Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - October 03, 2022


Ep 688 ｜ Is Jesus the Only Way to Heaven？ ｜ Guests： David Limbaugh & Christen Limbaugh Bloom

Topics
resurrection of Jesus resurrected Jesus faith doctrine prayer book collaboration
Hosted by
Allie Beth Stuckey
Mentioned
Paul Little David Limbaugh Kristen Limbaugh Allie Rush Limbaugh Jesus Christ C.S. Lewis Obama Peter Charlie Stuntman Norman Geisler Josh McDowell Dave Drovecki Phil Donahue Z. Like Orwellian Trilemma Barnabas Gospels Timothy and 5 more
Ep 687 ｜ When God Tells You to Sell Meat, You Listen ｜ Guests： Ben & Corley Spell (Good Ranchers) REPLAY： Things May Change If We Make These 3 Commitments

Episode Stats


Length

49 minutes

Words per minute

182.73

Word count

9,108

Sentence count

767

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

27

sentences flagged

Hate speech

18

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Who is this Jesus for whom we count everything else as loss, who is raised from the dead, who claims to be our creator, our redeemer, our savior, who says one day he is coming back to make all things right? We are answering these questions today with authors David Limbaugh and his daughter, Kristen Limbaugh, who just wrote a book called The Resurrected Jesus, which we will discuss as well as their own faith journeys, the questions that they have wrestled with while becoming and being Christians, and we will also talk about the faith and legacy of David s brother and Kristen s uncle, Rush Limbaugh.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ
00:00:05.700 Jesus, my Lord.
00:00:07.080 For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order
00:00:12.280 that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that
00:00:17.560 comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God
00:00:23.180 that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may
00:00:29.180 share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible,
00:00:35.120 I may attain the resurrection from the dead, Philippians 3, 8.
00:00:40.280 So who is this Jesus for whom we count everything else as loss, who is raised from the dead,
00:00:47.420 who claims to be our creator, our redeemer, our savior, who says one day he is coming
00:00:53.840 back to make all things right.
00:00:56.660 We are answering these questions today with authors David Limbaugh and his daughter, Kristen
00:01:01.360 Limbaugh.
00:01:02.040 They just wrote a book called The Resurrected Jesus, which we will discuss as well as their
00:01:07.020 own faith journeys, the questions that they have wrestled with while becoming and being
00:01:12.040 Christians. 0.51
00:01:12.940 And we will also talk about the faith and the legacy of David's brother and Kristen's uncle,
00:01:18.340 Rush Limbaugh.
00:01:19.340 You will love this interview with these two amazing people.
00:01:23.180 This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
00:01:26.140 Go to GoodRanchers.com slash Allie.
00:01:28.240 That's GoodRanchers.com slash Allie.
00:01:39.760 David, Kristen, thank you all so much for joining us.
00:01:42.640 First, although I'm sure there's a lot of people listening and watching who already know,
00:01:46.280 can you tell us, David, who you are and what you do?
00:01:48.760 David Limbaugh.
00:01:49.780 I'm a lawyer.
00:01:51.500 I used to be a columnist.
00:01:52.440 I finally quit after 20 years.
00:01:53.920 It's a wonderful relief.
00:01:55.300 Yes.
00:01:55.820 And I've written 11 books.
00:01:58.740 This is the 11th, and this one is with Kristen.
00:02:01.100 So I have a busy life.
00:02:02.800 And Kristen, is this your first time to contribute to a book with your dad?
00:02:06.280 It is.
00:02:06.920 Yes.
00:02:07.220 It is.
00:02:07.620 So it's been such a dream come true for me, lots of fun, and yeah, hopefully there'll be
00:02:12.940 more to come in the future.
00:02:14.360 And I want to talk more about what that process was like as a father-daughter team.
00:02:18.620 But first, I just want to talk about the book itself, The Resurrected Jesus.
00:02:22.460 As you said, you have written several Jesus books, David.
00:02:26.380 This is the next iteration.
00:02:28.600 Can you tell us why you decided to write this book?
00:02:31.480 Why is it called The Resurrected Jesus?
00:02:33.900 Because the publisher insisted on it.
00:02:36.020 Okay, got it.
00:02:36.860 I'm being totally transparent.
00:02:38.360 So Regnery decided.
00:02:39.300 Yeah, always.
00:02:40.100 The thing is, the first Jesus book, or the first Christian book, was Jesus on Trial.
00:02:46.860 It was my faith journey and apologetics book.
00:02:50.720 Second was the Emmaus Code, which is Jesus in the Old Testament, prophesied and all that.
00:02:55.840 Third was the True Jesus, which was a chronological compendium of the Gospels.
00:03:00.780 Fourth was Jesus is Risen.
00:03:04.180 They always put Jesus in the title, and that's intentional.
00:03:07.140 Shameless promoters.
00:03:08.920 And so that was the Book of Acts, History of the Early Church, and the first six of the Apostle Paul's epistles.
00:03:16.240 This one, the Resurrected Jesus, is the final seven of the Apostle Paul's epistles.
00:03:21.560 So there's no strategy.
00:03:23.380 It's just marching through the New Testament books, and it's kind of like a commentary devotional combined.
00:03:30.400 Okay, gotcha.
00:03:31.380 And tell me a little bit about what it was like writing this book with your dad, and why did you decide to join forces this time?
00:03:38.880 Well, dad asked me like a year and a half ago if I'd be interested in writing his next book with him.
00:03:43.500 It's actually not true.
00:03:45.160 She came begging.
00:03:46.060 I did.
00:03:46.700 Oh, yeah.
00:03:47.180 Please.
00:03:49.740 Well, we had always kind of flirted with the idea of writing something together, but I didn't think it would be until after dad had finished this series,
00:03:56.900 since he's had so much success with it in the past.
00:03:58.980 But he came to me saying that he had an idea for me to co-author, offer my insights, and then also contribute prayers interspersed throughout the text.
00:04:10.420 And so it was really interesting for me to see his process, you know, like right up front, because growing up, I mean, I always watched him on these projects.
00:04:24.580 And it's funny, because I went away to college when you were writing your first book on Obama.
00:04:28.400 And I remember I'm the first, and we're very close.
00:04:30.960 And I was thinking, man, like, did my dad forget me?
00:04:35.200 Because for like two months, like my first two months of college, I didn't hear from you.
00:04:40.820 But yeah, he was so engrossed.
00:04:42.040 To worthy cause, trashing Obama.
00:04:44.320 Yeah.
00:04:44.680 Very worthy cause.
00:04:45.360 Well, I would say so.
00:04:46.520 Yeah.
00:04:46.660 I would say so.
00:04:47.540 So I knew, you know, it was like a very intense process for him.
00:04:51.940 But he was so gracious with me.
00:04:54.240 I was pregnant the whole time throughout the process.
00:04:56.400 So, but he set, you know, great deadlines.
00:04:59.420 And he's a machine when he writes, you know, and he does all the research himself, like all the editing.
00:05:04.980 I mean, obviously we do have an editor as well, but he self edits multiple times.
00:05:09.920 And so it really helped me as a writer and to be able to bounce feedback off of one another.
00:05:15.180 You know, if you're writing something yourself, you're dealing with yourself and with the Holy Spirit.
00:05:20.000 But when you have a partner, you think of things that you wouldn't have thought of before.
