Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 982 | The Biblical Meaning of the Eclipse

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Starting point is 00:01:31 by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to Good Ranchers.com. Use code Alley at checkout. That's Good Ranchers.com. Code Allie. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Tuesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. All right. If you haven't listened to yesterday's episode, you've got to do it. I got so many messages from you guys saying that you were so encouraged. Now, I know my dear beloved Catholic friends. There was a segment in there towards the end that you guys do not agree with and many of you did not appreciate. But he certainly said it in gentleness and in love. And I understand that it may not have been persuasive to all of you Catholic listeners out there. But I do appreciate those who did listen and then offered up your respectful disagreement and your

Starting point is 00:02:30 perspective on that. But that wasn't most of the episode. of the episode was talking about the importance of battling our doubts. I love when he said doubt your doubts rather than doubting God in his word. Gosh, that was so good and talked a lot about suffering. And so go listen to yesterday's episode. So amazing. I personally felt very ministered to in the entire conversation. And we need more of that. And I'm going to give you a lot of encouragement today, or at least what I hope to be encouraging to you. And it comes on the heels of the eclipse that happened yesterday. I did not think it was going to be as meaningful as it was to me. I didn't think it was going to inspire as much like worship and awe as it ended up

Starting point is 00:03:16 inspiring. I honestly was not paying attention at all to the eclipse or what it was or why it was important before, I don't know, maybe Friday is when I probably started looking into it. And it was only over the weekend that I realized that people were traveling from all over the country and even all over the world to visit places that were in the path of totality so that they could witness this total eclipse. And I was a little confused about it because I was like, didn't we see an eclipse in 2017 and 2021? We've got that like famous picture of Trump like looking straight up at the sun. I love that picture so much. We should put it up. on YouTube if we have it. And like you're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to get the glasses

Starting point is 00:04:07 until it's actually in totality. So when the moon is directly over the sun, then you can remove your glasses and you can look straight up at it. But when it's partial and you still see the sun's shining around the moon, you're not supposed to look directly up at it because of course it can hurt your eyes. So if you're like me and you just didn't really understand like what is the importance of this, let me read you a little bit. This is a little bit. This is a from U.T. Austin Star Date magazine. It's a publication of the McDonald Observatory and listen for some of the language that is being used to present what happened. So talking about this eclipse, why it's special, these awe-inspiring spectacles are a result of a pleasant celestial coincidence.

Starting point is 00:04:53 The sun and moon appear almost exactly the same size in Earth's sky. The sun is actually about 400 times wider than the moon, but it's also about 400 times farther. So when the new moon passes directly between Earth and the Sun in alignment known as a scissigy, wow, new word for me, it can cover the Sun's disk, blocking it from view. Total solar eclipses occur every one to three years. And so, okay, I was corrected my memory of that somewhere around the globe, but are often only visible from Earth's poles or from the middle of the ocean. In addition, total eclipses are visible only along narrow paths.

Starting point is 00:05:30 according to Belgian astronomer Jean Moose, who specializes in calculating such things, any given place on Earth will see a total solar eclipse on average once every 375 years. The next total eclipse visible from anywhere in the United States will take place on March 30th, 2033 in Alaska, and then in 244, it will be in Montana. You'll be able to see it in Canada, but also Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota. and the next eclipse across the entire United States. So like from California to Florida will happen on August 12th, 20, 45. And you know what's so funny is that I was thinking about these dates as I was looking at this yesterday and I was like, oh, wow, I'll be in my 40s.

Starting point is 00:06:17 No, I will not. I am 32. I am not 20-something. I will be in my 50s. Oh my goodness. Oh, my goodness. So that's crazy. And all my kids will grow up.

Starting point is 00:06:28 It's just wild to think about, but it's also awesome that these things can be predicted, which I'll get to more of that in just a second. So let me show you my amazing photo. We've got a full screen. Yes, photography is my passion. Thank you for asking. So it's kind of difficult to take a picture of it, obviously, and I didn't do anything special. I literally just took a picture of the sky. But you can see the, I can't actually really see it right now on my screen in front of me, but you can see that it. It's an eclipse. It doesn't look like a normal sun. The moon is in front of it. And actually, I guess my phone kind of adjusted for the light, because it looks like the middle of the day in this picture that you're looking at on YouTube. But that's not what it really looked like. It looked like it was like 8 p.m. And so we have this high definition resolution photo of an eclipse that Andrew McCarthy posted, I think, on X. And this is an HDR, high-deaf resolution, composite. image of yesterday's eclipse. So this photo that you're looking at used five cameras to capture thousands of photos during a four minute period. So that's really what it looked like. Of course, it's much more beautiful than the picture that I took. And it was very, because I was in the

