The Briefing with Albert Mohler - Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Episode Date: November 26, 2025

This is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.On today’s edition of The Briefing, Dr. Mohler discusses thanksgiving theology in American history, the big problem of Thanksgiving for secularism, sinful humanity’s conspiracy to deny thanks to God, and the truth and hope of the gospel in Thanksgiving.Part I (00:15 – 06:47)Thanksgiving Theology in American History: The Theological Foundations of America’s First ThanksgivingPart II (06:47 – 10:48)The Big Problem of Thanksgiving for Secularism: Secularists are Genuinely Thankful, But To Whom Are They Thankful?Part III (10:48 – 16:02)‘They Did Not Honor Him as God or Give Thanks’: Sinful Humanity’s Massive Sin Conspiracy Not to Give God ThanksPart IV (16:02 – 24:13)A Theology and Apologetic of Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving Day and the Truth and Hope of the GospelSign 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 Wednesday, November 26, 2025. I'm Albert Mueller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. An unprecedented number of Americans are in motion today. This is one of the biggest travel days in the United States of America, and is for a distinctively American reason, and that is that Thursday, tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. It is one of the highest dates of travel in many years. It is the most concentrated. day of travel the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day. And even if you're not in the air, you may well be in a car or in another means of conveyance as you're going to be with family. This is a distinctly American observance. Now, other nations, Canada has Thanksgiving at another time of the year. But in American history, Thanksgiving has some of the deepest roots because it goes back to the origins of our national story. It goes back to the pilgrims. And even though some of that is surrounded in mythology and it was reconstructed by later generations, the reality is that it is known that those colonists set aside a time for Thanksgiving,

and that Thanksgiving has become a part of the American tradition. Presidents have called for days of observance and Thanksgiving. Presidents like President Lincoln formalized it in a new way, and by the time you get to the 20th century, it is set here in November as a national holiday with all of the things surrounding Thanksgiving that have gone into the season. Over the course of the last several decades, it has often become something of, let's just say, the first movement into the concentrated holiday season of the fall and going into the winter, and of course culminating with Christmas and the celebration of the

coming new year. And of course, in human experience, that all happens very fast. But I want us to ask a fundamental question here, and that is, what are millions and millions of Americans thinking as they're thinking thankful thoughts. And you have so many people who are at least in some sense observing Thanksgiving tomorrow. And they are gathering together with family or they're gathering together with friends.

The entire society basically stops for what is set aside as a national day of Thanksgiving. But how in the world is that understood? Now, if you go back to the 16th century, you go back to the 17th century, you go back even to the beginnings of the 13th century, you go back even to the beginnings of the 20th century, the theological content of Thanksgiving

would have been very, very clear. If we're talking about giving thanks, Americans almost universally would have understood that that meant giving thanks to God, acknowledging God as the creator and the source of all good things, the giver of life and the sustainer of prosperity. All of that would have been seen as just axiomatic. You look at the history of American art. You look at depictions of Thanksgiving. You have, of course, the family gathered. You have the turkey being brought out, often on a platter as a presentation. And you also have the family gathered for prayer. In so many of the artistic depictions, you actually have the prayer taking place. The heads bowed. Sometimes the hands folded. And the family, just in a beautiful scene, gathered together,

acknowledging God is the giver of all good gifts. But as you think about the secularization of our society, I think it's very telling that the Thanksgiving impulse has not gone away. Instead, that Thanksgiving impulse raises a host of issues. And I think it actually is something we should think about today in terms of Christian apologetics, that is, to say, the theological task of defending the truth of Christianity, revealing the truth of Christianity, and showing how there's evidence for this truth embedded all around us. I want to suggest that a part of that evidence is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving itself is a part of that evidence. Secular people, even as they gather together, and even as they talk about Thanksgiving, and even as they make

gestures of thankfulness, the question is to whom, to what? I want to argue that there's a powerful evidence here, powerful argument here for the existence of the one true and living God, who is none other than the Creator of heaven and earth, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the giver of all good things, the judge of all the earth, that one true and living God is in the background of a Thanksgiving celebration even in a secular age. And I want us to think about why. Just a few years ago, a very prominent atheist, indeed one of the four so-called new atheists, perhaps the most influential atheist alive, Richard Dawkins. He was based. noted for the fact that even as he denied the existence of God, and I mean just powerfully so,

exhaustively so, famously so, he also admitted at least in terms of his practice and in terms of his aesthetics that he liked Christmas music and he liked Christmas carols. And recently, you may know that Richard Dawkins has found himself in a new controversy. That new controversy he has to do the transgender issue. And it is because Richard Dawkins has been just really, really clear that as an evolutionary scientist, he thinks male and female are really fixed categories. And as he said in a recent statement, there's nothing between male and female. There are only two options and they're biologically determined and they're biologically defined.

