Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 49 | Christians' Theological Confusion

Episode Date: October 25, 2018

After a brief news update, we dive into to a new study by Lifeway Ministries, "The State of Theology," which analyzes the various theological views of evangelical and non-evangelical Americans.  Copyright CRTV. All rights reserved.

Hello, friends. Welcome to Relatable. It's Thursday. That means that the week is almost over. You have almost made it. And that means that Halloween is next week. And then it's November and then it's Thanksgiving and then it's Christmas and then it's the end of the year. And I just can't believe it. 2018 is probably the year that is gone by the fastest for me. I just cannot wrap my mind around the fact that January was almost a year ago. And then I started this podcast at the beginning of the year or in March basically. I cannot, I cannot wrap my tiny little mind around that. It's amazing to me. But I'm really excited about the holidays. We're actually, like I said, on Tuesday, enjoying a fall. And I'm excited about Halloween too. I know Christians have mixed reviews about Halloween.

When I was growing up, we never decorated for Halloween. My mom wouldn't let us. I think the scariest thing that she let me put outside was maybe like a carved jackal anardard. And maybe, maybe one time she let me put out like a fake spider web. but we were only allowed to decorate for fall, not Halloween, and I was never allowed to be anything scary. One time she let me be a witch, but I had to be like a pretty witch, like a cute witch. I couldn't be a scary witch. My husband was raised the exact same way. I think it's hilarious. Our parents who are so similar growing up, which has been a great thing for us. But it's just so funny to look back at some of the stuff that our parents didn't allow us to do or made us do. I don't know how you guys feel about dressing up for

Halloween, if you think it's just harmless, if you think it's, you know, the state of your heart, or if you think it's this hedonistic, terrible thing that we should avoid at all costs. Either way, I think I understand the position. I still like Halloween. I actually think that it's a good ministry opportunity, maybe. Like last year, for example, we sat on our porch and I think I dressed up as like a 70s person or something like that. And we met all of these people and all of these families that we had known.

never met before and we got to talk to them and it was it was really fun you could even put on your little um on your uh little candies that you hand out like little um pieces of paper with scripture on it or with the gospel on it like that could be a really great way to minister to people and kind of redeem what is otherwise perhaps a pagan quote holiday could be a good opportunity for some hospitality and for some evangelism. You never know. This year, sadly, we are not going to, I'm not going to be in town for Halloween. It really makes me sad, but I'm going to be doing something fun. I'm going to be going to an Ed Sharon concert, which is cool. My brother really likes Ed Sharon. And so my husband and I are going to take him to that. I am kind of like, I don't really care about Ed Sharon, but I've heard

that he's really great in concert. So we're going to be going to be here on Halloween. Last year, We have a black cat. You guys probably know. Her name is Rachel McKadams. And my husband came up with that. I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't. She sat in the window when we were on the front porch handing out candy. And everyone thought that she was a decoration.

And this one little girl freaked out because my cat moved and she didn't realize it was a real cat. So this year, sadly, we won't be able to experience that. But maybe we'll leave out some candy or something like that. Anyway, that's not what we're talking about today. Today we are going to talk about this study that came out by Lifeway Research and Legioneer. I think that's maybe how you say it, Leisure Ministries, that was called the State of Theology. So they asked evangelicals and non-evangelicals in America a few theological questions or they gave them a theological statement. And then the evangelicals, some of them, not evangelicals and some of the questions answered whether they strongly agreed, strongly disagreed or

somewhere in between. And so we're going to talk about that and the implications for that, what that means about the American Church and where we are and how we understand who God is and who we are in relation to him. First, I want to talk about some news just for a second. So in case you guys didn't hear yesterday, there were suspicious items that were possibly explosive devices that were found in the vicinity of Hillary and Bill Clinton's home. Apparently there was one also sent to CNN. There was also one possibly sent to Barack Obama's house. And then a few days ago, there was one apparently in the mailbox of George Soros's home.

Now, how the heck that happened? All of these people are millionaires. George Soros is a billionaire. How this could have happened? I'm not really sure. I guess it could have been by mail some kind of mysterious package. I don't really know. But it's scary.

Nonetheless, I condemn any act of. terrorism or violence that is not ever a justified means of communicating your political disagreement, ever. I don't care if they're politicians that I don't agree with or I don't like. I still don't want them to be terrorized. I don't want them to be murdered. I don't want them to be threatened. I don't want their lives to be not secure. However, okay, so this is going to make me sound like a little bit.

