Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 261 ｜ Past the Point of No Return

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. We have another big show today like we did

00:00:15.900 last Wednesday. It is going to be jam-packed of stuff with stuff that I hope will encourage

00:00:22.120 you, that I hope will challenge you. We are going to be talking about some of the forms

00:00:28.560 of deceit that Christians are facing right now in our cultural and political theological dialogue

00:00:34.780 and what we can do practically as Christians to make sure that we are equipped and prepared. So

00:00:42.040 I really hope that this is a helpful episode for you. Now, before I get into this, if you are

00:00:47.660 watching this on YouTube, which everyone should, it comes out at 2 p.m. if you're just listening to

00:00:52.840 this. But if you are watching this, I just want to apologize for my hair. Typically, I try to

00:00:57.940 dress up a little bit for you guys. It was just one of those days. I'm still rocking the

00:01:02.800 quarantine hair, having gotten my hair done, highlighted, cut, having gotten my nails done.

00:01:08.400 I'm not complaining, okay? I know. I'm not complaining. There are a lot bigger things

00:01:12.940 going on in the world. I just want to let you know, in case you are personally offended by my

00:01:18.820 appearance and by my hair, that I apologize for that. I will do a better job next time and put a

00:01:24.500 little bit more effort into my hair. Okay. As I said, today, I am going to try to challenge you to

00:01:31.420 shake your shoulders, of course, metaphorically a little bit and encourage you in the Lord.

00:01:36.460 We are going to be talking about the pressing importance of wisdom in an age of what seems like

00:01:43.720 absolute lunacy and degeneracy and why wisdom matters now more than ever. I am feeling what I think a lot

00:01:52.120 of you are feeling, what I'm sensing a lot of you are feeling, and I know a lot of you are feeling

00:01:55.580 because I've talked to some of you. I'm feeling a sense of urgency. I'm feeling a sense of urgency

00:02:01.360 to learn, to know, to read, to make sure that I really understand my Bible, an urgency to pray,

00:02:08.380 an urgency to gain wisdom, to share the gospel, an urgency for obedience, an urgency to be close to

00:02:14.220 God, to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, to spend my time wisely. And I have heard this,

00:02:19.100 like I said, from other Christians, from some of you guys, from my friends, from my husband. I've

00:02:24.060 seen a kind of a shift in a lot of people who are saying, okay, you know, I kind of thought that

00:02:29.840 just going to church and reading my Bible every now and then was fine. I thought maybe, you know,

00:02:34.520 sending my kids to a Christian preschool would be enough for their discipleship, and I'm realizing

00:02:39.460 that it's not enough. And a lot of you feel like, okay, I'm tired of being complacent and being

00:02:44.980 apathetic in my faith and allowing the world to inform my theological views. I got to get busy

00:02:51.220 knowing the wisdom of God and understanding the Bible and being obedient to Him and telling other

00:02:56.620 people the good news about Jesus Christ. And I think that there is a shift going on in the American

00:03:02.680 church because there's a shift going on in America. Christians feel like we are on high alert right

00:03:08.200 now. There is a restlessness in a lot of us as we are looking around and we're realizing,

00:03:15.080 oh, okay. So we've been told for a long time that the darkness is imminent, that the darkness

00:03:19.220 is coming. We are seeing it on the horizon, and we're talking about what it's going to look like

00:03:24.580 one day in this hopefully avoidable dystopian future. And now we're looking around and we're

00:03:31.700 seeing, oh, okay, it's not just on the horizon. It's here, and it probably has been here

00:03:36.640 for a lot longer than we realized. A lot of you, I know, you feel alone right now. You feel totally

00:03:44.300 alone. You're looking at what your friends are sharing on social media. Your friends you thought

00:03:48.700 were theologically solid. You feel like have betrayed the theological views that you thought

00:03:53.920 that you shared. Friends that you thought took the gospel and the Bible seriously, you realize that

00:03:58.700 they don't. You've been called names. You've been called a bigot for saying that the gospel is the

00:04:03.740 answer, that everyone needs the same gospel, that everyone is dead in their sin apart from Christ,

00:04:08.580 that the only way to be reconciled to God is through Christ, and that that is the ultimate

00:04:13.040 answer for all the isms that the human heart holds. You have been told that you don't care,

00:04:18.900 that you are callous, that you lack compassion. And when you share the truth, people obsess over

00:04:24.020 something like your tone, and you feel helpless. You feel helpless, and you feel alone, and you feel

00:04:31.240 isolated, and you're wondering if you should just capitulate, if you should just fall into what

00:04:36.220 I've called the virtue trap that says, you have to say this, you have to do this, you have to post

00:04:40.720 this, or else you are not sufficiently righteous. Yet, as I've told you, friend, Christian, woman,

00:04:47.260 you do not answer to the mob. You do not answer to the world. You do not, you are not obligated to fall

00:04:53.740 into virtue traps. God has set the standard of righteousness, and he sent Jesus to meet that

00:05:00.040 standard of righteousness on your behalf. So any righteousness that you do have doesn't come from

00:05:05.460 what you do according to worldly standards. It doesn't come to you because of something that

00:05:11.600 you said, or something that you posted, or even any good deeds that you do. The righteousness that

00:05:17.080 you have as a Christian was given to you by Christ on the cross. So it cannot be diminished. It cannot be

00:05:23.960 taken away from you. It is already won for you by Christ. And so this feeling that you have of maybe

00:05:30.800 not repeating the right talking points, or not fitting into worldly qualifications of what they

00:05:38.780 say is virtuous, you have to forget that. You have to let go of that, because God has already won your

00:05:44.420 righteousness on your behalf if you are a believer, if you are a child of God, if by grace through faith

00:05:51.140 you have been saved in Christ, made alive through Christ. You don't have to worry about falling into

00:05:57.440 worldly virtue traps. Okay? So I want that to wash over you. I want that to give you peace. I want you

00:06:03.820 to realize that your identity in Christ as a Christian is solid. It is solid because it's not based on what

00:06:09.440 you've done, or what you've said, or what the world says, or what the world says that you have to do.

00:06:14.440 It is based on what Christ has already done. And the cross is enough. The cross is enough.

00:06:20.580 Okay. So what we have, that was just an aside. I just wanted to make sure that you guys knew who

00:06:26.180 are feeling alone and discouraged and confused right now that your righteousness comes from Christ

00:06:31.360 and it is secure. Unfortunately, you have seen pastors forego that responsibility to share that

00:06:38.900 gospel to their congregants and instead latch on to a worldly narrative about a reconciliation

00:06:44.320 that does not exist outside of Christ. I highly recommend, I always, I always recommend these guys

00:06:51.980 and tell you guys to go listen to them. Go listen to the Just Thinking podcast, an amazing biblical

00:06:58.000 podcast. Listen to all their episodes. They've got amazing episodes on assurance of salvation, but they

00:07:04.560 also talk about, and grace in the gospel and soteriology and all that good stuff, but they

00:07:09.400 also talk about cultural and political issues really well. Go listen to their episodes on racial

00:07:14.320 reconciliation, on George Floyd and the gospel. They have a lot of good insight to offer on all of

00:07:23.800 those things. But unfortunately, they are pretty, just as people who are reformed Christians preaching the

00:07:32.600 gospel into cultural and political issues. They are a rare breed. Unfortunately, too many Christians,

00:07:39.400 too many pastors, too many Christian influencers aren't doing what Christians should be doing,

00:07:45.480 which is preaching the gospel into pain and suffering and injustice. And like I've said, that doesn't mean

00:07:50.960 that we can't talk about political solutions, that we can't talk about laws, that we can't talk about

00:07:55.980 problems. I do that every day. Of course we can. But if you're only talking about those things,

00:08:02.340 if you're only talking about so-called social justice, which as we've talked about on this

00:08:06.200 podcast many, many times is not actual justice, but if that's all you're talking about and you're

00:08:11.140 not dealing with the rotting sin that is in the human heart, in the hearts of all ethnicities,

00:08:16.340 by the way, then you as a pastor, as a Christian, are not doing your job. You are doing an eternal

00:08:21.520 disservice to the people that you are speaking to. Unfortunately, the church lacks wisdom.

