The Briefing with Albert Mohler - Friday, June 27, 2025

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

This is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.Part I (00:14 – 09:50)We are Peering over a Demographic Cliff: This Year’s High School Graduating Class is the Biggest in American History, But It’s Downhill From HerePeak Pomp & Circumstance by The Washington Examiner (Timothy P. Carney)Part II (09:50 – 15:00)Is God Good to Permit That My Wife Die from a Brain Tumor at a Young Age? — Dr. Mohler Responds to Letter from Listeners of The BriefingPart III (15:00 – 17:23)Do You Agree with Charles Spurgeon on ‘Political Christians’? — Dr. Mohler Responds to a Letter from a 15-Year-Old Listener of The BriefingPart IV (17:23 – 19:59)What Advice Would You Give to An Aspiring Academic? — Dr. Mohler Responds to a Letter from an 18-Year-Old Listener of The BriefingPart V (19:59 – 23:47)Can a Christian Participate in a Peaceable Protest? Was It Wrong for Me to Attend a Political Protest? — Dr. Mohler Responds to Letter from Listeners of The BriefingPart VI (23:47 – 29:18)How Should Christians Approach Complicated Figures Like Martin Luther? — Dr. Mohler Responds to Letter from Listeners of The BriefingSign up to receive The Briefing in your inbox every weekday morning.Follow Dr. Mohler:X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTubeFor more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.To write Dr. Mohler or submit a question for The Mailbox, go here.

It's Friday, June 27, 2025. I'm Albert Mueller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. Well, my guess is that a good number of you were at one or more graduation ceremonies or services over the course of the last several weeks. There's been a very interesting development along those lines. It used to be that there were, in the main, two graduation opportunities. Graduation from high school and graduation from college. So when someone talked about a commencement ceremony, that's basically what it was, high school or college. And then, of course, there were graduate schools, and so there could be a graduation ceremony for a law school, a medical school, a theological seminary. You just go down the list. But pretty much it was high school graduation, college or university graduation, and then graduate school graduation. Mostly high school and college. That's what commencement ceremonies were.

But it's interesting to see how there has been a further development of this. understanding. So now you have graduation from kindergarten. You have graduation from the first grade. You have graduation from elementary school. You have graduation from middle school. Pretty soon you're going to have graduation from every day's class, I think. But that's just the direction of the world. And by the way, why did that happen? Well, part of it is the culture of affirmation. That's part of it. We love affirming and we love being affirmed. And so that's one of those opportunities. We love occasions. And what's not cute about putting five and six-year-olds into graduate gowns and putting them in front of a line and, you know, there's nothing uncute about that.

The problem is that it really does blur the line between what's a really significant academic achievement and what is not. Nonetheless, this is kind of a losing argument. And so I think you're probably going to see more and more opportunities for graduation. By the way, there's money in it. That's the other thing many people miss. There is money in it, the economy. well, it can benefit by having all these different graduations and all the rest.

And, well, that's just pretty much the story. But here's an interesting part of the story, extremely relevant today. And that is that the graduating class from high school this year, that is to say, spring of 2025, it is the largest cumulative total graduating class of high school students in American history. interesting fact number one. Interesting fact number two, it is almost assuredly going to be the high watermark because from here those numbers go down. Okay, this is the so-called demographic cliff that educators have been worried about for a long time. And that's especially true if you're running a college or university. And that just means that the pool of high school seniors is growing

smaller. So admissions workers, you're going to work a lot harder just to stay with the same numbers. The demographic cliff is a grave warning to higher education. Honestly, there are going to be a lot of institutions that are going to fail. Arguably, there are too many academic institutions, colleges and universities, for the market, so to speak, in America today. There are all kinds of reasons why that may be so. But you're also looking at the fact that a good number of institutions in higher education are pretty fragile. Economically, they're pretty fragile. There have been a couple of movements to try to expand their market or their base.