00:05:25.080 You see things from a different angle.
00:05:26.480 And so I think that really benefits the reader as well, because even though we write it in one voice, they're kind of getting several different angles on these different subjects.
00:05:35.060 So obviously faith and theology is central to your family life.
00:05:39.780 It sounds like growing up, which I'm guessing started with you and your wife.
00:05:44.060 And even though you've written about your testimony, a lot of people may not know.
00:05:47.620 How did you come to faith?
00:05:48.920 And then how did you come to the point to where you want to write about faith and theology?
00:05:52.720 Yeah, and I chronicled that in the first book.
00:05:56.060 And it's, I was, I came kicking and screaming.
00:05:59.840 Now somebody, you know how people are on Twitter.
00:06:03.020 I heard David Limbaugh on a podcast say that he came kicking and screaming.
00:06:06.460 That's not the normal conversion experience.
00:06:08.040 I didn't say it was a conversion experience.
00:06:10.480 I said, it was figurative to say I was a doubter.
00:06:14.320 I was a skeptic.
00:06:15.100 The conversion experience wasn't troublesome.
00:06:17.960 But I, I always believed in, in God, which to me, it's impossible not to these new atheists 1.00
00:06:25.020 who come up with these ridiculous ideas that something can come from nothing and life from
00:06:29.260 non-life, but I didn't subscribe to the Bible or Jesus's divinity, but not because I was
00:06:37.540 a rebel.
00:06:38.160 I mean, I always wanted to be on the right team.
00:06:39.840 We grew up in church.
00:06:40.640 I just didn't embrace it.
00:06:41.840 The real reason was because I didn't ever engage, didn't study it.
00:06:45.400 And I had problems with why would an all-loving God send someone to eternal damnation?
00:06:52.480 I thought I was creative with that idea, by the way.
00:06:55.160 Everybody's had that throughout.
00:06:56.740 Yeah.
00:06:57.120 But.
00:06:57.720 Everyone always thinks, I mean, myself included, that they're the first skeptic to ask questions
00:07:02.360 about Christianity. 0.99
00:07:03.700 And the brilliant, IQ brilliant atheists still think that we're just idiots and have never 1.00
00:07:09.620 thought through these things. 1.00
00:07:10.360 Have never thought about it.
00:07:10.880 And what happened is I started studying apologetics, and I would read C.S. Lewis, Paul Little,
00:07:17.480 I don't know if you're familiar with him, Norman Geisler, Josh McDowell.
00:07:20.800 I read it all, and I just was so close.
00:07:25.000 I just knew it was right, but I couldn't finally, I mean, I didn't make the plunge until later
00:07:32.380 when I accepted the question.
00:07:33.380 What kind of, of your life was this when you were really kind of digging in and asking
00:07:36.660 the questions?
00:07:38.060 Well, I, from college on, but I didn't really, I don't think I was converted until I was in
00:07:42.820 my mid-30s.
00:07:43.580 After we were married, Lisa made a mistake marrying me, but she always prayed for my
00:07:47.360 conversion, which is kind of cool.
00:07:48.180 So she was a Christian when y'all got married.
00:07:50.400 Yes.
00:07:50.800 Would you have called yourself a Christian before now looking back?
00:07:54.600 Yes, but I didn't know what really Christian meant.
00:07:57.300 Right.
00:07:57.800 I was a nominal Christian, and I certainly believe in all the values, always did.
00:08:01.940 Again, I was not that big of a rebel at all.
00:08:04.580 When I'd see, I'd watch Charles Stanley on TV before I was a Christian, before I was a
00:08:09.380 rebel, I knew everything he was saying was true.
00:08:11.980 Isn't that weird?
00:08:12.680 Yeah.
00:08:13.180 The demons know and shudder.
00:08:15.020 The demons know who got it.
00:08:16.400 I'm not saying I was a demon, but.
00:08:18.280 Right, but even the demons know, and I've heard it said before, like people can miss heaven
00:08:23.120 by 18 inches, which is the link from the head to the heart.
00:08:26.640 That's a very good way to put it.
00:08:27.720 It's possible for us to fully understand, in a sense, and know the gospel and theology
00:08:34.160 and still not have it in our hearts.
00:08:36.280 But let me tell you, the interesting thing is, I didn't even know the real claims of
00:08:40.760 the Bible, and I wasn't even sure that Jesus claimed to be God.
00:08:45.200 You talk, oh, he never claimed.
00:08:46.240 Well, you can't read the book of John and deny that he claimed, I and the Father are
00:08:50.400 one, et cetera, et cetera.
00:08:51.220 But I went to a prayer breakfast, Christian men's prayer breakfast, and like a thousand
00:08:57.200 people in our hometown, Cape Jordan, Missouri, and some celebrity was speaking, I think it
00:09:02.860 was Dave Drovecki, he was a pitcher, Major League Baseball pitcher, and he lost his arm
00:09:07.400 to cancer.
00:09:08.100 He was very inspiring, but that had nothing to do with my conversion.
00:09:11.680 But there was a card left on the table, would you like to learn more about Jesus Christ?
00:09:15.820 I really didn't that much, but I felt an urging to do it, which I think was a prompting by
00:09:22.140 the Holy Spirit.
00:09:23.080 Signed the thing, and I ended up in a Bible study with about five guys, all of whom I
00:09:27.740 knew, two of them taught it.
00:09:30.040 And it was a book, a little pamphlet called First Steps, and it went through Christ's divinity,
00:09:35.600 and I'm going, you've got to be kidding me.
00:09:37.220 All this basic stuff I never knew.
00:09:39.940 And then when I finally became convinced that the Bible was the Word of God, I was excited.
00:09:45.580 I'm holding my hand, the actual message from God.
00:09:49.800 And it was shortly after that that I accepted Christ.
00:09:53.060 Sorry for the long...
00:09:54.020 No, I love it.
00:09:55.040 I love hearing people's testimony and kind of what prompts people when the Holy Spirit
00:09:59.380 and how the Holy Spirit works on people.
00:10:01.520 And just a common theme that I find in people's testimonies is that God had been working on them
00:10:05.980 and their heart in ways that they didn't know for a long time.
00:10:08.820 By the way, and I wrote about this, it's so fascinating to me, I got to add this.
00:10:12.440 Yes.
00:10:12.800 That I really believe, and I've said this in that book or elsewhere in speeches, don't
00:10:19.200 assume as an evangelist that the seeds you plant are not productive.
00:10:25.340 It may take a thousand.
00:10:26.440 I think in my cases, a thousand.
00:10:28.540 And there's one that particularly moved me.
00:10:30.600 He went to law school with a friend of mine, and they were home, and we were all home.
00:10:35.520 I was home from law school from Mizzou.
00:10:37.400 They were home from Texas law school.
00:10:40.160 They went to...
00:10:40.840 We met out at their house, at the parents' house of my friend.
00:10:45.400 He brought his Texas friends up.
00:10:47.660 And this...
00:10:48.220 We were talking about God...
00:10:49.400 And I was being not a smart aleck, but raising those questions, because he was an open Christian,
00:10:55.380 his friend.
00:10:56.900 And I was...
00:10:57.660 He was a really cool guy.
00:10:58.840 Ladies' man guy. 0.67
00:10:59.760 So ladies' man, Christian. 0.98
00:11:01.140 Ooh, that's interesting. 0.83
00:11:01.900 I thought all Christians were nerds. 1.00
00:11:03.820 The real puritanical. 0.96
00:11:05.600 Right.
00:11:06.200 But he started talking about the Bible.
00:11:10.100 He was very, I would say, winsome with me.
00:11:13.660 He didn't get defensive about my questioning.
