Episode 11 The Here I Stand Theology Podcast: Interview with Chris Rosebrough

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Episode 11 The Here I Stand Theology Podcast: Interview with Chris Rosebrough

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00:02
Here we go All right here
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I stand I can do no other Help me. We are here. I stand theology podcast
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We are a podcast focused on spirited and pointed defense of doctrine with application to our day into our time
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We are pumped we have a special guest in the studio Chris, I'm actually gonna move you to the middle between us
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Okay, it sounds good We have pastor Chris Roseboro Pastor Chris Roseboro is a pastor at Kongsvinger Lutheran Church in Oslo North Dakota, don't you know?
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No, it's Minnesota. I live in North Dakota, but it's Minnesota, Minnesota Oh, I apologize
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Chris also is the captain at pirate Christian media. Is that correct? Correct.
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All right Chris is a filmmaker a photographer a husband a father and again, sir
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We just want to say thank you for taking the time to be with us today very much. So I pleasure
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I'm glad to be here. So we want our small audience Hopefully growing audience to to get to know you a little bit better because You have you have such wonderful insight into the the teaching of heresy
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This goes on within the church has gone on within the church. We understand that you have You know come out of heretical movements from long years ago.
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We'll talk about that through the interview here So Matt, do you have anything that you want to say before we get going here?
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No, let's Get right into it. I guess. All right. All right. So Chris, we'll just shoot some questions
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Okay, are you ready? I'm right. I don't have a cigarette and a blindfold, but I think
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I We're not gonna shoot at you just just you questions towards you
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Okay, they're really more like softballs So the first question that we want to ask is a question that we ask anybody who's on here with us
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It's a question that kind of kind of really gets you thinking really get get you to question and Whether you trust yourself or not
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So we'll ask this question about your you and your son Josh, right? So if you and Josh had to arm -wrestle who would win?
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Oh, he would no doubt He towers over me the man is huge You know, he's got his mother's height and girth and it just it's all forget it
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And so I learned a long time ago that if I wanted to pick on him I better be able to run faster than him that So that was gonna be my second part of the question if you did notice he was winning
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Would you kick him in the shin underneath the table to get an advantage? No, no.
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No, I Flee the scene and taunt him from a distance. So, you know All Right, all right, so we'll get into some current events here
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So, so let's talk about the Ed Litton plagiarism scandal Yeah, so, you know, so I've been on vacation for a couple weeks
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You know went across the Michigan Peninsula went to visit some people in New York and Pennsylvania when this whole thing was blowing up and My good friend
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Justin Peters. He just put out a video on this and there's no doubt about it that Ed Linton He he straight -up plagiarized some of JD Greer's stuff and I don't know if you guys have ever heard of what's called the
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Streisand effect But this is clearly in play here because they've gone and deleted a hundred and forty sermons 140
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I mean, there's nothing to see here So Funny thing is is that this particular practice is one
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That we've noted over the years of me doing the podcast of fighting for the faith plagiarism is alive and well in seeker driven and mega churches and And you know, it's so Ed Linton This is a guy who who has eight people on staff writing sermons for them.
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I'd fire them all by the way You know, of course, you know as a pastor as busy as I am.
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I still have to research read translate and you know the biblical text that I'm preaching on every given weekend and So I got to put in the time just like everybody else and the thing you can't you cannot phone this stuff in And it it it it calls his integrity into question.
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It calls You know whether or not he is even taking his study of the scripture seriously
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This is something that is so ginormous as it relates to the character of the man that I I could personally consider this to be
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You know a ministry disqualifying type of thing We've seen guys, you know resigned for less
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But JD Greer has come to his rescue and they're working the spin machine now
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It's it's really it this is quite a thing and and of course Newsweek has covered the story yesterday
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They Newsweek magazine wrote an article about it. So Because Let's just say the news media knows the ramifications regarding plagiarism and just how unethical it is
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So, I mean if the world is having to say, you know, wait a second here. There's something wrong
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Then then there's something wrong That's What we talked about just before we came on is that yeah, that's the the number one
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Priority of the preach the pastor is the preaching and teaching of the word. Yeah, if the
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Preachers not doing that. What are they doing? I Yeah, I have no idea and not only we were called to study and show ourselves approved as Workmen who do not blush with embarrassment, but who can rightly handle the word of truth
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Which means that you know, it is it is not a small part of the duties of the pastor
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It's one of the major pieces Being a pastor is the study of God's Word and the faithful proclamation of God's Word rightly divided between law and gospel
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I mean these this this is a clear command of Scripture Yeah, yeah Isn't there isn't there something in the scriptures about when you set something forth is true
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But it's not what is that called? I think it's called lying You know You happen to suddenly upon the lie of Ed Litton I think the the timing of this coming out.
