Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 307 ｜ The Dire State of American Theology

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. I hope everyone has had a wonderful week so

00:00:15.960 far. As you guys know, most of you know anyway, I record my podcast on the previous day, which

00:00:23.460 means on Tuesday night, as I'm saying this, there were the debates between President Trump

00:00:30.940 and Joe Biden, which means that I could talk about that if I were recording this on Wednesday.

00:00:36.620 But because I'm recording this on Tuesday morning, I do not have the prophetic ability to be able to

00:00:43.260 comment on the debate. I'm sure it was very entertaining. I would guess if I could

00:00:52.200 if I could wager that Trump was fact-checked, that Joe Biden was not, that the questions were skewed

00:01:02.720 toward Biden. But my guess, as I'm sitting here right now on Tuesday morning, is that Joe Biden

00:01:09.300 was very well prepared for this, that he had been preparing for this for a long time. President

00:01:13.900 Trump was a little bit busy campaigning and running the country, but hopefully that fared well. And I

00:01:20.480 will give more commentary on that today on Wednesday on Instagram, because I'm sure that I will have a

00:01:28.460 lot to say. There are a lot of different news stories that we could talk about. We could talk

00:01:33.040 about Trump's taxes. My overall thought about that is that there is no proof of illegality there that

00:01:39.840 he paid the lowest amount of taxes that he possibly could. That is what a lot of rich people tried to

00:01:46.180 do. It also showed that there was no Russian, Russian collusion in his finances or anything

00:01:54.240 like that. He is not in Putin's pocket, as far as we can tell from the tax returns. I really don't

00:01:59.640 think it's that big of a story. We could also talk about Hunter Biden and how he is being connected

00:02:04.840 to Russia and China and possibly trafficking, sex trafficking there. And so there's a lot to talk

00:02:12.480 about, but I got a request from at least a few of you on Instagram to take a break from the news and

00:02:19.300 to focus on a biblical topic, to focus on theology. And I want to do that. It's still going to be

00:02:25.580 relevant to everything that is going on, certainly, but I want us to take kind of a step back and to

00:02:30.520 take a deep breath and to just kind of sigh a sigh of relief as we remember who is in control. And so

00:02:37.640 we're going to talk about a couple studies. We're going to talk about a study from the Cultural

00:02:41.940 Research Center at Arizona Christian University that said that millennials, only 2% of millennials

00:02:48.780 hold a biblical worldview. And then we'll talk about the Ligonier study that they conduct every two years

00:02:55.040 called the State of Theology that assesses the theology of the U.S. population in general,

00:03:01.520 and then professing evangelicals. And we'll talk about what that means. And then I'll give

00:03:06.280 some encouragement at the end. I'm really excited about this episode. I love the episodes where we

00:03:11.420 focus exclusively on theology. And I know that you guys too, before we get started, if you guys could

00:03:18.420 do me a favor, if you love this podcast, could you please go on iTunes and leave me a five-star

00:03:25.360 review? You don't have to leave this long and lengthy review. You can. I read them. I love them. They mean a

00:03:31.300 lot to me, but you certainly don't have to do that. I know a lot of you are busy, but

00:03:35.080 if you have the time and you are so willing and you love this podcast, if you could go on iTunes

00:03:41.580 and leave a five-star review, it really helps us out a lot. Also, I haven't talked about my book in

00:03:47.420 a while, but you're not enough. And that's okay. Escaping the toxic culture of self-love right now.

00:03:53.500 It's actually sold out on Amazon until I think just a few days. I think it's back in stock on October

00:03:59.020 4th. And so you can go ahead and order that. And I'm sure it will be at your doorstep soon. If that's

00:04:04.180 something that you're interested in, but you can also go to AllieBethStuckey.com book and you can

00:04:09.160 see all of the places where you can purchase it. A lot of you, so many of you, hundreds of you,

00:04:14.360 thousands of you, maybe tens of thousands have reached out to me personally and have told me

00:04:20.300 what this book has meant to you. And I take no credit for that. I praise the Lord that he has

00:04:25.960 allowed me to have this platform that then allowed me to write a book that was meaningful for a lot of you,

00:04:31.300 a lot of non-religious, non-Christian people read this book and it impacted them. And I really do

00:04:38.660 praise the Lord for that. He is so good and using us as vessels when we don't deserve it. And so

00:04:45.240 it's freeing to know that we don't get to take credit for the things that he does,

00:04:49.420 that we can just turn around and give him all the praise for that. Okay. Let us talk about some of

00:04:54.960 these studies. So the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, they conducted a

00:05:02.680 study about biblical worldviews among millennials. What they found is that while an estimated 9% of

00:05:09.740 adults in both elder and boomer generations, defined as ages 75 and older in those 56 to 74 years of age

00:05:17.340 respectively, have a biblical worldview, that figure drops to 5% among those in generation X.

00:05:23.280 So ages 37 to 55 and a mere 2% among millennials. Millennials were born anywhere from 1981 to 1996.

00:05:33.080 So I am a millennial. I was born in 92. I know all of you who were born in 1981. And in those early

00:05:39.980 80s, you do not want to associate yourselves with the 90s millennials because we really are kind of a

00:05:46.140 different subset of a generation, I would say. But alas, here you are. We're all in here together.

00:05:51.300 It's okay. The Christian Post reports about this study like this, quote, 0.51

00:05:58.180 A biblical worldview, as previously defined by Barna, includes believing that absolute moral

00:06:04.300 truths exist and that such truth is defined by the Bible, as well as firm belief in six specific

00:06:10.620 religious views. Those views are that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life. God is the all-powerful and

00:06:16.080 all-knowing creator of the universe, and he still rules it today. Salvation is a gift from God and

00:06:21.440 cannot be earned. Satan is real. A Christian has a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with

00:06:26.520 other people. And the Bible is accurate in all of its teachings. So only 2% of millennials actually

00:06:33.320 hold to those views which define a biblical worldview. Compared to other adults, millennials are significantly 0.58

00:06:40.600 less likely to do these things. 1. Believe in the existence of absolute truth. 2. Be deeply committed

00:06:47.940 to practicing their faith. 3. Contend that human beings were created by God and His image. 4. Believe

00:06:54.140 that God is the basis of all truth. 5. View the purpose of life to be knowing, loving, and serving God.

00:07:00.340 6. Consider the Bible to be a reliable source of moral guidance. 7. Believe that God loves them

00:07:06.580 unconditionally. 8. Seek to avoid sitting because it breaks God's heart. Am I on 9? I don't even

00:07:13.180 remember. Possess a biblical view of the nature and character of God. 10. Say they have a unique calling

00:07:18.680 or purpose from God. So all of these things that people with a biblical worldview who follow Christ

00:07:24.040 believe and say and hold to. Very few millennials agree with this. Millennials are less likely than the

00:07:32.180 previous generations to hold to these beliefs. This study also found, which this is interesting,

00:07:38.440 I think unsurprising for most of us who are in the millennial generation or who share social media

00:07:44.620 platforms with the millennial and Generation Z generations. Millennials are less tolerant and 0.96

00:07:50.880 respectful of others than previous generations. Millennials generally are seen as tolerant, yet the 0.99

00:07:56.920 the study findings show that millennials, by their own admission, are far less tolerant than other

00:08:03.220 generations. In addition, they are more likely to want to exact revenge when wronged, are less likely to

00:08:08.860 keep a promise, and overall have less respect for others and for human life in general. That doesn't

00:08:13.420 surprise me. That is what characterizes the entertainment that we watch and we listen to. Self-fulfillment,

00:08:20.660 doing what you want to do no matter what, no matter who it hurts, shunning any idea of self-sacrifice,

00:08:26.860 in favor of self-absorption and self-centeredness, narcissism is glorified. Narcissism is a destructive

00:08:35.900 force that is going to want to exact revenge and get people back when they have wronged you rather

00:08:40.980 than give grace and forgive, knowing that you have also wronged others and most importantly,

00:08:46.300 you have wronged God. I was just reading this morning in Ephesians 4 how we are called to forgive

00:08:51.360 one another. And not just that, but as God in Christ forgave us. Well, God in Christ forgave us

00:08:58.160 in the most radical way. We were dead in sin, enemies of God, hated God before Christ. And then

00:09:04.580 by grace, through faith, God saved us, not because of anything we had done, but because of his own

00:09:12.140 goodness and mercy. And we had sinned against him immensely, enough to condemn us all to hell.

