Destructive Theology & Answering Questions Live

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Non -rockabodas must stop. I don't want to rock the boat. I want to sink it!

00:08

Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie? Or are you gonna bite? We're being delusional. Delusional, yeah.

00:15

Delusional's okay in your worldview. I'm an animal. You don't chastise chickens for being delusional. You don't chastise pigs for being delusional.

00:21

So you calling me delusional using your worldview is perfectly okay. It doesn't really hurt. Is he hung up on me?

00:27

Yes! What? What? Desperate times call for faithful men and not for careful men.

00:38

The careful men come later and write the biographies of the faithful men, lauding them for their courage.

00:45

Go into all the world and make disciples. Not go into the world and make buddies. Not to make brosives. Right. Don't go into the world and make homies.

00:52

Right. Disciples. I got a bit of a jiggle neck. That's a joke, master.

00:59

When we have the real message of truth, we cannot let somebody say they're speaking truth when they're not.

01:20

He is the image of the invisible

01:29

God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.

01:39

Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

01:45

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church.

01:53

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

02:02

And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.

02:10

What is up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Apologia Radio. This is the gospel heard around the world.

02:17

You can get more at ApologiaStudios .com. That is A -P -O -L -O -G -I -A -Studios .com.

02:23

That's where you guys go to get all of the past episodes, all of the radio programs, podcast episodes,

02:30

Sheologians, you have, I mean, so much is there. Sheologians, Cultish, you have Provoked, Apologia Radio, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of radio shows, podcast episodes, really great shows.

02:41

I think it will be a blessing to your life. Also, you can sign up there for All Access. When you partner with us in All Access, you make everything that we do possible.

02:50

Everything you see from Apologia Studios, whether it's the teaching ministry, the on -the -street evangelism, even stuff related to the abortion issue,

02:57

Apologia Studios is in that. And it all takes place because people just like you partner with us in this ministry.

03:02

You sign up for All Access, you get all kinds of additional content. Apologia TV, you get Apologia After Show, you get the

03:09

Academy, all that is there for you guys. And related to sort of what we're doing today and answering questions, you also get the

03:16

Ask Me Anything that we've added now. That's once a month. All of our Apologia Access ministry partners can essentially plug in, and you can do a live

03:26

Q &A with me every single month and interact. That happens once a month of Ask Me Anything right at Apologia Studios.

03:33

And so that takes place. We have more coming, by the way, for all of our Apologia Studios All Access partners in ministry.

03:39

We want to be a blessing to you guys. So we have some exciting things on the horizon. That's Luke the Bear. What up?

03:45

I was going to ask you that verse you read. That's for this earth, right? Yeah, it's here. Yeah, it actually includes all things on earth.

03:53

But only this earth. Well, it's supposed to be everything. It's everything. That was a

03:59

Mormon joke. Yeah, it's God of this earth, right? So, yeah, we are nearing the end of the year, and this is the time of year where we actually give our studio staff a little bit of a break.

04:14

So you're going to see really no content from Apologia Radio, and I think probably from just about everything, until the end of the month after this week.

04:23

And so we take a little Christmas break and rest with our families, and then we're going to hit it hard in January. So much is going on, so I wanted to update you.

04:29

But before I do, I just want to point you to some great resources. You've heard me talking about Bonson U.

04:36

It's at ApologiaStudios .com. Dr. Greg Bonson, one of the greatest philosophers,

04:41

Christian philosophers, and Christian apologists in the entire history of the Christian church. He was a seminary professor.

04:48

He was a pastor. He was a public debater. He wrote phenomenal books. He Will Bless Your Life.

04:55

The Bonson family entrusted us with the collection of all of his resources, all of his teaching, and we are in the process right now of remastering all of that.

05:03

There's like 2 ,000 lectures, and there's even videos in there we're working on. So we are remastering them, because many of them are recorded in the late 80s and 90s and stuff, and we're making it sound better for you.

05:15

But as of right now, we have lectures up at Apologia Studios, and they are completely for free, thanks to the

05:21

Bonson family. I say this because I think you need to hear this. It shouldn't be free in terms of what went into making that stuff and the fact that this used to be seminary content you'd have to pay for to go to seminary to get.

05:36

It is the highest level, rigorous Christian education you're going to get. It is fantastic.

05:41

It will bless your life. For men who are being raised up for ministry and possibly to be pastors and elders somewhere,

05:49

I have to be honest with you, I think that the training that you'll get and the equipping you'll get from Dr. Greg Bonson through Bonson U is better than 98 % of seminaries out there today, and it'll bless your life.

06:02

Bible studies, personal enrichment and growth, it's all there for you, and it is for real free.

06:09

And thanks to the Bonson family, and thank you to our ministry partners at Apologia Studios for making that all possible.

06:14

So you just go to ApologiaStudios .com, go to Bonson U, sign up, get your free account, and start getting your learning on.

06:24

It'll bless your life. It just truly, truly will. So ask me anything. Again, I said it happens once a month at ApologiaStudios .com.

06:32

It's been a blessing to be a part of that in the last couple of months. Dr. James White did the last one actually, and so we're grateful to be a part of that with you guys, and today we're going to answer some questions that come through the feed, and we'll just spend some time with you guys today and enjoy our time together.

06:47

But one last thing to announce, so much to just dump on you guys right now, and that is that EndAbortionNow .com

06:53

is where we want to encourage you all to go. Please hear me on this. Don't let it just pass over your head. Go to EndAbortionNow .com,

07:00

sign up with your church to get free training and free resources to go to your local abortion mills to save lives. Babies are being saved every single day because of that training, because they sign up with their church, they're out now saving lives.

07:11

I mean, this is no small matter. I mean, every life matters, and it's worth our whole lives to save even one.

07:18

But we're literally saving babies every single day through the gospel itself, the church getting out there. I want to thank you near the year end here for all of your participation with us in the last couple of years, whether you've prayed for us or whether you gave financially.

07:31

I want to thank you. I'll let Luke speak to this here in just a moment here. I'll tell you this year, and then Luke can update you as to what's already in store for next year.

07:39

Not only have we saved thousands and thousands of lives through your giving and partnership with us over the years, but this last year we helped our friends in Oklahoma with the

07:50

Bill of Abolition in Oklahoma. We were able to get going in Arizona, Texas, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania bills of equal protection and criminalization, abolition in those states.

08:02

And we have more coming next year. And the way that that has taken place, you need to hear this, the way that it has taken place is because every year, at the end of the year, we raise our funds, we squeeze together a really tight budget for all that we're doing and all that we need to do, and at the end of every year we do a fundraising thing once a year to get to our budget for that next year, for the next year of fight.

08:24

And every year you guys have been so gracious to us, to bless us so we can stay in this fight and to save more lives and ultimately work to abolish this in our world.

08:32

But we're about to do our fundraiser again. You can give at endabortionnow .com even right now. Help us for next year in what we're doing.

08:40

It is truly, truly humbling to see all that God is doing. I mean, to have now in numerous states in just one year bills of criminalization and abolition is a huge thing.

08:50

It's a very, very big deal. And I want to say thanks to God for His grace in allowing us to be a part of this.

08:56

Thank you to those of you guys who are with us in this fight and you're participating and you're saving lives at the mill and you're going to your legislators.

09:02

It's going to get, let me just say this, it's going to get a lot worse for that industry because we're going to beat this and we're going to end it.

09:10

And Pastor Luke, what's happening right now, at least on the schedule, for next year? Well, there's a lot of things we're hoping to do for sure, but there's,

09:18

I mean, the cool thing about the bills you already mentioned, I think you mentioned five or six, those bills are going to be going in again this year in those states as long as we have a legislator in place that's willing to put forth those bills that will continue to go in those states.

09:34

So that's however many you mentioned. We're adding more states this year as well. So I think we'll have a total,

09:41

I keep forgetting the number, but 12 to 14 states total. 12 to 14. Which is amazing, yeah. So we're adding Louisiana for sure,

09:47

Colorado for sure. I know we keep working on Florida. So I know those two, Indiana, South Carolina, Alaska.

