Throwback Thursday: Is repentance a work?

Posted on by Tom

Welcome to this week’s “Throwback Thursday” installment. Today we’re going to revisit a post that was originally published back on April 6, 2018 and has been revised.

Repent.

It’s become a ridiculed word in society and, surprisingly, even among some Christians.

When I encourage readers to accept Jesus Christ in my posts, I’ll often write something like, “Repent of your sin and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior through faith alone.”

Some may ask, what exactly is meant by “repent”?

The Greek words for repent (verb) and repentance (noun) are metanoéō and metanoia and they appear a total of 55 times in the New Testament. The “Strongest NIV Exhaustive Concordance” defines metanoia as:

“Change of mind, repentance, the state of changing any or all of the elements composing one’s life: attitude, thoughts, and behaviors concerning the demands of God for right living: note that this state can refer to the foundational salvation event in Christ, or to on-going repentance in the Christian life” (my italics and boldface).

When a person is saved, they change their mind (repent) about their rebellion against God, agreeing with God that they are an absolute helpless sinner in need of the Savior, and accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior through faith alone. Repentance is part of the conversion to Christ. A person can’t accept Christ as Savior until they have understood through the ministry of the Holy Spirit their desperate need of the Savior and repented (changed their mind) about their rebellion against God. Every person who has accepted (some prefer to say “trusted in”) Christ as Savior has repented of their sinful rebellion. Many preachers of the Gospel even use “repentance” as shorthand for conversion to Christ.

Repentance, turning from sinful rebellion against God to trusting in Christ as Savior through faith alone, is Scriptural and is well understood as basic, elementary theology by most Christians.

Apostle Peter declared to unbelievers, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” Acts 3:19

Apostle Paul later declared to unbelievers, “How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. – Acts 20:20-21

Once a person is saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone, they will follow Christ imperfectly and must repent of (turn from) subsequent sins of disobedience, however that is not a matter of salvation, but of sanctification.

Pretty basic stuff, huh? Shouldn’t even be an issue, right? So why am I making a fuss about all of this?

A fellow WordPress blogger has repeatedly accused me of adding works to the Gospel of salvation by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone by mentioning repentance as part of conversion. He claims that repentance is a work and cannot be added to simply accepting Christ as Savior.

I’ve been wrongly accused of a lot of things, but I don’t like being accused of distorting the Gospel. I’ve explained several times to this individual that repentance is turning from rebellion against God to agreeing with God about the need for Christ, so it is a vital component of accepting Christ. You can’t accept Christ until you have understood (changed your mind regarding) your need for Christ. But this blogger is having none of it and believes he is defending the pure Gospel against an imaginary work. While I applaud this person’s defense of the Gospel of grace, his misunderstanding of repentance causes him to tilt at windmills. It’s very clear that he understands “repentance” only in some type of Catholic penitential, self-reformational sense.

However, this blogger is not alone in this viewpoint as I have seen some others rankled over the same issue. So why do I continue to include admonitions to repent in my invitations to receive Christ if some are troubled by it? As I explained, repentance is a very necessary part of accepting Christ. At many churches, there are often ambiguous invitations to “follow Jesus” or “receive Jesus into your heart.” Church visitors often “respond” to invitations without truly understanding their depraved, sinful state and their need of Christ as Savior. They make a “decision” and then go home and live their lives like they always have. Their was no genuine conversion. Sinners MUST repent (change their minds) about their sinful rebellion against God and turn to Christ. You cannot genuinely trust in Christ UNLESS you have repented! Repentance is absolutely mandatory in Biblical salvation! Attempting to concoct some type of salvation in Christ without repentance would be like an imaginary scenario in which someone just showed up at a doctor’s office out of the blue with no symptoms. “I’m here, Doc, but I don’t know why I’m here!” Does not compute. Only people who admit they are sick seek a doctor’s help. That’s repentance.

I’ll admit I’m a little frustrated at having to repeatedly defend myself against accusations of adding works to the Gospel, but I hold no ill will against this blogger who has a limited understanding of theology and is sincerely attempting to defend the Gospel of grace. I have suggested to the person that he do a word study of repent/metanoéō and repentance/metanoia in the New Testament, but that would precipitate an uncomfortable paradigm shift on his part.

