Tim Keller said WHAT about Stephen Colbert?

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February 5, 2022

Tim Keller recently held late night comedian Stephen Colbert up as an example of what Christian public witness should look like.

00:17: Welcome to the Conversations That Matter podcast. My name is John Harris. As I am recording this,
00:23: I am looking outside and I live on a, for lack of a better term, it's kind of a cliff, it's kind of a hill, cliff, ridge.
00:31: I guess ridge would be the best term. And I'm behind the lip of it. And at a certain time in the morning, the sun will rise and shoot some rays down in my direction.
00:40: And we have currently a state of emergency in my county. We have an ice storm that came through. And it is just stunning.
00:48: It is like a crystal palace that I'm looking at with the light streaming through all the trees and the trees are just ice.
00:57: And man, I so badly wanna go and take a walk out there. And I don't know, you're probably hearing my voice.
01:04: I'm still sick. I'm not sure that that's gonna happen. But it just is a reminder that God is so creative and so good to allow us to have the sense perception.
01:17: We don't just see what's happening, things that he's created for his own enjoyment, but we actually are able to process that and appreciate that.
01:25: And that's such an incredible thing. And that can't be explained by any Darwinian natural process.
01:32: This is something that, this is, in fact, as I'm, I just saw some ice fell, kind of a dusting of ice came off one of the trees and it looked like little glitter coming down.
01:47: It's just amazing. For those of you who live in the deep
01:52: South, I understand why you do. For those who have moved there, I understand why you've moved there.
01:59: And I appreciate so many things about the deep South, but I'll be honest, you don't generally get this kind of thing.
02:04: And it is a beautiful thing when you do see it. So anyway, I am sick still.
02:10: Some of you might be wondering why I'm even recording this and I will explain that, but I just wanna thank you for your prayers, especially.
02:16: I am getting better every day. There's a window I have, I found, and it expands every day. So I had,
02:23: I think, an hour, two days ago, probably, and I recorded a very quick podcast that was just an update.
02:29: And I did it to show you what I was doing, to encourage you, but also just ask for prayer because I felt horrible.
02:36: And then yesterday, I think my window was probably two hours and today, hopefully, it'll be three or four. So I'm at the beginning of that window.
02:43: I can definitely feel the headache starting, but I really do wanna get this podcast out.
02:50: And I'm gonna explain a little more of why that is at the end. Let me just give you a little teaser because I don't wanna, for everyone who listens to this podcast wanting to get to the meat,
03:00: I don't wanna prevent you from the Tim Keller analysis, but I think it's time for a little bit of a reset, not the great reset, just a reset as far as why
03:11: I do this podcast, why I listen to this podcast. I'm gonna kind of strip it down to the basic fundamental reason that I even do this.
03:21: And we're gonna talk a little bit about that. And I wanna respond in doing that to some critiques and criticisms that were made during the last week, especially when
03:32: I was gone, that I really could not get to in a timely manner, which I do regret.
03:38: And some people are, I don't quite understand it completely, but I think there's some people that don't quite understand the amount of, just the volume of messages.
03:51: And the kind, I think some people look at the podcast and they think that's all that's happening is just when
03:59: I turn the record button on, because that's what they see. And there's so much more happening behind the scenes.
04:04: So I'm gonna tell you about a little bit of that, give you a little bit of a behind the scenes sneak peek, I guess, but I need to respond to some criticisms and then
04:15: I'll explain why I'm doing that. I also need to apologize to some of you for something
04:20: I did say on the podcast last week that I do regret, that I do think was wrong.
04:27: I don't think, there's a few people really blowing it out of proportion, I think, and so we'll talk about that as well.
04:34: But I do wanna acknowledge it and I do wanna talk about it. And because I've been so sick and traveling,
04:39: I just have not been able to get to any of it. So my wife and I were talking about this a little bit yesterday and she agreed with me.
04:48: Actually, she was the one that kind of convinced me in some ways. She encouraged me to talk about some of this.
04:56: And so we're gonna get to that. But we're gonna talk first, though, about the thing that everyone, most people who clicked on this came here for, which is this
05:05: Tim Keller tweet. And last thing before we get to that,
05:10: I just need to let you know about a sponsor for this particular podcast. And that is,
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05:39: I've been sick. I haven't felt like drinking hot chocolate right now because of that. I don't know what it is, the richness.
05:45: In fact, I tried a piece of candy last night, and I just,
05:50: I couldn't do it. I don't know. It's something about sweets that when I'm sick, I just can't do it. But I'm sure when
05:58: I get better, I'm gonna be drinking a lot of this stuff. But I'll tell you what I have been drinking is a lot of tea.
06:04: And that's been helping me get over this COVID. There's all sorts of teas.
06:09: The ones I usually talk about are peppermint green tea and gunpowder green tea. I really like those. But lately,
06:15: I've been having some of the chamomile, which is down here, chamomile herbal tea. And that's been really helpful for having
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06:46: And this is a pro -Christian, pro -American, anti -cancel culture company.
06:52: And it is a quality product. And so I just wanna let you know about that. And I'm gonna talk a little bit about sponsorships at the end, because I've gotten some pushback on that as well, that I shouldn't have sponsors and stuff.
07:06: So I do wanna talk about that. But I'm very grateful to Gold River for sponsoring this particular episode.
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07:53: So let's talk about this Tim Keller tweet here. So this, let's see here, if I can pull it up.
08:01: This came out last night, I believe, or yesterday. Yeah, February 4th at 1 .17
08:09: p .m. So it was actually in the afternoon. Someone sent it to me more towards the evening. But I'm gonna play for you the video that he's commenting on just so you know.
08:20: And then we'll get into his analysis of it. He's actually added some things to this. In the last nine hours ago, he added something else.
08:28: So let's start this. I think something that your viewers really connect with in your comedy and your hosting skills, especially in the past few years, is how open and honest and authentic you are about the role your faith plays in your life.
08:54: And I was wondering, is there any, does your faith in your comedy ever overlap?
09:04: And does one ever win out? I think ultimately, us all being mortal, the faith will win out at the end.
09:14: But I certainly hope when I get to heaven, Jesus has a sense of humor. But I will say this,
09:20: I will say this. Someone was asking me earlier about what I, this relates to faith because my faith is involved with,
09:28: I'm a Christian and a Catholic, and that's always connected to the idea of love and sacrifice being somehow related and giving yourself to other people.
09:40: And that death is not defeat, if you can see where I'm getting at there.
09:45: Someone was asking me earlier, what movie did I really enjoy this year? And I said, well, I really liked Belfast, which is Kenneth Burana's story of his childhood.
09:52: And one of the reasons I love it is that I'm Irish and Irish -American, and it's such an
09:57: Irish movie. And I think this is also a Catholic thing because it's funny and it's sad, and it's funny about being sad.
10:07: In the same way, that sadness is like a little bit of an emotional death, but not a defeat, if you can find a way to laugh about it.
10:13: Because that laughter keeps you from having fear of it. And fear is the thing that keeps you from turning to evil devices to save you from the sadness.
