0:00
People hop on as they will.
0:03
Now, I'm not a normal, oh, BCV Piper, who is already
0:12
So if you guys are here, if you're seeing this come up on the live, welcome.
0:17
I wanna thank you guys for being a part of what we're doing here, and this is definitely not a pro setup.
0:22
Everything here is sort of last minute, having fun.
0:25
And we're gonna send out a clarion call here to YouTube, try and get some people to come,
0:31
or to Twitter, try and get people to know what's going on.
0:34
So let me get that link out there.
0:39
Oh, ask me anything, it shows it right there.
0:42
Can I share that same link that's at the top?
0:46
I will send you, hold on just a second.
0:48
I'm gonna send you the link right now.
0:51
And we will see if this works.
1:13
I just posted it, so let me send it to you.
1:17
Can you see the, there should be a private chat.
1:23
Okay, I'll send it to you in a private chat.
1:45
Man, we got questions already coming through.
2:00
All right, tweeted it out.
2:08
All right, so first of all, how you doing, man?
2:15
Hey, congratulations on your big victory.
2:18
You are not only now the AMillennial King, but you are within hours of being
2:24
the 1689 Cigars 2024 Tournament Champion.
2:30
Very surreal because I did not at all expect it.
2:35
I didn't expect to make it past round two.
2:38
And even round one, I was concerned about because Marcus Pittman is a really nice guy.
2:42
He's got a lot of friends out there in the social media world.
2:48
But he conceded right away because he didn't have a Twitter account.
2:52
And so he just dropped out.
2:56
You're never gonna win that way.
2:57
You gotta have at least the next account, right?
3:00
Yeah, so he dropped out immediately, which made me win round one.
3:03
And then I was up against Doug.
3:06
And I just figured Doug Wilson would kill me immediately.
3:09
But my folks came through.
3:12
WatchWell Podcast just said, what's up?
3:14
Hey, man, it's good to see you.
3:20
I'm grateful for those brothers over at WatchWell.
3:24
In fact, I was just talking to him earlier.
3:26
You ever watch their podcast, what they do?
3:29
It's really embarrassing.
3:30
I am a content creator, I suppose, but I am rarely a content consumer.
3:35
It's pretty embarrassing actually.
3:38
I am the same way because I'm always producing stuff and I'm preparing for sermons, which take up a
3:46
So I don't have a lot of time to listen to other podcasts and stuff.
3:49
That's why I'm not getting better.
3:51
I'm not learning from others.
3:52
Yeah, and when I'm working in my office, I have to have it dead quiet.
3:56
I'm not one of those guys that can have any sort of noise or especially talk in the background.
4:01
One of my coworkers, Christian Jones, Christian, if you're out there, what's up, buddy?
4:05
He has to have like talk on all the time.
4:07
So he listens to podcasts all day long and he can type, he can work, he can write, he can think, he can plan, he can prep,
4:15
I'm like, nope, I need dead silence.
4:17
Even sometimes just like classical music is too much for me.
4:20
I just have to have dead air to be able to think.
4:22
So the only time I listen to podcasts are when I'm driving.
4:25
And there's a couple that I listen to every day, like the world and everything in it is just like a Christian updates.
4:30
It's a wonderful thing done by, what is it, World Magazine is great.
4:34
And then a little bit politics and stuff like that.
4:37
And occasionally I listen to some other theological podcasts but most of the time it's just quiet.
4:43
Sometimes I drive with nothing on.
4:46
And sometimes I just turn on my 90s jams, which is what I listen to.
4:49
What kind of music do you listen to, Keith?
4:55
And I will say this to some people's frustration, not 80s and 90s
5:02
I listen to like Bon Jovi.
5:05
And I mean, that's just, that's what I grew up on.
5:13
So it's kind of like men in their clothing, like you, whatever you wear, men, is probably what was cool when you
5:18
were a senior in high school.
5:20
And then you just level out with those kinds of outfits for the rest of your life.
5:23
And for me, the same thing with music.
5:24
I've not kept up on music at all.
5:26
I don't even know who's cool today, but I'll tell you who was on the top 10 billboards of 1994, baby.
5:34
I don't even think today is music.
5:36
It just seems like a bunch of AI nonsense to me.
5:39
It just seems like auto -tune junk.
5:42
It's not music, but that's me.
5:48
I grew up, okay, I graduated in 98.
5:49
So I was three years behind you.
5:51
So when you were a senior, I was a junior or no, I was a freshman.
5:54
I was a freshman the year you were a senior.
5:57
Well, man, we got a ton of comments coming in.
5:59
We better start answering some questions.
6:01
This isn't ask me anything.
6:02
You and I could just talk for days about being in our forties.
6:12
That's what got me here so late.
6:14
We were at the Florida mall and we got stuck in traffic driving back in Orlando.
6:17
And there was a shirt that said, instead of bath and body works, it says back and body aches.
6:22
And I was like, that's the greatest shirt.
6:25
But of course I was in the mall and everything costs four times as much as it should.
6:31
So I used to have my own screen printing shop.
6:34
So I have a really hard time not just wanting to make it myself.
6:39
All right, well, let me go down the list here and find an actual question.
6:42
Cause a lot of guys are just saying, hello, hello everybody.
6:44
And both of us want to say thank you for all your support.
6:48
Even if you voted against me and voted for this handsome man, I'm grateful that you were at least playing the
6:55
And I'm thankful to have him on the show right now.
6:58
And all right, so let's see, two, two, two.
7:05
Okay, Kenneth Gentry, divorce of Israel thoughts.
7:10
That's, I'm gonna put that one up there.
7:12
Kenneth Gentry, divorce of Israel thoughts.
7:14
What are your thoughts on that?
7:16
Have you read it, Matthew?
7:18
And you have any ideas on that?
7:25
Kenneth Gentry is partial preterist.
7:28
I'm thankful for a lot of what he does cause I lean towards partial preterism.
7:32
Even though I'm Amil, I lean towards partial preterism especially in the Olivet discourse and in some of
7:39
And so I appreciate some of what he's done.
7:41
But this particular work I have not read but I believe it's his in regard to
7:48
the new covenant versus the old covenant and the discontinuity versus
7:54
continuity of the old and the new covenant.
7:56
So if you haven't read it, I mean.
7:58
Did he also do a book on post -millennialism just like a basic introduction to post -mill?
8:05
He's done a lot of stuff.
8:06
So I can't say for sure what I think.
8:08
That's the only one I've read of his, yeah.
8:11
So neither one of us have read it.
8:14
Yeah, 7930, unfortunately we can't give you an answer like Ken Gentry in general but can't give you an answer for that.
8:25
So what is the difference between Baptist and Presbyterian?
8:30
Like the amount of water we use primarily it's kind of a water volume question.
8:36
Well, I say we're deep water Presbyterians over here.
8:39
So that's what people ask me what my denomination is.
8:42
I say I'm a deep water Presbyterian.
8:45
I mean, I guess it really depends on what kind of a Baptist you are and what kind of a
8:52
I mean, you and I as reformed people, soteriologically in terms of like our understanding of
8:58
God's sovereignty and salvation, we're probably pretty close on a lot of things.
9:04
So church government would be one that comes to mind whereas Presbyterians tend to be more connectional by
9:10
associating with Presbyteries which is a region of churches and then greater than that, like a general
9:16
assembly which is like a national body.
9:18
Baptists don't tend to do that as much although I'm sure there are some exceptions to that.
9:23
But you would, for instance, have like elders in your local church, right?
9:26
So you'd have an elder board in your church as we would.
9:30
And our elders, we would say they govern the church.
9:34
We're an elder governed church.
9:37
A lot of Baptists are congregational and we are congregational in so much as the congregation does
9:43
have certain areas that they speak to such as the affirmation and appointment of elders and
9:49
ordaining elders comes through the congregation choosing them.
