March 20, 2023 Show with Dr. Joe Morecraft on “The Deadliest Sin a Christian Can Commit”

Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer

George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend

Jim Thorpe, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the Church and the world today.

Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet

Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 20th day of, what is the month?

March. I've been running around so ragged preparing for my pastor's luncheon and the three -day

Bible conference coming up in April that I don't know where my head is at right now. But it's the 20th day of March, 2023, and I'm delighted to have back on the program

Dr. Joseph C. Moorcraft III, who is an author and the pastor at Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia.

We're going to be addressing a very important topic. Obviously, the title itself will reveal how extremely vital this topic is.

The topic of today is the deadliest sin a Christian can commit, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Dr.

Joe Moorcraft. It's good to be with you, Chris. Seems like it's been a long time.

Yes, those technical difficulties, I think, were the main reason that separated us for a while, but I'm glad that we have you back on the program.

And I know my audiences, because you definitely have a growing fan club in the

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listening audience. People contact me quite regularly to tell me how much they love hearing you on the program.

And tell us about Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia. We are a small congregation of a small denomination called

Reform Presbyterian Church Hanover Presbytery. We have 20 or so congregations.

We are thoroughly evangelical, thoroughly reformed, thoroughly committed to the

Westminster Confession of Faith, and thoroughly dedicated to carrying out the

Great Commission. We have just sent three times a team to south of the border to witness to people in tent cities, these migrants.

There are thousands of them in the tent cities and 200 or more come a day. And so we sent a team of five people, some of them

Reform Baptists, some of them Reform Presbyterian, and interpreters to go down there to places like Juarez and preach wherever they can get a crowd.

And God has really blessed that. And we hope maybe we can do it again sometime.

We also, our congregation comes from all kinds of backgrounds.

And they are dedicated to the Reformed faith. They know why they're there. We have a lot of young adults.

They come to my house once a month, about 30 of them. And we study the subject,

Controversial Fundamentals of the Christian Faith. And of course, the first five fundamentals are the five points of Calvinism.

We are connected with an organization led by an elder in our church named

Tim Renshaw called ComprehensiveChristianity .com. You can see it on the

Internet. And he spends all of his time putting my papers and manuscripts in the book form as audio books or paperback books and gets them out.

He just yesterday came out with a new commentary on the book of Exodus.

So now we have a commentary on Genesis, commentary on Exodus, and we're just going to keep going as long as God gives us breath.

And I'm assuming the website for that is the same as your wonderful commentary, eight volume commentary,

Authentic Christianity, on the larger catechism of the the larger

Westminster Catechism, which can be found at ComprehensiveChristianity .com.

Is that the same website for the other titles that you were just mentioning? God has used that, too, and has had a lot of people purchase it.

We've given away a few copies, but it is practical, readable, thorough.

It goes through every question and answer of the Westminster larger catechism. If you know anything about it, that's several hundred.

And we've even had some people read it all the way through. We have some people that read it to their children every night.

So it's not just for pastors. It is for pastors. It's not just it's not academic at all.

It is for a Christian who wants to grow deeply in the knowledge of the scriptures.

And Dr. Joey Piper of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, the

President Emeritus, he does a commercial on this broadcast for that eight volume commentary.

And with the likes of someone of his caliber, that is saying a lot that he would publicly in his own voice record a commercial for that eight volume commentary.

So I'm assuming, as I just asked, that all of your publications, all of the publications that you are affiliated with can be found at comprehensivechristianity .com,

or is there a different website? Ask me that again, please.

Is comprehensivechristianity .com the website for all of the publications affiliated with you?

For all of the public, or authenticchristianity .com, either one of those.

And you can get everything I have. All right, great. And now we are entering into our discussion, quite a provocative title that you came up with, the deadliest sin a

Christian can commit. Well, tell us about this because obviously with that kind of urgency and warning attached to a title, that's something that we all need to know.

What is this sin? Well, obviously it has a little hyperbole in it, in the title, but not much, and I wanted to impress people, as you say, with the seriousness of the issue, what got me thinking about this issue is for several months,

I've been preaching on the first 12 chapters of the book of Genesis, and those are wonderful chapters.

If you don't understand the first 12 chapters of Genesis, you're not going to understand the gospel or the meaning of creation, the meaning of your own life.

And so some of it people think is boring when you get these genealogies, but like so -and -so begets so -and -so and lived to be such -and -such and died, et cetera.

But those are some of the most important parts, because right at the very beginning of the human race, there are two lines of humanity, both of them coming from Adam and Eve.

One of them we can call the sons of the serpent or the seed of the serpent, and those are human beings that have never been regenerated by the word of God and are in rebellion against him.

And then the others are the seed of the woman, and those are human beings that have been regenerated by the word of God.

So you have two genealogies in the very beginning of the human race. One is the ungodly line.

They're very cultured. They have accomplished a great deal. They're the line of Cain and they are the ungodly line.

The godly line is the line of Seth, and those are people who love

God and people who seek to serve him, and as long as those two lines, those two genealogies were separate, things were going well on the earth, but then something happened that caused the flood.

And that is the sons of God, that is the godly line.

The men from the godly line fell in love and started being attracted to the daughters of men, that is the women from the ungodly line, and rather than staying separate, they intermarried.

The sons of God married the daughters of men, and that accelerated violence and evil in the world to such a point that God had to wipe the human race off the face of the earth in Noah's flood.

So what led to Noah's flood was the godly line letting their children marry the ungodly line.

Or we could put it this way, what led to Noah's flood and the wiping out of the human race was

Christians letting their children marry non -Christians. Believers letting their children marry unbelievers.

It only takes a generation to corrupt a whole race and a whole line when there's that kind of intermarriage, so the deadliest sin, in my opinion, with a little hyperbole, the deadliest sin is

Christians intermarrying with non -Christians, and you letting your children marry those that are not

Christians. It brought on Noah's flood. Don't ever forget that. It led to the drowning of millions of men, women, and children.

It led to the acceleration of evil in the world, and throughout the scriptures, synthesis, the combining of Christianity with non -Christian thought, the combining of Christian people with non -Christian people has always been,

I think, the major problem of the church from the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the

Old Testament, you had the worship of Jehovah, but during the days of the kings and the prophets, there was always this temptation of Baalism, that is to blend the worship of Jehovah with the worship of Baal, and then in the

New Testament, and particularly in the book of Colossians, there was always the attempt to blend

Christianity with Greek thought, and the book of Colossians was written to try to stop that, nip that in the bud, because when you commit synthesis, philosophical synthesis, relational synthesis between Christian thought, non -Christian thought, between Christians and non -Christians, it's going to have an immediate, as well as long -term, deadly effect upon the church.

The, I think the godliest generation of Israelites was the generation that entered the promised land for the first time under Joshua's leadership.

They were godly. They knew what they had to do. They had to defeat the

Canaanites. They couldn't identify with them. They couldn't intermarry with them.

But within a generation or two, they not only were intermarrying, they were worshiping

Canaanite gods, so that within two generations, the leaven of idolatry had corrupted

Israel, and that's how deadly this is throughout throughout history.

It's not simplistic to say, don't let your children marry

Christians. Don't let your children get emotionally entangled with non -Christians.

Don't be afraid that when you see your daughter or your son attracted to a non -Christian, do not be afraid,

Paris, to say to your children, no, this cannot happen, this person you may not date.

So I can't be strong enough in emphasizing the deadliness of what

I call synthesis. Amen. And how far do you counsel a

Christian go with that? I'll give you an example. Uh, I know a man,

I'm not going to mention his name, a strong believer. Has been a believer for many years.

His daughter married a man who is in a cult, a cult that denies, uh, the

Trinity, uh, denies monotheism, denies salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

And he and his wife would not attend the wedding. They refused to.

And, uh, I think it's been quite a while since there has been communication other than perhaps some kind of long distance, long distance outreach of evangelism and so on, uh, because this, uh, this young lady converted to the cult as well.

