35 Burst results for "American Church"
The Eric Metaxas Show
Roger Stone: 'Ron DeSantis Has Shown Himself'
"Love talking to you, roger. You're fun. But you're also such a truth teller. I got to ask you, it's always annoying to me to see it's annoying to me to see Ron DeSantis looking like he's going to run for president against Trump. But it's equally annoying to me that Trump is kind of taking the bait and doing the Trump thing and dumping on him. I think it hurts Trump. Where are you in the middle of this? Well, first of all, make a suggestion to you. I know things are tough there in New York. Maybe if you showed your books in the background when you did a show to kind of, you know, product placement to kind of suddenly push book sales. I've read your book letter to the American church. It's really a great book and everyone should order it immediately. Well, you know what? I will take that advice under consideration. My team doesn't want me to be too forceful in pushing my books because they don't believe in my books as strongly as you do. So thank you for saying that. Michelle bachman also also likes my books. Let me address your question, please. One of the advantages of everything is that Ron DeSantis has now shown himself in his attack yesterday on Donald Trump. What was the attack? He basically questioned his moral character, which is funny because the governor was not questioning Trump's moral character when Trump unilaterally endorsed him in a tweet, which turbocharged his campaign and elected him governor. He wasn't questioning Trump's moral judgment when Trump had to come back to Florida twice in the final two weeks of 2018 to drag Ron DeSantis across the finish line. She ranked attendance is not a likeable fellow. I think he's what you would call a cold fish. He wears ear buds to avoid human contact because he doesn't like to speak to people. He is a largely, I think, driven by his wife, correct me wrong. Wasn't it evil said to Adam bite that Apple? I think it was.
Focus On the Family Daily Broadcast
How to Be a Prayer Warrior for Your Children
"It's vital that we bring our children and their hearts to Jesus. Absolutely. I mean, that's the number one thing, I think, on a parent's heart and mind, right? I know that's true for gene and I, our boys are in their early 20s. We want them to have a fervent faith. Sometimes we're scratching our head. Are they there? They assure us that they know the lord, and that's good. But you always want to see more, right? It's just natural for a parent to want to see a vibrant faith and we're going to talk today about those young adults who may not be expressing that. We call them prodigals from time to time and their behavior suggests that maybe they're not close to the lord. So I'm excited that we're going to cover that topic today because many, many parents are going through difficulties with their adult children. And we hear so much heartache and grief from parents, and we're so glad our counseling team can talk to them and guide and certainly if you're there, give us a call. Our number is 800 a family. Well, doctor Irwin lutzer is pastor emeritus at moody church in Chicago. He was the senior pastor there for over 36 years. He's written a number of books, and one of those that is the basis for our conversation today is called a practical guide for praying parents. Get a copy from us here at the ministry, the details are in the show notes. Doctor lutzer, welcome back to focus. It's so good to have you. I'm so glad to be back and to have this exciting topic because no matter where I go the great burden on the hearts of parents is wayward children. Yeah. And we're going to be talking about how I believe we should pray for them and how transforming it was for me to understand a new way of praying, but we'll get into that. Well, you know, so often we as parents would carry so many burdens, you know? And there's a lot of things tugging at our children's heart, especially if they're in public schools, the things that are exposed to, it could be a daunting task to live in this modern world and be raising kids that have so much exposure to things that, you know, just two decades ago, kids didn't see. Social media pornography. You had to go find pornography. Now it finds you. Being a pastor for 36 years, it's nothing new under the sun, right? You were experiencing these kinds of things, maybe different, but children that weren't doing well with the lord. You know, one of the things that we did at moody church which I looked back upon with a great deal of joy is we designated a month that was a month in January and we called it pops, parents of prodigals, and we prayed for prodigals. Now we doubled our prayer meeting.
The Eric Metaxas Show
Pat Boone Has Always Been a Beacon of Wholesomeness
"Fascinating that at that young age, you were presented as this image of a wholesomeness and already in the 50s. Look, this is just the way of the world. The dark side is always attractive. And people don't understand what they're getting into. You know, you kind of think like, wow, Elvis Presley, the idea that he died of a drug overdose bloated Iraq at age 42. It breaks your heart. How many of those people they trod that path? And they died so young whether they were talking to Jimi Hendrix or anybody, any name, you know, Jim Morrison. I mean, on and on and on and on and you represent it obviously something very, very different. And The Rolling Stones and even The Beatles, if they were experimenting with drugs, they were very wealthy, and they could go to Switzerland and then have their blood transfused. Yes, Keith Richards famously had to get a blood transfusion because he was so loaded up with drugs. He's like, not a problem. I'll just go to some clinic in Switzerland, and we'll take care of that. Yeah, but kids were dying by the thousands following examples with the drugs that they couldn't afford to have their blood transfused. And people weren't even making well, there was a connection, but I mean, you know, you couldn't blame them for just sinking in their songs and living their lives the way they wanted to. But the fallout from it was too bad. It was very unfortunate. And of course, here I was had four daughters living in Beverly Hills and going to church regularly and riding bestselling books of Christian principles. And yet having rock and roll records at the same time. And so I was okay.
The Eric Metaxas Show
Voddie Baucham Weighs In on White Pastors Spouting CRT
"Do you make of the idea that you've got a lot of white evangelical pastors, either bowing to critical race theory or letting it into their churches? What do you think is going on there? Is that just stupid white guilt and ignorance of what they're actually dealing with? I can not for the life of me fathom that they would open the door to something that you know and I know is pernicious. Yeah, there is a great deal of this stupid white guilt going on for sure. But what's interesting about that is now people are walking that back, right? You know, in 2020, 2021, there were a lot of people opening the door to these ideologies. A lot of those folks now are walking that back, but they're walking it back without acknowledging it. They're walking it back without saying, hey, that episode was unfortunate. That episode was wrong. Now they're trying to act like they were never on the wrong side of this issue. And hope that people, you know, don't go back and look at the tape. Because it is. It's bankrupt. This ideology is morally bankrupt. It's philosophically bankrupt. It's intellectually bankrupt. And it was never something that was sustainable. So it's interesting to see people walk away from it. Or people just walking further into it and further away from Christianity at all together.
ToddCast Podcast with Todd Starnes
Caller: We Should Have Prayer Rallies Rather Than Protests
"Is, to me, the brilliant strategy is Carrie leg strategy. She's having a prayer rally right now. And that's what we should do. We should pray rather than protest. Go to a church, say if they went into New York or D.C. and had prayer rallies at churches or cathedrals, how would they say the interaction? These are people praying I'd love to see the TV cameraman. Come in and there's a church people praying peaceful and the FBI or DJ DoJ try to stage some kind of phony insurrection. Well, I'll tell you when you recall that president Obama was the one criticizing people clinging to guns and bibles, it wouldn't surprise me. And again, these are the folks that during COVID wanted to arrest ministers for daring to lead worship, but that's an excellent idea, Pete. Thanks for calling in from central Iowa. Go ahead. Statement. Maybe president Trump should come to Iowa like Carrie likewise. And just stay here. Because it's New York, D.C., California, where all the trouble is. If he would come and die while Carrie would like dead a week ago, down to having part and Des Moines, he could stay, you know, go from the dakotas down through Texas. And he wouldn't have any trouble like he does with New York and D.C..
The Dan Bongino Show
Robert Sirico: Analyzing the Modern Socialist
"How do you address being a priest in a man of faith and understanding the words of the Bible How do you address the liberal criticism frequently of free market folks like myself and you when they say well listen Jesus was a socialist I kind of laugh when they say that but how do you address that Well you know you know who came back with the best quip On this the most succinct was Winston Churchill And this is in the early 1900s He said in his day of course He said the socialism of the ancient church the early Christians said all that is mine is yours But the modern socialists say all that is yours is mine That's great When these liberals accuse us of this they're looking at the communal nature the generous nature the philanthropical nature of the early Church of Jesus of how he went out of his way and gave himself for the people and they say well that's socialism Well the difference between that what Jesus did and what his early church did and what the church continues to do is that we're inspired to sacrifice ourselves By his message of love for the other person Socialism is the opposite of that It coerces you It doesn't inspire you to greatness to heroism to sanctity It forces you a person isn't made holier because their money is taken and given to somebody else Even if that money goes to something good you're not benefited spiritually by it And so that's the great flaw of socialism
The Dinesh D'Souza Podcast
There Is Nothing New Under the Sun...
