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Oct 4, 2024 · 49 minutes

Dr. Renton Rathbun returns to “The Corner.”

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0:00 - 15:00. Matthew 22:34-40. 21st century America is reaping the harvest sown from ceding the cultivation of the mind to those who hate God. 15:00 - 31:00. Dr. Renton Rathbun returns to “The Corner.” 31:00 - 48:00. Only fools send soldiers into war without training. or call: 800-326-4543 To donate call : 877-616-2396

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Transcript

6,788 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 Corner on American Family Radio. It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite. Delivering people out of the bondage of mainstream media. And the philosophies of this world. God has called you and me to be his ambassador. 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 am your host, Abraham Hamilton, III. Joined by a produced extraordinaire, often imitated, but never duplicated. The real J. Mac, ladies and gentlemen, we are 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 or you cultivate an outcome. And I want to encourage you to make that transition with intentionality, understanding the primacy that God places on the family. One of the things I've been thinking about is jurisdictional sovereignty. There are things that God has established, for example, civil government to do, really, the Lord established three primary sources of government You have civil government. You have church or ecclesiastical government, but you also have family government. The first of those governmental structures, the first human institution that got established was the family with marriage at the center. And in particular, you'll find you search the scripture, especially as it pertains to discipling children. And when I say discipling, I don't want anyone to misconstrue what I'm saying. When I say disciplining children, I'm talking about the whole training of the mind and the morals, not merely what is commonly described as spiritual formation, because frankly, spiritual formation includes natural phenomena.

  2. 2:16

    It is because a person is spiritually formed that they will endeavor to be excellent in the work that they pursue, whether that be physical labor, whether that be intellectual labor, whatever it is, it is a byproduct of that spiritual formation. So I frankly reject this notion of this severance of what's commonly described as spiritual versus what's commonly described as natural. All right. I'm saying all of this because if we were to be frank about the affairs in our nation, we would have to acknowledge that we have arrived where we are in our country as result of us discipling our way into our current state of affairs. Because discipleship is a constant. It's going to transpire. The only question or variable is the quality of that discipleship and in which direction and which trajectory. And so as you are making your way to your full time jobs, and I know this is a lot. I know it. I know it. But it's necessary, man. It's necessary. The scripture is clear in Ephesians 4, particularly in verses 11 and 12, and saying that the church, the ecclesiastical organization, if you will, the ecclesiastical government, the leadership of the church, is responsible for equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry. Ministerial work by and large is supposed to be conducted by everyday Christians. You know, we shouldn't accept this paradigm to where we pay the experts to do what we're supposed to be doing. Every member is called. Every member of the body is called in the ministry. Family is central to God's design for His Kingdom and in and His Kingdom Building Initiative.

  3. 4:18

    If you look at what has transpired around us, the metastasizing of the Leviathan state, It has corresponded with retrenchments that have occurred in our families. And if God could get a hold of us in our homes, there is no question. It's no question. So what could happen with our country? If there's going to be a revival in our nation, a revival has to take place at home. It has to take place at home. To the Word of God we go. Matthew chapter 22. Matthew chapter 22. This is a vital portion of scripture that has to be navigated, understood, embraced, recognized to be the instruction of Yeshua, the Messiah Himself. Matthew chapter 22 verses 34 through 40, and this is what the Word of God says, but when the Pharisees heard that He, referring to Jesus, had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer asked him a question to test him. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. On these two commandments depend all the law of the prophets.