Uh, so do you think that that gentleman went too far and, and not attending the wedding and giving it his blessing?

Um, no, I do not. Um, I'm not necessarily saying that that is the rule at all times, but we've got to stand by our decision.

I'll give you an example. When my children, I can remember a time when my children were very little and, uh, one of them wanted a boyfriend and, uh,

I, I guess eight or nine years old. And I said, is he a

Christian? Maybe even earlier, seven or eight. I said, is he a

Christian? She said, I don't know. I said, you got to find out. You can't have boyfriends that are not

Christians or God will be very angry with us. So we've got to impress this upon our children from their earliest days.

Uh, and when I say synthesis between Christians and non -Christians,

I also include synthesis between the reformed faith and synthetic versions of Christianity.

So you would, I was just going to say you would include in that Roman Catholicism, I'm assuming.

Yeah. I'm not only impressed by children not to marry, uh, non -Christians, but I impressed upon them to make sure that whoever they were falling in love with was a reformed person.

Because if they're not, if you're not united at the basic, most central area of life in theology, you're not going to be united in anything else.

And I will tell this one story about one of my daughters. She wanted to get married, she thought, to this young man in our church who was a pre -ministerial student.

And I was very impressed with him. I thought he had a great character.

I thought he understood the reformed faith. So he came to me and asked me if he could marry my daughter.

And I said, yes. Well, he was slow on the uptake.

He was slow about asking her to marry him. So I saw that my daughter had a very close relationship with this other young man.

They worked together. They were very close friends. Neither one of them admitted they were in love with the other, but I could see what's happened.

So I take the son out, the boy, out to eat and I say to him, so -and -so, just in case you're interested in my daughter.

I'm not saying you are, but just in case you're interested in my daughter, let me tell you what

I'm looking for in a man. Number one, he's got to be able to support her on his salary.

Number two, I don't care how much you make or don't make, but you've got to be able to support her on your salary.

And second, you've got to be reformed. Well, they'd never heard the word reform before.

So I took the time to explain the basic tenets of the reformed faith, the sovereignty of God, sovereignty of God's grace, the authority of God's law, things like that.

And so several weeks go by and he comes back to me and he says,

Mr. Moorcraft, I'd like to marry your daughter. I said, well, let me ask you two questions.

Can you support her on your salary? He said, no. Are you reformed?

He said, no. So I said, no. So he started crying and that made me feel like a heel.

So he goes to my daughter and tells her what happened.

And she said to you, you better believe my daddy. She said,

I'm in my early 20s, but I'm under his authority. So now he's taking me seriously.

He goes back and he studies the Bible, reads books on the reformed faith, comes to me for some

Bible studies. And a few months later, he comes back to him and he says, well,

Mr. Moorcraft, I'm back. I said, I figured you would be. Let me ask you a couple of questions.

Can you support her on your salary? He said, yes, or I can now that I have two jobs.

I said, number two, are you reformed? He said, well, I can truthfully say that I am in many areas of my thought.

There are some places I'm still struggling with, but I will say I am reformed in those basic tenets that you talked about.

I said, well, then you can have her. And I gave him permission to marry her.

And then and then he said something to me that made me realize he was thinking like a

Calvinist now. But if he realized what he said, it would have embarrassed him. He said,

Mr. Moorcraft, when you turned me down the first time, I was mad at you. But I've had time to think.

And I realized I wasn't ready to get married. And so, as Joseph said to his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

Amen. I thought when you said or when you asked him, can you afford to support my daughter?

He was going to say, not after all those reform books I bought. Yeah, that's right.

By the way, that's exactly right. By the way, I know that you share with me a love for Votie Baucom.

And I wanted to plug a book by him. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but Votie Baucom wrote a book back in 2009.

Wow, it was a long time ago. What he must be if he wants to marry my daughter.

And I want to let our listeners know if they contact Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, CVBBS .com,

you can ask them for what he must be if he wants to marry my daughter by Votie Baucom.

If they don't have it, they will order it. It's it is a crossway publication. And obviously, since CVBBS .com

sponsors the show, I would hope that you would order it through them. I bet that's good notice from Votie.

Yes, I'm sure it is. And I'm sure that anybody approaching Votie with intentions to marry any of his daughters.

I don't know. Of course, I think you've seen Votie Baucom. Looks like a brick wall with a head on it.

Yeah, I'm sure that that most, if not all young men approaching him would take him very seriously.

And added to that intimidating figure that he has.

He is a a martial arts expert. So that that's all added to the mix there.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to mess with him. I'm going to give our listeners our email address. If you would like to ask

Dr. Joe Moorcraft the question, our email address is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. Give us your first name, at least. Your city and state of residence and your country of residence.

If you live outside the USA, only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

And I could readily understand this topic lending itself to people having personal and private questions.

If you have a child who is being courted by an unbeliever and you're in the midst of a family feud over this, something like that, perhaps you are the one courting or being courted and you need counsel and so on.

Perhaps the nuances of this whole subject need to be clarified. Well, send us an email to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

And you may remain anonymous for things like that. But please, if you're just asking a general question, give us your first name, at least your city and state and your country of residence.

Don't go away. We're going to be right back after these messages. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

I'm very excited to announce that my longtime friend, Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I are heading down to Atlanta, Georgia again for the

G3 National Conference. That's Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd on a theme that I have been preaching, teaching, writing about and defending in live public debates for most of my life.

The sovereignty of God. I'll be joined on the speaking roster by Steve Lawson, Voti Baucom, Paul Washer, Virgil Walker, Scott Annual and Josh Bice, founder of G3 Ministries.

And there's more great news. Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio can get you a 30 percent discount off the registration fee.

Go to G3Min .org. That's G3Min .org. And enter promo code

G3ISIR. That's G3ISIR for the 30 percent discount.

Chris Arnzen, I look forward to seeing you all Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd for the

G3 National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on the sovereignty of God. Make sure you stop by the

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Exhibitor booth and say hi to Chris Arnzen while you're there.

Go to G3Min .org and enter promo code G3ISIR for your 30 percent discount off the registration fee.

I'm Brian McLaughlin, president of the Secure Com Group and an enthusiastic supporter of Chris Arnzen's Iron Sharpens Iron Radio program.

The Secure Com Group provides the highest level of security, closed circuit television, access control and communication systems for Manhattan's top residential buildings, as well as churches, commercial properties, municipalities and more.

We custom install exactly what you need to protect yourself, including digital recording, offsite viewing and connectivity from most smart devices, from simple code activated systems to the latest technology using facial recognition.

The Secure Com Group has it. We also provide the latest in intercom and IP telephone systems.

In addition, we provide superior networking platforms. We'll create, maintain and secure your local network, whether it's a

Wi -Fi or hardwire network. We'll implement the latest secured firewall, endpoint solutions and cloud backup.

I would love to have the honor and privilege of helping protect the lives and property of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners and their associates.

For more details on how the Secure Com Group may be of service to you with the very latest in security innovations, call 718 -353 -3355 at 718 -353 -3355 or visit

SecureComGroup .com That's SecureComGroup .com

This is Brian McLaughlin of the Secure Com Group joining Chris Arnzen's family of advertisers to keep

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air. Puritan Reformed is a

Bible believing kingdom building devil fighting church. We're devoted to upholding the apostolic doctrine and practice preserved in scripture alone.

Puritan Reformed teaches men to rule and lead as image bearing prophets, priests and kings.

We teach families to worship together as families. Puritan is committed to teaching the whole counsel of God so that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.

We sing the Psalms, teach the law, proclaim the gospel, make disciples, maintain discipline and exalt

Christ. This is Pastor David Reese of Puritan Reformed in Phoenix, Arizona.

Join us in the glorious cause of advancing Christ's crown and covenant over the kings of the earth.

Puritan Reformed Church. Believe. Build. Fight. PuritanPHX .com

The Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, Growing a beard is a habit, most natural, scriptural, manly and beneficial.

