The NXR Podcast - July 05, 2024


THE FRIDAY SPECIAL - The Divine Feminine & Taylor Swift with Cultish


Episode Stats


Length

1 hour and 7 minutes

Words per minute

183.44118

Word count

12,313

Sentence count

598

Harmful content

Misogyny

46

sentences flagged

Toxicity

21

sentences flagged

Hate speech

106

sentences flagged


Summary

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

In Episode 1 of Season 3 of Cultish, Andrew Sunkrant and Jeremiah Roberts of Right Response Ministries discuss Taylor Swift and her cult-like worship of the Divine Feminine. They discuss the cult's obsession with the pop star, and how she became a cult icon.

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 .
00:00:00.000 Throughout the annals of history, many pagan cultures have revered goddesses and female
00:00:05.500 deities as manifestations of the divine feminine, offering prayers and rituals to honor their
00:00:11.980 perceived wisdom, power, and grace. From the nurturing embrace of the Earth Mother to the
00:00:18.440 fierce sovereignty of warrior goddesses, these divine figures are meant to embody a spectrum
00:00:24.720 of feminine qualities serving as guides and inspirations for their followers. However, 1.00
00:00:31.520 the resurgence of interest in the divine feminine in contemporary times transcends
00:00:37.360 mere deity worship. Public icons such as Taylor Swift represent that the divine feminine is not
00:00:45.280 ultimately located in a deity outside of the individual, but instead it is found deep within
00:00:52.640 the true self the divine feminine is said to represent renewal and transformation a call to
00:00:59.440 restore balance and harmony in a world plagued by the alleged discord and imbalance supposedly
00:01:06.400 brought about by the patriarchy and toxic masculinity in an age marked by the incessant
00:01:12.320 demand for gender equality environmental sustainability and holistic spirituality
00:01:18.800 The Divine Feminine is presented as the only hope for achieving balance.
00:01:23.980 But in reality, the vast majority of its adherents do not truly wish to balance femininity with masculinity.
00:01:32.740 Rather, they wish to eradicate masculinity in all its forms.
00:01:37.520 And their ultimate goal is to destroy the patriarchy in its pinnacle source,
00:01:42.840 the Father, the Son, and He, the Holy Spirit.
00:01:48.800 Welcome to the first episode now of season three of the Friday special with Right Response Ministries.
00:01:55.080 And our guest for this whole season doing 10 episodes is Andrew Sunkrant and Jeremiah Roberts, the co-host of Cultish.
00:02:02.580 Welcome, guys.
00:02:03.760 Awesome, man. Glad to be here. I'm loving your setup here.
00:02:06.600 Thanks.
00:02:07.160 Yeah, this is awesome. I feel like I should have brought like a different change of clothes.
00:02:10.700 You're like every three episodes I can change.
00:02:12.600 Yeah, that's true. That is true. That's the thing about going back to back to back.
00:02:15.840 So for you guys who are listening, the way that we do this is we each season, we select our guests, we fly them out, and we record a whole season in two days.
00:02:25.080 So we are sitting in these chairs for a while.
00:02:29.120 We will be here all day today and all day tomorrow.
00:02:32.640 And so, yeah, if you're like, man, these guys wear the same thing every single day.
00:02:37.120 It's like, well, for us, it was, you know, one day.
00:02:40.200 So basically, episode one through five, we'll be wearing one thing.
00:02:43.620 episode six through 10, we'll be wearing something else. That's right. I just want to say too,
00:02:47.580 you've been treating us so well. So thank you so much, man. This has been just a blast so far.
00:02:52.520 Awesome. Well, we are honored to have you. Let's go ahead and hop into our first topic
00:02:57.860 for episode one, the divine feminine. And it's not all about Taylor Swift, but we're going to
00:03:03.520 use her as a case study because everybody recognizes the name, just about everybody.
00:03:09.000 And I think she is a good case study.
00:03:11.860 So, Jeremiah, why don't you kind of launch us off?
00:03:14.560 Yeah, yeah.
00:03:15.240 So, it's very interesting because we've now, we're in year five pretty much of cultish.
00:03:20.060 We've covered a lot, a lot of topics.
00:03:22.300 You know, they're talking about historical cults like Jim Jones and David Koresh.
00:03:26.000 And we've even covered modern cults like The Way Down with Gwen Shamblin that was depicted in the HBO documentary.
00:03:33.920 We've talked with one of Warren Jeff's former polygamist wives.
00:03:37.100 And we've dealt with people who are former New Agers, people who are heavily involved in the occult, former witches.
00:03:43.900 We've just done with a broad variety of topics.
00:03:46.140 So we're always getting plenty of messages on a lot of topics.
00:03:48.960 And whenever I see a consistency of people messaging us about a particular topic, I start to ask myself,
00:03:55.320 okay, what is it about this particular person that kind of has our attention?
00:04:01.220 Why are people kind of grasping onto this?
00:04:03.020 So, one of the consistent messages people have talked about, could you talk about the cult of Taylor Swift?
00:04:08.580 And so, initially, I'm like, ah, I don't know.
00:04:11.580 That seems kind of cringe.
00:04:12.800 It seems kind of hokey.
00:04:14.220 Like, is there any, like, unique angles or any legitimacy to it?
00:04:18.040 And so, what I noticed is that there's a lot of people sort of in my sphere of just different Christian influencers, former New Agers that were sort of asserting that Taylor Swift is a witch.
00:04:28.340 And I'm trying to think, okay, well, what's the by-point of what they're trying to say?
00:04:33.020 of where they're going with this.
00:04:35.140 And so, you know, you're starting to see,
00:04:37.460 you know, she started off as this very innocent,
00:04:39.440 you know, country singing girl,
00:04:41.120 and now she's kind of evolved over into pop music.
00:04:44.380 I, you know, I just sort of hear,
00:04:45.860 that music is sort of,
00:04:46.960 you kind of hear in the background,
00:04:48.340 like in a meme or a video,
00:04:49.940 and, you know, her songs do have a way
00:04:52.200 of sort of like getting in people's heads of sorts,
00:04:55.080 but what you do see is that a lot of,
00:04:58.880 she has sort of taken this, you know, shift into where her music has gotten like a lot more,
00:05:06.220 I used to say like promiscuous, but a lot of the people who are talking about her being a witch
00:05:11.420 has to do with some of the songs. Specifically, she had an album called Willow, and there's sort
00:05:16.320 of this archaic symbolism where it comes across like she's doing something very like spooky,
00:05:21.500 she's in the woods, and there's like torches, stuff like that. But what you end up seeing is,
00:05:26.860 And now, not only that, recently, there's been a lot more people talking about her, people going to her concerts and supposedly experiencing amnesia.
00:05:36.460 Like going, yeah, going to one of her concerts in the Ares tour and having no memory of it whatsoever.
00:05:43.320 And it's one of the things where you have to be careful because there's been a lot of, we have had eras where people would sensationalize things.
00:05:51.660 You think about the Salem, a lot of like the Salem witch trials, you have that.
00:05:55.120 Also, I think a big part is the 1980s satanic panic, where you did have satanic ritual abuse is a real thing for sure, but there's a lot of things that were blown out of proportion.
00:06:07.380 So I think you have to say, okay, what does Taylor Swift actually represent, and what is she actually tapping into that's relevant?
00:06:16.780 Because a lot of the Christian influencers who are making the point that she's a witch, I think does sort of fall under, if you look at God's law, independent lines of testimony and witness, it would fall under sort of vague, arbitrary, circumstantial evidence.
00:06:32.840 Just because someone is sort of talking about spooky things and spells and, you know, and having sort of that sort of imagery as cosplaying and putting on a witch costume doesn't necessarily mean they're actually practicing witchcraft.
00:06:47.440 Right.
00:06:47.900 It's very, there's a lot of people reading into things.
00:06:51.960 So I wouldn't, of all that I've seen of people making that assertion, I wouldn't want to be judged by that standard of arbitrary people reading into things.
00:07:01.960 You can't use, while symbolism a lot of times does have meaning, you can't use that as the ultimate definitive point to say, hey, Taylor Swift, she's practicing witchcraft.
00:07:11.260 She's definitively a witch, but there's things that we'll jump into that she does represent that would represent the spirit of our age, which we're going to get into.
00:07:19.220 Right.
00:07:19.520 So, Andrew, what is the divine feminine?
00:07:22.320 Can you speak to that?
00:07:23.300 Yeah, that's exactly what I was trying to just think of while Jerry was talking here.
00:07:26.120 I'm thinking about, well, what's the spiritual algorithm that's producing Taylor Swift in our climate today, right?
00:07:32.760 Like, what is divine feminism?
00:07:34.860 Where does this come from?
00:07:36.980 I think it comes from this innate idea that the woman is unequal or lesser than to man, and there must be certain things that need to be done, whether spiritually or in society, to make the woman of the same value of man, according to their own presuppositions, right?
00:07:52.800 So Taylor Swift represents this idea of equality or equity with man.
00:07:59.340 And I think that resonates with a lot of women in our society today.
00:08:03.160 But in order to understand men and women, we have to have an objective standard of what
00:08:08.440 a man and a woman even is, right?