10:22: As Robert Hayden said, we must not be frightened or cajoled into accepting evil as our deliverance from evil.
10:28: We must keep struggling to maintain our humanity, though monsters of abstraction threaten and police us.
10:34: So if there's some relationship between my faith and my comedy, it's that no matter what happens, you are never defeated. You must understand and see this in the light of eternity and find some way to love and laugh with each other.
10:44: Wow. Stephen Colbert, everybody. All right, so that's the clip.
10:50: And Tim Keller's comment on this was, this is brilliant. This is a brilliant example of how to be a
10:57: Christian in the public square. And I'm gonna stop there, but let's just read the whole thing and then we'll go, okay.
11:04: So he says, notice the witness, but in a form the culture can handle. We should desire to have more
11:09: Christians in these spaces and give them grace as they operate. So I'll get into his responses since then, since there's been pushback.
11:18: But he says, first of all, this is brilliant, a brilliant example of how to be a Christian in the public square. And, you know, this is, brilliant is the word that I'm, that's just kind of like underlined, circled, exclamation points and stars around as I look at this sentence.
11:36: What makes this brilliant? What makes it brilliant? Is it, is the brilliance that he got a clap at the end?
11:42: Is the brilliance that he was able to, off the top of his head, quote something that honestly, the people listening probably would not have the,
11:51: I mean, I had to listen to it twice and I'm like, what? You know, this is, I felt like I was getting into Yodaland a little bit there cause it was just getting so involved.
12:04: You gotta laugh because if you don't laugh, you fear. And if you fear this happens, and I almost felt like he was gonna go on like some kind of a, you know, fear leads to hate and hate leads to suffering or something.
12:16: But it was, I think what stands out to me as, if there's anything brilliant about it, is that he was able to navigate this in such a way that he was able to give the audience a pinch of transcendence, a pinch of, there's something bigger than us.
12:35: And that's why we can live, that's why we can laugh, even through sadness and trials, cause there's something bigger, there's a plan.
12:42: So he's able to kind of relay this to the audience in such a way that no one was offended. And, you know, no one,
12:51: I mean, I don't see, I mean, unless someone's coming up to him afterward and he has the gospel and that's, I know some of you are probably screaming at the podcast right now,
13:00: Stephen Colbert is not a Christian. I get that, we're gonna get to that. But let's say he is, let's say he was an evangelical
13:05: Christian and, you know, understood the gospel and completely and was ready to lead people to the
13:12: Lord. And people heard him say that and then they came up and, you know, maybe, maybe, you know,
13:18: I wanna talk to you more about your faith. But he certainly didn't invite anyone to do that.
13:25: And it was, I mean, that's all he gave you. I mean, I don't know how that would be different than a lot of other religions that just have an understanding that there's a
13:33: God who rules the place and has a plan, that there's some kind of providential element to existence.
13:42: So that's as far as he went. And I wouldn't, I personally wouldn't call that brilliant, but it's, with all the minefields today,
13:54: I could see how it would, it could certainly come off that way to someone, that you're able to not get canceled and not get the hot seat turned up on you, not look like a fool and be religious at the same time, and a
14:11: Christian, nonetheless, Catholic, but Christian. That's what he said. He said, I'm a Christian Catholic.
14:18: So that's the first thing, brilliant. And so these are not, that's not a word that I would see.
14:28: I'll ask you this question. Just think with me. Would you, could you see the apostles using this word to describe the public witness of one of their own, one of their disciples?
14:42: Could you see Jesus saying this to the 12, or his followers, and say, well, you are brilliant.
14:49: We are supposed to be wise as serpents, innocent as doves. I just don't see that word, that's not, and I'm not saying it's wrong, and brilliant, brilliance is, look, this is a
15:02: English word, we use it today. I'm not trying to read back into an ancient manuscript.
15:09: The assumption that they would have used, but I'm just, I'm saying the concept itself of brilliance. It's just not an emphasized one.
15:16: When you're trying to reach people, when you're trying to be a public witness, right? Brilliance doesn't pop out at you from the pages of scripture.
15:24: But I think this is one of the things, and this whole short tweet is packed full of so many telling things.
15:32: I think this is one of the things that the evangelical intelligentsia, they really prize, they really prize this.
15:41: They want to be known as brilliant. They really want that applause line. They want to wow people when they start talking about their faith.
15:49: They want people to love them and not cancel them, and be attracted to what they have to say, and they wanna be able to appeal to them on some kind of a common ground, some kind of a language that they'll understand.
16:05: So it doesn't mean quoting Bible verses. In this case, it means quoting, I guess,
16:11: I don't know if that's a, I forget the name of the guy that he quoted, but I don't know if that was a poet or a philosopher, whoever, a novelist, but quoting someone, that it's not even an explicitly
16:25: Christian quote, but at least showing that you're well -read, being able to integrate some aspect, even if it's a very basic aspect of your faith with pop culture.
16:43: I mean, he did it with this movie. I mean, these are the kinds of things that I think the evangelical intelligentsia, they think of these things as what we should aspire to.
16:54: This is how to do it. Pop culture, quoting novelists, or thinkers out there in the world.
17:02: Stay shy away from the Bible verses a bit, but give them a little bit of a dose. Give them that milk.
17:07: They can't quite handle the meat, but just give them that little bit of this sparkle of some sense of transcendence, something that they'll be attracted to.
17:22: And so he says, this is how to be a Christian in the public square. This is how to do it.
17:28: This is the example. This is what we should all be aspiring for, apparently. And then he says, notice the witness, but in a form the culture can handle.
17:43: Now, so now he's not just saying that this is an example of how to be a Christian. This is also an example of how to witness.
17:49: Example of showing forth Christianity, showing Christ to people, but it's in a form.
17:56: It's in this particular form the culture can handle. So they can't handle, it leaves it open to speculation a bit, but what can't they handle?
18:05: That's the question. What is it that they can't handle? They can't handle what the apostles did, or Jesus did, or John the
18:10: Baptist did, or the prophets did, or what is it? They can't handle what the reformers did, what missionaries have done for hundreds of years.
18:17: The gospel, is that what it is? They can't just handle someone sharing the gospel. They can't handle someone quoting the Bible. They can't handle, what is it that they can't handle?
18:25: There's something that we need to be. So you see a positivity in that first sentence, and a negativity in the second, and it was coming out that, hey, there's something to watch out for here, and a landmine that you don't wanna step on, and Stephen Colbert didn't step on it.
18:42: So, good for Stephen. And then he said, we should desire to have more Christians in these spaces, and give them grace as they operate.
18:48: So he's saying, more Stephen Colberts. We need more people like him, and really, we need them in entertainment.
18:56: Part of me almost debates whether or not, I've had this thought in the last year, whether or not the media is the public square.
19:06: It's very controlled. It's one perspective. How much of the media is really reflective of a more of a neutral coming together of the various people who make up this country, and are able to express themselves?
19:23: That's not what the media is. It's certainly, if you wanna call that the public square, it's certainly a rigged public square.
