Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - Overcoming Evil with God's Truth [Featuring Dr. Neil Anderson]

Episode Date: April 13, 2024

Knowing God’s truth, embracing it, and diligently applying it to our lives will lead us to greater freedom in Christ. In this podcast, Dr. Neil Anderson joins Pastor Allen Jackson to discuss how the spiritual battles we face are not power encounters but truth encounters. Anderson has spent decades teaching people how to recognize the darkness in their lives and apply God’s Truth to the situation so they can walk in freedom. His books, The Bondage Breaker and Victory Over the Darkness, have sold millions of copies because their principles are effective at removing the spiritual barriers that separate us from God. He talks with Pastor Allen about what led him to write his books and offers insight on how we can address difficult emotions like fear and anxiety with truth, so we can more fully experience God’s peace.More about Dr. Neil Anderson:Freedom in Christ Ministries: https://www.ficm.org/Books by Dr. Neil Anderson: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Neil-T.-Anderson/author/B001IOFHH8?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true--It’s up to us to bring God’s truth back into our culture. It may feel like an impossible assignment, but there’s much we can do. Join Pastor Allen Jackson as he discusses today’s issues from a biblical perspective. Find thought-provoking insight from Pastor Allen and his guests, equipping you to lead with your faith in your home, your school, your community, and wherever God takes you.Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3JsyO6ysUVGOIV70xAjtcm?si=6805fe488cf64a6dListen on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-christianity-the-allen-jackson-podcast/id1729435597

Hey, I'm Alan Jackson. Welcome to my culture and Christianity podcast. My guest today is Dr. Neil Anderson. I believe you are going to enjoy getting to know him a great deal. He has been such a strong voice in the body of Christ for a long season now. He's the founder and president of freedom in Christ Ministries. You probably know him. If you know of him, you know him through a couple of books he's written. They've sold millions of copies. The Bondage Breaker and Victory Over Darkness. He has been a very helpful. voice in helping God's people, in fact, people in general, understanding how to find their freedom in Christ. He's been a powerful voice in my life. I have shared, given away hundreds and hundreds of copies of these books. I'm excited that you'll get to know him and get to know his ministry. And most importantly, get to know some of the truth that he's shared with the body of Christ. He has been a treasure in this generation, and I'm glad you'll get to meet him. But before we get to that, just a reminder, you can listen to the Culture and Christianity, Alan Jackson podcast on Apple, Spotify,

wherever you consume podcast. Please make sure to follow, subscribe, and like the podcast wherever you're listening. We drop a new episode every Saturday. One other thing, we're hosting a conference here on our church campus in Murphreysboro, Culture and Christianity, the last Friday and Saturday in April.

The whole list of guests, they'll tell you more about it. If your schedule permits, make a visit to Middle Tennessee. I think the conference in a weekend of the church would be a blessing to you. We are watching on the walls, and if we see evil and we don't use our voice, it says it's on us.

Our exercise of our faith in America is at risk. What are you going to do about it? We are called to be advocates for Jesus of Nazareth. In Nashville this April, join us for the Culture and Christianity Conference. Brandon Tatum, Eric Metaxus, Kirk Cameron, Alley B. Stucky, and more. Go to leadwithfaith.church to register. My guest today is Dr. Neil Anderson, the founder and president of Freedom in Christ Ministries. But that's an inadequate introduction.

You have been such a steadfast, consistent voice for freedom in the lives of people. It is an honor to be with you today, Dr. Anderson. Thank you for being here. Well, I'm honored to be here. I'm so impressed of the work you're doing in your physical plan. I've never been here before. But, wow, God's really blessed you. We started with a tent, so it hadn't always looked like this.

I'm very conscious of God's goodness and his blessing. Your ministry intrigues me because you occupy an area that is not a crowded field by people with an academic background. You talk about spiritual things. Trust me, I'm very aware of that. I mean, I tell you, one of the years when I was teaching a Telba School of Theology, we had a kind of a staff retreat upon. Springs and ended up in this prayer group and see how can we pray for each other. And I said, what could we pray for you? And I said, well, I think God wants me to write a book on this.

