The Eric Metaxas Show - Alex McFarland

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

Alex McFarland joins Eric at NRB to discuss his story of spreading the christian faith  ...

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Noble gold investments is the official gold sponsor of the Eric Mataxis show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you can protect your wealth with noble gold investments. That's noble gold investments.com. Did you ever hear the expression, if life gives you lemons, make lemonade? Well, when Eric Mataxis was little, he had his own lemonade stand. And he sold so much lemonade, he became rich beyond his wildest. dreams. Now he's able to do whatever he wants. And he's now the host of a big time radio show. Welcome the guy who's oh so lemony sweet, Eric Matt, Texas. Hey there, folks. Welcome to March 4th, 2025. We're in the future now. I don't know how it happened. As a kid, I always dreamt that
Starting point is 00:01:05 someday I would be living far into the future, perhaps in the year 2025. And here we are. And it really doesn't seem, you know, like the future. It feels very much like the present, which is strange. But March 4th, I said this yesterday, and Chris Himes and Keith Junta, they didn't get this. And I was very hurt. But I said March 4th is the only date in the calendar that is a military command. March 4th.
Starting point is 00:01:36 Get it? Thank you very much. Thank you. You're welcome. March 4th is today. Now, today, a couple things. First of all, I want to say, I'm posting a lot of stuff on Instagram.
Starting point is 00:01:51 If you don't follow me on Instagram, almost every day I'm doing a video. Some of it's a lot of fun. So you can follow me on Instagram. I post a lot of stuff more and more on X, which used to be called Twitter. And it's stuff that maybe I don't get a chance to talk about. It's links to articles that I think are worth reading.
Starting point is 00:02:12 So if you're on X, I want to encourage you to follow me. Now, today, I have two guests. In hour one today, we have Paul Jacobs. He has been with Food for the Poor for 15 years in a couple of minutes. Well, in hour one today, I'm going to be talking to him or I already will have spoken to him if you're listening to Hour 2 right now. But it's just amazing to me. I always say, you know, I want to partner with organizations I believe in. And just to hear about he's been with them for 15 years.
Starting point is 00:02:50 The organization has existed for 43 years. We need to know about these organizations. And so in Hour 1 today, talking to Paul Jacobs. hour two today talking to an old friend Alex McFarland. Alex is amazing. I don't know how I met him. He does apologetics conferences. I guess I knew him early on.
Starting point is 00:03:14 He was Chuck Colson may have introduced me to him. But we were at the NRB last week in Dallas. I was sick as a dog. You can hear it in my voice, I think, in hour two when I talked to Alex McFarland. but I'm still not 100%, but in any event, the good news I let Alex do more of the talking. But Alex McFarland, he's just an amazing mind. And part of the God's calling on my life, giving me a platform like this program, is to introduce you to people that you might not otherwise know. And, you know, almost every day on the program, we have somebody that I just think, I want my audience to know about this person and the books they've,
Starting point is 00:03:58 written and what they're doing because I think it should give you hope. There are a lot of folks out there that are unaware of, you know, these voices and that there's so many wonderful people that I have had the privilege to meet, to read their books, to get to know them. And a big part of this program is that I want to share this with you. I want you to be encouraged. While I'm on the subject, oh, by the way, the state of the union is tonight. The state of the union is. tonight, I will probably be live tweeting. That's the term for posting on X during the state. I might not. I might just be drinking it in with such joy that I can't write. I can't type. I just want to, I just want to cheer. But nine o'clock tonight, Eastern is the state of the union. And I'm here to tell you,
Starting point is 00:04:52 you don't want to miss it. It's going to be political theater. Donald Trump is going to lay some stuff out that is at least exciting. It's exciting. It's beautiful. It's powerful. To have somebody like him fearlessly advocating for we the people, understanding that's his job as president. It's not about him. It's about America. And we the people, we are America. We govern ourselves. We choose our leaders. We chose him. And we want him to do what will help us flourish because we believe that if America flourishes, the whole world will be blessed. We are best blessed to be a blessing. I write about this in my book. If you can keep it, if you don't have a copy, if you can keep it, I recommend it highly, folks, not because I wrote it, because there are seminal ideas in there that will bless you.