So deal with it. Richard Dawkins has all of a sudden found he's got detractors on the left. He's declared to be kind of like J.K. Rowling, you know, now declared. to be an enemy of all the left stands for. And it's simply because he does hold to biology and he holds to male and female. But I want to talk about the fact that he has also been caught by some atheists in what they see as an inconsistency, and I think they're right in this, in that he sees wonder in Christmas carols and at that time of the year is drawn to a Christmas service. And what I want to say is I think he thinks that's cultural. I think it's a lot more than cultural. And I think what is true about

Richard Dawkins and Christmas is also true about millions of Americans in Thanksgiving. They think what they are about is exclusively secular. I don't think that it is. Now, I want us to think about that. I want us to think about the fact that Thanksgiving implies that there is one to whom we are thankful. Let's just think about that for a moment. You know, it just, doesn't make any sense to be thankful to evolution. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever to be thankful to a blind secular world created only by chance that has no meaning in it. What does thankfulness look like in that? You're not thankful to the great something. Thankfulness is a very personal action. We are thankful not to the second law of thermodynamics. We're

thankful to a person. The second law of thermodynamics is, of course, a basic principle of physics. And it's true, I believe. But it isn't true as if all of a sudden it now has a personality. No, it's just a principle of physics. The second law of thermodynamics. Instead, the second law of thermodynamics raises the question, why does the world act that way? Why does such a law exist? In other words, you try to explain the world. You try to explain everything in the world. You try to explain humanity by evolution. You try to explain life in terms of emergence out of a primordial chemical sea. You try to explain the existence of a cosmos by a big bang or some giant accidental release of energy and matter. But the reality is there's nothing

to be thankful for in a cosmic blast. There's nothing to be thankful for in terms of the law of gravity. I'm thankful for gravity. Otherwise, we'd be floating around. I'm thankful for gravity because we live in an orderly world in which things act in orderly ways. Gravity, by the way, can hurt you, but we don't think about the fact that gravity also saves our lives, you know, just about every moment of the day. We are creatures, embodied creatures who desperately depend upon gravity to make certain that we know where we are. But as you think about gravity, you know, if we were polytheists and we were just creating idols, then maybe we create an idol to gravity. I guess we'd say that'd be a heavy God.

There'd be a heavy idol. But you could call it something, but the reality is there has to be something behind that. I just want to point to the fact that if you are secular and you're thinking in consistent secular terms, you've got a big problem at Thanksgiving. I want to use that problem as an opportunity. I think the very fact that I think they actually are thankful tells us something. That is to say, when you have a secular person say, I'm thankful for the life I have. I'm thankful for the opportunities I have had. I'm thankful for my family.

I don't think they're lying. I think you're telling the truth. I just don't think they've come to terms with the fact that the thanks should be directed to the Creator, whom they do not recognize. The Bible, we should note, indicates that thankfulness is the rightful, obviously rightful disposition of the creature to the Creator. We are thankful to him for the gift of life. we're thankful to him for all that we have. We're thankful to him, of course, constantly as Christians, for his grace and mercy shown us in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Son. We are thankful for the church, the body of Christ. We are thankful for brothers and sisters in Christ. But we're also thankful

even at the most fundamental level for the orders of creation. We're very thankful for marriage. We're very thankful for even creating us. We're thankful for embodiment. We're thankful, thankful for male and female. And that's extended to the fact that we're thankful for marriage. We're thankful for family. We're thankful for children. And let me just emphasize, we are thankful for grandchildren. We are thankful for cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents and all the rest.

