Ep 180 ｜ The Decline of Christianity
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the rapid decline of Christians in the United States and the implications for the future of the church. We also discuss the political, cultural, and social implications of a decline in Christianity, and the eternal implications of this.
Transcript
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Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a wonderful and restful
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weekend. As you know, unless this is your first time ever listening to Relatable, in which case,
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welcome. Glad you're here. But most of you probably know that it is Theology Monday.
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On Theology Monday, we take a cultural trend or a trend within the church or something that
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someone said, and we weigh it against the Word of God. And we say, okay, this is what this person
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said, or this is how this trend is going, but this is what the Bible actually says, and this is how
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Christians, according to God's Word, need to look at this or analyze this. Today, it's a little bit
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different. We're not going to be talking about a particular theological topic. We are going to be
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talking about a greater trend, and that trend is the rapid decline of Christianity or people who
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identify as Christians in the United States. I get email updates from Pew Research every few days,
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I think. I don't think it's every day. Every few days, when they conduct studies on religion,
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I received an email a few days ago, or last week, with a subject line that says,
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in the United States, decline of Christianity continues at rapid pace. And that is a jarring
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thing to see as a Christian. We know it's been happening for a while now, but all at once,
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when you read a headline like that, or when you read a subject line like that, you are hit
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with the implications of what that will look like and what that already does look like.
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Whether you want to believe this or not, the United States is a Christian nation. That doesn't
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mean that it has a nationalized religion of Christianity or that you have to be a Christian
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in order to enjoy your inherent rights in the United States, but it does mean that the laws,
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the constitution upon which this country was founded, is based on biblical ideas like property
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rights, equal justice, etc. Of course, as we know from our own history, these things have not always
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been applied or implemented perfectly, but they do characterize the foundation upon which this
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country was founded. And whether or not you believe in Christianity, you have been a beneficiary
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of the biblical ideals of justice and equality and fairness and private property and freedom.
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And so you are welcome, not from me, not from me, but you're welcome from the founders and the God
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of the Bible. There are obviously spiritual and eternal implications of this decline. That's what
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we're kind of going to end with. Those are much more important than the first part of this podcast.
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We're going to talk about the political, the cultural, the social implications of a decline in
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Christianity, which obviously I believe to be important and very intertwined with spirituality
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and eternal things as well, but they're not the most important. So we are going to get into the
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eternal implications at the end, but we're going to talk about the temporal consequences at first.
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Okay, first we need to look at the results of this study. So again, this is Pew Research.
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The decline of Christianity continues at rapid pace in the United States. It's probably
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how you could find it if you were to look it up on Google. So let's look at some of these results.
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The study looks at religious affiliation changes among Americans from 2007 until now. So 12 years.
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Let me emphasize that is affiliation. These are simply people who identify as Christians. We
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obviously don't know their heart. We don't know how often they go to church in these first statistics.
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We will get into that. We don't know if they read their Bibles. We don't know
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if they believe any of the things that Christianity stands for. All we know is that they call themselves
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Christians. In 2007, 51% of Americans identified as Protestant Christians, unchanged until 2010,
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and then it started to decline very rapidly. In 2014, this percentage reached 47%, and today is 43%.
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So that is an 8-point, if I'm correct in my math, decline in just 12 years. In 2007, 24% of Americans
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identified as Catholics, and that number is down by 4 points now to 20%. At the same time,
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the percentage of religious nuns that is N-O-N-E-S, not N-U-N-S, that would be really interesting
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if we were talking about the rise of nuns in U-N-S in America, but we're not. N-O-N-E-S,
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that number has risen. In 2007, they made up 12% of the population. Today, they comprise
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17% of the population, up 5 points. That may not seem like a lot, but in this short time frame,
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it absolutely is. At the same time, regular church attendance is decreasing as irregular and no church
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attendance is increasing. They actually flipped numbers exactly, these two statistics. Only 45% of
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the population attend church monthly or more, down 9 points since 2007. 54% of the population go to
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church fewer than once a month. That is up 9 points since 2007. So that is a direct switch.
