RLL #18 | Radio Lux Lucet

It is on the air. Thanks for listening to this is episode number 18. I'm your host Steve Matthews. It's great to be here with you today. And thanks for listening in today. I really appreciate that. Well, I know it's been a little while since I've had a podcast for you.

It's been Most embarrassed to say this it's been about six months and I guess maybe I could tell you the dog ate my homework or something Like that, but no, I actually that that's kind of a lame excuse and I realized that and Well, I I do have excuses.

Maybe they're not quite that lame, but Yeah, I've been busy. I've been doing doing some blogging here doing my regular.

Luke's lucid.

Blog entry at least once a week and I've been doing some new things too. I've been doing a Some YouTube videos. I'm now kind of a small-time youtuber and On top of that. I've also had the the opportunity to begin actually doing some podcasts for the Trinity Foundation.

We Started Trinity Foundation radio and we've had an opportunity to get out a Couple of podcasts here and and Lord willing to be more to come. So so that's going so anyway my my own podcast radio Luke's lucid is kind of falling a little bit by the wayside here, but I think that Lord willing.

I think we're going to have have some more podcasts here coming up in the future and This is actually the very first podcast this is kind of a special episode. This is my actually my 18th podcast, but it's the first podcast that I'm doing officially for Thorn Crown Ministries.

Thorn Crown Ministries is the new website with featuring Tim Shaughnessy Carlos Montillo and Ryan Denton and Tim was kind enough to ask me to be a contributor on this website so I'm really excited to be able to join with those gentlemen and Do some podcasting along with the the fine work that they do so I'd encourage you to go check that out.

That's thorn crown ministries .com Thorn crown ministries .com. So if you haven't seen that stop by and check out the work. There's some some Good things on there and I think there's gonna be a lot more good things to follow.

So I'm excited to be a part of a part of that ministry. So anyway, this being the the first podcast that in in my series that I've done specifically for Thorn Crown I thought it might be a good idea to take some time and talk about the the purpose of this podcast and sort of the The direction of this podcast and maybe even before we even get into that part of it.

Maybe just introduce myself a little bit to you as well since I know as I said It's been a little while since I've actually had a podcast out here for you. Yeah, my name is Steve Matthews and I am.

A.

Doctrinally speaking since this is a Christian podcast is worth knowing I am Presbyterian. So I am reformed in my theology. More specific than that. I'm actually a scripturalist and that is someone who follows the the philosophy and the theology of Gordon Clark and and of John Robbins.

You can read more about their work over there at the Trinity Foundation. Also, there's some posts that are beginning to go up on the on the Thorn Crown ministries as well that are specifically scripturalist and and I think that this podcast will will fit in pretty nicely with some of the work that Tim and and Carlos and Ryan are doing.

So I'm a Presbyterian and I'm a scripturalist. I live here in Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm a a native of the Buckeye State now. I did not attend, Ohio State. I'm not a Buckeye fan people think because I'm from Ohio that I always root for Ohio State.

Actually went to the University of Cincinnati. So I guess really I'm more of a bearcat than I am a Buckeye. But I'm a native of the state of Ohio. So I guess I can claim I'm a Buckeye at least in that sense of the word.

I also went to Miami University. I got an MBA from Miami University here in Ohio. So I've got a second alma mater there in graduate school in terms of my My day job, I do have a day job. I actually do do have a day job.

I get up and go to work every morning. I work in the retirement plan business. Servicing 401k plans of all things. So if you got a 401k plan, I don't know. Maybe I've maybe I've worked on your retirement plan.

Who knows and Also one other thing I had mentioned the Trinity Foundation before I do sit on the the board of the Trinity Foundation. That's a great honor to be able to to serve with those gentlemen. It's something that I Really enjoy doing and I'm privileged to be a part of that.

So That's a little bit about me to get started and in terms of this podcast. So why this podcast, you know, why why am I doing this podcast? Well the name of the podcast. Maybe I'll talk about that radio.

Luke's lucid. That's actually taken from my blog I've been blogging. It's hard for me to believe this now, but I started the blog looks lucid. That was started nine years ago as I did my first post I think was in the March or April of 2009 it's kind of hard to believe that I've been at it for for nine years now at The time flies pretty fast that the name looks lucid.

