Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 447 | Christianity: Religion or Relationship? | Q&A

Episode Date: June 30, 2021

Today, we're answering your questions on some deeply theological topics, like reasons to believe in God and whether Christianity is actually more a relationship than a religion. --- Today's Sponsors: Patriot Mobile is offering two great offers right now: save $100 off your phone or 50% off your first two months. Go to PatriotMobile.com/ALLIE & save! Good Ranchers: know where your meat comes from & support American farmers! Go to GoodRanchers.com/ALLIE to get $20 off & free express shipping. --- Past Episode Mentioned: Ep 111: Religion or Relationship https://apple.co/3Af2jW8 --- 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, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Today we have another Q&A episode. You guys ask me a lot of great questions. In case you're new to the podcast, these are pre-recorded maternity episodes because whenever this episode is coming out, as I'm recording it, I don't know when it's coming out. I have either had a baby or I'm about to have a baby. I don't know. So I stopped recording new episodes at 38 weeks. And then after that, all of these pre-recorded episodes have come out, which includes topical episodes. They include these Q&As and they include a lot of really wonderful interviews. So stick around. There's a lot of good content that has come out in these maternity episodes and will continue to come out a lot of really good conversations. Today I'm going to answer a few of your questions, political, theological, personal. personal and we'll see how many we get through. Typically, we only get through a few. But this first question that I am going to answer is a big one. And that is, why do I believe in God? So I believe that I believe in God primarily, fundamentally, because of Ephesians 1, 4 through 5, that in love he

predestined us for adoption as sons, for the sake of our redemption, for the sake of our redemption, for the sake of his glory to graciously share in his inheritance. Ephesians 2 also talks about how we are dead in our sin, that we are sons and daughters of disobedience, that we are under the influence of Satan, whom the passage calls the Prince of the Power of the Air, who is now, the passage says, at work, continually at work, and those who do not know Christ.

But then that chapter says, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together in Christ by grace. You have been saved through faith, 8 through 9 or 8 through 10 says, but this is not your own doing. It is a gift of the Lord. It's not something that I can boast in or take credit for. And so ultimately, I believe that God calls people.

And you hear his voice. And Jesus also says that the flock knows the shepherd's voice. you know the shepherd's voice, you can't help but follow the shepherd that God has given you through grace the faith to believe in and to trust. And so I can't take any intellectual credit. I can't take any moral credit. I can't take any spiritual credit for believing in God because I believe that that belief is actually bestowed upon us. Now, God has given us the critical faculties to be able to understand not everything about God, but to be able to, through both special and general revelation, understand his ways and understand his existence. And so when I say that I believe

that God has graciously given me and millions of people the faith to believe in Him and to believe in Christ for salvation, that's not to say that I've never thought about it, that I've never asked questions, because God has given us an intellect. He's given us the ability to critically think. He's given us the capacity to have doubts and to ask really difficult questions and to wrestle through different parts of our faith. Now, this is different than deconstructing your faith. Deconstruction, faith deconstruction is this postmodern, morally relativistic idea that shuns

the idea of absolute truth and starts to break apart the different parts of Christianity, orthodox Christianity, that don't fit into. what we feel or don't fit into popular cultural dogma in what is almost always left when someone deconstructs their faith is not stronger faith, not better theology, but this random mosaic of secular ideas and religious ideas from other religions, from Christianity, but conveniently almost always fits into mainstream leftist ideology on most ideas and most moral and political issues. There's just not a biblical basis for that kind of process. That's different than asking questions. And here's the difference. Typically, when I see people deconstruct their faith, they ask questions and then they allow their

doubts to be satiated by other people or affirmed by other people who have had those doubts, but haven't actually sought the answers to those doubts and those questions in the Bible. So when we have questions about Christianity, which I think we should, because God has given. us ability to have those questions when we don't understand something in the Bible, which again, I think is part of our human nature because we're finite because we're fallible. God is infinite. So we're never going to understand everything perfectly in this life. And I'm not saying that, you know, we become infallible one day.