9:53
We use the word affirmation.
9:55
We don't even like the word vote because we want to move away from the idea of a voting system.
10:00
We want the church to either affirm or not affirm when we put something before them but it's still the elders lead
10:06
and govern at our church.
10:08
And correct me if I'm wrong, does your church subscribe to a confession?
10:13
Because that would be something that's unique to Presbyterianism.
10:16
Usually we would subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith whereas some Baptist churches subscribe to
10:23
the 1689 or perhaps a different version.
10:25
Do you have a confession that you subscribe to?
10:28
We actually can confess the 1646 confession which was the same -.
10:33
That's great, the older one.
10:34
Yeah, the same year as the Westminster.
10:37
So it gets confusing for people sometimes.
10:41
But our reasoning is that there are certain aspects of the 1689 that we cannot affirm.
10:47
I did a whole show about this as to why we affirm the older one.
10:51
It's less, it's only 52 articles of faith and we felt like we could affirm everything without
10:57
having to take the 1689 and take it apart and put asterisks next to the parts we disagreed on.
11:03
So we just went with the 1644 slash 46 and there's a story behind that, but that's
11:09
So we're confessional, we're Calvinistic and we're covenantal but not classic covenantal.
11:15
So we ascribe to the three Cs of reformed theology but not
11:21
in a way that would satisfy R. Scott Clark.
11:25
So when you think of the covenants, are you thinking of like the covenant of redemption before God made all
11:31
things, that covenant between Father, Son and Holy Spirit and then like the covenant of works in the
11:36
garden of Eden and then the covenant of grace in Christ.
11:39
Is that what you mean by saying you're covenantal?
11:42
Well, that's where we would differ and that's where some of the distinction would lie with us and why we would not be full
11:48
We would fall into the category more what is referred to now as progressive covenantalism which would
11:54
be described in the book Kingdom Through Covenant by Steve Wellam and Peter
12:00
Gentry which it moves away from the language of the language you're talking about
12:06
which is classic covenantalism of covenant of redemption, covenant of works, covenant of grace.
12:10
It would use words like covenant of creation rather than covenant of works and things like that.
12:14
So it's a little different language and there is a little distinction there in how we understand continuity versus discontinuity
12:21
and we focus more on the named covenants of scripture.
12:25
Yeah, Abrahamic, Davidic, et cetera.
12:29
So covenantal but not classic covenantal and that's where I say, I think that distinction is
12:35
probably wider than would make most people very comfortable.
12:39
And then to go back to Scuba Steven 1000's question, I mean, obviously our
12:45
major difference would be in our view of the sacraments particularly the sacrament of baptism.
12:50
So for us, when we're looking at that juxtaposition
12:56
between continuity and discontinuity, we would see more continuity with the Old Testament
13:03
and circumcision whereas you would see that a little bit more of a discontinuity.
13:07
So for us, we would as believers in the visible church, we bring our children to the waters of
13:13
baptism seeing that as a continuity with the Old Testament and the mark of circumcision whereas
13:19
you guys would obviously not do that.
13:24
Yeah, we would say the new covenant is entered into not by birth but by new birth or regeneration.
13:30
And so regenerate church membership as a part of baptistic understanding of how someone would be
13:37
a candidate for receiving the sacrament of baptism.
13:42
So I think that's a big distinction and that probably is the biggest distinction.
13:46
So sacramentology and a little bit of church government and probably the amount and method of
13:52
how we subscribe to confessions.
13:57
All right, this one's just for you and you can probably answer it pretty quick.
14:01
How's that Jonathan Edwards Study Bible going?
14:05
Actually, I'm working really hard on it right now.
14:10
We thought we had turned in all of the content for like the commentary running along the bottom and
14:16
we came to a pretty good point of being satisfied with all of that.
14:20
And we have like a hundred articles and essays that are gonna be interspersed throughout the Jonathan Edwards Bible.
14:25
And then somebody on the Thomas Nelson end came up with another idea that they posed to me.
14:30
And I said, yes, because I just wanna put as much stuff into it as I can.
14:34
So I'm currently working on another aspect of it.
14:36
There's gonna be like a series of, I don't know, I guess you could call them like devotional
14:42
quotations that are gonna be interspersed throughout it as well.
14:45
So they wanted me to come up with like 300 of the most inspiring Edwards quotes, which is kind of hard to do because Edwards
14:51
has long convoluted sentences.
14:53
So he's not quite as pithy as like a Charles Spurgeon.
14:56
Spurgeon is just like everything you read is like really interesting quotes.
15:00
Almost everything you, like pick any paragraph of Spurgeon randomly.
15:04
And it's got some really cool quote that could be on a t -shirt or a mug, but Edwards is not like that.
15:09
So I'm having a bit of a hard time trying to whittle down these kinds of devotional thoughts that we're gonna put in there.
15:14
But it's still, unfortunately, these things take a long time.
15:18
It's actually kind of a slow project.
15:20
We had to do a lot of reading of Edwards first and then a lot of excerpting.
15:25
And then there's a lot of editing processes.
15:27
And then once it hands over to Thomas Nelson and their fine editorial staff, then they go through stuff and
15:33
all the layout and the marketing right now and the developments.
15:37
Here's one thing that's cool, Keith,.
15:38
I think you'll appreciate this.
15:39
So Edwards had like a beer
15:45
tankard that he drank his beer out of.
15:51
And on that silver vessel, his family crest was emblazoned and there's like a cool
15:56
lion kind of heraldry crest on this vessel, right?
16:00
So I wanted to, as part of the marketing for the Jonathan Edwards Study Bible, I wanted to find that crest
16:06
and kind of use that as like the symbol that's gonna be on maybe on the spine or perhaps on like some
16:12
of the information pages or even some of the marketing packaging and things like that.
16:16
Just kind of like how Cambridge has their little lion logo and Schuyler has its Jerusalem cross and Crossway
16:23
So I was thinking like, okay, what's the symbol for this Jonathan Edwards Study Bible?
16:28
So to make a long story short, I had a hard time finding this silver
16:35
Does anybody live in New Haven that you can go take a picture of this thing?
16:39
And finally, I got somebody to send me a high quality photograph of Jonathan
16:45
Edwards' family crest on his silver beer tankard, which is in the New Haven
16:50
Historical Society Museum.
16:52
So we're at least gonna use that for some inspiration for maybe part of the marketing of the product.
17:00
Yeah, that is really cool.
17:01
And that's very unique and we'll give it its own special branding.
17:06
And man branding is very important.
17:08
Like you said, very important to all these other places.
17:14
All right, I do wanna mention real quick, just again, Parker, I think it's you, just say, watch World Podcast, go
17:21
They watch movies and talk about the theology.
17:24
I've done that with them with 1978 Superman.
17:27
So thanks you guys for watching.
17:29
Here's a theological question.
17:32
And this one, again, I don't know why we're getting so much.
17:36
There's a lot of revelation questions, I guess, because of the Amill King thing.
17:44
Yes, I would call myself optimistic a millennial, which essentially means
17:50
that I'm very optimistic as it regards the gospel going out to the nations, the great
17:56
commission being fulfilled.
17:58
I see the nations being largely evangelized successfully so that when the Lord returns,
18:04
he will find a strong and vibrant church, but I'm a little bit more pessimistic when it comes to
18:10
the nations kissing the sun in Psalm 2.
18:13
You know, like in Psalm 2, it says that it calls for the nations to honor
18:19
the sun, but then there are also those that are smashed, that they receive the rod of judgment, which is an
18:25
image that revelation also picks up too.
18:28
So I'm not quite as bullish when it comes to the nation states being Christianized.
18:34
I do think that the church could be heavily or severely persecuted, though it would be vibrant, but
18:40
persecuted by pagan tyrannical nation states, even up until the very end.