00:11:17.660 Instead, he goes, I'd like to share something with you about the Bible, how integrated it is.
00:11:23.780 He gave me a...
00:11:24.360 He went to his bedroom, brought back a reference Bible, gave it to me.
00:11:28.460 It's his Bible, and he gave it to me.
00:11:30.860 And I started looking at it, you know, weeks later.
00:11:33.720 And I couldn't believe how integrated the Old Testament and the New, because they had 1.00
00:11:36.580 cross-references.
00:11:37.320 I didn't know any of this.
00:11:38.780 That was a first step that, for me, that later bore fruit years later.
00:11:44.440 And I told him, it blew him away.
00:11:46.260 He had no idea.
00:11:47.380 It brought him to tears.
00:11:48.480 It actually did.
00:11:49.220 But isn't that cool?
00:11:49.960 That was way before.
00:11:50.940 Yes.
00:11:51.180 You really never know.
00:12:03.180 And the small things, or seemingly small things that you do, that you really never know are
00:12:10.000 having an effect.
00:12:11.460 Right.
00:12:11.740 Very often are.
00:12:12.680 I mean, there are things that we won't know until we get to heaven, people that we affected
00:12:17.760 just in passing, or by a small, private, unseen, unsung act of obedience to God that God used
00:12:24.460 for his glory in a million ways that we may never see.
00:12:28.620 And that's all of our testimony.
00:12:29.920 That's true.
00:12:30.260 That was very smooth.
00:12:31.280 You should get your own show.
00:12:32.980 Oh, I'll try.
00:12:34.240 I've been begging them for a long time.
00:12:36.080 We'll see if it happens.
00:12:37.360 So what was it like growing up then?
00:12:39.140 And obviously, probably for as long as you can remember, it sounds like he really had
00:12:43.520 the conversion experience in his 30s.
00:12:47.140 So as long as you can remember, you were raised in a Christian home with Christian parents.
00:12:51.720 How did that faith kind of play into your upbringing?
00:12:55.840 Well, so I've said my mom was the prayer warrior in our family, and dad was the divine
00:13:01.280 truth warrior in our family.
00:13:03.240 It's important to have both.
00:13:04.440 It is.
00:13:05.080 And so I really did have the best of both worlds.
00:13:07.280 Mom has always been very spiritual, taught us how to pray from a young age.
00:13:12.700 And then dad, actually, before I went off to college, took me on little dad-daughter
00:13:17.460 dates because he said, you know, you're going to be faced with different arguments trying
00:13:21.620 to tear down your faith, and I'm going to teach you what you can know in your heart.
00:13:26.140 And he said, but don't even try to get into an argument with a professor about this.
00:13:29.080 He's like, just get the A.
00:13:31.060 It's like not worth the battle for that.
00:13:32.980 And it was, you know, I unknowingly signed up for a biblical course, thinking, you know,
00:13:38.960 little old me thinking, it's like, oh, this will be great.
00:13:40.960 I can actually take a Christian course at a secular college.
00:13:43.980 And little did I know they were picking apart the Bible as a piece of literature and trying
00:13:47.980 to show all the inerrancies and everything.
00:13:51.260 So, but it was, God had literally prepared me for that the summer before.
00:13:54.440 So, but for me personally, college is probably where I was at my lowest point in my faith
00:14:01.800 walk.
00:14:02.180 I mean, I asked Jesus into my heart as a little girl, but my friends probably, you know, we're
00:14:09.700 all Christians, quote, air quotes, but I wasn't really in a youth group or anything like that.
00:14:15.760 So I wasn't really deepening my faith as a teen.
00:14:19.060 And then I got to college, I joined a sorority and, you know, your focus shifts to parties
00:14:23.760 and all the things.
00:14:25.540 And I wasn't, you know, like too crazy, but I just, my focus was on myself.
00:14:30.640 And so I was just feeling so empty as every year of college passed by.
00:14:35.060 It's like, okay, I don't have a boyfriend.
00:14:36.660 I don't have, you know, really a vision for where my life is going.
00:14:40.880 And I just, I wasn't ever questioning, is Jesus real?
00:14:45.240 I always knew that, but I, I didn't really know him on such an intimate level that I'm,
00:14:51.880 I do now.
00:14:52.440 And so it was actually, we've been talking about seeds, a girlfriend of mine who, um, again,
00:14:59.000 a fun friend, somebody that who I wouldn't have considered like a stick in the mud at the
00:15:03.400 time.
00:15:04.320 Um, and we were interning together in New York city.
00:15:07.260 And so the first night of our internship, we went out to get a glass of wine and we didn't
00:15:13.080 look at the menu before.
00:15:13.980 The glass of wine was literally $32.
00:15:16.080 So we're like, okay, well that'll be our dinner and breakfast for the next day. 1.00
00:15:21.940 Um, we're like, we're idiots. 0.96
00:15:23.520 Um, but we were just talking and she just had such, um, a glow about her, like truly a zest 0.99
00:15:30.100 for life.
00:15:30.760 She was just emanating joy.
00:15:32.660 And I was like, what is with you?
00:15:34.960 Like, since the last time I've seen you, something is different.
00:15:37.840 Like, do you have a new boyfriend?
00:15:39.180 Like, you know, of course my mind goes there and she's like, okay, like this is going to sound
00:15:43.420 so weird, but I, I've always grown up and, you know, as a Christian, but I've, I feel
00:15:49.260 like Jesus has really like brought me in and has totally transformed my life.
00:15:53.820 And she went through the devotional.
00:15:55.720 She had been reading this book that was great.
00:15:57.580 And I was like, I'm jealous.
00:15:59.240 I want what you have.
00:16:00.920 And so she gave me the devotional she was reading.
00:16:03.540 And that summer is the first time where every single morning I woke up excited to hear from
00:16:08.180 God.
00:16:08.460 And I really felt like he was directly speaking into my life.
00:16:11.580 And little by little, he started asking me to trust him, asking me to submit things to
00:16:16.580 him and be obedient to him.
00:16:17.840 And I realized, oh, you actually have what's best for me.
00:16:21.680 You know, I always thought that being obedient to God was, you have to live like a straight 1.00
00:16:26.480 lace and no fun life and not be an individual.
00:16:29.580 And when I, when I finally did start just giving into him, you realize he's the one, John
00:16:34.580 10, 10, who gives us life and life to the fullest.
00:16:37.400 So, um, that's my true conversion.
00:16:40.260 So we failed as parents.
00:16:42.600 Everyone has to have their wayward season.
00:16:44.860 No, but actually, I mean, if you're talking about planting seeds, I hear so many stories
00:16:49.000 like that.
00:16:49.460 Well, I was raised a Christian, but then this happened.
00:16:51.720 I was, I was raised in the church.
00:16:53.860 I knew things about God, but it wasn't until, you know, high school, college, adult life,
00:16:59.020 but that didn't happen like in a vacuum.
00:17:01.540 It didn't happen all of a sudden.
00:17:02.860 In reality, God had been working on them for years and years.
00:17:05.580 You know, when I first wrote about my faith journey and people from my local church were,
00:17:09.600 I think probably offended.
00:17:11.120 Well, are you saying we weren't a Bible believing church?
00:17:13.540 No, I'm saying it just didn't take with me.
00:17:15.560 I'm not saying anything about the church.
00:17:18.420 Yeah.
00:17:18.860 Yeah.
00:17:19.280 It's about an individual's heart.
00:17:20.800 Right.
