SRR #36 | Disney Disappoints Us Again

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Christ Is Our King and Scripture Is Our Law

Christ is our King Scripture is our law Scripture and the laws of our country now collide head-on. Now just to make it clear We don't bow down to Caesar.

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Sanctification by the Word, Not by Law-Keeping

All right, welcome everybody to our podcast this is Semper Ephraim on the radio. My name is Tim and I am in the house today with Joseph Rios so today We're gonna be talking about the Disney movie and just trying to tackle it from a biblical worldview, but first I wanted to Start off with this.

I I was talking to a friend About New Covenant theology this week, and this is something that I've seen quite a bit I think from New Covenant theologians and I guess I would say that I've spoken to about 20 New Covenant theologians and This is this is kind of interesting because I guess it just depends on who you talk to.

I had a conversation with Dustin Seegers a while back and we were talking about sanctification and asked him what their view on Sanctification was and he said that it was basically the same thing as what a Reformed Baptist would believe but then I was talking to another individual and he was saying that Covenant theologians believe that we're sanctified by the law and that that's wrong and I tried to draw him out a little bit about it but he was under the impression that we're sanctified by law-keeping and I remember this came up earlier in our conversations with the guys from Conversations from the Porch and I'm not necessarily Wanting to even tackle what what they may or may not believe because I'm not really sure what they would say about this.

But I remember that we had that we had. We had a quote from John Reisinger and I just want to read this real fast. It says let us not make the same mistake that the that the Reformers made. They thoroughly reformed the gospel message of justification by faith, but failed to reform some other doctrines they threw out justification by the works of the law, but held to Sanctification by the law and I'm not really sure what they mean by sanctification by the law.

All I know is that the New Covenant theologian that I was speaking to my friend who I was speaking to was under the impression that Covenant theology holds that we are sanctified by law-keeping and that is something that We that the Covenant theology actually rejects and so I just wanted to tackle that sort of set the record straight.

There's a really good quote from John Robbins from an article titled the gospel according to John MacArthur and in it he touches on the issue of sanctification and He says quote it is also the Protestant and biblical position that Sanctification does not consist of good works, but is the progressive moral cleansing accomplished by God through his truth.

Quote sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth end quote and that's a from John 17 Sankt sanctification no less than justification and regeneration is an act of God. Whatever good works we do are predestined by God and are the result of our justification and our sanctification.

Not the cause. We do not become good by practicing good deeds as Aristotle taught we do some good deeds because we have been declared legally righteous in justification and made partially good in sanctification.

We work out only because God has already justified and sanctified us. So the the position and I just want to throw this out there if any new covenant theologians would like to engage on this. That's fine.

But from what I from what I understand that is not the view of covenant theology. We are not sanctified by the by keeping the law we We're sanctified by the law in the sense that it is it is the Word of God and It it sanctifies us to to read it and to I mean you're actually Sanctified by reading any part of the Bible and this is what?

Jesus meant when he said sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. So we're sanctified by the Word of God and that's basically renewing our mind in in the light of God's Word that we are Progressively becoming more and more like Christ.

We're progressively learning to think and act more and more like Christ and so that this sort of leads us into our discussion today about the the whole Disney debacle because We should be striving to Continue to be to being sanctified by the truth sanctified by the Word of God learning how to think like Christ and so Joseph, let me ask you first.

Do you have anything to to say to what I just what I just laid out?

No, it's pretty straightforward. I Actually could read completely with what you said. I'm talking to add a whole lot to it. Okay?

Well, so Joseph, let's go ahead and do this. You and I were talking and we had a conversation with Carlos about last week and To be honest with you. I I really didn't even want to Talk about Disney. I I really didn't want to to even have to address this Beauty and the Beast movie and After some things came up in my personal life I realized that I probably should and if you've followed our podcast You would maybe remember that early on when Carlos and I first started podcasting we Took up the issue of the LGBTQ agenda and one of the things that we were very adamant about was just pointing out that the LGBTQ agenda is an antichrist agenda and it is extremely hostile to the the church and So I would encourage you guys to go back and listen to those episodes.

