Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - America Isn't Falling Apart—It's Being Shaken

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

What if the chaos we're witnessing isn't random at all? Pastor Allen Jackson explores why the cultural, political, and spiritual upheaval of our day may be part of a much bigger story—and why Scripture tells us not to fear when everything around us seems unstable. Discover how Christians can respond with faith, courage, and conviction as God continues to move throughout the earth. Watch now and join the conversation.

Many of the forces which are shaping our world today are not visible. And it's foolish to take a position against what God has said he will accomplish. The church is not in a defensive posture. We are besieging the kingdom of darkness. We may be outnumbered, but we're never overpowered. Because the spirit that is within us is greater than the spirit that opposes us. And if God is with us, we don't have to be frightened. Let's be about the business of God.

Let's be ambassadors for him. Welcome to culture and Christianity. The challenge of taking our faith outside the church and living it without compartmentalization, not easily done, because I think we understand intuitively, if not intentionally, that there's probably some resistance to that. I was working out the other day, and somebody stopped me in the gym and was asking me some questions around kind of this bucket of things. And I've never had any pushback on my Christian faith. And I really wasn't in pastor mode. I was in hot and sweaty workout mode, and I said, well, just how many places have you taken Jesus in the public square?

You talk to your friends about biblical views of marriage or biblical views of morality or sanctity of human life, and their friends were standing there, and they're all shaking their heads, no. So, you know, the goal of culture and Christianity is to live out our faith, not just inside the walls of the church or when we're having a Bible study, would be advocates, ambassadors for Jesus. So thank you for spending a few minutes with us. a lot going on in the world. It's just stunning. It really is. It's overwhelming. I think the speed and the magnitude of the change that's taking

place. I want to talk about that for a few minutes with you. Back during COVID, when we were trying to figure out what was going on, I mean, in those early days, you know, when they told us there was a virus coming from China, and then we were told us shelter in place for a week, and that we could go back to normal, and we got about halfway through the week, and they said, well, we're going to need another week. And then they started putting in all the measures, you know, social distancing and masks and plexiglass and all of these things.

And it became clear pretty quickly that it wasn't science-based. There were other factors involved. And so we came up with a little paradigm that we walked through COVID with, watch, listen, think, and act. That we had to pay attention. We couldn't just be sheep and take what we were being told by the CDC or Dr. Fauci or whomever, that we had to watch and listen and think based on the experiences that we had and the people around us that we felt were trustworthy and then act accordingly. And we've used that little

paradigm ever since. And it's helpful in a world of turmoil and great change. It can be disorienting when there's this kind of discontinuity with the past. It is not simple to chart your path forward. And so I would invite you to that. I want to start with two or three verses of scripture that kind of highlight this. The first is in the New Testament, the book of Hebrews chapter 12. It says at that time, his voice, God's voice, shook the earth. But now he's promised, once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. The words once more indicate the removing of what can be shaken, that is the created things, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. I started saying it back in COVID, and I was still of that opinion that God

is shaking the earth. And what we're watching happen in the earth is not principally the result of demonic activity or ungodly activity or the principalities and powers and spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly realms, whatever language you prefer for the kingdom of darkness. There's no question that those spiritual forces are involved, but I believe God is the instigator. I believe, as I've said many times and many times on this podcast, God is moving in the earth. And the author of Hebrews said to us that the purpose of that is to make evident those things that can be shaken. things that are temporary, that are not stable, so that the outcome ultimately is that we will have visibility for the unshakable kingdom of God. Well, that seems to me to be a pretty accurate

description of what we've watched since 2020, things that I thought were absolutely bedrock of trustworthiness, whether they were institutions within our federal government, places within the church, wherever it may be, that I would have said to you prior to the beginning of that shaking that they were stable, dependable, reliable, trustworthy, and they've proven not to be. And that's very disorienting because then we start to look around and go, well, who do we trust and what can we trust? And that's more than a character issue with individuals. That's the way systems have been organized and structures have been put in place. Well, the author of Hebrews was actually quoting the Hebrew prophet Haggiy. And I want to read what Haggiai said because I think it's on point

to this topic. It's Haggiah II in verses 6 and 7. This is what the Lord Almighty says. You know, God speaks into history, right? He didn't create the world and step back and just waiting for the end result. He speaks into history, and he still does. This is what the Lord Almighty says. In a little while, I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I'll shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty. In Haggai's context, I think it's an application to what he was going to do with the nation of Israel, that he would shake the heavens and the earth, and out of that would come a resurgence,

a regathering of the Jewish people and the outpouring of God's blessings upon that. The author of Hebrews picked that up and gave it an application far beyond a single time period. And it's one of the aspects of Scripture that I think we have to be aware of is that the Spirit of God gives expression to His Word in different seasons. And it requires of us some discernment, some knowledge of the character of God. The alternatives to step away and say that God's word is a closed book and it has no prophetic relevance for us today. And I don't believe that's helpful. The authority of the New Testament is the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament.

