Bottom Line Interview (2021)

Individual Topics — Steve Gregg

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Bottom Line Interview (2021)

Individual TopicsSteve Gregg

Steve Gregg, a seasoned veteran of faith and a Bible teacher, was recently interviewed on the Bottom Line Show. In the interview, Gregg mentioned his background in physical health, his passion for transparent dialogue about controversial topics, and his newly published books. He also discussed his website, thenarrowpath.com, which offers free resources for those seeking to study the Bible. Despite his experience as a Bible teacher, Gregg emphasized that he encourages individuals to form their own opinions rather than blindly following his teachings.

Transcript

Well, welcome to a new week of broadcast here on the Bottom Line Show. I'm Roger Marsh. And just for fun, you know what I should have done? I didn't even think about this, Todd.

What I should have done is I should have had Steve open the show. And that way people would hear Steve Gregg and say, wait, I just heard Steve Gregg on Cape Wright. Yeah, you want to confuse your listeners.

Yeah, that's right. Well, it wouldn't be super confusing, but it's a mutiny, I tell you. Well, my show is confusing every day.

Trust me, one of my guilty pleasures is I love turning on the microphone and cue and listening to Narrow Path, getting ready for Bottom Line Show. And there are days when I think, Lord, thank you for making Steve the patient, thoughtful, discerning, insightful guy that he is. And thank you for letting those people call him instead of me.

I don't mind saying that at all because I love what you do. And it's great to see you again, brother. We were just talking before coming on the air.

You finished up in your studio and then came into mine. It's been a while since we've seen each other. Yeah, I know it's been over a year.

Yeah, yeah. And you've got big books here to talk about, which we will talk about, and the ministry to talk about. But we're not necessarily going to do a Narrow Path Q&A, but I want to give Bottom Line listeners a chance to get to know Steve a little bit more because you are such a wealth of information, but you're a really fascinating guy, too.

I just like hanging out with you. I think the first time we met, we went over and got Mexican food. Your wife was here with us, and I found out about your passion there, which is interesting to me because of your background in terms of your physical health.

You have to watch what you eat, or do you? Well, I don't anymore. When I was two years old, I was diagnosed as having celiac, and so I was raised avoiding gluten. You were kind of an early gluten-free guy.

Back when I was two years old, hardly any doctors in America knew about celiac. It had been known for about a generation, I think, in Europe, but it was very unfamiliar to American doctors. I think our doctor made a mistake.

He told my mom and dad, don't give him wheat bread, put him on rye, crisp. But rye has gluten, too. They just hadn't researched it that much.

But the funny thing is that I was actually seemingly at the point of death when I had the diagnosis because I was starving to death. When you see these pictures of babies in Africa, they're starving and have little tiny limbs and big basketball-sized bellies. That's what pictures of me looked like at that time.

They were trying to figure out why I was starving because I was eating plenty. They settled on celiac, and so they took me off bread and had me rye crisp, and I got better, which I shouldn't because rye has gluten, too. But I still tried to avoid gluten for my first 50 years, literally.

But sometimes I didn't have to be real careful about it, and I never had any symptoms. When I was about 50, a friend of mine who's a doctor said, you know, it's pretty unusual to have asymptomatic celiac. You might want to be tested again.

I was tested again, but the test said I don't have it. Now, celiac is a congenital, lifelong condition, I believe. But I'm not very attracted to wheat products, but it doesn't hurt to eat them.

Well, you know, it is interesting. As you were sharing that story, I was reminded in the fourth grade there was a boy in our class who was diabetic. And every time we had birthday parties and stuff like that, Pete had to have milk because everybody else was having punch.

And as I got older and I saw how much sugar was in milk, I'm like, wait, how does that help a diabetic? It sounds like the same doctors that worked with my buddy were working with you back in the day. But it is interesting, though, and I guess it kind of dovetails nicely into our conversation. I'm excited.

I'm not excited. We shouldn't be anxious for anything. I'm encouraged by what we see in the culture right now with the misinformation kind of bubbling to the surface.

And I want to get your take on this, Steve, Greg. It's no fun to hear people like Raphael Warnock yesterday tweeting out, hey, the great thing about the resurrection is it's transcendent. But it's not as transcendent as the fact that you can save yourself by helping other people.

And I'm going, wait, where is that? But at the same time, when that comes to the surface, it does kind of give guys like you, guys like me, the opportunity to have a conversation and kind of set the record straight. Do you think that's more of an encouragement or a hindrance right now? Well, I think I think one thing that's probably positive in a backhanded sort of way is that it'll separate between those church leaders that really are loyal to God and the word of God and those on the other side who really are. I mean, some I should say some are and some are not.

And, you know, as long as there's no real big controversies bubbling up to the surface, you can't. I remember I was raised in a Baptist church, American Baptist. Now there's about 40 different Baptist denominations.

American Baptist is the most liberal of them all. But my family didn't know that we were just Baptist seemed like, you know, good old conservative evangelical. Sure.

My family were conservative. I was conservative. We didn't know the American Baptist were liberal.

But I do remember my father on occasion saying, I really wonder if our pastor believes in. And then he named some evangelical doctrine because he never heard the pastor mention it. But the pastor never said anything that was heretical or outright leftist or liberal.

You know, so so it's like as long as there's nothing very controversial being discussed. Someone who doesn't believe the evangelical doctrines can get away with preaching things that all people believe in. And it doesn't show up.