Starting point is 00:05:40 And one of those is that we are best blessed to be a blessing. This nation has been blessed by God to be a blessing. It's not, we're not blessed for us. We're blessed for the whole world. And so my book, if you can keep it, I wanted to bring this up. I was looking this morning through my emails and almost all of my books, tons of children's books, the Mugsy books, the Donald, the Caveman books, and most of the books that I have written are available at my store.com. Why do I bring this up? I bring it up because if you use the code Eric at my store.com, we've got a special deal with our friend Mike Lindell, you get dramatic discounts. And I want you to know about that. A lot of people say, well, where should I buy your book?
Starting point is 00:06:27 I don't want to give my money to Amazon. Well, my store.com, just about all of my books are there. Some of them are at very, very good prices. So my store.com use the code, Eric. And the Donald, the Caveman books, Tim Raglan, one of my dearest oldest friends in the world, he was the one who in 2016, I was still sour on Trump. I was like, I don't know. You know, I don't.
Starting point is 00:06:55 He said, no, no, no. You need to watch. You need to watch some of these rallies, Eric. Something's going on here. You need to check this out. I think you'll be shocked. I was shocked. I was shocked.
Starting point is 00:07:06 I listened to Trump and I thought, he's saying the kind of stuff that most people are thinking, but nobody's saying it. And so it made me slowly but surely realize this is the guy that is wants to do the will of we the people. He's not what they're saying about him. He seems to be the real deal. Now, you couldn't be sure in 2016. But then, oh yeah, he gets elected and he does the stuff that he says he's trying to do. And you know the rest of the story. But Tim Raglin and I, we've done a lot of children's books together. They're available at my store.com. The Donald, the caveman books,
Starting point is 00:07:45 the Uncle Mugsy books. And then if you need a birthday present, the birthday ABC, his illustration, are stunning. I promise you, they are stunning. It's one of the most beautiful gifts you can give to an adult for a birthday. It's just amazing. I wrote the verse, the short poems on every page, but his illustrations are staggering. It is, it's called the Birthday ABC by Eric Metaxus and Tim Raglan. You can get that at mystore.com. But I just say this because a lot of people are not aware of my store.com. You probably know Mypillow.com. You should also be using the code Eric at MyPillow.com. I hope you will, folks. You help this program and you help Mike Lindell, who is a brave, fearless American hero. So my store.com, mypillow.com, please use the code Eric. But the Donald, the Caveman books, they're appropriate for kids, their kids' books, but adults will love them.
Starting point is 00:08:49 So if you're looking for a gift or you're looking for something fun, They're going to be collector's items. But the first one is called Donald Drain's the Swamp. The second one is called Donald builds the wall. And the third one is Donald puts Obama in jail. Actually, that's not true. The third one is called Donald and the fake news. I was projecting.
Starting point is 00:09:12 That's classic Floridian projection. So Donald builds the wall. Donald drains the swamp. Donald and the fake news. when you see the books, you're going to see all kinds of characters in there. You will recognize John Brennan. You'll recognize Hillary Clinton. You'll recognize Chuck Schumer. They are part of the swamp. They're the swamp creatures. So anyway, you can find all those books at my store.com. Use the code, Eric. The savings are big. That's why I say it. All right. So tonight's the
Starting point is 00:09:47 state of the union. What else do we say before we go? Well, actually, I want to say again that there are many of my books available at my store.com. And I never mentioned it. And I was just looking. I thought, this is crazy. The prices are great. The birthday ABC book is the, the Tim Rackland books are unbelievable. So my store.com use the code. Eric. Okay, today we have Paul Jacobs, Alex McFarland. Hold on to your hats. numbers don't lie. The impact that Balance of Nature makes every single day is astounding.