09:56

What, Kentucky? We just got word that Kentucky is on the schedule. They just keep popping up. We'll be back here in Arizona, Texas.

10:03

I can't remember them all. That's amazing. Yeah, I mean. It's insane. It's totally amazing. It's insane.

10:09

And here's what I want everyone to understand is that this work is coming through the church.

10:16

This is a gospel -related fight. We are not in a place of compromise and pragmatism.

10:22

We are approaching this as Christians explicitly, pointing people to God's word in this, our legislators to God's word, and we're working for consistency and abolition, criminalization, end, end, end, and that's it.

10:34

And it's coming. It's coming from the church itself. And so end abortion now, Action for Life are involved in all these states to get these bills going.

10:43

And so praise the Lord for that. I mean, that is insane. I mean, think about something that's crazy. And Luke and I have talked a lot about this.

10:49

Texas had a heartbeat bill fairly recently, and you probably all heard about that, right?

10:55

I mean, it was all over the news. People are freaking out over a heartbeat bill. The bills that we're putting in aren't heartbeat bills. They're equal protection for every human from conception.

11:03

That means everyone's treated the same, equal justice, and that's what they are. And it's happening now across the country.

11:10

So 2022 is going to be a very, very, very busy and big year, and we want to ask you to partner with us.

11:16

We went from raising up the church, saving lives. That's all continuing now. Eight hundred local churches approximately are involved in this fight right now.

11:24

And then now we have legislation. We're working on legislation. So you can see that mustard seed becoming a large tree.

11:31

It is permeating the entirety of the loaf. That's what's happening right now. So continue to pray for us, but we need you to give.

11:36

We need you to give. And I highlight this often. Luke and I have both consistently said this from the beginning.

11:43

We are not—we're pastors. We're not interested in any way in starting an industry. We don't want to do that.

11:50

We want to end this. And so our hope is, every year, our hope is,

11:56

I hope we don't do a fundraiser next year. That's kind of what we're working for. You're trying to work yourself out of a ministry.

12:03

That's the goal. Work yourself out of a ministry. You want to bring gospel success and then say, okay, we've conquered that enemy.

12:11

On to the next one. That's the focus. So for us, we're looking forward to the day where we never ask for another penny to end abortion because it's ended, and now onward,

12:21

Christian soldiers. Let's keep moving. Next thing. And so what we need right now for the moment, in this little moment we're in, as we're working to end this and criminalize it, we need the support of brothers and sisters just like you.

12:34

And I know how this works because I'm a part of this too. When you hear a ministry doing something very important, you'll hear them have a call and say, hey, we need your help, and you'll say, oh, someone else has got that.

12:42

I want to encourage you. You be the one that's got that, okay? We need your help. We need you to partner with us.

12:49

Unfortunately, the world we live in, this stuff costs money. It costs money for us to go to D .C.

12:54

to the Supreme Court. It costs money for us to go to these legislators in Colorado or other states and to talk to them and to get these bills in motion.

13:03

It costs money for our staff to live and to produce this content. I'm telling you, if you can see what they do, they work around the clock.

13:11

They're working around the clock to produce content, to do stuff in a way that glorifies God. It's just a lot of work, and it takes a lot of people, and we need you to help us get there.

13:22

And we need you to help us get there so we can end this and never ask for another penny to end abortion again. That's the goal, okay?

13:28

So pray for us, and please give at endabortionnow .com. We essentially have the same budget as last year, which is awesome, because I want to just say this in terms of success.

13:38

Praise the Lord for all of you, and I want to just fill you in on what's going on in the background here. We were able to keep essentially the same budget that we had from last year, but we have now more to do.

13:51

So we even added staff. We added staff that was really needed, and we actually have now more to do and more churches coming, and we were able to keep the same budget.

14:05

How do you like them apples? Isn't that great? I think that's an amazing success story to me, that though you grow in the scope of the work itself and really your needs, you're able to still keep the same budget.

14:18

So all glory to God for that. That's a really praiseworthy thing, and that's what's happening right now. If I can just add quickly,

14:24

I think it's worth pointing out that when we started End Abortion Now, we're on year five, I think, right?

14:30

I think that's right, yeah. I keep losing track, but when we first started End Abortion Now, it was basically

14:36

Oklahoma and Texas that were doing those. There may have been other stuff going on in other states.

14:41

I don't want to exclude them, but it was pretty much those two. Those were the two that inspired us to get started, and now we're on 12 and 14.

14:48

Like you said, praise God. It's all God. He gets all the credit and the glory, but like you said, it costs money.

14:55

Yeah. To do all this, and so we're very careful. We do a very minimal budget every year, the bare bones.

15:02

We do. We're going to need to get this stuff done. To go from two to 14 in five years is -

15:10

Stinking awesome. It's amazing. It's stinking awesome. It's amazing, and I want to thank everybody in each of these states that we're working with because obviously it starts there with the local brothers and sisters that are doing the work and then reaching out to us, and then we're able to help partner with them and get these things going.

15:28

Just wanted to throw that out there. Yeah, thank you to everybody. Seriously, thank you guys. And just please continue to stand with us. Please continue to stand with us in 2022 so we can end this fully and finally,

15:39

I just can't wait to see the fight next year when you have 12, 14, 15 states. We're going to make some noise.

15:47

So they've been trying to - The pro -life industry is trying to stifle it. Yeah, they are. And the pro -choice is trying to stifle it in terms of don't talk about that bill.

15:54

Don't talk about that bill. Don't support that bill, but it's going to be difficult for you to do that when you have like 15 states putting in bills of abolition.

16:01

2022 is going to be awesome. Get rekt. It's going to be great, yeah. Get rekt. So, yeah, let's do this.

16:11

By the way, I totally, Luke, I'm funny. I sent Isaac the write -up for the episode today, and in the write -up,

16:17

I wanted to say we're going to answer some questions and deal with some bad theology. You got questions like crazy. So I said, answering your questions and bad theology.

16:25

I didn't mean I was answering your bad theology. I wrote it wrong. Answering questions and bad theology.

16:30

I'm not talking to you. I should have said bad theology and answering questions. We'll probably flip it when this episode is done.

16:36

I don't know. I've seen some of these questions that might be answered. Well, let's do this. Let's just have some fun.

16:43

Let's do it this way, guys. We'll try to go through some of these questions, answer them as quickly as possible. Then I'm going to deal with a quick – it's like a two -minute video

16:49

Pastor James sent Pastor Luke and Zach and myself. Good to talk about.

16:55

Actually, really important stuff. So at some point in here, we're going to cut into this two -minute video and deal with some very, very destructive theology.

17:03

But let's work through this. Let's see here.

17:10

I don't know if this is a legit question or challenge coming from Eric Aziz. He might just be sort of tongue -in -cheek joking.

17:19

And if he is, great. We'll answer it. But if it's a serious question, it's not really a checkmate.

17:25

He says, I think he's probably kidding.

17:32

That sounds like he's kidding. First of all, if God isn't real, if the

17:39

God of the Bible is not really there, if this is all delusion and not true, then there's no bad things that happen.

17:51

Nothing is bad. When you say, this is bad, and it ought not to be, you are borrowing from the

17:58

Christian worldview, which sees that there is— He said it as a joke, by the way. Yeah, I figured that. But it's actually good.

18:03

Eric, I'm glad you did that, because it's the most— people think it's the strongest chestnut and challenge to the

18:10

Christian faith. But when someone says, if God's real, why do bad things happen? Well, if God isn't real, there are no bad things that happen.

18:17

The Christian worldview sees God and His character as transcendent. God's own character is a standard of righteousness and justice.

18:25

His character is— He's eternal. God is immutable.

18:31

He's unchanging. And so there's an objective standard of what is true, good, lovely, beautiful, just, righteous, all of that.

18:40

And that's the very character of God. That's eternal. It's not that God is yielding to some standard that's above Him or beneath Him or in front of Him.