“Repentance means that you realize that you’re a guilty, vile sinner in the presence of God. That you deserve the wrath and punishment of God, that you are hell bound. It means that you begin to realize that this thing called sin is in you, that you long to get rid of it and that you turn your back on it in every shape and form. You renounce the world, whatever the cost. The world in its mind and outlook as well as its practice and you deny yourself and take up the cross and go after Christ. Your nearest and dearest and the whole world may call you a fool, or say you have religious mania, you may have to suffer financially, it makes no difference, that is repentance. It’s always been understood the same way. It is a complete change, life-changing and it begins at salvation and that just starts a permanent lifelong process of ongoing confession of sin.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones from “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount”

Roman Catholicism Through the Lens of Scripture, Episode 7: Evangelizing Catholics Effectively

Posted on by Tom

Welcome to the seventh installment of our ten-week video series in which evangelical evangelist Mike Gendron examines Roman Catholicism through the Lens of Scripture.

In Episode 7 below (49-minutes), Mike discusses how to evangelize Catholics effectively. He shares seven principles for witnessing to Roman Catholics:

  1. Establish the Word of God as the supreme authority
  2. Declare the sufficiency of Jesus Christ
  3. Accurately proclaim the Gospel
  4. Share a properly defined view of the substitutionary atonement
  5. Teach antithetically
  6. Pray for them
  7. Speak the truth in love

Was the Reformation Necessary?

Posted on by Tom

Was the Reformation Necessary?
By R.C. Sproul
Ligonier Ministries, Crucial Questions series, 2024, 92 pp.

Was the Reformation necessary? Ecumenism has metastasized so deeply throughout Big Tent evangelicalism that I suspect many “evangelical Protestants” would respond to that question with a resounding “No!” Knowledge of Biblical doctrine and church history are sorely lacking these days, along with an acute shortage of discernment.

In this short book, Reformed theologian, R.C. Sproul (d. 2017), uses the Five Solas1 of the Reformation – Sola fide (faith alone), Sola gratia (grace alone), Solus Christus (Christ alone), Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), Soli Deo gloria (glory to God alone) – as the framework for his (overall) positive response to the question. The Five Solas were the Scripture-based theological foundation of the Reformation in stark contrast to the unbiblical primary doctrines of Roman Catholicism. I was looking forward to reading this short ebook from Sproul, but it turned out to be a disappointment. Why?

Sproul is far too deferential when it comes to presenting the Catholic antithesis to each Sola. As just one example, he vigorously argues that the RCC does teach that “faith” is necessary for salvation. Writes Sproul, “To say that the Roman Catholic Church doesn’t believe that faith is necessary for salvation is simply slanderous” (p.7). It’s indisputable that the RCC appeals often to “faith,” however, we know it’s referring to trust/dependence in its sacramental system in cooperation with personal merit, not a personal trust in Jesus Christ as Savior apart from any and all sacraments and works. Catholic “faith” is not evangelical faith. There are several other such puzzling statements in this book that cause the reader to pause and wonder at times if they’re reading a Catholic apologia.2 3 Another criticism is that, especially in the latter chapters, Sproul presents only a few paltry examples of erroneous Roman Catholic doctrine in comparison to the respective Solas. Sproul attempts to defend the necessity of the Reformation without presenting a suitable representation of heretical RC doctrines the Reformers were opposing.

Yes, the Reformation was absolutely necessary, but this short book pulls too many punches. I’ve already spent more time on this review than I intended. I was certainly edified by R.C. Sproul’s ministry, but some of his Crucial Questions books that I’ve read and reviewed have been disappointing, including this one.

