Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 688 | Is Jesus the Only Way to Heaven? | Guests: David Limbaugh & Christen Limbaugh Bloom

Episode Date: October 3, 2022

Today we're joined by David Limbaugh and Christen Limbaugh Bloom, co-authors of "The Resurrected Jesus: The Church in the New Testament." The father-daughter team discuss their individual faith journeys and what inspired them to team up to write this book. Then, we take a look at a few theological questions: Does it matter if we believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus? Do works matter when it comes to salvation or to the Christian life? We talk about how "woke culture" has affected the church and the beliefs we as Christians need to hold fast to. We finish off with a short tribute to David's brother, Rush Limbaugh, looking at his legacy and faith. Today's Sponsors: Covenant Eyes — protect you and your family from the things you shouldn't be looking at online. Go to coveyes.com/ALLIE to try it FREE for 30 days! Patriot Mobile — go to PatriotMobile.com/ALLIE or call 972-PATRIOT and use promo code 'ALLIE' to get free activation! Annie's Kit Clubs — all subscriptions are month-to-month, and you can cancel anytime! Go to AnniesKitClubs.com/ALLIE and get your first month 75% off! Naturally It's Clean — visit naturallyitsclean.com/allie and use promo code "ALLIE" to receive 15% off your order. --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise – use promo code 'ALLIE10' for a discount: 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. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him. not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him in the power of his resurrection

and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead, Philippians 3-8. So who is this Jesus? for whom we count everything else as loss, who is raised from the dead, who claims to be our creator, our redeemer, our savior, who says one day he is coming back to make all things right. We are answering these questions today with authors David Limbaugh and his daughter Kristen Limbaugh. They just wrote a book called The Resurrection Jesus, which we will discuss, as well as their own faith journeys, the questions that they have wrestled with while becoming and being,

Christians. And we will also talk about the faith and the legacy of David's brother and Kristen's uncle Rush Limbaugh. You will love this interview with these two amazing people. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to good ranchers.com slash alley. That's good ranchers.com slash alley. David, Kristen, thank y'all so much for joining us first, although I'm sure there's a lot of people listening and watching who already know. Can you tell us David, who you are and what you do? David Limbaugh, I'm a lawyer. It used to be a columnist. I finally quit after 20 years.

It's a wonderful relief. Yes. And right, I've written 11 books. This is the 11th. And this one is with Kristen. So I'm a busy life. And Kristen, is this your first time to contribute to a book with your dad? It is.

Yes. So it's been such a dream come true for me. Lots of fun. And yeah, hopefully there'll be more to come in the future. And I want to talk more about what that process was like as a father-daughter team. But first, I just want to talk about the book itself. The resurrected Jesus, as you said, you have written several Jesus books, David. This is the next iteration. Can you tell us why you decided to write this book? Why is it called the resurrected Jesus? Because the publisher

insisted on. Okay, got it. So, I mean totally transparent. Regnery decided. Yeah, always. The thing is, the first Jesus book, or the first Christian book was Jesus on trial, it was my first faith journey and an apologetics book. Second was the Emmaus Code, which is Jesus in the Old Testament prophesied and all that. Third was the true Jesus, which was a chronological compendium of the Gospels. Fourth was Jesus has risen. They always put Jesus in the title, and that's intentional, shameless promoters. And so that was the book of Acts, history of the early church, and the first six of the Apostle Paul's epistles.

This one, the resurrected Jesus is the final seven of the Apostle Paul's epistles. So there's no strategy. It's just marching through the New Testament books. And it's kind of like a commentary devotional combined. Okay, gotcha. And tell me a little bit about what it was like writing this book with your dad. And why did you decide to join forces this time? Well, dad asked me like a year and a half ago if I'd be interested in writing his next book with him.

And I was... It's actually not true. she came begging. I did. Oh, yeah. Please. Well, we had always kind of, you know, floated with the idea of writing something together,

but I didn't think it would be until after Dad had finished this series since he's had so much success with it in the past. But he came to me saying that he had an idea for me to co-author, offer my insights, and then also contribute prayers interspersed throughout the text. And so it was really, interesting for me to see his process, you know, with a, like, right up front. Because growing up, I mean, I always watched him on these projects. And it's funny because I went away to college when you were

writing your first book on Obama. And I remember I'm the first and we're very close. And I was thinking, man, like, did my dad forget me? Because for like two months, like my first too much of college, I didn't hear from you. But yeah, he was so engrossed. To work because. Trashing Obama. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I would say so. Yeah. I would say so. So I knew, you know, it was like a very intense process for him. But he was so gracious with me.

