(ethereal music)

- Hi, and welcome to the program.

China is pushing aheadinto a cashless society

is creating new digital currency

to replace paper money and coins.

- That's right, and it willalso give this communist regime

total knowledge of how the Chinese people

are spending their money

and that opens the door

for unprecedented government control.

George Thomas has the story.

(sings in foreign language)

- [George] The Chinesewere the first in the world

to invent paper money backin the seventh century.

Now more than 1400 years later,

China is again on the cusp of creating

a new form of government currency

that some say could posea serious economic threat

to America and the West.

- [Woman] China is about to launch

one of the most revolutionaryfinancial projects

in the world.

- They're not cryptocurrencies.

They're not so-called stable coins.

In effect they are thenational physical currency

of a country just representedin a digital form.

- [George] Erik Bethel is theformer US executive director

of the World Bank.

- Bitcoin near recordhighs crossing 23,000.

- [George] He says while the world fixates

on private cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

- [Reporter] The digitalYuan isn't a payment system.

It's actual money.

- [George] Beijing is busybuilding a digital version

of its own currency the Yuan

also known as the renminbito control its citizens

and eventually threatened thedominance of the US dollar.

- They pretty much createdall of the building blocks

that will allow a centralbank digital currency

to flourish.

- [George] And Yaya Fanusie

a former economic and counterterrorism analyst in the CIA

says China's goal is to replace cash

with a digital currency

that's controlled by thecommunist government central bank.

- China has said for awhile that it expects

to pretty much be a cashlesssociety in the future.

So the idea is that cash notes, coins

will no longer be around

and the people will beusing digital currency

that's gonna be in their wallets.

- [George] That digital currency

will also be issued by the government bank

allowing what Congressman Michael McCaul,

the top Republican on theHouse Foreign Affairs Committee

says is unprecedented accessto people's financial transit.

- This will give them data on behavior,

on people how they spend.

- And giving Beijing thepower to track that spending

in real time.

China has handed out more than $6 million

worth of its digitalcurrency to its citizens

as part of a series oftrials around the country.

They plan to make the bigdigital currency splash

in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Andrew, Ashley.

- Well, George, we already know

the extent of China'ssurveillance capabilities.

Does a digital currency givethem an even more powerful tool

to monitor their people?

- Andrew, they absolutely do.

As Mike McCaul said in ourinterview, this, you know,

this gives them not onlythe unprecedented ability

to track that moment whenthe digital currency,

the zero and ones and ones and zeros

leaves the central bank,but the moment it does,

they have the chanceto do it in real time.

So as you go to, you know,you go to an H&M, an Adidas

or an Apple store, they'reable to track in real time

the moment you spend every single amount

of the Yuan currency.

- Wow, well, George, howdangerous is this for,

specifically religious freedom,

especially for Christians in China?

- Yeah, so say for example,

you are a member of theChinese underground church

and you decide to make atrip to Hong Kong, right?

And you are in Hong Kong andyou happen to pass a store

or a particular shop thatis owned by an individual

who is fighting for religious freedom,

who is selling books, perhaps the Bible,

perhaps is, you know, isadvocating for democracy

and is against the centralgovernment in Beijing.

The moment you spend your moneybuying that copy of a Bible

or some book that has somereligious tone and so forth,

the government can track that.

They know that exactly.

So the moment you buy that Bible,

that means they have the ability to,

in essence, turn off your bank account

no longer go to an ATMwithdraw money, why?

Because you simply bought a Bible.

Maybe you're advocatingfor religious freedom.

You're advocating forMuslims, for Christians,

for more greater human rights.

Every time you spendthat digital currency,

they have the ability to trackit and to keep an eye on it.

- [Ashley] Wow, that's absurd.

- Well, George, forAmericans watching this,

who may say this doesn't really affect me.

You know, we know theUS dollar is currently

the world's dominant reserve currency.

Could we see China surpass the US

with their digital currency?

And how would it affect us?

- Yeah, as you mentionedthat the US dollar

is number one in the world,

the Chinese renminbi isnumber eight in the world.