You had the development of professional schools and professional programs, radical expansion of collegiate sports. That's been a driver of enrollment in some schools. But the fact is, all of these developments also have a terminus. They have a decreasing return. And eventually, for instance, with those athletic programs, what had been an income maker is a revenue breaker. They start costing more than they bring in.

But the big point I want to make today is just the math. Spring 2025, largest high school graduating class in American history. From this point onward, it's downward. Now, the analysis of this is actually very easy. It's the fall on the birth rate. And when you're talking about a fall in the birth rate, you're talking about the number of babies born, well, say, 18 years ago. That's going to produce the high school graduating class. 17, 18 years ago, you look at the birth rate, you look at those numbers.

That's going to tell you how many high school seniors they're going to be. Or at least it tells you this. There can't be any more high school seniors. than that, not in terms of the native-born population. And so academic institutions, they've been bracing for this. I can just tell you, they've been bracing for this. There were warnings that it would come last year, but for various reasons and without going into detail, COVID was one of them. It actually was about a year delayed. But from now on, the numbers are going down. And, you know, I appreciate the candor of the Washington examiner in explaining this saying, quote,

the millennials forgot to reproduce. You ask how this happened? They say, a rash of dropouts is not behind the upcoming graduation recession. It's a dearth of births. The millennials forgot to reproduce. Now, I'm just going to argue that that's a clever line. I like it. That's why I just shared it with you.

I like the line, but it's not the truth. The millennials didn't forget to reproduce. They decided not to reproduce. And overwhelmingly, we see a falling fertility rate, a falling birth rate. those are closely allied. They're not exactly the same thing. Put that in a footnote. We don't need to discuss it further. The number of teenagers of high school students is going to go down and it's going to go down consistently and it's going to go down continuously. It's going to go down significantly. Why? Because we can already see the numbers. Because the birth numbers, they tell us the story. You can backdate the birth numbers and figure this out. Furthermore, current birth numbers aren't encouraging. There's no recovery we're seeing here. The American birth rate is, greater than that of some other nations, most particularly, you can look at a nation like South Korea. It is absolutely disastrous as you look at some nations. And it's not just South Korea, it's Japan. It's not only that, it's European nations such as Spain. You can look at

the birth rate so much beneath the replacement rate that it's not just a question who's going to go to college. It's a question of, well, who's going to do anything? Timothy P. Carney in this article says, quote, even though our baby bust has been going on for almost two decades, most Americans are only just now finding out. Many still think overpopulation is the threat. However, American academia is well aware of the problem. It's been planning for the enrollment cliff for years now. He says this quote, it's not quite a cliff. The drop off in burst in 2007 until today has been steady. However, it is a one way unending decline. Colleges will have to compete for fewer high school graduates, meaning that some colleges will no longer be able to operate in four years.

end quote. Well, little footnote here, yes. The enrollment cliff is not just about birth rate. That is by far the most fundamental issue. It's also about another problem of great interest to Christians. And that is how many boys and young men in particular are not ready for college and are not going to college. And frankly, they're not showing up in some other important places, such as the military or in the trades either. So we have a huge problem there. But for today, the big issue is the birth rate. It's by far the biggest contributor to this demographic. problem. But you know, here's where I want to come back and say, let's just remember as Christians that this is not merely a demographic issue. This isn't just a numbers game. It's not just an alarm sent off in higher education. It is a worldview crisis. It's a theological crisis. Something has

happened. Let's remember that the command to reproduce is in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. It is the first most essential command given to human beings. And we also have to note that most societies throughout human history have considered replacing of not expanding the population to be a basic national responsibility and goal. Now, Carney made reference, as we've often discussed, to the population explosion, myth, and the population control movement. That has contributed to this. But, you know, I think it's actually part of a far larger complex. And I talk about this. I return to it because I don't think there's a more important issue of worldview significance before us.

