Participants: Pr. John Carter
Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR001218
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00:08 From Arcadia, California, "The Carter Report" presents
00:11 "The Living Word" around the world. 00:18 Hello, welcome to "The Carter Report." 00:20 With Pastor John Carter, I'm Dave Deno. 00:23 Today, an amazing story. 00:29 Jesus said, "Go unto all the world 00:31 and make disciples of all nations 00:33 baptizing them in the name of the Father 00:35 Son, and Holy Spirit." 00:37 The Carter Report team has therefore accepted 00:40 the challenge of worldwide evangelism. 00:43 Millions in Russia, Ukraine, the Philippines, Africa, India, 00:48 Australia, the United States, and the Isles of the Sea 00:52 have heard the good news of Christ 00:54 as John Carter has proclaimed God's living word. 00:58 You are invited to be a part of the Carter team 01:01 by praying and by giving and when God calls, by going. 01:05 Write a note now to Pastor John Carter, 01:08 P.O. Box 1900, Thousand Oaks, California 91358 01:14 or to P.O. Box 861, Terrigal, NSW 2260, Australia. 01:22 Jesus said, "With God all things are possible." 01:30 John, I used the word "amazing" a moment ago 01:33 and that word is thrown around quite a bit by the media 01:36 so it has lost some of its meaning. 01:38 And yet you have just returned from a trip 01:43 that certainly does fit the definition of amazing. 01:47 Where did you go and why? 01:49 Dave, we went to Papua New Guinea 01:51 to the capital city of Port Moresby. 01:53 We saw there a modern Pentecost. We saw vast crowds of people, 01:59 more than 100,000 people a night. 02:02 And we saw the mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God 02:08 as thousands, tens of thousands, 02:10 perhaps hundreds of thousands of people 02:12 would turn from sin to righteousness. 02:15 One of the first stories, in fact, 02:16 I think it was the first story that I heard upon your return, 02:22 was the story of the giant white bird. 02:26 Tell us about that. 02:29 It is an amazing story. I know the word amazing 02:33 is thrown around as you indicated. 02:35 But this was amazing. On the Thursday night, 02:39 the last Thursday night of the meetings 02:41 and the meetings have gone for two weeks, 02:45 something occurred that transfixed 02:48 many people in the audience. 02:50 A pastor came to me after the meeting and said-- 02:53 he was walking me home at-- at the university and he said, 02:57 "My people have come to me, all of my people 02:59 who were in the congregation in this audience 03:02 of say 130,000 people, and they said, 03:07 'when you put the picture, or when your team 03:10 put the picture of the great white dove, 03:13 the symbol of the Holy Spirit on the screen, 03:17 a great white dove flew over the audience." 03:21 I was speaking that night on the unpardonable sin, 03:26 which is the sin against the Holy Spirit. 03:30 And so as a part of the presentation, 03:33 we put a picture of this white bird on the screen. 03:37 He said, "When this happened, this white dove, 03:42 great giant white dove flew over our heads." 03:47 I said, "How many saw this?" 03:49 He said, "at least the people who came to me." 03:52 He said, "I don't know how many other people, 03:54 but," he said, "they're talking about it." 03:59 That was on the Thursday night. 04:01 On the Friday night, we had a great storm of rain, 04:04 that's another story. 04:05 But the meeting proceeded in the rain. 04:08 But on the last Saturday night, I was at the back of the stage, 04:13 Dave, and I was talking 04:15 to the government minister of finance, 04:19 a cabinet member in the government there, 04:22 and we were standing at the back of the stage, 04:24 we could not see the audience. 04:27 And then I heard a roar coming from the audience. 04:34 A sound like many waters as the Bible says. 04:39 It was not the sound of the people going into battle, 04:42 but it was the sound of spiritual joy and ecstasy. 04:46 I did not know what was going on. 04:49 Pastor Willie G. was singing and so I walked out 04:53 from the back of the stage 04:55 and the audience had their hands up 04:57 and they were praising God. 05:01 And as they were pra-- I had no idea what was going on. 05:04 But then, all of a sudden, 05:07 a great white bird flashed over my head. 05:12 Later on, when I went out to greet the people, 05:16 and we had a vast crowd, some say we had 150,000 people. 05:21 I don't know. At least an excess of 130,000, 05:25 as far as the eye could see. Dave, I said to the people, 05:32 "Who here tonight saw the great white bird?" 05:37 They all cried out, "we did, we did." 05:39 Every hand was raised. More than a 100,000 hands raised 05:44 testifying that a great white bird, 05:48 symbol of the Holy Spirit, had flown in slowly 05:52 over the heads of the audience. 05:57 I can only say the people there, 06:00 the pastors, the government officers, the ambassadors 06:05 from the different nations said they saw the great white bird, 06:10 symbol of the Holy Spirit, 06:12 and their hearts were strangely warmed. 06:16 You mentioned 15 nights. 06:20 You mentioned numbers of people that for us here, 06:28 seem amazing as well. I understand that 15 nights, 06:34 you began at about 75,000 on the first night 06:38 and the crowds actually continued to grow every night-- 06:42 Rapidly. For 15 nights. 06:45 Why? What brought the people there? 06:50 I can only say, to the glory of God, 06:53 it was the-- it was the spirit of God. 06:57 Now we were advertising on television. 07:02 We were somewhat well known because of the ministry of 3ABN 07:07 that has a full broadcast station there in Port Moresby. 07:10 And we were advertising on a commercial television station 07:15 and on a commercial radio station. 07:18 But other people have done that also, 07:22 but the word got out to the city 07:24 and across the whole nation of PNG 07:27 that something extraordinary was happening. 07:30 And people came by boat from distant islands 07:34 and they flew in by plane because they'd heard that surely 07:38 the spirit of the Lord was in that place. 