Ep 982 ｜ The Biblical Meaning of the Eclipse
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Summary
Trump declares his support for IVF as well as abortion exceptions, as the Pope puts out an amazing statement about surrogacy and transgender ideology. But before we get into any of that, I want to share with you some biblical truths that I was reminded of as I watched the Total Solar Eclipse yesterday. And so we ve got all of that and much more on today s episode of Relatable.
Transcript
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Trump declares his support for IVF as well as abortion exceptions as the Pope puts out
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an amazing statement about surrogacy and transgender ideology.
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But before we get into any of that, I want to share with you some biblical truths that
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I was reminded of as I watched the total solar eclipse yesterday.
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And so we've got all of that and much more on today's episode of Relatable.
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It's brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
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Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far.
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If you haven't listened to yesterday's episode, you've got to do it.
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I got so many messages from you guys saying that you were so encouraged.
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Now, I know my dearly beloved Catholic friends, there was a segment in there towards the end
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that you guys do not agree with and many of you did not appreciate.
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But he certainly said it in gentleness and in love.
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And I understand that it may not have been persuasive to all of you Catholic listeners out
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there, but I do appreciate those who did listen and then offered up your respectful disagreement
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Most of the episode was talking about the importance of battling our doubts.
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I love when he said, doubt your doubts rather than doubting God and his word.
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Gosh, that was so good and talked a lot about suffering.
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I personally felt very ministered to in the entire conversation.
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And I'm going to give you a lot of encouragement today, or at least what I hope to be encouraging
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to you, and it comes on the heels of the eclipse that happened yesterday.
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I did not think it was going to be as meaningful as it was to me.
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I didn't think it was going to inspire as much worship and awe as it ended up inspiring.
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I honestly was not paying attention at all to the eclipse or what it was or why it was important
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before, I don't know, maybe Friday is when I probably started looking into it.
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And it was only over the weekend that I realized that people were traveling from all over the
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country and even all over the world to visit places that were in the path of totality so
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And I was a little confused about it because I was like, didn't we see an eclipse in 2017
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We've got that famous picture of Trump looking straight up at the sun.
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You're supposed to get the glasses until it's actually in totality.
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So when the moon is directly over the sun, then you can remove your glasses and you can
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But when it's partial and you still see the sun shining around the moon, you're not supposed
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to look directly up at it because, of course, it can hurt your eyes.
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If you're like me and you just didn't really understand what is the importance of this,
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It's a publication of the McDonald Observatory.
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And listen for some of the language that is being used to present what happened.
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Talking about this eclipse, why it's special, these awe-inspiring spectacles are a result
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The sun and moon appear almost exactly the same size in Earth's sky.
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The sun is actually about 400 times wider than the moon, but it's also about 400 times farther.
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So when the new moon passes directly between Earth and the sun in alignment known as syzygy,
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wow, new word for me, it can cover the sun's disk, blocking it from view.
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Total solar eclipses occur every one to three years.
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And so, OK, I was correct in my memory of that somewhere around the globe, but are often
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only visible from Earth's poles or from the middle of the ocean.
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In addition, total eclipses are visible only along narrow paths.
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According to Belgian astronomer Jean Moose, who specializes in calculating such things,
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any given place on Earth will see a total solar eclipse on average once every 375 years.
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The next total eclipse visible from anywhere in the United States will take place on March 30th,
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You'll be able to see it in Canada, but also Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota.
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And then the next eclipse across the entire United States.
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So like from California to Florida will happen on August 12th, 2045.
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And you know what's so funny is that I was thinking about these dates as I was looking
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at this yesterday and I was like, oh, wow, I'll be in my 40s.
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But it's also awesome that these things can be predicted, which I'll get to more of that
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So it's kind of difficult to take a picture of it, obviously.
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But you can see the I can't actually really see it right now on my screen in front of me.
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And actually, I guess my phone kind of adjusted for the adjusted for the light because it looks
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like the middle of the day in this picture that you're looking at on YouTube.
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And so we have this high definition resolution photo of an eclipse that Andrew McCarthy posted,
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And this is an HDR high def resolution composite image of yesterday's eclipse.
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So this photo that you're looking at used five cameras to capture thousands of photos
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Of course, it's much more beautiful than the picture that I took.
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And it was very, because I was in the path of totality, it was very eerie feeling during
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the partial eclipse because it wasn't just that it looked cloudy.
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It almost felt like there was, I don't know, there was a sense of like impending doom there
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Not that I actually believed that, OK, it's going to be the end of the world and the
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rapture is going to happen, mostly because I don't believe in a rapture.
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And then when the total eclipse happened, it was beautiful.
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I mean, it was sorry, Taylor Swift, but it was like a lavender haze.