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In every generation, according to this study, in every demographic, there has been a net decrease
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of people who identify as Christians. A group that has dramatically disaffiliated from Christianity,
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of course, is millennials. Since 2009, the percentage of millennials who identify as Christians has gone
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down 16 points. 16 points. That's a lot. While the percentage of millennials who identify as having
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no religion in particular, so that's not atheist necessarily. That's just not really knowing. Having
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no religion in particular is up 13 points. That is just in 10 years. In 10 years. The group that
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has seen the biggest jump and dissociation from Christianity is Democrats. That probably comes as no
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surprise to those of you who listen to this podcast regularly. Those who identify as Democrat and
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Christian have gone down by 17 points in the last 10 years. And those who identify as Democrat and not
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having a religion in particular is up 14 points. That is a huge change. And in my opinion, explains a lot of the
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outright radicalism of the Democratic Party. And we will get into why I think that in just a bit.
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Just to add, those who identify as Republican and Christian has declined by 7 points, while those who
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identify as Republican and having no religion at all has increased by 4 points. Let's take a deeper
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look into millennials who have experienced such a huge change in the past 10 years. Millennials,
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just as a refresher, were born anywhere from 1981 to 1996, according to Pew Research. For some reason,
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this is a point that like a lot of people like to argue with me on of when millennials were born and
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who millennials are. Some people tend to think that millennials were born around the millennium,
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and I totally understand why that is, but it's not true. Many millennials were coming of age during
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the millennium, which is why they are called millennials. But people like me, born in 1992,
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I'm a millennial. I was not yet coming of age in 2000 or in the turn of the century,
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but I am still counted as a millennial. So 1981 to 1996, we've got to stop referring to this group
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as college students. None of them are in college anymore. Probably the youngest is 23. So I guess
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they could be, they could still be in college, but the oldest, they're almost 40. And so a lot of them
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have marriages and mortgages. My brother, my brothers-in-law, my sisters-in-law,
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they're all on the older end of millennials, and they don't like to identify as millennials.
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They are very different from those of us who are born on the latter side of this,
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on the second half of this. They probably more identify with Generation X than they do millennials.
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But alas, face it, you are one of us, those of you who were born in the 1980s.
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But we do have to stop thinking of millennials as these young people. They are adults, and most of them
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have lead some kind of adult lives. And so we should start holding them responsible for the
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ideas and the values that they hold. They're not just young kids that we can brush off anymore.
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They are full-fledged adults, even if many of them don't act like it.
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Religiously, millennials are evenly split. According to the study, 49% identify as Christians. Only 9%
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identify as a religion other than Christian, which is interesting. And 40% are religiously
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unaffiliated. So 49% identify as Christians. 49% identify as something else, with 40% of that
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being religiously unaffiliated altogether. I'd be very interested to see this broken down by
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specific age groups rather than just generations. My guess would be that older millennials are
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probably more religious and conservative than younger millennials are. I would guess that is because
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the younger millennials have gone to college in the past 10 years. And if you haven't noticed,
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it is in the past 10 years that secularization has taken hold of culture at a rapid pace,
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probably more rapid than ever, as has liberalism, as has progressivism. Remember Pew's polarization and
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politics study from 2017 shows just how far left the left in this country has gone, not in the past
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30 years, not in the past 20 years, but over the past 10 years, especially while Barack Obama was
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president. So all of this has really precipitated just in the last decade. We'll get into more of
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that in just a second. Compare the millennial rate of Christian affiliation to our parents,
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baby boomers, 76% of whom identify as Christian, the silent generation, most of our grandparents,
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84% of them identify as Christian. It is not atheism that has taken over the millennial generation.
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It is nothing, which means that there is some belief in God or some belief in the spiritual,
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but no identity with any particular religion, including Christianity. This is not surprising
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to those of us who have seen the rise in what is called the new age, particularly on social media.
