The John-Henry Westen Show - Prepare NOW： Demise Of Dollar Dominance, Living Standard Underway

00:00:00.000 In every paradigm shift, the entities and the investments that had been so successful in the past and that base their future on the past are the ones that have the most to lose.

00:00:21.360 Hello, my friends. I wanted to give you another update with regard to our financial situation.

00:00:26.300 We are in, actually, for a monumental paradigm shift.

00:00:31.440 And with us to discuss this again is Drew Mason.

00:00:33.640 You'll remember before when that first of the major U.S. banks crashed.

00:00:38.620 We covered it right here.

00:00:40.520 But there's been a lot of activity in the last three weeks.

00:00:44.560 So we want to have this update for you with Drew Mason, our partner at St. Joseph's Partners,

00:00:49.940 who's working with LifeSite News on providing you and your family some security by way of precious metals.

00:00:55.500 This is the John Henry Weston Show. Stay tuned.

00:01:00.360 Hello, LifeSite friends.

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00:02:27.120 Drew, welcome back to the program.

00:02:28.940 Praise be Jesus. Thank you for having me, John Henry.

00:02:31.400 Let's begin as we always do, with the sign of the cross.

00:02:33.900 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

00:02:39.260 So, Drew, lots has been happening. Please fill us in.

00:02:41.640 Thank you, John Henry. So, when we last taped three weeks ago, it was the day the news was coming out

00:02:48.020 that Silicon Valley Bancorp was closed and there was speculation about what would happen.

00:02:55.120 And what we counseled was that we should all hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

00:03:01.360 All these claims that everything was going to be fine rang hollow with what had happened in the past

00:03:06.780 and how similar claims had fallen flat.

00:03:09.780 So, there's been so much news flow over the last few weeks, it's hard to summarize all of it.

00:03:16.040 But I think for viewers, I would try and narrow it down to three specific points to underscore what has happened.

00:03:23.900 The first is, now that we have a little bit more visibility into SVB,

00:03:28.220 we understand what happened was the banks were given this loophole in how they accounted for their bond holding.

00:03:36.760 Specifically, when financial institutions own securities, generally, they're obligated to do what's called mark them to market.

00:03:45.960 So, if it's worth $10 today, they report it as worth $10.

00:03:49.000 If it's worth $5, they report it as worth $5.

00:03:51.160 Banks, however, were told that they could just carry on their books, their bond investments at the price of their original investment.

00:04:01.480 They didn't have to mark on the market.

00:04:03.580 So, these banks literally had over a half trillion dollars of bonds.

00:04:09.200 And as the Fed raised rates, the value of these bonds came materially lower.

00:04:15.500 So, the argument was, well, we're just going to hold them until maturity.

00:04:18.700 But the problem, when the rubber meets the road, is if depositors come and say, give me my money,

00:04:24.120 the banks can't sell those assets where they're carrying them on their books.

00:04:30.760 They don't have enough money to meet the deposits.

00:04:33.660 So, what happened was, the government came in and, with record speed,

00:04:38.220 expanded the Fed balance sheet back towards the all-time highs and injected $160 billion into the system.

00:04:45.620 They won't tell us which banks took that money, but there was $160 billion claimed so that there would be solvency in the near term for the banking system.

00:04:54.220 So, that is hugely significant for investors to just really get their heads around the precariousness of what's at stake here,

00:05:05.040 given these decades of debts.

00:05:06.660 The second thing I would highlight that has happened since we last taped was J.P.

00:05:12.440 Morgan, one of the world's largest financial firms, admitted that they had entered into contracts with the London Metals Exchange to own commodities.

00:05:23.720 So, think of paper gold, such as many investors have.

00:05:27.820 They entered into these commodities contracts that were supposed to be backed by the actual commodities.

00:05:33.260 That's the whole integrity of the exchange, supposed to be the integrity of the financial system with all the regulation and oversight.

00:05:40.140 And what was discovered was that instead of having nickel, they had actually been given bags of worthless pebbles, and that's all they had.

00:05:48.480 So, again, we just say to investors, if the largest and most powerful financial firms are being fooled like that in the markets, doesn't it make sense?

00:05:58.340 Isn't it prudent to have some concern about having all of one's wealth tied up and just trusting the integrity of the system while we're seeing these warnings?

00:06:07.480 And then the third major point I would highlight has been a culmination of announcements where we are now seeing country after country moving away from its exposure and its dependence on the U.S. dollar.

00:06:22.740 Just this week, we saw Japan announce they're going to begin buying oil from Russia in non-dollar contracts.

00:06:28.480 We saw India, and these are our major partners, India, saying they're going to now trade non-dollars.

00:06:34.820 So 80% of the world's population is now committed to moving away from the dollar.

00:06:39.860 And so as Americans, we have to realize we have such exposure to the dollar.

00:06:45.780 And in every paradigm shift, and that is what is going on, because for all of our lifetimes, the dollar has been the sole reserve currency.

00:06:51.900 This is, we believe, a major paradigm shift, unlike what we've seen happen in 50 years.

00:06:58.740 In every paradigm shift, the entities and the investments that had been so successful in the past and that base their future on the past are the ones that have the most to lose.