00:09:18.120 And God forgave us again, not because of our goodness, but because of his goodness. And the

00:09:23.220 Bible is saying we are to forgive other people like that. Whenever someone wrongs us, what I try

00:09:28.960 to remember is that I have done worse against God. And that is true of all of us. And God himself tells

00:09:35.560 us that we are to forgive other people as God so radically and lovingly forgave us. And yet millennials,

00:09:42.640 because they do not hold to a biblical worldview, they are not going to have that perspective. They're not

00:09:47.560 going to have that desire. Millennials are also less enthusiastic about America, not just this

00:09:54.040 study. It's not just the study that has found that there have been several other studies like

00:09:57.640 Gallup, who have said the same patriotism is low among millennials. All of these things, by the way,

00:10:05.520 go hand in hand. That is not to say that Christians are supposed to idolize our country,

00:10:11.860 but we are supposed to, as we'll talk about in this podcast, as Jeremiah 29 says, when God is talking

00:10:18.520 to Israel, that is an exile in Babylon, that you are supposed to seek the welfare of the city that

00:10:24.400 you are in. It is good to love your country. That does not mean that we put our country above God or

00:10:32.400 that we think that Americans are more special or more important in their value than people from other

00:10:38.600 countries. But it does mean that you have a special care for and a special attention to

00:10:44.960 the people in your country. And again, we'll talk a little bit more about that at the end of this

00:10:50.980 episode.

00:11:01.480 They demonstrate millennials' little awareness and interest in government and politics and are far less 1.00

00:11:07.240 informed about current political conditions and events other than either busters. I've never heard 0.99

00:11:14.780 it called that. The silent generation. Or, oh, I guess, no, that's the generation X. Then either 0.62

00:11:20.760 generation X or boomers. They are far more accepting of socialism than other generations. So I would say

00:11:28.140 that millennials, just in my experience, that they are aware of what's going on generally, politically.

00:11:35.140 Like, I think that young people know the latest outrage and they know, like, the latest headline.

00:11:40.800 But really, all they all they have is what they heard from someone or what they saw on Snapchat or

00:11:46.820 what they saw on Instagram or Twitter or whatever, whatever headline they might have seen on Facebook,

00:11:51.300 which says, like, you know, Trump only pays X in taxes. And that is because of tax fraud and tax

00:11:57.540 evasion when that's not really true. And I think most young people do not take the time to actually look

00:12:02.820 into those claims. And so their minds and their awareness of what's going on are really just a

00:12:08.540 bunch of clickbaity headlines that shapes their view of what is going on in the world. That's

00:12:14.560 actually often a very inaccurate picture. The fact that millennials are far more accepting of

00:12:19.540 socialism than other generations directly is correlated to their lack of real knowledge, I think, 0.63

00:12:26.080 of what is going on, their lack of knowledge of politics, how policies work, how the economy works.

00:12:32.960 Socialism sounds good if you don't think about it. It also makes you feel virtuous without ever having

00:12:37.780 to get off the couch because you can say that you care about the least of these by voting for Bernie

00:12:42.180 Sanders without ever forking over any money or any of your time and energy for other people.

00:12:47.560 And so socialism is very appealing for people who don't think very hard about the consequences of it,

00:12:52.720 who don't know the history of socialism and communism, don't realize that it is a limitation

00:12:58.040 of freedom and everything you love is from capitalism. And so it can be extremely appealing

00:13:05.520 for people who are not very knowledgeable, not just in history, but also in policies today.

00:13:14.160 Also, we know, and people, you know, they get mad when I say this, but it's just true. It's not a

00:13:19.360 coincidence that millennials are the most godless generation, the least likely to have a biblical 1.00

00:13:24.300 worldview, and that they're most likely to be socialists. There's a reason why, according to

00:13:28.580 Pew, 75% of atheists in the country voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary. That worldview goes

00:13:35.420 hand in hand. So if you are someone who believes in socialism, who identifies as a Christian, 0.87

00:13:40.500 as I've said many times, you should ask yourself why you have the same worldview as every atheist that

00:13:46.300 you know, the people who don't believe that human beings are made in the image of God and that every

00:13:50.560 human is valuable because of that. That's just at least a good way for you to start digging into

00:13:57.200 your worldview and asking yourself why you believe what you believe. Go back and listen to my episodes

00:14:02.480 on socialism. I will include them in the link here. And I talked about why socialism isn't biblical.

00:14:09.360 It is its history is wrought with with suffering and injustice and inequality, the exact opposite of

00:14:17.440 what socialism promises. And also, we have to make sure that we're actually talking about what

00:14:21.840 socialism actually is. When we say socialism, I'm not just talking about some social programs or some

00:14:26.760 welfare. Scandinavia is not socialist. It has actually a flat tax, whereas America has a very progressive

00:14:33.300 tax system. You pay a larger and larger percentage the more money you make, rather than just a larger

00:14:40.800 dollar amount, the more money you make. But in Sweden, they have a flat tax. Everyone pays 60%. It's

00:14:47.100 not socialist. You just pay a lot in taxes. It's basically a welfare state. But they do have a private

00:14:53.180 market and they do have capitalism to be able to fund the welfare state, which, of course, is necessary.

00:14:59.100 As Margaret Thatcher said, the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of people's

00:15:03.280 money. And so if you're going to have a welfare state, you have to have capitalism to be able to

00:15:06.840 fund it. That's something that socialists don't seem to understand. So anyway, the worldview goes

00:15:12.840 together. The socialist atheist worldview goes together. Karl Marx, of course, believed that

00:15:17.220 religion was the opium of the masses. He hated Christianity. He hated belief in Christ. He really hated 0.95

00:15:24.400 religion in general. He believed that it inhibited people from true happiness, that it gave them a sense of

00:15:31.620 delusion, a delusion type happiness, that if they just got rid of it, they would be able to realize

00:15:39.500 real happiness. Well, let's look at the history of officially atheistic regimes. Have they valued human

00:15:46.100 life? Has it led to happiness? Has it led to plenty? Has it led to prosperity? No, we can see that in every

00:15:53.100 single Marxist regime that has ever existed. We see that today in China. Officially atheist regime, 0.70

00:15:59.740 they care nothing for the individual lives of their citizens. They only care about productivity. I

00:16:06.460 mean, that is why we have seen so many egregious policies end in famine, end in poverty, end in

00:16:13.380 suffering and persecution and the loss of human life there. Because atheism doesn't know how to value

00:16:18.800 the individual. Only Christianity can do that. Millennials are increasingly distinct from other 1.00

00:16:25.080 generations in the area of faith. The study shows surprisingly six out of 10 millennials consider

00:16:29.520 themselves to be Christians. Yet when asked about their personal beliefs and faith practices,

00:16:34.100 they differed significantly in many areas from other generations. For example, millennials are

