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Jul 5, 2024 · 49 minutes

("Best-of" Edition from 6/28/24) Dr. Renton Rathbun, Director of the Center for Biblical Worldview and Bob Jones University, steps into “The Corner.”

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Show notes

0:00 - 15:00. Romans 12:1-2. Christ followers must actively subject everything to the scrutiny of God’s word. Everything. 15:00 - 31:00. Dr. Renton Rathbun, Director of the Center for Biblical Worldview and Bob Jones University, steps into “The Corner.” 31:00 - 48:00. A biblical worldview must originate from the proper starting point.

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Transcript

7,285 words, in two-minute parts. Made by machine, so a few words may be off.

0:0048:48

  1. 0:00

    Darkness is not an affirmative force. It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light. This is the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio. It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite. Delivery people out of the bondage of mainstream media. And the philosophies of this world. God has called you and me to be his ambassadors. Even in this dark moment. Let's not miss our moment. And now the Hamilton Corner. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Hamilton Corner here on American Family Radio. I know a lot of you have tuned in waiting for my remarks about to debate. I will get into that Monday, Monday, because we already had this very important program scheduled for today. By God's grace we plan to have a powerful interview with a man who I have met in person, but I've come to know from a distance first and foremost and I greatly respect his work, a very important conversation we have to have, but Lord willing we will delve into the details of that wonderful display from last night. But thank you for tuning into the program, Abraham Hamilton the third is my name, J. Mac is in studio for a change. Produced extraordinary often imitated, but never duplicated. And we're ready to rock and roll with today's edition of the program at this very moment. Many of you, if not most of you are making your transition from your part time jobs where you generate an income to your full time jobs where you cultivate an outcome. And as you do so, I want to encourage you to do so with intentionality. outcome cultivation is central to the Christ followers life. It must be. There are lots of things that we can do. One thing we have been commanded to do is to make disciples.

  2. 2:03

    You'll find the great commission does not say, make converts, it says that we are to make disciples. Those are disciplined learners of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he explains how teaching them to obey everything that Christ has commanded you. discipleship is a comprehensive phenomenon that touches every aspect of our lives, the way that I interact with my wife, the way that I rear my children, the way that I manage finances, the way that I go about my work, the way that I treat restaurant, waitresses and waiters, the way that I deal with homeless men, who may be asking for help on the side of the street, the way that I deal with my neighbors, the way that I serve in my church, the way that I interact in my community, All of these things should be subjected to the lordship of Christ. And this is, that's not an exhaustive list. I'm simply providing that as to be illustrative of what it means to be a disciple. What it means to be a disciple, it is sad to me that this conversation is foreign in much of professing Christianity in America. Not only is it conversation foreign, many people have no idea how to go about doing it. Going forward, I'm gonna be talking more about the centrality of disciple making and how to go about doing it. How to go about doing it. I may get into this a bit later, but I had the opportunity to see an advanced screening of the Kringic Brothers new movie that's gonna be coming out in August, The Forge. Oh my goodness. It's a powerful, powerful, powerful movie. I wholeheartedly recommend everybody listening to me right now when you have the opportunity that you go to see this movie. You take someone with you to go to see this movie. You buy tickets for other people to go and see this movie because it is a truly, truly powerful movie. But that is a conversation we must have disciple making essential to the call and follow Christ.

  3. 4:06

    The great commission is to make disciples. We have the most immediate opportunity to do that right in our own homes. If you are blessed to have children in your home, if you are a grandparent, you have the opportunity to start right within your own family. And I want to encourage you to take advantage of that opportunity. Disciples are not made in microwaves. It takes time, but it also takes intentionality and it takes effort. Some of you might be thinking, well, I don't, I may not, you know, I'm not a Bible scholar. I haven't studied Greek or Hebrew. Listen, it doesn't matter if you understand Greek or Hebrew. It really doesn't matter if, you know, you don't have as much biblical knowledge as the next man. What do you have? Use what you have. Use what you have. Work ethic should be subjected to the Lordship of Christ. Diligence is a product of Christ following. Honestly, integrity, we're doing our work and all that we do as unto the Lord, not unto men. It's a feature of being a disciple. And if we have a movement of disciple making in our country, you'll be amazed to see how things could change. To the Word of God we go, Romans 12 verses 1 and 2. I want to remind you that Paul's epistle to the Romans, Epistle is a word that simply means letter. It is a letter. So I encourage always, and this is the appropriate approach to the Epistles, not only the Epistles, but certainly the Epistles, to read the entire Epistles. I always encourage big chunk reading, read the entire Epistles, take some time at some point to read the entire book of Romans in one city and welcome the Lord to move upon you through his word. Paul pin this epistle to Christians in Rome. It's noteworthy that this is directed toward Christians and is in his address to the Christians in Rome. The Apostle Paul says this, therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

