♪[Theme music]♪
>>John Bradshaw:
This is It Is Written.
I'm John Bradshaw.
Thanks for joining me.
On a Friday afternoon
in October of 1967,
two men horseback riding
in a remote area
of northwestern California
had an encounter that
they would never forget.
They claimed that they saw
a Bigfoot, or Sasquatch.
Now, what was different
about this encounter
is that the men videotaped it.
The Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot
tape is still famous today
in certain circles.
The largest number of Bigfoot
sightings have occurred
in the Pacific Northwest,
but there have been sightings
claimed throughout
the United States,
with a large number
allegedly occurring
in the Ohio River Valley,
the Sierra Nevadas,
and central Florida.
Of course, the question is,
is it legitimate?
Or is this all just
an elaborate hoax?
There have been some well-known
hoaxes over the years.
As far back as 1958,
people claimed to have found
Bigfoot tracks in the
Six Rivers National Forest area
in northern California.
That's about the same area
as the famous Patterson-Gimlin
movie was filmed.
But not too terribly
long after that,
somebody said that those
footprints had been faked,
put there deliberately by a man
who had a, a sense of humor.
To this day, people debate the
veracity, the truthfulness,
of that famous short film shot
in which the Bigfoot walks
and, and looks warily
back over his shoulder.
You see, some years after that,
a man came forward claiming he
wore an ape suit in the movie.
But of course people now
question whether or not
he was telling the truth.
Today there are Bigfoot
festivals held in various places
around the United States, such
as western North Carolina
and eastern Oklahoma
and northern Oregon.
Television programs
such as Finding Bigfoot
have added fuel to
the Sasquatch fire.
Unsurprisingly, after 11
seasons of Finding Bigfoot,
Bigfoot was never found.
♪[Mysterious music]♪
If he had been,
here's likely what he
would have looked like,
according to the experts.
A large hairy
ape-like creature,
standing upright,
walking on two legs.
Word is, they're between
6 feet and 9 feet tall,
sometimes even taller.
There are equivalent legends or
theories in multiple cultures.
In the Himalayas, they
speak of the "yeti."
It's been referred to as
the "abominable snowman."
In the United States,
it's "Sasquatch" or "Bigfoot."
Now, of course,
something like this,
you'll find people everywhere
who think it's a hoax at best
or a lie at worst.
But then there are
true believers,
and today we're going
to meet one of them.
And here's why.
This is part one of a five-part
It Is Written series
called "Conspiracy,
More Than Just a Theory."
You see, there is a massive
conspiracy playing out
on Planet Earth right now.
a conspiracy that involves
everyone living on the earth,
a conspiracy where
the stakes are high,
in fact, as high as
they possibly could be,
and in which the conspirators
are at the top of their game.
Consider the world
in which we live.
It's wracked with
social challenges
and political challenges
and health and environmental
and emotional and just about
every other kind of
challenge imaginable.
Of course, you
could make the case
that it's always been this way.
The son of Adam and Eve
killed his brother, after all.
Wars date back millennia.
Life expectancy today is
much longer than it was
several hundred years ago.
But no one seriously believes
that this is business as usual.
No, there's something going on,
and we're about
to find out what.
But first, here in the
Chattahoochee National Forest,
about an hour and a half from
both Chattanooga and Atlanta,
there's a place called
Expedition Bigfoot.
It's run by David
and Belinda Bakara,
who are Bigfoot researchers.
Look on their website and you'll
find Proverbs 25, verse 2,
which says, "It is the glory
of God to conceal a thing:
but the honour of kings is
to search out a matter."
David, thanks for your time.
I appreciate it immensely.
Let me ask you this:
What's a Bigfoot researcher?
>>David Bakara: So, actually
most Bigfoot researchers
start off as, uh,
Bigfoot witnesses.
You're a, a young man
fishing in Kentucky,
and you run into
one of these things,
and then that progresses
on to trying to find more
about these creatures,
and that's how usually you
become a Bigfoot researcher
because you're trying
to find out more
about something
you've already seen.
>>John: So, clearly you're
convinced that Bigfoot exists?
>>David: I certainly am.
I, I've seen two in Alva,
Florida, back in 2010,
but that was on
investigation,
but I've been at this since
I was about 12 years old.
>>John: Describe what you saw.
>>David: So I saw a,
a large one,
about 7 1/2
feet tall,
and one slightly smaller,
6 1/2, 7 feet tall,
standing next to it,
both hiding behind trees,
peeking at us from behind trees.