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We discussed this a little bit on the podcast episode last Monday about personality tests,
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the popularization of manifesting your best self while connecting to the divine,
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uh, which is both in you and in everything is seen through the increased popularity of
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crystals, of mediums, of psychics, of magic, of meditation, hypnosis, as ways to discover some
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hidden mystery of the universe of speaking of the universe as this supernatural power, rather than what
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it is an inanimate object. Uh, these are superstitious, pantheistic, pagan beliefs that are undergirded
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by the idea that you are your own God. This is something that we talk about so much because it's
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underneath of so many of our cultural changes. Uh, this is the God of self on display seeking ways to
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release a release. It's so-called inner power through mystical means. So self-love and obsession with
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self-care self-empowerment, uh, the fixation on the self, the straight up glorification of selfishness
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from every motivational speaker, every mommy blogger, every Instagram influencer you follow virtually ever,
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every, uh, are part of this new age esoteric belief system. Uh, whether those who propagate them know it
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or not, this is part of the postmodernism that we also see taught, uh, on college campuses that young
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people are being indoctrinated with constantly. The religion of self has been around for a long time,
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but it is quickly becoming the most popular faith in the United States, especially among millennials. And
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it is a faith for you to put your stock, any stock whatsoever in your inner magic and the manifestation
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of your inner magic with crystals. You've got to have a lot of faith for that. Of course, someone can worship the
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god of self without also being into crystals and things like that. Essentially, anyone who claims to be an
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agnostic, uh, or claims to have an agnostic worldview or an atheistic worldview is worshiping themselves because
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they are deeming themselves the arbiter of truth and of morality. Uh, the reason why this worldview is attractive
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is because the god of self doesn't demand anything of you that you don't want to do. Righteousness within the
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religion of self is counted as what, uh, makes you feel good. What is good for you? The most selfish or
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the more selfish you are, the more quote, holy you are considered in this religion of self. Even being
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kind to other people is done merely for good karma. Here is a, a really good example of this religion
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of self courtesy of former Christian mommy blogger who left her husband for a woman, Abby Wambach,
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and who now totally and completely rejects Orthodox Christianity, what she used to claim, uh, to be a part of.
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Her name is Glennon Doyle. The advertisement for her new book, which is titled Untamed, says this,
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we do not need any more selfless women. We need, what we need right now is, uh, more women who are
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full of themselves. A woman who is full of herself knows and trusts herself enough to say and do what
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must be done and lets the rest burn. This is how you find yourself. Gosh, this is just quintessential.
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These are the problems. These are the problems with modern society all wrapped up in this crazy
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little advertisement for a book. What does that even mean? I'm not sure anyone knows what that
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means. I don't think that anyone actually does. Here's another example from a book by Jen Sincero
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titled, You Are a Bad A. I won't say the word because we've got kids in the car. Um, it says,
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you are perfect. You're on a journey with no defined beginning, middle, or end. There are no
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wrong twists and turns. There is just being, and your job is to be as you as you can be. This is why
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you're here to shy away from who you truly are would leave the world you list. You are the only you
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there is and ever will be. I repeat, you are the only you there is and ever will be. Do not deny the
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world. It's one and only chance to bask in your brilliance. What? I couldn't even read that. It
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didn't even make grammatical sense to me. These are the doctrines of the religion of self. Everyone
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and everything in existence is here to serve you. You are here to serve you. Your significant
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others are here to serve you. The universe is here to serve you. The government is here to serve you.
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Anything that inconveniences you in this worldview is injustice. Anyone who hurts your feelings or tells
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you something you don't want to hear despite it perhaps being true is toxic. You got to cut them
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out of your life. All that matters is you, your happiness, your truth, your wants, your dreams.
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You are entitled, this view says, to all of it. Here's another recent example from a popular Instagram
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account called Emily on Life. Choosing to honor your deepest self will require you to make painful
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changes. People you love will feel hurt. Friendships and relationships will shift and end. Of course,
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this is the fastest growing religion in the United States. Of course it is. We finally
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have a belief system that indulges our most wicked inclinations for selfishness.