07:42 Let's give people an idea of the country, 07:45 yes. of the city, Port Moresby. 07:48 Where is that and how big is that city? 07:50 Port Moresby is the capital of Papua New Guinea 07:55 that lies to the north of Australia. 07:58 Now we had to fly to Australia, firstly to Brisbane, 08:02 which is the capital of Queensland, 08:04 and then we flew on for another 3½ hours to Port Moresby. 08:09 So it is a very, very large island. 08:12 The city of Port Moresby is not a huge city 08:15 by American standards. 08:17 It is a city of about half a million people, 08:19 at the very most. But the whole city 08:22 was stirred by the power of God. 08:25 When you talk about the city 08:26 and you talk about the area itself, it has a history, 08:32 and it has a history attached to the gospel. 08:36 What was this area like, let's say 100 years ago? 08:41 Around a hundred years ago, it was basically heathen. 08:46 The people-- many of the people, 08:50 Dave, were cannibals. They ate their enemies. 08:54 It was one of the fiercest countries 08:57 on the face of the earth. It was a land that time forgot. 09:03 They worshipped their ancestors, they spoke to the spirits, 09:07 the spirits would come and speak to them. 09:09 Demonism ruled the hearts of the people. 09:14 Oh, then missionaries came with the gospel of Christ 09:18 and the nation, to a great extent, 09:21 or much of the nation was transformed 09:24 by the grace of God. 09:26 You had an opportunity, I understand, 09:28 while you were there to actually go up into the country. 09:33 Up into the mountains-- Yes. 09:35 To an area rarely visited by those who come to the country 09:41 and you were able to actually go visit a church 09:44 and see some of the handiwork 09:45 of those years of missionary work, 09:47 weren't you? Yes. 09:50 We went up the famous Kokoda trail, 09:52 up towards the Owen Stanley track 09:55 where the Australians, with the help of the Americans, 09:59 turned back the Japanese during the Second World War. 10:03 We were going, we felt, on sacred ground. 10:08 Thousands and thousands of young men 10:10 had died there fighting for our freedom. 10:14 So we went there, moved in our own hearts. 10:18 We went to the Great War cemetery there. 10:21 But when we went up in the hills, it was beautiful. 10:26 The air was so clean and so cool 10:30 and we went to a Christian village 10:33 at a place called Bisiatabu. 10:37 And we were met there by some of the most beautiful people 10:40 on the face of the earth. They were all dressed in white. 10:44 These people had once been head hunters 10:47 and cannibals and murderers 10:50 and the worshippers of evil spirits. 10:54 And we were well known there 10:56 because they watch our television program. 10:59 They get a clear signal up in the mountains. 11:03 "The Carter Report" through 3ABN is beamed clearly 11:08 into that part of the world. It is quite astounding, really. 11:11 This program gives them a chance to visit with you again 11:15 and to hear some of your impressions. 11:18 You refer to Papua New Guinea as PNG. 11:21 That's the term used by the locals, right? Yes, 11:23 yes, and by the people who-- 11:24 in Australia they call it PNG 11:28 because if Australians can shorten something, 11:30 they will and so we usually call it PNG, Papua New Guinea. 11:36 You went there during a time 11:39 when they were having national elections. Yes. 11:42 And a bit unlike our elections, 11:44 there's a lot of violence involved in their elections. 11:48 Why did you choose to go at that time? 11:51 Well, it was the only time we could get this 11:53 great outdoor stadium. 11:54 So you go when you can go. 11:56 The government, the Australian government, 11:58 advised us not to go. 12:02 On their website they said, 12:03 "Don't go to Papua New Guinea at this time of the elections 12:07 because there's going to be bloodshed. 12:10 There always is bloodshed at the time of the elections." 12:14 But this was the only time when we could get 12:16 the vast national outdoor stadium, 12:18 it was available, it was not available any other time. 12:22 And so we went in the name of the Lord 12:25 and we put our lives in the hands of God 12:28 and God blessed us. 12:30 What's the culture like? 12:32 My understanding is that there is rampant 12:35 unemployment in Papua New Guinea. 12:37 Yes, yes, there is. There is rampant unemployment. 12:41 Some people are very, very, wealthy. 12:44 There are millionaires and maybe a few billionaires, Dave. 12:47 But most people live on a couple of dollars a day. 12:52 And so you have some areas of Port Moresby 12:56 which are beautiful almost like America. 12:59 Beautiful homes, but many of the people 13:02 are bound by the chains of poverty. 13:07 And, of course, poverty can help breed terrorism 13:12 and crime and every other social disorder. 13:16 And so this part of the world is often wrecked 13:19 with crime and violence. 13:22 You don't wander around the streets, 13:24 generally, by yourself. 13:27 In that kind of atmosphere, what can the gospel do? 13:34 The gospel is the only hope of the world. 13:36 Now I know we become engrossed with politics. 13:41 I'm not saying anything against politics, 13:44 but they're-- the hope of the world, 13:46 Dave, is not politics. 13:51 The hope of the world is Christ, 13:54 the Bible, the teachings of the Bible. 13:58 When we went there, 14:00 the spirit of God was so marvelously manifested 14:03 that the powers of darkness were beaten back. 14:07 Now I meet people who find these things 14:10 quite impossible to believe. 14:11 That is because they're not really in touch 14:14 with the spirit of God. 14:16 But when we get in touch with the spirit of God, 14:19 that which is impossible becomes a divine possibility. 14:24 The Prime Minister himself said to me, 14:26 he said, "I say this to you," 14:28 he said, "You have blessed the whole nation." 14:31 By this, he meant that the meetings 14:34 and the preaching of the gospel had blessed the whole nation. 