00:16:38.760 significantly less likely to believe in the existence of absolute moral truth or that God is the basis of

00:16:44.860 all truth. To believe that human beings were created by God in his image and that he loves them

00:16:49.000 unconditionally, pray and worship regularly or seek God's will for their lives. And so a lot of you have

00:16:54.020 asked me, you know, like I have this friend who calls herself a Christian and yet she's posting this

00:16:58.080 that is totally unbiblical. Why is that? Well, it's because they don't have probably the basic

00:17:03.180 foundations of a biblical worldview. A lot of people identify as Christians. That's called nominal 0.99

00:17:08.440 Christianity. Christians in name only. They were raised to Christian or they have adopted some kind of 0.97

00:17:14.300 spiritualism that vaguely resembles Christianity. And so they identify as a Christian, but they don't, 0.87

00:17:22.940 they don't reflect at all what Christianity actually is according to God's word, according to Christ

00:17:29.000 himself. And so that is going to color their political views. That's going to color their

00:17:34.140 views on right and wrong, their views on morality. And so if you're wondering why there's some cognitive

00:17:39.160 dissonance there, that's probably why. Now they might just be early in their faith. They might be in

00:17:44.120 early stages of sanctification. It might not mean that they're not really a Christian and you should

00:17:49.320 definitely be praying for them and spurring them on to love and good works and to speak

00:17:54.900 the truth in love. Absolutely. Or they could just not be a believer at all. And they have

00:18:00.380 unfortunately believed a false gospel and have deluded themselves into thinking that they follow

00:18:04.620 Christ when the person that they follow isn't Christ at all. And so in that case, you still,

00:18:09.460 you pray for them and you love them and you point them towards their creator. So none of this is really

00:18:16.300 surprising for any of us, again, who spend time on social media, but it's also a little bit comforting

00:18:21.700 to realize. I think a lot of you have said, what is happening? Like, what's happening to the church? I

00:18:26.560 turn around and all these people that I thought that I trusted, they're saying things that are

00:18:29.740 unbiblical, not just when it comes to politics, but when it comes to sin and repentance and holiness

00:18:34.720 and all of that. Why is that? Well, the gate is narrow, my friends. The gate is very narrow. And so the fact

00:18:41.880 that there are only 2% of millennials that actually have a biblical worldview, that just goes to show

00:18:48.300 that, yeah, the vast majority of people who we see, the vast majority of people who identify as

00:18:53.020 Christians that we see, don't actually believe in the Bible. They don't actually hold to that. Again, 0.98

00:18:57.760 they might just be in a season of error in one thing. We've all grown. No one becomes a Christian 0.97

00:19:02.580 and has a perfectly biblical worldview. Like, we're all going to be learning our entire lives to conform

00:19:08.020 ourselves to the likeness of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and to become more obedient

00:19:12.780 to Him and His Word. And so I'm not saying that in order to be considered a real Christian or to have

00:19:18.620 a biblical worldview that you have to be perfect all at once. But we also have to realize that there are

00:19:23.840 people who their whole lives, they will call themselves a Christian and never actually align 0.95

00:19:27.940 themselves to God's Word. The gate is very narrow, as the Bible says, which transitions us to the

00:19:36.440 Ligonier State of Theology. This is a study that they do every two years. The description is every

00:19:45.280 two years we take the theological temperature of the United States to help Christians better

00:19:50.220 understand today's culture and equip the church with better insights for discipleship. And so they

00:19:56.620 look at some questions are to just the U.S. population in general, obviously a sample of the U.S.

00:20:02.460 population. Some questions are just posed to people who identify as evangelicals, and some questions

00:20:10.580 are posed to both groups. And so I'll go through some of those questions. It's really insightful

00:20:15.220 and revealing just the worldview that we have that Christians versus the rest of the population have.

00:20:22.380 So they have to agree or disagree with a particular statement. First statement is this,

00:20:30.080 Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God. The U.S. population, 52% agree with that versus

00:20:38.840 36% who disagree. The discrepancy there is in people who are just unsure. So the majority of

00:20:46.360 the U.S. population believes that Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God. And of the people who

00:20:52.120 disagree, you also have to wonder if they are disagreeing. You don't know which part of the

00:20:57.820 statement that they disagree with. Do they disagree because they don't believe Jesus was a great

00:21:01.080 teacher at all? Or do they disagree because they believe he was God? And so I'm not even sure if

00:21:05.640 that 36% of people who disagree are all Christians. They could be people who don't think Jesus was a

00:21:11.720 good teacher at all. Among evangelicals, 30% agree. 30% agree that Jesus was just a great teacher,

00:21:21.580 but he was not God. 66% disagree. So obviously the majority of people who identify as evangelical

00:21:29.000 Christians believe that Jesus was himself God, but 30% think that he was just a great teacher,

00:21:37.500 but he was not God. Okay, let's look at what the Bible says about all this. John 1, 1 through 5 and

00:21:44.720 verse 14. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the

00:21:51.240 beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that

00:21:56.460 was made. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory is the only

00:22:02.460 Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. For some reason, I just got choked up a little bit

00:22:07.480 reading that. I just love Scripture. I love the book of John. I love the beginning of John. This is such

00:22:13.440 a great introduction to who Jesus is and was. Colossians 1, 15 through 20. I also love this

00:22:21.740 passage. I love reading Scripture on this podcast because you guys tell me that you love it too,

00:22:26.660 and it's just so refreshing and powerful. The Word of God really is like a lion. You let it out,

00:22:32.380 and it defends itself. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

00:22:37.720 For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or

00:22:44.020 dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before

00:22:49.240 all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body of the church. He is

00:22:54.580 the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the

00:23:02.440 fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on

00:23:08.000 earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross. So obviously, Jesus was God according to

00:23:16.540 God's Word. God's Word is where we get our basis for what Christianity is. I encourage you to get

00:23:25.020 systematic theology. A big book by Wayne Grudemant might be an investment for some of you. It is a little

00:23:30.920 bit more expensive, but this is a resource that you will have your whole life. Had Wayne Grudem on my

00:23:35.920 podcast several weeks ago. He is a wonderful theologian, has written lots of great resources.

00:23:41.520 But if you're wondering why we trust in the Bible, how the biblical canon came together, why evangelicals,

00:23:48.840 why Protestants don't have the same Bible that Catholics do, how that decision was made, and why the

00:23:56.540 canon that we have was inspired by God, get systematic theology. Also, gotquestions.org is a great resource

00:24:03.060 for those kinds of questions as well. So if you're just wondering that very basic question of why we even

00:24:09.860 trust in the Bible to answer these questions, then you can go look at those resources. Maybe I'll do an

00:24:14.660 episode on that in the future. Second statement, God chose the people he would save before he created

00:24:20.200 the world. Among the U.S. population, 26% agree versus 50% disagree. I am actually kind of pleasantly

00:24:29.800 surprised that 26% of the U.S. population believes that God chose the people he would save before he created

00:24:36.400 the world. Evangelicals, 38% agree. So really not that much more than the general population versus 44% who

00:24:44.240 disagree. And then there's a good chunk in there who say they're unsure. So a larger proportion of

00:24:51.660 evangelicals disagree with the statement that God chose the people he would save before he created

00:24:56.680 the world. Obviously, this is a very contentious topic, but I've talked about predestination. There's

00:25:02.240 an episode titled Predestination. And if you need to go back and listen to an episode and you don't know

00:25:07.700 how to find it, just type in wherever you get your podcasts, Relatable Predestination. You might need

00:25:13.380 to type in Ali Stucky too. It just kind of depends on what comes up, but just type in the title of an

00:25:20.700 episode that I give you on the podcast when I make a suggestion like this. Relatable. Scroll down. It'll pop

00:25:28.240 up. The Bible is very clear about this. Now, there is some nuance in this in which, you know, Bible-believing

00:25:35.460 Christians, all true Christians disagree on. But again, the Bible is clear that God does choose the 0.96

00:25:43.240 people that he would save before he created the world. Ephesians 1, 3 through 6.

