The Lamb & Lion Annual Bible Conference

Part 1

Dr. Reagan: Greetings in the name of Jesus, our Blessed Hope, and welcome to Christ in Prophecy! My co-host, Nathan Jones, and I are delighted to have in the studio with us today my daughter, Rachel Houck, who is the Chief Operating Officer of this ministry. Now she is usually behind one of our three video cameras where she also serves as our floor manager. So, I’m sure she is just a little bit nervous to be with us today in front of the cameras. Welcome Rachel, we’re glad to have you.

Rachel Houck: Thank you.

Nathan Jones: Well, another hat Rachel wears is that of our Conference Director. In that capacity she manages all aspects of our annual and regional conferences. And each year for the past 10 years, we have conducted an annual conference during the summer months here in the Dallas, Texas area. Now these conferences have always been free of charge, and the Lord has richly blessed them. Rachel, could you please tell our viewers about these conferences.

Rachel Houck: Sure. Well, as Nathan said, we began holding an annual conference back in 2008, with about 200 people present. Over the years, the conference has grown to the point that last year we had almost 900 present, and that was the capacity of our venue. This year, we are moving to a new venue that can accommodate up to 1,500.

One thing I would like to point out is that we do not call this annual conference a Bible Prophecy Conference. Instead, we refer to it as a Bible Conference. That’s because it is not always about Bible prophecy. In addition to prophecy, we have focused on the Jewish people and the nation of Israel, our nation and its moral degeneration, the growing apostasy within Christianity, and defending the fundamentals of the Christian faith. This year, our conference theme will fall into the latter category. It will be Contending for the Faith.

Our annual conference always begins on a Friday evening with a 50 minute concert, and over the years, this has been one of my favorite parts of each conference. We’ve been blessed to have great musicians like: Dallas Holm, Janet Paschal, Chuck Girard, Southern Raised, and Marty Goetz. Marty is the only musician we have had more than once. In fact we’ve had him twice, and I am delighted to announce that he will be back again this year for the third time. He will present a concert on Friday evening, and he’s also going to stay and lead worship before each of the speakers on Saturday.

Marty is a Messianic Jew who describes himself in one of his songs as “A Jew Born Anew.” Many of his songs are scriptures beautifully set to music, leaving the listeners spiritually moved and inspired. Marty has the ability to lead you into a place of true intimacy with God, so worshiping with him is an experience you don’t want to miss!

Let me give you an example of his musical style. I’m sure it will bless you. Here is Marty singing “O Lord, Our Lord.” The setting is a Messianic congregation in Toronto, Canada.

Marty Goetz: Adonai, Adonai, Adonenu, Mah Adir Shimcha B’chol, Ha-aretz, Adonai, Adonai, Adonenu, Asher T’nah Hodcha, Al Ha-Shamayim

O Lord, Our Lord

When I consider

Your Heavens

The work of Your fingers

The moon and the stars, which You ordain

What is man, that You are mindful of him?

And the son of man that you visit Him?

O Lord, Our Lord

How excellent is Your name in all of the Earth?

O Lord

How excellent is Your name?

O Lord, Our Lord

How excellent is Your name in all of the Earth?

O Lord

How excellent is Your name?

And the avenger

You still with the praises of singers

The infants and babes whom you ordain

What is man, that You are mindful of him?

And the son of man that you visit Him?

O Lord, Our Lord

How excellent is Your name in all of the Earth?

O Lord

How excellent is Your name?

O Lord, Our Lord

How excellent is Your name in all of the Earth?

O Lord

How excellent is Your name?

Your name

Given so freely for us to claim

The name of Jesus

You came a little lower than the angels

To humble Yourself

Only to be exhalted

Exhalted

O Lord, Our Lord

How excellent is Your name in all of the Earth?

O Lord

How excellent is Your name?

Part 2

Nathan Jones: Wow! Marty Goetz is really a very talented musician, isn’t he? Well, folks that’s what I call a powerful song and I hope you will join us this year for Marty’s concert at our annual conference which is scheduled to be held on Friday and Saturday, July 12 and 13 here in the Dallas, Texas area. And keep in mind that for the first time, Marty is going to stay over and lead a worship song before each speaker on Saturday.