That actually means the light shines. It's it's it's Latin the light shines. It's it's taken from and if you look at my blog site You see there's an emblem that I use as sort of a header on the blog. It's looks lucid and tenebrous and it's it's Got the Latin words and it goes in and it surrounds a candle a lampstand.

That is itself surrounded by seven stars and and you may recognize that if you've looked at.

Some older.

Reformation I don't know books or Things of this sort the the symbol itself. It actually comes from the Walden sees which was a group that Essentially they were they were Protestants before they were Protestants they they were a group that that broke away from Rome and they they taught the doctrines of grace and and they they maintained purity of doctrine throughout the Middle Ages at a time when when the Church of Rome was very corrupt and The they used that they used that logo that looks lucid logo and a lot of the early reformers picked up that logo as well.

So.

It's kind of a it's a very historic Christian logo. I've always liked the design. I like the message Luke's Luke's Luke's lucid and tenebrous. That's the light shines in the darkness. Which it comes from the Gospel of John?

So I've always liked the design. I've liked the message of it as well. And I think really it's Christians. I mean that really is our job right to be to be the lights that shine in the darkness and You know, you've probably looked around yourself and you notice there's an awful lot of darkness out there, isn't there?

And sometimes it seems like it's getting darker all the time. And I don't say that to be a pessimist. I'm not a pessimist. I'm I guess you call myself call me as a Christian. I'm a long-term optimist, but there's very clearly some very dark things that are going on in in the world today and That that's really one of the things maybe that leads me into the idea of why this podcast I've always had a keen interest in in politics.

I remember liking politics from the time when I was a kid, which I know that sounds pretty nerdy. I Guess maybe I'm a bit of a geek. I'll have to cop to that. But at any rate, yeah, I remember and this is something that goes back and I'm gonna date myself.

But this goes back to when I was in In sixth grade and I remember in sixth grade and this was in 1978. So yeah, I'm an old guy. I'm 52. But this goes all the way back to to when I was in sixth grade and I remember in sixth grade We had to we were studying current events and we had to get to subscription To a magazine called US News and World Report and I remember getting this thing in reading it and I was just fascinated by it.

And and even after we stopped studying Politics in in class and we no longer had to have that subscription of that magazine I still kept getting the magazine because I was just pretty interested in it and I think the thing that really kind of piqued my interest about that is because I Wanted to know what the truth was and in in US News and World Report I think it was kind of known for being pretty much straight down the middle.

Maybe maybe even a little bit on the conservative side. I don't even know if the US News and World Report still in print anymore. Seems like there are fewer and fewer magazines that are put out now with with the Internet.

But the thing that really interested me as I would read through some of these debates between People who were you might call, you know liberals and in people you'd call conservatives and this was in 1978.

So it was a little bit over 10 years after the start of the Great Society. You remember the Great Society all these anti-poverty programs that Lyndon Johnson signed in the law in the in the mid 60s and so these programs have been around for a while and and they've been around at least, you know, 10 12 15 years something like.

That and.

People were they've been around long enough that people were kind of able to look at them and really start asking some questions. Well, you know have these programs actually been effective, you know. We spent millions or billions of dollars on all these anti-poverty programs and and is it any real is it really done any good?

You know, they had that war on poverty in the 1960s, right? Well, have we won the war on poverty and interestingly enough, you know, people would look at this and they'd say well. Well, apparently not I mean in the liberals and the conservatives would both say the same thing.

Well, they'd say well look I mean, we've got just as much poverty now as we did did ten years ago. And maybe in some cases we actually have more. You know, we spent billions of dollars and not only do we not have anything to show for it.

We actually have have negative returns, you know things are worse than what they had been and. And you would hear the the people in the different sides whether the liberal or conservative. They would take them.

They would have a very different take on that. They have a very different I don't know if spin is the right word maybe interpretation. They would interpret the facts differently. If you would talk to somebody who is a conservative they would look at you know.

The failure of I don't know a program like say housing and urban development or something like this and and you know. All of these these housing and urban development all these HUD programs. It turned into these these horrible slums in a lot of cases and the conservatives look at that and say well see this is what?

Happens when when you have big government, this is what happens when you have welfare you know that that what you do is when you have welfare programs that encourages more people to go in the doll and you get more social pathologies and you get get break up of the family and dependence on.