But then when it's when the left and the right are really becoming polarized in the society, the leftist pastors are basically, you know, under pressure to take a stand with the with what they believe, which is leftism in many cases. Yeah. See, Greg is with me here on The Bottom Line Show.

I'm Roger Marsh. Of course, if you listen to The Narrow Path, which you hear, Steve is kind of the forerunner for a lot of our Bottom Line Show affiliates. It's Narrow Path for an hour and then Bottom Line for an hour, hour and a half, two hours, whatever you get.

The Narrow Path dot com is where you find information about Steve and and his ministry. And that's a great I love the way you delineate, you know, any of the responses when someone comes at you with a whole wheelbarrow full of stuff or sometimes a cement mixer, just beep, beep. They just dump it all in your lap.

The fact that you parse it out so well, I think that's one of the hallmarks of the ministry of The Narrow Path. How did you is that is that the way God wired you? Is that the way you were mentored? I mean, I love how logical your thought process is. Well, I guess I don't know if being logical is a temperament thing, probably, or if it's something that's acquired through the influences in your life.

My wife, all people in my family are pretty logical thinkers and no one in my family is very emotional. I have I have an older sister and a mom, of course, and I've never seen either of them cry. I mean, really, never saw it, never heard my parents shout at each other.

I don't think they ever did. I mean, we didn't have arguments. So it was kind of just a just a smooth sailing, clear thinking environment.

I was brought up in there. No one really got overcome with any kind of emotions, anger, grief or whatever. Maybe not even enough because my dad just died a few months or so ago at 95.

I mean, he's ready to go. It's not. I never wept.

You know, I love my dad. I was pretty close to him. But but to me, he's gone to heaven.

I mean, it's just kind of a rational response. And that could be a little offensive at times. A lot of people wrote, you know, want to comfort you, console you and your grief and so forth.

But what grief? I mean, my dad had a good, good long run. You know, he's 95 years old. How long do you want him to live? He's ready for heaven, you know? Yeah.

Yeah. He's where I want to be now. Exactly.

Exactly. So there's a little biblical jealousy going on. Good for you, Dad.

And, you know, that's that's what we all hope for. You know, and I think that's key. Steve Gregg is my guest here on the Bottom Line show.

The Narrow Path dot com is where you find information about his outstanding ministry, which, as I mentioned, bottom line listeners have known for the past decade. Steve Gregg Narrow Path is. Well, it hasn't been for the whole 10 years that we've been on the air.

But when you moved from the morning to the afternoon and then I was praying, I mean, I love Lance. I mean, I wanted him to move to the morning so you could have the whole hour selfishly, because I thought, you know, we tell people that the broadcast line up here at KBRT, Steve Gregg, two to three now, bottom line, three to four thirty. Jack Hibbs at four thirty after that.

It's a really balanced lineup of Bible teaching, expository and some. We get into more of the political current event stuff. Obviously, that's not your your calling.

And I think that's great. And then Jack's in the pulpit. But Jack's also signing up people to vote.

So, I mean, it's I think the three of us together, you know, it's it's it's entertaining and edifying all at the same time. Well, I have strong political views, but I try to keep them. I try to keep the program on biblical subjects because that's what its format's been for the 23 years I've been on the air.

But but but people will ask me questions that are political. And I'll answer them and then I'll get hate mail from people saying, keep the show biblical. Right.

Right. OK, well, on the bottom line show, maybe we'll get into a little bit. We're going to take the whole hour here with Steve Gregg.

And if you have a question for Steve, not a narrow path question, but a Steve Gregg question, I'm going to I'm going to we're going to brag on Steve a little bit here. He would never do that. He's looking like he's glad to be sitting closer to the door so he can get out of the studio.

If I spend too much time doing this. Thanks for tuning into the bottom line show today. I'm Roger Marsh.

Steve Gregg with the Narrow Path is in studio with me. During the break, we were just coming to a big realization. And I know that this is stuff that's only interesting to people like me.

We're both middle children. I mean, you were just mentioning for the break, you have an older sister and younger brother. And I said, Steve, I have an older sister and a younger brother.

This is so cool. Maybe we're twins. We could be.

Well, and you went to Orange High. I did. And I know a guy who I know a woman in my church actually teaches now at Orange High.

That's been a while since you and I were both in high school. Yes, she wasn't teaching there when I was there. I don't think she was born when she graduated 50 years ago.

Well, I just did my 40th couple of years ago. But running into a lot of the same circles. If you have a question for Steve about Steve, not necessarily about the Bible.

We're going to do a lot of talking and we may get to the phones and we may not because of the stuff we want to talk about. You presented me with a couple of copies of your new books, Empire of the Risen Son, Books One and Books Two. And when you publish something like this, Steve, I mean, the bigger books on my bookshelf are Steve Gregg books because you don't take small topics and you don't necessarily, you know, just give us kind of a gloss over.

Here's five points and it's an acrostic and it spells cross or something like that. That's not your speed when God are these compilations. Is this kind of a retrospective for you in terms of many, many years of teaching? Or is this something God is laying on your heart now that says, I want you to explore this deeper? Well, it's frankly, a book one is about the kingdom of God conceptually, biblically.

The book two is really about discipleship, but which is also about the kingdom of God, because I believe discipleship is involvement in the kingdom of God. So one is like conceptual, one is more practical. And I intended it to be one book.