Dr. Reagan: You know, Nathan the thing that I love about Marty the most is something Rachel mentioned and that is he is not a performer, he’s a worshiper. And as he worships he draws the audience into worshipping with him and draws them into an intimate relationship with the Lord. Well, getting back to the format of our annual conference, we always follow the Friday evening musical concert with a keynote speaker. And like the musicians, over the years we have had some outstanding keynote speakers people like: Ed Hindson of Liberty University, David Hocking of Hope for Today Ministries in Tustin, California, Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, Jan Markell of Olive Tree Ministries in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and White House News Correspondent, Bill Koenig.

This year our keynote speaker is going to be one of the leading defenders of the Christian faith in America. And I’m speaking of Kelly Shackelford, who is the founder and president of the largest law firm in America that is devoted to the defense of Christian freedoms. The firm is located in Plano, Texas and is named, First Liberty Institute, because it is dedicated to the defense of religious liberty as spelled out in the First Amendment of our Constitution. Now Kelly was recently named one of the 25 greatest Texas lawyers of the past quarter-century by “Texas Lawyer” magazine.

Kelly and his staff are literally on the front lines each day of the battle for Christian freedom in this nation. Kelly spoke at one of our previous conferences in 2015, and he captivated the audience with his chilling survey of the attacks on the Christian faith in the public arena, the military and schools, as well as attacks on pastors and their freedom to speak God’s Word in the pulpit.

I want to show you a video clip from that conference, and during his remarks, Kelly refers to a recent Supreme Court decision. He is speaking of the landmark decision in which the Court declared same-sex marriage to be constitutional.

Portion of Kelly Shackelford’s presentation from 2015 L&L Conference

Kelly Shackelford: I mean we’ve got pastors having their sermons subpoenaed not in Massachusetts or somewhere, in Houston. Right? We’ve got, I mean if you watch every day you’ll see something. We just do a survey, this is our survey for last year of all the attacks on religious freedom. There are about six or seven a page, and you can see this is everything from a seven year old boy was caught praying over his meal and physically lifted out of his seat and taken to the principal’s office and told to never do that again while he was at school. To senior citizens who are actually told that their federally funded meals were going to be taken away from them because they were praying over their meals and that would violate separation of church and state. It’s in the North. It’s in the South. It’s people of wealth. It’s people who are poor.

There’s literally if you go through this you’ll realize how pervasive this is. This is a real issue. This is a real battle. And we’ve had years–we do this every year. We’ve had years literally where it is doubling from one year to the next in the increase, but it continually is increasing in hostility and in the attacks. And when you realize religious freedom is the first freedom that this tells you. You know it kinds of reminds me of when we had old cars we used to have a little red light on the dashboard, and when that light came on it was telling you that you were low on oil and if you didn’t do something your engine was going to throw a rod, or freeze up. That’s what this is a sign of for our country. This is a sign that our country is in danger when you see this kind of attacks, and the ever increasing numbers on religious freedom.

Now that would be bad enough if we didn’t have the Supreme Court decision we just had recently. And you know the big debate now, or not debate really but what the other side tries to pretend is well this won’t have any impact on religious freedom. And that’s the average American thinks: Well what does marriage have to do with me? You know those two men or two women can go get married, it’s not going to affect me. Oh, yes it is. It is going to affect you. Why would you say that? I’ll just tick off a few examples. Tax exempt status of every religious organization is now going to be under attack. You say, “Oh, how could you say that?” Why I didn’t say it the Solicitor General of the United States said it during the oral argument at the Supreme Court on this case. They asked him and he said, “Look if we do this decision and create this same-sex marriage as a constitutional right then how can we allow people to have tax exempt status if they are discriminating against that right?” And you know you thought the Solicitor General would say, “Oh, we’re not going to go after everybody’s tax exempt statues.” No, the answer of the Solicitor General of the United States was quote, “that will be an issues.” Ok. It took I think 24 hours for “Time Magazine” to come out with their editorial after the decision saying, “Religious groups need to give up their tax exempt status if they have beliefs on marriage being a man and woman.”

