Next Week LIVE! - Andrew Sandlin, Alfie Evans and the Culture of Death!

I was not originally asked to be here today, but then Michelle Wolfe happened. Oh, Michelle Wolfe hosted the Correspondents' Dinner, and as the host, she treated her jokes the same way that she wants to treat all babies.

She let them all die. Did you hear the abortion joke that she told? Like, nobody knew if she was telling a joke or confessing that abortion really is murder. All the liberals were like, don't say that, we're trying to get away with murder here.

Where's Viola Davis when you need her? What are we going to do? Michelle Wolfe defended her speech by calling it a roast, but that was not a roast, because roasts have two things. One, jokes, and two, not Michelle Wolfe.

Actually, a roast, Michelle, is defined as writing jokes that jab a person with the intention of honoring them in a unique way, but that was not what she was doing. She was not trying to honor anybody in a unique way except for herself.

So tonight, I will teach her what a roast actually is by roasting her. Michelle Wolfe is here, ladies and gentlemen. Give it up. That's right. I just have to say, this has been a big year for her. Congratulations to Michelle Wolfe.

Congratulations to you for causing people to look on Wikipedia again. It has been a minute. Michelle Wolfe is better known as Fire and Fury, Michael Wolfe's wife. That's actually not true unless he put it in the book.

Then it's only true to liberals, but it's super true. Michelle has written such esteemed shows as Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Daily Show, and every other late night show that exists. Technically, she's only written the first two, but they all tell the same joke, so it doesn't really matter anymore.

I don't know if you noticed this,.

But every late night show on television right now pushes the exact same agenda. You can almost see a connection between them and Kim Jong-un because they also believe their own lies. The only difference is, unlike liberal media, Kim Jong-un actually listened to Donald Trump for a minute, and now he's no longer trying to kill innocent Americans.

It helps them listen. Instead, the liberals are still pushing the metaphorical nuclear button, also known as Planned Parenthood. Extreme liberals cannot listen to anybody else. I've noticed that. They cannot listen to anybody else.

They love hearing the sound of their own voice. Think about that for a minute, okay? They don't want to listen to another opinion so bad that they're willing to listen to any voice in their own group, even if it's Michelle Wolf's voice.

I mean, come on. Victoria Jackson called. She wants her voice back. She didn't know you were going to do this with your voice. Quick question. If a tree falls in the woods and nobody's there to hear it, will Michelle Wolf blame it on Trump or all of the patriarchy?

That, by the way, that's how a setup works, Michelle. She tried telling a joke like that earlier, but completely butchered it. She had the ability to succeed, but then failed last minute. So basically, she followed in the footsteps of her hero, Hillary Clinton, you know?

And it could have been that she was just so nervous being around people like Sarah Huckabee Sanders, you know, people that believe in truth. Michelle was criticized the most, actually, on her comments about Sarah.

And I get that you don't mess with a mom that has moral values. Those moms are tough, all right? I mean, sure, they'll turn the other cheek, but they only have two cheeks. After that, it's just a stern, stern look that'll make everybody want to repent.

That's all she's got after that. On a sincere note, I just want to say congratulations to Michelle Wolf for the start of a very successful year for her. She's about to launch her own Netflix show, which is really great, because she no longer has to worry about being typecast as a heroin addict on CSI Miami episodes.

I don't think Michelle liked that just now. It's hard to tell. She always looks ungrateful.

You can never tell.

Are you happy right now, Michelle? Give me something here. Nothing, nothing. Got the stare. I'm a man. It makes sense. I just want to say, Michelle, I wish you the most success. And above all, I want you to know I am praying for you.

I've already talked to my wife, and she would love to invite you to a women's retreat. That way you can learn what a powerful woman really is supposed to be like. Thank you so much. Have a good day.

Welcome to Next Week and the North Korea Story

Welcome, everybody. Welcome, welcome. Hey, welcome to our live studio audience, and welcome to everybody watching online and social media and across the internets. I'm Jeff Durbin. You are watching Next Week, and let's talk about what's up.