00:17:21.060 Yeah.
00:17:21.300 One thing that people have a hard time wrapping their minds around when it comes to Christianity,
00:17:28.120 when it comes to Jesus in particular, they might say that, well, he was a good teacher.
00:17:32.940 He has some good kind of moral instruction that we should follow, but the miracles, they
00:17:37.780 just didn't happen.
00:17:38.700 Particularly the idea that he was raised from the dead.
00:17:42.180 Is that even necessary for the Christian faith?
00:17:44.740 Obviously, y'all wrote this book.
00:17:46.560 You think it is.
00:17:47.460 So tell us a little bit more about that.
00:17:49.320 What did you learn about the resurrection?
00:17:51.240 How did you kind of bolster your own faith in the risen God?
00:17:55.860 Well, of course, I studied this so much.
00:17:59.220 And as I said, no great new revelations in this book.
00:18:02.660 We're just continuing with the New Testament exploration, examination, commentary.
00:18:08.560 But I do want to address that because the bodily resurrection is essential for the, in my view,
00:18:17.900 for the Christian faith.
00:18:19.240 If the resurrection isn't true, as the Apostle Paul said, Christians are most to be pitied.
00:18:23.820 Christ, God, the triune God created mankind knowing he would fall, we would fall, then 0.56
00:18:32.140 knowing that the only way or the best way they could be redeemed is if his son, second
00:18:37.800 person of the Trinity would become human and suffer all the indignities of human existence
00:18:43.100 and then ultimately be persecuted, beaten, killed, and then resurrected so that those
00:18:50.660 of us who believe in him, who have faith in him, can also be resurrected and live with
00:18:55.180 him in eternal glory.
00:18:57.400 Well, you can't just write that off and say, it didn't happen.
00:19:01.680 The Gnostics and the precursors to the Gnostics, the false teachers that Paul was correcting 0.98
00:19:07.260 in some of these letters, said that material existence was impure and evil.
00:19:15.200 Therefore, Jesus couldn't have been a real human.
00:19:18.240 He had to be God and this was all an illusion.
00:19:20.480 So he didn't really die on the cross.
00:19:22.220 If he didn't die on the cross, if he didn't suffer, we couldn't relate to us.
00:19:25.380 We couldn't live.
00:19:26.280 It's so essential to Christianity, it blows my mind.
00:19:30.620 There's so much syncretism, people combining pagan thoughts, New Age thoughts with Christianity
00:19:35.220 and thinking that'll work.
00:19:36.620 No, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
00:19:39.300 There's no other way of the Father except through.
00:19:40.680 You cannot dilute those words without destroying the entire essence of Christianity. 0.53
00:19:56.280 Some people think that Christianity is kind of a form of Gnosticism.
00:20:02.520 It denies the importance of the material or it denies the importance of the body, that
00:20:06.480 we only focus on the spiritual.
00:20:08.820 But that's not true.
00:20:09.860 Christianity, above any other worldview, cares deeply about the body.
00:20:13.940 We're told, 1 Corinthians 6.19, that the body is a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit.
00:20:18.820 We're promised a resurrection of the bodies.
00:20:20.900 As you said, Jesus is God-made flesh, a bodily resurrection.
00:20:24.860 We're told that we are made bodily in God's image.
00:20:28.000 Wow, God cares so much about the body.
00:20:31.020 You're exactly right.
00:20:31.880 It is central to the Christian faith.
00:20:33.420 That's why the sex sins are so serious, and Paul talks about them.
00:20:37.860 Yes.
00:20:38.400 It's a bummer, but they are.
00:20:40.000 Yeah, because it's different than other sin in that you are sinning against your own body.
00:20:45.240 You are sinning against yourself.
00:20:48.040 And you kind of alluded to this, and I'm interested to see what you think.
00:20:51.440 As kind of a member of my generation, this is, I mean, maybe this is something that
00:20:54.840 we've always heard, but in particular, I think that people our age say, well, it can't just
00:21:01.700 be, and this is, I guess, has been always a criticism, but it can't just be this one
00:21:09.500 God.
00:21:09.820 There can't just be one path.
00:21:11.780 Could a good and loving, and we keep hearing this word, empathetic, compassionate God, could
00:21:16.720 a God who says that he is love, 1 John 4, 8, really send people to hell as you said.
00:21:23.380 There have to be multiple paths.
00:21:25.820 God has to be inclusive.
00:21:27.640 God has to be more tolerant than how the Bible describes him.
00:21:31.120 How do you deal with that kind of contention?
00:21:34.580 I always think of C.S. Lewis's book, Mere Christianity, and how he explained that you cannot 0.96
00:21:40.460 have true love without having the choice.
00:21:43.140 And so that's actually why God even placed the tree of life and death, or I'm sorry,
00:21:49.520 the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
00:21:51.920 Basically, life and death.
00:21:52.940 That was the consequence.
00:21:56.000 Because he always gave us the choice, and unfortunately, we made the wrong choice, beginning
00:22:01.720 with Adam and Eve.
00:22:02.600 But you can't have true love if you're just a robot who's pre-programmed to say, we love
00:22:09.560 God, and yes, we believe.
00:22:10.940 That is the key.
00:22:13.100 And sorry, all I can't have on.
00:22:13.800 No, no, no, no, no.
00:22:15.560 But essentially, I was going to say, to your earlier point, in the book of Revelation, the
00:22:25.600 Bible clearly says we are not to add or take away from any of these words.
00:22:28.900 And I think in our culture today, we are doing that so often, and even just little ways.
00:22:35.160 And you talk a lot about this on your podcast, how we coin phrases like we're going to manifest
00:22:40.480 things into goodness, and ideas just get so muddled in our minds.
00:22:45.940 God created truth because he loves us, because we crave order.
00:22:49.480 I mean, I know you have young kids.
00:22:51.440 I have a baby.
00:22:52.880 Babies even crave discipline.
00:22:54.260 They crave schedules.
00:22:55.120 They crave having a way, a narrow path.
00:22:58.460 The path is narrow.
00:23:00.340 Jesus continually tells us that.
00:23:02.740 And so for people to say that it doesn't make sense for there to only be one path, I
00:23:08.880 would just ask them to even think about themselves in a scientific way.
00:23:13.180 It's like, but we crave that.
00:23:14.500 We want clear-cut answers.
00:23:16.660 We do.
00:23:17.160 And so that's because God has designed us that way, because that is the truth.
00:23:20.440 And it might be hard to grapple with, but it is what it is.
00:23:25.620 And he does love us, and he is a good God.
00:23:27.560 Yeah.
00:23:27.900 And I would add that I saw Phil Donahue moralizing, shaming some interviewee, some Christian. 0.84
00:23:35.880 I can't remember. 0.98
00:23:37.280 Those evil Christians. 1.00
00:23:38.780 And asking, oh, so you're saying that I'm a Jew. 0.98
00:23:41.600 I can't remember if he said I'm a Jew. 1.00
00:23:42.800 You say, oh, Jews are going to hell. 0.99
00:23:44.120 Is that right? 0.99
00:23:45.380 Oh, my gosh.
00:23:46.140 So here's my answer to that.
00:23:48.620 No. 0.99
00:23:49.440 Jews are no worse situated than Gentiles. 0.96
00:23:53.140 Christ makes the offer to everyone. 0.97
00:23:55.460 It is not exclusive.
00:23:56.560 It is inclusive.
00:23:58.060 It is, you're all invited.
00:23:59.600 Now, some ultra five-point Calvinists may disagree with that, but this is not the appropriate