And I said, but I really don't want to. I had never written a book before. And I thought, I wasn't afraid of the stupid demons or something like a theory. I said, this could be academic suicide. Well, you know, that really set the course for me. I said, whatever I wanted to share had to be absolutely true. It had to be true for all people all times. So it isn't some kind of sectarian kind of a thing.

But for some reason, a serious study of this have been left off the grid in a lot of our Western world. And having now traveled the world for 30 years with this message, you know, I've come to find out different parts of the world have different worldviews. considerably different, how they perceive reality. Yes. And then you start opening your eyes to the fact that spiritism has been the global religion and is the biggest today.

If you ask any meteorologists, they will tell you. That is true. That's how they perceive this world. But Western rationalism and naturalism has basically guided the Western intellectual world for years. And it did me. I mean, this was something I was not born into physically. I can promise you that. I was an aerospace engineer.

I was so left brain my head. It was tilted on one side. That's the part I love. I mean, you started in the hard sciences. Yeah, I did. And you wound up talking about spiritual things. That makes me smile. God has to have a sense of humor.

Well, it does. And to be honest with you, I've never had that kind of curiosity. I don't know what my astrological sign is to this day. And some of my colleagues suggested that's probably why God chose you. And I said, well, maybe he did. And but over the years, I said, the paradigm shifts that I personally have gone through are just numerous. I mean, you know, the more I would study, I understand scripture, and you'd just take it at his word. The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

He's deceived the whole world. Now, really, if you're an academic, you would say, okay, listen. start there. And you start there, you're going to start asking different questions down the past some ways, or you just kind of dismiss it. So it is interesting. And my last book is really kind of an evaluation of all of that as I've traveled the world. And, you know, over these years, half the churches that have invited me, you would be considered Pentecostal charismatic, the other half evangelical. Very few liberal churches, by the way, they don't, deal with this.

They're not particularly open to spiritual things. They've embraced a more rational view of faith. Is that fair? Yes, it is fair. And it was true for me. I mean, you know, the only difference was for me, maybe it was that when I was a pastor, I was running across people that had problems I didn't have answers for. And I had this suspicion, but I was always stuck in this kind of something else is going on here.

and then look at somebody, all right, I'm on to you, and they would say, who are you talking to? I was just checking. You know, I mean, you don't know what to deal with it. You don't really know how to handle that, and I didn't. And there wasn't any training. No, zero from seminary. And to my surprise, and the most mysterious part of my life to this day is I went through a very broken experience.

God just took me at the end of my resources, and so I could discover his, to be honest with you. But out of the blue, I got called to teach at Temple School of Theology. And I went there as a learner. I mean, I knew it in my own heart. I mean, there was things I could teach people, you know, in terms of pastoral skills and that kind of stuff. But I really went there as a learner. And I started this master's a theology class.

It's an elective, basically on this issue. I didn't even call it spiritual warfare. I think I called it something else initially. But I ended up with, I think, or 18 students the first year, which is good for a fourth year level in the elective. And then 23, and then 35, then 65, then 150, then 250, then 250. Turned out to be kind of a phenomena. But I was starting to see the lives of our students literally change, literally,

become a new creation in Christ. And if I had to say the sequence of this thing was, really didn't start with spiritual warfare near so much as it did with my identity in Christ. And I'm in my second year teaching there when scales came off my eyes and I started to realize what it meant to be in Christ, to be alive in Christ, to be a child of God. And I said, why did I see this before? It's everywhere. I'm in Him.