Contents

One – Faith Alone: Part 1
Two – Faith Alone: Part 2
Three – Grace Alone: Part 1
Four – Grace Alone: Part 2
Five – Christ Alone: Part 1
Six – Christ Alone: Part 2
Seven – Scripture Alone: Part 1
Eight – Scripture Alone: Part 2
Nine – Glory to God Alone: Part 1
Ten – Glory to God Alone: Part 2

  1. Five solae – Wikipedia article ↩︎
  2. I encountered this same issue of overdeferentiality with Dr. Gregg Allison in his podcast with Got Questions founder, Shea Houdmann. I really wanted to publish this, but… – WordPress post ↩︎
  3. Was Sproul conflicted and compromised to a degree by his infatuation with RC arch-theologian, Thomas Aquinas? R.C. Sproul on Thomas Aquinas – Was He The Most Brilliant of All the Theologians? ↩︎

Christian Nationalism – PDF

Posted on by Tom

The church’s relationship to the state has been an issue ever since Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 AD and it was adopted as the state religion in 380 AD. The Roman Catholic church cultivated and maintained a symbiotic relationship with the state in its quest for temporal wealth and political-religious control. The early Reformers retained vestiges of this church-state symbiosis. The Puritans brought the paradigm to the New World in the 1630s and it has flourished here to some degree ever since. In recent decades, we’ve seen the notion of Christian Nationalism gaining increasing support throughout American evangelicalism. Many American evangelicals are so steeped in the Christian Nationalist paradigm that they have a difficult time seeing outside of the box.

Brother Bruce over at the Reasoned Cases for Christ blog has written an excellent analysis of Christian Nationalism from a Biblical perspective, which I’m presenting via the link below.

Christian Nationalism
By Bruce Cooper
Reasoned Cases for Christ blog, April, 2026, 46 pp.

Click to access Christian-Nationalism.pdf

Postscript: Beside the fact that Christian Nationalism violates the principle of religious freedom, it’s also a great danger because evangelical adherents readily yoke with politically like-minded Roman Catholics, Mormons, etc., resulting in the genuine Gospel becoming muddied and compromised in the undiscerning, political-religious, ecumenical gumbo.

Sunday video shorts with Jonathan Carl, #11: Does Salvation Come through Catholic Mass?

Posted on by Tom

Welcome to our Sunday video-shorts series, featuring Jonathan Carl, pastor of South Fork Baptist Church in Hodgenville, Kentucky.

In this 5:27-minute video-short, Jonathan answers the question, Does Salvation Come through Catholic Mass?

.

Below is a link to Jonathan’s website, The Catholic Blog.
https://www.catholic.blog/

Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 4/11/26

Posted on by Tom

Each Good Friday in the Philippines there are those Catholics who flagellate themselves and some are even nailed to crosses in exercises of extreme religious penitential piety. Self-harm, self-mortification penitential practices were once widespread throughout Catholicism1 and still exist in pockets here and there. It’s documented that pope John Paul II whipped himself daily as a part of his self-mortification regimen.2

Let the church be the church and let the government be the government and don’t mix the two.

The Catholic writer of the article above bemoans that many people entering the Catholic church are attracted to the hard-line ideology of conservative/traditionalist EWTN talking heads and YouTube-ers. Both progressive and conservative Catholics hold to the RCC’s false gospel of salvation by sacramentalism and merit.

The Catholic religion centers around the parish priest who administers the supposedly soul-saving sacraments to parishioners. The RCC must scramble as the number of priests continues to sharply decline. There are no priests or continuing sacrifice for sin mentioned in the New Testament.

The RCC teaches that its priests change bread wafers into the actual body and blood of Jesus at Catholic masses, and that the ingested Jesus wafers confer graces that enable the recipient to obey the Ten Commandments and thereby hopefully merit Heaven. Surplus Jesus wafers are worshiped as God. All of this is idolatrous heresy.

The opening paragraphs of this article read, “Vice President JD Vance has written a new memoir about his conversion to Roman Catholicism amid speculation that he’ll be running for president in 2028….Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith will be released on June 16.” Many misguided and undiscerning “evangelical Protestant” MAGA-ists will view Vance’s proselytizing “testimony” positively.

  1. Flagellant – Wikipedia article ↩︎
  2. Pope John Paul practiced self-mortification ↩︎

Answering “The Catholicism Answer Book,” Question #35: What was Jesus’ mission on Earth?