I was pregnant the whole time throughout the process. So, but he set, you know, great deadlines. He's a machine when he writes, you know, and he does all the research himself, like, all the editing. I mean, obviously we do have an editor as well, but he self edits multiple times. And so it really helped me as a writer. And to be able to bounce feedback off of one and another, you know, if you're writing something yourself, you're dealing with yourself and with the Holy Spirit. But when you have a partner, you think of things that you wouldn't have thought of before

you see things from a different angle. And so I think that really benefits the reader as well, because even though we write it in one voice, they're kind of getting several different angles on these different subjects. So obviously faith and theology is central to your family life. It sounds like growing up, which I'm guessing started with you and your wife. And even though you've written about your testimony, a lot of people may not know. How did you come to faith? And then how did you come to the point to where you want to write about faith in theology? Yeah. And I chronicled that in the first book. And it's, I was, I came kicking and screaming. Now somebody that, you know how people are on Twitter. I heard David Limbaugh on a podcast say that he came kicking and screaming. That's not the normal

conversion experience. I didn't say it was a conversion experience. I didn't say it was a conversion experience. I said it was figurative to say I was a doubter. I was a skeptic. The conversion experience wasn't troublesome. But I always believed in God. To me, it's impossible not to these new atheists who come up with these ridiculous ideas that something can come from nothing and life from non-life. But I didn't subscribe to the Bible or Jesus's divinity, but not because I was a rebel. I mean, I always wanted to be on the right team. We grew up in church. I just didn't embrace it.

The real reason was because I didn't ever engage, didn't study it. And I had problems with why would an all loving God send someone to eternal damnation? I thought I was creative with that idea, by the way, everybody's had that throughout. Yeah. But everyone always thinks, I mean, myself included, that they are the first skeptic to ask questions about Christianity. It's unbelievable. And the brilliant, I'm IQ brilliant atheists, still think that. were just idiots and they've never thought through these things. I've never thought about it. And what

happened is I started studying apologetics. And I would read C.S. Lewis, Paul Little, I don't know if you're familiar with him, Norman Geisler, Josh McDowell. I read it all. And I just was so close. I just knew it was right. And but I couldn't finally, I mean, I didn't, uh, didn't make the plunge until later when I accepted questions. And what point of your life was this when you're really kind of digging in and asking questions? Well, I'm all from college on, but I didn't really, I don't think I was converted until I was in my mid-30s. After we were married, Lisa made a mistake marrying me.

But she always prayed for my conversion. So she was a Christian when you all got married. Would you have called yourself a Christian before now looking back? Yes, but I didn't know what really Christian meant. Right. I was a nominal Christian, and I certainly believe in all the values, always did. Again, I was not that big of a rebel at all. When I'd see, I'd watch Charles Stanley on TV before I was a Christian, before I was a real, I knew everything he was saying was true. Isn't that weird? Yeah. The demons know and shudder. The demons know who got it. I'm not saying I was a demon. Right. But even the demons know. And I've heard it said before, like people can miss heaven by 18 inches, which is the link from the head to the heart. That's a very good way to put it. It's possible for us to fully understand, in a sense, and know the gospel and theology.

and still not have it in our hearts. But let me tell you, the interesting thing is I didn't even know the real claims of the Bible. And I wasn't even sure that Jesus claimed to be God. You talk about all you never claim. Well, you can't read the book of John and deny that he claimed, I and the Father are one, et cetera, et cetera. But I went to a prayer breakfast, Christian men's prayer breakfast. And like a thousand people in our hometown, Cape Jordan, Missouri.

And some celebrity was speaking. I think it was Dave Durecki. he was a pitcher, major league baseball pitcher, and he lost his arm to cancer. He was very inspiring, but that had nothing to do with my conversion. But there was a card left on the table. Would you like to learn more about Jesus Christ? I really didn't that much, but I felt urge, an urging to do it, which I think was a prompting by the Holy Spirit, signed the thing.

I ended up in a Bible study with about five guys, all of whom I knew, two of them taught it. And it was a book, a little pamphlet called First Steps. and it went through Christ's divinity, and I'm going, you've got to be kidding me, all this basic stuff I never knew. Yeah. And then when I finally became convinced that the Bible was the Word of God, I was excited. I'm holding my hand the actual message from God.

And it was shortly after that that I accepted Christ. Sorry for the long. No, I love it. I love hearing people's testimony and kind of what prompts people when the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit works on people. And just a common theme that I find in people's testimony. testimonies is that God had been working on them and their heart in ways that they didn't know for a long time. By the way, and I wrote about this, it's so fascinating to me, I got to add this.

Yes. That I really believe, and I've said this in that book or elsewhere in speeches, don't assume as an evangelist that you're, the seeds you plant are not productive. It may take a thousand. I think in my cases, a thousand. There's one that particularly moved me. He went to law school with a friend of mine. and they were home, and we were all home. I was home from law school from Missou. They were home from Texas law school. They went to, we met out at their house, at the parents' house of my friend.

He brought his Texas friends up. And we were talking about, and I was being, not a smart aleck, but raising those questions, because he was an open Christian, his friend. And I was, he was a really cool guy, ladies man, guys. Ladies, man, Christian, who, that's interesting. I thought all Christians were nerds, the real puritanical. Right. But he started talking about the Bible.