00:08:10.740 But we find posts where Taylor Swift is a woman who's in what support of abortion, you
00:08:16.740 know what I mean? 0.64
00:08:17.460 So when we're thinking of divine feminism, we're thinking of, let's think biblically
00:08:22.200 for a second. According to the Bible, we say that the woman was deceived first by the serpent,
00:08:27.220 right? So the man ought to be the leader of his household because he has the ability to think
00:08:32.760 clearly with the objective standard of God's word and to lead his household.
00:08:36.700 That's one of the reasons. It's the order of creation and the order of the fall.
00:08:40.480 So Adam was formed first and Eve was formed from man and for man. So it's the order of creation
00:08:46.280 and God's purpose there. But it's also a lot of Christians, even conservative Christians,
00:08:50.820 don't want to admit that Paul, the apostle in 1 Timothy 2, he cites not just one, but both,
00:08:56.820 both reasonings, the order of creation, but also the order of the fall, that the woman fell first
00:09:02.240 and the way in which she fell, she fell uniquely through deception. Whereas Adam,
00:09:07.380 the text never says that he was deceived. There's a strong argument to be made that Adam,
00:09:12.320 he sinned with his eyes wide open. And that's not to absolve him of moral guilt, if anything,
00:09:17.360 both by his position as head and by revelation, the fact that he could see more clearly,
00:09:23.520 he is more culpable, not less. But it is still significant to say the woman was more susceptible
00:09:30.340 to deception. That's good. So how do we think about in terms of the woman being deceived and 1.00
00:09:35.740 then willfully going to her husband, right? It's like, how do we think about that with our culture
00:09:40.320 today with what's going on in this spiritual algorithm, right? That's like producing and
00:09:45.780 uh, propagating music like Taylor Swift's, like, uh, to get the man to be, uh, let's say he's sent,
00:09:52.120 he's a willfully sinning. Right. Uh, but to dethrone himself in form of leadership and follow
00:09:57.800 the woman, like what, what creates that you think, Joel? Uh, S I M P just simping hard. 0.96
00:10:05.440 Uh, I think a lot of things created, I, you know, but I do think that's one of them. I think the
00:10:09.440 white knight simp kind of men wanting the approval of women. And very much out of, I think,
00:10:15.900 perversion and loss. And a lot of guys, I mean, I'm not trying to be crude, but I think that this
00:10:21.980 is truthful and it needs to be said. I think one of the powers, if we could call it that,
00:10:28.420 a strength that has been given by God to the woman is that God has given her a sexual power.
00:10:34.680 And if used rightly, then that's, you know, glorifying to God. It's good. But a woman does
00:10:40.780 have a sexual power and weak men who are not self-controlled can be, if they're not self-controlled,
00:10:48.700 they will be woman controlled. And so now, you know, when we look at authority in the, you know,
00:10:54.320 in any realm, but like, let's use a civil realm as one example. There are two kinds of leaders.
00:11:00.480 there are female leaders and female adjacent leaders there are no male leaders you cannot 1.00
00:11:06.040 come into a position of power in our world today apart from being a woman or being a simp that's
00:11:12.380 it um and so you know one of the reasons you know to answer your question that you post i i this is
00:11:18.120 just one there are many others but one reason um why i think men have abdicated much of their
00:11:24.140 responsibility is, um, because they are weak, unself-controlled men who want to get laid.
00:11:30.920 There we go. And alphas, um, can win a woman, but betas, um, simp for a woman. That's the only way
00:11:39.820 they can compete. The only way that a dude can, uh, compete with other men who are stronger,
00:11:45.600 smarter, more attractive, uh, more leadership capabilities and characteristics is, um, his
00:11:51.880 only angle, again, this is apart from a Christian worldview, if he's not going to pursue Christ and
00:11:57.820 righteousness and true sacrificial love for women, if that's off the table because he's unregenerate,
00:12:03.340 he does not love God, and then just beating alpha men is off the table because he's inferior,
00:12:11.520 then his third and final option is to just be a feminist and just tell women what they want to
00:12:17.720 here real quick before we continue with the show i wanted to let you know that this is actually just
00:12:22.980 one episode of a 10-part series that we will be slowly releasing to the public on places like
00:12:29.940 youtube and your favorite podcast platform over the coming months however if you want to get all
00:12:36.400 10 of these episodes right now early access and ad free we are making them available exclusively
00:12:44.220 for our Patreon members over at patreon.com forward slash Right Response Ministries.
00:12:51.800 Here are the titles for just a few of those episodes.
00:12:54.940 We've got Transhumanism and Artificial Intelligence.
00:12:58.820 We also have DMT and the Astral Realm.
00:13:02.080 We also have Neo-Paganism.
00:13:05.740 And another of my favorite episodes is an entire episode devoted to The Greys.
00:13:11.720 So, again, head on over to patreon.com forward slash Right Response Ministries and sign up for our silver tier, which is just $5 a month, and you'll be able to get all 10 of these episodes ad-free right now.
00:13:27.320 And if you join us at the Gold Tier for just $10 a month, you'll get early access, ad-free for the full 10 episodes, plus an additional live stream that I and the guys who join me for this series, that's Jeremiah Roberts and Andrew Sunkrant, the three of us will be doing live streams where we'll be taking questions from you, our Gold Tier Patreon members, and providing for you the best answers that we possibly can from the Word of God.
00:13:55.800 So don't delay. Go to patreon.com forward slash right response ministries and become a supporter today.
00:14:03.000 Yeah. And I think a lot of the divine feminism, when we're thinking about their own personal presuppositions, if we're thinking more of the Gnostic realm, a lot of them believe in an androgynous God.
00:14:12.760 Right. Right. That there's a spark of divine inside all humanity. And this spark of divine is male and feminine.
00:14:19.760 So they have no, they have a blurred distinction between male and female.
00:14:22.800 Us as people who believe in biblical Christianity and true objective standards of male and female, one created first, the other created to be a helpmeet, believe that they're different, right?
00:14:32.080 Like I don't have a spark of divine feminine within me that needs to be unlocked.
00:14:36.660 If there's any type of femininity inside of me, it needs to be crucified, right?
00:14:40.180 I need to be a brave biblical man according to God's word. 0.93
00:14:43.700 But they believe in an androgynous God, right? 0.77
00:14:46.320 And that males in humanity need to awaken this type of feminine, even inside of themselves.
00:14:52.280 Like, what does that make you think about that?
00:14:54.100 Yeah, well, what I want to do is just also when we connect this together, because maybe our audience are wondering, okay, how are we connecting Taylor Swift to the roles of men and women and the New Age and paganism?
00:15:06.220 And we're talking about the divine feminine or even the divine feminism.
00:15:09.080 I think they correlate all together.
00:15:11.260 but I want to zoom out and kind of, and this is, I'm going to get Leia Foundation,
00:15:15.780 which is going to be relevant to the rest of our season because we're going to be tapping into this
00:15:19.020 in every single episode. We're going to be talking about one, this has to do with one versus two,
00:15:24.060 one-ism versus two-ism. And so if you want to, if you know Peter Jones from Ligonier Ministries,
00:15:28.880 he's written a lot of it. The very first book I remember reading was The Gnostic Empire Strikes
00:15:33.080 Back, and he's wrote, there's a lot of really great books. You can definitely check out his
00:15:38.140 stuff with Ligonier. And in his book, one or two is seeing a world of difference. That's the
00:15:42.920 foundation where he really exemplifies that Paul, the Apostle Paul, he initially, he was broken for
00:15:49.180 his fellow brethren, for the Jews, and then he realized his heart was broken. And then he had a
00:15:53.460 point where he shook the dust off the feet. For now, I'm going to go to the Gentiles. And so, 1.00
00:15:58.340 what you actually see at the very beginning of Romans was Paul's really thesis of what it was
00:16:03.400 like being in the lion's den in the arena of ideas when it came to pagan culture, pagan worldview.
00:16:09.480 That's really his thesis in Romans chapter 1. And so, what you see is a distinction between
00:16:14.900 one or two. And so, one is all of the pagan worldview ends up where there's no difference
00:16:22.580 between creator and creation. So, the divine, the material and the immaterial are intertwined.
00:16:28.760 Right. It's pantheism. Everything is one. God is in me, I am in God.
00:16:33.460 Yes.
00:16:33.880 Well, God is in everything, and therefore in me, and therefore I'm one with God, and therefore I am kind of God.
00:16:39.240 Yeah, and for sure. And you'll see that depicted in a movie like Avatar, where you see the divine intertwined with nature and Mother Earth and Gaia and all that.
00:16:47.120 But what Paul says specifically, he talks about it's not, there's a worship, the foundation is a worship exchange.
00:16:52.480 They exchange the truth of God for a lie, and then they worship the creation rather than the
00:16:59.260 creator, and they worship man and reptiles and beasts. And you see aspects of worshiping