14:38 And during the meetings, 14:40 we did not see any evidence of crime at all. 14:45 One night, the police were alarmed 14:46 because they found a couple of bullets lying on the ground. 14:51 It's easy to be killed 14:53 when you have an audience of 150,000 people 14:57 and some of those people have been engaged in crime. 15:00 But during the meetings there was a sweet peace. 15:04 There was no evidence of agitation. 15:08 There was not a whisper. 15:10 Even the little children were transfixed. 15:15 You could sense, Dave, 15:17 that the spirit of God was in the meetings. 15:20 You're listening to "the Carter Report" 15:22 with Pastor John Carter. 15:24 I'm Dave Deno, we're talking about your recent trip 15:26 to Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby. PNG. PNG. 15:33 I take it by your comments that you really never felt in danger? 15:37 You had no sense of danger? 15:39 You were not afraid for your life? 15:43 Whenever I walk out to a big audience, 15:46 I say to Beverley, my wife, 15:49 "Beverley, we have trust in God, but tonight may be the night 15:56 when I am assassinated. 16:01 We are immortal until our work on earth is done. 16:04 So my life is in God's hands." 16:07 But when I walked out on the stage, night after night, 16:10 I felt no fear, not a tiny bit. 16:15 I felt the presence of the angels of God. 16:19 I did not feel anxious at all. 16:22 I knew that I was in the hands of God 16:24 and I knew that the spirit of God 16:26 had taken charge of the meetings. 16:31 One hundred thirty to one hundred fifty thousand people. 16:37 Starting at 75, growing quickly. Yes. 16:40 Over 15 nights, you preached for 15 nights. Yes. 16:47 Was there ever a point, 16:49 was there ever a night when you just felt so exhausted that, 16:53 to yourself you said, 16:55 "I wish I didn't have to do this tonight." 16:58 Dave, I'm no longer a boy, I wish I were. 17:03 But I've been in this work now for 50 years. 17:08 Glory be to God, that's a long time. 17:11 I tell folks, you know, my hair is no longer what it used to be. 17:15 It's got sort of white, 17:17 but I say to them that if you pull it, it's mine. 17:21 But, Dave, there were some nights, it is true. 17:26 We would have a crisis a day. 17:28 When you're running a campaign like this, 17:30 what people see is the tip of the iceberg. 17:34 People have no idea at all what's going on. 17:37 You have a crisis with electricity, 17:39 you have a crisis with the projectors, 17:42 you have a crisis with the computers, 17:44 you have a crisis with the music. 17:46 It goes on and on and on. It's a crisis everyday. 17:49 You have a crisis with the people 17:51 who are renting you the stadium. 17:54 You have a lot of opposition-- Yes. 17:56 From the enemy, and by the enemy we mean, 17:59 you know, the powers and principalities of the world. 18:02 The enemy is Satan. 18:04 I felt every night that we were engaged in a spiritual battle. 18:09 I would call the team together and I'd say, 18:11 "We're engaged in spiritual warfare here. 18:15 We must stay together, we must pray together, 18:18 because we are fighting the devil here." 18:20 We're actually fighting the devil. 18:21 Some nights, Dave, my team would get with me 18:25 because I would feel exhausted. 18:28 They'd say, "What's he gonna do tonight? 18:31 He's completely exhausted." 18:34 Like, I'd go down there and I'd sit down 18:36 and they'd get me some food to eat 18:38 and food is always a problem in those countries. 18:41 And sometimes as I walked out on the stage 18:45 and there would be well over a 100,000 say, 140,000 people. 18:51 I would say to myself, "I can't do this." 18:57 But then I would feel a mantle of power come upon me. 19:03 Now some people say, you know, this is simply your adrenalin. 19:07 No, no, no, far more than adrenalin. 19:10 I know what adrenalin is. 19:11 I know what a rush from adrenalin is. 19:14 I know just ordinary excitement, 19:16 but I would feel a mantle of power come upon me 19:21 and team members would say, 19:25 "It's happened again. It's happened again." 19:29 My mind would become so clear, 19:32 a million thoughts would be surging through my mind 19:35 and my mouth could not keep up with the words. 19:40 The other day, I was looking at some of the programs 19:43 that we shot because we took a full television crew 19:46 and these videos or DVDs will be made available. 19:51 When I look at them, 19:52 I can see how I'm transfixed by the power of God. 19:57 I would have limitless energy. I would run around the stage. 20:03 I would feel the power of God 20:06 and the people in the audience felt the power, too. 20:10 They sensed the power 20:12 and the power was flowing out to them, 20:15 and coming back to me and was coming down from God. 20:18 People say, "We've never had that experience." 20:22 Well, my friend, "God," I say to them, 20:25 "God only gives that experience when it is needed." 20:30 Now when I preached in these churches, 20:32 I've done so many times, 20:33 hundreds of times in our beautiful church. 20:36 I say this, I confess it, I've never had that experience. 20:41 But when God saw that the need was extraordinary, 20:44 God gave me extraordinary power and that is why the dove came. 20:50 And that is why when we had altar calls, 20:52 tens of thousands of people came down 20:55 the front to give their lives to Christ. 20:59 What was the attraction? 21:01 Why do you think, I mean, this is unheard of. 21:04 Fifteen nights of huge crowds, people continuing to come. Yes. 21:09 What was the attraction? What brought those people there? 21:13 Why did they want to come? 21:16 Dave, I will cut to the-- get to the bottom line. 21:23 The gospel is the power of God and His salvation. 21:26 Romans 1:16-17. 21:29 There is no other power in the world 21:31 that compares to the gospel of Christ. 21:34 When I go to a place like PNG, 21:37 now this surprises some of my supporters. 21:42 I say, I do not go there primarily 21:46 to make these people members of my church. 21:50 They say, "Well, well, why should we ever support you?" 21:53 I go there with a far higher calling, 21:55 I go there to preach Christ. 