The Dark Side of Christianity | Theocast

Hi, this is John. Today on Theocast, Justin and I want to talk to you about the rustling of the soul, where often the world and Christianity presents that there should be this moving upward and this constant improvement, yet you feel dark and distant and you feel as something is shadowing over you.

And not only that, we want to introduce to you a subject that often is ignored, the spiritual realm, the dark kingdom that comes in and distracts and attacks the believer.

It's an introductory conversation. We are really excited to introduce this to you. We're redoing an episode that we had launched, really the first episode we ever did,

The Dark Side of Christianity. We hope you enjoy. If you'd like to help support Theocast, you can do that by leaving us a review on iTunes and subscribing on your favorite podcast app.

You can also follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Plus, we have a Facebook group if you'd like to join the conversation there.

Thanks for listening. Welcome to Theocast, encouraging weary pilgrims to rest in Christ, conversations about the

Christian life from a Reformed pastoral and confessional perspective. Our joy and hope today is to clarify the gospel and reclaim the purpose of the kingdom.

And if the shot looks different, for those of you watching, it does. Yeah, I'm in Asheville, North Carolina. With Justin, who is one of the hosts,

Justin Perdue, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina. And I am Jon Moffitt. I'm the pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

And you will definitely going to hear birds, cars, semis, trains, all the things because we're recording birds in his office, but it actually has a cars, planes, whatever.

Yeah. Big O opens door. Yeah. So see if I can show you a little bit. You can see it right there. Well, it's so nice out.

We wanted to have the door open, but the weather's nice in here. Yeah. We're enjoying the mountain coolness.

Yeah. It's been good. Had a wonderful time last night. Got to eat at your house. I don't know if they care about that stuff, but I wanted to tell them anyways.

No, we had a good hang. Yeah. Had some bourbon, some cigars. That was great. That's good. A little bit about TheoCast and then we'll jump into the topic.

Yeah. We are working on several episodes here. We're also working on some

Grace Reformed Network content. We are. For those of you that may not have heard, we have a pre -conference, like a mini conference happening before the charter meeting.

That's October 3rd and 4th. Justin, tell them a little bit about what to expect if they decide to come. It's $20 to register.

What's the content they would be expecting to hear? On the 3rd and the 4th, which is open to everyone. So on October 5th, it's only for people that are going to be a part of the network.

Right. But October 3rd and 4th, anybody can come. And the content you can expect is some teaching from John and myself on what it means to be confessional, on covenant theology, on the law and the gospel and the distinction between the two, and also on the saint -centered reality.

And then one of the evenings, you'll preach a sermon. One of the evenings, I'll preach a sermon. And we'll be doing some singing and a lot of time built in to hang out and get to know the people that are there.

Right. And so if you're anywhere near Nashville, Tennessee, and you want to make it, please register. You can find all that registration information at the gracereformednetwork .org

website. Yep. And even if you don't live near Nashville, jump on an airplane. That's right. Love to meet you. Yeah.

We do have limited seating. It's about 150 is who about what we can fit in there. Yeah. For that pre -event event.

So please come and join us. That would be, that would be great. And then, yeah, we, we've got more content coming to TheocastU, for those of you who are the memberships there.

And we have some more exciting news coming in that direction. That's all about, I have, oh, I will say, if you're new to Theocast, one of the new features that we're providing is a weekly book recommendation.

And that goes out in our weekly email. So if you're not getting our weekly email, just go to our website, scroll down to the bottom, you can put your email in.

I mean, who doesn't want another email? You know? Right. But this one, this one provides you content. That's right. Content about a book we would recommend.

What's new with our TheocastU and maybe some episodes that you may not have known about.

Yeah, for sure. That's all I got, Justin. We've done a lot of episodes together at this point. Three years.

A little professional segue. Four years. Wow. Time flies. You're right. 2019. We have done a lot of episodes together.

I don't even know the number at this point. It's 180 something? A couple hundred. It's close to a couple hundred. Yeah. So what we have talked about doing is revisiting some of the topics that we did early on.

Because many of you probably have not even heard those episodes. And John and I have continued to read and study

Pastor. And so there are some of these topics that while we think high level, the same way we did, we would articulate it differently.

We would nuance it differently. Or we might expound upon things in a deeper way. Right. And so you can expect some of those kinds of episodes to come down the pike here for the next few months where we revisit some of these old topics.

And today is our maiden voyage in more ways than one. So this is our first kind of revisit an old topic like this.