I think we did like four episodes and we actually never even finished the episodes. We there was so much more to cover both Carlos and I just got really tired of talking about it. And we wanted to talk about other things but there was some really good stuff on there we talked about the the the bakeries that were being targeted by gay activists.

We talked about a whole bunch of things in there and one of the things that we we had planned and going back and talking about was just what we see going on in the in the Disney realm or in the in the kids animation realm and At the time I had mentioned that you know that they wanted to make Elsa From frozen into a lesbian.

That was one of the things that was on their agenda on their list of things to to to do and What we see is that they are accomplishing. What they're setting out to do now, they they're they're aggressive.

The LGBTQ a movement is is an aggressive movement and it's a hostile movement and.

I.

Got my wife's permission to talk about this and I don't mean that in an effeminate way. Anytime a man says he got he has his wife's permission. I sort of I sort of laugh at him, but. The reason I say that is because something came up this week that pertains to my wife and I asked her if it would be okay if if I shared it with our listeners and.

Another thing about me that you know, our listeners would probably already know is that I'm a pretty open book I try to tell it like it is. I've shared the the stuff that's going on with my with my family and.

So.

This is this is just another thing to really talk about but earlier this week or actually is about last week a group of ladies from a church I Don't want to name the church, but a group of ladies from from a church I decided to have a ladies ladies get-together like a ladies night out, you know, and they decided to They decided to go see the movie Beauty and the Beast and so one individual one of the ladies bought the tickets for everybody and I think there were 20 about 20 ladies that were We're going and some of them.

I mean We've we've known for years and years. I mean, these are what I would consider faithful Christians and Then after the tickets were bought the the individuals she spent I think over $200 on on the movie tickets then the bombshell was dropped that that there was a gay character in the movie that that that one of the characters his actual character was was a homosexual and When that news came out My wife and I had a conversation on the phone and I asked her I said what?

Are you? What are you gonna do about it? I mean and and And she said well like, you know She really didn't know and I told I said well I don't think that you should go to the I don't I don't think you should go see the movie and She responded with well, that sucks you know, she had had her heart on seeing the movie and not not so much because she Really loved this movie, but because my wife is a mother of three very young children She doesn't get out of the house very much and This was an opportunity for her to go to lunch and see 20 other ladies that she hasn't seen in a long time, but that she dearly loves and She was very disappointed at the fact that and on the phone conversation.

She said she said well, yeah I know where this is going like this sucks. Like I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get to go and I struggled with Whether or not I should let her go whether or not I you know, is it you know, is it something that's really That's really out there.

Is it something that I I mean you know what would I be compromising if I allowed her to go so that she could see all of these other people and a Lot of the ladies that that she was gonna see she hasn't seen in she hasn't seen them in years and so there's a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends and And so Throughout the week.

I was I was really struggling with whether or not, you know, am I am I being legalistic? Is this really that big of a deal and my wife shared some things with me that some of her concerns were She felt like she was going to Possibly be the only one who's gonna opt out of it and say well I'm not going to go and then I.

I.

Suppose that she was struggling with how to how to deal with that. And so what I what I did was I offered her I said this I said well tell you what look I will take you Out you and I will go have a date.

We'll get a babysitter and I'll take you out and We'll go do something instead of that. And I mean you know, I think that that sort of helped but there was there was a moment when.

Where.

There was a temptation to compromise and just say well, you know, we already bought the ticket let's just go and What I realized was that at the time my conviction was a little bit stronger than her conviction.

Because I didn't have any I didn't you know, these aren't my friends. I'm not I'm not missing anything and She really wanted to go and so I was convicted that no we you shouldn't go see this movie but she was wanting to still go and and so that that actually became very difficult because.

And what I what I think and Joseph you can you can sort of tell me what you think about this but I think one of the most difficult things in a marriage and This will probably come up with raising kids.