If you decide not to get married and you decide not to have babies and you decide not to have a family, you know what? You're making a decision. It's not just a personal decision. It's not just a lifestyle decision. It is a massive decision of social consequence. It is a massive decision disclosing your worldview, your commitments, what you believe to be the purpose for human existence, what your purpose in life is. The fact is that the scariest aspect of this is that an increasing number of,

of young Americans doesn't consider marriage or being a mother or father a part of the necessary, say, definition of adulthood at all. They are increasingly open about saying they don't see it as a part of their own conception of the good life. And, you know, this is leading not only to a demographic cliff or colleges, it's leading to, I'll just say, a general breakdown of society. I think Christians have to see it that way. Rebellion against creation order, this basic is going to come with severe consequences. And in coming days, we'll be looking more closely at some of those consequences. Right now, it is just interesting, and I think timely, that we think of all those young people who crossed platforms for graduation, especially high school seniors in 2025, and recognize

we probably just witness what will be for the foreseeable future of our nation, the largest graduating class, period, all downhill from here. I want to turn now to questions, and I appreciate questions, all of them, but I especially appreciate questions that come with a particular kind of candor. And clearly, this one's coming from a man who listens to the briefing. And he says he's been a Christian since he was a younger man, 1979. He says that his first wife died of cancer from a tumor in 1978. And he says he's continually frustrated by the question that if God is just, why would he take his wife from me at such a young age? He says that he has a son by that wife and now grandchildren through him. He says, quote, but it just doesn't seem to be good that God allowed her to die

from a brain tumor. I would appreciate your perspective on what goodness there is in God letting her die from a brain tumor. How is God good in his decision to bring cancer? And, quote, okay, really significant, candid questions asked there. And I want to just note, theologically for care, that there are two different questions. And one is that the Bible never says cancer is a good thing. The Bible never says that death is a good thing. The Bible never says that suffering is a good thing. The Bible tells us that God is good and in these things is working for good for those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are also told that God is absolutely sovereign and he is absolutely good. And so for Christians, we understand that he is working for good,

for greater good and his greater glory in this context. Now, what we do not have to say, and as a matter of fact, what theologically shouldn't be said is that the suffering is good, this cancer is good, that death is good. The Bible doesn't say that. As a matter of fact, the Bible declares that death is our enemy, an enemy that is conquered by Christ and one day will be vanquished by Christ. And the glory of God thus is going to be shown in Christ's victory over death, Christ's victory over sin, Christ's victory over suffering. And there are, I think, some very bad argument some Christians give as to answering the question, why did God allow this to happen? Why did a sovereign God allowed this to happen? And we believe that in the operation of his sovereignty, he established all

things that will pass before the foundation of the cosmos. And so there are some bad, unbiblical things that some Christians will say, such as that God was unable to act in this circumstance. So God is omnipotent. He is able to act. Others will say, flippantly, that you look at something like this and we can trace exactly the reason why God does something and such things will become apparent to us, even as the issues come into focus. That's not always the case. I think many of us will die with some of these questions unanswered. I do not believe they will be eternally unanswered. I'm looking forward to that day when every eye is dry and every tear is wiped away. But between here and there, we need to understand that suffering is real,

death is real, sin is real, tumors are real, and the urgency of thinking clearly as Christians is real too. And I want to say to this man, I believe that God is absolutely sovereign. I believe that he ordains all that comes to pass. The confessional language is he ordains or permits all that comes to pass. I believe that God is absolutely good. And I believe that in all things, His glory will be one day evident to us. And so I will simply say, number one, that no Christian should say that you were not rightly suffering and grieving. No Christian should say that this tumor is not in itself evil. No one as a Christian should say that death or suffering is illusory. They are all too real. The Bible dignifies the reality of these horrible things, but also points us to the cross of Christ,

to the empty tomb and to the final consummation of all things to God's greater glory. I do take great promise in the reality that every I will be dry and every tear will be wiped away. And I also lean into the absolute confidence I have from Scripture that on that day, God's glory will be seen as it is in such a way that all that we have ever known in our lifetimes will come into clearer view. And I think every eye dry and every tear wiped away means also that we will have a much fuller understanding of these things on that day. Until then, I think we need to be honest. We need to be biblical. We need to be very careful in not violating the doctrine of God, either in terms of his power and omnipotence or his