Um, we were actually at a
commercial fisherman's property,
so we were there where we
knew they were already there,
and we watched them
for about 11, 12 minutes
before they finally
turned and walked off
back down into the swamp.
>>John: So where we are
here in rural Georgia,
Chattahoochee National Forest,
you'd say there are
big Bigfoots nearby?
>>David: Oh my goodness, yes.
When I moved up
here five years ago,
uh, the evi--or the, uh,
information was scant.
There wasn't too much
out on the internet,
which is pretty much we
all, um, depend on now.
When we opened up this place and
put the graphics on the front
of the building, the reports
from the police officers,
farmers, the sightings up here
in north Georgia are numerous.
Many, many sightings.
But it's not just here.
If you opened up one of these
places in Tennessee or Kentucky
or North Carolina,
it'd be the same.
>>John: And if you look at
the map of Bigfoot sightings,
they're seen
pretty regularly.
>>David: Certainly,
so if you look online,
you'll see fairly regular
sightings in, uh, wooded areas.
But, uh, when you become a
magnet for Bigfoot sightings,
you become overwhelmed with the
amount of unreported sightings,
and you begin to realize that
these things are seen every day
in every state, and there's
nothing rare about them at all.
>>John: So everybody's
going to want to know,
if they're seen
so regularly,
why isn't there more concrete
evidence for their existence?
>>David: There is
concrete evidence,
other than a body.
We have footprints, uh, fresh
footprints, hundreds of them.
Many that have been studied
and deemed as legitimate
by a professor of anthropology,
also fingerprint experts.
Uh, we have films
that cannot be faked.
We have hair samples,
thousands and thousands
of eyewitness reports.
But why we don't have a body?
There's something
more at play there,
and I think it's a good idea
if we don't have a body
because I don't think the
general public should be aware
of their existence.
>>John: You've been
quoted as saying--
it even says on your website--
Bigfoots everywhere,
even in the suburbs.
Do you think that?
>>David: Certainly, yeah,
they do come into the suburbs
in the evening, at nighttime;
they get into our gardens.
They're interested
in our dogs and cats;
our pets are an ample food
supply for them as well.
Um, not that they're vicious,
but since each animal requires
approximately
10,000 calories a day,
it takes a lot of food to get,
to keep these things going,
and, uh, where there are
humans, there is food.
>>John: Should people fear them?
Are they a danger
to human beings?
>>David: Uh, generally
speaking, no.
Um, they don't want to be seen.
They work actively
to not be seen by us.
So there's an unspoken rule
amongst themselves
to stay away from us, and we're
not supposed to see them,
but they do come
close to us at night.
>>John: So, if somebody
wanted to see a Bigfoot,
wanted to find one, where do
you start to go about that?
>>David: What a great question.
The easy answer to that is
that you don't find them;
they find you.
So you really have
to go into the areas
where they've been seen, which
is many--it's not very hard--
and you've got to make
yourselves approachable.
So, uh, brandishing a weapon,
that's not going to help you.
Uh, actually, swinging
around night vision,
that's not going to help you.
Usually, going out--
and they smell food--
laughing, if they hear you
laughing and having a good time,
they know you're distracted,
and that's when they'll actually
come in and check you out.
And if you go into your tent at
night, and they can smell food--
unfortunately, bears
are the same way--
uh, these things will come into
your campsite and check out,
and sometimes they'll rub
their hands along the side
of your tent,
and you'll hear them
speaking amongst themselves.
And when you hear
these things speaking,
you know what
you're dealing with.
You know you're not
dealing with a bear.
>>John: So what are you
dealing with?
Describe a Bigfoot for me.
Just what is it exactly?
>>David: So they're primarily
described as running anywhere
from the small ones, 2, 3 feet
tall when they're children,
all the way up to
8, 10, 12 feet tall.
A variety of colors,
light-colored, white,
uh, with very light
Caucasian-like skin,
all the way up to
the deepest black
with extremely dark
weathered skin.
Some reported as having
blue eyes, green eyes,
but the most-reported color,
believe it or not, are red eyes,
and, uh, I don't
understand that.
>>John: Is there a connection
between the phenomenon
of Bigfoot and something like,
say, Loch Ness monster?
>>David: What a great question,
and, and I think there's a lot
of researchers that I work with
that think Bigfoot's it,
when in fact, that
people see other things.
They don't understand how could
we have the Loch Ness monster,
which is clearly some sort of,
um, leftover marine reptile,
but they should have been
dead a long time ago.
They see things
like the Mothman.
We get reports of large
creatures that resemble
the, a dog-man or a werewolf.
