Ep 428 ｜ Is It a Bad Time to Start a Family？ ｜ Q&A
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Summary
In this episode, I answer some of your questions about socialism and why it has never worked and why you should dismantle it. I also talk about why socialism is not socialism at all, and how to dismantle socialism.
Transcript
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hey guys welcome to relatable we are doing another q and a episode today just a reminder
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if you love this podcast if you could please leave me a five-star review on apple podcast
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if that's where you listen that would just mean a whole lot to me you don't even have to write
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that much if you want to you can some of you do and it's super meaningful and i appreciate that
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but if you love this podcast i would love a five-star review subscribe on youtube ali beth
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stuckey if you haven't already all right let's talk about some of the awesome questions that you
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guys sent me first question how socialism misunderstands human nature i love this
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question because it's something that we talk about a lot and i don't get tired of talking about it
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the reason why socialism has not worked and it has never worked you can look at the 20th century and
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you can see how much it has failed this assertion that socialism has never been tried simply is not
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true it's just never been tried and worked the reason is because it goes against human nature
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and if you look at the nordic countries the nordic countries the leaders of the nordic countries will
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tell you look we're not socialist yes they have hefty social democracies or they have a hefty social
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safety net they have a welfare state they have very high flat tax rate some of those countries so like
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sixty percent but it's flat and so whether you are rich or whether you're poor everyone is paying
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sixty percent and they are paying into their education system their welfare system their health
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care system and all of that very different than the united states we have a very progressive tax system
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maybe the most progressive tax system in the western world and that's not only are you paying more
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dollar wise if you're rich but you're paying a much higher proportion if you are rich so another thing
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is that like when people say that the rich don't pay their fair share well the top 50 percent of
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earners in america pay something like 90 percent of all taxes and if you are poor in the united states you
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don't pay anything in taxes you actually earn money from the government by way of welfare and things
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uh like that and so we have a very progressive um leftist type tax system in the united states of
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course under biden he is raising taxes on people he originally said it was going to be four hundred
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thousand it's actually going to be two hundred thousand as i'm recording this i'm recording this
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in march by the way um and so again the nordic countries people who say well that's socialism and
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that works not only is it not socialism but it actually has some more conservative elements to
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their tax structure than america does in some ways and they are very pro free market they are very pro
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business in those countries now they are left leaning in a lot of ways especially socially and
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there's not uh you don't have the same constitutional rights in those countries but they are not socialist
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countries their economies are not socialist and even if they were or i should just say the
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reason why it works for them in some ways it doesn't actually work completely but the reason
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why it works okay for them to have such big government and to have such high taxes is because
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they're very small countries they're also culturally homogenous countries they're very different than
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the united states we i mean it's it's wonderful how much cultural diversity that we have um but it also
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makes us very complex and the answers to our problems more complex and more multifaceted than it does
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to those tiny small homogenous uh nordic countries and so the comparison just isn't great it's it's
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just not great it doesn't make a whole lot of sense and like i said those are not actually socialist
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countries so socialism has never succeeded this idea of confiscating power property capital from the
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haves and giving it to the have not so to accomplish some kind of so-called equity meaning that everyone
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ends up in the same place everyone has equal outcomes everyone has the same quote distribution
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of wealth um according to what the government decides it doesn't actually work and the reason
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why i believe that goes against human nature uh is because um it's because it is human beings nature to
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one own property that is their own um it's not just human nature by the way it's also moral it's also
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biblical in the ten commandments their commandments against um against property theft or even against
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wanting someone's property and so a lot of people say that you really only need two commandments to
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biblically dismantle um socialism and that is thou shall not covet and thou shall not steal