00:08:28.160 The church lacks wisdom. There was a study a couple years ago, I think it was by Lifeway and

00:08:35.240 Ligonier Ministries. Ligonier Ministries is a great resource as well. By the way, I recommend that you

00:08:41.260 go to their website and you look at their resources that they offer. They did a study or they did a poll

00:08:49.220 and they asked evangelical Christians, self-identifying evangelical Christians,

00:08:53.660 basic theological questions. And the answers, I actually talked about it on a podcast a couple

00:08:59.240 years ago. I'll try to find that and show you where it is and maybe put it in the description

00:09:03.300 of this episode. I'm just kind of doing this off the top of my head. But the answers to those

00:09:08.440 questions about Jesus Christ, who he is, how you gain salvation, what truth is, not how you gain

00:09:16.180 salvation, but how salvation is gained, what truth is, what the Bible is, how we should see God and

00:09:22.000 creation and all of these very basic theological ideas. Evangelical Christians failed these questions

00:09:29.360 for the most part, failed these questions. It was like 80% of the Christians, self-identifying Christians

00:09:35.000 who answered questions on this, said that they believed that Jesus was the foremost created being.

00:09:43.940 Like what kind of God is that? Like what kind of God is created?

00:09:49.080 So if that is your idea of Jesus, that not that he is the preeminent one before and through all of

00:09:55.860 creation, but that he is just a created being, that kind of faulty idea of who Jesus is affects

00:10:03.580 your theology. Your theology affects your worldview. Your worldview then affects how you view things like

00:10:09.820 politics and culture and all the issues that we're talking about today. So what I've realized

00:10:14.300 is that the disagreements that we have as Christians on this kind of stuff are not primarily political and cultural

00:10:20.980 differences. Though I do think that there are a lot of faithful Christians who in good faith are disagreeing on

00:10:26.920 politics, and that is perfectly fine and healthy and good and wonderful. However, I think that a lot of this, the

00:10:32.860 real divide that we're seeing within the church are theological difference, differences, theological differences,

00:10:38.960 differences in how we view God and how we view the Bible and how we view the importance of scripture and

00:10:45.300 how to actually read scripture. There is a different view on the importance of truth and objective truth

00:10:51.440 and what that actually looks like. What we're seeing is the emergence of, actually I won't even say the

00:10:56.300 emergence of, it is just the manifestation of three things that I think have existed in the church for a

00:11:01.460 long time. And that is one, ethnic Gnosticism, two, standpoint epistemology, and three, cultural

00:11:08.200 Marxism. I know those sound like really boring academic words, but I will tell you exactly what

00:11:13.620 they mean and you'll immediately know why they are pertinent. These are things that I'm seeing rise up in

00:11:17.960 the church and they are part of the reason why I think there is such an urgency and an importance

00:11:23.780 for us as Christians to gain wisdom. And like I said, I'm going to give us practical tips

00:11:30.260 for how we, in the Lord, through the power of the Holy Spirit, make sure that we are wise and prepared

00:11:36.740 for the age that is coming. Ethnic Gnosticism is a term coined by Votie Bauckham. That is another

00:11:44.040 resource I highly recommend to you. Go to YouTube, look up Votie Bauckham, that is V-O-D-D-I-E,

00:11:50.380 last name B-A-U-C-H-A-M. Look at his YouTube videos on social justice, on ethnic Gnosticism,

00:11:58.080 which I'm about to tell you about, on cultural Marxism, on racial reconciliation. Another amazing

00:12:04.380 resource that is unfortunately, to say, going against the grain of what a lot of people in

00:12:11.960 the American church are doing right now, speaking the gospel and biblical truth into these issues

00:12:17.400 rather than latching on to worldly narratives. And these are voices. This is a voice, by the way,

00:12:23.000 that is not being elevated by those who say that we need to be listening to Black voices. The Just

00:12:29.380 Thinking podcast, Votie Bauckham, those are not people that are being elevated, even though they're

00:12:33.960 speaking to the same issues that Black Americans and Black Christians on the other side of this issue

00:12:39.200 are speaking to. But it's just funny. It's just funny how some churches pick and choose which Black

00:12:45.240 voices we need to listen to and which aren't. When people like Votie Bauckham and the Just Thinking

00:12:49.820 podcast are very biblically faithful Christians and are encouraging and equipping people to look

00:12:55.540 at these issues biblically. So Votie Bauckham, he coined this term ethnic Gnosticism. He is an author.

00:13:01.300 He's a scholar. He is the Dean of Theology at African Christian University in Zambia. So Gnosticism means

00:13:07.920 having knowledge. Gnostics claim to have a special knowledge, a higher truth that only they are privy to,

00:13:17.520 something that cannot be learned by reading or studying or your normal way of retaining wisdom

00:13:24.400 or information, it is experiential in nature. It is innate. It's given to you. So ethnic Gnosticism,

00:13:32.080 Votie Bauckham says, is a lot of what you're seeing right now. So people saying, because of my ethnicity,

00:13:39.120 I have special knowledge, specifically about racism and oppression, that you, because of your ethnicity,

00:13:45.680 not only don't know, because that might be true, of course, different ethnicities have different

00:13:49.940 experiences and different knowledge, and that's fine. But ethnic Gnosticism goes on to say,

00:13:54.620 you cannot know it. You can never truly know. You can only know that which I tell you is true.

00:14:01.560 So you can never fully know if you are a different ethnicity than me, says the ethnic Gnostic,

00:14:07.040 what true racism is, what true oppression is, because it is from what I say. It is from my special

00:14:14.660 knowledge and my special experience. That is ethnic Gnosticism. It holds that you, because of your,

00:14:20.440 for example, your whiteness, and because you lack that special knowledge, can never say what's racist

00:14:26.540 and what's not. Therefore, anything you say or do may be racist, no matter what is in your heart,

00:14:31.620 no matter what your intent is. By the way, that book that everyone is recommending,

00:14:36.860 specifically churches are recommending, White Fragility, is based on this idea, that all white

00:14:42.220 people are innately racist, and whatever another ethnicity says is racist is racist, and that white

00:14:48.340 people just need to understand that and need to agree with that. That is this idea of ethnic Gnosticism

00:14:54.300 that, unfortunately, a lot of churches are even promoting. It's the idea that because your

00:14:59.060 privilege blinds you to certain ethnic special knowledge and experience, you cannot ever argue

00:15:07.040 against the intent that's in your heart or against the accusations of the intent that's in your heart.