  4. 6:21

    It should be instructive to us that when answering these questions, Jesus cited Deuteronomy chapter 6, the Shma, Shma Israel Elohim Elohinu. It lays out the prescription for disciple making in that passage. The most enduring component, the most enduring feature, the most significant aspect of disciple making and the influence development is time. It's time. Here when addressing the great commandment, Jesus begins with you, shall love the Lord with all your heart. the citation to Deuteronomy chapter six verse five in particular. You shall love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. You shall love the Lord with all that you are. When you compare this text with Deuteronomy six five, you'll find that the word mind does not appear in Deuteronomy six verse five because the Hebrew word that is employed that is translated into English as heart includes the notions that would be conveyed as both the mind and the heart in English. All right. And frankly, in Greek as well. So it is an accurate translation. It is noteworthy and it should be noteworthy for us that Jesus says that we are to love the Lord with our minds. With our minds. Christ's following was never ordained to be a mindless pursuit.

  5. 8:25

    The cultivation of the mind is central to disciple making. The touchstone of repentance is a transformation that culminates in the mind. The word repentance is translated from the Greek word meta noia. That's a compound word in Greek meta, meaning with noia knowledge, with the mind. All right. The conduct that is transformed in the life of a repentant person is the evidence of repentance, the evidence of metanoia. But it begins internally, and the external reality is a manifestation of what transpires internally. As I was saying a few moments ago, if we were to query what is transpired in our nation, we would have to recognize that we are reaping the harvest harvest that has been sown in our nation because we've seated the territory, the discipline, the process and procedure of mind cultivation, mind cultivation, by and large, we have seated that ground to people who are hostile to the Lord. When you break it all down, when you boil it down to its lowest common denominator, so to speak, we have seated the ground of mind cultivation to those who hate God. We've offered many justifications for it. In many instances, it's because that has been the prevailing system for so long. Many of us have not done what Romans 12 requires, refusing to be conformed, conformed to the world. Dare I say, conform to the prevailing systems in the world, but be transformed by the renewing of what? Oh, that's right. The renewing of our minds. Many of us have simply ascribed to the prevailing systems and allowed the world's systems to shape for us our parameters, our expectations, our aspirations even. You talk to most people, including many professing Christians, how would they define a successful life? You'd be hard pressed define many of them who would immediately define success as a life spent in obedience to God's word. As I'm even saying that some of you are being challenged well success is financial stability owning a home having a family being able to retire well none of those things are bad none of those things are bad you know by God's grace I'll be in a position to be able to provide for my children's children, both spiritually and materially, because we've been able to manage finance as well.

  6. 11:37

    That's not a bad goal. But you've heard me say before, when good rivals, God, one, oh, it's got to go. And when I'm talking about mind cultivation, please don't limit it to academics. Certainly academics is a huge part of it. One of the major mechanisms for depriving, succeeding generations of believers from appropriate loving the Lord with our minds has come through academia, make no mistake about it. And many of us have ingested doctrines of demons because it's come to us through academia. I'm just gonna give you an example, since I'm here I might as well. Sister Stel was on the chat the other day she said, brother, hey, you're still walking heavy. Well, you know, these boots were made. How many of us would voluntarily sign up to enroll our children in Islamic jihadist madrasas? That's what they are. They teach Islamism and yep, so I'm going to put our children in them. How many of us would put our children in and in Buddhist indoctrination system? Some of you see where I'm going already. Not many of us. but we have prevailing institutions of what we call schools, well places of education, even higher education, they have set themselves as being godless bastions of mind cultivation. They have established themselves by saying, there is no room for God in the discourse when you're here. And many believers go, yep, sign me up, put my children in it. And we wonder, man, how did a man America becomes such a godless place.