"Today, we're going to talk about the impending arrest of Donald Trump. But before we do, let's remind ourselves that estranged things seem now. There really is nothing new under the sun. As children of the west, we have access to deep stores of experience and knowledge. We've been down this road before. There have been many episodes in our history where evil men gain power. And then run amok. For example, take the tale of sir Thomas more. The man who once was this popular and favorite servant of King Henry. His background was in law. He was an attorney, a judge, and a statesman. At the height of his career, he was made lord high Chancellor, a position that makes spiritual author with parliamentary and legal authority. In other words, a very high position. But sadly, he ended up losing that position over his religious beliefs. You see, he was what our current day FBI would label a rad trad. The king couldn't live with him having those beliefs, so he canceled Thomas more. The old fashioned way. By beheading him. The story of Moore's rise and fall is commemorated in the play and movie a man for all seasons. If you haven't seen it yet, you really should give it a watch. But the themes of law and justice, especially as they impact the tension between church and state are extremely relevant to our lives now. One particular scene feels especially pertinent to our current situation, where a former president is being railroaded through reckless legal machinations.
ToddCast Podcast with Todd Starnes
Cissie Graham Lynch: Using Biblical Literacy to Fight Culture Wars
"Really is confusion in the culture. And I think this, I don't know, maybe you might find a different approach here, but I think this is an attack on truth. Everybody has their own truth. We talk about that a lot these days, and we really don't talk about the fact that in this country there used to be something called absolute truth, and now everybody's got their own version of things. Absolutely. Truth is relative to the individual now, but as Christians, Jesus Christ, you know, before he was crucified, pontius pilot said before him and asked him what was true. And he stood face to face with truth. You know, we're getting ready to remember what Jesus did on the cross and celebrate Easter coming up. And we as Christians have to know that we stand on truth. And I think what's happened is the church today has become biblically illiterate. So that way when it comes to fighting these cultural awards, we can't stand because we don't know what God's word is. We don't have a biblical worldview. And for those listening, I just want to encourage you to these are tough situations, especially for parents and grandparents raising children that we have to know God's words. We have to know what we believe why we believe it. Scripture says that those who know their God will be able to stand in streets and take action. And right now, all of us need to be standing in strength, we have to be taken action in our communities and our schools, but we have to know God who he is and who his scripture is.
AP News Radio
It will soon be time to render unto Caesar to visit Rome's pantheon, a Hong Kong ritual whacks away troubles, and a Zoroastrian holiday cause some to hit the streets as others hit their pocket books.
"On this week's AP religion roundup. It will soon be time to pay Caesar to visit Rome's Pantheon, a Hong Kong ritual wax away troubles and a Zoroastrian holiday causes some to hit the streets as others hit their pocketbooks. Tourists in Rome checking out the Pantheon will soon pay €5 for admission. Proceeds will be split between the culture ministry and the Roman Catholic Church, tourists at the site were divided over the new fee. I wasn't really expensive to stay here so I think it's a very nice building and for us to visit for free is wonderful. We are fully understand that it's necessary maybe to pay, you know, for the securing of the value, what is possible to say inside. The Pantheon was built as a Roman temple more than 2000 years ago. It was transformed into a church 14th century ago, and mass is regularly celebrated there. For people holding a grudge in Hong Kong, one way to release their anger is to take part in a villain hitting ritual. Edison Chan says he hopes the ritual will help cut out gossip and keep bad people away from him. Ritual practitioners, mostly older women, use a shoe to bash an image of the person who was the target of their customer's anger. One practitioner says many of her customers are people who have trouble at work or feel like they're being unfairly treated. She says she helps them by symbolically whacking the bad people away for a fee of 50 Hong Kong dollars. The ritual includes blessings from Hong Kong's goddess of the sea, as well as divine beings related to Buddhism. The markets in Iraq's Kurdish region are busy, as people prepare for the spring festival of Nauru. The Persian new year, the holiday dates back to at least 1700 BCE, and incorporates ancient Zoroastrian traditions. This year, however, now ruz coincides with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Shopper delga is having the two holidays at the same time creates a bit of a financial burden. In Iran, a fyre festival related to the holiday spark protests. Demonstrators chanted against the country's ruling clerics and hurled firecrackers at security forces. Hardliners have long condemned the fyre festival as an Islamic. I'm Walter ratliff.
Made For This with Jennie Allen
Approaching God With All of Yourself With Kathryn Maack
"When it comes to God, he's given us different parts of ourself to come together and it's not supposed to be this or that. So talk about what we're missing when we jump into those sides of our faith. Yeah, well, I mean, I think, you know, I know that you're talking to so many people and I am too that just feel distant from God and they feel an apathy or a dryness and we assume that that's on God's end. Maybe he's backed away or he's turned a blind eye to us and the premise of the book is that sometimes God feels distant because actually on our end we're holding parts of ourselves back. And so it's very easy to do. We actually have four dichotomies in the book head and heart truth and spirit being in doing and center and saint. And so we break all those apart in the book, but for instance, head and heart. Yeah, it's very easy if you have a particular personality or group in a particular denomination to really love God well with your head to have an intellectual understanding of him, but to not be relating to him with your heart. That was a story of my husband. I mean, he knew all about the Bible. He studied at his whole life, and it wasn't until his growth in the last three years that he realized that God wants to hear his actual emotions. And so he read that somewhere like you should bring God your actual emotions and started praying with what they actually are, where his heart is. Like, God, I'm nervous. I'm afraid I'm whatever. And he would come out of his room with his Bible in tears. I'd never even seen him cry. And so I think just the opportunity to go, you know what? I probably have some gaps in some of these areas. I might be more of a head person and have some gaps in the way I relate to God with my heart or vice versa. And to be able to recognize that and go, you know what? When God says, I want you to love me with your heart and soul and mine is strength. Like all of me, I have that opportunity and that can reach the gap between me and God. Truth and spirit the same way, you know, if we grew up in a charismatic background, we might be really strong in the spirit. If we grew up in a Bible church, we might be really strong and truth, our personalities, lend to leanings. And so it's just good for us to go, wow, there's a whole, there's a whole vast way that we can relate to God, and also there's a lot of vastness of expression within the broader church where we can learn from people that have strengths where we have weaknesses and we can grow. And how we come to God with all of ourselves.
The Eric Metaxas Show
Unpacking Your Emotional Objections to God With Michael Brown
"Folks, the book is why so many Christians have left the faith. I'm speaking with the author, my friend Michael Brown. Michael, you just talking about a number of things. There is so much here and it's important for us to talk about this. But when you're talking about the goodness of God, I also think when we're talking about questions like hell or certain objections that people have, on one level, there is no answer. No, there's I think it's perfectly appropriate sometimes to say, listen, there's a mystery. I can't pretend that I have an easy answer to that. There's no easy answer to that. There are things that trouble me and I am confused by. But the overwhelming evidence is so clear. You know, it's kind of like somebody saying like, ah, I don't believe your car exists. You'd say, well, I drove here today. And it takes me back and forth. And what do you mean by that? Well, I don't understand how the carburetor works and I just don't accept it. You know, he just say, well, listen, I don't know what carburetor works, but the car works. And so we can talk about that. And maybe I'll never have the brains to figure out how this part works or that part works. But people grab onto these objections and they think that's good enough. And I feel ultimately, it's an emotional rejection. They're not being rational. They are just trying to find something to wave and to say, this makes me mad. And so I throw the whole thing away. Yeah, look, there's the old saying that some of the atheist books can be summarized in the same. There is no God, and I hate him. So you can't deny that people get burned. Look, a woman called my show the other day called my radio show. You should go to Times Square church in New York, Jewish woman. Now, apostate angry, very, very angry. And she's got all these reasons, and she's now pro abortion. And et cetera, but one thing she didn't think she was treated rightly by the people in the church. It's like, hey, that's a great church that I preach there many times. Well, people weren't nice or whatever. They judged me or something where they said I had this problem. Who knows what? Every church you're going to have someone with a complaint. But she got hurt by people, even if in her own mind, she got hurt by people and turned against God. What happens though? What happens when you came to faith through a particular leader? His books changed your life and you heard him speak and God used that person and you came to the lord through them or your pastor was the one that prayed you into the kingdom and now you find out your pastor secretly been living in adultery or you find out that this well-known speaker was living a secret life. It's easy to understand how people question everything now, even though it's not logical or rational instead of emotional response.
The Eric Metaxas Show
Michael Brown and Eric Discuss Religionless Christianity
"It's complicated even when we say stuff like people have left the faith because I think it's complicated. In other words, I think that part of this, what I would consider a good part of this is that there are some people that have pulled away from what I would think of as dead religion. They just realized something is wrong here. It's kind of useless, blather, and I want the truth. And there is some of that. In other words, I think that when I, in my bahnhof her book, when he talks about religionless Christianity, he realizes that the German church going through the kabuki theater of lutheranism, it was useless when it came to the satanic evil of the Nazis. And I think that's part of it that there are some people that realizing like I can't just keep playing church. But then when people take the polls or the numbers of who's going to church or whatever, it looks like they've fallen away from the faith. When you talk about people actually who have fallen away from the faith, I'm always amazed Michael because you kind of think, did they ever really believe it in the first place? What a strange thing. For you and me, because we know this is true. It doesn't mean we don't have questions, but isn't it extraordinary to see people make that journey, which makes me think that their relationship with God was not a relationship was an intellectual assent to a worldview, which is very different than a relationship to a person capital P. Right. So there's tremendous truth in both of the things that you mentioned, of course, I deal with them, unpack them in the book. One is that people have never really had an encounter with God. And look, every generation in Israel had to have its own encounter with God. At the end of Joshua 24, the children of Israel served God as long as Joshua and the eldest real life who had experienced God. And then the next generation's fell away. So when you have a powerless Christianity, when you just preached a compromised gospel or an intellectual gospel only, and people are not encountering God, the power of the world, the pull of the world is just too strong.
