The Eric Metaxas Show - Dr. Michael Brown

Episode Date: July 3, 2024

Dr. Michael Brown joins us to discuss his new book Turn the Tide: How to Ignite a Cultural Awakening

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. Ladies and gentlemen, we ask you now to count down from 10, silently, if you don't mind. And when you get to one, you'll hear one of the greatest voices on this or any other planet.

Three, two, one. Eric Mattaxas. Hey there, folks. Welcome back. It's the Eric Mattaxas show. I'm Eric Mattaxas, and I now get to talk to my friend Albin Seder, who's written an article with the title, well, the word quirky is in the title. Albin, welcome.

It's great to be back with you, Eric. Yeah, this is a new article. It's an American thinker. It's supposed to pop up as well at The Blaze and possibly American Greatness, but it's an American thinker can find it there. It's called quirky questions, answers, and observations to ponder in a world gone off the rails. Okay. Quirky questions. Yes. Quirky questions. And answers to ponder. Yeah. And the answers to ponder. Yeah. It's a bunch of just short little one-liners, basically. Some of them are going to find in my new book, Obvious at Amazon.com. But besides obvious,

and the obvious questions and the obvious answers, I've got some new stuff that's kind of funny. I think it's kind of funny, but it'll also make you think. So if you don't mind, Eric, I would know. Yes. Yeah, go ahead. Keep going.

Okay. Well, let me start with something that's not a question, but it's kind of a statement. And I think it applies to a lot of things that are going on in the world today. Yesterday's conspiracy theory has become today's, I told you so. That's number one. Something. Now, if Biden is still going to be around or any Democrat that's running for president, something you will never hear chanted at a Biden or Democrat rally for president. USA, USA, USA. You're going to hear it in the Trump rallies. You know why? Because it's a hateful chant. It's a bigoted, hateful, xenophobic chant. USA. USA.

USA. It's just filled with hate. Filled with hate. What about all those other countries? What about them? What about them, huh? Yeah. What about Chad? Remember the hanging Chad? Okay. But, but you know, that leads me, that leads me to one of my obvious observations. Is it, is it possible that hate can be considered a virtue as long as the one that you hate is worthy of being hated? think about that. That's a new virtue. We're not really supposed to hate people, but we're supposed to hate evil. We're supposed to hate sin.

So, yeah, hate has its place. Yeah. Hate, hate has no place except if, if, you know, the person, like I said, is worthy of hating. Now, how about this one when I was growing up, and I've mentioned this one before? But I still don't think any person God wants us to hate. any person. No, that's true. If a person is espousing bad ideas, you want to hate those ideas.

But I know what you mean. Go ahead. Yeah, because I think what's happened now that it's spilled over into particular people, or might I say, Trump. Here's one. Okay. If a cow, this is an environmental question, if a cow passes gas in a pasture, okay, I want to be indelicate here, but whatever, if a cow does do that,

and there is no environmentalist around to smell it, does it still destroy the planet? That's a heavy question. And you're getting all philosophical on me, Albin. I wish I had my twin brother here to explain it because he's the environmental guy. Okay. And this is also breaks wind in a pasture and there's no environmentalist to catalog that occurs. does it still destroy the planet? That's something to ponder. Yeah. Yeah, it's still, it's about those trees that keep falling down. And then this is another one. I think you're going to agree

with this one, too. When I was growing up, we did call climate change by another name, winter, spring, summer, fall. That was our idea of climate change. That's very bigoted, Albin. I don't like that you went there, but please continue. I know, I know. I'm going to get emails or you're going to get emails and pass them along to me. Let me just say the seasons, the seasons of the year. Yes. It's part of a patriarchal construct, okay, that the man is using to keep other people down. I think it's against that on this program.

The days of the week, the months, all that stuff is just part of something that the man wants to sell you. And we stand firmly against that. So please continue. Once again, white supremacists love winter because of all those snowmen who are white. Probably. That's probably true. Now, some people think that one of the five senses is talking, you know, speaking.