This will probably come up with with just Entertainment and stuff like that. One of the things that I I think is the most difficult things to walk out is when a couple does have a different conviction about something or when one person is wanting to compromise or let something slide and the other person is wanting to hold fast and.

So I found myself as a husband. Struggling with whether or not I should put up a wall put my foot down and say no you're not gonna go. Or whether or not I should allow her to you know make the decision and operate based off of her own conviction and Sort of just tell her remind her or this is what the Bible says and this is what?

The Word of God says and lead her in that in that direction, but leave the decision up to her and We talked about the kids. We said, you know, we realized that no this is not something that we would allow the kids to see.

But then the temptation became we were tempted to sort of treat this as an adult film. Well, okay, the kids can't see it, but we're adults, you know, we know that this is that this is wrong. And so that was pretty much the struggle with with everything.

And so today I just want to tackle what what is a biblical perspective about this? What what should Christians do should Christians? Allow their kids to see it should Christian adults go see the movie, but Joseph, what do you.

What are your thoughts on any of that.

Marriage, Shepherding, and the Question of Conscience

Okay, so I was. I was fortunate enough to be part of the the conversation with you and Carlos and so I think. The the decision to me was is super clear. So once you identified it as something that I'm That is a not good or sin or that God hates.

Then then it doesn't to me. It doesn't take much more than that and so that so I hold a probably a stronger position and then most of it, but it's just Based on on I think a simple straightforward reading of certain texts of Scripture.

So for so, for example, I hadn't spoken to my wife about it up until you had had shared that with us and. And then after discussion, I realized I just needed to go have that conversation. So the next day I went over to my wife and told her that we're not watching that movie because of these reasons.

A different approach. The what it reminds me of is.

Was it?

First Peter 3 7 so You husband's in the same way live with your wives in an understanding way as with someone who's weaker since she is a woman. And she'll her honor as a fellow error of the grace of life.

So your prayers may not be hindered and so Living with them in an understanding way. That's that's the important part. So what it isn't necessarily is isn't Is you know, obviously not being belligerent and not not being a short-tempered With them not getting angry because they don't understand right away the same way they have the the admonition to To fear us and it was in the same way that that Sarah feared Abraham.

It was with reverence. I think in that situation when you can identify What should or shouldn't be done? It's the onus is on on the man at that point the husband to lead his wife so just as I wouldn't You know if we're gonna use the shepherd analogy just as I wouldn't Tell tell this sheep as it were that you go this way and I'll go that way and I hope you make the right decision I wouldn't do that with my wife being the weaker vessel.

I Love her. I love her enough to have an uncomfortable conversation for her to be frustrated with me because I have her best interest in Mind, unfortunately with my wife. We're pretty much on the same page most the time.

Especially after a discussion, right? So, you know We talked about it a little bit and then it made it really clear and she had a very similar For different reasons and probably different tone. Because it wasn't a built-up event for my wife she wasn't planning on doing this with a group of people or or getting the opportunity to Spend time with people.

She hasn't seen in a while So she was just like well that sucks but not in that, you know frustrated as much way like yeah I get it and that sucks that it's that way, you know, not not that not this is happening to me.

So.

Entertainment as an Idol and the Call to Renewed Minds

I.

Don't know it. I don't have as much of a with it with entertainment. I think that the what we run into with this is that for American Christianity, and I think this is perhaps a Problem for people who are in more more wealthy places and have more access to these things.

It's a It's our one of our idols is as entertainment. What we do when we don't want to think and we just want to stare at something and let it come into our minds. And I think that there's a couple of verses that that I kind of hold to on these things and to be fair to.

Anybody who's listening? I struggle with this as well. I don't execute this perfectly, but I think the scriptures clear. So I'll reference us Psalm 101 3. I will set no worthless thing before my eyes.

I hate the work. Those who fall away. It shall not fasten its grip on me and Psalm 97 10 hate evil you who love the Lord who preserves the souls of his godly ones. He delivers that from the hand of the wicked and so I mean but just between the two of those.