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Starting point is 00:12:09 Today you have the power to feed a child or an entire classroom for a year. please click the blue banner at metaxis talk.com or call 844-863-4673 with a gift of $100 to feed their future. Well, my daddy left home when I was three and it didn't leave much tomorrow and me. Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of... Hey the folks, welcome back. I'm at the N.R. B. in Dallas. And I'm sitting here with my friend Alex McFarland, who is the head of Alex McFarland Ministries. he has written many, many books, which actually it's a challenge for me, Alex. What do we talk about? You've written so many books. You're into apologetics. I'm into apologetics. Let me ask you a fundamental question. How did you get into apologetics? Like, what is your story? Where did you grow? I always want to know people's stories, and you probably told me before, but my audience hasn't heard it. So where did you grow up and how did you get to where you want to explain Christian faith to people? Well, I grew up in the Bible Belt and found Jesus in spite of that.
Starting point is 00:13:18 Yeah. But first of all, thanks for having me on, Eric. I respect you so much. God is using you in such amazing ways. And my career really went up a notch or two when you wrote the forward for one of my books. All right. Now you're just blowing smoke. No, all right.
Starting point is 00:13:34 Stop it. Stop it. No, seriously. You were writing books long before I wrote the forward to your book. you were you were just uh how do you i guess i knew you ultimately through originally through chuck colson he was involved exactly he wasn't he knew of you i had a book coming out with regal publishers and i was at a socrates in the city meeting in new york with uh dr colson oh wow 17 years ago i guess and that was the first time i heard you speak and i remember
Starting point is 00:14:05 and full disclosure this is 17 years ago i did didn't know your name at that point. And I remember thinking, this is an American C.S. Louis. And I really mean that. I, uh, I'm very sorry, you think that. But sorry, I'll let it go. No, that's so flattering. I'm obviously embarrassed. But you, um, you, I still want to know how you got involved. Like, you know, you said you came to faith. How old were you when you? 21. Okay. And I was in college. And did you suddenly say, I want to serve God? you know, immediately, and I want to go into, you know, explaining the faith. What was it that turned you into the guy that you now are? Well, I was in college, working on an English degree.
Starting point is 00:14:53 I started going to a Monday night Bible study and began to hear about Jesus, begin to get under conviction. And Eric, I always had this moral compass. I knew right from wrong, even though I didn't always do what was right. But it was at 21 that I overtly heard the gospel explained to me that Jesus is the son of God. He proved it by rising from the dead. And on the cross, my sins were atoned for. And if I would repent and believe, my sins would be forgiven. And my guilt that Jesus suffered on my behalf, that atonement would be appropriated to me if I would put my faith in Jesus. Now, it was just simple. Jesus died for me, but at 21, I became a believer, Eric. And at UNC Greensboro, that's where I was going to school.
Starting point is 00:15:46 Like, all my friends were atheist pagan party animals. And they were like, you know, some were neutral and some kind of mocked the idea that I had found God. And I went to a Christian bookstore first time in my life. And I asked the man, I said, are there any books about how to answer, like, really hard questions? Like, how do we know God exists? And how do we know that the Bible is God's Word? And the bookstore, man, he said, well, you ought to buy a kid. Here's two books.
Starting point is 00:16:18 More than a carpenter evidence that demands a verdict, both by the great Josh McDowell, right? So I'm got a weird. I read the footnotes. Now, I had to go to school. Yeah, but evidence that demands a verdict is like 90% of verdict. footnotes practically. It's like a deposition. It's a, it's so dense that it's almost not a book. It's like a reference work. Because, you know, Josh was going to be a lawyer. I'm sure you've interviewed Josh and I was at his house in L.A. three weeks ago, by the way, one of the great apologists,
Starting point is 00:16:48 his son, Sean, is a dear friend and I flew out there in the midst of all those fires to visit Josh. You know, who's born in 1939, Josh McDowell. Wow. But, I mean, Seriously, anybody doing apologetics work is indebted to Josh. Oh, my gosh. There's nobody like them. So, okay, so you're 21. You go to a bookstore, and the guy wisely says, hey, more than a carpenter, which is an easy read and every Christian should read it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:16 And then evidence demands a verdict, volume one, which is just astonishing because it's evidence for, I remember reading it like, you know, 1990 or 91 or something like that. And just thinking like, whoa, there's a lot of evidence for God. I who knew exactly um and indulge me if you would eric because unpacking this is worth talking about see i was i came up through k-12 public school um public university i always had a sense that i was being leveraged and programmed but i couldn't have put my finger on it and i'd never heard of chuck colson or any of the people that so influenced many christians but i always just had this sense. I mean, like, I was in a lit class. And I don't, and this was the late 80s. I don't care what it was from Shakespeare to Chaucer to William Blake. Everything we studied was about Marxism,
Starting point is 00:18:18 homosexuality, and secularism. And I remember, you know, I wasn't saved yet and that I was like, look, not everything is about sexual repression. You know, I had lit, Well, look, this is what happened in the latter part of the 20th century. It was just a propaganda factory. It was. No matter what you studied, it's so sick. I mean, we're dealing with that today, of course. So here's how the epiphany happened.