00:25:48.560 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every

00:25:54.080 spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the

00:25:59.660 world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to

00:26:05.700 himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious

00:26:11.220 grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. Amen. Romans 8, 29. Those of you who memorize Romans 8

00:26:19.040 with me will recall this verse. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the

00:26:26.880 image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Romans 9 is also a great

00:26:36.840 explanation of this as well. Now, here are some questions that Ligonier asked just the U.S. adult

00:26:44.260 population or the statements that they made to them and asked them to agree or disagree with.

00:26:49.100 The Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths, but is not

00:26:54.360 literally true. Among the U.S. population, 48% agree, 41% disagree, 11% are unsure.

00:27:04.240 So, a larger proportion agree that the Bible is not literally true, which is unsurprising. I mean,

00:27:13.680 it's a little bit troubling to think that a large proportion of America doesn't take the Bible

00:27:19.840 literally, doesn't take the Bible probably seriously at all. But it's ultimately, I mean,

00:27:25.640 I think it's unsurprising, especially in this day and age. Another statement,

00:27:29.500 religious belief is a matter of personal opinion. It is not about objective truth. 54% agree with that.

00:27:38.660 So, religion is not about objective truth. It's just a matter of your truth and my truth. This is

00:27:43.640 a myth that we tackle in my book, You're Not Enough. The myth is that you determine your own truth. We

00:27:51.280 talk about why that is faulty and why that leads to wrong views about things like morality and justice

00:27:57.760 and politics and all of that. But here's something interesting. 54% agree that religious belief is

00:28:04.440 just a matter of personal opinion in 2020. But in 2018, 60% agreed with that. So, it's gone down

00:28:10.180 about 6%. I don't really, I don't know the cause of that, but maybe that's encouraging. Maybe people 1.00

00:28:16.260 are starting to care a little bit more about theology because they want to put their feet on solid ground.

00:28:20.980 Now, among evangelicals, here are some questions that were posed directly to them. The vast majority

00:28:28.300 of evangelicals disagree with the idea that science disproves the Bible. So, that's good. This 1.00

00:28:34.880 disagreement has actually gotten stronger over the past couple of years. So, I would say that's

00:28:39.680 encouraging. Here's a statement posed to evangelicals, professing evangelicals anyway.

00:28:44.440 Okay. Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature. So, everyone sins a little,

00:28:49.760 but most people are good by nature. 56% in 2016 agreed with that, but only 46% in 2020. So,

00:28:58.820 that percentage has dropped by 10 points, which again, I think is very encouraging, but

00:29:03.680 is still troubling. That's almost half of self-identifying evangelicals who do not understand

00:29:12.280 that we are dead in our sin without Christ. If you miss that, then you don't understand your need

00:29:18.720 for Christ. You don't understand salvation, which means that you miss the gospel entirely. And this is

00:29:24.580 what happens, in my opinion, when pastors are too scared to talk about sin, when they're more concerned

00:29:30.800 with the self-esteem of their congregation and the salvation and sanctification of their

00:29:35.320 congregation. That has eternal implications. Isaiah 64.6, very clear. We have all become like one who is

00:29:43.760 unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our

00:29:49.300 iniquities, like the wind, take us away. Ephesians 2.1-5, and you were dead. Y'all know, this is one of my

00:29:57.140 favorite passages. I've probably read it 50 times on this podcast. And you were dead in the trespasses

00:30:02.540 and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the

00:30:07.000 power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once

00:30:11.580 lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by

00:30:15.920 nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God being rich in mercy because of the great

00:30:23.280 love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with

00:30:28.780 Christ by grace, you have been saved. And so, no, we are not all basically good people. We are

00:30:37.100 depraved. Now, that doesn't mean that everyone who is not a Christian acts in a way that is immoral all

00:30:42.060 the time. That doesn't mean that everyone who is not a Christian is the worst that they could possibly be,

00:30:47.980 and that people who do not profess Christ are just going around and stealing and murdering people. That

00:30:53.400 is not what that means. That means that the ultimate state of our heart, the state of our soul is corrupt

00:30:59.580 and depraved, that we are dead in our sin apart from Christ. That doesn't matter how many good deeds

00:31:04.320 that we've done, that we are still sinful people, and we need the work, the atonement of Jesus Christ

00:31:10.020 to be saved. If you miss that, you miss the entirety of the gospel. What's also troubling,

00:31:17.300 the decline in number of people who agree with the statement, evangelicals who agree with the

00:31:21.580 statement, God counts a person as righteous, not because of one's works, but only because of one's

00:31:27.020 faith in Jesus Christ. 91% agreed with that statement. In 2018, 84% agree in 2020. So that's still a vast

00:31:41.500 majority and that's good, but I'm concerned that they're 16% of identifying evangelical Christians, not

00:31:49.680 Catholics, identifying evangelical Christians who think that we have to add to our faith to be counted 0.92

00:31:54.740 as righteous again. You misunderstand this. You misunderstand the gospel. You misunderstand

00:32:00.000 Christianity altogether. Galatians 2.16, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law,

00:32:06.480 but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified

00:32:12.260 by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will be saved.

00:32:19.760 Now, a counter that we typically hear is James 2.14. What good is it, my brothers, if someone

00:32:28.400 says he has faith but does not have works? Does that faith save him? The idea, you know,

00:32:33.980 faith without works is dead. That is typically how people counter that, hey, you actually do have

00:32:40.000 to prove your faith. You have to earn a bit of your salvation. However, I think Ephesians 2.8 and 10

00:32:49.800 through 10 reconciles those two ideas and shows that they're not contradictory at all. Ephesians 2.8

00:32:56.620 through 10 says, for by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing.

00:33:01.880 It is the gift of God, not a result of work so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship

00:33:08.220 created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

00:33:16.000 So God prepared the good works that we are supposed to do through our faith beforehand. So we can't even

00:33:21.620 take credit for those. And so I think what we learned from that is that true saving faith always comes

00:33:27.480 with works. That does not mean that we are earning our salvation, but the faith that was given to us

00:33:32.880 by grace will by nature produce good works. And the good works that we did or that we do, God already

00:33:41.060 prepared for us beforehand. So we don't get to take credit for them. They don't add to our righteousness

00:33:46.320 or deservedness in becoming saved. Christ is our deservedness. We don't deserve it. It is by grace,

00:33:53.800 as Ephesians 2, 8 through 10 says, that we have been saved. The Holy Spirit through Paul takes

00:33:59.140 special pains to emphasize to us over and over again, that it is not our work. It is not your

00:34:06.120 own doing. This verse says, it is the gift of God, not a result of work so that no one may boast.