18:48

God Himself is a standard of righteousness and truth and justice. And so when someone says, if God is true or real, then why do bad things happen?

18:56

There are no bad things that happen if God isn't there. If this is just chaos, time and chance acting on a matter, stuff is just in motion, then nothing is bad.

19:06

It's just happening. Someone says, yeah, but suffering is bad. No, who says? Who says suffering is bad?

19:11

You'd have to assume human dignity. You'd have to say that human beings are valuable to think that suffering is wrong.

19:19

I mean, no one cries over a rock getting split in half, right? And it's the same result of evolutionary processes.

19:26

So why are you whining about humans getting hurt? Do you see the point? I'm doing that on purpose. I'm being direct and absurd on purpose because we all see it.

19:35

Everyone knows human beings are valuable and that human beings should be protected. And so when we see human beings suffering, it hurts because it ought not to be so.

19:43

I would say that when we admit that suffering is a problem and that this is bad, we're imaging

19:49

God in that moment because we're showing the image of God that this is not the way things should be.

19:56

And so I would actually say only with God can you call something bad, and that leads you into the gospel because then you can ask the question, okay, well then why are there bad things?

20:06

If God is real, then why are there bad things? Great, let's talk about that. God is holy, we're his creatures, we're the rebels in his own world, and we've fallen into sin, we're hostile towards God, enemies of God, and we deserve to be judged, but God loves sinners so much that God entered into his own creation in the person of Christ.

20:25

Do you see the point? So you move from, let me take away the punch in your challenge by showing you that you've got to borrow from God to deliver such a blow, and then let me explain to you the why.

20:36

The why is related to the gospel itself. So that's how you want to answer that question. Like I said, even if it was a joke, it needs to be answered because people think it's a powerful argument.

20:45

I was just going to say if you're watching this live and you're submitting questions, reposting your question over and over again is not going to help it get read.

20:55

If anything, it's a turn off and we'll move on to the next question. We'll do our best to get as many as we can.

21:00

We're turned off now. Please stop posting the same question over and over again. Let's see, our next one is, what are your thoughts?

21:08

Ryan, I hope I say this right. Capple, I hope I don't butcher your name there.

21:14

What are your thoughts on dispensationalism? I think it is an error. I think that it's inconsistent.

21:23

I think that it's destructive to the unity of the covenants and the revelation of God.

21:31

Dispensationalism is often connected with premillennialism. Of course, today you kind of see some of those running in the same circles.

21:38

Dispensationalism, by the way, when I was in Bible college learning dispensationalism, there wasn't the variety of dispensationalisms adopted by everyone like you'd have today.

21:50

There's different versions of dispensationalism today. I'd say that it's a system that is very inconsistent for the purposes of this show.

21:59

When you actually suggest that there was a time in history a dispensation in history where God actually tried law out to see if people could be saved through law, and that just didn't work out, so he tried something else.

22:12

Then he tried a dispensation down the road of grace. I think that's wholly inconsistent with what the apostles said themselves about the covenants, and in particular about Abraham.

22:25

There's a consistency, a unity between the covenants in Scripture. I would say the

22:30

Bible doesn't see it as dispensations and God sort of trying out different things. That's what

22:36

I would say. Dispensationalism, I think, is an error. We have some brothers and sisters in Christ who hold to that perspective.

22:42

I think that they're wrong. I'm sure they think I'm wrong on things as well. I love them for Jesus' sake, but I think that it disrupts the unity of Scripture.

22:50

Again, dispensational premillennialism is often tied together, and that particular system did not exist until the 19th century.

22:58

It wasn't in the mind of a Christian before the 19th century, made popular by a famous reference

23:03

Bible called the Schofield Reference Bible. When we think about things like the pre -trib rapture, seven years of tribulation, all that stuff, didn't exist in the whole history of the church until the 19th century.

23:13

Very important, and I say that as somebody, and so does Luke, who used to hold to it. Yep, born and raised.

23:19

Born and raised. Next one. There's a lot of crazy questions in here.

23:26

California wants to make its taxpayers pay for the travel, lodging, and procedures of those seeking abortions from out of state.

23:33

What should we do? Protest. Tell them no. Call them to repent.

23:40

Speak to your local city magistrates. Go to them specifically. Ask them to defend you.

23:46

Find local legislators in your area who are believers, if you can, in California.

23:53

I'm sure they exist. They've got to exist. There's got to be, like, last men standing in California.

23:59

I hope there is. Boy, I hope there is. I know Andrew Sandlin's still there. Yeah, Andrew's there.

24:04

Yeah, and I'm just hoping to have someone, someone that can fight for them in the legislature. Go to your legislature and have them stand for you with consistency, with the word of God.

24:15

Call people to repentance. If you're in California and you're staying there, you're not becoming a refugee.

24:20

We have so many refugees. How many families were there at the membership class this week? Was it three?

24:26

At least. I think we had three refugee families from Cali at our membership class this week. And over the last year and a half, we have just a number of families that have fled from California and are now members of our church body.

24:39

Just talked to a pastor the other day from the Bay Area. His entire church, his entire church is uprooting and moving to a town in Texas, the entire church is.

24:48

So a lot of refugees. But if you're sticking around to be a voice crying out in the wilderness, be that voice crying out in the wilderness.

24:57

Don't be passive about it. Don't be compromised about it. Look, here's what I would say to believers, and Luke, you can maybe add to this.

25:04

What I would say to believers who are going to stay in California to fight the good fight and they're not going to flee, if you're going to be the voice crying in the wilderness, then dang it, you better be a voice crying in the wilderness that people can hear.

25:16

So don't be passive. Don't say, well, I'm going to stick it out and try to be light for righteousness in California, but you don't really say or do anything.

25:23

If you're going to stay, stay and suffer for the glory of God, for Christ's name. Yeah, I was going to say,

25:30

I mean, we've been getting messages just this last week from brothers and sisters in Germany that are literally like, can you recommend an immigration lawyer because we have to leave

25:40

Germany, like we have to flee. So there's brothers and sisters not just in California, all over the world, and I listened to a

25:48

CrossPolitik episode the other day, I think it was from last week. There's some brothers that are connected with Joe Boot up there.

25:56

They're like saying, we're not leaving, and we're going to stand and we're going to fight, and they're doing what you're talking about.

26:03

They're making noise. Some of them have gone to jail, they're getting fined, but they're like, we're not abandoning our country and we're not doing it quietly.

26:11

And that's what it's going to take. California, even here in Arizona with things, wherever, if you're going to stand, be loud about it.

26:20

Yeah, yeah. Please do. Eric, I'll make sure

26:26

I say it. Yato, another would be, why did Jesus pray that the cup pass from him when he was just referred to Peter as Satan for seemingly wanting

26:34

Jesus to live rather than die? Great question, Eric, and to hopefully really encourage you,

26:40

I fairly recently did an entire sermon on Jesus and the Garden of Gethsemane.

26:46

If you look through Apologia Studios thread here, sometime in the last couple of months, maybe three months or so,

26:52

I think in the title itself it's like Jesus in the Garden or Garden and something. So if you look at that, it's like an hour -long message on Jesus in the

27:02

Garden, and I address that specific issue of Jesus actually in the Garden and struggling like that and submitting to the will of God, which was what

27:12

Adam was supposed to do, and Jesus does it, even as a true human, even with what he was dealing with in that moment,

27:21

Jesus submits to the will of the Father. And so take a look at that. It's an hour -long message. I deal with that specifically, and so hopefully that blesses you.

27:30

Someone says, who were those guys with the signs outside last Sunday? So we have two particular groups right now who are hanging outside of Apologia Church.

27:39

Starting a club. We've had a number of them over the years. We have atheists, pro -choicers that show up on our doorstep, and they protest and things like that.

27:49

They usually fizzle out after a while because atheism doesn't give you a lot of perseverance to do really anything meaningful.

27:56

But we have two cults who are standing outside of our church every Sunday. They have been for the last couple of weeks now.