And it's actually the first episode that we did together. That's right. And Jimmy Bueller was on with us. In my basement back in the day.

Late at night. It was almost midnight. Midnight. We did an episode called The Dark Side of Christianity.

The hodgepodge of microphones. Yes. We have we have grown in more ways than one.

That's right. So we're going to talk about that topic today. The Dark Side of Christianity. And effectively what we want to do is have an honest conversation about what it's like to live as a saint trusting the

Lord Jesus Christ in this fallen world. And we want to have this conversation really from two perspectives pertaining to two different significant topics underneath that header of The Dark Side of Christianity.

One of those being our corruption. The corruption of our flesh. Indwelling sin. All that stuff.

And then the other being spiritual warfare. The fact that the adversary is real. The kingdom of darkness is real.

And there's a war going on. It's not against flesh and blood. Both of those things are critical if we're going to rightly understand life now.

This side of Christ's return. This side of the resurrection where we'll be incorruptible and we'll be like the Lord. So that's what we're going to do.

The first part I think we want to begin with the corruption of the flesh. Indwelling sin. Those things. We've done episodes in the past about theology of cross versus theology of glory.

Saint -centered reality. We did Romans 7 not long ago. We'll put all those in the notes.

What I'm hoping for in this episode is that it would be an introductory level to someone who's never even really heard of theocast.

Because Justin, you and I have been pastoring for a while now. We have people who walk into our churches and man they are spiritually and theologically exhausted.

Just beat down. And in many ways because of the churches they had been in the past, it's their fault.

That's what they hear. And if they would have performed better, done better, whatever, that there should be this progression and the experience is that it's building to this moment where it sounds glorious.

There is this sense of strength versus weakness. And you should be stronger but you're not.

Or what they've been told or what's been implied is that if you rightly apply your personal disciplines, if you are intense enough, dedicated enough, disciplined enough, if you do the right things the right way, then you will become so spiritually strong that you will be practically impervious to trial and temptation.

Even the flaming darts of the evil one. You can just move on and everything will be good.

Everything will well with you because you will be so, so strong. Yeah. One of the episodes

I really enjoyed, Chasing Goosebumps. And that's where you're in the service and the music is playing and the drums are going and you can feel this euphoric high and that's the experience that you're wanting.

But you go back home and there's depression, there's fighting, there's anxiety, there's death, there's cancer. The pod we did with Ken Jones, Christian, there will be sin.

Right. So, what we're trying to say is that the concept we're trying to introduce to you is one that can sound like we have no optimism and we've given up.

And that's not what we're doing. What we're trying to do is have a conversation that will open all of our eyes to the fact that if we don't think like this, we cannot live honestly as saints in this life.

Yeah. I mean, when you just think about passages that Paul presents, you know, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

He means that in such a way in that this is really hard. Yeah. You're writing that as a prison epistle.

The grace of God is what sustains me, right? When he's thinking about just suffering and strength,

Romans 7, we did a whole episode on Romans 7. And I just, the dark side of it is that to say that a

Christian will not suffer from anxiety, fear, doubt, where at times you wrestle with depression.

Sure. Well, the Holy Spirit lives within me. Why am I wrestling in this way, right? Why do I have these dark feelings in these dark?

Why can I not feel like to get over these, you know, this grieving that I have? And I think it's interesting,

Justin, I'm going to just like hop to the future and come back real quick. Yeah. That the entire

Bible beginning in Genesis 3 is dealing with a world that has fallen into chaos and the hope is beyond the world, right?

There's a restoration of the world to come. So that there is a sense where, you know, if during 9 -11 and someone was having a birthday party down the street and they see the planes and the flames, the expectation would be that the experience going forward for a while is going to be of pain, suffering, grieving, the hard work, right?

And that until that's fixed, until we have seen restoration to the city, that some of the joy that we anticipate physically is not going to be restored.

And we're going to get into this a little bit, but that's the dark side of Christianity. What we're saying is it's dark now and that is actually expected until the restoration happens.

Until Christ returns. That's right. And then there will be no darkness anymore. That's right. Here's a thought that I think is maybe offensive to some, unsettling to others, but we've got to own this.

Because of our fallenness, because of our corruption, all of us ordinary people are capable of extraordinary evil, and that's true in the church.

Many Christians, I think inappropriately, should we be grieved by sin?

Yes. Should there be a sense in which we are greatly bothered by the evil that we see around us and the evil that we perceive within?

Yes. But should we be shocked when even Christians commit sins that are heinous?