I think that I can eliminate most forms of Entertainment in regards to the content or those who make it. And. And so that makes that would be my life boring if I wasn't busy all the time but I don't know I fall into that.

I'll. You know, I'll watch something and then I'll think about it afterwards and it and that and. Maybe I shouldn't have. So I still deal with that, but I think the scriptures clear. So it's a failing on my part not not the scripture lacking clarity, right?

Well, I told my wife I Said in the first in the first conversation. I said look, I don't know anything about it. I need to find out some information. I need to listen to what others have to say so people who are smarter wiser more established in the faith than I am and.

So that's what I did and I listened to Al Mohler. I listened to. Well, I read an article by Matt Walsh and a lot of. I don't really remember what I'm trying to remember what Moeller said specifically, but he went over what the director said and and and so what I found was that a lot of people were focusing on kids and.

And admonishing parents not to allow their kids to see this movie and for obvious reasons kids are impressionable and.

I.

Really? I really believe that the LGBTQ agenda that they're they're focusing specifically on kids because if they can win the next generation then they will have won. And. And Joseph as a matter of fact, you know what for our listeners?

Let's I'm sure that our listeners have already heard this. But let's just go over it again. Do you have the the clip or the? From the Washington Post. If you can read that.

Yeah, it's a it's a quote. It looks to be a direct quotes from Washington Post. And it's a condom is the the one being quoted. It says he says LeFou Who on one day wants to be guest on and then another day wants to kiss guest on condom told the magazine.

And.

Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it and.

That's.

What has its payoff at the end, which I don't want to give away. But it's nice. But I'm sorry, but it's a nice.

Exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie. And so this is this is actually a historic event. I think that if there was ever a time when parents and Christians would abstain from going or would Would refrain from going to a Disney movie.

I believe that this this one is it because this is a historic moment. This is the first ever Disney movie in which they have Portrayed a character as as homosexual as as openly gay. And So, I mean I just in talking to my wife I came to the conclusion that you know, it wasn't something that we could see and I I asked her to pray about it and she You know, she knew.

She she knew that she was. She was going to say no. She was going to have to tell the other ladies that she wasn't going to be able to go. But one of the things that I mean she's struggling with right now is.

Why Many Christians Compromise

Why?

Why do we see? so many other Christians compromise because it's a difficult thing to Have to. I mean if if they collectively and they have their own husbands, I'm not even going to try to To correct them if I was ever going to Try to correct a female's behavior or whatever.

I would I would either go to her father. I would go to her husband. I wouldn't step outside that covering. I don't think that's wise. Especially especially in this in this situation or in this context, but they have their own husbands and You know, their husbands are going to lead them.

But you know, one of the things that My wife is struggling with is why do you see? so many Christians Compromising why do you see so many Christians? They're not. They're not with with us on on boycotting Target, they're not with us on.

On.

You know holding the line and and they're not with us on saying no, we're not gonna we're not going to go and see this this movie and I'm just wondering is this. Is this reflective of a downgrade within within church culture where we are allowing? the world to creep in and.

I.

Think that's one of the things that my wife was struggling with. The most is. There may be a couple of other people who are going to say You know that they they're not going to go see the movie but for the most part as as it stands right now, we're under the impression that they're all still gonna go see the movie and I think that's that's one of the things that my wife was was struggling with and and quite frankly, I'm bewildered by.

The Parable of the Sower, Weak Leadership, and American Christianity

Well, I think part of the part of the reason they're I mean, there's a few things. The so I I got a chance to teach on the other night on the on the perilous soils and The that is the third soil the soil with the with the weeds that choke it up.

The cares of this world is a scary one, right because for all intents and purposes it grows just like the good soil does. It does it the wind doesn't take it out and the and the Sun doesn't burn it away.

In fact, it seems to be feeding that but because of its its care for the world's the deceitfulness of riches. It's choked out and produces. No fruit. No fruit that comes to maturity. Is how you could see it one way and the other one is that that that perseveres?