  7. 13:39

    How do we get the place, get to the place, to slaughtering children in the womb from a premeditated intentional, in a premeditated intentional manner, how do we get to the place for this, but accept it? How do we get to the place? The book of Roberts tell us one foot at a time, sin grows as a man travels one foot at a time. Much of that traveling has taken place because we have not committed ourselves to loving the Lord with our minds. So we've allowed all manner of ideology to have access to our minds and our hearts. And it has reset the parameters of our life engagement, expectation and aspiration. And in many instances, we've relegated Christ following to the margins of our lives. It's like you get a dish, the food is on the plate, then you have this little green things around the edges, that's the garnish. relegated Christ following to the garnish of our lives. It's no wonder then that we are reaping what we're reaping. But thanks be to God, and they don't have to continue to be that way. If you're still breathing, we can change course. We can and we must repent. Those who place their faith in Jesus are elevated to an extraordinary position. As co-heirs with Christ, we share in His inheritance. The gospel is the ultimate dignity giver, Elevating the unworthy to unimaginable heights our lives should reflect the dignity Empowering us to extend the same grace and love to others has been so generously given to us I'm Jordan Shambly and you can read the rest of the gospel signifies the undignified on the stand.net Shining light into the darkness. This is the Hamilton Corner an American family radio Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner Abraham Hamilton, III here I'm delighted to have on the program with me a returning guest a brother who I am I have grown and I'm growing to just love and appreciate ever the more as Much as I learn more about him get to hear him minister It is so striking to me one of the things I so appreciated about him is he is clearly extremely intelligent And he's self-deprecating at the same time, you know So he's not one of these people who is haughty-tawty about his brilliance but God has made him a brilliant man and I'm speaking of none other than Dr. Rinton Rathbun.

  8. 16:18

    He is the director of the Center for Biblical World View at Bob Jones University. He and his wife have homeschooled their son Daniel and are now homeschooling. They're two younger children, Jude and Olivia. Dr. Rathbun has spoken for conventions, podcasts, homeschool meetings all over the country and he holds a variety of degrees from bachelor's in English, from a bachelor's degree English to a master's degrees in speech, philosophy and theology, and a PhD in apologetics. Dr. Rathbun, thank you for joining me here again on the Hamilton Corner. Well, thank you for having me. You're very kind. Oh, no, it's it's I wouldn't say this if it weren't true. And it is true. And I really view you as one of the people that God has provided by His grace for this time that we're in to in the face of of all of the mounting and metastasizing wickedness to put the light on the lamp stand. And so I'm grateful for your work, your life, and your ministry. Which brings me to this light conversation topic. Very light. What needs to be done to prepare our children to be launched into this world without apostasizing? Light topic. Easy peasy. Well, you know, it's interesting how important this topic is as new polls are coming out, finding that more young people as they leave home are beginning to be what they call nuns, not the kind with a habit on, but the kind that just don't believe in anything. They don't have a religion at all. And now there's more kids like that that are just saying, I don't believe in anything than kids that assign themselves, even if it's loosely assigned, they assign themselves to a religion. And so there's a lot to fear right now. Yeah.

  9. 18:18

    And it is an appropriate concern because I say often for myself that the gold that my wife Marie and I are striving toward is a third John too. We have no greater joy than to know that our children are walking in the truth. And so any loving parent who is a Christian would be concerned about that because the world forces have been very potent in really carrying off, as you know, Paul describes it as captives, those who might have been church friendly or church familiar. many of them have taken positions that are contrary to what they were reared near, I would say, and the expectation and the desire for many parents. So what should we do in the time and the place that we're in now here in 21st century to prevent that from occurring within our families? I think it's going to be three main areas that we need to think about. The first area, of course, is my parenting. How do I parent? The second area is gonna be, how do I educate my children? And then the third area is what is happening at my church. I think those three things are the three biggest things. I know that now we're at, I think, 60 some percent of kids that have gone to church their whole life stop attending church when they leave home. And so, obviously there are parenting skills that you can get into, and there's a lot of people that have advice on that. But I wanna concentrate on how we educate our kids and what's going on at church. First of all, I think when we educate our kids, we do the work for them a lot of times.