00:07:13.600 And that's what we see, again, most financial institutions and most investors doing today.

00:07:18.460 It is simply impossible to protect oneself from systematic risk within the financial system.

00:07:27.380 If you're trying to protect against these stresses in the financial system, you have to do it outside of the system.

00:07:33.660 And that is what gold has done for families for centuries and even millennia.

00:07:39.760 No matter what is happening at the local or the government or the financial level, gold has transcended the issues of the day and preserved wealth.

00:07:47.980 So we think that the urgency is as high as it's ever been in our lifetimes for people to allocate towards gold for its safety.

00:07:57.820 And if people are worried, if they feel stressed when they're watching the news and when they're understanding what's happening,

00:08:04.620 it's probably a sign to them that they simply don't have a sufficient allocation to position themselves for what their gut, what their hearts and what history are telling them is what lies ahead.

00:08:15.560 If you can unpack some of this for us.

00:08:18.460 So you mentioned about the metals exchange with the banks and getting bags of pebbles instead.

00:08:26.080 Unpack that for us, if you will.

00:08:27.580 Today, most financial advisors make a concession.

00:08:31.460 They say, OK, to their investors, if you want to have some gold, we'll buy it for you in paper contracts,

00:08:37.540 such as the GLD, 60 billion dollars approximately is invested by families, by traders in the GLD.

00:08:47.240 However, they can never take delivery of the gold.

00:08:50.060 So the counterparty risk in such paper investments is stuck.

00:08:57.360 It's still with the system.

00:08:58.740 So even though you have diversified from theoretically a stock or a bond to a commodity to a real asset,

00:09:05.200 that asset is dependent upon the integrity of the exchange.

00:09:09.900 And it just goes without thinking.

00:09:12.160 I think everyone here knows and is nauseous about all the regulations that are in place on all of us and on all these corporate entities.

00:09:20.840 But despite all that regulation, no one was actually checking the commodities.

00:09:27.440 No one was checking the integrity of the system.

00:09:29.840 And that was what happened when J.P. Morgan was caught that way.

00:09:33.160 Now, again, we hope that was the only issue that will ever surface again.

00:09:38.540 However, if you have a major financial institution admitting this, how much less do individual investors know?

00:09:46.620 How much more important is it, again, to have some wealth outside of that system where a primary benefit of physical gold is that it's in your possession?

00:09:59.240 You don't depend on anybody else to deliver it to you.

00:10:01.920 You don't have to wait for the stock market to open if you want to sell it or liquidate it.

00:10:06.900 And that, we think, is a key lesson from what came out about the London Metals Exchange issue.

00:10:12.460 So, one of the things that's interesting there, I mean, you deal, your company deals in gold, not only in physical gold, but also in gold investments.

00:10:22.540 And yet, you're telling people it's time to invest in physical gold.

00:10:26.180 Get it yourself and hold it yourself.

00:10:29.000 Absolutely.

00:10:29.980 So, that really is the focus of what we've done for over a decade, John Henry.

00:10:34.540 Physical gold, physical silver.

00:10:36.300 Take delivery of the metals or however you wish to safeguard them, but get the physical metal that is entirely yours, that is not leveraged, it's not hypothecated, you know exactly what you have.

00:10:54.820 And that, again and again through time, has made all the difference in the world of families.

00:11:00.360 I don't know if I've shared this before on a show, John Henry, but I'd say the neatest part about our job being in the gold industry are the people we meet, the families we meet.

00:11:11.300 And so, we have clients who are Jewish and they tell us if we didn't have physical gold, our family would have ceased to exist.

00:11:19.880 We used it to get out of Russia, to get out of Germany, to get to America.

00:11:24.020 And then when they came to America, they weren't poor because they still had a pocket full of gold and they used that to buy a home, start their business.

00:11:31.580 Same stories we have from our Asian clients coming, especially from what's now known as Vietnam, where they saw communism coming in.

00:11:39.320 They buried some gold in their backyard.

00:11:41.040 When the communists took over, they let things settle down and they went down to the port.

00:11:45.740 They got their way onto a freighter.

00:11:48.460 And when the freighter came to San Francisco, they still again had a pocket full of gold.

00:11:52.880 They bought their home, bought their business, and it was transformational.

00:11:57.020 So, we're not saying by any means this is about Armageddon.

00:12:01.260 It's just the opposite.

00:12:02.620 We've had 700 case studies where governments have gone down this path.

00:12:07.660 They were overly indebted.

00:12:09.220 The sun came up the next day.

00:12:10.620 It was just a question.

00:12:11.520 Were investors, were families prepared?

00:12:13.320 Had they been good stewards, had they diversified their wealth away from real estate, as our Jewish friends tell us, was so important for them to do, into something that they could, that was liquid, they could take with them, they could give them everything they needed, and it would preserve wealth.

00:12:28.020 So, gold is an asset that should be the cornerstone of your safe investment.

00:12:33.680 So, you may choose to have, you know, almost all of your wealth in aggressive investments, where you can make a fortune if it works out well.

00:12:40.040 But you understand, you have to understand, in those types of investments, you could lose everything, too.

00:12:44.000 That's part of the investment risk.

00:12:45.460 Whereas, for some portion of your wealth, you should have a safe money allocation.