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It was very it was it was dusty and purpley and unlike a normal evening, unlike a normal
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sunset, it was somewhere in between all all of it.
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And so I just didn't realize how I don't know how profound of an experience it would be.
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Um, and I didn't realize really how like special that it would be.
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It was much more special and profound and meaningful than I anticipated.
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It really spurred worship in me that I just didn't expect.
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And then as I sat there beholding this phenomenon, I just felt the weight of the sovereignty and
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So I wrote this monologue and that I'm about to tell you.
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And if it sounds like something that was written rather than just like natural words that I would
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And writing for me is like a form of, of worship.
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So I want to read you this monologue that I wrote about this and all the thoughts that
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so unexpectedly came to my mind as I was beholding this total eclipse yesterday that I hope is
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The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
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That's Psalm 19.1, the verse that kept coming to mind yesterday.
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Um, in 2017, Time Magazine published an article mapping out the solar eclipses for the next 50
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Of course, they predicted correctly that a solar eclipse could be seen across the U.S.
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And this prediction was actually published many years ago, decades before I was born.
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There's a picture of a 1973 textbook floating around social media that includes a page which
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describes the total solar eclipse of 2024, the path of totality.
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So experts know every exact path of totality for decades and decades to come.
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These paths are predictable because the universe is ordered.
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The Earth, moon, and stars are not cosmic accidents.
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We are not the consequence of the nonsensical notion that something arrived from nothing.
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We are not a compilation of stardust or a random conglomeration of cells.
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We have not been naturally or incidentally selected.
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Our presence here is neither arbitrary nor accidental.
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You and I and all of the plants and planets, seas and stars, animals and astronomy, land and lights,
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were carefully crafted and providentially placed by a creator who is not limited by time or space,
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And if we break down the word transcendent, I love etymology.
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The Latin verb scandere, and I'm sorry if I'm not pronouncing that correctly, means to climb.
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So the prefix trans, while it has an unfortunate meaning in everyday language today,
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So God being transcendent means that he exists beyond where our minds or bodies can traverse.
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He is beyond the material or the comprehensible because he is the source of all that is material
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As an artisan is outside of and beyond his craft, so the creator is outside of his creation.
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And just as what's crafted can tell us a good deal about who crafted it,
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so can God's creation tell us a good deal about him, about who he is.
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God has revealed himself to us both through his word and through his world.
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We see from the beginning that God is a God of order.
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In the creation account in Genesis, we see that God has particular processes by which he does his work.
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He could have thought the world into existence.
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He could have put it together all at once, but he didn't.
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He created Adam first from the dust, then Eve from Adam's rib.
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He delegated the task of naming the animals to Adam.
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He left populating the earth up to the multiplying force of Adam and Eve.
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The creation of the world in the first chapters of Genesis tell us so much about the authority,
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And we continue to see these characteristics displayed throughout Scripture.
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He had a process for Noah to follow in building the ark.
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He had a process by which he freed his people from Egyptian slavery and through the desert and
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He had a process by which he led his people to claim victory over their enemies through
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He ordained the process of Jesus's conception, life, death, burial, resurrection.
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He commands the process of prayer for believers to have communion with him and for him to work
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He demands the process of evangelism to advance his kingdom.
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There is a process that will precede his return.
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God's eternal plan of redemption from the garden to the marriage supper is a carefully crafted
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process with an order in both the spiritual and the physical, in both the eternal and
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That's why we who are made in his image inherently need order.
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We need laws, rules, parameters, boundaries, borders, countries, cultures, languages, time,
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routine, seasons, lunar patterns, solar eclipses, maps, milestones, marriage, families.
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It's why we as Christians, wherever we go, become agents of order.
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We bring peace to anarchy, organization, to chaos, civilization to tribalism, a beauty to
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rubble, light to darkness, salt to decay, and hope to those who are despairing.
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And that is what Jesus' followers, filled with his spirit, have always done and must
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No matter our circumstance, no matter the political peril our country faces, no matter
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what the future holds, no matter what life stage we're in or the tragedies that we face
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today, that is our calling to do the next thing well and for God's glory.
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Because in the midst of this great, big, predictable, yet wild universe, you and I matter.
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What we say, what we pray, how we act all matters.
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God uses these things as the preordained means to accomplish his will.
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That eternal plan of redemption, which, like the paths of the planets, was set in motion
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in the beginning and has been moving forward flawlessly without a hitch and will continue
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Job 42.2 says, no purpose of God's can be thwarted.