Starting point is 00:18:45 I was a brand-new believer, like three days. I knew nothing. I could have fallen into heresy. I would not have known the difference. Right. So I get evidence that a man's a verdict more than a carpenter. And I go to class. I go to work.
Starting point is 00:18:58 It's like 9 o'clock. at night. I finally get to my room, and I've got these two books that I'd bought earlier that day on my lunch hour. Well, I start reading. I promise you, at like quarter of five a.m., I put the books down, and I said, I've got to get an hour's sleep to start my day. And I learned about higher criticism and historical revisionism. And I'm reading in Josh's book names like Michael Foucault and Ludwig Wittgenstein and how language is fluid and we we don't extract, we don't exegete a meaning we impose. Right.
Starting point is 00:19:40 And just for people listening, this is all evil garbage. This is not true, but this is what Foucault and others. Derrida. I met Jacques Derrida. All these, yeah, and that's, that they were pushing, but they didn't have to push hard because the American Academy just said, come on. bring it in, and it just infiltrated American education, certainly universities, and took over, and it really took over the culture.
Starting point is 00:20:06 What we're dealing with today, with the lunacy of the wokeness and the left, it all comes from that. Exactly. So I'm reading all these footnotes, and I come across names like Norman Geisler, Francis Schaefer, Charles Coulson, C.S. Louis, G.K. Chesterton, E.J. Carnell, Thomas Aquinas. by my first year of being a Christian, I'd probably bought about 50 books. And now, I didn't know I would go into the ministry, Eric, but I was just trying to get my buddies at school saved.
Starting point is 00:20:39 I was trying to get my drinking buddies saved, okay? Yeah. And two of my friends, Noel Williamson, he's a pastor to this day, Tracy McKeithen, they both gave their life to Christ. And us three guys were like these crazy evangelists witnessing to everything we could on the campus of UNC Greensboro
Starting point is 00:20:57 and got engaged to Angie, found out that Liberty had a master's in apologetics, got married, and you blink in 30 years has gone by. So you went to Liberty and decided, I want to get a master's degree in apologetics. Well, it was really philosophy of religion. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:16 But the faculty was Norm Geisler, J.P. Morland, Gary Habermas. Wow. One of the great Aquinas scholars, David Beck. You know, okay, there was an M.Div, and that was like how to lead a building program. And I'm like, that's boring. I want to do the MA and philosophy of religion. Right, right. Because this is like reading Augustine and a quiet. That's where I want to be.
Starting point is 00:21:40 Yeah. And my mother, I promised I went home at Thanksgiving grad school. My mom said, you're doing a philosophy degree. God's word says avoid vain philosophy. Yeah. I'm like, Mom, we're doing the non-vane kind. Yes, there's non-vane philosophy. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:53 And that's kind of you're not supposed to avoid. So before we go to the break here, what are the main books that you have written that you would recommend to my audience because some of them are not familiar with you? And folks, I'm talking to Alex McFarland. Well, probably the 10 issues that divide Christians. Tony Perkins wrote the Ford for that book because I have two very in-depth chapters about what I call American exceptionalism. and the philosophical foundation for the U.S. Constitution, which is something called natural law. And that book, Ten Issues that Divide Christians, is published by Bethany House. And we talk about from a rational and, of course, biblical, but constitutional standpoint,
Starting point is 00:22:42 how we defend legal protection for the unborn, how we defend freedom of religious expression. And then, I guess, if I could mention another one, it would probably, be my most recent book. It's in Barnes & Noble everywhere, 100 questions and answers for families, and it's a biblical worldview for moms and dads. I love it. 100 questions and answers for families. Yeah. By Alex McFarlane. We'll be right back. We're talking to Alex McFarland. My Pillow is excited to announce that they're having the first ever mega sale on overstock clearance and brand new products. For example, you can save over 50% on this season's flannel sheets. The queen size is only 5998 and King is only 6998. They sell out fast every year, so be sure to order now. You can also
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Starting point is 00:24:17 Folks, go to MyPillow.com. Use the promo code Eric. Mypillow.com, promo code Eric. Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to Alex McFarland. And by the way, you can find him at Alex McFarland.com. You're not related to spanky McFarland. Are you?