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And instead of being accused of immorality, we are being called brave.
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What person wouldn't naturally want that? There are no rules in this belief system. There is no right and
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wrong. There's no objective truth. Do you claim your truth? Seek good vibes, any discipline,
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you employ a hard thing you do must be done for you, not for the sake of other people. Find yourself,
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discover your true identity. The God of self, of course, according to its doctrines, is easy to worship.
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But what is happening? What is happening as this religion of self is growing in popularity?
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This belief system that emphasizes doing what feels good and only that which makes you happy and serves your
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purposes. Are we happier? Are we more content? Do we love ourselves more? Are we more satisfied?
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According to Psychology Today, nearly a fifth of all millennials cite being depressed.
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Millennials seek psychotherapy more than any other generation. We are addicted to psychotherapy.
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That's not to say all counseling is bad. I have seen a counselor before and it greatly steered my
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life in the right direction. I am not saying that biblical counseling is wrong, but this addiction
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to psychotherapy as a means to release some kind of inner power has gone off rails because millennials
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are so directionless and purposeless. A YouGov poll from July found that millennials are the loneliest
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generation in existence. A Blue Cross Blue Shield report found that depression has risen by 47%. This
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is this year, risen by 47% among millennials since 2013. A report from Trust for America's Health and
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Wellbeing Trust found that deaths by despair, which include deaths by suicide, over drinking or drug use,
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have increased more among young Americans than any other generation. Now, when you read mainstream media
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articles on this, the conjecture is that it only has to do with money problems. It has to do with a
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lack of economic opportunity. I don't think that is true. I don't think that we can apply that across
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the board. We are 10 years into one of the longest economic expansions in our country's history.
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Unemployment is the lowest that it's been in 50 years. We've got more job choices than ever.
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Wages are starting to rise. We've got more entertainment options than ever before. Everything
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is personalized to be tailored to our wants and our needs. This isn't to say that millennials don't
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have struggles, that we don't have obstacles, or that there aren't millennials who have a reason
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to feel like or feel like they have a reason to despair. I'm not saying that, but it is to say it
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doesn't seem feasible at all that the economy is the major or even a foremost cause of millennials
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depression. The only reason these articles want to say that is because they're trying to make an
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implicit case for socialism. I just don't see how we can possibly ignore that the most likely reason
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for millennials' feelings of purposelessness and loneliness and despair is because of a major
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shift of values. That the factors are primarily, and in many cases, internal, not simply external.
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I remember that NBC Wall Street Journal poll from a few weeks ago that showed that American young
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people care about three major things far less than any other generation, and those three things were
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having a family and having kids one day. They don't care about that anymore. They don't care about
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having a faith in God anymore, and they don't care about patriotism anymore. Those are the three
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values that young people, as compared to older generations, do not have. That shouldn't surprise
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us. All three of these things attach us to that which is bigger than ourselves. They require
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sacrifice. They require adhering to a set of rules or values that are outside of us, and the God of
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self loathes anything that takes away its glory and its attention. These are also the three ideals that
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just happened to have set America apart and has held America together since its founding. The bipartisan
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belief in God as the transcendent moral lawgiver, a bipartisan love for the family, a bipartisan gratitude
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for this country and the freedom that it represents. These are now, for the most part, partisan issues.
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Now, patriotism largely is seen as conservative value. Caring about the family is seen as mostly a
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conservative value. Belief in God is seen and is a conservative value. That's not to say that there
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are no liberals who love God or America or their families, but it is to say that if they do, they no
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longer represent the mainstream of the Democratic Party. They no longer represent the platform of the
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left. They are outliers now. In what side of the aisle do millennials most align with? The left.