00:17:04.640 humans, and you also see aspects of animism, of worshiping animal worship. But then, not only
00:17:11.880 that, there's a gender and a sexual exchange, and that's what you see as it progresses through
00:17:17.180 Romans 1, and then you see God giving people over. And what you see is a reversal of the
00:17:22.720 created order. You see the men becoming women and the women becoming men. And it's intertwined 0.94
00:17:28.240 with self-worship. And so, what you end up seeing, what we're dealing with right now as far as a
00:17:34.400 zoomed out picture, is that we are in a, right now, America of the West, however you want to
00:17:40.440 categorize it, we're in a post-Christian neo, and we're in a full, we are in a complete freefall
00:17:46.240 into neo-paganism. We have a resurgence and a rise of the old gods. And so how this ties into
00:17:51.800 Taylor Swift, while a lot of the Christian influencers who are trying to make these 0.79
00:17:56.680 things about, or being a witch, I wouldn't adhere to that because I think that a lot of that's just
00:18:01.240 vague, arbitrary, circumstantiary. What you do see historically, what a lot of these ancient pagan
00:18:07.180 societies in the intro is that you see a lot of goddess worship, a lot of the divine feminine
00:18:13.500 worship. And so, what you actually see depicted now with Taylor Swift and the heirs tour is that
00:18:21.460 you see that it isn't just a concert of people going there listening to music. You're looking
00:18:28.000 at inherent worship. She represents the divine feminine. There's videos, for example,
00:18:33.700 that I would say that's not just a concert, that is goddess worship.
00:18:39.460 So, not only that, we're dealing also with this age of, I would call the age of re-enchantment,
00:18:45.360 where it's the return of the old gods.
00:18:47.560 And so, now people have a longing for transcendence.
00:18:50.940 And so, they're going into a Taylor Swift concert looking for that.
00:18:54.420 And so, when you see videos, for example, you can look up where somebody is at,
00:18:58.180 And this one lady has front road tickets to seeing Taylor Swift and she walks by.
00:19:05.040 And you see Taylor Swift's top and she looks at her like right in the eyes and like points at her.
00:19:09.840 And she goes, oh, oh, she stared into my soul. 0.94
00:19:12.940 And she just goes into a complete hysteria.
00:19:16.700 And you see there's something going on in those concerts, specifically the Aeros Tour and footage that I've seen.
00:19:23.700 Something deeper that's going on than just a concert, a music concert.
00:19:27.620 There's a true longing for transcendence to tap into the divine, and you see that.
00:19:33.660 So, it's not only that people longing for that esoteric, transcendent experience, but
00:19:39.160 then you have to say, what worldview is being propagated?
00:19:42.560 Who are the people propping her up?
00:19:44.520 What's the spirit of the age?
00:19:46.040 And everything that represents the shift going from traditional Judeo-Christian Western society 0.96
00:19:51.320 that made America what it is today, everything looking to dismantle that and replace those 0.89
00:19:56.960 roles like they are completely lifting her up and there's an agenda behind it there's a reason why
00:20:02.380 you see you go to a magazine rack and literally the whole magazine is taylor swift taylor swift
00:20:06.680 taylor swift from time magazine newsweek and really trying to prop her up so uh man that's
00:20:12.880 good yeah yeah it makes me think of like the rise and fall of societies i know before the fall of
00:20:18.860 rome i believe that the art depicted androgynous people you know uh and that's how god judges
00:20:25.680 societies. That's Romans 1 right there for you. That's what Paul's talking about, the judgment
00:20:29.620 of a society that rejects God and then hardly approves of wickedness, and then they become
00:20:33.780 inventors of evil. The spirit behind the algorithm that propagates Taylor Swift is just that, a
00:20:39.920 society that is in judgment by God. There is no such thing as a divine feminism. You said it
00:20:45.240 earlier, Joel, that the Father, Son, and the Spirit are represented with his own pronouns that he
00:20:51.740 gives us in scripture as he. So it's like, how do you handle that? If I were to try to think of
00:20:59.300 myself as being this person who wants to unlock the feminine inside of me, how do you deal with
00:21:07.880 that? Well, the way you deal with it is full on rebellion against God. And it looks like a 0.90
00:21:12.640 specific thing. Right. And so there's an example where you would see things that represent who she
00:21:18.200 is and what she has sort of submitted herself to. And some people have used to say, oh, this means
00:21:24.360 she definitely that she's a witch. Like there's a video at some music award show where it shows
00:21:28.560 her responding to somebody up on stage receiving an award. And this lady is giving credit that
00:21:33.540 the Taylor's on the videos on Taylor Swift. We might even pull it up for the sake of this video
00:21:38.080 when we pull this episode up. But she's giving her accolades to her producers and the different 0.76
00:21:43.140 people that help put whatever she's getting the award for. And she's like nodding yes and nodding
00:21:48.000 yes, but as soon as she says, I want to give God thanks and all the glory for this, you see her
00:21:51.920 just like scowl and like angry and like shake her head. Now, something like that, man looks at the
00:21:57.260 outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. I can't look at that and say, well, that
00:22:01.480 means she's a witch. She's practicing witchcraft. But what I can say is that when you look at 0.95
00:22:05.460 everything that she propagates and the worldview behind it, and knowing what scripture says,
00:22:10.420 that the natural man is hostile towards God, and that she's not able to submit herself to
00:22:14.420 the decrees of God, you see that and that hostility there.
00:22:18.800 Right. She may not be a witch, but we can definitively say, yeah, she hates God.
00:22:25.400 Yeah. So, essentially, what you're really seeing is a resurgence of the divine feminine,
00:22:29.900 and what you're looking at is goddess worship. You're looking for that. So, I think it's the
00:22:35.760 same spirit behind in the book of Acts. And when you have, really, the book of Acts is like an
00:22:40.720 operational offensive. Like you see, when you look in Acts, you have all sorts of different cities
00:22:46.020 that are completely overrun with pagan temples and with pagan worship. I mean, that's what Paul
00:22:50.900 sees when he is in the Areopagus. He goes and he's burdened because the city was full of idols.
00:22:55.960 And that's the setup for him to go up on Mars Hill and to give his talk. But what you do see
00:23:01.660 is that there is, you see worship of the divine feminine in the first century. You see Demetrius
00:23:08.720 the silversmith. He comes up, and he is very disturbed. He gets everyone together, and he says,
00:23:13.880 we're losing money because people are throwing away the idols, and now what's going to happen,
00:23:21.060 my biggest fear is that Artemis, who is this divine goddess, is not going to get that worship,
00:23:26.180 will not be known throughout all the world. And it says, and their hearts were filled with rage.
00:23:30.220 And it says, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. And so, what's very interesting, I just, sometimes
00:23:36.560 I just look at things, and a lot of times I'll look at social media. I mean, no one ever overreacts
00:23:42.920 to a tweet or post, right? No, never. Never, never. Well, I mean, it was Eric Kahn, your good
00:23:48.380 friend Eric Kahn, and he did a post a couple months ago talking about Taylor Swift and what
00:23:54.200 she represents. And I think that he did tap into something that was significant. And of course,
00:24:00.480 he spoke with a warranted straight edge regarding that. But the reality is that that response,
00:24:06.580 if you remember when he did that tweet, and I actually have it in front of me,
00:24:09.980 there was the visceral response that he got was a tapping into. He did sort of rock the boat. He
00:24:16.660 did tap into that sort of internal goddess worship. And he did because of what she represents.
00:24:24.240 Right. Let's think about that too for a second. I think the book of Ephesians is an excellent
00:24:28.880 book to understand the mindset of the church that was in Ephesus. Like Paul talks about children of
00:24:33.720 wrath, dead in their sins, walking in the newness of life. These are the ones who were burning their
00:24:38.000 books that you were talking about in Acts, which is an amazing thought of thinking of burning their 1.00
00:24:42.360 witchcraft books. Exactly. Yeah. So it's an amazing thought when thinking about our culture today. 1.00
00:24:46.800 But when we think about feminism and trying to have equity or equality with men, what are some
00:24:51.500 of the things that women believe give them equality? Right. So when we're thinking of 0.79
00:24:55.920 women, we think of, you know, helping raise a household. They have children, they're at home,
00:25:00.920 you know, but today in society, no children, right? Not going at home, not working for your
00:25:08.640 husband, but working for a man at a job or still working for a man. Yeah. It just depends which
00:25:13.940 one, not whether, but which. Yeah. We're trying to be the lady boss, but how do you get around
00:25:17.280 that? Well, you, if you're pregnant, you sacrifice your children, right? Or, and then why do you 1.00
00:25:21.980 justify sacrificing your children? Well, Mother Earth says we're overpopulated. So the divine
00:25:28.080 feminism has so many different types of ramifications. Right. Yeah. So there's the 1.00