19:30: So in this rigged public square, with landmines, with things that we're supposed to avoid, we should not communicate in a way that the culture can't handle it.
19:39: They can only handle so much, which, I mean, look, the culture can't handle, I'm just gonna be direct here, they can't handle when you talk about their sin.
19:47: That's what they can't handle. And so, we need to give grace to people like Stephen Colbert to operate.
19:55: That's what we need to do. And this is not a grace that seems to be afforded people.
20:02: I mean, Tim Keller has like no grace for the religious right and quote unquote
20:09: Christian nationalism. I mean, it's just, he paints them in the worst possible light. We've talked about it on this podcast.
20:16: He accuses them of using certain groups of people to fundraise off of and they just care about money and the reason that we're in the bind we're in is because of the religious right types, the culture warrior types.
20:31: You know, there's really no grace given to those people. And not even a sense that, you know, maybe there's some of them who are well -meaning and really are trying to hold the line for biblical teaching and they're seeing that, hey, something like, let's say same -sex marriage is wrong and we're gonna support what the
20:52: Bible teaches on this particular topic. There doesn't seem to be a lot of grace for that coming from Tim Keller.
20:57: He's very hard on those people, but he's got all the grace, all the grace in the world for Stephen Colbert.
21:05: Now let's talk about Stephen Colbert for just a moment. Stephen Colbert, I don't know a lot, a lot about him, but just in that little clip, you know, he's not, first of all,
21:16: Tim Keller is a Presbyterian. I just find it interesting. I, and maybe some of you are getting upset at me for this.
21:23: I do believe that there are people who would think of themselves as Roman Catholic, perhaps even attend
21:30: Roman Catholic Church, who, it is possible that there are saved people in the
21:37: Roman Catholic Church. I do believe that. The reason I believe that though is because, and I'm gonna get in all sorts of trouble for this.
21:47: The reason is because I think that they're not operating in accord with Catholic teaching and doctrine.
21:53: They are, they're following what they understand to be true about Jesus from their reading of scripture.
22:00: And they do trust in him for their salvation. They believe in his imputed righteousness.
22:08: They're not buying into the infused righteousness of the Catholic Church through sacraments. And they're not letting that barrier get in their way between them and Jesus.
22:17: I do believe there are people in the Catholic Church who perhaps are some of them that could be immature.
22:25: There, some of them could be, you know, new converts figuring this out. I am open to that idea.
22:34: But generally Presbyterians, Protestants in general, who are Orthodox, they're not gonna come out.
22:41: And really take someone who's
22:46: Roman Catholic and incorporate them into the tent of Christian Orthodoxy and just act like there's really no difference there.
22:59: Because there certainly is a difference between what a Presbyterian, an
23:05: Orthodox Presbyterian would think of as true Christianity and what
23:11: Catholic following Roman Catholic doctrine would think of as true Christianity. It's amazing, this is a very ecumenical type statement from Tim Keller.
23:22: So I don't want to complete this analysis without at least pointing that out, that there's also, so not only is there this double standard of granting grace for someone who's really not sharing that earth shattering, not only is there, well, not showing grace to people who have really tried to hold the biblical line on things like marriage and abortion.
23:48: Not only is there that, and also this really warped understanding of what a public witness should be as far as brilliance and making sure that you're communicating in a form that the culture can handle, making the culture determine your messaging.
24:11: But there's also an ecumenical strain in this whole thing. Stephen Colbert, he's on our side.
24:18: He's doing the work that we should all be doing. We need to support men like him.
24:23: I almost feel the echoes of the Apostle Paul. Support men, support men like him.
24:29: Give men double honor who do really crude jokes on late night
24:36: TV, but when there's a brief moment for them to show how hypocritical they are, they wow the audience and give a little bit of one basic truth that Christians believe, which is that there's an eternity without even going into the gospel or anything.
24:57: So this is just so telling and it grieves my heart because Tim Keller, I've done a lot of study on him.
25:05: People who listen to this podcast know I put a lot out there on Tim Keller and I see a lot of dangerous things.
25:11: I've even seen some false teaching come from Tim Keller. But I do still have that recollection from 15 or so years ago of some of the things that he said that were very good and some of the things that did help some people.
25:25: And to see where he is going, to see how he's doubled down in his elderly years, really his sunset years, he's dying of cancer, it is beyond heartbreaking to see him double down on these horrible ideas that he's had over time.
25:43: And some guys, they get off, Billy Graham, I think of him right now as someone who ended up kind of getting a little off, more than a little off towards the end of his life.
25:57: And he said things that were just non -orthodox. And there's part of me that wanted to say, you know what, he's losing his mind.
26:07: I cut him a little slack here. You know, you have a ministry and I know he went farther and farther to the left the longer he was in ministry, but I don't wanna take away from some of the good things that he did.
26:17: Some, I'm not saying that was all good, but I can show you videos where he's preaching, he's giving you the gospel message.
26:25: And then to see him at the end of his life saying things like with Robert Shuler, implying that there's all these multiple ways to get to Christ.
26:36: You can be in another religion and you can go to heaven. It's just, it was amazing to me.
26:42: Well, Tim Keller's kind of in that stage. You know, he's, the difference to me though is Tim Keller is not losing his mind, as far as I know.
26:49: You know, his body is going, but his mind is not.
26:56: And this is what he's choosing to do for his last years. He's choosing to double down on this kind of stuff.
27:03: And there's so much of it. There's so many Tim Keller things people send me, I just kind of let go because I'm just like, it's not important.
27:11: But, so why even show this? Why show you this? I think for me, it's just, it's very telling.
27:18: And it's a confirmation for me that, you know what? All the suspicions that we've had about some of Tim Keller's, frankly, some of it's false teaching, some of it's just really vague and really compromise sounding and just really disturbing.
27:36: Well, this is, this kind of stuff confirms that there's a problem there. And I think it is helpful for us to mark someone like a
27:45: Keller and say, I mean, this is not someone that we, you know,
27:51: I just preached in Romans 16, the end of it. I'm seeing Keller fit into that category. This is not someone that we need to be promoting, citing.
28:00: We want to be very careful. You know, if you are going to give a Tim Keller book out that has good teaching in it, you know, give a really heavy qualification about it.
28:10: This is someone that does not have, I mean, talk about discernment. I don't even know what to say.
28:18: This is stunning. You know, Stephen Colbert, you know, again, he's a man who not just makes crass jokes, but very pro -abortion, very pro -transgender, and all the evils of the left that the left promotes.
28:36: Stephen Colbert is right there and promoting it on his show. And so I don't, is,
28:45: I guess we give grace to that too. We just kind of let him operate. We let him support the murder of babies. And we just, well, it's worth it because of a 32nd snippet where he says that there's such a thing as heaven.
28:58: You know, this is nuts. This is nuts. This is the death of Christianity if we make people like Colbert the heroes.
29:08: And there's such a desperation for it. That's the thing. There's such a desperation out there for heroes, for people that are
29:15: Christians who can go out there and really represent Christianity. And I'd like to suggest we already have people that do that.