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so not only does god say you're not supposed to steal something that isn't yours and i would say that
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absolutely applies to the government but you're not even supposed to want something that's not yours
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that's how much god believes in personal property that's how much she believes in not just personal
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property because marxists will say they believe in personal property but not private property
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but also private property property that is yours you actually have ownership of it that doesn't mean
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that we don't believe in taxes the bible is clear that we're supposed to pay taxes we can render to
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caesar what is caesar's but we're to render to god's what is god's we're not to render to caesar that which
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is god's and caesar we believe as romans 13 says should be subject uh to god it's an institution the
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government is created by god and should be subject um to what he says is right and he says is wrong
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that's not a theocracy as i've said many times i don't believe that the new testament gives us a
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precedent or a command to make any sort of theocracy here on earth but it does say that there is one
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moral lawgiver one transcendent authority on what is good what is bad what is right what is wrong and
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what is just and what is unjust and of course we believe as the entire west once did um that looking
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to his example in general when coming up with the rule of law is good that's where we get due process
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that's where we get property rights that's where we get many of the freedoms and uh the laws that we
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have today from the general judeo-christian ethic of what is right what is wrong and what the law
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should look like socialism goes against that it takes away human enterprise it takes away property
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rights and it creates a system that is based on covetousness it creates a system that is based
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on envy socialism constantly is bucking against human nature that's why it requires the bloodshed of so many
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millions of people in order to be enacted again as we saw throughout the 20th century in soviet russia
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in eastern germany in vietnam in china in north korea this is what we see that it has to be accomplished
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by taking away people's rights like you just don't see any socialist countries where people also have
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free speech and freedom of religion it just doesn't happen because the state has to become god in order for
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people to submit to it and in order for socialism to be achieved so that the government has enough
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power to take property and money from people and give it to other people in the hopes of achieving
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equity and by the way it's always in the hopes of achieving equity what it actually does is just gives
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the government more power it doesn't actually accomplish anything for the people that it says it's
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going to we saw the same thing in venezuela it just ends in all kinds of exploitation the same thing
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in zimbabwe it's the same story over and over again give your power give your money to the
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government they'll take it they'll say that it's for compassion to help the least of these and then
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they just screw everyone over including the least of these they play upon your sensitivities and your
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desire to take care of people they assure you based on no history whatsoever uh no historical support
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whatsoever that they are the best vehicle the government is the best vehicle to take care of people
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they take your money uh via taxes by doing that and eventually they have so much power that you gave
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them in the name of your empathy that they're able to do whatever they want to do and what they want to
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accomplish is not empathetic history tells us that very well if you study like north korea for example
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there is a great book called nothing to envy that we read in the book club last year that talks about
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how these black markets uh uh cropped up in north korea where there is established communism where
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people have been propagandized against capitalism and the free market their entire lives who have
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been made to believe that japan and made to believe that south korea and america are these awful imperialist
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capitalist countries well i mean they are capitalists but they're made to believe that all of these things
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are terrible um and that capitalism is so bad and communism is great but these people are starving like
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they understand that they're starving they understand that they're not getting the things that they
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need to get and so what happened is that they created these black markets that were built on
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supply and demand and they you know smuggled goods from china in order to um in order to create a market
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to meet the demand of food that was had in starving north korea um thanks to communism and so these are
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people who they didn't know economics like they didn't know capitalism they didn't know
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the free market and yet they understood inherently how to trade and how to provide for themselves and
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how to um how how to navigate supply and demand and that's why i say that socialism goes against