00:24:04.360 place to talk about that.
00:24:05.720 But I believe they don't want to lose, Christ doesn't want to lose any sheep.
00:24:08.920 And I believe the love is for everyone, and the offer of life is for everyone.
00:24:14.080 And you can't, this new age stuff or this modern woke culture, they want to conform the church
00:24:23.340 to the culture and pollute it.
00:24:25.200 Instead of conforming truth to truth, they destroy the language.
00:24:30.000 We have to have intellectual and moral order.
00:24:33.620 And God provided this way.
00:24:36.760 It's an insult to the finished work of Christ to suggest there are other ways.
00:24:40.860 I repeat, why would he have gone through the indignities he did?
00:24:45.500 God becoming a human is more of a drop than a human being becoming an ant.
00:24:51.460 And yet he did it and planned to create us knowing we would sin and he would have to do it in advance.
00:24:57.280 That's unbounded love.
00:24:59.220 And so please don't tell me that.
00:25:02.240 And also, the modern culture wants to destroy, I'm talking about a point you made earlier,
00:25:10.340 wants to destroy God's created order by saying, and this is back to the body thing,
00:25:15.340 Christ says, or God says, I made you man and woman.
00:25:19.440 Man and woman, I created you.
00:25:20.640 I didn't make you to identify who you are.
00:25:22.880 I didn't create a bunch of narcissists you can identify as a bean sprout.
00:25:27.000 I made you man or woman. 0.99
00:25:29.920 And that's all part of the body thing, too.
00:25:33.520 Yeah, that's all part of God's created order.
00:25:35.680 It's gender specific.
00:25:36.940 Sorry, I'm not being uncompassionate.
00:25:39.300 But it's not compassionate to distort truth and to therefore detrimentally impact a person's route to eternal life.
00:25:48.980 It's pleasing man and not God.
00:25:50.840 But what good would it do you, Allie, if I said to make you feel good or to make you like me, to please man instead of God?
00:25:57.820 You can go the transcendental meditation route.
00:26:00.700 You can be a Hindu.
00:26:01.360 You can be a Buddhist.
00:26:02.240 I'm not doing you any favors.
00:26:03.980 It's the height of selfishness if you truly believe Christ is the only way, as he says he is.
00:26:09.560 Yes.
00:26:10.080 It's also, you mentioned C.S. Lewis, the whole Lord, liar, lunatic laundry. 0.99
00:26:14.820 Well, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. 0.97
00:26:17.760 And so if you believe in Jesus, you believe that Jesus said that, and he said that he is the only way, well, then you've only got really a few options.
00:26:28.640 And if, go ahead.
00:26:29.840 No, no, that's it.
00:26:30.760 Trilemma. 0.80
00:26:31.380 The trilemma. 0.96
00:26:32.060 Yes.
00:26:32.620 Ephesians 1, 5.
00:26:33.960 I love the book of Ephesians.
00:26:35.280 As in love, he predestined us for adoption as sons.
00:26:38.120 And I do, I am a Calvinist, and so we don't need to get into the Calvinism Arminian debate.
00:26:43.940 But what we agree on, obviously, and the Bible is very clear on this, is that he desires salvation for his people.
00:26:52.020 And it is in love that he has given us a way to be reconciled sinners, ungodly, undeserving people to himself.
00:27:01.980 And so it is exclusive in some ways.
00:27:04.800 Like, the critics are right.
00:27:05.980 Jesus is the only way. 0.70
00:27:07.500 Right.
00:27:07.680 But it's incredibly inclusive.
00:27:09.800 Yeah, that's what I meant.
00:27:10.700 Oh, yeah.
00:27:11.240 I agree with you in that it doesn't matter what you've done.
00:27:14.100 It doesn't matter your background.
00:27:15.100 It doesn't matter your nationality.
00:27:16.340 It doesn't matter your socioeconomic status, your IQ.
00:27:18.880 Yes.
00:27:19.160 Any of that.
00:27:19.860 I mean, what could be better?
00:27:21.500 What is better news than that?
00:27:22.700 It's good news.
00:27:23.280 Yes.
00:27:23.760 And I have found it's interesting.
00:27:25.360 Maybe it's because of that body connection.
00:27:26.980 Those who start to deny maybe the most controversial part of the gospel, that Jesus was raised from the dead, it ends up being kind of a slippery slope into the other doctrines of Christianity.
00:27:39.320 Because as you said, if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then, I mean, why believe anything else?
00:27:44.540 It doesn't even hear it, right?
00:27:45.500 Yeah.
00:27:45.780 But Allie, I never did understand, in all my skepticism, I don't understand what's so hard to believe.
00:27:51.680 If you believe God can breathe the universe into existence, it's not too tough to resurrect us bodily.
00:27:59.160 And if you don't believe God breathed the universe into existence and the multiverse, whatever it is, then you're kind of illogical because it couldn't have happened on its own.
00:28:08.340 Sorry.
00:28:08.940 It had to have been.
00:28:10.160 There had to have been a divine source.
00:28:12.480 Right.
00:28:12.680 You repeatedly stress in the Resurrected Jesus that Christianity teaches that salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ and not one's good work.
00:28:22.460 So we talked about it being by faith alone in Christ alone, but it's also not, okay, we earn it and Jesus kind of helps us or he's a part of our salvation.
00:28:34.920 That also is hard for some professing Christians to grasp.
00:28:38.860 Why is that important?
00:28:40.080 Well, I would say because, first of all, it totally is so disrespectful to what Jesus did for us.
00:28:48.860 I mean, and it actually kind of focuses us back on ourselves because for us to think that we could do anything to earn our salvation is, I mean, it's such a joke and it puts it back on us.
00:29:00.860 It stresses that the power is on our hands.
00:29:02.940 And I always think, I say this to myself repeatedly throughout the day, actually, that my weakness is my strength.
00:29:09.860 And Jesus tells us, you know, I am the vine.
00:29:13.060 You are the branches if you remain in me.
00:29:15.740 But as part from me, you can do no thing.
00:29:18.260 And he means you can do no good thing outside of me.
00:29:21.160 That includes our salvation, of course.
00:29:23.700 We have to take him at his word and we have to understand that.
00:29:26.540 I mean, I think it's hard for people to believe because it is such good news.
00:29:30.200 It's like, what?
00:29:31.640 Yeah, it's like too good to be true.
00:29:33.660 But that being said, we are not to just live our lives completely carelessly and, you know, doing things that he tells us clearly not to do because, oh, we're covered by grace.
00:29:44.880 And I know that's something that's kind of swirling around the Christian community right now because of different, you know, musical artists who have been caught on camera doing things they shouldn't be doing.
00:29:53.860 And so I do think that we do have to remember the gravity of what he did for us because unless we have that revelation, that realization, we won't be sober minded enough to say, okay, my life needs to bear the fruit that comes only from the true reality of understanding.
00:30:14.620 Like, okay, his sacrifice was so much and I'm so undeserving and that's what produces the good fruit.
00:30:19.880 But the good fruit is not what gets us into heaven.
00:30:22.800 Yeah.
00:30:22.980 You know, and Paul addresses this.
00:30:25.460 I think it offends the human sensibility, the sense of justice that works don't matter.
00:30:31.660 Well, we don't say works don't matter.
00:30:33.260 Yeah.
00:30:33.520 In fact, that's why we would go to hell is because works do matter.
00:30:37.100 Right.