He was very, I would say, winsome with me. He didn't get defensive about my questioning. Instead, he goes, I'd like to share something with you about the Bible, how integrated it is. He went to his bedroom, brought back a reference Bible. He gave it to me. It's his Bible, and he gave it to me. And I started looking at it, you know, weeks later.

And I couldn't believe how integrated the Old Testament and the new because they had cross references. I didn't know any of this. That was a first step that, for me, that later bore fruit years later. And I told him, it blew him away. He had no idea. He brought him to tears. It actually did.

But isn't that cool? That was way before. Hey, this is Steve Deast. 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. leave 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.

hope you'll join us. You really never know. And the small things are seemingly small things that you do that you really never know are having an effect. Very often are. I mean, there are things that we won't know until we get to heaven, people that we affected just in passing or by a small, private, unseen, unsung, act of obedience to God that God used for his glory in a million ways that we may never see. And that's all of our testimony. That's, I mean, that's very, I mean, It's very smooth what you just. You should get your own show. Oh, I'll try. I've been begging them for a long time. We'll see if it happens. So what was it like growing up then? Obviously, it probably for as long as you can remember, it sounds like he really had the conversion experience in his three. So as long as you can remember, you were raised in a Christian home with Christian parents. How did that faith kind of play into your upbringing? Well, so I've said my mom was the prayer warrior in our family and dad was. the divine truth warrior in our family. It's important to have both.

It is. And so I really did have the best of both worlds. Mom has always been very spiritual, taught us how to pray from a young age. And then dad, actually, before I went off to college, took me on little dad-daughter dates because he said, you know,

you're going to be faced with different arguments, trying to tear down your faith. And I'm going to teach you what you can know in your heart. And he said, but don't even try to get into an argument with a professor about this. He's like, just get the A. It's like not worth the battle for that.

And it was, you know, I unknowingly signed up for a biblical course thinking, you know, little me thinking it's like, oh, this will be great. I can actually take a Christian course at a secular college. And little did I know they were picking apart the Bible as a piece of literature and trying to show all the inerrancies and everything. So, but it was God had literally prepared me for that the summer before. So, but for me personally, college is probably. where I was at my lowest point in my faith walk. I mean, I asked Jesus into my heart as a little girl,

but my friends probably, you know, we're all Christians, quote, air quotes, but I wasn't really in a youth group or anything like that. So I wasn't really deepening my faith as a teen. And then I got to college. I joined a sorority and, you know, your focus shifts to parties and all the things. And I wasn't, you know, like too crazy. but I just, my focus was on myself. And so I was just feeling so empty as every year of college passed by, it's like, okay, I don't have a boyfriend. I don't have, you know, really a vision for where my life is going. And I just, I wasn't ever questioning, is Jesus real? I always knew that, but I didn't really know him on such an intimate level that I do now.

And so it was actually, we've been talking about Seeds, a girlfriend of mine who, again, a fun friend, somebody who I wouldn't have considered like a stick in the mud at the time. And we were interning together in New York City. And so the first night of our internship, we went out to get a glass of wine. And we didn't look at the menu before. The glass of wine was literally $32. So we're like, okay, well, that'll be our dinner and breakfast for the next day. We're like, we're idiots.

But we were just talking. and she just has such a glow about her, like truly a zest for life. She was just emanating joy. And I was like, what is with you? Like since the last time I've seen you, something is different. Like, do you have a new boyfriend? Like, you know, of course my mind goes there. Yeah.

And she's like, okay, like this is going to sound so weird, but I've always grown up and, you know, as a Christian, but I feel like Jesus has really like brought me in and has totally transformed my life. And she went through the devotional she had been reading, this book that was great. And I was like, I'm jealous. I want what you have. And so she gave me the devotional she was reading. And that summer is the first time where every single morning I woke up excited to hear from God. And I really felt like he was directly speaking into my life.

And little by little, he started asking me to trust him, asking me to submit things to him and be obedient to him. And I realized, oh, you actually have what's best for me. You know, I always thought that being obedient to God was you have to live like a straight lace and no fun life and not be an individual. And when I finally did start just giving into him, you realize he's the one John 1010 who gives us life and life to the fullest. So that's my true conversion story. So we failed as parents. Everyone has to have their wayward season. No, but actually, I mean, if you're talking about planting seeds, I hear so many stories like that.

Well, I was raised to Christian, but then this happened. I was raised in the church. I knew things about God, but it wasn't until, you know, high school, college, adult life. But that didn't happen, like in a vacuum. It didn't happen all of a sudden. In reality, God had been working on them for years and years. You know, when I first wrote about my faith journey, and people from my local church were, I think, probably offended.

Well, are you saying we weren't a Bible believing church? No, I'm saying it just didn't take with me. I'm not saying anything about the church. Yeah. Yeah. It's about an individual's heart. Right. Yeah.