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And so as we were all looking up at the sky yesterday and wonder, and I heard cheers in
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the distance, as we all for a few moments stopped what we were doing to behold the beauty of
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something so big, so far outside of our control and even really our understanding, I caught a
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glimpse of what it will be like when Jesus comes back, riding in on the clouds and fury
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and triumph to defeat evil once and for all and to rescue his purchased people.
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It says, behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who
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And all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him, even so, amen.
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I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the
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So I thought of all of this yesterday and what was, like I said, just a much more awe-inspiring
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and much deeper experience than I'd anticipated.
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And I shared on Instagram some of it, as well as just the comfort I felt in considering not
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just what is to come and what lies beyond us, but also what the saints in heaven, including
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those I loved in this life, are taking in right now.
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And I want to share this with you as well, as I know many of you have also lost people that
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you love, and if you're like me, that sadness just hits you out of nowhere.
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And that's what happened to me yesterday, is I thought about my grandmother, whom I was
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And I thought about, like, if she were still alive, what it would have been like.
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I'd have gone and picked her up, as well as her best friend named Clovey.
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And I would have driven them to my parents' house, where we would have all watched together
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as the premature dusk painted the afternoon purple.
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My girls would have run to her, given her a big hug, and I would have taken their picture
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But this was yet another moment in the past five years, of many moments in the past five
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It's not some, like, rare tragedy that I've been through.
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But one of them is that it's not supposed to be this way.
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It's the reminder that it was never supposed to be this way.
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We were meant to live forever, walking with God in the garden in the cool of the day.
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But thanks to Jesus, the bad news of death is contrasted with the good news of the gospel,
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which contains this amazing message that through Christ, his death, his resurrection,
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we too, by grace through faith, are freed from sin and its consequence, death.
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And one day, there will be a new heaven and a new earth where there will be no more death,
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But everything will be finally, once and for all, made right.
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And I posted some of that, like I said, on Instagram.
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And then many of you reached out to me who have also lost loved ones.
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And many of you started sharing their names with me as you were thinking these thoughts,
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too, about how God is once and for all going to be rid of all of this injustice and sadness
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And we were all together encouraged by this reminder that our Christian friends and family
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who have gone before us to the other side of eternity are beholding far greater wonders
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than what we get to see here when we look at a solar eclipse.
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So let me keep going on that for a second so that those of you who didn't read that on
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Your believing parents, grandparents, husband or wife, brothers or sisters, your children,
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your miscarried babies, they are right now amongst a great cloud of witnesses testifying
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Your stillborn baby, your Christ-following mom who died too soon of cancer, your Christ-following
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husband who passed in the prime of his life, they are among the apostles, the martyrs, the
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evangelists, the apologists, the missionaries, the everyday unseen and unsung heroes of the
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faith singing praises to the creator of the universe.
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We miss them, but they are missing out on nothing here.
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For the glory that they now behold eclipses any earthly wonders.
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1 Corinthians 13.12 was another verse I was considering yesterday.
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For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.
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Then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
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The eclipse that we saw yesterday was just a foretaste of the glory that is to come.
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So no matter what we lose here, whether it's a person, whether it's a job opportunity, whether
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it's an election, no matter what happens with the state of our culture wars, no matter what
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happens at all, that is the hope that we get to hang on to.
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And sometimes things happen in this natural material world that just remind us of the bigger
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Praise God for the gift of an eclipse that reminds us of his faithfulness and power.
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I had to give us some perspective and some encouragement before we get into this conversation
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about Donald Trump and what he said about abortion.
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And I know that there will be people who are upset that I am criticizing Donald Trump.
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So let me just say again, not that I feel like I have to caveat or apologize every time
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I criticize Donald Trump, but some people seem to forget this, that I voted for them.
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I not only voted for the man twice, but I also did my darndest with any capacity or capability
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that I have to convince the people in my audience and Christian women to vote for Donald Trump.
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Not because, certainly not because I think he's perfect, as you will hear me say in just
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a few minutes, but because I think that he was the better alternative, obviously, to Joe
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When it comes to the laws that he will sign when they come across his desk, when it comes
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to his picks for judges and justices, even if he says things that I do not like, which
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he does quite often, whether it's just silly, selfish, narcissistic, prideful stuff on Truth
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Social, or whether it's things that I actually morally fundamentally disagree with, like his
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statements on IVF and abortion that he put out yesterday, he is still the better alternative,
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not just when it comes to abortion policy, not just when it comes to the different laws that
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will come across his desk in regards to, say, gender and all those other things that we
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really care about, the Second Amendment, but also foreign policy, also the economy in every
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way, by every measure, he is better than Joe Biden.
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And so when it comes to who I'm deciding to vote for, that can be how I think of it.
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Now, some people don't think of it like that at all.
