Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 386 | Why Pope Francis Is Right on Marriage

Episode Date: March 16, 2021

Pope Francis just made headlines for affirming the biblical definition of marriage. This has put him at odds with progressives, who only deign to tolerate Christianity so long as it doesn’t interfere with their politics. However, as Christians know, earthly marriage reflects a spiritual reality: God is the one who gets to say what it is and isn’t. We also discuss psychology professor and author Jordan Peterson and his recent comments on Jesus and religion. --- Today's Sponsors: Built Bar is high in protein and fiber, and low in calories and carbs. Go to BuiltBar.com & use promo code 'RELATABLE' to get 15% off your next order! Carly Jean Los Angeles is a Los Angeles-based capsule clothing company. Their clothing is classic, timeless, and is meant to live life with you. Go to CarlyJeanLosAngeles.com & use promo code 'ALLIE' to save 20% off anything in their online store! --- Show Links: AP: "Vatican bars gay union blessing, says God 'can't bless sin'" https://bit.ly/2Nn31Nw Daily Caller: "Devout Catholic Joe Biden At Odds with Pope on Gay Marriage, White House Confirms" https://bit.ly/2OX7VRS Faith Wire: "Famed Psychologist Jordan Peterson Tears Up Talking About Jesus" https://bit.ly/3bRuEaR --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Tuesday. Today we are going to talk about the Pope, the Catholic Church, saying that they will not, cannot bless same-sex unions. We'll look at their reasoning for that. And then some of the reactions that we have seen, both from President Biden and from Don Lemon, the CNN host that I think are representative of what a lot of progressive people of faith or progressive people who identify as Christians think about this kind of announcement and this particular topic. And then we will go through why biblically we do believe that marriage is exclusively defined as God defines it between a man and a woman. And then if we have time after that explanation, I want to talk about this story that says, it's possible that Jordan

Peterson, you guys, you guys know who that is, that he became a Christian. Christian that he has come to Christ. So we're going to talk about the story that is reporting on that. First, let's talk about this Pope story. So this is according to the Associated Press, Vatican Bar's gay union blessing says God can't bless sin. The article says, quote, the Vatican declared Monday that the Catholic Church won't bless same-sex unions since God cannot bless sin. The Vatican's Orthodoxy office, the congregation for the doctrine of the faith issued a formal response to a question about whether Catholic clergy have the authority to bless gay unions. The answer contained in a two-page explanation published in seven languages and approved by Pope Francis was negative.

When he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, the now Pope Francis deported gay couples having legal protections in same-sex unions. But that is in the civil sphere, he says, not within the church. In the article of the Vatican stress the fundamental and decisive distinction between gay individuals and gay unions, noting that the negative judgment on the blessing of unions of persons of the same sex does not imply a judgment on persons. Well, that's interesting. I would have to hear a little bit more context and what exactly they mean by that. You guys know, I'm not a Catholic. And so I am not looking to the Pope or to the Catholic Church for authority. I saw some comment saying that I have hubris bucking against the Pope and saying that in some cases I don't believe the Pope to be biblically correct.

Well, there are a lot of Catholics who also believe that on some subjects. The Pope is not biblically correct. This Pope has kind of been regarded as somewhat of a progressive hero in a variety of ways. His stance on climate change has seeming distaste of Donald Trump has kind of made him someone that people on the left like or they see as his champion, and so they are no doubt disappointed by this official stance. The Daily Caller says that devout Catholic Joe Biden is at odds with Pope on gay marriage, White House confirms. The article says, quote, during a White House press briefing Monday afternoon, Saki said that Biden continues to believe in support same-sex unions. He has long had that

position, she said, adding that Biden did not have a response to the Vatican. Of course, course, we know that's true. He has been supportive of gay marriage for a very long time, I guess not just within the civil sphere, but also he believes that the church should accept and condone and celebrate same-sex unions. And he is also at odds with the Catholic Church on abortion. We've talked before. He's not someone who is, oh, I'm personally pro-life, but I'm officially pro-choice. I just don't believe that the government has a role in that. If he were truly pro-choice, then he would be supportive of the Hyde Amendment, which protects people, protects our federal tax paying dollars or our federal tax dollars from funding abortion. But of course, he has supported doing away with the Hyde Amendment,

which has just been done in this new stimulus package. And so now federal tax dollars will fund elective abortions. And so this idea that Biden is some moderate, that his faith in any way is kind of dictating what he believes about social, cultural, or political issues just isn't true. I'm not doubting that he goes to mass. I'm not doubting that he prays, but he obviously is at odds with official Catholic teaching, with biblical teaching when it comes to things like abortion and when it comes to things like marriage. And that would be why, by the way, Democrats are fully okay with his kind of religion. Progressives tend to be okay with Christianity as long as your version if Christianity aligns completely with secularism when it comes to these social, moral, political