One thing that people have a hard time wrapping their minds around when it comes to Christianity, when it comes to Jesus in particular, they might say that, well, he was a good teacher. He has some good kind of moral instruction that we should follow. But the miracles, they just didn't happen, particularly the idea that he was raised from the dead. Is that even necessary for the Christian faith? Obviously, y'all wrote this book, You Think It Is. So tell us a little bit more about that. What did you learn about the resurrection?

how to kind of bolster your own faith and there is in God? Well, of course, I studied this so much. And as I said, no great new revelations in this book. We're just continuing with the New Testament exploration, examination commentary. But I do want to address that because the bodily resurrection is essential in my view for the Christian faith. If the resurrection isn't true, as the Apostle Paul said, Christians are most to be pitied. Christ, God, the triune God created mankind, knowing he would fall, we would fall, then knowing that the only way or the best way they could be redeemed is if his son,

second person of the Trinity, would become human, and suffer all the indignities of human existence, and then ultimately be persecuted, beaten, killed, and then, resurrected so that those of us who believe in him, who have faith in him, can also be resurrected and live with him in eternal glory. Well, you can't just write that off and say, didn't have the Gnostics and the precursors to the Gnostics, the false teachers that Paul was correcting in some of these letters, said that material existence was impure and evil. Therefore, Jesus couldn't have been a real human. He had to be. be God and this was all an illusion. So he didn't really die on the cross. If he didn't die in the cross,

if he didn't suffer, we couldn't relate to us. We couldn't live. It's so essential to Christianity. It blows my mind. There's so much syncretism, people combining pagan thoughts, New Age thoughts with Christianity and thinking that'll work. No, Jesus is the way of the truth in the life. There's no other way of the Father except through. And you cannot dilute those words without destroying the entire essence of Christianity. Some people think that Christianity is kind of a form of Gnosticism. It denies the importance of the material or it denies the importance of the body that we only focus on the spiritual. But that's not true. Christianity above any other worldview cares deeply about the body. We're told 1st Corinthians 619 that the body is a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. We're promised a

resurrection of the bodies. As you said, Jesus is God made flesh, a bodily resurrection. We're told that we are made bodily in God's image. Wow, God cares so much about the body. You're exactly right. It is central to the Christian faith. And that's why, you know, the sex sins are so serious. And Paul talks about them. Yes. It's a bummer, but they are. Yeah, because it's different than other sin and that you are sinning against your own body. You are sinning against yourself. And you kind of alluded to this, and I'm interested to see what you think is kind of a member of my generation. This is, I mean, Maybe this is something that we've always heard, but in particular, I think that people our age say, well, it can't just be, and this is, I guess, has been always a for a criticism, but it can't just be this one God.

There can't just be one path. Could a good and loving, and we keep hearing this word, empathetic, compassionate God, could a God who says that he is love, 1 John 4-8, really send people to how is you said? there have to be multiple paths. God has to be inclusive. God has to be more tolerant than how the Bible describes him. How do you deal with that kind of contention? I always think of C.S. Lewis's book, mere Christianity, and how he explained that you cannot have true love without having the choice. And so that's actually why God even placed the tree of life and death, or I'm sorry, the tree of knowledge. The tree of knowledge, good and evil. Basically life and death. That was the consequence.

Yeah. The concept. Because he always gave us the choice. And unfortunately, we made the wrong choice, beginning with Adam and Eve. But you can't have true love if you're just a robot who's pre-programmed to say, we love God. And yes, we believe. That is the key.

And sorry, all I can talk on. No, no, no, no. But essentially, you know, I was going to say to your earlier point, you know, in the book of Revelation, the Bible clearly says we are not to add or take away from any of these words. And I think in our culture today, we are doing that so often. And even just little ways, and you talk a lot about this on your podcast, how we coin phrases like, we're going to manifest things into goodness. And ideas just get so muddled in our minds. God created truth because he loves us, because we crave order. I mean, I know you have young kids. I have a baby.

babies even crave discipline. They crave schedules. They crave, you know, having a way, a narrow path. The path is narrow. Jesus continually tells us that. And so for people to say that it's, it doesn't make sense for there to only be one path, I would just ask them to even think about themselves on, in like a scientific way. It's like, but we crave that. We want clear cut answers. We do. And so that's because God has designed us that way, because that is the truth. And it might be hard to grapple with. but it is what it is, and he does love us, and he is a good God. Yeah, and I would add that I saw Phil Donahue moralizing, shaming some interviewee, some Christian.

I can't remember those evil Christians, and asking, oh, so you're saying that I'm a Jew, I can't remember if he said I'm a Jew. You say, all Jews are going to hell, is that right? Oh, my gosh. So here's my answer to that, no. Jews are no worse situated than Gentiles. Christ makes the offer to everyone.