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It's very interesting to you. So Just yeah, who knew what and when did they know it kind of thing?
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Yeah, yeah, I know it's it's it's it's kind of you know, I hate to invoke the you know, this this particular person
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But it's very Clinton Ian That's the way I could put it, you know, it just kind of harkens back to the the
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Clinton administration spin machine And the next thing, you know, we're gonna be getting press releases.
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We're gonna have to be parsing words, you know, you know There'll be double meaning behind these things and that's that's what's really coming out
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Double entendres right and left. Yes. Yeah, that's right So you mentioned the importance of a moment ago about sermon preparation and that was actually our next question
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So personally, how do you balance your sermon prep your work with fighting for the faith?
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Media and the things that you do with family and friends How do you know it's that yeah poorly is probably the best
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But So I obviously there's a lot of my plate and some weeks are worse than others but I live and die by my routine and So I have a very rigid routine that I follow week after week after week.
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So my sermon prep Begins the Saturday before, you know Saturday and a half is like a week and a half it begins
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So so eight days before you know, I'll I actually teach a men's
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Bible study Sermon prep begins by looking at those biblical texts and then in our men's Bible study working through them and working out some of the themes so then by Tuesday morning,
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I've translated the text that I'm going to be preaching on from either Greek or Hebrew and And I've picked out
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What I would consider to be the what what is a good exegetical theme here and then question is what do the congregations?
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I serve need to hear So you not only have to exegete a text as a pastor you have to exegete your congregations
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So the idea then is that sometimes, you know some years when I'm preaching through a particular text
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My congregation is struggling with this particular thing. That's and and that's where we really need to emphasize
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But you know it but everything changes and so I follow a three -year lectionary which is helpful
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Because it makes it so that every every time the the readings come around every three years
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I can go back and look at what I preached on you know what my notes were what I thought the congregation needed to hear and Then and then really kind of dig a little bit deeper.
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So I find that the the more I The more I'm a pastor and the more often
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I come back to certain passages It I find more nuances and things that we can preach on and and stuff
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So, you know, so all together sermon prep probably anywhere from 16 to 24 hours per week
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And you know, so on a long week, I'm beating my head against the wall But part of my prep also includes reading reading sermons by the
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Church Fathers on how they have handled these biblical effects because the one thing
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I want to do is I want to plagiarize the scriptures But I also want to make sure that my preaching is in accord with what
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Christians have been preaching for millennia You know, I want to make sure that I've got the most unoriginal take on these passages ever
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You know, it's like you said just like Christopherson. He's not just like Aaron is he's not just like a gust and you just you know
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That's kind of the point, you know, so yeah, but but so there's a lot of different avenues and then what
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I find is is that You know a large portion of my sermon prep is just wandering down these bunny trails to see how other people handle these texts so but my favorite book by the way in my preparation is is is a book that is a
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Has like a comprehensive list of cross references, you know, I think it's called the treasury of scriptural knowledge or something like that And and so when
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I'm working through a text and I find the theme that I'm working from Exegetically that I really want to highlight then
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I'm you in that resource looking at what other passages are saying and always and again
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I I find it very helpful to be able to find an Old Testament text if I'm preaching on the gospel or an epistle and Find a way to work old and new together because a lot of people don't know how to work the
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Old Testament And and so to bring those stories to the pulpit and And and give them, you know, kind of a fresh airing.
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It's this is just a joy. It's it's a lot of fun Hey, man, hey, man, that was good insight appreciate that.