I shouldn't even say, however. There's no however to that. And this is going to make me sound a little bit like a conspiracy theorist. And I'm just going to go ahead and acknowledge that I have no proof for what I'm about to say. It just all seems very suspicious. Like why were explosive devices sent to these people's homes at the time that it was? Now, a lot of people are saying this is a leftist hit job and they're just trying to blame it on the right to make it look like we're the violent ones. I don't know that that's true.

I have no evidence that that's true whatsoever. So once we get the police report after they investigate this, maybe we'll know a little bit more clearly. If it is someone on the left, we'll probably never hear about it. I'm not saying that this is someone on the left trying to frame someone on the right. But I am saying it just is a little bit weird. Like it just doesn't seem to fit altogether, especially like right before the midterms. I don't know.

I don't know. I honestly don't know the answer. all I'm saying is that I'm a little bit skeptical of this whole thing. Regardless, whether it was someone on the right or the left, someone who's apolitical, someone who has a personal beef with these people, it's wrong. It's wrong no matter what, whether it was from, no matter what the motive was. It is wrong. And I am sorry for all of these people, no matter how much I do disagree with them. George Soros, of course, we know not just in a conspiracy way, but he really is behind a lot of the progressive movement. Open society, for example, is an organization that is funded by George Soros,

and it advocates openly for open borders for the free migration of people from nation to nation. He is behind so much of leftism. He does pay protesters. That's not, again, that's not a conspiracy. Now, I do think that it's kind of dumb for us to constantly blame George Soros for everything. He's surely not behind every movement of the left. That's just ridiculous. And his name has now been associated with kind of tinfoil hats. But, I mean, he is responsible for much of the progressive movement and the activism and the mobilization and the funding of the leftist movement.

And even so, even though he's someone that I think has done a lot of damage to our culture through his funding and through his backing, I don't want him to be murdered. I don't want his family to be threatened. That just shouldn't be who we are as Americans. Now, of course, immediately when this comes out, the media is so predictable. People on Twitter are so predictable. You have people automatically saying that this is President Trump's fault. That because he talks about how CNN is fake news and how fake news is the enemy of the people, that he demeans the Clintons. He, I don't know if he's ever talked about George Soros,

but his supporters have probably talked about how evil George Soros is. They've talked badly about Barack Obama because he's done these things, because he's so, quote, divisive that this is all his fault. You have a plethora of blue check marks saying this on Twitter, like this is legitimate analysis. But of course, when it comes to violence that is perpetrated on the left, oh, well, you know, it's either that they don't say anything or, well, you know, who can blame them? Who can blame them? They're just frustrated. As Chris Cuomo said, you know, you can't antify for example, they're not as bad as the people that they're protesting, even though, you know, they use violence, even though they cause chaos, even though they're facilitating and causing

anarchy, you know, they're not as bad as the people that they're protesting because the people that they're protesting are bigots. You see this kind of talk on the left when it comes to Antifa, when it comes to the extremists, when it comes to the shouting down of conservatives on college campuses, you don't hear progressives condemning that, typically. I'm not saying there are no progressives that do, but typically you don't hear progressives saying that that's bad, that we shouldn't be silencing people, we shouldn't be bullying people, we shouldn't be doxing people, we shouldn't be harassing people. You say, no, well, you know, it kind of makes sense. These are divisive times. I mean, we had Hillary Clinton just a couple weeks ago in an interview say that we can't be civil, that the

left shouldn't be civil because this administration is, you know, causing so much harm and it's trying to undo all of the wonderful things that progressives have done. She said that we should be uncivil. Of course, Eric Holder said that when we go low, when conservatives, I guess, go low, that they should kick us. Now, that is a metaphor, of course. I don't think he means physically kick, but he's trying to say, we're going to play dirty. Barack Obama had a plethora of divisive statements when he was present talking about fighting the political enemies. Of course, again, metaphorically. But he constantly dehumanized. the people on the right by saying that we're just his, we're just the ones that are trying to oppose

progress. We're just the ones that are holding America back. So you're saying that this president is more divisive than the last president? That's not true. The numbers don't show that. Maxine Waters encouraging harassment, encouraging people to get in their faces. That's another thing that the left to get in conservative faces. That's another thing that Barack Obama has said. The left has said that conservatives and people in the administration shouldn't be able to eat dinner in peace. So you're saying that it's the right that's encouraging violence? And look, I am not, I'm not blaming the left for the violence that we've seen, or I'm not blaming everyone on the left. I'm not blaming Maxine Waters for every bad thing that the left has ever perpetrated.