00:12:51.000 Historically, in our lifetimes, that's just been dollars in the bank, right?

00:12:53.960 The dollar has been the sole reserve currency.

00:12:55.800 However, the dollar, although it's been spectacular at convenience for transactions, it gets an F, gets a letter grade F for protecting and preserving wealth.

00:13:06.820 The dollar has lost over 95% of its value since the Fed was created, whereas gold, as the safe money allocation within your portfolio to complement your dollars, gold has done just what investors would want.

00:13:21.360 It has preserved their wealth, no matter what the stress.

00:13:24.160 Okay. So, unpack first also, if you will, what does it mean that the American dollar is not going to be the dollar for trade?

00:13:34.300 It's used around the world, you know, for trading in oil and stuff like that.

00:13:38.300 But what does it mean and what ramifications will it have if the U.S. dollar is no longer used in that way?

00:13:43.780 So, there have been, I believe, six occasions now in history where one country rose to such dominance globally that it was given the title of sole reserve currency, so that when two nations traded, they wouldn't trade directly in their own currencies.

00:14:01.260 They would trade in the sole reserve currency.

00:14:04.100 The initial case of that was the Portuguese Escudo back in Columbus's days.

00:14:08.240 The most recent example of that was Great Britain and the sterling from Great Britain.

00:14:14.280 That changed as Great Britain lost its manufacturing prowess in the 1800s.

00:14:20.440 It lost that sole reserve currency also.

00:14:23.560 In all those cases, from the Escudo to the sterling, when those countries lost that status, the purchasing power of those currencies was impaired severely.

00:14:34.080 So, what happened after World War II, there was what was called the Bretton Woods Agreement.

00:14:39.540 Much of the world was in shambles after the war.

00:14:42.980 And as global leaders came to America's statesmen negotiated that all global trade would be done in the U.S. dollar.

00:14:52.140 So, if you were Russian and you were buying oil from Saudi Arabia, Russia would have to first convert into U.S. dollars and then sell those U.S. dollars to Saudi in exchange for having oil sent to them.

00:15:03.280 So, it's what they call an exorbitant privilege that all other nations should have to do this.

00:15:08.940 Well, again, we have these case studies in the past.

00:15:12.080 And as countries have lost their dominance, they've lost manufacturing leadership, those windows have closed of sole reserve currency status.

00:15:22.160 And what that allows a country to do, so, for example, in that Russia, Saudi Arabia example, Russia has to go out and buy dollars in the marketplace.

00:15:32.380 So, if the market is strong for dollars, Russians have to really pay up to get them.

00:15:39.180 In contrast, as the United States is a sole reserve currency, if we want to buy oil or whatever we want to buy, we don't have to go out and use our assets to buy the currency.

00:15:50.040 We just print the currency.

00:15:52.040 It's free.

00:15:53.040 It's like monopoly money.

00:15:55.260 So, this has been an extraordinary advantage for America.

00:15:59.580 And it's something that Americans have benefited from for really their whole lifetime.

00:16:06.960 So, what has been happening, and it has accelerated since the U.S. government has chosen to weaponize, is the expression, the dollar.

00:16:16.320 I mean, the idea is always that a sole reserve currency would never be used for political purposes.

00:16:21.820 If the nation's people were going to trust a currency, it was obligatory that you would honor their investments.

00:16:29.460 Since the U.S. stopped doing that, we've really seen an acceleration of countries moving away from the sole reserve acceptance of the dollar.

00:16:37.020 So, that now, again, over three quarters of the world's population is trading, at least to some degree, in other currencies.

00:16:45.620 So, what that will mean is, at some point, you're probably going to have some countries say, we don't want your dollars.

00:16:53.420 We don't respect the value of the dollar because of the way you're treating it.

00:16:57.780 So, if you want our asset, you have to pay up with another currency or an asset.

00:17:02.040 All of a sudden, the printing press has ended, and then it's a very different situation.

00:17:07.880 So, the implication to us as individuals, as families, as investors, is that we're talking about the dollar potentially losing an enormous part of its purchasing power.

00:17:20.520 This has been happening since the Fed was created, from the time the Constitution, when the founders of this country said the only legal money would be gold and silver, up until when the gold was confiscated, the dollar worked perfectly in preserving wealth.

00:17:39.280 Since that time, actually since the Fed was created, the dollar has lost so much of its value.

00:17:44.720 However, it still has the value we know today.

00:17:48.040 As the sole reserve currency status wanes, history says to expect that it may have cost you $10 today to buy, may cost you $20, may cost you $30, may cost you $50 to buy in the future.

00:18:01.880 So, the significance is, as Americans, we have so much exposure to dollar in terms of cash, CVs, money markets, bonds, treasury bills.

00:18:12.620 We have all that risk in an asset who's in the twilight of its existence.

00:18:19.740 One of the things that I got your help with as well, and I thought that was fascinating, is when people choose to invest in precious metals, it's not only just go out and get the biggest chunk of gold you can.

00:18:35.920 And you actually laid that out for me.

00:18:38.720 If you could do that for everybody, I think that was fascinating, because I think for people who, we don't have a lot of money to invest, but we want to have some savings in gold or silver to protect our families.