00:15:13.560 You can never say what you actually meant to do and what your motivation really was. If an ethnic Gnostic

00:15:21.060 says something that you do is racist or wrong, you simply have to agree. That's what ethnic Gnosticism

00:15:26.600 holds. It is also unattainable. It has ever-changing knowledge or so-called truth, which means ethnic

00:15:32.120 Gnosticism means that what was racist yesterday may not be racist tomorrow or vice versa. So the ones who

00:15:39.280 have been deemed privileged must always and continually capitulate in order to show proper humility and

00:15:45.120 repentance. We have to accept that we don't know what we don't know and simply accept whatever the

00:15:50.860 Gnostics tell us. Again, I highly encourage you to go listen to Votie Bauckham's video sermon on this.

00:15:57.580 This is obviously, if you haven't picked up on this, very different from how the church should be

00:16:02.600 viewing the issue of racism. If we want to talk about racism, we have to talk about what it actually

00:16:08.280 is. We have to be able to, just like in any productive conversation and dialogue, be able to define

00:16:14.320 our terms objectively. The Gnostics say that racism is prejudice plus power, which means, according to

00:16:20.920 their worldview, that only white people can truly be racist because only white people truly have power.

00:16:26.400 But that is not a biblical definition, which is why Christians should not allow Gnostics to define

00:16:32.460 our terms. According to the biblical worldview, racism, just like every other ism, so sexism, ableism,

00:16:39.460 anti-Semitism, is hate in the human heart. 1 John 4 20 says, if anyone says, I love God and hates his

00:16:46.600 brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has

00:16:53.720 not seen. And it does not make exceptions or put qualifications on it. That means that while white

00:16:59.880 people can be racist, and while it is true that that particular racism has had huge and tragic, and I

00:17:05.720 would say unique consequences in American history that I think that we should talk about and learn

00:17:10.780 from, absolutely, it also means from a biblical worldview, if we are defining objective terms, which

00:17:16.220 we should always seek to, other groups can be racist too. Because every group, everyone with a beating

00:17:24.040 heart has the capacity to hate, and that is what all isms are. It's hate. That is the biblical

00:17:30.300 definition of racism, if you want to say that there is a biblical definition of it. Of course, that word

00:17:37.360 isn't in there, but just like all isms, it is hate in the human heart, and in the case of racism, because

00:17:42.840 of the color of someone's skin. And obviously, that is also a sin, if we look at what 1 John 4 says, and of

00:17:49.320 course, what Jesus says about hating people in your heart. That means, contrary to what the Gnostics say,

00:17:55.420 racism cannot always be assumed. In every instance, they say it can. Many actions and words are

00:18:02.980 obviously overtly racist and hateful, but unless we can see someone's heart, which we cannot, you and I

00:18:09.040 can't even fully understand our own hearts, which is what Jeremiah 17 9 says, because they're desperately

00:18:13.820 sick, and we can't understand them. Unless we can fully look into someone's heart and know exactly

00:18:20.760 their motives, we cannot always assume someone's racism simply based on the color of one's skin.

00:18:29.040 Here's a great example of what ethnic Gnosticism looks like in practice. So the press secretary,

00:18:36.620 Kayleigh McEnany, she said in a statement, she was talking to the press that she called AOC,

00:18:43.260 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the congresswoman, an advisor to Biden. And AOC then tweeted this,

00:18:49.160 press secretary wouldn't be the first person to mistake a woman of color for having a lower

00:18:53.700 position or title than she does. But Kayleigh, in case you haven't picked up a newspaper in two

00:18:57.720 years, I'm a congresswoman. The press secretary's comment is steeped in a long, hurtful and horrendous

00:19:02.960 history of stripping women of color of titles and diminishing them to the health. Perhaps she isn't

00:19:07.680 aware that what she did is mired in racist history. If that is the case, I look forward to her

00:19:12.360 apology tomorrow. So she is demanding an apology from the press secretary for saying something that is

00:19:19.020 not overtly racist, but that she is taking as racism because of what she says is her personal

00:19:27.820 experience and Gnostic knowledge, special knowledge of the history of the statement that Kayleigh McEnany

00:19:37.560 made. Here's the problem with that. Not only is she assuming the motivations of Kayleigh McEnany's heart,

00:19:43.400 there's another problem with this. In the transcript, which Kayleigh McEnany, the press secretary,

00:19:48.600 tweeted out, we see that she actually did call Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez what she is, a congresswoman.

00:19:55.600 She listed a few congresswomen. She said that she is one of a few congresswomen pushing to defund the

00:20:01.880 police. Of course, AOC is not going to be pushed to apologize. She's not going to be expected to

00:20:06.720 apologize. And she's not going to apologize, even though she accused the press secretary of the

00:20:11.120 United States of racism falsely. But it doesn't matter because ethnic Gnosticism says that whatever

00:20:18.540 you feel, whatever your experience is as a member of the oppressed class is true and everyone else

00:20:24.660 simply has to agree with it. Ethnic Gnosticism is a form of what is known as standpoint epistemology.

00:20:30.900 So it is the obtaining of knowledge, not through objective means, but from your standpoint.

00:20:36.420 A standpoint theory is actually a feminist theory that asserts that your knowledge stems,

00:20:40.920 sheerly from your social position. And if you're in a social position that cannot understand another

00:20:46.620 social position, your opposing opinion is invalid, especially if you are in a place of so-called

00:20:54.000 privilege. So this leads people to have conversations about suffering, about race, about real oppression

00:20:59.680 that is subjective rather than objective, which makes it very hard for us to have productive

00:21:05.020 dialogues. Subjectivity, by the way, isn't always bad. Experiences aren't bad to talk about.

00:21:10.920 Subjectivity should not just be washed over to the side. It's not like we shouldn't listen to

00:21:17.620 people's very real experiences with prejudice and oppression. I'm not saying that at all. But when that

00:21:23.320 is the only, that's the only basis for what we're talking about is subjectivism and your own standpoint

00:21:30.820 and your own experience, then it's going to be very hard for us. If we can't objectively define our terms

00:21:37.040 and point out objectively what the problems are, it's going to be very hard for us to move forward.

00:21:43.100 So Jackie Hill Perry, who I have asked on my podcast, at least on Twitter, and I think that she has done

00:21:50.240 such amazing work and is, uh, has done work that has glorified God immensely. Like she is so compelling

00:22:00.400 and fun to watch and just has shared so much wisdom. And she's so talented, like the way that she puts

00:22:07.740 words together. She and I obviously disagree politically. I'm probably much more of a fan of

00:22:12.480 her than she is of me. But I just want to say that, that when I point out something that she is saying

00:22:18.000 on Twitter, as an example of this standpoint epistemology, I'm not trying to, um, I'm not trying to be rude.

00:22:25.480 I'm not trying to bully her. I'm not trying to like take away her credibility. I'm just giving you a public

00:22:30.860 example, um, of what I'm talking about. So Jackie Hill Perry tweeted, uh, that spirituals written by slaves

00:22:37.740 were born out of a deep suffering, which is true, but she says, unlike the hymns written by white

00:22:44.960 extians. So Christians, unlike the hymns written by white Christians. So because of this idea of

00:22:52.480 standpoint epistemology or where I'm standing, um, your social position is different than mine.