Lot of sightings and,
uh, of course, UFOs.
There's a whole thing
going on around us
that we're not supposed
to know about.
And there are agencies actively
making sure that these things
remain in the realm of myth
for the general public.
>>John: Now, let me pick up
on something you said.
You believe there are
agencies that are committed
to keeping people from
knowing about this.
Explain that for me.
>>David: Over the years, stories
have evolved about government,
government officials visiting
either Bigfoot witnesses
or witnesses that have seen
unusual flying craft in the sky,
and these agencies are
there to strongly suppress
this information getting out
to the general public.
Very little harm comes
to these witnesses,
but they're, it's
impressed upon them
that it's best for you
to keep your mouth shut,
and that's normally
what they do.
>>John: You'd call
it a conspiracy?
>>David: Oh, certainly, yeah.
I'm sure that's not the only
conspiracy that's out there.
So, you don't have
to be a conspiracy nut
to think there are
conspiracies out there.
You know, it's just a group
of people conspiring to keep
a secret from you,
and there's plenty of that,
evidence for that out there.
So, sure, but just some
conspiracies are much bigger
than others.
>>John: Do you see there
being a time when one day
there'll be some type
of great reveal,
what everybody would call
irrefutable evidence,
and the nation or
the world will say,
"This actually is real"?
>>David: Wow, so, if you asked
me that question 20 years ago,
I would have said,
"Yes, it's going to come."
But as I've gotten
older and wiser,
I realize that that kind
of evidence probably
would not be good
for a lot of people.
It would create a lot of fear.
So that kind of revelation
would have to come
with additional information,
but I don't think it's going
to happen in my lifetime.
>>John: So when somebody says,
"Man, you must be crazy,"
what's your response?
>>David: Doesn't happen.
You would think
people would be going,
"You're crazy to
think about this,"
and I'm waiting for
that guy to come in here,
but he hasn't showed up
yet after three years,
so I think a lot of that worry
about the negativity
was unwarranted.
I really, I was convinced that
was going to happen as well,
and I was going to take it on
a, uh, a case-by-case basis,
but I really haven't had an
argument with anybody yet.
>>John: David, thanks very much.
It's been great talking
with you. I appreciate it.
>>David: Thank you, sir.
>>John: Immensely.
>>David: Nice meeting you.
>>John: God bless you.
[Traffic noise]
>>John:
So, does Bigfoot exist?
Well, you will not be surprised
to learn that the vast majority
of Americans think the answer
to that question is "no."
But there are people who
believe they do exist,
and plenty of people, it seems,
who will tell you they
believe so from experience.
Are they confused?
Are they lying?
Have they been deceived?
Does it really matter?
Well, maybe yes, maybe no.
But transfer this over
to the spiritual realm.
You look into the Bible and
you'll come face to face
with the mother of
all conspiracies.
♪[Music]♪
>>Announcer: As we look
around the world,
it appears this planet is
spinning wildly out of control.
The world now is
a far cry from the world
of even just a few years ago,
leaving many people
wondering if there's hope.
Our free offer today is
"Hope for a Planet in Crisis."
To receive this free DVD,
call
800-253-3000,
go online at
iiwoffer.com,
or write to the address
on your screen.
Get "Hope for a
Planet in Crisis."
Visit
iiwoffer.com.
>>John Bradshaw:
Thanks for joining me today
on It Is Written.
The Bible opens
with these words:
"In the beginning God created."
The world that God
created was perfect.
He called it "very good."
But it didn't take long and
the world fell into disarray.
Adam and Eve ran from God.
One of their very own
children killed his brother.
And while there are
1,189 chapters in the Bible,
it's in the Bible's fourth
chapter that we meet
the first adulterer,
a man named Lamech,
who also happened
to be a murderer.
In the seventh chapter
of the Bible,
the earth is so wicked God
destroys it with a global flood.
In Genesis 6:5 we read,
"And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually."
Verse 11 says, "The earth
also was corrupt before God,
and the earth was
filled with violence."
Now, that's a rapid
descent into sin.
Get over to just Genesis 11--
the people endeavored
to build a tower
that will reach up to heaven.
That's where God confused
the languages of the people
to restrict their wickedness.
So you have to ask yourself
how all of this was possible.
What was it about human beings
that they were capable
of such a rapid descent
into wickedness?
And what's been the trend
from that day to this?
Well, we've certainly
not changed course.
Whether it's the big-ticket
items, such as genocide,
such as happened in Bosnia
or Rwanda or Burma/Myanmar
or Cambodia, or terrorism or
other oh-my-goodness events,
or whether it's
intolerance and incivility
and the mental health crisis
that much of the planet faces,
it's not difficult
to see that the earth
is in a really tough place.