No, we shouldn't. And should we all own, like I said a minute ago, and acknowledge the fact that within us all there is the capacity to do things that are extraordinarily wicked?

That's right. And that comes from the corruption of our flesh. This is an Ephesians 2, 1 and following idea that we all, not only were we dead in our trespasses and sins and following the course of the world but we were slaves to our cravings and passions.

In passages like Romans 7, the conversation with Ken Jones about there will be sin, we've acknowledged some of these things recently.

The corruption of our flesh is not made holy. Our flesh remains corrupt until we die and are resurrected incorruptible and imperishable.

There's a reason why we still need to die. For the Christian, our death is not punishment for Adam's sin anymore because Christ has dealt with that.

But our death is so that we can finally be delivered from corruption and we will be raised incorruptible.

That's right. But until that happens, we do no one any favors and we do no one any service by denying, acting like, well,

I would never do A, B, or C. That's right. I would never think A, B, or C. How could you do that?

I'm a Christian. I could never do that. We ought never speak that way. That's right.

I don't know if I've ever said it this way on the podcast before. This is not a shocker statement.

I'm just processing live, which often we all do. But God's expectation of our world is one of pain and suffering.

Not only that, but the pain and suffering God uses for our benefits. This is why he has to say things like James. You actually consider it to be not only a good thing, but you can rejoice when you're experiencing the dark side suffering temptation because God's exposing to your frailty and your weakness.

Second Corinthians 12, where Paul has the thorn in the flesh and he pleads with the

Lord three times to take it away, and the Lord says no. He says something else that his grace is sufficient and that his power is made perfect in Paul's weakness.

So this is how the Lord works, and I'm mindful of our confession, John. Well, I was just about to read that. 5 .5. Yep, I got it right here if you want to read it.

Yeah, go for it. And the reason, let me stop here. So someone may not be confessional. You don't maybe are aware of Reformed theology.

I'll just present it to you this way. For 500 years plus, people have understood the scripture this way, right?

And I would argue longer than that, but in terms of this articulation. This articulation, I just, it goes far past that.

I'm just saying this document is old. The most wise, righteous, and gracious God, and a lot of the passages we just quoted are in here.

Second Corinthians, Romans 8, and James. The most wise, righteous, and gracious God does oftentimes leave for a season his own children to manifold temptations and the corruption of their own hearts to chastise them for the former sins or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts.

That's the dark side we're talking about. Right? Exactly. That they may be humble and to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon himself and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin and for other just and holy ends so that whoever befalls any of his elect is by his appointment for his glory and for their good.

So what I think is so comforting is that the suffering that I endure, the wrestling against my flesh, the frailty of this world,

God says, yes, I'm aware. I see. We have a sympathetic high priest we can pray to who is aware of this, but he's like, child, you need to know

I am using this for your good. And that's comforting at times to realize

God isn't just saying, oops, sorry. He's like, no, I am very much aware and I'm using this to help you understand your frailty.

You're far more weak than you realize, and I'm going to allow you to fall and skin your knee so that I can pick you up and say, now, trust me more.

Yeah. And all of those things that he produces in and through the trial and the suffering, it's his work.

That's the miracle, and they're good things. We learn from it. We are more reticent to run headlong into sin in the future.

But the things that I would want to pick up on are the humility piece. We're humbled, and we are taught through these things that we endure to depend more and more upon the

Lord. The stronger we get, the more mature we get in the faith, the more we realize how dependent and needy we are.

This is why saints through history have acknowledged this is related to what we're saying, that the holier a man is, the more merciful he becomes.

Right? Not the harder and more exacting he becomes because he's got it together, and then he's condescending and looks down on others.

No, the holier and more mature you become, the more gentle and merciful you become because you understand this reality.

I am such a needy person, and I'm so dependent and always a debtor to grace.

And that's a related piece of this conversation that I think is helpful to the saints and how we think about interacting with each other.

When James describes wisdom, we think that guy is wise. He describes him meek, humble, and open to reason.

That's not how we describe wisdom. A couple of other comments really quick on the corruption of the flesh part before we pivot to the spiritual warfare piece.

Martin Luther said, you know, the dead man floats. So we talk about how the old man, our old nature, has been crucified with Christ, and that's done.

And at the same time, we carry the corpse of the old nature around with us, and we will carry that and drag that around until Christ returns and we are resurrected to be like him.

And so we need to acknowledge these realities and that the flesh is not made holy, but in our inner man, we are sanctified.