And they use that five cents, that fifth sense, or maybe the sixth sense, more than any other. That's another observation of mine. I feel like I'm not cracking on that one. We have five senses. Yes. Right. Hearing. Yeah.

seeing smelling smelling so speech is not one of the five senses but i think some people think it that it is and they use it to the max and they would be mistaken they would be they might they might truly be mistaken and then i want to wrap up with this one can can it be that free speech is perfectly okay because you know that's one of that that's that what is that the first amendment perfectly okay as long as the person doing the talking is saying exactly what we want to hear. And we've said this before, you know, free speech and that First Amendment was really set up for the stuff that we don't want to hear. Well, that's the issue, isn't it? That's the issue. We've talked about this before that there was a time. I mean, I remember in college, you know, I had never really heard this before, I don't think, until I was sitting around the dining hall. at Yale and somebody would pull out, they would say, you know, I will, I may disagree with what

you say, but I'll defend with my life, you're right and say it. That was kind of just part of the drinking water. That was part of the atmosphere that people all understood free speech. That's the beauty of the idea of free speech. It's at the heart of freedom. It's at the heart of the American founder's vision for a free society where we govern ourselves. We have to have free speech. That means tolerating things that we can disagree with, but we allow them to be spoken. That obviously the left and, you know, when we say the left, increasingly what we now call the mainstream media, big tech, they're moving away from that. They have become the enemies of these foundational ideas that allowed us to have the United States of America. And it's extraordinary that we're here, that we even have to bring up the idea that free speech is a good thing.

And then when people say things you don't agree with, it's okay. Yeah. And George Orwell, and I have this quote, part of this quote on the back of my book, obvious. If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. And that's part of, that's part of free speech. And there's another, and this is, this, you know, we had the debate a while a few days ago, whatever. last week. This is another great George Warwell quote, because there's always a spin after Biden does something really stupid. And this is a George Warwell quote from 1984. The party told you, the party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and your ears. And it was their final,

most essential command. So don't matter. It's deep fake. Don't matter what you see. Don't matter what you hear is what we tell you what is true and what is false. And that's George Dorwell all over 2024 from 1984. Well, let's be clear. That's his book, 1984, which was written in 1948, in case any young person doesn't realize that's right. Girlwell didn't say this in 1984. He said it in the book, 1984, which was written in 1948.

Yeah, that's right. So that's, and a lot of this stuff, a lot of my foundation in coming up with goofy stuff is from, and I talk about this in this latest article that you'll find. again at American thinker, quirky questions, answers, and observations to ponder in a world going off the rails, and also at the blaze.com was when I was working at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio, I don't know if the ride is still there, but it's the Western cruise ride. And I used to, it was a boat that we actually, as kids, because we were only like 18, 19, 20-year-old kids driving this boat around this lagoon, and we had about 100 passengers on the boat, and they had

this really crappy animation at the time. And they gave us a little crappy animation at the time. And they gave us a professional spiel, but we had to do jokes because everything was falling apart and falling into the lagoon. But anyway, that's where some of this stuff comes from, the quirkiness of the things I share. And that's about it. We're talking to Albin Seder. Get a copy of his book. Obvious. Okay, I have never seen a discount this huge from Balance of Nature. And this discount is for a very limited time. So today is the day to order it. Look, if you've listened to me for any length the time you've heard me rave about Balance of Nature's amazing fruits and veggie supplements. You've heard their customers rave about how much they love Balance of Nature and how good it

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large, with a few clicks, visit legacy pminvestments.com to get started. You're going to love this free new tool they've added. LegacyPMinvestments.com. Legacy pm.investments.com. Check it out. Hey there, folks. Welcome back. Right now I get to talk to my friend Michael Brown, PhD, Dr. Michael Brown, welcome back. Always good to be with you, Eric. I want to talk to you about your new book.