00:30:37.460 Our own works.
00:30:38.340 That's a good point, yeah.
00:30:39.260 But there's also, Paul addressed, so if it's all faith alone, it's all through grace, am I free to sin?
00:30:46.380 And he addresses that in Romans.
00:30:47.600 Yes.
00:30:47.740 And of course he emphatically says, no, of course you're not.
00:30:50.980 We have a higher duty as Christians.
00:30:52.900 It's not out of obeying some rituals or some rules or even the Ten Commandments, although they're valid, of course.
00:31:00.320 It is a higher calling.
00:31:02.680 It's an obedience and love for God, Christ, that makes us even live to a higher standard.
00:31:09.300 And I used to read the Sermon on the Mount and go, are you kidding me?
00:31:12.840 Jesus, why would you?
00:31:14.080 There's no, I don't mean Jesus cussing, I mean talking to Jesus.
00:31:17.040 Yes.
00:31:17.600 How can you expect us to live to that standard?
00:31:20.440 Yeah.
00:31:20.700 And then I later learned, he doesn't, he knows we can't, but it's to show us that standard, to show us our very need for him, that we're incapable of living to that standard.
00:31:30.840 Now there's the other aspect, salvation is by faith alone, and we are declared righteous, called justification.
00:31:37.640 It's a legal declaration.
00:31:39.200 That doesn't mean we're sin free from the point of conversion, but there's another thing that's important.
00:31:44.340 And the sanctification process begins, the Holy Spirit indwells us, and we begin through the Holy Spirit and the spiritual disciplines becoming closer to the Holy Spirit, to be able to, or to be empowered to overcome sin on a daily basis.
00:31:58.900 And so we do become more sanctified, more holy.
00:32:02.540 I mean, not in my case, but I mean, you guys probably do.
00:32:05.600 And so, but we never become sin free until we're glorified after we die.
00:32:11.380 Yes.
00:32:12.100 But I mean, I think works do matter.
00:32:13.880 There's rewards too.
00:32:15.380 Yes.
00:32:15.920 And so they're not written off.
00:32:28.720 Ephesians 2, 8 through 10 is so clear on this.
00:32:31.420 And whenever I read this passage, I'm always amazed at how much God through Paul emphasizes,
00:32:36.920 you were saved by grace through faith, not of your own doing, not a result of works.
00:32:45.060 He says it over and over again, so that no one may boast.
00:32:48.460 But then in verse 10, he says, you were saved for good works, which God prepared beforehand that you may walk in them.
00:32:56.720 So right there, he says, you're not saved by good works, but you are saved for good works.
00:33:02.160 And people tend to confuse those things.
00:33:04.700 And it's again, and that's great that you added that, because people, again, the smart, the people that think that Christians are intellectually deficient and don't think through things.
00:33:17.460 Oh, they just have no idea.
00:33:19.560 We wrestle with all these things.
00:33:20.860 And Paul addressed them explicitly.
00:33:23.580 They would have no idea, either that or they're spiritually blind.
00:33:26.120 And if they read it, couldn't see it, couldn't comprehend it.
00:33:28.360 Right.
00:33:28.880 Right.
00:33:29.240 Right.
00:33:29.420 Is there anything in this writing process of this book that you learned for the first time about Jesus or about the Bible in general?
00:33:39.300 Either of you?
00:33:40.380 No, but my answer to when people have asked similar questions is what I really was taken with.
00:33:48.400 And, you know, the Bible, we believers believe that the Bible is the living word of God.
00:33:52.840 It speaks to us directly.
00:33:54.240 Even though the word is unchanging, it hits you in different circumstances.
00:33:58.060 It's different people.
00:33:58.860 It hits me in a different time in a different way, even though the words don't change.
00:34:03.100 And one thing that got me, and this wasn't an epiphany or revelation, I'm sure I've thought it before, was how human and personal Paul is and what he, the struggles he went through.
00:34:15.980 The Bible authors, not just Paul, describe their warts and all.
00:34:20.140 They don't pretend to be perfect, which makes it more believable.
00:34:23.200 It also makes it more relatable, according to terms, that we can relate to Paul because he went through all this stuff and he got mad.
00:34:31.760 He got upset with Barnabas.
00:34:33.260 He wasn't perfect and he made mistakes because he planted these churches.
00:34:38.160 Why didn't they automatically prosper?
00:34:39.960 As soon as he planted them, some of them backslid.
00:34:42.200 And so that's why he had to write these letters, which ultimately would be for our benefit.
00:34:47.160 All through the ages, 2,000 years later, we're reading them.
00:34:50.740 So I don't even remember the question, but that was a pretty good answer.
00:34:54.960 Yeah, it was a great answer.
00:34:56.320 Is there anything you said?
00:34:57.860 The question was if there's anything new that you learned, which just seems like, okay, you knew those things, but they just kind of re-taught you.
00:35:05.200 Yeah, emphasize it, hit home more.
00:35:07.920 Yes.
00:35:08.320 What about you?
00:35:10.320 Basically, essentially the same, but I really, in studying Paul's life and all these different struggles he's going through, I always saw him as such a serious, just kind of brash on most persons.
00:35:23.440 It's just so like, okay, he's really trying to admonish everyone and correct them.
00:35:32.340 But when we studied it so closely, you see the tenderness of him, and that is what I saw.
00:35:41.200 And I know that I feel kind of in my spirit that that's essentially what Jesus also saw in him.
00:35:49.560 I mean, obviously he loved him for all of his different dimensions of his character.
00:35:53.840 But in the very last chapter of the book, because we rewrite it chronologically, we end with 2 Timothy.
00:36:00.340 And it really, it brings me to tears every time I read it, because we know that this is probably the last letter he wrote in his lifetime.
00:36:08.700 He knew he was about to be put to death.
00:36:10.360 And we see that he's kind of looking back at his life, and he is just so grateful to God.
00:36:18.040 I mean, that's what he ends on is such a high note.
00:36:20.440 He says, you know, I have no regrets.
00:36:21.840 I have run the race.
00:36:23.200 And then he's admonishing Timothy to do the same.
00:36:26.000 And it's a beautiful picture of what Christ is telling all of us, that the same Holy Spirit who lived in Paul, this incredible apostle, is the one who lives in us.
00:36:34.860 And we are called to think of ourselves as citizens of heaven, who he can use and will use the more of ourselves we give to him.
00:36:42.020 So it really is just so touching and inspiring in that way.
00:36:46.240 And that's what I saw differently looking at the scriptures so in depth through this process.
00:36:50.980 It's amazing how differently you see it when you believe it to be true first.
00:36:56.360 And I love what you said.
00:36:57.780 You mentioned that the fact that these writers show themselves, warts and all, and their sins makes it more believable.
00:37:07.040 And the writers also show the difficult to comprehend things about God throughout scripture, which makes it more believable.
00:37:14.020 Like, if this were a book that was just supposed to be PR for Christianity, no, you can, you only believe all this stuff because if it's true.
00:37:22.960 That's right.
00:37:23.740 And, you know, who would have told anyone that Peter denied God three times, Jesus three times?
00:37:30.040 It's embarrassing.
00:37:30.960 But Peter.
00:37:31.180 It's embarrassing.