I'm in Christ. I'm the Beloved. And it's like, where is this teaching been? I mean, it was just like to the point where I said, is this something you grow into, which seemed to be my experience, or should it be foundational for the church to be firmly rooted in Christ, to know who I am as a child of God? Every struggling Christian that I have helped over the years around the world

had one thing in common. None of them knew who they were in Christ. So if the Holy Spirit is bearing witness with my spirit of my child of God, why weren't he sensing that? I mean, so I struggled with that. I said, kind of came to two conclusions. One is that, well, if you've never been taught that, you don't know it. That's part of it. But the other part of it is, once I helped them actually find resolution to their problems through genuine repentance,

suddenly that connection was there, Abba, Father. I can't tell you how many people have come back and said, how come I didn't see this before? I said, when you read your Bible, now, what do you see? I mean, for instance, in the book of Ephesians, six chapters, 40 prepositional phrases, Sam, in Christ, in Him, or in the beloved. Isn't it odd? Everybody's heard of the millennium,

and you can divide the whole church up in the pre-mill, post-mill, pharma, you know, pan-mill, whatever. And it's got one chapter in the Bible talks about that. Here's 40 prepositional phrases and six chapters, and we don't know who we are. So you've got to ask some questions that. Why in the world, don't we know that? Where is the connection? How do we connect, you know, in a liberating way, not an intellectual way, which is satisfying for some people?

But it never was for me. I said, where's the reality of this? And so I may be known for some for spiritual warfare, but I said, where's my passion? I want you to know who you are in Christ. I want you to know what it means to be a child of God. And I said, if you've got that, you've got it. Well, as an outsider, because this is the first time you and I have sat down. I've spoken to you in some other settings, but you wouldn't even remember, I don't think.

But from my perspective, the revelation God gave you was, who we are in Christ. Because when I read your books or I listen to you lecture, that's what resonates. And it's so encouraging. Your books are such helpful tools to people because you start with that positive premise of that fundamental foundational place we have in him.

And tragically, in the church, we've made it more about the tradition we belong to or the translation we read or whatever. And when you help make that adjustment, but people begin to experience freedom. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's refreshing to talk to a pastor of your stature who sees that because a lot of people just don't. And, you know, I said, when you think of a hurting person coming in to see a pastor or a counselor and that kind of stuff,

and you pour out your problems, all of it is is just telling you how bad you are, you know. But when you start with, beloved, you're a child of God. Do you understand that? You're forgiven. and God loves you. You're starting from a basis of hope, and it's not a psychological hype. It's truth. Well, how come it's not working then? Gotcha. I don't mean I got you in a bad way. No, no. Now we can go, you know, so I'm not starting by tearing you down. I'm starting by building you up. and with the realization of a truth is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

I'm connected with God. How good is that? Well, that is the good news. And I spent a lot of years in that charismatic Pentecostal and still am comfortable in that side of the church. But there's a temptation and often a practice. When we talk about spiritual warfare, it's almost titillation. You know, it had dramatize it. And again, I appreciate the way you, when you present it, it's about authority.

And it's not a power struggle. It's knowing who we are. And it gives people such an accessible way to get to a better place. So let's talk about that for a minute. You just gave me the copy of your new book, Thriving Through the End Times. We want to do that. You have been such a trusted voice in my life. I'm curious because it is a, it's a disheartedly.

time for the church, because there is a falling away, a tremendous compromise, a lack of courage, an unwillingness to take the simple truths and hold them out in our culture. So I'm curious as to your perspective, because you have a global perspective, not just a U.S. perspective. Well, I see society a lot of ways really turn in on the church, calling their, you know, commitment to scripture and truth, this hate speech and whatever, they just passed a law in England that could really unsettle the church. I mean, it's scary times.

It's, you know, the most hated class of people in the United States right now are white male Christians. That's true. I mean, honestly think about that, you know, And this has come up on us so rapidly. Particularly if they're our age. It's old white male Christians. They really don't like.

Oh, my gosh. I said that's, you know, Nancy and I are going to be 82 this year. And I'm saying, Lord, I'm ready to go home. I mean, but I'm not going to compromise who I am. I said one of the most stable foundations in life is to be firmly rooted in Christ, knowing who you are, that God's going to supply your needs. It's not a fearful thing to me at all, to be honest with you. I said, I don't mind even be a martyr for the Lord.