goodness and his mercy and righteousness. And I think it also means we dignify this kind of question. It's an honest question. I want to say, to this listener, you're not wrong to ask this question. I would be wrong to presume that I can answer it on behalf of God. I'm obligated gladly to say what I believe scripture teaches. And I believe that most fundamental truths taught by scripture begin with the fact that God is love and that one day those who are in Christ will know that all things are well. And now a 15-year-old young man writes in to ask a question about Charles Spurgeon. I mean, how happy is that? He writes, Quote, I was reading a sermon by Charles Spurgeon once, and I came across this quote,

I cannot say that I delight in political Christians. I fear that party strife is a serious trial to believers, and I cannot reconcile our heavenly citizenship with the schemes of the hustings and the riot of the polling booth. He goes on to say this was from a sermon on Philippians 320 and was titled Citizenship in Heaven. This young man asked, I was wondering what you thought about this quote and whether or not you agreed with it. Okay, so let me say, number one, I'm not going to disagree with Charles Spurgeon. And I'm not going to say that because Charles Pergin is inerrant and infallible God's word is. But I am going to say, I think that he's often right in pastoral wisdom. And I like the way he expresses this. He says, I cannot say that I delight

in political Christians. Now, let me just say what I don't think he meant there. I don't think he meant there that Christians shouldn't be active in politics, that Christians shouldn't vote in elections. I don't think he was saying that we don't have a responsibility to the political process. I don't think he was saying we should withdraw in kind of a retreat from the world around us and that responsibility. I don't think he says those who have the right to vote shouldn't vote. I don't even think he's saying that those who are Christians shouldn't enter into political office. And I think there's good evidence in Charles Spurgeon's life that he didn't believe any of those things categorically. But I do think he offers here a very sober-minded, cogent warning against those who might be described

as political Christians. Those who might be deluded into thinking the political process in this age can bring about what only the kingdom of Christ can bring about. I think he is warning here against too much confidence in politics and those who give themselves to politics. And so I will say, I think giving ourselves to any earthly endeavor in that sense, I like the way Spurgeon puts it with the schemes of the hustings and the riot of the polling booth. You know, that's a messy business. Christians would have to get into it carefully. And and I think with some reservations. I'm thankful there are Christians who have given themselves to it carefully and responsibly and with

reservations. I would fear those who give themselves to politics without reservation. And so I want to thank this listener for the question, and I hope I have answered it well in a way that would make Mr. Spurgeon happy. Okay. Here another young man who writes in saying, please don't laugh, but I feel called to serve the Lord in academia. He says, what advice would you give to an aspiring Christian Baptist?

academic. Also, I'm starting at Boyce College in the fall. And go, okay, well, you know, that last sentence took away my first word of advice. I am thrilled this young man will be a student in the entering class at Boyce College in the fall. And I want you to hear me say, I think that's great that this question followed on the other question, both from young men and their teens, asking, well, what about this area of life in terms of my adult responsibility? What does that look like? And I want to say to this, man, I'm not going to laugh. He says, please don't laugh, but I feel called to serve the Lord in academia. How can I like? at that. That's what I do. I'm not going to laugh at what I do. I may laugh at myself at times,

but I'm not going to laugh at the importance of what I do. Not only that, I'm looking for faculty all the time. I'm looking for the most faithful, godly faculty for this school. I need Christian academics. I think, however, this young man may have another angle on this. Maybe he's talking about the larger world of academia out there in the secular world. And they all say, look, the reason I think he said, please don't laugh is because he knows I have a pretty good idea of what that world looks like. And I'm not going to laugh. I think it's very important to Christians be wherever Christians can be in integrity and full credibility. And I would love to see more Christians in higher education and academia rather than fewer. I would like the right kinds of Christians or the right