But I am saying if you're going to automatically blame Donald Trump and conservatives for this bomb threat that we have seen against the Clintons and Obama and Soros, then you need to be fair. You also need to be blaming the people on the left who are actually directly calling for violence, unlike conservatives. Now, I've said before, I do not think even though the left is so mob-like right now, so unhinged, so off their rocker when it comes to all of this, I do not think conservatives should stoop to that level. I don't think that we should be violent. I don't think that we should be immoral. I understand people saying, oh, we should fight fire with fire. I disagree with that. Conservatism and morality go hand in hand because we believe in self-governance.

Self-governance is not possible without a moral, virtuous, and compassionate people. If we devolve into anarchy, then I guarantee you big government is going to win. Small government is not going to win out in a country that is torn apart by tribalism and has, like I said, devolved into anarchy. It's just not going to work. Conservatives don't need to stoop to that level. I know it's difficult. I know. it is. So if these really were conservatives that planted these bombs, it's absolutely wrong and it should be condemned. But it shouldn't be treated like on the left. Like this is some exclusively conservative issue. It's not. And plus, conservatism and violence do not go hand in hand. Progressivism and Marxism have historically gone hand in hand. So it's not our ideology that is to

blame like it is on the left. Now there are some bad actors, but conservatism has not been perpetuated by violence like Marxism has. So like let's just put that differentiation out. And to say that we are the hyperbolic ones, that we have the apocalyptic language is absolutely ridiculous. If you've ever read an email from the women's march, you will see how everything is the end of the world. Nancy Pelosi said that tax cuts are going to be, they're going to be Armageddon, I think,

is what she said. We heard that once we repealed the Obamacare mandate that 24 million people were going to die. That was a lie. We heard that when Kavanaugh was going to go on the Supreme, or if he was confirmed to the Supreme Court, that women were going to be getting coat hanger abortions and alleys. They make up these lies to incite outrage. That's exactly what we saw with the Kavanaugh thing. And then when someone reacts to that outrage with something crazy and violent like harassing Nancy Pelosi or doing this horrible, terrible act of planning bombs, then they say, oh, it's the right.

it's conservatives they're the ones that are crazy here no no no no no call out your own crazy you can call out crazy on the other side that's fine but call out your own crazy first don't say that your crazy is justified but any craziness that you see on the right which by the way has not reached the levels that we've seen on the left that that that you see on the right is terrible awful everything that's wrong with this country and everything that's wrong with conservatism just be honest so those are my thoughts about all of the violence that we're seeing violence is not the answer. It's not the answer. We have to stop dehumanizing the other side as categorically evil. I've said that multiple times on this podcast, while I vehemently, passionately disagree with leftism and leftist,

while I think that they are so unhinged and so emotional in so many ways, and they're just so wrong on almost everything. Even though I think that with all of my heart, I do not see them as evil simply for disagreeing with me. evil people on the left? Yes, they're evil people on the right too, even though I might disagree or agree with their ideas. But I do not dehumanize them as Nazis, as all generally horrible people that are on the wrong side of history that have to be defeated at all costs. No, I think their ideas are bad. And I want to defeat their ideas. If we lose the ability to defeat ideas and we just go after people, again, we don't have an argument for conservatism because that's what conservatism is based on. That's what America is based on.

was based on an idea. That idea is self-governance. Self-governance is not possible without morality and decency. Okay, that is my spiel on that, which took up a lot of time. So I guess I'll go semi-quically through this statement on theology. So state of theology, like I said, that was just a very quick transition. I didn't even try to make it smooth at all. A study by Lifeway Research and Legionaire Ministries. So it examines evangelicals. Some of these questions are for evangelicals, these next few questions that I'm going to read. And then they ask evangelicals whether they agree or disagree. This study defines evangelicals as Christians with a great concern for the gospel. So in my mind, it doesn't actually say this in the study. We're talking about

not just nominal Christians. So not Christians in name only. We're not talking about Christer Christians, Christians that only go to church on Christmas and Easter. Evangelicals typically mean practicing Christians, Christians who go to church, who read their Bible, who probably go to Bible study. Again, it doesn't say all of those qualifications in this study. But typically, that's what evangelical means. Evangelical means Protestant, and it means a variety of denominations within Protestantism. Typically, I wouldn't say that that includes Episcopalian and then some of the more fringe and liberal denominations in Christianity.