Grace and peace to all the Iron Sharpens Iron listeners. This is Tony with thestandardbeardcare .com.

That's right, thestandardbeardcare .com is a Christ exalting, better known and simple name in beard care.

So if you have a beard, know a guy with a beard or ladies, if you're married to a man with a beard, head over to thestandardbeardcare .com.

Check out the vast array of all natural handcrafted products to make that beard scriptural, manly and beneficial.

And when you do so, you will help to support Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. When you use the promo code IRON at checkout, you will receive free shipping to anywhere in the lower 48 and 10 % of your donations will go back to Chris Harmsen and Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

So head over to thestandardbeardcare .com where the standard is the standard.

It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners from all over the world.

Here's Joe Riley, a listener in Ireland who wants you to know about a guest on the show he really loves hearing interviewed,

Dr. Joe Moorcraft. I'm Joe Riley, a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listener here in Ottawa in County Kildare, Ireland.

Going back to 2005, one of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpens Iron is

Dr. Joe Moorcraft. If you've been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Dr. Moorcraft and Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia are largely to thank since they are one of the program's largest financial supporters.

Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming is in Forsyth County, a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Heritage is a thoroughly biblical church, unwaveringly committed to Westminster standards, and Dr.

Joe Moorcraft is the author of an eight -volume commentary on the larger catechism. Heritage is a member of the

Hanover Presbytery, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, and tracing its roots and heritage back to the great

Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Heritage maintains and follows the biblical truth and principles proclaimed by the reformers, scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone,

Christ alone, and God's glory alone. Their primary goal is the worship of the triune God that continues in eternity.

For more details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com.

That's HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com, or call 678 -954 -7831.

That's 678 -954 -7831. If you visit, tell them

Joe Reilly, an Iron Sharpens Iron radio listener from Ottawa in County Kildare, Ireland, sent you.

When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the

NASB. I'm Dr. Joe Moorcraft, pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Anthony Uvinio, founder of TheReformRookie .com

and co -founder of New York Apologetics, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.

I'm Pastor Tim Bushong of Syracuse Baptist Church in Syracuse, Indiana, and the NASB is my

Bible of choice. I'm Eli Ayala, founder of Revealed Apologetics and staff member with the

Historical Bible Society, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Josh Miller of Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Joe Bianchi, president of Calvi Press Publishing in Greenville, South Carolina, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Jake Korn of Switzerland Community Church in Switzerland, Florida, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. Here's a great way for your church to help keep

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air. Pastors, are your pew Bibles tattered and falling apart?

Consider restocking your pews with the NASB, and tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

Go to nasbible .com. That's nasbible .com to place your order.

We here at Iron Sharpens Iron Radio praise God for the generous monthly financial support of Royal Diadem Jewelers, educated by and affiliated with the

American Gem Society, Jewelers of America, and the Gemological Institute of America.

For the perfect custom -designed engagement ring, or any one -of -a -kind piece of jewelry created exactly according to your imagination and specifications,

Royal Diadem Jewelers has you covered. No matter where you live in the world, Royal Diadem will walk you step -by -step through every stage of the process, and even hold a high -tech internet virtual visit, using state -of -the -art jewelry design technology to serve you.

They start by listening carefully to determine your needs. They're interested in making what you want, not what they want to sell you.

From rough design to digital model, to photorealistic image, to wax prototype model, to the finished product, they're continually listening to your input, likes and dislikes, making any changes necessary along the way.

This will ensure that your custom jewelry will turn out exactly as you dreamed, and well beyond your expectations.

Visit royaldiadem .com. That's royaldiadem .com today.

Sterling Vanderwercker, owner of Royal Diadem Jewelers, his wife, Bronnie, his business partner and manager,

Brian Wilson, and the entire family, thank you all for listening to, praying for, and supporting the work of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

And don't forget folks, royaldiadem .com is still offering Iron Sharpens Iron Radio this amazing deal.

Anybody in our audience who purchases a piece of jewelry for $100 or more from royaldiadem .com,

or has a custom design piece of jewelry created, 100 % of the profits from that sale will go directly to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

So whether you're purchasing something that they already have in stock at royaldiadem .com, or you're having a customized engagement ring created, or perhaps you're taking your church logo, your parachurch ministry logo, your denomination logo, your seminary logo, you're turning it into a piece of jewelry, or whatever else your imagination and creativity can conjure up, they will take whatever is in your brain and turn it into a stunning, breathtaking, mind -blowing physical piece of jewelry.

So I'm urging you, while this offer still lasts, because we have no idea when they're pulling the plug, please go to royaldiadem .com,

royaldiadem .com, mention Chris Arns and Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, and either purchase a piece of jewelry that they already have in stock, or get the ball rolling on a custom design piece of jewelry.

That's royaldiadem .com, always mention Chris Arns and Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. We're now back with Dr.

Joseph C. Moorcraft III, author and pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia.

Our theme today is The Deadliest Sin a Christian Can Commit. And I think we should probably make it clear to our listeners,

Dr. Moorcraft, I would hope they would be either sensible enough to already know this, or if they listened to this program for, if they have listened to this program for a long enough period of time, they would have also known this coming from me and my guests.

But you are not at all in any way, shape, or form prohibiting what is called interracial marriage.

Of course, that's a horrible term because we believe there's only one race. But a mixed marriage where the different spouses have different skin colors, one might be very black and one might be as pale as pale could be.

And you're not saying that that is in any way, shape, or form wrong. You are talking about religious mixed marriages and where people put their trust for eternal life.

That's what you're discussing here today, correct? I'm glad you brought that up.

That's correct. The Bible does not forbid interracial marriages. It takes wisdom.

I've done a lot of counseling with interracial marriages, and it does take wisdom on the part of the couple to be able to handle all the challenges they're going to have that they wouldn't have otherwise.

But the key to this thing of not letting your children marry non -Christians, the key to it is parents not just using the imperative and saying, you cannot marry non -Christians, but from their earliest days to teach them the truth so that they learn to love the truth, the reformed faith, the sovereignty of God, the grace of God revealed in salvation, the necessity of holiness of life, so that your children will love those truths.

They'll understand them from their earliest days. Get a shorter catechism,

Westminster Shorter Catechism, which was originally written for children. And it's a series of questions and answers for children to teach them the basic tenets of Christianity.

And so marinate their mind in the truth. That is going to be the secret, not just giving commands, but telling them what the truth is, and why is it important to believe the truth?

And why is it important not to marry somebody who does not believe the truth? And how valuable is truth over against error?

So the secret to this thing is the mother and the father being diligent teachers of their children from their very earliest days.

When my little last baby was born, Mercy, she was just a few weeks old.

And sometimes at night she would wake up, and every now and then

I would go and rock her and give Becky a little break. So I would rock her, and as I was rocking her,

I'd preach to her over and over. And I would say, God is your father,

Jesus is your redeemer, the Holy Spirit is your helper. God is your father,

Jesus is your redeemer, the Holy Spirit is your helper, over and over and over.

So that these things would be things they love. So that if you would ask my children, when did they become

Christians? They would say, we don't remember a time when we weren't. We don't remember a time when we didn't love

God as our father. We don't know a time when we didn't hate sin and want to repent of our sins from the earliest days.

So that is the key, is for the father to make sure you go to a good church and as much as possible, whatever boy he or she or girl he's interested in, will come to your church.

You don't want your children going to church where they have synthetic Christianity. I mean, this is a constant vigilance on the part of the father and the mother.

They can never let their guard down and they must make sure their children understand they can never let their guards down either.

And as I said a little earlier, this thing of synthesis of blending Christianity with false philosophies and false religions has plagued the church for thousands of years.

I think it's been one of our biggest problems. I already told you about Baalism in the

Old Testament and Greek philosophy in the New Testament.

Well, even in the early church, one of the mistakes the early church made after the apostolic church is they wanted to evangelize.