Starting point is 00:24:45 Yes. That's George McFarland in Our Gang. He was a cousin of my dad. You're kidding. No, I'm serious. I am so glad I asked that stupid question. I'm 1,000% serious. Only I would ask that stupid question, and then I get a great answer.
Starting point is 00:24:57 You're not kidding? No, I'm 1,000% serious. And all of We McFarland's are short, dumpy little men. Can I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, one of the greatest things in the history of entertainment is the R-Gang comedies, Hal Roaches, Ragh's, Rgang Comedies. We knew it growing up as little. The little rascals. The little rascals.
Starting point is 00:25:15 And, of course, the greatest of them all probably would be Spanky McFarland. And you, Alex McFarland, are telling me you're related to him. Did you ever meet him? No, but he called our house one time. Did you ever meet buckwheat? No, I did not meet Buckwheat. Buckwheat had a sad end, I'm told. They all had sad ends.
Starting point is 00:25:38 They all died in knife fights. Let's not talk about that. I know. But I was a kid. Greensboro, North Carolina, and we moved when I was six to this farm. And one night we were, and my sister and I
Starting point is 00:25:50 grew up watching the little rascals. And one night my dad got a call, and they were having this high old time. And my dad said, it's George McFarland. And my sister and I was like, ooh, my mom goes, oh, that's your dad's cousin, that's spanky. And I was like,
Starting point is 00:26:07 my dad's on the phone with spanky. That's simply unbelievable. I can't believe that But again, only I would ask a stupid question like Alex McFarland. You're related to Spanky McFarland? And the answer is yes, you are. That's truly, that's mind-blowing. The little rascals, I mean, it's kind of funny because I didn't expect to be talking about this.
Starting point is 00:26:26 But the innocence and the genius of the art gang comedies, anybody who's unfamiliar with this stuff? You can watch it all. You can watch it all on YouTube. Yeah. But it is a level of entertainment. When I think, you know, you don't realize how blessed you are sometimes. As a kid, we watch this stuff. incessantly.
Starting point is 00:26:44 Yeah. And it was so brilliant, so funny, and so sweet and innocent. It was very pure. Oh, it was so pure. So if you have not watched The Little Rascals, the Argang... I mean, there's some of them that are screamingly funny. Yeah. Oh, they really are.
Starting point is 00:27:03 And, you know, in many ways, our art and entertainment is a reflection of the culture. I mean, you think about Our Gang, and you think about And, you think about And Griffith. And one of my just heroes, Frank Capra, who made it's... Definitely one of my heroes. Wow. By the way, do you remember the great books of the Western world, which Mortimer Adler, who was
Starting point is 00:27:27 co-editor, the Encyclopedia Britannica, if you look at the editorial advisory committee, first of all, there was an intro book called The Great Conversation. And I would like to quote from this, and by the way, I want to encourage everybody to go on eBay, it'll cost you about
Starting point is 00:27:45 40 bucks. The shipping will be more than the books themselves. Order yourself, great books of the Western world. So wait, so when did that come out? This sounds like it would come out in the 50s or 60s. I think they started about 58. I think it was released about 60.
Starting point is 00:28:03 So you said the general editor was Mortimer Adler. Yes. Now, did you know that the philosopher, Mortimer Adler at the end of his life became a Christian? That's what I've heard. Oh yeah, definitely. He wrote books. I mean, when I heard that, I was stunned.