kind of convictions to be in the right kind of teaching posts to have maximum influence. Just in the course of this week, I spoke to an Ivy League professor who I think is bravely and courageously teaching in one of the nation's most prestigious universities. I'm very thankful he is there. I mean, to say that, I'm incredibly thankful he is there. I think there are conditions in which he couldn't be there. But so long as he can be there in integrity and in fullness of conviction, I hope he's there. I will tell you, I think secular higher education is learning all the right defense mechanisms to keep convict. Christians out of many, if not most, teaching positions, but you know what? They're going to make

mistakes every once in a while. And we can also hope that a part of the pushback against the higher education establishment right now, and I want to credit the Trump administration for bringing a lot of that pressure, I think some of that is going to lead to a pattern in which you're going to have a lot of leaders in higher education who are going to say, at least we need to hire some of those conservatives. We need to hire some of those Christians. I'm going to tell you that's not enough, but I'll tell you it is progress given where we are right now. Okay, really interesting question. This one surprised me.

Listener to the briefing, who is a physician, wrote in, and he says, quote, over the past weekend, I peacefully protested at the No King's Rally in San Antonio. He says, I'm particularly concerned about this administration's attempt to consolidate power within the executive branch. And as a physician, I'm concerned particularly about the doge cuts to global health spending to programs like PEPFAR and UNICEF. A fellow believer said to attend such a protest was unwise and sinful because scripture tells us to honor the emperor.

He says, while admittedly in the protests, there were certain signs and a chance that we as Christians should not affirm. I think a chance, that means S-E-H-A-N-T-S that were repeated, that Christians should not affirm or repeat. And he says, I don't believe peacefully demonstrating against policies,

I think hurt the least among us is wrong. How are we as thinking Christians to view peaceful protest? Well, first of all, let me just say that, answering the straightforward, simple question at the end of your email, that's easy. Can a Christian participate in peaceful protests? The answer is yes. And I mean, that's very much a part of the American experience. It covers rights that are explicitly granted in the Bill of Rights.

And so, yes, the answer is Christians can participate in peaceful, lawful protest. Now, that's different than the question of prudence. I didn't say it's necessarily wise for Christians to participate in such things. And I'll be honest, I'd have enormous reservations about showing up at a No King's protest because of what is being protested by many people at that kind of event. That is to say, I don't think that would represent my position at all. I understand your intentions for protests were limited, at least from what I read here. You say to consolidate power within the executive branch, I think the president is clearly testing those limitations. I don't think protests will have any impact on that. I guarantee you that I believe

Donald Trump probably enjoyed the protests as much as he enjoyed the ones for him. That's just, I think, the way he sees that kind of event. But you say as a physician, you're concerned about the doge cuts to global health, PEPFar and UNICEF. You know, I think there's an issue in which Christians can have a debate. And I think the hardest one there is PEPFAR precisely because of the AIDS crisis. You know, I'm going to say that I want to validate the fact that you as a Christian physician have a right to have positions on these issues to articulate those positions. And honestly, it would be a privilege someday if you could talk to me about those issues. I would enjoy that. But I just want to say that I think Christian prudence and just understanding other things that are

going on at this kind of no king's event, I would have no thing to do with it, just to be honest. And that's what I would advise. I think it would confuse people and evidently may have confused some of your own fellow believers there. So you asked a question about peaceful protest. I think done peacefully and respectfully, protest is a constitutional right and it's not wrong. I don't think, however, that something like the No King's protest comes without, let me just say, a rather significant complications. You know, I am very involved in so many of these issues, and I'll say unashamedly involved in trying to persuade people, educate and equip people, and also to take public positions on these issues.