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human nature but capitalism not crony capitalism which we have so much of today um but just supply and
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demand free markets actually abides by human nature it is the most natural form of market that you can
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have that is again why socialism and communism always have to be imposed but capitalism supply
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and demand just crops up naturally even among people who have never been taught about it before
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um all right so i hope that kind of answers that question that was long favorite place that i vacationed
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first thing that comes to mind is where my uh my uh my husband and i went on our honeymoon which is
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very basic i think a lot of people go to camp cancun for their honeymoon we did it wasn't necessarily the
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place that was the best because i've been to a lot of great places i've been to a lot of places in
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europe i've been to barcelona i've been to rome i've been to paris i've been to london i've been to
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scotland and all of those places i've been to amsterdam all those places were wonderful and i loved
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all those places but i'm like a beach girl i love relaxing i love doing nothing and i love eating food
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and so your honeymoon is basically the place for all of those things and the resort that we stayed
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at in cancun was so wonderful it was like you it wasn't like a family-friendly resort it was only
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for um it was there were no kids and so it was very quiet it was very clean you walk in they give you
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this like sweet coconut milk which was amazing and just like incredible service pampered all of that
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fun stuff and we haven't gone back we keep saying oh we need to go back and then of course this past
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year has just been crazy and we haven't gone back i don't know if we will but um our honeymoon in
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cancun was probably like the favorite my favorite place that i have ever stayed my encouragement to
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you if you can swing it or if someone can gift this to you and you're going on a honeymoon if you can
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afford to go on a honeymoon and you're planning to do it go all inclusive all inclusive is the way to
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go and it's going to seem like a lot up front but it is worth the freedom of mind when you're there
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to not have to worry about like you know tipping or well i guess you can i guess you do still tip
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but you don't have to worry about um like okay if i get a dessert is it going to be too much or if i
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want to get a second dinner if i want to get room service like am i gonna have to pay extra what's my
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bill going to be at the end of the week you don't have to worry about that it's literally all
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inclusive and that was such like a hard concept for me to understand i remember like okay i ordered
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a dinner one night i didn't like it i want to order another dinner oh my gosh this surely is going to be
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extra but it's really not so just having that freedom of already knowing that you paid for it or
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already knowing how much it's going to be and just being able to enjoy yourself that is my recommendation
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if you can swing an all-inclusive resort stay even if it's just a few days like three days for your
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honeymoon then i encourage you to do it because for us it was a really great option all right uh
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someone asked me what is persecution um or how do we think about persecution so there's a conversation
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right now like whenever christians especially in america talk about persecution like if we talk about
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a florist or a business owner who for example is getting dragged through the mud or is like losing
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her clientele because an activist group targeted them because for example their stance on biblical
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traditional marriage or someone being criticized or slandered for their faith um you'll hear
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christians say that's persecution and then you'll hear a loud cacophony of people on the other side
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saying no no no no that's not persecution christians need to stop talking about persecution there's
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christian privilege in the united states it's white privilege it's all this stuff and they'll shout you
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down and they'll say you don't know anything about persecution well it's true that we christians
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in america have enjoyed this wonderful respite from um a lot of persecution over the past how you know
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over the past few centuries in the west but in particular in the united states religious liberty
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and christianity being mainstream is an exception in church history not the rule so for most of church
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history for 2 000 years the rule has been that christians are persecuted still today pew research
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reports that the number one persecuted religion around the world is christianity so when people
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talk about christian privilege i just want to roll my eyes but america is unique and that we have a lot
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of christians and that christianity even though it is getting pushed to the margins it's very mainstream
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in a lot of ways um you know whether people like it or not even the laws that we have on the books like
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laws against murder laws against theft laws for property rights laws for due process that everyone