It is not exclusive. It is inclusive. You're all invited. Now, some altar five-point Calvinists may disagree with that, but this is not the appropriate place to talk about that. But I believe Christ doesn't want to lose any sheep. And I believe the love is for everyone and the offer of life is for everyone. And you can't, this new age stuff or this modern woke culture,

they want to conform the church to the culture and pollute it. Instead of conforming truth to truth, they destroy the language. We have to have intellectual and moral order. And God provided this way, it's an insult to the finished work of Christ to suggest there are other ways. I repeat, why would he have gone through the indignities he did? God becoming a human is more of a drop than a human being becoming. an aunt and yet he did it and planned to create us knowing we would sin and he would have to do it in advance that's unbounded love and so please don't don't tell me that and also this these these new

the modern culture wants to destroy i'm talking about a point you made earlier wants to destroy god's created order by saying and this is back to the body thing but christ says we our god says I made you man and woman. Man and woman, I created you. I didn't make you to identify who you are. I didn't create a bunch of narcissists. You can identify as a bean sprout. I made you man or woman. And that's all part of the body thing too. Yeah. That's all part of God's created order. It's gender specific. Sorry, I'm not being uncompassionate, but it's not compassionate to distort truth and to therefore detrimentally impact a person's route to eternal

life. It's pleasing man and not God, but what good would it do you, Ali, if I said to make you feel good or to make you like me to please man instead of God, you can go the Transcendental Meditation route. You can be a Hindu, you can be a Buddhist. I'm not doing you any favors. It's the height of selfishness if you truly believe Christ is the only way as he says he is. Yes. It's also, you mentioned C.S. Lewis, the whole Lord, liar, lunatic quandary. Well, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth in the life. And so if you believe

in Jesus, you believe that Jesus said that. And he said that he is the only way. Well, then you've only got really a few options. And if, go ahead. No, no, that's it. Trilma. The Trilma. Yes. Ephesians 1-5. I love the book of Ephesians says, in love, he predested us for adoption as sons. And I do, I am a Calvinist. And so we don't need to get into the. Calvinism, Armenian debate, but what we agree on, obviously,

and the Bible is very clear on this, is that he desires salvation for his people, and it is in love that he has given us a way to be reconciled, sinners, ungodly, undeserving people to himself. And so it is exclusive in some ways. Like, the critics are right. Jesus is the only way.

Right. But it's incredibly inclusive. Yeah, that's what I meant. Yes. Oh, yeah. I agree with. you and that it doesn't matter what you've done. Doesn't matter your background. Does it matter your nationality? Doesn't matter your socioeconomic status, your IQ, any of that. I mean, what could be better?

What is better news than that? Good news. Yes. And I have found it's interesting. Maybe it's because of that body connection that those who start to deny maybe the most controversial part of the gospel that Jesus was raised from the dead, it ends up being kind of a slippery slope into the other doctrines of Christianity. Because as you said, if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then, I mean, why believe anything else? Yeah. But, Allie, I never did understand, in all my skepticism, I don't understand what's so hard to believe.

If you believe God can breathe the universe into existence, it's not too tough to resurrect us bodily. And if you don't believe God breathe the universe into existence and the multiverse, whatever it is, then you're kind of illogical because it couldn't have happened on its own. Right. It had to have been, there had to have been a divine source. Right. You repeatedly stress in the resurrected Jesus that Christianity teaches that salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ and not one's good work. So we talked about it being by faith alone in Christ alone, but it's also not, okay, we earn it and Jesus kind of helps us or he's a part of our salvation. That also is hard for some professing Christians to grasp. Why is that important?

Well, I would say because, first of all, it totally is so disrespectful to what Jesus did for us. I mean, and it actually kind of focuses us back on ourselves because for us to think that we could do anything to earn our salvation is, I mean, it's such a joke. And it puts it back on us. It stresses that the power is on our hands. Yeah. And I always think, I say this to myself repeatedly throughout the day, actually, that my weakness is my strength. And Jesus tells us, you know, I am the vine, you are the branches if you remain in me. But apart from me, you can do no thing.

And he means you can do no good thing outside of me. That includes our salvation, of course. We have to take him at his word and we have to understand that, I mean, I think it's hard for people to believe because it is such good news. It's like, what? Yeah, it's like too good to be true. Right. But that being said, we are not to just live our lives completely carelessly. and, you know, doing things that he tells us clearly not to do because, oh, we're covered by grace.

Yeah. And I know that's something that's kind of swirling around the Christian community right now because of different, you know, musical artists who have been caught on camera doing things they shouldn't be doing. Yeah. And I, so I do think that we do have to remember the gravity of what he did for us because unless we have that revelation, that realization, we won't be sober-minded enough to say, okay, my life needs to bear the fruit. that comes only from the true reality of understanding like, okay, his sacrifice was so much and I'm so undeserving and that's what produces the good fruit. But the good fruit is not what gets us into heaven. You know, and Paul addresses this.