18:44
So optimistic as it regards like the evangelizing of the nations, but I'm not so optimistic when it comes to
18:54
Well, here is the question regarding Revelation 13.
18:58
Is Nero the antichrist in Revelation, and is he supposed to be the same antichrist that was thrown into the lake of fire alive
19:06
Might specifically be referencing my recent debate that I had on the question of
19:12
amillennialism versus premillennialism.
19:14
I did that last Saturday with Lucas Curcio.
19:18
So I'll give my answer first, and then you can come in and correct me.
19:21
If you think you see a difference.
19:24
But the answer, I do believe that because I do take a partial prejudice view of Revelation, I do
19:30
believe that Nero is the beast of Revelation 13, which would mean I would take an early dating
19:36
on the writing of Revelation, even earlier than some, because I would say it would have to be before the Jewish wars, probably
19:42
around 67, as early as 67.
19:45
And so if that is the case, and it's referring to Nero, then
19:52
the question then becomes, well, what is the beast and the false prophet and all this represent?
19:56
I do believe, I believe Nero is what's in view in 13, but that it also creates a
20:02
motif which follows through history.
20:05
And I do believe that toward the end of history, there will continue to be this system which rises up against
20:10
Christ and his church, and likely will be a specific leader within that system that will be
20:16
called at that point, what we might call the antichrist or an antichrist figure.
20:23
And so in that sense, I would be taking somewhat of an idealist approach, as well as a partial prejudice approach and sort of molding the
20:30
And in that would find myself as saying, I do believe there is a point at the end of time where Revelation 19 is referring
20:36
to someone who could possibly be thrown alive into the lake of fire.
20:41
But that may be an approach that is untenable for some because it's somewhat of a
20:47
blended approach, but that's my understanding.
20:51
Yeah, I think idealism melds very well with amillennialism.
20:57
I think part of my understanding of antichrist is that, you
21:03
know, as John says, the apostle John, there's not just one antichrist, there's many antichrists, many have already
21:11
Just in the same way that Christ, there's only one Christ, right?
21:16
But there are many types of Christ in the Old Testament, for instance.
21:19
So like David is a type of Christ.
21:23
Noah or the Ark is a type of Christ.
21:26
The temple is a type of Christ.
21:28
There are things that for figure who Jesus is by pictures, persons,
21:34
places, even institutions that typify Christ and in some way shed light on who the Messiah is going to
21:41
David being probably the best example of the Davidic type of the Christ King, the Messianic King.
21:47
I think it's similar with antichrist in that there are certain figures throughout history that are
21:53
typological of the final boss, the final man of lawlessness.
21:57
So like a Pharaoh in the Old Testament is clearly typological of the antichrist
22:04
or the man of lawlessness, so too with Nebuchadnezzar.
22:08
And I think Nero is a particularly apt type of the final antichrist.
22:13
In some sense, he is the antichrist that John's audience is concerned
22:19
with in the first century.
22:22
There's a lot of things in Revelation that I think do specifically point to Nero,
22:29
but I'm not so full preterist that I would say that he's the final antichrist.
22:34
I would say that he's typological in sort of a telescoping way.
22:39
He shows us what the man of lawlessness would be like, but I do think that there is a final boss, man of
22:44
lawlessness, so to speak, because, well, the reason I would say that is when Paul is discussing the man of
22:50
lawlessness in the Thessalonian letters, he seems to be indicating a person that is destroyed by
22:57
or at the return of Christ himself.
22:59
So I do hold to some sort of historic person who has
23:05
set himself up as the opposer of Christ, whom Christ then destroys at his return.
23:11
Sounds like we're pretty close.
23:13
I mean, maybe we'd worded a few different ways, but man, that was, you just said it better than me,.
23:19
No, you said it good too, for sure.
23:23
So let's move down the list.
23:25
I think that was a great attention to that question.
23:31
A few of these are funny.
23:32
Does WWE break out this weekend?
23:35
Well, if I lose to C .R. Wiley, I'm gonna be breaking out some tears.
23:42
First of all, hey, let's talk about this.
23:44
The bottom half of the bracket, let's throw some shade at the bottom half of the bracket because the top half was where
23:51
If you were paying attention to the tournament, just look at the numbers in the voting between the top half of the bracket and the
23:57
bottom half of the bracket.
23:58
You and I, dude, we went through the meat grinder and you're gonna come out on top.
24:03
But listen, it's gonna sound like I'm bragging here and maybe I am a little bit, but I need a bronze
24:09
medal on this chest right here because I'm convinced that I took bronze.
24:14
I might even be, here's a little shade, I might even actually be the silver medalist because if you add up all the
24:20
vote count throughout this tournament, I might actually be the number two guy.
24:26
So what do you think about that?
24:27
What do you think about that, your Calvinist?
24:31
I think, first of all, my hardest battle totally was with you and I
24:37
thought it was gonna be with Doug.
24:40
That one, I was surprised.
24:43
But Doug wasn't really trying.
24:45
He wasn't even, he didn't try.
24:50
But Dusty Devers, he went hard and he was sending out tweets and stuff, which I thought was cool.
24:58
But when it came to you, man, all the Presbyterians came out of their birdbaths and came running toward me.
25:03
I was joking, I said the Presbyterian baptism was like a birdbath.
25:08
Oh, I got you, okay, okay.
25:09
Yeah, they come and take another birdbath.
25:11
Baptismal stay up late because there was this thing where you had the lead on me all day long.
25:16
I was down by eight points consistently.
25:18
And then around like 11 o 'clock at night, I had it up to like almost tied.
25:25
I'm like, if this is close tomorrow, I'm gonna make a YouTube video.
25:28
I'm gonna get after Keith.
25:31
And then I woke up and I'm like, I'm down 12.
25:37
This is like the Biden jump and the two o 'clock in the morning burst is what you had, buddy.
25:42
A bag of votes is what came in.
25:47
It was bad to stay up late, I guess.
25:49
One guy said it was getting to the other part of the other countries.
25:53
There's no countries in the Pacific.
25:57
Well, listen, if I lose anybody, I'm glad I lost to you.
26:01
I think much of you and everybody loves your stuff.
26:04
So you deserve to win it.
26:08
And I'm very thankful to get to have this conversation.
26:12
And if I would have lost you, I would have been like totally, it wouldn't have been worth it because you're such a great guy too.
26:18
All right, so what are the strengths and weaknesses?
26:22
Well, we've talked a lot about partial prototypism, Austin.
26:26
He was gonna ask about, but we've already answered one of his questions there.
26:29
So let's jump to another.
26:30
If we have time, we'll go back.
26:32
Pastor Matt, how do you interpret the meaning in the Westminster Confession, talking about the efficacy of baptism,
26:38
not being tied to the moment of administration?
26:40
I interpret it as saving aspect spiritual.
26:46
I'm not sure I understand that last part.
26:48
They may have mistyped or run out of room.
26:52
But this is obviously a question for you.
26:54
Hmm, so we're not Lutherans and we're not Catholics.
27:00
We don't think that baptism has any sort of regenerative power.
27:05
But when we talk about baptism as Presbyterians and in our confessions, we'd like to talk about them
27:11
under the rubric of signs and seals.
27:15
A sign is indicative of the presence of something that's greater than the sign itself.
27:21
So hang with me on this for a second.
27:22
If you're driving along and you see a sign by the road and it says school, the sign is
27:28
indicative of the presence of something that is greater than itself.
27:32
So nobody drops their kids off at the sign, hoping for their children to get educated there.
27:36
It's the building that's beyond it.
27:38
That's where the school is, right?
27:39
But the sign indicates the presence of something.
27:42
And in the same way, baptism is a sign of something greater than the water itself.
27:48
And that greater thing is the cleansing power of the blood of Christ.