I said, the fear of death has no power over me. It's lost to sting. And so I am free to be the person God created me being that's God's will for my life. And I'm just trying to call the church, not a time to compromise. If there's ever a time to stand firm in your faith, it's right now. And to fear or not. One of my best-selling books is overcoming fear. I mean, fear is actually paralyzing the world right now.

Well, if victory over the darkness is true on a personal setting, as you teach so beautifully, it's got to be true on this larger stage. You know, the end of the age doesn't mean we're defeated. It just means the evil is more prevalent. Yep. But the light is still. just as powerful. We've got to turn up the light, it seems to me.

Yep. We've been cowering too long. Oh, we have. And all authority has been given me heaven and upon earth. I said, if the Christian really understood what really means to be a child of God that you're alive and you're free in Christ, you're connected to the authority of the universe and the creator of all things visible and invisible. and but just to tell the chart, open your eyes to the reality that is going on. That's what I want to try to say in this last book. I said, you have a spiritual world all around you.

It's kind of lost in our translations, but in five chapters or five, or five verses in the book of Ephesians, it says we are in the heavenlies, in the spiritual realm. It's not out there someplace. It's all around us. So you have this reality of the spiritual world and the natural world. And in it you got two players. You got spiritual beings and humans. And I try to seek that balance.

I said in the middle of that is the Christman, fully alive, fully man, fully man, fully God. He has shown his superiority over the spiritual world and the natural world. and if you got that proper balance, you over-emphasize the spiritual, you're out of balance, overemphasize the natural, you're out of balance. When you say the devil made me do it,

you're out of balance. That's not true. And so what I found over the years, I said, is this holy convergence of the old mainline churches getting out of Western rassals and naturalism.

and the evangelical church and the Pentecost and the charismatic churches all converging together. But when you get out of balance, you become caricatures and you find people who are theologically arrogant, scientifically arrogant, personally arrogant, and spiritists, you ever come across spiritists who say, I'm enlightened and you're not? I said, the further you move away from Christ is either marked by ignorance or arrogance. And I said, you can know theology and be arrogant, but you can't know God and be arrogant. You can know all things and be noise and going and clinging simple. I said, but I said, what marks the one closest to the center?

I said, humility, freedom, love. You know, somebody asked me in England last year, I said, what do you want your legacy to be? I said, I don't know if it's true or not, but if I had a choice, I said that he was the kind man who loved God. That's it. That's a pretty good legacy. But I think if we could give the church the message, you know, I think of Jesus standing before Pilot. And there was no comparison in the physical power they had or the political power they had or the, but Jesus looks at Pilot and said, you'd have no authority over me. Yeah.

Unless my dad gave you a little bit. Yeah. There was no fear in Jesus. And I think the church has got to arrive at some place because he's our Lord with that attitude. We may not be the majority. We may not control the power structures. We may not control the financial centers or whatever. But the one whom we represent is the ultimate power.

And there's no arrogance in that because on our best day, we can't do anything. But Christ in us, you highlight this whole notion that we're seated with him in the heavenlies, and that position of authority changes everything. And the church has got to be awakened to that again. You better. I've had people come at me and threaten to come at me. I said, you can't touch me. I'm a child of God.

First John 518. You don't have to get you bad. You don't have to shout. You just take your place in Christ. And with the confidence that goes with that. Not confidence in yourself. Put no confidence in the flesh. Right.

This is not a, you know, I'm stronger than you are kind of a thing. We're not going to outthink evil. No, no. I agree. No. And you're up against a matter strategist. I said, do you want to do intellectual battles with Satan? You're probably going to lose.

So you better get your butt in Christ right away. I mean, he's the God of this world. I said, so don't, don't underthink your enemy, folks. I mean, you know, he's control on the world right now. I see he's the puppet master. You see all these people out here is, you know, lying with no shame and whatever else. I said, when Jesus looked at the Pharisees and you are like your father of the devil, I don't think that's hyperbole.

No. I really don't. He said, he's a liar from the beginning, and the truth will set you free. And all of that's under assault, but it's always been under assault. there's never been a peaceful time of the earth since the fall. No, but don't you think the church has to speak to our culture? We can't afford just to hide and do a polite Bible study? Appreciate it, brother.