I think it offends the human sensibility, the sense of justice that works don't matter. Well, we don't say works don't matter. The fact, that's why we're going, we would go to hell is because works do matter. Our own works. It's a good point. But there's also Paul addressed, so if it's all faith alone, it's all through grace, am I free to sin? And he addresses that in Romans.

And of course, he emphatically says, no, of course you're not. We have a higher duty as Christians. It's not out of obeying some rituals or some rules or even the Ten Commandments, although they're valid, of course. It is a higher calling. It's an obedience and love for God, Christ, that makes us even live to a high, higher standard. And I used to read the sermon on the mountain go, are you kidding me? Jesus. Why would you? There's no, I don't mean Jesus cussing. I mean talking to Jesus. How can you expect us to live to that standard?

Yeah. And then I later learned it's he doesn't. He knows we can't. But it's to show us that standard, to show us our very need for him that we're incapable of living to that standard. Now there's the other aspect. Salvation is by faith alone. And we are declared righteous called justification. It's a legal declaration. That doesn't mean we're sin free from the point of conversion, but there's another thing that's important. The sanctification process begins. The Holy Spirit indwells us, and we begin through the Holy Spirit and the spiritual disciplines becoming closer to the Holy Spirit to be able to, or to be empowered to overcome sin on a daily basis. And so we do become more sanctified, more holy. I mean, not in my case, but I mean, you guys probably. And so, but we never become sin free.

until we're glorified after we die. Yes. But I mean, I think works do matter. There's rewards, too. Yes. And so they're not written off. Ephesians 2, 8 through 10 is so clear on this. And whenever I read this passage, I'm always amazed at how much God through Paul emphasizes

you were saved by grace through faith, not of your own doing, not a result of works. He says it over and over again so that no one may boast. but then in verse 10 he says you are saved for good works which God prepared beforehand that you may walk in them. So right there he says you're not saved by good works but you are saved for good works and people tend to confuse those things. And again, and that's great that you added that because people again, the smart, the people that think that Christians are intellectually deficient and don't think through things, oh, they do. just have no idea. We wrestle with all these things. And Paul addressed them explicitly. They would have no idea. Either that or they're spiritually blind. And if they read it, couldn't see it, couldn't comprehend it. Right. Right. Right. Is there anything in this writing process of this book that you

learned for the first time about Jesus or about the Bible in general? Either of you? No, but my answer to when people have asked similar questions is what I really was taken with, and you know, the Bible, we believers believe that the Bible is the living word of God. It speaks to us directly. Even though the word is unchanging, it hits you in different circumstances. It's different people. It hits me in a different time in a different way, even though the words don't change. And one thing that got me, and this wasn't an epiphany or revelation, I'm sure I've thought it

before, was how human and personal Paul is and what he, the struggles he went through. The Bible authors, not just Paul. describe their warts and all. They don't pretend to be perfect, which makes it more believable. It also makes it more relatable, according to term, that we can relate to Paul because he went through all this stuff, and he got mad, he got upset with Barnabas. He wasn't perfect, and he made mistakes, because he planted these churches. Why didn't they automatically prosper? As soon as he planted them, some of them backslid. And so that's why he had to write these letters, which ultimately would be for our benefit all through the ages.

Two thousand years later, we're reading them. So I don't even remember the question, but that was a pretty good answer. Yeah, it was a great answer. Is there anything you said, the question was if there's anything new that you learned, which just seems like, okay, you knew those things, but they just kind of retouched you. Yeah, it emphasized it. Hit home more. Yes.

What about you? Basically essentially the same, but I really, in studying, Paul's life and all these different struggles he's going through. I always saw him as, you know, such as serious, just kind of like, kind of brash on most persons. It's just like so like, okay, he's really, um, he's really trying to admonish everyone and, and, you know, correct them. But, but when we studied it so closely, you see the tenderness of him and, and, um, that is what I saw. and I know that I feel, you know, kind of in my spirit, that that's essentially what Jesus also saw. I mean, obviously, he loved him for all of his different dimensions of his character.

But at the very last chapter of the book, because we rewrite it chronologically, we end with 2nd Timothy. And it really, it brings me to tears every time I read it because we know that this is probably the last letter he wrote in his lifetime. He knew he was about to be put to death. And we see that he's kind of looking back at his life and he is just so grateful to God. I mean, that's what he ends on is such a high note. He says, you know, I have no regrets. I have run the race. And then he's admonishing Timothy to do the same.

And it's a beautiful picture of what Christ is telling all of us that the same Holy Spirit who lived in Paul, this incredible apostle, is the one who lives in us. And we're called to think of ourselves as citizens of heaven, who he's. can use and will use the more of ourselves we give to him. So it really is just so touching and inspiring in that way. And that's what I saw differently looking at the scriptures so in depth through this process. It's amazing how differently you see it when you believe it to be true first. And I love what you said. You mentioned that the fact that these writers show themselves warts and all and their sins makes it more believable. And the writers also show

the difficult to comprehend things about God throughout Scripture, which makes it more believable. Like, if this were a book that was just supposed to be PR for Christianity, no, you can, you only believe all this stuff because if it's true. That's right. And, you know, who would have told anyone that Peter denied God three times, Jesus three times? It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing.