No, not in the next, you know,short term, five to 10 years,

the US currency will continueand to dominate the globe,

but this is not the Chinese mentality.

You have to understand, you know this,

you'll have to look atthe Chinese mentality.

They look at this in a 50, 60, 70,

a very 50, 60, 70 years down the road.

They look at this in termsof a long-term ambition.

And they have, in essence built, Andrew,

the building blocks,that are the structure

that would allow a digitalcurrency to, you know,

to expand.

The ultimate goal is that, you know,

they want the renminbi,the Chinese currency

to be on par with the US dollar

and in some places to supplant it.

That is the ultimate goal,

but not in the next, youknow, five, 10 years.

- Well, what's therelease at the Olympics.

What other countriescould we see participate

in this kind of technology?

- Look the challenge is that

we saw this last year when,

for example, the companyH&M decided to boycott,

to make mention about thetreatment of Uyghurs Muslims

in China, and as a resultthe Chinese government,

just like they can potentiallyturn off your bank account

they turned off the app

that allows Chinesepeople to go to Beijing.

They look at their map,kind of like a Google map

to go to the H&M stores in Beijing.

Basically nobody knew how toget to the H&M store, why?

Because the Chinesegovernment was against H&M.

So this idea is that, you know,

companies that do business in China today,

US companies, Westerncompanies, they want,

the Chinese governmentwants these companies

to use a digital currencyso that they're able to then

have access to these private enterprises.

And again, use that ability

to track people's consumer habits as well.

So it's dangerous, very, very serious.

- Well, George, we thankyou so much for that report.

And we wanna remind all of you,

you can get all the latest news and more

when you download the CBN NewsChannel app today, Ashley.

- All right, well, coming up.

He was at the top of his career

so why did he leave it all behind

to start a YouTube channel?

We'll find out how AllenParr went from engineering

to hosting The BEAT right after this.

While he went from acareer to engineering,

to branding himself, the Bible guy,

Allen Parr is the creator and host

of the YouTube channel, The BEAT.

It's designed is to disciple,teach and answer questions

that a lot of Christianshave, myself included.

I got to sit down with Allen Parr

and talk more about his story

and how God brought himto where he is today.

Take a look.

(upbeat music)

- All right, well, Allen,

thank you so much for being with us today.

And for those who don't know who you are,

introduce yourself.

You know, who are you, what do you do?

All that good stuff, tell us.

- I am, I guess you could say an engineer,

high school math teacher, preacher,

most importantly, I'ma follower of Christ.

I'm a father, I'm a husband.

I have a wonderful wife,whose name is Jennifer.

I have a three-year-oldand a two-year-old,

three year old girl, two year old boy.

And they keep us very, very busy.

When I'm not recordingYouTube videos for the masses

I am fathering and, you know,

being a dedicated husband and whatnot.

But right now I have a really committed

to my online ministry,

which has a YouTubechannel called The BEAT.

- I was reading through your website.

And I thought was interesting.

There was a moment inyour life where you said

you considered yourself a Christian,

but you weren't really,you know, in it deep,

like you weren't reallywalking with the Lord,

which is honestly similarto my story as well.

What was it that called you

into a deeper relationship with God?

- I grew up in the youth choir, you know,

every Sunday I was atchurch, but I was bored.

I wasn't really tryingto, you know, the sermon.

The church was boring.

They didn't, my churchdidn't have a youth ministry,

like all these youth ministrythat bounce houses and arcades

in the, you know, youth like,

I went to really small Baptist church.

So, you know, I just didn'thave that foundation.

I didn't have anybody pouring into me.

So as a result, I gotinvolved in, you know,

just different activities,

things that really I shouldn'thave gotten involved in,

in high school and then thatkind of carried into college.

But the thing that really changed my life,

and this is the reason why I'mso passionate about ministry

is when I was 19 years old,

a man by the name of Kevin Miller,

we called him Deacon Miller.

He would come down to our campus

and he would do a Bible study.

And for the first time in my life,

I realized that studying theBible is actually kind of fun.

It was interesting.

He would decode parables and things.

And I was intrigued with the Bible

for the first time in my life.