00:34:11.720 And it says that we are his workmanship. God prepared our good works beforehand that we should walk in

00:34:19.400 them by faith. Again, that's a big one. You don't understand that, then you don't understand the

00:34:25.180 gospel. You miss everything. Here's another statement. God accepts the worship of all religions,

00:34:30.860 including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. In 2018, 51% of professing evangelicals believed this. That is

00:34:39.820 the majority. That's crazy, man. But in 2020, 42% believed that. So that number went down. Again,

00:34:46.220 I would say encouraging. I would say encouraging. I do think I've seen over the past few years,

00:34:51.500 the church start to take more seriously theology. And I've seen more social media accounts

00:34:58.440 correcting the record on bad theology, speaking out against bad theology and saying, we got to get to

00:35:03.760 our Bibles, folks. Like we got to get back to what is true and to what the gospel actually is. And so

00:35:08.960 I'm encouraged by that change for sure. Now, 42% is a big number of professing evangelicals who believe

00:35:18.140 that God accepts the worship of all religions. John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

00:35:27.340 No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus said that. Pretty exclusionary. 1 Timothy 2, 5,

00:35:34.740 for there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.

00:35:41.760 Now, here's something that is actually encouraging. I would say praise the Lord for this. So the

00:35:47.740 statement was given, gender identity is a matter of choice. In 2016, 32%, almost a third of professing

00:35:55.240 evangelicals agreed with that statement, that gender identity is not something that's inherent.

00:35:59.700 It is not something that you were born with, that God gave you. It is a matter of what you decide in

00:36:05.280 your mind. A third of evangelicals agreed with that in 2016. In 2020, that's down by 10%. 22% agree

00:36:12.840 with that. Again, still, still too high. When the Bible is so abundantly clear, and we're going to

00:36:18.620 kind of go off on a tangent for a second here, because people ask me to talk about this all the

00:36:23.020 time. I have talked about it several, several times, but it is so important. So I'm happy to

00:36:27.680 re-explain and to re-emphasize this. Genesis 1.27, very clear. So God created man in his own image.

00:36:35.740 In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. So there's no fluidity

00:36:41.700 there. He made men and women distinct. He made them different and with specific purposes. We see

00:36:47.540 this reiterated throughout Scripture. We see it in Proverbs, when over and over again, Solomon says,

00:36:53.240 listen to your father and your mother. That is an important distinction, an important dichotomy

00:36:59.500 that is not just arbitrary. It's purposeful. We see this from Jesus in Matthew 19.4. When Jesus is

00:37:06.460 answering a question about divorce, he says, quote, he answered, have you not read that he who created

00:37:11.940 them from the beginning made them male and female and said, therefore, a man shall leave his father and

00:37:17.460 his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two,

00:37:22.940 but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together. Let not man separate. People love to

00:37:28.640 say that Jesus never talks about gender or the definition of marriage. First of all, he clearly

00:37:34.100 did. I just read it. Secondly, when people say, oh, well, Jesus never talked about X and so it must not

00:37:40.640 be important. That's a red flag that their theology is confused because a Christian believes and knows 0.87

00:37:47.100 that Jesus is God. Therefore, anything that God says in scripture, Jesus also says. Ephesians 5 talks

00:37:54.820 about the relationship between the husband and the wife, how the husband is to love and sacrifice

00:37:59.940 himself for the wife as Christ sacrifices himself for the church. And the wife is to submit to her 0.98

00:38:06.960 husband as to the Lord. This is the greatest biblical support, I think, for the purposefulness and

00:38:14.840 importance of the distinction between the two genders and the specific definition of marriage

00:38:20.360 by God as between a man and a woman. Because God is saying this is not just a physical union. It is a

00:38:27.620 spiritual union that reflects the gospel. And the way God says that marriage reflects the gospel is by the

00:38:34.960 husband representing Christ through his service and sacrifice to his bride and the bride representing the

00:38:41.340 church through her submission to her husband. Those are particular roles specific to particular

00:38:47.680 genders. God doesn't do things or say things arbitrarily. To say that God doesn't care about

00:38:53.680 gender or the definition of marriage is to say that God is flippant, that the creation of our bodies

00:39:00.260 actually didn't mean anything, that Jesus didn't really mean what he said about gender and marriage in

00:39:04.820 Matthew, that God's depiction of marriage is reflective of the gospel is meaningless. Well, that is a

00:39:10.220 misunderstanding about the nature of God and who God is. I would venture to say if that is your

00:39:14.140 perspective of God, you do not know him. God does not do things arbitrarily. God made our bodies. He made

00:39:22.120 them good. He made them distinct. He made them purposefully, both for practical, procreative

00:39:27.720 purposes, but more importantly, to bring him glory. And this is precisely why when you see Christians 1.00

00:39:34.600 start to go soft on the issues of gender and marriage, eventually their entire theology falls apart

00:39:41.380 because to claim that God doesn't really care about gender and marriage is to ignore what we read

00:39:47.840 throughout scripture, to misunderstand the unchanging and purposeful nature of God, and in that way,

00:39:53.480 misunderstand the gospel entirely. This isn't one of those peripheral issues. This is a big one. God cares

00:40:01.180 about it immensely. And again, yes, you might have friends that are not right on this because they're

00:40:05.940 in a certain stage of their sanctification. And so I cannot judge their soul. That is certainly not my

00:40:11.980 role. I don't want it to be my role. And so I'm not judging their salvation. Maybe they're early

00:40:17.020 Christians. Maybe the Holy Spirit is working on them and convicting them of this, but this is still a big 1.00

00:40:22.960 issue. God says that it's big, that the definition of gender and marriage is rooted in creation. It's

00:40:29.520 reiterated throughout scripture by Jesus himself. It is reflective of the gospel because it is

00:40:38.040 representative of Christ and the church. That is the alliteration that I typically use to explain

00:40:44.500 why the definition of marriage isn't just coming from random verses in Leviticus or even just the

00:40:50.660 creation account. It is a reflection of the gospel. The specific definition of marriage as between

00:40:58.600 a man and a woman is reflective, representative of Christ and the church. It is a really big deal 0.98

00:41:04.760 to God. I highly recommend the book Love Thy Body by Nancy Piercy. Such a good book in so many ways. I

00:41:10.780 mean, she's got amazing resources. I've also had her on my podcast. But if you want to learn more about

00:41:15.500 this subject, I think I'm actually going to read it next with my book club on Facebook, Women's Book

00:41:20.200 Club with Allie Stuckey. So feel free to join along. A really, really good book. I have a pretty strong

00:41:25.840 feeling that if you ask the 22% of self-proclaiming Christians who say that gender is just this

00:41:33.560 arbitrary thing that God doesn't actually care about or define, it's just a matter of choice.

00:41:38.040 If you ask those 22% of self-identifying Christians to share the gospel with you, 0.51

00:41:42.840 to explain who God is and how he redeemed people through Christ, I have a pretty strong feeling that they

00:41:49.060 would not be able to do it. I don't know that for sure. I could be wrong. But again, I just

00:41:54.540 explained why it actually shows a huge misunderstanding about the nature of God. There was a tweet by Adam

00:42:01.640 Wren, who is a liberal journalist who reported for Politico that Amy Coney Barrett, quote,

00:42:07.440 was a trustee at a South Bend private school that described, quote, homosexual acts as, quote,

00:42:13.100 at odds with scripture and said marriage was between one man and one woman years after Obergefell

00:42:18.760 versus Hodges. That last part of his tweet just makes me laugh. As if a decision made in 2015 by

00:42:26.320 the United States Supreme Court changes what Christians from all over the world have believed

00:42:31.360 for millennia. True Christians will be defining marriage how God defines it 200 years after Obergefell, 0.58

00:42:38.000 centuries and millennia and eternity after Obergefell. The Supreme Court, thank the Lord,

00:42:43.780 does not dictate what we do or don't believe. God and his word does. And God does not change.