29:24: Some of them are small -time pastors. They're street preachers. Some of them you might hear on the radio.
29:30: There's some bigger names out there. It may not be in the future that you can really have a lot of Christians in some of these industries.
29:39: I'm not saying not to try, but it's a very, very hard and compromising industry to get into the entertainment industry.
29:47: And it will, if you're public about your faith, it is not gonna go well for you.
29:53: And so you have to be somewhat compromised generally. I wanna leave that little door open in case.
30:00: You know, I would love to see Christians involved in Hollywood. I just don't know that that's possible. And I say this knowing people who are involved in Hollywood, and the
30:09: Christians I do know, tend to be more behind the scenes. And so it's a, anyway, let's just finish this off because Tim Keller's written some follow -ups here.
30:20: He retweeted Anthony Bradley, who Anthony Bradley, I believe, is a campus pastor at one of the church, the
30:30: Redeemer churches in New York City. And he said, it just shows how intellectually superior Catholics are at articulating their faith.
30:38: A Protestant would not have been able to do that. Anglicans could. Most evangelicals would say there's no gospel in his answer.
30:45: And so Tim Keller's thinking this is, I guess, somewhat of an astute observation. And this is another thing
30:51: I've noticed. There is such, in both the political conservative world and in the
30:57: Christian world, the evangelical world, Protestant world, there is such a, sometimes a jealousy or respect for Catholics.
31:07: And I am not saying you cannot learn from a Roman Catholic on anything. I'm not saying that.
31:14: There are things, especially, you know, the further back, the thing about the
31:20: Catholic church is it developed over time and you have different errors coming into the church at various, at different times.
31:29: And so there's a trajectory of becoming more and more compromised over time to the point that now you have
31:35: Pope Francis, the communist Pope. So, you know, you go back in church history, you look at people like Thomas Aquinas, you look at Augustine, some very pivotal figures that many of the reformers really drew upon.
31:51: In fact, there's this whole thing on Aquinas lately. I don't, I'm not gonna get into it now, but look, a lot of great
31:56: Protestant thinkers really drew on Aquinas. There's no doubt about this. And I'm not saying you can't learn from some of these people that happened to be part of the
32:05: Roman Catholic church, but, you know, what are we talking about here? We're talking about a comedian who makes crass jokes, supports abortion and transgenderism, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
32:18: And this is a superior Catholic. This is what we aspire to. This is the superior, really, the court jester is the superior
32:27: Catholic who can articulate his faith the way Protestants can't. It's just this kind of smug kind of way, the elitism, this way of looking at, honestly, ourselves.
32:40: I had a whole section in, I think it was Christianity and social justice. I think it was my last book on this topic where I point this out, that there's the image that evangelicals have about themselves.
32:53: They really think of themselves. They bought what the newspapers have been saying since the
32:58: Scopes trial about them, that they're a bunch of ignoramuses, that they're a bunch of dummies. And they're looking for that figure that is gonna come and show that we're not dummies.
33:09: And they're looking to the Catholics. There's a jealousy that the Catholics have this intellectual rigor and public witness that is, and you look at who you're admiring, though.
33:20: This is not some theologian. This is Stephen Colbert. I almost wonder if I'm being spoofed, right?
33:29: Where's the hidden camera? This is amazing to me. But Tim Keller thinks that's a really good take on the situation.
33:35: And then he says, comments from the original tweet remind me that there are habits on Twitter we should reject.
33:41: One, if you cite person X at all, you must answer for everything person X has ever did or said. Well, I don't know what everyone said, but I'm not saying that about Tim Keller.
33:49: I'm not saying he's gotta answer for Stephen Colbert's pro -abortion rants on his show. But I at least think that you shouldn't be saying, pulling him up as an example of how to be a
34:02: Christian public witness when he's supporting the killing of unborn children publicly. Is that too much to ask?
34:08: And then number two, he says, I can attribute opinions to you that you would not own. Well, I'm sure you can.
34:15: But these are all very beside the point. This is a really pathetic response in my mind. It doesn't get at the heart of the issues here.
34:24: So this is sad to me, just because of where Tim Keller's at and the stage of life he's in, that he's doubling down on some of this stuff.
34:34: And I would just encourage you, pray for Tim Keller. Pray that he repents and that he retracts some of this stuff before it's too late, because I know his time on earth is very short.
34:45: Let's read some Bible verses that I think directly address the problem with what
34:52: Tim Keller's trying to do here. One is John 15, 18 through 20. It says, if the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.
35:00: If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because of this, the world hates you.
35:07: Remember that the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
35:14: If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. If the goal is to try to get into the good graces of the world, to get an applause line,
35:26: I'm not saying it's wrong to get an applause line. We like human approval, but if a goal is that that's your public witness, that's the way to do it, in a way the culture can understand.
35:38: So they don't really, you give them the most non -offensive, I guess, bit of your religion you can, and then they clap and they don't get saved, but this automatic posture of those in sin is to hate those who are going to confront that sin.
36:03: The world loves its own. That's why they love Stephen Colbert, all right? He's of them.
36:09: Keller's trying to recruit him to, he's on the side of winsome Christians who are engaging the world correctly as public witnesses.
36:18: No, they love him because he is, he's of them. He approved of their immoral choices, jokes about them.
36:32: And so I don't think it's a mystery why they clap if he's got a little bit of religion, he's not confronting sin.
36:40: You got 2 Corinthians 4, even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the
36:46: God of the world is blind to the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
36:54: What is a way that any culture can handle Christian truth?
37:04: No culture in sin, no people in sin has ever been able to handle truth.
37:17: And when I mean truth, I'm talking about the truth of their condition, their sin, the truth of who
37:24: God is, he's holy. A very nice therapeutic thought and quoting a novelist or something about how there's a world after this somehow.
37:36: And I mean, that's not gonna offend hardly anyone. Start talking about the holy
37:41: God and see what happens. Start talking about the gospel and see what happens.
37:49: If you make your standard what people can handle, you're never gonna get there.
37:56: People can't handle the gospel. It's a work of God that they convert in the first place to the truth.
38:06: Acts 26, 16 through 18, I'm gonna jump ahead,
38:12: I think, to verse 18. Verse 17, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me.
38:32: Talking about the Jewish people and the Gentiles, all people are in this condition of needing their eyes opened.
38:42: They're in the dominion of Satan. And this isn't a mean over -vilification.
38:52: This is what scripture teaches about people, that they're dominated by sin. And so it's very weird for someone who's been in New York City, especially for as many years as Tim Keller has, to be so knowledgeable about the kind of sin that exists.
39:15: New York City, you should know about that, to know what people are like, and then to think that the way you're gonna get the gospel to them, the way you're gonna be a public witness and a successful one is to somehow make it palatable.
39:32: So don't give them more than they can handle. They can only handle so much. I would suggest to you they can't handle anything, which is why you just preach the truth.