Their motives were great. They wanted to evangelize the world. And so they wanted to make sure they were presenting the gospel as clearly as possible.

So they would blend Christianity with Greek Hellenistic thought, thinking that that would make the gospel clearer when as a matter of fact, it didn't.

And so in those early days, the church, when you see this synthesis between Christianity and Greek philosophy, you see something that has plagued us ever since in medieval history.

We have Augustine in the fifth century who wanted to go with the word of God. And he, in his early days, tried to blend it with various forms of philosophy, but he realized that didn't work.

And so after trying his best to blend them, he finally had to realize, I've got to make sure that the word of God is purely presented.

Middle ages, they blended the Bible with Greek philosophy. And that has been with us and plagued

Protestantism ever, in fact, Calvinists have had to struggle with blending

Christianity with non -Christian thought until 1941.

And in around 1941, a book was written called

Christianity and Bartianism. And it was by Cornelius Van Til.

And this is the first man in the history of the church that taught the church how to escape synthesis.

I'm assuming you're talking about Van Til's critical review of Karl Barth.

Yes, he was the first man to be critical of him. The evangelical world since 1920 or the late teens had been enamored with him because he was using language that sounded like our language.

And when they didn't realize that he was as dangerous as a cock cannon, he used biblical language, but he reinterpreted biblical language by the philosophy of existentialism.

And so he, even though Christians thought that if you follow Bart, we can get rid of the old liberalism of the 19th century.

This man talks our language. He doesn't talk our language at all. It's another form of synthesis.

And that has weakened the church even farther. And so in the 20th century, you have the beginning of the church escaping

Bartianism, 19th century liberalism and various other kinds of ism and get back to the basic biblical

Old Testament and New Testament understanding of Christianity. We have an anonymous listener who says, to be perfectly honest,

I think your view of insisting that a spouse for your daughter be reformed might be a little too strong.

And here's where I'm coming from. Would you accept the proposal of a young man to one of your daughters if he said to you,

I am evangelical. I believe the Bible. I am conservative. I agree with reformed theology in many aspects, but I'm not fully convinced of it.

And yet I will promise to you that I will attend your church or a congregation teaching your reformed views where I will bring your daughter and raise our children.

Would that be acceptable to you? Well, I have two daughters. I have made neither one of their sons.

I've not required neither of their husbands. I have not required them to come to my church because they both live a long way from me, but I have demanded that they be reformed in large measure.

And so because of my daughter's love for the reformed faith and the pressure they put on their new husbands and because of the husband's change of mind concerning the reformed faith, they all have gone to reformed churches.

I mean, my oldest granddaughter is 21 years old. They've all gone to reformed churches and I haven't demanded it of them.

It's been the desire of my daughters and of their husbands to put their children in a church where they would be safe.

And when I say that, there are some evangelical and alleged reformed churches that are not safe.

The pastors are celebrities. They are well -known.

They say some things that are good and they intermix things that are good with things that are not good, both in their books and in their preaching.

And those kinds of preachers are not safe. A liberal who never preaches the word of God, whose sermons are full of non -truth are in some way safer than celebrity preachers who have a little bit of truth and a little bit of error.

And these days, people don't have much discernment. They can't discern. They can't say what, which is good and which is bad, which is false and which is true.

I could mention a whole bunch of them, so could you. And for instance,

I'll give you an example. One of my daughters and her family go to a church. The preacher is a

Charles Spurgeon Baptist. He's got one of the best names I ever heard for a preacher.

His name is Brad Evangelista. And he preaches the gospel of sovereign grace.

So I didn't make them have to go to church anywhere. They knew to go because their hearts had embraced the

Reformed faith. I don't think I'm being too harsh. I don't think

I'm being too narrow. My daughters, for instance, have thanked me for protecting them from young men who did not believe the

Reformed faith. And once the Reformed faith captures your heart, you're safe.

And so it's important to make sure that your children, with you, go to safe churches, not where they're going to get half the truth and half of non -truth, but where they're going to get the truth of God pure and unmixed.

And there are many churches like that around. Most of them are very small, but they're all over the place.

And so I don't want to be too harsh, but I realize there is a difference between truth and error, between good and evil.

And I want to make sure that my grandchildren understand that difference too. And if their mother and daddy do not understand the difference between truth and falsehood and good and evil, then the grandchildren will even be worse off in the future.

So it is a way by which I not only can instruct my children and my grandchildren and hopefully even my great -grandchildren.

We have to go to our midway break. You can pick up where you left off when we come back, brother.

And please be patient with us, folks. The midway break is always a bit longer than the other breaks because Grace Life Radio, 90 .1

FM in Lake City, Florida, requires of us a longer break in the middle of the show because the FCC requires of them to localize geographically all of their programming, including

I Am Trump and Zion, with local public service announcements and other local kinds of things that they air during midway break.

While we simultaneously air our globally heard commercials. Please use this time wisely.

Write down questions for Dr. Joe Moorcraft and send them to chrisorenson at gmail .com. But also write down as much of the contact information provided by our advertisers as you possibly can so that you can more frequently and successfully contact our advertisers.

We hope that you will very often purchase their products, use their services, support their parachurch organizations and visit their churches.

But when you cannot do any of those things, there's one thing you definitely can do. You can contact our advertisers using the contact information they give in their ads and simply thank them for sponsoring

I Am Trump and Zion Radio if indeed you love the show and are grateful to God and to our advertisers that they are willing to share the wealth that God has given them with us so that we can remain on the air.

So if you really do believe that and you are grateful, please thank our advertisers and also send in your questions to Dr.

Joe Moorcraft to chrisorenson at gmail .com. chrisorenson at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence and your country of residence if you live outside of the

USA. Don't go away. We are going to be right back right after these messages from our sponsors.

Yeah, James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

I'm very excited to announce that my longtime friend Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I are heading down to Atlanta, Georgia again for the

G3 National Conference that's Thursday, September 21st through Saturday, the 23rd on a theme that I've been preaching, teaching, writing about and defending in live public debates for most of my life, the sovereignty of God.

I'll be joined on the speaking roster by Steve Lawson, Voti Baucom, Paul Washer, Virgil Walker, Scott Annual and Josh Bice, founder of G3 Ministries.

And there's more great news. Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio can get you a 30 % discount off the registration fee.

Go to g3min .org that's g3min .org and enter promo code

G3ISIR that's G3ISIR for the 30 % discount.

Chris Arnson, I look forward to seeing you all Thursday, September 21st through Saturday, the 23rd at the

G3 National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on the sovereignty of God. Make sure you stop by the

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Exhibitor Booth and say hi to Chris Arnson while you're there.

Go to g3min .org and enter promo code G3ISIR for your 30 % discount off the registration fee.

I'm Dr. Joseph Paipa, President Emeritus and Professor of Systematic and Applied Theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Every Christian who's serious about the Deformed Faith and the Westminster Standards should have and use the eight -volume commentary on the theology and ethics of the

Westminster Larger Catechism titled Authentic Christianity by Dr. Joseph Morecraft.

It is much more than an exposition of the Larger Catechism. It is a thoroughly researched work that utilizes biblical exegesis as well as historical and systematic theology.

Dr. Morecraft is pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, and I urge everyone looking for a biblically faithful church in that area to visit that fine congregation.

For details on the eight -volume commentary, go to westminstercommentary .com westminstercommentary .com

For details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit heritagepresbyterianchurch .com

heritagepresbyterianchurch .com Please tell Dr. Morecraft and the saints at Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, that Dr.

Joseph Piper of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary sent you. If you're near retirement or thinking about retiring, you probably have questions.

How do you make your savings last? How much should you take out? And when? You're ready for retirement, but are your finances?

Art Amundsen and Edward Jones Financial Advisor can help you build a strategy to help make sure your finances keep up with your long -term needs.