Large in general is just that that's most of modern evangelical Christianity and so I don't somebody's I don't assume on people based on just a profession that they're that they're believers or just that they show up on a regular basis.

My my so that's that's part of it. The other part is that Like the the lack of leadership as far as husbands are concerned, I don't think that that. And it's not like everybody can't do better at this or maybe there's somebody out there who does it perfectly as perfect as we can do, but but we in general need to be better about Shepherding our family, right?

Talking to our children about God and who he is. What he demands his perfections is his attributes depending on who you're reading or or talking to our wives about these things about what we're doing what's going on in our lives and Sharing our thoughts on What's what's well to do and not not in just a way of I'm curious as to what you have to think but I'm but I'm watching out for you.

And I think there's there's too much of this emasculated American Christianity where we we feel bad for doing the right thing. Because Because it makes us out to be a brute if we if we make demands where as a leader, you're expected to Get for lack of a better way of putting a give order so so what I'm not saying is order around your wife what I am saying is when when you see danger you warn them of it and thankfully one of the differences between You know be being on the street doing evangelism and me having my wife who's right in front of me as I can.

According to scripture I can tell her this is what we're doing or what we're not doing. And somehow what the culture has infiltrated on that level in regards to husbands leading their wives. And so and so the question there is why aren't the husbands leading the wives?

What are the husbands doing in regards to? The work of the Saints are they are they. Are they. Are they Renewing their mind. Are they sanctify. Are they being sanctified in truth? Or or Or are we are we missing that there too, and we're just assuming it.

Genesis 3, the Husband's Responsibility, and the Danger of Compromise

Yeah one of the things that you touched on was the role of the husband and.

I.

Think you know that that's really what I struggled with this week was Because I And for the it's weird because my wife and I are usually on the same page and so for the first time. And in really a long long time there was a struggle as to what what should we do and The the thing that I kept going back to and I mentioned this in our earlier episodes I've referenced this before but You see in the garden a Garden of Eden that the God gives the the word to Adam he tells Adam not to eat of the the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Then the serpent comes to Eve and the serpent tempts Eve and in Genesis 3 verse 6 it says so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and That the tree was to be desired to make one wise.

She took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was with her. This is just so profound because First of all, we we know that God spoke directly to Adam. It was his job to cover his wife.

And so the serpent comes to Eve and it's amazing that that after God tells Adam Explicitly if you eat of this tree, you will die. Well, we obviously know that that fruit is no good. But it says that that Eve saw that the tree was good for food so my question is how is it that Eve was able to look upon that tree and see that it was good for food in Light of the fact that God had already said this will kill you.

Well, the only way that Eve could have looked at the fruit looked at the tree and saw that it was good was if if she was if she was failing to look at that tree in light of God's Word and That's exactly what happened is that it is a Eve failed to look at that tree in the light of God's Word and I believe that that's a lot of times what what we do as believers what we do as Christians we can look at something and we can think well, that's good and I've seen so many Christians do this.

They look at something like homosexuality and they'll say well they love each other. That's good and Essentially they're doing exactly this they're failing to look at look at whatever it is that they are affirming or whatever it is that they're That they are justifying they're failing to look at that in the light of God's Word because God's Word is clear about the the issue of homosexuality and and so then Just going back to this verse 6 in Genesis 3.

It says That it was a delight to the eyes. Well Entertainment is a delight. It's it's fun and What is astonishing is that you see that she eats the fruit and then it says and she also gave to her husband Who was with her?

So Adam was was with her the entire time that this was happening and what he does is he completely neglects his responsibility as her husband and.

I.

Mean knowing that God has said you will die. He allows her to eat.

Of.

The the fruit and.

And.

What he should have done was he should have taken a boulder and crushed the head of the serpent. But instead what he does he's just he's so negligent he he did not see his wife as as one who is precious to to guard and to protect and This this is what I I had to tell my wife was that you're you're precious to me.