00:42:51.600 What I've noticed in the recent coverage of many of the Amy Coney Barrett's, of many of Amy Coney

00:42:56.520 Barrett's personal beliefs about marriage and faith and the value of life is that Orthodox Christianity

00:43:02.040 is totally foreign to the journalism class. Most of them, it seems. Most of them apparently have never

00:43:09.620 read a Bible. If they have, they don't understand that there are millions of people who believe it

00:43:14.360 and actually take it seriously. Their ignorance and disdain has become even more obvious over the

00:43:20.040 past few days. You only have to go back eight years, by the way, to 2012, according to Pew Research,

00:43:26.820 to find a time in American history when the majority of Americans were against gay marriage. 52% just in

00:43:32.060 2012, eight years ago. Now the majority do accept it. But culture has changed very quickly over the past

00:43:38.180 10 years, while Christians have not. So this shock and dismay being expressed by journalists

00:43:43.760 over these traditional views are an indicator of their shift to the left, not our shift to the right.

00:43:49.500 I also just want to point out, this is a little aside, doesn't really have a lot to do with what

00:43:53.540 we were talking about. I just thought it was interesting when I was looking at these Pew Research

00:43:56.760 studies. For all this talk on the left that evil white Westerners are the ones that are oppressing the 0.80

00:44:04.060 marginalized, including LGBTQ people. The support for gay marriage is not lowest among white Americans. 0.97

00:44:10.320 It is lowest among black Americans, according to Pew Research. It is actually highest. Support is

00:44:16.000 highest among white Americans. Black support for it, according to these studies, has always been lower

00:44:20.740 than white and Hispanic support of it. Also, if you look at a map of countries and their views of the

00:44:26.280 acceptability of homosexuality in society, Western countries are the ones who most accept it. Russia? 0.96

00:44:33.100 Nope. Nigeria? Nope. Kenya? Nope. India? Nope. So again, the narrative always pushed by the left that

00:44:39.940 America is in particular homophobic, this cruel place against the marginalized. It's always been

00:44:47.620 incorrect. It is still incorrect. It is a faulty worldview. I just thought that was interesting.

00:44:53.680 That was a little rabbit hole. But to bring it back, to bring it back to the whole point of this episode

00:44:58.120 is that very few people have a biblical worldview. Self-identifying, Christians included, very few

00:45:04.980 people have a biblical view of marriage, of gender, of sexuality, of God himself, of truth, of who Christ

00:45:10.640 is, of the nature of scripture, which is going to affect their view of the world, their view of politics,

00:45:15.960 of justice, of right and wrong, the role of the government. As God becomes smaller in someone's life,

00:45:22.200 their idolatry of the government and secular causes typically become bigger. The Screwtape Letters

00:45:28.380 by C.S. Lewis is an amazing book. We read it together in my book club a few months ago. If you're not

00:45:35.340 familiar with it, it is a senior demon writing to his nephew, a junior demon. And so whenever they talk

00:45:42.940 about the enemy, they're actually talking about God himself. And when they're talking about their

00:45:48.340 father, they're talking about Satan. I'm going to read you a little excerpt from the Screwtape Letters.

00:45:54.840 Again, the enemy, when they talk about the enemy, they're talking about God. This is a demon speaking

00:45:58.620 to another demon. And this goes to show what happens when we make God small and the government

00:46:05.320 or our social and political causes big. Screwtape says, certainly we do not want men to allow their 0.72

00:46:12.140 Christianity to flow into their political life. For the establishment of anything like a really just 0.94

00:46:17.580 society would be a major disaster. So first, I want you to hear that, that Satan, that the demon is

00:46:23.600 saying that they don't want Christians to allow their Christianity to affect their politics, which

00:46:29.720 is what I talk about so much on this podcast. People believe that we should compartmentalize

00:46:33.980 our Christianity from politics because that's separation of church and state. Separation of 0.74

00:46:38.460 church and state does not mean the separation of Christianity from the rest of your worldview or your

00:46:43.040 faith from the rest of your worldview. No one does that. You should have a cohesive worldview.

00:46:47.620 Everyone's politics and their view of culture is downstream from theology, whether you're an

00:46:53.160 atheist or monotheist. Okay. So let's just be aware of that. So Satan does not want our Christianity to

00:46:59.480 flow into what we think about politics. What he does want is this. On the other hand, we do want and

00:47:07.320 want very much to make men treat Christianity as a means. The thing to do is to get a man at first to 0.87

00:47:14.320 value social justice as a thing which the enemy demands and then work him onto the stage at which

00:47:20.260 he values Christianity because it may produce social justice. For the enemy will not be used

00:47:26.800 as a convenience. Men or nations who think they can revive the faith in order to make a good society 0.63

00:47:34.020 might just as well think they can use the stairs of heaven as a shortcut to the nearest chemist's shop.

00:47:39.340 Fortunately, it is quite easy to coax humans around this little corner. So again, what he's saying is

00:47:46.080 that Satan wants to get Christians to see Christianity and Christ as a means of social

00:47:50.880 justice, as a means to their political ends. And I would say this is something that not just the

00:47:55.600 left is guilty of. Maybe the left has a higher propensity towards this, but the right does this

00:48:00.020 too. I think some people on the right think of conversion to Christianity as a way to accomplish

00:48:06.460 their political ends. And whether it's on the right or the left, that's wrong. Leftists tend to think of

00:48:11.680 Christianity, their version of Christianity, social justice Christianity, as a means of societal

00:48:17.460 liberation, as a means of a new social order, as a way to usher in socialism. We see this all the time.

00:48:23.980 People on the left claiming that Jesus came to reorder society. He came as a social revolutionary

00:48:29.080 against imperialism. When no, that's not an accurate depiction of Jesus at all. The reality is,

00:48:35.380 is that Jesus reached both the societal oppressors and the societally oppressed. He specifically

00:48:43.060 reached out to people, societal oppressors, people like Nicodemus, like Paul, like the Roman centurion,

00:48:51.160 like the tax collectors, and those who were considered societally oppressed, like the lepers and the sick

00:48:57.000 and the unclean woman and the poor, because both groups, the societal so-called oppressors and the 0.50

00:49:02.740 societally oppressed had one thing in common. They were and are oppressed by sin. Jesus came to deliver

00:49:10.960 men and women, rich and poor, disabled and able-bodied, powerful and weak from sin. He came to preach

00:49:18.580 repentance from sin and salvation through him. He came to make disciples who are then called to crucify

00:49:24.880 our flesh and its desires and to live a life dedicated to the glory of God. And yes, it's true.

00:49:30.220 When people follow Christ, their hearts change. And when lots of hearts change, society changes for

00:49:35.460 the better. And sometimes that does mean literal liberation. The abolition of the slave trade was

00:49:41.060 spearheaded by gospel-powered believers. When Christianity takes hold of hearts, we see the 1.00

00:49:46.280 recognition of equal dignity of human beings in society. And hopefully one day it will mean that

00:49:51.420 we will see the end of the atrocity of abortion as well. And it's a good thing for Christianity in that 1.00

00:49:58.360 way to influence society. These are outcomes we should all hope for. But Jesus was not a social

00:50:05.420 revolutionary whose goal was to rebel against the state or reorder society or to smash the patriarchy.

