Truthscript Tuesday: Eternal Security, Shakespeare, and Oliver Anthony

It is TruthScript Tuesday evening. We have three wonderful articles to talk about. Before we do, though, I want to bring to your attention the men's conference, men's retreat slash conference coming up September 21st through 24th.

This is the best men's retreat east of the Mississippi. That's what I'm calling it. And I think it's true. I wouldn't wouldn't steer you wrong on that. You can ask anyone who was there last year how they enjoyed it.

We have people coming from Georgia and Ohio and all kinds of places far away to the beautiful Adirondack Mountains during the peak fall fall season to see a number of good speakers. We have Tom Rush, who's our main speaker, and I want to play a video from him.

This will give you a preview if you don't know who Tom Rush is, on what he'll be talking about and a little bit about who he is. So here's the video. And if you want to sign up, overcoming evil conference dot com, overcoming evil conference dot com.

You can go to the TruthScript website, too, and you'll find your way there if you go to conferences. But without further ado, here's Tom Rush.

Pastor Tom Rush here. I hope you men are doing well. I just want to thank John Harris for the invitation to be a part of the Overcoming Evil Men's Conference in September. I'm looking forward to seeing you there.

I'm from Georgia, grew up in the Atlanta area, graduated Georgia Tech, went through Navy ROTC there, became a surface warfare officer in the Navy, was involved in 1980 in the Iranian hostage crisis. And God called me to preach.

So I spent 28 years in the military, 21 of that as a chaplain. I had the privilege of being the command chaplain for the Special Operations Command in Afghanistan back in 2004, 2005. I also served as a senior pastor in Southern Baptist churches and just recognizing today a tremendous need that we have for godly men, for men who will stand for the truth.

And we're going to talk in the conference a little bit about leadership, about how to serve the Lord more faithfully, how to be godly men in our homes, our churches and in the society around us. I'm looking forward to seeing you, and I hope you'll be there.

God bless you.

Well, there you have it. That is the Overcoming Evil Men's Conference main speaker, Tom Rush, and we have a number of other speakers I'm going to be introducing in the coming weeks. I mean, we don't have much time, so probably the next two weeks, and you can look forward to that.

The ones that I can't introduce on TrueScript Tuesday, I'll introduce on my other podcast, Conversations That Matter. Okay, well, let's talk about some of these articles that we have on the TrueScript website.

Assurance of Salvation in 1 John

The featured one right now actually is one that I wrote, and we decided to not wait. Usually we would wait till Wednesday because we already ran a piece on Monday, but we actually ran two pieces on Monday.

And I'm going to start though at the beginning. We first had an article by Matthew Tarpley, Pastor Matthew Tarpley, who is a Southern Baptist pastor in North Carolina, I believe, and I've actually spoken at his church.

It was a while ago. It was years ago, but I do remember that. He's just a great guy. He's a really good writer too, and he's written a few books on different—they're really devotional style, but they're also expositional books on various books of the latest one is about 1 John.

So, he used some excerpts from his book, which is called Heirs of Salvation, Simple Studies in 1 John by Matthew Tarpley. He used some of the information that he studied in that book for this particular article.

So, it's not that long. I'm going to go through it with you. And this is an issue that I think a lot of people struggle with, if not most, most Christians, I would say. I mean, I know I went through a phase really struggling with this.

Am I really saved? And so, he says one of the most significant figures in church history, Martin Luther, rediscovered the doctrine of justification by faith alone when Christendom was lost in the grips of a works-based religion.

God used Luther as the wrecking ball of revival that shook the world back into pure religion. However, one thing commonly forgotten about Martin Luther is his tremendous doubts and inner spiritual turmoil throughout his life.

As a Catholic monk, he was so terrified of the wrath of God revealed against the enormity of his sin that he wouldn't even be able to perform the mass. Even later, as a Protestant figurehead, feelings of despair would plague his conscience until he genuinely thought he would die because God had forsaken him.