But that’s just the beginning. I mean, you know you can look at other countries that have done this and you think, “Well, ok, let’s say I don’t really care about my church and any of the religious groups that have tax exempt status. It won’t affect me in other ways.” Well do you listen to the radio? Do you watch TV? How can you let people have an FCC license if they are engaging in discrimination against people in light of this new Supreme Court case? I mean look at Canada you’re not allowed to speak out against gay marriage on the air. Ask Dr. Dobson every time his shows were carried in Canada they couldn’t be carried on those issues. Ok. And I can guarantee you that if you have a pastor or a ministry or somebody who now you listen to on the radio or TV I can’t tell you they’re going to lose, I sure hope they won’t lose we’re going to fight with the Constitution at our back. But will there be an attack against everyone who holds those licenses, or who has someone on that has those views? Absolutely there is going to be an attack.

What if you’re a Christian college? It’s already started. There are already calls for Christian colleges who have tax exempt status that they need to have housing for gay couples. You know if they have married housing they have to they can’t be discriminatory. I mean we could go down a long list of things. You’ve seen all the probably the news about the bakers, the florist, the photographers who are actually being persecuted out of business.

Part 3

Dr. Reagan: So, folks, we begin our annual conference with a musical concert on Friday evening followed by a keynote speaker. The conference resumes on Saturday and runs all day with a total of five additional speakers. We always run the conference precisely on time in order to give the audience a 30 minute break between each speaker. That provides people with plenty of time to peruse our many displays. Rachel, tell the folks about the displays we have a bunch of them.

Rachel Houck: Sure, I’d love to. We’re going to have exhibiters in our resource area, and for me, this is one of the most wonderful parts of the annual conference. In this area, you can meet the conference speakers and look at the resources they have to offer. And all of Lamb & Lion Ministry resources will be offered at reduced conference prices.

Dr. Reagan: Hey, I like that.

Rachel Houck: So you don’t want to miss that. If you a regular viewer to this television program you may run into some of our guests who have joined us before, such as Todd Hampson, he was recently on our program talking about his incredible book, “The Non-Prophet’s Guide to the End Times.”

Nathan Jones: And one of our speakers each year is, of course, Dr. Reagan. He always speaks last, and his presentation is always one of the highlights of the conference. Here is an example of what he had to say at our 2018 conference whose theme was “God’s Prophetic Voices to America.”

Portion of Dr. Reagan’s presentation from 2018 L&L Conference

Dr. Reagan: My friends, we need to face up to the fact that we have lost the culture war in this nation. Humanism has triumphed. We are now a nation begging God to deliver us from judgment to destruction. If President Trump is succeeded by another radical liberal ideological person like Obama or Bernie Sanders, supported by a radical liberal Congress, the turnaround will be swift and it will be breathtaking. All of Trump’s executive orders will be reversed overnight. The Second Amendment will come under concerted attack. Abortion will be promoted. Hate speech legislation will be broadened to prevent people from even speaking out against the Sexual Perversion Movement as it is in Canada now. Israel will be abandoned. And expressions of Christianity will be confined to church buildings.

People say, “But the Supreme Court will stand as a wall against the tide of paganism and secularism.” And my response is “Do not count on it.” I speak as one who taught Political Science for 20 years. A radical President with a supporting Congress can undercut the Court overnight by passing legislation to increase the number of members on the court from 9 to 11. And to allow for additional appointments for every judge who stays on the court beyond the age of 70.

FDR tried to do that in 1937 when he was at the height of his political power, and he failed. But what most people forget or don’t know is that six times in American history the size of the court has been changed by either increasing or decreasing the number of justices. And each time it was done for political reasons. Our Constitution does not specify the number of judges on the Supreme Court. The Congress determines that. The first Supreme Court had six judges. It was increased to 7 in 1807, it was increased to 9 in 1837. It was further increased to 10 in 1863, it was reduced to 7 in 1866 to prevent President Andrew Johnson from making any appointments. The current size was set in 1864, but it is not set in concrete.