On government on welfare these types of things and then the liberals would come along and say oh no, no, no, no, no. No, okay. Yes. We we know that these programs aren't doing well. We know these programs have failed but the problem isn't with the programs themselves the problem.

They would say these liberals the problem they'd say is that well. There just hasn't been enough money spent and if you guys if you can't you've hard-hearted conservatives would just give us more money.

So we could expand these programs and and and do the job the right way. Well, we could we we could could clear up poverty in no time and and I would read read these arguments between the liberals and conservatives in US News and World Report and.

And it was fascinating to me because I kept asking myself. How do we know who's right? How do we know who's right? You know, you know the the liberals. Well, you know, they can make some pretty good arguments sometimes and but then when I hear the Conservatives talk, you know, well, yeah, you know that makes a lot of sense too.

And and how do I know what's right?

Well, I.

Wasn't sure for a long time, you know, I've always been I guess I I've always I wanted to believe the Small government people the conservatives were right, but I wasn't sure I didn't didn't have conviction.

And I I always kept wondering if maybe I'm misunderstanding something well, anyway to kind of make a long story a bit short after a number of years of study and and going through a lot of changes in my own thinking by God's grace.

You know, I became a Christian and and I came to really understand that that's a Bible the Bible teaches limited government John Robbins called Called the the complex of politics and economics that's taught in the Bible.

He called a constitutional capitalism. John Robbins is was the founder of the Trinity Foundation and he wrote this wonderful book. If you ever get a chance to check it out, it's called ecclesiastical megalomania, it's about the the politics and the economics of Of the Roman Catholic Church, and I know you probably hear that title you say ecclesiastical megalomania.

Well, I wouldn't want to read a book like that. It's let me tell you, you know, don't judge a book necessarily by its name and they say don't judge a book by its cover. Well, don't judge a book necessarily by its name either.

This is a Brilliantly written book. I've never seen anything quite like it and and I love John Robbins work and I think maybe maybe if I had to pick a single thing that John Robbins did in in in a Single thing that he wrote if I could only have one thing and take that with me I think I might take ecclesiastical megalomania because it has so much of his teaching about politics and economics and and it was really when I started reading especially John Robbins and listening to some of his lectures that there was really convicted of just how How strongly the Bible teaches the ideas of limited government of private property of Laissez-faire economics.

All of these things and you know, we would associate maybe with Say traditional, you know American values from the time that the country was founded this sort of thing. Those are the things that the Bible teaches.

The Bible does not teach big government. The Bible does not teach socialism. The Bible does not teach Militarism these sorts of things and you look at the the politics especially as it's been practiced the the theory and the practice of politics over the past hundred years and it's appalling you look at the wars and the some of the horrible dictatorships that have gone on and and still go on and some of the terrible things that go on and and some of the the the things the the threats of war that we live under and and you realize that.

You know.

The world has gotten itself into a real mess and it's gotten itself into a mess because it's ignored the teachings of Scripture. It might sound strange to talk about the Bible and talk about politics and economics in the same breath.

But one of the things and this really again goes back to something that God taught me through John Robbins ministry and that is that the Bible is authoritative in every area. That's really the heart of the idea of scripturalism.

Here you see some of Tim Shaughnessy's work. He talks about scripturalism. I talk about scripturalism. I call us a scripturalist podcast and and when we Talk about scripturalism what that is is it's really the idea that the Bible is authoritative in all areas of life.

I think sometimes as Christians we make this error and and I know that at times I've been guilty of this as well of this idea that. Okay, the Bible is good for oh, I don't know for Sunday morning, you know between the hours of 11 and 12, you know.

It's good for Sunday morning and you can go in and you can read about. You know God and Jesus and and how to get saved and and all of these things and and of course the Bible is about Those things I'm not gonna say that it's not quite obviously.

It is about how to be saved. It's about how to go to heaven. It's about quite a number of things. But it's also about politics and it's also about economics and that probably surprises a lot of people because generally, you know.

We have this idea that you know, I said that the Bible is good for this sort of very limited narrow Time frame on Sunday mornings, but the rest of the week, you know, if you really want to ask yourself a question well, what kind of foreign policy should we have or You know what?