And we are thankful because these are just wonderful, good things. And it would be natural for the creature to be grateful to the creator. And if sin hadn't happened, that would be the unbroken picture. but sin has happened. I want us to think about a crucial biblical text. In Romans chapter one, the apostle Paul writes, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. So just notice that for a moment. In their unrighteousness, they suppress the truth. Okay. Verse 19, for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for his invisible

attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so that they are without excuse. All right, there is so much there, even before we get to the next verse, which I think is most important here. What we have is the fact that in our ungodliness, in our sinfulness, we suppress the truth. And one of the things we suppress is the truth of the fact that the Creator has given us all good things. We can come up with different ways of trying to suppress that truth. But, you know, if you really think you have made your own life, if you really think you have made your own way, if you really

think you've made your own fortune and your self-sustaining, then to whom are you thankful? The fact is, any honest human being knows we stand not on our own two feet. That just doesn't work. But we do suppress the truth and unrighteousness. We're also told in verse 19, for what can be known about God is playing because God has shown it. It says playing to them, has shown it to them. We're in that them. And, you know, one of the ways God has shown us such that we are without excuse is that he has given us all these good things. And the very fact that there is an impulse to thank the creator for these things just demonstrates the fact that in order to hide that, to suppress that, you've got to really work hard. And I think that's a part of what we're seeing.

on Thanksgiving Day. We're seeing a lot of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving. They don't want to acknowledge the Creator. They don't want to acknowledge the one true and living God. But perhaps to their own frustration, they are thankful. And that thankfulness does point to a thankfulness to whom. In verse 21, we are told this, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Okay, so let's remember that in Romans chapter one, Paul's not talking about some human beings. He's talking about all human beings.

He's talking about the human story. He's talking about what happened in Genesis 3. He's talking about the corruption that has come with human sin through all these years. He's talked about centuries of suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. He's talking about centuries, millennia of denying God his glory and the thankfulness that is rightfully his. He ascribes this to this massive conspiracy to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. And then he says it's also very self-deceptive. They do not give thanks. We did not give thanks, but became futile in our thinking and foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be why. they became fools. Okay, so here's the thing. I think some secular people might feel

slightly foolish at Thanksgiving, perhaps because of the impulse that is within them, but give thanks in a way that just isn't defined by their own worldview. I want to suggest that it is actually one of the most honest things they could ever do. And that is true for all of us. It includes believers. One of the most honest things we could possibly do is simply concede that but for God giving us all things we would have nothing. And that begins with our own existence and with the gift of life. But it extends to all things. You know, at the very least in Romans chapter one, it reminds Christians, we're to be the people who do not suppress the truth and unrighteousness. We're the people who are not supposed to be confused about this. We are not to exchange the truth of God for a lie.

Instead, we are to say, we are thankful to the one true and living God, the maker of heaven and earth who has given us all things and who has made us in his own image and lavished us with his love, has given us a cosmos and in that cosmos a planet that is habitable for human beings and has given us such a beautiful place and has given us goods beyond our imagination, including the experience of love, the love between a man and a woman that results in marriage, the love between parents and their children, the love that's extended generation by generation, the gift of community, the gift of town, the gift of city, the gift of nation, the gift of law, just all the gifts that God has given us, the gift of beauty, the gift of art, the gift of music,

the gift of athletics, the gift of enjoyment, the gift of gain, the gift of concert, the gift of table laden with food. It's just an incredible opportunity to think Theologically, and to understand that what we have before us is a theology of Thanksgiving and an apologetic of Thanksgiving. The theology of Thanksgiving underlines the fact that we know this as Christians. We know that a Thanksgiving day is ludicrous on the one hand and necessary on the other. It's ludicrous because we can't possibly give in all that God has given us say, okay, this day is going to satisfy our need to give thanks to God. That's absolutely ridiculous. The Bible tells us that our lives are to be lived out as lives of Thanksgiving to God, the entire life, every day, every hour,

and in every place, as a matter of fact. But we also know it is somewhat necessary. Christmas Day is not necessary. Christmas Day, in terms of our celebration, does not add to the truthfulness of the incarnation of the sun. And we celebrate the festival of the resurrection. And that isn't necessary because we don't make the resurrection, the bodily physical resurrection of Christ. We don't make that more real on what many people call Easter Sunday. But you know what? We are human beings and human beings are made up of days and those days are not all equal. There are times in which we need to remind ourselves of who we are. We need to remind ourselves of what God has done. It is not wrong to set aside a day. It's just wrong to think that the day