  4. 6:29

    and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. This is the encouragement of the Spirit of God through the Apostle Paul to believers. And it is important that we have this conversation because I think in a lot of ways we fail to realize something that is vitally necessary as believers. So as you've heard me say before, when the Apostle Paul says in verse 1, therefore, this is where we teach our children, this is where we teach in our church, when you see therefore in Scripture, you always want to see what is it there for. The therefore here represents a transition following the first 11 chapters of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. So Paul is literally saying in light of what I've conveyed to you through chapters 1-3-11, I now urge you brethren. The reference to brethren is a communication to members of the eternal family of God. This is body life. This is family talk here. In light of chapters 1-3-11 family, I urge you by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice. There are lots of conversation and the main sources of opposition to the believer in our lives currently are the world, the flesh, and the devil. We will be naive to think or act as if the devil is not a real. The devil's primary concern is not your things, not your stuff. He wants to provoke you to abandon faithfulness and confidence and trust in God. That's his objective.

  5. 8:30

    If you can do that by allowing you to have lots of material prosperity, he'll do it that way. If he has to do it through, you know, trying to provoke circumstances that, that engender poverty, he'll do it that way. He doesn't, he doesn't care whether you're wealthy or you're impoverished. What he wants is so you to abandon confidence in God. That's what he wants. But what I will say are a lot of things people try to say that the devil is doing. not necessarily the devil is you, you get into your flesh, just to be blunt, which brings me to the next component, the flesh. Yes, we are born in sin. Yes, we are born with a sinful nature. But when we are born again, we are indwelled by the Spirit of God and empowered by the omnipotent eternal creator of all things, something we fail to consider sometimes. I want to cross reference verse 1 from Romans 12 with the Galatians chapter 2 verse 20. So I want you to think about this. This is the same Apostle Paul right into the believers in Galatia, the Galatia in province. And he says this, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. One was the last time you considered that Christ's lordship should even govern your flesh. I know the group where sacros is often used and we talk about the flesh to flesh to flesh, but we shouldn't remain just as fleshly today as we were when we first met Christ. The Apostle Paul conveys that the life that I now live in the flesh, that I live by faith and son of God, that the life that we now live in the flesh shouldn't be characterized by faith and the son of God. What I'm saying is that we should not be internally accommodating to sin, internally accommodating to living life as rebels perpetually.

  6. 10:40

    Don't misconstrue or misunderstand what I'm saying. Being born again doesn't make you or I sin less. But being born again should result in you and me sinning less. We should be mortified by sin. We should be plagued. It shouldn't be something that we are just comfortable with. Holiness is still right. Which is why the Apostle Paul says that you present your bodies as a living. and holy sacrifice, separate, separated from the world, and separate unto God, distinct from and dedicated to, is both and not either or, that we're living our life before the audience of one, at least we should be. And this is foundational Christian living. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of conversations about this today. Holiness is still right. Holiness is still required. And then the Apostle Paul continues in verse two, and do not be conformed to this world. Remember Paul is writing this to believers. This scripture along with several others point out the reality that it is possible for you as saved as you are, as wonderful as you are, as wonderful as you prepare yourself and put your outfit on to go to Sunday, go to meeting services. You and I can be conformed to this world. The refusal to conform to the world must be the product of intentional resisting intentional opposition refusing to just function in a default setting mindset. To the contrary, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This means you and means brothers and sisters that we are obligated to subject everything in this life to the white hot scrutiny of God's world. Do not be conformed, rather be transformed. The Greek word there is metamorpho where we get our English word metamorphosis from. Our lives as believers should be a consistent phenomenon of caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. Caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. Caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly.

