Executive Editor Jim Dailey spoke by phone recently with David Jeremiah, longtime pastor at Shadow Mountain Community Church near San Diego, about God’s faithfulness, His imminent return, and the centrality of God’s Word. The following is adapted from that conversation.

Q: You have been through some significant health battles in the past few years; how are you doing now?

A: Little by little I’m getting stronger. The thing that you worry about when you have something like this is stamina. You can have strength, but it’s for shorter periods of time than you’ve been used to. I’ve lived almost my whole life wide open, so it’s a challenge for me to learn how to say no to some things that I shouldn’t do because I just can’t do everything that I once did.

But I’m preaching every week—three times on the weekends, one time Saturday night and two on Sunday morning. 

Q: I understand you were in the hospital for a month in 2023. 

A: Yes, I had transverse myelitis, which is a disease that affects and inflames the sheath around your spine, making it almost impossible for the spinal cord to transfer messages to the parts of your body. I was pretty much paralyzed from the waist down, and my legs didn’t work at all. And now I’m walking without any walker or cane, and so I’m very, very blessed to have my mobility back. 

Q: It sounds like it has been a battle. 

A: My goodness, yes. I’ve been in the hospital about eight times in the past year. Once I lost my voice; nobody could understand why that happened. I had to have surgery, and they put steroids in my vocal cords. Thankfully, my voice came back. That was scary because you’re not much of a preacher if you don’t have a voice.

Q: That had to be disconcerting.

A: Exactly right. But you know what? I’ve discovered that God is good. He’s been so good to me and to my family and the church that I pastor. Shadow Mountain is in the best days I can ever remember, in terms of growth and ministry and outreach.

Q: Was there a bit of fear and anxiety as you dealt with those issues?

A: People think that if you’re a pastor, you are immune to the emotions most people have. And obviously, the believer deals with these emotions with God’s help, which people who don’t know the Lord don’t have. And that’s the difference maker. I think my fear was that I wouldn’t be able to continue to serve and do the things that I love to do. But I don’t have that fear now. I have no guarantee of tomorrow—nobody does. I tell people I’m doing better, but I’m not taking any victory laps yet.

Q: Did you ever get discouraged along the way?

A: I remember one time when I fell down. I wasn’t doing anything I shouldn’t have been doing, but I just fell, and I felt so discouraged at that moment. But I have such wonderful people around me, especially my wife, Donna, who just doesn’t let me stay discouraged for very long.

Q: How did the Lord encourage you? 

A: I have some friends around the country who were sending me Scriptures every day. I have a wonderful friend in a man I met a couple of years ago—Tim Dilena, the pastor of Times Square Church in New York City. He prays for me every day. He sends me emails several times a week with Scripture and encouragement, and he has taken it upon himself to be my No. 1 encourager. He’s been such a blessing to me in so many ways. He flew out to see me at Christmastime and happened to come when Pastor Jack Graham from Prestonwood Baptist in Dallas was here. He and Jack and I had lunch together, and it was wonderful to be encouraged by these guys I count as dear friends.

Q: The Apostle Paul mentions in his second letter to the Corinthians that he was comforted in a difficult time by the arrival of his fellow worker, Titus. God often brings encouragement through other people, doesn’t He?

A: He sure does. And you know, the lesson from that is, as people have done that for us, we have the privilege of doing for others. The Bible says we are to comfort others with the same comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted (2 Corinthians 1:4).

And so, when someone does what Tim and Jack have done for me, it reminds me that I know people I need to be doing that for. You know, we publish a devotional book every year, and last year, the book was called Walking With Jesus, which is what I was trying to do in more ways than one. I was trying to walk physically but also make sure I continued to walk with the Lord. It’s good to know that in the good times and in the bad times, God stays the same. He never changes. 

Q: I know you’ve also written a book lately on the Lord’s return.

A: It’s called The Coming Golden Age, and it’s about the Millennium. The Millennium seems like a faraway thing that we might not ever experience. But if you do the math, you discover that if Jesus were to come back today, which we believe He could, in seven years the Great Tribulation would be over. And right after the Tribulation, the Millennium starts. So I’ve been saying we could be less than eight years away from the Millennium. And in that time span, we’re going to reign with Christ on Earth. It’s going to be righteousness and holiness and joy and peace like we’ve never known. It will truly be a golden age. If you go into the Millennium as a Christian, you won’t die. You’ll stay there, and you’ll be translated out of the Millennium into Heaven. 