Maybe it does. Maybe it's on an individual basis. I don't know. Evangelical has become a very political term in this sense. I am talking about not nominal Christians, but Christians who believe they have a relationship with Christ, who study the Bible, who go to church, who are active in the Christian community. So here's the first statement, and this is quite a troubling one. So this is the statement that they gave. Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature. Fifty-two percent said yes. to everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.

That's just not true. That's not what the Bible tells us. Romans 311 says none is righteous, no, not one. We know that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. 52%. The majority of evangelicals that were pulled said that people are good by nature. No, we are not. You have to teach people to be good.

You don't have to teach your little kid to steal blocks from his brother. You don't have to teach them to lie. you don't have to teach them to be disrespectful. We are born bad. Now, do we have goodness within us in that God gives us common grace? And then we do have a feeling of maybe compassion or empathy towards our fellow man. I believe that God can give us that, but those are God given things. Naturally, we are absolutely corrupt. Romans 311 and other verses throughout scripture confirm that, that we are sinful in our mother's womb. There is another state. God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. So pluralism here.

God accepts the worship of all religions. Fifty one percent of evangelicals agreed with that. 51 percent of evangelical Christians. The majority of Christians apparently think that you don't actually have to be a Christian for God to accept your worship, that he actually accepts the worship of any religion. Okay. Well, John 146, we know, says that I am the way, the truth, the life that no one comes to the Father except through me. Not a single person has access to God except through Jesus Christ. So this idea that God accepts the worship of all religions is not based on the Bible. And as an evangelical, you should be basing your beliefs or your religious beliefs on the Bible. Next statement. God counts a person as righteous, not because of

of one's works, but because of one's faith in Jesus Christ. 81% agreed. Okay, that's great. That is biblical, but it contradicts some of the other statements. I mean, we already said, or some evangelicals, the majority of evangelicals already said that people are pretty good, even though we sin a little. And then we are also saying that a person is righteousness, not as righteous, not by what they do, but because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

So we're good on this whole grace thing. On the one hand, though, we don't believe humans are all that bad or that our badness condemns us, which it does. We believe that Jesus needs to save us, though. It makes no sense from a theological perspective, but it does make sense from a worldly relativistic perspective, this idea of moral relativism that has infiltrated every segment of society. That's exactly what we are seeing throughout the study, that Americans are convinced by relativism, evangelicals and non-evangelicals alike. This idea that your truth is your truth,

my truth is mine, and we're all going to get saved by Jesus in the end, and it's fine. That's a very easy and convenient way to think. It's a very loving, sounding way to think that in the end, God's just going to accept everyone. And as long as there is some kind of faith out there, we're all going to be fine. Ninety-seven percent of evangelicals believe in the triune God. So again, that is good. Father, son, Holy Spirit, three and one. And yet another contradiction. And yet, 73% of evangelicals believe that Jesus was the first and greatest being that God created. So they believe in the trium God, God 97%, 3 and 1, great. And yet 73% a large majority believe that Jesus was the first and greatest being that God created. No, no. He was not. If he is one with God,

He was not created by God. John 1, 1 through 3, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. And it was life and the life was the light of men. That's pretty clear that if the Word is Jesus, which we know it is in John 1 and the Word is God, and the Word was with God in the beginning,

then there was no God came before Jesus and then made him. He is God. He was with God. Now, that might not be something that we understand, but it's true. There's lots of things that we don't understand because we're finite and God is infinite. There are statements given also to the general population of Americans, not just evangelicals. So here's one of those statements. Even the smallest sin deserves damnation. Sixty-nine percent of people that were pulled disagree with that. that even the smallest sin deserves damnation. Now, I want you to think about that. Do you believe that even the smallest sin deserves damnation? That sounds extremely fire and brimstone. It sounds extremely scary. It sounds extremely judgmental. But if you are a Christian,

