In Times of Chaos Go to Gods Word! (Sexuality, Ethnicity, and Sin)

Hey everyone, welcome once again to the conversations that matter podcast, a number of things to get to today.

I wasn't going to do a podcast, but something was weighing on me a bit this morning. And through looking at a number of different things, links that people sent me, even comments on some of my videos,

I've been looking at those a little bit more this past week than I usually do. I just keep thinking about how we are in such confusing, chaotic times.

It's been drilled down deep into me, to be honest, especially when it comes to where young men are at.

I think that's of particular interest to me, but it's everyone. It really is. It's the whole society and that's unfortunately not, it's not much different inside the church in some ways, or at least people who attend church.

They're confused. They're asking questions. We'll get into some of that as we unfold the podcast, but I just kept thinking, you really don't need my wisdom or the wisdom of other people.

And I am concerned, look, here's the thing I'll say. If you come to even this podcast and this is your main diet and you want to just be like me or be able to analyze things the way

I analyze them or whatever the case may be, I don't have any delusions of grandeur.

I'm not saying that's why you all come, but if there are people in the audience who are listening to my voice right now who think that, and you're not firmly planted in the word of God and the priority of even in this podcast, listening, because you want to hear someone who's going to at least attempt to draw out principles from God's word to apply to the topics of today and to what you might be even hearing in your pulpit, unfortunately, then

I would listen to something else. Go read your Bible or go and be alone.

Find someone who can do it better. Because right now, we are in the valley of the shadow of death, figuratively speaking.

We are in such a dark time politically, socially, and spiritually in the

Western world, the United States in particular, where I live and what I see in front of me, that you cannot afford to have a little bitty flashlight that doesn't really light the whole path up for you.

You need what the Bible describes as a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path, which is the word of God.

You need God's truth and those who can help connect those dots, God's truth to current situations because the situations are flying at us so quickly.

New cycles are shorter and shorter and the intensity is growing. It's become so abundant to me this week, clear, abundantly clear to me this week.

And so I want to just go through a few items and just get back to basics as much as I can with you and just prod you to think through things biblically.

Because at the end of the day, no one's going to remember my name. Get me out of the way, right? No one's going to remember the name of other commentators and podcasters and even preachers that you might listen to, but they will know the name of Jesus Christ.

And there's going to be a measuring rod on the Day of Judgment that will be used to determine whether they followed

God's law or not. And I got news for you, all of us have fallen short. But even in, with the judgment, scripture alludes to judgment that Christians will, evaluation

Christians will undergo. It's going to be the standard of Christ. It's not going to be whether or not you had popular opinions of the day.

And I am, I'm worried in one, I'm not chicken little here, but I've just, something's been exposed and made clear to me this week that it's been there, but it's just, it's worse than I thought in some ways.

Even people on our side guys, who, and what I mean by our side, you know, I'm not,

I'm not saying, you know, the people who are like us in every way,

I'm just saying this podcast has been mostly dedicated to over the years, explaining and then refuting social justice teaching, especially coming from Christian leaders.

And so those who are on our side, meaning those who also oppose that kind of thing, I've seen posturing that just makes me think they're not using the barometer of Christ.

And I, I'm in danger of this too, guys and gals, I can easily pray for me, right?

Pray for me because I can easily start in my mind, doing the calculation and going that direction if I'm not careful and thinking about what is acceptable today.

How do we push the needle and move the Overton window in the direction we want? And with, with the political situation, that doesn't seem, things seem grim.

So I haven't, I haven't thought of that as much, but the first thing in our minds when we're evaluating anything should be, what are the courts of heaven?

What would they say about this? What would Jesus Christ say? And what would he do if he lived during our times?

And there, there are certainly times that would be similar in some ways to what happened in the book of judges, although the book of judges with an authoritarian ruler.

So it's, it's not completely like judges, but every man has their opinion and, and we need to have opinions, but our opinions need to be shaped is what

I'm saying by reality. And we have, God's given us natural revelation, but he's given a special revelation as believers.

And I want to go over some of that, some of that special revelation today. And just basic stuff, basic stuff.

We, we should not be doing this, the calculations like we're doing where it, where, and I'm not going to name names in this, but I've, I've seen enough over the last few days to just notice how people on both sides want to exploit situations, attach things that negative things or things that they think would play well to their audience or to an audience, broadly speaking, they want to make attachments to negative things, to smear, to detract, to shame in order to then persuade people to their, to their tribe or their side or their way of thinking, to, to, to trust them, to, to build credibility.

That's what a lot of what's happening is people are out there trying to boost their own platforms build their name, build credibility.

And I'll be honest, I don't want any part of it. I really don't. I really, and I'm being serious to pray for me.

If you ever see tendencies otherwise, because my goal on this podcast is just to give you information that I think will help because these, these questions and even now questions, and I'll get into some of this today because I've had questions about it.

I'm getting it from people, ironically on my channel, who some now I predicted this a few days ago, but it's happening now.

Some people who would be considered anti -Semites are now making their way a few.

It's not many, it's like one or two, but they're leaving comments. And then I have people who are on the other side, angry that I'm not denouncing white supremacy in, in strong enough terms or something like that.

These are, I think people who have, they haven't been listening very long because I have talked about these things, but the tension's high.

And what I don't want to do is engage in the, just trying to put other people down, trying to exploit situations.

I want to give you tools to help you with things that you're going to navigate because people are going to be talking about them and you're going to need to talk about them.

I don't think we don't have the option of hiding, but putting our, our head in the sand like an ostrich with this stuff, which is what

I think many pastors out there would prefer that they could just avoid these topics.

Some topics you need, you need to avoid. Proverbs talks about that, right? There's, there's certain things that aren't our battles and it's not wise to participate in battles that aren't ours, but we're getting down to fundamental issues that people are at each other's necks about, wringing each other's necks over.

So, so, so we don't have that option. I would say most of the time today, we have to have some understanding and it's okay if you don't have an understanding, it's not developed.

That's okay to say that by the way. I just think if the word of God speaks to it and we want to be students of the word of God and we want to be just sane, rational individuals that apply it rightly, as Luther said at the

Diet of Worms, reason and scripture, right? If we're, we're trying to be people like Luther in that sense and, and apply our reason to the scripture and connect that to the events of the day, then we need to understand what scripture teaches.

And in addition, we need to understand what's actually going on around us. And, and so those two things are important. That's what I try to do in this podcast is bring those two things to you.

And I think some people assume maybe they're projecting onto me that this is all about ripping other people or it's not about that.

No, it's never been about that. In fact, woke people, people I've, I see that as a huge threat, which is why

I've expounded, put a lot of energy into combating that. I still see it as the big threat, way more so than even

Kanye on the Alex Jones show. I mean, that is small potatoes compared to some of the other things that happened this week that you're not hearing about.

But, but look, if the threat was everyone was, it wasn't the social justice or the current form of social justice.

It was something else. We would be talking about that. We need to be talking about, or at least we need to be aware of and able to interact with the actual threats that our families and the people in our churches are up against.

Not things that just don't matter that are used for posturing and positioning. Let's get to the real, the meat of the situation.

That's kind of where I'm at. So I just wanted people to hear that. That's my heart. I care about you all on the other end of this camera.

I've met some of you in person. I've heard the stories and I love you all. And especially those who

I've been able to meet and cultivate deeper relationships with. I really do care about what you guys are going through.

And I do pray for the audience. I pray before just about every podcast. I pray right before I start that the

Lord would just help me and that this would be good information. So we're 10 minutes in.

And I think this was important for me to say all this, but I haven't gotten any issues yet. And we're going to talk about some

Gospel Coalition articles. We're going to talk about the FTX stuff. We're going to talk about Kanye a little bit, but we're going to talk about some bigger things too.

The FTX thing actually is pretty big. But what just happened with this Respect for Marriage Act? Have you heard anyone talk about it?

Well, let's just say the Gospel Coalition finally kind of weighed in. And wow, interesting take that they put out there.

And we'll talk a little bit about ethnic partiality and racism. And I've talked about this before, but I want to be very clear.

There's a lot of confusion right now because I think the questions that are on people's minds, there's actually a few reasons.

There's just one of them though. The questions that I think pastors should be able to navigate, pastors are not able to navigate.