I planned to write one book that had two parts. Part one would be the concepts. Part two would be the practical.

But when I sat down to write, I really wanted to write a book about the same length as my book on the three views of hell. But I got longer than that. And I hadn't even finished the first part of it.

So I realized this is going to be two books because there's about 900 pages there. I was going to say these are these are big books. You could hurt somebody with these books.

But they're smaller now than they would be because they're about a little over 400 pages each. And that's not too huge. But that is so much what I've been teaching my life.

I was able to write both books in one month. I set aside three months to write the book, which became books. The first three months of 2020 was what I had in mind to write the books.

But I didn't get any of it done in January. I began in the second week of February. And by the end of February, both books were written, not in their final form.

But the chapters were essentially in their present condition. All that remained is the typographical errors that are still in it. We've had so many proofreaders.

And they all caught errors. And I fixed them again and again. Then we ran it to the press.

And then I saw the printed copy, read them again, and thought, wait, there's still hundreds of typos here. We got those fixed now. I hope they're not there anymore.

But you've got the first drafts or the first edition. So if you happen to read those, there'll be errors. Well, I'll look forward to that because, trust me, having done it this couple times myself, that's the most frustrating thing.

We love our editors and our proofreaders. Empire of the Risen Sun, book one, There is Another King. And Empire of the Risen Sun, book two, All the King's Men by Steve Gregg.

We're going to put links for the book up at the bottom of my show.com. Where can we purchase these? I mean, Amazon. Amazon, yeah. I don't sell them.

That's right. You always mention on the program, theneuropath.com, there's nothing for sale on your website. You can't buy anything from me.

I've never sold anything in my life. But partly because I'm just not, I don't have a head for business. And partly because I think once you start selling things, at least for me, maybe it's my own weakness, begin to think in terms of money.

And I'd rather think in terms of people and teaching people and getting information out to people. That's why we don't, and that's why we do the show the way we do. Right.

I don't want to, I know people can do this without getting mercenary, but I don't know if I can. Right. I appreciate you saying that because I've met, I mean, the privilege of 40 years of broadcasting, 10 years in this seat, meet a lot of people who have a lot of good resources, really good head for business.

I mean, they know how to manipulate systems and especially with the changing platforms and delivery mechanisms and things like that. And I don't think that any of it in and of itself is malicious. I think it's what man's sinful desires bring to the table.

I have great admiration for the men and women who know how to write something and multiply it and leverage it and that type of stuff. And I know, too, that I don't think that way either. I mean, I'm more like you.

I'd much rather see thebottomlineshow.com just always stay completely non-commercial and do it that way. But obviously, there's an exchange that goes on here. And I encourage bottom line listeners, and I do so on a regular basis, but I'll do so with Steve sitting right across the table from me.

Please make a donation to the Narrow Path. Go to NarrowPath.com, support this ministry. It is one of the most vital ministries that I know of on broadcast radio.

And the fact that you – well, you know what? We're going to take a break. Speaking of commercials, we have to run a couple. But when we come back, I'd like to find out about your speaking and your ministry, especially how COVID impacted you because that's a big concern for me with ministries that rely a lot on speaking and teaching and traveling.

Steve Gregg, the founder, the director, the man at TheNarrowPath.com is with us here on the Bottom Line Show. I'm Roger Marsh. More of our conversation in just a moment as the bottom line continues.

Steve Gregg is my guest today here on the Bottom Line Show. I'm Roger Marsh. Remind me, Steve, one of these breaks between now and the top of the hour, we have to have you come in and say you're listening to the bottom line and I took over the show.

I think that would be fun because – Roger Marsh is tied up in the corner. That's right. Here we go.

Well, Todd Stickler, our operations manager, is running around here getting video, and he has this bandana that he's using for a mask. And he does look like it's an old Western holdup. I wait for the piano to play.

Maybe Joel has some tumbleweeds he can throw in the studio or something. That would be a lot of fun. Speaking of the whole ministry, commerce, that type of stuff, Steve, before the break, I asked you a question and then didn't give you a chance to answer it, so I want you to answer it now.

With regard to speaking, I know that you do a lot of traveling, a lot of teaching, a lot of speaking. And with COVID, that pretty much got shut down for how long for you? Well, it was never completely shut down because of COVID. You know, we didn't know anything about COVID until early 2020.

Right. And at the end of 2019, I had decided to not travel at all for the first three months of 2020 because I wanted to write these books. Me too.

I wanted to allow myself that much time. You know, I didn't know that we'd all get shut down. Right.

But it ended up being okay because I wasn't planning to travel. I hadn't booked any travel during that time. And then when that was over, you know, no one was asking me to come because it was COVID.

They couldn't even meet in their churches and things like that. And, you know, I teach a lot, generally speaking, for youth of the mission. But during 2020, I was able to teach a lot of the YWAM schools around the country by Zoom.

I don't like it as much as being there in person, but I actually don't like flying either. Really? Well, it's airports I don't like. I don't mind flying.

But, you know, I'll fly when I'm asked to come. But fortunately, because of COVID, places that I would have to fly to, you know, knew better than to ask me to come. But my wife and I did make a cross-country trip driving last October.

And in a month long, we went as far back as Indiana and then back. And I spoke at about 23 places in 30 days. And this year, I'll be speaking for Youth with a Mission in Hawaii by Zoom, I believe, sometime soon.