It's shameful. But I think it's kind of funny. We talk about God having a sense of humor, otherwise we wouldn't have it. we get it from him and Jesus made him profess his love for him three times afterwards. I mean, I think that's kind of cool the way. But I also think in addition to showing the humanity and the imperfections, this is what got me when I first was exposed to this stuff. The Bible, even though it was written by 40 different authors over 1,500 years in an Old Testament

and a New Testament, it is so integrated. It's one connective story about God's creation. and love and redemption for mankind that could not, if you read it, it is so bizarre how the same truths are sprinkled throughout the Bible in a way that could only be, could only have happened through a divine conspiracy, a divine author. Because these guys, we're talking over 1,500 years, they couldn't have gotten together unless they had a time machine. Yes. And yet all these truths. Now, the smart exorcels, oh, no, there's so many inconsistencies,

they can all be explained, as you and I both know, those alleged inconsistencies. But look at the thematic stuff, the doctrine, the tenderness of God or the righteous anger of God. All these things are true. And by the way, one other thing I've got to interject, people want to say that God of the Old Testament, mean, Jesus, wonderfully nice, never got mad. Paul, even meaner. It's so absurd because Christ had less tolerance for sin.

than anyone, including the God of the Old Testament. Yes. And any, and this, what, you know, the money changes, not just the money changers. He affirmed everything of the Old Testament. Right. And went even more deeply than what we understood. There are people who, especially our age,

are like, oh, Jesus didn't care about sin. He never talked about X, Y, Z. Like, well, Jesus actually took the previous definition of sin to another level by saying, it's not enough that you don't commit adultery. If you even look at a woman lustfully, it's not enough that you don't murder. if you even hate someone and all of us are like, okay, well, then I'm just as bad as a murder.

But I've thought a lot about this. We know in our hearts, especially if you're saved, you know you have these evil thoughts. I still have them and I go, I wish I didn't have that thought. I do think we get points for not acting on them. So I don't think what Christ said was you're just as evil as the person who acts on them. But for salvation purposes you are. In other words, you're not perfect and you can't join God. in eternity without being perfect.

And the only way we can be perfect is by being declared perfect judicially, but by our faith in Christ. But it's not, he's not saying, and I think that's why people get offended by this, well, I thought about this, I had a lustful thought, but I didn't go rape somebody. Well, no, it matters.

It all matters. There's grades, gradations. Of course Hitler's worse, but it's nobody can make it because the standard is perfection. Exactly, exactly. And he's saying, just because you haven't acted on it doesn't mean that you don't need me.

That's right. What you want, if there's one thing, and I know that it's probably, I love that picture. I know that it's probably difficult to narrow down, but if there's one thing that you want people to take away after finishing this book, what would that be? And I would love to hear from both of you on that. I don't want her to talk here. Okay, okay. I want to dominate here.

I'll answer first. Okay, so because I'm the dad. Dad's progn. It's like all the other books. Sorry for not having a profound answer. but it is our goal is to bring people closer to God by making them or inspiring them to read the Bible itself. This is not the Bible. It's about the Bible. It's a book about the Bible. I love books about the Bible. They help me immeasurably. But the Bible is the Word of God. And I submit, I've always submitted since I became a fanatic believer in it, that it is the Word of God and it has the ability to convert you.

it has the ability to inspire you it is it is directly from from god and so um we want them to do that but what we've added in this book from my other christian books was prayer and she is such a prayer warrior and so spirit-filled and she has such a facility for prayer i had one time i got to say this i had a person call me you probably know him i won't mention his name a conservative commentator call me new as a christian of course and i'd been on his podcast or whatever and he said he's having really trouble with his child. They couldn't heal her. And not life-threatening trouble, but would you

say a prayer for her with me? And I said, you know, I have always been awkward doing public prayers, but I'll do it for you. But would you mind if I call my daughter and get her on the phone at her because I'm a tech wizard and I added her on the iPhone? Wow. And he said, yeah, yeah. And a tech wizard.

And so I joined her. And I just told her in two seconds what it was. She just comes up with this profound prayer. It blew the guy away, I guarantee you. Wow. That's a seed. It's a seed. There you go.

Right. And so I just, she did, she primarily authored these prayers throughout. I helped a little bit, not much. And she obviously contributed to the rest of it, back and forth, back and forth. So it was a true collaboration. But I think this book is qualitatively better in a, in a significant way because of her prayers. It helps readers interact with the text and with the Bible.