00:25:32.280 environmental piece. There's the abortion piece. There's the boss girl, boss babe, hear me roar
00:25:40.340 piece. But it all does play together. And you mentioned it earlier and you brought it up again.
00:25:45.400 And so it just made me think the equity and equality piece. I think it's worth fleshing
00:25:51.040 that out just a little bit for the listener, because I think, you know, it kind of became
00:25:55.460 popular in the woke wars of like 2000, you know, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, all the way up to 2020.
00:26:02.160 And then in 2020, you know, more people kind of started to realize, oh, you know, critical race
00:26:06.640 theory is bad, you know, and, and then, you know, the, the popular, you know, trope, you know,
00:26:11.600 from conservatives and Christians, you know, Democrats are the real racist, you know, and it's
00:26:15.360 like, well, of course, yeah, Democrats were literally, they were the slaveholders. They 0.94
00:26:18.840 it. Like, of course, everyone, you know, the fact that you just realized that in 2020, that's cute,
00:26:23.760 you know, but, you know, welcome. You know, of course, but we got to get a lot further than that.
00:26:28.460 That's, you know, that's like, you're at like 1.0, you know, like there's a lot more. So with
00:26:34.240 that, people started using the rhetoric of, you know, well, equality, yes, equity, no, because
00:26:38.620 equity means, you know, equal outcomes, but equality means equal opportunities. But that is
00:26:45.280 still not truth. That's not Christian rhetoric. When it comes to men and women, you don't have 0.67
00:26:52.960 equality or equity. Now, you do have equality if we are speaking of inherent worth as equal image
00:27:00.680 bearers in the sight of God. So, man is the glory of God. There aren't even equal glories. Man is
00:27:06.200 the glory of God. Woman is the glory of man. And that is distinct in the way that God speaks of
00:27:12.760 man in the image of God. But glory and image are two separate conversations, two different
00:27:18.720 doctrines. Both male and female are made in the image of God. So man bears the glory of God in a
00:27:25.180 unique way, whereas woman reflects the glory of man, particularly her husband. But when it comes 1.00
00:27:31.540 to image of God, the Bible clearly says that man, in the sense of saying mankind, bears the image of
00:27:39.420 God. In his image, he made man male and female. So, two distinct expressions, but both bearing
00:27:46.660 his image. So, if we're speaking of equality in the sense of dignity, eternal co-heirs of grace,
00:27:53.700 if we're speaking of dignity and worth and value in the inherent sense in the sight of God as equal
00:27:58.960 image bearers of the living God, yes, men and women are equal, and I will die on that hill.
00:28:04.260 but if we're speaking of equality in the way that the word is often being used today
00:28:08.640 equity is equal outcome equality equal opportunity well not only are there not
00:28:14.620 equal outcomes unless they're forced um not only is equity a lie equality is also
00:28:21.020 a woman will not have the same opportunities not just equal outcomes but she will not have the 0.62
00:28:27.100 same equality in terms of equal opportunities even that that is a very modern american idea
00:28:33.120 that is a lie. You think that I had an equal opportunity to be in the NBA as Michael Jordan?
00:28:39.940 Of course. No. So it's like, so people are like, oh yeah, well, we shouldn't do equity and force
00:28:47.480 equal outcomes, but certainly we should have equal equality and equal opportunity. No, no, no.
00:28:53.580 We should have equality in the same way that we have it in the sight of God and in terms of
00:28:58.080 inherent worth and dignity, we likewise, stemming from that, should have equality under the law.
00:29:04.360 Innocent until proven guilty, there must be two to three independent lines of equal testament.
00:29:08.780 Under the law, the law should equally apply to the billionaire or the peasant. It should apply 0.67
00:29:15.320 to the civil authority or to the person who's merely a citizen. So in terms of our standing
00:29:20.620 under the law, in terms of justice, equality. Equality of opportunity, like equal opportunity
00:29:26.480 and to defend yourself, make a defense,
00:29:29.900 to have a jury of your peers,
00:29:31.300 to have your case heard, to have justice done.
00:29:35.580 But if we're talking about equality of opportunity
00:29:38.080 for career or equality of opportunity for physical prowess
00:29:41.700 or for financial gain or for, no, no way.
00:29:45.000 And if we're bringing the conversation
00:29:46.800 all the way back to men and women, 0.94
00:29:48.900 yeah, women can get pregnant. 1.00
00:29:52.140 And that's what all this comes down to. 1.00
00:29:54.380 Abortion, one of the biggest things 1.00
00:29:56.000 pushing abort it was because of equality and and what and what radical feminist and and pro-choice 1.00
00:30:02.440 advocates realized is that women could never ever achieve equality with men unless there was a way 1.00
00:30:09.340 to ensure that they could not be pregnant that was the only because they would never have the 0.94
00:30:16.480 same career opportunities they would never be able to to get as far in a career or this or that or 0.93
00:30:21.300 the other if they were not able, at the end of the day, to kill babies. And so I've often said, 0.88
00:30:27.640 as a pastor to our congregation and social media and online, until we stop worshiping women, 1.00
00:30:34.980 we can never save babies. A society can do one of two things, but it can't do both, 1.00
00:30:39.840 worship women or save children.
00:30:41.620 right response ministries 2025 conference is a go this is three days full jam-packed conference
00:30:52.880 with eight main sessions three to four hour and a half long panels and an all-star super based
00:30:59.180 lineup of speakers 15 speakers in all who are they steve dace jeff durbin oran mcintyre steven wolf
00:31:07.020 Again, this is April 3rd, 4th, and 5th, 2025, and the early registration is open right now.
00:31:29.800 This is the longest conference with the most speakers we've ever offered, and yet it is our all-time lowest price.
00:31:37.200 The early registration available today is only $140 for an adult.
00:31:42.940 So go to RightResponseConference.com.
00:31:45.780 Again, that is RightResponseConference.com to register right now because the early registration will not last long.
00:31:54.880 Yeah, and that's what you'll see when it comes to identity.
00:31:59.800 and also finding out who are we truly.
00:32:04.440 And what neo-paganism says is that truth is not by transcending by looking out,
00:32:10.440 by looking to the eternal God, the God who is the Father.
00:32:13.880 And that's when you see gender distinctions when you look at who is God,
00:32:17.740 how does he represent himself.
00:32:19.520 In Ephesians, he's referred to as the Father in heaven,
00:32:24.340 which every family on earth is named.
00:32:25.980 So you do see that order there.
00:32:28.000 And paganism flips that coin completely upside down.
00:32:33.700 And so, they'll say that truth comes from within, looking within, and rediscovering the divine feminine.
00:32:40.520 And so, what ends up happening is that you see a reversal of roles. 0.54
00:32:44.180 And so, what you'll actually see a lot in the New Age is that the women are always wearing the pants in the relationship. 0.67
00:32:50.520 They're always doing that because the goal within women in the New Age is that I want to embrace the divine feminine. 0.72
00:32:56.400 I want to embrace myself becoming this goddess. 0.61
00:33:00.640 So you'll see that, but then like the men become very, the men are basically women. 0.98
00:33:05.880 They become very, they're very weak. 0.95
00:33:07.420 They're very effeminate.
00:33:08.540 They do everything that is what you're not supposed to do as a man. 0.99
00:33:12.760 Like you embrace that because you want to embrace your feminine side.
00:33:15.600 And that's one of the reasons too, why when people, men who do come out of the new age,
00:33:20.520 and I've talked about this with my good friend, Will Spencer,
00:33:22.320 is that you'll see a lot of women who all of a sudden, 0.77
00:33:25.760 they have complete distaste for everything they're into. 1.00
00:33:29.400 They're burning away their tarot cards.
00:33:31.520 They're burning away their Ouija boards and everything that they use
00:33:33.960 and their idols and everything, which is always cool to see.
00:33:36.360 But all they want to do, a lot of times, they just want to be at home.
00:33:39.120 They want to bake bread, have babies.
00:33:41.280 It's this very amazing shift that happens if you use New Age term.
00:33:46.600 A lot of times, people who are brand new coming out of the New Age,
00:33:49.220 They'll even use New Age terms to describe, you know, talking as people who are Reformed here.
00:33:55.660 They describe, they'll use New Age terminology to describe their effectual calling of being drawn by the Father.
00:34:01.340 They'll initially say, I'm going through this shift where I just, I can't do astrology anymore.
00:34:05.800 There's something, I don't know why, there's something that's wrong with it.
00:34:08.800 And so, that's what you end up seeing.
00:34:10.940 Now, the question is, you know, you look in the first century and what they were doing with paganism is that when it's warned about,
00:34:18.340 in Timothy, about those who sneak into households and manipulate susceptible women.
00:34:24.040 That happened primarily by false teachers and pagans and Gnostics and people who wanted to be
00:34:29.520 wolves in sheep's clothing. And what you actually see is the zeitgeist of the age, 0.68
00:34:35.040 what's being propagated with Taylor Swift, that's what's happening right now. That's being snuck