And so it was really thepresence of one person

discipling me,

taking the time to believe that

he could pour into my life

that really made all the difference.

I don't know where I'd be, if that,

if I didn't have that experience.

- Wow, well, do youbelieve that you are that

for people digitally today,

like you're almost likea digital disciple,

do you think, like it,

do you think that's whereyour passion comes from?

- I think so, yes,

but I also think there'sa caution for all of us

who are Christian content creators,

because I think it needs togo deeper than that, right?

Posting a video andpressing publish is great,

but I don't think that can replace

the importance offace-to-face discipleship.

Obviously, there'slimitations electronically

that there's only so much I can do.

There's only so much I can't really get,

I can't do life withthey're all 600,000 people.

- [Ashley] Yeah.

- I see it as more of a both/and

rather than an either/or.

Like I'm gonna do online ministry

or I'm gonna do offline ministry.

I think it's like, hey,God has gifted us this,

this gift called theinternet, let's use it,

but let's not replace ourbasic responsibilities

as a Christian.

- Yeah, that's good, that's good.

Well, another thing thatI thought was really cool

about your past is that youor before you, you know,

became a presence on YouTubewas you were worship leader.

- In 2000, whenever I leftmy career as an engineer,

I came to seminary to follow my dream

of being a Bible teacher.

- Yeah.- And there were some churches

that were looking for a worship leader

and somebody to play the piano.

And so I play the piano and I sing

and that just kind of took off.

So what happened was,

after I graduated from seminary,

there was all these churches

that were looking for worship leaders

and nobody really wanted to hire

or pay for somebody tocome and teach the Bible.

Like, no, we've got deaconsthat we could do that,

we've got volunteers that can do that.

But what we don't have issomebody that can play these keys

and lead in worship, sowe'll pay you for that.

So to make a long story short,

it got to the point where

God was really blessing me somuch in the worship leading

that I started branding myself.

I got branded as the worship guy.

And I started to feel like, okay,

I'm getting further and further away

from what I really know deeply in my heart

God is calling me to dowhich is to teach the Bible.

And so I started feeling around 2014 or so

that I really needed todistance myself to some degree

from worship leading.

And it was hard because I enjoyed it,

but I always knew in my mind,

this wasn't where Iultimately wanted to be.

And that's when I startedlooking at YouTube,

2014, 2015.

And that's when I started this channel.

And I wanted to be,

I wanted to brand myself as the Bible guy,

the Bible teaching guy.

- Wow, I love that.

And I love what you said about, you know,

you felt like you werekind of drifting away

from what God had reallyput in your heart.

I mean, what advice would you give,

especially to younger people who

or honestly, anyone watching,

who feel like they've gottenoff track from the dream

and the vision that God has given them.

- We have to be true to ourselves.

And I think the enemy would,

is so content with us as believers,

just doing good things

so that as long as we neverget to like the God things

or the great things orour true calling, right?

And so for me leading worship, I loved it.

It was great,

but that wasn't ultimatelywhat God had for me.

So I think we have to get to the point

where we're not supercomfortable and content

with just kind of doing anything,

but you have to look deepwithin yourself and say,

okay, what is it that I'msuper passionate about?

What is it that I'm super excited about?

So it may take a step of faith

where you have to step out of something

that you're comfortable doing.

So you can trust God to take you

and do what you really called to do.

- Allen, thank you so muchfor being with us today.

Thank you for just opening up

and really sharing your story with us.

- Thanks so much, I washonored to be a part of it.

- Thanks Allen.

(upbeat music)

Wow, I hope you enjoyedthat little snippet

of my interview with Allen Parr.

And if you want more of that interview

go to 700 Club Interactive's YouTube page

for the extended cut.

I enjoy talking to Allen,he has amazing content.

If you wanna check out his content,

just go to The BEAT YouTube channel

and also check him out onInstagram and social media

at Allen Parr Ministries, Andrew.

- Thank you, Ashley.

Well, up next, a killeris about to be sentenced.

Then the victim's familycomes forward to speak.

What happened next,

something the judge had neverin 20 years on the bench,

what exactly went down?

