it were not so, I would have told you. 15:21 I go to prepare a place for you. 15:23 And if I go and prepare a place for you, 15:26 I will come again and receive you to Myself, 15:29 that where I am, 15:32 there you may be also." 15:34 Hey, Jesus said, 15:36 "Don't let your hearts be troubled. 15:39 Believe in God, believe also in Me. 15:41 In My Father's house are many mansion, 15:43 there's room for you. 15:45 There's plenty of room, there's room for you. 15:48 I'm going to prepare a place for you. 15:51 I know all about you. 15:53 I love you. 15:54 I died for you and I'm going to come again, 15:56 and I'm going to take you to myself." 16:00 That's the story I told to Ludmilla. 16:05 She was married to an officer of the KGB in Russia. 16:09 She came to the meetings. She was an atheist. 16:13 She gave her life to Christ. 16:16 Her son came to the meetings. 16:18 He'd been a member of the mafia. 16:19 Can you believe it? 16:22 When I baptized him, 16:23 his face shone with the glory of God, 16:26 but the mafia came for him and they killed him. 16:31 I was not there when this happened. 16:33 She took his funeral, 16:36 hundreds of atheists came, they found Christ 16:39 and she preached the truth that you are hearing today 16:43 that Christ is alive. 16:45 That Christ is coming again. 16:49 I want you to believe this, my friend, 16:52 and as you believe this, 16:54 the peace and the glory of Christ 16:57 will come into your soul. 17:00 And you will know in your own heart 17:04 that roses will bloom again. 17:08 Christ is coming. 17:11 There's going to be a great resurrection. 17:14 And we're going to get new bodies. 17:16 And we're going to live forever with Jesus 17:20 in the kingdom of God. 17:21 I say to you today, 17:24 believe in the God who believes in you. 17:33 "You talk of the roses blooming again. 17:36 Does nature influence you? 17:38 Somehow giving you hope?" 17:43 Wayne, that's really a great question, isn't it? 17:46 Wayne Hackard who is asking the questions today. 17:52 Does nature give us hope? 17:57 When winter comes just about everything dies, 18:01 at least in Siberia. 18:03 I've been in Siberia in the very, very midst 18:06 of winter. 18:07 My family had been with me there in Siberia. 18:11 I've traveled from Moscow to Vladivostok. 18:14 It took seven days. 18:16 We crossed over at seven or eight time zones. 18:20 You look out the window of the train 18:22 and you see the frozen wasteland of Siberia. 18:25 You see the Great Taiga Forest. 18:27 You see the snow, often when the train stopped, 18:35 we'd get out and we'd walk in the snow 18:37 minus 40 degrees. 18:40 At every railway station we stopped 18:43 and we set up a PA system. 18:44 We set up floodlights at midnight, 18:46 at two in the morning, four in the morning. 18:48 And I preached the hope that is found in Christ. 18:53 We had crowds of people who met us 18:55 from Moscow to Vladivostok, met us with bread and salt. 19:00 They welcomed us and they said, "We're so glad you've come 19:03 because you've brought us hope." 19:07 We came with the message of a risen Christ. 19:10 We came with the message that Christ is alive 19:13 and Christ is going to come again. 19:15 And the dead are going to be resurrected. 19:18 That is the message. 19:19 You've gotta believe, my friend. 19:22 You've gotta let this hope get down into your soul. 19:25 You've gotta let again inside your heart 19:28 and transform you. 19:29 You've gotta believe that roses will bloom again. 19:34 In Siberia, I've been there in summer, 19:36 I've been there in springtime, 19:39 and after the dreadful cold of those long, 19:42 long Siberian winters, 19:45 you see the green leaves coming. 19:49 Wind starts to blow balmy breezes. 19:53 The grass comes out fresh, luxuriant. 19:58 Listen, don't forget it. 20:02 After every winter, without an exception. 20:06 After every winter, there comes spring. 20:10 And after spring there comes summer. 20:14 And during summer, everything is alive. 20:17 The trees are green, the grass is green. 20:21 The birds are singing. 20:26 After death, there is life. 20:29 Even nature tells us roses will bloom again, 20:34 just wait and see. 20:36 Put away your despair, my friend, 20:39 believe in the God who believes in you. 20:44 "You have personally lost loved ones and friends, 20:48 not just from this pandemic, but over time. 20:53 How do you deal with the passage of time?" 20:59 I think of the empty tomb of Christ. 21:05 I think of the words of the angel 21:07 to those people back there 21:10 2000 years ago, He's not here, He's risen. 21:14 That's going to be said 21:15 of every one of God's children one day. 21:17 He's not here. He's not here in this tomb. 21:21 He's risen. 21:24 Hope burns in my heart. 21:26 I want hope to burn in your heart today, 21:29 my dear friend. 21:33 Sure. 21:34 I'm now going through a different stage in my life. 21:39 My hair has got 21:42 one or two gray hairs. 