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benefits from those are based in the bible you might not like that you could reject that you could say no
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that's just common sense other you know other countries have murder laws too that's true but it still
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goes back to the absolute morality and the right and wrong that god declared thousands and thousands
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of years ago to his people um and you could say even that's part of general revelation that god
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wrote good and evil on our hearts that people who haven't even read the bible understood inherently
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that it is wrong to kill an image bearer and there should be a price to pay for that but not all
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countries by the way believe that like you know there are many countries and millions of people that are
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subject to the death penalty for saying the wrong thing or believing the wrong thing or for
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criticizing their government and so the idea of freedom of conscience um is also very unique to
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america which a lot of people would say it's waning but i would say that's because christian influence
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is waning and so the question is is there like is there persecution in america against christians well
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i think that we need to expand our definition of what persecution means it's absolutely true that
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christians in america are not dealing with the same kind of persecution that christians in china are
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dealing with or christians in the middle east are dealing with of course that's not true or muslims
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in china or muslims in the middle east um they are are definitely being persecuted in a much worse way
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than anyone is here that's absolutely true um but persecution doesn't necessarily just mean being a
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martyr it doesn't just mean being arbitrarily detained it doesn't just mean torture or all of the
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terrible things that people in other countries christians in other countries are going through
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yes i do believe that that could mean having your business targeted that could mean being dragged
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through the mud by the media i do think that that could mean unfair um unfair criticism like untrue
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criticism slander about you i'm not saying that's the same thing that christians in other parts of the
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world are going through but i mean jesus does tell us that we will all christians will be persecuted
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and second timothy 3 12 says indeed all who live who desire to live a godly life in christ jesus will
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be persecuted and so i believe that means in one way or another and you can say that without equating
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all types of persecution or without trying to make yourself a victim like you can say that someone is being
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persecuted or that you're being persecuted and still declare that as romans 8 says that you are
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more than a conqueror in christ jesus and that you know that he's coming back and he's going to rule
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in perfect peace and as psalm 37 says we'll look around and the wicked will be no more so you acknowledging
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persecution in your own life or other people's life is not to decry a victim narrative actually
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james tells us the book of james tells us that we should have joy in our trials like we're going to go
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through trials we're going to go through persecution he was talking to christians who were dealing with
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persecution and who had dealt with persecution and like christians believe in having joy in that
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um and so it's not saying oh poor me it's just stating a fact that there are different kinds and
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different levels of persecution and when someone pushes back on you and says oh this is not persecution
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if you are being persecuted if you are being pushed back against for truly righteousness's sake i'm not
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just saying because you were a mean person and someone told you that you were mean or you did something
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wrong and someone criticized you but if you are truly being attacked and it's a true attack not
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just disagreement or not just rebuking like godly rebuking but you're truly being attacked in one way
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or another because of obeying christ and i believe that james coates's imprisonment definitely falls into
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this category the pastor out of canada then that is a form of persecution absolutely remember all who
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desire to live a godly life in christ jesus will be persecuted doesn't mean that christians are the
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only ones who are persecuted um the second corinthians 4 17 says for this light momentary
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affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison i think that means
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that if you are talking about slander or true deep sorrow i think it means that if you're talking about
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um you know going to prison for your faith or you're talking about um someone targeting your
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business for your faith or losing a friendship over your faith these are all afflictions and all
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trials and all part of living in a fallen world that god says he's going to take care of and redeem
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and so i really don't think that we need to like be quibbling over what's persecution and what's not
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the fact of the matter is is that jesus tells us that we're going to take up our cross and follow him and