  7. 13:24

    I'll largely be characterized by that, which reveals that there's never a point to where you or I get to the place and say, do we have a rod? We have become, no, no, no. It's a continual phenomenon on a sanctification. However, it should be a continuing, continual, increasing qualitative life before the Lord. The longer I walk with the Lord, the deeper my relationship with Him should become. The more I resolute my commitment to Him should become. It shouldn't be the other way. But in too many instances, the longer we live with the Lord, we kind of fade away. Everything around us, our ideas, our pursuits, how we use our time, how we use, how we pursue leisure, what we are entertained by, shouldn't be subjected to the authority of God's Holy Word. an in so doing, we are presented with a consistent, glorious opportunity to grow from glory to glory from Doksa to Doksa. Because the chrysalis to butterfly phenomenon is our portion. This is how brothers and sisters we live the victorious life of being transformed by the renewing of our minds. This June marks two years since the overturn of Roe vs. Wade, but did you know that the number abortions actually increased the following year? In 2023, the amount of abortions reached its highest level since 2012. Preborn continues to stand strong for women in crisis. Preborn is a ministry of compassion that showers women and babies with God's love, providing free ultrasound to mothers to introduce them to the precious life growing inside them.

  8. 15:25

    When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, she is twice as likely to choose life. $28 sponsors 1 ultrasound and $140 helps rescue 5 babies. Your generous tax deductible donation will also help to provide women who choose life with assistance for up to 2 years. So please give your best gift to donate dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby that's pound 250 baby or visit preborn.com slash a fr that's preborn.com slash a fr Shining light into the darkness. This is the Hamilton corner on American family radio Welcome back to the Hamilton corner Abraham Hamilton the third here. I am elated literally elated to having the program with me a Man of God a brother in the faith who I had the privilege of meeting finally recently at the HEAV convention in Virginia, in Richmond, Virginia, where Jeff and I were together. But I kind of, I won't say I stalked him, but somebody say I stalked him a little bit. After I heard him interviewed by my friends Willa Mikiatis and on the Culture Proof podcast, my guest is the director of the Center for Biblical World View at Bob Jones University, Dr. Renton Rathbund. He's been a professor for over 25 years teaching both in secular and Christian colleges and universities. He and his wife, homeschooled, their son Daniel, and are now homeschooling their two younger children, Jude and Olivia. Dr. Rathman has spoken for homeschool conventions and podcasts all over the nation. He holds a variety of degrees from a bachelor's in English and a master's degree in speech, philosophy and theology, and a PhD in apologetics. Dr. Rathman, thank you so much for joining us here on the Hamilton Corner. Well, thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here. Oh, man, I'm telling you, I am so excited myself.

  9. 17:25

    I want to jump right in with 25 years of teaching experience in both secular and Christian colleges. What led you to pursue that particular vocation? Oh, well, you know, I didn't start out wanting to. I actually was kind of a hippie. My first master's degree actually was an acting. The school, Bob Jones, they didn't call it that back then. They called it interpretative speech, which may sound very intelligent, but it was just acting. I'm going to use that. I'm not acting, babe. This is interpretative speech. It sounded good to me. But my big dream was to be a performer and all that stuff and it was stupid. I got married and then I realized I actually do need a real job. After I finished that degree, I had a faculty member that was a very good man. He was looking out for me and he said, there's this little Christian college up in Minnesota that was looking for someone to teach speech and their theater department and stuff like that. This is how bad it is. I reluctantly, which is so stupid. I reluctantly said, yeah, okay, maybe I'll try that. And so I applied for it and I got it. Thank the Lord. I mean, the Lord is so gracious to us when we're stupid. And so I went up there and that's when I kind of fell in love with teaching. And the Lord led me to some other degrees and then eventually to a secular college where I taught for many years. And it's just kind of a bug. You see the look on their face when you've worked on a concept really hard make it understandable and when they do understand it, there's a little bit of high you get out of that they just can't get enough of.