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So 16 to 24 hours a week Yeah, yeah of course your family but What about tell us a little bit about pirate
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Christian media how that came about how? All that transpired
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Okay, so that's a that's a little bit of a longer story and then the current iteration of what we're doing you know,
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I I kind of hit the hit the wall as far as what I can handle every week as far as heresy, so Let's kind of back up in history so Middle 2000s, so, you know, you know,
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I began blogging I had been formerly trained as a Christian apologist.
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Yeah. Yes encounter cult ministry and And that's really where I cut my teeth, you know, you know kind of you know it's a street apologist talking to Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons and and work with ministries reaching out to them and in middle of the 2000s about 2006 ish
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III changed focus from the cults to what was going on in evangelicalism as a result of the
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Bible twisting of Rick Warren and the fad that was the purpose -driven life and the
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Travesty that the the book the purpose -driven church was and all of the radical changes that were taking place
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In the church as a result of this man's innovations, but he was building off of you know
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Peter Drucker and Robert Schuller and guys who preceded him But he kind of took it into a whole other thing and the thing that alerted me to this
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Was, you know, somebody said, you know, you just need to read like the first couple chapters of the purpose -driven life
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I remember when it came out so I got a copy of it and on I applied the same kind of exegetical rigor that I would if I were reading the
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Book of Mormon or something the Watchtower and Bible track Society came out with and when I got to chapter 2
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And started looking just doing the comparative work. Okay. Here's what he says. The Bible says and here's what the
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Bible says in context I went whoa, something's really off and and so I began blogging against the purpose -driven movement and became really good friends with Ken Silva as a result of that the late
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Ken Silva and then in 2000 oh I want to say 2007 I had the idea
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For what would become pirate Christian radio and I noticed that in Christian broadcasting there was a notable move away from sound theological doctrinal program and and a move towards stuff that was just kind of I Don't know like, you know advice on how to raise kids and stuff, you know encouraging
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I At that point
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I was really kind of distraught at you know, what was happening to Christian radio so I you know
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I actually Called and spoke with a guy who was an executive with Salem broadcasting in Southern, California Took him to lunch
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We sat down and and we were talking about kind of the general trends that were going on and in Christian Broadcasting and I pitched the idea for what would eventually become the fighting for the faith podcast and After pitching the idea, he said to me, you know, no that would never work
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Becky wouldn't go for that and I said Becky who's Yeah, I think that's the name he used you know, but yeah, who's
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Becky he said Oh Becky's our target market and I go Why and so he said yeah
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Becky's, you know, she's he's married. She's in her late 20s She's got you know, two point four kids, you know
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She spends a lot of time in her minivan taking her kids to soccer and and she's not anything That's like really theologically heady and stuff like that And she she would never go for a program like that and basically said, you know
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We'd be happy to take your money, but your program would never take off and I was really bad. It's like It's like Christian broadcasting has been brought to its knees because of Becky so So it was at that point that I Began working on the business plan for what will become pirate
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Christian radio and I named it pirate radio pirate Christian radio With the idea that you know that a pirate radio station is something that broadcasts from outside of the normal system
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My mother when she was growing up She spent some time in Oxford in the
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United Kingdom because her stepfather was in the military He was an Air Force fellow and so she she told me when she was growing up She used to listen to a pirate radio station that broadcasts from a
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Liberty ship in the channel So so that's where we got the name pirate
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Christian radio and so Back in is it 2008 or 2009?