The Eric Metaxas Show
'Why So Many Christians Have Left the Faith' With Michael Brown
"Are ate more books. You know, people say that about me and it's like, no, no, no. That's not true of me. But you, there are certain people that I don't know how you do it. But this one, the title, it's very provocative title. And again, brand new book, why so many Christians have left the faith. So let's talk about it. I have my theories. What do you say? First, let's recognize there is a problem. You know, there's some say, well, if the true Christians, they won't leave either way, a lot of people are dropping out. Prominent leaders have dropped out fully apostasized, pastors, worship leaders, cemetery professors, don't believe the Bible anymore. We hear the stats about profession Christians dropping at a rapid rate in America, young people dropping out of church. So there are lots of different reasons. There are some who say, look, look, Eric, Jesus prophesied that there'd be an anti falling away. And this is just the expected falling away. Well, it's a falling away. There's no question that it's happening. But to just say, well, it's the final thing. There's something we can do about it. No, I don't believe that at all. And for sure, there are a number of different factors. And what I do in the book Eric is I try to break down all the different factors because everyone has their own story. Each person has their own story. And I try to shoot why this is happening and then how we can address it. So for example, one of the big issues, you've got a great book about atheism. One of the big issues is that the new atheists that really sprung up about 1516 years ago. Bestselling book, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dunn. What happened was the memes, the quotes, the ideas, the mindset of those books kind of trickled down to the general public. So that 12 year olds are talking about I'm not going to listen to a Bronze Age God and some antiquated book and everyone thinks the Bible is hateful and bigoted and so on. So the sentiments trickled out,
The Charlie Kirk Show
Scott Presler Tells Us About the Wisconsin Supreme Court Race
"Us now is Scott pressler to actually connect the stories together, we're going to talk about Wisconsin and I have a feeling that our Wisconsin viewers are going to want to hear more about Aaron Rodgers than about the Supreme Court seat, but they should honestly care about this more. Scott, welcome to the program. I think it's the most important election in 2023. Talk to us about the Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. Thank you, Charlie. Well, I'm here in Wisconsin and Milwaukee. And what people need to understand is right now, the Supreme Court is for Republicans to three Democrats. But one Republican is retiring, meaning that on April 4th, if we are not successful at electing justice Daniel Kelly, the court will flip from conservative to liberal. And I want to remind our Wisconsin viewers that governor Evers, a Democrat, tried to impose a stay at home order. And it was just as Daniel Kelly that was the deciding vote that negated and nullified that stay at home order, providing for Wisconsin's schools to open businesses to open churches to open. So everything is on the line with this election. If you believe in gun rights and hunting rights and school choice and voter ID and proof of residency in all comes down to the all important election on April 4th for justice Daniel Kelly.
Dennis Prager Podcasts
The Danger in Gender Ideology
"Pope Francis said in an interview published Friday that gender ideology, this is exactly what Michael null said, by the way. The Pope of the Catholic Church said the same thing like a null set. Is among the most dangerous ideological colonizations by colonizations. Today, according to a recent interview with la nacion, an Argentinian media outlet. Francis said that gender ideology is created one of the most dangerous ideologies in recent history because of the way it blurs the lines between men and women. According to a translation of his remarks in a nation by the Catholic news agency. Francis explained that all humanity is the tension of differences. By the way, for the record, 25 years ago, no more, 30 years ago. I wrote an essay, the war against differences. And said it would lead to tyranny.
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
Could Trump Be Worse the Second Time Around?
"It's not, it's a little more nuanced than that, but I do think you don't credit evangelicals generally with being smart about their vote. My whole view of the evangelical affair with Trump is that the relentless ascendancy of secularism drove evangelicals into his arm and that that election was really about the Supreme Court. And that evangelicals were quite smart to go with Trump after he published his list, and they ended up with justice, Gorsuch justice, Kavanaugh, and justice Amy Coney Barrett, and that was a good deal for evangelicals concerned about freedom of worship. Response I understand all that, I, you know, my perspective was at the time and remains that he was that Trump was pretty clear about his disregard for the constitution for history for sort of the architecture of our democracy. He made that pretty clear in his comments in different ways. And I think he proved that his words meant something when it came to January 6th. So I think, you know, sure, you got a Supreme Court that you like, and we came to a constitutional crisis where we came closer than I and many others would have liked to. Okay, tangent. Tangent, John. If Mike Pence had done the wrong thing and put aside the ballots, what do you think would have happened? It wasn't a constitutional crisis. It was a riot, and it was dangerous, and I hope they're all prosecuted who broke in, but I've had this argument with Liz Cheney. What do you think would happen if Mike Pence had bought it? Well, we don't know what would have happened. I think there's another scenario where they delay it where lawmakers are killed, where they can't get enough lawmakers to actually certify the election. And I think there was talk, I think, by general milley, of concerns about Trump, you know, declaring martial law or some excuse to take military control of the country. We don't have evidence that I think John Roberts would have gotten the court together and they would have declared count the votes in about 24 hours. Maybe not that long. And they would add a Nixon versus the United States 9 zero vote and we weren't close to a constitutional crisis. In fact, my biggest argument with you about your book is you don't actually have a lot of faith that evangelicals believe in the constitution and that there are concerns about the secularization of the society are overstated when in fact I spend a lot of time talking to the alliance defending freedom, they're out there every day combating anti Christian bigotry. I mean, it's real. I've been reporting on this since 1992. It's a constant, secularization, advance that has triggered a lot of the response that you deal with, although covenant life church is different. That's why I'm trying to, that's a very different part of the general evangelical world, isn't it? You know, in some respects, coming to life was not very political. It wasn't involved with things like alliance defending freedom. And you know, I have no problem with people doing those things in through the system that we have. But I think going back to the point about January 6th, were we at the point of a coup, we don't know the point my point is we were way too close for my comfort level and we're now at a point where the same guy is potentially going to be the Republican nominee again. And if he brought us that close last time, my concern is where do we go from here if he's president again?
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
The Language of Evangelicalism
"John, I think you'll probably know. I'm an evangelical Roman Catholic Presbyterian. That means I go to mass on Saturday night and I go to my Presbyterian Church on Sunday, one river two banks, but I speak evangelical very well. Rick Warren and Greg Laurie are friends, Al Muller is a weekly conversationalist with me. I know, you know, John piper I read desiring God years ago. I know most of the stuff you talk about. I've got to tell you at the beginning. I have never heard of CJ Mahoney or Lou engel until I read your book. Never heard and I've been covering religion since 1992. So first question, do you think your perspective in testimony might be jaded by that particular covenant life church experience and these particular pastures? Well, I guess, can I ask you what you mean by jaded, just that my experience might not reflect a more mainstream experience? Is that what you're kind of? Yeah, I think mainstream evangelicalism is not anti intellectual at all. But then again, I've had doctor Mark Roberts as a pastor for 25 years. He got his undergrad and PhD from Harvard. Doctor Larry is my current pastor in oldtown is a phenomenal scholar and preacher and archbishop who is listening right now in the author of three books is an intellectual giant in the Catholic world and I've written three books on evangelicalism and this, I just think testimony is a 100% accurate about 1% of the church. How's that sound? Yeah, I think my dad raised a similar objection. When I talked to him about the book, he does not feel like a lot of evangelical culture is anti intellectual. And I think it's a totally fair question to raise. I do think that even if you haven't heard of CJ Mahaney or Lou angle, you know, I did some reporting recently. Let me deal with CJ first. CJ is not a figure on the same level as somebody like Al molar. But until about, you know, 7, 9, ten years ago, he was of a similar stature to Al mohler, if not as nationally known. So never quite got to that level, but was kind of on his way there was working with Mueller quite closely in a group of other ministers who were organizing a conference every year called. I think together for the gospel. Danny Louisville.