00:22:58.240 And my social position, uh, means that I get to compare suffering. It's comparative suffering rather

00:23:04.340 than an objective look of what the Bible actually says suffering is, which the Bible says that all

00:23:09.500 Christians will go through deep suffering, but we can't do that because now we are identifying each

00:23:15.300 other, not as Christians, not as human beings who all go through suffering, who all go through loss,

00:23:21.200 who all go through persecution. Now, because of this idea of I gain my knowledge from my own standpoint,

00:23:27.080 and I say, what is, what is real suffering and what is not, then we break into this kind of very,

00:23:34.660 what I think is harmful, comparative suffering. So discounting any of the suffering that white

00:23:39.620 Christians who have written hymns have gone through simply because they didn't have the same kind of

00:23:44.020 suffering or oppression as black Christians. Now, again, I'm not saying that black Christians didn't

00:23:48.740 have maybe harsher oppression, uh, during that time or that they haven't been through different

00:23:54.380 things. I'm not discounting that, but there is also no reason to discount the suffering of other

00:23:58.880 people. You guys probably know about Horatio Spafford. He, uh, wrote it is well after his four

00:24:05.060 daughters died in shipwreck. Are we just going to pretend like he didn't suffer because he might not

00:24:10.580 have suffered in the same way that other people did? Is that what we are called to do? But again,

00:24:15.340 that's what happens when we don't agree on an objective definition of what suffering is,

00:24:20.260 of what oppression is, of what hate actually is. And this is all part. And again, I just want to

00:24:25.540 reiterate, I think Jackie Hill Perry is wonderful and, um, that she has done so much good work and

00:24:32.520 is very talented and smart. And I understand imminently why people love her so much. This

00:24:38.940 is just an example of the things that I am, uh, that I'm talking about. So all of this is a part of

00:24:44.880 cultural Marxism, the idea that society is divided, um, irrevocably really by our race, our class,

00:24:52.120 our socioeconomic status, and that the privileged must, in order for things to be fair, the cultural

00:24:57.900 Marxist would say, must redistribute power and resources to the less privileged in order to

00:25:04.020 create some kind of utopia. So you see why we are having such a hard time talking about this today,

00:25:11.320 specifically within the church, ethnic Gnosticism, standpoint epistemology, cultural Marxism are

00:25:16.560 dominating and directing our conversations rather than the word of God, rather than objective truth.

00:25:22.760 Uh, and the thing about all three of these things is that they don't hold to absolute truth. They

00:25:28.200 don't. That's part of the basis of their philosophies is that it's all experiential. It is all about social

00:25:34.760 status and it's not about the true uniting, reconciling word of God and his gospel. It's

00:25:40.920 only about subjectivity, which subjectivity alone isn't necessarily bad. But when you exclude

00:25:47.220 objectivity in favor of subjectivity, then we can never have a productive dialogue about the things

00:25:52.100 that are going on. Perspectives are good. Ethnic differences are good. Cultural differences are good.

00:25:57.040 I do not believe in being colorblind. God isn't colorblind. He intentionally made the ethnicities,

00:26:02.540 made the cultures. These are all wonderful things. Diversity, united in mission, united in purpose,

00:26:09.240 united in the love of God is beautiful and wonderful. And that's what the kingdom of God is

00:26:13.720 and what heaven is going to look like. And that's all wonderful. I don't think that we should pretend

00:26:17.340 that these differences and different experiences and perspectives, uh, don't exist. Of course they do.

00:26:22.740 But the question is what is going to unite all of these things? What's going to unite all of these

00:26:27.760 things? And the answer has to be for the Christian, the objective word of God, the objective word of

00:26:33.460 God and his gospel that all ethnicities need the same. People seem to have forgotten that,

00:26:39.440 that we, as Romans 3.23 says, that we are, um, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

00:26:45.780 And we all need the same savior. Not to, not one ethnicity needs it a little bit more than the other,

00:26:51.820 or one ethnicity is a little bit more guilty than the other. So we need a little bit more blood for our

00:26:56.860 atonement. We need a little bit more forgiven. No, that's not biblical. We have all sinned and fallen

00:27:02.100 short of the glory of God. And we are all equally dead in sin apart from Christ. That doesn't mean

00:27:06.340 there aren't different sins. There doesn't mean there aren't different consequences for each

00:27:10.920 individual, but all ethnicities, uh, in the church should be united by the same gospel and our

00:27:17.460 acknowledgement of our need for the same savior. Uh, so right now, and I really just, I know that

00:27:24.800 it's typically we're about done with our podcast right now, but we have, uh, we have kind of a ways

00:27:30.160 to go. So right now we are watching lawlessness. We are watching confusion. And while there are

00:27:36.900 sincere calls for justice and peace, there are some very loud voices, voices even being echoed in our

00:27:44.500 halls of power that are calling for anarchy, which always, by the way, leads to authoritarianism. So

00:27:50.080 what we're seeing in the calls to defund the police, for example, is not going to be just

00:27:54.920 libertarianism. It's not going to be people defending themselves because a lot of these

00:27:59.700 same people also don't believe in the second amendment. I actually engaged with someone

00:28:02.940 on Instagram about this who doesn't believe in the second amendment believes, which this is just

00:28:08.020 anti-human nature belief, which usually comes part and parcel with leftism, that, um, they believe

00:28:15.600 that crime only comes out of an unmet need, that it's only, uh, because they don't criminals commit

00:28:21.160 crimes because they lack the social services that they need, which doesn't answer for why middle

00:28:26.580 class and upper class people still commit crimes. Christians know that that is not the truth, that

00:28:32.480 that's not the truth, that crime is going to happen no matter how many social service workers that you

00:28:36.520 have, no matter how many community-based people that you have, community managers or whatever they're

00:28:42.100 saying is going to replace the police in Minneapolis and places like that, because people do evil things

00:28:48.060 because evil exists in the human heart. It's, it's not just because they are oppressed. It's not just

00:28:54.480 because they don't have a particular need. People make bad decisions because, uh, people are corrupt.

00:29:00.620 Like I believe in total depravity. We are totally depraved. There is no kind of evil that, uh, human

00:29:06.260 beings don't have the capacity to commit. But of course, people on the other side of this issue do not

00:29:10.720 believe that. And they believe that police are oppressors. So if you remove the oppressors,

00:29:14.240 people won't be oppressed and they won't commit crimes anymore. We as Christians know that that

00:29:18.060 is not true when it comes to human nature. And even the studies don't actually show that to be true.