I mean, honestly, if we lose our voice, what have we lost? I said, I love the, all of a sudden, it's struggling for his name right now, but we will not be silenced. And Lutzer. this book. It's a good book. Really good book, I thought. Just saying, you know, we can't be silent. I mean, we're supposed to be salt and light. And so if you snuff out the light and take the flavor away, why, then we're nothing. Absolutely. But it does take courage. But courage, you know, enthusiastic about it, enthous, in God. You know, I mean, there should be a part about

that in the midst of all of this, there's the joy of the Lord, which is your strength. There's the peace of God. You know, I said, right now, I wouldn't do anything to compromise the peace that I have with God. And one of the best ways that I would sit down to help a person evaluate where they're at right now, I said, just close your eyes and just be alone for a moment. Can you tolerate solitude? Can you be still and know that He is God? when we help a person resolve their conflicts, I always get done. I said, just close your eyes for a moment right now.

Just be as quiet as you can. In your mind, is it quiet? Feel the peace? Yes. I've had people say, how'd you know that would happen? I mean, there is a peace. There's a peace of God that passes all understanding. And peace people, there is no peace.

has no peace. I mean, there's just more chaotic all the time. I said, can you absolutely imagine a few years ago the two people we'd have been running for president right now? I said, come on, country. Can't you produce two better candidates than that? Just polarizes us, just terrible. And the sad part about it is you can't carry on a civil discourse about important issues. Like a warning. You know, we're supposed to be good stewards. I'm not against, you know, that. I'm for that, you know. But you can't have a civil discourse on it. Because we've lost the truth.

Yeah, I think we have. People want to win a debate more than they want to tell the truth. And to do good science, you have to have the truth. It has to be reproducible, measurable. And we've lost that on almost any topic we pick up. Yeah. It's a tragedy. Let's be practical for just a minute.

You mentioned fear. There's lots of people listening to us that are frightened. They're frightened of what's happening in the world. world, there happened what's frightening economically. The list is endless. So coach us through what to do with that fear. Well, it's first emotion expressed by following humanity. And fear not, it's number one commandment in Scripture. So obviously, it's a big deal. When you go back and look at Adam when he had sin and was separated from God, and he came to him and says, you know, who told you that? He said, well, he said, I was afraid. Now think about that for a moment.

what the world is he afraid of? He's still in the Garden of Eden. He's in God's presence. There's no neurological basis for his fear and no medicine that he can take. Can't blame mom and dad. So what is he afraid of? And I call it the primordial

fear. It is the holy underground basis for fear is to be separated from God. Let me give an illustration of that. I can for a second. We're coming up to Easter in a couple weeks here. And one of those mystery passes, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

And when God made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of Christ and God, I believe what happened was the Apostles' Creed said he descended into hell. That's really kind of a misinterpretation. Hebrew death and hell of the same word. And it wasn't the destiny. It was the separation. So when did God made him who knew no sin to be sin?

He did it on that cross. And suddenly, the God man, fully God, fully human, fully God, the humanity was separated from his divinity. For the first time. He experienced that primordial. fear, the abandonment, the separation. And God allowed him to experience in that, and that's why he cried out in agony. Suddenly that separation had taken place. He went to the cross, fully God, fully man. And he didn't descend into some place. It wasn't the destiny. It was the

separation from God. And fear has been the most motivating power in the world every sense to this day. Now, when you look at fear, it's really fascinating. How is the fear of God the beginning of wisdom? Anxiety and fear, anxiety disorders, anxiety is quite different from fear because we're anxious because we don't know. Don't be anxious for tomorrow. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. But fear has an object. For the fear object to be legitimate, it has to have two attributes. It has to be somehow eminent and somehow potent, choosing a word carefully here. Fear is a God-given emotion. Anytime your physical, psychological safety is threatened. Fear is what you're going to experience. Now, it has to have those two attributes.