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Now we see how this is all kind of intertwined. It is not a coincidence. It's not a coincidence that
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millennials are the most religiously unaffiliated and the most liberal and the most miserable. I just
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don't believe that's a coincidence. And as a result, they have of their religious unaffiliation and of
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their both theological and political liberalism, I believe they have no moral center. They have no
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greater purpose. They believe in no higher truth, except that the government is supposed to take
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care of them and they're supposed to be able to do what they want to do. What they have been left
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with is themselves. And when they realize that they are not enough to provide for themselves
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satisfaction and fulfillment, they despair because that is not the fuel that the human soul is supposed
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to run on. Trust me, if you live your life believing that you are all that matters, if you reject
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your creator, the God of the universe, the God of the Bible, if you reject family and you foster a
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resentment and a cynicism toward the country that has afforded more people from more backgrounds,
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races, religions, and nationalities than any other country in the world, you will be miserable.
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Your heart and your mind will eventually atrophy, which will be, of course, why you believe
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socialism to be a good idea, because only minds that have atrophied actually believe socialism
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to be a thing that is worth implementing. And I'm not sorry for saying that. Consistently,
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leftists message me and they email me and they leave reviews on my podcast saying you're demonizing
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the Christian left. You've got it all wrong about leftism and godlessness going hand in hand,
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that yes, they tell me it is totally possible to be a Bible believing Christian and a so-called
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progressive. Look, if you identify as someone who is on the left and a Christian, I am not
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doubting your salvation. I'm doubting that you understand what you say that you believe. You
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cannot be a leftist that is worth your salt and also believe in the Bible. You just can't. One of
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them is going to give. I do not, unfortunately, have it wrong on this. Now, I don't demonize you. I don't
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think that you are some terrible person. I think that we are all dead in sin apart from our Christ
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and in Christ we are made alive in him no matter what our beliefs are about things that don't have
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to do with salvation. So these tertiary issues like politics, I just believe that you are confused.
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You are either confused theologically or you are confused politically. And yes, these do have
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serious implications for not just our political views, but also for our spirituality. If you can
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show me a nation that is run by leftist ideals and Christian biblical values, I would love to see it.
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Show me a country that has become more free and more conservative while Christianity has died out.
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Show me a country where communism and Christianity have flourished alongside each other,
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where religious liberty has survived alongside big government. Show me a place where Christians are
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not being punished or being even thrown in jail in some countries where communism and leftist ideals
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are being implemented. Show me a country where that's not happening. You can't because it doesn't
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exist. And even on an individual level, show me one person who is a true leftist, who supports the
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current values of the American left, who actually believes in the Bible. It's not possible. It's not
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possible. To be a leftist Christian, you either have to not be a leftist or not a Christian.
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Why? Because you can't believe in the Bible's definition of gender, sexuality, and marriage,
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and be a leftist. You can't believe that Jesus is the only form of salvation and be a leftist. You
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can't believe in the sanctity of life inside the womb and be a leftist because the left will not
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accept you. The left will not accept you if you believe these things. You will be a bigot. You will
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be excommunicated because progressivism is also a religion. And you cannot deny, you cannot deny
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the biblical definitions of gender, the solution for salvation being found in Jesus or salvation
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being found in Jesus and the sanctity of life and call yourself. You can't deny these things and call
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yourself a Bible-believing Christian. One of them is going to give way. So as I say, to identify as a
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leftist and a Christian, you either have to be politically confused or theologically confused.
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No, that doesn't mean that God is a Republican. That doesn't mean that he fits inside our box of
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conservatism. No, our political affiliation is not a prerequisite for entrance into heaven. I'm not
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saying that at all. And I am saying that Christians can, in good faith, disagree on certain political
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issues. Of course that's possible. But to maintain a biblical worldview, you cannot also maintain a
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leftist worldview. Not today. Not according to leftist standards. You just can't. Why do countries
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get less free when they become less Christian? Because private property is a biblical value.
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The inherent morality and necessity of work and providing for yourself is a biblical value.