00:18:51.080 How do we do that for the average family that really isn't all that wealthy, but just wants to protect themselves?

00:18:55.760 Okay, so the biggest concept I would want to leave with viewers to walk away with is the question, what is gold?

00:19:08.240 And the answer is simply, gold is money.

00:19:12.540 It's a money that no government can destroy by printing or by policy hours.

00:19:18.100 So, when you get gold, it can come in multiple forms.

00:19:22.060 The cheapest way to buy it per ounce is a 400-ounce bar called a standard bar, because it requires a lease manufacturing, a lease handling.

00:19:31.660 The cheapest way to buy gold in a form that no one would melt, they took it from you because they would still have conviction it was real, would be 32.15 ounces, the kilo bar.

00:19:43.800 However, a kilo bar in today's prices is over $50,000.

00:19:47.740 So, if you want to exchange that for something, you have a narrow set of assets that you can trade for.

00:19:56.300 So, for that reason, governments, including the U.S. that it's founding, chose to make gold and silver coins so that it would have intrinsic value for the owner, but it would be small enough that it would be easily exchangeable for many more items.

00:20:13.040 So, at the end of the day, we're agnostic as to what people want to buy.

00:20:18.360 If they say, we want the cheapest bar, we can have it.

00:20:20.600 If they say, we want a currency that people will recognize, we'll direct them in that manner.

00:20:26.180 So, a coin may cost 3% more than, say, a bar approximately, but the advantages of it that some choose to take are threefold.

00:20:34.920 First, the coins are more easily recognized as being real gold, meaning, for example, when the Canadian mint makes a coin, they tell you what the width, the circumference, the height, the diameter are.

00:20:51.100 And you simply can't get any other element in those dimensions because gold is its own unique element on the periodic chart.

00:20:59.140 So, when you have a coin, you have this ease of determining that it's real gold immediately.

00:21:05.660 Secondly, if you have a one-ounce coin versus, say, the 32-ounce kilobar, you can do 32 times as many transactions with someone.

00:21:13.160 And then, thirdly, is just the liquidity.

00:21:16.780 So, a coin now is worth, one-ounce coin, $2,000.

00:21:20.340 Again, the bar, $50,000.

00:21:22.720 History suggests gold is probably going a whole lot higher.

00:21:26.320 So, when it does, that bar is going to be worth a whole lot more than $50,000.

00:21:30.120 Isn't it good to have something smaller that you can trade more easily?

00:21:34.480 Silver was highlighted by our founders because they knew the working class needed to be paid 1.00

00:21:39.800 in a money that would be safe for them.

00:21:43.560 And because they knew that that is what would be needed for day-to-day transactions for groceries.

00:21:49.740 So, a one-ounce silver coin, I'd call it $30 today, probably going to multiples of that,

00:21:58.100 is more ideal for the very tiny day-to-day transactions.

00:22:01.300 So, right now, people will say, you know, if I go into my grocery store or if I go to

00:22:07.640 a car dealership, if I offer them gold or silver, they're not going to take it.

00:22:11.920 They want dollars.

00:22:12.840 It's absolutely true.

00:22:13.800 At this point in time, you have to convert your gold into dollars.

00:22:17.440 And that may continue to be the case.

00:22:19.240 History says it won't, but it may.

00:22:21.380 In the meantime, what we see happening is the value of the dollars is decreasing and gold

00:22:25.980 is maintaining that purchasing power.

00:22:28.140 However, what we've seen throughout history is when there is the maturation of a currency

00:22:35.100 crisis because there was too much debt, there comes this moment in time where if you are

00:22:41.740 selling fish at a store or if your store sells meat or if you sell shoes or suits, whatever

00:22:47.960 you're selling, whatever the asset is you're selling, you ask yourself, do I really want

00:22:53.340 this monopoly money for my asset?

00:22:55.560 What good is it going to do me?

00:22:58.140 Then the question becomes, well, what am I going to take for my fish, for my assets?

00:23:03.800 What do I want?

00:23:05.020 What's going to preserve my wealth?

00:23:07.080 History says give it five days.

00:23:09.380 From coast to coast, everyone will remember gold and silver are real money that preserve

00:23:14.620 wealth.

00:23:15.400 And that then the person who has a fish store can then take that gold or silver and go and

00:23:20.300 buy shoes or whatever else he wants with it.

00:23:22.420 Because the owner of those assets will also remember the value of having wealth in physical

00:23:29.480 gold and silver.

00:23:31.260 Now, you said five days.

00:23:32.680 Interestingly, what was that a reference to?

00:23:34.260 So right now, again, if we go into stores and we say, here, I want to use silver to buy

00:23:42.400 food, we're going to say, we don't take silver.

00:23:46.740 But at some point, if history plays out and if there's a crisis of confidence in the value

00:23:54.620 of the dollar because it's an unbacked paper asset that's just been printed into oblivion,

00:23:59.460 what's that store owner going to face?

00:24:01.120 He has a dilemma.

00:24:02.980 What can I take as a store owner, as a seller of an asset that will preserve my wealth?

00:24:08.160 I don't want the paper money that's unbacked.

00:24:10.580 Today, you go and you say, gold or silver, they say, we don't take that.

