Every year, a city in the desert is built from scratch and for a week is populated by tens of thousands of people from all over the world. Known as Burning Man, attendees known as Burners see it as a grand celebration of life and spiritual transformation.
00:00:00.060Every year in Nevada, a city in the desert is built from scratch and for a week is populated by tens of thousands of people from all over the world.
00:00:10.080Attendees known as Burners see it as a grand celebration of life and spiritual transformation.
00:00:17.520Burning Man is just one of the countless transformational festivals that encompass the return of the old gods.
00:00:25.580All right, here we are. This episode is on Burning Man, a harmless event that's fun for
00:00:34.540the whole family. Right, guys? Absolutely. Bring the kids. Yeah, bring the kids. Have a blast,
00:00:39.840right? Just tapping into your inner self and a few demons along the way. Tell us, okay, so...
00:00:44.960Well, that's Disney. Yeah, that's Disney. Amen. All right, so tell me about Burning Man.
00:00:50.820Yeah, so I want to start off by saying that I want to sort of quote and paraphrase the founders of Burning Man who really described and they said that there's no way you can truly describe or encompass it unless you've been there.
00:01:04.940So I am speaking, though, I want to make sure I'm emphasizing I am speaking, Andrew speaking, we're all speaking as people who are on the outside looking in.
00:01:14.360So, I'll just talk about how it sort of came to my attention.
00:01:17.400So, as we've talked about in previous aspects of our discussion, one of the very first episodes we did where I had Stephen Bancars on, it was our first sort of general overview of the New Age and the occult.
00:02:34.940dressed, you know, promiscuously out there
00:02:37.920with a bunch of her friends out in the desert.
00:02:39.860And it looked, my first perception is that I was trying to just, like, what am I even looking at, looking at pictures of this person? And it would almost be like Lawrence of Arabia, like a promiscuous Lawrence of Arabia intertwined with Mad Max with a bunch of tents in the desert with all sorts of interesting artwork. And just, it's like, oh, well, that's interesting. What's that all about?
00:03:03.960And so, I think when you look at being on the outside looking in, I think what Burning Man does represent, it is sort of a North Star encompassing point that it really sort of points where we are as a culture and really the return of the old gods.
00:03:24.060because while many people would look at Burning Man
00:03:46.480that go out into the desert via RVs that are out there.
00:03:49.820There's really nothing new under the sun.
00:03:51.740In fact, the idea of pagans moving about, creating a giant festival to raise up a temple, or in this case, a grand statue, and to do all sorts of different rituals and things connected to paganism, that's literally ancient Rome.
00:05:41.760Like, when you see it, like, what are, like, the first impressions that come to mind?
00:05:45.300Yeah. When I see Burning Man, it looks like a place I definitely don't want to go. But I want
00:05:50.480to give some numbers real quick just to give the audience a good idea of how Burning Man has grown
00:05:54.680throughout the last, let's say, 30 years. Okay. 30, 35 years. So 1986 was the first burn. There's
00:06:01.260about 20 people there and it wasn't even something that was organized. It just happened. There's 20
00:06:06.220people around 2011, 53,735 to around the last, the last one around 80,000. Let me give you an
00:06:13.940idea of prices. In 2012, the tickets were $240 to 320, all the way up to 390. And there was
00:06:20.760presale tickets for $420. So they're making a lot of money off of Burning Man, so much so that
00:06:26.000there's even a corporation, BlackRock City LLC. It's a for-profit company that creates Burning
00:06:32.700Man every single year. But on the outside, looking in at Burning Man, I'm seeing a relation to,
00:06:39.880let's say Mormon general conference, which happens twice a year where all of the LDS individuals from
00:06:45.340around the world will gather to hear their prophets speak, right? Revelation from God,
00:06:50.320and they all gather to go. That happens twice a year, April and October. For Islam, they do what?
00:06:56.460They go to Mecca. They travel there, the adherence of Islam. So for, let's say, the degenerate
00:07:03.180rejects of modern Western culture, where do they go? They go to Burning Man once a year, right?
00:07:09.300So we're talking about artists other than, you know, political figures and even Jeff Bezos has gone to Burning Man or sends people to Burning Man.0.99
00:07:19.120We have, you know, artists, queers, like people who believe in UFOs, people are doing psychedelics, nudists, people looking for new sexual experiences.0.66
00:07:30.220These are all the types of people that are going to Burning Man.0.86
00:07:32.300And an interesting fact even about Burning Man is that everything is supposed to run on like charity there in a sense.