You guys ready? Let's do this. Yes. Welcome to Next Week. Here is something nobody's talking about.

North Korea.

North Korea is meeting with South Korea for the first time in history. It's actually really amazing. The media was going to talk about it, but they still can't find a way to make fun of Trump in that situation, so it's kind of off the table.

In fact, a spokesperson from South Korea gave credit to Donald Trump for calming down North Korea. In response, Obama said, I could have done that. I could have done that, too. Now, North Korea also vowed to denuclearize their border.

That's right. Nothing self-destructive will be allowed anymore, so Dennis Rodman won't be flying to North Korea anytime soon. Now, things have been looking so good for North Korea that there has actually been talks of allowing Christianity into the country.

How's that, guys? That's amazing. Now, if that happens, then Christians said that they would move to North Korea instead of living in the anti-Christian nation, California. Speaking of, California is trying to pass a law that would ban anyone from using the Bible to encourage a gay person to be straight because it could hurt someone's feelings.

Man, that's such a gay thing to say. That's so gay. Now, our writer, Chris Wineland's wife, was watching Hulu recently and came across a yogurt commercial with an unfortunate slogan. Now, see if you guys notice it.

Take a look.

Which ones are nonfat?

How about the product with lactobacillus casei shirota? Your cult contains a probiotic strain, lactobacillus casei shirota. Enjoy your cult with your family.

Ah, that's great. Yeah, that's right. Yes. Enjoy your cult with your family. Now, what makes this yogurt different than others? It's not yogurt. It's Kool-Aid. They also said that your cult has been around for 80 years.

Now, I thought that the Latter-day Saints were much older than that. Now, after that, we discovered that your cult isn't the only unfortunate product name. Now, here's a product for your seatbelt. Take a look.

Does the shoulder strap of your car cut into your shoulder? Is your shoulder strap too tight and annoying? Introducing the Titty Bear, the cute little guy that eliminates all those problems. Designed to make driving more comfortable, the Titty Bear snaps onto your shoulder strap and moves up and down to remove the pressure wherever you need it.

My shoulder strap used to pull so tight, I could hardly breathe. Now, with the Titty Bear, I really enjoy traveling again.

Okay, that bear is a pervert. And why didn't they call it the Teddy Belt or anything else, guys? Any name would have been better. Now, lastly, this is amazing. Here is a real diet pill from the 1980s.

Keep that in mind. This is from the 80s. Take a look.

I've tried fad diets, powders, pills. Still, my weight's been up and down like a yo-yo until the AIDS plan taught me how to take off weight and help keep it off.

AIDS may taste like a candy, but AIDS contains one of the most effective appetite suppressants you can buy. And there's no stimulant in AIDS that could make you nervous.

With AIDS, I ate less, so the weight came off. To help keep it off when I sometimes want things loaded with calories, AIDS helps put me in control.

Let the AIDS plan teach you how to take off weight and help keep it off. Try peanut butter AIDS.

AIDS helps you lose weight. We know that, but we still don't want it. Even if peanut butter is involved. Now, we'll be right back, everybody. Make sure you guys like and share the episode. Stay with us right here next week.

Important guest today, important show topic.

We'll see you in a minute. Enjoying the show? You can also enjoy Apologia All Access. For only $9 .99 a month, you're able to get into shows, after shows, Apologia Academy, all sorts of amazing, great stuff.

And you're gonna wanna log on. Like I said, it's only $9 .99 a month. It's the same price as a cup of coffee. Wait, is that, am I reading that right? A cup of coffee? There's no way that script is right.

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Jehovah Java and the Culture of Death

Welcome back. Welcome back to our live studio audience, everybody watching across social media right now. Of course, as always, this time of the show, it's time for the blend of the week, everybody. So at Apologia Studios, we love our coffee and this week's blend is Jehovah Java.