But I am going to travel. Just in about three weeks, I'm going to travel up to Seattle and speak in YWAM and some other places. Are you pro-vaccination, pro-mask? I mean, and again, I know you're not a political guy.

You don't have a political opinion. Well, I'm often asked, you know, if it's the mark of the beast. I don't think so.

I don't have any reason to believe so. It doesn't fit the description of the mark of the beast, at least I can tell. But I'm also suspicious of an experimental drug.

I mean, it came out in nine months instead of four years, which is how long. And it has an emergency FDA waiver. It's not necessarily something that's approved.

So this is really not even a clinical trial, officially. And we got COVID. We got, my wife and I both got COVID, and it was very mild.

It was not as bad as a bad cold for us. And it only lasted two or three days for us. So I thought, why would I put an unknown substance to avoid this? Right, right, right.

Well, good point. And I should point out, too, an area of transparency. Steve and I are in the studio.

Steve is the first in-studio guest that I've had since the COVID outbreak. Really? Doing a lot of remote, you know, broadcasting. And even when I am in studio, we have, it was a corporate policy.

It was a corporate thing. I know there's some, I was talking to Greg Harris through the Bible. He's been to a couple other radio stations where they put up the flexi-glass and stuff.

Steve and I are just in here, you know, sharing germs. And, well, not sharing germs. But I mean, we're just here, you know, because we're just people.

I've never been very afraid of germs. Yeah. I've been healthy.

I mean, I've been very fortunate. Yeah, yeah. You can totally tell.

We've got a couple minutes before we come up on a hard break when our Bay Area affiliate joins us. But talk for just a moment, if you would, Steve, about the business decision, as it were, because there's ministry to write the book. But you get contracted to write books all the time.

You chose to self-publish Empire of the Risen Son 1 and 2. Why is that? Yeah, well, when I wrote the book, Revelation 4 Views, and the book on the three views of hell, those were published by Thomas Nelson, which is, you know, it's a lot more prestigious to have a big publisher want your material than to— usually if you publish it yourself, you're saying it's not good enough, really, for any publisher to want. But I actually was disappointed with Thomas Nelson on those books. But every time I contracted with him for one of my books, the contract says, you have to offer us your next book, too.

And so when I did the Revelation book, I had to offer him the hell book. And when I wrote the hell book, I had to offer them these books, too. But I was hoping they'd turn them down because I wanted to maintain complete editorial control.

Yes. I didn't like some of the decisions they made about the other two books. So I think the other two books are fine, but I had some things they preferred for me not to say and things like that.

Sure, sure. So I want to own this one. You know, I want to say what I want to say because I actually feel—I mean, I don't know that I will or will not write more books before I die.

But if I do, there won't be any more important than these. This is my life's—my life's message is the kingdom of God and discipleship. And I wanted to say it exactly the way I wanted to say it.

I love it. Well, the books by Steve Gregg are Empire of the Risen Son, book one is There Is Another King, and book two, All the King's Men. You mentioned one of them is conceptual and one is theoretical.

Yeah, one is practical. It's about discipleship. Right, there you go.

Really, that second book is really—it could have been called discipleship. I mean, that's what the book's about. Well, I want to talk about discipleship a little more on the other side of this break.

We're coming up on a hard stop where we get a chance to connect with our friends at KCBC in the Bay Area. We're going to go to the phones on the other side of this break and talk with Steve Gregg. I encourage you to go to TheBottomLineShow.com. That's TheBottomLineShow.com. And check out these new books by Steve Gregg, Empire of the Risen Son, book one, There Is Another King, book two, All the King's Men.

And also go to TheNarrowPath.com, Steve's website, where you can't buy these books. That's why we have the—you can get links to buy the books at TheBottomLineShow.com. But when you go to TheNarrowPath.com, I want to encourage you to consider making a gift of support, financial support, to support the ministry of The Narrow Path. I personally am asking you to do this because I believe in Steve and the ministry God has called him to.

He's been so faithful all these many years. And I would say this even if you weren't sitting across the table from me right now. I think it's money well invested.

The times that we're living in, in anti-Christian America right now, where so many of the liberties that we've taken for granted are going away. And it doesn't mean that God hates us. It just means that God's refining his church and his truth is really coming to light.

It's not easy to be a Christian these days in America. But The Narrow Path helps you think biblically and think clearly about those events. So give a gift online at TheNarrowPath.com. Okay, we'll take a quick break.

And when we come back, get into some phone calls, talk about discipleship, all with my special guest, Steve Gregg of The Narrow Path and TheNarrowPath.com. That's coming up next as The Bottom Line continues in just a moment. So keep it right here. Welcome to The Narrow Path.

No, wait. I should have had Steve say that. Steve Gregg is in studio with me today here on The Bottom Line.

I'm Roger Marsh. As I was saying, I recognize that Bottom Line Show music. But true story, if you were here on March the 12th, 2018, Steve Gregg was in fact the host for The Bottom Line Show.

He was the – it's only the second time in then the seven-year history of the program that anybody other than me had been hosting the show because I was still unconscious at Hoag Hospital right down the street. That's the only way I could get in. I had been extubated, praise God, but I still wasn't completely conscious because I'd had open heart surgery.

And my daughter told me that once she started asking me baseball trivia questions, when I could answer coherently, then she knew that I was well enough to come off the anesthesia. But Steve Gregg of The Narrow Path, welcome back to The Bottom Line Show studios. Good to have you here, brother.

