Christianity vs. Conservatism

Andrew Rappaport's Rapp Report

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ChumbaCasino .com No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. See website for details. Welcome to The Rap Report.

00:32

I'm your host, Andrew Rapaport. And on today's episode, I am on another Christian podcast community member's podcast.

00:41

It is Voice of Reason Radio. An excellent podcast, one I listen to regularly.

00:47

Love the guys and everything that they end up teaching there. I commend that podcast to you and encourage you to go check out

00:55

Voice of Reason. We were on this episode talking about the difference between Christianity and conservatism.

01:02

So those are two things that you'll end up seeing that people think are the same.

01:08

We're going to discuss that they are different. Very important distinctions that you'll see here. This is coming your way right now on The Rap Report.

01:19

Welcome to The Rap Report with your host, Andrew Rapaport, where we provide biblical interpretation and application.

01:25

This is a ministry of striving for eternity and the Christian podcast community. For more content or to request a speaker for your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.

01:39

Well, welcome once again to Voice of Reason Radio. We are joining you on this March 19th, 2022.

01:47

I would normally say Chris Honholtz and Richard Story, but Rich can't be here. Rich and family are, let's just say they've got a few illness bugs attacking them at various places and persons.

02:00

And so just keep them in your prayers. You're about to be spared, though, because it was just going to be me.

02:07

It was just going to be me chatting away at the microphone, and you're going to have to put up with listening to me by myself for at least 60 minutes, if not longer, given how long -winded

02:17

I tend to be and seem to like to hear myself talk. So, but thankfully, well, let's just put it this way.

02:24

Rich, it was going to take three preacher podcasters to replace you, because that's how many people jumped up, threw up their hands and said, hey,

02:32

I can come on. That's how many it takes to replace Rich. There is no comparison.

02:38

So, yeah, no, I'm very grateful to actually have a good brother on, one who has complained often in the past. We've never had him on enough.

02:44

So, I just felt so bad, you know, decided, you know, I had so many offers. But, you know, I am so glad to be joined by my good friend and brother in Christ, Andrew Rappaport from Striving for Eternity.

02:54

How are you doing this week, brother? Good. I'm just, I was shocked. You told me that Dr. James White was willing to fill in.

03:02

You weren't supposed to drop names, man. And I said, hey, he's a better person to have on.

03:08

But you said, hey, first come, first serve. Actually, he also wasn't feeling too well, but he was willing.

03:14

He was willing. He was willing. I was, I wasn't going to name drop because that felt like, you know, just poor form.

03:24

But no, he, you had offered and you and I had already kind of worked it out. He had actually asked if we would like him to fill in for Rich.

03:32

And this is what I mean when this is what it takes to replace Rich. I need to have people like this to sit in for him.

03:39

And unfortunately, even though we were trying to maybe coordinate, have both of you on, he actually was feeling under the weather.

03:44

And so he wasn't able to actually make it after all. But the fact that he offered, I was, I was very honored, very humbled that he was willing to do that.

03:51

Thanks, Dr. White. It was very kind of you. And then Jean Cliet from up in the Piney Woods also jumped on.

03:56

So I had three preacher podcasters trying to, you know, say, we'll, we'll fill in for, that's what it takes to fill in for Rich is to get this caliber of, of, well,

04:06

I mean, of talent. Rich can always be here in spirit because we have, we always have this. Do that.

04:12

Although I haven't been frequently. Okay. Now I'm glad that we have the video because I always watch you spill out your water as I hit play on that.

04:24

You hit it. You got it too soon. I wasn't ready and I knew you were going to bring that up. Poor Rich.

04:30

The Andrew has this fascination with finding our, but we do not, you know, we do one take video recordings occasionally.

04:38

If something really goes wonky, I'll pause, edit, cut, take it out. But what you hear is 99 % of the time is what you get.

04:46

And Andrew still likes to find those things and record them and keep them for his own use. And so poor

04:52

Rich gets tongue tied once in a while, still gets picked on by him.

04:58

And I wasn't ready. I went to take a drink as you were talking. I'm all swallowed and choked. Oh, thank goodness.

05:03

This isn't alive. Kill you on your own show. But, but in all seriousness, I I'm glad to be here.

05:10

It, it, it is always good being with either one of you guys, you or Rich.

05:17

This is a great show. I listen to it regularly, look forward to it every time you guys post a new episode.

05:24

So I'm just thrilled to be able to be with you, even though we already agreed.

05:29

Like I know very little on the, on the specific tweet we're going to talk about. And you know, but I'm only here to make you look good, which is very easy because, you know,

05:40

I just got to let you talk and you'll sound great. Well, I appreciate that. That's far kinder than I deserve.

05:47

I can assure you. I do appreciate having you on. Actually, you know, I didn't tell you this pre -show. I should tell you now and have you do it now.

05:53

I always tell folks that we are part of Christian Podcast Community, and I try to explain what that is.

05:59

But you being one of the basically the heads of the Christian Podcast Community, explain to everybody what that is and why they should listen to podcasts on there.

06:08

The founder, because we have, yeah, we got, we got over 50 vetted podcasts.

06:14

And you know, Chris, we even our friendship didn't, you couldn't skip any of the steps.

06:20

My own co -host when he did his own show, Bud's Own, Bud Alheim, he had to go through all the steps.

06:28

Obviously, I trust him. He's my co -host on my rap report show. But, you know, we have high standards, and you get 50 plus vetted shows that you know you're not going to be listening and something go, oh, wait, what are they saying?

06:45

Oh, what, they're promoting Steven Furtick? You're not going to get that. You're going to get solid podcasts that are folks who have both good quality and content.

06:56

And that's what we go, what we're trying to do. Christian Podcast Community is a ministry of striving fraternity. We're a discipleship.

07:02

How's this work for striving fraternity? We disciple podcasters so they have better audio, better content.

07:09

But what you get as a listener is great podcasts. And for some people that want to listen to a lot of podcasts, they could subscribe to Christian Podcast Community, RSS feed, just that one podcast.

07:25

And you're going to get over 50 episodes a week with, I think it's now up to about over 30 hours of content that is produced.

07:35

And content you can trust, but a variety of things. I mean, we have homeschool, things for homeschoolers, things for parents, things for women, things in theology, things for apologetics, whatever you want.

07:51

We even have one that is doing, they do an audio drama back from the 50s era.

07:56

And so whatever you are interested in, we probably have something for you. You could go to christianpodcastcommunity .org,

08:04

check out all the shows there. Absolutely. And we've always tried to encourage you guys, like Andrew said, tons of stuff there.

08:13

You don't have to listen to everything, but you will certainly find something. And so we definitely highly encourage it.

08:18

Thank you, Andrew. I appreciate you. It's nice being able to have you because you're able to articulate it even better than I could ever hope to.

08:25

But especially because, as you said, you're a founder of the Christian Podcast Community, that is greatly appreciated to have you explain all that.

08:34

By the way, folks, just as by way of reminder, you can find all of our stuff at our website, slavedotheking .com,

08:40

which has links to Christian Podcast Community and the various other resources that they have available.

08:48

In addition, our social media, our contact us links, our Patreon link, and the ability to go to the doctrineandlife .co

08:57

website, where you can find merchandise for the program if you want to share it. Darren Chandler, sporting the

09:03

Voice of Reason radio at Shepard's Conference. I didn't even wear one. Okay, I'm not, I was like... But I got a picture of that and sent it to you.

09:11

I got a picture of that and sent it to you right away. Yes, you did. And it's like, I didn't even wear my own shirt, man.