00:29:23.560 Um, so what we're seeing right now, unfortunately is the glorification of lawlessness, which will lead

00:29:29.720 to authoritarianism because there will have to be some kind of management of crime. And the fear is

00:29:36.660 that it's going to be now more of a partisan, um, a partisan policing department that would enforce

00:29:44.260 whatever laws they see fit because the people that get power from these police unions are not going to

00:29:51.300 give up their power. And I'm talking about politicians. So we're looking around and we're

00:29:56.220 seeing this chaos. We're seeing this confusion. We're seeing people in the church just being

00:30:00.720 waved back and forth to and fro in the storms of what's going on, having no anger, having no grounded

00:30:08.540 in truth, just saying, yes, that sounds good. Yes, that sounds right. Let's latch onto the secular

00:30:13.300 movement without thinking. Let's repeat these talking points. Use this hashtag. Let's look exactly

00:30:18.400 like the world so that it doesn't seem like we are out of place at all. And so that no one comes

00:30:23.600 and gets me or accuses me of not being on the right side of history. Um, here's what I think,

00:30:29.060 and I know this is going to scare you a little bit, but don't worry. I really hope that you

00:30:33.040 finish this episode feeling hopeful and through the Holy Spirit equipped, um, because of where we

00:30:39.080 are, because of the shift that I am seeing in America right now. I don't know that if we will

00:30:43.820 ever go back to where we were before the coronavirus and our present controversies, I just don't know.

00:30:49.940 I believe that either now or in the months ahead, America, uh, America is going to be moving

00:30:57.340 into a new era and probably not a good one. And like I said, I understand that a lot of you are

00:31:04.140 scared of that. I've gotten emails. I've gotten messages from those of you who are really worried.

00:31:08.900 You're worried about your kids. You're worried about the future. And I understand, but again,

00:31:13.680 I'm going to remind you of our hope. Um, I don't know what or why or for how long, but it seems at

00:31:19.320 least from what I can see that we are contending with a special kind, uh, of darkness that is going

00:31:25.260 to push the Christian church into the margins of society, at least here in the United States.

00:31:31.180 So what we have to remember is we're thinking, oh my gosh, what's going to happen if Christians

00:31:35.000 are truly persecuted in America, which is a legitimate concern. What we have to remember

00:31:39.680 is that the American experiment is a unique spot. It's a unique spot in the history of the universe.

00:31:45.200 Christians in most places and for most of time have dealt with severe persecution. So now as we speak,

00:31:51.860 Christians are being put to death for their faith. That is the norm for the Christian. What we have

00:31:57.100 experienced as American Christians has been a very, uh, unique reprieve from the most violent kinds of

00:32:03.560 persecution. Religious liberty is not the norm throughout history. It's not the norm throughout

00:32:08.040 the world. It is a very rare gift. And we, as American Christians have, even though we have failed

00:32:14.420 in many ways, we have also made good use, uh, of that gift. We founded all of the Ivy League

00:32:20.960 universities. We, uh, built hospitals. We fought, uh, foreign enemies for freedom. We fought each other

00:32:26.860 to end the atrocity of slavery. And of course, this is all Americans. That's not just American

00:32:31.820 Christians. We rebuilt the nations of both our allies and enemies. We have accepted more immigrants,

00:32:37.920 more refugees than any other nation. By far, we have sent more missionaries, adopted more children,

00:32:42.580 planted more churches throughout the world, given more charity, built more orphanages than any other

00:32:47.820 nation in the history of the world. Yes. Even with our very real flaws and failures, America has used

00:32:55.620 our tiny and unique plot on the span of eternity to do more good for our own people and the world than

00:33:03.400 any other nation. And it is because of the grace of God and his persistent work through Christians.

00:33:10.600 But I, I feel that time, that very unique spot in human history is coming to a close. I don't know

00:33:17.860 whether permanently or temporarily. I don't know if Jesus is coming back in five years or a thousand

00:33:24.100 years. I don't know what our country will look like for our children. I hope good. I hope free. I hope

00:33:30.660 prosperous. I actually am very optimistic about that. I hope godly. I do hope that, but I don't know.

00:33:36.660 I can't see that far ahead. What I think I can see is that we are headed right now into the beginning

00:33:42.600 of the end of America as we have known it, which means that the religious liberty that American

00:33:48.980 Christians have loved so much and in so many ways have used well may be coming to a close. I hope that

00:33:55.440 I'm wrong. I do. I really hope that I'm wrong, but I, I don't think that I am. Now, before you turn

00:34:01.840 this off because you're depressed, I'll let you in on something to buoy your spirit. This right now,

00:34:07.060 what we're seeing, uh, in this age of confusion, in this age of total subjectivism, in this age that

00:34:12.400 lacks wisdom because of, uh, partly because of, or we're seeing the manifestation of a lack of wisdom

00:34:18.220 in the three things that we talked about, um, in the beginning, uh, because of all that's happening,

00:34:23.600 this is the church's moment in America. This is her moment. The church thrives in the margins.

00:34:29.640 Remember, this is where she has been for the vast majority of history since her birth

00:34:34.500 and where she is right now in every other country on earth. America is just joining in,

00:34:40.700 but that doesn't mean the church is over. It's just the opposite of that. The church is refined by fire,

00:34:46.500 not destroyed by it. The less popular and the less safe it becomes to be a Christian,

00:34:51.800 the harder it is to be a cultural Christian, a socially acceptable, but non serious Christian.

00:34:57.440 So I believe, as we said on Friday in my conversation with Albert Moeller,

00:35:01.620 we will see the extinction of the cultural Christian in our lifetimes. So in the coming

00:35:06.940 years and months, she will, that cultural Christian will look and sound more and more like the world

00:35:13.760 until she is indistinguishable from it. She will fight for their causes in the same way that they

00:35:18.500 are fighting for them. She will accept worldly values and dogmas in the name of tolerance,

00:35:23.520 only to wave them as a banner over her own life months later. She will gain followers. She will

00:35:30.200 gain fans. She will gain book deals and approval, but she will lose her soul. She may never explicitly

00:35:37.440 and verbally renounce Christianity, this cultural Christian, and she may even try to retain its name,

00:35:43.080 but the doctrine she follows in the life she lives will bear no resemblance to the Christian faith.

00:35:48.420 And she will turn around and call you who still dares to uphold the word of God evil. The church

00:35:54.040 will purge her and all of those like her from its midst. Like first John 2 19 says, those who left

00:36:00.120 us were never with us. The church of God will instead, uh, will instead be exclusively filled

00:36:06.340 by those who by the relentless power of Christ, obey and persevere in their faith. And this is how

00:36:13.520 and where the church thrives and shines, where we are most distinct from the world, where popularity

00:36:19.800 or convenience or prosperity can no longer be cited as the reasons we have our faith, but simply a love

00:36:25.720 for the God whose word we know is true and whose promises we believe in. I believe that we will watch

00:36:32.380 the American church transform into that in our lifetimes, if not in the next decade. I want to read

00:36:39.060 Jude verses 17 through 25, but you must remember beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our

00:36:44.660 Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you in the last time, there will be scoffers following their own

00:36:49.840 ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people devoid of the spirit, but you beloved

00:36:56.900 building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy spirit, keep yourselves in the

00:37:02.580 love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life and have mercy on

00:37:08.300 those who doubt, save others by snatching them out of the fire, to others show mercy with fear,

00:37:13.920 hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling

00:37:20.220 and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God,

00:37:27.040 our savior through Jesus Christ, our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time

00:37:32.580 and now and forever. Amen. I want you to go and read and reread and study the book of Jude on your

00:37:41.000 own. Underline the verbs in these verses. This is what we are to do in the midst of the chaos. We are