See for yourself coming up after this.

(Upbeat music)

Mowed down by hit and rundriver and left to die.

That's what happened to Susan Cummings.

So after her killer turned himself in,

why did he wanna meet with Susan's family

and what exactly happenedbehind closed doors?

- She had come over for mydaughter's birthday party.

Before she left, I told her I loved her

and she said, "You shouldcome see me more often."

- [Narrator] Susan Cummingswas a loving mother

to her children, a cherished sister

and an important member of her community.

- She had a heart to serve.

She was a nurse.

She loved to help people.

She made it a point to,

to be at graduation partiesand birthday parties.

Even in her superherocostume, I like to call it,

which was her scrubs.

- [Narrator] In the early morninghours of August 8th, 2015,

Susan rode in a charity bike ride

to raise money for water wells in Kenya.

Her son, Kenny learnedthere'd been an accident

involving his mom.

- I was actually preparingfor a business trip.

I was gonna get up earlyand head to the airport

when I got a call.

And so I answered the phone

and it was my mom's best friend, Nancy.

She goes, "Kenny, your momhas been in a car accident."

I go, "Is she okay?"

And she goes, "No, she's, she died.

She's dead, and I'm so sorry."

I couldn't believe it,I was in total shock.

- When you get words like that,

it's just like a punch in the gut.

- When it set in and what had happened,

the details of what had happened,

that she was actually struck and killed

by a hit and run driver.

I was furious

that someone would takenot only a human life

he would take my mother from me

and leave her there to die

as if she was worthless.

- [Narrator] Soon after aman named Ronnie Joe Claflin

turned himself in.

- When Ronnie ultimately came forward,

I was relieved to finally have a scapegoat

for all the anger and frustrationthat I was dealing with

and hurt, to be able to put it on someone,

being able to finally look at that person

and really judge them forwhat they had done in my mind.

- [Narrator] Tom, a pastorsays he knew almost immediately

he would have to forgivehis sister's killer.

- The reason and I wasable to choose to forgive

is when I was 16, I was jumped

by five or six black guys that stopped me

and broke my nose and stole my bike

and just left me there basically for dead.

And in that moment, Ihad a feeling of racism

that injured my heart.

And it wasn't until I saw,

I believe it was Rodney King

getting beat down on national television

that the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said,

it's not the color of a man's skin

but the spirit that drives him.

And so in that moment

before the television, I just said,

"God, I'm sorry, forgive me."

- [Narrator] The familywould eventually learn

that Ronnie had been using inhalants

the day of the accident.

Ronnie's trial and sentencingwas almost a year later.

It would be the family's first interaction

with a man who had killed Susan.

Then shortly before the trial,something unusual happened.

- Ronnie had chose to plead guilty

and wanted to meet withus behind closed doors,

which by the way, never happens.

A lot of emotions werein the room that day.

And, but before we beganthat meeting with Ronnie,

before he entered the room, we prayed.

And so we invited the Holy Spirit there

and then Ronnie and theprosecuting attorney

and the defense attorneywalked in through the door.

And Ronnie was already tearful,

already remorseful.

And there was a lot of crying in the room

and as you can imagine,

we were finally seeing thisman for the first time.

I asked Ronnie, I said,

"Ronnie, are you sorry for what you did?"

And of course at that moment, Ronnie said,

"I do, I'm sorry."

But each of my family members,

including Susan's boyfriend, Grotty,

all said, "I forgive you."

- [Narrator] At the trial

most of the family members were there

and shared their forgiveness publicly.

- We all prepared a statement of mercy

and we all read through

and confirm to the court and to the judge

that we had forgiven Ronnie

and that we sought mercyfor him on his behalf.

- Grace showed up in that courtroom.

Even the judge said, "In all my 20 years,

I have never seen thishappen in my courtroom."

- [Narrator] In 2016,contributions poured in

for the Kenyan water well project

that Susan had given her life for.

- I was invited to go toKenya to dedicate a water well

in Susan's honor.

It was so overwhelming to go to a place

on the other side of the globe.

And here is my sisterbeing herod as a hero.