00:24:14.040 Historically, five days, and you will see recognition come into the marketplace that

00:24:19.100 gold and silver are money, that I as a store owner, I as an asset, as a seller of an asset

00:24:23.780 can accept that when I give my asset away, I'll be given something that will maintain

00:24:28.660 its value.

00:24:29.600 So we think that's how brief the wake-up period will be when, you know, if, we should

00:24:34.300 say, if there is indeed this continuation of history and there is a problem with the purchasing

00:24:40.300 power of our unbacked currency.

00:24:43.580 Yeah, it's interesting.

00:24:44.300 I mean, you're talking about a precipitous decline in value of the American dollar to

00:24:50.000 levels that sound like what rupees are today.

00:24:53.040 Rupee is the Indian currency.

00:24:55.800 And today, I see the one US dollar is at, I think, 82 rupees.

00:25:01.820 I don't know that, you know, you talked about getting to a really low value.

00:25:06.880 But imagine that, where we're buying a loaf of bread.

00:25:09.880 And instead of paying the normal two, three, four dollars we're paying, you're paying like

00:25:15.360 25, $35.

00:25:17.500 Unreal.

00:25:18.020 So, John Henry, about that, just to let you know, and this, for the audience, hasn't been

00:25:24.400 scripted at all.

00:25:25.200 John Henry brought that up.

00:25:27.600 This year, 2023, it's fascinating how history plays out.

00:25:32.960 This is the 100th anniversary of Weimar.

00:25:36.320 You may remember stories in school where in Germany, they had to take a wheelbarrow full

00:25:41.280 of money to buy a loaf of bread.

00:25:43.100 And that was Weimar, and that was 2023.

00:25:47.000 And in the beginning of the year, I'm so sorry, yes, 1923, exactly.

00:25:52.380 And in the beginning of the year, there was this gradual erosion in purchasing power, and

00:25:56.580 then it just accelerated.

00:25:58.820 So that is very timely.

00:26:02.660 You bring that up, John Henry.

00:26:03.640 And if I had said to an American back in 1971, when Richard Nixon looked in the camera and

00:26:12.840 looked in the eyes of Americans and said, the dollar is no longer backed by gold, but

00:26:17.280 don't you worry.

00:26:18.200 It's going to be just as valuable in the future as it is today.

00:26:21.420 So if I had said to those Americans, instead of it costing $35 to buy one ounce of gold,

00:26:26.920 it's going to cost you $2,000 to buy that same ounce of gold.

00:26:31.140 If the value of the dollar would have erode that much, Americans wouldn't have believed

00:26:34.560 it.

00:26:35.480 And that's where we are.

00:26:37.420 But where we go from here, history, again, suggests it's going to continue a lot.

00:26:42.580 We have not found one example in history, John Henry, where an overly indebted currency that

00:26:47.640 couldn't pay back its debts ever saw a resumption of its prior purchasing power.

00:26:54.540 So it's about diversification.

00:26:58.060 You just diversify some of your wealth into gold, and then you have this natural hedge

00:27:03.320 for your family, for your assets.

00:27:06.560 And before we close off, I wanted to ask you, Drew, the last time we spoke, three weeks

00:27:11.920 ago now, we talked about doing an Esther fast, which was, at least on your part, super hardcore.

00:27:18.460 It was going to be giving up all food and water, even, for three days.

00:27:23.500 I was doing only the bread and water fast.

00:27:26.440 But how'd it go?

00:27:27.280 Well, thank you, John Henry, and thank you to everyone who fasted alongside of us in some

00:27:34.300 way, made some effort, and for your prayers, we made it.

00:27:38.260 You never know for sure going into something like that if you'll be able to make it, but

00:27:42.520 we did.

00:27:43.680 And we went in, John Henry, unlike any of the other Esther fasts we did, with a real soul

00:27:49.420 request of the Lord.

00:27:50.600 Give us the guidance on what are the baby steps that we need to take to win back our

00:27:57.220 country, because we can all see reason is out the window.

00:28:00.500 Just nothing is working as it should.

00:28:03.360 What do we need to do, Lord?

00:28:04.960 And I must confess, John Henry, that we were really disappointed in what we heard.

00:28:11.520 And I want to say to the audience, it's not like we hear a voice of God regularly, but what

00:28:17.960 we find is that when we're praying and fasting, ideas will float through our mind that are new

00:28:24.820 to us, and they have a staying power.

00:28:28.340 It's not just like this thought that comes and goes.

00:28:31.340 And when those ideas do not contradict the commandments or scripture or teaching, then

00:28:37.980 it's up for discernment about whether they are from the Lord or whether they are from the

00:28:43.620 enemy.

00:28:43.880 And what we thought we heard at the end of our Esther fast, three days fasting was, before

00:28:52.020 you take back the country, you must first take back the church. 1.00

00:28:57.080 And again, this was not what we had really wanted to hear, because we're very anxious to

00:29:02.420 see our country take a turn.

00:29:04.340 However, you know, if you're seeking the Lord and you think you hear something, you can't

00:29:09.340 just dismiss it.

00:29:10.120 You have to accept it, embrace it, and move on.

00:29:12.900 So that is what we think we're charged to do right now.