  10. 20:18

    And this happens a lot in homeschooling, but happens in Christian schools as well, where we are doing all the work. In other words, what we do is we do the critical thinking work as it goes as it is towards scripture or biblical worldview in the different categories that we teach our children. And then we present it to them and they regurgitate it on a piece of paper, whether it be through some kind of assessment that we have chosen, but we haven't done the work to help them actually go through the critical thinking process of how it is that we depend on God's word in order to have a place to even do math, a place to even understand history and social studies and all those different things, we need a place to stand. have we taught our kids the work it takes to trace back how it is that these things depend on God's work. And I just don't see that happening very much. We do it and make them regurgitate it, but how are we getting them to do that kind of work? Can you give us an example of how we may do the work in Superimpose, our work onto kind of like copy and paste type of phenomenon as opposed to enabling our children to work through structurally what's necessary to show how dependence upon the Lord's word enables us to navigate disciplines like maths and science. So let's think about history. World War II, you might be doing a lesson on World War II. And you want to show your kids how God's providence is still there even in the midst of tragedy and even in the midst of humans being evil.

  11. 22:22

    You want to show that God still is in control. And so what do we do as parents? Well, we might find a curriculum that traces that back and finds all the Bible verses for us. And then what we do is we look at those Bible verses, talk about God's providence that he even in calamity God is in confuse the God of calamity as well. And so we kind of look at that, we kind of use the curriculum to kind of help us kind of figure out how that works. We kind of put it on our lesson plan and then we describe it to our kids. This is how it works. And then we have them almost in a multiple, we could do multiple choice or we could do multiple answer, fill in the blank to go back to see how we did that. so they could see how we developed this idea of providence during World War II. And they understand what we said, but we haven't done the work of saying to our children, first of all, is God in control even in the bad things? And we expect them to say yes, but if they don't know, we say, well, let's find out in God's word. What does this say in scripture? What do you think about that? How do you, and we give them, we have to give them tools you can't just expect them to know things. But have we given them the tools to exegete out of scripture, those principles that they're supposed to understand so that World War II makes sense to them? Because I think one of the most dangerous terms we might use is biblical integration. And that becomes a dangerous term because what it kind of signals to kids is that we have to take the Bible and try and stuff it in the gaps of our teaching. And so we need to integrate the Bible. And what we really need is subject integration. How does the subjects that we teach integrate itself into the reality of God's Word? Mmm. That's how we need to start thinking.

  12. 24:24

    And then how do we help students step by step show us their work, where we're guiding them through that work. And it's going to take longer than usual, because when you do the work for them, you can get through that material pretty fast because they can regurgitate what you did. But it's going to take a lot more work and a lot more time to painstakingly get them to see some of these principles in Scripture and see how they would apply it. And as they get older, I think it's going to lead to the fact that we need to get them writing. They have to start writing and that's a lot of work because you have to read all their writing and you have to grade it. But if they're writing, you can see how they're thinking. If you can see how they're thinking, you can really see how it is that they're putting these principles into practice. That is so good. Several things you said, you didn't hear the first segment, but I was talking about Matthew 22, verses 34 through 40 and how when asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus begins by to the R&B 65 and one of the major takeaways from the necessity of training the mind and the morals, also known as discipleship. That's the most fundamental ingredient is time. You know, this is why on the show I always say, because my show comes on during drive time, I always say that you're leaving your part time jobs if you're employed outside the home, heading to your full time jobs. The most necessary ingredient of effective disciple making is time. It takes time. We cannot have a microwave mentality when it comes to engaging in this discipline. And in addition to that, what you presented really is a recalibration of the mindset to where we're not trying to integrate the Bible into the gaps of various, you know, academic, subject matter, academic discipline, but we're looking to see how these various disciplines fit within the overarching truth conveyed to us through God's Word.