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Because covetousness and theft that is necessary for the establishment of socialism and communism are
00:25:18.500
anti-biblical values as specified by the Ten Commandments. Christianity has been on the
00:25:23.500
front lines of freedom fighting and justice seeking for all of its history. That's not to say that
00:25:29.120
everyone who identifies as a Christian has been correct on all issues for all of time. Of course,
00:25:33.540
we know that. There were people who identified as Christians who erroneously claimed that the Bible
00:25:37.600
condones slavery. But if you examine the front lines of the fight against slavery, against the evils of
00:25:44.940
the Holocaust, or civil rights, or the protection of pre-born children, or the fight against sex
00:25:50.280
slavery, you will find Christians. Christians. The Protestant Reformation, specifically as we know,
00:25:56.300
had a profound impact on shaping the Western world and America in particular. The idea that human beings
00:26:01.780
had the ability through the authority of the Holy Spirit to read and apply the Bible on their own
00:26:06.620
independently from some elitist clergy or bureaucracy is a Protestant idea that greatly affected the West.
00:26:14.940
It greatly affected the founders and greatly affected then how America was shaped.
00:26:20.420
So that is the political side of this. This is how this all goes hand in hand. The godlessness of
00:26:26.580
millennials, the secularization of society, the worship of the God of self, feeling like the only
00:26:33.340
values that you have are, or believing that the only values that you have is that you get to be yourself
00:26:38.680
and do the things that you want to do. And the government comes alongside and makes your life cushy so you
00:26:43.120
don't have to do anything that's inconvenient, that you view as an injustice. That all goes hand in
00:26:48.940
hand. That is why I say over and over again, the time has come and gone for Christians not to care
00:26:52.960
about politics. Because all the craziness that we're seeing, whether it is abortion, so the dehumanizing
00:26:59.020
of life inside the wound that is biologically, logically, theologically, a human life that is deserving of
00:27:06.100
inherent rights, the denial of that humanity resulting in the normalization and the glorification
00:27:12.720
of abortion, whether you're looking at that, or whether you're looking at this crazy idea that
00:27:18.220
you can separate sex from gender and that people are actually what they feel they are rather than what
00:27:22.900
science says they are. That all has to do with the erasing of the biblical view as human beings
00:27:29.060
is made by God in his image with a biological purpose and with a spiritual purpose. It also
00:27:37.360
is indicative of the belief that the government and society as a whole is more important and is
00:27:44.920
bigger than the individual. The reason why we believe that the individual and individual rights and
00:27:49.700
individual freedom as conservatives, the reason why we believe that that is more important or that that
00:27:54.940
is better than the government taking over and telling us what our rights are and saying this is for
00:27:58.960
the common good. We're going to outlaw this and we're going to make this happen because we want
00:28:02.500
everyone to reach this stupid and erroneous definition of equality. I won't get into all
00:28:08.280
that, but the reason why we believe in individual rights and individual liberty is because we believe
00:28:12.380
that the individual lives forever and government does not. And because individuals have a soul,
00:28:17.360
because they were again made in the image of God, they are more important than the government
00:28:20.840
and they are deserving of, they're not deserving of, they have inherent rights that were endowed to them
00:28:27.060
as the Declaration of Independence says, by their creator. Therefore, because they were given to us
00:28:32.100
by a transcendent creator that is higher than the government, they can't be taken away by the
00:28:35.100
government. That is what conservatives believe in. That is why when you become more secular,
00:28:42.120
when you become more theologically liberal, aka when you stop taking the Bible seriously,
00:28:47.280
you also become more politically to the left. You start buying into socialism. You start believing
00:28:53.760
that the government is here to take care of you rather than human beings, Christians taking care
00:28:57.700
of themselves. It all goes hand in hand. And as we see from the misery that so many millennials seem
00:29:03.560
to be wallowing in, I just don't think that it's a workable worldview. It's just not workable. Even
00:29:08.600
just from a practical standpoint, it doesn't seem to be working at all. Of course, it's not why we
00:29:12.840
believe in Christianity. We believe in Christianity because it's true. We believe in Christianity for
00:29:17.360
salvation. We believe in Christianity because we are sinners in need of mercy. We are dead in our sin
00:29:22.840
to be made alive in Christ, which leads me into the eternal, much more important part of this.