I'll just tell you this. I went to seminary. In both the seminaries I attended, actually,

I have credits from three seminaries, and all three of them to my knowledge, would not have been able to prepare someone for the questions that young men especially are starting to ask about the topic of race and what is appropriate, what's not as far as our border policy, as far as even things like interracial marriage.

These are things that I think Christians, and I know my seminary classmates, the majority of them, would have extremely simplistic surface level answers to that would mostly coincide with just the milieu out there and what people in the world generally think.

And I think we need, because young men can see through that, we need some robust actual let's deal with the truth of the situation.

You want to know why certain demographics do certain things in higher levels.

You want to know why certain demographics are successful more than others.

You want to know basic questions about whether your identity even matters or is race even just a social construct.

The majority of the people on our side against critical race theory, I've said this before, they would actually agree with critical race theorists that race is just a social construct.

And I've disagreed with that. But does that make you a horrible racist because you think that there is such a thing as race or there is a biological component to who we are, a genetic component?

These are all questions that are being bandied about out there. And what we really need are some good biblical answers.

So I'm not going to give you comprehensive stuff today. I've done a little bit, I've done some deeper dives on some of this before, but I want to give you just some basic, basic stuff to get you started, get the ball starting in the right direction.

Because I think I have some new listeners on the podcast who, you're not familiar with every show I've done and nor should you be.

That's fine. But don't assume I haven't covered some of this stuff because I have.

And I want to give you more. And I might phrase it even differently this time. So even if you've listened to some of those past episodes,

I think this will be to your benefit. But we'll talk about the Respect for Marriage Act.

And yeah, let's start here though. Let's start with something that I talked about two days ago, which is that men in the church, men in the church, young men in particular,

I think have been overlooked, or at least they're not finding what their soul yearns for in the church.

And the question is why? I mean, you'll see like Big Eva types, meaning evangelical industry types, people that are platformed in producing the resources that evangelical

Christians use in this country. You'll see what they do to, for years, grapple with this problem of young people leaving the church, right?

Young people are leaving the church. What do we do? And I think it's driven many of them into more and more seeker -sensitive things.

This is really, I think, partially what's inspired the quote -unquote woke movement in the church is well, young people have homosexual friends now.

And so we need to like get soft on that somehow. And make sure that we're not saying things that are too offensive.

I remember years ago, there was a preacher who came to a church that I attend at the time.

And he said some stuff that I think if it was five years or 10 years before he said it, it probably would have flown.

He made some offhanded remark. It was kind of a joke about people being confused over their gender.

And it being insanity or, you know, it was something along those lines. Well, a number of the young people had a problem with it.

They, at the church, and it's not because they agreed necessarily with homosexuality. At least that's not what they thought they were doing.

They just thought it was super offensive. Like that's outside the boundary of what, of acceptable speech.

You're not supposed to say that anymore. And this guy was, he was older, baby boomer. And it's just, he wasn't, he didn't even factor into his mind that for Christians who believe the word of God, this would have been an offensive thing.

But the reality is it is now for a lot of people, not everyone, but a lot of people.

And so people are on eggshells now. They don't know what's acceptable and what's not. Things are moving very quickly, especially people who aren't in tune with whatever the media is saying all the time, whatever's in vogue.

They just rather shut their mouth. There's others though, and this is another group of young people,

I think, who just think, you know, this is reality. That is insane that someone would be questioning their gender.

And we just need to say it. And sometimes they go the other way. And they say it in very strong terms.

Because, and here's where I think the problem comes in. They want to be purposely offensive, perhaps.

Like it's fine to offend people. But if your goal, like the end game is we want to offend, those motives show.

So anyway, the, what was I saying? Young men.

So young men are realizing over the last few years,

I made a whole video about this two days ago, that the deck is stacked against them as far as every institution in society doesn't really have a place for them.

Only will platform them or honor them if they exhibit or exude feminine traits. And so what they end up doing is becoming sometimes jaded, resentful, or at the very least, and I think this one is a fine response, not the others, but this one.

They just realize what the situation is and they act accordingly. Meaning they make plans in their life to try to stay out of the limelight, to avoid cancellation attempts, to just keep their head down and work their job.

And I don't think, I understand that. I don't think that's, sometimes that can be wrong. But I think most of the time, I think that's just them, they're trying to be smart.

They just realize it's a hostile world. They got to protect their family. They need an income. And so they're going to kind of navigate it in the most quiet way they possibly can.

And so you have a spectrum here. And I don't know, I don't have numbers. I don't think polling has even been done on this, where everyone's lining up.

But there's enough young guys who realize this, that they're trying to figure out ways to navigate it.

So that's one of the ways, right? Some of the other ways are to be more offensive, to try to fight back in some way.

I mean, that's a natural male tendency, I think. And the people that tend to want to fight back more,

I think they tend towards certain personality types. They tend to be a little more aggressive. They tend to be willing to take risks more often.

And that's attractive to a young guy. It really is. And I'm going to show you,

I might even play the clip. We'll see if we have time. But I was watching the Shia LaBeouf interview, where he talks about converting to Catholicism.

And he talks all about this, and why he was attracted to Jesus and Catholicism. And it was because it was masculine.

That might surprise some of you. And I'll share more as we go through it. But they're looking for those kinds of people.

And they're not finding it in the institutional church. Not hardly at all.

It's mostly, I'm talking about the evangelical church. They're just not seeing, I mean, Russell Moore, David French.

A lot of these guys do not exude these traits at all. These aren't fighters. These are guys who seem like they're sops.

They're trying to ingratiate themselves. So they're going to be the last one on the menu. In fact, I saw a salon .com

did an article on this whole Thomas Accord, Tullius Adland situation.

And in the article, they go after, I thought this was so ironic. And clearly, someone from the inside was helping them navigate this.

It's obvious that there's like an evangelical person that's helping this secular reporter, to me at least.

I mean, they know, they just seem to know a lot of inside baseball. But in the article, the author is going after Rod Dreher.

It's like, Rod Dreher condemned this, but Rod Dreher has problems of his own.

And it's like, it links to how Rod Dreher is also kind of on this, we can't trust him.

He's also kind of a white nationalist. And it's like, I could have told you that, right?

When you try to use a situation to show people that I'm not like these sinners and tax gatherers and unwashed masses,

I have the moral high ground here. If you go down that road at all, and even if you're not going down that road, let's say that's not your motive is just,

I'm assuming something that I don't believe about this situation, but your motives are completely pure, and you just want to expose some sin and get it taken care of.

You do it in a public venue like that, and it gets weaponized.

The secular world is going to come in. And they, like I just said in the video a few days ago, meet

Tullius Adlon. They will, they don't see a difference. It's just different shades of deplorable to them.

And so young men are seeing this and they're saying, these aren't our leaders.

No, not those guys. Guys who would sell us out, guys who would use us to try to gain some moral legitimacy, another rail on the link to more political power or something.

We don't follow those guys. We want some guys who believe what they say, aren't sops, are truly convictional.

And where are they going to find it? Well, there's a few places. I mean,

I think that it's no mistake that you see more and more young guys gravitating towards the

Doug Wilson brand of Presbyterianism. It's precisely because of this, guys.

It's precisely because of this. I'm trying to think of other guys like that.

There's not a lot, honestly, in the institutional church. There's more popping up. There's more platforms starting.

I've actually met some really solid guys who I think are starting this more confrontative approach.

I think of the guys outside of Louisville, in Shelbyville, I think it is.

Jerry Dorris and those guys, they have the same kind of confrontative approach.

And they have a platform now. You see Joel Webben, smaller voice, but he's growing quick. And it's because of this.

I'm just telling you, guys, it is because of this. They're saying, you know, it's good to be a guy. And we believe some stuff and we're willing to sacrifice for it.

And we're not sops to whoever's in power. So guys start following, looking for those voices.

And amidst these voices are other voices that are not Christian, pagan voices. Nazi -esque voices, even.

Voices that are saying, we're also masculine. But our basis, we're not grounded in the word of God.

It's pagan literature, maybe with a veneer of the word of God or something. Or it's not even word of God anything.

It's just masculine resistance against what they see as a feminization of their world.

And they're going to try to preserve the true and valuable things that they love. So men are going to gravitate there.