09:16

I was like, this is a pastor's conference. I'm not going to go, no, no, no, Darren Chandler attends the church. He shows up wearing the shirt.

09:22

I'm like, cool! So, that's a great way to support the program as well.

09:28

So, but anyway, Andrew, go ahead, brother. You mentioned Gene, and we should give a shout out, because he's also a podcaster on Christian Podcast Community, he has

09:35

Squirrel Chatter, and we should highlight that, because, well, Gene always mentions, well, not always, but very regularly mentions

09:44

Voice of Reason radio, so we should give a shout out to Squirrel Chatter. That is, that's a show devoted to the public reading of scripture.

09:52

Absolutely. And he has, you know, he has great theological tidbits and insights that he does, sometimes even, you know, addresses, and it's kind of interesting, because we're going to talk about this in a way, he even mentioned some historical and political stuff that happens in the world.

10:08

So, it's a great podcast, because while the main focus, as you say, is the public reading of the Word, he'll also bring those insights in, and Gene being just a fantastic resource, and really just a great guy, you know, great brother of the

10:22

Lord, highly recommend Squirrel Chatter, and if you ever want to know what he's most famous for, he will more than happy to tell you that he's most famous for running over Phil Johnson's iPad.

10:32

So, sorry, sorry, I had to say it,

10:37

Gene, I had to say it. All right, okay, let's put it this way. It's so well known at this point that when

10:43

Gene arrived in California for Shepard's Conference, Phil Johnson re -shared his tweet with the phrase, it is confirmed, and no iPads were harmed in the making of this tweet.

10:55

Okay, it's not that well known, because he had to explain it to me at Shepard's Conference. But as, you know, filling in for Rich, it is my job, though, to transition from our discussion of that, the tweeting that we have of Phil Johnson's iPad into another tweet that sparked your interest, shall we say, for this week.

11:22

So, why don't you share with us, since this is your show, the tweet that rocked

11:28

Chris Honholtz's world? Well, not just my world, but practically every Christian in the conservative political world.

11:36

The tweet that really started this off was the tweet that came from Dave Rubin, who is, now,

11:43

I had to look him up. Dave Rubin is not all that well known to me, but I know he has a show called

11:48

Rubin Report, and he's one of these individuals that pals around in conservative circles. Wait, wait, wait, wait.

11:55

Is he trying to copy me? The Andrew Rapaport's Rap Report, so he goes to Rubin Report? Come on, man.

12:02

Well, another reason, he just can't trust me. So, anyway,

12:07

Dave Rubin puts out a picture. Now, Dave Rubin is openly homosexual. I've since learned.

12:14

Dave Rubin puts a picture with him and his, and I'll use the phrase, it's not an accurate phrase, it's not a biblical phrase, but he calls the man his husband,

12:23

I'm sure. And basically, what has happened is that he and his partner have announced they're going to have children.

12:32

And the way they did this is that they have publicly announced that they went to a woman, they basically bought her eggs.

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They were fertilized, and they were put in the wombs of two other women so that later this year, they will have two babies, hopefully.

12:52

Now, that was not the tweet that rocked my world, nor was it the tweet that rocked anybody's world.

12:59

It was the following tweets from Blaze TV, from Prager University, I believe

13:06

Megyn Kelly, Michael Cernovich, all of these individuals who are people who are supposed to be big names, big entities in conservative politics.

13:16

Did they excoriate, you know, Dave Rubin for doing this?

13:22

No. They actually congratulated Dave Rubin for his public announcement of the pending birth of two children via buying a woman's eggs and renting out women's wombs so that they could complete a, quote, family.

13:38

So that was the tweets that rocked everybody's world was here was a complete capitulation in the political world, conservative political world, when not just long ago, when

13:49

Pete Buttigieg and his, quote, husband made the same announcement, pictures of themselves in a hospital gurney, holding babies like they just gave birth, which physically cannot be done, biologically impossible to do.

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But that was the staged photo op. And everybody in the conservative world went after Pete Buttigieg, understandably so.

14:11

Did they do so for Dave Rubin? No, they could not stop themselves from fawning over Dave Rubin and congratulating him.

14:17

So that was the that was the series of tweets, the activity on Twitter that happened in the last few days, last couple of days that just stunned everyone and I think is actually makes for a good topic for tonight.

14:29

Yeah, so he's he's with Blaze TV, which is put together by Glenn Beck.

14:35

And Glenn Beck is someone who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day

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Saints. Some know them as Mormons. And people may criticize saying, well,

14:46

Glenn Beck is this religious individual. They would have a view against homosexuality within their church, but not so fast.

14:56

Because the LDS church is actually changing their views on this, as they've done with many other things when it was politically expedient for them to do so.

15:07

They used to teach that blacks were not favored, that blacks were accursed people, and therefore the blacks could not be in the priesthood.

15:17

But then when that was not favored, they changed that policy. Even before that, they had a policy that it was not only biblical, but mandated that a husband should have more than one wives.

15:29

But when they wanted Utah to be a state, they had to give up on that. So homosexuality is just a more recent of many changes that they've made within their doctrines to appease culture.

15:45

And I think that, and this is going to come out tonight, is this is the core of it. You have people that appease culture versus God.

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Now, the LDS church would claim they're following God. However, we end up seeing that they do appease culture.

16:05

So Glenn Beck, for people who are getting on Glenn Beck's case saying, well, he's a

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Mormon, he's religious, he should be following the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and they would be against homosexuality.

16:16

Yes, that's true. But keep in mind, his church is making a shift. So he's actually fitting in with the doctrines of his church, which is just one of many reasons

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I'd be against the Latter -day Saint church. But I want to at least give the argument that Glenn Beck is not going against the doctrines of his church.

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His church is in the transition period right now. And I won't be surprised. I'm supposed to.

16:42

I have worked with 24 other authors on a book called Sharing the Good News with Mormons. We've been working on some other articles.

16:49

I'm supposed to write an article on the Church of Jesus Christ, Latter -day Saints, and homosexuality, because there has been a shift.

16:57

And I will not be surprised if we see within the next five years, maybe even ten, that they will come out in support for homosexuality.

17:06

And that's being gracious. It wouldn't shock me if we saw it within the next few years, even.

17:12

I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened yet. But no, it's very, you know, again, when you are a—this is really kind of going to get to what we're talking about, but when your core beliefs are constantly in flux, if you don't have something that's sure and certain, and you're constantly chasing an end goal, which is, in the case of the

17:35

LDS church, trying to keep the church alive, you're going to compromise.

17:42

The interesting thing is, and I just saw this earlier, and folks, I'll put this in show notes, is

17:47

Glenn Beck, on his Twitter account, shared a two -minute clip where he talked with Dave Rubin, and they acknowledged openly, yeah, this thing exploded.

17:57

And I will give Dave Rubin some credit. Dave Rubin didn't come out swinging, saying, how dare you?

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How dare you? You should be supporting me. But rather, he's like, I get it. There are people that have good faith problems with this.

18:11

There are some that can congratulate me. There are some that can't. And I understand why, because, wow, if they accept me, then the goalpost gets moved, and they're worried about that.

18:21

And he says, but I don't know what the answer is. And Glenn Beck says, well, and I'm a

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Mormon, and I believe one man, one woman for marriage, but I don't know what the answer is, you know?

18:32

So this exposed a huge issue, because it reveals,

18:38

I believe, and I think a lot of people are are now seeing that the conservative political movement is exactly that.

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It's simply a movement. It doesn't have a set of core doctrinal beliefs that actually define why they believe what they believe.