The Eric Metaxas Show
How Father Carlos Martins Got Involved With Exorcism
"You yourself get involved in the ministry of exorcism? When did that happen for you? Yeah, well gosh, it happened almost 20 years ago. When I was a deacon. So before one is remained a priest in the Catholic Church, he's ordained a deacon serves as a deacon for about a year. When where I was a sign that church where I was assigned the exorcist of the diocese ministered out of there. And they had so many cases. That when kind of a minor case would come in like a house infestation where they were it was diabolical phenomena happening within a house objects moving by themselves. Moaning, strange voices, and then kind of figures that could be seen walking around. They didn't have time for cases like that. They were dealing with people who had oppression within themselves. So one of them just turned to me one day, and said, deacon, go get rid of those deeds. And so I didn't have any training at the time. And in a sense, you know, I look back on that now. I would never have advised that. But for me personally, it was probably the best thing professionally that could have happened to me. Because what I had to do was discover my own model. I had to go make my way into this situation and gain an understanding of evil in a way that made sense to me. One of the things that I knew by instinct, and it was really the only thing that I knew was that if evil is there, it's there for a reason. It has been let in. To use different language to use legal language. It has gained rights. And so my job is to go and eliminate the rights. And one of the most common things that I say professionally when I talk about this topic is that the job of the exorcist contrary to popular opinion is not to cast out the devil. The job of the exorcist is to find out why is the devil there?
The Eric Metaxas Show
"american church" Discussed on The Eric Metaxas Show
"You know I need your love you got that hold over me and all this I got you. Folks, welcome back to see her from taxes show, but I, Eric went taxes oddly enough and the guest, the host, is my producer Albin. He's asking me questions about my new book, letter to the American church. And this was your idea. This was my idea. This is so powerful. Very serious. And you know, people out there are going to be like, well, how can I get involved? And what about my charge? I'm in the church right now, and the pastor doesn't seem to get it. One thing is the pastor needs to read this book. You need to read this book. But people that do get it. A couple pastors because Ann and I, every Sunday, we go most every Sunday, we go to Jonathan Khan's church in Wayne, New Jersey, and he has a new book out. You interviewed him, great book. It's kind of another angle on this. This is called return of the gods. Right. And you've got to hear that interview. And I watched it twice, by the way, that interview you did with Jonathan Kahn, powerful stuff. Jonathan Khan gets it. He's awoke, awake. Jack hibbs, of course, calvary will look. Let's be clear. There are many pastors in the country who do get this. Yes. And half of them have become my friends at this point, but there are many that are still very, very shy about this. They're afraid of losing members in their congregations. And I'm just thinking folks, if you, you have to try to understand that. Nothing's new. The German pastors who were silent, it's so easy for us to point our fingers at them and say, oh, I wouldn't have been silent. Folks, they're no different than we are today. They had their good reasons. We now know they were wrong. We now know those reasons were invalid, but they were not saying, hey, we don't care about the truth. We don't care about that. They were just misguided. And what I'm trying to say in this book is I'm trying to say, look at the parallels, tell me what I'm missing. This is not an incendiary book designed to shame people. This is, I hope, a loving message to people and saying, listen, good people can get this wrong. Would you consider what I'm saying here? Will you consider what Bond hoffer was saying and would you I mean, I guess to me the worst thing Albin is when I think about the German passers who were silent, when they had to live through the hell of what happened. And then decades later hanging their heads in shame, I just want to say, we don't want to be like that. We don't want to fail. And then to hang our heads in shame for decades. So this is an opportunity, but I guess don't do it for yourself. Think about the people whose lives are being affected. Think about young women who are being persuaded that they're confused about whether they're a woman or a man. They're having their breasts removed. They're having these things happening. And my heart breaks. And if you care about these people who are being deceived and you don't speak up, what is the biblical view of this? How many genders does the Bible say, if you're not talking about that lovingly? If you're not talking about biblical view of sexuality, if you're not talking about how critical race theory is atheistic, the BLM movement is atheistic and Marxist and is going to destroy black lives. If you care about black lives, you are obliged because of the truth of what the scripture says to speak and this is just what I'm hoping in the book is that people I can reason with people in this book because I'll just say this because I know we're at a time, but I will say that folks, the urgency, this is the key. It's like you may have weeks, months. I don't know, but the silence of the American church is destroying this nation in the same way the science of the German church destroyed the German nation and if we do not understand this and repent and begin to speak, we will see horrible things and we will no longer have the ability to speak. So there's just no doubt Alban that I've written this book as a warning. I'm just begging people to think about this. I hope people will give this book to their pastors. I know we're out of time, but I'm just grateful for your willingness to ask me some questions, folks..
The Eric Metaxas Show
"american church" Discussed on The Eric Metaxas Show
"God knows you actually don't have faith. So you're Salvation. This is chilling, is on the line. What you do, what you say, how you behave, are you fighting for the truth at a time that it's being under attack? Are you doing all these things, or have you been persuaded to be silent? And I guess ultimately, what it really boils down to, what I say in the book is that the German church was silent, von hoffer tried with everything he had to get them to speak up and to fight the evil of the Nazis before most people really understood where it was going. And they said, not yet, not yet. We don't want to be political. We don't want to be political. Well, when they finally woke up, it was too late. They had opened their mouths to late and what I say in this book, and I'm begging people to take this seriously folks. I'm begging you to take this seriously. The silence of the German church which led to the nightmare of the Holocaust and everything else that is precisely the same as the silence of the American church today. We are facing cultural Marxism. We are facing transgender madness, we're facing political enemies who no longer believe in the constitution who want to fundamentally transform America destroy crush religious liberty, redefine liberty, on every level we are facing this nightmare and most leaders in the church have been silent and I'm saying in the book, please, please, try to take this seriously what I'm saying that our silence today is leading us to the nightmare to the same nightmare for America that Germany was led to by the silence of the German church. I believe that is exactly where we are. And if I don't speak about it, I will die. I have to deliver this message and I believe by God's grace, he'll get it in the hands of people who are open to the truth. And I'm going to read a question. You have obviously questions and answers in this book. And I want to read this kind of open ended question and it's kind of something of a softball, but I'm going to read it anyway. It follows up on what you just said. You see in America, you know, today is similar pattern. And I think a lot of us do and you say here, since we have the dramatic advantage of knowing what happened in Germany, will we take what he said, Bono for said, more seriously than they did and then you say, will you, like the individual, not just the church in general, because we, the people, we the people are the government, but we the people are also the church. I wanted you to expand a little bit on what Bond hoffer did. I mean, how did he, he saw it, but then what did he do specifically? Well, it's interesting because bohnhoff first saw what was happening before other people saw what was happening. And that's kind of like a prophetic thing, right? He could see whether it's mystically prophetic where it was just his sense from how he was raised and but he seemed to see the evil and where it was going and he saw that if the church stands and fights the evil will not prevail. But if the church does not stand, if the church says, well, it's not our job, Romans 13. We're not supposed to speak about political things. If the church does that, he knew where the Nazis were going to take Germany. The Nazis would never say we want to transform Germany into an anti Christian or non Christian country. They weren't stupid. They wouldn't say that, but he knew that that was the DNA of national socialism. And he tried to get the church to understand this is what you're facing and every day that you're silent, you are enabling this to triumph. This evil. And so, you know, you say, what did he do? I mean, he did many things and eventually to be perfectly honest. He threw up his hands because he knew it was too late. The German church had failed. And that's eventually he gets involved in the plot to kill Hitler. That's way down the line, but in the beginning, he was just with all his heart trying to get the German church to see the urgency. And this is kind of what I find is the key. It's the urgency. It's always the tempting thing to say, you know what? It's just not that bad. We'll get through it. You know, Hitler's a one term furor. We'll get through it. The pendulum swings this way in that way. It's okay. Well, Bond offers saying no, no, if you do not speak up now, if you do not fight, if you do not, yeah, maybe you'll lose your job. Maybe go to concentration camp, but the point is, if you do not fight, the suffering that is going to be unleashed, the evil that is going to be unleashed is inconceivable. And I think that's my point in the book is to try to get people to know that good people in the past similarly could not conceive of what lay ahead. They were exactly where we are, where they basically said, that can happen here. That won't happen here. We know what happened when you see the images of the death camps and all this stuff. You can't believe that it happened. It's so horrible, but most Americans think nothing like that could ever happen. That's not going to happen. It's no different than the German church. They were convinced this can't happen. Yeah, I came up with a one word answer after reading halfway through the book. I came up with a one word answer of how could the church let these things happen? The one word answer gradually. Gradually. That's right. Don't give the devil a foothold, isn't that a scripture and is the church doing that? There's examples of that. And I know we're going to touch on that. Well, okay, you've said it exactly. And it's the proverbial frog in the tea kettle. If you do not recognize what is happening, you don't do anything. You just kind of let it go a little further and a little further, a little further. And then at some point you realize it's too late. I think if I think of when you think of gulliver being tied down by the little potions, right? At some point, he could have woken up and burst the bands, but if they could just keep tying him down and tell him to at some point he would not be able to get up..