00:29:17.300 Believers need to realize the 10 commandments are written in the order of importance.

00:29:20.660 The first commandment is the most important.

00:29:22.640 The 10th is the least.

00:29:24.160 And the first three of those commandments are all about God.

00:29:26.940 So when they asked Jesus what's the most important commandment, he said, love God with

00:29:31.260 all your heart, all your soul, and all your might.

00:29:33.000 Period.

00:29:33.380 Stop.

00:29:33.820 End of story.

00:29:35.480 Stop there.

00:29:36.360 Later on, when you get those first three perfect, then you can look at the next.

00:29:40.120 The next seven.

00:29:41.400 So we think we really, we want to encourage people to repent on those first three commandments,

00:29:46.820 which are no other gods besides God.

00:29:49.300 So look for idolatry in our lives.

00:29:51.860 I am so guilty of this, the worst sin of all, John Henry.

00:29:55.980 I think I mentioned it on your show before.

00:29:58.220 Money had been a god for me.

00:30:00.600 Football.

00:30:01.800 Putting things above God.

00:30:03.820 And if we spend most of our prayer time praying about something, even if it's a loved one,

00:30:09.680 we probably have to check that.

00:30:10.840 We should be praying for the kingdom, for the Lord, and trying to make him our sole king.

00:30:17.360 The second of those commandments is not taking the name of Jesus in vain.

00:30:22.700 And we were recalling what we understand happened years ago, centuries ago, millennia ago, when the Lord, God the Father, said he was going to reveal the name of the Savior.

00:30:37.460 And the angels were just waiting for years with bated breath.

00:30:41.800 What is this name going to be?

00:30:43.160 They knew this was such a powerful name.

00:30:46.100 And when God the Father revealed the name, Jesus, that they just fell down, they were in awe.

00:30:53.960 They never would have thought for a moment that years later, believers would lose the appreciation for the power of that name.

00:31:01.780 How many times does scripture say it simply, our help is in the name of the Lord?

00:31:06.120 So this second commandment to turn from cursing the name, because society tells us that's the only name it doesn't want to hear.

00:31:13.200 But instead of cursing it, to speak it, to actually go out and to speak it with reverence and to let the power of that name begin to fill in our society.

00:31:23.360 And then having, and then the third commandment is the Sabbath.

00:31:28.460 So choosing not to work for your business and your home, to just study on the, study Sabbath, study scripture, relax, enjoy your family, not to work on the Sabbath.

00:31:43.700 There's more written about that one commandment than all the other commandments combined.

00:31:48.360 And its words were precise.

00:31:49.880 Don't work and don't have anyone else work on the Sabbath.

00:31:52.400 And I think we also, as it relates to that, want to be conscious.

00:31:56.680 We've lost an appreciation that although we're to go to church on Sundays because he commanded us to celebrate the Eucharist, that we are not to receive the Eucharist unless we're in a state of grace.

00:32:08.900 And one of the great saints of the 20th century, Conchita Cabrera from Mexico, went so far as to say, when we receive Jesus in communion, if we're not in a state of grace, it's more painful for him than Good Friday.

00:32:24.480 When you hear that, you think that's got to be impossible.

00:32:27.240 But as you reflect on it, I think this future doctor of the church was probably very inspired with those words.

00:32:33.180 So those were the things we heard first about repenting.

00:32:36.560 The second point was to pray and fast, which this group already, I think, largely does.

00:32:42.160 Jesus asked us to pray, can you not watch one hour with me?

00:32:45.460 We're encouraging you, commit an hour a day.

00:32:48.280 We encourage you to do it during the fourth watch, 3 to 6 a.m.

00:32:51.680 So many people have called in and told us for years they were waking early and they didn't know why that was happening.

00:32:57.460 They actually thought there was something wrong with them.

00:32:58.960 That is probably the Holy Spirit coming to you in that hour, telling you he wants to talk with you.

00:33:04.400 That's the hour, the period, the fourth watch, when scripture tells us the spirit most wants to talk.

00:33:11.160 That's what we see Jesus doing, going out during that fourth watch.

00:33:14.820 And it's 3 to 6 a.m., just so everybody knows.

00:33:17.920 Yes.

00:33:19.200 And scripture is explicit.

00:33:20.680 It was in the fourth watch when he came and manifested himself treading upon the waves as he came to the apostles in the boat, walking on the sea.

00:33:28.960 And then the third, so that's praying and fasting.

00:33:32.820 And again, we say we're obligated to fast Wednesdays and Fridays.

00:33:36.620 That's what the Christians wrote in the first century and how they lived.

00:33:40.340 That you read in the Didache.

00:33:42.280 Correct.

00:33:43.320 And we think, as we've talked about in prior episodes of Jahanad, we can triangulate on that as being in the Bible.

00:33:49.160 Just like the Bible doesn't explicitly say abortion is sin, but we can triangulate on it.

00:33:53.740 The Didache says abortion is sin.

00:33:56.240 The Bible doesn't say Wednesdays and Fridays, two days a week, but we can triangulate on that.

00:34:00.940 And the Didache explicitly says Wednesdays and Fridays.

00:34:04.060 So prayer and fasting is the second of three points to take back our church.