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And I think that's the issue that kind of what I wanted to touch on tonight is, for the

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Christian, there is a huge difference. And I love what some people were saying. By the way, a lot of good folks, a lot of good

19:04

Christians rightly called this out. I did not see a lot of backpedaling by at least anybody within our circles.

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A lot of people who were simply going, wow, this is wrong. This is an abomination. I mean, but you had, like I said,

19:18

Prager University. Now, Prager himself, Orthodox Jew, smart guy, not really smart on some of the theology, but really, as far as politics and stuff like that, history,

19:30

Prager University, great stuff. Gave him a thumbs up. Total support. Then we had

19:37

Michael Cernovich. Now, I had to go look him up a little bit because I know the name. I know he's a writer and he's a political commentator, but he's a bit more of the hard right.

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You know, I think even he would refer, I think, refers to himself as part of the new right. So he's more hardline right.

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And he calls out, and he's responding to a very leftist, leaning, anti -biblical

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Christian person on Twitter that I've seen before. Not somebody I want to bring up again. But he says something that reveals, again,

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Christianity and conservatism, not the same thing. He says, even if you assume being gay is a sin, and he puts in parentheses,

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Christ never mentions it, goes back to something we've talked about on this program many, many times. All of scripture is the word of God.

20:27

So that means all those parts that says homosexuality is an abomination before the Lord. Jesus said it.

20:34

But then he says, the scourge of porn, lust in the heart, is a far worse epidemic. Then he makes a very crass comment, which

20:40

I won't repeat. And he says, and then says, P .S. I hope you're fasting every Wednesday and Friday as is required.

20:46

So Cernovich grabs a leftist talking point, being a hard right, you know, political commentator, and takes a swipe at Christians who have said what

20:57

Dave Rumit did is wrong. I mean, mind you, we all called out Pete Buttigieg. So consistency, if you have something that you have as a consistent biblical doctrinal belief, you're going to call all of it out.

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I don't think anybody, Michael Cernovich, ever criticized Christians for, you know, going after Pete Buttigieg, but he sure believes it's wrong for Christians to go after Dave Rumit for making this announcement, and has no clue doctrinally why we say what we say.

21:28

So you have Prager University, extremely smart, supporting this guy.

21:33

Blaze TV, as you say, run by an individual whose theology is all out of whack because he's believing in a false religion, congratulating this guy and saying,

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I don't know what the answer is because I recognize the problem. You have, you know, a hard right person that you would think would have a problem with this just because he's hard right, as some people describe him.

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Yet he's attacking Christians for going against them. This is the problem.

22:00

This is what I wanted to kind of point out, is that you have a bunch of individuals that we have allied ourselves with,

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Prager University, Blaze TV, Michael Cernovich, all these individuals that we have, we share their stuff, we post their stuff online, we drink in all their politics and all their political material.

22:21

Yet, what is happening? We have these same individuals that we've allied ourselves with in these political battles embracing someone who has publicly not only revealed that he's sexually degenerate, but is now, as I believe it was

22:38

Tom Askell that may have said, it was either Tom Askell or Tom Buck, I apologize which Tom it is if I get it wrong, this is child abuse.

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Absolutely. You are taking a child from its mother, putting it in the womb of another mother, and then you're taking it from both of them and you're saying, this is my child, and you're raising them up in that sexually degenerate home.

22:58

Yes, absolute child abuse. From a biblical perspective, absolute child abuse. And yet, all of these individuals are embracing them, and that's a problem, because it reveals something about the politically conservative movement, which is, it has no anchor, it has no mooring, it has no central doctrinal beliefs by which it can say, this is why we do what we do.

23:21

It can claim, well, because we care about a constitutional republic. But the reality is that if they actually had any core doctrinal beliefs, they would even know why certain things are in the

23:32

Constitution the way they are, such as the idea that the reason they want small government is because of the innate sinfulness of man.

23:40

Even the founding fathers who weren't Christians recognized that. They were deists, yes, but they recognized that.

23:46

Yet, here we are, an openly homosexual man announcing egg purchase and womb rental so that he can try to be a, quote, father.

23:58

They won't call that out. So they have no core doctrinal belief system, and all we now have in common is an end goal.

24:04

And that's one of the things I think we wanted to talk about tonight. Yeah, I mean, there's a number of things that were in that quote, in that tweet that you had.

24:11

For people that don't pick up, where's this fasting on Wednesday and Friday?

24:17

Well, that's Roman Catholicism. So the person who does that doesn't even know the difference between Biblical Christianity and Roman Catholicism.

24:23

So start there. But you did nail it with Sun. And let me just let

24:28

Richard Story explain this, because this does explain what the core issue is with that tweet.

24:35

And for clarification, I'm going to jump ahead a bit for the punchline of tonight's show.

24:41

When his mentor said it's not going to hurt and it may do some good, now, over 100 years later, it has done far more harm than he could have ever imagined, because so, so many

24:55

American evangelicals, by those letters being in red, seem to think that that is the only words in the

25:02

Bible from God. They have completely lost the fact that the entire Bible is the

25:07

Word of God. And Richard is absolutely right, right there. And that applies to what this person is saying.

25:13

Well, Jesus never spoke about homosexuality. He did. In fact, he was pretty clear when it came to marriage.

25:21

He went all the way back to Genesis, saying God made male and female.

25:29

That was what he, the God of the universe who established marriage, how he designed it.

25:36

And so, I think that really what's at the root of this, in what you're trying to bring out,

25:43

Chris, is the idea of what is the standard for the conservative and the

25:49

Christian? I'm being specific and not conservative Christian, because I am a Christian before I'm a conservative.

25:55

That's a huge issue of distinction. A Christian has a standard based on the nature and attributes of God.

26:05

So, why are certain things, why is it wrong to lie? Because God's not a liar.

26:11

Why is it wrong to steal? Because God's not a thief. What makes homosexuality wrong? God has not created human beings to be homosexual.

26:20

He created them in two genders. Sorry, folks, you can believe there's more, but God disagrees with you.

26:26

Male and female. So, though Glenn Beck doesn't have an answer to this,

26:33

God does. He calls it sin. So, as a Christian, I can sit here and look at this and say, this is sinful behavior that will do harm to both the men that are involved in this relationship and to the children.

26:48

But see, a conservative is trying to conserve something. What are the conservatives trying to conserve in this country?

26:55

Our Constitution. And so, their standard is not God. Their standard is not his law.

27:03

Their standard is the Constitution trying to protect what the Founders had created. But see, if the

27:09

Constitution doesn't mention anything about homosexuality, they're free to accept that and still be conservative because it doesn't go against their standard.

27:17

And so, as we have this discussion, folks, as you're listening to this, this is the question we have to ask ourselves.

27:25

What is our standard? Because that is going to make all the difference in a discussion like this over this tweet and how people are going to view it.

27:34

This is someone that everyone's going to say, but he's on our side conservatively. This is no different than asking the question, you go to an abortion clinic, can you work with the

27:44

Roman Catholics at the abortion clinic? Now, when I go to the abortion clinics, I'm preaching the gospel that the women in the clinic will get saved and that they will not go through with the abortion.

27:54

But guess what? I'm also preaching to the Catholics that are there, that are doing their rosary.

28:00

Why? Because they need to get saved also. Because even though our goal at that clinic may be for the preservation of human life in the womb, my concern as a

28:13

Christian is the eternal soul and those Catholics have the same problem. So, this is no different when

28:19

I come upon someone who is a conservative that doesn't know the gospel. Well, they need the gospel, and that's more important than being conservative.