Starting point is 00:28:19 Yeah, he was great. By the way, this is worth talking about. The great books of the Western world basically are the great thinkers that help build Western civilization. Yes, yes. And they, out of not only natural law, but the Word of God, got the idea for human rights, which began to manifest itself in documents like the Magna Carta, very influential in our own Fairfax Resolves, Mecklenburg Declaration, the Declaration of Independence, preamble Constitution.
Starting point is 00:28:52 But what happened was in the 50s, people like Frank Capra, Harvey Firestone of the Firestone Rubber Company, Mortimer Adler, Charles Van Doren, who's famous in his own right. I did not expect these names to be. brought up on my radio program. I'm really thrilled. Keep going. You might be sitting there going, I wish Alex would shut up. No, no. I love, are you kidding me? This is like, uh, fantastic. This is going to be a, this is going to blow your mind. So they put together this set of books that they sold on the back cover of popular mechanics. And it was a way for the person who did not
Starting point is 00:29:28 have the benefit of a college education to educate themselves. But this, I mean, this speaks to where we were in the culture. In 1960, your average American wanted to be educated, wanted to learn from the great books. And so they responded to this by writing this. But what a beautiful moment. You mentioned these names, Carl Van Doren, Mortimer Abler. Who is the other one that was? Harvey Firestone.
Starting point is 00:29:51 No, that gave money for this. There was another name that you mentioned, who was the general editor. Mortimer Adler. Was it Adler, Bennett-Surf? Bennett-Surf was on the editorial committee of this. But let me quote something. So they wrote this great, the great conversation that it's a little thin book that's the intro. And it basically says, here's how to use these books to the fullest advantage.
Starting point is 00:30:16 Look for objective morality. Look for human rights that come from God. And the role of government is to guard the rights. And you go in there and it says, and this is a 99.9% verbatim quote, It says, you may say you do not need these books. We say it is unpatriotic if you do not study and equip yourself and you only live your life as a vegetable beneficiary of the intellectual rigor of other men. If we do not educate ourselves, stand for democracy, moral truth, then America will fall to the loudest, most persistent propagandists. it is now necessary, Adler wrote, that all of us live at the height of our times.
Starting point is 00:31:08 Now, this was decades before Adler became a Christian. And Eric, when I was a kid... Actually, you know what? We're going to go to break. We're going to let you continue that sentence in a second. Folks, don't go away talking to Alex McFrolland, related to Spanky. Welcome back. We're talking to Alex McFrolland, who I now know is a relative of Spanky. and that's all I want to talk about, but we're not going to talk about that. So you're talking about the series of books, and really what you're getting to is that we had a set of values that were accepted in high culture, in low culture.
Starting point is 00:31:52 It was the basis of Western civilization. And that's what you get out of reading the books that you were talking about. It was a moment, you know, 60 plus years ago, where there was a consistent. census. You didn't need to be some conservative Christian to believe in this stuff. This was as basic as it gets. This was the baseline for the culture. You know, even in 1954, Eric, in a Time magazine article, Chief Justice Earl Warren, and again, this is a verbatim quote, Chief Justice Earl Warren, famously of the Warren Commission, but he said, no one can read the history of our country without seeing that the good book and the spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding genius. I believe as long as we do not deviate from these, no great harm can come to us.
Starting point is 00:32:49 End of quote. What a pity that we've deviated from these. Yeah. Okay. Saul Bloom, who was a Democrat senator from New York. All right. He wrote a book around 1935 called The Story of the U.S. Constitution. And Antonin Scalia said this is, quote, a climate.
Starting point is 00:33:08 classic and constitutional studies. Now, Saul Bloom said that the philosophical foundation of the U.S. Constitution is natural law or objective morality. And parenthetically, that's why I would say we have legal protection for the unborn because the right to life is the most fundamental of all rights. But Saul Bloom was asked, and again, a Democrat Jewish senator from New York, who wrote one of, and in fact, during the Reagan years, Reagan gave like 10,000 copies of this book away of the story of the U.S. Constitution. Somebody asked Saul Bloom, could an atheist be president?