issues. As long as there is very little daylight between you who identify as a Christian and them who identifies as an atheist or agnostic or whatever, then you're okay. As long as you're not a Christian who actually believes in the Bible, who actually wants to apply the Bible to any sphere of life, then you're all right. That's why they're okay with people like Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi being Catholic, but they're not okay with Amy Coney Barrett being Catholic. They're not okay with Mike Pence being an evangelical. They're only okay with the kind of Christianity that looks so worldly that you really can't distinguish between the two. So like I said, on this story, I don't, I don't care really what the Pope says. But the reason why it's important to talk about

this is because this is a subject that is very contentious within the Christian church. This is contentious within evangelicalism, unfortunately. There's been a lot of muddy water when it comes to this. There's been a lot of, I would say, propaganda and myth circulating about what the Bible actually does and does not say. And it's understandably a hot topic and a sensitive topic because you're dealing with how people feel. You're dealing with people with people's experiences with who people believe that they are. Now, the idea that your sexuality or your sexual feelings actually amounts to your identity is a worldly principle. It is not a biblical principle. And yet, you are talking about image bears. You're talking about people with value.

You're talking about people who love someone of the same sex. And it is understandably very sensitive and very difficult to talk about this issue, especially if you are someone who is going to say, yes, this is sin, because the immediate reaction will be, well, you can't possibly love me and say that who I am is sin or say that who I am is wrong. You can't possibly not be bigoted towards me or not hate me if that is your stance. And it's very difficult for a lot of Christians to say or to explain how, no, I don't hate you. I actually love you. I actually love you. I actually love you as I love all of my neighbors. I think that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, as Psalm 139 says. I know that you're made in the image of God and that you have just as much value as I do.

But look, here's what scripture says. And if God is love, then agreeing with God, even on the issue of sexuality and marriage is also love. It's very difficult to explain those things, of course, especially when there have been Christians are people who profess the name of Christ, who have been so hateful in their communication of their stance on this issue, that have elevated homosexuality, for example, to a place of premier sin or supreme sin that cannot be righted, that cannot be repented from, that is worse than any other kind of sin. There has been that kind of hypocrisy. There has been that kind of outright hatefulness coming from people who professed the

name of Christ, and that is part of why this conversation is so difficult today. So people on the left side of the aisle are people who identify as gay in some ways are justified in their fear of having conversation with Christian conservatives about this subject, because they might fear some kind of manifestation of our beliefs that is actually very cruel. And so it is important to us, though, for us as Christians, to be as clear as we can on this subject, to agree with with God on this subject while being as loving as we possibly can. And being loving and being gentle and being kind and hospitable does not mean compromise. I think that's something that we really need to realize that we can love people and we should love people by speaking the truth in love

and that we don't cease being hospitable to them. We don't cease being kind to them. But we also don't pretend that something is gray when it's really not. And you have probably heard before that the Bible actually doesn't say anything about homosexuality, that the word for homosexuality in the Old and New Testament actually is supposed to mean either male prostitution or it's supposed to mean rape or you've probably heard that it's supposed to mean pedophilia. these kinds of newfangled ways to interpret the Bible and to pick and choose words that we don't like and to say that actually the interpretation was wrong, that's been around for a long time. The fact of the matter is that it's just not true.

It's not true that the original language speaks to something else besides homosexuality in the verses that do speak to homosexuality. I mean, we do see it in both the old and the New Testament. But what we're going to go through biblically is not those verses and go back to the original Hebrew or the original Greek. Because I actually think that's leading us down the wrong path in this kind of conversation. Because how we read the Bible and how we figure out what God says is good and what God says is wrong is not just by looking at what he tells. us not to do. Not just by seeing, okay, what does he command against? But we also ask when we read the

Bible, what does he say is? What does God say is good? How does he define things in the positive sense? So yes, you can go into the Bible and you can say, okay, how can I finagle this verse or how can I reinterpret this verse in order to get away with the things that I want to get away with? We're probably all guilty of that at some point in our Christian walk. But the fact of the matter is, is that does not show a heart that is actually in submission to Christ, that does not show a heart that reflects that of Christ, which says not my will, but your will be done. When we read the Bible, we say, who does God say that he is? Who does God say that I am? How does he tell me to live? Not just, hey, what does he tell me not to do? And how can I get away with doing the things that I want to do?