Thank you. I'm very happy to be with you again. Yeah.

And he came bearing gifts too. So that always makes me happy. The new books, Empire of the Risen Son, book one, There is Another King, book two, All the King's Men.

We've got links for these books up at TheBottomLineShow.com. I will shamelessly promote these and say go buy them wherever they're available. But where they're not available is TheNarrowPath.com because Steve doesn't sell anything on his website. That's where you can go and make a donation.

And I will be happy if people buy them too. But more important for them to read them. Yes, that's right.

It doesn't make me happy for people to buy a lot of my books if they sit on the shelf. The books are there not to make money. They're there to get information, valuable information into the heads of Christians and non-Christians.

And I appreciate that commitment. Discipleship is a theme in these books, and I know it's something that you see a need for more and more. Steve Gregg, talk about why it was so important for you to write about discipleship.

Well, you know, in the Jesus movement where I first got in the ministry, discipleship was kind of intuitive. The radicals of the 60s, you know, who had been hippies and so forth. When they became Christians, they became pretty radical Christians.

I mean, they'd read the Sermon on the Mount. They'd think, oh, I think Jesus meant that. We should do that, you know.

And I felt that way. I was not one of the hippie radicals. I was raised in the Baptist church and was kind of a leader in my youth group.

You were in high school when someone turned you on to Calvary Chapel, right? Yes, I was 16 when my family moved from Covina to Orange County. And it was 1970, so no one had really heard of the Jesus movement. It was kind of confined, at least in this part of the world, to Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa.

And fortunately, I mean, I'd say providentially, a friend of mine that I met the first day I came to Orange High School in my junior year, he was going to Calvary Chapel and we got talking about the things of God. And I hadn't heard of Calvary Chapel or the Jesus movement. He took me there on Wednesday night and there was a spirit of revival there like I'd felt very few times anywhere else in my life.

And I was drawn in. I became an everyday attender at Calvary Chapel for some years until my graduation and beyond it. But before I graduated from high school, I was asked by friends who met together with me at lunch if I would teach them the Bible at lunchtime.

But I'd never taught the Bible. It never had really occurred to me that I could teach the Bible. I hadn't experimented with it.

I said, well, why not? He asked me to. I'll do what I can. I just started doing it.

And so every day at lunchtime at high school, I was teaching a group of students, probably about 30 students, you know, gathered at lunch to start going through certain books of the Bible. And by the time I got out of high school, there were other places asking me to come and teach. But a lot of that has to do with the Jesus movement.

There was far too many people, new converts, to be accommodated by the relatively small number of people who are older Christians. Even though I was only 17 when I graduated from high school and I went into full-time teaching, it's because I'd been a Christian for over a decade at least and everyone else I was teaching had been saved for less than a couple of years. So you were a seasoned veteran of the faith.

I was like an elder almost. But, I mean, I really didn't know much. I was just learning as I was going along.

And frankly, I was in the first years, I was just parroting, you know, what I knew Chuck Smith would say. Right. Because I was hearing Chuck Smith every day and I knew I had a pretty good mind for grabbing onto what he said and repeating it and so forth.

So I was kind of a clone of Chuck for the first several years. But I was also studying on my own and I began to develop and own my own views about things too. That's important to know what you're talking about.

I mean, to really own it because I think a lot of younger people today learn how to kind of go through the process. But then we see them hitting high school, college, and young adult years and they seem to, quote, unquote, walk away from the faith. Do you think they're walking away so much as just not embracing anything they really didn't have in their hearts in the first place? Yes, it could be the latter in many cases.

You know, I ran a Bible school in Oregon for 16 years and I'd always, the first day at orientation, I'd tell the students, you're going to hear a lot of things from me and you may be persuaded by them. But I want you to own your own views, not borrow mine. You know, I didn't get my views that I hold now by borrowing someone else's.

And because I owned them, they own me, you know. But, you know, I don't want you, if you leave this school at the end of nine months and you disagree with me, but you've learned how to think for yourself and study the Bible, that the school will be a success. You know, if you leave here and you can repeat everything I've said and you hold to those views, but you've never thought an original thought in your mind about the Bible, this school will have been a disaster.

And you've got to own them so they can own you as far as your values go. Steve Gregg is in the studio with me today here on The Bottom Line. Steve's brand new books are, and I say books, plural.

It blows me away, Steve, this was going to be one book. Yeah, I didn't know it would be that long. And he wrote two 400-plus page books in one month, ladies and gentlemen.

So I can hear my wife now saying, get off your keister and, you know, Steve. Write a book. Write a book.

Write 900 pages before the end of this month. I'll do my best. Empire of the Risen Son, book one, There is Another King.

Book two, All the King's Men. Steve, you do this for a living. You take calls on the radio.

Can we take a call? As many as you want. Okay, let's go. Let's go to, let's see, open with Tony in Westminster listening on KBRT.

Tony, welcome to The Bottom Line. Hello, Roger. Hello, Steve.

Thank you, Roger, for everything you do. Steve, oh, this is Brother Tony. That attends the Boynton Park meeting.

Oh, okay. And, hey, you're heading out of town the next night, or the next morning, so I couldn't shake your hand. So I shook your mom's hand instead, if you know what I'm saying.

Yeah, my mom was there, right. Yeah. Good deal.

All right. Hey, I couldn't put the book down. I got through it as fast as I could.