00:34:39.020 into households. I'm not talking as someone who's trying to be like some legalistic fundamentalist
00:34:43.840 telling people what you can and can't listen to.
00:34:46.240 I'm talking about what is being,
00:34:48.660 like, Taylor Swift, she's propped up right now 0.84
00:34:51.740 as the ideal woman, the ideal boss babe.
00:34:54.720 And what you actually see is not just Taylor Swift,
00:34:57.220 it's being depicted now in film.
00:34:59.000 Even there's film critics like the Critical Drinker
00:35:01.420 and Nerdrotic that I'm big fans of, 0.94
00:35:03.120 they talk about this now the girl boss era,
00:35:05.220 where now basically we're trying to make 0.93
00:35:07.000 all the women strong and independent,
00:35:09.560 and we're reacting to sort of now us being,
00:35:11.600 We've shattered the patriarchy because now we're past the Harvey Weinstein era of being manipulated by evil Harvey Weinstein.
00:35:22.260 And now we've turned all the women into men.
00:35:25.040 And so that's what you see with Taylor Swift.
00:35:27.200 She's 33, 34 years old. 0.90
00:35:29.340 She's never been married.
00:35:30.540 She's had 15, 16 boyfriends.
00:35:34.060 And I think she also has kind of really now a lot of younger influencers now
00:35:39.900 who are like 18 and 20, and in the 18 and 20s,
00:35:42.980 they start referring to their experiences as men as a body count, right?
00:35:47.740 And so I think very much when people look at her,
00:35:50.580 you know, she's now this billionaire, this self-accomplished person,
00:35:54.080 you really have to ask with everything that she promotes and represents, 0.97
00:35:57.460 is there truly anything as far as the role that the biblical beautiful feminine role that women
00:36:05.980 are called to that spur men on to great deeds to do very masculine things like there's a
00:36:12.940 there's a beautiful aspect that God that God made does she represent any of that and I would say
00:36:19.960 unequivocally no and not only is the question no what is the underlying worldview behind that
00:36:26.040 and it has to do with the current spirit of the age of the rise from a Judeo-Christian society
00:36:32.440 into neo-paganism, where you're looking at the worship exchange, where we're worshiping the
00:36:37.800 creation, we're worshiping. When Jeremiah says Judeo-Christian, he means just Christian.
00:36:43.340 Yes. Yes. People can always give me a fact that just what it comes to mind.
00:36:47.560 I know. Well, it's been said so many times, and I understand the sentiment,
00:36:51.340 but I do, I can't help myself, but I do point out to our listeners from time to time,
00:36:56.040 that like, because I think some people
00:36:59.740 just have a bad idea of, you know, they think,
00:37:02.900 oh, well, just Old Testament, you know,
00:37:04.700 before the coming of Christ.
00:37:05.860 And it's like, oh, no, the Talmudic Judaism hates Christ.
00:37:10.360 It's, so it's not like these two things are somewhat alike.
00:37:12.920 It's no, Judeo-Christian, it would be like jumbo shrimp,
00:37:17.260 you know, or intelligent liberal, you know,
00:37:19.560 or like, yeah, it's an oxymoron. 0.99
00:37:20.840 Imitation crap. 1.00
00:37:22.220 Yeah, imitation crap. 1.00
00:37:23.520 So, but anyways, go back to you. 0.99
00:37:24.520 But you see, and also that, you know, within paganism, there's neutrality as a myth.
00:37:28.460 So, we're always, every religion, every worldview requires us to worship with our bodies.
00:37:33.040 Yeah.
00:37:33.400 So, we're called to, in Romans 12, to make our, present our bodies as a living sacrifice.
00:37:38.160 And you see, you see both men and women responding to Taylor Swift with worshiping with their bodies.
00:37:44.120 So, you see every woman who now is obsessively into Taylor Swift, they become more, they embrace promiscuity that's normalized in very subtle ways. 0.61
00:37:54.520 and she's sort of graduated people into that.
00:37:57.120 But also, the men who follow Taylor Swift,
00:38:00.040 they're very effeminate. 0.68
00:38:01.260 They're very effeminate. 0.94
00:38:02.460 They're, yeah, I mean, they're... 1.00
00:38:04.640 I always say, you know, it's women of both sexes. 1.00
00:38:07.260 Yeah. 1.00
00:38:07.920 You know, women of both sexes.
00:38:09.020 Not all male, I would say not all male fans 1.00
00:38:12.480 are who follow Taylor Swift, the homosexuals, 1.00
00:38:15.340 but all homosexuals who, like, 0.95
00:38:17.480 who follow Taylor Swift are fans, 0.86
00:38:19.040 if you put it that way.
00:38:20.300 Yeah, that's a good word.
00:38:20.780 Yeah, so you see, like, men who sent for her,
00:38:23.240 And that's part of what Eric Conn was really tapping into.
00:38:25.820 Like all the men who are angry at Eric for just calling it as it is.
00:38:30.800 And I would adhere to it.
00:38:31.660 There's nothing wrong.
00:38:32.640 I would agree with the sentiments with what Eric said.
00:38:35.420 I mean, he kind of, he tapped into something.
00:38:37.700 But you look at the men who are upset at that tweet.
00:38:42.980 They were, many of them were just very effeminate.
00:38:45.520 Very, very, they would follow that suit. 1.00
00:38:48.660 And then the girls who are- 0.74
00:38:49.880 And many of them are pastors.
00:38:50.360 Many of them are professing Christians or pastors.
00:38:52.400 And I'm not saying that they're unregenerated or they're not Christians, but it's like,
00:38:57.020 well, what's their angle?
00:38:57.960 Is that like, surely they don't think that, you know, Taylor Swift is going to see their
00:39:01.300 defense of her on Twitter and give them a phone call or what are these, you know, these
00:39:04.720 are, are married Christian men who are pastors.
00:39:08.040 Like what's the angle?
00:39:09.160 What's the motivation? 0.99
00:39:10.460 Oh, I know the women in their church, like this is their opportunity to white night and
00:39:15.900 to come out on Twitter, not because Taylor Swift is going to see it, but because of all
00:39:19.340 the women in their church that are going to see it.
00:39:20.780 and guess what? At the end of the day, how do I keep families in my church? Who's the decision
00:39:25.140 maker for that household in the pew that determines which church the family goes to?
00:39:30.480 It's not the husband. It's the wife. So I got to keep them happy. I hear from pastors all the 0.77
00:39:36.860 time. They'll email me or call and ask for counsel. And one of the things that comes up
00:39:41.620 regularly is, hey, we had an elders meeting. There's a difficult situation, but we prayed
00:39:46.520 about it. We talked about it. We hashed it out over the course of, you know, a couple hours
00:39:49.760 and we all ended up agreeing. We came to unanimous decision, but then, uh, like clockwork, you know,
00:39:55.480 two, three days later, I started getting phone calls individually from each of the other elders
00:39:59.900 saying, you know, after thinking about it and after more prayer, you know, you know, I've kind
00:40:03.600 of thought, you know, maybe this isn't the right direction to go. And, and that phenomenon happens
00:40:08.120 a lot. This, this, um, this retrospect, um, you know, hindsight, uh, the elders are, you know,
00:40:15.480 they have a conviction they're in line with something and then they change their mind and
00:40:20.200 um and guys ask me what is that phenomenon it's so frequent it happens all and i've been able to
00:40:25.400 helpfully explain to them that phenomenon is um that's the elder's wife right they went home and
00:40:30.400 they talked to their wife yeah she doesn't like it and you guys are making a masculine decision
00:40:34.980 it's something that uh is you know it's tapping into some some spine some courage uh it's a hard
00:40:41.960 decision, but it is the right decision, you know. And the wives don't like it. So when that elder
00:40:48.120 calls you back three days later and says, well, I prayed about it and after giving it more thought,
00:40:51.560 what he's actually saying is I talked to my wife and she doesn't like it. At the end of the day,
00:40:55.580 she's in charge. Yeah. And that just goes to show just how deep this is already incorporated. I 0.90
00:41:00.020 think we've only seen the birth pangs of what it means to be now in being in a free fall into
00:41:05.780 neo-paganism. And now what's interesting is that going back to like whether about Taylor Swift and
00:41:11.120 other influencers saying that she's a witch there is there is a saying that while not all uh feminists
00:41:16.940 are witches all witches are feminists and that and that's another good point right and that and 1.00
00:41:21.620 that's not just that and that's not a cute like little like tweet just to kind of get some people
00:41:25.820 rising that's that's an objective incontrovertible fact um and also you could even argue that warlocks 0.86
00:41:31.960 as a whole are generally like very gay and effeminate yeah like that that's what you want 0.80
00:41:35.980 that's what you end up seeing but not only that what what else is being what else is promoted 0.98
00:41:40.200 through her. She promotes promiscuity. She promotes abortion. She promotes the blurring 1.00
00:41:46.760 of genders, which is a direct byproduct of the blurring of neopaganism. That's a direct byproduct 1.00
00:41:52.380 of that. So everything we're dealing with. Everything's one instead of two. Everything's
00:41:55.080 one versus two. So now there's no distinction of genders. Now there's these are, they, them, 0.95
00:41:59.900 this, that, and the other. She's now being propagated up by the World Economic Forum,
00:42:04.260 who is very much has a worldview of oneness and the United Nations. 0.92
00:42:07.540 Right, no distinct genders, no distinct nations, just one global order. 0.98
00:42:11.480 And she also is very much pushing the current climate change agenda.