  13. 26:28

    That is a radical and necessary recalibration. And that's exactly right. I mean, we concentrate a lot on biblical worldview and that is wonderful. But the question is, have we led our children to pathways to help them believe what God's word says? Because we might even do a really good biblical worldview where we're showing the Bible is the truth itself. And so all subjects are made possible because of the narrative that goes through God's Word. And if we do a good job at that, that's wonderful. But then we have to think about, have we even convinced them that God's Word is truth? I was at a conference just a little while ago and I don't know what possessed this man to say this to me. But when I got done speaking he came to me and said I liked what you said, but But you know the Bible isn't truth itself Whoa, I thought I wonder what he meant by that Because you know it was one of those it was one of those fly-by comments, so there was you know and you know what that's like Yes, I do it was a run by fruiting Yeah, that's right. And one of those moments where they said something so shocking, I almost don't know how to respond to it. But when you follow God's word, Jesus says in John 1717 that he's praying to the Father and he says, your word is truth. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Well, how do we get the father's word? Well, and for in first Corinthians the speed it says the spirit goes into the mind of God and then and then reveals it to us through God's you know through scripture and It even speaks in 2 Timothy 3 16 that God God's speech. Yes is this right here This is his speech to us. Yes So, you know, we can't play this game where it's like, well, God is truth, but where, you know, the Bible is something else.

  14. 28:45

    If the Bible is God's speech, where the Spirit goes up into the mind of God himself and brings it to us because we have the mind of Christ, then this is the truth. Yes. So anyway. Yeah, no. That point is inexhaustibly indispensable indispensable. Because what the gentleman, maybe I don't know if he intended to do this or not, but he did it, whether it was intentional or not, what he conveyed very simply to you is that he did not either believe or had not understood that the oleusitos, that God breathed that speech is truth. Yes, that's right. And if we don't believe that, if I can put it this way, heaven help our children. And so how do we get kids to start thinking in terms of my dependence is on the speech of God? I need this to know what's real out there. because we live at a time where, like I've always said, we're in a reality war and our children need to know that this isn't just a useful tool. This is the speech of God so that we can know truth. Amen. And so we need to revisit Bible class. We need to say we cannot just wing this. We cannot just figure out things that would be nice. we need a systematic approach to Bible class, whether you're homeschooling or Christian schooling, whatever it is, if you don't have a systematic way of presenting God's word to our children, we are going to lose them. It is, I'm sorry, you go ahead, go ahead.

  15. 30:47

    And it's already happening. I mean, it is happening. And so we can't just sit back and say, I don't know why this is and then treat Bible class like it's this extra thing we do for a pat on the back from God, but it doesn't matter what we do, we can do whatever we want. It's up to us. It's not up to us. We have to be intentional, clear, and help them understand, you know, we need to help them understand how God, what God's word says, but we also need to know what is the overarching narrative that helps us see the world. then what are the principles that are there that we need to believe that are the non-negotiables? That if you don't believe this, you're not one of us. Those kinds of things have to be stacked in their brain, but also loved in their heart. David said, I love your law. And we get to, today in today's churches, and this is where we can get to the churches part, In today's churches, people have come to despise the law and say, oh, we live by grace, not the law. Well, no, grace allows us to obey the law. And the law is beautiful because the law reflects the very character of God. That's why David loved the law. Not because he was living in the Old Testament because he loved God and the law reflected who God was. And so we need to love the law too. And so how do we love the law? Well, we look at what parts of the law have are still for us. The following is from an article by Dr. Jessica Peck, host of the Dr. Nurse Momma Show. Some children feel fear in places they should feel safe every day. So let's be challenged to speak words of life and encouragement. The next time a student shares a discouragement or difficulty with you, try listening first and then engaging them in compassionate and encouraging conversation.

  16. 32:56

    Read the full article, School Mom Hope on thestand.net. The Hamilton Quarter Podcast and One-Bitted Common Terrets are available at AFR.net. Back to the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio. Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton. The third here, my guest is Dr. Renton Rathbin, Director of the Center for Biblical World View at Bob Jones University. Before we went to the break, Dr. Rathbun, you were kind of punctuating your discourse about what's happening in education and how it must be employed in a manner to set up a foundation and a context for our children to remain faithful to the Lord even after they leave our homes. And you made the statement about David's love for the law not being because it was conveyed to us in an Old Testament context, but David loved the law of the Lord because he loved the Lord. And you were preparing to turn to what is happening in our churches and how that impacts the stick toattiveness, if you will, of our children and their fidelity to the King of glory. Yes. Yes, and that is, you know, in today's show we are talking about, you know, how, you know, the three issues, how we parent, how we educate, and how we church, I guess is the three things. And our issue is when we educate, are we getting to the heart? What's very interesting is with the kind of intentionality we have with something like a science class or a math class, kids rarely come to anyone saying, I'm just having these doubts about math, I'm having these doubts about science.