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I'm forgetting now but back in June of I want I want to say oh wait June of 08 we we launched pirate
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Christian radio The the issues etc radio program was canceled by the
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Missouri Synod and I vetoed their cancellation and And brought issues etc on to pirate and that you know so we when we launched it, we actually had a pretty good audience to begin with and And so I did the fighting for the faith podcast five days a week for more than a decade and And then, you know a couple years ago,
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I I just couldn't motivate myself to do Listening to all that heresy my son calls it the swamp of sadness
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You know, it's so all the time that I just I had to find a way to pull back from the
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Quantity of a heresy that I was listening to and and I found that being a pastor and being able to preach positively
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You know from the word Was what I really desired to do and I knew that warning people like I had done in the past is still an important thing but I had to find a way to strike a balance so that I wouldn't lose my mind, you know in the process because Even though I'm the guy who invented prophecy bingo this is dark humor and what we're dealing with our people who are listening to people who are gonna be sending them to hell if They persist stuff and and so Yes, striking a balance between good biblical content and so I pulled back and and decided that what
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I was gonna do is work on quality rather than quantity and and cover only the heretical teachings or the false teachings that gave me the opportunity to Springboard and spend a lot of time in the biblical text so that people would come away feeling like they had
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They didn't just get a you know, like a news report on the latest heresy But that they had they had received something biblical to help them work through these things that they could share with others
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And then they can sort out what's going on in their own faith. So and then along the way, you know, I you know the
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Photography is something I've been doing since I was in seventh grade and I've recently kind of upped my my photography games
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Because when I'm doing photography and I've turning off the heresy Altogether and And finding something that is, you know
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I I think is meaningful and beautiful and bringing into the world art is one of these things that a lot of people
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Do not recognize how important it is, but it really is good art really is so I think the pursuit of Finding things that are beautiful and sharing them with the world
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I kind of consider that to be an act of defiance or civil disobedience Against the other that's in the world
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So well, that was actually gonna be our next question about have you talked about your photography and you've done that?
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So that's good. And if if folks follow you on Facebook, they see you post in the pictures and In in they never can tell if you're in if you're in their neck of the woods
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You might be hanging around outside their house taking a picture I Generally so when
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I'm traveling I don't like to broadcast it because I don't want somebody to walk into my house and take my stuff Because they always tell you, you know, it's like, you know, if you're ever traveling don't announce it don't let everyone
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Hey from the house for three weeks. Come on From time to time
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I'll post photos while I'm traveling and people say are you where I am? It's like no I was there last
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So Not only are you photographer a pastor husband and father
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Photographer you're a filmmaker Many folks probably don't realize this and how would you feel about us sharing your award -winning film from 2020?
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And it would be good for our watchers to see this so let's take let's take a five minute
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Don't don't take us. Don't don't run away from your phone or your computer screen stay here
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We're gonna show the award -winning video that Chris Roseboro and Joshua Roseboro made in 2020.
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Here we go What Is the current temperature outside 12 degrees currently 15 degrees colder than Anchorage, Alaska.
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Was that last part really necessary? Yes Swine phone
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I Need an upgrade Yellow Hey James, we still go for 1130.
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Uh, yeah I'll see you in about 10 minutes. I'll call you and I'm on my way.
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Sure thing. Bye. Bye See who can identify with this
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Here comes the best part the drama This is not
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And is there any man watching this who who would not admit to the fact that they've made a toilet paper bandana on their
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Hammer dude You're right man I just came in you walking around looking for you.
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How did you do that? The back door is unlocked Yeah You know, we won some awards from the
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North Dakota Film Festival for that so yeah, that was fun Yeah, that was that was awesome
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I think there's probably there may not be many of your watchers and listeners who realize that that's out there
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Yeah, it's on our channel. Yeah You know Even on our title screen for it.
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We have the awards that we want I think Yeah, yeah film dash so yeah, but yeah
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Poster up here. So yes So I was going back to kind of the pirate
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Christian radio. You talked a lot about Just covering a lot of heresy For our listeners,
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I think we hear that word a lot How would you define that and how would you compare that?
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False teaching are they the same would you differentiate between the two terms?
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Yeah, you do need to do you do need to differentiate between the two terms. So False teaching or erroneous teaching is going to be on doctrines that you don't want to say they don't matter but they're secondary or tertiary in the levels of as far as Doctrine is concerned.
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So for instance I'm a confessional Lutheran and we have a different view of the sacraments than the reform do or evangelicals and so we recognize that they're brothers and sisters in Christ and so that we
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We take the sacraments and we say there's a secondary and tertiary issues to err on those doesn't put you outside of the faith heresy though on the other hand is a is a teaching that Contradicts one of the primary doctrines of the
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Christian faith. These are non -negotiables and as a result of it when somebody is heretical
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They're believing in a false God or a false Jesus or a false spirit or a false gospel
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And that's how scripture defines these terms And so you think of Apollos Apollos was a fellow who his baptismal theology was incorrect?