00:37:46.400 to remember. We are to build ourselves up. We are to keep ourselves in the love of God. We are to wait

00:37:52.580 for the mercy of Jesus Christ. We are to have mercy on those who doubt. We are to save others by snatching

00:37:59.700 them from the fire, holding our friends accountable, pointing them to the word of God. We are to show

00:38:04.880 mercy to other people and let us trust in this, a him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to

00:38:11.840 present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God, our savior

00:38:16.160 through Jesus Christ, our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now

00:38:21.800 and forever. That is our call. That is our hope. That is our focus. So that dread that you felt,

00:38:27.340 that fear that you feel for yourself, your family, it's real, but you give it to God and

00:38:32.140 commit yourself to hoping. God has got you. He has got his church. He did not choose our birthdays,

00:38:39.760 your and my birthdays, flippantly. So do you know, do you know what I mean by that? What I mean by that

00:38:44.820 is that God did not place you in this time, in this hour, carelessly or by accident. He made you,

00:38:52.500 he placed you right here, right now, because you were made for right here and right now to do the

00:39:00.060 good work that God prepared for you to do before you were even born. As Ephesians 2, 10 tells us,

00:39:06.200 he did not put you where you are and when he did by accident. He did not give you your job by accident,

00:39:12.300 your spouse, your children, your platform, your friends, your, your talents. They aren't by accident

00:39:17.420 and they aren't for nothing. And they aren't for you either. They are for him right now. At this

00:39:23.840 very moment in history, not a single one of you listening to this is without purpose. You are not

00:39:29.880 arbitrary. Your life is not arbitrary. Uh, you are not neutral. Okay. You're not neutral. You were made

00:39:38.660 in the image of God, which means you have a soul that is going to live forever in one of two places.

00:39:43.100 And the difference in those two places is the belief in your savior, uh, Jesus or not. You were

00:39:49.280 either a follower of Christ, follower of Christ protected by him and in fellowship with him for

00:39:53.780 all of eternity, or you are an enemy of God under his just wrath. He who makes friends with the world

00:40:00.840 is an enemy of God. James 4, 4 says, and the enemy of God masquerading as a Christian will not be able

00:40:07.860 to keep her charade up for long. It just won't be doable because it won't be safe or popular.

00:40:13.520 Uh, why am I saying this? Because it's the message. It's the message of the gospel that we need right

00:40:21.560 now. So first here's who I'm talking to. I'm talking to you. So the girl who's listening to

00:40:26.660 this, who just needs to wake up, it's time to count the cost. The, the, the time for cultural

00:40:31.580 Christianity, for apathy, for complacency is over. So it's time to count the cost as Jesus tells us to do

00:40:36.960 in Luke 14. It's time to decide if you're in or you're out. So no more lukewarm, no more Christianity

00:40:42.620 on Sundays and secularism Monday through Saturday. Stop waffling, stop trying to decide if you want to

00:40:48.380 go all in, stop dipping your toe in and come on. This is the living water that you're looking for.

00:40:53.240 And it's right here. You don't have to wait anymore. I know you, I've been you, you are looking for joy.

00:40:58.860 You're looking for satisfaction. You're looking for direction. You're looking for purpose. You're looking

00:41:03.200 for love. You're looking for eternal life. You're looking for the bread of life to satisfy you. And

00:41:08.100 it's right here. It's right here. You don't have to wait. You don't have to search anymore. It's

00:41:12.880 Jesus. And just like the prodigal's prodigal son in Luke 15, all you have to do is turn around and he

00:41:19.480 is going to run to you and embrace you. It doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter how much

00:41:24.300 you've sinned. You're not too guilty. You're not too dirty. You are not unwanted. It doesn't matter

00:41:29.360 what you've ever said or done. You are loved by a God who wants to give you abundant life.

00:41:35.440 He wants to save you from your sin, totally forgive you, totally cleanse you, take you in as his child,

00:41:40.660 use you for his glory and spend forever in his presence. That's what he wants. Isaiah 30, 19 through

00:41:46.600 22. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you.

00:41:52.880 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teacher will not

00:41:57.540 hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your teacher and your ears shall hear a word behind you

00:42:03.040 saying, this is the way walking it. When you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, then you

00:42:09.240 will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold plated metal images. You will scatter

00:42:14.800 them as unclean things. You will say to them, be gone. So the time is now. Hebrews 3 15 says, as it is

00:42:21.420 said today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. What I'm saying is

00:42:26.740 also to you, scared Christian, you are in Christ, but you are afraid of what's ahead and you want to

00:42:33.200 be more bold, but you're scared. I am you. I am you. Here is what you and I scared, fearful Christians

00:42:41.260 must do. We must fear the Lord above any man. Romans 8 33 through 34 says this, who shall bring any charge

00:42:49.580 against God's elect. It is God who justifies who is to condemn. We care about God's opinion. We care

00:42:55.640 about God's approval. We care about God's acceptance, God's glory, God's commands. We follow

00:43:00.260 him, not man. Number two, the second thing we must do, and this is a longer point, but we're kind of

00:43:05.660 almost done with the podcast. Psalm 111 10 says this, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

00:43:12.480 All those who practice it have a good understanding. That means that number one and two, fearing God above

00:43:18.520 man and number two, being wise, go hand in hand always. We must fear in the Lord and we must have

00:43:24.100 wisdom. Wisdom, according to the Bible, is both a promise and a process. Y'all know I love alliterations.

00:43:30.120 Wisdom is both a promise and a process. James 1 5 says that if we ask God for wisdom, he will give it

00:43:36.900 to us generously. So it's a promise, but it's a promise like so many of God's promises that we read

00:43:42.420 about in the Bible is given through a process. Proverbs 19 20 says, listen to advice and accept

00:43:48.900 instruction that you may gain wisdom in the future. So wisdom is also a process. It takes discipline,

00:43:55.000 intent, effort, seeking. Proverbs 18 15 says, an intelligent heart acquires knowledge and the ear

00:44:02.200 of the wise seeks knowledge. Typically we define knowledges as things that we know. So facts, figures,

00:44:09.080 ideas, ideas, and wisdom is how we actually apply our knowledge. So wisdom transcends knowledge. There

00:44:14.720 are a lot of very knowledgeable people who are not wise. I always say you can be smart and wrong.

00:44:22.020 There are a lot of politicians and scientists and psychologists and all those people that are very

00:44:27.220 smart, but are also wrong. They're unwise because they apply their knowledge wrongly. So you can be

00:44:33.600 knowledgeable and very unwise because you apply your knowledge in the wrong way.

00:44:38.320 exemplified either in a faulty worldview, like atheism, for example, or in the decisions that

00:44:44.420 you make. But the Bible makes clear that both knowledge and wisdom must go hand in hand. And the

00:44:49.940 way that we ensure that they do is to recognize that God is both the giver and the goal of both of

00:44:57.600 them. He is the giver and the goal of both of them. Second alliteration. So what does this actually look

00:45:03.520 like for us to acquire knowledge, for us to pray for knowledge as a promise, for us to seek knowledge

00:45:09.280 as a process, to realize, recognize that God is the giver and the goal of both wisdom and knowledge?

00:45:15.400 What does that look like? One very simple that I'm always telling you guys, read your Bible,

00:45:20.320 read your Bible. And I say that as someone, I don't have, you know, I don't have perfect weeks.