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that life is going to be about self-denial that it's going to be hard that in this world we will
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have trouble he says you will have trouble in this world whether that's persecution or just life being
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hard but take heart he says i have overcome the world he doesn't say take heart it's not going to
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be that hard or take heart it's not going to hurt or take heart people are going to understand you
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or take heart everyone's going to like you he says it's going to be hard but take heart i have
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overcome the world so our confidence is not that we're going to escape any kind of
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trials or persecution here on earth but that we are uh can have perfect confidence in his victory
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and we do have confidence in that and we look towards the hope of heaven and the hope of him
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coming back and taking care of all the sadness and all the wickedness and all the persecution
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so one question i get a lot is should i be having kids right now if if i'm if i'm married like i'm a
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christian should i be having kids i'm worried about what's going on like i'm worried about the economy i'm
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worried about our safety i'm worried about the future of our country i'm worried about some forms of
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persecution i'm worried about our loss of freedoms i'm worried about raising my kid in this crazy time
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like should i be having kids and i think that the bible absolutely speaks to that remember yes the
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bible was written many thousands of years ago and it was written to a particular people in a particular
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context speaking to a particular moment but it was for us like god's sovereignty god is sustained in
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the eternal now so god is not limited by time that means that the bible his word is also not
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limited by a cultural moment that means it is for us today and god inspired the words of the bible
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knowing every hard thing that every christian would endure and look christians have been through a lot
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harder than what we're going through right now like if you look at the history of the church the early
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church what was happening in the time of of nero what has happened throughout history like christians
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have gone through a lot more than we are going through right now and the bible still stands like
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the lord still said what he said in the bible and here's just one thing that he says in psalm 127
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4 through 5 like arrows in the hand of a warrior are chill are the children of one's youth
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blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them he shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his
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enemies in the gate the entire bible speaks to children as a blessing speaks to children as children
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being a positive asset in your life it never speaks to children being a curse it never speaks to children
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being a burden or being something that we need to put off because we want to travel or because we don't
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feel like it honestly the bible doesn't really give christians that option the bible simply says
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that children if you are married if you're called to be married are good like there's something that
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we should rejoice over whether it's your biological children or whether it's adopted children i think
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both are beautiful depictions of the gospel now the bible are god might not call you to be married
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and as we've talked about before singleness is a wonderful gift that you can fully glorify god in
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that you're not an incomplete person you're not missing out if you're not married not according
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to the bible jesus obviously wasn't married he was the most complete person that ever lived as
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god made flesh and paul talks about the gift of singleness as well and so um but if you are married
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and you are thinking about whether or not you should have kids i would encourage you don't base your
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decision to not have kids off of fear because god knew everything that was going to happen when in the bible
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he so consistently and continually called children a blessing and in this particular verse calls
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children um an arrow in your quiver now i want to talk about that statement i really love that metaphor
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because if you think about what you're doing for your children as you are raising them in the lord
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raising them to love god with all their heart mind soul and strength and to love their neighbor as
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themselves you are shooting them into the future they are like arrows going forward and you want
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them to advance the gospel in all that they do and advance god's love in all that they do and you want
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them to be a good influence for their generation and make a mark on the future that glorifies god
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in the same way that an arrow does now i do not want this to get confused with what what's known as
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like quiverful ideology and this is one of those words like or terms like christian nationalism that
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kind of gets muddied that is used by people who don't really know what it is to try to slander people
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that they disagree with slander people who say that children are just a blessing that's not the same as