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and he needed to be corrected by Aquila and Priscilla and And he took that correction well, but it doesn't say that he was a heretic but then you look at the the
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Judaizers who who Paul writes against who had come into the churches of Galatia and Said that unless you're circumcised you cannot be saved
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Well, they they were guilty of preaching a different gospel altogether and Paul gives and invokes in anathemas twice against them
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He says you he says even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to a gospel other than the one already preached
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Let him be damned anathema. Amen twice and so scripture itself gives us these distinctions
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So heresy puts you outside of the Christian faith error, you're still a brother, but you're an erring brother and And you need to be called to repent and submit to what the scriptures say
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Amen, I think that's a that's a good explanation because I think What I see more and more you hear people throw out the term heresy
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Quite a bit where I think it's an overreach Yeah, they're looking for like I told
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Claude looking for a heretic under every bush So Justin Peters and I we have different view of baptism he's not a heretic
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Stephen Furtick claims he's God Almighty. He's a heretic You know What a miserable deity that is too
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I mean or seriously, I mean, you know Well, you know
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Kenneth Copeland heretic Stephen Furtick's heretic on steroids, you know, so you get literally
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We agree 100 % there and so in our last episode
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We did with last week or week before last we we focused on Creed's confessions and catechisms and the importance of Creed's Confessions and catechisms in the local church
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So, I mean would you care to talk a little bit about how the church?
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Historically has benefited from Creed's catechisms and confessions throughout history.
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Oh my goodness. Yes Okay, so we'll start with the with the lesser -known the one the one that sounds painful catechisms
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I mean, you know, have you been catechized they go? I don't know but you know, I've got a lower back problem
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Do you think it'll help? You know, so but when you talk about catechism a catechism is basically an instruction booklet
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That teaches you the basics of the Christian faith in a question -and -answer format. That's really kind of what a catechism is and I gotta tell you that as somebody who
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Teaches the catechism and I've got several classes that I teach I teach youth
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I teach adults I teach adults and youth So I'm I'm in the catechism teaching classes
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Probably three times a week now and It I never tire of it
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It's the best thing ever and the more I teach the basics of the faith the deeper my understanding of the scripture goes
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And so the idea that it's that Chris, you know Christianity is we're disciples and we're lifelong learners and so the catechism a really well put together catechism will drive you into the basics of the
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Christian faith and give a Pastor the opportunity to kind of unpack certain things and that and so when
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I teach when I catechize folks It takes two years. It takes two years to work through the basics of the
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Christian faith There's no way you can in a 10 -week intro course walk something through something.
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It just it just doesn't work that way So, you know, I'm a firm believer that you know You take your time slow down and really help equip people to be able to read their
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Bibles for themselves, you know I mean, I mean that's that's that's a big part of this now creeds have always played a role within the
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Christian Church And I would go back if you look at Aaron Neis's Contra Contra heresies, he wrote he wrote multi -volume set in the ancient world
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Against the Valentinian Gnostics and and the the doctrines that these folks were putting out
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I mean, it sounds like sci -fi kind of stuff. I mean, it sounds like Scientology weird kind of things but Early on in one of his books
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Against heresies he talks about what's called the rule of faith and the rule of faith was something he learned from the man who discipled him who was polycarp and Polycarp was discipled by the
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Apostle John when John was living in Ephesus and and when you read the rule of faith
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In fact, you can Google this Aaron a s rule of faith Okay, you can find a place where it's laid out when you read this thing
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It sounds like an early prototype of the Nicene Creed That's the best way
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I can describe this thing and and Aaron a s makes the claim in contra heresies that if you believe
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Contrary to the rule of faith, then you're not a Christian and and so, you know
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So the role that creeds play and this is where we have to make a distinction a creed is not the scriptures
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The creed are creeds are normed by the scriptures And so we make a difference between two categories
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Norman or Mons and Norman or Mata These are the Latin frames Norman or Mons the scriptures are the norming norm
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Norman or Mons the creeds are Norman or Mata they're they're normed by the scriptures and the reason they're true is because they say the same thing as the scriptures so the the three ecumenical creeds
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That we would point to the Apostles Creed Nicene Creed in the Athanasian Creed The reason they're true is because they say the exact same thing as the scriptures and the thing is is no heretic can confess these
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You know The Aryans couldn't confess the Nicene Creed They and and they and they they wept bitterly about the fact that they couldn't and I remember years ago
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I'll tell you a little story. So Do you remember elephant room to you may not have remembered this thing, but that verdict or the
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TD Jake's? Takes Mark, this goal and James McDonald.