I'll just be honest, I don't do protests. And that's not to say I never would. I have in certain circumstances, particularly in the pro-life movement, participated in events to make very clear pro-life conviction. But in general, so many of these events, I'll just say I find it not serving my understanding of stewardship, Christian stewardship on these issues. So you ask the question, that's my best answer. I wasn't expecting this one. So, you know, I want to especially thank you for an unexpected question. Okay, so the next question is a pattern question, which means several people have written similar questions. So I'm going to put them together. And evidently, some of it may have been sparked because maybe I made a recent reference to Martin Luther, the Great Reformer,

or having been in so many of the main locations where the Reformation was hammered out just in recent weeks in Germany and Switzerland. And by the way, both an older listener and a younger listener wrote in this case, one of them wrote, quote, to express my bewilderment in why every preacher speaker and podcaster chooses to ignore slash overlook the tension between the good Martin Luther did and the fact that he wrote a book on anti-Semitism. I think there's some question about some of what follows here. A younger Christian wrote in to say, knowing of heroes in church history who are flawed, you know, what do you do with their mistakes and even younger listener? A very similar question. Let me just come back and say, number one, I do my very best in discussing someone like Martin Luther in making clear as much as I can in the appropriate context, the totality of Martin Luther's life and work, standing there in Wittenberg, standing at the town church where he preached. There's a plaque on the wall known as the Udenzhou. It's a blatantly anti-Semitic peace on the side of the church. And it's a

It's horrifying when you look at it. And you ask the question, why is it there? And by the way, it was there well over 100 years before Martin Luther was born. But he preached in that building. And Martin Luther was very much against Judaism. Now, let me just say he wasn't seen in historical context so much against Jews as he was Judaism. So he actually had a Christian who was Jewish there in the university. But when it came to Judaism, he saw it as something to be greatly resisted.

And the term anti-Semitism is not wrongly applied to him. I want to say there's plenty of evidence there for what would be morally indicted as anti-Semitism. And so I'd just say you don't talk about Martin Luther, at least. That's not to say in every conversation because the reason Martin Luther is remembered is because of his theological contribution, seminal, singular at times contribution to the Reformation, to the cause of the gospel. But I think it's really important that we recognize God has not given us in church history any perfect models, none. And so one of the listeners writes in acknowledging David and Bathsheba, yes, you know,

and here's the thing about the scripture. The scripture tells us both of those things. In other words, it tells us about the greatness of David's reign, and yet it tells us about the horrifying nature of his sin with Bashiba. And by the way, it doesn't just mention that one time. It will come back to it. But not every reference to King David in Scripture has anything to do with his sin. A lot of it has to do with the messianic promise concerning his throne. A lot of it has to do with his courage and his role in Israel. And so I don't know how to find an absolutely right proportion here, but I want to say to all these listeners, you're not asking a stupid question. You're not asking a wrong question. And yes, when we talk about Christian leaders, we need to be honest. And we need to be honest. And we need to. to address these issues, honestly. But I don't think cancellation culture is right in any sense here. You don't have the Protestant Reformation without Martin Luther. You don't have Martin Luther without everything good about him and everything bad about him. By the way, I disagree with

Martin Luther on many things, including infant baptism. But I honor Martin Luther and do so without apology. I honor others. And for instance, George Whitfield. He was not without sin, particularly when it came to slavery and other issues. I think the biblical exhortation is that we take these men, and I would say men and women, in their full measure as best we can. But you know what? The Bible presents heroes. Just look at the book of Hebrews, for example. The Bible presents heroes. It doesn't present them without reference to their sin, but it still points to them as examples and heroes. Well, let's just look at Peter. Peter is an example for us, the apostle Peter, an example in teaching, an example in his life, an example

in his courage, except when he wasn't, such as when he denied Christ. And so we have in the word of God the truth about these figures, and we still honor them, as Scripture does, but hopefully in the right proportion. You know, I think one final short word about this is that the Bible presents only one hero. And that hero is the one true and living God. And on earth, in the incarnation, that hero was Jesus Christ. And all others are presented warts and all. Jesus is presented as sinless and perfect. That distinction is important both ways.

You can send your question just by writing me at mail at albertmolar.com. Thanks for listening to the briefing. For more information, go to my website at albertmuller.com. You can follow you on X or Twitter by going to Twitter.com forward slash Albert Moler. For information on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbtsd.U. For information on voice college, just go to voicecollege.com. I'll meet you again on Monday for the briefing.