  17. 35:01

    They tend to believe those immediately. Well, why? Well, some of it's because it's physical, but some of it is because we take it seriously. If they sense that we're not taking Bible class seriously, then they won't take it seriously. If they just think you can just look at the Bible and just, you know, whatever is there is there, we're just trying to get through that part. We can really run to some trouble. And especially if the kids aren't seeing us love the Lord in our Bible class. I mean, it's one thing for us to see David love the law because as you said, he loves the law giver. Does he do our children see us loving the Lord? And in our love, we pour out God's word to these kids in a systematic, clear and regimented way that builds in complexity like we would with other subjects, because we want it in them. And so if we're doing that at home, excuse me, if we're doing that at home, then the next step is what's happening at church. This is something I've been reading just in my personal devotions, 2 Timothy 3. But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come, for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, ungrateful, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceded, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

  18. 37:05

    And this is what it says in verse five, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these. When you are thinking about what church you attend, there are several things you need to think about in what's going on. Right now, there is more pressure than ever for pastors to accept just a little bit of sin to create a welcoming environment. There is advice going out there to pastors saying you need bathrooms that are unisex bathrooms, so if a trans person comes, they feel at home and welcome there. There are pastors that have been given advice that same sex attraction stops saying that's a sin. That's just a cross people bear. And even though God says there are certain desires that are forbidden, these pastors are coming out saying no. Even though it's a forbidden desire, you can't help it. And if you can't help it, then it's not a sin. And so there's this hard and fast pressure on these pastors, especially at a time where people are walking away from the church to get more people to come in. And so you look for men that are desirous to be welcoming to sin. I'm not talking about people. I mean, it's okay to be welcoming to people, but not welcoming to sin. And are their children's programs designed to entertain and put the children out of the way entertained so we can keep them over there while the adults have their program? I'm not saying it's wrong for kids to have a different program.

  19. 39:06

    What I'm saying is the whole point of the children's program at your church to entertain those kids, to keep their mouths shut so that adults can do something else. Or is the purpose to train those kids in the manner that you are training them at home? You have to ask those kind of questions. Very well said. Very very well said. And it's that's in Paul's, he put it to Timothy, you read from 2 Timothy chapter 3 in his, and Paul said to Timothy, you are familiar with my aim in life, my teachings and my conduct. And I often describe that as the speech and feet phenomenon to where Paul was conveying to Timothy and writing, especially in Second Timothy, he's awaiting an imminent albeit uncertain execution, you know, which is why he's telling Timothy, hey, remember Timothy, God has not given you a spirit of fear. Don't take my condition of incarceration facing execution as a basis for you now to say, you know what, about that eldership and emphasis. thinking again about some things. I want to go that way. You know, but he says to Timothy, you're familiar with my conduct, my teaching, and my aim in life. You've seen how serious this has been to me. You know that I'm not just selling what I haven't purchased. And it seems what you're saying to me, which is saying to us rather. I feel like it's just a conversation between you and me. But it's that we need to make sure that our ecclesiastical investment reflects our personal commitment and love of the law giver and that our ecclesiastical investment affirms for our children our love for the law giver.