27:52
So what the water of baptism does is it signs to us or it signifies
27:58
the cleansing power of saving grace through faith in Jesus.
28:02
And what Jesus does is he washes away our sin.
28:05
He takes away our sin guilt and he gives us his imputed righteousness, even as he
28:11
takes our sin upon himself and his death on the cross.
28:14
So baptism is clearly a sign of that, but it's also a seal.
28:18
And this too is biblical language.
28:20
Both of these terms, sign and seal, come from Romans 4.
28:24
But a seal in the ancient world is an authenticating, like a
28:30
signature of the author, the one who sends it.
28:34
So if you send a letter, you would seal it on the ends with wax, indicating that
28:41
there's authenticity there.
28:43
And so the authenticity, as it regards the sacraments, is that they are the Lord's sacraments.
28:47
He is the one who commands them.
28:49
He is the one who tells us to come to the Lord's table.
28:52
And he is the one who tells us to come to the baptismal waters.
28:56
So the sealing aspect is indicative of the authority of Christ.
29:01
So typically for us, when we think of baptism, yes, we apply it to our children, because again, we think of
29:07
that continuity with the Old Testament of the marking of the family of faith.
29:11
And this would be a slight nuance between you and I, I'm sure, whereas when we think of baptism for Presbyterians, we think
29:17
of baptism as the downward promises of God in the gospel.
29:21
It's not so much the individual's upward testifying of their faith in God.
29:27
It's not an upward statement, like when you're baptized, it's not like, God, I declare to you my faithfulness, but rather
29:34
baptism is God's downward declaring of his promises to those who trust and believe.
29:38
And so, of course, when an infant is baptized, we're not saying that they're being regenerated in that moment,
29:44
but rather we are anticipating with covenantal expectation that God will save
29:50
this child should he or her come to him by
29:56
repentant faith at a later time.
29:58
So that's where we get the language of not being tied to the moment, but nevertheless, it does have
30:04
a real sacramental power to it in that way.
30:12
No, I think, and what's interesting is I would affirm 95 of what you said, and this is
30:18
where I think it's interesting between Baptists and Presbyterians and why I do think, and this may sound funny
30:24
coming from me, I think this is why so many Baptists who become reformed
30:30
jump the ship to Presbyterianism, because there is a sense in which we both see
30:36
baptism as a sign and a seal, but not a causal
30:41
regenerative action, you know, a sacerdotal action or
30:47
sacramental where it creates this thing of regeneration.
30:51
And that's why it would be harder for a Baptist, I think, to become a Lutheran, because the Lutheran would see baptismal
30:57
regeneration and many Baptists would say that's, we reject that wholeheartedly.
31:03
But when a Presbyterian says, well, it's not the timing that matters, it's the sign itself that
31:09
And whether you apply the sign to the child or apply the sign to an adult, it's still
31:16
the regeneration and work that's on the inside that that's pointing to.
31:20
And so, and I think that's why a Baptist, a Baptist can better affirm that than could affirm
31:26
baptismal regeneration, such as is taught in Lutheranism.
31:29
I think it's still difficult because we have to say, for a Baptist, the hard part is saying,
31:35
timing, we would argue at least in a sense, timing does matter, not because of, and
31:41
I understand what you're saying when you talk about the faith going up and those things, but the timing
31:47
matters in regard to who is in the covenant, who has been made part of
31:54
And this is gonna be my, I'm debating Darrell, I forget his last name, he's
32:00
written on the subject of, he's a Presbyterian pastor, he's written on the subject of infant baptism and would like,
32:06
wants us to do a debate on this subject.
32:09
And really my issue is who is a member of the new covenant?
32:12
Is it a birth or a new birth thing?
32:15
And that's really my argument.
32:16
I think that's the simplest argument a Baptist can make is who does the new Testament qualify as
32:22
members of the new covenant?
32:24
And I know we would disagree, I'm just saying that's where the line is.
32:28
It's not really the efficacy of baptism, it's more who is part of this covenant.
32:35
Just while we're having fun on this topic, when we think of baptism too,
32:42
it's hard for us to break our minds out of this kind of individualized
32:48
understanding of like, you're thinking of the person being baptized, right?
32:52
The person to whom the water is applied or for whom is submerged in the water.
32:58
But I want people to think a little bit more broadly than just the recipient of the baptism in that
33:03
moment because there is a community that is observing the baptism as well, which is why we
33:09
do not do individual or private baptisms, but we do baptism in the public congregation.
33:15
And so there's a sense here that when one person is baptized, let's say it's a child or even an adult who comes to faith in
33:22
So we can agree on that instance.
33:25
It's not just that person though.
33:27
It's not just an individualistic experience between he or she and his or her God, but
33:33
rather it's the covenant community's celebration of baptism.
33:38
And so this is why, like when we baptize a child, for instance, there's vows for the parents, but there's
33:44
also vows for the congregation to say that they're likewise promising to love, disciple,
33:49
catechize, discipline this person who's come into the visible community of the church.
33:54
So whether you're a Baptist or Presbyterian, I think Keith would probably agree with this, try not to think of it
34:00
as just an individual experience, but rather the communal corporate church
34:06
celebration of that sacramental moment.
34:08
That's a better way to think of baptism more broadly.
34:13
And we certainly don't practice private baptism either.
34:17
Yeah, but definitely not.
34:22
Let's see, we're moving down here.
34:24
A lot of just comments and stuff.
34:27
Folks have been talking about the 40s.
34:29
People have been talking about 80s music.
34:35
A lot of references to Waterboy.
34:39
What's going on with that?
34:40
The movie Waterboy with, I don't know why.
34:43
Somebody said something about -.
34:45
Scuba Steve, you mentioned Scuba Steve.
34:48
That was the name of one of the guys.
34:50
Scuba Steve's from Big Daddy.
34:51
And Big Daddy goes to Waterboy, Vicki Valentine.
34:53
See, that's how my mind works.
34:56
Yeah, I'm glad you figured that one out.
34:58
Okay, here's a great one.
35:00
Nothing to do with theology.
35:01
What are the top three movies from the 90s?
35:03
Top three movies from the 90s?
35:05
I know mine, but I want to hear yours first.
35:13
Like that's one of the greatest movies of all time.
35:16
Braveheart is that movie for me that like, if you're sick and you stay at home
35:22
and you're just feeling achy and terrible and you've got to turn on something to kind of like just grind through the day, Braveheart is that
35:29
I've watched that movie through so many bouts of flu or whatever, that's a great one.
35:37
It's a great 1990s Western.
35:40
Doc Holliday in that movie is fantastic.
35:42
So that's a dude's movie too.
35:43
If you're guys, everybody loves Tombstone.
35:48
I'm struggling for a third.
35:49
Keith, give me a third 90s movie.
35:52
Well, I would have said Tombstone.
35:54
So I think that's number one on my list just as a movie that I just, I think everybody should watch.
36:00
Even if it's a little historically inaccurate, it gets a lot of things right.
36:03
They did a lot of good studying in that movie.
36:05
In the same way, there's another movie, Young Guns.
36:13
That was a, for as far as Westerns, they did a lot of studying for that movie as far as the
36:18
characters and the people that were actually involved in the life ability of the kid and stuff.
36:22
That was, it was much more accurate than people think.
36:24
But Tombstone, I think, is still the winner in that.
36:27
And then Jurassic Park, 93.
36:30
One of the greatest films of all time.
36:32
I used to have a poster in my office.
36:33
I took those posters down and switched them out with some other stuff.
36:35
But Jurassic Park is one of the greatest movies ever made as far as I'm concerned.
36:40
The mixture of practical and digital effects.
36:42
And I'm just a big movie guy.
36:45
So I think, and I agree with you with Braveheart.
36:47
So that's two, Braveheart, Tombstone, and Jurassic Park.