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quiverful ideology which kind of goes hand in hand with this like patriarchy movement between
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or within some forms of like fundamentalist christianity which basically says that like all
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children or all women until they get married no matter how old they are are under the authority
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of their dad and there's a lot there's a lot more more to it obviously i don't agree with that i don't
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think there's a biblical precedent for that that would have been a huge problem uh for me if uh if we
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believed that or if my dad had believed that um and this quiverful thing kind of it's in the same
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realm of that and it's not just the belief that children are arrows in your quiver which is biblical
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but it's the belief that children are these soldiers or are these tools to turn the country
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into a christian nation to turn the country into what you want it to be and i don't think that's biblical
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again i don't think that there is any new testament or any old testament precedent for us creating
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theocracies here on earth there's just not i don't think that that's um i don't think that that's
00:25:20.540
biblical at all should we advance laws and policies that are good for all people that promote true
00:25:28.180
biblical justice um that advance i think the the freedom and the ability to uh care for care for
00:25:38.260
yourself those kind of policies yes i absolutely do should we try to push policies that support the
00:25:45.180
family as we know that the family is really the incubator of of values the creator of value systems
00:25:51.880
and belief systems that can launch a child into a successful future yes i do but creating a theocracy
00:25:58.840
is not something that christians are tasked to do we just don't see that asked of us or demanded of that
00:26:04.920
of us and so i don't think that we need to see christians that or see our kids that way as like these
00:26:11.600
soldiers that we're sending into battle in order to make america a christian nation are we sending them
00:26:17.920
forward to advance the cause of christ and advancing the gospel and advancing charity and advancing the
00:26:24.600
truth and advancing godliness and glorifying him and all they think say and do advancing service yes
00:26:31.840
i do think so and god uses is going to use their small sphere or their big sphere however much influence
00:26:39.940
that he gives them he is going to use that if they are of him for his glory and the good of other
00:26:46.960
people just like he has for all of human history and so i think that there is a distinction there
00:26:52.560
but the important thing for us to note is that children are a blessing and that god knew what would
00:26:58.180
be in store for this generation when he created this generation the same way that he does for us
00:27:02.500
like i think a lot of us have nostalgia about oh i wish i was you know lived 30 years ago or 100 years
00:27:09.700
ago i'm in the wrong generation no you're not no you're not i remember i think it's aw pink who says
00:27:15.300
that grumbling against the weather is grumbling against god and it's the same thing when we say
00:27:21.020
that um we're grumbling about the time that we were placed on earth god did not place you here
00:27:26.760
arbitrarily he did not place you here accidentally he placed you to meet the exact challenges that
00:27:33.440
this generation faces he didn't place you being born in 1960 that's not what he wanted he didn't want
00:27:41.940
you to meet the challenges of that generation those were not for you we have no business having
00:27:46.240
i mean and i'm one to talk because i have nostalgia about the 1980s all the time even though i wasn't
00:27:50.920
even alive then i just like that era in history um but so preach it to the choir a little bit but we
00:27:56.940
have no business having nostalgia for past times or wishing that we lived in a different era because
00:28:01.440
god did not place us here on accident he placed us exactly at the spot in the large span of eternity
00:28:08.220
where he wanted us and our life is very very short and he has just called us to glorify him and to
00:28:13.740
obey him in this time and it's really that simple love god and love your neighbor and the small span of
00:28:19.400
time that he has given you your sphere of influence might be huge it might be small no matter what he
00:28:24.040
asked for obedience he asked for truth he asked for justice he asked for mercy he asked for us to make
00:28:28.940
much of him and not very much of of us it's the same for our kids i saw a post circulating a while ago
00:28:37.720
that it was like um don't feel sorry for your kids like they're facing the challenges that god
00:28:44.580
has ordained that they should face and our job is to equip them to face those and the best way that we
00:28:51.600
possibly can like god has given us the responsibility to raise the next generation even if you don't have
00:28:57.500
kids like if you're a teacher if you're a sunday school teacher if you work with kids you can
00:29:01.800
mentor the next generation um you have a hand in helping shape the next generation in the ways of
00:29:09.680
the lord um and that's our responsibility and god didn't god did not pick another generation to raise
00:29:15.260
the next generation he picked our generation and he didn't pick our kids to be a part of any other
00:29:20.320
generation he picked them for this time we have to trust in his sovereignty that he knows better than
00:29:25.320
us and if god says that children are a blessing then we have to trust him on that even when it's
00:29:31.080
scary and even when it's hard um and so that would be that that'd be my answer to that um all right i've
00:29:38.600
got one more quick question to answer what do you do when your friend leaves the faith very difficult
00:29:44.720
i think you continue to share the gospel with them you continue to love them you continue to be
00:29:50.100
faithful to them you pray for them unceasingly i've got a list of people that i'm like it's just
00:29:56.100
a matter of time you're coming to know the lord i just feel it um and so i've got a list of people
00:30:02.900
that i pray for that are not believers and uh you can keep that list too and just continue to pray for
00:30:08.240
them you can listen to them hear their concerns hear their doubts uh try to wrestle with them yourself
00:30:12.660
see if you can come up with any answers or uh direct them to any resources possibly but just keep
00:30:18.880
praying for them keep sharing the gospel with them keep being a faithful friend to them they're
00:30:23.460
going to see people turn away from them and betray them and no longer love them and you should be the
00:30:28.880
friend that you would want in that situation um i hope that helps all right that's all i've got time