00:37:31.800 It's embarrassing.
00:37:32.740 It's shameful.
00:37:33.640 But I think it's kind of funny.
00:37:34.880 We talk about God having a sense of humor.
00:37:36.660 Otherwise, we wouldn't have it.
00:37:38.120 We get it from him.
00:37:39.220 Jesus made him profess his love for him three times afterwards.
00:37:42.820 I mean, I think that's kind of cool the way.
00:37:45.400 But I also think in addition to showing the humanity and the imperfections, this is what got me when I first was exposed to this stuff.
00:37:54.360 The Bible, even though it was written by 40 different authors over 1,500 years in an Old Testament and a New Testament, it is so integrated.
00:38:03.360 It's one connective story about God's creation and love and redemption for mankind that could not.
00:38:11.580 If you read it, it is so bizarre how the same truths are sprinkled throughout the Bible in a way that could only have happened through a divine conspiracy, a divine author.
00:38:25.140 Because these guys, we're talking over 1,500 years.
00:38:27.840 They couldn't have gotten together unless they had a time machine.
00:38:30.460 Yes.
00:38:30.720 And yet, all these truths.
00:38:32.400 Now, the smart elects will say, oh, no, there's so many inconsistencies.
00:38:36.120 They can all be explained, as you and I both know, those alleged inconsistencies.
00:38:40.720 But look at the thematic stuff, the doctrine, the tenderness of God or the righteous anger of God.
00:38:49.460 All these things are true.
00:38:50.780 And by the way, one other thing I've got to interject.
00:38:52.460 People want to say that God of the Old Testament, mean, Jesus, wonderfully nice, never got mad, Paul, even meaner.
00:39:01.140 Yeah.
00:39:01.480 It's so absurd because Christ had less tolerance for sin than anyone, including the God of the Old Testament.
00:39:08.860 Yes.
00:39:09.300 And the money changers, not just the money changers, he affirmed everything of the Old Testament.
00:39:14.860 Right.
00:39:15.100 And went even more deeply than what we understood.
00:39:18.860 There are people who, especially our age, are like, oh, Jesus didn't care about sin.
00:39:22.540 He never talked about X, Y, Z.
00:39:24.560 Like, well, Jesus actually took the previous definition of sin to another level by saying,
00:39:29.720 it's not enough that you don't commit adultery.
00:39:31.520 If you even look at a woman lustfully, it's not enough that you don't murder.
00:39:34.980 If you even hate someone. 0.66
00:39:36.800 And all of us are like, okay, well, then I'm just as bad as a murderer.
00:39:39.820 But I've thought a lot about this.
00:39:42.160 Because we know in our hearts, especially if you're saved, you know you have these evil
00:39:47.280 thoughts.
00:39:47.660 I still have them, and I go, I wish I didn't have that thought.
00:39:50.920 I do think we get points for not acting on them.
00:39:53.560 So I don't think what Christ said was, you're just as evil as the person who acts on them.
00:39:59.140 But for salvation purposes, you are.
00:40:01.180 In other words, you're not perfect, and you can't join God in eternity without being perfect.
00:40:06.720 And the only way we can be perfect is by being declared perfect judicially by our faith in
00:40:12.580 Christ.
00:40:13.300 But he's not saying, and I think that's why people get offended by this.
00:40:18.000 Well, I thought about this.
00:40:19.560 I had a lustful thought, but I didn't go rape somebody. 0.91
00:40:22.020 Well, no, it matters. 0.94
00:40:23.920 It all matters.
00:40:24.540 There's gradations.
00:40:26.400 Of course, Hitler's worse. 0.94
00:40:28.060 But nobody can make it because the standard is perfection.
00:40:31.600 Exactly, exactly.
00:40:32.920 And he's saying, just because you haven't acted on it doesn't mean that you don't need me.
00:40:36.500 That's right.
00:40:48.660 What you want, if there's one thing, and I know that it's probably, I love that picture.
00:40:53.360 I know that it's probably difficult to narrow down.
00:40:55.500 But if there's one thing that you want people to take away after finishing this book, what
00:40:59.940 would that be?
00:41:00.520 And I would love to hear from both of you on that.
00:41:02.440 I don't want her to talk here.
00:41:03.760 Okay, okay. 0.98
00:41:04.460 I want to dominate her. 0.96
00:41:06.660 I'll answer first. 0.94
00:41:07.660 Okay, so, because I'm the dad.
00:41:09.400 Dad's frog.
00:41:10.960 It's like all the other books.
00:41:12.520 Sorry for not having a profound answer.
00:41:14.180 But it is, our goal is to bring people closer to God by making them, or inspiring them to
00:41:23.460 read the Bible itself.
00:41:24.340 This is not the Bible.
00:41:25.240 It's about the Bible.
00:41:26.040 It's a book about the Bible.
00:41:27.000 I love books about the Bible.
00:41:28.240 They help me immeasurably.
00:41:29.360 But the Bible is the Word of God.
00:41:32.040 And I submit, I've always submitted since I became a fanatic believer in it, that it
00:41:37.240 is the Word of God, and it has the ability to convert you.
00:41:40.500 It has the ability to inspire you.
00:41:42.220 It is directly from God.
00:41:44.660 And so we want them to do that.
00:41:47.300 But what we've added in this book from my other Christian books was prayer.
00:41:51.620 And she is such a prayer warrior, and so spirit-filled, and she has such a facility for prayer.
00:41:58.280 I had one time, I've got to say this, I had a person call me, you probably know him, I
00:42:02.900 won't mention his name, a conservative commentator, call me, knew I was a Christian, of course,
00:42:07.440 and I'd been on his podcast or whatever, and he said he was having really trouble with
00:42:11.120 his child.
00:42:12.440 They couldn't heal her.
00:42:15.220 And not life-threatening trouble, but would you say a prayer for her with me?
00:42:20.480 And I said, you know, I have always been awkward doing public prayers, but I'll do it for you,
00:42:26.480 but would you mind if I call my daughter and get her on the phone, add her, because I'm
00:42:30.320 a tech wizard, and I added her on the iPhone. 0.99
00:42:32.400 Wow.
00:42:32.900 And he said, yeah, yeah.
00:42:34.680 And, a tech wizard.
00:42:36.400 And so, I joined her, and I just told her in two seconds what it was, she just comes up
00:42:42.980 with this profound prayer.
00:42:44.340 It blew the guy away, I guarantee you.
00:42:46.100 Wow.
00:42:47.060 That's a seed.
00:42:48.180 Yeah.
00:42:48.540 That's a seed planted.
00:42:49.440 There you go.
00:42:50.560 Right, right.
00:42:51.380 And so, I just, she did, she primarily authored these prayers throughout, I helped a little
00:42:57.320 bit, not much, and she, and she obviously contributed to the rest of it, back and forth,
00:43:02.700 back and forth.
00:43:03.360 So, it was a true collaboration, but I think this book is qualitatively better in a significant
00:43:09.660 way because of her prayers.
00:43:11.440 Yes.
00:43:11.800 It helps readers interact with the text and with the Bible.
00:43:14.420 Yeah.
00:43:14.660 Now, you don't have time because I talk, I dominate the filibuster. 0.84
00:43:17.540 Go ahead.
00:43:18.040 No, you can't talk.
00:43:18.980 Well, thanks, Dad.
00:43:20.340 Well, I just really pray that people, I kind of said this before, but that people through
00:43:25.740 reading Paul's letters understand that we really are citizens of heaven when we have
00:43:29.980 Jesus in our hearts and that, you know, when you read through this book, we offer opportunities
00:43:38.160 for you to pause and interact with the text of the Bible and to actually recognize that,
00:43:45.180 okay, I'm not reading this alone.