21:45 My wife tells me, you got too many of them. 21:47 You better go and have your hair cut. 21:49 And I said, okay, okay, okay. 21:50 But you know, 21:52 it's nice out here in Australia presently it's wintertime 21:55 and it's nice to be wearing a hat all the time, 21:57 and this is my hat and keeps me warm. 22:02 But I'm now starting to know what it is 22:04 to get old. 22:07 But I think of the words of the angel. 22:08 He's not here. He's risen. 22:11 Christ is alive. 22:12 Hallelujah, Christ is alive. 22:17 Many years ago, 22:19 1917 the communists went around, 22:22 the atheists went around Russia 22:25 and they told the people Christ is dead. 22:29 The church is dead, you're now communist. 22:34 And you've gotta believe there's nothing. 22:36 And one communist official got up 22:38 before a big crowd of Russian peasants 22:41 and harangued them for more than an hour, 22:43 giving them all the reasons that God didn't exist. 22:48 And after he got through, 22:51 he said to the Russian pastor who was standing there. 22:55 He said it in sarcasm, in derision. 22:59 He said, "I'll give you five minutes to reply to me. 23:03 We believe in freedom here. 23:05 You got five minutes to rebut what I've said." 23:08 The pastor got up. 23:09 And he said to the communist official, 23:12 "I don't need five minutes. 23:15 Just give me five seconds." 23:17 And he turned to the Russian people 23:19 and he gave the historic Russian Easter greeting. 23:22 He said, "The Lord is risen." 23:27 And the Russians thundered back, 23:28 "He is risen indeed." 23:32 That's what I tell people. The Lord is risen. 23:35 He is risen indeed. 23:37 That gives us hope. That gives us joy. 23:40 That gives us so much joy to know 23:42 roses will bloom again, my friend. 23:46 Sure, 23:47 I see the leaves of autumn falling fast around me. 23:53 My mum and my dad, but I'm gonna see them again 23:56 because I trusted in Christ. 24:00 I'm going to see my old friend 24:03 and my buddy Graeme Bradford. 24:06 Gonna see him again. He got melanoma. 24:11 Carried on, fought the good fight 24:12 for four years. 24:14 Then he died. I took his funeral. 24:17 I'm gonna see Graeme again. 24:19 Tom Ludowici, the man who led me to Christ 24:21 when I was a boy of 17 years of age. 24:24 Going to see Tom again. 24:28 I'm gonna see Asso. 24:31 I could just mention these names. 24:32 Gonna see Alicia. 24:35 So many friends, so many dear ones. 24:38 So many people 24:40 who still live in my mind today. 24:44 I want you to know 24:45 death is not the end, my friend. 24:48 We believe not in fantasy. 24:51 We believe in the facts. 24:54 Our faith is based upon not fairy tales. 24:59 Our faith is based upon historical evidence. 25:04 The witnesses wrote it down 25:06 and we have the record here today. 25:08 Yes, indeed, roses 25:11 will bloom again, just as He said. 25:16 Just wait and see. 25:22 The Carter Report 25:24 has a new weekly updated message for you 25:26 from Pastor Carter. 25:28 This update is not available 25:30 on your normal broadcast station. 25:33 It is only available 25:34 on your favorite streaming device, 25:36 Roku, Amazon Fire, YouTube, 25:39 Apple TV, Vimeo, our podcast, 25:43 the Carter Report website. 25:45 Also the official Carter Report mobile app. 25:48 You'll receive these additional weekly updates 25:51 only by streaming. 25:52 They are not available through your broadcast station. 25:56 Pastor Carter updates crucial issues 25:58 happening in our world every week. 26:01 The most current events facing each and every one of us 26:04 are explored in a new light. 26:06 Get your exclusive new weekly updates 26:10 through the Carter Report app 26:12 only available on your streaming device. 26:15 Find out now 26:16 what important stories are included 26:18 in this week's update. 26:24 Time, 26:25 it takes only a minute to have eternal life. 26:28 How can you get saved in a minute? 26:30 It's simple. 26:31 First believe that Jesus was the Son of God. 26:34 Second, accept His free gift of eternal life, 26:37 and then you're saved. 26:39 It's not hard. It doesn't take any time. 26:42 You can be saved in a minute right now. 26:45 Pray with me, Lord God, I realize that I am a sinner. 26:49 My sin has separated me from You. 26:51 I accept that Your Son Jesus Christ died for me. 26:54 I ask Jesus into my heart. 26:56 If you prayed this prayer, you are saved. 26:59 The next thing to do is tell someone, 27:02 fellowship with other followers of Jesus, 27:05 get baptized, read your Bible and pray. 27:08 Choices, we make them every day all day. 27:12 The most important choice you will make in your life 27:15 is whether to choose eternal life 27:17 or let it pass you by. 27:18 If you'd like more information about your new life, 27:21 call the number and visit our website. 27:27 For a copy of today's program, 27:30 please contact us at P.O. Box 1900, 27:33 Thousand Oaks, California 91358 27:37 or in Australia, contact us at P.O. Box 861, 27:42 Terrigal, New South Wales 2260. 27:47 This program is made possible 27:49 through the generous support of viewers like you. 27:51 We thank you for your continued support. 27:54 May God richly bless you. |
Revised 2021-09-20