Luther called these episodes, and man, I'm not going to say this word, anfechtungen, German word. We can understand this word to mean deep spiritual distress in English. There are times when God may call his children into the valley of the shadow of death, plagued with guilt, wondering if they are even saved at all.

It is not just the weak, but the strong, not just the layman, but even leaders of the church who struggle with assurance. He quotes the 1689 London Baptist confession that says, true believers may in various ways have the assurance of their salvation shaken, discreased, or temporarily lost.

This may happen because they, listen, this is not losing your salvation. This is losing your assurance of salvation. Anyway, this may happen because they neglect to preserve it or fall into some specific sin that wounds their conscience and grieves the spirit.

And how many of us have gone through that where you do something and you thought, man, I'm a Christian. If I was a real Christian, I wouldn't do that. How come I did that, right? So he says that, let's see, in the London Baptist confession, they are never completely lacking the seed of God, the life of faith, the love of Christ and the brethren, sincerity of heart or conscience concerning their duty.

Out of these graces, through the work of the spirit, this assurance may at the proper time be revived. In the meantime, they are kept from utter despair through them. And then Matthew Tarpley goes on to say times of testing one's salvation can be among the most painful seasons a Christian can be forced to endure.

Yet at the same time, we are called to do so in second Corinthians 13, five, examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith, prove yourselves, know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates.

I think Matthew Tarpley might like the King James. It is painful, but it is necessary and even healthy for Christians to look back on their lives with a discerning eye, to be sure they are actually saved.

Jesus made it clear that many people who call him Lord will be cast into hell because of the solemn reality we must endure the testing of our faith. The book of first John is meant to be that scriptural test.

Excuse me, I'm trying to think now in a Bible study format, at least once, possibly twice in a group Bible study. It's interesting because to me, because I've had both these reactions and I've seen people in the groups that I've been in have both of these reactions.

There's one reaction that says, oh, look at all these tests. Great. I can see that there's fruit there. So I am in the faith. Uh, the other reaction is, oh, look at these tests. Uh, I'm not perfect. Yeah.

And I think these are both from legitimate Christians. You know, I'm not perfect. I don't have a perfect love for my brothers. I don't, we're going to go through some of them. Uh, I still sin and I, is it habitual?

You know, I get, maybe it is, I don't know. And so it can sometimes even, depending on how you approach it, create further doubt. And that's not what I want to do. That's far from it. Uh, maybe I'll go into a little bit of my own struggles with this and coming to an assurance, but, um, but Matthew Tarpley, I think handles as well.

He says, first assurance depends on the true faith in the person of Christ. Christianity's truth does not depend on the success of an individual church, the number of its adherence or the popularity of its message.

The truth of Christianity is established only by the cornerstone of a person named Jesus Christ. That is why John begins his epistle with doctrinal devotional statements about Christ. He wants us to know the real Jesus and the rest and rest our faith in him.

And so he says many evangelicals form a Christ in their own image. Some worship the social justice Jesus. You know, you wonder why we have Matthew and people like him writing it's because of this. I mean, Matthew, he's not afraid to go there.

Um, social justice, Jesus, who came to bring equity and inclusion. Others praise the relationship, Jesus desperate for you to sing love songs to him because he's so lonely without you. There's also the prosperity Jesus who died to make you happy, wealthy, and healthy.

The list goes on and on. However, we must place our faith in the biblical Jesus, uh, and not an idol. John makes it clear that Jesus is the eternal son of God, truly human, truly divine, and entirely without sin.

And so he goes on more. He quotes first John one, uh, about Christ that which was from the beginning, which, which we have heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life.

The life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the father and was manifested to us. And so that that's the first, it's an orthodoxy test.

First, you know, do you have Christology? Right? Do you have the doctrine of Christ who he is? Do you understand who Jesus really is? And if you don't understand who Jesus is, well, that's maybe that's the problem right there.

