Dead Men Walking Podcast LIVE from Fight Laugh Feast: Rod Martin

Yeah, let us know if they're too loud or if they're not loud enough. That's good.

Okay. That was a great talk by David Botts.

Yes, he was. Yeah. I would expect it would be. Right. David's great.

Some amazing speakers. Okay. Okay. All right. Let's just give it a few seconds of silence here for the intro, and then we'll get going.

Okay. Yep. Exploring theology, doctrine, and all of the fascinating subjects in between, broadcasting from an undisclosed location,

Dead Men Walking starts now. Well, hello, everyone.

Welcome back to another episode of Dead Men Walking. I'm your host, Greg. We got Jason to our right. We're still live at Fight, Laugh, Feast.

I've only said that nine times. I don't know why I messed it up now. Good Lord. And we've got all kinds of interesting people walking by.

We've talked to a lot of the speakers, a lot of the pastors, a lot of the theologians here. We have got a special guest,

Mr. Rod Martin. Oh, yeah. How are you, sir? Oh, yeah.

He's here. I'm excited about this one. He's finally here. We got all kinds of toys and games over here.

We flew him in from Destin. That's right. We flew him in. It was all us. No, I'm joking. Absolutely. He spoke earlier today at the conference.

Tell us what you speak about earlier. Give the listeners a little taste. The topic was to the moon and back. Yeah. Nice. And you did take us to the moon.

That was awesome. Well, thank you. Thank you. Yes, very much about, on the one hand, the meta -narrative of scripture, the creation mandate and the degree to which that is still very much valid and compelling upon us and how

God is bringing together not merely the redemption of all of the men, but of all of the creation as well, and our role in it vocationally, and some of the things that are going to happen in the next generation.

Beautiful. What was the fact you gave us about the moon mission? How much technology there was on Earth versus...

Oh. Well, what was that fact? I pulled out my iPhone and pointed out that there is more computing power in this one device that I'm holding, not all iPhones, but this iPhone, than existed on the entire planet

Earth when we walked on the moon. Wow. That is just unbelievable, isn't it? Something that we don't think about.

Yeah, yeah. This is amazing. So, among all these other things, obviously, CEO of the Martin Organization, you're connected with Founders Ministries as well, or no?

I do some things with them. I was in the documentary, By What Standard, and Tom Askell's an old friend.

And define for us what futurists mean, because we've been talking a lot of theology on here, and when it said futurists in your bio,

I said, man, we want to talk to him and get into some weird, funky stuff here on the podcast, because I feel like it always goes to weird and funky when we're talking futurists.

So, explain to the listeners a little bit what that is about. Well, we spend a lot of time extrapolating out from current technology and geopolitics, the growing field of astropolitics.

Where are we going to be in 20 years? Where are we going to be in 50 or 100? What are the things that we need to do to get from here to there?

Now, do you just focus on technology? Are we looking at socially, where are we going to be?

Archaeology obviously looks at the past, but we look at social groups and tribes and that as well when we're talking futurists, or do you mainly focus on technology in relation to how people use it?

Well, I'm a pretty holistic guy, and from my point of view, everything starts from the word of God.

Sure. So, I'm personally looking at everything, but vocationally, we do a lot of technology stuff.

I was one of the early guys at PayPal. We are highly involved in a couple of different pharmaceutical startups, one of which has a liver drug in the works.

Actually, we're in phase three human clinical trials. We've reversed cirrhosis of the liver. We've got another one we're launching right now with a former head of oncology clinic with a brain cancer vaccine.

We've got an internet startup that has a minimum viable product now. We are moving rapidly toward the deployment of a company with some technology that I think can beat

Elon Musk to Mars. Wow. Wait a second. What's your stock handle?

Tell me about that stock handle. That company is not public yet. Okay. All right. I'm going to keep my eye on that. Of course, neither is

SpaceX. Yeah, that's true. They're still on it. We think they're awesome. Watch out. We're on camera.