Do what it takes to get there. Now it's time to make the most of retirement. Visit edwardjones .com

that's edwardjones .com or call 717 -258 -4688 717 -258 -4688

We here at Iron Sharpens Iron Radio are forever grateful for the generous financial support of Art Amundsen, Edward Jones Financial Advisor in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Call 717 -258 -4688 today. Hello, my name is

Anthony Uvinio and I'm one of the pastors at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Quorum, New York and also the host of the reformrookie .com

website. I want you to know that if you enjoy listening to the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio show like I do, you can now find it on the

Apple's iTunes app by typing Iron Sharpens Iron Radio in the search bar. You no longer have to worry about missing a show or a special guest because you're in your car or still at work.

Just subscribe on the iTunes app and listen to the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio show at any time day or night.

Please be sure to also give it a good review and pass it along to anyone who would benefit from the teaching and the many solidly

Reformed guests that Chris Arnzen has on the show. Truth is so hard to come by these days, so don't waste your time with fluff or fake news.

Subscribe to the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio podcast right now. And while you're at it, you can also sign up for the reformrookie .com

podcast and visit our website and the YouTube page. We are dedicated to teaching Christian theology from a

Reformed Baptist perspective to beginners in the faith as well as seasoned believers. From Keech's Catechism and the

Doctrines of Grace to the Olivet Discourse and the Book of Leviticus, the Reform Rookie podcast and YouTube channel is sure to have something to offer everyone seeking

Biblical truth. And finally, if you're looking to worship in a Reformed church that holds to the 1689

London Baptist Confession of Faith, please join us at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram, New York.

Again, I'm Pastor Anthony Ovinio and thanks for listening. As host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations.

A church I've been strongly recommending as far back as the 1980s is Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey, pastored by Alan Dunn.

Grace Covenant Baptist Church believes it's God's prerogative to determine how he shall be worshiped and how he shall be represented in the world.

They believe churches need to turn to the Bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship

God in spirit and truth. Grace Covenant Baptist Church endeavors to maintain a

God -centered focus. Reading, preaching, and hearing the Word of God, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, baptism, and communion are the scriptural elements of their corporate worship, performed with faith, joy, and sobriety.

Discover more about Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey at gcbcnj .squarespace

.com. That's gcbcnj .squarespace .com.

Or call them at 908 -996 -7654. That's 908 -996 -7654.

Tell Pastor Dunn that you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. If you love

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, one of the best ways you can help keep the show on the air is by supporting our advertisers.

One such faithful advertiser who really believes in what Chris Arnton is doing is

Daniel P. Patafuco, serious injury lawyer and Christian apologist.

Dan is the president and founder of the Historical Bible Society. Their mission?

To foster belief in the credibility of Scripture as the written Word of God. They go to various churches, schools, and institutions to publicly display a rare collection of biblical texts, along with a fascinating presentation by Mr.

Patafuco demonstrating the reliability of Scripture. To advance the cause of the

Gospel, they created a beautiful, perfect facsimile of the genealogy of Jesus Christ from the original engravings contained in a first edition 1611

King James Bible. This 17th century hand -engraved chart shows the family tree of Jesus Christ going back to Adam and Eve.

This book is complete with gorgeous full -size illustrations of Noah's Ark and the

Tower of Babel and an explanation of why the genealogy of Jesus is so important for his claims to the throne of the universe.

Originals of this work are in museums and nobody's ever made it accessible to the public in a large book form before.

You can have your own copy of this 44 -page genealogy book for a donation of $35 or more.

Visit historicalbiblesociety .org That's historicalbiblesociety .org

Thanks for helping to keep Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio on the air. When Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the

Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the

NASB. This is Darrell Bernard Harrison, co -host of the Just Thinking Podcast.

And the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Tom Buck at First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas.

And the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Kent Keller of Faith Bible Church in Sharpsburg, Georgia.

And the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Andrew Rapport, the founder and executive director at Striving for Eternity Ministries.

And the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Mark Romaldi, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Greenbrier, Tennessee.

And the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Christopher Cookston, pastor of Prineville Community Church in Prineville, Oregon.

And the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Matt Tarr, pastor of High Point Baptist Church in Larksville, Pennsylvania.

And the NASB is my Bible of choice. Here's a great way for your church to help keep

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air. Pastors, are your pew Bibles tattered and falling apart?

Consider restocking your pews with the NASB. And tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

Go to nasbible .com. That's nasbible .com to place your order.

Getting a driver's license, running a cash register, flipping burgers, passing sixth grade.

Do you know what they all have in common? They all require training, assessments and certifications.

But do you know what requires no training at all? Becoming a parent. My name is

A .M. Brewster. I'm the president of Truth Love Parent and host of its award -winning podcast. I've been a biblical family counselor since the early 2000s.

And what I've discovered is that the majority of Christian parents have never been biblically equipped to do the work of the ministry in their homes.

That's why Truth Love Parent exists. We serve God by equipping dads and moms to be the ambassador parents

God called and created them to be. We produce free parenting resources, trained church leaders, and offer biblical counseling so that the next generation of dads and moms can use the scriptures to parent their children for life and godliness.

Please visit us at truthloveparent .com. Every day at thousands of community centers, high schools, middle schools, juvenile institutions, coffee shops, and local hangouts,

Long Island Youth for Christ staff and volunteers meet with young people who need Jesus. We are rural and urban and we are always about the message of Jesus.

Our mission is to have a noticeable spiritual impact on Long Island, New York by engaging young people in the lifelong journey of following Christ.

Long Island Youth for Christ has been a stalwart bedrock ministry since 1959. We have a world -class staff and a proven track record of bringing consistent love and encouragement to youths in need all over the country and around the world.

Help honor our history by becoming a part of our future. Volunteer, donate, pray, or all of the above.

For details, call Long Island Youth for Christ at 631 -385 -8333.

That's 631 -385 -8333. Or visit liyfc .org.

That's liyfc .org. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said,

Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted.

He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves he has no brains of his own.

You need to read. Solid Ground Christian Books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the

Prince of Preachers to heart. The mission of Solid Ground Christian Books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to Christians in the present and future, and to publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world.

Since its beginning in 2001, Solid Ground has been committed to publish God -centered,

Christ -exalting books for all ages. We invite you to go treasure hunting at solid -ground -books .com.

That's solid -ground -books .com and see what priceless literary gems from the past or present you can unearth from Solid Ground.

Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. And please, folks, always make solid -ground -books .com

your very first stop for all of your gift -giving needs. They bring back into print and also publish for the first time nothing but the finest in Christian literature dating back to the

Protestant Reformation and extending forward to our current day, including such modern -day authors as Dr.

James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries. So please go to solid -ground -books .com frequently, purchase generously, and always mention that you heard about them from Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

Before I return to my guest, Dr. Joseph C. Moorcraft III of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia, I just have a couple of more announcements to make.

Please, folks, if you love this show, go to ironsharpensironradio .com, click support, then click, click to donate now.

You could donate instantly with a debit or credit card in that fashion. And if you prefer snail mail, sending in a physical check to a physical address the old -fashioned way, there will also be a physical address that appears on your screen when you click support at ironsharpensironradio .com,

where you can mail your checks made payable to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Also, if you want to advertise with us, whether it's your church, your parachurch ministry, your business, your private practice, like a law firm or a medical firm, or perhaps it's just a special event that you want to promote.

Well, whatever it is, as long as it's compatible with what I believe, I would love to help you launch an ad campaign as quickly as possible.

We are just as much in urgent need of your advertising dollars as we are in your donations. So if you want to advertise, send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com

and put advertising in the subject line. Please remember, folks, I never want anybody in the audience giving their own church where they are a member less money than you are accustomed to giving to your own local church on the

Lord's Day in order to give us a financial gift. In other words, don't cut into that money that you have set aside for your

Lord's Day giving to give to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Please never do that. Also, if you are really struggling to survive and make ends meet, wait until you are more financially stable and back on your feet before you send us a financial gift.

Two things that are clear in the Bible about your finances is that you are commanded to provide for your church and your family.