You don't, you're not trusting in the right Jesus. And of course, if you're not trusting the right Jesus, uh, that's not the only thing, but that is one thing that can certainly bring about legitimate, uh, doubting.

And, uh, and hopefully that's the thing God uses to promote, uh, to, to bring you to a knowledge of himself. Second assurance depends on faith in the works of Christ. So this is the gospel, right? We read that Jesus was the propitiation for our sins and explains what that means.

Uh, the removal of wrath through a worthy sacrifice propitiation is a price that must be paid before God. So he can righteously open the floodgates of mercy for sinners. And this is what Christ did. So if you understand what he did for you, uh, that's the gospel.

So, so good Christology, good soteriology, which is the doctrine of salvation. Um, and then he says tests of fruit. So, so the first, uh, category is tests of faith. And then he breaks it up into tests of fruit.

So once your faith is in the true Christ of scripture, uh, assurance comes by seeing the biblical fruit. So these, this is where I think, because the first two, um, I would say those first two categories are more for unbelievers.

Uh, well, not for there it's for all of us, but I would say that they are more, um, if someone's going to stumble over them and have a hard time with them, it's people who probably don't know Christ. I mean, if you have the wrong Jesus, the wrong gospel, then you're not in, right.

You're not in Christ. So, uh, easily corrected, right. The right understanding trust in Christ alone for salvation. And, uh, and, and so, you know, that that's not the typical, um, barrier that I see when people look at these tests, it's usually it comes here because they say, well, I know Christ is, I know what the gospel is, but I'm not living the way that I should in light of that knowledge.

Once your faith is in the true Christ of scripture, assurance comes by seeing the biblical fruit. First John one seven says, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. This doesn't mean a Christian is perfect. This is the hard part right here, right? But that a true Christian makes progress in sanctification day by day, bit by bit Christians develop deeper hatred for their sin and love for God.

The walk of a Christian's life is different from the rest of the world. Um, and he, again, cites, he likes to cite the London Baptist confession in this war. Although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying spirit of Christ, the regenerate part does overcome.

So this is sanctification. This is, are you on that upward trajectory? Or again, it's not about perfection. It's about direction, right? Don't despair for lost battles, continue fighting for the final triumph.

It's not the misstep that defines you, but the next step, uh, Proverbs 24 16 says, a just man follows seventh times and rises, right? I can't say it in the King James rises. There we go up again. Now this is actually a verse that helped me through this because I realized that, that, you know, that's really the test is, do you confess?

If we confess our sins for Sean one, nine, he's faithful and just to forgive. If you confess you're right in the, it's, it's not just about like, I don't sin. The expectation is you will sin, but when you do sin, what do you do with it?

So, um, so yes, in general, you have a life of greater obedience to Christ over the long haul. Uh, you have, um, a life pattern of following him. That does not mean that you're perfect at all, but it means that there's a desire there.

And that desire does manifest in fruit and it might be a little fruit. It might be pathetic fruit, but it's fruit. And then, uh, when you do sin, what do you do with it? Do you confess it? And, and this isn't, uh, you know, the secret sins that you don't know about and you're asking God to show you and he's not showing you.

And it's, you know, I know people who get into these, you know, these, uh, tight situations over things like suspicions like that. And, and, you know, God, God doesn't do that to you, right? God isn't, uh, is not the author of confusion.

God is not going to, um, he has your best interest in mind and he wants to draw you to himself. So conclusion, there are just a small handful of many tests of biblical assurance found in first John. Ultimately there are four types of people in the world.

There are those who are lost and know they're lost. There are those who are lost, but think they're saved. There are those who are saved, but sometimes think they're lost. And lastly, there are those who are saved and know they are saved.

And, uh, first John was written to bring everyone in the first three groups into the fourth. And yeah, that's a great way to put it. Even those who doubt their salvation, but they are actually saved. Uh, and typically others can see that fruit.