you have to know logically and theologically that, yes, it does. Even the smallest sin deserves damnation, even the smallest sin condemns us to hell. If it doesn't, then you are saying a human being could avoid hell without Christ, because theoretically, someone could just live their lives, just making these little tiny sins, maybe like a white lie here, or maybe they thought a bad thought about someone there. And that person, according to the majority of people in the study, 69% of people, they could get to heaven because you're not damned to hell by small sins, apparently. If that's the case, if humans are able to get to heaven by not really sinning that badly, then surely Jesus wouldn't have had to come to die, right? Like, surely God wouldn't have

sent his only son to die a gruesome death on a cross just so we could manage our behavior and get to heaven ourselves, right? No. We needed Jesus his sacrifice. That's what the Bible tells us, because every single one of us is completely detached from God without him. We're completely depraved, we're completely hopeless. Ephesians 2 says that we are dead in sin, that we're dead men walking, that we don't have any life with Christ, that we're not reconciled to God at all. We have no ability to get to God on our own. I don't care how good we are. This also goes back, though, to a misunderstanding that people have about who God is. Most Americans probably don't believe, I would say, judging from this poll, that God is holy.

And they might say that he is, but what they mean by that would probably not be biblical, according to this. Holy meaning that he is perfect, that he is without any stain or flaw or sin. I think people think about God too much like a man. And of course, God is Jesus. Jesus was fully man. But I think we think about him in the human sense of having sinful flaws. And that's wrong. As a holy perfect being, he is not going to be united with.

something that is unholy or flawed or sinful. That is why in the Old Testament they offered sacrifices as a propitiation for their sins, why the priest had to perform rituals before going into the Holy of Holies. They had to wear certain things, perform certain sacrifices. And then Jesus came in the New Testament to become that sacrifice, to become those rituals for us to enter into the Holy of Holies on our behalf so we could have full access to God without having to do all of the things that they did in the Old Testament. It's not that God in the New Testament suddenly stopped caring about sin. It's that his wrath, still kindling, is satisfied by Christ's sacrifice, an eternal sacrifice that is fully a thousand percent sufficient for all who confess their sins

and believe in Christ is their Savior. The next statement is religious belief is a matter of personal opinion, not objective truth. 60 percent of the Americans pulled, not just evangelicals, agree with that. I'm not really surprised by this, because, again, relativism, this idea of postmodernism, which really is centered on relativism, says that absolute truth does not exist. But there's so much cognitive dissonant, so much hypocrisy in being a person who says that absolute truth does not exist, because the statement that absolute truth does not exist is an absolute truth. So you know that there's no absolute truth and you know that absolutely.

And also, everyone actually believes in an absolute truth or else you wouldn't believe what you believe. You only believe what you believe because you believe that it is true. That's like when people say, oh, this so-and-so always thinks they're right. Well, of course, everyone always thinks they're right. You don't think thoughts or have beliefs or have values that you think are wrong. Now, they might be wrong, but you believe that they are true. And if you're honest with yourself, you believe that everyone would be. better off if they have the same kind of values that you do. You disagree with people that don't think

the same way you do. Now, you might not confront them. You might not argue with them. You might not say that you're better than them, but you believe the way that you do because you believe that what you believe is true. So, sure, you might say what's fine for you is fine for you. What's fine for me is fine for me. But that's really just apathy. You don't want to come across as judgmental or confrontational. But the fact is, you believe it is true. Plus, every sane person believes in a higher moral law, that there are some absolute truths that if they are denied, they're punishable. There is a consequence for contradicting things that should be true. For example, the innocent life should be protected. So murder is wrong. Now,

Of course, we have differentiations in what is life when it comes to things like abortion. But most people, including like the UN, we believe that murdering an innocent person is wrong, that stealing is wrong, that cheating is bad. Now, like I said, a lot of these things get more and more muddy. But in general, the world believes this. That's why we call human rights violations, human rights violations, that there is a universal definition of what that is. Why do we believe in a higher moral law, one if there is no God, but also if there's no absolute

truth? So again, there's just a lot of hypocrisy and people who say that there's no absolute truth. You can be an open-minded person and still know that there is objective truth out there. For example, like I could say, I don't know that all of my opinions about theology or about politics are objectively true. Now, again, I would not believe them if I didn't think they were true, but I don't know if they're objectively true. Maybe someone will come along and convince me otherwise or persuade me in another direction. But that doesn't mean that I don't believe in objective truth. I believe that objective truth is out there. Now, I also recognize my inability to always match everything I believe with that objective truth. But I believe in objective

truth and I believe that it is our goal to get as close as we can to that truth. And that's impossible without the Holy Spirit. So next statement, even 32% or this is not really a statement, I'm just telling you, 32% of evangelicals believe that their religious beliefs are not objectively true. My question is, why are you a Christian? Why not just like have another hobby? Why not just be a happy agnostic if you don't believe that Christianity is true, but you call yourself a Christian?