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Like some of you are just not willing to vote for the man because you just don't think he's
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But if I'm looking at the two candidates and knowing that Joe Biden is 100 percent pro-abortion
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taxpayer funded without apology through nine months and Donald Trump, who says some things
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that I really disagree with, then to me, the choice is obvious.
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But that doesn't mean that I will not argue with Trump.
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That doesn't mean that I'm not going to disagree with him.
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And some of you get like really upset about that when I critique something that Trump
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A lot of like diehard Trump fans have been like this for a really long time.
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And that says I would say this is a lot about like your posture.
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But just because I am disagreeing with him and arguing with him doesn't mean that I am trying
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I am just holding him to the same standards that I hold other politicians.
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And as a Christian who cares about unborn life, that's important for us to do.
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Like that is how Roe v. Wade got overturned, by the way, because there were activists and
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advocates and commentators who pushed politicians further and further into the pro-life camp so
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that a law could be passed in Mississippi that would make its way to the Supreme Court that
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eventually decided Dobbs and overturned Roe v. Wade.
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And so there have to be some of us over here who are saying, nope, I don't want to compromise
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OK, because without us, it's we're just going to keep losing in the long term.
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And I know I haven't even gotten into what he said, but I understand the pragmatic perspective
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of, oh, well, we have to compromise in order to win elections.
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That doesn't mean that I have to compromise or that I have to just praise Trump whenever
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He warned everyone that he was going to be putting out a statement about this.
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He said, I will be putting out my statement on abortion and abortion rights.
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God does not give us a right to kill our children.
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OK, so just a reminder that like Donald Trump is very unfamiliar with Christian thought, with
00:27:46.720
Christian politics and with Christian language.
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Like we already knew that he is probably especially personally like a center left guy.
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I'm not negating the accomplishments that were achieved under his presidency when it comes
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But just personally, like we've known that for a while.
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Republicans and all others must follow their hearts and minds.
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But remember that like Ronald Reagan before me, I don't care what Ronald Reagan thought.
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But yeah, Ronald Reagan was a little bit different and that he personally was very, very pro-life
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But he publicly didn't do enough on behalf of the pro-life cause.
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So I guess if I had to choose, I would choose Donald Trump's combination in that he advocated
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publicly against abortion and the justices that he chose and things like that.
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But he's personally not as against it as I would like.
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Anyway, he said, and most other Republicans believe in exceptions for rape, incest and
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Great love and compassion must be shown when even thinking about the subject of life.
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But at the same time, we must use common sense in realizing that we have an obligation
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to the salvation of our nation, which is currently in series, declined to win elections, without
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which we will have nothing other than failure, death and destruction.
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So just a little baby murder, little baby murder, some baby murder, and then that will
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Okay, there are some things that I'm willing to compromise on.
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I'm not going to list them all right now because I don't have time to like completely explain
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But there are things I'm willing to compromise on.
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But when we are literally talking about the life and death of powerless, vulnerable babies,
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that's just not something that I am willing to say, oh, yeah, okay, I'll just give you
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a little bit of that so we can get the salvation of our country.
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After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, when the issue went back to the States, unfortunately,
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And it is tough to be against the abortion lobby because they've got all of Hollywood.
00:30:02.520
They've got all of the federal government, basically.
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And then they have a bunch of squishes in the Republican Party.
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And so those of us who are really pro-life, like we just don't have as much power as the
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And like the propaganda machine on the left when it comes to abortion is just so powerful
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But it's difficult when we have the people who are supposed to represent us who are so
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And this, of course, as we've talked about many times, it's in response to the Alabama
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decision that embryos are indeed people because, duh, they scientifically are.
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And that made some changes in the IVF industry in Alabama because inherently IVF involves the
00:31:03.300
That tells us a lot about the ethics of the IVF industry.
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Um, and so he's responding to that because that was obviously, uh, an issue that Democrats
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immediately held on to and said, oh, Republicans, see, they're not really pro-life.
00:31:20.640
But if they're also anti-IVF, that means they're not really pro-life.
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But here's what Trump had to say in response to that in the, um, statement that he ended up
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Like the overwhelming majority of Americans, including the vast majority of Republicans,
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conservatives, Christians, and pro-life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for
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couples who are trying to have a precious baby.
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What could be more beautiful or better than that?
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Today, I'm pleased that the Alabama legislature has acted very quickly and passed legislation
00:32:01.280
that preserves the availability of IVF in Alabama.
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Well, I mean, to be fair, Trump does think like the majority of professing pro-lifers think,
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because the more that I've talked about this subject, the more that I've realized that most
00:32:23.380
So I understand like I was several years ago, probably six years ago.
00:32:30.780
I had never thought about the ethics of IVF and surrogacy and reproductive technology.