Starting point is 00:33:50 And he said, I maintain that the spirit of the Constitution forbids it because you have to swear an oath of allegiance before a higher power, which an atheist cannot honestly do. Right. What I'm saying is this, look, if you want to be a Christian, be a Christian. If you reject Christianity, that's one's prerogative. But what we really can't or shouldn't let people do is tear down the foundation on which the Constitution meaningfully rests. Well, that's, again, that's why we're having to go back to basics in the culture now, because we have drifted away from all this stuff. And you see the fruit of it is chaos and destruction.
Starting point is 00:34:35 And, you know, we've seen enough of that for enough people, I think, to wake up and to say, okay, we didn't sign up for this. Let's week. We need to do something. So I think we're seeing a return. I think it's undeniable. We're seeing the beginnings of revival in America. I agree.
Starting point is 00:34:52 I agree. All kinds of people coming to faith. It's an exciting moment. But we have to return to these things. You will lose America. We were on the verge of losing America unless we understand what it is that we have and what we need to do to protect it and to keep it. Exactly. And, you know, Eric, I love the Lord. My home is heaven, no doubt. But I love America. You've traveled, I've traveled. America is great. And one of the
Starting point is 00:35:21 advantages that if you're a Christian, if you're a part of a church, we have a wonderful advantage to influence the trajectory of our country. And I want to call on pastors, parents, leaders in the church, to teach citizenship, to teach American exceptionalism, to teach civic involvement, and even critical thinking skills. I mean, we teach logic and Aristotle, first principles. We do summer camps, Eric. And let me say kids love this stuff. But, you know, if I'm going to brazenly give a commercial here, we do a speaker series called Conversations That Matter. in a way, you were a bit of an inspiration for me starting this. But like, for instance, do I get a cut?
Starting point is 00:36:11 You do. And I'll put my best people right on it. But we've got May 4th, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We've got Dinesh D'Souza coming. And then we've got later on Charlie Kirk. And at my website, Alex MacFarland.com, we've got information. But this speaker series at Myrtle Beach, America's number one, resort city, there's a robust theater industry down there. We've rented some just state-of-the-art theaters, and I want to get you
Starting point is 00:36:38 down there to speak. But folks, it's coming up quickly. You can plan your vacation, enjoy the beach, but then come get some worldview training. And we're praying that people will go back to all 50 states and get a vision in the church to teach, of course, the gospel, biblical worldview, but also citizenship and America. And why? Look, I know our home is heaven. but like Augustine said, until we're in the city of God, we have an obligation to the city of man. A lot of Christians don't get that, and I've been speaking all around the country about this very issue. It's just so pathetic that they have kind of acted like, well, I don't really care about this world. It's all going to burn.
Starting point is 00:37:21 You know, all these cliches that are antithetical to what scripture says. But they kind of act like, no, I'm holier than you are because I don't care about America. I just care about the kingdom of heaven. Well, if you care about the kingdom of heaven, you're going to care about the people around you. Amen. And you're going to care about the world that they live in, and you're going to want to do something to improve it. And if you don't care about that, you don't care about the kingdom of heaven. You're a hypocrite. And so this stuff needs to be taught. And there's so many pastors that are unfamiliar with this. So I'm just, you know, always grateful for someone like you who is pushing this. And so you said people can find it at Alex McFarlane.com, what you were referring to.
Starting point is 00:37:58 Yeah, our great speaker series. And, you know, you and I have both been blessed to know. a lot of great communicators. May 4th, Dinesh DeSuzza. Oh, he's, he's amazing. He's been a friend of mine. I met him about when I met you about 17, 18 years ago. Dr. Gary Chapman of the five love languages, Charlie Kirk, who's a friend, Lauren Green. But, you know, in this idea that, okay, the world is imploding, let's just hunker down and wait until the Lord comes back. Jesus is coming back. but we are too occupied till he comes. Do I have 30 seconds to share a quote? Exactly 30 seconds, yes.