And I think we have to have the imagination that God is still moving in the earth today. And I believe God is the author of this shaking. I'll add one more verse to it. It's from Luke chapter 21. Luke chapter 21 and Matthew 24 are parallel passages. Two different gospel writers reporting the presentation of what they heard from the same presentation of Jesus. And he's talking about the end of the age.

And in Luke 2111, it says there will be great earthquakes. Famines and pestilences in various places and fearful events and great signs from heaven. Matthew 24 gives a similar statement in the midst of that long. It's Jesus' most lengthy prophetic discourse. You know, I presume, that Jesus is the greatest of all the Hebrew prophets. Greater than Isaiah or Jeremiah or whomever your favorite may be, Jesus stands atop that list. And Luke 21 is a part of Jesus' prophetic discourse.

And he makes this statement about earthquakes and famines and pestilences and fearful events and signs in heaven. You know, the shorthand on that as we approach the end of the age, earthquakes, volcanoes will increase. I did a little research. I was surprised to know that the majority of earthquakes and volcanoes are below the ocean. They're hidden from view. We typically think of volcanoes as these mountains with craters on top, and we see the lava spewing into the atmosphere, the air, and the hot lava flowing over the sides of the mountain.

And those are certainly an expression of a volcano. But apparently the overwhelming majority of volcanic activity is on the floor of the oceans. It's where those great tectonic plates are shifting. Those are the plates that form the surface of the earth and they don't fit together perfectly. And there's great pressure between them and they move and shift. And sometimes the magna, the molten rock from escapes. But the majority of the time, not visible. Well, I think that's a helpful image in the context of what Hebrews and then Jesus was saying in Luke 21.

I believe many of the forces which are shaping our world today are not visible. We see the outworking of that activity. A tsunami is a result of an earthquake or a great shifting below the surface of the sea. And all we see is the sea and the enormous wave that comes with it. But there are powerful spiritual forces which are shaping our world today, and they're not directly visible. We see the outworking of their activity. We see the consequences. We feel the aftershocks.

And I would submit to you that the greater spiritual awareness would be helpful. Unfortunately, we have been coached overwhelmingly to be conscious of our new birth, our conversion, our salvation. And I believe those are essential. I don't want to diminish those in any way. Jesus told us that no one enters the kingdom of God without that new birth. So I'm not diminishing that, but that's the beginning of a spiritual life. It's the beginning of spiritual awareness. It's the beginning of our understanding of the kingdom of God.

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You'll receive your free wealth protection guide. I have said, and I'll say again, that I thought COVID was an episode of shaking where God was shaking the earth. Far more happened out of COVID than a virus that came from a lab in Wuhan. It's changed our world in so many, many ways. And it continues to have repercussions for us. It had an enormous impact upon education in America. Some devastating and the children forfeited. but some very beneficial in that it revealed what was happening in classrooms that parents, for the most part, had been unaware of or blind to prior to COVID.

So there was good things that came out of the disaster and the death that that virus reeked around the world. I think October the 7th was another episode of shaking. The attack of Hamas at that music festival in the southern part of Israel and overrunning some of those settlements in that area. I believe that the murder of Charlie Kirk was another episode of shaking in the earth. One of the things characteristic about these events was in real time, I didn't recognize them as something that God was using to prepare his people. It was in the unfolding of the events, and honestly for me, in the weeks and the months following them, that I recognized there was a far greater significance than I was conscious of in the moment when I was watching those real-time events happen. I went home and sheltered in place for a few days initially after hearing about COVID. On October 7th, I was horrified.

I have friends in Israel and friends that live in those villages where the terrorist came. I visited their homes and had meals with them. Charlie Kirk was a friend. We didn't work closely together, but we worked together. But in the days after those events, I realized there was a significance that seemed to far exceed the initial trauma or the initial disappointment or the initial shock of what was happening. The impact of COVID reached far beyond a virus from China. October the 7th, as horrible as it was to see that many Israelis and innocent people killed, nobody was really shocked that Hamas hates the Jews.