00:07:38.640But the only things that cost money are ice and coffee.
00:07:42.780But supposedly the city gets built up, right?
00:08:29.180But when you come down to it, then there's just that you have all the different burn camps and you have all sorts of different, you know, areas in which there's talks and discussions on how to do shamanism, how to do different.
00:08:45.180There's always new discoveries on, you know, transformational psychedelics.
00:08:49.080There's a lot of talk on, you know, political oneness, which is like one world government.
00:09:57.600And then one of them kind of went through the man and picked up fire in the wind.
00:10:02.540And so now there's like literally a pillar of fire that's moving, you know, around.
00:10:07.400And I was just thinking about, you know, the Israelites in the wilderness being led, you
00:10:11.820know, by a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire.
00:10:15.200And they're in the wilderness in the middle of the desert, in the middle of nowhere.
00:10:18.480And so, anyways, you know, I was just looking at that and other aspects, but just thinking that, you know, a lot of it is like seeking a sign, some kind of supernatural experience, you know, that I'm going to go to this place and receive some kind of supernatural experience, some kind of revelation, transformation, you know.
00:10:40.120Yeah, but it absolutely, but, you know, aside from that and some of the religious, you know, undertones, it, you know, it's from everything that I've read, it's filled with sexual promiscuity, lots and lots of drug use, lots of psychedelics, you know, and then lots of pagan practices, you know, like shamanism.
00:11:05.220And, um, it is not, uh, it is not even close to, you know, I was being facetious at the opening
00:11:12.160of the episode, but like, it's, it is not, uh, just a, uh, let's go camping in the desert and
00:11:17.540hang out and have a good time. It's a very, intentionally, it's a very, uh, sexual,
00:11:24.440psychedelic, religious experience that has, it seems like it's just a mere image of,
00:11:30.900a counterfeit to things that are biblical, and then just a mere image, a replica of a lot of old
00:11:42.620pagan rituals. Real quick, before we continue with the show, I wanted to let you know that
00:11:48.540this is actually just one episode of a 10-part series that we will be slowly releasing to the
00:11:55.300public on places like YouTube and your favorite podcast platform over the coming months. However,
00:12:01.540if you want to get all 10 of these episodes right now, early access and ad-free, we are making them
00:12:09.540available exclusively for our Patreon members over at patreon.com forward slash right response
00:12:17.540ministries. Here are the titles for just a few of those episodes. We've got transhumanism and
00:12:23.960artificial intelligence. We also have DMT and the astral realm. We also have neo-paganism.
00:12:32.440And another of my favorite episodes is an entire episode devoted to the grays. So again, head on0.99
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00:12:46.880which is just $5 a month, and you'll be able to get all 10 of these episodes ad-free right now.
00:12:54.100And if you join us at the Gold Tier for just $10 a month, you'll get early access, ad-free for the
00:13:01.020full 10 episodes, plus an additional live stream that I and the guys who joined me for this series,
00:13:08.020that's Jeremiah Roberts and Andrew Sunkrant, the three of us will be doing live streams where we'll
00:13:13.920be taking questions from you, our gold-tier Patreon members, and providing for you the
00:13:19.700best answers that we possibly can from the Word of God. So, don't delay. Go to patreon.com forward
00:13:25.960slash right response ministries and become a supporter today. Yeah, I mean, yeah, for sure,
00:13:31.340and there's definitely nothing new under the sun. In fact, Burning Man would be one of those areas
00:13:34.880in which it's not just Burning Man, but there's also sort of smaller replicated burns around the
00:13:39.720world. And there's many other transformational festivals too that still, while they differ from
00:13:45.260each other, they still have an underlying aspect propagated of oneness. So there's another really
00:13:50.740popular festival known as Tomorrowland. Andrew, you've heard of that. And in that, I remember
00:13:57.420just seeing the tickets to Tomorrowland. It was really, the artwork is very well done. And it just
00:14:03.620goes to show that a lot of times, man, there's so much reformation that Christians need to have
00:16:01.140if you think about someone who's a clinical surgeon,
00:16:03.300right a clinical surgeon if they're going to do uh brain surgery like you think of somebody like