but what does he say is and how can I submit my entire life to his authority? What can I get away with? It's not the proper question to be asking when you're looking at biblical interpretation or when you are reading the Bible. If you are looking for ways to justify what you want or to affirm what you already believe and feel, then yes, of course, it's easy to maybe throw out the passages that you think are misinterpreted about homosexuality or to look for a way to, interpret them so that they will agree with you. But that should not. In any subject,

it doesn't matter what it is, be our question when reading scripture. So there are these few verses about homosexuality, Leviticus 2013, Romans 126 through 27, 1st Corinthians 6, 9, 1 Timothy, 1, 10. But I actually think the more compelling argument is what does. God actually says marriage and sexuality are how he designs and how he defines marriage. You have probably heard before that the Bible starts with a wedding and it ends with a wedding. It starts with the marriage of Adam and Eve and Genesis and it ends with the marriage of Christ and his bride, the church in revelation. That is not a mistake. That is not a coincidence. That is deliberate. It points to the fact that marriage, that earthly marriage reflects a spiritual reality. It is incredibly

significant. Earthly marriage reflects a spiritual reality as defined as man with woman. So the truth that we see in God's word about marriage that we are going to dig more deeply into, and you guys have heard me use this alliteration probably a thousand times, but if you're new around here, you haven't. God's definition of marriage is rooted in creation. It is reiterated in the New Testament. It's repeated by Jesus himself. And it is reflected. of Christ's relationship with the church and therefore is representative of the gospel. So I'm going to say that again in case you're taking notes and you want to write it down. God's definition of marriage as male and female is rooted in creation.

It's reiterated in the New Testament. It's repeated by Jesus himself. It is reflective of Christ's relationship with the church and therefore it is representative of the gospel. So let's look at these five things. First, it is rooted in creation. So Genesis 218 through 25. Then the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man and see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to birds of the heavens into every beast of the field,

but for Adam there was not found a helper for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rid that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, This is at last, bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become, one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed. So in Genesis, we see God's intention for marriage, not just he created, in that he created a man and a woman to be it together, but he also gave them roles right away. So immediately, there is a distinction and not just sex, but gender roles. So Adam was given the responsibility to name the animals to steward the earth, but he needed a helper. He needed someone to come alongside him. Adam was not sufficient by himself. It was not enough. He was incomplete. He had all the company of vegetation, all the beasts of the field, and he still

needed something else. He needed not someone to just be like him, but someone to compliment him. Woman was made different from man in both biology and in role so the two could complement and complete one another. Adam didn't just need a companion. He needed a wife. He didn't just need a friend. He didn't just need a bro. He needed a woman. He needed a wife.

So right away, we see not just a physical distinction between the two, between male and female, but a role distinction between the two that shows God's intention for marriage. The wife is to come alongside and to be a helper to her husband. And it is for this reason, God's word says, that a man shall leave his original family and hold fast to his wife. So the creation of man and woman and the marriage between them is this stunning part of the creation account. It would be silly for us to say that this was just an accident. Even just reading this, you can see, like, this is the climax of the creation story. God creating male and female in his image, especially since this is reiterated so clearly in the New Testament.

First by Jesus himself in Matthew 19, we always hear, well, Jesus didn't have anything. to say about sexuality. Jesus didn't have anything to say about what gender is. Jesus didn't have anything to say about marriage, but he does. And a question that he was asked about divorce. He answers like this in Matthew 19 verses 4 through 6. Haven't you read? He replied that at the beginning, the creator made them male and female and said, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So he's quoting Genesis there. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate. So even though he's talking about divorce, he is affirming that creation of male and female, the designation, the designation, the design of marriage as between a man and a woman. And of course, John 1 tells us that the word was God and that he was with God in the beginning. So Jesus being part of the triune God is part of this creation. Anyone who tries to separate, Jesus from God or Jesus from the Old Testament by saying, well, I don't need to focus on that because