21:59 And if they become members of my church, 22:01 which I encourage them to do and I baptize them, 22:05 it has to be in the context that first 22:07 and foremost they come to Christ. 22:11 So every night I talk about Christ. 22:15 I talk about the blood atonement, 22:18 Christ on the cross. People say, 22:19 "Nobody would listen to that stuff." 22:22 No, that's the-- that's the stuff. 22:23 We shouldn't call it stuff, but that's the material 22:25 that people will listen to. 22:27 That's the-- that's the power of God. 22:29 When I preach on the cross of Christ--every night, 22:32 I've made Christ the center of every meeting. 22:36 Even when I spoke on astronomy, 22:39 it is Christ, the Lord of creation. 22:42 And when you preach with the spirit of God 22:45 and you preach on the blood of Christ, 22:49 I believe in the blood of Christ. 22:52 When people say, "What is your religion?" 22:54 I say, "First and foremost, 22:55 I'm a Christian and I'm under the blood of Christ. 22:59 And secondly, I believe in Sola Scriptura, 23:02 I believe in the Bible and the Bible alone. 23:05 I don't believe in the traditions of men." 23:08 And then I say, "Then I am an Adventist. 23:12 Because I believe in the coming of the Lord 23:14 and I believe in the keeping of the commandments 23:17 including the Sabbath." 23:18 But unless you have a hierarchy of spiritual values, 23:23 you're not going to be a Christian, 23:24 you're not going to be anything. 23:26 And so the power of the meetings is the preaching of Christ, 23:33 that doesn't depend upon us, it depends upon him. 23:36 It's a great lesson 23:37 and I hear you sharing this lesson right here 23:40 and at this point with those who perhaps are young in ministry. 23:46 That nothing addresses the need of the human heart and soul-- 23:52 Amen. Like the gospel. 23:53 No. I like a good psychology sermon now and then. 24:00 You know, I like those things 24:02 because I need that sort of help and we all do because of sin. 24:08 But ultimately, the cry of the human heart 24:12 is not met by anything but by the gospel, because of sin. 24:19 Sin came into the world, 24:21 and there's only one antidote to sin, 24:24 and that is the blood of Christ. 24:26 And whether you are a person in PNG 24:30 or a Hindu to whom we preached in India, 24:35 or a Muslim, or a Roman Catholic 24:39 or a Baptist, or a Pentecostal, or an Adventist, 24:44 we all need the blood of Christ because of sin. 24:49 Who did you preach to? 24:51 Yeah, 150,000 people, that--that's so vast. 24:57 Yes. Hard for us to picture in our mind. Yes. 25:00 Fortunately, we have pictures. 25:02 One of the things I love about the newsletter 25:05 that you provide for people, is that you give us pictures 25:09 and--and the current newsletter has some great pictures. 25:11 Yeah, amazing, aren't they? 25:13 I think it's tremendous. 25:14 You get a sense of the crowd there, 25:17 but who made up this crowd? 25:22 The crowd was made up of different strata of society. 25:26 We had ambassadors, as I mentioned, 25:28 from different countries. They were attracted. 25:31 We had government ministers. 25:34 One night, we had 12 or 14 25:37 newly sworn in ministers of the government. 25:40 They came and they responded in the altar call, 25:44 and they stayed behind for prayer. 25:45 We put our hands upon them 25:47 and prayed that God would so fill their lives 25:50 with the spirit of God that they would keep 25:53 the commandments of God, 25:54 that they would be upright and honest 25:56 and thus be a blessing to the nation. 25:59 That's what we want our politicians to be. 26:02 We want our politicians to be, first and foremost, 26:06 not republicans or democrats or independents, 26:10 but people who recognize the lordship of Christ. 26:14 I'm not telling you about trying to impose religion 26:17 upon the people, not telling about that, 26:18 but I'm telling you about personal accountability to God. 26:23 Because if you respect God, you're gonna respect man. 26:27 But if you don't respect God, 26:30 how can you respect man who was made in the image of God? 26:34 You're not going to. 26:35 That's why communism collapsed in Russia. 26:38 And so the who people came, 26:41 they were politicians, they were families, 26:44 beautiful families, husbands and wives, 26:47 and their children, not making a sound. 26:52 The children, marvelous. No cell phones going off. 26:58 You know why? 26:59 The people have a sense of reverence for God. 27:02 They think that a person who brings 27:04 a cell phone into church, and the phone goes off, 27:07 they think that they are the most heathen people. 27:11 They say, "We used to be heathen." 27:14 Now we've gone to place-- and cell phone--they say, 27:17 "These people need missionaries." 27:21 And so families, university students. 27:25 Pacific Adventist University, 27:28 which is a great university outside Port Moresby. 27:32 It's a great credit to the people, 27:35 it's marvelous. A great university. 27:38 They sent 12 busloads of university students every night. 27:43 They started with one bus load, 27:45 but they were almost going to get riots 27:47 because the others wanted to come. 27:49 So in the end, they paid for 12 buses to bring students. 27:54 Some of those were baptized into Christ. 27:57 So you had everybody you could think of, 28:01 you had poor people and you had wealthy people. 28:04 You had people on two dollars a day 28:06 and people who are multi, multi millionaires. 28:09 Side by side. Side by side, 28:12 packed in, like sardines in a can. 28:18 I've seen some of the pictures, 28:21 it is people for as far as the eye can see. 28:25 And even then, tens of thousands beyond that in the areas 28:31 that were dark at night, unlit, 28:34 and yet the people continued to come far out beyond you, 28:39 way to the side of your platform 28:42 and stage that you're preaching from. 28:45 An amazing vast audience of people. A vast audience. 28:49 What kind of comments, 28:51 I mean, you're talking to all these people at once, 28:53 but you met with people 28:55 and talked with them individually. 