Well, what is a man according to scripture? What is a man according to scripture? Well, 1

Timothy 5, he's a provider. 1 Peter 3, he is strong. He's going to protect the ones he loves.

He's going to recognize his strength, have self -control because he knows he's strong.

1 Corinthians 16, he's going to be firm. In fact, Paul even just assumes that people know what a man is.

He doesn't have to spell it all out. These are just areas in scripture where you see some definition given to this, but these aren't comprehensive definitions.

We know from natural revelation to what a man is. And from special revelation, we know what a man is and how to temper, what it means to channel these tendencies towards building and innovation and aggression.

And so we're not people without self -control.

That's why Jordan Peterson's popular. He doesn't even have to quote scripture. He just talks about channeling these things in more responsible ways.

And men in the church who feel neglected or rejected or don't have their basic questions on so many things answered or even acknowledged often will find and seek out these other voices.

They'll find fellowship even online. It's not even good fellowship, but it's something, something to reinforce the way that their nature actually is, the way that God made them.

I'm going to give you an example of how not to view this, if I may.

And it's the Shia LaBeouf interview and TGC's take on it.

It's a gospel coalition. And here is how they view that whole situation, or at least

Trevin Wax, who writes a lot for them. And I'm going to read you some quotes too as we go. Actually, let me do that first.

Let me read you some quotes from Shia LaBeouf. I think it's LaBeouf. LaBeouf?

I think it's LaBeouf. He, LaBeouf talked about how he was bar mitzvahed when he was 13, just to please his grandmother.

Basically secular upbringing, was homeless when it came to religion. He believed

Christ though was a soft, fragile, and this is a quote from him, a soft, fragile, all loving, all listening, but no ferocity, no romance, more feminized.

He said, he said this, or actually no, the more feminized, the priest he's being interviewed by says this and he agrees.

He talks about his father being this mongrel biker and that this version of Jesus did not appeal to him because it did not match his idea of masculinity.

It's what he says before he was converted to Catholicism. That's what he thought about Jesus. And he had this problem of guilt and shame and doing bad things and feeling unwanted and feeling like he couldn't control his life, feeling like he wanted to possibly end his life.

He was listening to guys like Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, even though he wasn't an atheist. And I can see why.

I can see why. Because look guys, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins and those guys, they were, they were, they're wrong 100 % on the most basic question,

God's existence. But they, these guys were more biological. At least they had somewhat of a sympathy to some kind of a objective truth.

That there are certain scientific things that determined who we were, biological realities. They weren't questioning whether a man can be a woman, right?

They were rooted in something to some extent. Now, they'd had no basis for why they were rooted in it, but they were at least trying to give you something solid.

And that's, I think that's just how a lot of young guys took it. And this is Shia LaBeouf. I mean, I know he's describing himself and I'm thinking through, because I think

I'm about his age and I'm thinking maybe he's a little bit older. I'm not sure, but I'm thinking through guys I went to college with and I'm like, yes, yes, yes, yes,

I know this guy. I know who he's, in his biography, I'm thinking about guys like, that I sat next to in class and I'm like, yep,

I know exactly who you are, Shia. So he then reads, so he has his shame, guilt.

He then talks about reading the Gospel of Matthew. And for the first time, the figure of John the Baptist reminded him, he says of a cowboy who was rustic, strong and masculine.

And he's like, whoa, this blows him away. Like this is in the Bible. And then he discovered, this is his quote, the

Old Testament Christ on a horse caped, dripped in blood and a sword. Grizzle.

And then he got introduced to people like Augustine and St. Francis. And he realized

Augustine was a hedonist, just like him. St. Francis was an egomaniac, just like him. And yet they've become saints in the

Catholic Church. And I would argue, you know, with Augustine, I mean, he truly is a saint.

He's a real, he's a Christian. And so I'm not knowledgeable as much on St.

Francis, but I wouldn't, I better not say anything. I better not say anything one way or the other on that.

So anyway, he laments that there's no puberty ceremony for a young man today.

In other words, he didn't know what it meant to be a man, because there was nothing was telling him. He just knew he had the example of his dad, but he didn't know when he passed from childhood to manhood.

And he goes, you don't really know what it is to be a man. That's what he says, you don't really know growing up.

And so one of these priests that he starts form a relationship with talks to him, and he talks to him about being immovable, being stable.

He says, it's not going to be something that you will, it's going to be something you lean on. The mountain is in that chapel, meaning that in order to be a man, in order to be stable and immovable, you have to lean on something else.

You can't do it all on your own. It's not that kind of masculinity. It is being those things, but it's you need

God. And he describes this speech that was given to him as he said, it sounded like he was listening to John Wayne.

And he goes, it accounted for this whole side of this Christ that I didn't know yet. And he sort of masculinized the whole thing to me as this warrior's journey.

Warrior's journey. Christianity is a warrior's journey, guys. We're in spiritual war.

Now, I'm not saying Shia LaBeouf is a legitimate convert to Christianity here.

In fact, I don't exactly know where he's at. This is Catholicism. I do think there are people in the

Catholic church who do not accept some of the heretical teachings. I believe there are heretical teachings.

There might be a few Catholics in the audience, and maybe we can discuss that at some time. But there are definitely heretical teachings in the

Catholic church as it stands today. And I think there are people who though legitimately, they're introduced to Jesus, and it's through Catholicism, and they do come to know the

Lord. I don't know if Shia LaBeouf's one of those or not. All I know is he's sort of reading the Bible. And that's honestly, that's where to start, isn't it?

And he starts finding out, wow, I don't know what it is to be a man. I got this guilt problem, and I can be a man even despite my flaws.

And that's so attractive to him. Well, let me read you TGC's take on this whole thing.

Let me just have a few choice quotes. A couple of comments from this interview made headlines. LaBeouf talked about his surprise at how wrong the commonplace imagery of Jesus is.

As a man, soft, fragile, all loving, all listening, but no ferocity. The Jesus of the New Testament is vastly more compelling as a prophet and king.

So this is his understanding, all right? So at least he acknowledges that there is a masculine thing going on here.

But then he departs from that the rest of the article. He goes, what's interesting is how LaBeouf explains his attraction to the tradition form of the mass.

It's not about the recipient. The focus isn't on the worshiper. It's simply there. It must be encountered on its own terms and its incomprehensible language is part of its appeal because it leaves the worshiper with a sense of the sacred.

I can't argue the word, he says, because I don't know what the word means. So I'm just left with this feeling. So instead of focusing on that quote, which is, if you listen to this whole thing, it's being a man is very much part of this.

Central to it. And Treven Wax decides instead to focus on, well, it's the mass that really attracted

LaBeouf. And the mass is part of this, but why? And he misses the boat on this.

He goes, we could also look at how people in our day often search for a feeling of the transcendence where the specifics of doctrine or the word aren't as important as the experience of something sacred, something that breaks through what

Charles Taylor calls the buffered self. And side note, I don't know why evangelicals are so obsessed with Charles Taylor right now.

Have you noticed that? Anyway, in LaBeouf's case, this desire seems to have led to a full blown embrace of Catholicism.

But for many others, the result is a life where the individual remains in control in pursuit of personal authenticity with religious experience sprinkled on top, appreciated for the way it adds a transcendent dimension to a life lived largely without God.

So he's saying, look, we got to get back to transcendence. That's the thing that attracted LaBeouf. He then says

LaBeouf is attracted to something that deliberately and distinctly does not cater to his whims or desires. He finds the Latin mass appealing precisely because it's not what we evangelicals might call seeker sensitive.

Okay, and just news to everyone out there. I know some of you are still on this anti -seeker sensitive bandwagon that like that's the main problem going on.

TGC has been against seekers like in seminary. They were against seeker sensitive stuff when

I was in seminary in like 2014. They were against it already. So it was already it doesn't mean it's still not around.

But I'm just saying like the Saddleback kind of model, the

Bill Heibel stuff, it wasn't in vogue anymore. And I would argue I could probably do a whole podcast on this.

But I would argue that they shifted from the pastor as a therapist or personal trainer type individual cheerleader to the pastor as a community organizer activist.

That was the transition. And that transition has been made. It's fine for TGC to knock seeker sensitive services and stuff, which is what is happening here.