Some fear is normal and helpful. Oh, absolutely. Even animals have it or they'd all be road kill. Right. I mean, so it's a God-given thing, the ability to experience that. I mean, so is anxiety. Anxiety is used 25 times in scripture, but five of them are positive. You know, if your son's late, you should be a little anxious about it. You know what I mean?

It shouldn't cause you to pray, you know, or your anxious about an exam tomorrow. Study, you know, kind of a situation. So it should drive you the right direction, but oftentimes it becomes debilitated. But so right now, I said, sitting here, I said, I don't like. rattlesnakes. I lived in Arizona before I moved here and had six of my property. I don't like them. But right now, I have zero fear of rattlesnakes. Absolutely none. Why not? Because there's none here. But if you threw one of those babies on this table right now, man, it'd be ex that stays left. And the point I'm making is that whatever the fear object is, it has to have two attributes.

It has to be somehow potent, present, or inanimate here. And so if you threw a dead one in here, provided I was sure it was dead. I wouldn't be afraid of it. I still kind of look at it suspiciously, but so the point is, has to have two attributes. Now, let's look at the biggies, because you can put almost all fear under three categories, death, man, and Satan. And so look at death for a moment. He's removed one of the attributes. It's appointed unto every man that one day we should die, and then comes to judgment. But where he'll death is your sting. For me to live as Christ, to die his gain. It's still eminent, but it's no longer potent. If you're free from the fear of death, you're really free to live today.

Look at, man, what did Jesus very specifically point in that one out? Don't be afraid of a man who can take your physical body, but fear of me, you can do that and your soul. And so, you know, that leads some explanation, but that's the big one in a lot of ways. I mean, you control people through fear. Absolutely. You control your kids through fear, which is wrong, by the way, but we still do it. I'll beat you up if you do that, you know, kind of the thing. And then look at Satan. Roaring wrong, I hung on your line, seeking for someone to devourer.

Yeah, but he doesn't have any teeth, folks. He's been disarmed. So he is still roaring around, but if you knew that he was disarmed, that you had authority over him, that he has no power in you, you know, you have all the power and authority you need over Satan right now to live the life that God has called you to live. And I said, but in our churches even, more people are far more afraid of Satan than they are of God.

So true. And I said, the moment you do that, you have elevated him and is a greater object of worship. And that's how he's controlling you, is through fear. I said, why then is the fear of God the beginning of wisdom? I said, he's omnipotent and he's omnipresent. There was something in my room last night. Yes, I know. God was there.

No, something else. God was there. If you knew that something was in your room last night, which happens to a lot of kids and teenagers and people, I said, you knew you had authority over it. You could stop it right there. You know, brother, for the first four years that I went public with this ministry, when I do a conference,

and the night before, four years, this went on, night before I'd be sharply awakened, sometimes just fearful, three o'clock in the morning. And first time I really struggled with it, whatever else. And then I read Job chapter four for that exact experience, the hair in his head came up and whatever else. And I said, over the years, I've asked people, how many have had that happen to them? They woke up precisely at time in the morning, like three o'clock in the morning. Third of the people raised her hand every time.

Let's go a step further. You were just overcome by fear, paralyzed by it. And you tried to say something. And, you know, there you were, paralyzed, can't say anything. And I said, how many have that happened? Again, about 30 people in our churches. Where raise your hand? I said, that is a direct spiritual attack.

I said, scripture is clear. Submit to God, resist the devil. You struggled with that. I said, but you can submit to God inwardly because God knows the thoughts and tensions of your heart. And as soon as you turn to God and acknowledge that, you'll be freed up. All you'd have to say is Jesus, and then it would end, just like that.

I learned to process that in a matter of minutes and go back to sleep. It was more of a nuisance. He said, why has God allowed that? And he said, well, you can sit there and squirm if you want to or you can call up on the Lord and he will save you. But just the simple concept of submit to God first, resist the devil, is there's so many little idiosyncrasies about scripture on that that we just totally miss.