The Eric Metaxas Show
"american church" Discussed on The Eric Metaxas Show
"But sometimes we just really can't get anybody of quality. And I said, hey, Alvin, you know what? We couldn't get anybody. What about if I were to be the guest and you were to interview me about my new book because when you said I want to be the guest, I said, well, have you written anything? Have you starred in anything? The fact is I didn't want to be the guest. I want to be perfectly blunt and say that I am the guest right now because it was Alban's idea to interview me about my new book letter to the American church. So Alban. Since I'm the guest and you're the host, I better shut up and let you run the show. Well, I heard you had letter to the American church, so I was looking for something in the mail, something maybe like this, a page and a page and a half. Hey, dear church, I got some things to say. But of course, you know, the guy who wrote Bond hoffer, you know, 506 hundred pages. Of course, his letter is not going to be like two pages. It's going to be kind of like a 150 pages or something like that. And he's going to put in a nice little book of well, it is my shortest book. It is. And I mean this, folks, this is a short book, but it is no joke. I think it's probably the most important thing that I have written period, period, and of sentence. Yeah, I know, what's amazing is, and it's very cool because it says on the front. And this is very important because of course you wrote about Martin Luther, you wrote about the slave trade and William wilberforce and miracles. But on the front, and this is an important line, because when I first wrote it, I said, well, Eric's written all kinds of books, but it says author of Bond hoffer, pastor martyr prophet spy. Why is that important because in a sense, this is almost like part two of Bond hoffer, because you're not Eric saying, hey, listen, I got a message for the American church. You make it very clear in this book. This is Bond hoffer in his day saying to his church. Hey, listen folks, you got to wake up. And so you were taking a sense, you're taking Bond hoffer's warning and these words, and you're turning them around and saying, look, that was 1930s, Germany. This is 2020s. America. Don't listen to me, folks. Don't listen to Eric metaxas. Listen to Dietrich Bonham. The German people did not listen and look what happened to them and look where we are. That's actually that's the challenge for me in writing this book because I never, I mean, this is true, folks. I've never felt this burning. I felt like I've got to write, I've got to say this. God put it on my heart to say these things. And I was actually thinking of publishing it myself. I just thought, it's not going to be long, but I've got to say this so that some key figures in the American church will read this. I've got to say this. And my publisher Salem, when we met at NRB national religious broadcasters convention back in what was it and I think it was a march, they wanted to meet with me. They had some ideas for books that I might write with them. And they basically described this book. They said, we think you should write this book, and I thought that is absolutely weird that has to be God because I didn't tell anybody I wanted to write this book. They described it to me, and I said, I was already planning to write that book. So they're the publisher of the book letter to the American church. But the title, I originally was going to title it faith without works is dead. In other words, the American church has gotten so focused sometimes on what we believe that you forget that if you do not live out what you say you believe, you don't actually believe it. God looks at our James writes about it. I write about it in the book quoting the gospel of the pistol at James, where he basically says faith, he says, exactly faith without works is dead. In other words, if you think you can just say, I believe this stuff, but you're not living it self sacrificially. You're not speaking the truth when it matters..
The Eric Metaxas Show
"american church" Discussed on The Eric Metaxas Show
"And I want to say, also, when you talk about what I'm looking forward to, Alvin, I don't know if you know this. I think you do know this. My book fish out of water is coming out in paperback in March. The cover, the paperback cover, I love it so much that I think I'm more excited than I was about the hardcover, which never happens. Oh, by the way, we should warn people that in both hours of today's show, both hours, Albin, we are replaying an interview Alban interviewed me on my most recent book, my shortest book I've ever written called letter to the American church. So today in both hours, we're playing Albin's interview of the author Eric metaxas about his book, letter to the American church. So that's both hours today. Yeah. Well, I'd like to just say is that you wrote this book so quickly that you can actually you wrote it faster than people can read it. That's how quickly you wrote it. That's how quickly I wrote it. And it's that sloppy. There are just sentence fragments. It's a mess. No, it is kind of amazing. I've never written a book so quickly. Well, look, it's the shortest book. But I'm sorry to say it's the most important book I've ever written. Now look, people might say that if you know me, you know that I don't I not only try not to blow smoke, but I detest when people blow smoke and are just, you know, puffing things up that don't deserve puffing up. This I think is the most important book I've ever written because let me just say part of the proof of God in my life is to see his hand over the years. And when I think back that he called me to write my book on William wilberforce in 2006 and 7, 2006, sorry. He called me to write my book on Bonn hoffer, which came out in 2010. He called me to write a book on Martin Luther, which came out in 2017. When I was writing these books, I never dreamt that some years in the future, what I learned from writing about those three heroes of the faith would be brought to bear on where we are now in the United States of America. I never dreamt it. If you had talked to me at any point in all those years, I would have said, oh, you know, maybe someday, things were going to get so when I wrote the book letter to the American church, which we're going to be discussing in both hours or we are already discussing. It became clear to me that God prepared me to write this book for this season in America for the American church over the years without my knowledge. I was just doing what I thought, you know, I'm doing what I think I call me to do, but I had no sense of the bigger picture. So I do want to say that that is what I'm looking forward to is that this year, the people who have read letter to the American church and many, many people have read it because it's sold better so far than I think any book that I wrote in the beginning. I mean, eventually bahnhof and these books sell more, but no book has ever sold so quickly because I think there is a genuine hunger. And I think that my hope for this year is to see people pastors living out what is in this book, realizing, you know, what if I don't live out my faith? I'm a hypocrite. I need to live out my fate. That's the joy. That's a God wants me to bless him by living it out. So I'm looking forward to seeing that this year. I'm already seeing a little bit of it, but I'm looking forward to that. And I mentioned now, but I'm looking forward to the fact that fish had a water, the book is coming out in paperback, and I think this fall is 8000 dead is coming out in paperback. I am looking forward to speaking on those books in churches because when I speak in churches and letter to the American church, it's a little heavy. It's a little serious that I've been doing tons of that and I'll do much more of that, but I'm looking forward to telling the funny true stories in fish out of water of growing up with my mom and dad. And telling the fun, I mean the amazing proof of God from science..
The Eric Metaxas Show
"american church" Discussed on The Eric Metaxas Show
"Thank you. Folks, welcome back. Albin. Yes, is interviewing me about my new book letter to the American church. It's kind of kooky. It's my show, but I get to be a guest. Do you believe that? All right, get a hard question, yeah. Now on the front, it talks about your other book, of course, bahn hoffer, and pastor martyr, prophet, and spy. And in this book, you reveal two things that have been questions in my head for many years, one of them was the phrase religion, religious, religion less Christianity, because people were debating, well, well, bahnhof were at the end. He backed away from Christianity and that sort of thing. And you explain why there was a confusion about that. And the second thing is like, why would he get involved in a Plata to kill Hitler? Isn't that murder? Why would he do that? You explained it so incredibly clearly and maybe you could touch on both of those phrases and both of those actions. Yeah, these are two huge misunderstandings. And when I wrote the bahnhof her book, and I would do Q&A after I'd speak. And I would always get these questions, you know? So the first one is, when I began to write about baumhoff, I didn't know what I would find because there had been this idea out there among theological liberals and agnostics and atheists that bahnhof were drifted away from the faith at the end of his life. And he used this phrase religionless Christianity and they used that phrase they perverted it to make it sound like he drifted away from Christianity. And when I looked into it myself, I said, it is exactly the opposite. He basically said that playing church, all these Germans going to church and going through the motions, they were being merely religious in the negative sense. They were not living out their faith, I would say this is true of much of the American church today. He said, I believe this and I believe this and I go to Bible said, God doesn't care. He cares on whether you are living out your faith. If you really believe what you claim to believe, you're going to be living it out. So bahnhof saw that the rise of the Nazis was made possible by Christians who were not being fully Christian, they were merely being religious, and he said the only way to stand against evil, which is what we're facing today in the American church, is to be deeply, truly Christian 24/7, not to say, well, I go to church and I went to the Bible study and I believe you have to live out your faith 24/7. Now what does that look like? I don't think it means you're going to be religious fanatic, but you're going to be a truth fanatic. You're going to be a courage fanatic. You're going to say, I have been freed because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. I've been freed to speak the truth in love not to fear, not to fear anything much less death because Jesus actually defeated death and I know that's true. It's not a nice idea. And so bonoff has said, nothing less than that. Nothing less than a religionless Christianity can stand against evil. And I see exactly that folks that is what God is calling the American church to today is a religionless Christianity. Forget your pieties, whatever, live out your faith, self sacrificially, agape love the love of God is self sacrificial means that I know that God calls me to sacrifice for others, many of whom I'll never meet to do the right thing to speak truth on all these issues for the benefit of strangers, but God will honor that..