28:57 What kind of comments did you receive from them? 29:00 Dave, exceedingly refreshing. 29:07 They have their problems, we know. 29:09 But cynicism is not one of them. 29:13 They believe with a childlike faith. 29:15 That's what Jesus told us. 29:17 He said unless we're converted and become as little children, 29:20 we're not gonna be saved. 29:21 And they do have a childlike faith. 29:23 They believe that that great white bird was sent from God. 29:28 Now if you talk to people in Australia or in America, 29:32 they'll give you a thousand rational reasons 29:35 why those things don't happen. 29:37 But those people up there, they have a childlike faith 29:41 and I think God respects and honors their faith. 29:47 Well, the meeting started at 6 o'clock 29:49 in the evening as the sun went down. 29:51 And--because then we were going to get the projectors fired up. 29:56 So we couldn't do that in the daylight. 29:59 And then I would be preaching around ten past seven 30:03 and I'd finish preaching about ten past eight. 30:05 I believe that Sermonettes make Christianettes 30:08 And so 60 minutes preaching of the gospel and preaching 30:12 with all my soul and then I'd have an altar call, 30:15 usually it'd take another half hour. 30:18 So we got some criticisms. 30:21 The criticisms were that the meetings were too short. 30:26 And then we told the folks after we had gone, 30:29 you know, for 15 nights, more than two weeks, 30:31 we said, "It's coming to a close." 30:35 They were bitterly disappointed. 30:36 They said, "Stay, stay, stay." 30:39 As I left the airport, left to come back-- 30:43 flying back to Australia and then back to the US, 30:46 a young man came-- he worked 30:48 for the security there at the airport. 30:50 He said, "Let me carry your bag." 30:52 I said, "Thank you." 30:54 So he carried my bag and came down to where 30:56 I was getting on the plane and gave me back my bag 30:59 and then there were a number of white people 31:02 from Australia getting on the plane. 31:05 They were Australians, 31:06 who were probably living in that part of the world. 31:09 On the whole, I don't think they came to the meetings. 31:12 But this young man burst out into tears. 31:16 He's a grown man, crying. 31:19 He said, "I don't want you to go." 31:21 And at that point, we're going to come back 31:24 and finish that story in just a moment, 31:27 as you listen to "the Carter Report" with John Carter. 31:34 Millions around the world have attended the Carter Report 31:37 programs and seen the wonders of Biblical archeology. 31:40 From the treasures of King Tutankhamen, 31:42 to the Great Pyramids of Giza. 31:44 Vast audiences have walked with John Carter 31:46 the dusty roads of ancient Egypt. 31:48 The journey has continued as the masses have gazed 31:51 upon the palaces of Petra 31:53 and the stones of Herod's temple. 31:55 The largest secular crowds attending 31:57 religious meetings anywhere have exclaimed, 31:59 "At last, here is evidence to believe in God!" 32:02 Please support the Carter Report in its unique mission. 32:05 Write to John Carter, P.O. Box 1900, 32:08 Thousand Oaks, California, 91358 32:10 or P.O. Box 861, Terrigal, 32:13 New South Wales, 2260 Australia. 32:16 Once again that address is, The Carter Report, 32:18 P.O. Box 1900, Thousand Oaks, California, 32:22 91358 or P.O. Box 861, Terrigal, 32:26 New South Wales, 2260, Australia. 32:35 Welcome back to "the Carter Report" with Pastor John Carter. 32:38 I'm Dave Deno. 32:39 We're talking about a recent trip that John and his team 32:43 made to Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby. 32:47 For a series of meetings, crusades if you will, 32:51 where upwards of 130 to 150,000 people 32:57 attended meetings every night for 15 nights. 33:03 An amazing response. 33:05 And we were talking just a moment ago 33:08 about the individual response that you received from people 33:12 and I interrupted you in a story that I'd really like 33:15 to hear the end of and that is, you were talking 33:17 about how people reacted to you and reacted to the meetings 33:21 and what was happening when you were about to leave the country, 33:25 boarding the plane? What happened? 33:27 I was about to get on the flight, Dave, 33:30 and this young man from PNG who worked at the airport, 33:35 a security officer, he broke down, 33:38 he started to cry. 33:40 And he put his arms around me and he said, 33:42 "I don't want you to go." 33:45 Now somebody who hadn't attended the meetings, 33:47 who was going back to Australia came to me, 33:50 a lady, and she said, "Excuse me, 33:55 he doesn't want you to go. 33:57 He is crying." I said, "Yes." 34:01 She said, "Why?" 34:02 I said, "Because he's been blessed." 34:07 Now she found that very hard to understand, 34:10 because for so many people in the western world today, 34:13 including Australia, this book is no longer relevant. 34:20 They don't believe in the preaching of the gospel, 34:23 in fact, they don't believe in the God of the Bible. 34:27 But she was astounded that he was a local, 34:30 who was so touched by the meetings 34:32 and he didn't want us to go. 34:36 Let's talk about some of the details of your trip. 34:41 I have written down here that you flew 34:43 in a large quantity of equipment from America. 34:48 You also shipped in a full container load 34:51 of Bibles and other items. 34:55 Why didn't you just use local materials let's say? 34:59 Local materials are very hard to come by 35:02 at any sort of a reasonable price. 35:05 Now we built a stage, a person who came with us, 35:09 a young pastor who came with us, he said, 35:12 "This is bigger than a rock concert." 35:15 And this is true, a huge stage, 35:19 the biggest screens I'd ever seen in that part of the world. 35:23 And then we fly in these huge video projectors. 35:27 You can't get them there, nobody's got them there. 35:31 And so if you're going to do this, 35:34 it's got to be done on an enormous scale. 