00:16:09.120ben carson who is a neurosurgeon that takes a level of precision of understanding the in a lot
00:16:16.320the the integral parts of the brain and how it works or how to remove a tumor and what each part
00:16:21.760does that requires a skill set that's very unique or if you look at someone who just would fix or
00:16:27.760who would fix a broken bone or whatever type of surgery they're doing you cut you know what parts
00:16:33.080of the leg are bone. You'll know which part is in you. You'll know regardless of which person
00:16:38.420comes in. You have that. Now, the difference is, as somebody who, for example, would be like a
00:16:44.040therapist or a psychologist, when they have someone in their office and they're trying to,
00:16:48.340you know, prescribe and give them treatment and trying to talk with their client,
00:16:51.680what they're doing, and say they're a trauma therapist, they're talking with a veteran who's
00:16:55.900been through some serious PTSD or a survivor of sexual assault, what they're trying to do,
00:17:03.420they're trying to prescribe and look at something that they tangibly can't see. But there's components
00:17:09.340that they're trying to figure out, but still being on the outside looking in. Because we can't
00:17:14.140tangibly see our psyche and what's going on or what's causing a trauma response. We can only
00:17:19.420sort of look at it at a vague distance. And I think this is kind of where we would fall into
00:17:24.460the second camp of, pun intended, of being on the outside looking in. So while my perspective
00:17:30.480will be very different, you know, if I ever end up going specific, there's actually a group
00:17:35.000that we did a podcast with who have been out for years. They, it's a really cool story. They have
00:17:41.080a camp, a burn camp called the camp of the unknown God, a homage to act 17. And then again,
00:17:47.660they've been on the podcast before and they said, this is not for every single Christian. Like if
00:17:51.700you, in the same way, going to the Planned Parenthood and doing abortion ministry is not
00:17:57.960for every single person. And you think about John Barrows, who's now with the Lord, and the faithful
00:18:03.220work that he has done, that he's done just being out at that clinic out in Florida, just being
00:18:08.120faithful, continually, continually going. Robert Worley, who's been on the podcast before, he has,
00:18:15.000he's an older man now, but he was, you came to know the Lord, was saved out of it, we just kind
00:18:19.340of had a rough upbringing and was in, like, different, like, biker gangs and stuff like
00:18:23.500that. And he just knew that Christians went out of their way to talk to me when I was really kind
00:18:29.500of a dangerous, you know, sort of Sons of Anarchy sort of character, presented the gospel to me.
00:18:34.900That changed my heart. Why would I be scared? Why would I not want to go to talk to these people?
00:18:40.080So, he ended up just having a heart for the people at Burning Man. He got connected to it.
00:18:45.280So he's pretty much been there since it started and just going out there to do evangelism, to create relationships, to talk with people, but specifically going as a Christian, not trying to blend in, not trying to look like a burner.0.91
00:18:57.640But again, it's not for everyone because you have promiscuity.0.86
00:19:00.940You'll have to deal with probably with a lot of Christians in the first century how to deal with, you know, a lot of nudity and a lot of just promiscuity.1.00
00:19:08.160I mean, that's what you saw in Corinth. That's what you saw in Colossae with, you know, the temples that were dedicated to, you know, certain fertility gods who were full of prostitutes.1.00
00:19:19.560So, I just see, when I look on the outskirts, I see really not any different, not too much difference between what's taking place at Burning Man.
00:19:30.980It's like, it's a technocratic, I feel like I would describe it from the outside looking in, of a technocratic version of first century Rome.
00:19:40.520Because you're looking at, you know, what they're trying to, because you have all this background, you have like syncretism.
00:19:48.240And so that's where, you know, as a Christian, you would be, okay, well, I'm looking at this and you look at all the worldviews being depicted. You look at all the type of idolatry that's there. And I feel like as a Christian, you shouldn't feel like anger or feel like you want to be disparaging and derogatory ways towards any of the burners, but to be overwhelmed like Paul was in Athens, knowing that the city is full of idols and then go in there and start bringing in the unknown.