  10. 19:38

    Now how does, well first I ask one question, then I'll ask you to tie it to how it connected to your developed affinity for teaching. How did you come to faith in Christ Jesus? Yeah, that's a more complicated question. I grew up in a Christian home with a good Christian mom and dad, and I was in a Christian school my whole life. And so I just kind of lived that kind of atmosphere. I think if you would have asked me if I was a Christian, I would have said yes. There was a time where I was very afraid of going to hell. So I asked Jesus into my heart about 50 times as a kid. And I just, but there was no fruit. I, you know, I had a lot of sin in my life. I'd feel bad about it. And, you know, I'd go through the motions, but there was no, there's no fruit. There was nothing that was that I could point to and say, this is how I know I'm a Christian. I believe this, or I've done this. And I just, but I just kind of kept on plotting along. I went into the military, spent a few years in the military, then I went to Bob Jones University, met my wife, got my degrees, kind of went on with my life. And still a lot of sin in my life that was well hidden. No victory over that sin. Felt bad about the sin, but it was easily forgotten and moved on, but then I'd fall again and there was just no victory. I was at the point where we were at our Baptist Church in Toledo, Ohio, and the pastor of that church asked me to be an assistant pastor. This was a pretty sizable church. It was about 800, 900 people. So I thought this is it. I kind of made it now. So I started going to seminary to get a degree while I was getting ready to become an assistant pastor.

  11. 21:51

    I was teaching the college age students for Sunday school and teaching on secular campus, Christian kids, apologetic stuff, because that made me feel really cool. And I was in the band at church. I mean, we were neck deep in ministry, and I don't think I knew the Lord. And we were lending our building to a bunch of pastors who wanted to have a conference of some sort. And so I thought, oh, go to the conference. Since we're lending our building to them, I'll see what they have to say. And there was a man, and I said to this day, I don't know who it was, but he was preaching on John chapter 10 about the good shepherd and said the sheep hear my voice and I thought I don't know God's voice. And for the first time all this conviction of my sin fell upon me and for the first time I think I really came to know the Lord. And I'll tell you a lot of people say you know the day I got saved was the greatest day of my life. And for me, it was about the worst day of my life because I realized I had to confess to my wife. I had to confess to my children. I had to confess to the deacons. I had to confess to my pastor and say, I can't be an assistant pastor. I think I just came to know the Lord. And it just my whole life, everything I had built, everything I thought was so wonderful about my life just crumbled in front of my face. So, but the Lord used that. If I didn't have that moment in my life, I don't know what kind of a person I would be today, but He humbled me that day in a way that I will never forget.

  12. 23:52

    And He saved me. And for that, that's the grace of God. Oh man, glory to God. Thank you for sharing that with us. Absolutely. It's such a vital reality. I mean, similar to you, I'm a home school dad and I encourage parents to make sure that we proclaim the gospel to our children, you know, at home, not just as soon because we may attend church and maybe active that our children are saved. That does not mean that. So that, that experience that you had with the Lord, you, you to himself, after you had kind of erected all of these church friendly life features. And then he invades you there. And I think God for his grace and his mercy. Wow, praise God for that. Now I introduced you as the center for biblical worldview, director at Bob Jones University. I know it's a so much, but we only have so much time. There's so much more we can get to. What drew you to take on the position of directing the Center for Biblical World View? Hmm, well, it's very interesting. I was working at BJU Press, and I was part of the Biblical World View team that kind of creates a kind of plan on how we're going to do biblical worldview through these different textbooks, through different subject areas and things like that. And as I was doing that, I was thinking about the university, I thought, here we are at the press, at BGU Press, and we have an entire group of people together that we get paid to do nothing except think about biblical worldview shaping in these textbooks. And even with all that, that was a lot.

  13. 25:54

    You're trying to do the best you can and it's nothing's perfect. And then I looked at the university and I said, there's nothing like that there. And we need something like that there. And so it was right in the middle of COVID. And so the president at the time was trapped in his office. He couldn't leave and travel anywhere. So I knew he was there. So I sent him an email and I said, hey, I have an idea and I want to talk to you about it. And he said, come on over. I mean, it was something good about COVID. Everyone had time. So I went over there and I kind of pitched to him an idea of having to center for Biblical worldview at Bob Jones University so that we can have a place that develops this Biblical worldview throughout all the subject areas that we teach at the university. Well, he thought about it for a while, kept bringing me back, telling me, what would your plan be? And so I had to fill out this big, long plan of how we would do it, and what would it look like, and how would we get all these different groups together to do this? And finally, in July of 2021, I was hired on to become the director of the Center for Biblical World View. And my main work is twofold. I train the faculty, staff, and students on campus with biblical worldview opportunities so that the faculty can put it into their classrooms and so the students can put it into their hearts. And so we have different events that I create for the students, different events I create for the faculty and then training opportunities for the faculty. And then also I do outward facing things try and demonstrate Bob Jones University as a thought leader in biblical worldview and training different faculty to help me in this and come out and do this with me.