35:38 This is taxing, this is expensive, 35:42 but if you're going to do it, you've got to do it properly. 35:46 You said it's expensive? Yes. 35:50 How do you get the funds for this? 35:54 This is quite extraordinary because we don't beg for money. 35:59 But we are doing what God has told us to do, 36:01 what God has told the church to do. 36:04 The Bible actually says, Jesus said, 36:06 "Go into all the world, make disciples of all nations, 36:10 baptizing them in the name of the Father, 36:13 the Son and the Holy Spirit." 36:14 People say, "Well, 36:16 that's not really relevant today." 36:19 It's an interesting thing, Dave, 36:21 Jesus didn't say, "Go into all the church 36:26 and make disciples of all nations." 36:29 We preach in churches, I preach in churches 36:32 but the great emphasis of the Bible 36:35 is that the church needs to be relevant 36:37 and to go into all the world. 36:40 Now we take this seriously. 36:42 And we've done this in places where people say, 36:44 "You're gonna be killed, 36:46 and you can't do that and it's impossible to do." 36:50 We've gone to India and Russia and Ukraine and South Africa 36:54 and we've gone to places where people say 36:57 it can't happen but it does happen. 37:01 And we have partners around the world who still believe, 37:05 they still believe in the Bible and they believe in the gospel 37:11 and they believe in putting money 37:14 where it's going do the most good. 37:16 And the best thing that people can do 37:18 with their money is to put it into souls, 37:22 saving lost souls who are going to shine 37:26 in the kingdom of God for ever and ever. 37:29 That's why people send this money. 37:32 I wanna talk for a moment about the messages that you bring. 37:35 You go to countries where the gospel 37:37 is not the dominant philosophy? 37:41 Some countries I've been to, yes, yes. 37:43 Some of the countries. 37:44 How are you able to bring the gospel 37:48 into your messages in that type of environment? 37:52 Dave, we have a completely unorthodox philosophy 37:56 to most churches, even in my own church. 38:00 I have a different philosophy of ministry. 38:05 I believe that the church, I believe that I am--I believe 38:09 that every gospel minister is called to reach the lost. 38:14 Now I believe that people are lost outside of Christ 38:18 and not everybody believes this. 38:21 I believe there's no other name under heaven 38:23 whereby we must be saved. 38:25 I do not believe that we are saved 38:28 because we join a church. 38:31 I do not believe that we are necessarily saved because 38:35 we are religious or any of those things. 38:37 I believe we need to have a divine encounter 38:41 with Christ and the word. 38:43 Now this is the core of my belief, 38:48 it is an apostolic Biblical belief. 38:51 Therefore, we set out to reach non believers 38:56 and that's most of the world. 38:58 I've opened for years on Biblical archeology on Egypt. 39:03 I show them the wonders of ancient Egypt 39:05 as it correlates to the bible. 39:09 This leads into Bible prophecy. 39:11 There's nothing that's going to convince an unbeliever 39:13 quicker than an understanding of Bible prophecy. 39:17 Prophecy proves that this is not an ordinary book, 39:21 it is quite extraordinary. 39:24 On my second night, on my third night, 39:26 I'm into astronomy and I show some of the most amazing 39:31 discoveries that most Christians are completely oblivious to. 39:37 Some of the most amazing discoveries that indicate that 39:40 there must be a great designer in the universe. 39:47 Extraordinary stuff, and this captivates the minds 39:52 and the ears of unbelievers and therefore, 39:57 we say this humbly, we've been told this. 40:00 We have the largest numbers of secular people attending 40:05 religious meetings anywhere on the face of the planet. 40:11 Say that again. 40:12 We have the largest numbers of non churched people attending 40:19 religious meetings anywhere on the face of the planet 40:26 of any religious system. 40:29 Now I so support people who go 40:34 and they evangelize the church 40:39 and they preach the gospel to vast numbers 40:41 of church numbers and they encourage those 40:43 church members to bring loved ones. 40:45 Is that good? No, 40:47 it's beyond good, it's wonderful. 40:50 But in those great audiences, 40:52 they may have 5% of the audience being the unchurched. 40:57 Often in our meetings, 40:59 only 5% of the audience is the churched, 41:02 95% of the people are complete unbelievers, 41:06 agnostics, atheists, communists, hindus 41:11 and whatever you wish to call them. 41:14 And we believe this is Biblical and we believe that 41:18 one of the great tragedies today in Christianity 41:21 is that Christians are preaching to the choir 41:26 and the choir's heard it all anyhow. 41:29 A hundred thousand, hundred and thirty thousand, 41:33 one hundred fifty thousand people, 41:36 what do you preach to them? What do you say? 41:39 Well, firstly as I indicated, 41:42 I open on somewhat of a secular topic. 41:46 I open on the wonders of ancient Egypt and I talk about 41:49 some of the Pharaohs who are mentioned in the Bible, 41:51 I talk about queen Hatshepsut whose body has only recently 41:55 been discovered and I advertise this on television with ads 41:58 that were shot on the Middle East and some of the ads say, 42:01 I'm standing in front of the bearded queen who was-- 42:04 why did Pharaoh disfigure her face? 42:07 And why was her mummy lost for 3½ thousand years? 42:11 This captivates the unbeliever's mind as it ought to. 42:15 But then, as time goes by, 42:18 I quickly progress from archeology and astronomy 42:22 into the prophecies and the teachings 42:24 of the Bible and I use this book every night. 42:28 And then very quickly I move--by about 42:30 the fourth or the fifth night, 42:32 I'm even dealing with the prophecy of Daniel 9, 42:35 that talks about the coming 42:37 of the messiah after so many years. 42:40 And then I'm very quickly into a meeting on the man 42:43 who wrote his own life story before he was born 42:47 and that is the Christ of Bible prophecy. 