28:02

We have a Church of Christ cult who stands out there, and we also have a

28:09

Flat Earth cult led by a local guy, and he goes to local events, rallies, downtown

28:18

Phoenix during First Friday, and now he's standing post outside of Apologia Church's worship on Sundays and trying to promulgate his perspective on flat earth.

28:35

Among other conspiracies? Coronavirus conspiracy things related to 666.

28:43

I'm sure he's going to watch this. I'm sure there will be a clip of this tomorrow. I think he's a bit fired up because he was refuted in front of his followers because he's been going around for I don't know how long calling the coronavirus vaccine the 666 vaccine, and he kept saying 666.

29:03

Clearly unaware of the fact that in the text from the book of Revelation, it is not 666.

29:12

The text is 666, and someone might say, you know, why is that a big deal?

29:17

It's a very big deal. If I asked you what 200 times 2 is, you wouldn't say 400. You would say 400, and he was saying 666, and he kept saying that, and I said to him when

29:30

I ran into him on the street one time, I said, you know, what relevance is that? You keep saying 666, but where are you getting that from?

29:37

And obviously he thought he was getting it from the Bible, and he'd come up with all kinds of very creative things about corona and six letters, and he was basing it all off of 666.

29:47

He clearly was unaware of the fact, as a local leader of a cult, that the text is 666.

29:54

He didn't know that, and now he knows it, and he was, I think, very frustrated by the fact that he was,

29:59

I think, embarrassed in front of his followers because he is definitely a local cult leader, and so I think he's fired up, and I think that agitated him personally.

30:09

Oh, yeah, totally, and it was clear, you know, our people were ignoring him on Sunday, and if you're watching this, my friend, you clearly just want attention, and we're not going to give it to you.

30:20

And I'm going to say this publicly. Heckling my wife and kids is cowardly. Yes, I'm talking to you.

30:26

Don't be a coward. Don't heckle my wife and kids. We're going to ignore you, and we're not going to give you the attention you want.

30:32

Yeah, and so that's what we have outside. We have a Flat Earth cult, and we have a

30:38

Church of Christ cult, and that's what's going on, so welcome to Apologia. Let's see here.

30:50

Let's see here. Oh, man, there's so many questions. They're all over the place, too. Let's see here.

31:05

Proverbs 26, 4 -5. Kaylee asked the question of Proverbs 26, 4 -5.

31:11

We talk about that a lot, and we talk about wisdom and answering, and so if you have a

31:16

Bible, and you go to Proverbs 26, 4 -5, this is godly wisdom on how to answer, and it says, 26, 4,

31:23

Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

31:30

It's interesting, because when you first read that, it seems like a contradiction, like don't answer, then answer, and it's really a twofold methodology, and when we're doing apologetics and apologetics training, how to defend the

31:41

Christian faith, we want to use God's Word not only for the foundation of our philosophy, our worldview, but we also want to use

31:49

God's Word and his principles in terms of how do you answer somebody, and so we call this a twofold apologetic methodology.

31:57

Don't answer the fool according to his folly, or you'll be like him. In other words, and Dr. Bonson used to always say this, don't adopt their principles, don't stand in their foundation, don't pretend neutrality like them, don't answer like them, and I think a lot of the failure in Christian apologetics is, it looks like that.

32:16

We adopt the principles of the unbeliever, we adopt a position of pretended neutrality, like the unbeliever in that moment, and I think

32:24

Scripture is very clear here in terms of wisdom on how to answer. Don't answer a fool according to their folly, or you're going to be like them, and then the second part of that is answer them according to their folly, lest they be wise in their own conceit, and what we say when we talk about that is step into the unbeliever's position at that point.

32:42

Step into their position, show them what they're standing on, and show them the results of it.

32:48

Do an internal critique of the fool's system, and do it with them, show them.

32:53

If we adopt your methodology, your principles, your worldview, then this is what we get.

32:59

Make them look down at their feet, and so that's the two -fold apologetic methodology. And let's see here, let's see here, a question,

33:12

I just saw it, oh, I lost it here. Someone asked the question of, should I tell my parents my brother is gay?

33:20

If I was in a family, particularly I think it's important to, if we're talking about a Christian family that would care about those things, and you're talking about a brother who is under the roof of his parents, and under the care of his parents,

33:35

I absolutely would tell my parents that sort of a thing. I didn't come from a Christian family, so it wouldn't have mattered in my home, but I would definitely say, tell your parents for sure, so you can be in prayer for your brother, but also be allowing him to be an object of your evangelism for sure.

33:58

How do I convince my Christian friends, my brothers, if they are truly converted, their salvation cannot be lost?

34:03

I would take him to Scripture, Aaron. Aaron Polk. I would take him to Scripture.

34:09

That's going to be delivering the winning blow. We have a series,

34:14

I think, that would really bless you in total, in really working this out from soup to nuts, from bottom to top, and that is our

34:21

Doctrines of Grace series. Take a look at the Doctrines of Grace series. We've done actually two of those that are,

34:27

I think, on Apologia Studios. One last year, and I think one a couple of years ago. But Doctrines of Grace series will help you from bottom to top on that question.

34:36

But what I like to do is bring someone to John chapter 6. John chapter 6,

34:43

Jesus says that I've come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me.

34:48

And he says, and this is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given to me, I should lose nothing.

34:55

So for Jesus, he says that it's the will of the Father that Jesus doesn't lose anybody who has been given to him by the

35:04

Father. Now clearly, we're talking about true believers there, people who are truly belonging to Christ. But Jesus says that it's

35:10

God's will that he not lose anyone. So if you say that somebody who's truly saved can be lost, then what you're saying is that Jesus can fail in doing the will of the

35:19

Father. And I think we all know that's bad theology. That doesn't work, and Jesus doesn't fail at all.

35:26

Jesus actually says in that same chapter, he says in John 6, 44, he says, no man can come to me, no man is able to come to me, unless the

35:34

Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up. So if you go backwards, he raises up the one the

35:41

Father draws, the one that could not come. They had no ability in themselves to come until the

35:46

Father drew them, and then Jesus says, and I will raise him up. So if we're going to say that somebody can be drawn by the

35:54

Father, truly drawn by the Father, come to Christ, and that Jesus doesn't ultimately raise them up to spiritual life, well, then what you're saying is that Jesus breaks his promises.

36:02

Now, what do you think is more likely? That your theology or your soteriology is wrong, or that Jesus lies?

36:17

Jesus doesn't lie. And so your soteriology is wrong. And so I would say, go to John 6, go to John 10, and I like to do that, and Luke, you can fill in here any time you want,

36:28

I like to do that because we're not talking about just a proof text. Like, you know, we're quote -mining in Scripture for like a verse that just, you know, this verse says it, so it's got to work for me.

36:38

Church of Christ does that all the time. That's the way they deal with them on the sidewalk, is they quote -mine out of context. Now, I'm not saying you can't go to proof texts in Scripture that teach that, of course, once God saves, you know, he keeps you, he finishes what he started, he won't ever lose you.

36:52

I'm not saying there aren't those proof texts there. Of course there are, but they're in context. I like to bring people to John 6 and John 10 because those are entire discourses.

37:00

Like, they're whole discourses where Jesus repeatedly keeps saying, keeps speaking about his relationship to his sheep and his people and not losing them, ever, not forsaking them.

37:12

They're in his hand, and nothing can snatch them from his hand. He knows his sheep, and they know him, and he gives them eternal life.

37:19

And there's only one kind of life, it's eternal life that Jesus gives, and that means forever, eternal life.

37:26

And so those are whole discourses. So let somebody deal with Christ in the entire discourse.

37:32

That's what I think you should be doing. And let's see here. Let's do this, let's go ahead and jump into the question now.

37:37

So as you guys are putting more questions in there, we're gonna try to get to more. I'm going to play this for you now.

37:44

This is someone named Matt Lewis on Twitter. We're never on Twitter because we think it's a dumpster fire, but I get sent stuff from Twitter often.