I just can't begin to put into words

what I was experiencing

and we were hearing themsinging joys about my sister.

- [Narrator] Tom says he hopes the grace

their families showed to Ronnie

will help others see thepower of forgiveness.

Jesus tells us to forgive.

He said, "If you forgive,then I'll forgive.

If you don't forgivethen I won't forgive."

It's so powerful to think that Jesus

while hanging on the cross

and he looked down at them and said,

"Father, forgive them forthey know not what they do."

We think we're holdingour offender in prison,

but it's actually us.

We're holding ourselves hostage.

But when we say I choose, I choose,

I choose to forgive.

And we choose to forgive,

we again, faith it until we make it.

We begin to say, I forgive

until that feeling becomes a reality.

- Isn't it incredibleto hear that family say

everyone in the familyprepared notices of mercy

and petitions of mercy.

That is a work of theHoly Spirit, is it not?

You heard a Susan's brother say,

"I had to choose to forgive."

It's not a feelingthat'll just come about.

If we wait for the feeling

of wanting to grant forgivenessand mercy to come about,

we're gonna wait an awfullong time, aren't we?

I know you don't need meto tell you about the pain

that people can inflict on us.

Damage done to us, cruel words,

cruel actions, abandonment,

things that leave us wounded and hurt.

And we have good reason wefeel not to extend mercy,

grace and forgiveness.

So we hold on to resentment.

We hold on to bitterness

because this offender deserves our rage.

And of course we knowwhen we start to meditate

and think upon this,

that we're the onesultimately suffering, right?

We give the enemy a foothold into our soul

and we are pushing away in abundant life.

You know, Jesus said,

you've heard this scripture,

Jesus, that I come to givelife and give it abundantly.

And sometimes in ourChristian walk, we say,

why aren't I feeling this abundant life?

Where's this abundance?

Where's this joy Jesus talks about?

Perhaps, and looking atyour Christian journey

and choices being made,

consider where unforgivenesslies in your heart.

And I'm not saying it's easy,I've struggled with this.

We all struggle with issues of forgiveness

and extending mercy,

but you may be giving the enemy a foothold

and causing a barrier betweenyou and the Holy Spirit

because of unforgiveness.

We tend instead of takingJesus' hand and saying,

I'm gonna trust you in this.

Jesus, I know you desireme to extend forgiveness,

but I wanna hold on to this myself.

Eventually, as we keep reliving the pain

over and over and over

and being wounded againand again and again,

we're inflicting thewounds into ourselves.

So let's trust what Jesus says

that for our prayers tobe powerful and answered

we need to offer forgiveness.

If a brother has somethingus, we need reconciliation.

I know it's not easy,

but Jesus has set up principlesin his kingdom for operating

and for joy and abundance

and for love and peace among people.

And forgiveness is anabsolute key to that.

So whatever you're holding today,

whatever the offense against you,

perhaps this is a moment to release that

at the cross and leaveit in the hands of Jesus.

So if you're feelingthat now pray with me.

Lord Jesus, you knowthe offense against me,

you know who has offendedme, who has hurt me,

who has wounded me andwhat the offense is.

And I've held thisbitterness and this fury

against this person or these people,

you know what it is, Jesus.

Today, I'm gonna trust you.

I'm gonna trust youthat releasing this pain

and this fury to you at the cross

is the way I am to livein abundant life of love

and being your disciples.

So Jesus, today I take this pain

and I give it to you.

I seek to have a forgiving heart

led by the Holy Spirit of God.

Father I don't want any impediment

between me and you.

And I know Jesus has maderelationship with God possible,

but I know if I hold onto bitterness and rage,

there's a strain on our relationship.

And Jesus I just turn it over now.

In the name of Jesus, amen.

If you'd like to continuepraying with someone

I urge you to give us a call here at CBN

at 800-700-7000, we'dlove to pray for you.

We leave you with these words from Mark.

And when you stand praying,

if you hold anythingagainst anyone, forgive them

so that your father in heavenmay forgive you your sins.

We'll see you tomorrow, bye-bye.

(ethereal music)