It's a part of their charter. The annihilation of Israel is what they're committed to. It's their organizing principle. So when Amas tries to kill Israelis, that's business as usual. What I wasn't prepared for was the raging anti-Semitism that came boiling out of America's elite universities, formerly elite universities. I believe they've all begun a decline that won't stop. I don't believe you can take a stand against the purposes of God

and the way that they did and flourish. I think we will see those schools continue to diminish. Now, many of them have enormous endowments. So they have a great deal of financial resources and a great deal of influence, but their influence will continue to diminish. I believe that. And that anti-Semitism has continued to grow until today.

We see it on many sides of the more conservative ideological spectrum, which has been a surprise to me. In our own government, now we see significant blocks in Congress, predominantly democratic, but not uniquely there, that are no longer in favor of supporting the nation of Israel. I don't believe we should blindly support everything Israel does. I don't believe we should blindly support everything America does. That's not the point. That's never been the point. but the Jewish people have a right to that piece of land established by God,

and it's not subject to the opinion of the United Nations or the Supreme Court or you or me. God has established that, and it's foolish to take a position against what God has said he will accomplish. I think we can make decisions around policies supporting certain aspects of current Israeli government life. Any sin you can find in any major American city, you can find flurricular. in Jerusalem. I've been there dozens and dozens and dozens of times. When you land at Bungurian Airport, you don't hear the flutter of angels' wings. I mean, it's not that. But God did choose that people for that place and that part of planet Earth, and it's in our best interest to support them. After Charlie was murdered, I was horribly disappointed,

but I think we all understood there was hatred directed towards Charlie. He was murdered simply for taking a biblical worldview into the public square, primarily college campuses, and having conversations with people who wanted to engage with him. He wasn't angry. He wasn't belligerent. He wasn't condemning. He would listen to everyone and listen respectfully to their opinions. He didn't always agree with them, but he didn't belittle them or demean them. And for that, he was murdered. Now, as heartbreaking as that was, I wasn't prepared for what came after that. the hatred for Charlie's family, for his widow, for his children, for the organization that he had helped to build, was unprecedented. We haven't seen that in American history. When we've had those high-profile figures who've been assassinated, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., we didn't see that kind of corresponding hatred for their families.

I was a boy when John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. I say I was a boy, I was small enough. What I remember is I was angry because there weren't cartoons on television that Saturday because of his funeral. I wasn't too interested in the funeral. But I have studied history since then, and Jackie Kennedy, Jackie Onassis later, she wasn't vilified and hated and held up to public ridicule and scorn after her husband was murdered in public. And John Kennedy certainly wasn't the bastion of integrity and moral fidelity within his marriage. But there's been a completely different attitude expressed towards Charlie and towards Erica and towards Turning Point.

And, I mean, it's been appropriate in public spaces to mock them on college campuses. I mean, in a whole variety of places, I wasn't prepared for that. It was a shock to me. It was another one of those aftershocks. I think it was a very clear expression of intimidation to anybody. that would attempt to do what Charlie was doing. And I don't think he was doing much more than being a faithful Christ follower. I think we have to take a biblical worldview to our college campuses and into the

public square, into the public arena. I would commend what Charlie was engaged in. Well, I think we've had another episode of shaking. And I didn't recognize this one in real time either. It's been the unfolding events following that that have caught my attention. And if I was pushed, I could put in some other episodes that to me were small. I'm not telling you this is the only list. But this is a consistent set of tremors that began in 2020 that are continuing until today.

And the most recent has been the election of Zoran Mamdani is the mayor of New York City. He's a Democratic socialist. When it first happened, I kind of shrugged my shoulders and I thought, well, you know, it's New York. I live in Tennessee and, you know, some percentage of the New York electorate just, decided to elect someone that was on the fringe, and maybe that's to be expected. But in the intervening weeks since Mamdani has been elected and has begun to implement his policies, there hasn't been a revulsion at those expressions of socialism or communism, wedded with Islam, which is a bizarre union. We may talk about that, if not today, in another episode. There hasn't been

revulsion at what he's doing, that democratic socialist ideology has been flourishing. And that that's been the surprise to me. That's been one of the aftershocks that I didn't anticipate coming until now. We have multiple candidates on the ballots this fall as many as 100 on the ballot currently for the November elections that are representatives of the Democrat Socialist Party of America. And I think, again, it isn't something new. This is where I think the shaking What's described in Hebrews where God reveals something, he makes known something that we didn't see. It will reveal the unshakable kingdom of God, but he's exposing what's been hidden in the darkness. That's been true with every one of these events, and I think it's true with Mamdani and the DSA.