42:50 And in that meeting, by about the fifth night, 42:52 I'm actually talking about the atoning sacrifice 42:54 of Christ of the cross. 42:56 Then I have a meeting that follows very quickly, 42:59 which I deal with the great problem of the human race, 43:03 is it political? Is it economic? 43:06 Is it, like Karl Marx said, 43:08 economic political? Is it genetic? 43:13 Are we what we are because we were made that way? 43:18 So I deal with all of these questions and the crowds 43:23 of unbelievers respond to these things. 43:27 But I quickly go from the secular 43:30 to the intensely spiritual. 43:32 I did not say religious. 43:35 Our meetings are not very religious, 43:39 but then neither is God. 43:41 Jesus was not especially religious. 43:44 Remember, the religious people put him on the cross. 43:47 So religion gets a pretty bad rep in the Bible. 43:51 One person said, almost all religion is bad. 43:56 Well, look around the world today. 43:58 They go killing each other in the name of religion. 44:01 So we don't talk religion, 44:03 we talk about the goodness of God and greatness of Christ. 44:06 And that is way you have seen such a wonderful response. 44:11 Oh, I think it's gotta be. 44:12 The Holy Sprit bears witness according to His word. 44:17 Like anyone in such an undertaking, 44:19 you don't travel alone, 44:21 you have team of people who go with you-- Small team. 44:24 I would venture to say that, perhaps, for you personally, 44:28 the most important person 44:30 on that team is your wife Beverley. 44:32 Beverley has gone on these trips for so many, many years. 44:38 And when she went to Russia and places, 44:41 I thought she had a special calling to visit orphanages 44:47 and we-- and tried to bless the orphans by giving 44:49 them what they needed. 44:51 Not what they wanted but what they needed. 44:54 And she also has a special ministry of praying. 45:00 So when I'm preaching, she is invariably 45:02 at the back of the stage, praying. 45:05 Years ago, before my wife and I were married, 45:10 we were reading a little bit 45:12 about male-female relationships, husband-wife relationships 45:18 and there was something I have not to this day forgotten, 45:22 "The nature of a man as compared to a woman." 45:27 And it said that men are adventure seekers, 45:31 we seek adventures in life. 45:33 And all too often, we will treat the woman in our life 45:38 like she is the adventure 45:39 and once we accomplish the adventure, 45:41 we leave it behind and we go on to another adventure. 45:44 And that, of course, leaves the woman felling left out. 45:47 You don't do that, you include your wife, 45:50 which is what this little lesson was all about. 45:52 So a little marital help here for all of us, 45:58 and that is to include your wife in the adventure 46:03 and it seems to me that's what you do with Beverley. 46:05 Well, Beverley has a ministry. 46:08 Beverley is called by God to do ministry the same as I am. 46:13 I believe that women are called 46:15 just as much as men, sometimes more so. 46:19 You talked about these meetings 46:23 and having the feeling of Pentecost, why? 46:30 Well, Pentecost was extraordinary 46:33 outpouring of the divine spirit. 46:37 We had in those meetings, 46:38 those vast meetings, this same experience. 46:43 We had the visitation of what they said was 46:46 the dove of God that came. 46:50 On the last night, the last Saturday night, 46:54 we just baptized around 3,000 people in the morning 46:57 and I had an altar call for people 46:59 who wanted to join them in baptism. 47:02 Dave, I have never seen anything quite like it. 47:08 For the first time in my life 47:10 I felt I had to restrain the audience. 47:13 That was the night 47:14 when everybody had seen the white dove. 47:19 The people came forward in a flood. 47:21 Most nights they had been reticent. 47:24 I'd had to work to get them to come forward. 47:29 They came in a trickle, then it became hundreds, 47:32 then it became thousands 47:34 and often we would have an altar call with 47:37 6 to 10, 12, 15,000 people. 47:41 But on the last night, Dave, it seemed as though 47:45 the whole audience was being supernaturally moved, 47:51 I would think, with the people who were raising their hands 47:55 and trying to come down the front. 47:57 You see, you can't come if every thing is blocked, 48:01 if everything is closed up, every avenue was closed. 48:05 I would think the people who had responded 48:07 would have been a hundred thousand people, maybe more. 48:11 People everywhere trying to come down the front. 48:13 People struggling to come down the front 48:17 and people who couldn't come down 48:19 the front raising hands, 48:22 that to me is an amazing manifestation of a Pentecost. 48:28 I do not believe that Pentecost needs to be an experience 48:31 in the dim distant future, 48:33 I believe that if the church were to take seriously 48:36 the teachings of the Bible, seriously, 48:42 we would see Pentecost everywhere. 48:46 Well, you talked about taking the gospel seriously, 48:49 you mentioned earlier in our talk 48:52 that there was a night when you preached in the rain. 48:56 Now here, if it's a baseball game-- 48:57 Not by choice. 48:59 No, if it's a baseball game, we call the game. Yes. 49:04 Did you call the meeting that night? What happened? 49:06 On the final Friday night, this was tremendously important, 49:09 because we were having a big baptism the next day. 49:12 I needed to talk to the people who were going to be baptized, 49:15 we don't just baptize people in a causal way. 49:21 And as I went out to preach--or no, 49:23 before I went out to preach, 49:24 as I was getting ready to preach, 49:26 the heavens opened up 49:28 and the rain came down in a flood, 49:30 everything was sopping. 49:33 We turned the PA off, 49:34 we thought it would blow up. Wow. 49:36 We turned the projectors off 49:38 because they were starting to sizzle, 49:40 water was getting through. 49:41 We thought we're gonna blow up these great projectors, 49:43 then we won't have a program. 