And that does make a difference in our lives, but we ought never expect that we will get beyond,

I should say, the fight. We should not expect that, oh, well, it's just going to get easier wholesale.

The battle against the corruption of the flesh might be just as difficult or intense in 10 or 20 years as it is today, and that's because of what we're talking about.

So why don't we talk some about the spiritual warfare component here? I think we can say this.

I'll say it. I know you've been doing more reading on this lately than I have. We had a great conversation last night, you, myself,

Andrew, our elders, and I think we were all of one mind, I mean, talking about these things and happy to get a little bit recorded today on this, and we'll do more in the future.

From our vantage point, confessional Reformed Christians today, ourselves included, don't talk enough about spiritual warfare.

Don't talk enough about the battle between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. Saints through history have spilled more ink on this.

Even John Calvin is referred to often as the theologian of the Holy Spirit. Martin Luther spoke often about his interactions with the devil, wrote often of these things, and so I think for us, we feel not maybe rebuked, but I think we feel challenged in a good way to pick up the mantle here and talk a little bit more about this stuff maybe in the coming months and years.

Every human being has the capacity to overswing in these areas, right?

So during the Reformation, you have the Anabaptists who were going crazy. The word I was using last night, you know, wackadooey.

That's one of your words. Yeah. Wackadooey. And, you know, there was a concern from the Reformers that they had gone too far and too mystical in their interactions with demons.

The Anabaptists, you're talking about. Right. And then you fast forward to today, and you look at the charismatic movement, and I don't,

I love my charismatic brothers. There's a lot of them who are very sound, solid brothers, right? But then there are the realm where it is crazy.

You're beating people with Bibles. You're yelling at them, casting out demons of alcohol. People are getting slighted in the spirit left and right.

We're binding things to the pit. Exactly. And so we see that, and we're like, I don't want anything to do with that.

I want to be as far away from that as possible. And what's been hard for me to be faithful to the confession and faithful to and exegeting our passages, when you read something like Ephesians 6, you wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, right?

Satan is a roaring lion seeking to be made a devourer. By the way, that was an Old Testament, right? That's Peter. Yeah. We're not going to get into the theology of this today, but I'll say it now.

You know, God himself in the flesh is interacting with Satan and describes him as the

God of this world. Yeah. As does Paul. That's right. In 2 Corinthians 4, for example.

So it's not just because some people will object and say, well, yeah, Jesus called him the God of this world, but that was before his death and resurrection.

That's right. Paul, after the death and resurrection of Christ, still refers to Satan as the God of this world. You know, there's this great quote by Spurgeon that was really helpful to me.

Because sometimes people are confused when we say he's the God of this world. Satan is still active and powerful. And it's power controlled by God.

He's a servant of God. And God uses it. And here's an example that Spurgeon used. He says, a child tends not to wander from its father when it hears the dog bark.

It's a great picture because he's described as a roaring lion. And the reason that he does that is not so that we're afraid of him, but we understand where our protection and safety remains.

Don't wander from the father. Don't wander from the gospel. Going on to the armor of God. It's there.

Christ wore the armor and proved its validity. And he says, now put it on. It's your protection. Effectively, in that regard,

Christ is our armor. That's right. So, you know, one of the things that I'm excited about when we think about when we say clarifying the gospel and reclaiming the purpose of the kingdom,

God has made it very clear through Christ, seek first the kingdom of God.

You have two kingdoms at war, kingdom of light, kingdom of darkness. When you ask somebody this question,

Justin, what does it mean to seek first the kingdom of God? What does it mean to lay up your treasures in heaven? Because we're so worldly minded.

And I don't mean like sexually deviant. I mean, like stuck here in this world. We're earthbound.

We don't think in those terms. I think the evil one, the great deceiver, is winning in that area.

Does he win ultimately? No. Can he win in the individual battles of the heart and the minds of the individuals? Yes. Because why else would

Paul say, or Peter, burn up the loins of your mind? Sure. We've talked about all this stuff even last night.

He can't destroy. He will seek to produce anxiety and despair, worry, all those things.

If Satan has his way, God of this world, we'll talk more about this, I'm sure, in coming episodes down the road in the next few months.

I think a lot of us would surmise that if Satan had his way, the world would just be as bad as it could possibly be.

So, shout out, tip of the cap to Michael Horton and some of his work in Christless Christianity. By the way, can I tell you a little secret?

I just found this out. Michael Horton really reworked Donald Barnhouse.