Providing for Iron Sharpens Iron Radio is obviously not a command in the Bible. But if you love the show, you don't want it to disappear and you do have extra money above and beyond your ability to provide for church and family.

You have extra money collecting interest in the bank. You have extra money for benevolent recreational and trivial purposes.

Well, please, if you love the show and don't want us to go away, share some of that money with us so that we can continue broadcasting.

Go to ironsharpensironradio .com, click support, then click. Click to donate now. Also, if you are a man in ministry leadership, you are invited to attend the next

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio free pastor's luncheon at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania on Thursday, April 13th, 11 a .m.

to 2 p .m. Featuring two guest speakers, my dear friends, going back to the early 1990s,

Dr. William Webster, who is a Banner of Truth author. He's also a pastor in Battleground, Washington.

And the Reverend David T. King, who is a co -author with Dr. Webster of the massive 900 page, three -volume work, groundbreaking work,

Holy Scripture, The Ground and Pillar of Our Faith, which is a three -volume work proving that the church fathers believed in sola scriptura long before the

Protestant Reformation. These two men will be speaking at my free pastor's luncheon.

And not only will you be fed for free and also be fed spiritually with two excellent messages for free and share fellowship with your colleagues in ministry for free, you will also leave that place with a heavy sack of free, brand new books donated by Christian publishers all over the

United States and the United Kingdom that I have personally selected from them. So you can't beat that.

Everything is free. There's no ulterior motive. These pastor's luncheons were created by my precious late wife,

Julie, in the 1990s. And I continue to conduct them even after she is going home to be with the

Lord in loving memory of her and in tribute to her. I hope that you can attend.

The three days following that free luncheon, Friday the 14th, Saturday the 15th, and Sunday the 16th of April, those same two men,

Dr. Webster and Reverend King, will be speaking at a three -day Bible conference at a different church,

Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. And the theme of the three -day conference is

The Gospel, Removed by Rome, Rescued by the Reformers, and Rejected by Modern Evangelicals.

It's absolutely free of charge. If you want to register for either or both of these events, send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com

and put luncheon and or conference in the subject line. That's also the email address where you can send in a question to Dr.

Joseph C. Morecraft III. That's chrisarnson at gmail .com. Oh, and I forgot one thing. If you are in need of a biblically faithful church, no matter where in the world you live, if you are homeless spiritually and need a

Christ -honoring, theologically sound church like Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia, send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com

and put I need a church in the subject line. I've helped many people all over the world find churches, sometimes even within a couple of minutes from where they live, that are

Christ -honoring, biblically faithful, theologically sound, and doctrinally solid. So send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com

and put I need a church in the subject line. Dr. Morecraft, we have a listener question for you from Ted in Moundville, Alabama.

And he says, I was struck by some of the language used by Dr. Morecraft in the first segment as he laid out his thesis.

He spoke of Christian fathers not permitting and not allowing their daughters to date and marry unbelievers.

In most states, one must reach the age of majority in order to marry and therefore do not require the permission of anyone other than their prospective spouse in order to marry.

And though many adult children of Christian parents would never dream of going against their parents' wishes to enter into a marriage of which their parents disapprove, there are many devout, doctrinally sound

Christians whose children would never dream of not entering into a marriage simply because of parental disapproval.

In these very unfortunate cases, something we used to call persuasion is required.

Does Dr. Morecraft have any counsel to offer parents in such situations? Well, my response to that is all of those laws in every state that says a child after he turns a certain age is no longer accountable to his father are damnable laws.

And they are destructive to the family. That it doesn't matter what the state says.

It that God says that our children are accountable to their parents. Now, and my children never argue with that.

They, and if you teach them to love the truth, they won't argue with it. If you capture their hearts and they respect your justice and your affection, they won't argue with it.

They're not perfect. But they won't argue with the fact that you are in their lives as their teacher and as their protector.

And I'm not a tyrant. And I don't think my children would have said

I am a tyrant. But as I've said before, there is a difference between good and evil and truth and falsehood.

And one of the most important things we can teach our children is to love those.

And their children are, I love the good and the love the truth. Our children are not perfect.

But nevertheless, they are under our authority as husbands and as mothers.

And so that's not to say we are dictators. But it is to say,

I really don't care what the state says about my children. They don't have any authority over my children.

It seems that the listener agrees with you and is just asking for counsel on how to persuade your child who is about to be married to somebody that a parent disapproves of, how to persuade them not to do that.

I think that's what the listener, Ted, is saying. Let me give two great verses that parents can use on themselves and on their children.

One is, bad company corrupts good morals. No ifs, ands, and buts.

That's in 1 Corinthians 15. Bad company corrupts good morals.

It doesn't say bad company corrupts bad morals. It says bad company corrupts good morals.

And so if you have children that you let run with people with bad morals, that's going to reflect on them.

It's going to rub off on them. And so you've got to stand firm.

And there are some times when your sinful child will want to do what's wrong and you are not to let them.

You are not to permit them to do wrong and to do evil. So if you capture their hearts, you got them.

If you capture their hearts with the truth, then they're going to love you for being their guardian and their protector.

There is another verse that says don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

And you want to teach that to your children from the day they're very young. Not to be yoked together with unbelievers.

What communion does light have with darkness? None. I have seen many marriages go down because some young woman has convinced herself that her husband is a

Christian when in fact she knows in her heart he is not.

So you've got to protect her. My brother -in -law, Wayne Rogers, was preaching at a youth conference and he said one time the same thing

I've been saying is parents are not to let their children marry unbelievers because the

Bible says don't be yoked together with unbelievers. And there's no exceptions to that.

And so after he finished, the pastor of the church where he was preaching came to the podium and thanked him for his good sermon.

But he said I would disagree with Brother Rogers on one thing. And that is

Christians ought not to be yoked together with unbelievers unless the

Holy Spirit leads them to. Well, the

Holy Spirit's not going to lead anybody to go against his word. Well, thank you,

Ted. Excellent question. We have another anonymous listener and the anonymous listener says do you approve of a

Reformed Baptist man marrying a Pato Baptist woman or vice versa as long as one of those being married agrees to give the authority of how and when the children are to be baptized to the other spouse?

That is a very, very good question. It's a very complex question.

That babies, when babies come along and one spouse is

Presbyterian and the other is Baptist, when babies come along, unless you've settled this issue beforehand, somebody's going to have to compromise the faith.

And that's never good. If you have a Baptist spouse and a

Presbyterian and babies comes along, you're going to have a Baptist or not. Well, if you have a

Baptist, the Baptist has got to compromise. If you don't have a Baptist, the

Presbyterian's got to have a compromise. So that's why it's so important to have these issues settled before you get married.

I can't emphasize that enough. I think that was built into the anonymous listener's question that as long as one agrees beforehand to give the authority to the other spouse on how and when the children should be baptized.

And could it be, I mean, obviously there are endless scenarios in the things that we're talking about, but you might have, let's say, a

Presbyterian woman who is not thoroughly convicted that infant baptism is true.

So she grants her husband to make the decision on that or the reverse. It could be a woman who's a

Baptist and she's not thoroughly convinced that only repentant believers are qualified to be baptized.

So she lets her Pato Baptist husband make the decision. And obviously those things could be reversed where the man is saying one thing and letting his wife make the decision.

I mean, aren't those somewhat open doors for this?

In my opinion, they are. But then how are you going to answer the question? When it comes to you have a baby, you haven't made up your mind, either one of you, one's a

Baptist, one's a Presbyterian. You haven't made up your mind. How are you going to make a decision?

Who's going to have the final word? I believe usually the husband has the final word.

But it is a difficult question. And that's why it's so important for couples to be united in the truth and united in doctrine.

Because as all these questions come along, you want to continue to have unity between the two of you.

And if you can't have unity in the basic elements of life, you can't have unity anywhere else.

What communion hath light with darkness? Truth and falsehood are two entirely different things.