Jehovah Java. If you need energy throughout the day, Jehovah Java will provide. From the makers of Pure Flix. Pure Flix. All right, let's do this, everybody. Let's talk about the culture of death. Now, you've all heard us mention many times that we are living in a culture of death.

Now, I have to grant that that has the potential to come across as alarmist or to be taken as an attempt to be shocking or unjustly provocative, of course. Now, however, when I've said it, I've said it in an attempt to be honest and even courageous.

Courageous enough to be truthful about our current circumstances. Now, don't get me wrong. I do loathe the sometimes cringey behavior of some professing Christians when they display what seems to be an obsession with finding persecution or problems where it may not really exist or matter all that much.

Now, call this a persecution complex and call this exhibit A.

What's up? Josh Firstine here. You know, I think in the age of political correctness, we become so open-minded, our brains have literally fallen out of our head. Do you realize that Starbucks wanted to take Christ and Christmas off of their brand new cups?

That's why they're just plain red. In fact, do you realize that Starbucks isn't allowed to say Merry Christmas to customers? Well, I decided, instead of simply boycotting, well, why don't we just start a movement?

So when I went in and I asked for my coffee,.

They asked for my name,.

And I told them my name is Merry Christmas.

Now, look, when I've pointed to the culture of death, I've pointed to what ought to be obvious to all of us. Now, we're living on the precipice of a complete reversal of much of what the Christian message built in the West.

Culture of death is a proper way to describe it. Now, since Roe v. Wade, we've killed about 60 million children, about 10 times the victim count of the Holocaust. If this were our competition, we're winning by a landslide.

Only in this case, we're guilty of doing it to ourselves. Now, add to the 60 million, about 3 ,000 more babies killed every single day, and you'll get a better picture of what I'm getting at when I call it a culture of death.

Next, we've all had to face the attack upon the very fabric of society with our nation's perverse redefinition of marriage. I call it death because when we try to undo the very first institution that God created to build a culture in the world, we have only one destination, death.

The United States government, by way of an evil Supreme Court, decided that a mirage is better than a marriage, and that circles might actually be squares, when they decreed that marriage is limitlessly malleable.

Children don't need a mother and a father. One of those two is expendable according to our death-loving government. I call it death because if you build a house without the kind of foundation that God told you to build it with, then when the wind and rains come or the earth shakes, that roof only has one place to land.

I call it death because we have left the vigorous and well-known Protestant work ethic that produced this nation to a theory of economics that rewards not-existent work ethic. A biblical society recognizes that if we don't work, we don't eat, and it prizes a more fundamental truth, you shall not steal.

And we've popularized coveting and made successful hardworking people into the enemies. Our new heroes are men like Bernie Hood. He loves to steal from the rich to give to the poor, y 'all, and we love him for doing it.

Nevermind the fact that he actually is one of those evil rich people. Now, we're so far in debt as a country because the government has taken on the role of the provider, father, mother, church, family, business partner, and God.

It's called death because when someone taps out all of their financial resources, at some point, they're gonna starve and die. The Bible says, those who hate me love death. There simply cannot be a better explanation for the 21st century West.

The difficulty we're now having is that this problem is not merely at the individual level, but now it's at the highest level of power and force, the government itself. The Bible and Christian civilizations in the past support the idea of a small and limited government.

Humans are sinful. Therefore, there must be limitations on the kind of power we give to them. And this is why in the American experiment, there was what some have rightfully referred to as a Presbyterian style of government, checks and balances on power.

Christians have always taught that only God has ultimate authority and power. Now, at the beginning of the American experiment, people essentially said, human beings are not angels. Therefore, a constitution is necessary and limitations on power is necessary.

Now, it seems that the leftists, humanists, and social justice warriors of our day haven't learned from Mao, Stalin, Hitler, and Pol Pot. In the Bible, government has only a few important responsibilities.