49:46 We had there on that Friday night say 130,000 people 49:52 who were sitting there 49:54 and they were getting soaked through and through. 49:58 How many left? None. 50:04 And we talk about faith, we talk about devotion, 50:07 we talk about being strong. They're the strong ones. 50:12 The children, children running away? No. 50:15 Everybody you can-- you've actually got it on video. 50:18 Some of them produced umbrellas and other things 50:21 they put over their heads, nobody left. 50:24 And so David said, and David had great faith. 50:28 He said, "Turn on the PA, if it blows up, it blows up." 50:32 David, your son? Yes. 50:34 Bob Ludwig, who were working the PA with their team, 50:38 turned it on. 50:39 We put on some great music and the people started to-- 50:43 they lit up, the music's on. 50:45 Then we said, "Turn on the projectors," 50:48 raining, "turn them on." 50:49 When the projectors came on, 50:51 everybody cheered and then I walked out 50:56 and preached in the rain. 50:58 I said to my team, "I'm gonna preach the word of God tonight." 51:02 I couldn't use the pulpit because the stand, 51:07 the water was running off it. 51:09 Water everywhere and I went out 51:12 and I preached in the rain 51:13 and the spirit of God came down upon me. 51:16 And they say I preached better than I'd ever preached before. 51:20 They said I needed just a little more rain. 51:22 You mentioned baptism. Yes. 51:24 And you baptized many, many in the Ela River, 51:28 what was that like? 51:29 Yeah, Ela beach in the sea. 51:33 Well, the police had to get me there. 51:35 When I got down there, I couldn't get to the beach. 51:38 So the police came and made a path for me 51:41 and I stood on the back of a truck 51:42 that was perched precariously on a rock over looking the sea. 51:48 And we had a great PA system. 51:50 We had 50 or 60 pastors out in the water, 51:54 including one of the ambassadors 51:56 from another country representing his country-- 52:01 An ambassador from another country? 52:03 And he was also an ordained minister. 52:06 And he was baptizing and so it was marvelously organized. 52:12 We baptized, conservatively speaking, 52:15 some people said 5,000. 52:16 I don't believe that's accurate. 52:19 We had an independent count and our count was around 3,000. 52:26 In fact, to be specific, 2,850. 52:31 That night when we had the great altar call, 52:35 more than another 3,000 52:37 requested baptism the next weekend. 52:40 Another 3,000 besides the people who had been baptized 52:44 and the next Sabbath, everyone bar none went to church. 52:50 Everybody who'd been baptized turned up at church, 52:55 we gave them a Bible as a gift from the Carter Report 52:59 and all the other folks who wanted to be baptized 53:02 turned up also. 53:03 So consequently all of the churches were overwhelmed. 53:09 They couldn't hold the people. 53:11 The great witness was not in the gospel 53:14 or the Holy Spirit was that we were not ready. 53:22 The churches, they say this is Pentecost, 53:28 but the churches couldn't hold all of the people. 53:31 Standing room only. Having to go to two sessions. 53:38 Why do you do this? I mean this is a lot of effort-- 53:42 Yes, it is a lot of effort. 53:43 You have traveled far and wide 53:46 and you have to fund this all on your own. 53:50 You don't receive support of an organization for this, 53:54 why do you do this? 53:56 Because it is the will of God. 53:59 Every minister ought to do this. 54:02 We have become so traditional 54:04 and so bound by the rules of men. 54:07 I do it because the Bible commands it. 54:09 I am an ordained minister of the gospel. 54:13 John Wesley said to the arch bishop 54:15 who told him to go home, he said, 54:18 "My lord archbishop, my parish is the world, 54:21 I plan to keep on preaching." 54:23 God has given us the world as our parish. 54:26 The Lord is coming soon 54:28 and the world is on the road down to hell. 54:35 And therefore I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to do it. 54:38 I don't do it because I'm paid to do it. 54:40 I don't do it because I'm given budgets to do it. 54:43 I do it because I believe in Christ 54:48 and I believe in the Bible. 54:51 And I pray that the day will come soon 54:54 when the sprit of God will come upon the church 54:56 and every minister will have a motivation 54:59 to take the gospel to the lost. 55:03 We have just a moment left together 55:05 and I love our talks together. 55:07 They are always fascinating-- Thank you, I do. 55:09 And I wanna give you a chance to share with those 55:12 who watch and those who have known you over time, 55:15 a chance for you to share 55:17 just the heart of your personal faith. 55:21 Dave, the heart of my personal faith, 55:25 "I believe in the reality of God, 55:29 I believe in the sacredness of the Holy Scripture, 55:34 I believe in the-- in a personal relationship 55:38 with Lord of the universe. 55:41 I believe in Christ, the Lord of the universe 55:46 who became a man and bore our sins on the cross." 55:50 This is out of my faith, 55:51 "Christ, that He rose from the dead, 55:54 that He intercedes in heaven 55:55 and He will come in power and great glory. 55:59 I believe that day is soon. 56:02 I believe the world has got far too much religion. 56:06 I believe what the world needs is more genuine Christianity. 56:12 More of Christ and less of me, More of Christ 56:16 and more taking seriously the words of Christ, 56:20 less playing God and more obeying God." 56:25 It's good place for all of us 56:28 to begin in our walk with the Lord. 56:32 This is the Carter Report 56:33 with Pastor John Carter, I'm Dave Deno. 56:51 Lord, when you placed your hands upon me 56:58 I knew that I would never be the same 57:06 For in that moment I became your servant 57:13 And since that day I only have one aim 57:21 My sole desire is to be used 57:29 An empty vessel longing to be filled by You 57:36 My sole desire is to serve You, Lord 57:44 To do your perfect will 57:48 To work each day and build 57:51 You Kingdom this is my sole desire |
Revised 2014-12-17