It's been shrouded in darkness, but the deceit's been exposed. Now it's in the light. If you just pause and think with me for a moment, the Democratic Socialists aren't new. They've been a part of our political landscape for a long time. Senator Bernie Sanders in the last two presidential cycles ran in the Democratic primary, and it seemed to me as an outsider that he had a very legitimate chance of becoming the Democratic nominee for president had it not been for the intervention of the Democratic machine to put in candidates that seemed to be a bit more centrist. So there was a lot of sentiment across America, particularly amongst younger people, to support that socialist agenda.

And what we find now is it's no longer subtle. They have seats in Congress. They have a sitting senator in Congress. They have as many as 100 candidates on the ballot. What has been quiet is now being shouted out loud. Now, before I give you, this past week, the co-chair of the Democratic Socialist of America, presented their platform in public. It's not hidden anymore. It's a part of the public record. He presented it on C-SPAN. He's done multiple interviews with well-known media personalities.

This is not subtle anymore. It's in the public square for public evaluation, and it's gaining momentum. But before I walk you through some of those policy pieces, I want to frame it. You see, it's more beneficial to me, not to perceive of this as some sort of a spiritual attack. I don't imagine that the Democratic Socialist of America should be seen as some dark, demonic assault. I understand it a little differently. I believe it's a time of heightened spiritual activity. I believe God is moving in the most remarkable ways in the earth.

I believe he's bringing freedom to people to have been oppressed. I think he's revealing himself to people who have hearts that are directed towards him. I believe we will see expressions of his power and the supernatural in ways that we haven't seen in my lifetime, and I've been here for a day or two. And then I believe we see the corresponding responses from the principalities and powers and the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. The reason that distinction is important to me is if you perceive it as just a demonic attack, you're going to armor up and kind of huddle. You know, you want to go find a crevice where you can be sure that you've covered your flanks and you've got the armor. with you and you're prepared to withstand the attack. I have a different imagination. Jesus said in Matthew's gospel that he would build his church and the gates of hell wouldn't be

able to withstand it. The church in Jesus' presentation is not on the defensive. We're not defending our flanks. In the first century, the most common form of warfare was siege warfare. Cities had walls around them to protect them. They didn't have patriot missile batteries. They had walls. And the most vulnerable place in a city walls is the gate. They were usually built of wood or bronze. You could burn them, set fire to them, or batter them. It was easier than battering the stones of the wall. So when you attack the city, you would encircle the city, besiege it, nothing in, nothing out,

starve the population. And then when you felt like you had the advantage, you would breach the walls typically through the gate. That's the image Jesus used in Matthew 16. He said, I will establish my church. I'll build my church, and the gates of hell won't withstand it. The church is not in a defensive posture. We are besieging the kingdom of darkness. And I believe that's what we're watching.

The people of God have never been the majority. Jesus talked about a narrow gate and few who enter in, and then a broad gate that leads to destruction and many who enter in. I believe the people of God will always hold that minority position. But we may be outnumbered, but we're never overpowered. because the spirit that is within us is greater than the spirit that opposes us. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you and me. We're not alone. We're not isolated.

The scripture says God said he would never leave us or forsake us. So when we talk about this conflict in the earth, this shaking that's taking place, the things that are being peeled away, things that are being made visible that have been hidden, it leaves us uncomfortable, it leaves us feeling awkward. It's unstable. And in the instability, we recognize there is vulnerability. And apart from God, that's terrifying. But we're not apart from God.

We have his indwelling presence. We have the help of the Holy Spirit. We have the authority of the name of Jesus and the power of his shed blood. But we have to pay attention because we're called to be ambassadors. Very clearly, we have an ambassadorial assignment, not an assignment to sit in church and get our ticket punch to go to heaven, but to be ambassadors for the kingdom of God.