First John is a book. These things were written so that you may know that you have eternal life. So it is, it can bring that assurance. Okay. Well, moving on to the next article now for something completely different.

The Dignity and Depravity of Man

This is a Shakespearean truth about man, a Shakespearean truth about man. And this is by, uh, Danny Steinmeier, pastor Danny Steinmeier, who is a board member for truth scripts. So he's, uh, he's written before he actually, it might be that the, I think he still might have the title of the most popular truth skipped article on exegetical preaching.

Uh, that really just, uh, people, people really gravitated towards that article. Um, he's a great writer and I actually really enjoy reading his stuff. So here's, uh, his article. And, um, he quotes from Shakespeare's play Hamlet, what a piece of work is man.

Now, for those who might not remember, or maybe you don't know, Hamlet is a play. It's a, I think Shakespeare's longest play. There's several versions of it that have been made into movies with, uh, the one I saw years ago is shorter, I think, but it was a Mel Gibson version.

So it was like a version, it was abridged. Uh, but, um, that was like 1990, I think. Uh, so if, if you want to go see a version of Hamlet, I would recommend that one. I, I haven't seen other ones though.

So I know there's some other, there's one that's like over four hours long, but it's about a, a Prince in, um, now I'm trying to remember where it was somewhere in like Denmark. I think it's a Prince in Denmark and he basically, it's a story.

I'm not going to give the whole thing away, but it's about avenging the death of his father. Uh, and, um, it's a tragedy. So it ends on a tragic note and it's, it's probably the, the most famous tragedy other than, you know, biblical tragedies, for example.

So anyway, um, so, so he says the wonderful line from William Shakespeare through the character Hamlet draws our thoughts to the wonder of humanity. God's amazing design of mankind is a marvel for us to consider as Shakespeare did.

As we see from Hamlet, this reflection is upon both the immaterial and material parts of what makes a human being how noble in reason, how infinite and faculties inform and moving, how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a God, the beauty of the world, the Paragon of animals.

So he's quoting from Hamlet, man is truly a marvel of God's creation. Uh, God's glory and creation, our ability to think, to reason, to imagine, and our capacity for affection and complex relationships is unrivaled in the world.

And our biology is we equal equally amazing and beauty expression and glorious design. You ever stop and think about that? I mean, I I've had these moments where I just look at my hand and I stare at it and I'm thinking, wow, you know, how complicated this is, how I, and my brain sends signals and I can just move my fingers and, uh, and my, my fingerprints are unique and just, and it heals itself when it gets cut.

And it's got these lines in it that, uh, palm readers get it. You know, they, they think that it tells the future and of course doesn't do that, but it is unique to me where, where those lines are just like my fingerprint.

And anyway, um, that that's just one little tiny aspect of who I am and who you are. And of course we, we are so far beyond that. It just, you wonder how anyone can be an atheist. I really do wonder that sometimes it just, it's amazing to me.

I mean, you have to be suppressing the truth. You have to be suppressing what you know. Um, as Hamlet reflected on the marvel of human beings, he immediately turned to a sense of disappointment though, in men and women alike.

Why? Because we can also say with a derogatory tone in our voice, what a piece of work is a man. We also marvel at the capacity of humanity to give expression to sin. Unfortunately, that's probably where most of our minds are when we think of people, right?

We're thinking of the negative. We're thinking of not the image of God, but more so the sin nature, because it's in our face all the time from the news and things like that. Uh, so he goes into how humans are capable of great harm.

Uh, he says we can relate with the great English playwright in Marvel, but also in words of Hamlet, man delights, not me, no, nor women either. We are amazingly wonderful and horrendously terrible all at the same time.

And of course this is such a good thing to think about. And, and I, I'm not accusing anyone. I'm not, uh, taking shots at any particular ministry with this, uh, observation, but I have been in a state of mind where I've been influenced by certain preachers and ministries to constantly focus on just the depravity part of it.