00:32:35.120
I had no idea that there are millions of embryos indefinitely frozen on ice right now.
00:32:40.500
I had no idea the eugenics process that goes into IVF, the creation and then eugenic selection
00:32:50.240
of multiple embryos, the discarding of embryos that aren't strong enough, that aren't healthy
00:32:56.340
enough, the discarding of either boys and girls based on the gender preferences of the parents.
00:33:02.480
I didn't know the horrific practice of egg selling and sperm selling and what is actually
00:33:09.360
involved in that, not just for women's bodies, but also the detachment of the bond between
00:33:17.060
the biological mother or father and the children that they're creating.
00:33:24.080
I didn't know how we were mishandling and misusing and manipulating this innocent embryonic
00:33:31.360
And of course, as a pro-lifer, I say life starts at conception, all babies matter, all
00:33:38.120
people matter, no matter how small, like these are all rallying cries of pro-lifers when it
00:33:43.520
But then when it comes to IVF, when it comes to discarding and freezing multiple embryos,
00:33:51.980
just based on the will and the whims of the parent, we say, well, yeah, sure, life starts
00:34:00.720
Yeah, babies in the womb have rights, but these babies are different because they're
00:34:07.980
Again, you get into these kind of arbitrary standards of who matters and who doesn't based
00:34:14.820
So at that point, you are functionally pro-choice because you have adopted their mentality that
00:34:22.160
people at certain stages of their life matter less and have fewer rights, just depending
00:34:31.720
And so, yeah, it's just the more it is, I can say objectively, it's the more thoughtful
00:34:39.520
If you are pro-life and anti-abortion because you believe life in the earliest stages matters,
00:34:49.620
And we have talked about it many, many times, and I don't need to get into all of it too,
00:34:54.800
or right now, but you can go back and listen to the episodes where I've talked to many people
00:35:03.220
I saw a tweet at me earlier today that was like, you hate my IVF grandson.
00:35:08.660
Of course, I've never said anything close to that at all.
00:35:12.300
All people are made in the image of God, no matter how they're conceived.
00:35:15.040
I don't have to approve of someone's conception to see their value and worth and to love them
00:35:19.680
But Trump, he represents here, yes, what the majority of professing Christians and pro-lifers
00:35:25.540
think because most people just haven't thought about it and our ignorance, and at this point,
00:35:32.020
our chosen ignorance is actually leading to the death of a bunch of tiny image bearers to
00:35:40.640
This is the popular position, and so he's saying this because he thinks it's going to
00:35:47.460
All right, then he moves on to what he thinks about abortion.
00:35:52.320
My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint,
00:35:57.940
the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide
00:36:05.860
Like Ronald Reagan, I am strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the
00:36:14.240
But remember, you must also win elections to restore our culture and, in fact, to save
00:36:19.560
our country, which is currently and very sadly a nation in decline.
00:36:24.760
Okay, so I believe that rapists should get the death penalty, not the babies who are conceived
00:36:35.360
He believes that babies who are conceived through rape should get the death penalty, but not the
00:36:41.680
Now, maybe he also believes that the rapists should get the death penalty.
00:36:49.000
Pro-choicers are typically anti-death penalty for murderers and rapists and the most violent
00:36:57.600
criminals, but for the death penalty for babies inside the womb.
00:37:07.220
And if Republicans and conservatives would just be strong on that, would just be unwavering
00:37:13.680
on that, would put it back on them rather than allowing the left to constantly set the
00:37:20.720
moral standards and then trying to appease them in some way, then maybe we would actually
00:37:28.200
But we allow them to define the terms on their turf.
00:37:32.520
And then we spend our time acquiescing as much as possible to see if they'll just give
00:37:41.760
And it just doesn't work like that, especially in the long term.
00:37:46.180
The abolition of slavery was also very politically unpopular at the time.
00:37:52.600
But abolitionists knew it was right because people are not bargaining chips.
00:37:59.840
Now, I do believe, as I said, to take the wins as they come when it comes to abortion.
00:38:09.940
And so I understand that sometimes it is just the more pragmatic position that politics is
00:38:17.260
about tradeoffs, unfortunately, and we live in a political system.
00:38:22.240
But that doesn't mean that I have to agree, again, with what Trump said.
00:38:26.500
That doesn't mean that I can't critique it or that I can't disagree with it.
00:38:29.840
And when I do, I always get people saying, what you're saying right now is convincing
00:38:37.980
It's not me by playing what he said, by responding to what he said.
00:38:42.860
It's not me that is doing any convincing to Christians to not vote for him.