For instance, when the Lord was tempted, and he quoted scripture. Everybody said, what did he quote? I said, what's overlooked there more than, almost universally? The fact that he said it. Satan's an obligation to bear your thoughts. And that's why when you put on everybody, God, the sword of the spirit,

He would use, there's two words for, you know, a word. For, not for just sword, but word. Lagos and Rima. Rima. Rima. But it's here he would use Rima. What Logos, the emphasis is on what the word is. It's on the content of the word.

Well, so is Rame. It's only one word. But the implication is the speaking of it. It's little nuances like that that you suddenly realize, no, you know, he doesn't have that kind of omniscience in my life. Only God has that. Only God knows the thoughts into my heart. So you could sit there and square. But if you learn to say it out loud, then you can stop it just like that.

And, you know, you just struggle through that. And you learn that after a while. But I'm telling you, over all these years, I said, what's happened in dealing and working with people? I said, to me, the Word of God has just verified itself over and over again of its truth and the complexity of it. You explain it to people so beautifully. You know, to your point, when I was at Vanderbilt in their school of theology, which is not a godly place, it's a very liberal school.

I remember a professor saying one day who was not a believer, well-educated, but not a believer, you know, said in the Hebrew Bible, they acted like words, have a, a tangible quality to them. It's like they have a physical force to them. And they're describing it apart from it as if it has no authority. But I think that's what you're saying. It's been my experience. You know, God created the world in Genesis with the spoken word, brought order out of the chaos. And when you're willing to say what God has said about you, it has a spiritual impact on the world around us. Isn't that at the heart of your books? Absolutely it is. I mean, it can be used in a, you can take it context that aren't helpful.

But the truth of it doesn't, is still there. Well, it's there in ways that we don't much think about. I said, why in Proverbs when they talk about wisdom is a personified? These personal pronouns when he's talking about wisdom. I said they're darkened and their understanding because they're excluded from the life of God. What Adam and Eve lost in the fall was life. That's what Jesus came to give us. All we see is the sin that separated us.

I said, but you have to realize what he lost was life. Not your physical life, your spiritual life, your soul and union with God. That's what he came to give us. When you make progress in your own Christian life, after a while, the word became flesh. He is the word. truth is a person. It's not just a book you read. And that's what I want to try to help people move towards.

That's so good. When the word and the truth is personified. And what we lost in the fall was that personification. We lost truth. And so truth now is just a collection of data. And we've been warned about that. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. Or those who love scripture, you know, and a lot of the old fundamentalists really kind of did, you know, that kind of thing.

I said, but the word of God is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness. That's not happening. Here's practically what's happened. It's happened in our seminaries. The Word of God is profitable for teaching and training and counseling. competence. So we're going to teach you how to teach and how to counsel and do these kind of things. What did you just bypass? Reprove and correction. What's missing all over the world in the church? Repentance. Genuine repentance. I said, if the truth has done his job right,

you know, it'll bring about reproof, it kind of knock you down and then pick you up and train you, not in competence, but in righteousness. That's the conclusion, is to, you know, to become like Christ. Or the word of God is sharper than two-edged-sword. What word are they talking about there? My wry study Bible at the time had, well, he's talking about scripture, of course. My Orthodox study Bible?

They're talking about Jesus. That book didn't know the thoughts and sent to my heart. God does. And the whole argument of Hebrews is presented in Jesus is greater than the angels. greater than Moses. And so then all of a sudden, the word of God is sharper than a two-ages or able to divide us under both joint and marrow. He's talking about Jesus.

And so all these 25 years of education I had in the pursuit of knowledge is, wasn't the pursuit of knowledge. It was the pursuit of God. Knowledge is part of it. Yes. I said, we're dealing in a case right now. that artificial intelligence has far more knowledge than any human can even remotely comprehend, but no wisdom, and it's artificial.