Donald Barnhouse was the one who gave this concept first. That's FYI. It's a beautiful concept because I think that most sincere, thoughtful Christians, and if you look on Christian Twitter, especially when you think about some of the theonomy and reconstructionism and Christian nationalism stuff,

I think what most folks would have us believe is that if Satan has his way, then it's just abject debauchery and corruption everywhere.

Everyone's miserable. I think that Satan's objective is actually to make people comfortable in this world.

For us to love this world pleases the enemy. Even more pointedly, if we can love this world in such a way where we see no need of Christ, that's what he seeks to accomplish.

Can I give an example that I've never given before? The media makes it sound like everybody agrees that homosexuality and transgenderism is the norm.

Everyone accepts it, but that's actually not true. Non -believers reject that.

To your point, morality is actually used as a weapon to keep people from the gospel.

Sure. I've talked to plenty of my neighbors and people who aren't professing

Christians, and they have the same experience and same feelings that we do because they can see it and say, that's not beneficial.

It's not natural. It is fascinating. I said this last night.

The concept of utopia is totally a twist of Satan. He disguises himself as an angel.

That's right. Make this world without crime, death, and disease. Make them think that they can build, metaphorically speaking, heaven on earth.

That's right. When we think about the positive twist to this, it makes sense when

Paul says in Romans 12, by the renewal of your mind, you're a living sacrifice, and the way in which you live is by the renewal of your mind.

You're preaching through Romans, so I'll let you speak to this. In the first 11 chapters, what is probably what he's wanting you to renew your mind in?

So what is that, Justin? What are the first 11 chapters? Effectively, it's about the salvation of God's people.

Paul beautifully depicts justification, how it is that ungodly sinners could ever be found just in God's sight, and it's only on account of what

Christ did. It's through covenant representation that we all, in Adam, received and inherited his guilt, and his sin is counted to us, but in Christ, by faith, his righteousness is counted to us.

Then we're united to him, and we're sanctified. In spite of the fact that there's this war going on, we have an eternal unshakable hope because the

Lord is going to save his people, and the promises of God have never failed. He has always saved all of his people from all time, and so we know that he'll save us.

That's effectively chapter 11. You have been saved, you are being saved, and it's all through the person and work of Jesus Christ received by faith.

That's right. So you're renewing your mind in the spiritual realm. It's in essence of what you're doing because the physical realm has failed.

This body, this flesh has failed. Romans 7, who will save me from this body of death? Thanks be to Christ, who is going to restore not only our soul, but our body.

The renewal of our mind, I'll say it this way, Satan is brilliant at using every tactic.

Think about it this way. We have modern technology, the printing press. Man has been used for the advancement of the kingdom, but it's also been used for the advancement of the kingdom of darkness.

He twisted it. He's twisted the internet. He has twisted surgery. Something that could save someone's life, we have used it to commit abortion.

We've used it to change people's gender, to lop off parts of their bodies. It's crazy. The renewal of our mind is that if your mind isn't being renewed by the hope of Christ in the gospel and the things to come, that which we cannot see, then your heart and mind will be swayed toward that which you can.

This is why at Theocast, we try so hard to help people understand the importance of the church because the church and the ordinary means of grace are the constant reminder of the spiritual nature of the

Christian life and that there's a war between light and darkness. You battle the corruption of your flesh daily.

That's right. You battle against forces of darkness, and the adversary is assailing you daily.

We don't talk like that enough. I know in our context, we say often that the world and our consciences and the evil one preach a very different word to us than the scripture does, in particular than the gospel does.

That's right. We need to own that statement that Satan often is at work where he can't destroy the saints because he can't.

We are united to Christ and we will not be lost, but he can rob us of joy and peace and comfort and assurance.

He can render us utterly ineffective and unfaithful. It's good that we talk about this because I love a passage from The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes where he depicts a dialogue between Satan and a struggling

Christian. Satan is the great accuser of the Brethren. One of the ways that he attacks us is to rob us of confidence and peace.

Satan continues to say to this struggling Christian that you don't have enough love. You don't have enough faith.

The struggling Christian is acknowledging that he only has a little bit of love and a little bit of faith.

It's like, well, Christ is not going to regard that. He continues to just double down on everything that the believer says.

Satan is able to brilliantly pivot and redirect it to erode assurance and to erode comfort.

Where this lands, because Richard Sibbes has built this case through the book, he has this Christian say back to the evil one.

All of that is true, effectively, but Christ will cherish the faint flicker of faith that I have.