But in this life, like we are bound by the constraints of the limitations of our intellect and the limitations of the access of, you know, to understand. that we have as human beings. So when we have these doubts, it's important to go deeper into the truth and deeper into scripture and closer to God to get the answers to those questions. And through prayer and through the study of his word, the clarity that he gives us through scripture as a lamp to our feet and the light to our path to ask and then try to answer and grapple with these questions.

when we go to outside, you know, secular sources that are only going to affirm our doubts and tell us that we're out of step with mainstream society. Of course, what you're going to end up with is some kind of postmodern agnosticism that you slap the label of Christianity on, but no longer holds to any core tenets of Christianity and rejects the gospel as truth. So while I say that it is important to ask questions and wrestle with our doubts, is him, important also how we do that. Are we going to people who have been faithful Christians for longer than we have? Are we going to the Lord? Are we going to the gospel? Are we going to scripture? Are we going to godly mentors that have already asked these questions, have already wrestled through some of these doubts to give us godly wisdom? Or are we going to people that we know are just going to tell us that all of our

doubts are right and that actually Christianity is just antiquated and is and is bigoted and it's wrong and we should just reject most of it. But hold on it, hold on to some of it for some sense of nostalgia and some sense of comfort. And so I choose the former. And when I've chosen the former, when I've chosen to go to theologians who know more than me, who have lived longer than I have, when I choose to go to the Lord and ask him for wisdom that he promises to give, by the way, in the book of James, when I go into the word, when I go to godly older people and ask these questions, what I end up with is a kind of peace that surpasses understanding, even if I don't necessarily have clarity on every single doubt or question that I have.

So all that to say, that's the process that I encourage. you to take as well if you have questions. It's okay to have questions and doubts. Tim Keller once said, faith without doubts. It's like a body without antibodies. I think it's important to think through the questions and the doubts that we have in accordance with Scripture and what we already know to be true. So when I ask this question to myself, why do I believe in God? It's not only that I believe that he's graciously given me this faith. It's also that when I think through basic questions of where did this all come from and why are we here? And these are questions that every human being since the beginning of time has asked,

which I think actually speaks to the biblical truth that eternity has been written on the human heart. That when I think through these questions, I find at the very least the necessity for some kind of transcendent divine existence. that it doesn't make sense to me that this world and everything that is in it could come from nothing. Like even if you believe in evolution, even if you believe in the Big Bang, even if you believe that billions and billions of years ago, this cosmic accident just occurred and now we're all just living here, still wrestling with all these existential questions that human beings have for a very long time.

How did it start? where did it come from? How is it possible for things to just have existed from nothing? Like, where did it start? And your brain can't even comprehend that. And there is this theory called the God of the Gaps theory that a lot of people, in particular on the left, but a lot of so-called scientists used to say, you know, as there's more scientific discovery, there's less need for God. God is just, this idea that's used to try to fill in the gaps of what we don't know. But as there are fewer and fewer gaps, smaller and smaller gaps, then the need for belief in God will dissipate and will kind of go away. Well, that's not true. Like, we're still dealing with the most fundamental questions of human existence, of the existence of creation. Like, those gaps are not getting smaller. Sure, there are a lot of things that we have discovered that I think actually just speak to the awesomeness and the bigness and the

creativity and the intelligence of God and hasn't actually diminished my belief or need for a belief in God because we're still dealing with the most basic questions of where this all came from and why we're here and why apparently millions and millions of years later, according to some people, we're still asking those questions. Shouldn't we have evolved to the point of no longer needing to ask those questions if God really is just the God of the gaps that is getting smaller and smaller? Why are we still asking those things? Why do human beings still long for something bigger than them? Even those who are atheists have that longing for an attachment to something that is bigger,

this rise in the new age and kind of woo-woo spirituality that people are embracing today, even as they reject Christianity as superstitious shows that the human heart wants something transcendent. And so even as I'm just asking these, like very, very, I would say general, philosophical, basic questions about human beings, human nature, human existence, I can't escape this nagging feeling that there is something or someone bigger than us that had to have started it simply because I believe that there's a source. And like that there's a reason for these questions that we have, for these curiosities that all human beings have wrestled with, that there's a source for all things seen and unseen.