00:45:25.420 There are weeks that I read my Bible less than others. That happens. I understand. And there is

00:45:30.300 grace for you. So just, I'm not preaching this from a place of perfection, but a place of desiring

00:45:37.260 us both to take our Bible seriously. So read your Bible, join the Bible reading challenge. That's what

00:45:41.820 I'm doing right now with Christ Church. We're doing same page summer. You can go on Instagram.

00:45:47.120 You can go on Facebook. There's a Facebook group. I think it's ladies or women, women's Bible reading

00:45:52.740 challenge. You can just jump in wherever we are and just read it like a book. You can go back and

00:45:58.020 listen to my podcast episode titled Reading the Bible. And I talk about some ways to actually

00:46:02.680 read the Bible and study the Bible and help you understand it. I recommend the ESV Study Bible.

00:46:08.740 ESV is just a good translation. It's a word for word translation. NIV is going to be more thought

00:46:14.180 for thought. And so it's going to be a less accurate translation. And sometimes it changes the gender

00:46:19.700 specifications that NIV does. ESV is a very exact translation, but easier to read than something like

00:46:25.480 the King James Version. Although I do like the new King James Version as well. And I also like the NASB.

00:46:31.600 But I recommend ESV Study Bible. Don't worry about knowing or understanding everything. Don't worry if

00:46:38.520 you have a million questions. That's okay. I've read some books a million times, it seems like,

00:46:43.180 and I still have a new question or come across something that is new every time I read it. That is

00:46:47.320 normal and good. Pray for wisdom, as James 1 tells us to do. Stop. Here's another thing,

00:46:53.220 how we gain wisdom. Stop going to the church or listening to the pastor who doesn't preach the

00:46:58.320 Word of God accurately and faithfully. Compare everything you hear to the Bible. Beware trendy

00:47:04.100 pastors. I'm not saying that all pastors who are stylish or who dress well are necessarily

00:47:09.320 theologically wrong. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying beware because there are a lot of

00:47:15.300 popular and trendy pastors that aren't necessarily biblically faithful. So you have to be discerning by

00:47:20.180 comparing what they're saying to the Word of God. And just a quick hint, if your pastor is preaching

00:47:25.440 a social justice gospel without the actual gospel, that is not a place that is going to be able to

00:47:32.540 lead you in the right direction towards Christ. I'm not talking about just minor theological

00:47:37.260 disagreements, which we all have, and that's perfectly fine. But someone who is preaching to

00:47:42.700 you something outside of biblical doctrine and the gospel that is not something that you want to be

00:47:46.980 under. Surround yourself with godly friends who are seeking truth. Seek out godly wisdom from

00:47:52.300 others. This is something that I myself am working on. Here are some very practical resources that I

00:47:58.040 like to use. I'll go slowly, but I'll also put it in the description for this podcast.

00:48:02.960 GotQuestions.org. Sounds like it would just be like a random Google site, but it's not. It's really

00:48:07.800 good. GotQuestions.org, DesiringGod.com, Ligonier Ministries, Founders Ministries, John MacArthur,

00:48:17.640 his Grace to You podcast or his sermons, Grace to You on the podcast app is really good.

00:48:25.460 Vody Bauckham, The Just Thinking Podcast, Stephen Lawson, Paul Washer, R.C. Sproul, John Piper,

00:48:32.500 John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, all the Jonathans. These are all really good, just practical resources.

00:48:39.440 There's a much longer list that's not exhaustive, but just to give you a start, so many of you

00:48:44.100 ask me who you should listen to, what you should read. That's an example. And here's a word specifically

00:48:50.200 to Christian moms, many of whom I know are fearful and many of whom I know feel unequipped. And this is

00:48:55.580 still under the point of wisdom, by the way. Gone is the day when you could trust your child's school

00:49:02.800 or even Sunday school to sufficiently disciple your child in the Lord. It's just not enough

00:49:08.240 anymore. And in fact, sometimes the things that they are learning in school are counter to the

00:49:12.880 Bible altogether. So we must be passionate, urgent, persistent, relentless in discipling our children in

00:49:19.380 the word right now. Your babies, your toddlers, your teens, your adult children, if you can.

00:49:24.880 The world is coming for your children. It's coming for their minds, their hearts, their souls.

00:49:30.240 It is teaching them to love darkness and hate the light, to call evil good, to hate their bodies,

00:49:35.460 to hate their families, to hate their creator, and to glory and selfishness and lust and deceit.

00:49:41.560 Remember, parents, there is no neutral ground. No neutral ground in all the universe. As C.S. Lewis says,

00:49:48.160 every molecule in the universe is claimed by God or counterclaimed by Satan. Nothing is neutral.

00:49:54.800 The shows your kids watch, the music they listen to, the books they read, their textbooks,

00:49:59.940 their assignments, it is all attached to a worldview that is either God's or false.

00:50:05.300 Those are our options. Nothing can be taken for granted anymore. I don't care if you are a baby

00:50:11.100 Christian yourself. The Holy Spirit just came into your heart maybe a few minutes ago during my altar call.

00:50:16.200 There is no time to waste. Read your children the Bible. Teach them about God who made them,

00:50:22.280 who gives purpose to their lives and salvation to their souls. Here are some resources if you've got

00:50:27.980 little ones. TinyTheologians.com. A lot of good tools there. I've got some stuff in there. It's super

00:50:34.140 cute. A book, Children's Gospel Catechism by Jace Eli. Pastor Tom Askell, whom I've had on the podcast,

00:50:41.300 has three little books called Truth and Grace Memory Books. They're a catechism for children.

00:50:46.120 I like The Promises of God Storybook Bible by Jennifer Liddell. Rachel Jankovic has lots of

00:50:51.300 good books and motherhood resources. I recommend The Chronicles of Narnia. That's really fun.

00:50:56.280 For older kids, other C.S. Lewis books. For teenagers, adult children who are exploring the

00:51:01.200 faith, Reason for God by Tim Keller had a huge impact on me and mere Christianity.

00:51:05.900 And in all things that we teach our kids, I say as a very inexperienced mother, of course,

00:51:11.400 whether it's about nature or biology or math or history or literature, all of these very

00:51:16.780 good things, it should all be filtered through the Word of God, a biblical worldview.

00:51:22.440 The very simple fact that God made the heavens and the earth. Therefore, He has authority over

00:51:27.420 all of them. Therefore, all of it. Therefore, He says what is and what isn't, what's right and what's

00:51:32.580 wrong, what's good and what's bad, what's true and what's false. And here's another one

00:51:37.280 for the moms. Are you ready for this? I know this is a little controversial, but I just got

00:51:43.520 to say, if you can, if you can, take your kids out of government schools. There's no neutral

00:51:49.080 ground. Remember that. There's no neutral ground. Now, teachers who are listening to this, I know

00:51:53.740 that you do an awesome job. I know that you are light and darkness, that you do the best job

00:51:58.060 that you possibly can, especially those of you who are in schools that make you feel like it is

00:52:02.880 just impossible for you to do your job. And thank you so much for your persistence and how you are

00:52:08.380 glorifying the Lord in what you do. I know that you do a great job, you teachers who are at public

00:52:13.180 schools. But parents, and but you know this as teachers and parents, I want them to know this

00:52:19.180 as well, just from what I've learned, not what I've experienced, but what I have learned from other

00:52:23.460 parents and people much wiser than me. You don't want to compete with the worldview of the school

00:52:29.180 and the people that your child is spending eight hours with every day. I understand that's not

00:52:34.480 feasible for everyone. Can't afford a private school. You feel like you can't homeschool. I

00:52:39.340 totally understand that. And although I could connect you with homeschool moms who have made it work on a

00:52:45.440 very strict budget, I do understand. And if you cannot do that, it's going to be okay. God is still

00:52:51.940 sovereign over your child's salvation, and he can still equip you. It might be a harder uphill battle.