Jesus didn't say it. Well, you don't understand the nature of God. He's triune. Jesus is God. That is, by the way, I don't want to get off on a tangent. The distinction of Christianity and other offshoot that try to claim the name of Christianity. Jesus is God in Christianity. He's not just a son of God. He's not just a messenger of God. He's not just a prophet. He's not just a just a good teacher. Jesus is God. So he cannot be separated from the God of the Old Testament, the so-called God of the Old Testament. He cannot be separated from Old Testament teachings. He cannot be separated from the creation account. He is God. And he reaches to the creation account to affirm what gender is and to affirm what marriage is. And it's not just Jesus. It's also,

we see this in Ephesians 5. We see it in Colossians as well, but I will take this passage from Ephesians that reiterates and emphasizes the reasons for the definition of marriage. Ephesians 522 through 25. Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Here we see again that marriage is defined as between a wife, and a husband, and that it wasn't just because of some cultural context of the day that they only

knew about heterosexual relationships. And so they just kind of had to say this because it was right in society at the time. That's not true. Like, that's not true of Ephesus. That's not true of the ancient world. They definitely knew what homosexuality was. They definitely knew that there were different kinds of sexuality. There were different kinds of romance. There were different kinds of relationships. then this covenant relationship between a male and a female. And this passage tells us why exactly, why spiritually, why eternally the definition of marriage is so important, because these roles are reflective of a spiritual reality between Christ and the church.

So a wife is to submit to her husband as she submits to the Lord in the same way that the church submits to Christ. And the husband is to love his wife as Christ, loves the church. Christ loves the church so much that he gave himself up for her. He died for her. So that means that a husband is called to love his wife so much that he is willing to give his entire life for her, lay himself down for her. That is a radical, unconditional, sacrificial love that husbands are called to. That would have been radical for the time. To hear that, hey, wife, you're not just a property. You're not just the property of your husband. You're not just a sexual

object for your husband to be tossed aside when he gets bored and he wants to have sex with his servant or he wants to have sex with someone else. This would have been radical to hear that just as wives are called to submit to their husbands as they submit to the Lord, as the church submits to Christ, husbands are also called to sacrificially lay themselves down for their wife. That would have been radical and different. This would have been music to women's ears at the time. This would have been music to wives' ears at the time. Now, of course, we shudder at the word submit. And we don't like this kind of dichotomy because we think it's oppressive or repressive or we think that it is oppressive of our rights and of our independence. Women at this time would have thought

that this was one of the most beautiful and freeing and liberating messages that they have ever heard because this is not what they saw in culture. They saw the objectification of women. They saw the tossing the side of women, they saw the abuse of women. They didn't see female empowerment. They weren't looking at feminism. They were looking at the outside world. And they saw women being used and abused and discarded on a daily basis. And here, God through Paul says, no, no, no, that's not going to be the relationship between Christians and marriage. The relationship between Christians in marriage is going to be that the wife submits to it and respects her husband, and that the husband so sacrificially and unconditionally loves his wife.

this passage in Ephesians doesn't just stand alone. It roots itself again back in the creation account. The same way that Jesus rooted his response on divorce back in the creation account. So this Ephesians passage roots itself back in the creation account. So we know it wasn't just a cultural moment. It wasn't just a societal thing. It just, it wasn't just like this temporary command for wives to submit to their husbands and husbands to love their wives. This is something that was rooted in Genesis. So it goes on to say in verses 28 through 33, in the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we are members

of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound. and I am saying that it refers to Christ in the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. So this passage is the perfect encapsulation of what we establish for why God's definition of marriage is so specific and so significant. God's definition is rooted in creation. It is reiterated in the New Testament. It's repeated by Jesus. It is reflected in Christ's relationship with the church, and therefore it is representative of the gospel. So God made wives and husbands physically complimentary, but much more

importantly, he made them spiritually complimentary to be an earthly representation for the one miraculous eternal marriage between Christ and his church. So the submission of the wife and the sacrifice of her husband reflects a far greater reality than what we see on earth, and far be it from us, fallible human beings who just want to go along with culture, to say that that definition doesn't matter, to say that that representation, a reflection of an eternal reality does not matter just because it makes us feel better. If you see marriage is only a physical bond, then sure, it may be easy to redefine it however you like, but that's not possible for the Christian. We don't get to do that. God has already defined marriage and he tells us why he

did so in his explanation of Christ in the church. That was not arbitrary. Like I said, it wasn't cultural. It wasn't temporal. This was meant to reflect something that is eternal. So again, it's not just about what the Bible says not to do. It's about what God says is. What he says is good and right and true. These terms that we see in scripture from creation to revelation between a bride and a bridegroom are not gender neutral and they're not meant to be gender neutral. They are intentional. They're not interchangeable because men and women are not only physically different, but our physical differences represent a spiritual reality that God clearly believes is important. He says is important. So according to God, marriage is so much more than what the world says that it is. The world sees marriage as something two people do, or nowadays I think I saw that there are like three people can get married. I guess the world would say it's something that people do simply because they want to and because they're in love. And if one day they don't want to and they're not in love, well, they don't need to be married anymore. They need to pursue their truest self and do whatever