  14. 27:56

    Now just for those who are listening and you correct me from wrong here Dr. Rathbun, BJU Press is a curriculum that that you were working within to develop for basically homeschooling families. Is that right? Yeah homeschooling and Christian schools and things like that. anyone that wants access to these textbooks. So I was working there and they're kind of a, you know, they're two different companies, but under the same kind of world of Bob Jones. And so, and so, yeah, so then the president at the university kind of poached me and took me out of there. And, you know, I asked for it, so I can't complain. But it was because- Poached me consent. Yes, I suppose that's right. And so because it was the example of the press that inspired this to happen at the university, the university needed this. And so the press is so far ahead of everybody that we knew we needed that. And so that's how that happened. Wow. Now I've heard you deliver this. So I already know what the answer to this question is. I've repeated it on my show, I read it because I wrote it down and it's a quote and I always attributed it to you. But I heard you share when we consider the reality of biblical worldview, usually we start from a perspective that is not the right place. Would you just explain what you mean when you said that? Because I heard you saying, but would you explain it with the Hamilton Corner audience? What you mean by that? One of the first things I had to do when I was director of the Center for Biblical World View is come up with a definition for Biblical worldview, which I thought must have been done by now. Everyone's using this term over and over. It's like everywhere. And the more I researched, the more I realized, no one was saying what it is. They're only saying what it does. And so when you say what something does, you always begin with the person that's using it, that's us.

  15. 30:01

    And so typically a good definition of a world view, just an idea of world view, is basically your beliefs, your assumptions, your values that kind of stem from a story that runs through your head that makes sense of the world. And that's a great definition of world view. And I think some people kind of believe, well, then a definition of biblical worldview is my biblical beliefs and my biblical values and my biblical assumptions that come from a biblical story that makes sense of the world. And, but that still starts with us. And if it starts with us, that's not a biblical worldview, that's a human view that uses the Bible. So that can't, you know, that just can't be right. And so this big mystery of what is a view of scripture, not a view that I have when I use scripture, but what is scripture's view of the world? And that was a harder question. That's where I had to start. Where am I starting? You know, and scripture isn't its own being. Being, scripture is the speech of God. So really what I realized is that whatever the definition of biblical worldview is going to be, it has to start with God because this is God's speech. And so it has to start with God. So in light of the fact that a proper and accurate definition of a biblical worldview you, has to start with God, how must we define biblical worldview? Okay, so what I found was that when we're thinking of worldview, you know, especially as Americans, we are thinking of a reality.

  16. 32:05

    Like, if I can put it this way, we tend to take our plate. I'm sorry, Dr. Rathbeth. I have to interrupt you right now because we're about to eat a break. Oh, okay. This is disrespectful music. This music is so disrespectful right now. When we get back on the other side of the break, I'm going to invite Dr. Rathbun to articulate the proper definition that we, and I'm going to just say this. I know this is bold, but I'm going to say it anyway. This is in my estimation, the only way world you should be defined for all Christians going forward. I know that's a bold statement, but when you hear Dr. Rathbun articulate this on the other side of the break, I am confident that you'll agree as well. Stay with us. Hamilton Quarter Podcast and One-Bitted Common Terrets are available at EFR.net. Back to the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio. Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner. We're all ready in the last segment. I want to squeeze every second out of this segment. So I want to get right to it. Dr. Renton Rathbun, Director of the Center for Biblical World View of Bob Jones University is my guest before the Disrespectful Music came on, before at the break just now. He was providing for us the definition, the accurate definition for a Biblical worldview. Dr. Rathbun, would you please continue your answer? Absolutely, yeah. So, typically, when we think of our world, we think of it as our world. If you have a plate at the salad bar, you kind of decorate your own plate with all the the stuff you want at a salad bar. And so we kind of do that with life. Our life is decorated as we imagine it to be as we think it is in our world. And then we wanna add God to that and see if God can fit into what I have already created.