Empire of the Risen Son. God's given me so many opportunities to share with family and friends, just biblical truths that, you know, I try to share on my own, but having a book helps out, you know. But to me, I think it should be mandatory reading for everybody to cause themselves depression.

I'm sorry I had to say it that way, but you know what I'm saying. This book is incredible. I can't wait to get the next one.

Everybody, read the book. Here's to the ministries of Roger and Steve. Love you guys.

Bless you for what you're doing. Well, thank you, Tony. I appreciate that.

Yeah, I've been very, very, frankly, surprised and pleased at the, frankly, the rave reviews I've gotten. It's not a best-selling book by any means, but like on Amazon, I think the first book now has, last time I looked, I think it was something like 67 reviews. Keep talking.

I'll look. Yeah, all of them were five-star reviews, except for two. One was a three-star, and there's no explanation given.

And the other was a one-star review, and there's one statement. The one who wrote the one-star review said, trash. That was quick.

Yeah, so you love it or you hate it. But fortunately, only one person out of 67 hated it. Well, you're up to 73 now on the reviews for the first book, 39 for the second.

Yeah, and I'm looking at lots of five-stars overall. So, I mean, this is really good. Well, we'll put that link up at TheBottomLineShow.com so you can take a look at Steve Gregg's new book, Empire of the Risen Son, book one and book two.

There is another king and all the king's men. Let's go back to the phones now. Paul in Eagle Rock.

Paul, welcome to The Bottom Line. Hey, hi, Roger. Hi, Steve.

Hi. Hey, how many people do you have as volunteers? Do you have, like, a PR man, and do you mostly broadcast out of your home as a studio? I do broadcast from my home. There's no organization, no employees.

We've got volunteers all over the country who do things like create our apps, run the website, you know, created the podcasts and so forth. I mean, everything that is done in the ministry is done by a volunteer. Some of them, I've never seen their faces.

But they're just people who had a heart for the ministry, and they just started doing something that they could do, and then they let me know they were doing it. They didn't even get my permission. Roger, that was my next question.

Is this, you know, the Paul and a Paffer's thing, or is it really, I mean, do you have a vetting process? I haven't needed it yet, but I probably would if I needed to. I just say don't use our name. We do have a corporation.

We are a 501C3 corporation, and so we have a board of directors. But really, apart from having a board of directors, we don't have any real organization. My wife and I sit in, you know, I'm sitting at my desk.

She's sitting at another desk across the room, and she's keeping track of the calls. They get put onto another website called Matthew713.com that someone else that I've never met created. And, you know, it's like it's amazing how many things are being done in our ministry, different things.

I don't even, I wouldn't even have known that they should be done. I don't know anything except how to teach the Bible. I don't know anything about technology or computers, the Internet.

But there's techies out there who they just get excited about the ministry, and so they just do something and let me know they've done it. I love that, Steve, Greg. For those who are listening, and maybe some of our KCBC listeners might be familiar with the program, but I don't think you're broadcasting in that market on our Crawford station.

I forget what station I'm on up there. You don't have to keep track of that. I mean, your job is teach the Bible, and all the people behind the scenes take care of that.

But I love the beauty, I mean, the simplicity and kind of the, I mean, for lack of a better phrase, the kind of Jesus people mentality of what's happened with your ministry, how the fact that you are called to teach and to preach and to write, which you do, and you broadcast and do that. And it's amazing how God has raised up this army. I mean, I was talking to Greg Harris through the Bible the other day, and they have less than five employees for a ministry.

And they're all his kids, I think. Well, no. Greg only has one job.

But the idea that they've got, they've translated the Bible, and they have J. Vernon McGee's in 130 languages. Yeah. With an organization that's that small, which means they're holding on loosely to it and partnering and leveraging with other people.

And I love that spirit, Steve. I hate paperwork, especially legal paperwork. I don't want to have tax obligations on selling things or buildings or employees.

I mean, nobody at our ministry is paid. I mean, my wife isn't, I'm not. We don't have the flexibility to pay people.

We want to put it all into airtime. And so now we're on, we just went on in New York City this last week. Wow.

And that's a big, expensive station. But it's a huge mission field. I mean, if you have to go to a place like that, and New York City needs Steve, Greg, and Nero Powell.

I think that's phenomenal. Well, I don't know if anyone listens to Christian Radio in New York City, but if they do, there could be some potential there for changing some minds, I suppose. Well, Steve, Greg is with me in studio.

We're going to pay him some bills here because we're a commercial radio station. And Steve does, I mean, Steve just teaches and then it's over. So, I mean, when you go to thenarrowpath.com, I encourage you to make a contribution to support the ministry of Steve, Greg, and the Narrow Path.

And when you go to thebottomlineshow.com, thebottomlineshow.com, check out Steve's two new books, Empire of the Risen Son books one and two. Links are up there at thebottomlineshow.com. If you have a question for Steve, Greg from the Narrow Path, we'll go back to the phones on the other side of this break. Welcome back to the Bottom Line Show.

I'm Roger Marsh. And I'm joined for this hour by Steve Gregg with the Narrow Path, thenarrowpath.com. And I say for this hour, knowing that our friends from KCBC are with us, we have a new kind of modified schedule on KCBC, as you're finding out. Bottom Line Show live from 3.30 to 4 Monday through Friday.