37:55

And it takes me 15 minutes to figure out what's happening. Yeah, it's difficult. So it's Matt Lewis. He says, I talked with David A.

38:01

French about Christmas and why Jesus' followers were, and many still are, obsessed with a powerful, earthy king, not the

38:09

Prince of Peace. And he says, watch the whole thing here. So it's about a two -minute clip. And remind me, who's David French?

38:14

I know the name, I just could not think of who. Do you know who he is? No. Okay. Sorry. No, I know

38:19

James will often send us stuff. He'll be like, look at so -and -so. And I'm like, I don't know who that is.

38:25

Yeah, no offense given, sorry. I just know the name, but I can't remember who he is. Genuinely don't. And so here is the discussion.

38:35

Never mind. Well, let me just go ahead and reload that page. Something's been going on with my computer. And the setup here, let's see if it works out now.

38:44

Oh, here we go. I'm going to get it up and then put it back. There you go. I think it's super worth focusing in on in a politically contentious time when we are so focused on power.

38:55

We are so focused on power. How much that is contrary in so many ways to the story of Jesus Christ himself.

39:06

This was not a baby born into power. He was born into a colonial backwater.

39:16

Colonial is the wrong term, but the backwater of a much larger empire to an oppressed people, not in a circumstance of power and privilege, was immediately chased out of his own country, had to immediately flee his own country.

39:31

Then when he began to develop a ministry, he developed a ministry and surrounded himself with people that no matter how much he would tell them...

39:39

Let's just start there. Now I know there's more to the conversation, so I'll be cautious with how much

39:44

I delve into this. But in seeing this and kind of knowing where he goes from this point on,

39:50

I think it's important to note that Scripture doesn't keep Jesus in a manger.

39:57

Right? That seems silly, but I mean it should be something that's patently obvious to us.

40:04

Yes, Scripture talks about the condescension of the Savior, that he stepped into this humility that in Philippians he was in the very form of God and he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or held on to, but he emptied himself.

40:23

So what does that tell you? Well, it tells you something similar to what Jesus says in John 17, where he says,

40:29

Father, now glorify me with yourself with the glory that I shared with you before the world was. And so there is

40:35

Christ, who is the eternal God, the second person of the Trinity, who is the all -powerful.

40:42

He says he's talking so much about power, like he's, you know, not power, not power, not power. Well, he's the all -powerful

40:48

God. And he condescends to be humbled even to the point of death, but I think it's important when we talk about this and we're trying to be dismissive about the authority of Jesus and his power and his kingdom rule,

41:03

I think it's important for us to note that we're talking about Jesus that has an entire backstory. He has a whole backstory.

41:10

It doesn't start in Bethlehem. There's an entire backstory of who he is.

41:15

John says in John 1, 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. So in Archaean Halagos, that's forever ago.

41:23

He was already there. Jesus existed forever in face -to -face, intimate fellowship with the

41:29

Father. Jesus shared the glory of the Father before the Incarnation. Jesus had all power, all power, fully

41:36

God, and he condescends to become a baby in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and then, of course, into a manger, and then, of course, on the run.

41:47

This is also what's really important here when he talks about this. It's like you're going to hear in a moment where this is going.

41:53

So I already know where this is going. It's a short clip. I know where it's going. The dismissive nature of the kingdom of God and its impact on earth.

42:01

That's really what he's taking aim at. We need to not be concerned about pressing the crown rights of Jesus Christ in the earthly realm.

42:10

God has no concern for that. Totally absurd. Totally unbiblical. Absolutely contrary to both the

42:16

Old and the New Testaments. Whole discourses. Whole chapters. Entire themes in the

42:22

Scripture that really would refute what this man is saying. Very, very dualistic perspective

42:27

I'm sensing here. Maybe it's a tinge of Gnosticism we're getting here in terms of this heavenly realm, higher story, the earthly realm.

42:36

God's not really concerned with his kingdom on earth. That is just not biblical

42:41

Christianity. Don't call it biblical. Don't say it's Bible. Just don't. Just don't.

42:47

And so we have to recognize, yes, God condescended in the person of Christ in the womb of the

42:55

Virgin Mary into a manger in Bethlehem, but he didn't stay a baby in a manger.

43:01

He lived a righteous and blameless life. He fulfilled all prophecy, died for sins, and rose again from the dead.

43:06

And then, this is what so many Christians don't talk enough about, he ascended.

43:12

He ascended. For Paul, that's part of his story. 1 Corinthians 15, here's the gospel. Jesus did this, and now he is reigning on his throne, and he must reign until every enemy is placed under his feet as a footstool for his feet.

43:26

And so this whole thing of dismissiveness about the authority of Christ, the power of Christ, and what exactly his message is supposed to do in the world, this is the problem with modern evangelism, is exactly this.

43:41

It's this departure from the historic Christian faith that sees the spiritual higher story, that's the better thing, and Jesus is just this lowly baby in a manger sort of a thing.

43:50

He didn't come for power. No, actually, if you heard what I read at the beginning of the show today,

43:57

Colossians actually says that the purpose of it all was ultimately to do what?

44:03

To subdue all things in heaven and earth under him. And so that's the message that Paul has.

44:10

I'll read it to you again. Here it is again. Colossians 1, after Paul affirms the deity of Christ that Jesus created everything in existence, whether it's in heaven or on earth, it says that all the fullness of God is pleased to dwell in Jesus, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven.

44:35

So this whole dismissive nature to the stuff on earth, and we're not really concerned with the power and the authority of Christ and his kingdom and the world, the actual earth today, this is like this heavenly thing out there.

44:46

Again, that's not biblical Christianity. Don't call it that. You've been deluded, and you've adopted essentially unbelieving perspectives of the world.

44:58

You didn't get that from scripture, because Paul actually says about Jesus that he was going to reconcile all things on earth and heaven together.

45:08

And so I think it's really important to address that. I think the problem with modern evangelism is this kind of perspective.

45:14

It actually neuters Christians. It neuters them. They become incapable, unwilling to engage the world with the message of the gospel and to press the crown rites of Christ into every area of life because of really, really poor perspectives like this man holds.

45:32

What his kingdom really was, they still believed his kingdom was going to be an earthly kingdom. Yeah, because the

45:41

Old Testament said it was going to be an earthly kingdom. It was going to be a kingdom that impacted the world.

45:50

You see, don't forget, this is really important. In the garden, what do you have in the garden? God, with his people, heaven and earth are together in the garden.

46:01

That's how the biblical story starts. It's the spiritual and the physical in this cohabitation.

46:10

They are mingled together. It's a perfect unity and harmony between heaven and earth.

46:16

What happens in the garden is sin enters into the world. Man is sent out from the presence of God. He goes into the spiritual desert and this wasteland, and the ground is cursed, and all the rest.

46:25

The cursed fall happens, and that biblical story moves from that point of the fall, and it's just a promise forward of God's going to solve this.

46:34

God's going to save. God's going to bring redemption. Here's coming the Messiah. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. The Old Testament is this rehearsal for the big day, whether it's temple, priests, all that stuff.

46:46

It's just rehearsing, rehearsing for Jesus, his coming into the world, the incarnation. But here's what's really important.

46:53

This guy is just feeding, feeding material to the

46:59

Jews today who reject Jesus. Let me just say that. This kind of, when I say it's destructive, it's destructive on a number of levels.

47:06

I mean, in terms of neutering Christians, all the rest, it's just bad theology. It's not biblical, but it's also bad because you literally are just feeding arguments to the

47:15

Jews today who will listen to this nonsense about, you know, like they were still thinking it was an earthly kingdom and that Jews today would just laugh.

47:25

I mean, Jesus isn't the Messiah. Well, what do you mean Jesus isn't the Messiah? Because we have verse after verse after verse after verse after verse in the

47:33

Old Testament that says the Messiah's kingdom is going to actually be something that impacts this world and this life.