  17. 34:12

    And so that's why I think it's so tempting to make a biblical worldview about me and how I'm using the Bible to see the plate I've made and see if all that stuff fits. And so we wanna start with God. And what we have to remember is it's God's world, not our world. So we haven't interpreted this world and then invited God to bless our interpretation of the world. What's happened is God has made his world and it's his world. And so a biblical worldview is about God's world. And so if we were gonna define it, who would start with a biblical worldview is God's explanation of God's world. Now, how are we to know God's explanation of God's world? Well, he's given us his speech through his word. And so we have God's explanation of God's world that we're able to know through his word. And what's amazing is that he didn't just speak for himself and just enjoyed his own speech, but we can't figure it out. He spoke to us in his word, and his word is for us. And so if we put all that together, what we have as a biblical worldview is God's explanation of God's world through God's word for God's image-bearers. And when we see that all of this, all of reality is absolutely locked into our God, we understand what reality really is about. So it's not about how God fits into my life, it's how my life fits into God. We don't invite God here, God has invited us to his place and it's his house. And so when we think of God's explanation of God's world through God's word for God's image bearers, what we see is that if we want to know what a biblical worldview then does, we then understand that we can start with image bearers because now we're talking about what it does. And so we say God's image bearers use God's word to interpret God's world so that we can align with God's explanation. And that constant alignment is what our life really is all about. Because we've gotten everything so backwards. We've been trying to try see how God fits into my life. And instead what we need to do is see how our life needs to align with God's explanation of his world. So good, so good, and so true. And as you are, as you are explaining this, we can already begin to see some of what my next question leads us to.

  18. 37:08

    But what are some of the implications that you have seen when we begin with a man-centric view of the world? And kind of try to at best add God as an appendage to a man-centered perspective? Yes. So I fear that the next generation is doing this. We, you know, the next generation has many of them, if we call them Gen Z or whatever, most of them have gotten a phone put in their hand by sixth grade. And these phones have taught them, you know, kids want to learn, but they end up learning from what they crave. And they crave that phone. And so the phone teaches them, your experiences are so important and so vital and so powerful that your experiences actually can tell you what's true or false about the world. And you're and they really believe it and that's why mom and dad just can't understand because they haven't had my experiences. And so then the other thing the phone teaches them is your uniqueness is the currency by which you are able to understand your world because if you're not unique then you're nothing. And so they look so hard to to find uniqueness. And throughout all this, they start developing the sense of what's right and wrong, their ethics. And so what ends up happening is we say, okay kids, it's time for you to come to church. And so they come to church. They probably have a good youth pastor and the youth pastor's really cool and really smart and really hip and he has the right haircut or whatever in place with the car. Oh, he's got to wear skinny pants. And flip flops, of course. And so he's cool enough so they'll listen to him and he says some pretty good things and our kids come home, sit at our table and start talking about what they're learning at church.

  19. 39:12

    And it fills us with joy because we think, ah, we didn't fail with this one. And, but what's really happening, what we don't realize is that our kids are not actually turning into good Christians, they're turning into good Hindus. Because what they've done is they've taken God and added him to the other idols that they're already worshiping, which is their experiences, their uniqueness, and their ethics that they already have. And they seem well behaved and they seem like they're talking about God and they might have some weird ideas, but in the end we know they love the Lord. And then they send them off to a secular school and were shocked that it's so, so quickly they walk away from the Lord because all that's really happened is at these other institutions, they've just shown them, look, your other gods are more worthy than the God of the Bible. And since they're already worshiping all of them at the same time, they just drop one of them and it happens to be mom and dad's God. And so when we have man-centric view of worldview, what we have is a Hinduism that invites God as long as he submits to my other idols. Oh boy. And when you're describing that, it is, you're not saying they become formal Hindus, you talk about a practical Hinduism. Yes, yes, that's right. It's a practical Hinduism. Yeah, I'm sorry, it wasn't really true. Well, no, yeah, that's exactly right. Well, I mean, I thought your description was clear, but you have professing Christian and practical Hindu. Yes, that's right. And that is the perfect recipe. And I'm not saying it's a sin to end up at a secular school. I mean, I've taught there. I've gotten a couple of degrees from secular schools. But I will say this, that recipe is perfect for my colleagues who long to get their hands on Christian kids, to free them of what they believe is an oppressive system that keeps them from exploring their real selves, which of course always is just delving deeply and more deeply into sin.