Starting point is 00:07:47 path of totality. It was very eerie feeling during the partial eclipse because it wasn't just that it looked cloudy. It didn't just look like dusk. It, looked something unworldly. I felt I felt like it was very apocalyptic feeling. It almost felt like there was, I don't know, there was a sense of like impending doom there for a minute. Not that I actually believed that, okay, it's going to be the end of the world and the rapture is going to happen, mostly because I don't believe in a rapture, but we'll have to talk about that another day. But it was, it was very strange feeling. And then when the total eclipse happened, it was beautiful. it was, sorry Taylor Swift, but it was like a lavender haze. It really was. It was it was dusty and

Starting point is 00:08:38 purply and unlike a normal evening, unlike a normal sunset, it was somewhere in between all of it. It was like this very liminal space I felt. And so I just didn't realize how, I don't know, how profound of an experience it would be. And I didn't realize really how special that it would be. It was much more special and profound and meaningful than I anticipated. And it really stirred a lot of wonder in me. It really spurred worship in me that I just didn't expect. I hadn't put much thought into it. And then as I sat there beholding this phenomenon, I just, just felt the weight of the sovereignty and the power of God. So I wrote this monologue that I'm about to tell you. And if it sounds like something that was written rather than just like natural words

Starting point is 00:09:40 that I would speak, it's because I did write it. And writing for me is like a form of, of worship. I can't sing. I can't draw. And so it's what I got. So I want to read you this monologue that I wrote about this and all the thoughts that so unexpectedly came to my mind as I was beholding this total eclipse yesterday that I hope is edifying for you. The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. That's Psalm 191, the verse that kept coming to mind yesterday. In 2017, Time Magazine published an article mapping out the solar eclipses for the next 50 years, according to NASA. Of course, they predicted correctly that a solar eclipse could be seen across the

Starting point is 00:10:43 U.S. yesterday on April 8th, 2024. And this prediction was actually published many years ago, decades before I was born. There's a picture of a 1973 textbook floating around social media that includes a page which describes the total eclipse of 2024, the path of totality. So experts know every exact path of totality for decades and decades to come. These paths are predictable because the universe is ordered. It's not a celestial coincidence. We are not here by random chance. The Earth, moon, and stars are not cosmic accidents. We are not the outcome of a big bang. We are not the consequence of the nonsensical notion that something arrived from nothing. We are not. We are not. We are not, a compilation of stardust or a random conglomeration of cells. We are not the result of happenstance.

Starting point is 00:11:45 You and I did not evolve from bacteria. We have not been naturally or incidentally selected. Our presence here is neither arbitrary nor accidental. You and I and all of the plants and planets, seas and stars, animals and astronomy, land and lights were carefully crafted. and providentially placed by a creator who is not limited by time or space, but who is infinite, who is transcendent. And if we break down the word transcendent, I love etymology, the Latin verb, Scandere, and I'm sorry if I'm not pronouncing that correctly, means to climb. So the prefix trans, while it has an unfortunate meaning in everyday language today, actually means across, over beyond. So God being trans.

Starting point is 00:12:35 Transcendent means that he exists beyond where our minds or bodies can traverse. We cannot climb to him physically or mentally. He exists outside of linear time. He is beyond the material or the comprehensible because he is the source of all that is material or comprehensible. As an artisan is outside of and beyond his craft, so the creator is outside. of his creation and just as what's crafted can tell us a good deal about who crafted it. So can God's creation tell us a good deal about him, about who he is. God has revealed himself to us both through his word and through his world. Romans 120 tells us for his invisible attributes, namely his

Starting point is 00:13:27 eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. We see from the beginning that God is a God of order. In the creation account in Genesis, we see that God has particular processes by which he does his work. He could have thought the world into existence. He could have put it together all at once, but he didn't. He spoke the world into motion, let there be light, and he did so in six distinct days. He created Adam first from the dust, then Eve from Adam's rib.

Starting point is 00:14:07 He delegated the task of naming the animals to Adam. He left populating the earth up to the multiplying force of Adam and Eve. The creation of the world. In the first chapters of Genesis tell us so much about the authority, the creativity, the orderliness of God. And we continue to see these characteristics displayed throughout Scripture. He is a God of processes. He had a process for Noah to follow in building the ark.

Starting point is 00:14:34 He had a process by which he freed his people from Egyptian slavery and through the desert and into the promised land. He had a process by which he led his people to claim victory over their enemies through various battles. He ordained the process of Jesus' conception, life, death, burial, resurrection. He commands the process of prayer for believers to have communion with him and for him to work on our behalf. He demands the process of evangelism to advance his kingdom. There is a process that will precede his return. God's eternal plan of redemption from the garden to the marriage supper is a carefully crafted process with an order in both the spiritual and the physical in both the eternal and the temporal. God is a god of orderly processes.