So make up your mind on these things. What does the scripture teach about all these issues?

So that when the time comes, you've already committed yourself to scripture, you know what scripture says, and you're prepared to make righteous decisions.

It's not easy. Well, we have another anonymous listener. I had a feeling this was going to happen.

Another anonymous listener asks, in those very tragic situations where someone's daughter backslides into sexual immorality and is involved in fornication and becomes pregnant, should you allow the unbelieving husband or the non -reformed husband to marry her because he is repentant over the issue and wants to make sure that the child and your daughter is cared for?

Obviously, when the listener is using the word husband, that's not yet a husband.

It's a prospective husband. So the daughter's not married yet?

But she's pregnant, and the man, the biological father, and the daughter say, look, we repent of this.

We know that we were involved in wickedness, but we want to do the right thing. We want to get married. We want to raise this child.

We will raise it in the faith. And you have the man, or it could be the reverse situation, obviously, who is not reformed or maybe even an atheist, but in every other way that you could imagine might be an ideal prospect for a son -in -law.

When do you bend the rules, if ever? Does a situation like that, where somebody wants to do the right thing and care for that child as a bona fide husband and father, but is not either a believer or is not reformed?

All right, let me make sure I got it straight. So there's this girl and this man that are courting each other or are engaged, but they're not married yet.

And the boy gets the girl pregnant, correct? Yes, and I don't even know if an engagement has to be a part of the scenario.

They're just dating or what have you, but the young man wants to do the right thing.

He realizes he has sinned and the girl has also realized and repents of sinning by having premarital relations, but they want to be married to raise that child in a two -parent home.

But the husband or the wife, whichever one, or should I say the man or the woman, is not either a believer at all or is not reformed.

Well, there is a law in the Old Testament that says if two people sleep together and they're not engaged and they're not married, they sleep together, they must get married even if she's not pregnant.

They must get married if the boy has the father's approval of the girl.

And the father, of course, isn't going to give the approval if he's not a Christian, but he can teach the boy and he can be patient.

But the Bible does say if a man and a woman who are not married sleep together and it's consensual, then they must get married if the boy has the father of the girl's approval.

If he does not have the approval of the father, the son must pay the woman a large amount of money.

Now, since that is an Old Testament law, would you say, according to your own views of theology, that that carries over to the

New Covenant? I do believe that, yes, sir. I believe the moral law of God in both

Old and New Testament is one. Jesus said in Matthew 5, 17,

I did not come to abrogate the law of God or any jot or tittle of the law of God in the

Old Testament. I came to confirm it, fulfill it, to put it into effect.

And so I believe that whereas the ceremonial rituals are no longer applicable, the moral law of God is.

I have had occasion in my ministry to apply that law to a young man.

And he was not the one later that got engaged to the woman, but he was broken.

He slept with her before she got engaged to somebody else and he was completely broken.

And he had not dealt with it and obviously had to deal with it. And so that takes great wisdom to know how.

So I told him, since we didn't want her engaged to marry husband, to know something that was done a long time ago.

I said, give them a very expensive wedding gift. And he had repented and that eased his conscience and everything went on as it should be.

And she married the guy she was engaged to. So I believe God's law matters and it works when you obey

God's law. God blesses you. The Lord honors those that honor him. Now, since we are approaching the latter part of the second half of the program, why don't you be more vivid and crystal clear about why you used such a word as deadliest sin in referring to those that disobey

God and intermarry with those that do not share the true

Christian faith. Give us some ways in which this is absolutely deadly. Obviously, we believe true

Christians can't lose their salvation. So there might be some five -point

Armenians out there who might agree with you on the severity of this issue, but they would say that the

Christians lose their salvation. Obviously, we don't believe there is such a thing of that happening. But how is this deadly?

How is it deadly? Yes. It's deadly in that it can destroy Christianity in one generation.

Is that if you and your wife are Christians and you let your daughter marry somebody that's not a

Christian, then in one or two generations, non -Christianity has infiltrated your family and will most certainly affect your grandchildren and your great -grandchildren.

So you as a grandfather must be highly protective not only of your children, but of their children.

Yes, I do also know some tragic situations where a woman, she was a single mother and became a

Christian later on in her life, and her son married an unbeliever, and that wife forbid the grandmother, the

Christian grandmother, from ever talking about Christ and the Bible in the household with the grandchildren.

And things like that that are real horrible stories.

I even know... And they're really deadly and it happens all the time. Yeah, I also know of a story where, a true story, where a woman that I've known for many years, a wonderful Christian lady, unfortunately, she was convinced that her boyfriend that she had before she was a

Christian, she was convinced of the authenticity of his conversion after she told him that there's no way that we could proceed with this relationship unless you are born again.

I have to break off the relationship with you and certainly not marry you. So therefore, we must go our separate ways.

And he convinced her that he converted. And on the honeymoon, I mean, this man was baptized and everything.

On the honeymoon, the next day when they woke up, he said to her, guess what?

I made it all up. I actually had the harshness and the lack of conscience to wickedly spring it on her even in that fashion.

I mean, unbelievable. But that shows you how patience and discernment have to come in when examining the heart.

And like I say a lot of times to young women that I'm counseling, don't ever be satisfied with second best.

Don't ever convince yourself that somebody you're not sure about is a better Christian than you are.

Don't be satisfied with second best even if you have to wait longer to get married.

Some young women get in a hurry and some young guy shows them affection and treats them kindly.

And so they're convinced this guy is a Christian, even though in their heart of hearts, they know either he's not or he's very confused in what he believes.

If you be satisfied, if you young women are ever satisfied with second best, then you'll be sad the rest of your life.

We have to go to our final break. It's going to be a lot more brief than the other breaks. If you have a question, send it in immediately because we're rapidly running out of time.

ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Joe Moorcraft after these messages. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

I'm very excited to announce that my longtime friend Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I are heading down to Atlanta, Georgia again for the

G3 National Conference. That's Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd.

On a theme that I've been preaching, teaching, writing about and defending in live public debates for most of my life, the sovereignty of God.

I'll be joined on the speaking roster by Steve Lawson, Voti Baucom, Paul Washer, Virgil Walker, Scott Anuel and Josh Bice, founder of G3 Ministries.

And there's more great news. Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio can get you a 30 % discount off the registration fee.

Go to g3min .org. That's g3min .org and enter promo code

G3ISIR. That's G3ISIR for the 30 % discount.

Chris Arnzen, I look forward to seeing you all Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd for the

G3 National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on the sovereignty of God. Make sure you stop by the

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Exhibitor booth and say hi to Chris Arnzen while you're there.

Go to g3min .org and enter promo code G3ISIR for your 30 % discount off the registration fee.

I'm Brian McLaughlin, president of the

SecureComm Group and an enthusiastic supporter of Chris Arnzen's Iron Sharpens Iron Radio program.

The SecureComm Group provides the highest level of security, close circuit television, access control and communication systems for Manhattan's top residential buildings, as well as churches, commercial properties, municipalities and more.

We custom install exactly what you need to protect yourself, including digital recording, offsite viewing and connectivity from most smart devices.

From simple code activated systems to the latest technology using facial recognition, the

SecureComm Group has it. We also provide the latest in intercom and IP telephone systems.

In addition, we provide superior networking platforms. We'll create, maintain and secure your local network, whether it's a

Wi -Fi or hardwire network, we'll implement the latest secured firewall, endpoint solutions and cloud backup.

I would love to have the honor and privilege of helping protect the lives and property of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners and their associates.

For more details on how the SecureComm Group may be of service to you with the very latest in security innovations, call 718 -353 -3355.

That's 718 -353 -3355. Or visit

SecureCommGroup .com. That's SecureCommGroup .com.

This is Brian McLaughlin of the SecureComm Group joining Chris Arnzen's family of advertisers to keep

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air. Puritan Reformed is a

Bible -believing kingdom -building devil -fighting church. We are devoted to upholding the apostolic doctrine and practice preserved in Scripture alone.