36:50
We just watched the first Top Gun the other day because my son is considering going into the Air Force.
36:56
And believe it or not, I mean, how can you?
37:07
What's your favorite movie of all time?
37:09
And if it is Braveheart, that's cool.
37:11
But is that your favorite movie of all time?
37:15
You know, this is probably gonna be a little bit lame, but maybe it's not lame.
37:20
The Lord of the Rings original trilogy for me is always going to be it.
37:26
I love every single thing about the Lord of the Rings trilogies.
37:30
The Hobbits are okay -ish, but they took one book and turned it into like a seven part movie or something like that.
37:36
So I'm not super thrilled with that as much, but Lord of the Rings, pretty much up there for me.
37:41
Pretty top, pretty high quality stuff there.
37:43
How about Napoleon Dynamite though?
37:45
If you want to go like high arts, like we're talking about.
37:50
If we want to go like really classic filmmaking, then Napoleon Dynamite is up there
37:57
Every single scene in that movie is precious.
38:04
As a high school nerd who did run and won for band captain,
38:10
I was the captain of the band.
38:11
So I would say vote for Keith.
38:13
As that guy, I appreciate that movie so much.
38:16
And as a karate guy, when the guy says,.
38:22
I've taught karate for 25 years and I must've said that phrase a hundred times.
38:32
It does matter how you grab.
38:34
Did you ever, did you do the thing where, remember the scene where Napoleon is in the school bus and he's got this like little He -Man
38:40
action figure on a string and he throws it out the window?
38:47
I can see you and I actually doing that today.
38:51
You'd be throwing an action figure out my window.
38:56
That would break the internet.
38:58
If you and I just driving around in the car taking, and I have action figures in my office.
39:04
I have a Lego version of Martin Luther that somebody at church bought me.
39:15
If I ever make it down to Florida, you and I'd be trolling around in Jacksonville throwing He -Man action figures out the window with strings on them.
39:26
Let's get down the list here.
39:28
Oh, one person just have to give a shout out.
39:30
Steven said he joined X just so he could vote for you.
39:33
So I think that's awesome.
39:41
So three best systematic theologies from the Baptist perspective and
39:47
then the Presbyterian perspective.
39:52
I'm gonna let you go first.
39:53
I'm gonna have to think about this one for a minute and a half.
39:56
Well, so I'm gonna have to qualify this just a bit because I just
40:02
reviewed Joel Beeky's new four volume systematic theology with Paul
40:07
Smalley, I believe is the co -author there.
40:10
That thing looks to me like it's gonna have standing for decades to come.
40:14
That is a really, really well done multi -volume systematic theology by Joel Beeky.
40:19
Now, the reason I have to qualify that is because I have not read it through.
40:23
And so everything I've looked at looks fantastic.
40:26
I love the organization of it.
40:28
It's very thorough, ton of quotations of Puritans and reformers, a lot of devotional content
40:34
It's written really, really clean and clear and crisp.
40:38
The only thing I'm struggling with on that is that the way the four volumes are set up, it's a little bit tricky to look things
40:45
So the one thing that they're missing is a major either analytical outline at the
40:51
beginning or the end of the set.
40:52
So you can find out where you're at or a comprehensive
40:58
tool so that you can find exactly what you're looking for.
41:03
Other than that, that thing looks like it's gonna be the standard for years to come.
41:07
So that's probably gonna be up there.
41:13
Birkhoff would probably be very highly ranked for me.
41:17
That's the book that I commonly, commonly just look up something for a real quick couple of paragraphs just to kind of frame it
41:24
Of course, I like John Frame because I studied under him, though he has some wrinkles and nuances that I'm not super thrilled about.
41:31
But then, I mean, look, the John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion is one of the first and
41:37
greatest real Protestant and reform systematic theology still very, very excellent today.
41:42
So I'd throw that out there.
41:45
There's other good ones too.
41:46
Charles Hodge, Three Volumes is great.
41:48
But if I had to do three, let's just pick three.
41:50
I'm gonna go with Calvin, Birkhoff, and I'll just throw in the new Joel Beeky one just for fun.
41:57
Well, I'm gonna be, I'm not gonna give three just because I'm not able to
42:04
I even, to try to jog my memory, I was pulling up a list here of just the Baptist ones because
42:09
I'm getting mixed up like where my Baptists are.
42:12
Because as a reformed Baptist, I read a lot of Presbyterians as well.
42:16
But if I had to say, this is my favorite Baptist systematic theology, it would be the Abstract of Systematic Theology by
42:23
He was the first president of the Southern Baptist Seminary.
42:29
And his system, Abstract of Systematic Theology was went out of print and was lost for a long time.
42:34
And then it was rediscovered and was reprinted.
42:37
And I have a copy of it, which I've talked about on my show.
42:43
His ability to explain Calvinism from a Baptist perspective was just very brilliant.
42:48
So if I, when people ask me, what systematic theology for a Baptist should you own? I point
42:55
So I'm just gonna give that as my answer.
43:00
All right, so let's see, moving on down.
43:14
Boy, there's a couple of them are just repeat questions.
43:17
I saw somebody asking again about the efficacy of baptism.
43:24
Oh, this is a great church question on church government.
43:28
Since we talked about the difference of government from our churches.
43:31
It says, speaking of voting and such, what is your guys' thoughts on monarchism and republicanism versus
43:37
democracy versus a blend of some way?
43:40
And I'm assuming they're talking about governmental versus church.
43:43
But I wanna ask you a question about church, first of all, because I think you, as a Presbyterian,
43:49
may have a difference here.
43:52
In a Presbyterian church, since you are governed by your elders, and then you have, of course, the presbytery,
43:57
which is over the church, do the congregational members vote?
44:03
And if so, what do they vote for?
44:05
And is that even the language that's used?
44:08
So I wouldn't say that the presbytery is over the local church necessarily.
44:13
I would say that they have different roles and functions.
44:17
So we think of the court of the session, the court of the presbytery, and then the court of the general assembly.
44:23
But they're deciding upon different kinds of things.
44:26
They have different jurisdictions and different powers.
44:30
So I'm talking about each one very, very briefly.
44:33
So the local church session would be your board of ruling elders that
44:39
govern and lead the church.
44:41
The elders make most practical decisions for the church, including like hiring staff or
44:47
firing staff, or whether or not the church should buy property, or what the budget is going to be, or whether or
44:54
not it should institute this program or that program.
44:59
All the committees would report to the session, et cetera.
45:02
The congregation does vote on certain important things though.
45:06
And typically the congregation would vote on who the elders are, as well as to
45:14
There are certain other things that they would vote on as well.
45:16
The pastor's salary, for instance, and things like that.
45:19
But they would not be voting on whether or not the carpet should be blue or red.
45:24
They would not be voting on if the church should buy a new church van or something
45:30
All of that would be determined by the session.
45:32
The elders have most of the privileges of leadership in the local congregation.
45:39
Then the presbytery, which is like a region of churches, consists not of the
45:44
laity, but rather the presbytery consists of the teaching elders, the pastors, as well as representatives
45:52
So when we get together regionally, we are deciding other kinds of questions, like,
46:00
for instance, questions related to ordination, who can be ordained as a teaching elder
46:06
would be a classic thing we would discuss.
46:09
We might talk about planting churches, things like that, that a local congregation might not be able to do by itself.
46:16
There would be committees and things like that, ministries that the presbytery has.
46:21
And then the general assembly would get together to determine things that are kind of on higher, broader
46:27
principles, like our book of church order, whether or not it should be amended, things like
46:33
Did that answer the question or was that kind of wandering?
46:36
No, that was very helpful.
46:38
And I once had, we had a local presbyterian church in our area that closed.
46:44
Most of their members had become older and they just decided that the church, they sold the property and closed.
46:49
And we got three of their families because they were all older families and they all came to our church.