Starting point is 00:15:27 That's why we who are made in his image inherently need order. We need laws, rules, parameters, boundaries, borders, countries, cultures, languages, time, routine, seasons, lunar patterns, solar eclipses, maps, milestones, marriage, families. It's why we as Christians, wherever we go, become agents of order. We bring peace to anarchy, organization, to chaos, civilization to tribalism, a beauty to rubble, light, light, to darkness, salt to decay, and hope. to those who are despairing. That is what Jesus' followers, filled with His spirit, have always done and must continue to do. No matter our circumstance, no matter the political peril our country faces, no matter what the future holds, no matter what life stage we're in or the tragedies that we face today, that is our calling

Starting point is 00:16:16 to do the next thing well and for God's glory. Because in the midst of this great, big, predictable, yet wild universe, you and I matter. What we do matters. How we spend each moment matters. What we say, what we pray, how we act all matters. God uses these things as the preordained means to accomplish his will. That eternal plan of redemption, which like the paths of the planets was set in motion in the beginning and has been moving forward flawlessly without a hitch and will continue to until Jesus, Jesus returns. Job 42 says, no purpose of gods can be thwarted. No purpose of gods can be thwarted. And so as we were all looking up at the sky yesterday and wonder, and I heard cheers in the distance,

Starting point is 00:17:15 as we all, for a few moments, stopped what we were doing to behold the beauty of something so big, so far outside of our control and even really our understanding. I could, caught a glimpse of what it will be like when Jesus comes back, riding in on the clouds and fury and triumph to defeat evil, wants him for all, and to rescue his purchased people. Revelation 1 7 through 8 describes that for us. It says, Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him, even so, amen. I am the alpha and the omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come the

Starting point is 00:18:05 Almighty. So I thought of all of this yesterday and what was, like I said, just a much more awe-inspiring and a much deeper experience than I'd anticipated. And I shared on Instagram some of it as well as just the comfort I felt in considering not just what is to come and what lies beyond us, but also what the saints in heaven, including those I loved in this life, are taking in right now. And I want to share this with you as well, as I know many of you have also lost people that you love. And if you're like me, that sadness just hits you out of nowhere. And that's what happened to me yesterday, as I thought about my grandmother, whom I was very close to.

Starting point is 00:18:57 to. She died in 2019. She loved events. She loved celebrations. She loved all things special and fun. And I thought about, like, if she were still alive, what it would have been like. I'd have gone and picked her up as well as her best friend named Clovey. They were like thickest thieves. And I would have driven them to my parents' house where we would have all watched together as the premature dusk painted the afternoon purple. My girls would have run to her, given her a big hog, and I would have taken their picture and their matching glasses. I thought about all that. But this was yet another moment in the past five years of many moments in the past five years that we didn't get to share together. And I know grandparents die. They die in their 80s. It's not

Starting point is 00:19:51 some like rare tragedy that I've been through. It's expected, but it's still death. And death is sad for many reasons, of course, but one of them is that it's not supposed to be this way. It's the reminder that it was never supposed to be this way. We weren't meant to die. We were meant to live forever walking with God in the garden and the cool of the day. But thanks to Jesus, the bad news of death, is contrasted with the good news of the gospel, which contains this amazing message that through Christ, his death, his resurrection, we too, by grace through faith, are freed from sin and its consequence, death. We get to live forever with God. And one day, there will be a new heaven and a new earth where there will be no more death, decay, sickness, sin, or sorrow. But everything will be finally

Starting point is 00:20:46 once and for all made right. And I posted some of that, like I said, on Instagram and then many of you reached out to me who have also lost loved ones and many of you started sharing their names with me as you were thinking these thoughts too about how God is once and for all going to be rid of all of this injustice and sadness and death and tragedy. And we were all together encouraged by this reminder that our Christian friends and family who have gone before us to the other side of eternity are beholding far greater wonders than what we get to see here when we look at a solar eclipse. So let me keep going on that for a second so that those of you who didn't read that on Instagram can be encouraged. your believing parents, grandparents, husband or wife, brothers or sisters, your children, your miscarried babies, they are right now amongst a great cloud of witnesses testifying

Starting point is 00:21:57 to the holiness of Jesus. So I want you to listen to me. You're stillborn baby. Your Christ following mom who died too soon of cancer. Your Christ following husband who passed in the prime of his life. They are among the apostles, the martyrs, the evangelists, the apologists, the missionaries, the everyday unseen and unsung heroes of the faith, singing praises to the creator of the universe. We miss them, but they are missing out on nothing here.