How do we explain all of this? How do we explain everything that exists if it all really came from nothing? And you've probably heard this phrase, I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. But truly, how do you explain the beginning of everything? And I know people have tried. I think that their arguments are very frail. And there are plenty of questions that people can ask, well, how can you believe God if X? How can you believe God if Y?

But I have way more questions about how can you not believe God if Z, for example. And I also, when I also think about human history and I think about all of the regimes, all of the governments, all of the people that have been characterized officially by atheism and how they have all. they have always led to repression. Like when I think about communist China, when I think about the communist revolutions, when I think about the totalitarian regimes that have been, that especially dominated the 20th century and how they were all functioning or officially atheistic regimes. And I see how when godlessness takes over a society, freedoms also diminish and charity diminishes and unity diminishes. And it makes me wonder, like, what is this thing about Christianity?

What is this thing about a belief in God that makes people in societies better? Not perfect, because sin is always going to exist, but better. Like, what is it about Christianity that has stuck? People say that Jesus had, you know, that he was just a copycat. There were six other people like him. Why are we still basing our calendar on this guy? Like, why have millions and millions of people just been tripping over this Jesus person if he really is just a liar or a lunatic or just a good teacher like any other good teachers who just got as I heard a popular commentator say killed for his troubles by the Romans if like he's nothing more than just a guy why are we still having some of the most heated and fundamental debates about him 2,000 years later and are

still basing our calendar on his, on his, uh, on his existence. That's a little crazy. That's, that's, that's, that's a little amazing. Like, why is it that people who have believed in this Jesus Christ? Why is it, has it been them that have started most of the hospitals in the country, most of the free societies that have existed? Again, not perfect societies, because still marred by sin. Why have they started most of the universities? Like, What is it about belief in Christ that tends to dramatically change families and hearts and cultures? And again, yes, there are hypocrites inside the church. There are people who do bad things in the name of Christianity.

Absolutely. Just as there are people who do bad things in the name of all kinds of other belief systems. But why has Christianity spread so much, so fast, had such a stronghold on the world in so many places? why is it the number one persecuted religion in the world? Why are Christians constantly used as scapegoats in so many different forms of society and so many different parts of history? Asking those questions of why Christianity seems to just be the standout in its history, I think is a good question to ask in addition to those fundamental questions

because it's not enough just to say, oh, it's just another mythological belief system that people have gotten hung up on over time. I don't think that answers the question at all. And maybe you ask those questions and you still don't come to the conclusion that it's all real. But I think it's at least important to ask. Like, why do Christians make this crazy claim? The other religions don't claim that their God became flesh and then was killed for their sins and then came back to life and conquered sin to death.

and they actually think that he's coming back and that that is going to be what satisfies our innate desire for justice and the abolition of evil, that one day he's going to take care of all evil and wickedness that exists. That's another big question that human beings tend to wrestle with that secularism can't answer. Like, who's going to do something about all the bad? Who's going to do something about all the evil? Who's going to take care of the evildoers?

The Unitarians that believe that everyone ends up in heaven, they've got Hitler there too. I'm sorry. That's just not going to settle with me. Of course, anyone who repents, anyone who God calls, anyone who believes in the name of the Lord calls upon the name of the Lord by grace through faith, no matter what their sins are, we believe is in heaven. But I need to know that something's going to be done about the evil that exists. When I think about the evil, the wickedness, the abuse that occurs to the most vulnerable people in the world, I got to know. I got to know. that there is recompense coming. Like, there is punishment coming for that.

That the righteous people in the world, the meek people in the world will win in the end. And that someone is going to take care of the bad, take care of the sin, take care of the corruption. And one day that we can actually look forward to a day when all of those things will be no more. That hope I also think is innate. And Christianity has an answer for those things. Christianity has an answer for the existence of evil, that God's patience is actually storing up more and more wrath, that he is being patient and sitting back and waiting so more people come to salvation, and he will destroy evil and evildoers forevermore. And so even that desire that we have for vengeance on the evildoer, that's even satisfied in the victory that Christianity represents in Christ Jesus.