they want and do whatever makes them happy. But that's not what God says. God says that I have defined marriage as a physical and spiritual bond of unity that should not be broken. And this speaks to so much more than gay marriage, by the way. It also speaks to adultery. It speaks to all of the ways that humans distort marriage from its biblical design. And this is, this is why, and I know that it's contentious, but this is why God also says that he hates divorce. That doesn't mean that he hates people who get a divorce. That doesn't mean that there never is a reason to walk away, of course, in cases of abuse and possibly, as we read in the Bible, although there are some different interpretations of this, in cases of infidelity, there are reasons, of course, to protect yourself

and to protect your children in those situations and to leave that husband. But God hates divorce in that he hates the tearing apart of a union that is supposed to last. Jesus tells us that in Matthew 19, as we already read, he gives us the reason that, yes, unfaithfulness for divorce. Unfaithfulness might be a reason for divorce and abuse, of course, as we just talked about. but that marriage is much more than a physical bond, that it's a spiritual bond, that it's reflective of Christ in the church, and therefore it is not to be broken because it's representative of the gospel. It's representative of God's sacrificial love for us.

Marriage is sacred. Marriage is a picture of God's plan of redemption. It was not arbitrarily designed so that you and I could change it as culture compels us or as feelings demand. Now, as we know, and as we already stated, like, how were we to treat the LGBTQ community? We are hospitable. Of course, we are kind. We are loving. They are image bears.

We are self-sacrificial. For those who are not Christians, we remember that it is not their sexuality that we are primarily concerned with. It is their spirituality. And so for every person who is apart from Christ, no matter what your sin struggle is, you're dead in sin. I was dead in sin before Christ saved me. That means that no matter what your sin is before Christ, what you are repenting of,

what we all repented of before we came to Christ, was unbelief. Not a particular sin struggle, but that was our primary. That was our first act of repentance, repenting from unbelief, not our sexuality, but unbelief. So when Christ raises someone from death to life, as Ephesians 2 tells us, he changes them. He sanctifies them. He may not remove a struggle forever, but he calls them to a new life in which self-denial is the rule rather than the exception. And that is true for every single one of us. Therefore, the conversations that we have with these people should not be centered on their

relationships with men or with women, but their relationship with Christ. So for those who identify as Christians, if we have a relationship with them, we speak the truth. I don't think that that means that you have to, you know, Instagram message every single person who falls into this category. But for those in your life, yes, I do think that we have this very difficult, but love-compelled obligation to speak the truth. 1st Corinthians 5 says that those within the local church aren't to associate with anyone who calls themselves a Christian and yet is consistently acting in a way that the Bible calls immoral.

That is tough, man. That's really tough. That's really tough for me. And I can't tell you I know exactly what that looks like. But we speak with kindness, we speak with gentleness, and we speak with truth. And if we truly are going to obey the command to love our neighbor as ourselves, that means we have to speak truth. If we believe that God is good, if we believe that He's loving, if we believe that the Bible is His word, then loving someone means showing them the goodness of God, which is revealed in Scripture. If we believe that Jesus is better than this world, then we speak the truth.

if we believe that God's way is better than our way, then we speak the truth. That's a lot easier said than done. I realize that. But it all goes back to do we believe God? Like, do we take him at His word? Do we have faith that his ways are better, that his ways are higher than ours? That even if culture says something is bigoted, if the God who says that he is love, says something is good, says something is right, says something is true,

then we are loving by agreeing with him. Don Lemon, he is the CNN host. He said something on the view in reaction to all of this that I want to respond to because I think that his response is representative of what a lot of progressive say when we talk about this conversation of what the Bible says is sin and what is not, especially as it pertains to sexuality. I'm going to play a short blip of that clip. The Catholic Church and many other churches really need to reexamine. examine themselves and their teachings because that is not what God is about. God is not about hindering people or even judging people. All right. So I have no idea if John Lemon identifies as a Christian, I'm guessing that he does profess Christianity or maybe he professes Catholicism. If he feels like, you know, the need to talk about the subject and talk about what the Catholic Church believes, I have no problem with him criticizing the Catholic Church. I'm not going to say that he

has hubris for doing that because I've criticized the Catholic Church. I've criticized, well, I criticize Protestant teachers all the time. I mean, I believe that we absolutely have the right and the ability, according to God's word, to disagree with people who have, who are older than us, who have more authority than us, who have, you know, more experience than we do, more degrees than we do. I mean, that's one of the beautiful things about the Protestant Reformation is that it put the Bible in our hands, and it gave us as Christians, as people in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, according to 1st Corinthians 619, the ability and the authority to understand faith for ourselves, to be able to interpret scripture for ourselves. That doesn't mean that we are not under the authority in some way or under the wisdom and guidance of teachers and of the church in some way. but it does mean that we never agree with the teacher who disagrees with God. We do have that authority as Christian.