Q: What led you to teach and write on that topic? 

A: Well, I had a teacher in seminary named Dwight Pentecost. One day he said there’s more in the Bible about the Millennium than there is about any other subject in the Bible. More than salvation, more than Heaven, more than anything else. And these verses are scattered all over the Bible. And I started to look at them and study them. And I got really excited about the possibility of putting together a readable volume on the Millennium that would encourage people to see what God has planned for us and how wonderful it is. 

Q: You also taped a teaching series a few years back called The Great Disappearance. It was on the Lord’s rapture of the church. 

A: That was probably the most responded-to series I’ve ever done. The video was so vivid about what happens when the rapture takes place. And when people would see these videos, they would call us. We had a video that showed a busload of kids—most of them under the age of accountability—and all of a sudden, the driver turns around and the bus is empty. The kids are all gone. We actually had a call from someplace in Europe, and they wanted to know what we did with the children. It grabbed hold of people. I mean, the rapture is an amazing event. Most people don’t have any concept about it. We showed it as best we could with videos, and they were incredibly powerful. That project—the book that came with it and those videos—reached over 300 million people.

Q: Did you ever think you’d reach that many people with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ?

A: Not really, but I want to tell you something that I discovered. I’ve read the Great Commission all my life and been challenged by it. And I remember one time I was at the Billy Graham Training Center in Asheville, and they told us that Billy Graham was going to speak to more people in one day than anybody had ever spoken to before. This was in 1995. They had hooked up all these satellite networks, and it was incredible. But I remember thinking that day that the Bible tells us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. I thought that was a corporate command, but it’s also a personal command. And while we can’t all do it, we should all be attempting to do it. And I thought, that’s what we should do as the Turning Point Ministry. Our goal should be, how do I reach this world using the resources, knowledge and talent that God has put at our disposal? So that’s what we’ve been trying to do.

Q: How would you describe the state of our nation right now as we enter into President’s Trump’s second term in the Oval Office?

A: I’ve tried my best to minister through every political situation that comes. But I would not be honest if I didn’t tell you how encouraged I am to have the opportunity for these years that are before us under the leadership of our new president. We were, little by little, facing more and more opposition to the Gospel of Christ and to the ministry of the truth. What was happening under the previous administration was certainly not friendly to the Gospel. It was not friendly to missions. It was not friendly to the church. What a great thing it is now to have people leading our country who are for us and not fighting us. At the very least, they aren’t going to get in our way as we preach the Gospel.

And I think in many respects, the world itself has been given a reprieve and maybe an opportunity for perhaps one more chance to preach the Gospel to every creature without undue political and governmental opposition.

Q: So you see some real opportunities ahead for continued growth in this country for the Kingdom of God.

A: I believe we’re going to see a resurgence of the Gospel and ministry opportunities that God gives us. Sometimes the church loses its way. One of the main things we have to do is maintain the main thing. God has called us to preach the Gospel and reach people and grow Christians in the churches. The Bible tells us very clearly what we need to do. People ask me all the time how we have been able to keep Shadow Mountain Community Church on the cutting edge for all these years. Well, there’s no secret to that. We just do what we’ve always done. I tell people I love the music at our church. I love the work we do with young people. We have a great cares ministry that helps feed people.

All of these are wonderful things. But the thing that’s the most important is that the Bible is at the core of what we do. We teach the Bible. We preach the Bible. Not just in the pulpit, but in all of our classes and to our young people, as early as our children—they know that the Word of God is the key.

When the Word of God is moved out of the central place, the church begins to flail and lose its purpose because our purpose is built upon the truth of God’s Word. And if we don’t stay there, we’re kind of lost. I’m grateful that we don’t have any other message except God’s Word. His Word is the only assurance we have. You know, whether we’re in good times or bad times politically, the Word of God is our source of strength and hope. When people go to church, they have the right to be nourished by the Word of God, not to be entertained.

I don’t think Gospel services should ever be boring. They should be a blessing and full of energy. But our main purpose is to teach from the Scripture. And you know, when you hang around as long as I have at the same church—some 43 years—I see the long-term result of that in the lives of people, in children, in grandchildren, in family structure, in marriages.

When you do what God calls you to do, it flat out works. ©2025 BGEA

Photograph: Courtesy of Turning Point Ministries