And so when I doubt, because I do, there are things all the time that make me say, now why would God let that happen? Or is this really true? Or how can I possibly believe this? Or what about this part of the Bible? I have those questions all the time. These are the things that I also think through. A book that I do recommend on this is Reason for God by Tim Keller.

I've often recommended systematic theology by Wayne Grudem. He has a really great way of explaining things. But a reason for God by Tim Keller kind of goes through all of the skeptics questions about Christianity. And whether or not you're dealing with doubts, I really recommend that book. Mere Christianity does a great job of doing this too. Mere Christianity probably had one of the biggest impacts on my faith and my understanding of Christianity. But those two books, I think, are really helpful. I love screw tape letters too. It's not necessarily an apologetics book, but it does give you a new and a different perspective and a creative perspective on faith and the kind of,

um, and the kind of doubts that actually are a product of spiritual warfare in some sense. And it kind of gives you the tools to combat that. And so those are three resources that I recommend when you're asking these questions. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity and

reality itself. on the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this Steve Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts.

I hope you'll join us. let's see next question is what a burger or in and out what a burger my husband hates what a burger um but i think it's pretty good it just takes a long time takes a long time to get anything i can't say that i go to what a burger very much in high school we would go after like football games and get something that's called a honey butter chicken biscuits honey butter chicken biscuit a What a burger is really good. It's not as good as the Chick-fil-A chicken biscuit. Chick-fil-A would do well to do a honey-butter chicken biscuit because they could probably do better

at it than Whata-Burger. But the honey-butter chicken biscuit was something that we would get after football games, you know, back when you're in high school and, like, you don't have a metabolism and things like that don't matter. And you can eat to honey-butter chicken biscuits and then just sit down for 12 hours and nothing happens to you. Today, if you look at a honey-butter chicken biscuit and you're coming up on 30, like I am, then you gain 50 pounds in five minutes. So things change. But all that to say,

what a burger. Like I feel like I need to say it. I feel like I need to say what a burger is better than in and out because I'm from Texas. But honestly, in and out has way better service. Smaller hamburgers, but way better service. It's a Christian owned. company and it has very Chick-fil-A-like service. That's another thing. Christian-owned companies almost always have really good work ethic and really good customer relations. So it's a little bit difficult. What a burger does not have good service. They have terrible service. Those people hate their lives. But the people who work at Chick-fil-A and the people who work in and out, they do a good job. And so I might have to go, I might actually have to go with in-and-out strictly for the customer

service but better food i think at what a burger um next question what have you enjoyed most about this pregnancy well it's gone by a lot more quickly than my last pregnancy i haven't been as in as much like physical pain this pregnancy and if you've never been pregnant you're like oh my gosh what's wrong with you why do you have physical pain when you're pregnant hearty har har har there's a lot of physical pain that comes with pregnancy and not anything like i haven't ever had any thankfully think the lord haven't had any kind of complications or anything like that or any kind of trouble with my pregnancies. It's just the normal aches and pains, like hip pain, back pain, all of that kind of stuff, restless leg syndrome when

you're trying to fall asleep. There's a lot of physical ailments that come with pregnancy. I'm not complaining. I, like, I am so thankful for my ability to bear children. I'm so thankful for my children. I'm so thankful for the gift of being pregnant. Right now, as I'm speaking now, I'm almost 38 weeks. And this is the point if you've been pregnant where you're like, oh my gosh, I have been pregnant for 68 years. And you are just kind of over all of the symptoms that come with it. And plus, like you start to really like swell at this stage.