♪[Soft melancholy music]♪
Church membership is down,
now at an all-time low.
Millennials are leaving
the church in droves,
according to the
Pew Research Center.
There are now more people
who profess no religion
than there are Catholics
or Protestants
in the United States.
I don't mean
they're all atheists,
but there's an increasing
number of people
who believe there is no God.
So why is that?
Now, it's one thing to believe
in 8-feet-tall ape-men
roaming around dense forests
in northern California,
but it's another thing to
believe that there's no God,
or that in spite of the Bible
being the bestselling book
in the world, that
there's no way to know.
There's been a shift in
society's collective belief
away from the traditional
"There is a God in heaven"
and towards a more
"I'll make my own decisions;
I don't need the God of my
parents or my grandparents."
We're in a time right now
where society is more and more
tilting away from
Christianity and Christ.
And the Bible helps us
understand the reason for that.
It's the biggest
conspiracy of all time.
When we come back, we'll dive
a little deeper into the reason
that this conspiracy is
more than just a theory.
♪[Music]♪
>>John: Thank you
for remembering
that It Is Written exists
because of the kindness
of people just like you.
To support this international
life-changing ministry,
please call us now at
800-253-3000.
You can send your
tax-deductible gift
to the address
on your screen,
or you can visit us online at
itiswritten.com.
Thank you for your prayers
and for your financial support.
Our number again is
800-253-3000,
or you can visit us online at
itiswritten.com.
>>John: It's one of the great
stories of the Bible:
a shepherd boy against a giant.
It's a story that
speaks to your story,
human beings weakened
by years of sin
up against an enemy with
years of experience in sin.
I'm John Bradshaw.
Join me on location in Israel
for "David and Goliath."
We'll go to the Valley of Elah,
where the conflict between Judah
and the Philistines took place.
We'll visit the stream where
David selected five stones
and see the hillsides
on which Israel
and the Philistines camped.
The Bible comes alive in
"David and Goliath."
Faith in the face of darkness,
faith in the midst of
faithlessness and failure,
and reliance upon God when
all other hope is gone.
"David and Goliath,"
filmed on location in Israel.
Hope in the midst of trials,
the power of a mighty God,
deliverance when
deliverance is needed.
Don't miss
"David and Goliath,"
brought to you by
It Is Written TV.
>>John Bradshaw: Welcome
back to It Is Written.
We're talking about the
biggest conspiracy of all time.
And I want to pick back up
in the book of Revelation,
where we read these words,
Revelation 12, verse 7:
"And there was war in heaven:
Michael and his angels
fought against the dragon;
and the dragon fought
and his angels."
A war in heaven.
Now, why would that be?
Earlier in the same chapter
you read that Satan,
represented by a dragon with
seven heads and 10 horns,
deceived a third of
the angels in heaven,
that his purpose was the
destruction of the Man Child
who was to be brought forth.
His purpose was the
destruction of Jesus.
Revelation 12:9 says that
Satan was cast out of heaven.
He came then to the earth.
The passage tells us that there
will be those who triumph
over the enemy, but
that at the end of time
the devil will wage war
against the church
and against God's people who
keep the commandments of God.
And look at how sin got
started here on earth.
Satan came to the earth.
Adam and Eve had been told they
could eat anything they wanted
in the Garden of Eden--
just not the fruit
that grew on the tree
of the knowledge
of good and evil.
Look with me at how
Satan lured Eve into sin.
Genesis 3, verse 1:
"Now the serpent was more
cunning than any beast
of the field which
the Lord God had made.
And he said to the woman,
'Has God indeed said, "You
shall not eat of every tree
of the garden"?'"
Eve affirmed that it was so.
She was not to eat of the
fruit that grew on that tree.
She stated that God had
told her they would die
if they ate that fruit.
But Satan said this:
"You will not surely die."
Now, as bad as that was,
he added the following:
"For God knows that
in the day you eat of it
your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil."
Don't skip past that.
Analyze that.
What was it that Satan
was actually saying?
He was saying, "God didn't
really mean what He said.
God doesn't want you to eat that
fruit, not because you'll die,
but because you'll
have knowledge
that He doesn't
want you to have."
In other words, "God is unfair.
God can't be trusted.
God is playing games with you.
God doesn't want you
to know what He knows."
That was the first time
Adam or Eve had ever heard
anyone suggest that God was
unjust or dishonest or unfair.