Trevon Waxman says, LaBeouf is right to revolt against a service that's centered on man rather than on God, but in preferring that incomprehensible so that he captures a feeling.

There's a possibility he's turning the Latin mass back into something man -centered as it delivers a feeling and meets a need because of its austerity.

That's it. That's the article, guys. There's nothing else from that. He doesn't ever focus on the reason

Shia LaBeouf talks about. The reason he actually left his pop philosophy world,

TED Talks. That's what he says. It was TED Talks to join Roman Catholicism. It was because he didn't know what it meant to be a man.

It was because he was never given those tools. He was attracted to a rooted manliness, an identity problem that, honestly, so many are plagued with right now.

You want to know why the race stuff is coming up? You want to know what Kanye's saying, what he's saying, why people are being attracted to the woke stuff, but also the, to some extent, the woke stuff, but also the more far, far right stuff?

You want to know why? It's this. It's this stuff, guys. People don't know who they are.

They moved around 20 times. They've broken families, divorced parents probably. They've been exposed to pornography at young ages.

It confused them sexually, which is a very fundamental confusion to have. They are, as young men, they're being attacked almost out of the gate without anyone to defend them, really.

You wonder why there's problems with drugs in this country? You wonder why there's high suicide rates for men in particular and white males more in particular?

It's not a mystery. Someone tried to make this connection that I was being like,

I'm being like the woke people I critique because they justify burning cities in 2020 because of systemic problems and that I'm passing the blame.

I'm not passing the blame. People are responsible for their sin. All I'm saying is there are conditions here that have made this more easy for men in particular.

When it comes to the woke stuff, the police brutality and stuff, we've gone over this many times before, this broad narrative is a lie today.

It's a lie. It's a way to try to condition people into thinking that there's these forces stacked against them that really aren't stacked against them.

In either case, whether the force is real or imagined, either way though, for you as a young man, if you're listening, and I don't care what side of the aisle or anything you are, what you ought to do is

God made you to work, to live, to conquer, to accomplish, and you need to seek him.

You need to seek his word. You need to seek his design for you. Then you need to look at this time that you're living in as a gift from God, that he's given you this time for you to accomplish something.

You need to figure out what that is. If the deck is stacked against you, then you know what? He wants you to climb that hill and you can do it because you're a man that he's created in his image.

That's a pep talk. Where are you going to get that talk, guys? Are you going to get that kind of a pep talk in the churches that you attend?

This is a question. And I hope it's true. I hope you are getting that pep talk. It's what men need though.

They need lots of pep talks. So anyway, since I focus on the evangelical church a lot, of course,

I'm going to talk about this and how Trevin Wax completely missed the boat. TGC is completely out of touch.

They don't understand what's going on here. There was another main figure. Who was it? Tate? Someone named

Tate. Now I'm forgetting his first name. Andrew Tate, I think.

But viral video of him right now converting to Islam. And he's, I don't even know where he's from. He's from Eastern Europe somewhere.

I'm not overly familiar with him. I watched something with him and Piers Morgan and that was about it. But there's an interview of him where he's talking about,

I'm converting to Islam. And you know what it's rooted in? Because they're masculine. It's rooted in that. That's it.

That's pretty much his attraction. It's like, look. And he compares it to Christianity. He's like, and he wasn't a legitimate

Christian. It sounds like he was a cultural Christian, but he's like, that's not, they're pathetic.

They won't even defend themselves. Islam actually has some guts. They'll stand up for themselves. I pointed this out recently with that.

It was a Dearborn, Michigan, where you had a parent teacher conference. I think it was and or school board meeting rather.

And all these Muslim men show up to protest. Whereas the Moms for Liberty folks are just generally females who show up.

And they're not nearly as aggressive as these Muslim men were. I mean, there's a huge difference between the two.

And so he's like, yeah, they're men. I'm going to go with that. So if we misdiagnose this problem, we're not going to be able to react to it as believers.

And I know there's pastors who listen. I'm just saying this to you as well. If you're a pastor, this is on your horizon.

Whether it's hit your church or not, this is on your horizon. And it may be already in the minds of some of the men in your church.

And I want to help as much as I can. I don't have the perfect answers here. But I want to give you some stuff from the word of God that I think will help you with some of the basic questions you're going to be asked.

So scripture gives us a way of navigating this stuff. Now, another identity issue. A lot of these things come back to identity issues, homosexuality.

We have a bill that just went through without any amendments. The Mike Lee amendment did not pass.

And so we basically have a bill that is going to be used to silence people into complicity and into submission.

What do you mean, John? Well, this supposed Respect for Marriage Act is going to supposedly,

David French is so excited. It protects religious freedom. Yeah. If you're doing a marriage ceremony, it'll protect your pastor.

Doesn't have to do a marriage ceremony for a same -sex couple. And that's about it. That's about it.

It doesn't really go past that. This is a nightmare, legally speaking. And this will be used to silence people.

If you are even, I mean, one person was talking to me about it and just basically saying, look, if you're in a booth and someone overhears you, you're out, you're eating and you're just talking to someone and you start talking about how you believe marriage is between a man and a woman and someone's offended and a same -sex attracted person or whatever, they can go and they can sue you.

At the very least, it opens up the door for this kind of thing. And I'm like, where are the articles on this?

Where's the pressure? What I'm seeing out there right now, I'm not going to name names, but it's all posturing based on what

Kanye West said. And I'm not saying not to talk about that at all, but I'm just like, where are our priorities?

What's a bigger threat to the church? I mean, within 30 minutes, like every media company in existence condemned

Kanye West. How about, where is the media in Hollywood and all the places that are influencing your congregation?

Where are they on at when it comes to this particular bill? I think we know.

And not even, I was looking it up this morning. I'm like, does the Gospel Coalition say anything about this?

Is there anyone pushing back or is it just silence and then a few positive reactions? And that's what it is.

It's silence and then a few positive reactions. Here's someone who tried on TGC.

Oh, and I should say this. I should start by framing it this way. So marriage is the fundamental issue here, but I want to frame this differently.

I want to start with marriage because how do we preserve marriage becomes the question. I don't think that's the right question necessarily in this predicament.

The question is, what do we do with homosexuality as Christians? That's a question that terrifies,

I guarantee you, it terrifies elites and evangelicalism, just terrifies them. They like the question, how do we stick up for marriage?

They hate the question, what do we do with homosexuality? Because then they're forced to actually grapple with a number of Bible passages on that particular subject.

And those passages run way counter to what the world thinks and what they want the world to, they want,

I think they want the world to be deceived into thinking that we don't actually take the Bible seriously on those passages.

It's an abomination according to Leviticus 18. It is an unnatural affection according to Romans 1.

It is a sin that will take you to hell according to 1 Corinthians 6. The whole assumption of scripture is that marriage is between a man and woman.

It's, it doesn't have to even spell it out, but it does. That it isn't, it is that those relationships are evil.

And by the way, it doesn't even talk about marriage sanctifying those things. It doesn't talk about, you won't find gay marriage in scripture because it's not even a thought it out the gate homosexuality is wrong and other sexual perversions as well.

So why would you like to give that the title of marriage would be insane. That's where we live.

Well, here is, uh, here's what Joe Carter decided to do at the gospel coalition.

Joe Carter decided that he would take what I consider to be one of those unusual positions

I've ever seen on this. And I'll just read it to you. A Gallup poll taken in May revealed that support for legal same -sex marriage reflects steady increases among most subgroups of the population.

It says even 40 % of people who attend church weekly are for those marriages.

Only 58 % are opposed. So in other words, the, the needle is moving in a, in a direction that it's inevitable.

I mean, some of these guys I think live by polls and stats, but it's going in a direction that look, even the

Christians are saying we're for same -sex marriage. And so he's like, well, if that's the case, he goes,

I wanted a gay couple. Let's see. French says it's on my David French, uh, and his article about wanting, um, gay couples to enjoy marriage equivalent legal protections, but without changing the legal definition.

And he says, well, that that's possible. We can, we can do that. We don't need to attempt to redefine reality.

Uh, we, the solution is, uh, the civil unions, I read this and I was like, you know, you literally have at the enemy is at your gate, just pummeling your wall.

They're, they're, they're, they're storming in, your guys are fighting, you know, it's that level serious.

