The President of My Youth

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.

This is a daily conversation about scripture, culture, and media from a Reformed perspective.

Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to engage today's topic.

Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.

And welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.

My name is Keith Foskey, and I am a Calvinist.

Thank you for listening today.

Today is October 1st, 2020, and if you're following along in our daily Bible reading, you're going to be reading today from Hebrews chapter 2.

If you'd like to get a copy of our daily Bible reading, you can go to our website, sgfcjacks.org, and you can find it under the posts, the Bible reading for 2020, reading through the New Testament, one chapter a day, every weekday morning.

Today, I want to follow up on what we did yesterday.

If you're a follower of the program, you know that yesterday I had two guests on the program, and we did a response to the first presidential debate between the President Donald Trump and the former Vice President Joe Biden.

And we talked about the raucous event that was the presidential debate.

And today I want to take sort of a different approach.

I want to continue to discuss the subject of politics, but I want to do so by looking back on a particularly fond memory in my life, and then I want to share with you something.

And this is about what I'm referring to in the title as the president of my youth.

When I was a boy, the president was Ronald Reagan.

Now, I know that for conservatives, Ronald Reagan is a hero.

For those on the left, Ronald Reagan is often not seen as a hero.

I remember particularly being in high school American history class, and my teacher saying that she called Ronald Reagan Mr.

Teflon Man.

She said nothing ever stuck to him, and that was her way of saying that he had bad things, but that nothing really stuck to him.

And so it was sort of her sort of negative backhanded strike at that time.

That was the mid-90s, so he would have been the former president.

And so that was really the only negative I remember hearing as a young person.

I didn't hear a lot about politics in my home.

My dad never really talked a whole lot about politics.

So I remember hearing in school, I remember hearing the teacher calling the president Mr.

Teflon Man.

But looking back, I remember being, because from birth until eight years old, Ronald Reagan was my president.

He was the president of the United States, and I remember say no to drugs.

That was the Nancy Reagan push, and I remember wearing the t-shirts, the say no to drugs, and going to the rallies and things that the school had that were sponsored by the, at that time, First Lady Nancy Reagan.

So what I wanted to do today is I want to share something about the president, the former president Ronald Reagan.

Some of you know this, because a few years ago this was, this made the news, and it was very widespread.

So some of you may remember this, but some of you've never heard of this, and I wanted to share something with you today.

Ronald Reagan was not a perfect man.

Ronald Reagan had his issues.

But I do think that Ronald Reagan was a statesman.

I think that he had charisma, he had an ability to speak and capture the hearts and the imaginations of the people that he spoke to.

Even his political enemies would say there has been, in modern history, not one who had the level of charisma that Ronald Reagan had.

And I bring that up because Ronald Reagan, as again, as a young boy, that was who I thought the president was.

I remember in 1988 when they started talking about the fact that we had to elect a new president, I remember saying, why? Why would we want another president? We have a good president.

And again, I was a child, I didn't know any better, I didn't know anything about term limits or anything like that.

I just remember saying, what in the world are we doing? And then when I saw the guy who was eventually going to take his place, which was the first George Bush, I thought, this guy doesn't look like the president, because in my mind the president looked like Ronald Reagan.

And so just to give you an idea into sort of the history of my mind and looking at it.

But a couple years ago, as I was alluding to a minute ago, a couple years ago, a letter was published that was written by Ronald Reagan and it was written to his father-in-law who was on his deathbed.

Now his father-in-law was a man by the name of Dr.

Loyal Davis, and he was an atheist.

He was a man who denounced the virgin birth, the resurrection, he didn't believe in heaven and hell.

And so as he was dying, Ronald Reagan sat down and wrote him a letter.

And this letter has been published for people to read.

Now I'm going to read through the letter.

I'm going to do so rather quickly because it's a little lengthy.

But I want you to hear this letter from beginning to end.

Now I want to say from the beginning, before I read this, this is, his theology is not perfect.

If Ronald Reagan was taking my theology class and he wrote this letter, I would have some issues with it.

So right away, I want to say, I don't think that Ronald Reagan had a perfect theology.

But I want you to listen for the heart that is in this letter, the concern that is in this letter for a dying man who Reagan is concerned that this man is going to die without Christ.

And I just have to say, I'm doing this sort of as a secondary response to the debate from Tuesday night, because what we have now does not seem to be anything in comparison to what we have had in the past as far as the level of a statesman.

And in this sense, I think someone who at least had a recognition of the essential nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Again, he doesn't articulate it perfectly, but I think there is at least a recognition of the essential nature of the gospel.

And I just want to read this to you.

Dear Loyal, I hope you'll forgive me for this, but I've been wanting to write you ever since we talked on the phone.

I am aware of the strain you are under and believe with all my heart there is help for that.

First, I want to tell you of a personal experience I kept to myself for a long time.

During my first year as governor, you'll recall the situation I found in California was almost as bad as the one in Washington today.

It seemed as if the problems were endless and insolvable.

Then I found myself with an ulcer.

In all these years at Warner Brothers, no one had been able to give me an ulcer and I felt ashamed as if it were a sign of weakness on my part.

John Sharp had me on Maalox and I lived with a constant pain that ranged from discomfort to extremely sharp attacks.

This went on for months.

I had a bottle of Maalox in my desk, my briefcase, and of course at home.

Then one morning I got up, went into the bathroom, reached for the bottle as always and something happened.