He'll cherish it and he'll fan that flame until he's brought judgment to victory. I don't have enough.

You're entirely right. Christ is my Savior. He's my righteousness, and he is the one who is going to keep me.

You talk about the armor of God from Ephesians 6 and all those things. That's how we fight the evil one.

The war really happens in our minds. It really does. This is why there's the renewal of your mind, grow up your mind, protect your mind, prepare your mind for battle.

I honestly don't believe God ever intended us to do that alone. We're not capable of doing that. Consider how to build one another up.

Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves. The preaching and the reading of the gospel are absolutely required in the assembling of the body.

Absolutely. That's right. Because if you don't have that word in your mind, what do you have to fight with?

That's right. You don't have anything. That's right. One more thought from me and a couple book recommendations that we'll give.

For those of you that at times feel like, man, my finances are fine, my body's fine, my family's fine, everything feels fine.

I literally feel like there's a dark grip on my soul.

That is because you live in a world that is not right. There's definitely the demonic realm and presence where the sun is not shining here as he should, as he will be.

There's that sense of I don't feel at home in my body. That's right. We're like aliens.

We don't belong here. That's the longing of it. When I go to First Peter and he says that there is an essence that you put your hope in that grace that is to come, the blessings that we don't deserve, because we're trying to feel comfortable here.

We're trying to feel naturally at home. He's like, no, you can't.

Sometimes there's nothing wrong with you other than your heart's reminding you don't long to stay here.

For now, we groan. That groaning takes on many forms. That's Romans 8. Because the world's fallen, the creation itself groans, and we groan.

We ought not expect that to end until Christ returns. When you use the phrase, and this phrase is co -opted a lot in our day,

I don't feel right home in my own body. It sounds like Paul from Romans 7. Who's going to deliver me from this body of death?

In my inner man, I delight in God's law, but I find that there's another law waging war in my members against my mind.

That's a right thing for a Christian to say. I don't feel right even in my own body because there is another law in my flesh that's waging war against my spirit, which often results in me not doing what

I want to do. You combine that with the fact that we have an enemy who does roam about like a roaring lion seeking to devour, and to discourage, and to dishearten, to accuse, and to unsettle.

We ought to expect that there will be a struggle and a fight against these things that we don't often see and perceive the way that we should.

This is where oftentimes that darkness, the dark side of Christianity, this is what it's rooted in. Corruption of the flesh, and the adversary, and the forces of darkness.

Before we go, I'd love to make a couple... Can I hand that book to me? I'd love to recommend the Bruised Read. We've done this before. We'll put the notes in the notes.

For those who are on the Bruised Read by Richard Sibbes, if you want a simple book that I've read so far on...

You have to help me on to say his name correctly, but The Whole Armor of God. Justin Perdue Ian DeGuid. Justin Perdue Ian DeGuid.

Justin Perdue I'm pretty sure that's how you say it. That's how you say it, but this is a really good introduction to what Justin and I were talking about today.

Simple, simple introduction. Those were the two... Just simple reads. Justin Perdue Just to start with. That's right. We'll provide some more resources and podcasts on this later.

You could read it every few years of your life and be encouraged by it. Justin Perdue That's right. This book here, it was recommended by Sinclair Ferguson, Michael Horton, Tim Keller.

I know Tim Keller is a dangerous name these days, but whatever. Justin, tell us where we're doing next.

Justin Perdue We're going to record the Semper Reformanda episode. Do you want me to take us out, or do you want to do that? Justin Perdue Oh, I forgot. I'm in charge.

I have this episode. I got it. I would like to dive a little bit deeper and do some stuff.

We just have time. We're going to do a full episode on it, but we'll do an introductory on some more of the invisible realm war that happens.

I would like to introduce some of a combo that we had last night. Stay tuned for that.

Semper Reformanda is the second podcast that we do. It's a little bit more unfiltered, I think a little bit more theological, and it's for our donors, those who monthly support us.

Coming with that is an app. There's almost 750 people on the app. Justin and I put extra content on there.

TheocastU, which is growing, I think there's 26 classes that are on there. We're going to be adding to that every month.

If you'd like to partner with us, you're thankful for what we do, and you'd like to see more content coming from Theocast.

That's what this is for. Thank you for listening and participating. I hope this is an episode you can share to comfort those who are confused.

If you hear this, you're like, wow, I love what you guys are saying. Please go to the show notes. We're going to provide about four or five additional episodes that would all work to expand what we've already said here.