Then we have Bottom Line Extra from 7 to 7 p.m. right after Bob Duco and Defending the Truth. And then we have Bottom Line Rewind the next day from 10.30 a.m. to 11. So we went from an hour to an hour and a half.

We're just in three different places. So we're kind of cut up and all over the place. Steve, I know when we first started our working together here, The Narrow Path was a half-hour release on KBRT, but you do an hour every day.

Right. I was doing The Narrow Path for probably about 12 years before I was in Southern California. I was in Northern California.

I started in Oregon. And for a long time, I was only about four, five stations or something like that. And then it was about, I think it was 2010, if I'm not mistaken, or 2011 that I first got on here.

And I'd been on since 1997 in other stations. But I think it was probably only the fifth or sixth station I was on was down here in Southern California, of course, KBRT. But we're now on about 40-something stations.

That's phenomenal. Across the country now. And I think we added eight stations just this year, this calendar year, which blows my mind.

But we sometimes have to drop a station from time to time if we don't get enough money. But we haven't dropped stations very often. So God has grown the ministry.

I'm glad to hear it was. It's a vital one. And the reason I was on a half-hour here, my show has always been an hour-long show.

Two to three Pacific time. Yeah, two to three Pacific time. But when I came down here, I really wanted to be on down here because I grew up down here.

I had friends, family down here. I wanted to be on a station. But it's so expensive to be on in such a large population area.

Of course, people may not know, but stations have to charge by the size of the potential market. And so I could only really afford a half-hour. And they didn't have, KBRT didn't have either of the half-hours between two and three open.

So I went on in the morning. Then eventually they let me know that one of the half-hours, I think it was the first one from two to three. I moved from the morning slot to that and then the other half-hour opened.

So now, but I actually was willing to do two shows a day just so I could be on for a number of years. You did that for a number of years, yeah. The morning release and then coming back and doing your regular afternoon show.

And I think God's honored that. And I love the fact that He's expanded your ministry, especially knowing that this is a ministry that doesn't have a strategic marketing team. Right, we don't have any goals, five-year plans or anything like that.

We just say, whatever God does, we'll go with it. Yeah, if a station contacts you and says, hey, we think we would be a good fit, and you guys pray about it and see what God would do. And if the support's there, you go.

And if not, it isn't. Well, 501c3, so that means every dollar you donate to Narrow Path is tax-deductible. Go to thenarrowpath.com for more information.

And when you do, just remind Steve and his team, or some of the people that Steve doesn't even know who work on his website, from what we understand, that you heard us here on the Bottom Line Show, because that helps us to let people know. Every time you're on the program, we kind of keep a tax sheet of everyone who's calling in, and it's nice to see the cross-pollinization between the two ministries. So I love to see that.

Let's go back to the phones now. Mike in Fresno, listening on KCBC. Mike, welcome to the Bottom Line.

Hey, Roger and Greg, it's great to hear from you guys. Great to hear from you. I'm glad.

Are you back on, Greg? You said at 2 o'clock now in our— In Fresno area? Yeah. I think—yeah, I believe I'm on in Fresno area. I don't remember.

The question, Mike, is that Steve is on some Crawford stations and some non-Crawford stations, so we're not sure if we're going to be able to get him on the Crawford station, you know, KCBC, just yet. But he has heard—go to thenarrowpath.com. They have a whole list of all the stations. I'm on a Crawford station in Sacramento and several others.

Some of our stations are in other networks, but Crawford. Yeah, he's a ministry that, you know— whereas I am part of the Crawford broadcasting family, so every station that carries me is a Crawford station. Steve is his own guy.

He's a renegade like that. Yeah, we miss you. We miss you great.

I mean, sometimes I just need somebody to call. I have a question, but I got two quick questions. Well, let me just say this.

If I'm not on the radio in your area, you can get the app, the Narrow Path app, and you can hear the show on your phone or whatever every day. I don't have to be on the radio there. Is the Narrow Path app at thenarrowpath.com? You go to the App Store, Google Play, search for thenarrowpath.com, and you get the app.

Okay. Mike, we've got time for one quick question. Yeah, I just want to tie these together.

You can answer both, the second one, but you mentioned the Jesus movement. I was going to ask you, what's the most effective form of ministry? Do you think it's street ministry or the radio? The last one ties in, Roger. You can help answer this.

With all the conservative, a lot of the conservative TV shows are going off the air. Is there a danger that, you know, just declaring God's word over the radio stations, are we in danger of losing that because it crosses political lines, just reading the word of God, and if we stand to that, it seems like they would want to get rid of us, too. Well, they might.

They might get rid of Christian radio, but that doesn't look like it's endangered immediately. I know, I mean, if Google would have their way, I mean, we wouldn't even be on the Internet anywhere. But at this point, I think Christian radio still has a future.

How hostile the powers that be may become toward Christian radio remains to be seen. As far as effective ministry, you know, back in the Jesus movement in the 70s, street ministry was very effective because there was a strong street culture. A lot of the hippies, they liked being on the street, and a lot of the hippies were searching for something, so they were receptive to people, you know, ministering to them on the streets.

Now, like when I go to Santa Cruz, where I started street ministry, well, I didn't start, but I was there early on. It was great during the Jesus movement and during the hippie movement, but now the street culture is just a bunch of down-and-out homeless people, and some of them are too cynical, some of their minds are burned out on drugs. It's really hard to communicate with them sometimes.