47:43

It's not just heavenly things. It's this world. Example, Psalm 22, all the families of the earth will return to worship

47:52

Yahweh. The world's going to be covered with the knowledge of God like the waters cover the sea. Psalm 72, he shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

48:00

All the tribes are going to bow down before him. His enemies lick the dust. Genesis 49 .10,

48:06

to him shall be the obedience of the nations. You also have Isaiah chapter 2 where it says that God's going to draw the nations up to his mountain.

48:14

And it says the nations are going to come up to God for redemption. Then it says the law of God is going to go forth from Zion into the world.

48:21

And then it says in Isaiah 42 that this righteous servant who is coming, the one who won't break a bruised reed and a faintly smoldering wick, he will not extinguish, it says that he will establish justice in the earth, on the earth, and he won't grow faint or weary until he's done so.

48:40

And it says the coastlands are waiting for his law. So, the Jews understood the

48:46

Messiah is going to impact this world, this actual world, and justice and righteousness are going to be a part of that affecting the world.

48:54

In this life, he's going to have offspring as numerous as the stars, like the sand on the seashore. The Jews understood that the

49:00

Messiah's kingdom was actually going to affect this life and this world. Isaiah 65 is a good example of that.

49:07

Isaiah 65 talks about the covenant people of God being judged for their sin and then

49:13

God actually feeding his servants and they're going to drink and he's going to call them by a new name. And it talks about, this is a long discussion, it talks about new heavens and new earth, but that's all covenantal language that Isaiah has already used to describe covenant.

49:28

And it says that what's going to happen to Messiah's kingdom is going to actually affect the world itself, even to lifespans.

49:35

People are living and dying. That's clearly this world. But more importantly, and I'll end with this, and Luke, I think you want to say something.

49:44

Matthew 28, 18 through 20, just obliterates this kind of thinking. All authority in heaven and on earth.

49:53

How many times do we need to say that before it finally gets through to all of us? All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

50:00

That's past tense, first century. He said that in the context of Rome, in control that day. He said he had authority over Caesar that day.

50:07

And he says, therefore go, because I have all authority in heaven and on earth, go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptize them, and do what with them?

50:16

Teach them to obey. And I'll just leave this and pass it to Luke. If we win the nations to Jesus as he commanded us to do, if we win the nations to Jesus as he commanded, and we teach them to obey his law, do you think that affects culture?

50:35

You think the world's going to look different? This physical world will look different because of the great commission?

50:40

I call this kind of perspective the great omission. It's just lacking the authority of Christ and the goal of the gospel.

50:48

It's the omission of what is so great. This is the great commission. It's not just wishful thinking.

50:54

It's a command. And so keep in mind in a moment when you think about what is the goal here, if we teach the nations to obey

51:01

Jesus, does it affect culture? So going back to Colossians 1,

51:07

I'm going to tie this all together like a fine rug. It has to do with everything you're talking about, whether it be dispensationalism.

51:17

The point I'm trying to make is that Colossians 1 has always been big for me because we use it a lot with the cults talking about the deity of Christ.

51:27

But after that, people don't read the rest of Colossians 1 where you mentioned all things on earth, all things on earth.

51:38

That's so important. And growing up dispensational, I don't ever remember anybody ever even reading that verse because I think it's a problem for dispensationalists and premillennialists.

51:50

It brings complications. Significant complications because growing up you just think, well, we're getting raptured off and God's going to blow this thing up and start over.

51:59

So that's huge. And I'll be honest, I would love to hear a dispensationalist or premillennialist explain that verse to me because I don't know that I've ever heard an explanation for that.

52:10

Yeah. In terms of tying this together with all that Paul says is the goal of the gospel and what God's going to do in Christ.

52:16

Right. He has a consistent story and timeline of history. You're right. So that verse has been huge to me just understanding our mission here on earth, understanding the

52:25

Great Commission. All things. All things. That's all things. On earth.

52:32

On earth. It's important. Yeah, it is important. And we address this quite often, just the complications that come into the

52:41

Christian life and in terms of the things that impact the Christian witness in the world from us. When we teach people to essentially see this division between the spiritual and the physical, like what

52:52

God is so concerned with is that spiritual higher story out there. He's not so concerned with this life, this world, and these things.

52:59

That's crazy. That is absolutely crazy. We've adopted, and we don't even know it. We're not even self -aware.

53:05

We've adopted essentially a form of Christian Gnosticism. which was highly condemned in the

53:11

New Testament. That's right, exactly. Like the enemies of the Christian church, we've bought into their position and we're just propagating it as though it was

53:18

Christianity. Whereas the Bible sees heaven and earth, that together, that's the ultimate goal.

53:24

It's not just to get to this gassy, airy spiritual existence out there somewhere someday. It's not about leaving your humanity behind so you can escape into the spiritual realm.

53:33

It's really about God's redemption unifying all of this once again together.

53:39

And that's a good story. I mean, you're going to live forever with Jesus, if you're in Christ, in this physical world.

53:47

In this world, with God, heaven and earth together, a renewed cosmos.

53:52

Yes. Right? It's going to be different, but the same. It's this place.

53:58

Like for example, we're going to be physically raised one day. Right? That's the Christian confession. Is it going to be different?

54:05

Well, yeah, you're going to have a glorified body, but it's going to be you, your body, raised from the dead.

54:10

He doesn't raise some other body from the dead. He raises you from the dead. So different, but the same.

54:17

Right? Renewed, glorified. That's where the world is going. But Jesus and the apostles taught that the rule of the

54:26

Messiah had broken into physical history. The real world.

54:33

The kingdom of God was actually a present reality in the first century. It had broken into the world.

54:39

That was their message. This is the gospel of the kingdom, the rule of the Messiah. And if you question, like, where does his authority end?

54:47

It doesn't. It's everywhere. Heaven and earth. It's here on this life. That's why Christians could say from the first century that Jesus is the king of kings, the

54:56

Lord of lords, the ruler of the kings of the earth. Guys, this is crazy. They were saying those audacious claims in the first century with a

55:04

Caesar on the throne. That's a big deal. Like, their perspective was clearly different from this gentleman in terms of how they viewed the authority and the power of Christ and essentially the mission of the kingdom of God.

55:19

Up until the very end. Then he's crucified on a cross by the imperial power with just a handful of followers around him.

55:28

And they're still not getting it. They're still not getting it. And even when he's resurrected, they're not fully getting it.

55:36

They're not fully getting it. You know, it took the day of Pentecost. It took much more over time to sort of deconstruct what all of these folks thought about what a

55:45

Messiah was going to be. And then reconstruct what their understanding of what a Messiah actually was.

55:51

And what the Christmas season does, I think, is a reminder Hmm. How do you respond to that?

56:00

When Jesus chastises the disciples on the road to Emmaus, how does he chastise them?

56:08

He doesn't tell them they were wrong about what they thought about the kingdom of God. He chastises them because he was dead and they thought that was the end.

56:20

What does he chastise them for? He chastises them for being slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken.

56:28

He chastises them for being foolish. Right? About what?

56:33

Not believing what the scriptures said about him. He didn't come in with some novelty.

56:40

Like, yeah, I know you guys thought all that stuff about the kingdom of God and all this other stuff and this world and that kind of stuff. But I'm going to show you something entirely new.

56:48

No, actually, he chastises them for not believing what the Bible said about what was going to take place.

56:54

The Bible did prophesy the death of the Messiah. It said it. It told you the

57:01

Messiah was going to die. I'll give you three places that the Old Testament said the Messiah was going to die.

57:06

Psalm 22 says he was going to die. Isaiah 53 says he's going to die.

57:11

He's going to be cut off. Daniel 9 says he's going to die. Three places in the

57:17

Old Testament said the Messiah was going to die and rise again. And that's what they were chastised for.

57:23

And by the way, when you say they deconstructed, no, actually, what they began to see was, oh my goodness, the story was actually fuller than we thought.

57:33

He actually was going to die and rise again. Messiah is not just the conquering king.

57:38

That's the problem. You're missing this here. It's that they understood the Messiah to be a conquering king that wins this world.