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I think verdict was there for both one and two. Yeah, so so when James McDonald announced that he was inviting
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TD Jake's to elephant room to I Know you can find this in the in my broadcast archives
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I I went on air and on social media and I basically said unless TD Jake's is willing to confess the
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Athanasian Creed I will not believe that he's a Trinitarian because he's a modalist. Okay, you know and so You know that got out to James McDonald and James McDonald publicly said that me
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Insisting that TD Jake's confessed the Athanasian Creed. He said it was Outrageous that was the word he used it was outrageous of me to do that of him and I I stuck to my guns and So I actually purchased a ticket to attend elephant room to at the primary campus where everybody was
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I paid a hundred and ten Dollars to go to this thing And when I showed up I was
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I was there with another researcher when the two of us showed up The security guards met us at the door
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Escorted us out into the parking lot said that you're not allowed to come here And if you come back, we will have you arrested for trespassing so, you know, they anyway, but I did by the way get to talk privately with James McDonald before elephant room to and told him that TD Jake's is a heretic.
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He's a modalist. He'll never repent of it And so what did what did Driscoll do if you go back and you watch the video?
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Driscoll is the guy who's walking him through the the the Apostles Creed And so so you're saying one
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God three persons and in TD Jake said yeah I I think I can say that and Driscoll goes
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And then no sooner do they they stop celebrating Jake's goes well by persons you mean manifestations.
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Well, then yeah, you know Failed coaching Of course
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Mark Driscoll had a spectacular a failing And in Mars Hill imploded as a result of his control freakiness
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And James got a long ago got drubbed out of ministry and the and you know for Good reasons and the stories that have been coming out about him are just horrifying.
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So but it doesn't surprise me. So So this this might be a good a good confession that we can promote and and have the heretics say here we go
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I'm stupid. You're smart. I Was wrong you were right
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You're the best. I'm the worst You're very good -looking, I'm not attractive.
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All right, as long as you're willing to admit that That's all we ask.
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That's all we ask I do think that they might consider that to be an ad hominem type of yeah
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You're right, you're right, but it was funny No We we agree there
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I think there's a lot of a lot within Christianity today's of so many
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Christians that truly just they don't they don't know what the gospel is They don't know who
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God is They don't know the doctrine of God the doctrine of Christ the doctrine of creation the doctor of the scriptures
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They don't they don't understand biblical doctrines and therefore They're not able to Defend when there are they and they are literally sneak attacked by so many within the church today
38:39
Yeah, no And the thing is is that they're complicit in their own deception because of their unwillingness to actually obey the scriptures
38:46
You know that that we are you know scripture tells us to test teachers to test
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Prophecies test these things and the only thing the only thing we have to test them with is the actual Word of God Which requires you to be in in in in dialogue with God in his
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Word? And then I would note that Christians for years for centuries millennia been called what disciples a disciples a learner, you know
39:13
You know, it's like don't tell me you're a disciple when you haven't read Matthew Mark John or actually read the you know
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The epistles of Paul or they are the Catholic epistles and they already don't tell me this, you know
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Seriously, you know and Walter Martin who was who had a profound influence on me early on I only had one conversation with him
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But you know He used to talk about the fact that that you know Christians in scripture are described as actually being in in warfare and our warfare is against the devil and he said that So many people do not know their
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Bibles and they're in there Sticking their heads in the sand and the flaming darts of the evil one are sticking out of their posteriors as a result
39:58
Yeah, he didn't he never pulled any punches Yeah, I appreciate that about him though he was
40:06
I mean direct and to the point Yep, something we've talked about often and just how in current times so few people
40:15
Really want to focus on the knowledge of the scriptures. It's become all about all about Emotionalism and these
40:24
I Feel like a definite waning interest in church history the creeds catechisms confessions numerous times
40:35
I grew up in church my entire life and it wasn't until Probably seven or eight years ago that I even had a clue what a confession or catechism or a creed was
40:47
Yeah, and and you'll note that you know, there's there's is that there's an anti intellectualism that is part of the main undercurrent of Christianity or evangelicalism now
41:00
You know, I remember when I first started studying we were really studying theology and apologetics, you know proper
41:07
I I was I was intrigued by the fact that there was a whole body of works throughout church history
41:13
Dealt with these topics, but at the same time people were taking me aside and going, you know,
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Chris, you know, that's head knowledge and And God only cares about heart knowledge.