I'm glad there are still some people doing street ministry, but I think it was much more effective when there was a vibrant street culture of the youth back in the early 70s. Radio, of course, probably reaches some of them, too. In fact, I was in Santa Cruz once not long ago in a restaurant talking to somebody, and some guy who looked to me like a homeless guy, he had a long beard, long hair, he was very scraggly, had his dirty backpack, dirty clothes.

He was at another table, and he says, It can't be. It's not you, is it? He heard me talking to someone across the table from me. He recognized my voice, and he apparently listened to the radio.

So I guess homeless people even sometimes hear the radio show, but of course people don't listen to the radio as much as they used to, but people who want live talk, they've got very few options than radio. And so there's going to always be a lot of people listening to Christian radio, I think, that way. Yeah, that's a good point and a good question, Mike.

Thanks so much for calling in. I should point out, in addition to Steve's apps, of course, if you want to get all the things that you like to listen to on Crawford stations, go to myhopenow.com or go to Google Play in the App Store. The My Hope Now app also has access to Steve Gregg and Narrow Path.

So you've got a couple different options here if you want to listen on an app-based delivery mechanism. Steve Gregg, the host of the Narrow Path, is in the studio with me today here on the bottom line talking with Steve about his brand-new book, Empire of the Risen Sun. Books one and two, which are now out and are all getting five-star reviews.

Except for that one person who just said trash. That was kind of funny. He didn't like it.

Well, yeah, you can't please everybody, right? Go to thebottomlineshow.com, thebottomlineshow.com. We've got more information about the books. Some final thoughts and one more question for Steve in just a moment as the bottom line continues. There we go.

Did you ever interview Bob Dylan, Steve Gregg? I'd love to. No, I never. But my show's not an interview show.

That's true. That's true. He's never called in.

And now that he has all that money from selling his catalog, he probably won't. Welcome back to The Bottom Line Show. I'm Roger Marsh, and Steve Gregg from The Narrow Path was doing a show here in one of the studios at KBRT, which is our flagship affiliate, and so I said, Hey, Steve, I want you to sit in more traffic going back home.

Would you please stay for another hour and do The Bottom Line Show? And reluctantly he agreed, and we didn't even have to play him with tacos or enchiladas, which is good. Oh, I thought you were going to give me tacos before. Well, Joel is supposed to be handling all that stuff, and he's back there looking all innocent like, Why didn't I think of that? Actually, my mom's taking me out for dinner.

Oh, I love it. I think that's great. That's great.

And it's wonderful that you mentioned something. I know we've got a couple calls I want to get to, but I did want to ask you this, because it seems like there are so many Christian parents who are raising their kids in Christian homes, and the kids get to high school or college, and they wander away from the faith. And I know part of your testimony is your parents really were Christian.

I mean, I'm not saying these other parents aren't. Talk about what it was like to grow up in your home. They raised three kids.

All three kids got saved in our youth. We all have been in ministry of one way or another. None of us have been in professional ministry.

My siblings and I all were musicians. My brother and my sister both play in worship bands in different churches now. But, yeah, we've never seen any reason to leave the Lord.

Why would I leave the Lord, you know? What is there else? Yeah, where else shall I go? Yeah, I mean, exactly. So, yeah, my parents were unusually successful in their generation in keeping all their kids faithful. But my parents were not heavy-handed preachers or anything like that.

They were just sincere, real, authentic Christians. And we couldn't see anything in that to criticize. Do you think that was more generational and societal? It could be.

I mean, I'm sure more people of their age, of their generation, still have their kids walking with the Lord than parents my age. Because I haven't been as successful as my parents were. Yeah, and I know that that struggle is real.

I mean, for a lot of people who are in our age group, who have kids who are adults now, good and grown, as my wife likes to say, you can't talk to them like that, sweetheart, because this is the way they are. And I get that. I completely understand that.

But that's all the more reason for us to stay diligent, to stay on our knees, to read books like Your Empire of the Risen Son, Book One, There Is Another King, and Book Two, All the King's Men, especially that second one about discipleship. I mean, they're both important. And I encourage you to go to TheBottomLineShow.com and check it out.

Also, go to TheNarrowPath.com. And Steve, as you mentioned, at the end of The Narrow Path, each and every day there's not a thing for sale on that website, is there? Right. Nothing for sale. But we can make donations, though.

It can be done. But if you don't, we'll still give you stuff. Well, and again, I'm glad you pointed that out, because I almost said, well, come on.

I mean, Steve put so much free material up there that, hey, you've got to make a way. But you have been so blessed, I think, Steve, in the 23 years you've been doing what you're doing, and years before that as a Bible teacher. I'm not just talking about the broadcast side.

To many more years. I mean, the future, look, you mentioned earlier in our conversation, providentially you had agreed, decided to take 2020 off and write. So it wasn't like you got sidetracked or blindsided by COVID.

Now how does, you've got 30 seconds. How does the ministry look for 2021, the prognosis for The Narrow Path? Well, I've got some travel ahead. As far as I know, we'll be on more stations than ever before this year.

And I don't see those necessarily as signs of success, because it's not something I aim at. I'll just be on as many stations as the Lord provides. I don't have a plan to increase, but we will as the Lord provides.

And that's fine with me. Good. Steve Gregg, thenarrowpath.com. Steve, thanks for being with us today here on The Bottom Line.

Thank you for having me, Roger. Thank you.