39:41: You tell them what they need. If someone has cancer and you say, you give them some really nice thought about something unrelated to the cancer they have that makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside, it doesn't do much.
39:58: They need the chemo and they may not wanna hear that. They need to know they have cancer.
40:04: So let's leave this and let's talk about, what I wanted to address, and I'm gonna try to be as brief as I can here.
40:16: There's been a number of, well, I don't know what word to use.
40:21: Accusations would be one, because they'd fall into different categories, but insinuations, concerns, some of them very legitimate concerns from people, and I wanna address some of them.
40:36: Paul did try to defend himself at times. I don't think it's always time to defend yourself, but I think there is a time for it, and I do need to apologize for one thing, which
40:46: I'm going to do. I'm gonna clarify and to apologize. First thing is, I've been, a few people have said that I'm trying to make money, and that insinuating this is what drives me, and I realize most people don't know kind of what
41:02: I've given up to do this, and I don't expect you to, and they don't know what possibilities and offers
41:09: I've gotten that I've rejected, and I don't expect you to know about those either, and they don't know about my financial state, and the long and short of it is this.
41:20: I gave up a lucrative business, my own business, handyman stuff that could've been very probably making, at this point, if I would've kept with it at least four times as much as I'm making now, if I really was putting all my time and effort into it.
41:39: Another possibility was going the academic route. I kind of blacklisted myself from that, and I lost a number of relationships along the way, people
41:47: I even thought were pretty solid when I decided to come out and talk about what was happening in the church, and there have been some sacrifices along the way.
42:00: I'm not trying to garner sympathy or play the world's smallest violin. I do need people, or I do want,
42:06: I guess I don't need, but I want some people to realize that what you're seeing on the camera is such a small, you turn it on, you turn it off, and you're seeing a very small sliver of everything that goes on here in regard to this topic, and my motive has been to shine the light of truth on these evil deeds of darkness for the purpose of preserving the integrity of the gospel, the revelation from God, a
42:45: Christian view of reality, Christian ethics. These are the things under attack by the social justice movement, so I do consulting,
42:55: I do traveling, I do speaking. I have a film company this year. A lot of my time's gonna be taken up with traveling and doing filmmaking stuff.
43:01: A lot of projects lined up that are very important, in my opinion. A lot of just, and then there's all the personal things
43:10: I got going on, too. I'm not gonna get into the details of all of that.
43:17: There's a lot of, there's just a lot, a lot, a lot on my plate right now, more than I've ever had in my entire life, and I would not be able to do the podcast, write the books, record them on Audible, travel, if it were not for people who give to what
43:39: I'm doing, and it would not be possible for me to do this stuff if I didn't have some sponsors, too, and it helps, and I'd rather have people like Gold River Tea who share my values than some automated ad from YouTube, but the ad revenue does help me be able to do this kind of thing, so this isn't just a side hobby, this isn't, and this isn't something that I'm, I'm certainly not living high on the hog because of it.
44:12: It's not something I'm using to try to make myself rich or anything like that, and in fact, when the time comes, and I realize, and I assess this probably now weekly, am
44:24: I at the place where I've said my piece? Is there really much more I can say about this?
44:31: Are the resources already there? Am I just repeating myself? When it gets to the point where I just feel like I'm repeating myself,
44:37: I'm gonna stop doing it, and you have my word on that. I don't intend to keep this up.
44:46: Now, could something change? Could there be, I mean, could we have another, who knows what this summer will bring and what strange new social justice issues might come up, or maybe the new issue is everyone's gonna believe in ALA.
45:00: Who knows what's coming down the pike, and maybe the podcast will be around to navigate some of these things, but I, it's not,
45:09: I feel very blessed and rewarded to be able to help people.
45:17: This wasn't something I would've chosen for myself, though. This is something that has closed a lot of doors and it's opened a lot of others, and I've said no to a lot of opportunities, even during the podcast.
45:26: I don't talk about this stuff, but it's for one reason, and one reason alone. I wanna help the layman, the people
45:33: I meet when I'm traveling that are in tears sometimes because of the situation at their churches, and it's material that I put out there that's helped them navigate it.
45:43: I think the Lord has me doing this for a reason. That's why I'm doing it. It's not to enrich myself. If it was,
45:50: I would be charging money to come to venues. When people call me and say, John, I want you to come and speak,
45:56: I tell them, and they ask me, what's your price? I say, just let me set up some books in the back, pass the plate around or something.
46:04: I don't ask for an honorarium, and I've been to small churches that didn't have any honorarium, and that's fine.
46:10: It's not why I do it. So, it's an accusation I'll probably get more of, but it's, for anyone who knows me, it is even semi -close to me and knows somewhat of the opportunities
46:22: I've had that I've rejected, or life paths that I could be going down or could have gone down.
46:32: They would know that that's not a fair accusation, and it does smear what I'm doing. And so,
46:38: I think for the sake of the people who listen and benefit from it, I do need to say that, and that's not as much even for my own sake, but just for the people who benefit from this podcast, that's not a smear that you guys need to be navigating with people.
46:54: The other thing is that I'm prideful, and to that, there's a simple answer to that, and the answer is yes,
47:02: I am. And if you knew how prideful
47:07: I was, you wouldn't ever wanna be my friend, right? That's actually, that's the good answer to use anytime you're on witnessing and someone accuses you of anything.
47:17: Even if it's homophobia or something, you say, oh man, if you knew how bad I really was, and then the follow -up, of course, is, but yet,
47:25: Jesus saved me. Yet, he loved me despite myself. Can you, what kind of a love is that?
47:31: So, that's the short answer. The longer answer here is that there was a specific video that people were saying,
47:37: I must have had four or five people reach out about this. It's the video that came out last, or a few days,
47:46: I don't even know, I'm losing track of time. It was the one on TGC and Treven Wax and the
47:51: Gotcha Sermon Clips, and then some people said I came across prideful. I don't, I guess,
47:58: I suppose it's always possible. Maybe I have a blind spot. I did try to fairly look at that, and I, one of the people who messaged me further described it and said that I was being kind of snarky, and I'm usually very measured, and I think, one of the things
48:19: I just wanted to caution people on a little bit is, you're gonna find in scripture some very strong language at times.
48:29: You're gonna find some very passionate, even though we don't have the audio.
48:35: I'm sure, you know, I can't see you whitewash tombs being, you know, in a monotone.
48:42: I mean, there's some passionate stuff, and I don't think that it's reflective of pride all the time.
48:49: Could be, I suppose. The question is motivation. So Elijah mocking false gods.
48:57: Is your God in the bathroom? I mean, kind of crass, Jesus. You whitewash tombs, brood of vipers.
49:06: I mean, you find these things, these phrases with John and Jesus in the gospel, right? Calling Herod a fox.
49:13: You make your converts twice as much the son of hell as you are. You know, calling people dogs.
49:21: You find Paul do this kind of thing. He even says in Galatians that he wishes false teachers would cut off their own manhood.
49:30: These aren't things that I'm just putting in their mouths. These are things you find in scripture. And I'm not prepared to say that the people who said these things are acting out of pride.