41:24
And so, you know, and so they would they would probably you know doctrine you know it divides and you know, and so This is how they would talk and it's like they don't they don't even know their biblical categories correctly
41:38
So it's really fascinating to me that you know And so you you start it
41:44
I've had people who've been listening to my podcast or been watching our YouTube channel You know, they they've started studying the word and sharing it with people and stuff like that and they've been rebuked, you know
41:53
You know, that's just a little too much Bible, you know, you got to be careful with that Bible stuff
42:00
I love Jesus, but I don't need theology There's a pastor friend of mine who did an interview on issues, etc a few years back and he lives out in Chicagoland And he was invited to a luncheon where some people from Bill Hybel's Willow Creek.
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Well, you know, we're also part of the lunch there And so he sat at a table with a bunch of Willow Creekers. I think that's what they call them
42:27
And and so in the middle of the conversation this this LCMS pastor He says, you know, you know as it says in the
42:35
Apostles Creed and one of the ladies at the table said Apostles Creed What's that? And and he says you've never heard of the
42:41
Apostles Creed and she's not What's that? And so from memory here, you know He just rattles off the
42:47
Apostles Creed right there at the lunch table. And the lady says well, that's interesting I I don't believe that but that's really interesting
42:57
Well We the the the gentleman that was on the creeds and confessions and catechism podcast with us last week he actually graduated from Liberty Liberty University I'm your degree and he said never once in four years.
43:14
Was he taught anything about? Specifically, what was his statement? He said like the
43:20
Reformers the church fathers kind of the yeah in confessions Historical.
43:25
Yeah, the confessions never came up Yeah, that it's absolutely true. There's something like in the water in America here
43:34
You the peanuts cartoons Years ago. I you know that you can if you google you probably find it.
43:41
I I think it was Charlie Brown's sister Sally I think is her name and and and and so in one of the cartoons, you know
43:49
She was given the assignment of doing a term paper on church history. And so she starts her
43:56
Church history it all began in 1932 when my pastor was born So so we have we have talked through that their next one of the next questions concerning Christians being largely undiscerning we've talked we've talked through that And my wife wanted me to ask and I have to ask this in order to be able to go to bed tonight
44:34
So basically it's what drives you personally to be faithful and continue to put out such solid content like fighting for the faith
44:43
Particularly in reference to fighting for the faith and pirate Christian media what drives you personally
44:49
It's that Jesus is that good? So the best way I can put it is is that the
44:56
I always find Motivation in the fact that what the Bible says is so much better than what's being said out there
45:02
And who Jesus is and what he has done for us It's described as the gospel is good news.
45:08
It is such good news It is the only thing that gives me hope
45:14
It's the only thing that keeps me sane and so it's all about telling people about Christ and what he's done for us and so every
45:24
Opportunity that I can springboard off of a bad teaching so I can tell people about what the
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Bible really says and it connected to Christ that that is a is a day well spent and that's the day that I feel like I've served people well
45:37
And so it's it's really all about you know using heresy as an excuse to tell people how great
45:43
Jesus is Amen, amen Man With like said kind of the lack of discernment the
45:56
No interest in biblical knowledge. Do you feel like there's any one or two particular?
46:03
heresies or false teachings that are kind of Rising above that are they're creeping in the church these days because of that.
46:12
Yeah, so here's the thing Jude and also Peter describes these false teachers as as wandering stars, which means you can't navigate by him and In Scripture also describes them as deceiving and being deceived and then going from bad to worse
46:28
So the thing is is that the current crop of heresies that is plaguing that are plaguing
46:34
Christianity today? The flavor is gonna change a little bit five years from now in a decade from now.