Simple, to punish evil, enforce contracts, and to organize for national defense. That's it. Today, government is the business partner, the provider, the physician, the educator, the investor, the parents, and the definer of morality.

A couple of recent examples need to be highlighted when we talk about the culture of death. In California, legislation AB 2943 has been introduced that would criminalize the speech of the Apostle Paul in the Bible.

In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul referred to people who had once been homosexuals and were no longer there. They had been washed, he said, sanctified, justified. Now, this legislation addresses this issue and seeks to do away with so-called conversion therapy.

And don't get me wrong, there are a lot of strange practices that have come under the name of conversion therapy. However, the fundamental aspect of this particular bill is that any suggestion that a person can change their sexual or gender identity is to be seen as fraudulent and criminal.

Also new here at noon, the California Assembly passed a bill this morning to ban conversion therapy. The law would make clear that efforts to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity is a fraudulent business practice and exposes people to psychological abuse.

Now the state could make history as the first to protect both children and adults from the controversial treatment.

Even more interesting is the obvious display of the myth of neutrality. We talk about this a lot. Nobody is neutral, neither is government. We all have a commitment to an ultimate standard. Now, it's never a question of whether we will impose a morality, but which morality we'll impose.

It's not a question of whether the government will take a side on the issue of righteousness, but which side? Proof of this point is in the person who's in charge of this bill. His name is Evan Lowe. In his closing statement, he admits that his bill is founded upon his own experience as a gay man and how hurtful it is to gay people to tell them that something is wrong with their sexuality and that they can in fact change.

And I just want to let you know, it's important that we play this entire clip. It is long, but I need you to see it.

And now as we find ourselves here in the state of California in the state legislature with an obligation to protect everyone in the state of California, the obligations that we have, that there is nothing wrong with me.

There is nothing that needs to be changed. Members of the LGBT community are your brothers, are your sisters, are your parents, are your pastors, our police officers, and everyone in between. We are a family.

So this notion that we would accept as a practice, as a legal practice, that conversion therapy works is antithetical to my very existence in this body. And I can't just tell you how many people are suffering right now in this moment of vulnerability to which they are too trying to find themselves and come out in a society that is very hateful to them.

In a moment of vulnerability, could I too change? And finding out that they're being charged thousands of dollars being told that they could change with no remedy, and these practices go against the norm.

It just exacerbates depression. And my very own suicidal thoughts growing up too. What this bill does is ensure that we, as a state of California, recognize and go with what every single medical group has similarly stated, which is that conversion therapy does not work, it is harmful, and it is unnecessary.

And so colleagues, again, as we've had conversations about freedom of speech and freedom of religion, this is not what we're talking about. This is very narrow in scope under a financial transaction. So as we think about this bill before us here today, I hope that you will too demonstrate the courage of your convictions and understanding what this bill does.

And hope, demonstrate that members of the LGBT community should be cherished, should be celebrated. And most importantly, we should be loved.

Flip the script for a moment. Imagine, if you will, a Christian legislator introducing legislation that would criminalize public acts or displays of homosexual behavior. In our current culture, how do you think that would go?

Make no mistake about it, this isn't a neutral zone that we're playing in. Evan Lowe doesn't believe that homosexuality is anything to write home about. So he's imposing his own morality upon the citizens of California.

Accept this standard of sexuality and righteousness or be punished by the arm of the state. How does a society get to a point in which it accepts a new standard of sexuality? Education and media. At the same time, this controversy was happening.

A letter from a California school district was circulating talking about LGBT, apparently Evan Lowe can't say that together, LGBT education being taught in the schools. Now this is the letter itself and I think it's appropriate for me to read this in the state approved California accent.

Therefore, parents who disagree with the institutional materials related to gender, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation may not excuse their children from this instruction. However, parents are free to advise their children that they disagree with some or all of the information presented in the instructional program and express their views on these subjects to their children discussing gender identity, gender practice, expression, sexual orientation, discrimination, harassment and bullying.