Starting point is 00:22:28 The glory that they now behold eclipses any earthly wonders. 1 Corinthians 1312 was another verse I was considering yesterday. for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. The eclipse that we saw yesterday was just a foretaste of the glory that is to come. So no matter what we lose here, whether it's a person, whether it's a job opportunity, whether it's an election, no matter what happens with the state of our culture wars, no matter what happens at all. That is the hope that we get to hang on to. And sometimes things happen in this natural material world that just remind us of the bigger picture. And praise

Starting point is 00:23:26 God for that. Praise God for the gift of an eclipse that reminds us of his faithfulness and power. All right. So I had to set us up. I had to give us some perspective and some encouragement before we get into this conversation about Donald Trump and what he said about abortion. And I know that there will even there will be people who are upset that I am criticizing Donald Trump. So let me let me just say again, not that I feel like I have to caveat or apologize every time I criticize Donald Trump. But some people seem to forget this that I voted for them. I not only voted for the man twice. But I also did my darnedest with any capacity or capability that I have to convince the people in my audience and Christian women to vote for Donald Trump. Certainly not because I think he's perfect, as you will hear me say in just a few minutes. But because I think that he was the better alternative, obviously, to Joe Biden. And that was true then. It is still true now. He is still better than Joe Biden.

Starting point is 00:24:46 When it comes to the laws that he will sign when they come across his desk, when it comes to his picks for judges and justices, even if he says things that I do not like, which he does quite often, whether it's just silly, selfish, narcissistic, prideful stuff on truth social or whether it's things that I actually morally fundamentally disagree with, like his statements. on IVF and abortion that he put out yesterday, he is still the better alternative, not just when it comes to abortion policy, not just when it comes to the different laws that will come across his desk in regards to, say, gender and all those other things that we really care about, the Second Amendment, but also foreign policy, also the economy in every way, by every measure. he is better than Joe Biden. And so when it comes to who I'm deciding to vote for, that can be how I think of it. Now, some people don't think of it like that at all. Like some of you are just not willing to vote for the man because you just don't think he's pro-life enough.

Starting point is 00:25:57 I think that's fair. But if I'm looking at the two candidates and knowing that Joe Biden is 100% pro-abortion taxpayer funded without apology through nine months and Donald Trump, who says something, things that I really disagree with, then to me, the choice is obvious. But that doesn't mean that I will not argue with Trump. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to disagree with him. And some of you get like really upset about that when I critique something that Trump says. I know this is like no surprise. A lot of like diehard Trump fans have been like this for a really long time. And that says, I would say this is a lot about like your posture. I would just think about that. But just because I am disagreeing with him and arguing with him doesn't mean that I am

Starting point is 00:26:48 trying to tell people not to vote for him. That's not my goal. That's not what I'm trying to accomplish. I am just holding him to the same standards that I hold other politicians. And as a Christian who cares about unborn life, that's important for us to do. Like, that is how Roe v. Wade got overturned, by the way, because there were activists and advocates and commentators who pushed politicians further and further into the pro-life camp so that a law could be passed in Mississippi that would make its way to the Supreme Court that eventually decided Dobbs and overturned Roe v. Wade. And so there have to be some of us over here who are saying, nope, I don't want to compromise like that.

Starting point is 00:27:42 Like I don't want to make those exceptions. Okay. Because without us, it's, we're just going to keep losing in the long term. Okay. I understand the pragmatic perspective. And I know. I haven't even gotten into what he said. But I understand the pragmatic perspective of, oh, well, we have to compromise in order to win elections.

Starting point is 00:28:03 I really do get that. I'm going to take the wins as they come. That doesn't mean that I have to compromise or that I have to just praise Trump whenever he says things that are stupid. So let's get into what he actually said. He warned everyone that he was going to be putting out a statement about this. He said, I will be putting out my statement on abortion and abortion rights. Abortion rights, that's left-coded, that's left-wing language. abortion rights, you do not have, rights are given to us by God. God does not give us a right

Starting point is 00:28:38 to kill our children. Okay. So just a reminder that like Donald Trump is very unfamiliar with Christian thought, with Christian politics and with Christian language. Like we already knew that he is probably, especially personally like a center left guy. I'm not negating the accomplishments that were achieved under his presidency when it comes. to abortion, but just personally, like, we've known that for a while. He's been pretty up front about that. So abortion rights tomorrow morning, Republicans and all others must follow their hearts in mind. But remember that, like Ronald Reagan before me, I don't care what Ronald Reagan thought. But, yeah, Ronald Reagan was a little bit different and that he personally was very,

Starting point is 00:29:24 very pro-life, unlike Trump, but he publicly didn't do enough on behalf of the pro-life cause. So I guess if I had to choose, I would choose Donald Trump's combination in that he advocated publicly against abortion and the justices that he chose and things like that, but he's personally not as against it as I would like. Anyway, he said, and most other Republicans believe in exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Great love and compassion must be shown when even thinking about the subject of life. But at the same time, we must use common sense in realizing that we have an obligation to the salvation of our nation, which is currently in series, declined to win a elections without which we will have nothing other than failure, death, and destruction.

Starting point is 00:30:06 So just a little baby murder, little baby murder, some baby murder. And then that will somehow lead to the salvation of our country. Okay, there are some things that I'm willing to compromise on. There are. I'm not going to list them all right now because I don't have time to like completely explain my position on all of them. But there are things I'm willing to compromise on. But when we are literally talking about the life and death of powerless, vulnerable babies,

Starting point is 00:30:36 that's just not something that I am willing to say, oh, yeah, okay, I'll just give you a little bit of that so we can get the salvation of our country. Now, I get it. I get it. After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, when the issue went back to the states, unfortunately, you saw abortion radicalism take a new form. That is true.