There's a lot of discomfort that comes with it. It's not complaining about pregnancy, though. It is, it's the just anticipating and the wanting the baby to actually be. be here that you're feeling at this point. So I don't want it to seem like I'm a negative Nancy about pregnancy. It's just at this point, you're like, oh my gosh, I really want the baby to actually be here and no longer be pregnant because you're carrying around like this human being that is now large in your stomach. And it's just, it's just a lot. So I would say my favorite part of this pregnancy is that it's gone by quickly. And that I have been, I've had a little bit more

comfort. I'll give you some advice if you are pregnant. I highly recommend a chiropractor. I did a chiropractor in my last pregnancy, but not until like 36 weeks. That was too late. I've done a chiropractor this time from about, I don't know, it might have even been like 25 weeks, or maybe 28 weeks. It was pretty early on that I started going to the chiropractor. I also got a physical therapist, this pregnancy to kind of help me, you know, with different stretches and different movements and things like that to try to alleviate the pain and get ready for labor and all of that. And so I think now as I'm saying this, I don't know if that stuff is going to help me in labor, but I do know that it has helped me, I think, with being more comfortable and not being in quite as much pain. So I do, I recommend

those two things. If you can swing it and if you're pregnant, especially if this is like a second pregnancy, a lot of people say they're more miserable and their subsequent pregnancies after their first, I recommend a chiropractor. I recommend a PT if you feel like you need one. A pelvic floor therapist, a lot of women really benefit from that in their pregnancy, and especially in postpartum. I've also been, you know, you're just more active too when you have a toddler rather than in your first pregnancy when you're not chasing after another child.

And so that can either help things or hurt things. I think for me it's actually helped things. So, yeah, I guess. those have been kind of my favorite parts of this pregnancy at this point, ready for, ready to have the child's earth side, though. Lots of food questions. Salty or sweets? What's your favorite of each? So the first thing that comes to mind when I see the word salty is pretzels. I don't like pretzels. Like I've never liked pretzels. I just think that they're gross. So I don't know why that comes to mind. That's not my favorite thing. I love chips and guacamole,

if that counts as salty, something that's sweet. I love peanut butter. So anything like Reese or something like that I really like. But I also really like cream cheese type thing. So I love cheesecake. That's probably my favorite dessert or anything with like cream cheese icing. That's probably my favorite. I've also been really just craving sugar these past few weeks,

which is not good for you. It's not good for you. But just being perfectly honest. Ooh, this is a good question. Is Christianity a religion or a relationship? So we've actually done a podcast on this. And we'll try to link it in the description. It's, I think I've answered this question. I'm not saying that you should have already known this because this is an old podcast episode. But I think the title is like religion or relationship or something like that. Because I hear this a lot, that it's not a religion. But the book of James says that pure religion is serving the orphan

in serving the widows. And so I don't think it's actually accurate to say that Christianity isn't a religion. The word religion gets a bad rap. It is kind of, people think it's synonymous with legalism, but it's not. Like if the Bible tells us that there is a pure religion that comes from a pure heart and sincere love that is inspired by the Holy Spirit, which is our down payment, which is our helper, as Christians as people who follow Christ, then I would say that there is a way to regard religion as pure and holy and good and as Christianity as that kind of religion.

Do not allow the world's definition of words to define how you define Christianity. And so the world has a problem with this word religion. The Bible doesn't have a problem with this word religion. Christians shouldn't have a problem with this word religion. it depends on how you're defining it. And the Book of James defines it for us. And so it's okay for us to say, yes, Christianity is a religion. But it is more than just a religion.

It's not just a list of rules. It's not just a list of regulations or restrictions. It is a relationship with the God of the universe that has been made possible through the death and the resurrection of his only son, that Jesus is our intercessor, that through His, him, we have access with confidence because of our faith with him or in him. And so we, as naturally unholy people, have been made holy, have been made righteous by grace through faith in Christ. And therefore, we are spotless. Our slate is clean. We have been completely forgiven of all of our

imperfections and sins. And we can come before with confidence at the throne of the holy God, the creator and the sustainer of the universe. We have a reliance. We have a relationship with him, we get to call him father. He calls us his children. That's an amazing miracle that I don't see displayed in other religions. And so, yes, it is something, I would say, more than traditionally what we understand religion to be. It is a relationship with a holy God that's not possible because of anything we bring to the table, but because of what God did for us through Christ. So again, don't allow the world's negative connotations of something. or negative definitions of something to change our definitions or our perspectives of something.