Uh, to the point where I think you, you need to doubt like all your natural instincts, which is just ridiculous. Of course, Jesus even said fathers who are evil will give their son a fish when he asked for one instead of a snake.

There are instincts God has given us that are part of his good created order. It doesn't mean they can please God in a heavenly sense. Like they can't, uh, their righteous deeds are filthy rags. They don't have the right motivations and so forth.

But, uh, there is an earthly good that even, um, people, uh, apart from Christ can accomplish because of the image of God in them. Right. Um, that's actually standard, pretty standard reform doctrine up until, well, I mean, from, from what I understand, at least this was maintained by a lot of the reformers and the puritans.

They would have, they would have agreed with this, uh, and Westminster divines, et cetera. Uh, but anyway, I like, I just was observing that Danny Steinmeier, um, brings these two together and says, look, look at these two things.

They seem almost in conflict at times, but, uh, this is, this is who man is. We are currently living through a time of great chaos and turmoil in our understanding, but we are really, are we really that surprised?

Uh, and he talks about post-modernism and he says, Jesus reminds us that we should expect the fruit to be in kind with the tree. The seed of the rebellious unbelief was sown and what sprouted up was a tree of relativism, truth on a spectrum.

It wasn't a denial of the idea of truth, but a questioning of whether truth was noble, objective, or absolute. And as that tree matured to bud and flower, the fruit that developed is giving expression to that root of unbelief.

The rotten fruit has all the flavor of post-modernism with its confusion, contradiction, and blindness to the real world God has made. Uh, if the truth is on a spectrum, then lo and behold, people live out their truth with the marvelous human capacity for imagination and expression of sin.

So depressingly, we say, what a piece of work is a man. For Christians, our response must be to lay the ax at the root of the tree that is bearing rotten fruit and to cut it down with the absolute truth of God's word.

And so he goes through this, uh, this making war on sin, uh, that we need biblical anthropology, biblical doctrine of who man is understanding that when we are in Christ, when we have the word and spirit to lead us into all truth through the word, um, what that means for God's people is that we are led by the spirit and the truth of who we are, who we were made to be in the fruit we were made to bear so that we might glorify our maker.

And this is very true too. I think that, um, so there, like I just mentioned that we have some instincts that like, for instance, taking care of children, right. That you have, I mean, even non-Christians think it's a, someone's a psychopath that they don't do that.

They don't care for their own kids. Uh, they're there. We take care of our bodies. We, you know, we do things that like are instinctual that we can't call those bad things. Right. But of course we, we also accomplish a lot of sin.

There's a lot evil desires. We act those out. We hurt other people. We hurt God. Uh, we, or at least we, we offend God. And, um, in, in the process of doing that, we lose our way in, in such a manner that we actually aren't being true to even this, the, the created self God wants us to be.

They were not, we're not in keeping with in harmony with his natural order. And so this is what the second Adam also accomplished was a reconciliation of man to God. But as we proceed through sanctification, mortifying our flesh, we then, uh, also are truer men in a way, not that we weren't men before, but we are, uh, more in harmony with the plan that God has for men.

And so we are living the way that men were made to live. Right. Uh, it, I mean, if you use, like, I'm trying to think like, you know, sometimes when I have a toolbox and I'm doing a project and I have a nail or something, and let's say, um, there's been times when I haven't had my hammer and I'm like, oh man.

So I'm, I'm grabbing other tools to try to nail something or a rock or something. Cause I don't want to walk all the way to the garage to get my hammer. Uh, it's a true story. This has happened. And then you realize you spend more time trying to figure it out using a different tool.

But anyway, what is a great analogy, John? What does it mean? Well, I think this is what I'm thinking. Like, um, when we try to live in a way that in the way that men are supposed to live the way that God created men to live and women, but we don't actually have God's word.

We're not restored. We don't have a relationship with Christ. You don't have the Holy spirit working. We don't have any of the access to these things. Then I think what we're, we're doing is we are taking that, that the incorrect tool and, you know, sure.