So here is an interesting one. This is given to all respondents, so not just evangelicals. The Bible's condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn't apply today. that was the statement that they had to agree with or disagree with. 44% agree. 41% disagree. That's interesting. So the majority of people in this case, or 44% of people in this case, believe that the condemnation of homosexual behavior found in the Bible doesn't actually apply today.

That for whatever reason, it was just back then. It doesn't apply anymore. But 41% disagree with that. So 41% of respondents, not just evangelicals, just Americans, believe, that the condemnation of homosexuality found in the Bible still applies today. That's interesting. Because the media would have us believe that everyone is fine with gay marriage. Everyone's fine with homosexuality.

And that if, well, if you don't agree with that, then you're just this horrible, horrible bigot. But the fact of the matter is, a lot of people seem to have conservative Christian values on this, despite what Hollywood, the media and the left is telling us. Another surprising one, 52% of respondents, again, not just evangelicals, 52% of American respondents said that they agree that abortion is a sin. So that's the majority of people pulled. Again, the media would have us believe that it's only us random, fringe people that just believe in shoving evangelical Christianity down your throat that believes that abortion is a sin,

that we're just these backwoods people that would rather women die in child, birth, that we're just these people that have no brains, but we're dying off soon. That's not true. 52% of people think that abortion is a sin. That is, that's pretty amazing. And gosh, they are doing their damnedest to make sure that you feel like you are a freak, that you hate women, that you are backwards if you believe that abortion is wrong or abortion should be stopped or abortion should be regulated at all.

But just keep in mind that you. you are in the majority. You're in the majority. It's them that are weird and them that are wrong. By the way, interesting findings among millennials, some surprising, some not. Millennials are actually more likely today to believe in Jesus for salvation or to say that they believe in Jesus for salvation than they were two years ago. The majority also believe are the ones that were pulled. That ultimate judgment of God is going to be here at the end of time. But they are, they isn't we, but I don't want to include myself in this. they are most liberal on views of homosexuality and gender identity.

The study shows that millennials do not believe what God's word says about homosexuality and gender. They don't believe that it applies today. They believe that it's fine. Again, that part is not really surprising. Millennials have been completely plagued and pervaded with progressivism, our entire lives, especially our entire adult lives. we don't like to be inconvenienced. We don't like to be confrontational. We don't like for things to be awkward. We don't want people to think that we're judgmental. We want to be so tolerant, so loving, so open-minded, so accepting, that we really don't want to say that something is bad. Now, to say that we believe in Jesus for salvation and even that he's coming back to judge the world is something that's a little bit more detached for us. Like we can kind of just say, oh, well, Jesus is going to judge us at the end of time. But I don't really want to say that something like homosexuality,

is a sin or that transgenderism is wrong. That's very typical, that's very typical millennial. So what is all of this say? What is all of this imply? I think it says one good thing. Americans, it seems, are more Christian and more conservative in our views than the left in the media would like us to believe. Christians still and Americans still have biblical ethics in a lot of ways. Now, our theology is off as well. But in general, We have generally Christian biblical ethics, almost half still believe homosexuality is a sin. The majority believe that abortion is the sin. These subjects, we are told over and over again, are settled, that these are good things.

These are sacraments. They should be fully embraced by modern society as moral. That anyone who doesn't agree is some kind of extremist on the fringes of society. That's just not true. There's a large portion of Americans, Republicans, and Democrat probably, that would say that they do. still have a biblical view of the world. Now, that said, this study also shows that Christians and Americans are deeply confused, theologically. And the biggest thing to me is that evangelicals and non-evangelicals both have a very wrong and very unbiblical perspective of human beings and

God. They see humans as not all that bad. And God as someone who doesn't really care that much about sin. The Bible, though, couldn't have a more different message than what evangelicals believe. The entire story of the Bible is about a perfect, holy, loving, and, yes, wrathful, jealous God and his faithfulness to his people through redemption. The redemption that we see throughout the Bible in the Old Testament and in the New Testament through Jesus would not be necessary if God weren't perfect and if people weren't sinful. The entire story of the Bible and the story that continued after the Bible was written is about the amazing miracle of God's justified anger being satisfied by the death of his sinless and willing son, Jesus. I guarantee,