I think Romans chapter 1 makes it crystal clear that the fate of our nation is sealed. It says, it says that the wrath of God is called down from Heaven by these things: ungodliness, unrighteousness, suppression of the truth, and the worship of the creation rather than the Creator.

And that’s exactly where we are in our nation’s history. We are practicing ungodliness as we kick God out of our schools and all aspects of public life. We are practicing unrighteousness in our daily murder of babies. We are suppressing the truth of the origin of life and the universe. And we are worshiping the Creation rather than the Creator.

Romans 1 tells how God responds to this kind of rebellion against Him and His Word. He steps back, He lowers the hedge of protection, He allows evil to multiply. And the results are: a sexual revolution, which occurred in our nation in the 1960’s. A plague of homosexuality, which followed in the 1980’s and 90’s. And the society being delivered over to a depraved mind, which is where we are today.

What else but depravity of mind could explain our nation’s celebration over the Supreme Court’s decision to legalized same-sex marriage? As we celebrated, God must have wept. Or consider the depravity of this sordid spectacle: The White House lit up in the colors of the Sexual Perversion Movement. I have no doubt that we signed our nation’s death warrant on June 26, 2015 when our Supreme Court rendered its despicable, ungodly decision.

Part 4

Dr. Reagan: One of my favorite speakers over the years has been Dr. Ron Rhodes, who is the founder and spokesman for a ministry called “Reasoning from the Scriptures.” This year he will be speaking at our conference for the fifth time, more than any other speaker that we have ever had.

His topic this year will be “Defending Jesus’ Promise to Return.” Ron is one of those rare individuals who is both a gifted writer and speaker. In 2016 our conference theme, “Great Debates of Bible Prophecy” was taken from one of his books, titled, “The 8 Great Debates of Bible Prophecy.”

At that conference Ron was asked to defend the concept of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, and he did a superb job. At one point he got the audience roaring with laughter while he was discussing the errors of the Post-Tribulation concept. That is the concept that the Rapture and Second Coming are all one event that will take place at the end of the Tribulation, and thus, the Church will go through the Tribulation and suffer mightily.

He reminded us that the Apostle Paul’s description of the Rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4 which ends with the words, “Therefore comfort one another with these words.” And with that in mind, he proceeded to apply those words to the Post-Tribulation viewpoint.

Portion of Ron Rhodes’ Presentation from 2016 L&L Conference

Dr. Rhodes: Let’s imagine if Post-Tribulationalism were true. And by the way Post-Tribulationalism means that the Rapture happens after the Tribulation. Imagine if that viewpoint is true here’s what we’d end up saying from this passage: You’ll go through the seven years of God’s wrath, yup. You’ll suffer through Satan’s furious wrath. You’ll experience the agonizing Seal, and Trumpet and Bowl Judgments which grow progressively worse, and increasingly painful. And many of you will die painful deaths as martyrs. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

Part 5

Nathan Jones: I love that illustration! You know, one of my favorite speakers over the years has been Dr. Ed Hindson of Liberty University. He is one of those rare scholars who can communicate with the average person in a very down-to-earth, understandable way. In fact he is one of the most eloquent Bible prophecy speakers on the scene today.

Here is an example of what I am talking about, taken from our conference in 2017 when Dr. Hindson spoke on the conference theme, “Living with Hope in the End Times.”

Portion of Ed Hindson’s Presentation from 2017 L&L Conference

Dr. Hindson: I don’t need to remind this audience that we are facing some of the most precarious times in the history of the Western world. Certainly some of the most precarious times in American history; that the whole future of our nation in many senses is really at stake. And we can focus on the problems, the challenges, and the need of the hour. And sometimes if we get over focused on that, we forget what our real goal is, what our real destiny is, and I’m reminded of the words of the Apostle John who in the third chapter of his letter said that, “We know that when He appears we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. And he that has this…” What? “Hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure.” There is something about the hope of the coming of Christ that gives us hope for the challenges of life here below.