00:29:28.120
And that is why millennials are leaving the church. Well, one, I think it's because the God of self is
00:29:33.320
attractive, but the God of self is not as attractive as the cross of Jesus Christ. So what's happening?
00:29:38.900
What's happening there? Why are there so many people walking away from the church and saying,
00:29:43.560
you know what, I'm going to just going to do my own thing. I'm not an atheist, but I don't really know
00:29:47.000
what I believe. Don't want to go to church. Don't want to be a part of any kind of religious
00:29:50.160
institution. I believe, and this is just my guess, I believe it is because too few churches are
00:29:55.540
preaching the gospel. So many churches are so concerned with attracting young people with
00:30:00.560
interesting, with interesting, catchy, catchy sermons or sermons that are relatable or sermons
00:30:09.200
that are trendy or songs that are actually secular with Jesus's name sprinkled into it.
00:30:14.780
They're preaching a message of self-love and self-esteem and slapping Jesus's name on it
00:30:19.440
and calling it the gospel. They're saying the gospel is God loves you and wants you to be happy.
00:30:24.040
That's not the gospel. The gospel is, is that you were dead in your sin and you're bound for hell
00:30:27.660
apart from Christ. And in him, you not only get eternal life and you get the opportunity to advance
00:30:33.300
his kingdom here on earth, but you also get joy through every trial, no matter what. If you are thirsty,
00:30:40.300
here is the well of life. If you are hungry, here is the bread of life. You will never spiritually
00:30:44.240
thirst again. You will never spiritually hunger again. That is what you get. That is different
00:30:49.260
than what the world offers you. You don't have it in yourself to love yourself forever. You don't
00:30:53.720
have it in yourself, uh, to make yourself feel good. You don't have it in yourself to make yourself
00:30:58.080
happy forever. That is a dead end because eventually you're going to realize, wow, I wake up today and I
00:31:04.360
don't love myself. I look in the mirror and I don't see someone that I'm happy with. I don't feel like I
00:31:08.840
have the strength to go on. I can't muster it on my own. And you're right because you were never meant to.
00:31:13.240
You're not self-sufficient. You're not enough. Your soul does not run on self-love and that is
00:31:19.000
going to continually wear you out and exhaust you until you find your satisfaction. You quench your
00:31:25.560
thirst in the well that never runs dry. We need to be preaching the gospel in churches. We need to
00:31:31.400
be preaching theology in churches. What does the Bible say about the things that are going on in this
00:31:36.420
world? What does the Bible actually say about these issues that we are confronting? If our pastors,
00:31:41.520
who are supposed to be shepherding us, don't tell us how we're supposed to view the world
00:31:46.000
and they just let us get by living in our sin and worshiping ourselves, if they're not the ones
00:31:52.100
telling us what is true, who's going to? Who's going to? Churches need to be preaching something
00:31:57.040
different than what the world is. It looks, we look too much as Christians and I'm obviously guilty of
00:32:02.840
this too at times. We look too much like the rest of the world. We look too much like secular society
00:32:09.500
who is saying that really the most important thing is that you feel good about yourself.
00:32:13.980
A pastor who is telling you that Jesus exists to make you feel good about yourself is not a pastor,
00:32:19.280
a pastor who cares about your eternal destination. He doesn't. He cares not to offend you. The gospel
00:32:25.380
is offensive. If you look at the book of Acts, the gospel that people were preaching put them in jail
00:32:30.540
and I pray, I pray to God that we don't get to a place in America in our lifetimes where freedom of
00:32:36.560
speech has somehow become so stifled that we're not even allowed to say what is true. But while we
00:32:41.860
still have time, Christians, while we still have time to preach the gospel without fear of punishment,
00:32:48.000
persecution, or death, let us do it. Let's do it. And I'm speaking to myself. I understand the fear
00:32:53.900
of feeling awkward, the fear of not wanting people to hate you, but we've got to talk about sin.