And the response is we just need to get back to civil unions as if that's a viable, like the other side's going to be like, oh yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah. We'll, we'll just, uh, you know, forget about marriage. We'll just, everything will be a civil union. Uh, or, or at least same, we'll create that category for same -sex attracted people.

And he uses to add insult to injury, the story of Ruth and Naomi, because well, they, they, uh, commit were committed to each other, even though one's a mother -in -law of the other.

And so, you know, there, I can't even, let me read this to you. Ruth and Naomi lived in modern

America. What if they lived in modern America? What would, um, be able to keep this commitment to each other without hindrance from laws that recognize only dependents, guardians, and spouses, including the same -sex spouses.

So he goes, they need legal protection. Ruth and Naomi need legal protection. Now, look, if you have a

Ruth and Naomi situation today, there are things you can do. You, I mean, you could, in your will, you can, you can pretty much say who you want to get your inheritance.

Uh, I mean, I'm not, I'd love for him to flesh out exactly what he's talking about here, but, um, there's,

I mean, if you wanted to adopt someone, you could adopt that person too. And you, and then convey upon them the natural, really.

And in fact, that would be better than because it's a more orderly way of going about it according to God's design.

But this is to me, I'm like Ruth and Naomi is your argument for, for homosexual civil unions,

Ruth and Naomi. As a society, we should question why we're extending social and government benefits to a group based on sexual behavior.

Why should we, well, excluding others, non -sexual unions that are, so this is, this is the argument.

We shouldn't treat marriage as special. We shouldn't, uh, that in the civil, in the civil realm, in the church, sure.

But in the civil realm, we shouldn't like favor relationships just because of sexual things.

As I guess, I don't even know, is this reducing marriage down to a sexual thing? It's just, it's so, there's so many facets of this that just intrigue me and make me wonder, why did you ever write this and post this?

Why allow civil unions for the lesbian couple down the street, but not for the widowed daughter and mother -in -law who live next door? Ah, so this is the solution.

This is how the church is going to react. Thanks gospel coalition for nothing, for giving us no idea about how to navigate the actual challenge before us, which is the normalization of sexual perversion and the criminalizing of people who would oppose such perversion.

That's the issue. That's the root problem. Marriage was a stepping stone. It wasn't just about marriage.

This is so out of touch and such a bad read. I would just, if I read, if I didn't know who this was, I would say, I'd never read this guy again.

Now people can change. So maybe I would, but like, that would be my initial thought is like what a bad take on the current situation that this is not going, it's not practical for one thing, but even if it was, it doesn't really get you anywhere.

Um, it's cause it fails to see what the home homosexual lobby, if you want to call it that what the left is trying to do.

They're trying to destroy the thief comes to take, kill and destroy. They work for the devil guys.

Yes, I said it. The people who are behind this agenda are doing the devil's bidding on this. It is to destroy

God's good order. And that's what the devil loves. He loves chaos, which is why we need spiritual weapons right now.

This isn't a spiritual weapon guys. No, um, we need to accept the reality we live in.

And I mean, and look, I understand some people are like, well, the Christian nationalism thing is so far fetched. How are you going to convince the church when, uh, you know, 58 % or it's down to 58 % that are opposing same sex marriages.

I get it guys. I get it. Uh, it's, we have to think through what our civil or public theology, but at the same time, uh, what's the, how do we pragmatically live this out?

And unless you all move to a state that's, you know, are we going to make Mississippi or, uh,

Nebraska or some conservative state to be the place where we can all, you know, maybe, but on a broad level, if you're talking in the

Christian nationalism talks on a broad level about the whole country, are you going to be able to do this without a revival?

No, you need, you need a revival and a respect again for the word of God. It comes back to the word of God.

The word of God is clear on the issue of homosexuality. And again, that's the question. It's not, how do we do something to protect marriage?

As much as it is, what do we do with this, this homosexuality? What, how, how do we categorize?

Think of that approach? It, uh, we don't. And by the way, I just say this, you don't find in the

Bible, this, this, uh, assumption that seems to pervade that secularism is the answer somehow to there's this division where, uh, you know, on the issue of marriage, that we can hold our views in the church in a certain way and respect marriage.

But then on the civil realm, we can just tear it apart and that's fine. Like you're not going to find that in scripture.

People are not getting this from scripture when they sell you this bill of goods. They're getting this from their own assumptions.

I want to talk about another identity issue. Now, homosexuality is one. What am I right? How did God design me? Well, another one is, um, how did the genetic component of who you are and the cultural component of who you are?

And I think a lot of young people are asking, and, and I, I've heard this actually, uh, from others, uh, a lot that this is a question in their minds.

Who am I when it comes to my race? Does that matter? I mean, one side's telling me, uh, that it does.

And now, uh, there's, although they have no institutional power whatsoever, there are a few people who seem to now be saying, uh, on the far right, if you want to call it that the

Richard Spencer types, I'm talking about neo -Nazi type of, um, empathy, uh, sympathizers, uh, that tend to, uh, uh, agree with some of that philosophy when it comes to genetic determinism, uh, and things like that.

Like they're saying that my race matters so much, my genetics matter. And, and then you have these mushy people sort of, uh, that subvert reality and just say, well, race is a social construct.

And I know the critical race theorists say that too, but like functionally, uh, they seem to for oppressed minorities in their conception, they tend to, um, elevate their cultural things, their aspects of their culture, that, uh, music and, and, and politics and everything.

And they make that like the end all be all. And so I do think they are undercutting the idea of, uh, the importance of genetics, but they, um, there's like so much on the surface that they support that and, and view is important that it, uh, they still convey a very strong sense of positive identity to press minorities and negative identity to what they view as oppressors.

So they're, they're still saying that there's something, even though race is a social construct, there's some kind of like, like it does matter to some extent, even though that's what it is.

And it's self -refuting to some extent, but the, in our camp, if you want to call it that the anti -woke evangelical types, um, and conservative types in general, like neoconservative types, they just seem to want to say like, race doesn't matter at all.

Like there's like nothing to it. The libertarian types are like this too. And I think young people see through that.

They like, they know that's not true. Like that, that can't be like, they know that we shouldn't judge people.

Uh, I think most people, at least young people starting out believes we shouldn't judge people, other people, uh, according to their genetics, but they, they also know there's something that matters about this.

And so biblically, I think what we see is that we have a creation story, all the genetics for the whole world were in Adam.

God created Adam in his image. He wanted nations. He divided the world up upon languages and they settle in different places, develop different features.

Uh, you, you see this reality talked about in, in scripture. Um, can a leopard change his, his spots?

I mean, it's, uh, it's, there's certain realities that are just, uh, ingrained, but you never see in scripture, this idea that it's deterministic or that evil,

I should put it this way, that evil comes from a genetic component. It's evils. Everyone has the capacity for evil.

We have all sinned and fallen short. And so when you start hearing things that try to convince you, let's say that because of a genetic determinism or because of some kind of running in the background systemic issue, uh, there's a greater capacity that some have for evil over others.

Um, I mean, you could have greater tendencies among some cultures or something like that, but you can't start doing this like because of their genetics or because of, um, because they're predisposed, uh, to certain sins because of where they line up on a power structure or something like that, or they're, they're, they're, they have more evil or more goodness because of where they line up on a power grid.

Those are the things that I would say you're not going to find in scripture. And not only that, they're not biblical. They're not, um, they, they, they contradict the doctrine of total depravity.

The doctrine that says that we all have this capacity for evil and we all do sin.

Now, not all of us are Hitler, not all of us. Some of us probably would be apart from Christ if we had his, the kind of power he had and the capability he had, but where, uh, and, and by the way,

Hitler wasn't Hitler wasn't even always Hitler. I mean, if you look at, I read by the biography,

I'd actually suggest if you want to get to know Hitler more, you know, go to primary sources, obviously, uh, but you know, read the

John Toland's biography and you see, you know, this is actually a person too. And, and so yeah, incredible evil, but you can see even in him, there's an, there's the image of God in everyone.

We all have things we bring to the table that are positive, uh, that abilities God has given us things he expects us to do.

So, um, that being said, uh, we can, I think from the beginning we can reject those kinds of explanations.

Why would those explanations be attractive? Well, because they're simplistic. I think they, uh, we want like simple explanations.