The Eric Metaxas Show
"american church" Discussed on The Eric Metaxas Show
"What I like, and I've heard you in churches and even on this show with guests, you talk about not so much leading people to Christ with what you say, but just waking people up to reality, to reality. The Bible tells us to speak the truth in love. And you're saying, just show the people what is actually true, the truth is a person, as you write here, the person is Jesus Christ, the word. And by showing people reality and you know, nowadays, it's easy enough to show people reality about what's happening to our children in the classroom. You don't have to say, oh, it's a theoretically it's happening. No, this is reality. I actually, I think this is a good point is that what happens to people, this is I'm talking about Christians. They become in the pejorative sense religious. They only talk about religious things and theological things. And you think, folks, God is the God of reality. He created reality, he is truth, so whenever you're doing justice to truth a reality, you're leading people to God. So if I'm talking about the fact the scientific fact that there is male and female, that's it, okay? I don't even have to bring up God because there are tons of people who are not self identifying as evangelical Christians that they see. This is just crazy. You mean ten minutes ago, somebody like in a lab discovered more genders and we've all got to change our thinking. This is not science. This is just madness and ideology. And so all you have to do is witness to the truth and to reality because most people see that. Most people know that. And when you do that, there are tons of people that are not people of faith that they're led to faith because they say, yes. It makes sense. I now see where that other stuff leads and it leads to lunacy to talking to little children asking them what pronouns they prefer. That's child abuse. Most people, most parents and grandparents get that. You don't need to be a Bible, believing Christian to understand that that is child abuse. It is wicked. It is sick. And I thought to myself, if the church is being silent on these issues, God is judging us right now, because we are God requires us to speak the truth more than anyone he requires us to spend. 50 years from now, people will be looking back at us. Just like we look back at the German people and say, why didn't they do something? 50 years from now, people look at us and say, why didn't they do something? It was obvious. Yeah, they're going to, I mean, there's a lot of the stuff that's been going on, whether it's with the vaccines or whether it was with the voting fraud or whatever. This stuff is going to come out. And so the idea that it's like, well, I better shut up. I better be careful. It's all going to come out. And so if you're a Christian, I guess this is the book, I just say, if you are Christian, it's called letter to the church, led to the American church. If you're a Christian, you are obliged. God has put you here to speak the truth. And when you speak the truth, you will find ironically, people will be drawn to the God you claim to worship because you show the courage of your convictions, and because you say, I don't care what the results are about my job or this, I believe in doing what is right and true and speaking the truth. And so when you are speaking the truth, when you're not silent on all these issues, ironically, more people will come to faith. But if all you're worried about is not offending somebody and keeping your mouth shut and saying nothing, you are ultimately going to drive people away from the thin lipped pseudo gospel that you claim to be preaching..
Liberty Station
"american church" Discussed on Liberty Station
"They're wrong, but they have somehow gotten the idea that no, this is right. This is the true thing. And I'll tell you one other parallel that I wrote a chapter called 12,000 pastors. And the reason the chapters called 12,000 pastors is because when I was doing my research on Germany in the 30s, I noticed that about there were 18,000 Protestant passages just talking about the protestants. They were 18,000 Protestant pastures. In 1935, so this is as the Nazis are taking control. Into their taking control a couple of years in. By 1935, 3000 of the 18,000 were standing firm. So there was still 3000 standing very, very firm. On the other end of the spectrum, there were about 3000 totally pro Nazis, totally willing to sell out the church 100% to the Nazi state. In the middle, there were 12,000 who refused to commit either way. That to me is the American church. In other words, you've got a handful of people that get it. But then you've got this vast middle that says, you know what? We're going to let the hotheads take the heat. We're going to let them get canceled. We're going to let them whatever it is. I'm not going to speak up. I'm not ready yet. I want to see which way the wind is blowing. You know, are the Nazis, the Nazis win if the marxists win if the authoritarians win. I want to be on the right side. I don't want to get, I don't want to get in trouble. So they are refusing to take a stand, refusing to fight, and it is silence in the face of evil. So they think they're taking the safe path, they're saying, well, but I'm not over here with the Nazis. I'm just keeping out of trouble. I'm just keeping out of this. I'm not taking sides. When you don't take sides, you have taken aside and the Germans who were silent in the middle enabled the Nazis to take over. If another 3000 had stood with the 3000 brave Christian heroes, the Nazis never would have had the ability to do what they did.
Liberty Station
"american church" Discussed on Liberty Station
"We want you to shut up and we know there are enough of you who can be silenced simply by my using the word political. And I say, we have to stop. We have to start saying, I'm going to do anything. You want to call it political. I'm going to do what is right. I'm going to fight for what is right and true. God commands me to do that. And I think there's a lot of timidity out there actually makes it very clear. And of course, I use him as my model in the book letter to the American church because he wrote a book called the cost of discipleship where he deals with similar stuff. And he's trying to speak to the Germans and say to them, you're not even you're not even being faithful to what you believe or to what you claim to believe. You say it's all about faith and we don't have to really do anything. And he's saying, not according to scripture, scripture says faith without works is dead. So if you don't put your faith into action, you actually have no faith. So by your own definition, you're going to hell because if you're saved by faith and faith alone, you're not demonstrating the evidence of any faith. You're just playing games. You're using the word faith and bought off, of course, writes about grace, the same thing. It's cheap grace. Real grace is costly grace. You're going to live out your faith and you're going to live out your belief that the grace of God has saved me and is the answer to the world's problems. You're going to live that out in a way that self sacrificial. It's not easy to live it out that way. But when you do that, people are going to say, oh, that person actually has faith. Look at that. And people are attracted to that. And you and I know that when pastors do talk about controversial things, guess what?
Liberty Station
"american church" Discussed on Liberty Station
"Yeah, and there's obviously a lot of parallels to what went on in Germany and now, and I want you to cite some of those examples. But first, I think it's because the American church has been so uniquely blessed. And we see things in these guys in their defense. They see things through their American church goggles. And the way that we have been so blessed, and they think, and I used to, look, I'm a really difficult person to be married to. And my wife is one of the most biblically faithful and educated wives on the planet. And I would tease her early on in our marriage because there were some things that she looked at that were traditional based on how we did things here in America. And I would sort of be like, oh, that's just nonsense. That's not really biblical church stuff. That is American church construct. And again, you know, I was being a pain in the butt because that's who I am and I'm settling down over the years, but I think a lot of these guys in their defense, you know, they, they don't see Republicans and Democrats mentioned in the Bible, so they're going to say that Jesus was not a political activist, so to speak. No, Jesus was engaged. You mentioned in the Bible. So go ahead, you know? It's kind of amazing in a way. Go ahead, sorry. Yeah, no, I was just going to say, but he was fighting against the political leaders and authorities of the day. I mean, Christianity was pushing back against the authorities and political actors of the day. But because again, here in America, we're so narcissistic because it doesn't say Democrats and Republicans and it doesn't talk about a two party republic system and all those things, specifically in the Bible, we're not able to imagine that. Well, I mean, again, one of the things that I say in the book is that the world has changed. In 1985, the Democratic Party was tip O'Neill. If tip O'Neill is the Democratic Party, you don't need to be that political. But if the Democratic Party has swung over to where the president of the United States is advocating transgender madness, open border, madness, bringing fentanyl into the country, destroying our economy. Everywhere you look, the Democrats have opened the door wide to cultural Marxism, which is at its heart atheistic. The Democratic Party didn't used to be there. If you don't speak against this, you are helping it to happen. People need to understand we are no longer living in that day when we could say, well, both parties have points and we can discuss these things. It's not just on the issue of the unborn. That is like the major or one of the major issues.
Liberty Station
"american church" Discussed on Liberty Station
"Yeah, and there's obviously a lot of parallels to what went on in Germany and now, and I want you to cite some of those examples. But first, I think it's because the American church has been so uniquely blessed. And we see things in these guys in their defense. They see things through their American church goggles. And the way that we have been so blessed, and they think, and I used to, look, I'm a really difficult person to be married to. And my wife is one of the most biblically faithful and educated wives on the planet. And I would tease her early on in our marriage because there were some things that she looked at that were traditional based on how we did things here in America. And I would sort of be like, oh, that's just nonsense. That's not really biblical church stuff. That is American church construct. And again, you know, I was being a pain in the butt because that's who I am and I'm settling down over the years, but I think a lot of these guys in their defense, you know, they, they don't see Republicans and Democrats mentioned in the Bible, so they're going to say that Jesus was not a political activist, so to speak.
Liberty Station
"american church" Discussed on Liberty Station
"Which is in the reviews that I'm looking at and what I'm reading on it is really, truly leaving us, I think, open, or I should say it's sowing the seeds of the destruction of the church. And it's going to be hampering our ability to actually speak truth, speak biblical truth that runs counter to any narratives on marriage and other things that are world right now is promoting. Well, that's kind of the point. To sum up my book, it's called letter to the American church, but the sort of sum it up, it, or at least one of the things that's at the center of this book letter to the American church is the idea that if you're a person of particularly Christian faith, because I write letter to the American church. This is the people who claim to be Christians. If you think you can avoid politics, if you think you should avoid politics, that is an unbiblical idea, and not only is it on biblical, but if you do not fight for liberty, if you do not fight for these biblical values, you will not even get to do the one thing you think you need to do, which is preach the quote unquote gospel, you won't even get to do that. You are going to be silenced because we have an essentially binary choice. The values of the Bible lead to freedom. And if you are under an authoritarian regime and you don't fight back against that and fight for religious liberty, you are more and more and more going to be unable even to say anything, even the one theological thing that you want to talk about. The gospel, you won't even get to talk about that.