00:20:18.240God. So, my friends who have been out there, when they have this camp, the camp of the unknown God,
00:20:23.980they're literally having people who come by who are just into this, that, and the other and say,
00:20:29.000who is this unknown God? Like, tell me about them. And it's like a trip because it's like,
00:20:34.120all of a sudden, the Acts 17 becomes alive in real time. Like, you're living that out
00:20:40.040right then and there. And so, another example, the Transformational Festival, and it actually
00:20:44.140got mentioned by Carl Takerib, who did the book Game of Gods, would even be the festival out at
00:20:49.680the Hare Christian Temple in Utah. That's one of the big ones. You've done evangelism as well
00:20:54.020as there too. So that would be another example of a transformational festival, which is really
00:20:58.700nothing that's brand new. I think what you'd really understand is that with, you know, it just,
00:21:05.980it was about Richard Dawkins kind of hit the main prominence. Was it like 10 or like whatever,
00:21:11.840like 10 20 years ago when he kind of like dropped god is not great and he kind of had him and
00:21:16.100hitchens they sort of ran the new atheism well i think that really fell short even now he's a
00:21:21.280cultural christian that's what he just said yeah so i think atheism and honestly it's not really
00:21:26.380it was really a fad i think what you've seen is that neo-paganism surpasses the encompassing part
00:21:32.780of atheism because you get to still be your own god you get to be autonomous but you also get to
00:21:37.220be inherently spiritual too. Like we know people inherently know they're in the image of God.
00:21:42.020We know we want to ascend and experience something bigger than ourselves. And I think that's where
00:21:47.900I think a place like Burning Man and the hunger for that, it really taps into really getting a
00:21:55.140thorough understanding of just the, the Lord has created attorney in the hearts of men. And I think
00:22:00.280that's the draw that you see there. And so, yeah, those are some of my initial thoughts.
00:22:05.420Yeah, it's very interesting to me thinking about Burning Man that it doesn't, they're creating a city that pops up and then goes away. Right? Well, the reason is because that type of life can't exist in God's world indefinitely. Right? So it's only there for a minute and then goes away. It's a place of free self-love and radical self-expression.
00:22:27.840and what they what they want to accomplish is that these things happen at burning man there's
00:22:33.760the burning of the man and then everyone dissipates and there's nothing left behind
00:22:37.540right so come here uh enjoy yourself express yourself to the fullest even against capitalism
00:22:43.920even though it's a for-profit company in a capitalistic society that's making money off
00:22:48.600them i find that ironic but the reality is is that what happens at burning man doesn't just
00:22:54.200stay there or disappear, right? There is sin happening in the wilderness. And I find it
00:22:59.740also ironic that the wilderness represents, you know, sin in general. It's not a garden. It's
00:23:05.680the wilderness. It's the desert. And we have people going out there to commit shameful acts
00:23:11.140with one another, thinking that just for a time they're doing it and then getting back to their
00:23:15.340normal life. But in reality, those things stay with them, right? That's sin. And it's anger to
00:23:22.560God, and they need a sacrifice for their sins, who is Jesus. And that's why they go out there
00:23:28.940to preach the gospel to them, the unknown God, right? Right. Right. What about the burning of
00:23:33.520the man itself? Because I've read a few different descriptions of what that's actually supposed to
00:23:40.260represent. What can you guys tell me about that? Why do they burn a huge effigy? They build this,
00:23:46.480construct this wooden man. And right, I think it's the last night or something like that,
00:23:50.580towards the end of the festival, that they set it on fire.
00:23:53.880And I've heard multiple different descriptions.
00:23:56.580One is that it represents you, yourself,
00:24:18.500Yeah. And again, I'm someone who's on the outside looking in. What we'll probably do is there's an article, probably a link I'd recommend. There's a great magazine known as the Spiritual Counterfeits Project. And there's a friend of mine, Steve Matthews, who's been on the podcast before, who has given a lot more integral details.
00:24:36.040It is loosely connected to the Wicker Man and kind of that story of the Burning Man.
00:24:58.500So like the final burn, it's like a very, from how I've heard it described from Carl Takerib and people who've been there who's witnessed it.
00:25:06.940And I think Will Spencer would be great to give like a thorough commentary on it.
00:25:11.380It's a very, it's a very sombering, it's a very sombering moment.
00:25:15.860Like so throughout the entire festival, it's very loud.
00:25:19.080You have different techno rays, different music, all, there's just, it's just nonstop like craziness.