What. What kind of monetary policy is best or you know. Is it a good idea to have a Department of Homeland Security or or do we really need a Department of Education? Or do we really need the Department of Housing and Urban Development?

Or.

Were these types of things? Well, we say well to answer those questions. You don't look to the Bible. You have to go to the political experts, you know, you got to go out and read all these, you know listen to radio talk shows or read no political websites or.

You know things of this order maybe to study books by you know. The the so-called great great thinkers these types of things and I'm not gonna say necessarily that those you know. Doing those things is wrong but If we miss the if we miss the fact that the Bible is fundamental to politics.

To correct politics that understanding scripture is fundamental to correct sound economics. You know, we've really missed the source of truth, you know, the Bible has a monopoly on truth. That's another idea or another thing that sometimes you hear John Robbins say the Bible has a monopoly on truth.

I want to read to you a little bit about the definition of what scripturalism is because as I said this is gonna be a scripturalist podcast and my intention is to bring the philosophy of scripturalism.

To.

To an analysis of politics and economics. And something that's going to be current events and possibly we're also to talk at times more about current events. I'll try to apply those ideas to current events and sometimes maybe we'll talk about Just some of the the theory some of the the ideas behind scripturalism.

I can Lord willing, hopefully we'll have a chance to do that as well but I wanted to give you just kind of a Brief definition of scripturalism. This is is something I'm going to quote here from John Robbins.

This is actually from a Trinity Foundation or a Trinity Review that that he wrote I believe back in 1993 and This is I'll just read this paragraph to you. John Robbins writes this he says therefore I would like to begin my talk this evening by naming his philosophy.

He's talking about Gordon Clark. He wants to name Gordon Clark's philosophy. He says I shall give it a name that discloses what it stands for scripturalism.

That name.

Avoids all the defects of the other names and it gives what makes Clark's philosophy. Unique and uncompromising devotion to scripture alone. Clark did not try to combine secular and Christian notions.

But to derive all his ideas from the Bible alone. So let me read that that last sentence again. Clark is talking here about Gordon Clark. Gordon Clark did not try to combine secular and Christian notions.

But to derive all his ideas from the Bible alone, and that's really going to be the objective of this podcast. My goal is to derive my ideas about About politics and economics as we discuss those not from some combination of secular sources and and scripture.

But from the scriptures alone. And that has to be the foundation and and that's going to be my my goal in presenting this podcast to you that's been my goal in the the previous episodes, but I wanted to take a little bit of time here today and Kind of spell that out in in very explicit terms for you and I think you're you're finding this really interesting because.

One of the things that I find really exciting about the idea of scripturalism is the explanatory power that it gives. Yeah, the the ability to actually Help us to understand the world around us in a way that.

That nothing else does. You know think of some of the issues that are facing us today. I mean just today. I mean here. This is April 14th. We just got news that the United States Great Britain and France Conducted airstrikes on Syria.

And of course that raises a number of questions. I'm not going to try to answer all those questions right this moment. But I mean we it raises a question of foreign policy. You know what kind of a foreign policy should we have I?

Know should we have a foreign policy of preemptive war? That's the idea that You go in and you attack a country because at some point you think that country is going to do something wrong. Somewhere down the line.

You know do we do we adopt the idea of preemptive war. That's an idea. That's very common today. It's pushed very heavily by a group of people in particular called the neoconservatives. They believe in this idea of preemptive war on the other hand.

Maybe that's not the right idea. Maybe that's not true. Maybe preemptive war isn't the way to go, but how do we know? How do we settle that question well? I think we have to look to scriptures for that.

You know here's another political issue. Something that's quite different, but I saw this was actually in the paper today. Here's a headline that I found this was on NBC News. It dates from April 12th 2018.

Here's the headline says Mike Pompeo still opposes gay marriage now. He's about to be Secretary of State. And it goes on the article goes on to read Pompeo Reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage on Thursday during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

So this article on CNBC it goes on to it has a very negative slant against Mike Pompeo and I'm not here to defend Everything Mike Pompeo says or believes, but in this one particular area Mike Pompeo is actually quite good and he was grilled by a senator as the senator Cory Booker.

He was a Democrat from, New Jersey and He he took on Mike Pompeo and and really kind of Kind of lambasted him for his stance for for believing that That the gay marriage was wrong. And the article goes on to quote a number of people's speaking out against Mike Pompeo.