Can we, can we accomplish some things here or there? Yeah, I guess. But we're, we're, it is not, we're not functioning the way we're supposed to function, right? So we're, we're stumbling over ourselves where, um, anyway, Danny Steinmeier doesn't go into all this.

I'm just adding my two cents and my two cents is getting longer than him. But, but that, I don't know that, that just how I think of it. Like that's what like man apart from Christ, of course there, there's a depravity there.

There's an evil there, but I'm saying even just on a practical level of like living in this world, they're, they're doing things wrong. They're just doing things wrong. It's not with the plan. It's not, uh, fulfilling or satisfying.

It doesn't make sense. Um, it's, uh, it, it, it ends up hurting them. It ends up being inefficient and it's like every negative attribute, you know? Uh, and, and, and they may even have a goal. Like some of their goals might even be good.

There might even be some good instincts in a way, but their motives are bad. They're there, the way they're doing it is bad. Like that's, and that's why one of the ways I think that the gospel, um, restores people to that, to being on the right track again, the starting place.

He says the question made popular recently by Matt Walsh in the documentary, what is a woman in a world hell bent on bending God's created design into a tangled and twisted image as simply question a simple question has broken the minds of many.

However, even those who correctly answer that a woman is an adult human female are likely to struggle in answering an even more fundamental question. What is man? That is to ask the question, what is mankind?

What is a human being? And if you begin to answer that question with unbelief and rebellion against God and his word, there is no end to the chaos and turmoil. That's true. And that's how we got a lot of the mess we're in now, right?

Uh, the abortions, the sexual anarchy, uh, this starting place for anthropology, the study of man is faith in the trying God of the Bible. Anselm of Cadbury is credited with the motto faith seeking understanding.

And Augustine is translated as having said, believe that you may understand understanding comes from faith and faith comes from God. Therefore the starting place for all knowledge, including an understanding mankind is to first fear the Lord.

This is the root of the problem of the bad tree. It is unbelief. It is faithful. Faithlessness is a lack of fear of the Lord, but to be part of the good tree is to have proper fear of the Lord. Solomon, the wise was a great student of nature and of humanity.

He wrote in Proverbs, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So without the fear of the Lord, we have no hope of bearing good fruit in our lives or in correcting the world around us. Once you've established a proper starting place of faith in the foundation of God's word, we are then able to study who we are from a proper perspective.

We can marvel and worship God for his creation, the creation of man in our glorious binary. That's interesting. I never heard that a glorious binary. That's a good way to put it. We can know what it means to be a man or a woman with a purpose and mission, but we can also come to grips with our sin nature and how being made new in Christ puts us in the path of sanctification towards restoring God's good design for humanity.

And he goes on in the last sentence, we have the truth. Let us study it for ourselves so that we may be well-equipped to be what God created us to be. So a good article by Danny Steinmeier, just a reflection.

It is interesting to think about these things. Now here's the article. I want to say maybe the more controversial articles we've posted. I don't know. You know, the song, I did a whole podcast on conversations that matter, my other podcast on this particular song.

So I don't really want to go into deep detail. I mean, there are some things that I point out that I did not point out in that podcast. Someone made a comment today that I thought was interesting. They said, isn't it ironic that on the top, at least recently on the top of the Christian charts, there was a song performed by someone who thinks they're transgender on the Christian music charts.

And then, but on number one, number two, number three, like number five, number like seven on iTunes are Anthony Oliver. This guy who at his first concert on Sunday, his first big concert just quotes the Bible.

I mean, nothing like this has happened before where someone has recorded videos on their cell phone risen so far in popularity in such a short period of time. I mean, beginning of the week, people didn't know him by the end of the week.

He is, he is dominating the iTunes charts, beating Taylor Swift. I mean, that's, that's pretty fast. Right. And, and so anyway, I go into detail on what, who, who Anthony Oliver is, at least what we know, what the song is about, all of that.