Posted on by Tom

Thanks for joining us today as we continue our Friday series examining “The Catholicism Answer Book” (2007), written by Roman Catholic priests, John Trigilio and Kenneth D. Brighenti. In this chapter, Trigilio and Brighenti respond to Question #35: What was Jesus’ mission on Earth?

The priests’ response

Because of the relative brevity of the priests’ answer, I’m presenting it in full below. I’ve boldened particular statements that I will examine in my response.

“Jesus primarily came to save us from our sins, so we call Him Savior and Redeemer. As a priest, He offered Himself on the cross in an act of sacrificial love. He was also a prophet, so he [sic] taught for three years before He went to his [sic] Passion and Death on Good Friday. The message of Christ was one of mercy and forgiveness. Most of the parables Jesus told had a message about the importance of being merciful and forgiving to one another. He also commanded His apostles and disciples to preach the Good News (i.e., ‘the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’). From that time on, sanctity and holiness became available to anyone and everyone who freely accepted and cooperated with divine grace; this is still true today. Christ’s death redeemed human nature and made it possible for human beings to receive sanctifying grace which comes from the sacraments. He told His disciples in Matthew 28:19 to go and make disciples of all nations and baptize them ‘in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’ The bottom line is that Jesus not only opened the gates of heaven and made paradise once again possible to mankind, He also provided the means to become holy and therefore get to heaven. He also said in Luke 9:23, ‘If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’ Christianity is not a religion of taking advantage of what was done in the past, but an opportunity to to imitate Christ and follow Him on Earth and up into heaven. The mission of Christ to sanctify (as priest), to teach (as prophet) and to lead and rule (as king) is continued in the mission of the Church via the seven sacraments (that make us holy), her Magisterium (the Church’s teaching authority), and the hierarchy (the pope and bishops who are successors to Saint Peter and the Apostles, respectively).”

My response

The priests’ response is teeming with statements propagating Roman Catholicism’s false gospel of justification by works and salvation by merit. Below, I’ve broken out several of the priests’ statements and added my commentary.

“Jesus primarily came to save us from our sins, so we call Him Savior and Redeemer.”

Evangelicals and Catholics share some of the same religious parlance, but our understanding of the terms are irreconcilably different. The Roman Catholic church addresses Jesus as “Savior,” but insists that salvation must ultimately be merited by successfully obeying the Ten Commandments (impossible!).1 2

“As a priest, He offered Himself on the cross in an act of sacrificial love.”

The RCC denies penal substitutionary atonement, which declares that “Christ, voluntarily submitting to God the Father’s plan, was punished (penalized) in the place of sinners (substitution), thus satisfying the demands of justice and propitiation, so God can justly forgive sins making us at one with God (atonement).” 3

“…so he [sic] taught…to his [sic] Passion“

In this chapter and in previous chapters, the priests inconsistently alternate between capitalizing pronouns for the Persons of the Trinity and not capitalizing them. While it’s not a doctrinal issue, it’s strange that a book like this would be so grammatically inconsistent.

“…the Good News.”

The Catholic gospel of salvation by sacramentalism and merit is actually very bad news because no one can merit their way into Heaven.

“From that time on, sanctity and holiness became available to anyone and everyone who freely accepted and cooperated with divine grace;”

Catholics believe in ultimately meriting salvation by successfully obeying the Ten Commandments (impossible!), but over the past several decades the RCC and Catholics have shifted away from specifically using “merit” in connection with salvation. Instead, they will use code phrases such as “cooperating with grace”4 and “maintaining friendship with God.”

“…made it possible for human beings to receive sanctifying grace which comes from the sacraments.”

Catholics are taught that alleged grace from the sacraments enables them to successfully obey the Ten Commandments (impossible!) and thereby merit salvation at the moment of death.

“The bottom line is that Jesus not only opened the gates of heaven and made paradise once again possible to mankind, He also provided the means to become holy and therefore get to heaven.“

Once again we see the priests referring to the RC teaching that Jesus merely “opened the gates of heaven” by His sacrificial death on the cross and that it is up to each individual Catholic to receive the sacraments in order to allegedly obtain grace so they can successfully obey the Ten Commandments (impossible!) and thereby merit salvation.