46:41
So So when I was coming up to the ranks, I mean you had you had Fred price
46:46
Ken Copeland Benny Hinn The price is dead died of kovat despite the fact that he was a guy who believed that you know
46:53
You're you're healing was paid for in the atonement. That's a lot. That's awkward and You know, and of course
47:00
Kent Copeland is you know, he's looking to demonically possessed more and more by the day And you know and and he's falling he's not he's not the current version and so I would say that things have subtly changed and so the heresies of 10 20 years ago aren't as nearly as Predominant as they were back then and now we you know,
47:23
I would say really Narcissism has kind of really is the thing that's kind of taken over the church
47:28
I would say that CRT and the social justice agenda are really tearing away
47:34
At the fabric rightly understanding law and gospel and it's a form of slander And in fact
47:40
CRT is nothing but racism just disguised as not being racism and so, you know, so I would note that progressive concepts
47:50
Really are the things that we're facing right now, especially with the the absolute insistence that that Christians Recognize same -sex marriage and attraction things like this
48:03
That's really where the push is going right now I don't know if that's gonna let up anytime soon, but that seems to be where the primary fight is currently
48:11
But the fight always changes, you know, because it's you know, that's the thing about the truth always stays in the same spot
48:18
It never moves Whereas it whereas, you know, the heresies they they kind of run
48:24
Yeah, they're like fads They run through the church and they run their course and then you always got it some people who will kind of stay with it
48:31
But the younger generations always coming up are attracted to different things So basically just recycled
48:38
They're just heresies just recycled from generation to generation Yeah, yeah, yeah, or they kind of kind of mate with each other and create hybrids, you know, you know
48:48
Yeah, is that this is inappropriate to say? Here on the here
48:55
I stand theology podcast, it's a point of defense of biblical doctrine. So I think that was a point of defense All right
49:02
We are absolutely good to go there So any other questions that you have for Chris Matt?
49:10
No, I think we've covered a lot Yes And again
49:16
Chris, we certainly appreciate you being with us We are looking forward to our listeners and watchers
49:25
Hopefully you'll see an even larger uptick. I know you have like 15 ,000 friends on Facebook and so on But truly sir, we do want you to know that seriously and truly from from our hearts we appreciate you taking the time to Talk with us to go through this and to put up with all the messages that I sent you and I know you were
49:51
You know you were on vacation Yeah, but we certainly do Patience while I was on vacation.
49:57
Oh, no, sir. This again. This is certainly a privilege. We pray for you regularly Pray for your ministry.
50:03
We appreciate the work you do. Yes, we do Thank you again for all you you have done for the
50:09
Lord. So we are gonna let Matt close us out to talk about real quick What the what the driving factor is in the for the podcast?
50:21
What do I always want to get to? Chris touched on a little bit earlier. Our main focus is always to bring things back to the gospel and as you said and kind of your media ministry
50:34
Talking about these heresies and talking about being discerning Leads in to what is the true gospel?
50:40
and you said the gospel is the good news of the person and work of Jesus Christ is
50:47
Born of earth one of a virgin lived a perfect life Died a substitutionary death
50:55
Raised again on the third day ascended to the father where he sits today reigning and ruling and for those who
51:04
Believe he guarantees everlasting life. Amen. It's only only through him we are
51:11
Given salvation by no other name. So always as you said Point people to Christ.
51:18
That's the goal. Yeah Amen, yeah, there's nothing else. I mean,
51:24
I'm a one -trick pony Tell you about Jesus as the scripture said
51:30
The gospel is the power of salvation Yeah, nothing else is that's right.
51:35
And it's got to be the true biblical gospel. Yeah, we got he's everything
51:41
Enough a false gospel will not save that's right. Well Chris, would you care to?
51:49
Make your closing statement like you like or what you used to close your podcast out.
51:54
That's how we'll end here Always and again, I want to point people to the fact that you know,
52:01
Christ is bled and died from so, you know I always you know close off with the idea that you know that that may
52:08
God richly bless them in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of their sins and that's the best closing statement that I could ever give
52:17
Amen, brother. Amen. All right, if you don't care stay on here, we're gonna play the closing outro stop recording