Take a look at Eve's response:
"So when the woman saw that
the tree was good for food,
that it was pleasant
to the eyes,
and a tree desirable
to make one wise,
she took of its fruit and ate.
She also gave to her husband
with her, and he ate."
And that's the first human sin
recorded in the Bible,
Eve distrusting God, based on
what the devil had told her.
Now, of course, she could have,
she should have
checked this out.
She could have gone
to God and asked Him,
"The serpent says this.
That doesn't seem right.
What do You say?"
If she had, history would have
turned out very differently.
But that's not what she did.
Genesis 3, verse 7 says:
"Then the eyes of both
of them were opened,
and they knew that
they were naked;
and they sewed
fig leaves together
and made themselves coverings."
And when they heard God
walking in the garden,
they hid from God.
For the first time ever,
they were afraid of Him.
And this misunderstanding
of the character of God
plagues the human family today.
Why do people blame God
for tragedies that happen?
Because Satan has filled
their minds with lies
about what God is really like.
Why do people say
God is unfair?
It's a misunderstanding
of the character of God
begun in the first place by
Satan and perpetuated by him
ever since.
But what's God really like?
The Bible says in 1 John 4
that "God is love."
The Bible tells us in
Exodus 34:6 and 7,
"The Lord, the Lord God,
merciful and gracious,
longsuffering, and abounding
in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin,
[and] by no means
clearing the guilty."
God says, "I have loved you
with an everlasting love"
in Jeremiah 31:3.
Again and again God speaks
for Himself in the Bible,
and when He does,
you'll see He does everything
He can to convince us
that He is worth living for,
that He can be trusted.
♪[Soft mysterious music]♪
Today, fewer people trust God.
Why is that?
I'll tell you.
It's because of a conspiracy,
a giant conspiracy,
meticulously planned,
orchestrated over
thousands of years,
adding up to where we are today.
Why do people say the
Bible can't be trusted?
It all started long ago when
there was a war in heaven.
It's taken a long while,
but now people don't think
about the Word of God
like they used to.
Societal standards we used
to cling to in years gone by,
some of them have
changed for the better,
but others have certainly
changed for the worst.
Where do you stand on God?
Is your God good?
Is your God a God of love?
Can you say, "I trust the
Bible to be the Word of God"?
Or has this great cosmic
conspiracy affected you, too?
>>Announcer: As we look
around the world,
it appears this planet is
spinning wildly out of control.
The world now is
a far cry from the world
of even just a few years ago,
leaving many people
wondering if there's hope.
Our free offer today is
"Hope for a Planet in Crisis."
To receive this free DVD,
call
800-253-3000,
go online at
iiwoffer.com,
or write to the address
on your screen.
Get "Hope for a
Planet in Crisis."
Visit
iiwoffer.com.
>>John Bradshaw:
I'd like to encourage you
to trust the God of heaven,
the One who sent His Son Jesus
to this world to die for you,
the One who has done so much
to demonstrate to you
that He is good.
Where do the lies come from?
Well, first, they are lies,
and they come from an enemy,
the enemy, the enemy of souls.
You are not going to find
any evidence anywhere
to suggest that God is not good.
Think about His character.
God is good, God is love,
and when He's your God,
when your heart
is open to Him,
when you have
surrendered to Him fully,
you'll understand
that experientially.
Your love for God will
grow and grow and grow,
and throughout eternity
you'll love God even more.
Can you make a decision
to allow that God,
that good God, to be your God?
♪[Music]♪
Let's pray together now.
Our Father in heaven,
we understand better that
there is a conspiracy afoot
to turn our feet out of
the pathway of heaven,
to turn our hearts away
from Your heart.
We want to trust You.
For so many people,
there's baggage;
there's a past; there is hurt;
there is misinformation.
There's a lack of trust.
There's a belief that
You're harsh and tyrannical
and unkind and unfair.
We know where that began.
It began with a devil who spoke
to Eve and said, "Really?
You think God wants the best
for you? No, He does not."
Thank You that
Calvary demonstrates
You want the best for us.
Thank You that Jesus lived
and died so we could believe
You want the best for us,
and we want the best You have,
not selfishly, but to honor You.
Friend, would you accept
from God the best He has?
Would you do that now?
And accept that God's character
is a character of love
and kindness and concern
and goodness.
Lord, our hearts
are open to You.
Be our God.
Let Jesus be our Savior
now and forever.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Thanks so much for joining me.
I'm looking forward to
seeing you again next time.
Until then, remember:
"It is written, 'Man shall
not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God.'"
♪[Theme music]♪