It's called Turn the Tide, How to Ignite a Cultural Awakening. But at the top of the book, it says, from revival to Reformation, book two. So this is a subject from revival to Reformation. I have been talking about this a lot myself. And it seems to me that it must be the Holy Spirit talking to us about this, about this idea that we don't just need revival. We need reformation. In other words, the Jesus movement in the late 60s, early 70s, a lot of people got saved, but a lot of them did not get disciples and become world changers. In a sense, they kept their faith private. And that didn't lead to the kind of cultural change that the Lord would want us to have. So that's something I talk about a lot. And that seems to be the subject as well of your book, Turn the Tide. Yeah, if you think of it, I got saved 1971 as a heroin shooting LSD using Jewish hippie rock drummer. So many others got saved.

It was an amazing move of God, really around the world. But we were also taught Jesus is coming any minute and we're out of here. The idea of social change. No, no, no, it's all getting worse. It's all coming down. It's all going to be destroyed. At the same time, you had feminist groups like Witch, the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell.

and they want to change the world. You had gay activists saying we're going to write the revolution into law, and they've done it very successfully with great zeal and passion and purpose. Well, we were thinking we're out of here. And then we start having kids. Well, let's keep our kids safe because it's getting really bad. And whenever we see the next bad headline, that's further proof that we're out of here. That was over 50 years ago, and we're still here.

And we're grandparents now. So we must see if there's. There's an outpouring in the church. It must become an awakening in society. And it doesn't mean by us taking over the world and forcing our views on people. It means by us living out our faith, being salt in light, and having some intentionality in what we do. Well, I have to say, it's embarrassing, isn't it, when Christians could be so dumb? In other words, the idea that you say, Jesus is coming back any minute, and then he doesn't.

You end up having egg on your face. You look stupid. And by the way, your faith becomes less attractive to all your neighbors and family that have been hearing you yapping about Jesus come back any minute and he doesn't come back. And it's just a pity. But also, what's amazing is, I mean, you just said it. You have Christians kind of saying like, everything is going to hell, so we're not going to do anything. And so ironically, they help everything get worse by doing nothing. In other words, it's a self-fulfilling part.

Things are getting worse and worse and worse. Yes, because you aren't fighting against the evil as. the Lord has commanded you to do to love your neighbor by doing everything you can to make society conform more to his image and to his, uh, to his kingdom. You're not doing that. You're just, uh, staying in your little, you know, the proverbial holy huddles and you're not affecting change. What a tragedy. What a tragedy that that happened. But I am actually very hopeful. And that's why it, I'm, I'm encouraged by your book that that the Lord is calling us to get it right this time. The Lord is calling us, to be activist Christians and to say, I'm going to put my faith into action. I want to live out my

faith in every sphere. I don't just want to hide in a basement waiting for the Lord to return. I want to use what he has given me for his purposes until he calls me home or until he does return. It's simply a matter of being salt and light. What our role is. The salt is the moral conscience of the society, the light shining through good deeds and through exposing darkness. Eric, just think, if Christians in the days of slavery had this mentality, why do anything? It's all going downhill. Or in the days of segregation. Or everyone relates to your message about Bonhoeffer and the warnings. And we look back and say, oh, I never would have done that. And here we have our opportunity. So, Eric, here's some really bad news for the gloomers, for the doomers, for the Christian pessimists, for those who say it's too late.

Here's some really bad news. Roe v. Wade was overturned. That did happen in our recent lifetime. I remember people saying that'll never happen. I'm not going to vote for Donald Trump in 2016. I'm not going to vote at all because don't kid yourself. Nothing's ever going to change. Roe v. Wade will never get. Guess what, folks? It happened.

No thanks to those of you who didn't vote. And pro-life bills being passed and state after state that would have been passed. And many saying there have been thousands, tens of thousands of babies perhaps. Of course, one of the chapters in turn in the tide is we have to change hearts as well as change laws. So, well, we need to be politically active in godly and right ways and we need to cast righteous votes. At the same time, we have to change hearts and minds. Otherwise, the backlash will be even more severe. But look, here, people are waking up. Parents are seeing what's happening in their kids' schools. They protest at the school board meetings. They get called domestic