So I don't have any problem with Don Lemon saying to the Catholic Church, you know, they really need to check themselves. The fact of the matter is, as we just explained, is that he's wrong. Like, he's wrong on this. He, like a lot of people don't understand. Apparently, I'm trying to be as charitable as possible. Apparently don't understand how we are to read the Bible in the affirmative sense, not just the negative sense.

I am also surprised that he says that God is not about judging people. He is probably one of the most judgmental news hosts that I have ever had the pleasure of watching on television. And so apparently it's okay for us to judge people the way that we want to judge them. But it's not okay for God, the creator of the universe, the authority over all of us, to judge what he says is. right and what he says is wrong. Now, he is right in the sense that God the Father is not going to judge. This is what Jesus says in John 522. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the

son. So for someone like Don Lemon, we've got some good news and some bad news. It's true that God the father, according to scripture, judges no one. But Jesus is going to be the one who judges. He is going to be the one who judges the living and the dead, which is actually ironic because we see a lot of progressive Christians say that Jesus wasn't about judgment. He wasn't about judging people, while all the authority of judgment has been given to Jesus, and he says that he is going to judge all of us. So, oops. Romans 216, God judges the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. This passage says that that is what is going to happen one day, the secrets of men. So yes, our overt actions, the things that we say, but also all the secrets that go on in our hearts

and our minds, God is going to find those out. He knows all of them already. And that they're going to be judged by Christ Jesus. Acts 1731. The times of ignorance got overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man, Jesus, whom he has appointed. So again, we see that we are going to be judged through Jesus Christ. 1. Peter 4 3 through 5. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do. So you've already had your time of fun being a non-Christian is what this passage is saying. Living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties in lawless idolatry. With respect to this, they are surprised when you do

not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you, but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. He's ready. He's ready. He was ready when this passage was being written. He's ready right now. And we understand that he is being patient because the Bible also tells us that he wants as many people as possible to come to know him. But he is ready to judge both the living and the dead. Second Timothy 4-1 through 4. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the debt and by his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word.

Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort and complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching. I think that we are in that time. But having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and we'll turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. So we have to be vigilant. The judge is going to judge the living and the dead. Jesus is going to judge the living and the dead. Even Christians are called to judge with proper discernment. We are warned

against hypocrisy, especially in Romans 2, for example, but we are to judge with discernment. we are spiritual beings that have the ability through the Holy Spirit to be able to to judge according to the standards that God has laid out what is right and what is wrong. Does it mean that we ever think that we're better than anyone because we all know that apart from Christ that we're dead in our sin? So we're really just nothing, anything that we have to boast about comes from Christ. And so we have absolutely no justification for self-righteousness, no justification for ego or pride or anything like that, anything that we have to brag about, anything that we

have to be arrogant about is found in Christ and not ourselves. But that doesn't mean that we are not able to judge what is right from what is wrong. We know that Christ is going to judge. Now, thankfully, if he is the one that is in our stead, if he is the one that has given us our righteousness, if we proclaim the name of Christ, then forever and ever our sins are forgiven, that there is no separation between us and God that both now and in eternity, we get to be reconciled to him, friends with Him, co-heirs with Christ, and we get to enjoy joy and peace and forgiveness and grace forever and ever. But those without Christ who are judged are going to endure wrath and separation forever and ever and ever. This judgment is real. And God tells us very clearly

what is and what is and what's right and what's wrong in Scripture. sexuality and gender identity, they are different kinds of sin. The Bible tells us that sexual sin is different because you sin against yourself. But it is not different in the sense that it separates you from God in the same way that any other kind of sin does. No matter who we are, no matter what our sin is, no matter what your sexual proclivities are, the fact of the matter is is that we are all dead in sin apart from Christ. And when we are judged, when both the living and the dead are judged, we have to have our name written in the book of life.

We have to be saved by Christ in order to escape wrath. That's what the Bible tells us very clearly. I want Don Lemon, I want everyone who has bought into this lie that the Bible changes as culture changes, that we get to redefine things as we see fit. I want. want everyone to realize that we are all going to face judgment one day. And that the time for repentance, the Bible says, is now and how gracious is God that he has given us this opportunity. It's urgent. And Christians need to realize it is urgent. Our submission to Christ or telling of the gospel is more urgent than the agreement that culture thinks that we owe them. All right. So I want to get into this next story quickly about Jordan Peterson and whether or not he has accepted Christ and become a Christian.