They also can make way for pride. They can give you a sense, like if your genetics are superior and you're less evil because of that, or if you're lower on the power dynamic and you're less evil because of that, then that means that you're better than someone else and you have a goodness about you and they have a badness about them.

And so it becomes a club. So this gets into, I think, where scripture talks about, um, envy and, and the things that come from envy.

I mean, what's the source of the corals among you? It's your flesh. So like all sin arises in the flesh.

So if, if it's, why do, does this demographic, why is it that white people seem to have more power?

Or why is it that Jewish people seem to excel and have more power? Or, you know, why is it that, um, uh, other minorities seem to get more benefits from the government or all of these kinds of things

I think can easily create envy and envy is a sin.

Envy is that, and resentment then of course is fueled. And then all the things that can possibly come from that.

Now you can point out, this is bad. This is, uh, unfair. This is unjust certain things I suppose.

But once you have envy though, uh, that's a problem. And so, uh, so, so this is why

I, instead of saying racism, and I don't even like the term antisemitism necessarily, cause I know how it's wielded and it's, it's, there's hardly a definition anymore for these things.

It's just a club people use. But I think we have to be crystal clear as Christians with what we're talking about.

If, if instead of saying racism, talk about ethnic partiality, cause now you're getting back to an actual sin, talk about, um, not just ethnic partiality, but ethnic partiality that suspends the scales of justice.

Cause I think that gets to the root of the problem here more that we're going to treat one group different than another group because of maybe some envy that we have or some, um, some motivation that comes from incorrect unbiblical thinking.

And then you can trace that route back to wherever it is. So with, with Kanye, I don't know the roots of everything there.

I suspect his dad, who's a black Panther, might have something to do with where he's at. I suspect with Nick Fuente, I don't know if Nick Fuente, I don't know anything really about him.

So I probably should suspend some judgment, but, uh, but it's possible. I'm just saying, I'm open to the possibility of his dad.

I'm open to the possibility of Nick Fuente. So I'm open to the possibility of whoever he's, he's reading has, has helped convince him that there's a simplistic explanation out there that, you know, look at what happened when you said something against the

Jews and how they took your bank accounts and they've taken everything from you. And because of that, uh, now you're justified in thinking that Netanyahu is like controlling everything from Israel.

And it's this Zionist cabal that's opposed to everything true and good. And they're, they're even responsible for your divorce to Kim Kardashian.

I mean, he even said stuff like that, uh, that some people wanted to say that's just crazy.

Okay. But it's a more accurate way to depict this is it's a simplistic explanation for something that's probably a lot more complex, i .e.

there are Jews who are canceled there and against this kind of thing. Uh, this treatment of Kanye, uh, i .e.

there are non -Jews who also are denouncing and canceling Kanye, right? So it doesn't line up purely among ethnic lines.

It's, it's certainly not a genetic thing. I don't think Kanye even says it. He says he loves Jews, but he thinks the devil gets into them when

Zionism is present or something. So there's this, there's, there's a temptation.

It seems like that Jews have, they're predisposed to more than anyone else or a predilection.

They have towards getting, I'm piecing together from the best of my ability from this interview.

I don't know everything that he, that he believes, but it, it seems to me like he thinks they are more often used by the devil.

Um, uh, in there, there's some, some kind of like an evil that they are more likely to, to demonstrate, uh, from within them somewhere.

Now, does the devil use people groups? Yeah. The devil can use people groups. God can also use people groups at different stages in history.

We see Israel going back and forth between obedience and disobedience, right? So it's, it's like, it's, it's not as if what we can't say in response to a young person who's being influenced perhaps by Kanye West, I haven't met any as far as I know, but I suspect that that's probably is happening to some extent is we can't start to go down the road of trying to say that, um, you know, like we, we, all the things that are being said now, like the race doesn't exist.

Like, of course it does. We can't start saying that like, well, Jews aren't very successful or like, you can't just deny what they've already seen.

They've seen the stats. They know that Jewish people are overrepresented in these influential fields.

Uh, and why is that now you can get into explanations for it. Uh, but I don't even, as a pastor,

I don't even think you should have to do that. Different people have different abilities. Uh, some of it might be genetics. Uh, for instance, you know,

I'm not going to be in the NBA and people that look like me generally aren't in the NBA as much. There's a reason for it, right?

Um, a lot of it's culture, right? There's, there's these complex realities. There's, uh, what I think the most fundamental thing is probably what you believe about God.

I don't think that that's everything about you, but that certainly is going to determine a lot of your behavior, right? So there's all these different things that go into making us who we are.

And so you have to acknowledge those things. You can't, in response to a young man who's listening to Kanye West, just deny those things.

And you can't come out and start saying that, um, that Kanye is, uh, that he just has to be denounced in no uncertain terms without any qualification.

We've been for now years, uh, qualifying on the CRT and the woke stuff.

In fact, every institution is pretty aligned, lined up against the truth and embedded with stuff.

And I mean, Kanye has like no influence now, except with some of the people, some of his fans, I suppose, but like, this has real institutional power, the, the critical race theory stuff.

And we've been qualifying it for years on what exactly the issue is with it. And I think we would have to do that with someone like Kanye West with this far right stuff, whatever he's dealing with, whatever he's listening to.

And it may not even be far, right. It could be like, it could be black Panther type stuff. It could be woke adjacent type stuff.

That's making the inroad here. And then it's there, there's a commonality. It's, you know, you have maybe some far right people who also agree it's the

Jews and they're both, I mean, if you read a lot of this, even the radical civil rights stuff, it's very anti Jewish.

And so even, even MLK has some of this, that's the secret. Uh, anyway, so Kanye is on this, on this, uh, he's saying these things and I think it does need to be a qualified and explained, or else you won't be able to defeat it.

If you're concerned about it, I'm not as concerned about Kanye West and what he said as I am about a lot of the other stuff that happened this week, including like the

FTX stuff. Like what infinitely more important in my mind, lying, stealing, uh, geopolitical issues that are compromising to our foreign policy.

And the guy gets a standing ovation from the New York times. I can't even believe it.

Literally the guy who, who the CEO or whatever, he gets a standing or not, I don't know if they were standing, but they had an ovation from the

New York times for going on their podcast and, and then, and then it kind of, but yet when it comes to Kanye West, who has like no, hardly any influence now, uh, institutionally is makes a few comments on a podcast where he, uh,

I'm not going to get into the comments, but there was some definitely off color and wrong things he said.

He is immediately denounced by everyone. And without much of an explanation,

I listened to the ADL, uh, chiming in on this and all they really can say is it's all associational.

It's all Hitler, bad Nazi, bad Kanye, bad. Uh, this will lead to the Holocaust type thing for young.

It's not going to help young men who are attracted to it. And so my only point is if you want to navigate this biblically,

I believe the same thing on critical race theory. We, we, we must do the hard work of navigating it biblically.

And so we have to get into this place where we can say race does, or genetics,

I should say, do lineage does confirm, confirm an identity. It doesn't, it's not everything.

It doesn't make you who you are in every way, but it, it definitely contributes to your identity. Uh, I give you an example.

There's a song, an old country song by Dierks Bentley, my last name, where he talks about giving his wife his last name as her wedding gift and looking into the mirror, seeing all his relations.

When he looks into his face, that's important. That's special. People know that. That's why they're going to ancestry .com

and try to figure out who they are. Uh, I think I, you know, even, you know,

I don't know even know where to go from here. Exactly. I just know that every, every person is created by God.

If you believe that, if you truly believe in the creation story, you wouldn't go to an artist and just start saying that like, this is a terrible piece of work here.

Yes. We're marred by sin, but it's not like the Mormons who at one time taught that certain people,

I think like they said, like black people were of the devil and they weren't created by God. And no, everyone's created by God.

Everyone's in his image. So that's where the image of God comes into this, that there's something to be proud of.

I don't even want to phrase it that way. There's something to be thankful for that everyone has. There's something to commend

God for, to, to be grateful and say, Lord, you know, you made me this way. You put me here. You made me the way I am.

And that's, that's good. That's special. That's, you wanted it that way. God actually loves diversity.

I mean, look around you, look around the world. So I think of myself who

I never thought of myself as white. I think that's a really broad category, but, uh, sure.