Liberty Station
"american church" Discussed on Liberty Station
"Which is in the reviews that I'm looking at and what I'm reading on it is really, truly leaving us, I think, open, or I should say it's sowing the seeds of the destruction of the church. And it's going to be hampering our ability to actually speak truth, speak biblical truth that runs counter to any narratives on marriage and other things that are world right now is promoting. Well, that's kind of the point. To sum up my book, it's called letter to the American church, but the sort of sum it up, it, or at least one of the things that's at the center of this book letter to the American church is the idea that if you're a person of particularly Christian faith, because I write letter to the American church. This is the people who claim to be Christians. If you think you can avoid politics, if you think you should avoid politics, that is an unbiblical idea, and not only is it on biblical, but if you do not fight for liberty, if you do not fight for these biblical values, you will not even get to do the one thing you think you need to do, which is preach the quote unquote gospel, you won't even get to do that. You are going to be silenced because we have an essentially binary choice. The values of the Bible lead to freedom. And if you are under an authoritarian regime and you don't fight back against that and fight for religious liberty, you are more and more and more going to be unable even to say anything, even the one theological thing that you want to talk about. The gospel, you won't even get to talk about that. So these things are unavoidably related and the lie that I'm trying to push back at in a lot of what I write, but especially in the new book letter to the American church.
The Charlie Kirk Show
"american church" Discussed on The Charlie Kirk Show
"And so the book is called letter to the American church. Everyone should pick up a copy. It's very important book. And so you ask the question here, can it really be God's will that his children be silent at a time like this? Decrying the cowardice that masquerades as godly meekness, Eric metaxas summons the church to battle. Why is this even a question, Eric? How is it possible that people that are filled with faith even struggle with this question? Well, listen, Charlie, the problem is we're dealing with human beings, right? That's always the problem. And people, I can look at my own life, right? When I was in my early 20s, I just mentioned it when I was at Yale. I went with the flow. I didn't want to stick out. I didn't want people to look at me and say, that guy's a fascist. That guy's at this. I didn't know who I was. I didn't have the confidence to say, no, that's wrong. And there are many people in American life today. There are many people in American churches today. They're just like that. They don't really know what to think. They're afraid to say anything. And so they're going along. And I'm here to say, ladies and gentlemen, this happened precisely as it is happening now in Germany. I'm not exaggerating the parallel. It is exactly what happened. Let me say, do you find that persuasive? I'm starting to interrupt you because some pastors roll their eyes every time we mention Germany, but it's literally true. Well, what I'm trying to say is I believe that there are some who can be reached. I think there are some who couldn't care less. They really couldn't care less. They have endured themselves. But anything unpleasant. But the reason I wrote the book and the way I wrote it is to reach those who might be persuaded who are confused enough to say, well, I'll see what he has to say. And the reason I wrote it, Charlize, because there are other people writing books saying exactly the opposite. And it's astonishing to me that they are saying the church shouldn't be political. I mean, just to get specific. It's a misunderstanding of what faith is. It's a misunderstanding of what Romans 13 says about how we're to obey the governing authorities. There are various misunderstandings that are here's the key, the precisely the same misunderstandings of the German church in the early 30s. So you have to forget about what happened for a second in Germany. And you have to go back to where it was before they knew this could ever happen. Good people, Christians, pastors, who love God, whatever we're persuaded that silence was the right godly option. And the reasons they were persuaded that are the same reasons people are persuaded today. When you see those parallels, that's when you'll think, oh, oh, well, then I guess it could be happening right now. So you have to see what the parallels are. So we're going to buy a bunch of TPUSA faith and we're going to distribute them. We have to. This is so important. And Eric, I mean, your bestseller after bestseller. I mean, the amount of books you put out is unbelievable. From the Bond hoffer book, which obviously was the big home run. But you wrote a great book on William wilberforce. You have everything you always wanted to know about God, the Jesus edition. You of course have 7 men, 7 more men, 7 women, miracles, Martin Luther, is atheism dead, fish out of water, but you've said this book is very unique in that kind of canon of work. Well, I hate to say it. But without any question without any question, this is the most important book I've ever written. It's probably the shortest. And I wish I weren't right, but I think the message in this message, it is a clarion call. I beg people who are still open minded to see what I have to say because everything is at stake. The nation is at stake. Some people say, okay, I want to speak up, but what does that mean? I mean, come on, it doesn't mean I have to be a Republican, does it. And so that's the question, right? And then I'm going to read some of the objections from people in institutional corporate Christianity that write these things comfortably smug as the evil unfolds again in front of our very eyes. Only the church, if it could rise up and stop this. If the church does not rise up, it is all over it collapses from within. And the book, the book is called letter to the American church. You guys can find it at Eric metaxas dot com. That's probably the best way to just have people start, right, Eric, Eric. Eric metaxas dot com letter to the American church, very important. I give Erik a very hard time and he gives me a hard time, but it's because we have such respect for each other and I could tell you this is one of the most important books out there right now and it is rage inducing. When I see churches that have been so blessed with big buildings and huge staffs and they say, well, we don't do that around here. We're just going to let the society decay and the civilization crumble..
The Eric Metaxas Show
"american church" Discussed on The Eric Metaxas Show
"Break. But it's hard for me to I just want to say lovingly folks consider what I'm saying in this book because it is really only what bahnhof for was saying and we saw what happened, people didn't heed his voice then the church didn't heed his voice then. The question is, will the American church heed his voice today? Okay, we'll be right back. You know I need your love you got that hold over me as long as I got you. Folks, welcome back Sierra from taxes show, but I, Erik and taxes oddly enough, I'm the guest, the host, is my producer Albin. He's asking me questions about my new book, letter to the American church. And this was your idea. This was my idea. This is so powerful. Very serious. And you know, people out there are going to be like, well, how can I get involved? And what about my charge? I'm in a church right now, and the pastor doesn't seem to get it. One thing is the pastor needs to read this book. You need to read this book. But people that do get it. A couple pastors because Ann and I, every Sunday, we go most every Sunday we go to Jonathan Khan's church in Wayne, New Jersey, and he has a new book out. You interviewed him, great book. It's kind of another angle on this. This is called return of the gods. Right. And you've got to hear that interview. And I watched it twice, by the way, that interview you did with Jonathan Kahn, powerful stuff. Jonathan Khan gets it. He's awoke. Jack hibbs, of course, calvary. Well, look, let's be clear. There are many pastors in the country who do get this. Yes. And half of them have become my friends at this point, but there are many that are still very, very shy about this. They're afraid of losing members in their congregations. And I'm just thinking folks, if you, you have to try to understand that. Nothing's new. The German pastors who were silent, it's so easy for us to point our fingers at them and say, oh, I wouldn't have been silent. Folks, they're no different than we are today. They had their good reasons. We now know they were wrong. We now know those reasons were invalid, but they were not saying, hey, we don't care about the truth. We don't care about that. They were just misguided. And what I'm trying to say in this book is I'm trying to say, look at the parallels, tell me what I'm missing. This is not an incendiary book designed to shame people. This is, I hope, a loving message to people and saying, listen, good people can get this wrong. Would you consider what I'm saying here? Will you consider what Bond hoffer was saying and would you, I mean, I guess to me the worst thing Albin is when I think about the German passers who were silent, when they had to live through the hell of what happened. And then decades later hanging their heads in shame, I just want to say, we don't want to be like that. We don't want to fail. And then to hang our heads in shame for decades. So this is an opportunity, but I guess don't do it for yourself. Think about the people whose lives are being affected. Think about young women who are being persuaded that they're confused about whether they're a woman or a man. They're having their breasts removed. They're having these things happening. And my heart breaks and if you care about these people who are being deceived and you don't speak up, what is the biblical view of this? How many genders does the Bible say, if you're not talking about that lovingly? If you're not talking about biblical view of sexuality, if you're not talking about how critical race theory is atheistic, the BLM movement is atheistic and Marxist and is going to destroy black lives. If you care about black lives, you are obliged because of the truth of what the scripture says to speak and this is just what I'm hoping in the book is that people I can reason with people in this book because I'll just say this because I know we're at a time, but I will say that folks, the urgency, this is the key. It's like you may have weeks, months. I don't know, but the silence of the American church is destroying this nation in the same way the science of the German church destroyed the German nation and if we do not understand this and repent and begin to speak, we will see horrible things and we will no longer have the ability to speak. So there's just no doubt Albin that I've written this book as a warning. I'm just begging people to think about this. I hope people will give this book to their pastors. I know we're out of time, but I'm just grateful for your willingness to ask me some questions, folks..