I guarantee you that God would not have sacrificed his son if we weren't in the dire need of that sacrifice. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That is the miracle of the world. That is the miracle of the gospel and it would not be necessary if people weren't bad and God weren't holy. God is so loving, is so gracious, is so merciful, is so perfect, and we are not. And to fill in that gap between perfect and depraved is Jesus, our intercessor. But, as we've seen through this poll, that reality, the reality that we need an intercessor is really uncomfortable because that means that we're sinful. That means some people are not saved, are not interstessor, are not intercessor.

he did for that Jesus, we would rather say that Jesus is just kind of like this small part of this whole thing, that he's just kind of an option, that he was just a good example for us. We don't want to talk about why he actually came because, you know, it's no big deal. We're all just going to end up fine in the end. And it would be a lot easier if that were the case, but it's not in souls are at stake if we get that wrong. Theology is so important. People who say that, oh, no, I've, I've had.

a friend who has said, you know, theology is not, is, is not that important. What, what's important is your personal relationship with God and your personal communication with God. Of course, your personal relationship with God is important. Of course, your communication with God is important. But if your communication with God and your view of God is not based on proper theology as is found in His Word, then you're going to be sadly mistaken about a lot of things that have eternal implications. Your own soul is at stake. And so are the souls of other people that you share the gospel with. So just keep that in mind. I mean, get in the word. And I would also encourage you. I would encourage you. And people ask me this all the time, like, what Bible studies do you

recommend? What authors do you recommend? And I will tell you I'm having a harder and harder time recommending people. Like they are falling like flies. These people that I used to recommend as these solid biblical teachers now devolving into this social justice warrior rhetoric that I just don't believe is For example, Jen Wilkin. Gin Wilkin, she was a teacher at the village. She has had some solid Bible studies. I've taken a Bible study with her. She's a good teacher and I still believe that a lot of what she believes in preaches is so

theologically sound. But my mom went to a conference last week. I wish I had the audio for you, but I don't. My mom went to a conference last week here in Dallas called the Abundance Conference. If any of you guys went, you can message me about it and confirm whether or not my mom said what she said is true. I'm guessing it is. She said that Jen Wilkins spent a large chunk of her talk talking about how misogynist, she said,

misogynist theologians have been in describing Rehab of the Bible. My mom also said that the statements that she read were not misogynist at all and that that became kind of like a central theme in what Jen Wilkin was talking about. I don't see how that's productive at all. I don't see how that's biblical at all. All that is doing is communicating the subliminal message. that women should be afraid of the patriarchy and that the patriarchy has infected everything, and that we should be skeptical of everything a man says, everything that a man writes,

especially if it's about a woman. Give me a freaking break. Give me a break. I'm going to be so sad if I see, and I already do, but see this victimhood mentality seeping into the church when in Christ we are victors. We're more than conquerors. You are not a victim. There is, and also there is neither slave nor free nor Jew nor Greek nor male nor female. And so this idea that we are dividing people by their particular oppressions like the secularists do and the social justice intersectionality world is so anti-biblical and so so so anti-gospel that I just can't even contain my anger. So anyway, when people ask me who I recommend, I have a really hard time recommending people. A great theological podcast, though, is the sheologians, love the sheologians.

They've been on my show. I've been on their show. They are wonderful. They probably have even better recommendations than I do. I love Rosaria Butterfield. I think that she's great. I think Christopher Yuan writes really good stuff. They both happen to have the same kind of story of being homosexual and then converting to Christianity and then changing their life. So maybe those aren't good Bible studies, but they're good people to listen to. I think I still think John McArthur is great, a lot of solid theology. Not everyone who is in this mainstream Christian world is bad. Not everyone who claims social justice and as a Christian is bad. I just think that they are mistaken. So anyway, that is that. This was kind of a long podcast today. Hope that you guys enjoyed it.

I really wanted to keep talking because I want to talk about this whole migrant march and why it is not Christian and not discerning and not wise to say, oh yeah, let's just let everyone in no matter what. Oh, man. There's so many problems on the world, you guys. I'm sure that there will be plenty, plenty more to talk about on Tuesday when we're back. Love you. Thanks for listening. See you guys on Instagram and elsewhere. Bye.