Starting point is 00:30:56 And it is tough to be against the. abortion lobby because they've got all of Hollywood, they've got all of big tech, they've got all of the federal government, basically. And then they have a bunch of squishes in the Republican Party. And so those of us who are really pro-life, like, we just don't have as much power as the other side. So it's difficult. And like the propaganda machine on the left, when it comes to abortion is just so powerful and it's so difficult to conduct. But I mean, we do our darn-ness. But it's difficult when we have the people who are supposed to represent us who are so much squishier than we are on the issue. So let me play you. Let me play you part of Trump's statement. The first part

Starting point is 00:31:42 is about IVF. And this, of course, as we've talked about many times, it's in response to the Alabama decision, the embryos are indeed people, because duh, they scientifically are. And that made some changes in the IVF industry in Alabama because, in heres. Apparently, IVF involves the destruction of embryos that tells us a lot about the ethics of the IVF industry. And so he's responding to that because that was obviously an issue that Democrats immediately held on to and said, oh, Republicans, see, they're not really pro-life. They're anti-choice for women. But if they're also anti-IVF, then that means they're not really pro-life, just stupid. And we've combated that mentality a lot.

Starting point is 00:32:27 But here's what Trump had to say in response to that in the statement that he ended up releasing yesterday. Here's SOT One. Like the overwhelming majority of Americans, including the vast majority of Republicans, conservatives, Christians, and pro-life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby. What could be more beautiful or better than that? Today I'm pleased that the Alabama legislature has acted very quickly and passed legislation that preserves the availability of IVF in Alabama. They really did a great and fast job. Okay.

Starting point is 00:33:09 Well, I mean, to be fair, Trump does think like the majority of professing pro-lifers think because the more that I've talked about the subject, the more that I've realized that most people are like I was. Okay, so I understand. Like I was several years ago, probably six years ago, I had never thought about it. I had never thought about the ethics of IVF and surrogacy and reproductive technology. I had no idea that there are millions of embryos indefinitely frozen on ice right now. I had no idea the eugenics process that goes into IVF, the creation and then eugenic selection of multiple embryos, the discarding of embryos that aren't strong enough, that aren't healthy enough, the discarding of either boys and girls based on the gender preferences of the parents.

Starting point is 00:34:02 I didn't know the horrific practice of egg selling and sperm selling and what is actually involved in that, not just for women's bodies, but also the detachment of the bond between the biological mother or father and the children that they're creating. just didn't know all of this. I didn't know how we were mishandling and misusing and manipulating this innocent embryonic life. And of course, as a pro-lifer, I say life starts at conception. All babies matter. All people matter, no matter how small. Like these are all rallying cries of pro-lifers when it comes to abortion. But then when it comes to IVF, when it comes to discarding and freezing multiple embryos just based on the will and the whims of the parent, we say,

Starting point is 00:34:56 well, yeah, sure, life starts at conception, but this life is different. Yeah, babies in the womb have rights, but these babies are different because they're in a lab. Again, you get into these kind of arbitrary standards of who matters and who doesn't based on their size and development of location. So at that point, you are functionally pro-choice because you have adopted their mentality that people at certain stages of their life matter less and have fewer rights, just depending upon what their parents want. And so, yeah, it's just the more it is. I can say objectively, it's the more thoughtful position if you are pro-life and anti-abortion

Starting point is 00:35:41 because you believe life in the earliest stages, matters, then you would also be against IVF. And we have talked about it many, many times, and I don't need to get into all of it too. But right now, but you can go back and listen to the episodes where I've talked to many people about this. We have looked at it from all angles. I saw a tweet at me earlier today that was like,

Starting point is 00:36:05 you hate my IVF grandson. Of course, I've never said anything close to that at all. All people are made in the image of God, no matter how they're conceived, I don't have to approve of someone's conception to see their value and worth and to love them as people. So, um, but Trump, he represents here, yes, what the majority of professing Christians and pro-lifers think because most people, uh, just haven't thought about it and are ignorance. And at this point, our chosen ignorance is actually leading to the death of a bunch of tiny image bearers to our shame. But I get this. This is

Starting point is 00:36:41 the popular position. And so he's saying, this because it is, he thinks it's going to help him in some way. All right, then he moves on to what he thinks about abortion. Here's that two. My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both. And whatever they decide must be the law of the land. Like Ronald Reagan, I am strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. You must follow your heart this issue. But remember, you must also win elections to restore our culture and, in fact, to save our country, which is currently and very sadly a nation in decline.