00:25:24.400It was just funny. I was watching the Ten Commandments
00:26:20.980and you just want to take them and then you want to burn them up as far as evidence you're saying
00:26:24.400you're leaving that behind. Yeah. So part, uh, looking at the article here, uh, part of the
00:26:30.260ceremony of burning the man, uh, let's try to think about it in terms of Christianity. So we have
00:26:35.960the body of Christ, right? Different members make up the body of Christ. Uh, the eyes, the ears,
00:26:42.080the hands, the feet, uh, in terms of burning man, uh, what the article that we'll link to, uh,
00:26:47.180it talks about is that these pagans or different subcultures are all essentially different parts
00:26:53.720of a body. And the man itself represents the whole. Okay. And so there are rituals that go
00:26:58.740on all throughout the week. And I'll read this from quotes. It's very interesting here. So it
00:27:02.860says this utilizing the sun and a spiral mirror, crimson rose extracts a flame from the sun and a
00:27:07.500fire is lit in the center camp cauldron for the flame to continue burning. It must be stoked,
00:27:12.420disturbed, and kept alive throughout the entire week. So this happens at the beginning and they
00:27:15.520keep this one flame alive. We encourage all those that encounter the special cauldron to help keep
00:27:20.340this flame flame alive. On Saturday night, the fire that we extract from the sun drum and dance
00:27:25.000around that has been burning all week long will be transferred to a special lantern. The Lumen
00:27:29.180Ferris, the procession of the ceremonial flame in great fanfare will process to the great circle
00:27:34.880where the fire conclave in its full force will utilize that same fire for dances dedicated to
00:27:39.860the man before he is brought to life in a pyrotechnic delight. So the burning of the
00:27:44.700man is burning of the whole, right? That's the man represents all of them, all of the cultures
00:27:49.260that are there. Very interesting to me, but it's not a surprise that most false worship tries to
00:27:57.560counterfeit Christianity in so many ways, right? All of them together, the head, the eyes, the ears,0.76
00:28:03.280the legs of paganism brought together to burn this man in worship. Whereas in Christianity,0.92
00:28:09.060the body of Christ is to bring about the kingdom of God on earth, not a burning of a man.
00:28:13.900Yeah, and you think from a Christian perspective, you're looking at unity through a lens of twoism, where you're looking at we are distinct, we're unique, we have equal value because we are both equal in the eyes of God.
00:28:27.700Not equal because we're some part of one divine, you know, and personal consciousness through a realm of pantheism where, no, we're equal in the sight of a God because he is the transcendent law giver.
00:28:38.520He has declared us equal before God regardless of race, ethnicity, and background.
00:28:45.680Like that, that would be the primary distinction.0.89
00:28:47.580And I think it's just, you know, and also another thing I would just say from just my conversations of what I've had with Will Spencer, some of my other previous guests who have been burners, is that when the people, like the interactions of the group that's been out there, when they talk with people who are burners, a lot of them come from very difficult and rough upbringings.0.98
00:29:12.540They have usually a lot of family abandonment, a lot of abandonment trauma, which is very interesting because when you hear backgrounds of New Agers, a lot of them come from very broken homes.0.74
00:29:20.960So I think as well, too, I've realized, too, just the importance of self-government and as a man, like a good patriarchal family government where you are looking after and spiritually nurturing your children.
00:29:34.280Because while patriarchy is inevitable, there's that saying where a lot of women, for example, they usually have a lot of father hunger because they had a very abusive, a very neglectful father.
00:29:48.420And now they're trying to fill in that spiritual vacuum through the New Age.
00:29:52.380But instead of having ultimately their Heavenly Father for validation, now they're usually trying to find some sort of male guru like in India.0.75
00:29:59.880Especially like all the white, specifically like the white New Age women who go to India, you always see them finding confidence in some sort of like Hindu guru like over there.0.59
00:30:09.540And that becomes their father patriarchal figure.0.89
00:30:12.060But what you really end up seeing is that a lot of them, people who come there for the burn, they come from a very broken background.
00:30:19.500They come from just a lot of chaos in their life, usually like a background like of addiction.
00:30:24.300And usually that's a catalyst for going into the New Age.
00:30:26.660uh so theresa gentry she was in the podcast and she was an avid burner like so she got into the
00:30:32.700new age because she was actually in san francisco and she was a very fun she taught she's very open
00:30:39.600about this in the podcast but she was a by the time she was 14 she was a functioning alcoholic
00:30:44.060and that had to do with because there's all this family trauma that she didn't really know how to
00:30:48.920do with and because of that that created a lot a lot of health issues then she got that by way of
00:30:54.600getting into a lot of organic and raw food eating, and that actually helped her, you know,0.98
00:30:58.700recreate her microbiomes and stuff like that. But a lot of these areas of the New Age,
00:31:04.620there is a lot of gateways. One would be alternative medicine. Alternative medicine,
00:31:10.720and a lot of times in the health food industry, nothing wrong about, you know, having, eating
00:31:15.040healthy. You should do that. We should be responsible of the bodies that God has given us.