I'll read this to you here. It says civil rights groups swiftly condemned Pompeo's comments and called into question his suitability to serve as Secretary of State quote Mike Pompeo reaffirmed opposition to marriage equality and LGBTQ rights further proves that he is dangerously wrong to serve as our nation's chief diplomat and quote.

Thus said Sarah Kate Ellis the president and CEO of the LG PD LGBTQ rights group glad so, you know right there and there's there's somebody. From from glad of course, it does not like Mike Pompeo the American Civil Liberties Union chimed in as well.

They they tweeted out the following quote. Mike Pompeo may believe that same-sex marriage is Inappropriate and a gay sex is a perversion. But thankfully the Supreme Court doesn't agree and quote so. Thus thus speaks the the ACLU.

So, I mean, what does the Bible have to say about gay marriage? Well, I I don't think that's too difficult to figure out. Obviously it condemns it you know in Mike Pompeo by by Speaking out against gay marriage is doing what what the government officials should do.

I mean you think about what Paul wrote in Romans 13, right and he talked about the The the civil magistrate beans God being God's minister, you know in his job is to punish evil and and to reward the good.

You know in rewarding the good, you know means to to to pass laws to uphold Laws that they're in in accord with With God's Word, you know and and gay marriage is certainly not in accord with God's Word and opposing it is in accord with God's Word.

Yeah, and it's right for Mike Pompeo to to be against gay marriage, but the world at large doesn't think so I mean this is on NBC News and NBC very obviously has a slant against Mike Pompeo and for gay marriage.

But that's just another example of an issue. I mean that that's a social issue. You know, we had a foreign policy issue. You know, there's an example of a social issue. There are other types of issues.

There are economic issues for instance like monetary policy I mean you're you read about the Federal Reserve, you know the Federal Reserve goes out and they raise interest rates at the Federal Reserve goes out and lowers interest rates or.

Maybe you read things about Bitcoin for instance, or or people will talk about gold and silver. Okay, so, you know, what what does the Bible have to say about money? Well, that's a pretty interesting question and Bible actually has quite a bit to say about money.

So again, these are some of the topics. These are some of the things that that Lord willing I want to be able to bring to this podcast and I want to bring. And I want to talk about them from a scripturalist point of view that is I want to derive the ideas my commentary on these ideas.

Not from.

Secular sources, but from scripture. Now one thing to keep in mind about that when I say that no, no, I say we you know. Not using not combining secular ideas and Christian ideas. I don't mean that I'm not going to ever use secular sources.

Because I mean you can find secular sources that actually do Have sound ideas in them. That that do you know the the the authors the speakers maybe don't explicitly acknowledge scripture. But what they say comports with scripture and it's certainly okay to use what they have to say.

It's okay to use what people say who who oppose what scripture says because you can use that as a negative example. So I don't mean to say that I'm only going to quote the Bible when I talk about Economics and politics.

I've just quoted some things here from you that that I think are Very much worth worth talking about but we have to be Be like what what Martin Luther talked about. Martin Luther talked about had this idea called the shrift princip the writing principle and again this is something John Robbins talked about and in some of his lectures and some of his some of his writings and it's that idea that you have to bring all the words and all of the books and all of the Thoughts of all men back and judge them against you know and judge them by the scriptures.

So the scriptures are the standard, you know, my words have to be judged by scripture. Our words anyone who talks and whether it's your your minister on a Sunday morning. Whether it's a Sunday school teacher whether it's a Christian author whether it's a senator or a judge or president all words of all men have to be judged by scripture and and I think it's I Think it's really fascinating to be able to do that and I think it can be really exciting to do that.

So I hope to be able to share with you.

The sort of the.

The journey of looking at some of the looking at the world around us through the eyes of a scripturalist. Maybe that's really one way to put it there. You know. We'll look at the world around us through the eyes of a scripturalist, you know.

Put on put on our biblical spectacles if you will and and let's let's look at the news together. So that's what I hope to be able to bring to you. And that really wraps it up here for this week again.

Thanks so much for listening and I really really do appreciate appreciate you as the audience and Please feel free to comment if you will and and also share this podcast and Lord willing I will be back again with you next week.

Thanks again so much. Take care.