28:30

And so, I think that we get into trouble, Chris, with this because of the fact that many have blurred the lines between Christian and conservative.

28:40

And many of the liberals attack Christianity not based on the beliefs of Christianity, but because Christians are mostly conservatives.

28:50

And so, if they want to cause a divide, politically, go after a group of people like the

28:56

Christians and split, if they can, that vote. I understand why they do that.

29:02

But we as Christians have to say, what's our standard? Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting, you bring up the issue of partnering, for example, with Catholics on the abortion issue.

29:12

That's that concept of co -belligerency, that we can partner with other groups. And it's funny, you made a really good point.

29:19

Christian does not necessarily equal conservative. Todd Friel, I remember he used to always say, oh, if you became a

29:25

Christian, that means you're voting Republican, here's your rifle, and now you're going to use it. That is a mindset, that if you are

29:32

Christian, you are by default going to vote Republican, and you're going to have conservative political views, etc.

29:40

Well, why do we think that? Number one is because what we believe from Scripture, as you said, what is our foundation?

29:47

What is our authority? What do we believe in our core doctrinal beliefs?

29:53

Scripture is going to lean us far more in that direction. Personal liberty, yet recognizing that concentrating power is a dangerous thing because of sinfulness of man.

30:05

Private property ownership, because of the principles taught in Scripture, strong emphasis on family.

30:14

That the fathers are to raise up the children, to teach them the Scriptures, and to walk with them in the way when they rise up, when they go to bed, when they are going to and from, you are to teach them the

30:25

Word of God. So, all of these things lend themselves to more politically conservative viewpoints, but that is not the end goal.

30:34

That is just something that comes by extension of Christian practice. That doesn't necessarily mean that you now mean

30:42

Christian means Republican. It means that you have something in common with a secular conservative, because while they may be, as you pointed out, their core doctrinal belief, theoretically, is the

31:01

Constitution. Yet, what was the basis for the Constitution? What were the beliefs that led to the

31:07

Constitution? That's being rejected. Why? How do I know that? Because look what's happening here.

31:12

You have hard right individuals. You have individuals of false religions embracing something that the

31:21

Founding Fathers themselves never would have embraced. And when you look at the writings and the beliefs that those individuals, where they came from, this was never in view.

31:29

So, that Constitution is supposed to be, theoretically, their founding document, but they don't even look at where that comes from to believe that.

31:38

So, I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, because I want an argument that some may bring up against what we're saying and what you just said is the fact that some are going to say, but Thomas Jefferson wrote the

31:49

Constitution. And look, he was a deist. He wasn't a Christian. So, how can you say it was based on Christian values?

31:55

This is one of the problems we have in history. American history focuses on the two non -Christians, the two that most against Christianity, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin, as if they were everything.

32:09

But Thomas Jefferson did not write the Constitution. And it was actually

32:15

Adams. Adams wrote the Constitution and then it was given to his friend,

32:22

Thomas Jefferson, and Jefferson, being the better wordsmith, worded it better, but the core beliefs of it came from Adams, a devout

32:32

Christian. Now, we could discuss, I mean, I think he was a Quaker, if I remember correctly, but, you know, when you read

32:39

Adams, he sure seemed to understand the Gospel and wanted that communicated to people.

32:45

So, I just want to get, in case some listeners listen and say, well, you're saying that the

32:51

Constitution is Christian. And it was based on Christian values written from Adams, not a deist.

33:03

And when you learn a little bit about Adams, you see a lot of that there. Now, somebody actually pointed this to me, because I said this on our show previously about Adams.

33:13

He eventually, and I had to look it up, he later became a Unitarian. So, a little bit different than being a

33:18

Christian. But he was raised in that church -going environment. The Judeo -Christian belief system was a foundational belief system within Western culture.

33:29

So, when you see things like the practice of, you know, the freedom to practice your religion, were they talking about Wiccanism and Flying Spaghetti Monster apostropharians and all this stuff?

33:41

No. They were talking about, when you look at the foundational beliefs of the people that what they were interested in was protecting the

33:48

Christian faith. Because you had Puritans who came over from England who were attacked.

33:54

Why? Because they were not ascribing to the state religion, and they were punished for that.

34:00

And so, they came here, and that was one of the core doctrinal protections. So, again, that's getting a little bit off the beaten path here, but the point of it is, you have individuals who ostensibly are supposed to be political conservatives, who their core system of belief is the

34:19

Constitution, but don't even ascribe to its foundational beliefs. And so, why is that important for the

34:25

Christian? Well, getting back to that issue of co -belligerency, I posted something the other day, and I'm just going to summarize it.

34:31

But co -belligerency is this idea that we can work alongside other people who have the same end goal in mind.

34:38

To use your example, the issue of abortion. Catholics, core doctrinal belief, they don't believe babies should be murdered in the womb.

34:46

Christians, we believe the same thing. So, that end goal is sufficient cause enough for us to put aside our doctrinal beliefs and work to achieve that end goal.

34:56

That's co -belligerency. So, we put aside those important doctrinal issues so we can achieve that end goal to get the job done.

35:04

And here's the problem with that. In order to do that, we have to pretend the root systems of our beliefs don't exist.

35:13

We have to be able to say, because when you go out there, Andrew, and you're preaching the gospel to someone who's trying to murder their baby, you're not only trying to prevent the death of that child, but you're trying to save the soul of the individual who's there.

35:27

You also share it with the individuals who are there praying, doing the rosaries, etc., trying to save babies.

35:32

Because you are not going to put aside your core belief of the gospel is at the center of everything we believe, say, and do.

35:41

So, the problem with co -belligerency is says, no, you can't do that. You have to put that core belief aside because the end goal is the issue of greater importance.

35:52

And so, that begins to take precedence and we're expected to go along to get along. And so, what the problem is, is that when you have co -belligerency and you have this issue of the end goal is the thing that we have to be most concerned with, what you've revealed is, since nobody can be concerned about their core beliefs, you have no core beliefs.

36:12

Everybody's had to put them aside and the only core belief is we need to achieve at this end goal. Well, if you have no core beliefs and everybody has to put those beliefs aside to achieve the end goal, then all you have is a preference.

36:23

I prefer smaller government. I prefer marriage between man and woman.

36:28

I prefer babies not be murdered in the womb because I don't have a core reason to say, well, we have all these psychological studies.

36:36

Great. So do they. Oh, well, we have all these testimonials. Great. So do they.

36:43

What do I have? What have I got if I don't have a core belief system to actually explain why

36:50

I want that end goal to be the thing that needs to be achieved? And that's the problem is we are watching.

36:57

This was put on display for everyone. Major names in the politically conservative realm totally bowed the knee.

37:07

Didn't even blink on a major issue. Something that 20 years ago, 30 years ago, the conservative movement would never have embraced.

37:18

They would never would because we recognized that homosexuality was a sexual deviancy and it was dangerous to the culture.

37:27

It was dangerous to the people practicing it. And it was based upon something more than what just the whether the

37:33

Constitution said you could have it or not. It had a doctrinal core belief.

37:40

And the problem is, as Christians, we have not been paying attention on this.

37:47

We have not. We have been so consumed with that co -belligerency that we've partnered with Glenn Beck.

37:54

We've partnered with PragerU. We've partnered with Michael Cernovich and many others and Fox News and all these others.

38:00

And we've put aside the gospel. We've put aside our sole source of authority, the scriptures, and said, we have to have this fight for liberty.