00:38:50.240
Because as I've said many times, it is just less appealing to vote for someone who is basically
00:39:00.180
pro-choice when you have someone like RFK who is also pro-choice, but who stands for some
00:39:07.000
things that a lot of Christian women in particular like that Trump doesn't.
00:39:12.140
He is much stronger for medical freedom and for battling against the swamp and the medical
00:39:23.560
Now, I've also said very clearly that I think that Trump is going to be more conservative,
00:39:30.160
certainly, in who he surrounds himself with and the policies that he promotes than RFK Jr.
00:39:34.800
I'm just trying to let you in on what the decision making really kind of looks like for a lot
00:39:42.740
I think the RFK will be more radical on abortion than Trump, for sure.
00:39:46.520
But a lot of people are looking at this and they're like, OK, great.
00:39:49.300
We've got three pro-choice candidates, which, by the way, we do.
00:39:53.120
And we Christian conservatives, the chumps over here, whose vote no one really cares about,
00:39:59.020
are left to look at the field and just say, all right, I guess this is what we got, but you're
00:40:06.340
not going to force me to be passionate about voting for you.
00:40:12.060
I'll vote for you, but I'm not going to be an evangelist about it.
00:40:22.360
That's going to be a real problem for Donald Trump, is that you are chipping away at people's
00:40:27.520
Yes, you've got Christian conservatives who will begrudgingly vote for you as the better
00:40:33.480
option versus Biden, but you are going to lose some of your biggest evangelists and
00:40:42.120
apologists, defenders, the people who you need to go out and to be your advocates for
00:40:51.180
They are right now thinking, OK, I'm going to vote for him because it's the lesser of two
00:40:56.320
evils, but I'm probably going to shut up about it because at this point you're just
00:41:04.840
Again, I mean, a huge voting block of Christian conservative pro-lifers who may be they're not
00:41:10.940
against IVF, but most of them understand that there's no difference in a baby that's conceived
00:41:19.700
And so to say that it's OK to abort one and not the other really doesn't make any sense.
00:41:25.600
They are right now much less excited about talking about voting for Donald Trump.
00:41:32.000
In fact, they're probably just like, you know what?
00:41:36.100
I'm going to fulfill my civic duty, but I'm not happy about it.
00:41:43.680
You want those Christian conservatives to be as mobilized, as galvanized as possible.
00:41:50.500
And those of us in the commentary space, like we're doing our darndest.
00:41:56.380
And I can say by the grace of God, of course, I don't take credit for this, that there have
00:42:01.020
been many, many people who have changed their minds on abortion through this show, either
00:42:06.500
something that I've said or my guest is said or something that I've written or someone
00:42:12.280
There are many, many others in the commentary space, in the activist space who can say the
00:42:17.880
same thing. But when our politicians are weak, when they hang us out to dry, they throw us
00:42:24.140
under the bus because that's basically what's going on.
00:42:27.980
It makes it really tough because what he's basically saying is like, I'm not like those
00:42:40.900
I'm more nuanced when it comes to this culture war of abortion.
00:42:44.860
I'm not like those crazy evangelicals to the right of me.
00:42:50.800
But let me let you in on a little secret, Donald Trump.
00:42:55.140
You are not going to get those center left independent votes that you are vying for.
00:43:01.440
You're not because they think that you're a threat to democracy and Hitler.
00:43:06.520
And so you saying that you think that there should be some rare exceptions for abortion
00:43:21.540
They see you as too radical in every other way.
00:43:24.000
And at this point, a lot of those people want abortion through all nine months without
00:43:31.660
And so I just don't think that this strategy is going to be effective.
00:43:37.080
Again, saying that as someone who understands the need to vote for him.
00:43:46.440
I just thought that this was a weak sauce statement, a morally egregious statement.
00:43:51.620
Um, and I'm surprised by some of some of the pro-life support of it.
00:43:56.460
But most pro-lifers that I've seen have been really, really disheartened, uh, uh, by his
00:44:11.040
Politics matter because policy matters because people matter.
00:44:21.400
I'm going to encourage you to vote in alignment as best we can with the values that are biblical
00:44:30.500
But I got to say, I don't feel super pumped about this election.
00:44:38.240
Um, yeah, but just a reminder, Jesus is coming back and he will rule in perfect peace.
00:44:47.280
And all we can do is the next right thing for his glory.
00:44:53.860
I'm sure that you will let me know what you think about that in the comments of YouTube.
00:44:56.980
And I look forward to reading, reading those comments.
00:44:59.920
Hey, I got something for the Catholics that I lost after yesterday's episode.
00:45:22.660
The Pope, uh, Pope Francis condemned surrogacy, gender theory, and transgender sex change in
00:45:36.700
Obviously you guys know I am a reformed Protestant.