All right. This is according to Faithwire, famed psychologist Jordan Peterson tears up talking about Jesus. So he says for years when asked if he believes in the existence of God, Dr. Jordan Peterson has responded, act as if God exists, and I'm terrified that he might. So Jordan Peterson, just even in that sentence expresses a better understanding of who God is than I think a lot of professing Christians do. We've talked a lot recently about Matthew 10 when Jesus talks about sending Christians out among wolves, that there's going to be a time when we're delivered over to the governors that we that we're delivered over to the authorities, that we shouldn't worry about what we're going to say because God is going to speak through us, that the gospel is going to tear apart families.

It's going to tear apart communities. It's going to create division between people who are saved and who are unsaved that we will be persecuted. But he tells us, have no fear of them, verse 26, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. He says in verse 28, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. So Jordan Peterson, without even having professed Christ at the time that he was saying, how he feels about the existence of God, he has demonstrated a fear of God in a way that it speaks to a better understanding of who God actually is than most people who people who

profess the name of Christ. Jesus himself says, do not fear the world, but fear him, fear God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell. So in this conversation, he also said that in 2019, that he's not willing to place myself conveniently in a box of believing in one man, namely Jesus, to be the Savior. But during his conversation with Orthodox Christian artist, Jonathan Pagot, Peter's saying, revealed a profound openness to Jesus with a vulnerability, unlike his past comments about faith in Christianity. The difference, and C.S. Lewis pointed this out well, Jordan Peterson says, between those mythological gods and Christ, was that there's a historical representation

of his existence as well. So what you have in the figure of Christ is an actual person who actually lived plus a myth, and in some sense, Christ is the union of those two things. The problem is, I already believe that, but I'm amazed at my own belief, and I don't understand it, he continued beginning to cry. Because I've seen sometimes the objective world and the narrative world touch, you know, that's union synchronicity. And I've seen that many times in my own life. And so in some sense, I believe it's undeniable. He told Pago, he's read from theologians who referenced Matthew 1130 when Jesus told his disciples that his yoke is easy, his burden is light, arguing that there is joy in it. He says there's a paradox there, obviously, because it's also a take up your

cross and follow me sort of thing. But the fact that I've been living in constant pain makes the idea of joy seem cruel. I would say, Peterson said. You guys might know he has been struggling with his mental health a lot for the past year or so. His wife has been struggling health-wise. He's just been going through a very hard time. He goes on, I have no idea how to reconcile myself to that. I mean, I've reconciled myself to that by staying alive despite it, although there's very little worship. It doesn't mean I'm not appreciative of what I have, not only am I appreciative of what I have. I do everything I can to remind myself of it all the time. And so does my wife. And then he goes on talking a little bit more about his story. And he talks about that even

though he understands this, it seems, he understands the gospel. He understands that even despite difficulty, you can have joy. I hope that he's read the book of Job to see some kind of representation of this and what it actually looks like to question the God of the universe and what God has to say in response, which even though Job 38 through 42 is terrifying, it's also oddly comforting. So I hope that he goes there. One of the reasons why he has a hard time with Christianity is because of Christian institutions and some Christians or people who profess the name of Christ have acted. He told Pogo the way many believers live their lives is not a sufficient testament to the truth. And of course, that's absolutely true. We know Christians who proclaim the name of Christ.

to do not live in any sort of way that reflects who Christ is. And I'm not sure exactly what he means by this, whether he's using his own definition of what he thinks right and wrong is or his own subjective definitions of compassion. But of course, we know people who live just like the world. We know people who are hypocrites. We know people who are frauds. We know people who have extorted others for money. We know abusers. We know all kinds of terrible people who proclaim to be Christians. And that is very difficult for the outside looking in to say, well, if Christianity is true, if Christianity is truly transformative, and if I'm better off in there than I am out here, then why doesn't in there look any better than out here? And there's a special kind of religious

hypocrisy that I think turns people off. But of course, we also understand that Christians believe in this life that we're not going to be perfect, that we are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and that we should show the fruit of the spirit and that we read in Galatians 6, but also that we understand that Christians make mistakes. And we also believe in spiritual warfare, as Ephesian 6 tells us, we believe that Satan is going to continue to try to tempt believers, partly for this very reason that the outside world looking in just sees a bunch of hypocrites and a bunch of cruel people, a bunch of people that they don't want to be like, and that they walk away. They turn their back. But the reality is, is that you follow Christianity, not for Christians,