Starting point is 00:37:26 Okay. So I believe that rapists should get the death penalty, not the babies who are conceived through rape. That's his position. He believes that babies who are conceived through rape should get the death penalty. But not the rapist. Now, maybe he also believes that the that the rapists should get the death penalty. But yeah, this is what all pro choicers think. Prochoicers are typically anti-death penalty for murderers and rapists and the most violent criminals, but for the death penalty for babies inside the womb. And so that is actually the radical position. That is the morally repugnant position. And if Republicans and conservatives would just be strong on that, would just be unwavering on that, would put it back on them rather than allowing

Starting point is 00:38:18 the left to constantly set the moral standards and then trying to appease them in some way, then maybe we would actually win. But we allow them to define the terms on their turf and then we spend our time acquiescing as much as possible to see if they'll just give us some morsels of what we want. And it just doesn't work like that, especially in the long term. The abolition of slavery was also very politically unpopular at the time. But abolitionists knew it was right because people are not bargaining chips. They are people. They are made in the image of God. Now, I do believe, as I said, to take the wins as they come when it comes to abortion. I want every possible life to be saved and So I understand that sometimes it is just the more pragmatic position that politics is about tradeoffs, unfortunately.

Starting point is 00:39:19 And we live in a political system. But that doesn't mean that I have to agree, again, with what Trump said. That doesn't mean that I can't critique it or that I can't disagree with it. And when I do, I always get people saying this, what you're saying right now is convincing Christians not to vote for him. No, he's doing that on his zone. It's not me by playing what he said, by responding to what he said. It's not me that is doing any convincing to Christians to not vote for him. He's doing that all by himself. Because as I've said many times, it is just less appealing to vote for someone who is basically pro-choice.

Starting point is 00:40:01 When you have someone like RFK who is also pro-choice, but who stands for some things that a lot of Christian women in particular like that Trump doesn't. He is much stronger for medical freedom and for the and for battling against the swamp and the medical establishment than Trump is. Now, I've also said very clearly that I think that Trump is going to be more conservative, certainly, and who he surrounds himself with and the policies that he promotes than RFK Jr. I'm just trying to let you in on what the decision making really kind of looks like for a lot of Christian women. I think the RFK will be more radical on abortion than Trump for sure.

Starting point is 00:40:46 But a lot of people are looking at this and they're like, okay, great, we've got three pro-choice candidates, which by the way we do. And we Christian conservatives, the chumps over here, whose vote no one really cares about, are left to look at the field and just say, all right, I guess this is. what we got, but you're not going to force me to be passionate about voting for you. I'll vote for you, but I'm not going to be an evangelist about it. I'm not going to be excited about it. And that's going to be a real problem. That's going to be a real problem for Donald Trump, is that you are chipping away at people's enthusiasm. Yes, you've got Christian conservatives who will begrudgingly vote for you as the better option,

Starting point is 00:41:34 versus Biden, but you are going to lose some of your biggest evangelists and apologists, defenders, the people who you need to go out and to be your advocates for the suburban mom, they are right now thinking, okay, I'm going to vote for him because it's the lesser of two evils, but I'm probably going to shut up about it. Because at this point, you're just voting for a bunch of pro-choice people. And that's really unfortunate. Again, I mean, a huge voting block of Christian conservative pro-lifers who maybe they're not against IVF, but most of them understand that there's no difference in a baby that's conceived

Starting point is 00:42:16 via rape and a baby that's not. And so to say that it's okay to abort one and not the other really doesn't make any sense, they are right now much less excited about talking about voting for Donald Trump. In fact, they're probably just like, you know what, Jesus is coming back. I'm going to fulfill my civic duty, but I'm not happy about it. That's not really what you want. It's not really what you want. You want those Christian conservatives to be as mobilized as galvanized as possible.

Starting point is 00:42:50 And those of us in the commentary space, like, we're doing our darndest. We're doing our darndest. And I can say by the grace of God, of course, I don't take credit for this, that there have been many, many people who have changed their minds on abortion through this show, either something that I've sat or my guest is sad or something that I've written or someone else has written. And I'm certainly not alone. There are many, many others in the commentary space and the activist space who can say the same thing. But when our politicians are weak, when they hang us out to drive, they throw us under the bus because that's basically what's going on.

Starting point is 00:43:26 it makes it really tough. It makes it really tough. Because what he's basically saying is like, I'm not like those guys over there. I'm not radical like that. I'm more sane. I'm more sophisticated. I'm more nuanced when it comes to this culture war of abortion. I'm not like those crazy evangelicals to the right of me. But let me let me let you in on a little secret Donald Trump. you are not going to get those center-left independent votes that you are vying for. You're not because they think that you're a threat to democracy and Hitler. And so you saying that you think that there should be some rare exceptions for abortion is not going to ingratiate you to them. It's just not going to work.