Am I white? Sure. But I think, you know, things that confer identity are more like, um,

I come from my, my ancestors came from Scotland to Northern Ireland to come over here and, uh, settled in various areas.

I have some German in me a little bit too. And so from Germany and, uh, settled in places like Ohio and Mississippi, and, um,

I can trace from the indentured servants who came to Virginia all the way down to Mississippi where, where the, the migration happened and they participated in all the wars of this country.

That makes, that makes, uh, makes me proud to some extent in a good way. It, it gives, it leaves me a legacy.

It gives me a responsibility. I think of, um, even something Bodie Bauckham said not long ago, where he's like, look,

I, I have a barrier here. And, and we do too in my family, in the South, at least we, there was a barrier where Sherman had burned the churches where the records were kept.

So like for a while, we didn't know exactly where the lines all went. Ancestry .com has helped with that.

But like Bodie Bauckham talks about, like, you know, I'm black, I'm American, and my ancestors were slaves.

And when I went back to Africa, he talks about kissing the ground or like crying. He just, he didn't know where his ancestors exactly came from, but he knew that there was something special about being in the place where even on the continent where they would have been.

That's not nothing guys. There's something to be proud of here. And everyone has something to be proud of.

For Bodie, his ancestors overcame great barriers. They overcame slavery.

Look where they are now, right? And in a country where many of them have achieved great, great things, more than any other place in the world, there's, there's capability there.

There's, there's, there's just a rootedness there. And I think we all have that to some extent, even if you don't know who your parents are.

Now there's tools you can go and find out kind of where your people are from and all of that, where, uh, lineage

I'm talking about. That's not all who you are though. You have hobbies, you have interests, you have, uh, less superficial things like culture.

You have, you know, obviously Christianity, you have the region you live in. That's a pretty deep one.

So there's all these different things that contribute to making you, you, it's not just ethnicity, but, uh, or genetics, but genetics is part of it.

And to deny that it's just, it's, it's to our own peril. Cause young people can see through that at this point. They know that, that they've been lied to a lot and we're not going to give them fairy tales about, we shouldn't at least about that and say, it doesn't matter at all.

Like, of course it does. Of course it does. But it doesn't mean you have to hate other people. That's the thing.

So, uh, unequal weights and measures God hates. So we don't use those on the way we evaluate people.

Um, Jesus, you know, showed us an example with a Samaritan woman. There's a lot of examples of this, uh, how he treated someone who was different than him and not just different ethnically, but culturally to some extent, even where they worshiped and Jesus extended.

And this is our mission to make disciples. He extended grace in, in, in that situation. Uh, in Exodus 12, we find that the intention behind the laws of Israel were to be the same for the foreigner as it was for the

Israeli. That doesn't mean they didn't have walls around their cities. Cause they did. It doesn't mean that for them. And some of this was spiritual ceremonial stuff, but they forbade, um, intermarriage with other, uh, pagan peoples who engaged in pagan religions and customs.

They did forbid that. It doesn't mean that there wasn't a court of the Gentiles court of the Jews court of the women, uh, when it came to worshiping

God and their, their spiritual, um, there was a spiritual hierarchy that they did have, which is very politically incorrect today, but the

Lord of the universe is the one who instituted that. So you have to, if you're going to be a consistent Christian and love the word of God, you at least have to acknowledge that.

Um, at the same time though, you have to look at, you know, even, even though there were some differences, like, you know, 70 years, the land would go back to the families who owned it and the tribes, the, uh, you know, things like, uh,

Hebrew slaves could, could not be perpetual, but pagan slaves could. Um, I mean, there are things like that, but in general though, the same law applied to both.

If you were going to go into Israel, you had to abide by their sexual ethics. And you would also, as a result, um, get some of the spiritual blessings that came with being in Israel.

And so this is why I'm very specific on my language here.

Envy is ruled out. Envy based on ethnicity is ruled out. Any kind of envy, uh, ethnic partiality that suspends the scales of justice is evil.

It's wrong. It's sinful, full, full stop period. And it doesn't matter in what direction it comes from.

What direction is it coming from now? We can see, obviously social justice owns just about everything.

And the far right stuff everyone is really concerned about right now is, uh, as I said,

I think there, there are signs that young men are starting to be attracted to it, uh, to some extent in some arenas, but it does not have any institutional power whatsoever at this point.

And if you want to prevent it from getting any institutional power, I think you're gonna have to take the biblical approach here. So that is my plea to Christians out there to deal with this in a rational way that seeks to make the qualifications and explanations and, and biblical, uh, and apply biblical principles.

We've done this on the woke stuff for years. We need to be able to do it on, on this other stuff that people are concerned about right now.

Um, I think that's, that's about all I wanted to say. There's so much more, many directions I could go in, especially after the video

I put out yesterday on the proposition nation and stuff, people are having questions. Um, I think the more you learn, the more questions that you tend to have.

And I think people who have been lied to for a long time are open to all kinds of unconventional answers that they, cause they realized that they were believing lies for so long.

So, uh, people are in a position more now to reject the proposition nation and that some people were accusing me though.

Like I'm, I now am believing in an ethnic state or something. And I'll, I'll just briefly address this real quick.

I haven't developed this all. I'm probably going to write a book and develop some of this, but, um, I'll just tell you briefly what

I believe. Cause I'm, I, I've told you before, I don't even consider myself a Christian nationalist. Some of that is because of the term.

And I just, the term it's hard for me as a history guy, cause going back a hundred years, it was used by socialists.

So I think that association, I'm like, uh, that probably doesn't apply for anyone else.

But for me, that's one aspect. The other thing is the Christian nationalists seem to think that the nation and the country are the same thing.

And I don't see that. I see the United States today as an empire more. So I see it as a country that has many nations inside of it, actually, uh, many different diverse regional, uh, just places.

And just some of this cuts across regions, but what forms of people is,

I think one of the main mechanisms there's a, there's a few, but it's natural relationships over time.

In other words, uh, you live in the same area, similar, the same kind of experiences you start to inter marry into each other's families.

That's what creates a sense of people ness to a place, uh, speaking the same language and, and, and even the same dialect perhaps.

But that's, that's what creates a sense of people ness in my mind. I'm, I have a very organic approach to this.

It's probably different than a lot of what you've heard. And, uh, and I have reasons for that. I think it is probably, it matches more biblically in my opinion.

Um, but what I see in the United States is there's so much diversity on so many levels when it comes to so many things, not just genetics, but religion and culture and music and cuisine and just all kinds of things.

It just becomes obvious to me when you travel as I have to different parts of the country that I'm like,

I'm, I'm basically in a different nation right now. Like when you're Aaron in Arizona and you go to the

Navajo nation, you're in a different nation, even though you're in the United States, right? That's a, that's a different nation. We can all say that for some reason, but we, we have a hard time saying things like, uh, you know,

Germanic peoples in the Midwest are also kind of like they have a nation too, or Dutch peoples in that have immigrated and now they're intermarrying and they've had a unique culture.

That's a nation or Southerners who Scotch Irish people in the Appalachians, like they have kind of a nation that, so that's, we're all kind of together, but it's not exactly a boiling, uh, what do they call it?

A not blanking on boiling pot, a melting pot. There you go.

It's not a melting pot. Exactly. The people who come in, even from Ellis Island ended up like going into their own sections of New York city and, and being, uh, not because of an imposed law, but just because people naturally tend to congregate together.

They tended towards, um, marrying within their own group. Now that slowly erodes over time.

And when that erodes, you have the formation of a new people group, like the Samaritans were like the

Samaritans were actually. So yes, I think a new people groups can form. I think it takes time over generations.

I don't think you can just say, because, uh, like, like, like on a broad scale, you can't just say, because we all love freedom, we're all

American or something like that. Um, you can do this though. I do believe you can incorporate someone into your, you can adopt like a family can adopt.

I think that's what makes adoption special is that it's, these natural relationships are, uh, are, are what we expect.

That's the norm. But when you adopt, you're giving someone the privileges that come with being in your family, even though you had to make the choice to bestow that it wasn't, the choice wasn't given to you.

And I understand you make the choice also to have kids, but it was, uh, there's a great love that comes when you do that, uh, in a special way for people that you adopt.

And I think it's the same with, um, immigration to an extent when you, you can, there, there's a reciprocal thing that happens.