00:52:58.540 And if that's where you are, that's okay. But if you can, if you have the option, get your kids out

00:53:03.280 of government-run schools. They have a worldview that is not your Christian worldview. Vody Bauckham

00:53:08.720 says, you can't send your kids to Caesar and be surprised when they come back Romans. And that is

00:53:13.880 true. That was a long point all under wisdom. We must gain wisdom. We must be serious about it and

00:53:19.380 persistent about it for ourselves and our families. Because we look outside of our window right now

00:53:26.120 and we see chaos. We see a generation of people who have been taught not to seek wisdom. That truth

00:53:32.100 is relative. That God isn't real, which means they are desperately trying and failing, some of the

00:53:37.440 people that we're seeing right now, to find a righteousness outside of Jesus, an atonement outside of

00:53:42.980 the cross, a repentance outside of the grace of God, a moral law outside of the moral lawgiver, a

00:53:48.480 justice outside of the all-righteous judge of the world, the eradication of sin outside of the power

00:53:54.420 of the Holy Spirit. And they're floundering. They're failing. They're lost. They don't know what solutions

00:54:00.400 they're seeking because they can't identify the core problems. And when you don't know that the

00:54:04.780 essential underneath it all, the essential problem is human depravity and the ultimate solution

00:54:09.960 is Christ's righteousness. Everything is going to get confused always. But we must stay grounded.

00:54:16.460 We have to stay rooted in truth as Christians. We must remain steadfast. We must not waver. We can't

00:54:21.200 cede an inch, which means number three, lastly, we have to obey. We've got to do the work. And that is

00:54:29.080 honestly, that's the hardest one for me to know what this looks like. I can talk about this stuff all day.

00:54:34.020 I can talk about the concepts. That comes really easily for me. But talking about or doing the

00:54:40.880 executing of this all, it's not, it doesn't come as naturally to me. So that means that we are going

00:54:47.280 out there, putting ourselves out there, sacrificing our convenience and loving our neighbor, which means

00:54:52.160 for a lot of you doing the things that you are already doing. It's not complicated. And that's really

00:54:57.340 good news. Obedience sounds scary, but God's obedience, his burden is light. His yoke is easy. He says,

00:55:02.880 love your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. It

00:55:06.840 really is that simple. So you're already doing that. You might be already serving your church,

00:55:11.600 loving your family, encouraging your husband, helping your friends, volunteering your time,

00:55:16.600 giving your money, sharing the gospel, praying for your enemies, you're kind and forgiving and

00:55:21.220 tenderhearted. All you have to do is keep going, keep going, seek wisdom, seek God, love him with all

00:55:28.140 your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. If you're already doing that, keep going. And if

00:55:34.300 you're like me and the execution doesn't come as easily as the talking about it, you got to get to

00:55:39.300 work. We have to get to work. The time is now. The time is now. There's no more time to waste. This is

00:55:46.340 our moment. We are going to be pushed to the margins more and more as the Christian church. It's going to be

00:55:51.360 harder and harder to be an obedient Christian. And yet this is where Jesus always glorifies himself

00:55:57.600 by protecting his church. And we who are in his church get to praise him for the promise of his

00:56:03.220 faithfulness. In Matthew 16, 18 says, Jesus says, or Jesus says, the gates of hell will not prevail

00:56:10.880 against his church. The gates of hell will not prevail against his church. Romans 8 tells us that

00:56:16.020 neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

00:56:21.440 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love

00:56:27.720 of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. There's nothing. And so all we have to do, all of this said, all of this,

00:56:35.300 maybe, uh, maybe some of it was boring to you. Maybe some of it was just, you know, not something

00:56:41.120 that you like to talk about all of the seemingly academic terms and things like that. All of this

00:56:45.980 said, it truly is simple. Uh, believe in the gospel, go to his word, have it be the foundation

00:56:53.160 of your worldview. Go to it for objective truth. Use that objective truth to understand the world

00:56:59.440 around you, to direct your conversations about justice, about peace, about unity. Uh, there's another

00:57:07.280 really good resource that I recommend, Politics According to the Bible by Wayne Grudem. It is a tool,

00:57:12.240 it's not infallible, but it is a tool to help you understand how to fit everything that's going on

00:57:16.720 to the, in the world, into your biblical worldview. I don't have all of the answers. I have been wrong.

00:57:23.260 I will continue to be wrong on things, but that is my goal. That is my goal for you. Even if you

00:57:27.940 vastly disagree with me on politics, that is my goal for all Christians, not for us to all vote for the

00:57:33.600 same person, not for us to all land in the same place. Every single issue, every single political

00:57:38.300 issue, every single, um, picture of what justice looks like. My desire is for us to be Bereans,

00:57:45.980 to be thoughtful people that go into the word and to look for the answers in the word of God,

00:57:50.620 to rest all of our philosophies, all of our worldviews, all of our thoughts on the word of

00:57:57.080 God and his infallible, inerrant truth. And that is what we must seek to do. We must seek wisdom and

00:58:04.180 we must obey and we must make sure that we are not following the dogmas and the doctrines of the

00:58:11.040 world simply because it's popular. Cultural Christianity, it's going out of style. And that

00:58:16.740 is actually a good thing. That's a reason to rejoice. So may God help us. May he strengthen us.

00:58:22.900 May he make us bold. May he help us to persevere. Okay. Longer episode. Friday, we are going to have

00:58:29.780 two guests for interviews. Um, I am going to be talking to two very strong Trump supporters. One

00:58:37.800 happens to be his daughter-in-law, which is Laura Trump. Another one is Charlie Kirk, who is a very

00:58:42.340 big supporter of the president. And so if you've got questions that you would like me to ask them,

00:58:47.460 feel free to send them my way. Like if you're someone, I think Charlie would be a really good

00:58:51.700 person to answer this question. Like if you're someone who you don't know whether or not you want

00:58:55.620 to vote for Donald Trump, or you've got questions about Donald Trump as a Christian or how we're

00:59:00.240 supposed to view something about Donald Trump, then let me know. That would be a really good

00:59:04.160 question for, um, Charlie. And that should be a really productive conversation. One way you should,

00:59:09.900 you can help me out. If you love the podcast, please leave me five stars on iTunes and tell me why you

00:59:16.780 love the podcast. That would just mean a whole lot to me. And thank you so much for listening. Thank you

00:59:21.920 always for your feedback and your support. It means so much to me. I will see you guys here on Friday.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - June 10, 2020

Ep 261 ｜ Past the Point of No Return

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