You're going to be on camera there. You're on. Okay. We'll be with you shortly. We got all kinds of stuff going on here.

That's the fun of doing a live podcast. We have people coming up to the table. That's fine. Right. Right. But even the bio,

I was down at the White House for an outreach with the Trump administration. I met one of the founders of a company called

BioStage where they're actually taking the trachea and the throat and with stem cells, they can essentially grow it and then put it for people with throat cancer and things like that and replace it.

I think he was trying to raise some funds down there in Washington, D .C., he had a round of funding going, but he was explaining it to me.

I just went, oh my gosh, we are getting to a place where it feels a little bit like we're trying to play

God, which is a little strange. My worldview, being a Christian and through creation and things like that, do you ever get into a weird space where you go, man,

I'm almost involved, we're not personally involved, but we're getting involved in some of these things that feels like we're trying to, even with AI, almost trying to play

God or be God. What's your view of that? There are clearly people who are trying to do that, mostly because they believe in creation.

There are other people, I think, who mistake imitating the creativity of the

Father for a form of playing God that I think really the line falls in the ethical boundaries between why you're trying to do a particular thing versus some other reason you might be trying to do a thing.

For instance, you're talking about that technology. I have a friend at Harvard who has a laboratory, actually, he's a very young man, he's got a laboratory named for himself.

He is growing hearts and lungs and kidneys and things in his laboratory.

It's extraordinary, not cloned off a pig or something, but just growing the matrix.

The idea is to take your stem cells, infuse them into the organ, and then after the whole thing's complete, it's as though you were born with that organ.

There's no rejection issue when it's transplanted into you. He hasn't done it in a human yet, he's done it in rats.

The rats are all well, this is good, but that kind of thing has the potential to extend human life expectancy 20, 25 years all by itself.

I know Elon Musk is working on Neuralink right now, which is very interesting.

Taking something and planting it inside of your skull so that if your eyesight's bad, you could take those glasses off, or if you have a limb that is not working properly, you can hook it up to wherever that goes in the brain.

That kind of stuff right there, it sounds a little bit too good to be true at times, but where do you go with some of that?

It probably works. I'm a little concerned about when I get hacked, suddenly

I'm the Borg. Malware, malware of the brain. We're already a cyborg right here. I already have that before I have coffee in the morning, malware of the brain.

Let me ask you this, we'll combine the two, how about being a futurist or looking at things like AI technology that's coming down the line?

You mentioned SpaceX and things like that, and then maybe even like end times eschatology. How do you, where do you land on that?

Do you think technology has something to do with the coming of Christ and does it matter? It's a good thing, it's a bad thing.

I mean, some people base what they see happening in technology, they look at that, and instead of really looking at the

Bible, they look at that and go, well, that must mean - Are we going to be chipped? Is this the mark of the beast?

That's what he's asking right now. Get you down here for a minute. Technology has - When's the chip coming?

Yeah, yeah. Technology has nothing to do with Christ's coming. Christ is coming no matter what.

Yes. Preach it, brother. That's right. However, technology has everything to do with the creation mandate.

Okay. We are told from the beginning, before the fall, and then again after the flood, that we are to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and send men in over everything, everywhere, and this is the working out of the creation.

We're shown what that is, because Adam is placed in the garden and he's told, basically, make the world like this.

This is the template, Adam. Go to it. I set you up. I got you. I got you the example.

I got you all the raw materials. I got you a woman, for heaven's sake, who's gorgeous, go have sex with her, and have a bunch of kids.

Right, right. And they're going to help. And that's what we're still doing. The fact that he repeats it to Noah tells you this is not something that got disrupted by the fall.

No. We are still working out the creation. We are still, you know, it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, it is the glory of kings to search it out.

That's technology. We are learning more and more and more how to solve God's puzzle of creation, and you see more and more ways that we find that, oh, well, here's a miracle drug that was baked into the cake all along, we just didn't know this plant could be used that way, or here's this mineral that we didn't know was good for anything that, oh, now it's a key component of your iPhone, and, you know, on and on and on.