00:45:39.200
So there are many things that I do not agree, uh, with when it comes to the Pope, when it
00:45:43.900
comes to Catholic theology in general, particularly this Pope.
00:45:46.560
And I would say a lot of my Catholic friends also disagree with this Pope about a variety
00:45:50.560
of things because he's not quite as biblical or conservative, um, as Popes in the past.
00:45:57.420
Uh, but he has been very strong against surrogacy, against gender ideology.
00:46:01.800
Um, now there have been some things where it seems like he has been like warmer towards
00:46:07.720
people who claim gender ideology than I would like, but when it comes to the actual ideology
00:46:14.180
itself and the idea and what's happening with the mutilation of people's bodies, he's been
00:46:18.320
very strong and just Catholic theology in general is very consistent when it comes to the theology
00:46:23.700
of the body and when it comes to IVF, reproductive technology, surrogacy, birth control.
00:46:34.600
So, um, dignitas infinita, is that how you pronounce it?
00:46:40.560
Do we know none of my Catholic friends in the room right now?
00:46:48.440
Um, it's largely a reiteration of long held Catholic teaching.
00:46:51.860
So this isn't new, uh, but this is just emphasizing these, uh, uh, emphasizing Catholic
00:46:59.140
teaching on this, which I do think is really important in a time when this is being so heavily
00:47:06.060
So on gender theory, he said, um, the, the church recalls that human life in all its dimensions,
00:47:12.820
both physical and spiritual is a gift from God.
00:47:15.360
Desiring a personal self-determination as gender theory, uh, prescribes apart from this fundamental
00:47:20.840
truth that human life is a gift amounts to a concession to the age old temptation to make
00:47:29.020
Um, that is the God of self, as we've talked about many times, um, entering into competition
00:47:34.320
with the true God of love revealed to us in the gospel.
00:47:37.560
Can I tell you something that I've been thinking?
00:47:39.320
Because we've talked about this many times and how, like, um, when you worship the God
00:47:43.660
of self, autonomy and, um, authenticity become idols.
00:47:49.940
Um, autonomy when in submission to God can be good and authenticity when in submission
00:47:58.820
But when the God is self and these things are held supreme, then autonomy justifies, uh,
00:48:05.520
whatever you want to do in the name of controlling your life.
00:48:09.720
So abortion and then authenticity becomes supreme, uh, in determining what you want to do with your
00:48:21.440
Authenticity and autonomy, again, can be good virtues when they are in submission to God's
00:48:25.780
But when you worship the God of self, uh, they actually become vices.
00:48:30.880
They become excuses to sin in very egregious ways.
00:48:34.200
But I was also thinking that transgenderism is self-idolatry in the sense that only God can
00:48:43.300
create something through declaration of his word.
00:48:48.420
So as we have already said in this episode, when God said in the beginning, let there be
00:48:53.680
light and there it was, and he spoke the world into motion, that was a declaration, a sign,
00:49:02.560
Well, transgenderism says the same thing, that you can declare something and become that thing.
00:49:10.480
If you are a woman, you can say that you are a woman, if you are a man, and you think that that
00:49:15.240
declaration becomes reality and it doesn't, it doesn't.
00:49:18.740
That's why through all of the sex changes and the hormones and everything that you still remain
00:49:30.280
So, uh, the statement goes on to say another prominent aspect of gender theory is that it
00:49:34.200
intends to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings,
00:49:39.540
This foundational difference is not only the greatest imaginable difference, but it is also
00:49:45.180
And the male female couple, the difference achieves the most marvelous of reciprocities.
00:49:48.840
It thus becomes the source of that miracle that never ceases to surprise us, the arrival
00:49:58.020
Then of course it is also rooted in creation, reiterated throughout scripture, repeated by Jesus
00:50:02.460
in Matthew 19, representative of Christ in the church, Ephesians 5, and then reflective
00:50:07.260
of the gospel, Revelation 22, Christ and his bride, the church.
00:50:12.380
Um, he goes on to say, we cannot separate the masculine and the feminine from God's work
00:50:17.520
of creation, which is prior to all our decisions and experiences.
00:50:21.660
And where biological elements exist, which are impossible to ignore.
00:50:26.000
Only by acknowledging and accepting this difference and reciprocity can each person fully discover
00:50:33.880
You cannot be, you know, Elizabeth Elliott has been, or has been, she's obviously dead
00:50:37.660
now, but she had been talking about this since, uh, the 1970s and the feminist movement where
00:50:43.240
she describes a woman that came up to her after one of her talks and said, I don't want to
00:50:48.260
I just want to see myself as a person, but that's impossible.
00:50:59.000
That is from the earliest point of our development.
00:51:03.360
He talks about the problem of sex change surgeries.