I see the church do this a lot when it comes to justice or when it comes to the definition of sin or holiness, trying to appease the world and make Christianity more palatable, more secular, more cultural so that, I don't know, you avoid cancellation or you make people comfortable. That's not what we're called to do. Things are what they are according to scripture. and if that causes people discomfort, we actually believe that that's natural in a sense and good because we don't worship the same God. And so why should you be comfortable or why should you agree with all of my definitions of everything if mine is informed by my belief in God and your definitions are informed

by your disbelief in God or your belief in another so-called God? And so, yes, I hope that answers your question. a religion and a relationship. Okay, I think we've got time for one or two more questions. Let's see. Someone says, how do we do proper exegesis and not isa-jesus? So I'm not a preacher. I'm not a pastor.

And so there are a lot of really wonderful resources on this. However, I think just a simple answer is making sure that if we are reading our Bibles, we are reading the text and we are asking ourselves some questions like who wrote this, who was it written to? What was the context? Like what was going on historically at the time? What does the rest of scripture say about this? If we see a verse that's confusing or we need more clarity on, the rest of scripture

can very often inform us of, inform us of the, of the, of the, the, the, the, the, the, clarity that we need and can offer answers to our confusion. And so when we're reading the Bible, we ask those questions. Then we ask, what does this mean? Not what does this want? What do I want this to mean? Or how can I make this about me? How can I center myself in the biblical narrative? How can I make myself the star of the show? How can I make this specifically about this specific situation that I want it to be about. Those are not the questions that we answer. We ask, what does this actually mean?

And yes, that will have some kind of personal application. It may tell you a sin that you need to repent of, something that you need to pray about, something that you need to pray for. It might call you to obedience in a certain answer that applies to a particular situation that you're in. It might speak to a particular worry or a particular concern or particular fear that you have. Yes, we can draw those. personal applications from the Bible, but we are not superimposing our meaning or our desires

or ourselves onto the text to get it to mean what we want it to mean. It also means that we don't use the Bible as a magic eight ball. And so we're not saying, okay, like, whatever this verse is my life verse, or whatever this verse is what I'm supposed to do today or what I'm supposed to speak to. Now, I'm not saying that God can never use that, but that is a form of mysticism. That's not actually how we are told to read the Bible or to seek God. That is, again, this kind of relying on some mysterious, superstitious force that is going to guide us to just the right answer. We just don't need that. Like, we don't need that. That is what a magic eight ball is for. that is what superstition is for, but that's not how we have to read the Bible.

Like we can just read the Bible plainly in order asking God for wisdom and he will give us wisdom through His Holy Spirit and through His Word by asking those questions, what does this text say? What's the original meaning of these words? What is the context? What does the rest of Scripture say? And what does this actually mean? Now, is there any application that I can take from the scripture into my life and ultimately always believing in holding on to the fact that if we disagree with scripture, scripture's right.

And again, systematic theology by Wayne Grudom can help you answer a lot of these questions. I love the ESV study Bible. It's kind of expensive, but it's totally worth it. I had mine for 10 years. I now use the John McArthur Study Bible. And I really like it as well. the ESV study Bible is just a little bit more comprehensive. It has a ton of, has a ton of really good resources in it and a lot of good answers to a lot of questions that you might have. I also have

a Greek and Hebrew study Bible. And so if I want to know the original word or the original word used for a particular phrase that I see translated, then I can use that. And I go into the back and I say, okay, this is the original Greek or this is the original Hebrew. Here's what it means. Here's where it's used in the rest of the Bible. This helps me understand what this verse is actually saying and what the author actually meant. You don't have to do that every time you read the Bible, but it's helpful in general to answer a lot of the questions that you have.

And you don't have to understand everything you read, by the way, when you read the Bible. I don't. There are passages that I've heard a thousand times and I find something new. And that's okay. Like that's beautiful. That's a part of sanctification. That's a part of like the joy and the mystery and the pursuit of the Lord and of his word. And it's a lifelong endeavor. And God gives us the grace and the perseverance and the wisdom to be able to do that to his glory. All right. I think that's all that we have time for

today. Thank you guys so much for your questions. We'll be back here soon. Hey, this is Steve Deist. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular.

This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this Steve Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.