57:46

Where they were confused was not about that point. They were confused about the suffering servant, that he was going to die for sins and rise from the dead.

57:55

That's what they were confused about. They weren't confused about the kingdom of God winning the world to Yahweh and all the nations returning to God.

58:02

That is not what they deconstructed. They actually had a fuller understanding. Now, oh, this is how he's going to win the world because of his suffering.

58:12

But what's interesting is that, no, their message didn't change. It didn't deconstruct it. I guess the kingdom of God has nothing to do with this world now.

58:20

It's not going to change the world in world history like the Old Testament says. How do you know that's not the case?

58:25

Because they continue to preach about the kingdom of God throughout the book of Acts. You see that that was a core part of the

58:31

Apostle Paul's message in Romans chapter 1, in Romans chapter 16. Goodness gracious,

58:38

Romans, sorry, the book of Acts, at the very end of the book of Acts, how does it leave you? It leaves you with Paul awaiting trial, doing what?

58:47

Continuously teaching and preaching about what? The kingdom of God. The rule of God.

58:54

And so, I'm sorry, this is just a, I'm going to be as gracious as I possibly can be here, this is a bootleg version of the

59:02

Christian faith and message. This is not consistent with the scriptures, and it's entirely destructive.

59:08

This affects Christian witness. It neuters Christians because it essentially takes

59:13

Christians and says, no, your focus should really be somewhere else.

59:19

You don't need to worry about all this stuff, this earthly stuff, impressing the authority of Christ and his kingdom rule in the world around you via the gospel and the influence of the church.

59:29

You don't need to do that. Right? You can just focus on these other humble, heavenly things out here. I think it's destructive.

59:37

And as I said, I think if there's a word for it, neuter. You neuter Christians. Reminder to Christians that if we are to imitate our savior, and as Christ said, take up your cross and follow me, then our lives are not to be defined by the lust for power.

59:57

Our understanding of... So he creates a false dichotomy here.

01:00:04

You know, we're to take up our cross to follow Jesus. Yep. Yes, agreed. You come to die, you come die to yourself, and you come be joined to Christ in his death and resurrection.

01:00:14

Amen to that. We preach that too. I'm glad you brought that up. But then he gives you a choice. He gives you two choices.

01:00:21

Right? You got one choice over here, and that's to follow Christ, come to die, and rise again.

01:00:27

And the other choice over here is to have a lust for power. Yeah. Really? Are those my only two choices?

01:00:34

Yeah, that's it. I can only come to Jesus in that way that he calls me to, or I can just have a lust for power? That's what's created where we're at now in our culture.

01:00:44

Because the church is just this weak effeminate. I just gotta carry my cross and do what they tell me and let the government be tyrannical.

01:00:54

Is that what Jesus meant when he talked to Peter when he said, you know, you're the

01:01:01

Messiah, the son of the living God, and he says the gates of hell will not prevail against the church?

01:01:07

No. Think about it. The gates do what? They defend things. Right, they protect. Gates aren't like running across a field and grabbing hold of your city.

01:01:16

Gates are defending a city. Right. And so when Jesus talks about his church, his ecclesia, his gathering, the called out ones, he says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.

01:01:28

Okay, so gates are defensive. Those gates represent the gates of hell, and the gates will not prevail against the church.

01:01:35

What's that mean? It means that the church is taking down and storming the gates of hell, and they won't prevail against the church who is the offensive force of the gospel in history.

01:01:48

We are offensive, taking over the gates of hell, and they will not prevail.

01:01:54

And by the way, let me just say this. The easiest way to handle this, and I know that I'm being very straightforward and very bold today.

01:02:00

I'm sorry this stuff just neuters a church, it destroys a church. This is the kind of nonsense that actually keeps people out of the fight against abortion.

01:02:08

It truly does. Oh, absolutely. It disconnects people from this world and their responsibility as a

01:02:14

Christian to be light in the world and be salt in the world. It really is just entirely destructive.

01:02:22

But is this the kind of mentality you see in the book of Acts? Do you? Do you see the followers of Jesus, the apostles themselves who walked with Jesus?

01:02:31

Do you see them behaving in a way that resembles the sorts of things that this man is saying in terms of the church and its mission in the world?

01:02:39

I mean, do you see them just these meek and mild people not pressing the crown rights and authority of Christ and the culture around them, not being concerned with Christ and His authority and rule being pressed in this life and this earth and this world?

01:02:55

No, actually you see them taking beatings on the run for their lives, starting riots in cities, not because their behavior.

01:03:02

They didn't just have a lust for power, a lust for power, and they're going into cities just as lust for power.

01:03:08

No, they're going in as sheep. They're going in as followers of Jesus, people who have died and risen again with Christ.

01:03:14

But they're going in pressing the message of His authority and kingdom into the world, which is doing what?

01:03:20

Starting riots, getting beatings, being thrown in jail, all that stuff. And they go in and they're being charged like don't speak in His name and they're getting in trouble a bunch with the powers that be of their day.

01:03:33

And they're saying we must obey God rather than men. Like that's how they did it. They said, you know, you're an earthly authority, yeah, but you don't, you're not overcoming

01:03:44

His authority. He has all the power right here. He has all the authority here. I mean, Peter, early on in the book of Acts, actually defies the same council situation that he just was terrified of.

01:03:58

Like, I mean, essentially days before, I mean, it wasn't literally days, but very shortly before, he's so afraid of the council like with Jesus that he's hiding like in the courtyard.

01:04:07

He's afraid of a little slave girl because he's so terrified of a council. Like the guy is so transformed that now he's saying to a council, you murdered

01:04:17

Jesus, like you're guilty. And he actually takes the word said about Caesar in his day about salvation and no other but Caesar and no one can be saved except through Caesar.

01:04:27

He actually adjusts the Roman slogan and he places Jesus name in it.

01:04:33

So like talk about power, talk about authority, talk about this life in this world.

01:04:38

Peter does that. There's no other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. That was said about Rome.

01:04:45

He says, it's Jesus. I mean, talk about in your face earthly power grab.

01:04:51

Like, right? I mean, that's a pretty significant power grab there to say, no, that's Jesus. He has authority over you,

01:04:56

Caesar. Was Caesar in the world? Was Caesar a power in this life in this world?

01:05:02

Yes, he was. And the apostles came right up against that. And they said, no, it's Jesus. You repent and believe in a hurry.

01:05:10

I just don't know who's going around saying, I need power. Like, I don't know any

01:05:17

Christians like that. The Christians I know are saying, repent and believe in the power of Christ under his authority.

01:05:25

But I just don't know anyone going around with that mentality. It's silly and destructive.

01:05:31

What it means to be a Christian or the health and vitality of the church is not defined by our power.

01:05:39

And I think that that's an important reminder at Christmas. It's an incredibly important reminder at Easter.

01:05:45

These are two seminal moments of a reminder that it is not the raw political and cultural power of the church that causes the church to thrive.

01:05:55

It is not the raw political and cultural power that causes the church to thrive.

01:06:04

Okay. If he was in front of me right now, I'd want to ask him, what exactly do you mean by that?

01:06:11

But I think if I can address it just up front, I would say when

01:06:19

Jesus gave the Great Commission and he said he had all authority in heaven and on earth today.

01:06:26

He already has that. And he says to go disciple the nations on that basis, baptize them, and teach them to obey.

01:06:33

Can I just ask him some practical questions about that? If the church presses the crown rights of Christ and his kingdom and the message of the gospel in the world, and that actually brings light to darkness, and it actually makes things salty, and it preserves the world from spoil and decay, which is what we're commanded to do, by the way, in the

01:06:58

Sermon on the Mount, that whole message about the kingdom itself. That's the role of the church be salt, be light.

01:07:04

Well, let me just ask it in this way. I'll start with this one. Is the church supposed to be salty and light in the area of politics where they're talking about morality?

01:07:17

I mean, that's what all politics is, right? It's legislation of morality. You're saying that this ought to be the case, so we need to make laws about it.