Starting point is 00:44:20 It's just not. They see you as too radical in every other way. And at this point, a lot of those people want abortion through all nine months without apology. And so I just don't think that this strategy is going to be effective. Again, saying that is someone who understands the need to vote for him. I do. I do. Better than Joe Biden for sure.

Starting point is 00:44:46 I just thought that this was a weaksaw statement, a morally egregious statement. and I'm surprised by some of the pro-life support of it, but most pro-lifers that I've seen have been really, really disheartened by his statements. So it is what it is. It is what it is. Thankfully, politics don't save us. Politics matter because policy matters because people matter. We say so much. Voting matters. All of that is important. And I'm going to encourage you to vote. I'm going to encourage you to vote in alignment as best we can with the values that are biblical when it comes to policy. But I got to say, I don't feel super pumped about this election. Yeah, but just a reminder, Jesus is coming back and he will rule in perfect peace.

Starting point is 00:45:47 And all we can do is the next right thing for his glory. All right. I'm sure that you will let me know what you think about that in the comments of YouTube. And I look forward to reading, reading those comments. Hey, I got something for the Catholics that I lost after yesterday's episode. I got something for you. I got some praise for Mr. Pope. All right.

Starting point is 00:46:23 The Pope. Pope Francis condemned surrogacy, gender theory, and transgender sex change in a statement from the Vatican this week. And I am excited to see this. Now, obviously, you guys know I am a reformed Protestant. So there are many things that I do not agree with when it comes to the Pope, when it comes to Catholic theology in general, particularly this Pope. And I would say a lot of my Catholic friends also disagree with this Pope about a variety

Starting point is 00:46:50 of things because he's not quite as biblical or conservative as popes in the past. but he has been very strong against surrogacy, against gender ideology. Now, there have been some things where it seems like he has been like warmer towards people who claim gender ideology than I would like. But when it comes to the actual ideology itself and the idea and what's happening with the mutilation of people's body, he's been very strong. And just Catholic theology in general is very consistent when it comes to the theology of the body and when it comes to IVF, reproductive. technology, surrogacy, birth control. And for that, I am very, very thankful. So here is part of his statement. So Dignitas, infinita. Is that how you pronounce it? Do we know? None of my Catholic friends in the room right now, no. But we're going to go with that. Dignitas infinita. On human dignity,

Starting point is 00:47:48 it's largely a reiteration of long-held Catholic teaching. So this isn't new, but this is just emphasizing these, emphasizing Catholic teaching on this, which I do think is really important in a time when this is being so heavily debated and so glamorized. So on gender theory, he said, the church recalls that human life in all its dimensions, both physical and spiritual, is a gift from God. Desiring a personal self-determination as gender theory prescribes, apart from this fundamental truth that human life is a gift amounts to a concession to the age-old temptation

Starting point is 00:48:25 to make oneself God. That is so true. That is so true. That is the God of self, as we've talked about many times. Entering into competition with the true God of love revealed to us in the gospel. Okay, can I tell you something that I've been thinking? Because we've talked about this many times and how, like, when you worship the God of self, autonomy and authenticity become idols.

Starting point is 00:48:50 autonomy when in submission to God can be good and authenticity when in submission to God can be good. But when the God itself and these things are held supreme, then autonomy justifies whatever you want to do in the name of controlling your life. So abortion. And then authenticity becomes supreme in determining what you want to do with your body, like changing your sex. you're just being who you really are. Authenticity and autonomy, again, can be good virtues when they're in submission to God's law. But when you worship the God of self, they actually become vices. They become excuses to sin in very egregious ways. But I was also thinking that transgenderism is self-idolatory in the sense that only God can create something through

Starting point is 00:49:45 declaration of his word. So as we have already said in this episode, when God said in the beginning, let there be light and there it was and he spoke the world into motion, that was a declaration, a sign, a signifier of his power. Well, transgenderism says the same thing, that you can declare something and become that thing. You can just say that you are a man if you are a woman. You can say that you are a woman if you are a man and you think that that declaration becomes reality and it does it it does it that's why through all of the sex changes and the hormones and everything that you still remain the sex that you were conceived as so just another layer of all of that so the statement goes on to say another prominent aspect of gender theory is that it intends to deny the greatest

Starting point is 00:50:35 possible difference that exists between living beings sexual difference this foundational difference is not only the greatest imaginable difference, but it is also the most beautiful, most powerful of them. So true. And the male-female couple, the difference achieves the most marvelous of reciprocities. It thus becomes the source of that miracle that never ceases to surprise us the arrival of new human beings in the world. Yes and amen. Then, of course, it is also rooted in creation, reiterated throughout scripture, repeated by Jesus in Matthew 19, representative of Christ and the Church of Ephesians 5, and then reflective of the gospel, Revelation 22. Christ. and his bride the church.