00:31:20.680But a lot of times what you'll see is a lot of those movements,
00:31:24.920they end up having the new age tied into them.
00:31:27.920That ends up being the caboose or the hook to rule people in.
00:31:31.500So this raw food restaurant that she was working at,
00:31:34.680that became a catalyst for her to be introduced to the new age
00:31:38.780and some of these seances and getting into one thing over another.
00:31:43.440And that's what you're really looking at.
00:31:46.180And I think one of the areas too, and again, I'm fully talking from the perspective of someone on the outside looking in, is I, this past year at Burning Man, it was very interesting because I was, I had some friends who I, that I had spoken with and they were part of the team that was out there.
00:32:07.120And, you know, there's a downpour, and all of a sudden, it became this, like, crazy Woodstock situation.0.74
00:32:13.960And it was very interesting because I was following on X some of the posts that people were making, in some sense, really going above and beyond having, you know, warranted, sterated edge, you know, there's a place for that, mocking the prophets of Baal.
00:32:29.100But really, at a point, really demeaning and mocking and disparaging the people that were there at Burning Man at the expense of seeing them less than how you should view them as a Christian, as people who need to know Christ and need to know the gospel.
00:32:44.140And there were also a lot of different conspiracies about FEMA camps being set up there and supposedly some sort of weird flesh-eating virus or something like that where people were killing each other.
00:32:54.920I mean, it was just, there were all sorts of crazy, you know, TikTok theories about all these conspiracies that are going on.
00:33:01.760And I met, I got a whole, the guy, Carl, he didn't have what, he didn't have a minimal, he had minimal receptions.
00:33:08.500He would give updates, but he just said like, where's your compassion for people?
00:33:12.680Like what happened to being, seeing the crowds and being like moved with compassion to reach these people?
00:33:18.220And I think it's just as a whole, it's very easy to look at people who are going to transformational festivals or going to those guru weekend retreats where people are like screaming out their traumas and trying to do all those things.
00:33:32.460And I'm hesitant a lot of times now to post those, even on our socials, because people tend to speak about them in a very demeaning way, whereas like they're doing their best to try and transcend.
00:33:44.000they just have a very broken, dysfunctional way in hell to do so. So I think that's the most
00:33:49.700important thing is that people who are burners, they are made in the image of God. They know
00:33:56.500that eternity is written on their hearts. They know they're made to transcend. They're just
00:34:00.280trying to do it in an empty, futile way where there's no end in sight, since they're doing
00:34:04.380it through the lens of oneness. Right Response Ministries 2025 conference is a go. This is
00:34:13.760three days, full jam-packed conference with eight main sessions, three to four hour and a half long
00:34:20.140panels, and an all-star super-based lineup of speakers, 15 speakers in all. Who are they?
00:34:27.120Steve Dace, Jeff Durbin, Orne McIntyre, Stephen Wolfe, Brian Sauve, Andrew Isker, John Harris,
00:34:34.500Eric Kahn, A.D. Robles, Dan Burkholder, the Christian Prince himself, Dusty Devers,
00:34:40.160Ben Garrett, David Reese, and yours truly, Pastor Joel Webin.
00:34:44.800Again, this is April 3rd, 4th, and 5th, 2025, and the early registration is open right now.
00:34:52.620This is the longest conference with the most speakers we've ever offered, and yet it is
00:40:38.740about how I want to reach out to those people.
00:40:43.000I don't think it will happen this year, but it's very much possible I may end up joining the team to be out there, which would be a very unique thing.
00:40:53.780So it's one thing I'm still kind of weighing out if this is even the right thing that I should do.
00:41:00.100So, but yeah, I think it's something to be paying attention to because it is very much a pinnacle, like a wind.
00:41:09.440Like, we see the which way the wind is blowing.
00:41:11.320I mean, if you want to see how this worldview of oneism is affecting the culture, I think Burning Man is really the central hub and ground zero to understand where that's headed.
00:41:21.320Because everything from public policy to, you know, just many aspects of our life, they see that as the transfiguration.
00:41:28.680Now it's like, disassemble, disassemble, now go ye into the world.
00:41:32.440Make disciples, disciple the nations of oneness.