In the letter, the Orange County School District was instructing parents that they did not have the right, get this, to have their children opt out of the class. However, by permission of the queen, parents were given the right to disagree at home only after the state got their hands on the kids.

Thank you, your highness for your benevolence. Flip the script again. Now imagine the modern school system having a mandatory sexual education training that taught children that homosexuality was sinful and that Jesus could heal and save you.

You seeing it yet? The myth of neutrality, nobody's neutral. The family isn't neutral, education isn't neutral and ultimately neither is the state. And in the case of California, we're seeing the results of a state and state educational system that has come into its own and it's owning its gods.

The dangerous part of all this is that the state itself is flexing its power and authority upon those who speak the kind of heresy that Christians do, that we are all broken, every one of us, sexually speaking, and we're all in need of redemption.

Preach that message and be devoured by the beast of California. Now, speaking of being devoured by the beast, this brings us to the recent case of the government sanctioned murder of Alfie Evans. Remember years ago when some Americans were arguing against socialized medicine and government controlled healthcare system, some legislators were mocked, literally mocked for suggesting that death panels would be the result of the state being involved in healthcare.

Here's the problems I have with the Affordable Healthcare Act. Number one, there is a provision in there that anyone over the age of 74 has to go before what is effectively a death panel. Yes, they do.

Yes, they do.

It's in there, folks. You're wrong.

Okay, children. All right, children.

I am 77 years old, and I think it's unconscionable for this politician to tell me that at 74, I will be facing death penalties. Pam, wrong, wrong. I deal with end-of-life issues on a regular basis. These are heart-rending decisions, and I can tell you there is no such thing as a death panel.

Okay, friends.

In the UK, they've had socialized medicine for a while now. Alfie was a little boy with a very serious medical condition. At the center of the case was a gay activist judge named Justice Anthony Hayden.

Nevermind his gay activism, guys. Never trust a man wearing a wig like this. Although I will say, I thought he was a gay activist and not trans. Now, Justice Hayden is a member of the bar, lesbian, and gay group BLAG, and co-authored a book on homosexual relationships and their pertinence to children's rights.

Through the decisions made by Hayden and the government, it was decreed that starving little Alfie and letting-slash-making him die was the best thing for him. This went against the wishes of the parents who wanted to fight for his life.

Tom, can you believe that my son is just being sentenced to a death penalty with two days to go, with the system worked against me? Can you believe that Kate weren't representing herself, nor was I representing her?

Can you believe that their barrister had the judgment before me? So whilst I was traveling up here, all the hay knew the verdict already before me. Is this right? I'm not crying because I know how wrong they are and I know how strong my boy's doing.

My boy's strong, he's comfortable. This isn't over. This is just the start. I want to take this absolute NHS down. I'm not giving up. My son ain't giving up. No one, and I repeat, no one in this country has taken my boy away from me.

No one, and they're not violating his rights and they're not violating my rights. My son is two years of age and he's being sentenced to the death penalty. How wrong is that?

The Italian government gave Alfie citizenship and offered to fully pay for his transport and his medical treatment in their country. A helicopter was on standby to bring Alfie and his parents to fight for his life.

The state death panel not only said no against the wishes of the parents, but the state sent guards, actual guards, to stop Alfie's parents from leaving with their own child. In this case, the not neutral state flexed its power over life itself and over the rights of the parents and guaranteed the death of little Alfie.

He died and that was tragic. Now let's look at a kid that got sick in America around the same time. A 16 year old named Jeremiah Thomas was diagnosed with cancer a couple of months ago. The cancer was so aggressive that his hospital in Texas could not give Jeremiah the treatment he needed.

Instead of accepting the low chance of survival they were given, they went to Tijuana to try a holistic medicine. If he were in the UK, he would not have been able to do that. In Tijuana, they tried everything they could, but the cancer was aggressive and his chances were even lower.