46:55
And one of the first questions that was asked to me because one of the men who came was an elder in the
47:03
He said, well, what happens if, who do we appeal to above the elders in this church if there's an issue?
47:09
And my answer was no one.
47:10
The elders are the authority in the church in that sense.
47:14
There's no court above us.
47:16
I said, but there is a sense in which, and this was my answer, maybe you'll think this is funny or not, I don't know.
47:21
I said, there is still a sense in which all authority is exercised at the consent of the governed.
47:26
The elders know that ultimately they can be voted out.
47:30
They wouldn't be foolish.
47:32
So the congregation still has an aspect of authority in a elder governed church.
47:38
If there is nobody above us, there's still a body below us that does keep us in check.
47:42
People could just simply stop coming and you're not governing anybody then if there's no church to govern.
47:48
So, I mean, so there is a sense in which there's checks and balances, even in a church that doesn't have a
47:54
Presbyterian authority over it.
47:56
Now, when it comes to like church discipline, let's say a member gets into some kind of outrageous sin,
48:02
a member of a local church would be disciplined by their session.
48:05
So the court of first prerogative, of course, would be the session.
48:09
So let's say a member gets divorced for an unbiblical cause or commits adultery or
48:16
murder somebody or is caught embezzling funds or something like that, then the local church session would discipline that person.
48:23
And similarly, if a pastor, one of the teaching elders like myself were to sin or commit
48:29
a heresy or something like that, the local church would not discipline us, but rather the Presbytery would discipline us.
48:35
So if I ever go rogue or taught a heresy or something like that, then I would probably be tried by my
48:41
Presbytery, which would be that regional body of pastors and elders that gathers together occasionally.
48:48
Yeah, that would be a place where it would be a little bit more difficult.
48:50
And the way that it's worded in our constitution is that in any event where there is a call to question on the
48:56
integrity of an elder regarding a sin issue or anything else, that the other elders would be responsible
49:02
for that person's examination.
49:07
And so it wouldn't be an outside body, but the other elders that...
49:12
So for instance, if there are five elders and four of them are...
49:16
The other four would be responsible for examining that person and then bringing them before the church for
49:23
Yeah, so that would be the method, yeah.
49:26
So this question is kind of interesting though, because I don't think the person is actually talking about church government.
49:30
They're talking about forms of civil or magisterial government.
49:33
And the question here seems to be like, what is the...
49:37
Does the Bible prescribe a kind of civil government here?
49:41
Monarchism, meaning some form of kingship that there's some kind of king.
49:46
How that king derives his power could be various ways.
49:50
It could be some sort of a royal family situation.
49:53
It could even be some kind of an electorate that elects a king.
49:56
It could be through the power of sheer brute force.
50:00
The toughest man becomes the king.
50:02
And certainly there are governments that are built on those presuppositions.
50:06
Then republicanism would be some sort of representative government, similar to what we have here in the United States of America.
50:11
And a pure democracy would just be like one vote for every
50:19
You know, Calvin, this is about the only intelligent thing I have to say about this, Keith, is that in the
50:25
very end of the institutes of the Christian religion, like the last section, he talks about various
50:31
forms of civil government.
50:34
And essentially here he's arguing that the powers that be are instituted by
50:41
And Calvin has a very limited view of rebellion against the powers that be.
50:46
He doesn't see a whole lot of mechanisms for rebellion or the throwing off of leadership.
50:53
But as I recall, Calvin says that there is not a biblical
50:59
form of civil government that is instituted in scripture because though
51:05
everything we see is monarchies, it's not necessarily prescribed.
51:10
Though it is prescribed for Israel as the
51:17
theocratic state of Israel under the kingship there, but that is a different kind
51:22
of government than the kind of governments that Calvin's talking about.
51:27
So I don't think that there is any particularly biblically instituted form of
51:34
What do you think on that?
51:39
I think the heart of the question, and I may be wrong.
51:42
I don't know the, I know the man asking the question.
51:45
He's one of my friends on Twitter, but I don't know why he's asking it, but I think I know.
51:51
So I want to kind of assume something here.
51:55
I think the assumption of the question is based on what's the conversation.
51:59
That's going on right now,.
52:00
Particularly among the theonomists and the Christian nationalists about whether or not there should be sort of a Christian prince or a
52:06
Christian monarchy where that person rules with the iron hand of
52:13
You know what I'm saying?
52:14
God's law must be enforced.
52:18
And would there ever be a way to enforce God's law if we were in a democracy?
52:23
Is there even a way to enforce God's law in a republic?
52:26
You know, the only real way to enforce it, I think in the minds of some would be with a monarchy, someone who
52:32
But then the question, and this is R. Scott Clarke's question, when I talked to him about this, the question
52:38
was, well, but who is that person gonna be, right?
52:44
If it is the, let's, and this is certainly not in any way to take a poke at you as a Presbyterian, but let's say it is a
52:49
Presbyterian who becomes the Christian prince.
52:52
Well, what's that gonna mean for Baptists?
52:54
Is that going to mean that we're forced to have to go against our convictions in certain areas, or is he gonna be
53:00
benevolent enough to allow for the disagreement on secondary issues, and who gets to decide what the secondary issues
53:07
And so there is a lot of questions that go into that, and this is why, like in
53:13
the United States, when we talk about what is the highest authority in the United States, well, idealistically,
53:19
the highest authority in the United States is not a person, but a document.
53:22
It's the Constitution, and therefore we, our authority in this
53:28
nation is supposed to be that document.
53:29
That's why when we swear men into the military, we swear men into the local jurisdiction of police, we
53:35
say that you uphold the Constitution, right, against all enemies, both outside and inside,
53:42
foreign and domestic, right?
53:43
We uphold this document as our authority, and that's where I think the question of like
53:50
rebellion and stuff like that, the question of Romans 13 and how we're supposed to uphold
53:56
the authority, is there any way in which it plays into our, like for instance, and I know
54:02
maybe I'm going far afield here, but the question of like if the government tells me to do something
54:08
that's against the Constitution, am I duty -bound as a Christian to obey
54:14
the person when idealistically the document is what's supposed to be the authority?
54:19
Let's take the Second Amendment, for instance.
54:21
The Second Amendment of the Constitution gives me the right to have arms.
54:26
The authority above me, the person in authority, the president or whatever may take that right away from me.
54:31
Well, can I rebel against him and still be under Romans 13 by obeying the law of the
54:39
And again, I know I've kind of gone way away from the question now, but this is the heart of what a lot of people are asking, where do we
54:44
fall when we say, who's the authority?
54:47
Who is the person that Romans 13 is talking about when it says to obey the governing authority and
54:53
do not rebel against them?
54:55
You know, so that's a, again, maybe I've asked more questions than I've answered.
55:01
But that's, how do you see that?
55:06
I find these questions to be very difficult because I think there's a difference between talking about ideal
55:11
states and then the actual situations that we live in today.
55:16
So for instance, when it comes to civil government and I read the ideas of the
55:22
Covenanters, I find myself greatly agreeing for the most
55:28
part with what the Covenanters are talking about.
55:30
The Covenanters being those Scottish Presbyterians in like the 1600s persecuted by the
55:36
state, heavily, heavily persecuted.
55:39
And yet they're compelled by this idea that Scotland should be a Christian and not just a
55:44
generically Christian, but a distinctly reformed and Presbyterian nation.
55:49
And so they're willing to die for the principles that are laid down in the Solemn League and
55:55
Covenants and the Scottish National Covenant that came just before it.
55:59
They have this perfectly idealistic idea that the government should be a Christian government, it should be
56:05
distinctly reformed and Protestant, that it should support the church, that it should repel
56:12
heresies and sin of various kinds, that the government should aim towards
56:18
instituting God's law, and that the church should be distinct from the state, that the church
56:24
should have the prerogative of being able to rebuke the state.