49:40: I think they're acting out of a righteous indignation, and there should be one that we have. And frankly, some of the stunts
49:46: Gospel Coalition authors pull, it's to the point now, I think we ought to have some of it.
49:52: The way that they're trying in this, that particular order, trying to smear people who would accurately represent pastors and wolves and false teachers.
50:03: And, you know, tell me, in that Treven Whack's article, where he doesn't really even distinguish between what accurately quoting someone and then what misquoting them is.
50:16: He doesn't even approach it. It's just, you shouldn't ever play a clip from someone that might make them look bad, basically.
50:21: That's the impression you get at the end. What does that do to ministries like Justin Peters?
50:29: What does that do to what I'm doing? But to, you know, to guys trying to shine the light on the social justice stuff.
50:40: You know, we're trying to expose, in many cases, false teachers, wolves. You have to be able to quote them.
50:47: In fact, you wouldn't have an academic process if you couldn't quote people. Jesus wouldn't be able to quote from the
50:53: Old Testament. And I think we find an example in Jesus and Satan, where Satan does take things out of context and he takes quotes out of context.
51:02: And that's really, the emphasis should be on accuracy, truth, not on fashion, style, optics.
51:08: I pointed this out at the beginning, before I even read the article. I was like, TGC does this a lot.
51:14: They don't make truth the thing to focus on. It's all about the feelings and the style and the optics and the fashion.
51:20: And what kind of image are you projecting for people? And is it winsome? And then that's what you get.
51:27: That's what you get. And it's so sad and tragic to me. And I think there should be some righteous indignation about some of that.
51:36: So it's possible. I think I'm trying to, I don't remember if I was acting with, I may have been frustrated with some other things that day, but I certainly was not trying to act in a prideful way.
51:50: And I think it's, look, if you have a concern about me, I appreciate you sharing. I would appreciate also be very specific with me too, if you can.
51:57: Let me know exactly what you're seeing that concerns you. General stuff like pride,
52:02: I don't know always what to do with that. And I'm sure I have it. I'm sure I do. I know I do.
52:08: My wife knows I do. But my goal in that particular podcast was definitely, yeah,
52:15: I'm gonna mock it a little bit. I am, because it's ridiculous. And you know what? I think there does come a time we should be able to say, this is stupid.
52:27: This is evil. This is insulting our intelligence.
52:34: This is, you know, I hate this. I hate what's going on here.
52:39: I mean, these are terms that I'm not even approaching some of the things you find Jesus and Paul saying.
52:46: So I don't see the problem so much with that. And I wonder whether or not some of us have adopted kind of what
52:54: TGC, the paradigm they operate within, which is that this idea that the more soft and measured you are in your tone and you're not using colorful words, you know, that means that you're humble.
53:09: But if you're very dynamic and energetic in your uppity, perhaps, in the way that you communicate and you're very emotional and angry, and you use some more colorful language, and I don't mean curse words necessarily, that, you know, that's somehow, that's prideful.
53:35: And that's not a right way to evaluate pride, I'm just saying. So I don't know whether that's the case, but I figured
53:42: I would throw that out there. Two quick things, people. There's two categories of pushback
53:48: I got for that episode. One was that, hey, John, there are legitimately taken out of context sermon clips. Yeah, I talked about that in the video, though.
53:56: I think some people comment without possibly watching the video, I'm not sure. But I did talk about that, and I gave some examples, actually, of, yeah.
54:06: I mean, look, if you're trying to take a MacArthur clip, like what recently happened, and you're not showing that he's talking about the
54:14: ERLC and them trying to use Southern Baptist money to promote the building of a mosque, and instead you're just, you're leaving that out and you're showing him have a diatribe against religious liberty, then you're not fairly representing
54:28: MacArthur in the situation he was responding to. So there is a difference, and I think we get a good glimpse into that with Satan and Jesus and the way that they quoted scripture differently.
54:40: And then, of course, the other one was, John, why would you critique an article before reading it? I'll be brief on this. I saw
54:46: A .D. Robles do this the first time, and I really was wondering, what in the world are you doing? And then I thought, this is brilliant, after I watched him, because, and I don't do it much, and I probably won't, because there is a danger to it.
54:58: You have to be careful. But if, the intention ought to be, you're not criticizing before you read.
55:08: See, that's actually, that's framing it totally wrong. It's critiquing it as you read, which is something that I was actually trained to do in law school.
55:23: Yes, I did briefly, before I realized what law school actually was, and I dropped out and I went to seminary,
55:30: I did do the LSATs, and you learn how to briefly go through things and to pick out the arguments and know what to look for.
55:38: This is just a skill you have to know for that particular line of work. And it's really important,
55:47: I think, for people listening to sermons or Sunday school, small group, and they're hearing things, and they don't have time to always digest every little thing.
55:54: They need to know what to look for in real time so they can confront it in real time. And the faster you're able to confront something, the better.
56:00: The longer you wait, the more is left to memory. So, I think it's helpful, and people have told me this, when
56:09: I, every once in a while, will do a cold reading, and I will go through something, and I'm showing you, here's what
56:16: I'm looking for, here's what I'm seeing. I'm open to, hey, there might be something coming up that'll surprise us. There might be something that'll shed some light on what
56:23: I just critiqued. But the whole point of it is you're open to that, and you're trying to pick out the thesis.
56:37: I mean, I had to do this for history, too. You had to pick out the thesis. You had to figure out what's the argument, and then where's the flaw?
56:45: So, these are skills that you can learn. And part of the reason I do the cold reading sometimes is just to help people know how to do that in real time.
56:56: And so, anyway, no, I have not critiqued an article before reading it. It's as I read it.
57:02: And I think, let's see, listening with a discerning ear would be the goal there.
57:11: So, the last thing was there was a podcast that came out on two days ago.
57:18: I'm losing track of it, two or three days ago. It was during the height of my COVID.
57:24: I am starting to fade even now, but I had a window on,
57:33: I guess that would've been Thursday, and from like 1 .30
57:39: to 2 .30, and then I was down again. And my, so a friend who
57:46: I trust, I finally had like 1 .30. I had spent the whole morning with a pillow over my eyes.
57:54: I couldn't see. The light was just terrible. And so, my podcast, I think, dropped at like 7.
57:59: And so, it had been out for hours. And I got a text saying, hey, you need to delete your podcast. You left some stuff in there that was unedited.
58:07: And I, in the state I was in with COVID and everything, I didn't even check it. I just deleted it.
58:13: I just pushed the button. And I'm like, whatever, I'm not dealing with this. Later on, in that little window,
58:21: I did go back and I did try to listen for what this person was talking about.
58:27: And I did find the section. And I've had a few people reach out to me since then.
58:35: I think one or two people trying to just mock me over it, which, you know, okay, whatever. It wasn't as bad as what
58:43: I thought. But here's the thing, though. I do want to, I don't wanna minimize this. I do wanna apologize for the legitimate problem that I think it is.