The more we figure out how God brilliantly wove everything together, the more we're able to push back the curse because we eliminate want, which is to say poverty, and we elevate everyone everywhere.

That was an interesting statistic you talked about earlier. Could you tell our listeners the billion coming out of poverty?

In the last 20 years alone, and note that that is after the fall of communism, which is not a coincidence, in the last 20 years alone, we have lifted a billion people out of extreme poverty.

We are on track to lift another billion people out of extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is not just some nebulous idea.

It's defined to mean living on a dollar a day or less. The fact that that kind of transformation is happening right now as we speak, and nobody knows it, is truly extraordinary.

When my generation and younger argue for communism, democratic socialism, whatever that oxymoron is,

I just ask them, please show me another system other than capitalism that has lifted more people out of poverty in the history of the known universe than capitalism, and there isn't any.

Greg, you always talk about the 1 % as well, the world 1%. What is the statistic? We get the 1%, and it's like, jeez, if you make more than $36 ,000 as a single person in the

United States, you are part of the global 1%. People do not realize how well off and rich we are.

They really don't, and if they do, they feel guilty about it and start trying to give everything away.

Look, you have no sustainability apart from profitability, and that's common sense, but Jesus gives it to you straight up with the parable of the talents, parable of the minds.

He expects us to be good stewards, profitable stewards, and that profit is with purpose.

It's not just so I can give it away, although of course we give a lot away. It's also so we can hire more people, do more things, solve more problems.

You might not like Nike, but Nike makes great shoes. There was a time when people didn't have great shoes.

Some of these companies make great clothes. Great clothes don't wear out as much, and more people are actually clothed.

These are things that are good. Your business is not a ministry because of what it gives away.

Your business is a ministry because of the problems it solves right now.

I said in the talk, and I think it's worth repeating here, when a car salesman sells you a car, he's not fleecing you for your money.

You wouldn't be buying a car if you didn't need a car. Most of us actually have to go to work or go to school or occasionally go to a doctor's appointment or something.

To do that, you have to have a car, and that means I need the car more than the money, and the salesman needs the money more than the car.

Both people got richer in the exchange. Mutually. That's how all of this works.

Beneficial exchange of goods and services. Yes. It's a beautiful thing. It's incredible. It really is. It is doing under your neighbor as you would have him do to you.

When you were talking up there, I said, oh man, I'm getting a little of that economics and a little bit of that entrepreneurship and some of that Ben Shapiro talk coming through, which

I love so much. God bless him. Hopefully one day he comes to know the one true

Messiah. We're praying for him. That's right. Amen. But it was such a breath of fresh air at the conference too because you kind of brought some of that stuff into it other than maybe just hitting on some biblical issues, which you did that too, but you brought it into the real world, and it was a very interesting talk.

Yes. I think also you went into 150 years ago. Let me back up.

We talked about earth going to hell in a handbasket for a second. You said that, I'm pretty sure. You talked about how 150 years ago we would have never expected to have a medicine that would take care of an ailment or something, and now things are just getting better and better.

I mean, I believe the Beatles of Post Mill, honestly. It's getting better all the time. It's the truth, isn't it? Right? That song.

But you know, it's so true though. This is what you were talking about in what you were saying up there today.

It's great. Yeah, and one of my arguments, and we've said this before on the podcast, is when I get the argument, oh, the world is getting so bad, the sin is so bad,

I said, look at every segment of time. Sin is sin. The spirit of murder is still alive and well.

We used to sacrifice babies at the altars. The Romans used to slice the backs off Christians and so on, bearskins, and fight them against lions.

I mean, it's the same sin. It might be coming at a different way, right? We might be doing it openly and legally now through abortion and other means, but the fallen nature of man has always been here.

Yeah, exactly. And the adversary is always roaming about the earth looking for what he can kill, steal, and destroy.

And I will use that verse out of context for that point. I know everyone listening will email me and message me later.