  20. 41:35

    Now I'm gonna mention this because you will be speaking at the Culture Proof Conference, July 18th through the 20th. I will be at that conference as well. Are these types of conversations what people can expect? should they come to the Culture of Conference? Oh yes, I have been frustrated at how impractical Biblical worldview talk has become. And so my goal and my pet peeve is always, I need to get down to how this rubber meets the road. We're gonna talk about Biblical worldview. We need to talk about things that make us feel uncomfortable that where we have to say things that will, you know, could be misunderstood and used against us, but we got to start talking boldly and practically so that people understand how a biblical worldview reaches right down to the decisions I make today. And so that's the kind of talk we wanna have, especially at the Culture Proof Conference where our focus is on how we stand in a culture that hates our God. so well said. Culture proof of conference will be July 18th through the 20th at Faith Baptist Church in Bartlett, Tennessee. Right outside of Memphis, Tennessee, you have until June 30th to register registration in June 30th, go to cultureproof.net for registration there. I wanted to also ask you, as you're talking about, really the frustration of a biblical worldview conversation really kind of being theoretical, but not applying to real world living, frankly, I heard you as well, so powerfully describe God's communications with Romans chapter one. Would you share a bit of that with our audience here? Yeah, so we, when we think about how God has given an explanation of how things are, If you read Romans chapter one, it is so powerful because what we find is that without the Lord, we begin our thinking process according to Romans 118 already suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.

  21. 43:53

    That's how we even begin our thought process. But God has made himself very clear according to Romans 119 and 20. He's made himself shown so that there's no excuse. You look at the beauty of his nature and you know a God made that and you know his attributes, you know his power and you know that it's the God, not just a God, but you know the God just by looking at it and that's what makes everyone today who's in hell without excuse. No one is in hell saying, I just didn't know. Everybody knows. Now what's amazing is in Romans 121 it gets down to the very heart of our depravity. How sinful are we? When that whole chapter ends out, it just goes into this big long list of just this debauchery and evil and terrible ways we act. But it all stems from one thing. And in Romans 1, 21, it tells us what that one thing all of our sins stems from. And it stems from this, we are not grateful to our God, and we do not give Him glory. And that sounds like a small thing to us, like just another part of our sin, but God's saying, no, that is the root of all your sin, is you're not giving me thanks, you're not giving me glory for all things, where everything on this earth traces back to me, whether you're talking about one plus one equaling two, or you're talking about quantum field theory, or you're talking about biology, everything must end up and terminate in glory to me and thanks to me. If you don't do that, it will lead, that is the root of your depravity that leads to all others. And that's what's so amazing to me because we think so little of thankfulness, we think so little of glory to God, that it's shocking to us that that's at the heart of what makes us depraved without our God.

  22. 45:59

    Man, talking about discussing things that make people uncomfortable, and I'm sure you've heard this numerous times, when the scripture says plainly that what can be known about God is made evident in what he's made. Therefore, you're without excuse. And when you say, there is no one in hell today who can rightly proclaim they did not know that cuts against what many Christians, frankly, have been taught and have become comfortable in saying. But when you say that so forth rightly, this is a part of this speech of God that through which he's revealing himself, it's so appropriate. So how then can you say that so confidently and categorically, Dr. Rathpott? What I find is at the heart of a biblical worldview is if I can put it this way, reality worldview. We are convinced that we have so figured out what is real that even when we read God's Word, we try to adjust it to what we have assumed is real. Instead of seeing what our experiences are, how we have reasoned out this world and aligning those ideas with what God says, which is a much much more riskier venture. It will make you hated by the world. It will make you sound crazy even to Christians who are a lot more reasonable than you. If I can put it that way. But that is our job is to align our whole being with what God's speech because God's speech is reality. If I If I have time, Luther, Martin Luther put it so well. We have like 20 seconds. I'm sorry. Okay. Go for it. Try your best. God's speech.

  23. 47:59

    When he speaks, speaks reality into being. And so we need to read the whole Bible that way, not just Genesis. Dr. Renton Rathbun, I have got to have you on the show again. Because I'd love to. I feel like we've just literally scratched the surface of some of those most potent conversations we can have and that we need to have in this time. How do we navigate these precarious times that God has planted us in for His glory? These are conversations we must have. Thank you so much. You are a blessing to me and to the body of Christ. Praise the Lord. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.

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