00:32:58.500
We've got to talk about salvation. We've got to talk about sanctification. If we want to look
00:33:02.580
different than the world, churches have to be different than the world. We can't be scared
00:33:08.040
while we have this probably short window of time to be free. But although we also need to be, I think,
00:33:14.820
a little bit encouraged by this, that yes, there are fewer people now who identify as Christians,
00:33:22.180
but that also, that also could be that people are no longer, are no longer desiring just to be
00:33:30.020
nominal Christians. And that should be fine. We're okay with people not identifying as Christians
00:33:35.780
who are not actually Christians anymore, or not actually Christians at all. That's okay. What we
00:33:41.740
care about is real regenerative heart change. That's what we care about. And the church is going to be
00:33:49.760
okay. The church is going to continue to thrive. The gospel is still going to be continued to be,
00:33:55.980
is going to continue to be shared no matter what, no matter what our laws are, no matter how much
00:34:01.900
of a Christian nation we live in, no matter how free we are, God is not limited by legislation.
00:34:08.080
He is not limited by leftism. And it's okay for us to have concerns about these things. Obviously,
00:34:14.340
I raise concerns about what's going on in our political process all the time, and we should want
00:34:19.640
freedom. We should be worried about the persecution that could inevitably ensue when our country becomes
00:34:28.040
less and less free for Christians. We should care about future generations. We should care about what
00:34:32.480
we're able to teach and talk to our kids about. These are all things that matter. So we should care
00:34:37.640
about what's going on in Washington and what's going on even at our state capitals. But we also have the
00:34:45.420
confidence and the assurance and the absolute steadfastness when we recognize that God is
00:34:55.120
sovereign, that he's in control, that his word does not return void, that we don't have to worry about
00:35:01.440
how this is going to end up, that we know that Jesus wins at the end of the day, that we understand
00:35:06.940
how this is all going to go eventually. And yes, we can talk about, fight for the things that matter.
00:35:13.880
We can seek justice. We can love mercy. We can walk humbly with God, knowing that at the end of the
00:35:19.540
day, that he's got it, that he's in control, that he is not off of his throne, and that his plan will
00:35:25.460
come through. It will come through. And we can trust that. All we have to do is to be obedient,
00:35:30.900
and we have to be bold. That is what we are required to do as Christians. And that's our responsibility,
00:35:40.960
knowing all the while that we have joy, that we have assurance, that we have confidence,
00:35:46.700
understanding that God is sovereign, and that he will not let his plans and his purposes fail.
00:35:55.880
And it is much more important, guys. It's much more important to me, guys. So much more important
00:36:00.860
that you, whoever young lady is listening to this, that you understand the truth of the gospel,
00:36:08.020
than you do, than I care about your agreement on political issues. Of course, I believe that
00:36:15.660
what I talk about is correct on political issues, or else I wouldn't talk about it. But I'm so much
00:36:20.020
more concerned. I'm so much more concerned with your heart, with people's hearts, with my heart,
00:36:24.660
with all of our hearts, and our eternal destination than I am how you vote next November. Do I think that
00:36:29.960
spirituality and politics, that all of these are intertwined in some way? Absolutely, I do. Of course,
00:36:34.900
I do, because God is in everything. He's the ruler of everything. And we are supposed to be salt and
00:36:40.700
light in every area of our lives. However, of course, I am more concerned with the spreading of
00:36:46.920
the gospel than I am making you a Republican or a conservative. So I just want to make that clear.
00:36:52.360
Okay, I have so much more to say, but we're having some technological difficulties on our end. And so I
00:36:57.920
think I need to wrap this up. But maybe if I think of other things that I didn't say that I still want
00:37:01.540
to say, maybe I'll add that to Wednesday's podcast. But I hope you guys enjoyed this. I hope it's at
00:37:05.480
least thought provoking. If you have any thoughts, as always, please reach out to me. Thank you so
00:37:09.720
much for listening. I will see you back here in a couple days.