00:43:47.020 God is here with me.
00:43:47.920 He's brought me to this book.
00:43:49.640 He's brought me to the Bible.
00:43:50.820 And I can actually pause and I can ask him questions if something doesn't make sense to
00:43:54.340 me or I can ask him to show me where in my life this might be applying right now or where
00:43:59.120 in somebody who I know's life this might be applying.
00:44:01.940 So I really pray that people, the flames of their faith get ignited and that they start
00:44:07.740 to see themselves as having the ability and the capability to make an impact on the world
00:44:12.720 for Christ and not just kind of, you know, going through the motions of it, but to really
00:44:18.320 take that on and believe in themselves because God believes in us so much more than we can
00:44:23.180 imagine.
00:44:23.520 But isn't it cool that my daughter has inspired me to, it's more to the heart, as you talked
00:44:30.640 about earlier.
00:44:31.440 Thanks, Dad.
00:44:32.140 But, you know, so I'm too much on the study, the knowledge side.
00:44:38.100 I don't want to say the intellectual side because it looks like I'm calling my, I'm not
00:44:40.800 calling myself an intellectual, but, you know, the head knowledge thing.
00:44:44.180 And I err on that side and I love it.
00:44:46.720 I've always known I need a better balance, the heart thing.
00:44:49.720 Yeah.
00:44:49.920 And so she inspires me to go deeper there.
00:44:52.820 Last question.
00:44:54.300 This book is dedicated to your brother, your uncle, Rush.
00:44:58.900 What has it been like?
00:45:00.060 I know that's a big question and I don't want, you know, to take too much more of the
00:45:04.440 time, but what has it been like since he's passed and how has that been kind of grappling
00:45:09.740 with his legacy?
00:45:10.520 See, and I'm sure wondering at times, wow, what would he be saying about all this craziness
00:45:14.440 right now?
00:45:15.600 I find myself thinking that too.
00:45:17.900 Well, people ask me that on Twitter all the time and I'm blown away by the love that persists
00:45:23.580 for him.
00:45:24.380 He wasn't just a voice that validated what they think, which I always thought that was
00:45:29.040 the extent of it.
00:45:29.820 And they loved how talented he was.
00:45:32.040 What I learned after he died was how much they loved him and considered him a family
00:45:36.940 member.
00:45:37.380 He was in their home three hours a day, religiously to coin a term.
00:45:41.780 And they, I bet you, you'll think I'm exaggerating.
00:45:45.640 I bet you I've received 10,000 texts, DMs, whatever, how much they love him.
00:45:49.820 He's a family member.
00:45:50.960 And it's kind of cool for me because I feel like I'm an extended family member of theirs.
00:45:54.100 It's like, yeah, and they probably feel that way too.
00:45:56.320 Yeah.
00:45:56.800 And, and he, he spawned so many careers, yours, yours, for example, you, none of us would be
00:46:02.760 able to do this.
00:46:03.580 Yeah.
00:46:03.840 I can't believe how many doors he opened for me as an entertainment lawyer.
00:46:07.020 I would never have had those opportunities, but yeah, after he died, big hole in my heart
00:46:12.600 and, and you know, every day we text 25 times a day, little insignificant things.
00:46:17.160 I can't, every, every day I go, I want to tell him something.
00:46:20.240 Then microsecond later, I realized, oh, he's gone.
00:46:22.760 You can't do that.
00:46:23.020 So it's tough.
00:46:24.840 But what he would say today, and I said this at the MRC banquet and attribute to him was
00:46:29.000 he would say, see, I told you so.
00:46:31.160 It was the title of his first book.
00:46:32.820 And, and he would, he wouldn't be surprised by any of this.
00:46:35.000 He would be making fun of the insanity, the extremism of the left, which has finally shown
00:46:39.540 its true colors.
00:46:40.480 I wish I had two hours to do a monologue and tell you what I think about the left right
00:46:43.440 now.
00:46:43.660 Yeah.
00:46:43.980 But, but, um, he would be lampooning them, but he would also say, it's not time to panic.
00:46:49.940 Even though he said, I'll always warn you when it's time, because when you, when you
00:46:54.360 say panic, you're panicking, you've actually surrendered to the left and we will never surrender.
00:46:59.500 We will never surrender and give up on this greatest country in the history of the world.
00:47:02.860 We're going to take it back.
00:47:03.900 And don't believe these naysayers who say we're going to get shellacked in November.
00:47:07.280 That's just more propaganda, disinformation, Orwellian.
00:47:10.720 We're going to win it back.
00:47:12.060 But we got to be true to our beliefs or we won't.
00:47:15.140 Yeah.
00:47:15.260 Yes.
00:47:15.860 Yes.
00:47:16.340 Do you have anything to add to that?
00:47:17.700 Just to close this out?
00:47:18.680 Yeah.
00:47:19.100 I just think that, you know, he did everything that he was meant to do and, um, um, not to
00:47:25.300 get emotional, but you know, well done.
00:47:28.000 Better you than me.
00:47:29.080 I would be embarrassed.
00:47:30.200 I'm a guy.
00:47:30.600 I can't cry in public.
00:47:31.820 Yeah.
00:47:32.280 You know, I was just, I was, uh, talking to a friend the other day and all of us have
00:47:36.560 that innate desire for affirmation and just to feel that we are seen and feel that we are
00:47:42.880 appreciated.
00:47:43.500 And of course in Rush's life, he was, he got a lot of affirmation and a lot of appreciation,
00:47:48.080 but the only affirmation that really matters is the one that punctuates the Christian's life.
00:47:54.360 And we get that fulfillment finally and eternally of what we have all been innately longing for
00:48:01.020 our whole life.
00:48:01.840 And that is to hear from the only one who counts well done, good and faithful servant.
00:48:06.820 You know, that's why I said earlier, you should get your own show.
00:48:08.860 You're so good at this.
00:48:10.040 Gosh, I'll try.
00:48:11.140 I'll try.
00:48:11.760 But I, but I want to say this cause I should have wrapped this in a, in a Christian context.
00:48:15.760 I, and I've said this before, but there's so many things that he, I was so moved by how
00:48:20.840 much closer he got to Christ during his final year, you know, praise God.
00:48:25.200 And yeah, God uses evil for good and Rush's cancer was a bad evil as it is for everyone.
00:48:32.220 And it drew Rush closer to God.
00:48:35.000 And I think that inspired his audience too.
00:48:36.760 They, they always prayed for him.
00:48:38.560 And anyway, that's a, that's a great ending.
00:48:41.380 It is a great ending that God does continually use evil for good in ways that we can see and
00:48:47.440 in ways that we can't.
00:48:49.420 So by the way, do you have another hour?
00:48:50.840 We can talk about the left.
00:48:52.060 I'd like to go on the ramp.
00:48:52.960 Sure.
00:48:53.400 Come back anytime.
00:48:55.020 No, I'll just let you go.
00:48:56.580 I would love it.
00:48:57.400 But thank y'all so much for taking the time to come on.
00:48:59.700 Everyone pick up the resurrected Jesus.
00:49:02.140 I'm guessing you can get it wherever books are sold.
00:49:05.080 Thank you guys so much for coming on.
00:49:06.460 I want to compliment you.
00:49:08.240 We both love your podcast.
00:49:09.820 Well, thank you.
00:49:10.440 You can do that in a commercial, even though we have no clout, but I just want people to
00:49:13.700 know that all the podcasts, you are so good.
00:49:16.360 Thank you.
00:49:16.840 Thank you.
00:49:17.320 I appreciate that.
00:49:20.740 Thank you.