00:51:07.200
Humans are inseparably composed of both body and soul.
00:51:12.660
The body serves as the living context in which the interiority of the soul unfolds and manifests
00:51:18.100
itself as it does also through the network of human relationships.
00:51:22.820
It reminds me of what Nancy Piercy wrote in Love Thy Body.
00:51:25.120
Constituting the person's being, the soul and the body both participate in the dignity
00:51:33.360
He says, we are called to protect our humanity.
00:51:36.200
And this means in the first place, accepting it and respecting it as it was created.
00:51:42.000
Any sex change intervention risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from
00:51:47.980
This is not to exclude the possibility that a person with genital abnormalities that are already
00:51:55.600
But he, it's obvious what he's really talking about here.
00:51:58.740
Such a medical procedure in that case would not constitute a sex change in the sense intended
00:52:03.660
So he just wanted to give that caveat, but he is talking about someone who's intentionally
00:52:10.840
He says, I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood.
00:52:15.440
Me too, Pope Francis, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the
00:52:21.660
child based on the exploitation of situations of the mother's material needs.
00:52:25.340
A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.
00:52:29.180
Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this
00:52:34.360
The legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a right to a child that
00:52:41.660
fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life.
00:52:52.000
A child is not an object that you have a right to obtain.
00:52:58.460
Conclusion, he says, the church with the present declaration ardently urges that respect the
00:53:04.340
dignity of the human person beyond all circumstances be placed at the center of the commitment
00:53:09.760
to the common good and at the center of every legal system.
00:53:14.220
Indeed, respect for the dignity of each person is the indispensable basis for the existence
00:53:19.080
of any society that claims to be founded on just law and not on the force of power.
00:53:24.880
I honestly don't know how as a Christian anyone could argue with that.
00:53:30.000
It's beautifully worded, and I think just an airtight theological and natural law argument.
00:53:44.340
Now, our very devout Catholic president, his White House obviously had a response to the
00:54:04.260
OK, so let's see what the White House had to say.
00:54:08.520
Karina Jean-Pierre, she faced questions about Pope Francis's declaration condemning gender
00:54:13.040
theory on Monday, and she affirmed President Biden's support for the transgender community.
00:54:18.360
We are pleased to see that the document furthered the Vatican's call to ensure that LGBTQ plus
00:54:24.780
are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world.
00:54:27.340
However, the president will continue to be an advocate for the rights, safety, and dignity
00:54:30.820
of the LGBTQ plus community, including transgender people here in the West.
00:54:35.300
So part of that is responding to things that I didn't read.
00:54:38.200
I'm going to, when a reporter pressed for more specific comments about gender theory and
00:54:41.660
transgender individuals, Jean-Pierre said, I'm going to be really careful.
00:54:44.660
The president's role to litigate internal church policy, that's not his role, so I'm
00:54:51.960
But I can speak to the president's stance, and he's always been very clear on the importance
00:54:56.020
of protecting or having protection to the transgender community and the broader LGBTQ
00:54:59.960
plus community, and that's been very clear since day one of his administration.
00:55:08.660
But the pope was not talking about internal church policy there.
00:55:14.280
He was saying, no, there need to be laws banning surrogacy, and we should not be having sex
00:55:22.280
So, of course, I don't think that Biden is probably going to speak to this directly or
00:55:29.020
very explicitly puts him in kind of in an awkward position.
00:55:33.080
Of course, we know that he is not actually a devout Catholic because everything he stands
00:55:36.820
for is opposed to what Catholic theology teaches about the body, about human sexuality, and
00:55:42.480
about abortion, which is really, really unfortunate.
00:55:47.880
But no matter what the politicians say or do, no matter what the pope says or does, Christians
00:55:53.060
are called to stand on the abiding truth and clarity of God's word because his ways are
00:56:00.960
And as we see from something as amazing as the eclipse, God's creation has meaning, it
00:56:12.520
And no matter what is happening in this material world, remember, his eternal plan of redemption
00:56:20.000
And Jesus Christ, Hebrews 13, 8 says, is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
00:56:25.980
All right, before we get out of here on this Tuesday, I just want to remind you that my
00:56:30.800
friend Jason Whitlock, he's got this amazing event happening in Nashville on June 1st.
00:56:39.360
You can come for the great food, the music, the fellowship.
00:56:43.520
You can be transformed by the biblically inspired messages that'll be delivered by lots of speakers
00:56:52.780
He is the lieutenant governor of North Carolina that's really just been advocating for good,
00:57:07.380
Saturday, June 1st in Nashville, fearlessarmyrollcall.com.
00:57:13.600
That's all I got for you today on today's episode of Relatable.