00:34:08.180 And the third point, John Henry, is we believe now is the time to imitate our Savior and to throw our bishops and our cardinals out of the church, like he threw out the corrupt Pharisees, clergy in his time.

00:34:28.180 And, you know, we don't say that lightly, but Jesus was clear.

00:34:32.220 If the fruits are not good, it needs to be uprooted and thrown out.

00:34:37.180 So we are endeavoring to dispose of, destroy the U.S. CCB.

00:34:45.180 Ever since the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops was founded, every quantifiable statistic in the church has imploded.

00:34:52.700 It's been an absolute disaster, no matter how you measure it.

00:34:55.720 Vocations, participation by families, attendance and faith of the youth.

00:35:01.580 Everything has imploded under their auspices.

00:35:05.080 And this shouldn't be a surprise to us because Jesus told us there were going to be wolves in sheep's clothing.

00:35:13.520 St. Paul said to us he was so concerned that as soon as he left, that was what was going to happen.

00:35:17.960 Wolves in sheep's clothing were going to raise their heads.

00:35:20.720 And we see this with the great saints telling us this was the case, whether it's St. John christened them.

00:35:26.160 Fulton Sheen told us not to expect anything from the bishops in terms of renewal.

00:35:30.280 And Mother Angelica, she said she would burn her network to the ground before she gave it to their control. 1.00

00:35:35.100 What are these saints seeing?

00:35:36.800 They are seeing what Jesus was warning us about.

00:35:39.700 So don't let it discourage you that we have to do this.

00:35:44.280 The ambush is over.

00:35:45.120 We've been ambushed by our clergy, by our church leaders, and now we have this state that almost looks like rubble compared to where we were years ago.

00:35:56.640 It's okay.

00:35:57.480 All we need is the Lord.

00:35:59.240 All we need is to follow him, and he will rebuild this.

00:36:03.760 John Henry, as we think about that, we want to say to people also, do not support financially your diocese.

00:36:13.920 Do not support it.

00:36:15.440 It doesn't matter if the bishop's nice.

00:36:16.980 He's a great dinner guest.

00:36:18.140 He has some good plans.

00:36:20.120 They have been complete failures in fighting the atrocities that have happened to our children, to our families.

00:36:30.680 Now, people will say, well, what do we do?

00:36:33.400 Because we are obligated to tithe.

00:36:36.000 But again, as the Didache said, hold your tithe until your palm sweats, until you know for sure that your tithe is going to a good source.

00:36:45.180 So we have to find causes of evangelization that are worthy.

00:36:50.220 And if your parish is great, don't support your parish if they send a portion of their proceeds to the diocese.

00:36:56.840 So people are going to say, oh, every church is going to close.

00:36:59.860 Don't worry.

00:37:00.460 The Lord doesn't need the church system as we have it.

00:37:03.960 Go to your parish priest and say, Father, I like you.

00:37:08.040 This is a wonderful parish.

00:37:09.100 But if you're giving our money to the bishops who have been so evil, I can't support you with my cash.

00:37:15.940 So, Father, tell me about your heating bill.

00:37:18.860 Tell me about your electric bill.

00:37:20.220 There are ways to keep it open without supporting the bishops.

00:37:23.280 We think we absolutely are called to do that, John Henry, at this moment in time.

00:37:30.060 And we think, John Henry, that, you know, the news sounds so horrific about what's out there, whether at the country level or the church level.

00:37:38.620 But we want to conclude from our Esther fast with an incredible note of optimism.

00:37:44.540 So, again, I know we're going to be skewered for saying something like this, right?

00:37:49.220 We don't know for sure if this is authentic we're hearing from the Lord or not.

00:37:52.980 But as we were wrapping up and we were praying, this picture just floated into our minds.

00:38:00.100 And we were standing on top of a mountain, and there was a huge runway ahead of us, big enough for a 747 to land.

00:38:08.840 And it was twilight, so the intense direct sun was gone.

00:38:13.240 But the ambient light was enough that you could still see colors.

00:38:17.020 And the sky was that beautiful silvery blue, light blue, Madonna blue.

00:38:23.040 And the distance we could see the lights, because it was dark enough, of the plane headlights lining up to come in and land on the strip.

00:38:32.800 There were three or four of them, you know, way out in the distance in a line coming in.

00:38:36.720 And then the next thing we knew, the sky was filled with planes, with their headlights, filled.

00:38:43.660 It must have been like on D-Day when the Allies came to rescue Europe from the Nazis.

00:38:51.280 The planes were everywhere.

00:38:53.360 And the thought came to us, what air tower can land all these planes, get them to safety?

00:39:01.660 There's just so many of them.

00:39:03.700 And the thought came, the Holy Spirit can.

00:39:06.060 And we think that's what's happening.

00:39:08.100 We are on the verge of this massive renewal that's coming, that is going to be so exciting.

00:39:14.100 We think it's the renewal that was prophesied about in Revelation.

00:39:18.620 And so I want to make sure we leave that point with viewers.

00:39:23.300 Don't dismay.

00:39:24.940 Satan wants you to be discouraged.

00:39:26.860 Satan wants you to focus on the negative.

00:39:29.200 Jesus has all the solutions we need.