You give benefits that have been fought for earned over time, over the course of generations to someone who wasn't part of that story, but you're making them, they're grafting them into that story.

But the, the trade -off is they now, they, they will honor that story too.

They will, they are going to become one with you. They are going to intermarry. They are going to,

I think that would have to be some part of it somewhere, but, but somehow whether it's marriage or not, they, they, they, uh, they become part of your, your nation and they adopt your ways and they honor your celebrations and traditions.

Okay. I hope that makes sense for everyone. It's like adoption on another level. So absolutely you can have immigration and people, it's people saying that I'm like, oh, like it's an ethno nation.

And I think what they mean is like, it's, it's like a, you know, for whites only or something like, you know, you have no clue guys what you're talking about.

If you're saying that absolutely no clue. It's not what I believe one bit. And, um, and, and I probably have different views on what

America itself is than you have. And it would take a longer discussion. So bottom line, uh,

I think I see America as a country that has multiple nations within it. Um, I even try to say general government instead of national government because of that, even like I can't escape it in some ways because, but I think we're just so diverse and the human scale is so off that some of the solutions for the

United States would be to have more local autonomy, authority, and maybe even break the country up to some extent.

I know people don't like talking about that, but when you have people in Northern California, Eastern, uh, the

Eastern parts of Oregon and Washington that are very conservative and they are different people.

They have a different, um, industries. They're involved with farmers, uh, lumber, you know, that kind of thing.

And then you have the coastal places where they're, they're working at apple and they're, they're so different on so many levels.

It doesn't make sense to force them together. You just get conflict that way. It, it makes a lot more sense for them to be their own thing.

I believe that, uh, and I know that's forbidden and I think even Christian nationalists would say that's forbidden.

Most of them, they would say, you can't do that. And that's why I don't think I'm a Christian nationalist quite, but I agree with, there is sort of a rejection of the proposition nation and Christian national.

There's a number of things that I'm very sympathetic to. And I want to see the law of God implemented, uh, in our society.

I mean, what other law you're going to use, right? So, um, hopefully that clears up some of the confusion.

Some of you had, uh, with that. Uh, but, uh, anyway, um, moving on from that, we talked about the

FTX thing a little bit that that's crazy. That's crazy. What happened? Uh, I mean, that's another example of the chaos around us that that just is a ho -hum and the guy's not in prison.

He gets ovations from the New York times. And yet like, like the, again, the Lord hates unjust weights and measures.

And I can't even fathom how unjust our weights and measures are right now. It's insane. It really is. There are fashionable and unfashionable sins.

And what I see happening on our side that I'm concerned about more than probably anything in, in our churches, even like the people who are anti -woke, but who are wanting to use the,

I would say, unfashionable sins to score points is we have got to make sure that our scales are straight.

Um, we, we like, it's a little unfathomable for me that you have the week that this defense or what is it called?

A respect for marriage act that, and what it's going to do is passed. And like the concern seems to be so much more, um, trying to purge our side.

Now I'm not saying it doesn't need to happen. Like there need no gatekeeping. I'm not making an argument for that. I'm saying we need some gatekeeping to some extent, but we let the left do it for us.

We let people with an, a non -Christian metric do it for us. And since they've decided that like racism is probably in their minds, that's the word they use the worst possible thing you could ever be.

I think that we've all become kind of woke. I'm not, I'm not going to lie. I think we've all become somewhat woke on this, that like our priority is now to totally purge, demonize, destroy anyone who could be in any way associated in like, and there's no forgiveness.

There's no, uh, opportunity for repentance in that. There's, um, I was just looking today though at the gospel coalition and like, they have all these glowing articles back in the day about Kanye, which

I was like, this is, this is the problem with that. At, at one time it was fashionable to look at Kanye and be pro

Kanye because, well, I think there's a number of reasons that that was the case, but now it's not.

And so if people are running towards like, how do we, how do we handle this? And, uh, and I'm sure, you know,

I would be shocked if an article didn't come out in TGC next week about it. I don't think they put one out yet. In fact, I can refresh the page and just make sure.

Uh, but like, it's like they, they, they're, they're, uh, attempt to try to, oh yeah, here

TGC is putting out stuff, how the gospel helps us pursue ethnic diversity. They probably recorded that before Kanye, but they're releasing it now.

They like, I really think that those are the things they want to hedge on. I don't see anything about the

FTX thing. I don't see anything about an issue that directly impacts the church, which is this, um, respect for marriage act.

So, um, one last thing I just want to share with you, some people were, uh, commenting and saying, look,

John, this is like the deck of the Titanic. You're trying to rearrange the furniture when you're talking about Christian nationalism. And I would just say this, look,

I agree. We've got to be about the gospel, giving the gospel out there, uh, being strong in your local church.

All that stuff is so important to this and you can't neglect it, but we do, I believe also need to have somewhat of a understanding of what the

Bible teaches in all areas. And this is at, at even the worst, at worst case scenario, this

Christian nationalism thing that the people who want to take the term are at least attempting to try to, how do we apply our

Bibles to this thing called government and society? And it's more,

I can say more for that than I can for, for, for TGC and for some of these elite evangelical institutions,

Christianity today that seem to just want to carry water for the elites and make them make sure that they're the last ones to get eaten and, uh, throw people who step out of line, um, off the bus without even much in the way of opportunities for restoration.

It's not Christian. These aren't Christian enterprises that we're dealing with. Uh, Christians are going to be about the word.

And that's what I'm emphasizing in this whole entire video is I don't have the wisdom, but the word of God does.

And so go with the word of God on all this stuff, whether it's politically correct or not, uh, go with the word of God.

Don't, don't go in what's going to help you win or what looks good. Or, you know, how can we, uh, how can we own the other side and give a big burn to them and all that?

Yeah, there's going to be opportunities for burns. Jesus burned the Pharisees, uh, in fair ways, but like the underlying motive here should be, what is the

Bible actually teach? How do we apply that? How do we make disciples? Remember God resists the proud grace to the humble.

And, um, and I don't want myself to be humble. I want us all to be humble. Pray for me with that. I need to be humble too.

And all of this, I'm sure that my prides come out in these podcasts at times because I am a sinful man.

If I knew where it all was, I would apologize. I had to locate it and I tell you, but the problem is

I don't always know where my sin is. I commit, I commit sins of ignorance and we all do. We just have to be humble about these things and, uh, treat people who ask genuine questions, which

I think there's many in our churches suffering from identity issues, asking genuine questions, especially young men.

We need to treat them as people and acknowledge, uh, the, the things that they're grappling with and not just try to, not, not to take those questions and make them so afraid to ask because we run in the course of the world so often and apply those standards in the harshest ways.

There's more that can be said, but that's, that's the podcast today. I just wanted to share that with you. I hope that's helpful, maybe encouraging.

I know there's some instruction in this, some admonishment perhaps, but I'm proud of so many of you out there.

I mean, so many of the comments that I've gotten over the last few days have just been encouraging to me, but also just makes me obvious that there's so many who have not vowed the need to bail that there's so many of you guys who just love the word of God.

You want to be just biblical people and you know, whatever comes, you're going to plant your feet there.

And we need more of that, obviously. But I know that, that God's even in the course of judgment and everything that's chaotic,

God has some stable people out there. And, um, and we're life rafts, honestly, those who, who are understand this and seek to help young people navigate these things, you're life rafts.

Uh, even if you don't know all the answers, just being a stability, just saying, I know where the answers are, at least let's work through it.

That's a life raft for people who are drowning right now. And people are definitely drowning.

And, uh, I've just been softened this week. I've been softened over this. The Kanye thing even softened me as look at this man.

He shouldn't be doing any media interviews, but you know, he's, he's being, I think he's being used to be honest with you.

That sickens me too, to some extent. There's some, I don't know exactly who's using them, but, um, you know, pray for them, pray for them, pray for, uh, pray for people who, who profess

Christ. And then, you know, like Kanye and then go off the deep end.

I mean, it doesn't, this is not a good thing for Christianity in the public eye, but we should be more concerned with what

God is, is seeing than what the world is seeing. God needs to see our hearts as being pure and ready.

And, uh, and this podcast, that's why we do it is to help you be ready. So God bless, uh, more coming and, uh, hope you have a wonderful week.