00:50:10.860 You will not find that in a reading of the gospels. Jesus is brash. He is offensive to our flesh. He is

00:50:17.660 straightforward. He is serious about sin. He's unafraid of truth. He's also compassionate and gentle and kind

00:50:24.540 and lowly and humble and unbelievably loving. He was God-made flesh. Our only reconciliation between

00:50:31.640 a holy God and a sinful people. Our only path of redemption. That is who God is. Anyone who tries

00:50:36.520 to minimize him or to bring him down to this crude representation of the social justice warrior,

00:50:42.880 you do not know Christ. And you are seeing Christ in Christianity as a means to an end. And that is 0.73

00:50:47.880 blasphemy. That's not Christianity. In the same way that if someone on the right saw Christ as a way

00:50:55.720 to, I don't know, spread patriotism or a means to their own political and societal ends, that is also

00:51:03.300 blasphemy. That is also wrong. When people follow Christ, yes, societies change. They make changes that

00:51:09.780 are good for everyone. But societal change is not the goal of the Christian. And it was not Jesus's goal. 0.87

00:51:16.240 Our goal is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. In my family, we read a catechism together. One of the

00:51:22.840 first questions is, how do you glorify God? And the answer is by loving him and doing what he commands.

00:51:28.780 That is our goal in life, to become more like Christ in holiness and truth and in love and to make

00:51:33.800 disciples. To share the gospel with the people around us and to love them like he has loved us, which is

00:51:39.540 radically. Do we attempt to have influence over our lawmaking to ensure that our laws are just? Yes, I

00:51:45.160 obviously believe so. But we have to make sure that because we are following Christ, our definition

00:51:51.160 of justice is that social justice, but God's definition of justice. Social justice is concerned

00:51:56.040 with equal outcomes, which is impossible outside of tyranny. Read Quest for Cosmic Justice by Thomas

00:52:01.100 Soule. Justice is not retribution or revenge. Justice does not show favor based on skin color or socioeconomic

00:52:07.340 status. True justice is concerned with truth, with actual equity, with a fair process, with righteous

00:52:14.140 judgments and punishments based on evidence. Mercy where possible and restitution where applicable.

00:52:19.720 God's justice, as we have said a million times on this podcast, is for things that is truthful,

00:52:24.980 it is direct, it is proportional, and it is impartial. Those characteristics are very different

00:52:30.740 than the kind of so-called justice that people are raising their fists for in the street right now.

00:52:36.140 So yes, Christians want and can work for a just society as long as we A, define justice as God defines it,

00:52:41.620 B, understand our role in justice versus the government's role, being careful not to give

00:52:46.580 government the role and responsibilities that God has clearly given in His Word to individuals,

00:52:50.940 the church, or the family. And C, we understand that Christianity is not a means to our ends,

00:52:56.420 either personally or politically. That's one of the problems with the prosperity gospel. It sees

00:53:01.280 Christianity as a means to your prosperous ends. But as C.S. Lewis says, God will not be used as a

00:53:07.880 convenience. Christianity is the end. Jesus is the end. He is the prize. And one day we will be with 0.99

00:53:16.940 Him forever and there will only be joy and peace. No politics, no dissension, no anger, no malice.

00:53:23.700 Some conservatives got all up in arms when I posted on Instagram that no matter who wins the presidency,

00:53:29.220 Jesus is king. For some reason, they interpreted that to mean that it doesn't matter, that I don't care

00:53:36.360 who wins and that you shouldn't even vote because, you know, whatever. I've spoken specifically to that

00:53:42.740 fallacy so many times. Obviously, what I do is helping to get you guys to care and to see what's

00:53:52.720 going on. I want you to be knowledgeable and involved. But I am not going to riot and burn

00:53:59.700 and cry and weep and gnash my teeth if Trump loses, even though I think a Biden presidency

00:54:04.620 will be very much destructive to the country. The same God who ordained Trump to be president

00:54:10.880 has already preordained the next president. And no matter what happens, every day after the election

00:54:16.420 will be a day that the Lord has made. And therefore, I and all of his followers will rejoice and be glad

00:54:23.280 in it. And I will share this country that I love so much with people who hate both it and me.

00:54:31.860 And I will refuse to hate them back. Will I fiercely disagree with them? Yes. Will I push back on them

00:54:37.380 and their ideas when I think it's necessary? Yes. But will I hate them? No. Christians here in America 1.00

00:54:44.380 and on earth are in exile. Our citizenship is in heaven, as God's word says. What we do here matters.

00:54:51.420 How we vote matters. Politics matter because they affect actual people, especially the least of 0.81

00:54:57.400 these. But this life is not where it ends. In Jeremiah 29, Israel has been sent into exile

00:55:04.380 in Babylon. God tells them, while you're here, do this in verses four through seven.

00:55:10.440 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile

00:55:15.500 from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce,

00:55:20.580 take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage 0.99

00:55:26.260 that they may bear sons and daughters, multiply there and do not decrease, but seek the welfare of

00:55:32.160 the city where I've sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare, you will

00:55:37.560 find your welfare. I'm not trying to say that America is now Israel, but just as God's people were in

00:55:45.260 exile there, Christians are in exile here on earth now. And we are to seek the welfare of the city of

00:55:51.960 the country that we are in. There's that famous verse in Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah 29, 11, that says

00:55:58.040 that God has plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope in the future. Too many

00:56:02.320 times I see people using this verse as a way to say that God is not going to let anything bad happen

00:56:07.080 to you. That's not true. He's telling this to people who are in exile, who have gone through a lot of

00:56:11.620 suffering. God is saying that even in exile, God is working to fulfill his promises on our behalf,

00:56:17.360 which is that one day he will rescue his people once and for all and defeat evil and sorrow and sin

00:56:22.340 forever. And in the meantime, we are to trust him and seek the welfare of the place in which we dwell.

00:56:29.260 I think that includes voting. I think that includes caring about the policies that are being pushed while

00:56:35.660 still understanding that God is totally sovereign and he's not thrown off by anything. And so we are in

00:56:40.940 perfect peace. Those of us who follow Christ during all of this. Acts 17, 26 through 27 says,

00:56:47.960 and he made from one man, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth,

00:56:52.900 having determined allotted periods in the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God

00:56:57.780 and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each of us.

00:57:03.720 So God has determined where we are to live. He has determined, by the way, the boundaries and the

00:57:09.040 borders of nations. Nations are supposed to be sovereign and distinct. And he placed you and

00:57:15.620 me here now where we are when he has purposefully. He will equip us to confront whatever obstacles we

00:57:22.660 have ahead of us. He chose us to be born when and where he did. He chose our kids to be born when and

00:57:28.440 where he did. He doesn't do anything by accident. You are here now purposefully and in him, you and I

00:57:34.080 have everything that we need to face the days and the years ahead. Hebrews 13, 20 through 21.

00:57:40.660 Now, may the God of peace who brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the

00:57:45.800 sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will,

00:57:51.600 working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and

00:57:56.640 ever. Amen. So don't be discouraged by the state of the world. Certainly don't be surprised by it.

00:58:02.320 The world is acting like they're meant to act. They're supposed to be anxious. They're supposed

00:58:06.360 to be freaking out. They're supposed to be putting all of their hope in the government. They're

00:58:10.120 supposed to be burning down businesses and harassing people in the street and slandering people in the

00:58:14.240 press and believing false narratives. They don't know the prince of peace. They don't know the source

00:58:19.080 of all wisdom and truth. They don't have the hope of heaven. They don't have the bread of life.

00:58:22.900 They don't have the living water, the well that never runs dry. They're unsatisfied and lost.