  20. 41:11

    So they recognize that we are not just attempting to sell them on something, rather we're inviting them to join us. What is not only worth living for, but what is worth dying for? Yeah. That's what I'm getting from you. Yes. We are raising a generation that wouldn't even look foolish for God's sake. How do we expect them to die for God's sake? And so when we, when you're looking at your church, I would say there's two things you want to make sure that's happening. Number one has, this is what the world wants for your child. The world wants your child to identify in some kind of victimhood so that they can be, um, find their identity. And right now, a lot of churches are starting to turn to sin being a, a form of victimhood towards us that we are a victim of sin and that we need to be saved from our, from, from what sin is doing to us and oppressing us. And that's not how God's word speaks. You are not being saved from the oppression of sin. You're being saved from the wrath of the Father that you deserve because sin is not something that is on you. It is you until you are dead in Christ and raised with Him. And therefore sin does not have to be a master over you anymore. And so when your pastor speaks on sin, you're always thinking, we need to make sure that there isn't this compromise of, because that's what everyone wants to hear. Oh, sin isn't, you know, sin is doing something to you. And Jesus just wants to pull you out of your oppression. It's not what's happening. And so that's number one. And if you see that, I'm not trying to get everyone raising their cockles against their pastor, but I just want them to be aware that this is an issue that's going all through America right now because people are desperate to get people through the door.

  21. 43:31

    And then I guess the second thing I would say is how are they training the children? You know what's sad about the United Methodist Church is how they have gone so left. But what's interesting about the United Methodist Church is that they went out and they evangelized men in Africa and they started their churches there. And the people that have stood up against basically the white United Methodist Church in America are the black men of Africa saying no to the wokeness of the United Methodist Church. That's where the split came because men stood up and said no. And this has to be where we stand because we have, and I'll admit to this, in the old days we may have gone too far and just taught taught taught taught taught doctor and doctor and doctor and no heart and but we've we've over corrected we want all heart and no knowledge and and that's where it has led us here but thank goodness in the United Methodist Church you had you had brave black men from Africa saying no knowledge is still important it still matters. It reminds me, and again, you didn't hear this, but we started out with Matthew 22, when Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, and he said, love the Lord with all that you are, with all your heart, your soul, your mind. You know, that the faith that we have is robust at the heart level and equally robust intellectually, and we cannot afford to see ground on any front. that they all must be fully invested in the unabashed, unashamed, fully dedicated love of the Lord.

  22. 45:38

    Boy. And that's where we are. I mean, what I fear is that we don't have a sense of desperation to us. I mean, we, you know, Ephesians six does not seem to motivate us that we are at war. And when you're at war, man, things change. You know, it's one thing to practice war, like at basic training and stuff like that. But when war actually breaks out, boy, you know where is the level that finds someone to me as a brother? And what is the level that makes someone an enemy to God? I need to know those things, because it is so serious that they are coming not just after me. You know, the darkness that Ephesians 6 talks about, the principalities and powers that Ephesians 6 is talking about, is talking about this well-organized group of beings who are thinking beings, who turn their back on God, and now all they want to do is destroy us. And let me add and your children. And let me add this, they're more interested in their children than they are in our children than they are in us because they know that's the next generation. And they can just get their hands on our children. And so how are we desperate to fight? Are we desperate to fight? Or do we just see this as this practice? I don't know that we have a sense of urgency in us that we should. Mm. Oh, man. We'll have a couple minutes left. Yeah, I was having a conversation this week, this week, with, um, we're running out of time.

  23. 47:41

    I'll just say this. I think one of the great underestimations that has transpired in our context, many of us look at the first century appropriately and globally at the pinnacle of the church. church and we look at the church globally Nigeria Sudan China Iran, but I think we fail to recognize the pernicious insidious Assault upon the people of God in America that hasn't come into form yet of overt physical persecution But it that is intrinsic to Abundance and luxury And if Satan can get you to reject the Lord by overt physical hostility or if he can seduce you into rejecting the Lord with luxury and abundance, he'll take it either way. Because he doesn't care about your stuff. He cares most about your fidelity to the king. And I think that is what you're pointing out when you say we have underestimated wartime. 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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