My friend Mike Huckabee was appointed to be the ambassador for Israel. I don't think he imagined he was going to be as busy as he has been since he accepted that assignment, and he moved from Little Rock to Jerusalem. He hasn't had a simple day since he arrived. But if we found out that Mike hadn't been doing his job, that our ambassador had been in a lot on the Red Sea, and he'd spent the last several months snorkeling, looking at the coral reefs in the Red Sea,

we wouldn't just be frustrated. We would say he was derelict in his duty. Well, I would submit to you and me that if we don't pay attention to what's happening in our world and focus on what the Word of God says and allow the Spirit of God to direct our prayers and our engagement in the world around us, we're derelict in our duty.

And so this current shaking has captured a bit of my attention. not in anxiety. I'm not panicked. But I recognize when the adversary is saying something, we should listen. God designed our bodies to heal. When I came to that awareness, it changed my whole attitudes towards prayer, but it also changed my attitude towards health. We've got a responsibility to do everything we can to promote our own health. That means what we eat matters.

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They want to dismantle the Supreme Court. They want to open our border. They're in favor of abolishing ice. They want to disband the police forces. They want to open the prisons. They want to grant amnesty to all immigrants, regardless of their status. If they're convicted murderers or rapist or felons, they intend to give them citizenship. They're advocating for public ownership of our largest corporations.

You know, when you first glance at that, you think, oh, it's just a group, of fringe extremist, and they shouldn't be taken with any credibility. But if you pause and you say, well, wait a minute, there's been a socialist on the ballot for president in the last two election cycles, and he was leading one of our major American parties. And now they have seats in Congress and the Senate, and they're planning with more than 100 candidates to make a stand this fall, and they're brazen enough to put their platform on C-SPAN, we had better pay attention. We can't ignore this. It's not just a fringe group with no adherence, a significant portion of our population are advocates for what they are articulating. I read an article recently that connected what we're seeing, and it was a

secular article, it wasn't religious, with what they deemed as the loss of the loss of of shame in our culture. They said there was a time in American culture where the biblical worldview was more intact, and there were some behaviors that were recognized as not ideal, simple things. They said there was a higher value placed upon work, that work was seen as an expression of faith,

as a way of honoring God, that God works and we worked, and that if you didn't work, if you were unemployed, and you were in a room full of your peers, you understood at that point of unemployment, in that circumstance, you were in a position of less than, that employment would improve your status and standing, no matter what the nature of that employment. Well, that isn't true any longer. Now, in fact, we celebrate the less work and the less effort tends to be the more celebrated

position. You're smart enough. We work smarter. We don't work harder. If we can work less, if we can get our work life balance to diminish the work portion and increase the more freedom for whatever else it is, it's a good thing. We have more and more young adults living with their parents to a later point in their lives. And the article went on to say there was a time at which that wasn't considered to be the greatest expression of merging and becoming an adult.

But we've lost that. It isn't perceived that way any longer. It's a way of experiencing life more fully, of not having to accept responsibility for yourself as fully. and you can explore and enjoy more completely. There's no shame in that. And the article made the point. It said that, you know, the government used to provide a safety net, that if you had a tragedy or a tragic occurrence or you needed unemployment,

there was a safety net. Something that you could fall into, but it wasn't something to consider necessary. And they see, now we've arrived at a point where the government provision is expected and anticipated. There's no shame in it. There's nothing reluctant about it. And we're quite happy for the government to accept responsibility for our health care, our education, our higher education, and anything else that we can get them to provide, which makes the socialist argument far more acceptable. Now, the person

that wrote that article wasn't making that presentation from a religious standpoint, from a biblical point of view, but it was a pretty accurate description of some of the trends that we're watching in our culture and makes us so much more vulnerable to this socialist, communist perspective. This is a question that has been asked and answered in history. It's not new. It didn't begin with Zoran Mamdani or Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders honeymooned in Moscow when it was part of the USSR. Again, this question has been asked and answered in the public square.

Communism creates great chaos at the point of introducing those changes. It was true in Russia. It was true in China. It was true in Cuba. It's been true repeatedly. And out of the chaos, there comes a cry for order. And they step in and establish authoritarian leadership that does not bring benefit to the masses of the people.

It doesn't bring greater opportunities. It focuses the resources and the assets in the hands of the tiniest possible number of people. And it doesn't bring advancement for the folks. In fact, communism in the last century, in the 20th century, the 1900s, the estimates vary a little bit conservatively. Most of those observing would say that there was more than 100 million deaths attributed to communism in the last century, not affiliated with battlefield deaths. Cultural deaths, deaths from starvation, deaths from policies that were imposed.