Starting point is 00:51:13 He goes on to say, we cannot separate the masculine and the feminine from God's work of creation, which is prior to all our decisions and experiences. So true. And where biological elements exist, which are impossible to ignore, only by acknowledging and accepting this difference in reciprocity can each person fully discover themselves, their dignity and their identity. It's so true. You cannot be, you know, Elizabeth Elliott has been, or has been, she's obviously dead now,

Starting point is 00:51:37 but she had been talking about this since the 1970s in the feminist movement. She describes a woman that came up to her after one of her talks and said, I don't want to see myself as a woman. I just want to see myself as a person. But that's impossible. We are embodied beings. We are embodied as either male or female. And that precedes any decision that we make.

Starting point is 00:51:59 That is, from the earliest point of our development, that is what we are. It talks about the problem of sex change surgeries. humans are inseparably composed of both body and soul. The body serves, I love this. The body serves as the living context in which the interiority of the soul unfolds and manifests itself, as it does also through the network of human relationships. That is so true, it reminds me of what Nancy Piercy wrote in love thy body. Constituting the person's being, the soul and the body both participate in the dignity

Starting point is 00:52:29 that characterizes every human. He says, we are called to protect our humanity. means in the first place accepting it and respecting it as it was created. Any sex change intervention risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception. This is not to exclude the possibility that the person with genital abnormalities that are already evident at birth, you know, goes on and on. But it's obvious what he's really talking about here.

Starting point is 00:52:58 Such a medical procedure in that case would not constitute a sex change in a sense intended here. So he just wanted to give that caveat. but he is talking about someone who's intentionally trying to change their sex. Then he talks about surrogacy. He says, I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood. Me too, Pope Francis, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child based on the exploitation of situations of the mother's material needs.

Starting point is 00:53:25 A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract. Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally. Me too. The legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a right to a child that failed to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life. That is true. You don't have a right to conceive.

Starting point is 00:53:50 You don't have a right to a child. A child is not an object that you have a right to obtain. It is a gift. Conclusion, he says, the church with the present declaration ardently urges that respect for the dignity of the human person beyond all circumstances be placed at the center of the commitment to the common good and at the center of every legal system. Indeed, respect for the dignity of each person is the indispensable basis for the existence of any society that claims to be founded on just law and not on the force of power. I honestly don't know how is a Christian anyone

Starting point is 00:54:27 could argue with that. I didn't read the whole statement. It's beautifully worded. And I think just an airtight theological and natural law argument. And so go read it in its entirety. It's very good. And it is absolutely correct. Now, our very devout Catholic president, his White House, obviously, had a response to the Pope. Okay.

Starting point is 00:55:06 So let's see what the White House had to say. Karina Jean-Pierre, she faced questions about Pope Francis's declaration, condemning gender theory. on Monday, and she affirmed President Biden's support for the transgender community. We are pleased to see that the document further the Vatican's call to ensure that LGBTQ plus are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world. However, the president will continue to be an advocate for the right safety and dignity of the LGBTQ plus community, including transgender people here in the U.S., so part of that is responding to things that I didn't read.

Starting point is 00:55:38 I'm going to, when a reporter press for more specific comments about gender theory and transgender individuals, Jean-Pierre, said, going to be really careful. The president's role to litigate internal church policy. That's not his role. So I'm going to be super careful there. But I can speak to the president's stance. And he's always been very clear on the importance of protecting or having protections for the transgender community and the broader LGBTQ plus community. And that's been very clear since day one of his administration. Okay. So they're not really saying. But like she the pope was not talking about internal church policy. He was saying, no, there need to be laws banning surrogacy and we should not be having sex change surgeries. So, of course, I don't think that Biden is probably going to speak to this directly or, you know, very explicitly puts him in kind of in an awkward position. Of course, we know that he is not actually a devout Catholic because everything he stands for is opposed to what Catholic theology teaches about the body, about homosexuality, and about, abortion, which is really, really unfortunate. But no matter what the politicians say or do, no matter what the Pope says or does, Christians are called to stand on the abiding truth and

Starting point is 00:56:56 clarity of God's word because his ways are always better. And as we see from something as amazing as the eclipse, God's creation has meaning, it has order, it has purpose, it has beauty. And no matter what is happening in this material world, remember, his eternal plan of redemption is always going off without a hitch. And Jesus Christ, Hebrews 138 says, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Praise God for that. All right, before we get out of here on this Tuesday, I just want to remind you that my friend, Jason Whitlock, he's got this amazing event happening in Nashville on June 1st. This is a men's event. You can come for the great food, the music, the You can be transformed by the biblically inspired messages that'll be delivered by lots of speakers there, including Jason, Mark Robinson. He is the lieutenant governor of North Carolina that's really just been advocating for good, right, and true policies there. Go to fearless army roll call.com. Get your tickets today. All you related bros out there, check it out Saturday, June 1st in Nashville, fearless army roll call.com. all right okay that's all i got for you today on today's episode of relatable we will see you back here tomorrow

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 982 | The Biblical Meaning of the Eclipse

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