56:28
They're not overlapping spheres of authority, but they have their own distinct realms in which each one of them is trying
56:34
to glorify God and obey the law, the scriptures as much as possible.
56:40
And so when I read this stuff, I'm like, yes, yes, this is exactly how it should be.
56:45
But the problem is there doesn't seem to be anything even close to looking like that.
56:52
And even in Scotland, what they had for just a minute in time was not
56:58
able to be sustained in reality because then Charles II comes back to power and all of
57:04
a sudden the state is once again wielding its tyrannical persecution against the church.
57:09
It's like the conversation of what is ideal versus what is,
57:15
those are just two different conversations.
57:17
And I think that's where it gets very frustrating for American Christians, modern evangelicals
57:23
that love the Lord and want to obey Christ.
57:26
And yet, gosh, man, I mean, the idea of democracy was such a good idea,
57:32
except that it presumes that the voting public
57:38
is honorable and actually would make their promises to the constitution and
57:44
actually seek to uphold the constitution.
57:46
It works in theory if you have people that love truth and love God and
57:55
But the moment that the whole populace becomes anti -Christian and
58:01
truth and honesty and integrity and the ninth commandment is meaningless, then the whole
58:07
thing is just like, it's out the door.
58:09
And at that point, it is really hard to know what to do and what's right.
58:14
That's why we're so confused right now because we're frustrated, very frustrated.
58:20
Yeah, no, I agree with that 100%.
58:24
Somebody, I jumped down on some of the questions just because there's so many and we're not gonna be able to get to all of them,
58:30
but somebody just wrote something here that I thought was funny.
58:34
Let me see if I can find it again.
58:35
It was the, I don't remember who said it, but they basically said a Baptist
58:41
and a Presbyterian could take turn being monarchs.
58:43
And I just thought that was funny.
58:45
See, we can work something out, Keith.
58:47
We can work something out, buddy.
58:51
I'll be the king four days a week.
58:56
I feel like a weekend king.
58:59
I feel like I can do that.
59:01
I'll take Thursdays and Saturdays and I'll take the rest.
59:06
Well, we've been at this for an hour.
59:08
I don't know how long you had set aside for this.
59:10
I'm willing to go a little longer if you are,.
59:13
Wanna go 15 more minutes?
59:14
Let's do 15 more minutes.
59:16
I'm having fun, by the way.
59:20
Maybe we can do this again sometime.
59:23
All right, so I'm gonna jump over to Twitter real quick because I did ask if anybody had any questions that they
59:31
And I'm just gonna ask a couple of these very quickly.
59:35
Like if Twitter didn't exist, or excuse me, if Twitter X existed in the 16th
59:41
century, would the 95 theses have been posted online and do you think they would have been
59:47
I think from a sort of just historical question, it may be sort of tongue in cheek,
59:54
but the question is legit in this way.
59:56
Is the media of today able to do what was
1:00:02
done in the 16th century with Luther?
1:00:06
Or is everything white noise?
1:00:08
Luther would be the most outrageous tweeter imaginable.
1:00:13
He would be setting people on fire, scorched earth.
1:00:15
If that dude had access to Twitter, he'd be a beast.
1:00:20
Now, I think that Spurgeon and Edwards would be lecturing a little bit more on like
1:00:27
guarding your speech and like your demeanor and your temperament.
1:00:33
Edwards is just so reserved in the way he speaks.
1:00:37
He never lets go a statement that he regrets.
1:00:41
You know what I'm saying?
1:00:41
Like he is so careful in the way he talks.
1:00:45
And I can't imagine Edwards misusing Twitter, but I can see Luther,
1:00:52
he has a little too many German beers and he's up too late firing away.
1:00:57
I think Luther would be a bit of a problem.
1:01:03
What do you think about that?
1:01:03
No, well, I think you're 100 % right.
1:01:07
I think someone would have to cut off Luther's subscription to Comcast.
1:01:18
Luther would be in Facebook jail.
1:01:21
Keith should be the, oh, did I get it up there?
1:01:24
It says, Keith should be the king during the feasts.
1:01:27
The Baptists know their way around a potluck.
1:01:29
You can be the king during all the hard stuff, but I'm gonna be king during the feasts.
1:01:35
All right, so I got a buddy named Scott on Twitter and he asked
1:01:41
a question that he's asked me to ask in several of these things.
1:01:44
And I always forget to ask.
1:01:46
So I told him if he could remind me the question, it's a Whopper.
1:01:53
What was the, if you're listening.
1:01:55
Well, I'll go back to him in a second.
1:01:57
I'll go back to him in a second.
1:02:00
Okay, here's a great serious question.
1:02:02
And then we'll go back to Scott's question in just a moment.
1:02:07
I'm gonna let you go first on this one.
1:02:08
What are your thoughts on reform street preaching?
1:02:12
And what would you do differently?
1:02:14
That's a great practical question for a pastor.
1:02:17
And I really like your thoughts on this and I'll get back to you.
1:02:20
Yeah, cool question, yes.
1:02:23
So I actually teach a class on evangelism at RPTS, the Reform Presbyterian Theological Seminary
1:02:33
And I have a section on open air evangelism and street preaching.
1:02:37
And I encourage it to be done.
1:02:40
There are a bunch of advantages to it and there are a few disadvantages.
1:02:45
And this is probably true with most of our methods of evangelism because there's gonna be some advantages and there's gonna be
1:02:52
So for instance, Twitter or YouTube, the advantage there is you can get a
1:02:58
lot of people online together.
1:03:00
You can do a YouTube video and hit 5 ,000 people.
1:03:03
So there's an advantage there, right?
1:03:04
But there's a disadvantage in that it's not personal.
1:03:07
And so you're always kind of weighing out positives versus negatives in any kind of evangelistic
1:03:13
And the same thing is true with street preaching.
1:03:15
So the advantage of street preaching is that it's very public and it can sometimes
1:03:21
be somewhat confrontational.
1:03:23
You're confronting people with the gospel and you're telling people to repent of their sin and to turn to Jesus.
1:03:30
And so you might say that a negative is that it can at times come across as
1:03:37
But the advantage is like you also reach a lot of people that would never darken the doors
1:03:45
And one of the stories that I tell, two stories actually in my evangelism class,
1:03:51
the first is that A .W. Tozer, one of the great spiritual writers, now he's not reformed, but I still
1:03:59
He was converted in the city of Akron, my hometown, by a street preacher, a man
1:04:05
with probably a Dutch or a German accent, he wasn't sure, but he came out of the rubber factory.
1:04:10
He was working at one of the rubber factories in Akron and here's this guy literally standing on a soapbox, preaching, repents and
1:04:17
And that is what converted A .W. Tozer and A .W. Tozer's ministry was
1:04:26
And then the other one is Hudson Taylor, one of the greatest missionaries of all time, probably did
1:04:32
more good for China than almost any other mortal as far as like
1:04:37
preaching fruit and ministry goes.
1:04:39
And Hudson Taylor was converted by a gospel tract, simple tract that somebody left out and he
1:04:45
found it and read it and was converted.
1:04:48
So while it's not going to reach everybody, it is going to reach some people.
1:04:53
And that's the beauty of evangelism is that we have to throw out seed everywhere.
1:04:58
It's like the parable of the soils where you just don't want some out here and some out here and some out here.
1:05:04
The methodologies can be varied, but the gospel has to be the same.
1:05:07
And so street preaching, yes, I would say definitely do it, but just understand that not everyone is going to, it's
1:05:13
not going to appeal to every hearer.
1:05:16
There are certain people that will be reached by it that others will not.
1:05:21
Amen, 100 % amen to everything that you said.
1:05:24
The only thing I would add is I've had the benefit and blessing
1:05:30
of having, as one of my elders, Brother Mike Collier, he is an
1:05:37
And so I have the benefit of going out with him.