A hundred million people, not counting battlefield deaths. We're not talking about the accumulated death from World War I and World War II and a host of other altercations around the globe. Mao in China with his great leap forward. 1959 to 61, the estimates vary, but a conservative number seems to be as many as 50 million people died in China. 50 million under communist authority making a great leap forward. That doesn't sound like progress to me. Joseph Stalin in Russia, as many as 20 million deaths. Hitler was responsible for more than 11 million deaths as a part of the Holocaust, Jews and other people, not battlefield deaths. 11 million people intentionally murdered or died as a result of those

policies of murder and persecution. So when we look at communism, socialism, gaining a foothold in America. Please understand capitalism and socialism as it's presented cannot coexist. There's not a negotiation to be had between the two that's a compromise that will enable us to be a good capitalistic, socialistic society. It's not a reasonable expectation. History tells us otherwise, and we either learn from history or we're doomed to repeat it. So it seems to me the question, and this is what they asked me at the gym the other morning, is what do we do? How do we respond to this? Do we just vote?

What do we do? And I don't think so. I don't think our problem is primarily a political problem. I think our problem is a spiritual problem. How do we find ourselves with the largest city in America, the most powerful American city, the most celebrated American city, New York City, under the influence of an elected socialist, communist, Muslim? How do we get there? Well, I have told you often, and I believe it's true, that elections don't make us healthier or weaker as a nation.

There may be policies that come forth out of those elected officials that do that. I think elections reveal the spiritual condition of our nation. In the same way, when I go to a doctor and I have blood drawn and they do a blood panel, they do a CBC, I mean, and they come back and they say, your cholesterol is high. or your, I don't know, your glucose levels are too high. The blood screen from the lab doesn't make me healthier or less healthy. It reveals the condition of my physical well-being. Well, I think elections reveal the condition of our spiritual well-being or lack thereof.

And I think our spiritual immune system is so weak, so faulty, we've been so disengaged, so removed from the public square, so huddled within our churches, so focused on debates in our private theological societies, that we can elect a socialist, communist, Muslim to lead the most powerful city in America. That's not very healthy. And now we have dozens and dozens of candidates on the ballots for our election this fall, and we're waking up to find this policy being announced over our nation with the glee of a prophet. And it will take the spirit of God to turn it back. I've learned as a pastor there's a tremendous difference in a crowd and a community of faith.

When people decide to step out of the crowd and invest their time and their resources, they become a part of a community and it changes their lives. Well, I want to give you that invitation. I'm grateful you're a part of the crowd who watch the ministry. I want to ask you to consider becoming a monthly ministry partner. I believe if you'll make that regular conversation, commitment to what God is doing through this ministry. It'll bring momentum to your spiritual life and it will help us reach more people than we've ever reached with the gospel before.

Thank you. Ministry partners are at the heart of everything we do. Through their faithful monthly support, we're able to share biblical truth, encourage believers, and provide resources that help people become more fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Through radio, television, the internet, books, events, and other resources. become a ministry partner today at allan jackson.com or call 800 880 5102 so what do we do do that's the question we always ask on this podcast and i know it sounds overly simplistic but i don't believe it is because i don't believe it's simple but i believe the ultimate resolution

is the advancement of the gospel i think we have to come back to our senses and become to be advocates, ambassadors for the gospel of Jesus Christ. In our families, in our family systems, in our neighborhoods, at the ball fields where we go with our children and our grandchildren, in the schools that our children attend, in the places that we work, in the hospitals, in the courtrooms, in the factory floors, in the job sites, we go as ambassadors for Jesus. We've lost that momentum. We've been told that Jesus offends some people, so we've been quiet. If we take our faith or even take our Bible or we have a public discussion or we wear some Christian symbol on our clothing and people were offended, we've withdrawn from that discussion. Well, I find people who are advocates for a whole host of other worldviews.

They haven't withdrawn from the public discussion. We have Pride Month in June where the majority of American states celebrate the LGBTQ agenda. And the Christians quietly stand on the sidelines. I'm grateful to say that Tennessee and a handful of other states this year chose a different response to the month of June. But folks, we have been on the sideline long enough. We have to be angry. We don't have to be belligerent. We certainly don't have to be violent, but we don't have to capitulate to wickedness.