Puritan Reformed teaches men to rule and lead as image -bearing prophets, priests and kings.

We teach families to worship together as families. Puritan is committed to teaching the whole counsel of God so that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.

We sing the Psalms, teach the law, proclaim the gospel, make disciples, maintain discipline, and exalt

Christ. This is Pastor David Reis of Puritan Reformed in Phoenix, Arizona.

Join us in the glorious cause of advancing Christ's crown and covenant over the kings of the earth.

Puritan Reformed Church. Believe. Build. Fight. PuritanPHX .com.

The Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, once said, growing a beard is a habit most natural, scriptural, manly, and beneficial.

Grace and peace to all the Iron Sharpens Iron listeners. This is Tony with thestandardbeardcare .com.

That's right, thestandardbeardcare .com is a Christ -exalting, better -known, and simple name in beard care.

So if you have a beard, know a guy with a beard, or ladies, if you're married to a man with a beard, head over to thestandardbeardcare .com.

Check out the vast array of all -natural, handcrafted products to make that beard scriptural, manly, and beneficial.

And when you do so, you will help to support Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. When you use the promo code

IRON at checkout, you will receive free shipping to anywhere in the lower 48, and 10 % of your donations will go back to Chris Harmsen and Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

So head over to thestandardbeardcare .com, where the standard is the standard.

This is Pastor Bill Sousa, Grace Church at Franklin, here in the beautiful state of Tennessee.

Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support Iron Sharpens Iron Radio financially.

Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, autonomous body of believers which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in scripture through the person and work of our

Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, the end from which we strive is the glory of God.

If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes, or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will join us some

Lord's Day in worshiping our God and Savior. Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about Grace Church at Franklin.

Our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org That's gracechurchatfranklin .org

This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our sovereign

Lord, God, Savior, and King Jesus Christ today and always.

If you love Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio, one of the best ways you can help keep the show on the air is by supporting our advertisers.

One such faithful advertiser who really believes in what Chris Arnton is doing is

Daniel P. Patafuco, serious injury lawyer and Christian apologist.

Dan is the president and founder of the Historical Bible Society. Their mission?

To foster belief in the credibility of the Bible. They believe in the credibility of Scripture as the written Word of God. They go to various churches, schools, and institutions to publicly display a rare collection of biblical texts, along with a fascinating presentation by Mr.

Patafuco, demonstrating the reliability of Scripture. To advance the cause of the

Gospel, they created a beautiful, perfect facsimile of the genealogy of Jesus Christ from the original engravings contained in a first edition 1611

King James Bible. This 17th century hand -engraved chart shows the family tree of Jesus Christ going back to Adam and Eve.

This book is complete with gorgeous full -size illustrations of Noah's Ark and the

Tower of Babel and an explanation of why the genealogy of Jesus is so important for his claims to the throne of the universe.

Originals of this work are in museums and nobody has ever made it accessible to the public in a large book form before.

You can have your own copy of this 44 -page genealogy book for a donation of $35 or more.

Visit historicalbiblesociety .org That's historicalbiblesociety .org

Thanks for helping to keep Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio on the air. When Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the

Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the

NASB. I'm Dr. Joseph Piper, President and Professor of Systematic and Homiletical Theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Taylors, South Carolina, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Chuck White at the

First Trinity Lutheran Church in Tonawanda, New York, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.

I'm Pastor Anthony Mathenia of Christ Church in Radford, Virginia, and the NASB is my

Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Jesse Miller of Damascus Road Christian Church in Gardnerville, Nevada, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Bruce Bennett of Word of Truth Church in Farmingville, Long Island, New York, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Rodney Brown of Metro Bible Church in Southlake, Texas, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Jim Harrison of Red Mills Baptist Church in Mayapac Falls, New York, and the

NASB is my Bible of choice. Here's a great way for your church to help keep

Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio on the air. Pastors, are your pew Bibles tattered and falling apart?

Consider restocking your pews with the NASB, and tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio.

Go to nasbible .com. That's nasbible .com to place your order.

What do they all have in common? They all require training, assessments, and certifications. But do you know what requires no training at all?

Becoming a parent. My name is A .M. Brewster. I'm the president of Truth Love Parent and host of its award -winning podcast.

I've been a biblical family counselor since the early 2000s. And what I've discovered is that the majority of Christian parents have never been biblically equipped to do the work of the ministry in their homes.

That's why Truth Love Parent exists. We serve God by equipping dads and moms to be the ambassador parents

God called and created them to be. We produce free parenting resources, train church leaders, and offer biblical counseling so that the next generation of dads and moms can use the scriptures to parent their children for life and godliness.

Please visit us at truthloveparent .com. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

If you've watched my Dividing Line webcast often enough, you know I have a great love for getting Bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity.

And besides that, they feel so good. I'm so delighted I discovered Post Tenebrous Lux Bible Rebinding.

No radio ad will be long enough to sing their praises sufficiently, but I'll give it a shot. Jeffrey Rice of Post Tenebrous Lux is a remarkably gifted craftsman and artisan.

All his work is done by hand from the cutting to the pleating of corners to the perimeter stitching.

Jeffrey uses the finest and buttery soft imported leathers in a wide variety of gorgeous colors like the turquoise goat skin tanned in Italy used for my

Nestle All in 28th edition with a navy blue goat skin inside liner and the electric blue goat skin from a

French tannery used to rebind a Reformation study Bible I used as a gift. The silver gilding he added on the page edges has a stunning mirror finish resembling highly polished chrome.

Jeffrey will customize your rebinding to your specifications and even emboss your logo into the leather, making whatever he rebinds a one of a kind work of art.

For more details on Post Tenebrous Lux Bible Rebinding, go to ptlbiblerebinding .com.

That's ptlbiblerebinding .com. Welcome back,

Dr. Morecraft. We have yet another anonymous listener. Well, folks, it looks like we are not going to be able to continue the program with Dr.

Morecraft. I'm sorry, folks, but we're going to have to leave the program and the way it was because for some reason,

Dr. Morecraft cannot hear me. I've tried logging out and logging back in.

It is not working. So I'm going to use the remainder of this time to let our listeners know or remind them about some special events remember to if you want to register for the

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Free Pastors Luncheon, which is being held Thursday, April 13th, from 11 a .m.

to 2 p .m. at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania, featuring Dr. William Webster and also featuring

Reverend David T. King. Please send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com

chrisarnsen at gmail .com and put Pastors Luncheon in the subject line. It's absolutely free of charge.

And also, if you want to register for the three -day conference featuring

Dr. William Webster and Reverend David T. King, send me an email also to chrisarnsen at gmail .com

chrisarnsen at gmail .com That's being held from Friday, the 14th of April through Sunday, the 16th of April at a different church,

Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. So just send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com

and put either Luncheon and or Conference in the subject line and we will get you registered.

Also, please remember if you have any intention to attend the

G3 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, which is the conference that you've been hearing

James White promote in my broadcast every day, three times a day. Please remember to use the promo code

G3ISIR when you register for the

G3 Conference at g3men .org g3men .org

And please use the promo code G3ISIR You'll get 30 % off the registration fee.

And that conference, just to remind you, is being held from September 21st through September 23rd in Atlanta on the theme

The Sovereignty of God. And the lineup is absolutely amazing.

I believe they have over 20 speakers. Some of those will be breakout session speakers.

But some of the primary speakers at this conference that you should know about are

Vody Baucom, Stephen Lawson, Paul Washer, Phil Johnson, James White, Justin Peters, Ken Ham, and James Coates, the pastor in Canada that was arrested for refusing to close down his church during the

COVID crisis. Virgil Walker, Darrell Bernard Harrison, and many more.

So go to g3men .org g3men .org And when you register, use the promo code

G3ISIR G3ISIR And I hope that all of you have a safe and happy and joyful and Christ -honoring weekend and Lord's Day.

And I hope that you all always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.