It’s interesting to me in 50 years in the ministry I’ve discovered that everybody wants to go to Heaven; and nobody is in a hurry to get there. If the destination is so great why do we go kicking and screaming?

I heard a joke recently where a guy and his wife turned 50 and they were starting to age a little bit. And she said, “You know what we need to do? We need to go on a healthy diet. We just need to eat health food. We’ll live a lot longer if we eat health food.” So, she put him on a strict diet. It was like poppy seed, and asparagus and all kinds of awful stuff. They are on that diet for a couple of years. In fact they were on the diet for ten years, and she was just sure they were going to live a long time. And one day they were driving along on the highway, they got hit by a truck, killed them both. They got up to Heaven and they walked in, and man, there was food everywhere. And you could eat and not gain weight. There were golf courses all over the place. There was all kinds of fabulous stuff. And she looked at him and said, “Isn’t this great!” And he goes, “Yeah, and if it wasn’t for you and that darned health food we could have been here ten years ago!” Remember the destination. If Heaven is real, as we believe it is, then we ought to have a driving compassion to want to be there.

Part 6

Dr. Reagan: Well, folks I think that clip gives you a pretty good idea of the quality of speakers that we have at our conference. And that brings me to our lineup for this year. Now, Nathan, you have already introduced our keynote speaker, Kelly Shackelford. How about telling the folks the other speakers we’re going to have.

Nathan Jones: Sure thing. Well, we’ll start off Saturday morning with Mike Riddle who is a very forceful speaker in behalf of Creationism, and his topic will be “Defending Creation as the Origin of the Universe.” Next will be Mike Gendron who heads up a ministry called “Proclaiming the Gospel.” Mike is a much sought-after conference speaker, and his topic will be “Defending the Bible and the Gospel. Then Ron Rhodes will speak on “Defending Jesus’ Promise to Return.”

Following him will be Eric Barger, the founder of a discernment and apologetics ministry called “Take A Stand!” Eric will be speaking on “Defending the Church from Apostasy.” And the final speaker will be Dr. Reagan, and his topic will be “Defending the Deity of Jesus.”

Dr. Reagan: I love the name of Eric’s ministry Take A Stand!

Nathan Jones: Take A Stand!

Dr. Reagan: Well, thanks Nathan, and by the way for those viewers who can’t attend the conference there is a way they can attend it through live streaming. Tell the viewers about that.

Nathan Jones: Certainly. Well, we would love to have you here in the Dallas area, but we know not everybody can make it. If you can’t we will be live streaming the conference, free of charge. Now, let me say it free of charge, most conferences charge for streaming. And you can find us those two day on our website at lamblion.com. Just go there we’ll have a big banner right on the homepage. You can click watch, it will open up to our YouTube Channel which is Christ in Prophecy, and you can watch us live stream. We’ll also keep archives afterwards if you can’t make it that day.

Dr. Reagan: And incidentally in addition to streaming the conference in-between each speaker you interview people like displayers, and speakers, and so forth. Interesting people that you interview.

Nathan Jones: Oh, absolutely. If you have questions you could post it under the video and I will ask the speaker your question.

Dr. Reagan: Hey, that’s neat. Well, Rachel.

Rachel Houck: And also if you would like more detailed information about the conference, including information about hotels, you just go to our website at lamblion.com, and click on events, or you can call us at our office at the number you see on the screen. So, we hope to hear from you soon.

Dr. Reagan: And folks, remember the conference is free of charge. All you need to do to attend is to register at our website. And once you register you’ll start receiving e-mail updates regarding the conference.

Well, that’s our program for this week. I hope it’s been a blessing to you, and I hope, the Lord willing, that you will be back with us next week. Until then, this is Dave Reagan speaking for Lamb & Lion Ministries, saying, “Look up, be watchful, for our Redemption is drawing near.”

End of Program