1:05:40
I have preached some, but I generally just let him preach because that's where God has gifted him.
1:05:45
And he has a really strong ability to communicate in that.
1:05:49
And I just stand around sort of being with him so he's not all by himself.
1:05:53
And I hand out gospel tracts and I offer to have conversations with people as they're walking by.
1:05:58
And I feel like in that part, I'm stepping back and I'm letting him shine with the gifts that God's given him in a way
1:06:04
that's unique and within our congregation, very helpful because other people come out and they
1:06:10
also hand out tracts and they also have conversations.
1:06:12
And so it's just been a blessing to our church.
1:06:15
So if you have somebody in your church who God has gifted in that way, my recommendation to you, if that person is a sound,
1:06:21
godly man that you can trust to go out and share the gospel, support that person, encourage that person and go with that
1:06:30
Mike has told me stories about going out by himself feeling very intimidated where people come up behind him, throw things at him,
1:06:37
And it's nice to have somebody just be beside you, as Jesus sent
1:06:45
So just as a thought, if you've got a person in your church that has that heart, support them
1:06:51
and encourage them is my word to you.
1:06:55
All right, very quickly, I'm gonna ask Scott's question.
1:06:59
This one is humorous, but it's a great question.
1:07:02
Is the Whopper Jr. a small Whopper or is it just a regular
1:07:08
hamburger with all the fixings?
1:07:10
Is it legitimately a small Whopper or is it just a regular hamburger with all the fixings?
1:07:19
Man, this is not one that I have a real fixed opinion on, you know, like baptism or
1:07:25
I'm gonna just say it's just a small Whopper, but there is something I do have a strong opinion on Keith.
1:07:30
And that is that we often debate in my church about whether or not tacos are sandwiches.
1:07:35
And I am an ardent tacos are sandwiches adherents.
1:07:40
I believe that they're sandwiches.
1:07:42
There was a court of law that recently found on our side on this matter.
1:07:46
There was a, it actually came to the court at one point and a sandwich, the definition of it is a meat
1:07:53
around which there is an encasing of usually corn or flour for the purposes of
1:08:02
And in that standard, a taco meets every aspect of the definition.
1:08:05
So tacos are sandwiches folks.
1:08:08
I had a debate on whether or not a hamburger was a sandwich with Sam Gillespie on my show.
1:08:14
And that to me, that was obvious, but Sam wanted to argue it.
1:08:17
So he argued that a hamburger is not a sandwich.
1:08:20
And I said, not only as a hamburger, I said a taco, a hot dog, they're all sandwiches.
1:08:31
We're going to go after this.
1:08:32
I promise this is the very last thing, but somebody did ask a great question.
1:08:35
I thought maybe you might have something for them.
1:08:38
This guy says that he and his wife are going to watch a movie tonight.
1:08:42
What movie should they watch?
1:08:45
What are you going to give them?
1:08:48
And this will be our last thing and then we'll be done.
1:08:53
Maybe should I, this is Maple Syrup Studios says, what movie should I watch with my wife tonight?
1:08:59
I got an answer, I got an answer, but I'm going to have to change the question.
1:09:05
It's not a movie, but you should definitely sit down and watch a Nate Bargatze
1:09:11
comedy special on Netflix.
1:09:15
It'll be good for your marriage.
1:09:17
You'll laugh, you'll cry.
1:09:21
Movies are too long, but Nate Bargatze specials are perfect.
1:09:27
I don't think I could love you any more than I do right now.
1:09:32
I have a Nate Land mug from his podcast.
1:09:36
My wife bought it for me for Christmas and I have a Nate Land shirt.
1:09:45
So I just love him to death.
1:09:47
But if I were going to watch a movie, I would tell you to watch my favorite movie of all time.
1:09:52
And it's not a good movie.
1:09:53
It's not in anyone's top 100, but it's my favorite movie of all time.
1:09:58
It's a movie called One Crazy Summer with Demi Moore and John Cusack.
1:10:05
It is a movie about, it's just about the summer.
1:10:09
These kids graduate high school and they spend the summer together on Nantucket Island.
1:10:13
And it is the funniest movie.
1:10:18
You talked about being sick earlier.
1:10:19
If I'm sick at home, I'm watching One Crazy Summer.
1:10:23
I've seen it over a hundred.
1:10:24
I've seen it over a hundred.
1:10:29
There's a romantic subplot with him and Demi Moore, but that's not the focus of the movie.
1:10:33
The focus of the movie, it's got a little bit of, it's the kind of
1:10:39
humor that would, like a Monty Python type humor.
1:10:44
Like at the very beginning, there's a cat.
1:10:47
He's holding his cat and he puts his cat down and his cat runs into the cat house, which is like a little dog house.
1:10:52
And on the outside of the house are all these little stuffed heads of squirrels and mouse.
1:10:57
Like that's the kind of comedy is.
1:11:00
You know, like a man would have a deer head on his wall while the cat had little mouse heads on his wall.
1:11:06
And that's the dumb level of humor.
1:11:08
But it's the kind of movie that when you watch it, it just makes you laugh.
1:11:13
So we both have the same answer.
1:11:15
I just, as far as, sit down and laugh with your wife.
1:11:18
Mary Hart is good like a medicine.
1:11:20
I think that we can't, we cannot end this without me asking you the question that
1:11:26
everybody really wants to know the answer to.
1:11:30
I got a question for you.
1:11:36
You should be slightly nervous.
1:11:38
So you're about to win a lifetime or a year supply of cigars from
1:11:44
1689 Cigars, who is the sponsor of this tournament.
1:11:49
Are you actually going to light one of those bad boys?
1:11:53
And secondly, if not, maybe send one, the third place guys way.
1:11:59
You know what I'm saying?
1:12:00
Like hook a bronze metal guy up with at least one of those bad boys.
1:12:05
Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but I do plan to send some out.
1:12:09
So I'm going to be reaching out to get some addresses.
1:12:12
Cause I certainly, I won't be able to enjoy the amount I'm getting.
1:12:16
Cause I am getting more than I would be able to enjoy.
1:12:18
I would say I've smoked only a few cigars in my life.
1:12:23
I have smoked a few and I do enjoy it on occasion, but it's not something that I do regularly.
1:12:29
So with the amount that I'm getting, I'm definitely going to be sharing, but yes.
1:12:36
And there is a video cause somebody accused me of never lighting.
1:12:40
I saw a still image, a still image.
1:12:43
It was my second video ever.
1:12:45
And here's the funny part.
1:12:47
If you go back and watch it, it was not my second video, but it was my second denominational video.
1:12:54
And the Presbyterian is lighting the cigar saying, let's talk about Romans nine.
1:13:01
But if you watch the video, it's a Swisher sweet cigar because I couldn't, I didn't even have a
1:13:08
I had to go to a store for that video.
1:13:11
And the only one they had was a Swisher sweet.
1:13:13
So if anybody knows what a Swisher sweet is, that's what I was smoking in that.
1:13:17
So yes, I'm going to smoke, but it will be, most of them will be gifted
1:13:23
away because I won't be able to use this.
1:13:25
I have a, I have a deacon that loves them.
1:13:27
So he's going to get a few as well.
1:13:29
Always in moderation and never enough for you have to qualify yourself as a smoker for insurance purposes.
1:13:35
That's, I'm always below that line.
1:13:37
Whatever that line is, I'm below that line.
1:13:43
Well, man, thank you for coming on the show.
1:13:45
I'm going to send, send this out via everybody who's, you know, we've had over a hundred people at certain
1:13:51
points watching and we'll also share it once we're done on Twitter for people who didn't get to watch live.
1:14:01
Love you guys lots down there in Florida.
1:14:03
Keep doing what you're doing and we'll talk to you later.
1:14:05
Praise God and love you guys too.