01:07:24

Like, that's what you're doing. Does the church have something to say with the voice of Christ in the area of morality, public morality?

01:07:32

If you say yes, well, I question the statement you just made, because actually, here's what

01:07:39

I would suggest. I would suggest that a nation like, let's just say the nation we're in right now, the United States of America, that's been so influenced by the gospel,

01:07:46

I know that we have lost a lot of traction because of bootleg theologies like this gentleman's. We've lost a lot of traction in the last couple of generations, again, because of these belief systems propagated within evangelism.

01:07:59

But a nation like ours that was so impacted by the gospel itself, and we got all these biblical principles of justice and freedom, liberty, all of that in the world, were we able, because of that influence, that cultural influence of Christianity, were we able to accomplish some massive mission work in the last couple hundred years?

01:08:16

I'd say yes. I'd say because of the influence of the gospel, the culture of the gospel itself, the kingdom of God, we were able to create circumstances that allowed the church to thrive under that kind of gospel liberty.

01:08:34

We were thriving under that gospel liberty. When you say, the church doesn't thrive because that, well, let me say this.

01:08:41

Really? You think the church in North Korea right now might disagree with you? How about the

01:08:49

Christians right now in China who have been imprisoned because of the communist regime in China?

01:08:55

Do you think they would agree with your assessment that like, you know, the culture that flows downstream from the church is really meaningless?

01:09:05

Like, it doesn't really matter. We're not aiming for that sort of a thing. And by the way, I would say that if you read the

01:09:12

Old Testament prophecies, and I can't even begin to touch them all right now, but if you read the Old Testament prophecies about the rule of Jesus in history, it does teach that the rule of Jesus in history is going to impact the world itself.

01:09:26

Just take Isaiah 2 as an example. Isaiah 2, when it says that the nations stream up to God's mountain and God's Torah, His instruction, goes forth from the people of God, do you think that if the law of God and God's instruction goes forth from the people of God, it affects culture?

01:09:43

I do. Absolutely. How about Isaiah 42? When it says that this servant, this gentle lowly servant who is the ruler of the world, when it says that he will establish justice on the earth and the coastlands are waiting for his law, do you think those coastlands, when they get his law, that the culture is going to be different?

01:10:02

So, this whole idea of like poo -pooing on Christian culture and Christian influence in the world,

01:10:09

I just would say it's as simple as this. That's a denial of the Great Commission. Absolutely. It's just a denial of the

01:10:14

Great Commission. That's all it is. All authority, win the world, teach them to obey Jesus. Do you think if the world is won and they obey

01:10:21

Jesus, that culture will look different? Can I ask you a question? I'll shut up here. If you win a nation to Jesus and you teach them to obey

01:10:33

Jesus, if that really actually happens, do you think their political system will look different than say

01:10:38

North Korea? You think it will? I would hope so. I think it will. I think if you had a nation that said we're a

01:10:45

Christian nation, the gospel has impacted our world and our society so much, this is a place that worships and glorifies

01:10:51

Jesus. I would say that the politicians in that nation, the people who are like civil magistrates and the government in the nation,

01:10:56

I'd say they look a lot different than Kim Jong -un and Kim Jong -il. I think so.

01:11:02

I hope so. I hope that a Christian nation doesn't look like the Communist Party, the CCP. I hope so.

01:11:08

I think so. I think the law of God so transforms people that God says in Ezekiel 36 that he puts his law within them, he changes their hearts from stone to flesh, and he puts his spirit within them so that they'll obey his statutes.

01:11:20

Do you think that if people have this new heart and they want to obey God's statutes and God gives them the power to do so, that their culture downstream from that looks different?

01:11:30

I think so. I think that that's what the Great Commission actually would necessitate.

01:11:36

And so... I was just going to say, I think, I've actually had this conversation a bunch recently.

01:11:42

It seems like it's that time of year that it pops up for whatever reason, but I think what he's actually attacking is probably the

01:11:50

Seventh Mountain mandate or New Apostolic Reformation, that sort of theology, which essentially says that it's top -down, you know, that we have to conquer politics.

01:12:01

That may be where he's getting this power -hungry thing from. We need to conquer Hollywood and all these things, and then we can usher in Christ's kingdom.

01:12:11

And that's the literal reverse of what we're saying. We're saying it starts with the gospel. It starts in the individual and then moves outward and Christ's kingdom is already here.

01:12:22

It's already been ushered in. We're just helping it grow and expand. It's growing now. It's expanding. It's going from the seed to the tree. Very good.

01:12:29

Pedro, I'll just do some quick ones. I'll just try to maybe yes or no. Pedro Cardoso, can women be the head of a church making decisions and directing the church goals, vision, answer?

01:12:40

No. No. Isaiah clearly teaches that when women are ruling over people, that it's judgment from God.

01:12:50

Scripture clearly teaches, the Apostle Paul says, that he does not permit a woman to take authority over a man. And all of the qualifications and roles for, say, pastor, elders, and scripture, and shepherds, are for men.

01:13:04

What if it was a man dressed as a woman? Tough questions of the day.

01:13:11

How do you work that out? We have other issues in that case. Let's see here. Does Matthew 24 support premillennialism?

01:13:19

I would actually say that the issues related to Matthew 24 and the Great Tribulation are different than the issues of premillennialism, but I do not believe that the

01:13:32

Great Tribulation, spoken of in Matthew 24, Luke 21, Mark 13, can fit within premillennialism.

01:13:38

I do not believe so, because I believe that Jesus clearly said when he was coming to judge, he said it was going to happen to that generation before they all passed away.

01:13:45

I do not think you can take that passage and appropriately, exegetically place it into our future without making

01:13:50

Jesus look like a false prophet. Atheists have picked up on that as well, and they use it often.

01:13:59

I think we will probably end there, because we are already over an hour, aren't we? Yep, just over you.

01:14:05

All right. There are so many good questions.

01:14:12

I will tell you what, guys. It makes it a little easier We have limited time to do this today. I will tell you, why did

01:14:20

Jeff get double jabbed? I have not been jabbed at all. Double jabbed.

01:14:26

I do not even know what that is. I do not know what that means. I hope it does not mean the jab. Oh, like the cookie? That thing.

01:14:32

I have not. Not even one. You need to listen to my message. It was a

01:14:37

Christian response to mandatory cookies if you think that we have been this. I cannot say the word, because then we might get looked suppressed or looked at or suppressed or whatever.

01:14:47

Okay. Let me just say that we do this once a month at Ask Me Anything.

01:14:55

If you are a supporter of ours, you are partnering a ministry with us at Apologia Studios with all access.

01:15:02

Not only are you getting all that additional great content, you are partnering with us in ministry, but you get to ask me anything once a month.

01:15:08

We sit together with you live. You can ask questions. It is a little easier to manage actually during that time period.

01:15:14

So, go sign up for all access. You will be partnering with us in ministry, affecting the whole world with the gospel, but you will also get

01:15:20

Ask Me Anything where we can hang out together once a month. So, that is what that looks like. I want to say thank you to everybody.

01:15:27

Luke, is this our last? Of the year? It is, isn't it? It is. We will see you next year. It is.

01:15:33

That is right. So, this is our last show. I always like to say that. Yeah. See you next year. This is our last show, everybody, for 2021.

01:15:42

Our last Apologia Radio. Thank you so, so much for joining us this last year and all the years that we have been serving

01:15:48

God together with you. Thank you so much for being a part of what we are doing. Thank you for your love. Thanks for sharing the content and thank you for your blessing to us.

01:15:56

You are encouraging words constantly to us. They have been a real gift to us. So, we appreciate that. Do not forget to go to EndAbortionNow .com.

01:16:03

Sign up with us. Partner with us. Go save some babies with us. We will give you free training, free resources, and give.

01:16:10

Give at EndAbortionNow .com. Help us to once and for all abolish and criminalize abortion in our world.

01:16:16

That is Luke the Bear. Peace out. Merry Christmas. I am Jeff, the Commoner Ninja. Merry Christmas, everybody. Happy New Year.