“Christianity is not a religion of taking advantage of what was done in the past, but an opportunity to to imitate Christ and follow Him on Earth and up into heaven.“

Genuine New Testament Christianity is personal acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior through faith alone and then following Him as Lord. It is not a lifelong process of trying to successfully obey the Ten Commandments (impossible!) and thereby merit Heaven at the moment of death.

“…is continued in the mission of the Church via the seven sacraments (that make us holy), her Magisterium (the Church’s teaching authority), and the hierarchy (the pope and bishops who are successors to Saint Peter and the Apostles, respectively).”

With this statement, the priests dispense one of the basic constructs of the RCC, the Christ-Church interconnection, whereby the RCC usurps the offices of Jesus Christ, presenting itself as the spiritual mediator between God and mankind.5

  1. Are Good Works Necessary for Salvation? – Catholic article ↩︎
  2. “…all men may attain salvation through faith, Baptism and the observance of the Commandments.” Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 2068 ↩︎
  3. Penal substitution – Wikipedia article ↩︎
  4. How to Know We Are “Cooperating with Grace” – Catholic article ↩︎
  5. “The Church is Jesus himself.” The heart (and the heresy) of Roman Catholicism? ↩︎

Next week: Question #36: Could Jesus sin?

Throwback Thursday: What’s with all of those little candles at Catholic churches?

Posted on by Tom

Welcome to this week’s “Throwback Thursday” installment. Today we’re going to revisit a post that was originally published back on April 5, 2018 and has been revised.

As I’ve mentioned before, I listen to an hour of Catholic talk radio daily in order to stay abreast of what’s going on in the Catholic church for the purposes of this blog, although I obviously would not recommend the practice to others as a general rule. I used to listen to a local Catholic talk radio show, “The Catholic Connection,” but their recent decision to revamp their format and refrain from criticizing the church’s hierarchy has made for very dull listening, so I’ve switched to EWTN’s “Called to Communion,” an “outreach” to Protestants and lapsed Catholics.

This morning, I was listening to the 4/3/18 podcast of the “Called to Communion” show featuring moderator, Thom Price, and host, David Anders. A listener, Ken from Camden, Tennessee, called in and asked why Catholics have large candle displays in churches and at shrines. If you visit a Catholic church or a shrine, you’ll notice a large display of small “votive” (definition: “offered or consecrated in fulfillment of a vow”) candles, usually in red glass containers and placed in front of a statue of Jesus, Mary, or some other saint. Votive candles are made available to Catholics visiting a church or shrine. Supplicants contribute an offering into a nearby donation box, take a candle, light it, place it in the display, and then say a prayer to Jesus, Mary, or a saint. But why do Catholics do this, was Ken’s question.

Anders answered that the candles serve as physical signs and reminders that the supplicants’ prayers are ascending to God (or to Mary or to a saint). He stated that it’s useful to have physical “props”/sensory objects so that the accompanying sounds, smells, lights, and touches “can help us elevate our minds to the eternal.” In Catholic parlance, candles and other such religious objects are “sacramentals,” supposedly “sacred signs” that bear a resemblance to the sacraments by which people “are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments.”

Anders qualifies his endorsement of candles by saying, “It would be wrong to think of (candles) in a superstitious way, as if the candle kept praying after (the supplicant is) gone.” But, of course, that is the exact thinking of many/most who use these candles.

Catholicism has always conflated the physical with the spiritual and votive candles are just one example in a multitude of many other such practices. In place of a genuine spiritual relationship with God through the Gospel of salvation by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, the Catholic church has substituted ritualism, legalism, and the veneration of objects.

Pious Catholics love the ambiance of burning candles as part of their religious ritual, as if they somehow create an atmosphere of reverence and heightened spirituality. Practitioners believe a burning candle in conjunction with prayer will enhance the effectiveness of the prayer. And, yes, many/most walk away believing the prayer continues as long as the candle burns.

Capture22

Votive candles are just part of the elaborate ritualism that developed within the increasingly institutionalized early church. Yes, in the Old Testament there was the lampstand/menorah standing in the Holy Place in Israel’s Tabernacle and Temple, which was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ as the Light of the World.