58:55: And then I wanna clarify something because I think some people are getting this way wrong. So, the apology is this.
59:01: Well, let me give you the situation. So, it was a day when I had, sometimes
59:07: I'll record like five podcasts in a row before I'm gonna travel or something just to schedule them out.
59:13: And my camera kept dying on me. And I was frustrated about a number of things that day, like a number of things. But one of them that just was driving me nuts was
59:20: I'd be in the middle of recording and the camera would die. And it's done this in Zoom meetings. It's just, I can't stand it.
59:26: And so, anyway, I've rectified that problem. I have a battery on the way that's supposed to help this.
59:34: But the camera got shut off or it died, the battery died, but you could still hear me.
59:43: And you hear me say, dadgummit, when it first gets shut off. But I'm frustrated. I'm like, dadgummit, right?
59:50: And I know some of you don't care for that. You see it as a substitution. You don't want your kids saying that. And I totally am supportive of that.
59:57: And so, that's one of the things that I feel the need to apologize for. I'm sorry that I said that because this wasn't a frustration over something legitimate.
01:00:07: This was not a righteous indignation. This was a frustration over my camera not working. This is the frustration you have when you're working on the car and it's not working.
01:00:18: And I happen to still record. I happen to still be recording and I just didn't even notice.
01:00:24: And then I think followed it up with, I just was muttering under my breath, like,
01:00:30: I hate this. I hate this. And what I meant was, I hate the fact that my camera keeps shutting off on me.
01:00:37: Well, at the end of that, my wife, this is like 20 seconds, you hear my wife's voice and she's in the other room and she comes in and she says to me, she says, hey, we can hear you.
01:00:53: And she means, we can hear the podcast. And I don't know, she must have been on the phone or something,
01:00:58: I'm not sure. And sometimes she'll do that and then she'll close the door.
01:01:04: Hey, we can hear you, close the door. And it's the reason, that's the reason why she's closing the door. And so she said that and then
01:01:10: I said, yeah, I'm sure you can and that was it, that was the end of it. Now, some people have interpreted this as I was expressing frustration with my wife.
01:01:21: That's not true at all. And I'm gonna put an end to that rumor.
01:01:27: That is, and if you spread that rumor, you're lying about me. You can go ahead and spread it if you want, but it's not true.
01:01:33: I was not talking to my wife. I, as absurd as it may be, I was talking to my camera and expressing my frustration with my inanimate object.
01:01:43: But no, my wife, actually, we talked about it yesterday briefly and she even offered, she said, well, come on the podcast and just tell people that, you know, we're fine.
01:01:55: We have a good marriage. There was no problem there. I didn't feel disrespected that you didn't say anything to me.
01:02:00: She couldn't even remember the whole thing. And I know she doesn't want to, she's more introverted and shy.
01:02:07: She'd rather do her thing and let me do my thing. That's why I don't talk about her on the podcast much, but I said, no, that's not necessary.
01:02:17: I'll just let people know that, you know, that's kind of, that's what happened. So I deleted that podcast.
01:02:24: I didn't think it was a great podcast anyway. I was trying to crank out a bunch in one day so I could just, you know, have them as I was speaking at other places, they would be dropping on my
01:02:34: YouTube channel. I don't know how much more of that I'm going to be doing. It kind of killed me a little, but I do want to say,
01:02:42: I am sorry for expressing that frustration for those who heard it. It's, I am human and I do have flaws and I do have sin.
01:02:53: And in sinful frustration at times, which that would have been that, it would have been a sinful frustration because, you know, the
01:03:00: Lord allowed my battery to die. It's not something that I need to get angry at or I wasn't, I don't know if I was angry, but frustrated at.
01:03:07: So everyone got to hear, those who heard it, probably my most frustrated moment, one of them of that entire week.
01:03:17: And I think God allowed that to happen. I don't know why exactly. Maybe he wanted to humble me, which is fine.
01:03:23: Maybe he wanted people to pray for me because I, you know, it's kind of absurd to get upset at a camera for the battery dying, but there's,
01:03:33: I think there's a lot behind that. And so anyway, so I appreciate everyone bearing with me on that.
01:03:40: And just, I didn't, I needed to say that. So the other thing I wanted to just get to at the end of this is,
01:03:47: I wanted to kind of give you some expectations that I, just some plans that I have for this year.
01:03:55: I'm gonna be changing some things around. There's been a lot going on in my life lately that, you know, frankly, there are times, we all have this, right?
01:04:08: Everyone has this in life. There are times when things seem to be going very well. And then there are times when it just seems like so many things seem to fall apart.
01:04:17: And I've been in a situation, I think, you know, for at least the last couple of months where it seems like things tend to be falling apart more.
01:04:26: Not with the podcast necessarily at all. It's other things, things around me that affect me that aren't me, but there's, and I don't wanna get, this is a public podcast.
01:04:40: I don't wanna get all, I don't wanna go into all the various personal things.
01:04:46: There's a lot of medical things right now for my wife and myself and my family.
01:04:54: We have a death, we had recently a death in the family as well that was, that will affect us for a while.
01:05:02: And there's so much more as well that I just, I'm not gonna go into that.
01:05:08: But it, I tend to be someone who's very,
01:05:14: I see a project and I get involved with the project and I don't wanna let anything stop me during the project.
01:05:20: And I process anything that may have happened afterward, right? And I do it usually by going out into the woods and I pray and I hike and I do,
01:05:29: I exert myself physically and spiritually and then I'm so refreshed.
01:05:35: That's generally how I deal with things. So it's been cold and I've been sick,
01:05:42: I've been traveling. And before that, I just, I've been so busy. I haven't had the chance to really do that as much as I'd like.
01:05:50: And so what I'm going, what I'm gonna be doing, this is just, this is not just for me, this is for you to give you also a better quality podcast is
01:06:01: I'm probably gonna be doing less podcasts at least for the foreseeable future. I'm gonna be incorporating more scripture,
01:06:08: I think, into podcasts. I have a reason for that. I'm going to be,
01:06:18: I think there's a lot of other projects that I have going on as well, a lot of traveling. I see a lot of fruit in that.
01:06:24: I'm gonna be putting a lot of focus on that, a lot of focus on some documentary things that I think are gonna be very important.
01:06:34: And so I'm, I have to figure out some places to cut. And so one of the things is
01:06:40: I'm not gonna be answering a lot of the messages that come in. I'll be answering, if you're a patron,
01:06:47: I'm definitely answering your messages. And it's not because I want money. Someone suggested that. No, it's just, it's not fair.
01:06:55: It's fair to those, it's not fair to those who do support me financially, for me to be able to do that. I do spend a lot of time with people who don't over sometimes things that I realize many of you, you don't understand a lot of the things that I'm involved with.
01:07:12: And so, and I don't blame any of you for this. Believe me, I'm not frustrated one bit with any of you for this.
01:07:19: But many of the requests that I get are, they're very minor things, a lot of them.
01:07:27: I probably get like 70 messages a day. And I try to answer all of them on email, on Gab, on Facebook, all these different things.