00:41:36.380You know, what's really interesting to me, and I'd like to get your perspective on this, Joel, is they're using words like transformation, right? And then we also hear terms like, let's think about France. The French, they would call it the revolution, right? Which I would call it more a French rebellion. What's going on at Burning Man isn't a transformation, right? Like there's this weird play on language that's being used as if what's going on there for the individuals is actually something good, right?
00:42:04.040Would you call the French Revolution the revolution or why not if not?
00:42:09.420And why would Burning Man not be a transformation?
00:45:00.860I wonder if Burning Man will make sense.
00:45:04.500And what I mean by that is I can't help but think that part of the idea of leaving the city and civilization and, you know, going into the wilderness and the desert.0.90
00:45:20.660Because with Israel, it was like, even before they left, right, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.0.82
00:45:25.840but even before that, there was kind of a probation, a temporary period where Pharaoh
00:45:31.200actually let them leave for a little bit to go into the wilderness. And the reason why they
00:45:35.040went into the wilderness to have this powwow with Yahweh, with Moses, and to hear from God,
00:45:42.880and to make sacrifices and worship, is because the civilization at the time was pagan.
00:45:50.100So if they wanted to go and do something holy, truly holy, by God's standards,
00:45:55.640the one true God. They went into the wilderness to seek righteousness and left the city that
00:46:02.820represented pagan idolatry. And I think because of Christendom, Burning Man made sense 35 years0.51
00:46:10.700ago in its inception. Leave the public square, leave civilization, leave your family, your
00:46:19.380friends, your house, your suburbs, your job, your town that is maybe not overtly, but even 35 years1.00
00:46:30.360ago, there was plenty of sin, but still in a general sense is a Christian milieu. And leave0.99
00:46:36.760that and go into the wilderness and we'll set up temporary pagan town. I wonder if we don't repent1.00
00:46:43.340and God doesn't send revival and things continually get worse
00:46:47.320and rebellion intensifies and God's judgment becomes more severe.
00:50:19.820But what I have really seen when it comes to just sort of being in the just in the in this realm now for five years, kind of being in the game here with cultish is that you do see an aspect while we are unequivocally free falling into a neo paganism for sure.
00:50:38.900And you're seeing the resurgence of that in so many levels in the arts and in film and even in technology when we talked about the transhumanism and so many aspects of it.
00:50:48.480But there is, I do see that post-millennial aspect of God's sovereignty where the Lord looks at the conspiring of the nations and that he laughs.
00:50:57.720So, the spiritual zeitgeist of the age and the agendas that are there and how they want to implement public policy and how they do want to do all these things.
00:51:05.040The reality is that since 2020, in the midst of all that chaos, there have been just a plethora of people coming out of the New Age to Christ who are the very idols that they're trying to build up in the desert.
00:51:19.280People, by way of the conviction to the Holy Spirit, they're saying, no, I'm burning that down.
00:51:24.740And it's a very interesting dichotomy, too, of the pearl of great price, because we're seeing this huge movement among evangelicalism of the deconstruction movement, which is really a byproduct of, you know, wisdom is justified by her children.
00:51:38.720And so you're seeing so many ways in which the evangelical church has failed to disciple their kids, you know, substituting youth ministry for family worship.
00:51:48.600But you're looking at now this revival that's taking place amongst New Agers who are saying, well, you have a lot of the children of evangelicals who are rejecting Christ, who are deconstructing.
00:51:59.540God is now saving a new remnant, just saying, no, I'm just going to call a bunch of people who just have no understanding of God, the gospel, or trying to be former astrologers, former witches, former warlocks, former this, that, and the other.
00:52:14.980are now saying, no, like, Christ is Lord, Christ is King. I've tried everything under the sun when
00:52:23.860it comes to the New Age and have been left wanting. Having a Philippians 2 resume of every
00:52:29.140New Age and occultic practice under the sun, but still have been left wanting, and all of a sudden,
00:52:34.360what has been rejected by, you know, the CCM artists who have deconstructed and the Derek
00:52:38.820webs of the world is now being embraced as the pearl of great price by people who I'm talking
00:52:44.180to on a regular basis who are coming out of Burning Man. So, I think that's why it's one
00:52:48.680of the most important things of the church is to know, understanding the worldviews that come
00:52:54.280behind transformational festivals like these so we can know how to minister to those coming out.
00:52:59.240Because I've seen just a small trinkling, but I think what was once just a little bit of like a
00:53:03.860dripping is now going to be a flowing faucet. And we have to be able to have formulated apologetics
00:53:08.580of how to give answers for those coming out.