00:39:32.080 And we have wonderful moments ahead, John Henry.

00:39:37.720 Yeah.

00:39:38.340 I think a lot of people will wonder how to keep their donations from going to support particularly bad bishops.

00:39:46.860 And that is doable.

00:39:49.620 If you designate on your check that your donation is to go to your church's heating or whatever, they've got to respect that.

00:39:59.260 So you are able to support your parish while at the same time restricting your funds from going to the diocese.

00:40:06.460 So there are powerful ways to do that.

00:40:08.260 And I think Father Altman has been saying that for years, that the way we need to change things is exactly that, to do what is in our remit.

00:40:19.460 And that is the purse strings.

00:40:21.020 That's what we have.

00:40:21.920 That's what we give.

00:40:22.940 And I know that the USCCB especially, most actually the Western churches, have been taking government money and using sort of church funds from the parishioners to supplement.

00:40:34.820 And that's why the USCCB, for instance, is so heavily into this sort of work with immigrants and all this stuff that they're doing that's being criticized very heavily by people on the right.

00:40:47.080 But it's because they're getting billions of dollars out of doing it.

00:40:51.520 So unbelievable.

00:40:52.600 Well, I think we're going to have to pick your brain some more, Drew, on because we get the prayer, the fasting, but how to exactly confront the bishops, how to, as you said, throw them out of the church, which in a lot of cases is very well deserved.

00:41:10.940 So you mentioned there, Father Altman, John Henry, evil has unintentionally done us a great service.

00:41:16.600 Again, don't worry about anything.

00:41:18.300 Don't worry about, well, who are the leaders going to be?

00:41:20.000 And evil has highlighted for us the pool of great priests that we want to have as leaders.

00:41:27.960 All the priests who have been canceled, that's who we should be looking to as our future leaders.

00:41:32.400 Now, to be clear for viewers who may not be aware, a canceled priest is not someone who has been guilty of any misconduct.

00:41:40.420 Canceled priests are priests who speak out conservatively, who speak out in alignment with the gospel, and then their bishops shut them down.

00:41:50.000 So we have this stable full of great leaders who God is raising up who will lead the church.

00:41:58.080 Now, in terms of the individual details, John Henry, I think I would suggest to viewers that it's a little bit like the most famous painting, the only painting I'm aware of, that heaven ever designed and commissioned and delivered.

00:42:17.420 And that's Guadalupe.

00:42:18.420 And if you look closely at Guadalupe, you can see there's the slightest bend in her knee where it's like she's taking a baby step.

00:42:27.980 And I think that's what the Lord wants us to do and what she is calling us to do is to just take a baby step forward in faith.

00:42:36.940 Forget about needing some spiritual director to tell you everything in your life that is such a faith killer. 1.00

00:42:44.760 Again, you have to discern it to make sure it's not something that is against the commandments, against scripture, against teaching.

00:42:51.340 But then listen for the Holy Spirit to lead you, to guide you in little ways, and then take a baby step forward in faith, and we'll see how this unfolds.

00:43:03.060 But we're praying, we're fasting, we're repenting.

00:43:05.660 And whenever God's people did that in scripture, victory was theirs.

00:43:10.420 So I think, John Henry, we're kind of in this situation today that we read about in scripture, and we say, how could the people have forgotten how important it was to repent?

00:43:20.880 How could they have fallen into those sins again?

00:43:23.420 We're in the same boat, right?

00:43:24.800 We haven't been repenting.

00:43:25.940 We've fallen into everything that figures in the Old Testament fell into when God let them have themselves, you know, let them to themselves.

00:43:36.420 That's what's happened.

00:43:37.360 We've told God, get out.

00:43:38.960 We don't want your wisdom.

00:43:39.880 So we don't want your laws.

00:43:41.660 And look at what's happened.

00:43:43.120 We have the rubble to show.

00:43:45.000 Now, however, his love is so great.

00:43:47.520 His mercy is so great.

00:43:49.120 When we repent, we're praying fast, and he'll open up the way.

00:43:53.980 Our expectation is that we'll see wonderful renewal ahead.

00:43:59.720 Indeed it is.

00:44:00.480 You know, that congeals so well with the devotion of the Holy Face, which is all about reparation, especially for.

00:44:09.880 Sins against the first three commandments.

00:44:11.660 In fact, the tablets of Moses, they were the three commandments on the one tablet, and the other tablet had all seven.

00:44:19.300 Fascinating stuff.

00:44:20.140 Drew, thank you so much for being with us.

00:44:22.180 Thank you, John Henry.

00:44:22.980 God bless you, and God bless all of you.

00:44:26.460 And we'll see you next time.

00:44:27.360 Hi, everyone.

00:44:39.300 This is John Henry Weston.

00:44:40.420 We hope you enjoyed this program.

00:44:42.060 To see more like it, be sure to hit the subscribe button below to get all the latest content from LifeSite News.

00:44:47.340 Check the links in the description to read more and connect with us on social media so that you can stay up to date with all the latest life, family, faith, and freedom news.

00:44:55.980 Thanks for watching, and may God bless you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - April 06, 2023

Prepare NOW： Demise Of Dollar Dominance, Living Standard Underway

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