I I don't Want you to go see this? I I I believe that there is an Antichrist agenda behind this this is a deliberate move by Disney to to conform the culture to the world or to conform the church to the world and If you if you go and you look at what God's Word says about this It's it's abundantly clear.

God says that homosexuality is an abomination. But it's a sin. And so here we have a movie that is that is exalting it that is That is glorifying it that is presenting it as something that is good. And I don't think that Christians are going to say well, yeah I I think homosexuality is good now, but I Don't think that so the compromise looks like this.

Well, I don't think it's that bad or I I don't I don't really think it's that big of a deal and I'm just thinking if you would look at this in the light of God's Word You would be convicted you would you would see this as a big deal you would You would refrain from it.

That that was that was my appeal and so throughout the week I was I was tempted with okay. So I don't I don't want to just be You know legalistic. I don't want to just be Shutting everything down. But I I can't come away with anything other than if you just if you look at what God's Word says You will recognize that that this is no good and that that you should stay away from this.

Joseph what are your thoughts on that? I mean there's a.

Why Christians Should Not Excuse Sinful Entertainment

So I mean so this has been coming up in some conversations. And so we we're probably not short on on things to talk about with it. You've got some people saying, you know. Well, you know, you know, there's there's things like that in the Bible.

So why can't we watch it over here if we can we can you know, we can read in the Bible. Because like for an entertainment type thing I would say if your kids shouldn't watch it. You probably shouldn't watch it as an adult and.

And so somebody was says well that stuff's in the Bible and and I say well the Bible side entertainment. It's the Word of God and it's profitable for making making the man of God perfect. There's in a part of the Bible.

I would not read to my children because it's the Word of God. Now there's a couple chapters in and.

In.

Proverbs I read through faster about adultery because I was I was I was concerned about that conversation and she caught that towards the end of it and it led to a big conversation, but. But yeah, you can't make that analogy.

It's the the scripture. You can't look at you can't say well it's in here so we can watch it there. Those are two totally different things though. The Word of God supposed to to be for us in a way that's beneficial to us that out there is from the world of the evil one.

And you can't compare the two. I think to compare the two is to not understand really what the Word of God is. It's almost like a justification in that way but um, but yeah, it's it's.

You know.

You know people people cry legalism a lot of times when when they want to keep on doing what they're doing. That doesn't comport with the Word of God friend of mine. Once told me we were talking about holiday type stuff and he said that's not a he said the same thing.

It's not a hill. I'm going to die on and I said well I suppose I am and he goes there's a lot of hills. He'll die on and I said no, sir. There's there's only one hill. I'm willing to die on that's truth.

It just happens to be attacked from a lot of sides. Hmm, and so so when it comes to this is what the truth is I will I will die on that Hill. I don't think that the one one part of God's Word is less precious than another and so I'm not gonna pick.

Those things and so I typically come off as not typically but sometimes I come off as somebody who? That's somebody accused me the other day of saying you Exactly the way you do you you're you're gonna say they're an unbeliever and that's not true.

But because I was defending Having the same God is it being important in regards to fellowship and whether or not somebody's a Christian. They they took that approach and that was but that's the same as the cry to legalism.

You're too narrow-minded, but narrow is the way and so.

The.

Scary, here's the here's the horrible part. Is that like the majority of these conversations that are being had in regards to this have no scripture in them? It's all about human wisdom or a matter of how somebody feels about it.

Well, well, here's the here's the the the.

The.

Problem with that is that my heart is evil and we can deceit when we can't trust it. And and when you know the. The fool does what's right in his own eyes every time and in judges. They did what was right in their own eyes.

It was that was the bad part. You know, we we shouldn't lean on our own understanding. But in all our ways acknowledge him, right? And so if we're not using scripture to make these decisions if we're just gonna try to like weigh it out based on our own philosophies and then have.

And and then and then go go always go to the ones that let us do what we want and never look the ones that that prevent us from doing things that harm us because they are sinful or full of sin or that there is There's evil in it.