I knew I didn't need it.

I had gone to bed with the usual pain the night before, but I knew that morning I was healed.

The Maalox went back on the shelf.

That morning when I arrived at the office, Helene brought me my mail.

The first letter I opened was from a lady, a stranger, in the southern part of the state.

She had written to tell me that she was one of a group who had met every day to pray for me.

Believe it or not, the second letter was from a man, again a stranger, in the other end of the state telling me he was part of a group that met weekly to pray for me.

Within the hour, a young fellow from the legal staff came into my office on some routine matter.

On the way out, he paused in the door and said, Governor, I think maybe you'd like to know, some of us on the staff come in early every morning and get together and pray for you.

Coincidence? I don't think so.

A couple of weeks later, Nancy and I went down to L.A.

and had our annual checkup.

John Sharp, a little puzzled, told me I no longer had an ulcer, but added there was no indication I'd ever had one.

Word of honor, I never told him about the particular day in Sacramento.

There's a line in the Bible, wherever two or more are gathered in my name, there will I be also.

Loyal, I know of your feeling, your doubt, but could I just impose on you a little longer? Some 700 years before the birth of Christ, the ancient Jewish prophets predicted the coming of a Messiah.

They said he would be born in a lowly place, would proclaim himself the Son of God, and would be put to death for saying that.

All in all, there were a total of 123 specific prophecies about his life, all of which came true.

Crucifixion was unknown in those times, yet it was foretold that he would be nailed to a cross of wood.

And one of the predictions was that he would be born of a virgin.

Now I know that is probably the hardest for you as a doctor to accept.

The only answer that can be given is a miracle.

But loyal, I don't find that as great a miracle as the actual history of his life.

Either he was who he said he was, or he was the greatest faker and charlatan who ever lived.

But would a liar and faker suffer the death he did when all he had to do to save himself was admit that he'd been lying? The miracle is that a young man of 30 years, without credentials as a scholar or priest, began preaching on street corners.

He owned nothing but the clothes on his back, and he didn't travel beyond a circle less than 100 miles across.

He did this for only three years, and then was executed as a common criminal.

But for 2,000 years, he has had more impact on the world than all the teachers, scientists, emperors, generals, and admirals who ever lived, all put together.

The apostle John said, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

We have been promised that all we have to do is ask God in Jesus' name to help when we have done all we can, when we've come to the end of our strength and abilities, and we'll have that help.

We only have to trust and have faith in his infinite goodness and mercy.

Loyal, you and Edith have known a great love.

More than many have been permitted to know.

That love will not end with the end of this life.

We've been promised this is only a part of life, and that a greater life, a greater glory awaits us.

It awaits you together one day, and all that is required is that you believe and tell God you put yourself in his hands.

Love, Ronnie.

Now, as I said, I could pick this apart from a few theological perspectives.

One, of course, it seems as if when he said, God will help us when we've done all that we can, I think that's misunderstanding the nature of grace.

And I do think that there is an absence of repentance, which is an important and necessary part of understanding the gospel.

So as I said, this is not a perfect letter, but if we step back for a second and just ask ourselves, what would cause a man to write a letter like this? Well, he seems to genuinely be concerned for the soul of his father-in-law.

He seems to genuinely be concerned for the eternity of this man, and he loves him enough to share this letter.

And I think that speaks volumes about our former president in regard to what really drove him in life.

And again, I can't stand up today and say I know for sure Ronald Reagan was a Christian, but I say that this letter certainly comes as a man who has a concern for another man's eternity, and he's saying the only thing, the only one who can help you in regard to eternity is Jesus Christ.

Again, that to me speaks volumes of what he believed and what drove him in life.

I felt like this was a good thing to share with you today.

In the midst of all of the political turmoil, in the midst of all of the negativity, in the midst of what we saw Tuesday night and what we're no doubt going to see in the weeks ahead and coming into November, I thought it might be good to just have a reminder that God has raised up statesmen in the past, and we have seen what God has been able to do, and we can trust that God is working even now in the midst of all that is going on, and that God is in control.

So let us be prayerful for our nation, let us be prayerful for the upcoming election and all of the fallout that's going to be occurring in the weeks ahead with the nomination of a Supreme Court justice and future debates, vice presidential and presidential.

Let us be prayerful that God would continue to do what only he can do, and that is cause all things to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

I'm going to be preaching that text on Tuesday of next week.

I've been invited to be a guest speaker at the Southeast Regional Conference for the Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals, FIRE.

It's a group our church is a part of.

If you're around the Daytona area and you are interested in attending that conference, especially if you are a pastor, we would love to have you, and you can contact me for details to learn about.

It's going to be at Crosswalk Church with Pastor Mitch Pridgen.

And during that conference, I'm going to be preaching, as I said, on Romans 828.

I was asked to preach, how do you comfort the saints in the midst of turmoil? And my answer to that is, as it's always been, we find our comfort in the sovereign God who created us and sustains us.

In him, we live and move and have our being.

I hope today's been an encouragement for you.

I hope that this has been helpful for your devotion, and I do pray that it has been a blessing.

So, again, thank you for listening to Coffee with a Calvinist.

My name is Keith Foskey, and I've been your Calvinist.

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As you go about your day, remember this, Jesus Christ came to save sinners.

All who come to him in repentance and faith will find him to be a perfect Savior.

He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him.

May God be with you.