I do highlight some of the people who, and I link, I, who went after it. So I do link to some pastors I do link to. And in fact, I saw reason magazine again, it came out against it today. And, and, and there, and there's all kinds of different reasons that people are using.

In fact, James Lindsay was upset at me this morning, because I mentioned his problem with it. And he, I mean, he didn't at the end of the day, though, he didn't disagree that I, he agreed with that. I was at least accurately representing his problem with it.

But, you know, I, I've kind of come to the conclusion that I think there is something that ties these objections to Anthony's song, rich men North of Richmond together. And it is this sort of, and I don't, I, I should probably say this, I should qualify this.

I understand people who have objections like, well, there's some bad language in it, right? Things like that. Part of me wants to say, well, sense of proportion, what are we, what kind of evil are we dealing with?

And that the song's trying to deal with, and then, you know, and then being biblical. I mean, I, I don't use profanity. I don't think we should, but there are, let's, even in the Bible, there are times to use very strong language about things, stronger than even Anthony Oliver uses.

And it's a matter of using discernment to know when that's appropriate, when it's not, what words are appropriate so that you may give grace to the hearer, right? And I think part of my, I know I'm taking a tangent here with the language thing, because there's no, so many other probably more meaningful objections here, but, but, but I, I just suspect that people in this audience, that's probably one of the things.

Working, I think in, well, I guess you could say construction, but repair work, you know, in shop, shop talk, working in that field for years, got me used to it. Now, did it desensitize me? I don't know, because I still wouldn't, you know, I don't watch entertainment that is chocked full of that stuff, but it definitely, it, it probably changed my perspective.

And I do think that Anthony's coming from a very working class background. He's also potentially a new Christian who there's an interesting story out there. I don't include it in the article, but I, cause I found out about it afterward that he had promised God that if he would be able to get sober, that he would, you know, basically dedicate his life to him, that kind of thing.

And, and here he, and this was, that was like a month ago or something. I mean, this, this guy is like brand new and he's talking about the Lord and stuff, but he's, he's brand new. And so I think this is the time when we pray for him.

And, and the verses that come to my mind are like, God uses the weak things of the world to shame the strong, big Eva, Eva, you know, the evangelical industrial complex as a whole has failed. Singers have failed.

I mean, all our elite institutions have pretty much failed in being able to correctly identify and then not just identify evil, but call it out in the concrete. And and just even honestly let people know, give the impression that they empathize, that they understand.

So so in walks, this guy who is making videos on his cell phone. And, and I just think to myself, this is a guy that had no connections. And he, he, I mean, that, that's what I'm thinking. Like maybe, maybe the Lord, I don't, I'm not saying, I don't know, but maybe the Lord is using someone like him to shame the strong using the weak.

And Anthony seems pretty humble. He seems to, he even said that he doesn't think he has a good voice. He thinks he's not even great at guitar, but but, but he seems to realize kind of what's going on that it's because of his bravery.

It's because of, he seems to have an understanding that the Lord is somehow in this, that that's what's, that's what's going on. So anyway, I kind of derailed myself there, but I was, I think that was a, that was a helpful rabbit trail.

And in my estimation, most critics seem to lack a sense of proportion for how righteously indignant and discouraged many Americans are. I think that's really the bottom line. So many of the objections can just fit into that, let just, you know, the objection that, well, he's painting a negative picture of the United States.

Like, well, do you live in some of the places that, where, where people really are struggling, especially with the inflation economically and morally looking at the immoral lifestyle of their leaders and, and, and just, I mean, all the things he talks about in the song, you know, another objection is that this is white supremacy, which of course we knew that was coming.

Right. Of course, any, anything that is good, the left is going to call white supremacy. And, and then, you know, James Lindsay's was kind of an odd one to me, but I kind of get it. I think he thinks that there's the phenomenon surrounding the song represents a postmodern political power play because it's like, it's that there's references to the Bible and there's all these cultural references and things.