The Eric Metaxas Show
"american church" Discussed on The Eric Metaxas Show
"God knows you actually don't have faith. So you're Salvation. This is chilling, is on the line. What you do, what you say, how you behave, are you fighting for the truth at a time that it's being under attack? Are you doing all these things, or have you been persuaded to be silent? And I guess ultimately, what it really boils down to, what I say in the book is that the German church was silent, Bond hoffer tried with everything he had to get them to speak up and to fight the evil of the Nazis before most people really understood where it was going. And they said, not yet, not yet. We don't want to be political. We don't want to be political. Well, when they finally woke up, it was too late. They had opened their mouths to late and what I say in this book, and I'm begging people to take this seriously folks. I'm begging you to take this seriously. The silence of the German church which led to the nightmare of the Holocaust and everything else that is precisely the same as the silence of the American church today. We are facing cultural Marxism. We are facing transgender madness, we're facing political enemies who no longer believe in the constitution who want to fundamentally transform America destroy crush religious liberty, redefine liberty, on every level we are facing this nightmare and most leaders in the church have been silent and I'm saying in the book, please, please, try to take this seriously what I'm saying that our silence today is leading us to the nightmare to the same nightmare for America that Germany was led to by the silence of the German church. I believe that is exactly where we are. And if I don't speak about it, I will die. I have to deliver this message and I believe by God's grace, he'll get it in the hands of people who are open to the truth. And I'm going to read a question. You have obviously questions and answers in this book. And I want to read this kind of open ended question. And it's kind of something of a softball, but I'm going to read it anyway. It follows up on what you just said. You see in America, you know, today is similar pattern. And I think a lot of us do, and you say here, since we have the dramatic advantage of knowing what happened in Germany, will we take what he said, Bono for said, more seriously than they did and then you say, will you, like the individual, not just the church in general because we, the people, we the people or the government, but we the people are also the church. I wanted you to expand a little bit on what Bond hoffer did. I mean, how did he? He saw it, but then what did he do specifically? Well, it's interesting because bohnhoff first saw what was happening before other people saw what was happening. And that's kind of like a prophetic thing, right? He could see whether it's mystically prophetic where it was just his sense from how he was raised and but he seemed to see the evil and where it was going and he saw that if the church stands and fights the evil will not prevail. But if the church does not stand, if the church says, well, it's not our job, Romans 13. We're not supposed to speak about political things. If the church does that, he knew where the Nazis were going to take Germany. The Nazis would never say we want to transform Germany into an anti Christian or non Christian country. They weren't stupid. They wouldn't say that, but he knew that that was the DNA of national socialism. And he tried to get the church to understand, this is what you're facing, and every day that you're silent, you are enabling this to triumph. This evil. And so, you know, you say, what did he do? I mean, he did many things and eventually to be perfectly honest. He threw up his hands because he knew it was too late. The German church had failed. And that's eventually he gets involved in the plot to kill Hitler. That's way down the line, but in the beginning, he was just with all his heart trying to get the German church to see the urgency. And this is kind of what I find is the key. It's the urgency. It's always the tempting thing to say, you know what? It's just not that bad. We'll get through it. You know, Hitler's a one term furor. We'll get through it. The pendulum swings this way in that way. It's okay. Well, Bond offers saying no, no, if you do not speak up now, if you do not fight, if you do not, yeah, maybe you'll lose your job. Maybe go to concentration camp, but the point is, if you do not fight, the suffering that is going to be unleashed, the evil that is going to be unleashed is inconceivable. And I think that's my point in the book is to try to get people to know that good people in the past similarly could not conceive of what lay ahead. They were exactly where we are, where they basically said, that can't happen here. That won't happen here. We know what happened when you see the images of the death camps and all this stuff. You can't believe that it happened. It's so horrible, but most Americans think nothing like that could ever happen. That's not going to happen. It's no different than the German church. They were convinced this can't happen. Yeah, I came up with a one word answer after reading halfway through the book. I came up with a one word answer of how could the church let these things happen? The one word answer gradually. Gradually. That's right. Don't give the devil a foothold. Isn't that a scripture and is the church doing that?.
The Eric Metaxas Show
"american church" Discussed on The Eric Metaxas Show
"Moin is helping save rural America. I love it and you will too. Join the moin movement today. Keep American farming going by signing up at moik box dot com slash Eric right now and listeners of this show get free fillet mignon in every order for a year. That's one year the best fillet mignon you'll ever taste. But for a limited time spelled MOI and K, box dot com slash Eric that's monk box dot com slash Eric moint box dot com slash Eric. If you leave hey there folks, welcome to Eric metaxas show, as you know, we try to get the best guests we can on this program and I interview these wonderful people. But sometimes we just really can't get anybody of quality. And I said, hey, Alvin, you know what? We couldn't get anybody. What about if I were to be the guest and you were to interview me about my new book because when you said I want to be the guest, I said, well, have you written anything? Have you starred in anything? Well, the fact is I didn't want to be the guest. I want to be perfectly blunt and say that I am the guest right now because it was Alban's idea to interview me about my new book letter to the American church. So Alvin. Since I'm the guest and you're the host, I better shut up and let you run the show. Well, I heard you had letter to the American church, so I was looking for something in the mail, something maybe like this, a page and a page and a half. Right. Hey, dear church. I got some things to say. But of course, you know, the guy who wrote Bond hoffer, you know, 506 hundred pages. Of course, his letter is not going to be like two pages. It's going to be kind of like a hundred and 50 pages or something like that. And he's going to put in a nice little book that well, it is my shortest book. It is. And I mean this, folks, this is, this is a short book, but it is no joke. I think it's probably the most important thing that I have written period, period, and of sentence. Yeah, I know, what's amazing is, and it's very cool because it says on the front. And this is very important because of course you wrote about Martin Luther, you wrote about the slave trade and William wilberforce and miracles. But on the front, and this is an important line, because when I first read it, I said, well, Eric's written all kinds of books, but it says author of Bond hoffer, pastor martyr prophet spy. Why is that important because in a sense, this is almost like part two of Bond hoffer, because you're not Eric saying, hey, listen, I got a message for the American church. You make it very clear in this book. This is Bond hoffer in his day saying to his church. Hey, listen folks, you got to wake up. And so you're taking, you're taking Bond hoffer's warning, and these words, and you're turning them around and saying, look, that was 1930s, Germany. This is 2020s. America. Don't listen to me, folks. Don't listen to Eric metaxas. Listen to Dietrich Bono. The German people did not listen and look what happened to them and look where we are in America. That's actually that's the challenge for me in writing this book because I never, I mean, this is true, folks. I've never felt this burning. I felt like I've got to write, I've got to say this. God put it on my heart to say these things. And I was actually thinking of publishing it myself. I just thought, it's not going to be long, but I've got to say this so that some key figures in the American church will read this. I've got to say this. And my publisher Salem, when we met at NRB national religious broadcasters convention back in what was it and I think it was a march. March. They wanted to meet with me. They had some ideas for books that I might write with them. And they basically described this book. They said, we think you should write this book and I thought that is absolutely weird that has to be God because I didn't tell anybody I wanted to write this book. They described it to me and I said, I was already planning to write that book. So they're the publisher of the book letter to the American church. But the title, I originally was going to title it faith without works is dead. In other words, the American church has gotten so focused sometimes on what we believe that you forget that if you do not live out what you say you believe, you don't actually believe it. God looks at our James writes about it. I write about it in the book quoting the gospel of the pistol at James, where he basically says faith, he says, exactly faith without works is dead. In other words, if you think you can just say, I believe this stuff, but you're not living it self sacrificially. You're not speaking the truth when it matters..
The Eric Metaxas Show
"american church" Discussed on The Eric Metaxas Show
"When big mobile charges you an arm and a leg, they're taking your money and your power. And your arm and leg boost mobile gives your power back with an unlimited plan for $25 a month on one of America's largest 5G networks. We can't give you back your arm and your leg because we're not qualified surgeons. Unless you're an iguana who can grow limps back, switch to boost and get an unlimited plan for $25 a month. Boost mobile, unleash your power, new customers only one line $25 per month without pay. Additional restrictions apply, see who's mobile dot com for details. Folks, welcome to the Eric metaxas show, sponsored by legacy precious metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals, visit legacy p.m. investments dot com that's legacy p.m. investments dot com. Welcome to the Eric metaxas show with your host, Eric the Texas. Hey folks, today is a big day, at least for me, today is September 20th, and today is the day this is amazing. My new book comes out. Today is the launch day of my new book letter to the American church. And it's always a big deal. You know, as an author, so much goes into writing a book, this is just about my shortest book, but it was tough to write, and I hate to say it, but I actually think this is the most important book I've ever written..