38:09

Now, I've said on the show, I did a solo episode saying liberty is worth fighting for. Totally believe that.

38:16

But why? And Andrew, that's what I see as the problem here is that we now as Christians have had what so many of us,

38:24

I know you've said it. We've said it on this show. I know people like Dr. White, many others have said time and again, we need to be careful about our political alliances.

38:34

And we have been, how many times have we basically been told to be quiet? Repeatedly, over and over again.

38:41

Now, now Christians, now what are you going to do? When the people you herald as these heroes of the of the political right just fully bowed the knee?

38:55

And they're still doing it because Glenn Beck is saying, I don't know what the answer is. Well, it gets it gets right back to what

39:03

I said at the beginning. It's going to come down to what is your standard? Yeah.

39:08

And, you know, we talk, I know you, you understand terms. For the sake of those listening, they may not know all the terms, but we will, we talk in terms of what's called presuppositional apologetics.

39:20

And that's the idea that we start with a precondition. God exists.

39:25

He has spoken. Those are the preconditions you have to start with to have any reasonable discussion on anything.

39:32

Because if God doesn't exist, you can't even explain your ability to reason where that comes from. So therefore, how do you know it's true?

39:39

You get into all these different discussions. But here's the thing when we talk about presuppositional apologetics, is that there is no neutral ground.

39:47

What you end up finding over and over and over again here is the idea that people want to talk about this false idea that there is a neutral ground.

39:59

Can we just agree on being conservative, on conserving the

40:04

American way of life? And can't we just work together to agree on that?

40:10

It's no different than Roman Catholics. Can't we just agree that we want to save babies' lives? The idea that there's a neutral ground.

40:18

However, whenever you talk neutral ground, it is always, or at least almost always,

40:24

I don't know too many cases where it hasn't been the case, where it is the Christian that has to give up their standard for neutral ground.

40:32

I don't see this as a case where the non -believer is giving up their standard to agree with the

40:39

Christian. It is the idea of a Christian giving up the standard. What's that standard? God.

40:45

His nature. That's where we get our standard from. If that's the standard, they're saying, well, look, here, this guy's conservative.

40:53

Can't we just, can't we find a neutral ground? He's doing a great job on conservatism, but he also practices homosexuality.

41:01

I would much rather see, I forget his name. I think he wrote for Daily Wire, a guy who practiced homosexuality, conservative, but practiced homosexuality.

41:15

And he had, yeah, it starts with a Y, I think. But he rejects his homosexuality now and professes to be a

41:26

Christian. That's what I'd like to see from Mr. Rubin. Mm -hmm. That would be, if he would like to have common ground, then give up his views of homosexuality, join what

41:39

God says, and we can have common ground. But the idea that there is a neutrality, a neutral ground, is a falsehood, because what they want us to do to get that is to give up our standard and accept their standard.

41:52

Once we have done that, Christian, once we give up our standard and step into this supposed neutral ground, it's no longer neutral.

42:01

It's based on their standard. This is no different than talking to the atheist who says, well, let's not discuss

42:08

God in the Bible, let's just talk about science. Well, science can never prove

42:14

God exists, because it's a study of the natural world, and God is outside of the natural world.

42:20

He created the natural world. So the study of science will never prove God. So what do they always want us to do?

42:27

Step out of your, don't use your Bible, step out of that worldview, step into our worldview, and let's discuss this.

42:34

What have you just done when you've done that? You've given up your standard. You've given up the truth for the lie, and now you're going to discuss how the lie is not true.

42:45

Based on what? You just gave up the truth. This is what many people are doing for the sake of politics, for the sake of having someone that's doing a good job with politics.

42:57

They're giving up the truth for a lie. Now, let me tell you, Chris, atheists understand this better than most

43:05

Christians. You know, Matt Slick was doing a debate in Texas.

43:11

One day he debated David Smalley. The next, the very next day, he did a debate with Matt Delahunty, two separate topics.

43:20

Matt Slick is crazy, insane. Who does this, right? These guys only have to prepare for one debate.

43:26

He had to go there prepared for two debates back to back. But here's the thing.

43:32

We got to meet a lot of atheists out there, and our goal was to try to evangelize them. I forget the details what was going on, but there was an atheist that had done something in the news, and I was asking all of the atheists

43:45

I met what they thought about it. And it was interesting because they wouldn't speak bad about this guy.

43:53

I had one atheist that said to me, literally, he said, Andrew, listen, I don't agree with what he's doing.

44:00

However, you are our enemy, and he is doing a great job at demolishing you, and I will never say anything bad about him as long as he is attacking

44:11

Christianity. And I walked away from there, and Matt and I had dinner, and I said, man, that atheist understands what

44:17

Christians should be saying, that Christians, we're going to spend eternity together. We're going to side with those that are going to be in hell for what, for a few years of temporal peace on earth?

44:31

Where's our real mindset? Our mindset should be fixed on eternity, and we should have preference to those who are believers, not dividing within believers for the sake of political goals.

44:45

Now, at least you say, but Andrew, you may be offending someone. Let me allow, if I could,

44:51

Chris, to bring in a more seasoned pastor on this, but let us hear what

44:57

Dr. John MacArthur had to say to Ben Shapiro on a topic like this. We had a question on the little questionnaire that your people sent me.

45:07

It said, do you feel like you might be offending Democrats with some of the things you say?

45:13

And my response to that is, look, my goal is to offend everyone. That is my initial goal, to tell you that you are without God in the world, that there's only one

45:26

Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, that you're in sin, that sin brings death and punishment.

45:34

But the good news is, Jesus Christ is the Savior who's provided a way for you to be forgiven by burying your sins in his body on the tree, so that God's justice is satisfied and his love can be extended to you by putting your trust in Christ.

45:47

Now, do you notice what Dr. MacArthur did right there? What is the offense? The gospel.

45:53

He's on a show with an Orthodox Jewish person, and his concern was the gospel.

46:00

And he's going to say, yes, I expect to offend everybody, but how? He's not looking to be offensive.

46:06

He's looking to offend everybody with the gospel message, which, if you do watch the full show, he did that over and over and over, and he slips in 30 seconds.

46:17

That's all it took him to explain that gospel message. Right? This is the thing, folks.

46:23

We have to decide what side we're on. It comes down to our standard.

46:30

But choosing that side is as simple as this. Are we siding with those who are going to be in heaven, have eternal life, and be with Christ, or are we siding with those who are going to be in hell just for a temporal gain on earth?

46:48

And I think that's the big thing. Neither one of us, both of us have been very open on our social media about our political stances.

46:58

You know, neither one of us want to see this nation go the way of communist Marxist nonsense.

47:05

In some ways, that almost feels like a foregone conclusion that that's where it's headed. But both of us have been very open about what our beliefs are and what we would like to see happen.

47:17

And I have no problem with any Christian who says, hey, you know, you guys are making it sound like we shouldn't care about politics, or we shouldn't care where this is going.

47:25

That's not what we're saying at all. However, what is our authority? What is it we stand upon, and why?

47:34

Why are we fighting for these things? You know, let's go back to, you know, why do we care about liberty?

47:42

Why do we care whether or not people are enslaved by their governments? Oh, let's see.

47:47

God is the creator of all things. Go back to Genesis. God establishes governments.

47:52

Romans. You know, Romans 13. God establishes the authority of governments. Romans 13.

47:59

God says that your job is to punish the evildoer and to protect the people. That's his work.

48:05

So God has said, you know, this is his world.

48:10

He's created to us. He's given man dominion over it. So that's, you know, and then he says, by the way, in his law, the revelation that he actually believes in private property ownership, and in fact, so much so that, you know, the

48:24

Jews, there was a period of time where if you sold property, there was a period that you could get it back. Because it belonged to them.

48:32

So the idea of private property ownership, that's an issue. You know, that's, you know, that's established by God.

48:40

Liberty. Even when you were entered into slavery in Jewish law, there was a period of time when you could be set free as a slave.

48:47

So the freedom is something God established. God's word is what informs my thinking.

48:55

God's word tells me what I am to believe about the practice of governments, what I believe about liberty, what

49:01

I believe about private property ownership, what I believe about family. That is what establishes everything

49:07

I believe. If that is not what I, if my practice of politics is not informed.

49:12

And by the way, I'm not talking about going through and cherry picking through the word of God and saying, well, this sounds like something that would align with the

49:20

Constitution. This sounds like something I could, you know, get away with and have it support this idea.

49:26

Kind of like Michael Cernovich saying, oh, well, Jesus himself, while he was here, never mentioned homosexuality.

49:33

I'm not talking about doing a hunt and peck method. I'm talking about your study of the word from Genesis to Revelation informs your thinking, informs your mind and your heart and its outward practice.

49:45

When it comes to the issue of politics, that should inform the alliances that you make.

49:51

It informs the votes that you cast. It informs the policies that you support.

49:58

It also says, I cannot partner with someone who openly rebels against the word of God, such as Dave Rubin.

50:07

Well, but he's concerned about, I mean, he was a progressive and now he calls himself conservative and he sees what they're doing.

50:14

Great. I'm glad he's fighting against, in his mind, against leftist politics.

50:19

Great. I hope he's successful, but I will not support him. Why? Because God himself has said what our sexuality is.

50:29

Andrew, you said it a little while ago, God made us male and female. And it is God's design for marriage that is male and female in perpetuity until the day that you die.

50:39

There are very few exceptions for divorce, and that is because God has a picture in mind when he made marriage, and that's the relationship of Christ to his church.

50:50

So, if I partner with someone who is openly homosexual, then I'm saying that God's institution of the church doesn't matter.

50:59

This is what we mean by what is your authority? What are you basing everything on?

51:06

Christians, when we become co -belligerents with people like Glenn Beck or people like Dave Rubin or Prager University and stuff like this, you've got to ask yourself a question.

51:21

What am I setting aside, as you said, Andrew, to your point? What am

51:27

I setting aside to be neutral ground? What am I setting aside so that we can achieve that same end goal?

51:37

And are we really achieving the same end goal? And I think that's another problem. We didn't talk about this pre -show, but if I get the liberty that I want, but it's the liberty that everybody else who has these completely different doctrinal beliefs can agree upon, did

52:00

I achieve what I want? I'm not saying we need to eliminate all those other beliefs. I'm saying, what did

52:06

I compromise to get what I thought was the liberty I was looking for? Because we're giving something up.

52:12

If I believed that the practice of my faith is of supreme importance, therefore,

52:20

I want religious liberty. But it's a religious liberty that says, well, you can't speak too loudly because everybody else has a different perspective.

52:31

So we got to kind of tamp that down because, well, everybody has to be able to say, I lost something in that.

52:38

I lost something in that fight. You know, people gave John MacArthur a lot of grief about his stance on, he's like,

52:47

I'm not fighting for religious liberty, because what is he fighting for? He's fighting for the gospel, to preach the gospel.

52:53

He's not worried about making sure that every other religious faith has the ability to preach what he preaches.

53:00

He's mostly concerned about preaching the gospel and making sure that people understand that is the only way of salvation.

53:07

So what are we giving up? What are we losing when we partner with individuals who do not have that same core doctrinal belief?

53:15

It doesn't mean that we might not find ourselves in the same trenches fighting the same enemy. We will be on the same battlefront, but probably for very drastically different reasons.

53:26

And if we don't stand for the specific purpose of the proclamation of the word of God, glorifying his name and proclaiming the gospel, if that isn't what drives our politics, then we are no better than Glenn Beck, we are no better than Prager University, we are no better than Michael Cernovich, and certainly no better than Dave Rubin.

53:46

Because we've abandoned the sole source of authority that we have so that we could say, well, we're going to partner with these individuals because we're heading in the same direction.

53:57

Am I wrong on this, Andrew, or am I losing something? No, you're right, and this is what it comes down to.

54:03

Look, I said at the beginning, I'll say it again, right? It comes down to what is our standard. You know, and here's the thing, just looking, the gentleman

54:13

I referred to earlier, his name was Milo, he's a writer at Breitbart. So he was a practicing homosexual.

54:24

But it was very interesting that he had been invited to a Christian, to be a speaker at a conference, and Christians stood up, and they ended up cutting him, this was back in 2017, they cut him from the lineup.

54:40

Because Christians said no, because of his views on homosexuality, he did not fit to someone that should be speaking at a conference, you know, conservative conference for Christians.

54:55

So he got dropped. But guess what? Now, my understanding, he professes to be a

55:02

Christian. Well, this is the result we'd want to see. Not that we say, well, listen,

55:09

Milo, you are right on board with us when it comes to the issues of conservatism, and what's good for America, and we'll just brush it under the rug, what your lifestyle is.

55:25

Well, guess what? If people did that to Milo, he wouldn't be a Christian. Yeah. What's more important?

55:32

Seriously, what's more important? What is going to be important 10 ,000 years from now?

55:39

Do you think any of the politics that people are fighting for right now are going to be an issue 10 ,000 years from now?

55:47

No. The only issue 10 ,000 years from now is what did you do with Christ?

55:54

That's the issue. So what people should be saying to David Rubin is, what are you going to do with Christ?

56:02

Now, Rubin, I'm assuming he's Jewish just by the last name, but may not be, may not be practicing, but here's the thing.

56:12

The reality is people should be telling him the gospel, then guess what?

56:18

Yes, he'll still be conservative, but if he gets saved, he's also Christian.

56:24

More importantly, he's Christian, because then this family that he's trying to create would be radically changed.

56:34

The relationship with this other gentleman would be radically changed. The relationship with these children would be radically changed.

56:42

Why? Because if he becomes a Christian, he's going to want them to know about Christ. When we put government before our

56:53

Christianity, we're backwards. Now, I have an article on our website,

56:59

Chris. Every four years, I put it out at Striving for Eternity. I usually will share it online.

57:05

It talks about political activism. There is one line in that article that seems to really irritate people, because every time

57:15

I put that on social media, people read it and they get very, very upset with one line.

57:22

This article has been out there for about 10 or plus years, and every time there's one line, and that line is this,

57:31

Chris. I ask the question, do professing

57:37

Christians know the Republican Party message better than the gospel message?

57:45

And I always have to wonder, why do people get bothered by that? Unless it's true.

57:53

That would be the political activism, a Christian's role? Is that the one you're talking about? That is correct. All right.

57:58

That's going in show notes, folks. Please take a look at that. And I think that's part of the problem, is we as Christians, when we're fighting these political battles, and this is going to sound kind of mean, and I don't mean it to be, but we can be very short -sighted, and I find myself in this camp just in my daily life.

58:18

If something goes sideways in my life, that shouldn't be right. It should be this. And I'm not happy until I can actually make it that way.

58:27

And if I can't make it go the way I want to, I'm a miserable person to deal with. So when it comes to the issue of political activism, look, when we go back to the 2016 election, everybody elected

58:38

Trump. There was a lot of attitude that, I remember watching this on the social media pages, that it was as if Trump would restore the golden era of American exceptionalism, that all these things that Obama had caused would be shoved back in the closet, and we'd be back to good old

58:59

America the way it's supposed to be. And I understand why people voted for it.

59:06

I understand the frustration and the anger that came with watching someone so openly hostile to Judeo -Christian beliefs and Western ideology that Obama was.

59:17

I understand it. I understand why they wanted to vote for Trump. I was not in favor of the man.

59:22

I was surprisingly in favor of him in 2020. I'm the same way, and I was not only the same way.

59:27

I know many people that were, which kind of boggles my mind. Do people really think that so many people that couldn't pull the lever for him the first time around, but were overwhelmingly enthusiastic to pull the second time around, lost to a guy that can't get 40 people to show up?

59:42

I mean, just stop and think. Really, Biden got more votes than Obama. Yeah. Yeah, I just...

59:50

Different story for a different time, but definitely, yikes. But the point in all that is

59:57

I get why we thought, oh, he'll fix it and put it back where it was. Well, this is like Pandora's box.

01:00:03

Once it's opened, you're not putting the evil back in. And what Obama did, and what I have said, is

01:00:09

Obama did what many of us I don't think ever want to really admit is Obama didn't really make these things happen, although he was definitely a good facilitator for it.

01:00:17

He just pulled back the curtain is really what he did. The evil was always there. We were just really good at masking it and keeping it where we didn't want to see it.

01:00:28

Electing individuals into office can have a stopgap measure, and sometimes they can help right a wrong path, but they're not going to change the heart of a nation.

01:00:39

They can't, because Christ is the only one who changes the hearts of people. And the only way you watch the damage that's been done by the uncorking of that bottle and pouring out all of this depravity onto our nation and saying, let it go and drink it up is by the preaching of the gospel.

01:00:57

And we don't preach it just to save the nation, so to speak. We preach it because we want to see souls saved.

01:01:04

But the byproduct of that is you have people who when they are genuinely saved and not manipulated into it with lots of music for hours upon hours upon hours upon hours, and then say, oh, hey, here's a quick 30 second gospel nugget and I invite you down to out of the stadiums to raise your hands and wink your eyes and we'll sign you into the club.

01:01:22

But when it's a genuine presentation of the gospel and God has worked the miracle of regeneration in a person's heart, and they're a new man with a new heart, what is the byproduct of that?

01:01:33

The byproduct of that is wanting to obey Christ. And like you're talking about with, and I cannot say his name,

01:01:38

Milo Yedonah, I can't say it, it's a really weird last name. Worse than Honholz, I'm sorry, Milo. But if that indeed has happened, and time will reveal that, whether it's legitimate or not, if that's what happens, then

01:01:55

Milo will then, by desire of his heart, begin to live out the practices and be obedient to the commands of Christ.

01:02:05

And that is the way you see culture change. Why is it

01:02:10

Western culture, one of the reasons Western culture spreads so vociferously, it was that the preaching of the gospel was part of that.

01:02:18

It wasn't the sole part of it. I understand that. I'm not going to claim that's the sole part of it. But it was a huge part of it.

01:02:25

Because people's hearts and minds were changed. Because they had this God, the

01:02:31

Holy Spirit, residing in them, and commanding and changing and making them more like his son.

01:02:38

And so, when you say, but we have to partner, we have to come alongside, we have to do these things, and you become more enamored with the message of political conservatism.

01:02:52

As you say in your article, you know the Republican Party platform better than you know the gospel.

01:02:58

The reason that offends people is they do! They do! That's what they know more. And that's what we get so focused on.

01:03:07

I want to achieve the golden era of Americana once again, that they can't see what happens if I get it or I don't get it.

01:03:18

If I get it, and everybody's exactly the way I think they should, guess what? Everybody's still going to hell! You can have a golden era of America all you want, but you can still watch people straight to hell.

01:03:30

They can have all the rights that they should have. They can have all the wealth that they should have. They can have all the freedoms that they should have, and they're all still going to hell because you just gave them a comfortable country to go to the pit of hell from.

01:03:42

If we lose that, and it's Marxism 24 -7, people are still going to hell!

01:03:51

So, what should I be most consumed with? Should it be the golden age of America? Or should it be that whether we win at the polls or not, whether culture is restored to a golden age or not, should

01:04:07

I be caring more about that, or should I care about the souls in that culture? And that's why

01:04:13

I say we have to have a core reason why we fight for these things, because one of the benefits of having a culture that is based upon freedoms and liberty and the right to speak and the right to practice is

01:04:27

I can now go out and preach the gospel freely. I can go out and practice my faith.

01:04:34

I can demonstrate and act upon my faith for all to see. So, not only what

01:04:40

I say, but what I do is now being practiced, and I don't have to fear going to prison to do it. But if I lose politically,

01:04:49

I still do those things, and now I do them with the possibility of imprisonment, loss of my family, loss of my job, loss of my life.

01:05:00

And that's a powerful testimony as well, because my doctrinal state didn't change based upon my politics.

01:05:08

My politics, if that is what leads me, if my end goal is to be golden age

01:05:14

America, then I'm going to compromise my doctrinal beliefs. But if my doctrinal beliefs guide what

01:05:21

I say and do, then I won't waver, and I won't partner with unregenerate heathens to achieve that goal, because God's glory is far more important, and the salvation of souls is far more important than compromising my message to achieve a political victory.

01:05:41

Because when you look at that with what you just said, this should be the Christian perspective, that we're more concerned with people's souls than their politics.

01:05:52

The reality is, it is said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

01:05:59

The fact is that when you go to countries that are very against the Christian message, persecuting it, the gospel spreads, and many

01:06:08

Christians just want a comfortable Christianity. So let me, in my way of wrapping up,

01:06:14

Chris, is to say this. What is the gospel? It's simply this. All of us, every single one of us, has violated

01:06:23

God's laws. We lie, we steal, we break his laws, making us a criminal in his sight.

01:06:32

We are sinners. It means we fall short of the mark of perfection, and that's what it calls to be righteous, is to be perfect, and not one of us is perfect.

01:06:44

In word, thought, and deed, every one of us falls short. We cannot save ourselves because we're already guilty.

01:06:52

And because God is infinitely holy and infinitely just, that carries with our consequence an infinite consequence, an infinite punishment.

01:07:03

Not because of who we are, but because who we've offended, who God is. And therefore, we can't save ourselves.

01:07:10

It's not based on being a good person or doing good works. That's not going to save us. It is the fact that God himself became a man 2 ,000 years ago.

01:07:21

He who knew no sin became sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. He died on that cross 2 ,000 years ago, that we could be forgiven.

01:07:33

And this is where you can see the only religion where God can be both just and merciful, because God paid the full weight of sin upon himself on that cross.

01:07:46

And therefore, he is just because the full measure of sin was paid. He took it upon himself, and now he can offer mercy.

01:07:55

It's also the only religion in the world that says you can't do good works. Your good works will not get you there.

01:08:02

It's what Jesus did on that cross, and that alone. In fact, the very book that people are going to be judged by in the end days, you're either going to have your name in the

01:08:13

Lamb's book of life, meaning that you have repented of your sin and been forgiven and have received

01:08:20

Christ. Or you're going to be in the other book where people are judged and sentenced to eternity in a lake of fire.

01:08:29

And that book is the book of works. Yes, the very works that people trust in, that God will set them free, are the very works that are going to condemn them.

01:08:39

So the gospel message is this, very simply. You and I both deserve eternity in a lake of fire because we've broken

01:08:46

God's law. But God himself made a way of escape. God himself came to earth, died on a cross to set you free, give you the forgiveness of sin.

01:08:56

You need to repent of your sin, not sins, sin. You got to stop trusting in your prideful belief that you are righteous, in the thoughts that you have good works to offer to God.

01:09:10

Repent of that, turn from that, and trust what Jesus Christ did on the cross for the forgiveness of sin.

01:09:19

And because we should allow the co -host to have at least the final word that I can have, but, you know, this is one of my favorite quotes from Richard's story, and that is the fact that he talks about ministry and does a comparison, and I think it's a very good comparison.

01:09:40

And we have to keep this in mind when we're talking politics, when we're talking, what's our perspective?

01:09:45

Our perspective should be ministry. Well, I've said this before, and I still stick to it now, over the last 10 years, off and on, when it comes to ministry versus boxing, boxing is far less violent.

01:10:01

Absolutely correct. And the sad thing about this is, you know, that is going to be proven out for those of us who stand upon the

01:10:10

Word of God. Right now, Glenn Beck, Dave Rubin, they say, I don't know what the answer is.

01:10:17

I know what the answer is going to be. There'll come a day when people like Glenn Beck and Dave Rubin will call for the public excoriation of people who do not support them.

01:10:31

Christian, it's going to cost. Standing upon the Word of God as our final authority is going to cost.

01:10:39

We might see political victories in this life. We might not. But standing on the

01:10:45

Word of God against a God -hating world, for His purposes, for His glory, for the proclamation of the

01:10:52

Gospel, and salvation of souls, costs. What are you willing to compromise to win political victories?

01:11:01

Not saying don't fight political fights. Do not hear that. Just said earlier, did an entire episode.

01:11:09

It's worth fighting for liberty. What is your end goal? If your end goal is simply to win politically, your end goal is the wrong priority.

01:11:20

Your end goal should be to glorify Christ and enjoy Him forever. You should be seeking to love

01:11:26

Him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, whether you have one political victory or not.

01:11:33

And in days like this, it's hard. I know. Some of us are already beginning to feel the impact of a godless,

01:11:41

God -hating administration. We are starting to see what those compromises are costing us.

01:11:51

People who were so adamantly anti -Trump that it helped facilitate, amongst other things, this particular regime taking power.

01:12:05

They compromised to make sure that other person with the mean tweets didn't win.

01:12:10

And we're beginning to feel the impact. We're beginning to feel the pinch. We're watching our money not be as valuable as it once was.

01:12:17

We're watching our freedoms being taken from us. We're watching jobs being taken away. Not yet particularly aimed at Christianity, but certainly the edges of it pointing toward Christianity because there are a lot of people who are saying, well, you know, it's those

01:12:32

Christians. They're the ones causing the problem. Those conservative biblical

01:12:37

Christians, you know, kind of like David French likes to attack all the time. Different issue.

01:12:43

But we're seeing it. We're seeing the little first edges of it. And you're feeling it.

01:12:50

And you feel the anger. You feel the righteous indignation. But what is your fixation?

01:12:58

Is your fixation the politics? Is it fixation to get the price of the pump down? Is it to get the right guy in office?

01:13:05

Is it to get rid of the terrible regime? Or is it to say, in all that I do, including my politics,

01:13:11

I seek to honor God? If you do anything other than that, your priorities are off.

01:13:18

And we're all guilty of it. We will do it. The reason we did this episode was not to attack

01:13:23

Dave Rubin. Man, I hope Dave Rubin gets saved. Pray God that Dave Rubin gets saved.

01:13:28

I pray God that Michael Cernovich gets saved. I pray God that Prager University and everybody there, they get saved. Why? So that their politics and their doctrine line up?

01:13:38

No. So that they go to heaven and they don't die and go to hell. That's what I want to see happen.

01:13:44

But would it be great to fight alongside individuals who have the same beliefs I do, so I don't have to compromise my faith?

01:13:50

Yes. But that isn't the goal. And it shouldn't be our goal. This was a bright spotlight moment for us.

01:13:59

And it needs to be one. The political industry is not our friend.

01:14:06

They will stab us in the back. I wrote something the other day on social media. As you know, you may be fighting in a battle.

01:14:13

And you may find someone who comes alongside you in the trenches. And he's fighting against the enemy. But if he's a robber and a thief, and the only reason he's fighting against the enemy is so he doesn't die, the moment you are a threat to him, he will kill you.

01:14:29

If you think that Prager University, Michael Cernovich, Glenn Beck, Blaze TV, Dave Rubin will not stab you in the back one day as a

01:14:39

Christian. If you stand upon the word of God, you are sorely mistaken. We've got to have our authority and our doctrine grounded in the word of God.

01:14:50

And then our practice comes from that. So that we glorify God, we preach the gospel, we see souls saved.

01:14:58

And then from that, our practice informs the rest of what we do. Do not compromise to win political victories.

01:15:06

Please, I cannot say this enough. Do not compromise and say, but we've got to partner with. You might vote the same.

01:15:13

You might agree on some talking points. But you are nothing but a guaranteed vote for these individuals.

01:15:23

Just like the Democrats have their plantation, and they have certain demographics they know will always vote for them.

01:15:30

Well, so do the conservatives. Don't be pulled onto a plantation and be enslaved and compromise your faith.

01:15:40

It's not worth it, folks. It's not worth it. Any last thoughts before we let everybody go? Andrew?

01:15:46

Go out and share the gospel with at least one person every day. Amen. Amen.

01:15:53

Folks, thank you for your time. Andrew, thank you so much for coming on. I really don't like doing these by myself, not because I don't think

01:15:59

I can cover it for an hour, but I really don't like to make people listen to me just thrown on for an hour. So it's nice to have someone else who's more articulate and a little easier to listen to on the show.

01:16:10

So I appreciate you being on with me, brother. It's great to have you. Thank you. Thank you for jumping in. I really think those of the others that did offer, maybe we'll try to make a round robin rotation to where we can do some more folks on.

01:16:24

I know people ask me to do interviews. I hate doing interviews because I always feel like I don't know what to ask and I'm going to mess it up.

01:16:32

So I got to work on that. That's my hang up. I'll work on that. Well, maybe we just get all five of us together and do a...

01:16:40

Oh, I'd love that. We could do that. That would have been awesome to actually have you three and then myself, and I just want to let you all talk and I just want to hit record.

01:16:49

That would have been fun. I almost tried to, I was going to try and make it happen. It just didn't work out, but maybe one of these days, but thank you again,

01:16:57

Gene. Thank you again, Dr. White for offering to jump in. Rich, pray that you and your family get better, get through the creeping cred that some of you get with.

01:17:06

Folks, please be praying for them. Just everybody's not feeling so hot.

01:17:12

It's just one of those things that happens. In the age of where everything's COVID, none of it is in this case.

01:17:21

All right, folks. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for being a part of this program. We are so grateful each and every time you come on.

01:17:28

You make this possible. We could not do this without you. Give a glory to God this week. Preach the gospel to someone.

01:17:34

Get your nose in the word and inform everything you do through the word of God. And go to slavetotheking .com

01:17:41

and support Voice of Reason Radio financially so they can do more of this.

01:17:47

He won't say that, folks, but I will. Well, thank you, Andrew.

01:17:52

I greatly appreciate it. God bless you guys. Good night. We'll see you next time. Rutgers Health takes an integrated approach to educating students, providing clinical care for our communities, and conducting innovative research to create life -changing health for all.

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