We are advocates for the transformation of the hearts of men and women. That's the best possible outcome for human beings. Not easy, not simple, but we're not. And I believe if we will do that, we will see God respond. We don't have to have the majority. God changes circumstances. He brings victories with minority responses. You know this if you've ever read your Bible. Godian, God took Gideon and 300 men and they overcame a vastly superior force, vastly superior by number. but Gideon and those 300 people with him, their battlefield tools were a clay pot with a candle, a torch in it, and a trumpet. And with that as a beginning point, they had a powerful military victory.

And God will bring the victory to his people and his purposes if we will cooperate with him. Simple language. Stop tolerating in your own heart the dismantling of God's word. don't accept it peacefully. Don't allow the scripture to be diminished. Don't let the name of Jesus be mocked. Again, not in anger, not in belligerence, not in criticism and judgment of others, but we have tolerated ungodliness.

We have embraced it. We have winked at it. We've nodded at it. We thought, well, my salvation is unassailable. So there's no reason for me to be exposed. for me to take a position that will bring some kind of a reprisal where I might be rejected. I might lose invitations into social settings. I might be reviled.

It might cost me business opportunities. Oftentimes I hear Christians say, well, you know, personally, I have a set of beliefs, but I have business partners, and if I express my beliefs, my business partners may suffer. They'll suffer more if you capitulate to ungodliness. Or sometimes we'll say, I don't want my kids to be caught in the rejection that would come to me because I advocated in public for some biblical position. Your children will be caught in far more than the rejection that comes to you

if we capitulate to evil. Jesus told a parable, and I'll wrap it up with this. He told a parable about the wheat and the tears. Remember the parable? Let's say a landowner asked those that worked for him to sew a field. And when the crop began to mature, it was apparent that there were weeds in the field, as well as the intended crop, the wheat. And the servants were embarrassed and concerned, so they came to the owner and said, do you want us to pull up the weeds? And the owner said, no, if you do

that, you'll destroy some of the wheat as well. And then the disciples ask for an interpretation of the parable. And Jesus said the field was the world, and it's the end of the age. And the angels were harvesters. And that they would, at the end of the age, there'll be a harvest and God will sort out the wheat from the tears, those that are a part of his kingdom and those that have been hiding in our midst. And I think we have to, we have to be willing to be distinguished as a part of the kingdom of God. And we can't imagine that we can practice ungodliness and hide in church and we'll be prepared for the end of the age. The same climactic conditions that, that let the wheat ripen, will let the weeds ripen.

So let's not be shocked that there are earthquakes, that there are tremors, that there is shaking taking place. I don't think we're at the end of this. I think God is moving us towards the culmination of the ages. And I think we will see a great deal more shaking. I think we'll see a lot of things that we've thought were trustworthy and stable, be revealed as unstable and untrustworthy. We're currently almost $40 trillion in debt as a nation.

That's the acknowledged debt. Folks, that is unsustainable. If there isn't a significant change in policy and thought around debt, I don't think there's any way our economic system survives. I don't know that that's imminent. I'm not suggesting that. I'm telling you there's plenty of opportunities and places to look where it doesn't take much imagination to see shaking,

bringing less than stable outcomes. Having said that, God is with us. And if God is with us, we don't have to be frightened. Let's be about the business of God. Let's be ambassadors for him. Let's not stand silent in the face of advocates of communism or socialism. They will bring destruction, oppression, and authoritarian governance over the lives wherever they can. It's not a good thing.

We don't have to be angry with the person. We need to recognize the spirits behind it. and become dedicated advocates for Jesus of Nazareth. I don't know why God chose us for this unique point in history. He didn't choose us for the first century to be on the mountainside when Jesus gave the sermon on the Mount. He didn't choose us for the American Revolution to gather outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia

to ask Ben Franklin what the outcome was of the efforts of the people inside. He didn't give us the opportunity of doing many things, but he called us to the 21st century and what seems to me to be the culmination of the ages. And what a privilege to be able to bear the name of Jesus. Don't be frightened. The shaking is, God is well able to watch over us and to take care of us.

But I'm not going to quietly support a socialist and I'll not use my voice to be an advocate for ungodliness. God's moving. Let's join him. The outcomes will be remarkable. We'll talk soon. Thanks for joining me today. Before you go, please like the podcast and leave a comment so more people can hear about this topic too. If you haven't yet, be sure and subscribe to Alan Jackson Ministries YouTube channel and follow the Culture and Christianity podcast. You can do that on Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcast.

Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith. We can change our culture. I'll see you next time.