00:58:28.120 Ephesians 4, 17 through 20 says,

00:58:30.640 Now this, I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility 1.00

00:58:38.640 of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God

00:58:43.340 because of the ignorance that is in them. Due to their hardness of heart, they have become callous

00:58:47.860 and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not

00:58:54.120 the way you learned Christ. So while they are, while the rest of the world is freaking out,

00:59:01.540 burning things down and feeling like the world around them is crumbling, Christians are cool. 1.00

00:59:08.340 We know who is in control. We know who is ultimately leading us. We care about what's going on in the

00:59:13.660 world. I sure do. We care about policies and politics because again, these affect the lives of

00:59:20.080 real people, but we are steady knowing that God is on his throne. What we see is this, and I said it

00:59:25.940 earlier and I'll say it again, the gate is narrow. We shouldn't be surprised that only 2% of our

00:59:31.920 millennial peers have a biblical worldview. So when you're on social media and you're scrolling through

00:59:37.060 and you're seeing your friends who profess to be Christians sound exactly like your friends

00:59:41.740 who profess not to be Christians. And again, we have all messed up. I certainly have. I have 0.83

00:59:49.580 not conducted myself always in the way that I want to conduct myself. There are times I have

00:59:55.500 snapped on social media where I sound just like the rest of the world. So I'm not telling you

01:00:00.400 to judge someone's salvation on a bad moment. But if you're wondering why you are seeing your friends

01:00:06.000 increasingly sound like the world and look like the world, even though they are professing to be a

01:00:10.280 believer, this is why the gate is narrow. What we will see in the coming years, I believe, 0.99

01:00:17.440 is friends falling away. You're going to see pastors fall away. You're going to see fellow

01:00:21.360 church members. You're going to see your favorite bloggers and influencers and authors whom you trust

01:00:25.100 in renounce their faith, family members. The days of cultural Christianity, as I have said, 0.99

01:00:30.940 as I said, or I think he actually said in my interview with Dr. Albert Moeller, the days of cultural 0.92

01:00:36.840 Christianity are over. No matter who is president next, it's going to be less popular and comfortable 1.00

01:00:43.560 and lucrative and safe to be a Christian, I believe. And to most people, it will not be worth it. They

01:00:48.880 will count the cost and say no. 1 John 2.19 tells us this, they went out from us because, or but they

01:00:56.160 were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it

01:01:02.500 might become plain that they all are not of us. So it's time to count the cost. Let's stop being lazy

01:01:08.740 and complacent about our own faith and the faith of others. Pastors, preach sin and repentance to

01:01:14.100 your congregants. There are people in your churches who have sat in a pew for 40 years and do not know

01:01:18.740 Christ. Youth pastors, it is not too early for the kids in your care to know theology. Now is the perfect

01:01:25.460 time for them to understand theology. This is the time to challenge them with a real study of the Bible.

01:01:30.500 It is not too early to have them reading C.S. Lewis and Spurgeon. Stop feeding them fluff because

01:01:35.420 you're afraid that they're going to get bored. The thing that actually started to excite me about

01:01:40.020 Christianity was when I was in high school was realizing how intellectually rich apologetics were

01:01:46.380 and how much there was to learn about Christianity. I was reading C.S. Lewis. I read Tim Keller's Reason for

01:01:53.460 God and it was those two mere Christianity, Reason for God, a particular pastor that I used to listen 0.76

01:02:02.240 to all the time who was just brilliant and brought everything back to the gospel, and Romans 9 that

01:02:07.840 really did it for me. It just engaged my mind and my heart in a way that I had never been engaged. It

01:02:12.120 wasn't fluff that finally did it. It wasn't another metaphor. And I'll say the metaphors are bad. I love

01:02:16.920 metaphors. But it wasn't another fluffy talk about how God thinks I'm awesome. It was the realization

01:02:23.220 that I am a sinner and that there is this amazing, merciful God who has sent his son to die for me and

01:02:29.340 that he wants me to know him and he knows me and there is so much to know and to learn about him.

01:02:35.240 Do not, do not underestimate the minds and the capacity and the ability to critically think of the

01:02:42.960 people that are in your congregation, especially if you are a youth pastor. Your job is not to make

01:02:49.460 them feel good about themselves. They get the message of self-love from literally everywhere.

01:02:54.460 Their biggest problem, our biggest problem, is not that they feel bad about themselves. It's not that

01:02:58.340 they have low self-esteem. It's that we are without Christ, sinners bound for hell. That is everyone's

01:03:03.280 biggest problem. And if you're not looking to solve that problem through the gospel, then you're not

01:03:06.800 doing your job. Make sure they know the gospel. Make sure they know who made them, what his authority is,

01:03:12.280 what it means to glorify him. Parents, we got to teach our kids. A lot of y'all have more experience

01:03:18.000 in parenting than I do, so you should be giving me advice. So I'll just say, teach your kids the

01:03:25.000 Bible and don't apologize for it. I am going to include a link to a list of resources that I have 0.76

01:03:30.180 on my blog in the description of this podcast. Toward the bottom, you will see some resources that I have

01:03:36.340 for kids. I love the truth and grace books that Tom Askell, who I've had on this podcast, has written.

01:03:43.120 They're just really good. Kids, catechisms, and understanding theology. Everyone else who doesn't fit

01:03:50.240 into those three categories, go to that page, read the recommended theology books, use the Church Finder

01:03:55.240 app that I provided, founders.org slash church dash search. Join a local church and share the gospel.

01:04:03.180 These are all things that I break down in my book. Also, like I said, you can find that on my website

01:04:08.820 as well, allybethstuckey.com slash book. If you are already a Christian, understand that you, through

01:04:14.100 the power of God, have the ability to help change people's minds. We don't get to take credit for it.

01:04:20.020 The Bible says that the one who plants and the one who waters and the one who gives growth,

01:04:25.540 ultimately the credit for all of that goes to God. God can use you, and he will use you,

01:04:32.600 to help change people's minds. Ultimately, it's him. It's the Holy Spirit who does that work,

01:04:39.200 but he will use you as a vessel. I am just an ordinary person, and I get emails every week from

01:04:44.520 people who say, I hated you. I hated your podcast. I hated your post. I was angry every time I listened.

01:04:50.780 I was angry the first few chapters of your book, but then something changed, and I can't take credit

01:04:58.060 for that. I can't take credit for that change of heart and that change of mind, but Christ certainly

01:05:02.320 can. I got an amazingly meaningful email that brought me to tears from someone who was raised

01:05:07.360 a Muslim who said that she had been watching my videos and realized the distinction between the

01:05:12.480 quasi-religion of social justice and actual Christianity, and that she finally understood

01:05:16.600 the gospel for the first time and started following the Lord and joined a local church that sounds

01:05:21.440 wonderful. If that is possible through this podcast, it's possible through anyone. It's possible

01:05:27.140 through you. We are not different. We are just Christians that God has decided to use because of

01:05:32.540 his goodness and mercy and not anything that we have done to deserve that. And so be encouraged.

01:05:37.840 I get those kinds of messages every week, and if God can use me and will use me, he can and will use

01:05:45.040 anyone, including you. So God has given you all of the equipment, all of the tools that you need to

01:05:50.620 disciple the people in your life and to share the gospel and to change people's hearts and minds

01:05:54.960 through the power of the Holy Spirit. And we give him glory for all of that. So I hope that was

01:06:00.760 encouraging to you. I know another long episode. I've had a lot to say over the past few months.

01:06:05.240 My episodes used to be like 30 minutes. That's actually how long they're supposed to be. But I

01:06:08.580 just always have so much to say to you guys. And you guys give me so much good content ideas to

01:06:13.420 talk about. So thank you guys so much for listening. I am really excited about Friday's episode.

01:06:20.120 So excited. I had a conversation with Christopher Rufo, and we're talking about how critical

01:06:25.700 theory has infiltrated the highest agencies in our country and how we can push back on it. And it was

01:06:32.080 just a brilliant, amazing conversation. He is an awesome guy. So can't wait for you to listen to

01:06:36.360 that on Friday. And we will be back here then. Have a great rest of your week.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - September 30, 2020

Ep 307 ｜ The Dire State of American Theology

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript