Catching Up on Recent Events Before Leaving Town

And greetings and welcome to the dividing line on a Wednesday not we're normally here on a Wednesday Well, is there any normal for us anymore?

We just sort of do it whenever we want to so it's a Wednesday and We're doing this because I leave tomorrow for st.

Charles Those of you in the st. Louis st. Charles, Missouri area

We will be with you over the weekend Friday and Saturdays. Did we have a did we put anything up about that?

It's it's up it's in the calendar. Well, okay Yes, there is a graphic up Yes King James line controversy reliability new test of documents and then next week in Pyre, Oklahoma the five solos of the

Reformation And I'm just watching the things go by here and then January 3rd through 5th and Owensboro Hey, wait, it's going too fast.

I can't keep up Yeah Whoop, it clicked on Oh it boy if you click on it it

Pops you're right over to the other page, which I didn't want to do So yeah, we'll be a covenant grace church this coming weekend talking about new test reliability that's gonna be some new stuff because I sort of have to sneak some

CBGM stuff in And that's this be one of the first times I've tried doing that.

So that's gonna be tricky and then the five souls the Reformation grace life

Church 110 East Graham prior, Oklahoma and That'll be

Wednesday December 5th, then Saturday December 8th and Sunday December 9th so That'll be right at the end of my trip

I've got one stop in between the two that is not a public thing, but I'm gonna be recording some material on marriage and human sexuality for later

Distribution and so I will be busy during that time and Then I've had a lot of people asking about this

January 3 through 5th, I will be teaching At CBTS Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary in Owensboro Reliability new test of documents and textual criticism that is a full -blown

Master's level class. So 8 30 in the morning to 5 o 'clock at night three days in a row.

That is absolutely Exhausting But I will be that is available for auditing for $100

I believe and so Yeah, the audit link is there

I guess and then I'm preaching the following Sunday morning 1030 There in Owensboro.

I'm not sure that's on there, but same location so It's on the other page.

Yeah, then March 1st through the 3rd Conference on the

Trinity in Mechanicsville, Virginia at Knox Reformed Presbyterian Church.

You have to have a discussion with Jeff about About Knox. He was he was quite the interesting fellow

Too bad we didn't get to him in church history Maybe I'll have to add something as When when when you are so politically incorrect

That you make John Calvin go when you when when you make John Calvin facepalm

What when Calvin's going oh you didn't say that did you when Calvin says that Yeah, okay.

There you go But Conference on the

Trinity Coming up March 1st is the 3rd and then we've got another one. You're gonna be getting lots of contacts and people

Because I'm just I've just decided to leave for the next year Because then

I'm gonna be up in the Believe it or not. I'm going to sneak across the border in into,

California Stan and All of my civil rights will be suspended

The whole nine yards, but Yes, yeah, yeah, how'd

I get here? It's easier to get in and get out I guess but We have a conference that we're putting together right now.

I just saw the The website is not quite ready yet, but that'll be I think pretty much the next right

Yeah, the first weekend in April in the San Francisco Bay Area, so we'll need to get that linked up here fairly soon

Fairly soon too, so lots and lots and lots of stuff going on and and that's not even including the

Stuff at g3 which reminds me We I just was putting out on social media and stuff

Social justice and the gospel g3 pre -conference the day before G3 begins, so I believe it's

January says on January 16th and So there's a website up on that The speakers are

I don't know why they have me there first. I'm the least of these but Tom Askell Votie Balcom Josh Bice Phil Johnson I Don't see

Tom Buck there, but I'm hoping he'll be there and You may recognize those names as the primary writers contributors

Defenders of discussors of The statement on social justice and the gospel so That's gonna be interesting to have the the primary folks

In one room again as we were last June But with an opportunity of interacting with other people and getting questions and things like are you cold in there

You're here you're you're you're doing the I'm freezing thing. Like I said, it's it's almost

December So I think you may still have some long -sleeve shirts left somewhere in the closet and then pants pants would be good

Pants would be good There it is some folks

I I asked a good brother at apologia last week I said, do you do you own long pants?

So he wore long pants on Sunday just just to prove they're a little wrinkled but he

Hadn't been worn. Yeah. Now. Let's not give folks the wrong impression. I am wearing shorts. Yes It's just you live in short live in Phoenix, it's the

And I work with mr. Freeze I mean, there's no reason to okay.

I mean, I mean, it's like six months out of the year. It's ugly sweater day I'd let you

I'd bring coogies in for you to wear. They do keep you nice and warm. So anyways

That's coming up before g3 if you were wondering about if you're on the fence about attending

Keep in in mind the pre -conference and I think that'll be most most interesting

I'm I'm not sure how the title of this came up I'm blaming O 'Fallon on this one an exegetical and historical examination of the woke church movement

Actually, I'm just gonna be dealing with We are talking on the on the phone while I was driving somewhere

I know I was on i -17 somewhere and I said well

I can do these two topics. I said I can do the exegetical thing I've been doing from the start, you know Ephesians Ephesians 4

Colossians 3 and then I mentioned one other he said I I think you should stick with the exegetical thing

So that's what I'm talking about. And everybody else is gonna be Phil Johnson's gonna be talking about virtue signaling the new evangelistic strategy

Tom Askew is doing white privilege the new original sin Then Josh Bice is doing brave new religion intersectionality now, these are not long presentations as you may notice

Because that's 435 530 and 615. So these are gonna be moving along Fairly fairly quickly and I have

Basically 40 minutes for for mine. So there you go so Mike Mike just said that's basically what you said as a

No, actually, I was just talking about the I think the other topic I was gonna talk about was was the boat woke church thing.

And so he just conflated them What was blame the the bad reception on a telephone or something like that for the title

Woke exegesis. Well, there is that too because there is There is that out there as well so anyway, so that's coming up you might want to I just put that out on the

Social media stuff to look at my Twitter if I still have a Twitter account Uh, that's the next thing

Right before we went on the air. I mean two or three minutes Why does this always happen two or three minutes right before I start my good friend and brother

Michael Brown? linked to an article that he Skank skyman just said when did dr.

Oh ever reduce anything he says to 40 minutes That hurts because I've I remember very clearly preaching at a certain person's church

And I think I was spot -on time with the amount of time that I was given But am

I recalling correctly that when he spoke at a certain conference that we did? Oh, you are. Oh, yes

You are I am hot tell remind me about in fact I also remember a couple of g3's where you had to comment about the fact that you were the one

Trying to get well schedule back on track. Yeah g3. That's true. You know, it's just you seem to be the one that keeps

I don't know why that is but at most conferences. I do feel some kind of a

Moral necessity to get us back on track and timeliness is stewardship yeah,

I just think it's showing respect for your audience personally and So when other people go over I just take the time out of mine and I figure

The reason I can do that is I grew up doing radio so look at the debates I mean, this is totally off -topic

But how many times do my opponents completely blow the timing and their opens opening statement? They're in the middle of a point someplace and they have to stop and it just ruins everything

Everybody's just left going if if they stop if they stop. Yeah, does that ever happen to me? No, it doesn't and why doesn't that happen to me because I grew up doing radio

I by my sophomore year in high school I was on the air and the UPI news came on at the top of the hour

You had to be ready for it and there you had to do commercials and stuff the bottom of the hour and I just sort

Of learned that that's how it works. Now. I don't have to worry about Now I don't have to worry about Yeah, so anyways,

I'm seeing what's going on in channel right now and it's it's sort of funny So what was I talking about? Michael Brown? Michael Brown posted an article on the stream and I You know, we've been saying it's coming it's coming it's coming it's here and it's passing us by Twitter has updated its terms of service

It added further information in the category of repeated and or non consensual slurs epithets racist and sexist tropes and other content that degrades someone

Now I can guarantee you as far as Twitter is concerned that does not include Slurs epithets

Tropes and other content that degrades Christians. That's perfectly fine

All the profanity in the world everything else. That's perfectly fine. That's okay free speech.

We are progressives, right specifically Twitter explains

We prohibit targeting individuals with repeated slurs

Tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize Degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category and what's a protected category protected category is the category of people that leftists will use to destroy

Western culture period and They're only protected as long as they're useful for doing that once they're no longer useful for doing that they will be dumped by those same progressives

Protected category this includes ready folks. I'm reading quoting this includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals

So I read that to Rich and Rich's first response is what on earth is deadnaming and that was first thought

I had to We've all figured out what misgendering is now, right, you know the great sin of misgendering which which means not going along with the insanity of The transgender movement because it is insanity

It's insanity on the part who's suffering it and the part of the people promoting it more on the part of the people voting it But now we have a new name it when you have to keep coming up with new names to explain your insanity and your destructive absurdities

You know things are bad deadnaming would be calling Bruce Jenner Bruce Jenner Because that name is dead names now die.

Oh my goodness We have lost our collective minds this is insanity,

I don't even know how to even address it I Mean, how do you address? babbling

Morons, I mean when we once we've degraded to the point where there's not the slightest bit of a

Adulthood left in the thought process of what's going on in the society around. How do you even address it? How would you even address it?

I don't know. I Don't know but now we have Misgendering Which you know,

I guess that was a term that had meaning when I was young You'd look at a baby and go.

Oh, how old is he? It's a she. Oh So you misgendered?

Okay All right, but that's not what's being talked about here. That's that's not that's not the issue and deadnaming deadnaming

Wow, I Didn't have time to look it up.

Let me let me let me grab this real quick That's what I thought. Okay. Do you know how long ago the

Obergefell decision was? Do you remember? 2015

June of 2015 three and a half years ago and the fact matter is that Transgenderism it was there there were people who called themselves transgender

That was a side issue The big thing was homosexuality and gay marriage and it was like a switch

It was so clearly a pre -written script Literally within a week of Obergefell Transgenderism came to the center of the movement

It hadn't been till then because it is just so natural It is right.

It is logical. It is it is it's rational, it's sane

For us to recognize the goodness of the gender binary the necessity of the gender binary the reality of the gender binary

That we exist as men and women and that this is a good thing and it's a proper thing So they kept that to the side and then as soon as they had

Obergefell right into the center Right into the center and now you have stuff like this.

It's a script. It's absolutely a script and It's only been three and a half years

Three and a half years and here we are If you identify Bruce Jenner for the man that he was and is

You can be kicked off of Twitter You can be kicked out of one of the primary means of communication in our society

Now, there you go the the inmates are running the asylum and This is the stuff that is being absolutely

Shoved down the throats of Our children and our grandchildren and And given you know the other you know another story going around right now a

Lot of people have linked today to the info wars article and everybody's going info wars, but it's sort of on a topic that isn't a conspiracy thing and that is

More than a hundred churches Will close this week across the United States and next week and then the next week and then the next week

Between 100 and 200 week churches are closing just buildings left standing and There's been a lot of commentary on that as there there should be

Now I'm not sure that what that means is that there are will be more than a hundred less churches in toto

Because the article as far as I could see did not take into consideration new startups

And I've seen church buildings standing around You go to Italy and there's church buildings standing around all over the place

Europe lots of empty church buildings turned into nightclubs and shopping things and all sorts of stuff

But most of church buildings I see that have been abandoned boarded up are

Of the old mainline churches which are dying We've been saying that there have been dying for a long long time and there's a reason they're dying they they lost the gospel they're not

Christian churches anymore, and they're just There's going the way of the world as they should but that doesn't mean

That there is not very clearly a deep secularizing of the next generations of Americans and That the percentage of Americans that attend church service is declining greatly and Then of course you have to look at that and go

What percentage of people attending church service are actually truly Christians? Certainly the lie that this is a

Christian nation is being exposed. Hopefully I just looked at at my timeline on on Twitter and Let me see here is yeah, there he is

Uh -huh There we go 20 minutes in the prosperity time.

There we go. Took just I just took the took the trash out in the chat channel

Anyway, what was I saying? Yeah the decline in in the church We do see us around us and we we have to be preparing our young people to not expect to be a majority perspective in their society

Even down south and good old good old Bible Belt things are changing rapidly and We as parents and grandparents

Must help these next generations Christians who are

Millennials and I Jen X Jen, whatever they call them to not buy into majority arguments to recognize that they are going to be and Should be and should embrace and find joy in Being the marginalized unless something happens unless there is a huge change and Biblically historically

That kind of repentance and change has always followed after national disasters wars and Plagues and all sorts of things like that.

Hey Guy in China just announced the first CRISPR babies.

We knew that was coming the first genetically modified Human beings where the genetic modification is will be passed on Evidently, nobody saw has seen all the movies

Telling us that this is how mankind ends up turning into zombies and living underground and only coming out of dark and all the rest of that stuff

And you you chuckle but there is a warning there because it is incredibly foolish

For mankind to go if we can we should Without knowing what the results of that will be it is

Well, it's it's a It it's a terrible time for us to have the kind of Technological power that we have when we are the least

In line with or sensitive to our own creators guidelines for how we should live

Then we've been in a very very long time at least in the very nations that now have this this capacity so anyway while there's so much going on I I've commented more than once if if I if I did not

I think I commented Sunday evening the sermon if I Did not believe in the sovereignty of God I would have to be on prescription meds to stay calm

I would I would probably be watching the news far too much and Just be waiting for the next major disaster.

Is it going to be nuclear? Is it gonna be biological? Is it could be genetic? Is it gonna be? fires or earthquakes or tsunamis what's gonna get me because something's gonna and If I'm just a miss a genetic mistake already

Just a random mutation Then this merciless pitiless

Universe does not care About what's gonna happen to me in any way.

That's all there is to it So there's just there's a so dead naming yeah dead,

I mean, like I said, I I saw that from Michael Brown Dead naming so if you call someone by the name that they had before they quote -unquote

Transitioned which doesn't work by the way. There's no such thing but before they transitioned then you can lose your

Your access to the Twitter verse there you go. Wow, I I'm I'm just left going

What is coming our direction? I just don't know I just don't know

Okay, other things I need to get to today. There are so many things

Just looked over and saw someone complaining about having been cast into prosperity for 20 minutes

I need a longer one of those just for that one guy Have had some questions asked

About an article That was put out by the

Center for security policy Now, I don't know anything about these folks a few

Google searches didn't Give me a whole lot of really Positive stuff, but I I don't know whatever

But it's entitled Michigan faith communities in the crosshairs, so it's specifically

About what's going on in Michigan and especially Dearborn with the large number of Muslims in that particular that particular area and Basically it was

Talking about interfaith dialogues Quote interfaith dialogue.

It's a term that has been developed to describe efforts to bridge theological distinctions between religions, especially

Christianity and Islam The US Institute of Peace describes it as follows the term interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative constructive and positive interaction between people of different Religious traditions and our spiritual or humanistic beliefs at both the individual and institutional levels

Well, I'm not really sure what that's exactly is supposed to mean

But this whole thing was hey, the Muslims are using this to silence Criticism and unfortunately when they taught the only people they talk about and these building bridges projects are

Individuals or groups that are ecumenical non gospel oriented

They do not maintain an evangelistic purpose and This of course has prompted again believe it or not

There's stuff going through my Twitter feed right now going back over everything about the interfaith dialogue

I mean back to the basics that were corrected two days after it all started There are certain people just it doesn't matter how many times they see the evidence hear the video if you see the video hear the audio

It doesn't matter doesn't matter. They're they're Absolute broken records and there's just no

No dealing with them but the the groups that were specifically mentioned nothing was mentioned here, of course in regards to Yasir Qadhi and myself when you look at the people that are listed

Just just look at look at look at these American Baptist Church is liberal

Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, Christian Methodist Episcopalian, Episcopal Church, ELCA PCUSA Progressive National Baptist Convention United Church of Christ, UCC.

I mean these these are either Barely marginally Christian any longer or like UCC gone.

I mean completely out of the fold Mm -hmm Mary Lynn was ordained

United Church of Christ. So these are Way out there ecumenical liberal

Organizations Has absolutely positively nothing whatsoever to do with a honest open meaningful dialogue where both sides recognize that what we're saying is

That the other side is not walking in truth Let's try to understand what all that means

You know everything that took place in the in the dialogues that we had and will again have in the future at some point in time

I've spoken with Dr. Qadhi about that He's got some

Moves coming up in his own Experience and I think in teaching and stuff like that. So it's We're gonna try to do something

Very soon, but we're gonna have to put that off just a little ways just simply so that it can be done properly in an order

But anyway Anyone who watched those with any honest people who watch those with an open mind without a whole lot of bigotry and bias everything else could tell that there is a very clear recognition understanding of the fact that both sides have very different views and That we need to discuss those things especially because Islam Believes itself to be a continuation of Truths that were delivered through Moses and through Jesus But that have been altered and changed over time by the

Christians and the Jews and That means that as long as you take the

Quran seriously You've got to deal with Christians and Jews in light of what the Quran says So that's why there's always a vital and important area of discussion there and that to me is the contact point

And an entree if if you will Into the criticism of the

Quran and of the Islamic faith as a whole is to recognize that It does represent

Since it comes last chronologically they believe beforehand, but at least on a historical chronological level

It arises after Christianity and Judaism then you can ask the question If the

Quran is divine then it will accurately represent Christianity and Judaism because God has no reason to misrep

Be untruthful and to misrepresent anything. And so if there are misrepresentations of both

Christianity and Judaism in the Quran this would indicate a human authorship of The Quran rather than a divine authorship.

And yes, there are more and more Does the term liberal

Muslim really? carry the The proper meaning but there are more and more westernized

Muslims who are attempting to develop some kind of view of the Quran That would be somewhat commensurate with liberal quote -unquote liberal

Christians I don't think liberal Christianity works and I can't imagine how liberal Islam would work either it both require a fundamental redefinition of The core beliefs of both faiths

That's why I've always criticized my my Muslim friends who glom on to the

Quotations from quote -unquote liberal Christians, whereas they would never accept that kind of thing from a quote -unquote liberal

Muslim That's I think there are some on the Muslim side. They're starting to see that and go

Man, we are getting more and more of our own sort of weird folks Maybe we shouldn't be

Making fun of sort of the weird Christian folks over there either anyway I realized that there are some people go in that direction, but Yasir Qadhi and I did not do that.

There was a very very You know, I thought one of the most useful parts first night was you know, what's what's the main thing you want for the other?

person Anyways, that's not what this Article was about whoever wrote it.

It wasn't dealing with anything along those lines It is interesting that it tried to connect all of this to cultural

Marxism and The Frankfurt school and I can see how that would work with liberals and those denominations which again, those denominations have

Abandoned the faith for a very very very very long time I mean, I mean the Barry Lynn debate was what 2001 as I recall so that's coming up on 20 years ago

You could look at the UCC and go really So yeah, no, really no no connection.

No connection there I don't know if any of you saw this.

I'm just catching up with all the articles I've got here If you go to DTS .edu

Dallas Theological Seminary No Toward a biblical theology of unity diversity and community

If if you want to read a truly woke statement

You can find it it is filled With and it's it's long but it is absolutely filled with the the new buzzwords

I've just been stunned at how quickly the

Social justice woke movement has made incredible inroads

Within what would be generally called Christian scholasticism It's not that there are not people in many of these institutions that are trying as best they can to remain faithful and to hold on but It just seems to me that in a large number of schools.

The leadership has already been Deeply compromised deeply compromised and I don't know what could change

This and what that means, of course is that the next generation of preachers coming out are going to be very deeply committed to this same kind of social justice perspective and I I See a connection and I think unfortunately in the next 20 years is going to Bear this out, but I Will hate to sit there and say

I told you so if the Lord gives me another 20 years but I see a connection between This movement in its broad spectrum and a fundamental degradation in the view of the scriptures as the

Unchanging always relevant perspicuous authoritative revelation of God the the the willingness and ability to put an

An absolute lens of interpretation over the scriptures based upon these social justice categories cannot help but eventuate in a fundamental degradation of the view of the authority of scripture within those particular denominations and churches and I think that's what we're gonna see.

I think that's what we're seeing happening and it's going to accelerate and So the places we never thought it would happen.

It is happening. We never expected To be living in a day where if you called

Bruce Jenner Bruce Jenner, you could lose access to talking to people publicly That's a form of public shaming

It's a form of public shaming And that's but that's where we are that's where we are and It is an amazing thing to observe and to to recognize

But it's Wow, I don't know I don't know anyway, so a tremendous amount of stuff going on in in the world today that I I I Don't want to be the sky is falling guy

The sky isn't falling God's throne has not been overthrown

We are just being reminded. However that We have so little knowledge of what's really going on in the world that our modern arrogance and hubris born of the

False assumption that because we have access to so much information so much technology. Therefore we know

When reality is we don't know there's much that we do not know and We do have to throw ourselves in childlike faith upon the promises of God When we look at what's happening and what could happen in the future

It's that sin of worry and it is a sin and it's one I'm certainly guilty of Maybe no one else in the audience is

But I can't Help to but but think about what could happen in the future and To be concerned about this not only for myself and my wife my children my grandchildren and it's

It's easy to understand how people Can commit that sin of worry and concern?

because we're not casting these things upon the Lord and Meditating upon his goodness

Taking advantage of the means of grace as we reform folks whether you want to call me that or not doesn't matter to me we reform folks refer to the means of grace the things that God has placed into our lives if we're being obedient to him that Can be the mechanisms whereby these tendencies toward worry and distraction?

Can be fought and battled The regular exposure to the Word of God and the fellowship of the

Saints and the Lord's Supper and baptism and and all of these things Need to take advantage of them and be thankful for them and indeed to be thankful for the fact that we have the freedom

To continue to worship as yet in in this nation I'm certainly looking at a lot of very young people today that I have no confidence as I listen to them speak knowing how they have been raised and what has been taught to them in the public school system

I have no confidence that when they come into positions of public authority in 30 years from now that they will have the slightest

Hesitation to do away with religious liberty and freedom If things continue in that fashion

I Don't know what the future holds. All I know is we as Christians are called to be

Faithful in the midst of all of these things so as you see this stuff coming as you as you and We're all the same you fire up a program

It has updated and there's this thing that says to continue click this button

Who reads it and Yet you click that button. Okay, I agree not to call

Bruce Jenner. Bruce Jenner. That's That's what you're clicking now.

It's amazing It's amazing. I I'll admit I'm still surprised that That I have a

Twitter account and we're gonna have to make decisions Is it better to never talk about Bruce Jenner and be able to Coordinate events communicate direct people to non -controlled websites

Where you can have these conversations or is it just stick it in their eye and get yourself completely banned instantly as a martyr

Do we seek cyber martyrdom? These are issues that our brothers and sisters in other places in the world have actually been addressing

For quite some time and we might learn from them though some of this stuff as far as that, you know, just the global Communication ability we have today.

Some of that is pretty new and So we're all sort of going How do we handle this well we need we need wisdom well here toward the end of the program

I want to address the Issue floating around unfortunately out there in in the

Twitterverse and the inner and intertubes and however, whatever we want to talk about it, I Up until Sunday had been a member of exactly two fellowships in my entire adult life

Today and when you consider yourself an adult I mean if you want to make it

I'll push it a little bit way. It was only one. But anyway I Had been in fact,

I was ordained at the North Phoenix Baptist Church which back in those days was the largest

Church in the Valley of the Sun, I believe at one point Boasted 20 ,000 members as I always say as soon as they say that you can never find more than about 6 ,700 of them at any one particular point on a given

Sunday, but 20 ,000 members megachurch, that's where I met my wife

It's where I was married Served on staff there as a staff assistant not as some full -fledged minister.

I was young in those days I was going to Bible College Grand Canyon College back in those days Now the rather well -known

Grand Canyon University, which has grown It's not even recognizable to those of us who who went there

But in 1980 Late 1988.

I graduated from Fuller the Phoenix Extension in 89 I had been introduced about two years earlier.

I think it was 86 to reform theology and messed up Rich's life and a few other people's lives in the process in Introducing that you should you should

I can still remember what rich looked like the first night. I started talking about this stuff He was like, well, it's happened you what's going on here?

What? Hmm, huh? Yeah, oh, yeah, but what about but but what about but but what about Yeah, yeah, he still got a little bit of a crick in the neck just from all the stuff like that anyway,

I had been introduced reform theology and I Had encountered a cassette tape

Remember cassette tapes a cassette tape display at Berean Christian bookstore Back at the

Bible desk where you know, you get your name imprinted thing for Phoenix Reform Baptist Church and it just so happened providentially that when

I saw it the the The front tape or maybe all the tapes that were in it. I don't remember

Was on election and I'm like They're free. So I took one and I had a cassette tape recorder in the car.

That's how you did things back then And I was really impressed

I was like, whoa, what is this and so I remember going there used to be a Christian bookstore on 7th

Street And Osborne, I think the South of Indian school Christian, what was that?

I remember anyway, I Remember going in there and I used him as a at that point. I used him as a library

Because I found the handbook of denominations I had never heard of a Reformed Baptist in my life so I Looked it up.

I went. Oh, I didn't know about this. This is cool. And so sometime in 1989

Late eight. No, no late in late 1988. I Visited for the first time and was extremely impressed

Just the the preaching and it was it was great.

Well make a long story short Interestingly enough the the

Lord orchestrated something that You know, I was married at North Phoenix Been on staff at North Phoenix sang in a group called liberation at North Phoenix a lot of really important memories

I saw a lot of dreams of North Phoenix even to this day because that's you know, that's an important time in your life and so something had to happen to disconnect me from that commitment to that church and and it something did and So in 1989 we started attending

Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, and it was that year that we that we joined that was almost

I was twenty nine and a half years ago it's a long time one place and And It's surprising to me that there are so many people who?

have in their own history moved from one place to another and yet when

When I do that one time You know the sky is falling but The reality is that sometimes

In your life you you need a new start you need a new beginning just for your own spiritual health and Obviously for I think almost 20 years over 20 years

I Had served as an elder at Phoenix Reform Baptist Church You have to have

I believe okay. I Have to have I'm not gonna I'm not gonna make this universal for everybody else, but I have to have

The proper foundation to Function as an elder in a body

Because I believe and this is this actually I mentioned this a few weeks ago And I'm not gonna go into it right now, but I think one of the key issues in the egalitarian complementary complementarianism stuff

You Gallup, you know male -female roles and stuff like that. I think one of the key issues in all of that is

That when the Word of God is preached in the church

That it is to be preached with authority as The very Word of God therefore the commands of Scripture become commands for the people being brought

By the Word of God through that Presentation in the body.

That's where the authority comes from. It's an authority. It's not just people sitting around going Well, I sort of feel like it means thing.

It might mean this and but you might feel it. No, that's that's not an authoritative proclamation and when

I travel and speak in other places In essence

I am borrowing The authority of the elders of that place. They're the ones that have invited me.

They're the ones that have put me in that position But when you're in your own church, you have to have that foundation upon which to Minister the

Word of God and then deal with all the things you deal with in churches They may be the fellowship of the

Saints, but we are still living we are still pilgrims in this world and there is sin and everything else that takes place and so when the time comes when you feel like You are no longer in the proper position to be able to do that rightly then you need to for the sake of yourself and the others to have the ability to Follow the

Lord's leading elsewhere and That took place over the past number of weeks and So it was announced on Sunday evening basically right after I finished preaching

That my wife and I have joined Apologia Church in Tempe with brother

Jeff Durbin Brother Luke, brother Zach, there are three elders

Jeff Luke and Zach. I am NOT an elder in that congregation and When I had spoken with them about that They have been very open over the years

Jeff had only a few weeks ago long before I had contacted him about any of this Had mentioned on Facebook how

I have been a primary source and Part of his own theological formation.

I'm 15 years older than he is and So because of that There is a recognition that you know,

I I don't exactly Do well slipping in the back Door and sitting in the back row.

Not only does a Coogee make that hard but How many times have

I preached an apology over the years? Many many times. Jeff has sat in this seat He sat in that seat wearing a

Coogee. I gave him once there's pictures of that He's filled in for me. I've filled in for him.

I've preached at his church I can't hide there. Everybody knows who

I am and what I do And So we sort of said well, you know

We want you to have time to get to know folks and to become comfortable and and I told him my travel schedule is going to be really insane that means

I'm gonna be gone a lot and And all this type of stuff so he said well, well, um

We need to recognize that you are who you are. You've already done what you've done here So we'll sort of we'll sort of use the the language of a scholar in residence

You know when you when you're here We'll do special studies and I Just did a apology radio day for yesterday with joy my daughter summer's partner in the

Sheologen's crew and I mentioned for example the

The study of Munster and what happened at Munster and she's like, you know We have a special thing on Sheologen's where we we tell stories

You gotta come on and tell the Munster story on Sheologen's. Okay, we'll do that do that kind of special thing

But not be one of the regular elders in the sense that You sort of want the elders to show up once in a while And I'm not going to be doing that for a while But I preached there

Sunday evening and I linked to the sermon Let me just describe what that was like The reason that I spoke most of you know that a week ago yesterday

I had just had lunch with Jeff and Luke and Zach that day and That evening

Jeff had that seizure and they're still not sure why The Coogee sweater

I was wearing for lunch was not nearly right enough. I think to to be blamed for that particular incident, but you never know and So I had rushed down to the hospital when

I was informed about this and in speaking with Luke and Zach I had said well, look, let me let me do one thing and that is take any pressure off regarding Sunday I will be here planned to be be there.

So let me let me preach and They were very happy to allow me to do so and so that's why

I was preaching I hadn't been scheduled to for a long period of time But that's that's why we did so to to add last three

Sundays. I've preached an apology and So I Gave one of my favorite studies one that most of you have probably heard at some point or another the

Messianic prophecies the sort of how to how to figure out what was being discussed in the road to Emmaus study that I do out of Isaiah 6 through 11 and so the service begins

It's a family integrated church, so there's no nursery and so there are and There are lots of children and that's that's how they do things.

I've always known that and So you start off with some music and then there's a there's a catechism portion where we're working through the

The catechism and scripture memory verse right now. It's Romans. It's a golden chain

Romans chapter 8 is relevant to that particular catechism question There were

Announcements and in this particular instance brother Luke Jeff had mentioned there was gonna be a big announcement.

Ie my joining apology. Oh and so that announcement was given and Then I Spoke for a little over an hour on That particular subject.

I as I said linked to the sermon You can listen for yourself and determine for yourself whether it's a fluffy type thing or whether it is a solid exegetical study and Then what you don't see is

I Transitioned directly from that sermon into the

Lord's Supper and And having been there the week before and listening to Jeff do that I had done it before But it

I'll admit it was easier to do having Been there the week before to know to make sure there's some consistency in how it was handled and so I did the you know, the instructions and so on and so forth

One of the things that's different at apologia, which I like have always liked is

That instead of the what we might call Passive distribution of the elements.

There is an active reception of the elements in other words Instead of just sitting there and having the elements distributed you go forward and Receive the bread and the and the wine

After A period of prayer so you can take time to Prepare yourself.

I like that because of the fact that in first Corinthians when it says when you partake you are

Proclaiming the Lord's you're doing something actively And so when you stand up in front of the people and you're you're going down there there.

I see a consistency there Obviously, that's that's not how we had ever done it any other church.

I was at so obviously I'm not saying There's something wrong with one or the other. It's just a I like it.

It's a very Special time that was followed again by some more music and then a

I Guess you would call it sort of the Aaronic benediction I don't remember whether it was the Aaronic benediction or whether it was the one out of Jude or just one of the benedictory things and and that was the service and I think it is a

God -honoring way of doing things you have a group of people Focused upon the

Word of God group people focused upon, you know, the church does has baptism

Lord's Supper church discipline Proclamation of the

Word of God absolute belief in its consistency inerrancy inspiration authority

That's what you want and that's what you need and so I'm not could be there the next two weeks because I'm gonna be doing similar things elsewhere

But It's It's sad for me that there are people who want to try to Utilize something like this as some means of Making points or causing division or doing whatever.

It's it's sad that anyone Would even think of it along those lines. There have obviously been lots of folks in That have

I think answered Appropriately and saying well, we'll pray for for both

PR BC as I certainly do As well as apologia both need to be prayed for if they're have anything to do with me

Apologia is not a perfect fellowship and if it was I just ruined it by joining it and So I'm well aware of that.

I just want to Invest what

I can what knowledge I have what experience I have That's why

I met with the elders first and said hey, I want to There's lots of stuff to talk about.

There's gonna need to be real Openness amongst us in talking about things people are gonna come to me and ask questions

You know, we were we were up front about about all of that and So That's what has happened there

I have a lot of people asking Questions, like so are you still a member of Phoenix reform?

No I have never heard of dual membership before Well, I'll take that back.

I suppose I have But it's been like college students who would be members of one church

During a semester and then they go back to their home church type situations. That's that's not what we're talking about here

I am no longer a member of the Phoenix reform Baptist Church. I am NOT an elder of that congregation.

I stepped down about a month ago People say well that means you're not an elder anymore. Well, I'm not functioning as an elder right now.

I'm an ordained minister there are people who Take sabbaticals take time off whatever else might be.

I don't know what the future is gonna gonna hold but none of that has changed and obviously the the people at Apologia have been extremely

Warm and welcoming Because we already knew each other. I mean it's not like I'm going to some place that I've not known the fit is perfect because of the fact that I've had

So much input in Forming The overall perspective that doesn't mean that we agree lockstep on everything and I feel sorry for people who think that you have to I Really really do.

I mean, I've seen people Well, how can you go there? He's an all -millennial us and they're post -millennial us and there are all -millennial us in the congregation

We don't shoot each other over that. Hello. I mean I I Guess there might be some people that you know demand that kind of absolute well, yeah all those folks with the

That's one of the things I forgot to get to today. I was gonna play clips from the did you say? Oh, you haven't seen it yet.

Have you have you seen the trailer to the new? Calvinism doctor of demons thing that Steven Anderson and all the independent

KJVO fundamentalist Wacko guys have put out. Well, I know that yeah.

Yeah, not everybody PRVC agreed about everything either, but anyway Let let me let me just be straightforward

I Need to be in a fellowship where I have

Full openness with the rest of the leadership Because of who

I am what I do and I Jeff and I have that kind of relationship

And that's a wonderful thing and I'm sad for people Who can't see that or could dare to complain?

that the Lord would work something out to Where I could be in a place where I feel that I can

Flourish and get a fresh start and And do the things

I've been called to do And and why does anybody think that means you have

I guess this is because everybody else's this is a common thing I Guess because most other people have the experience that when you leave a place you have to hate the place

Yeah, I've I have said to many people we've seen this we saw this at Phoenix reform we've had we'd have people come into the fellowship and And if if you come into a fellowship and all you can do is bad -mouth where you were before I'm not sure.

I want you here. I'm not sure. I want you here. That probably means you you left for all the wrong reasons

You're not going to hear me say a single negative thing About PRVC because I don't have anything negative to say that's not why

I needed to make this change and so I Feel for you.

I really do if if you think that this is in any way shape or form a repudiation of rejection of The staff or members of PRVC it has nothing to do with that at all

They are wonderful people. I love them I would love to have the opportunity if there was a need to fill in to have the ability to fill in in the future

There's nothing hindering that from my perspective and And so maybe it's just people normally have those negative church -leaving

Experiences that they just Project that on everybody else but Don't do that.

It's a it's it'll only make you You and every good church you join miserable in the process.

So Oh, by the way, I don't know why other people can't find it

But if you you do enough looking around At the Apologia Church website, you will discover that The church discusses

Will you be teaching Sunday school at Apologia, they don't have Sunday school. So the answer is no If you look around enough

You will Discover that the church utilizes the 1689

London Baptist Confession of Faith as a confessional Document plus Certain distinctives in light of especially the fact that They are not only a church planting ministry.

They have planted a church in Kauai Got to find some way of getting out there to So into that that church as well

But they're well known literally around the world For their anti -abortion work and so There's material in regards to you know, especially application to Issues along those lines on on the website as well and so you do not have to You do not have to engage in senseless speculation

My my hope is that Mature believers anyways will simply pray that the

Lord would bless PR BC Bless Apologia would make the transition one that is a blessing to everybody

We have far more important things we worry about than one aging fellow of Scottish ancestry and questionable sweater tastes

Going from one fellowship to to another And it's sad when people

I think waste their time With that kind of thing now, there are people obviously who simply detest both me and Jeff Durbin and Apologia that none of this is gonna be relevant.

I get that and nothing you can do about that you least leave that to the Lord and Move forward from there

But for those who have questions, hopefully those questions the relevant questions to be honest with you

There are certain things that just simply hurt anybody else's business But the relevant questions that would be relevant.

Yes, were you waving at me? Oh, oh Oh, okay. Well, it's out of the corner of my eyes.

So I I can't tell we're gonna have to put lights You know when you when you make the changes you're talking about doing where I'm being told

I don't know when it's gonna happen you know, like I said, I was at a church 29 and a half years and in all that time in 29 and a half years at PRBC a

Overhead projector from the early 1960s Sat in the corner of the

Bible study room covered with a gray plastic cover For 29 and a half years.

It was never used but it never moved either and so some of us

Don't mind not having much the way of change you might call us fossilized in some in some fashions

But then there are other people that Like to change stuff up once in a while and so You might see some changes coming to the studio in the not too distant future.

I Don't know exactly what that's gonna mean I am I am concerned about my books and My Star Trek memorabilia and things like that.

I Don't want anything, you know damaged but something tells me that they're gonna be in different locations

You know, we need to keep the lava lamp around I think that's just sort of a necessary aspect but who knows what's gonna end up happening, so We'll find out we'll find but but if things change that we're gonna need to need to I Think I think we could probably get a groundswell of demand for a rich cam.

We had one briefly But I think I think there'd be a groundswell of support out there for a rich cam that and I think the rich cam should be something that I control so I can reach over and oh and and hit it and and Catch you and in the way that you

Currently catch me. I think that would be yeah. See I think that'd be a really good idea that I'd be able to do that Yeah, and I'm sure that the technology exists to be able to You think you control the horizontal and the vertical until?

Until the yeah, see it see in channel. We want a rich cam. We want a rich cam. Oh Something's but yeah, there's another yes rich cam see see what's going on here

We've got we have a groundswell of support for the rich cam in the channel even as I said as I speak so There you go.

It's it's done the people have spoken and Just as I just as I predicted it would it would take place so anyhow

So as I said, I'm gonna be gone gave you the schedule at the beginning of the program I Might have some time next week

To try to maybe do something. I don't know. It rarely works overly. Well from Hotel Wi -Fi

But I did and I forgot I even saved I just forgot to queue it up. That's why I even saved the file.

I Thought about looking at the trailer for that video Because it's just What let me

Just second. Let me at least give you the name so you can look it up. Yeah, Calvinism documentary teaser

And let me see here faith

Baptist Church presents Calvinism a doctrine of devils there it is

Calvinism a doctrine of devils, so you can look that up and I'm in the

I'm in this and I mean, it's so childish.

It's so Seventh grade level now sixth grade level that they they have a clip of MacArthur on the blood issue again,

I'm we're talking we're going back a quarter century on this And they even do the slow down thing, you know when they

It is so bad You can just tell what's coming yeah

Wow Yeah, we'll take a look at it it's only it's only two and a half minutes long, so I wouldn't have been difficult to actually have have gone through it, but What are you looking at?

I'm you're not you're not plugged in Were you looking for the for the video? Oh Oh phones, okay

It's probably not gonna come out for a while so There will probably be plenty of time to go over it when we don't have more important things to do

Believe me this is This is the lowest level of radio free

Geneva you could ever do. I mean we've done some bad Some bad anti -calvinism stuff from radio free

Geneva, but this would this would be stretching it just a little bit But this kind of stuff's out there

It's out there so Got to deal with it when you when the idea with it, but we'll get to it I was gonna do that today, and I forgot and I apologize so Once again real quickly st.

Charles this weekend prior the weekend after that Coming about theological seminary

New Testament Reliability textual criticism Owensboro 3rd through the 5th

January and all that is on at a omen org we actually shockingly have the calendar and the graphics of upcoming stuff

Fairly accurate except we didn't include the the stuff from g3. I don't think at the moment

But the g3 pre -conference on social justice I'll be speaking at that and then part of the panel because the

Vody and Josh and myself and Tom Askell That whole group Phil Johnson.

We're all gonna be doing a panel at the end of the evening So that's another reason. I think that would be worth

Worth coming and it is interesting that one of the criticisms. We're getting is why don't you have the other side?

It's like excuse me Have you noticed that every weekend all over the place now?

people are Presenting this kind of stuff in churches and the other side is never represented

So you can do 50 conferences we do one and you want to be involved with it

But you won't give us a voice in any other Yeah, that makes sense. And by the way, that was the other thing and now

I realize why Well, I don't know about that I don't know where it went.

That's why I didn't cover it Oh, that's why

Didn't scroll far enough. Sorry And next time we will

Address because I've mentioned this so I'm just putting this out there. So Next time

I also want to address an article written by Ed Shaw at living out org Called what's wrong with a permanent faithful stable same -sex sexual relationship

Living out is doing presentations especially Southern Baptist churches all over the place and There are serious

Fundamental foundational problems with what is being presented and there are big names big names that are promoting living out and They're not only doing it publicly, but they're also doing it behind the scenes

Getting them into these churches and it is It's bad, so we'll be looking at that and I wanted to look at another article that I was going to get to I wouldn't have gotten in much of this today

I would have had to have talked a lot faster concerning The lawsuit that ADF is involved with regarding a professor

Merriweather and His being forced to utilize to not misgender not just on Twitter You know, it's one thing to say hey

Twitter owns the you know, you're using Twitter services So Twitter gets to tell you what you can and cannot do on their services

How about in the classroom? How about in the classroom when you're a professor? And someone demands this is this what happened with just with with Peterson demands that you use pronouns that are disconnected from reality

What do you do then? All of this folks is to make sure that Christians are totally marginalized from the public sphere, that's what is going on That's what's happening.

So if we get a chance to do something while I'm traveling We'll look at those if not when we get back immediately I'm sure there'll be about four dozen other things that have been added

Since that particular point in time But we will get to them at that at that point in time.

So thanks for watching the program today Lord willing We'll see you in about 12 days or so.