limits the truth. I want to say very clearly that as we think about this as Christians, we need to avoid any form of superiority or condescension. We're not the people smarter enough to figure out how thankful we should be. We're not. We are not. We're not the people smart enough to have seized upon Christ. We are not. It is all of grace. It is all God's grace displayed. It was grace that we were made in the first place. And it was grace that God gave us the gift. of life. It is God's grace that has sustained us. It is God's grace that we came to the knowledge of our sin. It is God's grace that we came to the knowledge of the gospel. It is by God's grace that we came to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was by God's grace that we've been given the gift

of His Word, Holy Scripture. It's by God's grace. We have been given the gift of the local church and its preaching and its fellowship and its discipline. It is by God's grace. We've been given vocation, calling. It's by God's grace. We've been given a role in the world. All of this is by God's gift. And we as Christians know it. Our lives are to be thankful lives. But we are sinners. It is true. We are finite human beings. We're easily distracted. How good is it that we should be reminded of Thanksgiving? You know, we should be reminded of Thanksgiving in a concentrated way every single Lord's Day. And that's one of the reasons why giving thanks is central to classical biblical Christian worship.

Giving thanks to God for his gift. That's one of the most important impulses and should be one of the most important instincts of the church in worship. And so when Christians gather together, we are to give thanks. When the family gathers around the table, what are we doing when we pray? we're giving thanks. Now, if you live any number of years, you're going to have, let's just say, on an average of two or three meals a day, you're going to have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of meals. And here's the bad news that you're probably not thinking about too much. You're going to forget most of those meals. I don't care how good they are, how good they seem

at the time. You're going to forget most of those meals. And that is some people, because the sheer number of those meals. But we do remember some special meals. We do remember when we were at, you know, that grandmother's house at Christmas. We do remember when we were at this relative's house. We do remember when we gathered together as our family and our home on these days. We do remember some special meals. And that's one of the reasons why, going all the way back to the Passover observance, Israel was even told what the menu was to be and how the meal was to be prepared and how the father was to lead the family in the observance. It is because we just need to walk through some of these same things. There's nothing biblical, by the way, about Turkey. You will not find

a turkey by name in the scripture, but there's also nothing wrong with it. This just happens to be the cultural way. And it is because you go back in European, particularly in English and also in early American or early colonial history, the roasting of a bird, a big bird to be shared together was very much a part of what was considered to be a feast or a festival. We don't think of it as unusual as it was at the time. For many people, they had never seen such a thing. They could not every day assume they would have such a thing. It was a feast, which a king or a duke or someone like that might have regularly, but not the normal family. This is something very, very special. I think it's just really theological that we understand this thankfulness impulse is actually implanted within us

by the Creator, and it is implanted within us in such a way that even the most secular, even the most secular, do feel thankful. They don't really understand why. And again, I do not say that with condescension. I say that with the hope that they will come to know why they, are thankful. I pray that they will come to know to whom they are thankful. And I think we should pray together that they should come to know not only why they're thankful and to whom they're thankful, but they should know the unique thankfulness, the unspeakable thankfulness that comes to one who has come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, His Savior. Sins forgiven, the gift of life everlasting, and a restored relationship with the Father, with the Creator against whom we had sinned. You know,

this is just really big. And I hope you and your families are traveling right now. I hope the Lord gives you safety. I hope you have a good time together even as you're traveling. I hope that you have a wonderful time with your family. And I hope as you have others, family and friends gathered around the table, I hope that you will exult in the honor of being thankful and understand that it's a deeply theological act. It is a deeply countercultural act. In a secular age, you're saying, no, we are thankful to the one true and living God who has given us all things and has brought us even to this day. I think it's a good time also to understand that even as some of our lost neighbors are giving thanks, maybe there's a vulnerability in opening in their hearts to be reminded or

to be told maybe for the very first time why they're thankful and to whom they're thankful and how they can be even unspeakably eternally thankful. So may you and yours and your family, may you have a wonderful Thanksgiving day. May you and your family and your local church have a wonderful Thanksgiving at the Lord's Day that comes with the coming of the next week. May you have your hearts inclined to Thanksgiving and inclined into service and faithfulness to God. May all of this be translated into thankfulness. which is, of course, an apologetic, but is more than that a doctrine, and is more than that

the very air we breathe. So to you and all listeners of the briefing, a very happy and God-honoring Thanksgiving. God bless you all. Thanks for listening to the briefing. For more information, go to my website at Albertmuller.com. You can follow me on X or Twitter by going to X.com forward slash Albert Mowler. For information on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu. For informational boys' college, just go to boyscollege.com. Lord willing, I'll meet you again on Monday for the briefing.