00:42:16.000 And while Christians, we do have responsibility to take dominion over the earth and give up environmental responsibility. 0.86
00:42:21.900 Like the Christians in the 1970s, they gave up that responsibility and they handed it over. 0.85
00:42:27.500 And because of that, now it's in the hands of the pagans who are pushing a climate change agenda.
00:42:31.880 And when you look at the worldview being propagated behind it, it's talking about we all have to come to this awareness that we are all one, that we are all part of this divine consciousness.
00:42:41.240 This is part of our ascension.
00:42:43.760 And that's what you want to say.
00:42:45.400 And that is absolutely everything that Taylor Swift stands for.
00:42:48.120 She's said it time and time and time again in interviews and even working pieces into her songs or whether it's a music video.
00:42:56.880 she does believe all those and your point is saying okay so taylor swift may not own a deck
00:43:02.560 of tarot cards personally right she may not you know be a witch casting spells you know in a dungeon
00:43:08.780 underneath her mansion personally but everything that she advocates for um all those things are
00:43:14.940 top tier issues of the divine feminine and behind that there really is a spirit yeah yes andrew
00:43:21.940 Yeah. So I like to tie all things back into the gospel. And you said something very powerful earlier that the woman is the glory of man, right? So when we're thinking about the woman today and the power that she has within this divine feminism, what does it say about the man, right? And when I'm thinking about divine feminism, we can also tie asceticism into this, like man-made worship. We're innately created to worship as human beings, but false worship also brings false sacrifice and strange fire to God.
00:43:50.600 So what is the man supposed to do? It says in the Bible, we're supposed to love our wives like
00:43:54.560 Christ loved the church, give ourselves up for her, right? Number one, pointing her to Christ
00:43:59.800 and his sacrifice, God's death on the cross for our sins, but also sacrificing our lives for her. 0.70
00:44:06.280 But what we're seeing with the woman today is a lack of manliness from leaders of men, right? 0.59
00:44:11.240 So they're looking to sacrifice themselves, their own bodies to try to have peace with God or try 0.68
00:44:16.100 to have knowledge in a relationship with God, but it's the wrong God to begin with because there's
00:44:20.380 no men to lead them to the true and living God, right? Besides, you know, of course, the Christian 0.99
00:44:25.120 men that God has preserved in the church, God's elect. But it's saying something about our society
00:44:30.020 today. And in forms of asceticism, we would talk about androgyny, right? Where men then, or women
00:44:36.480 actually, you know, sacrifice their own bodies to awaken this spark of divine within them to find 0.87
00:44:42.400 their maleness, right? Where they're literally doing, mutilating their own bodies, right? They're
00:44:48.200 cutting off pieces of their arms to form genitals that aren't even real. This is a form of worship 0.98
00:44:52.980 and it's a worship that can't save them. It's not, it's a worship that doesn't make them know
00:44:57.780 who they truly are. The only way we can really know ourselves is through scripture because God
00:45:01.940 tells us who we are. I'd like to flesh that out just a little bit. Like, what do you think about
00:45:07.000 that, Joel? About androgyny? Phrase the question again. Yeah, like androgyny, asceticism,
00:45:13.920 self-sacrifice uh instead of the sacrifice of christ like what does it say when we think of
00:45:20.440 women being in the glory of man what does it say about men in our culture today yeah yeah if if
00:45:25.800 woman is a reflection of man in the glory of man and woman right now is completely often left field
00:45:32.680 then uh it's absolutely because men have abdicated uh that role and and they have so men have failed
00:45:39.220 in large part um and in terms of like you know pagan worship and like you know like you said
00:45:44.420 you know like a woman you know transgenderism and a woman who's you know taking a piece of her arm
00:45:49.620 and creating you know an appendage that does not belong there um i think of you know it's it's none
00:45:56.940 of this i think it's helpful for the listener just to be aware none of it's novel like none of this
00:46:01.200 is new it may seem new um but there's nothing new under the sun um there may be uh you know
00:46:08.040 different expressions, you know, because Romans one does talk about inventors of evil. So there
00:46:13.720 is a sense in which like there are within different time periods and generations and
00:46:17.900 cultures, new expressions of evil, but it's the same underlining gods, lowercase g, you know,
00:46:25.440 false deities. So I think it was Gohardus Vos who said that, you know, we always compare abortion
00:46:32.380 to, you know, saying like, well, that's not new. That's just worship of Molech, right? You know, 0.98
00:46:36.620 the sacrificing of children uh but transgenderism um uh he he said that um that that it would be
00:46:45.880 likened to asherah um so i think of like tolkien you know and um the two towers and you know
00:46:52.860 isengard and you know saruman one of the things you know he wants to stop one of the first things
00:46:57.720 he wants to uproot and destroys the trees right and he's like take down the trees you know and
00:47:02.560 right and there's like they're but they're strong their roots go deep you know but he wants to take
00:47:06.740 them down and then he wants to strip them of their branches their fruitfulness and so the the verdant
00:47:12.160 the greenery the you know the fruitfulness the life bearing you know essence of trees he wants
00:47:18.860 to strip down and they become and this is how voss you know like what uh his you know he's not
00:47:24.380 talking about tolkien but he him talking about asherah asherah was um stripped naked barren 0.94
00:47:30.980 pole. It was the opposite of a tree. So rather than a tree that has branches and limbs and 0.62
00:47:37.360 fruitfulness and leaves, it is a tree that has been stripped. It's a tree that's been castrated.
00:47:43.140 All of its appendages, all of its limbs and all of its fruitfulness have been taken from it. And so
00:47:50.060 Molech, abortion. Asherah, transgenderism. And so I, you know, that maybe doesn't really answer 0.97
00:47:57.220 your question, but just one thing that I was thinking about, you know, as you were talking,
00:48:00.240 andrews i think you know one thing to understand about you know what's going on in this current
00:48:05.500 moment in our culture is um and jeremiah you've already talked about some of this too but none of
00:48:10.720 it is that new like it is it's the old gods returning this isn't just oh we're just secular
00:48:16.040 humanists you know like secular humanism was always just a temporary placeholder it was the
00:48:21.440 illusion of neutrality to to try to get people to let uh to ultimately to let go of the heritage
00:48:28.420 of Christendom, right? Because we've got to get rid of Christ and nobody's going to just trade
00:48:32.820 Christ, you know, straight up for Satan, you know? So let's, you know, we can't just say, hey, we
00:48:36.680 would like you to let go of Christ and all the blessings that he gives for Molech, right? You 0.99
00:48:41.280 know, like, well, that's, that's a harder sell than to say, you know what, don't let go of Christ.
00:48:46.080 You do you, boo, right? Do your Christian thing in your home, you know, in private, but in the
00:48:51.500 public square, just out of tolerance and sensitivity and compassion towards others, which is a
00:48:55.780 Christian principle, by the way, let's not, you know, embrace Satan, but let's just embrace
00:48:59.660 neutrality, right? But then secular humanism, like clockwork, and I would add classical liberalism in
00:49:05.540 this as well, was only really just a temporary placeholder, because at the end of the day,
00:49:10.520 as you lose Christ, you don't, you're not left with neutrality. Something fills the void. It's
00:49:15.620 not Christ or neutrality, it's Christ or chaos, and what is filling the void is what has always
00:49:20.720 filled the void, very real deities, lowercase d, lowercase g, gods, and they're the same ones
00:49:28.380 from long, long ago. Asherah, Molech, these kind, and these things are coming back.
00:49:34.540 Yeah, and just if we can divert from Taylor Swift for a moment, I'll kind of approach it 0.96
00:49:38.280 from another angle. And it's very interesting because, you know, I'm somewhat of a movie nerd
00:49:42.560 and I really, I love, I'm a big connoisseur of film and love analyzing film and all that stuff.
00:49:48.340 I'm probably going to eventually be doing my own podcast and eventually, but I think even a lot of the culture, even when it comes to people who are nerds and movie critics and different YouTube and influencers, they're more aware of what's going on than even a lot of Christians as far as how the rise of the divine feminine has taken over entertainment.
00:50:06.220 And so, you mentioned a moment ago, Tolkien, and just how he articulated that world, that there's so many underlining Christian worldviews and perspectives that are given throughout Tolkien's work.
00:50:19.420 We look at definitive good versus evil and just all the different, everything that represents good and virtue in the world.
00:50:25.720 And there's a reason why those stories and like just the music, like you hear Howard Shore's music and it stirs our hearts and emotions.
00:50:34.600 And like now there's even new generations that see those movies and they're moved by it.
00:50:41.200 But how do you go from a point where you have Tolkien who depicted Galadriel where Gimli says, oh, if I could just get three strands from her hair, that's all that I want.