Yeah. Now, you don't have time because I talk. Oh, yeah. Go ahead. No, you can't talk. Well, thanks, Dad. Well, I just really pray that people, I kind of said this before, but that people through reading Paul's letters understand that we really are citizens of heaven when we have

Jesus in our hearts and that, you know, when you read through this book, we offer opportunities for you to pause and interact with the text of the Bible and to actually recognize that, okay, I'm not reading this alone. God is here with me. He's brought me to this book. He's brought me to the Bible. And I can actually pause and I can ask him questions if something doesn't make sense to me or I can ask him to show me where in my life this might be applying right now or where in somebody who I knows life this might be applying. So I really pray that people, the flames of their faith get ignited and that they start to see themselves as having the ability and the capability to make an impact on the world for Christ and not just kind of going through

the motions of it, but to really take that on and believe in themselves because God believes in us so much more than we can imagine. But isn't it cool that my daughter has inspired me to a more to the heart, as you talked about earlier. Thanks, Dad. But, you know, so I'm too much on the study, the knowledge side. I don't want to say the intellectual side because it looks like I'm calling, I'm not calling myself an intellect, but, you know, the head knowledge thing. And I err on that side. I love it.

I've always known I need a better balance, the heart thing. Yeah. And so she inspires me to go deeper there. Last question. This book is dedicated to your brother, your uncle, Rush. What has it been like? I know that's a big question and I don't want, you know, to take. too much more of the time, but what has it been like since he's passed and how has that been

kind of grappling with his legacy? And I'm sure wondering at times, wow, what would he be saying about all this craziness right now? I find myself thinking that too. Yeah. Well, people ask me that on Twitter all the time. And I'm blown away by the love that persists for him. He wasn't just a voice that validated what they think, which I always thought that was the extent of it. And they loved how talented he wasn't on. What I learned after he died was how much they loved him and considered him a family member. He was in their home three hours a day religiously to coin a term. Yeah. And they, I bet you, you'll think I'm exaggerating. I bet you I've received 10,000 texts, DMs, whatever, how much they love him. He's a family member. And it's kind of cool for me because I feel like

I'm an extended family member of theirs. It's like, yeah, and they probably feel that way too. Yeah. And he spawned so many careers. Yours, yours, for example. none of us would be able to do this. You can't believe any doors he opened for me. As an entertainment lawyer, I would never have had those opportunities. But, yeah, after he died, big hole in my heart. And, you know, every day, we text 25 times a day, a little insignificant things. I can't, every day I go, I want to tell him something.

Then a microsecond later, I realize, oh, he's gone. So it's tough. But what he would say today, and I said this at the MRC banquet in a tribute to him, was he would say, see, I told you so. It was the title of his first book. And he wouldn't be surprised by any of this. He would be making fun of the insanity, the extremism of the left, which has finally shown its true colors.

I wish I had two hours to do a monologue and tell you what I think about the left right now. Yeah. But he would be lampooning them, but he would also say, it's not time to panic, even though he said, I'll always warn you when it's time. Because when you say panic, you're panicking. You've actually surrendered to the left. and we will never surrender.

We will never surrender and give up on this greatest country in the history of the world. We're going to take it back. And don't believe these naysayers who say we're going to get shellacked in November. That's just more propaganda disinformation. Orwellian, we're going to win it back. But we've got to be true to our beliefs or we won't.

Yes. Yes. Do you have anything to add to that just to close us out? Yeah, I just think that, you know, he did everything that he was meant to do. And not too emotional, but, you know, well done. Better you than me. I would be embarrassed. I'm a guy. I can't cry in public. Yeah. You know, I was just, I was talking to a friend the other day and all of us have that innate desire for affirmation and just

to feel that we are seen and feel that we are appreciated. And of course, in Russia's life, he was. He got a lot of affirmation and a lot of appreciation. But the only affirmation that really matters is the one that punctuates the Christian's life. And we get that fulfillment finally. eternally of what we have all been innately longing for our whole life, and that is to hear from the only one who counts, well done, good and faithful servant. You know, that's why I said earlier, you should get your own show. You're so good at this. Gosh, I'll try. I'll try. But I want to say this, because I should have wrapped this in a Christian context. And I've said this before, but there's so many things that he, I was so moved by how much closer he got to Christ during his final year.

You know? Praise God. Yeah. God uses evil for good. and Ratch's cancer was a bad evil as it is for everyone. And it drew Rush closer to God. And I think that inspired his audience too. They always prayed for him. And anyway, that's a great ending. It is a great ending that God does continually use evil for good in ways that we can see and in ways that we can't.

By the way, do you have another hour we can talk about the left? I'd like to go on the rail. Sure. Come back any time. No, I'll just let you go. I would love it. Thank you all so much for taking the time to come on. Everyone pick up the resurrected Jesus.

I'm guessing you can get it wherever books are sold. Thank you guys so much for coming on. I want to compliment you. We both love your podcast. You can do that in a commercial even though we have no clout. But I just want people to know all the podcasts, you are so good. Thank you. Thank you.

I appreciate that. Hey, this is Steve Deast. If you're listening to Alley, 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. Hope you'll join us.