They could have accepted the doctor's diagnosis then, but again, they chose to fight. They flew to San Diego seeking an important surgery and finding only one hospital that would agree to do it. By that time, his tumor on his spine had grown and he was told that he would not be able to walk again.

His chance of survival was again, low. They've chosen to fight and have reached out to Brothers and Sisters in Christ asking for prayer. Jeremiah's story spread quickly over social media and a linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys, Sean Lee, sent Jeremiah a video message.

Take a look at this.

So, I've actually got someone that wants to say hi to you. Yeah, what's up, man? Yeah, so like, here you go. Here you go.

How's she got?

Jeremiah, hi, this is Sean Lee, linebacker with the Cowboys. Woo! You are an inspiration to our entire organization. Thank you, keep fighting. God bless, we'll be praying for you. Oh my God.

Oh my gosh.

You can replay it if you want to.

Oh, Sean Lee, replay that.

No, no, I turned it off.

Jeremiah, hi, this is Sean Lee, linebacker with the Cowboys. You are an inspiration to our entire organization. Thank you, keep fighting. God bless, we'll be praying for you. Awesome.

This is the guy.

Cheers. Oh my God. We'll send that to your table, but check this out. So, check this out, check this out. So, look at that. What's the name of your jersey? Dude. It says, number 50. That's like our favorite linebacker.

I know, it says, to Jeremiah, God's got this, keep fighting. Dude. Jeremiah, Jeremiah. Jeremiah. Oh, what's that? Yeah. Yeah.

Not only that, but Jeremiah was just given a make-a-wish. He had the option to go anywhere and to do anything. Instead of going to Disney or seeing a football game, Jeremiah is using his make-a-wish to meet with the governor of Texas to discuss ending abortion.

That's a huge, beautiful thing. Great job, Jeremiah, we're proud of you, brother. Imagine if the government forced Jeremiah to stay at the first hospital just because his chances were low. These opportunities never would have happened.

Please pray, everyone, for Jeremiah. And if you feel led, you can also donate to his medical expenses. To learn more, search hashtag PrayForJeremiah. Today, we have the opportunity to decide which hospital we want to go to and what care our loved ones receive.

But what's coming next if Christians don't start being bold enough to confront and resist the beast? Early in Christian history, we were killed by the Roman government. We weren't killed because we wanted to worship Jesus.

Rome was pagan. They didn't care what you worshiped. We were killed because we would not recognize the ultimate authority of Caesar. All Christians had to say in early century in Rome was Kaiser Curios, Caesar is Lord.

Say that and live. Just a little pinch of incense, that's all. Christians recognize Christ's authority and law above the law of the state. And for that, they were killed. We are living at a time far removed from the kind of Christian resistance and Christian ingenuity of our forebears.

It was Christians that created hospitals. That's right, we did that. It was the Christian worldview that built the civilization of the West. That's right, we did that too. However, over the last few generations, we have bought into the fiction that escape is the ultimate goal.

Rather than occupying until he comes and being a city on a hill, we're more comfortable with leaving the world to the devil and sin. Ultimately, it's like we don't even pray or even believe the Lord's prayer.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We've stopped working for that. And because of it, we don't live in a moral vacuum. We live in a world that has recognized a different ultimate.

And that ultimate is being enforced by a godless and out of control state that will exert its power upon Christians to protect its gods. Just like the beast of Rome in the past, the beast is looking to devour anyone that will subvert its ultimate authority.

My prayer is that we will give the same kind of bold and love-soaked resistance to the modern tyranny that we did to the old one. We defeated it in history. We outloved it, we outcreated it, we out-served it, and we out-truthed it.

I pray that we do that before Christians are seen as enemies of the state. Wait, it's too late. It's time to fight, brothers and sisters. We'll be right back, right here on Next Week, everybody. Stay with us.