00:50:51.420 And so you see this nobility, this beautiful nobility between men and women.
00:50:55.420 And even those, even like other worldviews and people who aren't Christians, they understand that there's a beauty and mystique and lore that's a distinctly Christian perspective between masculine and feminine.
00:51:05.200 But then what you now see in the whole – even in film now, you have this era of the girl boss era where the same zeitgeist behind Taylor Swift is now depicted in modern entertainment where every single girl is a girl boss where she is basically – she's insufferable. 0.99
00:51:22.140 She's an insufferable Mary Sue. 1.00
00:51:23.560 She doesn't need no man. 0.99
00:51:25.040 She's practically perfect in every way.
00:51:26.960 She's never allowed to struggle. 0.99
00:51:28.960 And so – and it's already wrecked a bunch of franchises.
00:51:32.600 They ruined the Star Wars series.
00:51:34.100 They did that by introducing, they did that with Rey.
00:51:37.040 They did that, they ruined Indiana Jones, their new IP. 0.94
00:51:40.460 They're trying to replace, they're trying to take all the classical male characters and replace them with women. 0.99
00:51:45.540 Right. 0.90
00:51:45.840 And they're turning the women into men.
00:51:47.620 And you saw it depicted in the Rings of Power series, where you took Galadriel, who in the books, as far as the fandom,
00:51:55.880 they see her as this irreverent, beautiful, feminine character,
00:51:58.940 where she ended up being the most hated character 0.98
00:52:01.760 in the new series 1.00
00:52:02.480 because they turned her into this insufferable girl boss, 1.00
00:52:05.960 Mary Sue. 1.00
00:52:06.600 Like people despised her.
00:52:08.020 Like there were literal comments they were saying
00:52:09.660 is because of this depiction of Galadriel,
00:52:12.080 like I'm rooting for Saruman.
00:52:13.760 Like that's how much they depicted that.
00:52:15.820 So I think what you are really seeing
00:52:18.200 is that even the culture people like,
00:52:20.740 if people may listen to me,
00:52:22.000 know there's influence I mentioned before,
00:52:24.060 Heel versus Babyface, Critical Drinker, Nerd Rock.
00:52:26.820 These are big YouTube influencers
00:52:28.060 that have been like talking about this.
00:52:30.340 They are, you are seeing the rise of the girl boss in films.
00:52:34.180 And it's the same zeitgeist of the rise of the divine feminine
00:52:36.900 where Taylor Swift would also be seen as this like girl boss.
00:52:40.860 But there's nothing virtuous 1.00
00:52:42.940 as far as like the role that a woman should be. 1.00
00:52:46.060 And I think that, and that's something too,
00:52:47.680 like if I have a daughter,
00:52:48.580 I need to be very, very careful about what she's exposed to,
00:52:52.200 like the film that she's exposed to.
00:52:54.680 And even like, I would even use that as a distinction between,
00:52:57.580 I want you to be the Galadriel of Tolkien, not the insufferable Mary Sue of Amazon. 1.00
00:53:06.640 So how long can divine feminism last? 1.00
00:53:09.840 Like when I think about divine feminism, I think that it already died at the resurrection of Christ.
00:53:14.460 Like when I think of Colossians 2, it says he disarmed all rulers, principalities, powers, and put them to open shame.
00:53:20.020 He triumphed over them in him.
00:53:22.940 So when we're even talking about the return of the old gods,
00:53:26.580 they don't have the power they had before.
00:53:29.220 They don't.
00:53:29.860 So that's, I think that's very interesting.
00:53:32.760 I've been thinking about this a lot
00:53:33.820 and I'd love to hear you guys' thoughts
00:53:35.440 because I could be wrong.
00:53:36.960 I do think that there is a very real and objective
00:53:40.460 and final sense in which, like disarmed, 0.71
00:53:45.540 like Christ, I think, so that's an objective,
00:53:47.180 definitive, and I think indefinite thing.
00:53:49.060 I think that these powers, these princes over principalities, demonic princes, fallen angels, that they really were stripped and disarmed by Christ and that they're not ever going to be able to attain their former glory.
00:54:06.600 I think that's true.
00:54:07.940 But I also do think that it's not just make believe or people pretending or hysteria, you know, that's conjured up and manufactured by man.
00:54:16.600 I think there really is dark, sinister, nefarious spiritual energy that we've seen post-Christ
00:54:23.560 and his resurrection and glorious ascension that we've seen these last 2,000 years of 0.54
00:54:29.000 this gospel age throughout church history in places that are uniquely unchristianized.
00:54:36.200 So, you know, like places I think, you know, in Africa or places in the South Americas
00:54:41.200 or places in Asia, places that have not been thoroughly Christianized, when Christians 0.91
00:54:48.480 eventually did go there, they were usually witch doctors, and they had some kind of power.
00:54:54.640 It wasn't just like the Janus and Jambres, the magician henchmen of Pharaoh.
00:55:04.900 I don't think that it was just smoke and mirrors.
00:55:07.280 I don't think it was sleight of hand.
00:55:08.440 I think they were using actual magic, demonic arts, dark arts.
00:55:14.880 And then they're not able, you know, Ben and Brian have said this, you know, and I think it's insightful.
00:55:20.920 After the third, you know, so they're keeping up tit for tat. 0.83
00:55:23.700 You know, it's lesser, it's inferior, but they're still able to, you know, Moses does something by the power of Yahweh. 0.85
00:55:28.660 And then they do, you know, they do something. 0.87
00:55:30.440 But after the third, you know, the Nile turning into blood. 0.62
00:55:35.400 Well, that was their fertility god. 1.00
00:55:37.660 Right.
00:55:37.880 you know, represented in the Nile. And the blood signified not just, oh, I'm turning water into
00:55:42.820 blood. Like, you know, it's a random thing and just shows supernatural, you know, ability and
00:55:46.340 power. No, there's a symbolism there. It's I've taken your river God, this goddess, and it was
00:55:51.540 a female God that represents fertility. And the reason why the Nile, its place of habitation has
00:55:59.380 turned to blood is because I killed your God. It's the blood of your God. And after the third,
00:56:04.860 when God, Yahweh, kills their God. 0.89
00:56:08.740 That God of fertility also happened to be the God of witchcraft. 0.79
00:56:12.720 And then after then, you don't see Jonas and Jambres
00:56:15.540 able to do the spells that they were able to do
00:56:18.780 in keeping tit for tat with Moses.
00:56:21.520 And so my point is, now all that again is back to what you said, Andrew.
00:56:25.620 That's pre-Christ in his incarnation,
00:56:28.320 in his death and resurrection and ascension.
00:56:31.560 And now we are post-Christ.
00:56:32.980 So I do think something objective happened at the cross.
00:56:35.740 I don't think, I know, Colossians says it.
00:56:38.680 So I know something objective happened.
00:56:41.200 And so I don't think that there will be demonic powers
00:56:44.040 with the same degree of power and license
00:56:47.960 to just roam around and do whatever they want
00:56:50.720 as princes over principalities,
00:56:54.040 such as Assyria and Babylon
00:56:55.620 and things before, in the Old Testament,
00:56:58.860 before the coming of Christ.
00:57:00.300 But disarmed doesn't mean dead.
00:57:04.080 Shamed doesn't mean necessarily imprisoned,
00:57:06.940 although we know some are, right?
00:57:08.160 So Jude, right?
00:57:09.100 Gloomy dungeon.
00:57:09.900 So some are imprisoned.
00:57:11.800 All, I think in a real way are disarmed.
00:57:14.820 And so that means something.
00:57:17.180 It means less, but it doesn't mean nothing.
00:57:19.860 And I do think that there's something to be said
00:57:22.060 for places where the gospel hasn't gone.
00:57:25.900 When Christians finally do arrive, 1.00
00:57:27.600 you find these as dark strongholds 1.00
00:57:31.940 where false gods still have some power.
00:57:36.160 And my question is this,
00:57:37.160 because this is what we haven't really yet seen
00:57:38.720 in 2000 years of church history.
00:57:40.560 We've seen since Christ and his victory, 1.00
00:57:43.620 we've seen non-Christianized places 1.00
00:57:46.460 where dark power still resides. 0.98
00:57:48.700 What we haven't seen yet though 1.00
00:57:50.240 is a place that has been thoroughly Christianized
00:57:53.280 and then went back to the old gods. 0.98
00:57:55.940 And I think that what Jesus said for an individual man, I think the principle rings true for
00:58:02.320 nations at a corporate level as well.
00:58:04.760 He says that when a spirit is cast out, it goes through waterless places, arid places,
00:58:10.060 and the house, the man with the spirit formally resided, is swept clean and put in order.
00:58:16.340 But it's one thing for it to be ordered, and that's good.
00:58:19.840 But if the house is only ordered and not filled, then eventually the spirit will come back
00:58:25.260 with seven friends worse than itself
00:58:27.140 and re-inhabit the man and now an ordered house
00:58:30.880 and the latter state of the man
00:58:33.500 will be worse than the former.
00:58:35.100 I wonder applying that principle to nations,
00:58:38.240 like when you think a well-ordered house,
00:58:40.240 like what did the Christian worldview give us?
00:58:42.860 What did Christ give us?
00:58:44.080 And not just in our churches
00:58:45.840 and in our private practices of piety,
00:58:48.620 but all of Christ for all of life in every single realm.
00:58:51.620 Like, well, the Christian worldview has given us,
00:58:53.940 well it's given us weapons it's given us uh physics to be able to make a bombs nuclear
00:59:02.480 like what is that i i look at that as like america like the man the house um and then