but for Christ. That doesn't mean that the behavior of Christians doesn't matter. But you follow Christianity because you believe that it's true, because your heart has been made from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. You've been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And yes, other people's hypocrisy can seem like a hindrance, absolutely. But eternity is a really long time to pay the price for other people's hypocrisy and for other people's misbehavior. Christ is worth it. Christ is worth all of the hypocrisy that you might see by people who proclaim his name. He is worth all of the duplicity, all of the things that you may not like or approve of and the people who say that they follow him. Christ is still worth following because he is the way, the truth,

and the life. And so we don't follow Christ because we agree with all the people who say that they're a Christian. We follow Christ because he is the way the truth in the life. And we have been convicted by the Holy Spirit of that. Although I do completely understand where he's coming from, my prayer is that if it hasn't happened already that the Holy Spirit would convict Jordan Peterson of this truth, that he would be saved. And how amazing is it that possibly that God has used what has been?

It sounds like such a horrific and trying year in his life to bring Jordan Peterson to himself. And again, I think he already intellectually understands Christianity than a lot of people do. He probably knows more about the Bible than a lot of us who have been reading the Bible and believing in the Bible for a very long time do. All right, tomorrow we are going to, it's going to be a woman themed episode. And I'm super excited about it. I've been planning on this and preparing for it for a few days now. We are going to talk about what it means to be a woman. We're going to look at, well, we're not actually going to look at it. We're going to talk about the Cardi B, Megan, the Stallion dance, if you can even call it that, at the Grammys.

And you do not need to watch it. I didn't watch it. I think I watched like a few second clip. But I get the gist. I've read the stories about it. I unfortunately read some of the lyrics to the song. And we are going to talk about that. And then we're going to contrast it to what we see on the other extreme.

of what might be considered too far of an overcorrection on the other side. And we're going to see who does Jesus say that women are? Why do women matter? What does Christianity say about women? What does culture say about women? What does this mean politically? And I'm super, super excited about that episode. I know you guys are really going to like it. Also, if we have time tomorrow, I'm going to talk to a journalist about something called the Pro Act. And so the reason why I care about this is because the Pro Act greatly affects freelancers. It greatly affects entrepreneurs. It greatly affects especially independent contractors.

And so we're going to talk about that because this particular bill makes it very, very hard for freelancers, independent contractors to function. It makes it very hard to do business because this requires you basically in most scenarios to actually become an employee to provide any kind of service for money. And this is in service to the unions. They say that this is to try to protect employer rights. It's really just to empower the unions. And the reason I want to talk about that tomorrow, the reason why I think it goes

along with the theme of being a woman is because I think this disproportionately impacts women. So many freelancers in this country are moms who want to spend the majority of our time at home. but we still, you know, we either like have a hobby, like we're florists or we're photographers, we're podcasters, and we like the flexibility and the freedom that being an independent contractor gives us. And this law would make it very, very difficult for us to be able to continue to do that. It would basically require us to choose between having no job or between being employed

fully by a company and we'll explain all the ins and outs and the intricacies of that tomorrow if we get a chance. And then Thursday, I want your guys' feedback. So I've been trying to decide whether or not on Thursday we want to talk about what's going on at the border because there's a lot of troubling stuff that's going on. There have been thousands of migrants that have under the cover of the night been moved from the border to Midland, Texas, to Dallas, Texas. Boys, for example, ages 15 to 17 are apparently being held just in a convention center, like hundreds and hundreds of people, because the border is in crisis right now. Thanks to the incentives of the Biden administration, we have a surge in migrants, like something like 10,000 unaccompanied minors at the border last year,

which was significantly more than the year before and the year before that. Thanks to the liberal policies that have been touted by the Biden administration. There have been kids in cages who reportedly haven't been able to get food for days under the Biden administration. And so I want to talk about that. But I also, I also want to talk about this study that I've literally been hanging on to for weeks that talks about how liberals and conservatives see police shootings. And I want to talk about systemic racism within the police force or charges of systemic racism within the police force and whether or not the Biden administration has actually done anything in the way of this and what is true and what is not true about all of those claims in the so-called anti-racist

movement. So that's what I'm deciding between for Thursday. What's going on at the border or the subject of what's called systemic racism and police shootings and things like that, especially in light of the Derek Chauvin trial that is starting up right now. So let me know which one you guys would rather hear about. All right. I will see you guys back here tomorrow for Women Wednesday.