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” – John 8:12

But there’s no record of ritualistic candle burning in the New Testament. Besides that, nowhere in the entire Bible does a believer pray to anyone other than God. Burning candles while praying or “meditating” is also becoming popular among non-Catholics who are increasingly attracted to Catholic, New Age, and Eastern “mysticism.” We don’t need candles to “enhance” our prayers and we should only be praying to the Lord.

Catholic friend, religious ritualism and formalism do not help you merit Heaven. The Bible says we are all sinners and all of us deserve eternal punishment. But God loves us so much he sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to this world to live a perfect life and pay the penalty for our sins. But He rose from the grave, conquering sin and death, and offers you forgiveness of sins and the free gift of eternal life if you will just come to Him in prayer, repent of your rebellion, and accept Him as your Savior through faith alone. Will you trust in Christ?

Is it allowable to use candles in connection with prayer?
https://www.gotquestions.org/prayer-candles.html

Postscript: I can remember as an eighth-grade Catholic grammar school student (1970), going with my classmates to the attached church building during school hours for some type of religious instruction. In every Catholic church near the “altar” or “tabernacle” box (where surplus consecrated Jesus wafers are stored), burns a large candle in red glass, which is meant to symbolize the perpetual presence of Jesus in the church. The candle must never be allowed to go out. Well, on this particular occasion, our nun-teacher, Sister Mary Virginia Sweeney (d. 2003), noticed that the flame of the red candle had in fact gone out! She became emotionally frantic as if something terrible had happened. A student would have suffered injury if they had gotten in the way of the nun’s determined efforts to relight the candle. It’s this kind of ritualistic, material-minded, superstitious, false spirituality that Catholicism breeds.

Capture23.PNG
Above: A Catholic church’s red “tabernacle” or “sanctuary” candle must never be allowed to go out

Roman Catholicism Through the Lens of Scripture, Episode 6: The Papacy and the Catholic Church in the End Times

Posted on by Tom

Welcome to the sixth installment of our ten-week video series in which evangelical evangelist Mike Gendron examines Roman Catholicism through the Lens of Scripture.

In Episode 6 below (34-minutes), Mike discusses the role of the papacy and the Catholic church in the end times.

This series was produced in 2023 during pope Francis’s papacy. Mike makes several references to pope Francis, however, the references are more about the papal office than a particular pope.

J-Mac 2

Posted on by Tom

As with my previous review of Coach Johnson’s book about J-Mac, I’m publishing this book review here and at my other blog, Tom’s Other Topics. I apologize if you received this post twice.

The Game of My Life: A True Story of Challenge, Triumph, and Growing Up Autistic
By Jason “J-Mac” McElwain and Daniel Paisner
New American Library/Penguin, 2008, 276 pp.

Several weeks ago, I reviewed “A Coach and a Miracle: Life Lessons from a Man Who Believed in an Autistic Boy.” The book was written by Coach Jim Johnson, who gave Jason “J-Mac” McElwain, an autistic 17 y/o, the opportunity to play in the last four minutes of a high school basketball game in February 2006. Jason responded by scoring twenty points and becoming an instant celebrity across the country. I wasn’t a big fan of Coach Johnson’s book because of the self-flattery and self-congratulatory praise within (see my review here).

In researching J-Mac’s story, I noticed that he had written (along with co-writer Daniel Paisner) a book of his own and I subsequently downloaded the Kindle e-book version. Ah, this book was MUCH better! J-Mac intersperses his memories of growing up autistic with the details leading up to and including his big game on February 15, 2006. There’s also input from Jason’s parents and older brother to round out the story. I really enjoyed reading J-Mac’s first-hand account compared to Coach Johnson’s problematic version.

The best part about the J-Mac story is fourteen years after his big game, he accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior through faith alone. Below is a 12-minute video of Jason sharing his testimony with his Faith Bible Church family on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his big game. He relates that he grew up Roman Catholic and never heard the Gospel of grace. I don’t subscribe to Jason’s remarks about the ecumenical National Day of Prayer and COVID denial, but his testimony is a blessing just the same.