00:59:09.140 the swept clean and put in order is christendom giving us all these innovations the christian
00:59:14.540 worldview leading towards all these innovations and things that we now know technology and all
00:59:18.860 uh ai you know which we're going to get into in a later episode so you've got the house
00:59:23.180 think but apply that not to an individual but a nation you've got christendom that comes in
00:59:27.520 kicks out the demons uh sweeps it all and puts it in order that's the uh the the fruit of christendom
00:59:32.940 that's your technology uh technological advances and innovation all those but then but then what
00:59:37.580 if that house apostatizes and then the demon comes back with seven of its friends right
00:59:44.200 I like what is what is a a old god pagan god nation with nuclear capacity look like yeah what 0.90
00:59:54.300 is that because we know pagan nations that I mean let's be frank pagan nations that live in huts 0.79
00:59:59.400 and throw rocks what what about a pagan nation with nukes that's where we're headed see and I've 0.87
01:00:07.940 been thinking about this a lot too and I I think the way it works at least in my brain is that
01:00:13.580 regardless of what the nation believes, they're covenanted to Christ. And in Psalm 2, it says
01:00:17.420 that if they don't obey, he will break them like a pot shirt. When I think about the disobedience
01:00:21.500 and rebellion of our nation today, in terms of Christ's kingship, they can't be apostatized from
01:00:29.400 his kingship. They can rebel against his kingship. But with the return of the old gods, I see it
01:00:33.200 actually as more of like a kicking against the goads. It's a people trying to resurrect and
01:00:37.320 feign resurrection of old gods that have been disarmed, have no more power. So I think humanity
01:00:42.700 has an excellent way of trying to find another scapegoat other than Christ. So shifting blame
01:00:47.680 from the inventors of evil, who is man, and placing it on the spiritual powers of the world.
01:00:53.800 I think what God is trying to show humanity is that you can't always blame the demons.
01:00:58.260 The evil's in you. And it needs to be crucified. And God judges nations by sending spirits, right?
01:01:03.760 So we see Saul was what? He was sent a deceiving spirit. And it was in order to judge him,
01:01:10.300 spirit, an evil spirit for his glory, for his will, for his sovereignty. So I don't, I don't
01:01:16.600 think any nation can actually be apostatized in terms of its covenant to Christ because the
01:01:21.740 success of the nations is predicated through the perfect kingship of Jesus. So I think he'll use
01:01:27.020 them and, and that's a sign of his sovereignty. So not only are they disarmed, but now they're
01:01:32.900 going to be used to bring about the obedience of the nations through the judgment of the nations.
01:01:38.080 Speaking of these demonic spirits being used. 0.75
01:01:41.220 Yeah, and hopefully bring about the sanctification of the church
01:01:44.420 and obedience of the nations.
01:01:46.340 And the way that we would, even with church discipline,
01:01:48.480 so taking it from a national perspective,
01:01:50.380 like I handed these men, Hymenaeus and Alexander,
01:01:53.540 I handed these men over to Satan for the destruction of their flesh
01:01:57.280 so that their soul might be saved.
01:01:59.420 Right, yeah.
01:02:00.140 And they might be taught not to blaspheme any longer.
01:02:02.740 So you're articulating that Satan and other powers, dark powers, disarmed but not dead and utilized by God in the same way in church discipline.
01:02:17.920 Handing over to Satan is not a final handing over to Satan in terms of hell, but it would be handing over to Satan in this life temporarily that Satan might be used as a teacher to demonstrate how good God is.
01:02:32.740 and calls the person to return to Christ.
01:02:34.620 I think Satan hates that.
01:02:35.820 Yeah.
01:02:36.140 He hates that because no matter what he does,
01:02:37.620 it brings the success and obedience of the nations.
01:02:39.500 I can get behind that.
01:02:40.600 But I do think, I think that in that case,
01:02:43.580 both are true, that there's Christendom,
01:02:46.180 cast out the demons, seven more come back,
01:02:50.080 and the nation is in dire straits for a season.
01:02:55.020 And it's both and.
01:02:55.900 It's look how bad this is.
01:02:57.920 And also look at what God's doing in using this.
01:03:01.840 I like that.
01:03:02.140 And then brings, you know, and then brings the nation ultimately back to repentance and
01:03:05.520 it becomes Christian once more. 0.92
01:03:06.880 Right. 1.00
01:03:07.280 But at the end of the day, though, we all know Christian, you know, nations can't be 0.97
01:03:10.960 Christian. 1.00
01:03:11.740 You can't have a Christian family unless, you know, not if you have an infant, they 1.00
01:03:14.840 better all be regenerated. 1.00
01:03:15.740 You can't have a Christian family, cannot have a Christian school, cannot have a Christian 1.00
01:03:18.540 business, cannot have a Christian nation. 1.00
01:03:20.680 I'm being facetious. 1.00
01:03:22.340 But that's what I keep hearing from Reformed guys on Twitter. 1.00
01:03:24.800 Right. 1.00
01:03:25.260 I've been assured you cannot have any Christian thing except for an individual regenerate 0.97
01:03:29.860 heart. 0.76
01:03:30.840 Well, I think Isaiah 9 actually argues that.
01:03:34.740 Yeah, and one last thing I'll just say too as we wrap up here is that Gary North,
01:03:39.680 he had a book he wrote called Unholy Spirits.
01:03:42.900 And one of the things you said is that occultism is always the fruit that comes about
01:03:48.860 at any civilization being at its world's end.
01:03:53.420 Same basically the Vikings at the door at the capital in Rome, 0.75
01:03:57.920 like what Augustinian talked about in The City of God. 0.84
01:04:01.260 And you see that when you think about the Dark Ages and the Renaissance
01:04:03.900 and the rising and falling of civilizations all throughout the Middle Ages.
01:04:07.480 You see a rise in occultism at the brink of a society collapsing.
01:04:12.940 And so that's what we're seeing.
01:04:14.140 And so as I mentioned before, you're talking about the zeitgeist of the age.
01:04:18.420 Not all feminists are witches, but all witches are feminists.
01:04:21.520 And when you just think about that, the amount of pieces of content on TikTok, 1.00
01:04:25.460 there's a trending hashtag witch talk.
01:04:27.680 It's the amount of pieces of content
01:04:29.860 somewhere around 70 or 80 billion.
01:04:32.260 That's the amount of content that's out there
01:04:34.120 just in regards to-
01:04:36.080 It's not a small fringe thing.
01:04:37.560 This is not a fringe.
01:04:38.440 There's more, they already gave,
01:04:39.680 this is like five or six years ago.
01:04:41.180 Well, five years ago when we started
01:04:42.220 one of our first interviews,
01:04:43.940 our guests stated that there's now more notable witches 0.67
01:04:47.120 than Presbyterians. 0.85
01:04:48.640 Wow. 1.00
01:04:49.240 That's what we're dealing with.
01:04:51.660 And so what we're also dealing with too
01:04:53.800 is that as a whole,
01:04:55.140 we were dealing with an era of re-enchantment, the return of the old gods. So what may at one
01:05:00.720 time may have just been a concert where you hear someone look to, you're now looking at a place
01:05:06.040 where goddess worship is taking place. And there's nothing really new about that.
01:05:11.760 Right. Even as Taylor Swift doesn't mean it, there is a spirit behind her that means it.
01:05:15.340 And there are thousands of young girls in the audience. Taylor Swift may not view herself as
01:05:19.780 a witch, but there are thousands of girls in the audience who are worshiping, really are. And it's
01:05:24.960 like oh you guys are being you're being hyperbolic no you can you can talk and interview people or
01:05:29.440 watch their tiktok video like oh my god and not just oh my god i met my you know my my um my my
01:05:35.620 favorite celebrity but it's like like they they will call her like a god i mean yeah there's
01:05:40.420 reddit um threads that talk about defending taylor swifties swifties and they say well
01:05:44.220 they're not just attacking taylor swift they're attacking me that's the reality of it yeah and
01:05:49.040 that and that's where you see and that's where i say are arguably and unequivocally without even
01:05:53.440 being sensational, is I would say that the same spirit and zeitgeist behind the Swifty and the
01:05:58.720 Taylor Swift movement now, and they at one time been sort of this fun artist you could sort of
01:06:04.100 be a fan of, is turned into this, is captured in really the same zeitgeist and spirit of the age
01:06:09.920 that not in modernity, there's nothing new under the sun, the same zeitgeist and spirit of the age
01:06:14.440 of what was articulated next when everyone shouted out, great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
01:06:18.380 I would not make any distinction between the two.
01:06:20.640 very interesting all right well thanks guys yeah fantastic first episode and to the listener uh we
01:06:27.340 encourage you to tune in for the whole series we'll be dropping one episode each week on fridays
01:06:32.260 but if you join us on patreon you can get the whole season ad free uh early access right now
01:06:38.820 real quick before you go we hope that you enjoyed the episode and we hope that you're eager for more
01:06:44.140 however as i already said these will be slow dripping out over the course of weeks and even a
01:06:50.020 few months but not to worry if you want to be able to watch all 10 of these episodes right now
01:06:56.960 ad free all you got to do is join us as a silver tier member over on patreon.com
01:07:03.840 forward slash right response ministries god bless