Dr. Andrew Sandlin on the other side, everybody. You don't wanna miss it. Stay with us, like and share. We'll see you in a minute. Everybody, to Next Week with Jeff Durbin. I'm Jeff Durbin. Thank you so much for tuning in and liking and sharing the episode.

Very important guest for you right now on the show. One of our favorites is Dr. Andrew Sandlin. Dr. Sandlin is a Christian minister, theologian, and author, the founder and president of the Center for Cultural Leadership in Colterville, California, the young, distinguished visiting professor of culture and theology at Edinburgh Theological Seminary and faculty at Blackstone Legal Fellowship of the Alliance Defending Freedom in Phoenix.

He was formerly president of the National Reform Association, executive vice president of the Chalcedon Foundation, minister of the Fellowship of Mere Christianity, and was pastor of Church of the World and Cornerstone Bible Church.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dr. Andrew Sandlin. Hey, brother, welcome. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

The Imperial Gospel and the Kingship of Jesus

All right, exciting opportunity for us right here on Next Week. One of my faves, I think. Soon yours as well. So you drove all the way from California.

I wanted to be on a non-judgmental, non-controversial show.

You came to the wrong place. So I just want to tell you how grateful we are that you took the long drive to get here and that you're here in our studio for the next two days. Lots of stuff we're going to produce together.

Very excited about it. So I think just leaping right into it to give everyone sort of a flavor of how we think and the way that we view the world. We had you recently on our television program and you were talking about something that got us very excited and it was the imperial gospel, which sounds so weird.

Kind of nefarious and scary, the imperial, because we think about Star Wars and the empire, the evil empire. But I think that this goes to the core of so much that is broken within us as evangelicals, as reformed folks in the United States, in the West.

We used to have a perspective of the kingdom of Christ and the world itself, particularly in American history. We come from a very Puritan heritage where they viewed the world as all under the rule and authority of Jesus.

Every realm, every sphere under his authority. And the purpose of the church was to advance the gospel of the kingdom to renew and restore the world through salvation, redemption that's in Christ. But there was a view of Jesus as, well, it just seems so silly, because everyone goes, I already believe that.

So what's the difference? King of kings and Lord of lords. And that is that Jesus is the ruler of the world. Today, he's the king over kings of the earth and Lord over lords of the earth. And when we say that, we really mean it, because it has implications.

So I guess I'll just throw it at you. Imperial gospel, why does that matter?

What is it?

Well, I mean, the problem historically is that the gospel in the West has been influenced by a number of factors like pietism, a false form of pietism and Gnosticism, which maybe we'll get into later, dispensationalism.

Wait, did I just say that?

Yes, I did.

And other sort of retreatist approaches. And essentially the gospel has been turned into a subjective view of the faith. And it's become very perpendicular. It's basically my relationship with God. And of course, the gospel does involve that.

Sure, yeah.

But think about it. I mean, the gospel from the Greek is eungelion, it's the good news. Well, immediately we think, well, if it's the good news, what's the bad news? Well, people would say, well, the bad news is that I'm a sinner.

Well, that's true, but that's not all the bad news. Actually, the bad news is worse than that. The bad news is that as a result of sin, the entire creation has been brought under a curse and there's corruption anywhere, everywhere.

I mean, everywhere we look in education and in science and technology, economics, we see the influence of sin everywhere. Well, what people don't understand is that though the gospel is based in the death, the glorious death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it's not designed merely to save me.

It's designed to push back and eventually, incrementally repel evil in all areas of life. That's what evangelicals have lost. Well, part of the reason for that is because they don't recognize what you said, Jeff, about the kingship of Jesus Christ.

Now, if they do recognize, well, yes, I believe Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. What they mean by that, many of them, is that, well, one day he's going to return with a rod of iron and he's going to rule physically on the earth or they mean he's King of Kings today in a limited realm.

I mean, Jesus is the King of, Jesus is the King of my heart. He's the King of your heart. Well, that's not quite what the scripture says. I mean, think even about the Lord's prayer. What are we to pray one great plank in there?