Yeah, you're in trouble. I don't understand why people don't understand the sinfulness of man. I mean, have they read a

Bible? I know. From beginning to end, it's a train wreck. Look at David. This is the only guy about whom

God ever says, he's a man after my own heart. This is a guy who murdered the guy who was the husband of the woman he slept with.

I mean, this is horrible. But God does not measure our righteousness by our deeds.

If he did, we would all be instantly smacked into hell. He measures our righteousness by the righteousness of Christ.

You obtain any righteousness that you have by your faith and trust in him and him alone.

There is no other way. And so the multiplication of righteousness and desire to serve

God is directly proportionate to the degree to which we share the gospel and people come to faith.

How will they hear without a preacher? We can talk about the mechanics of salvation, but we need to talk about the job of gospel preaching.

We actually need to tell people about Jesus and what he's done for us, and God will sort out the rest.

And as that happens, the world gets better. Now, Christians have bad ideas too, and some of them are, you know, flirting with socialism now, and that will turn out terribly.

But the more you conform to God's way, the better everything works.

It's God who told us not to covet. It's God who told us not to steal. It's God who told us not to deify the state because he alone is

God. Socialism is the systematic violation of all of those things. And so, you know, hopefully

Christians would read their Bible enough to know better. But regardless, if they know Jesus, he will sort it out ultimately.

Absolutely. Amen. Amen. So as we wrap up here, I always like to ask, what's going on in your life that's exciting you right now, whether it be professionally or biblically, what are you focusing in on or something that maybe in your spare time or your professional time, you're just really enjoying?

Is it a certain aspect of technology? Is it a certain part of the Bible? The new M &Ms.

Oh, yes, absolutely. A Chewy's cheese dip. I had some last night.

I'm really excited. That sounds delicious. Well, you know, three things vocationally, you know, we're heavily involved in technology.

We're involved in biotech. We're involved in Internet. We're moving into aerospace in the next few years.

I hope to be competing with Elon sometime in the not terribly distant future. You're going to tell me you're handled.

And I have nothing but respect for Elon Musk. That's right. That is not in any way a dis on him. From a church perspective,

I have the joy currently of serving as an officer of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is wonderful.

And I'm so grateful for what God has done through the SBC and we have a lot of work to do.

Some interesting stuff going on right now there, though. Yes, there really is, and not all of it positive, but in general, you know,

I think there really is a vision there, especially with Dr. Ronnie Floyd, who is president of the Executive Committee currently, to work toward a new

Great Awakening. And that's absolutely essential. And that is absolutely something that can happen in America.

It's happened here before. We pray the Lord does it, but we want to do the work that would perhaps hopefully cause him to want to reward us with such a

Great Awakening. And then third, I'm one of the guys who started something called the Conservative Baptist Network.

You referenced some of the problems that we're seeing in the SBC and other denominations with critical race theory, basically

Frankfurt School Marxism infiltrating in seminaries and in other places.

Conservative Baptist Network, we launched in February. It is an organization for Southern Baptist pastors and laymen to come together to try to give hope to people that, hey, we don't have to go down this path, educate them about what that means, and organize them to seek better in the convention.

There's no reason that the SBC has to go down that path at all. And we're working very hard to stop it.

That's awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Rod. I know you have to get going. Lots of information for our listeners to check out.

Hey, and happy birthday, by the way. That's right. Yeah, man. We just sang happy birthday, a thousand people.

Have you had more people at one time sing happy birthday to you before? I don't think I have. That's pretty good. Well, Rod, thank you so much.

And guys, if you have any questions for us, feel free to reach out to us. Be sure to follow us at Dead Men Walking Podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.

Heck, we're even on the one that all the conservatives are on, Parler. We're on that one. I lost it for a minute.

Yep. Rod, thank you so much for coming on, and God bless. We'll see you guys next time. Great to be here. Yep, yep. Yeah, thank you so much for your time,

Rod. Hey. Happy to do it. Really appreciate that. Wonderful. Your talk was awesome.