And people are embracing it everywhere. I said, talk about mocking God, you know, that's what that is. I'm frightened to death with AI. I just think the end here is not going to be good, folks. It's not all this programmed is created by us. It's a manipulative tool. It can crunch a lot of data, but it has no wisdom and no biblical worldview. Somebody sent me at this clip, the most scariest thing I've ever seen in my life,

this guy standing in that they're just kind of smug and arrogant and happy about what he's going to present. And he's got this little drone, but it's really small and like is here. And he starts flying around him. And he would grab it and, of course, they'd run away. He said, this drone has a thousand, is connect with AI. He says, this is a thousand times faster than your instinct. So if you think you can swat it, you can't. And now, here's what we've been able to do.

And they showed a clip of this drone that has the capacity connected to AI to go into a target area and take out four crooks. And they just swarmed around and went into the car. Bing, bang! Shot him right in the middle of the head. And people are clapping. I thought, we can just separate the good guy from the bad guy. Who's determining who the good guy is from the bad guy? I couldn't believe that they didn't start crying.

Do you realize the implications of this thing? Put that in the hands of the bad guy. Take out every Christian. And then they showed a plane dropping off a thousand of these things over some area. Brother, I don't know what the future has, but I said if there's ever a time that you need to clean house and get right with God and not compromise, it is right now. Absolutely. Jesus said when the son of man returns, will he find faith?

Peter, when he's talking about it, he said, knowing these things are going to come to pass. What man are men ought you to be? That's the purpose of the book. I want to help you become that man and make sure that when he comes back, you're not having an an affair. You're not living an ungodly life. Imagining some perversion of grace is going to protect you. Well, my guest today is Dr. Neil Anderson. You feel like you have been a friend of mine for many years because through your books,

I have taken your wise counsel. If you did not know Dr. Anderson before today, you have been introduced. And I would strongly encourage you to read his books. The bondage breaker is the one we're focused on right now, but any of his books that you pick up are enormously helpful. You do not have to live subject to habits and bondage and unforgiveness and hatred. You can be free. That's what the Jesus story is about.

And Dr. Anderson's material is as accessible as anything I have ever read. He will not get you lost in the weeds of theology. He isn't hyper-spiritual. there's a humility and a practical common sense in what he shares. And the part that makes me smile is he was trained as a scientist. And for decades, he's coached the body of Christ on spiritual things. God has a sense of humor. He does.

Dr. Anderson, thank you for taking a few minutes with us today. I'm honored to be here. God bless you. Read his books. They'll help you. One of my goals in doing this podcast with you is to be sure there's always takeaways. If I wanted to do academic theology, I'd stay in the university.

Not a bad thing. There's an appropriate place for that. But ministry is about what do we do with the truth that we know? How do we give application to it? Well, Dr. Anderson gave us some very rich ideas and backgrounds, biblically grounded. He talked about fear. And I'd like to take just a minute with that because he talked about how he would wake up in the night, really choked by fear, and he recognized it as a spiritual conflict.

And he learned to say Jesus and the fear would live. leave. I want to pick up on that, make a suggestion, that you treat fear like a person without a body. And when you recognize that there's some fear, that's an irrational fear, that has put you in a place of really bondage, it kind of freezes you. You're afraid to go forward or move or change, whatever that may be. You can speak to it like you would a person, say, in Jesus' name, you have to go. I have found that if you will do that with sincerity, that you will find a freedom. I believe spiritual things are as real as the physical material world in which we live. And we have since the Enlightenment in the West trying to kind of live above that,

and it's been to our detriment. So those places where you find fear is an impediment in your life. You may be afraid to go to the doctor. You may be afraid to fly. There's a lot of fears in the world, hundreds of phobias. Many of them have a spiritual connection. So start to speak to that fear and say, in Jesus' name, you will not dominate my life. I'm not afraid of the dark.

I'm not afraid of the future. I'm not afraid. In Jesus' name, I've been set free. I believe you'll find a peace and a hope and a joy and a contentment that is almost unimaginable when you're still struggling with that paralysis of fear. It works for Dr. Anderson. It's worked in my life. I believe Jesus will do it for you as well. God bless you. Hey, 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 to subscribe to Alan Jackson Ministry's YouTube channel and follow the Culture and Christianity podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith and change our culture. I'll see you next time.