01:07:36: And a lot of them are like, John, I wrote this. Can you check it out? John, my pastor said this.
01:07:43: Would you mind, tell me, could you listen to this and tell me? John, what's the problem with this type of theology?
01:07:53: John, what do you think about? Actually, a lot of people are trying to get me to comment on things that, frankly, are a little bit outside of what
01:08:00: I'm trying to focus on right now. And part of me, I've tried to please a lot of folks, and I don't know that I'm gonna be able to do it.
01:08:08: I need to really prioritize what's important and get back to the basics. We don't talk about, and it's not that it's wrong, just so you know, as I say this, we don't really talk about eschatology much on this show.
01:08:20: I don't really talk about a lot of secondary. I'm not talking about baptism on the show. I'm not talking about, oh,
01:08:26: I don't know. I don't know, I don't talk about theonomy, really. I don't talk, there's a lot of things
01:08:32: I just, I don't talk about them. And it's not because none of them are, you know, they're not important. It's because I see some things that are more important right now.
01:08:43: And I might take breaks. I might have some fun episodes. I might do some things that are different. I might talk about some of those things, but it's not the primary focus.
01:08:52: I know there's two topics right now that I'm thinking of.
01:08:57: Some people are really pressuring me to get involved with some battles that are currently happening that are kind of, they're not related to the social justice stuff completely, but they're, you know, they're in that periphery.
01:09:08: They're happening in Christianity, and John needs to weigh in. And at first I was like, yeah, you know, I started reading some books, and you know what?
01:09:15: John doesn't need to weigh in, actually. I don't. I need to be faithful with the platform and the knowledge and the resources that the
01:09:26: Lord has given me. And those things aren't exhaustive. I don't have exhaustive knowledge on everything. And for me to try to become an expert on something is gonna take time away from something else.
01:09:39: And so I'm gonna try to stay as focused as I can.
01:09:45: And you can pray for me with this, by the way. Please, please do. And I'm not saying not to reach out to me, okay?
01:09:50: I'm just saying I may not get back to you. I'll try to read the messages. I may not be able to, all right?
01:09:56: And it's nothing against you. It is just, I have a very, very busy schedule, and I really have to invest my time in the best possible way
01:10:06: I can. I'll give you an example of that. If I'm able to produce, which I've, it's been on my list, like a workbook for my last book,
01:10:15: Christianity and Social Justice. And then I can give that to everyone. Here's a workbook.
01:10:20: Here's a small group study guide. That can help answer a lot of the questions I get, rather than reinventing the wheel every time, right?
01:10:27: If I can, you know, if someone's coming to me with Romans 13, right? And I'm, hey, here's my view on Romans 13. I can do that, or I can write a book on Romans 13.
01:10:39: And you all have it, right? So those are the things. I would really recommend, you know, if you have questions, basic questions on social justice, get the resources
01:10:50: I've already put out there. Get the books I have. You know, I'll be happy to, as I can, try to answer questions, but I really have to be guarded with my time a little bit.
01:10:59: So I did need to make that announcement. I am excited on, I'm gonna end this on an up note.
01:11:04: I am excited about this year. There's a lot going on. And look, the Lord, the Lord has been very good to me, and very good to you.
01:11:11: I don't even know whoever's listening out there. I don't know all of you. I don't know everywhere you're coming from.
01:11:17: The fact that you're able to listen to this podcast right now, though, tells me that he's blessed you in some way.
01:11:24: You have the ability to do this, on your phone or your computer or wherever.
01:11:29: You have the ability to access this kind of information. That was unknown until very recently. You have the resources to know theology.
01:11:39: Like we've never had. And of course, the Lord Jesus Christ has made himself available.
01:11:45: His salvation is available to those who repent and put their trust in him. He came. He came so that you may have life, have it abundantly.
01:11:54: He took your sin. You can't take that away.
01:12:00: There's nothing that can, nothing can separate you from the love of God. So I hold on to that.
01:12:06: I hope you're holding on to that, at the very least. And I've seen some wonderful things, wonderful just churches.
01:12:15: I think of right now, Pastor Jerry Doris, when I was at Reformation Church there in Shelbyville.
01:12:21: They formed recently, at the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. That's pretty recent.
01:12:28: And I mean, they're growing. People are even moving there to be at his church. But they're so involved in the community.
01:12:34: They're motivated, they're evangelizing. And I want you to know something. I'm meeting Christians like that all over the place.
01:12:40: You might say, well, where are they in my area? Well, I don't know. Maybe you're the one that needs to be like that and start the trend.
01:12:47: I'm saying they're popping up more, though. And there's an alternative to the, what
01:12:54: I just expressed to you from Tim Keller, this ridiculous, I guess all the evangelists should just be like Stephen Colbert.
01:13:01: That, what in the world? No, there's some solid people. And you might not ever hear their names.
01:13:08: And that's okay. And they're okay with that. And that's what makes you know that they're solid, that they are okay with that.
01:13:15: And they're about the Master's business. And the Master rewards those people. And so despite trials, the
01:13:23: Lord Jesus Christ walks with us through those trials. So I want to just let you know,
01:13:28: I'm not like down in the dumps. You probably hear my voice. I got the COVID and my, I'm just not gonna be able to give you a very animated and a tone that's not 10 decibels below what it normally is.
01:13:45: But I truly am blessed. I truly am thankful to so many of you.
01:13:51: And I'm thankful most of all to Christ for everything that's happened in the last three, three and a half years on this podcast.
01:13:59: And we're gonna, we're going full steam ahead, but I'm, it's just gonna look a little bit different,
01:14:07: I think, just a little bit. So I hope that was helpful for some of you. I hope the update was helpful for you.
01:14:14: And thank you so much for those who pray. I think, I really believe it does work and it does mean something.
01:14:20: I can't tell you how much, how much I think the timing of me getting
01:14:26: COVID was due to people praying for me. I know people think that's weird. I got,
01:14:31: I literally started feeling bad. All right, I speak in Nashville, my last place I speak.
01:14:37: I start, and that earlier that day, I had a radio show. I had, there's so many things. It's, it was that night
01:14:43: I'm driving back. I, I turn out the light,
01:14:49: I go to bed and it's as I'm about to fall asleep, I think,
01:14:54: I don't feel the greatest. That's what I started. So the next day
01:14:59: I wake up and I'm like, oh man, and it gets progressively worse during the day. If it was as bad as it was that night,
01:15:05: I wouldn't have been able to get on the plane, but it was just enough that I could, I could get home. And right when it was really bad is when
01:15:12: I was able to be home. It didn't interfere with any of the places I spoke. And I see that as the grace of God.
01:15:22: I, I don't know where I got it. I hope everyone's okay at my Nashville, where I was speaking in there in Nashville.
01:15:29: I hope, you know, there wasn't someone who came in and everyone's getting, getting their Omicron, but I just see that as from the
01:15:39: Lord. So anyway, I just want to thank you for your prayers and your continued prayers, and God bless all of you.