Starting point is 00:38:37 Okay. C.S. Lewis said this about the end of time. He said, indeed, the curtain on the stage of history has already fallen, and we believers know how the story ends. We know that Christ is coming back, and time as we know it will one day come to a close. But that does not absolve us of the responsibility to faithfully carry out our God-given task. We know the Lord is coming back. The animals may not get fed. our great plans for tomorrow may not come to fruition, but the important thing is this.
Starting point is 00:39:05 We are at our post when the inspection comes. Alex McFarland. Thank you, my friend. Blessings. Hey there, folks. If you've listened to the program, you know that for years I've been talking about how our nation's public schools have been captured by progressive ideologues. That's putting it nicely.
Starting point is 00:39:48 Who are teaching things that directly contradict the values of millions of American families, which is especially true if you're a Christian family. So for those of you worried about the best educational path for your kids and grandkids, I'm pleased to announce our partnership with the great folks at the Herzog Foundation. They are the trusted source on America's K-12 private education with a remarkable suite of resources, free resources for parents and grandparents who are thinking about making the switch from public schools to a Christian education and for those already in Christian schools. From their online publication, The Lion, to their new podcast, Making the Leap,
Starting point is 00:40:24 The Hertzog Foundation offers a wide range of advice and information for Christian parents to make the best educational decisions for their kids. To learn more about how your family, faith, and community can flourish through a quality, Christ-centered education. Go to Hertssog Foundation.com. That's herzogfoundation.com. You know, folks, I should mention, we also have a new sponsor on the program that would be goisrael.com. Most of you also know that you hear, how many people have you heard friends who go to Israel and say, it changed my life, it changed my life. I never don't hear that. I went there very briefly, and it changed my life briefly because I didn't get to do the kind of trip I wanted to do. But there's absolutely nothing like it. I can't tell you, it's like a broken record.
Starting point is 00:41:08 Everybody who goes there says the same thing, that it was life-changing, life-changing, and then they'll tell you stories. So travel right now to Israel, of course, is not that feasible. But it is important that we stand with Israel, and we pray that what, Israel is going through would end soon. Israel's war, folks, is America's war. I look forward to traveling back to Israel with my friends and listeners as soon as we all can. In the meantime, please visit goisrael.com for more information. Portions of the Eric Mataksa Show are sponsored by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism on behalf of the government of Israel. I also want to mention before we go, we're doing a campaign with food for the poor. We do this just about every year,
Starting point is 00:41:57 and we're doing it right now during this month. They are our trusted partner in El Salvador. Now, as you know, and we keep saying it, there are kids who are hungry in South America and in Central America. And right now we're focused on El Salvador, which of course is Central America. And it's important for us to understand that this is real and that if you say, well, I want to help. I want to help. How do you help? We partner with food for the poor because we trust them. We've worked with them for years. In fact, every dollar you give them a stretch so far that it's just impressive, right? So they're trustworthy and your dollar goes very, very far. Every hundred dollars you give to food for the poor, every hundred dollars feeds a kid for,
Starting point is 00:42:47 an entire year. Do the math, folks. That's 33 cents a day. Can feed a kid? You say, how's that possible? Well, that's the point. Is food for the poor has tons of connections? They get a lot of the food donated. They know how to do this, but they need our money to make it possible to get the food to kids. So this is the opposite of, you know, throwing your money down a rat hole, giving it to the federal government, which has been wasting it for our lifetimes. So I want to ask you to go to metaxis talk.com. That's metaxis talk.com. That's our radio website, metaxis talk.com.
Starting point is 00:43:28 Please check it out, metaxis talk.com right at the top of the page, you'll see a banner. You can click on the banner, and it'll take you exactly where you need to go. We hope you'll be generous. We'll hope you'll give soon. I also want to remind you, if you prefer just to text the word metaxus, M-E-T-A-X-A-S. You can text the word metaxus to 5-1-55-5-5-5. Again, you can text the word metaxus to 5-1-55-5-5-5.
Starting point is 00:43:56 We'll see if you can spell metaxus. M-E-T-A-X-A-S. Text it to 5-1-5-5-5. That I'll send you a link. I hope you'll join this campaign, folks. We do this once a year. It's important. Metaxistoc-talk.com is the website.
Starting point is 00:44:11 You'll see the banner. God bless you as you give.

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