terrorist and nothing ever changes. Then it hits them. Why don't I run for school board? Not to make everyone carry a Bible to school, but to just get rid of the craziness and to go back to education. And there's a movement now in some states where school board after school board is shifting because Christian's parents said, well, if you could run for school board with your liberal progressive agenda, and that's perfectly fine, why can't I run for school board just with a family-oriented agenda and they're getting in? It's simply a matter of us living out our faith. What do you do when you see evil? What do you do when you see racism? What do you do when you see injustice? What do you do when you see the slaughter of the onboard? You do something. You speak, you act,

you shine the light, and that's part of our bearing witness. And if we do that, God will bring about change. And look, I'm not expecting perfect righteousness through our actions. We're not perfectly righteous ourselves on our best day. But every generation, it's like a tug of war. And I want to turn things over to kids, grandkids, great grandkids, better than when I got them. The famous Bonhofer quote, the ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.

So that's the question. You know, what if our kids or grand could say, Mom, Dad, what were you doing when our rights were taken from us? What were you doing when they said Christian schools? I was waiting for the rapture in the basement, listening to Sandy Patty album. Was that wrong? Yes, it was wrong. Exactly.

So here's our opportunity. And you mentioned this is Book 2 from Revival to Reformation. Book 1 came out earlier this year called Seize the Moment, how to ignite the fire, how to fuel the fires of revival. And Eric, over a year ago, so it was early in 2023. I got on my radio show, The Line of Fire, and I said, listen, it's in its early stages, but I'm telling you, I'm seeing it in church after church where I visit and speak. We are in the early stages of the next wave.

The very beginning of the next wave of revival has already hit. Eight days after I said that on radio, revival hit Asbury. And then the whole nation was talking about it. And I got back on the air, I said, look, I told you, something's happening. So we need to fuel those fires and deepen the hunger, deepen the thirst, see the young people saved and disciples. But then what do we do when God moves? What do we do when we're in church night after night because the Holy Spirit's falling? How do we then see lasting fruit, lasting change?

That's why we'll turn the tide. And here's the imperative. If we don't get it right now, we're in real trouble. We're in real trouble. Well, you know, what's interesting, Mike, is, I mean, I've known you for years. And it's so interesting to watch the ebbs and flows, right? Because there was a time, you know, in the early 80s when Christians started getting activated again. Like we need to get involved in politics.

We need to do this. And that was all good. And it didn't kind of go maybe as well as some people had hoped. And then pretty soon, whether it's in the 90s or not much after, they kind of said, you know, all that culture war stuff, we're done. We're just going to, quote, unquote, preach the gospel. And they abandoned the godly mandate. We're supposed to be at it in every. single sphere. We're not just supposed to be, you know, doing religion in a little religious

corner. We're supposed to take our faith into every single part of life, electing godly leaders, everything you talk about in the book, everything that I've been talking about, you know, for the last two years. We've got to take our faith out of the church and into every part of the culture. We need to be the church and bring the church to every part of culture. And the examples that you used just a moment ago, imagine if people in slavery times had said, you know what, that's not a gospel issue. We're just going to wait for the Lord to return. I'm not going to work for the abolition of slavery. I'm not going to work for the abolition of the slave trade. We would condemn them today. But they did the right thing. Their faith led them

to be social activists, to say God says slavery is an abomination. And it's so interesting that we're living at a time where a lot of people are making effectively the same mistake. And we're saying, I just want to privatize my faith. It's all about church. We're going to do a nice church service, but I don't want to get involved in all those messy issues. The Lord has called us and prepared us and saved us to get involved in these messy issues to his glory. People will be blessed. I think sometimes Christians just forget that the Lord wants to use us in that way. He wants us to be victorious in fighting against the various evils that we see. The gospel brings about change. If you heard, for example, that there was a country totally corrupt and with massive pornography

addiction and massive alcoholism and massive divorce and child abuse, etc. And you heard the gospel has swept through this country and millions and millions have been saved, you would expect to see change, wouldn't you? And if there was no change, you would wonder if the gospel had really penetrated. Why is it that we have this dichotomy? And look, Jesus said you always have the poor with you, and yet we go about trying to care for the poor and feed the poor, knowing we're not going to eradicate the problem, but we can make a difference.

And that's the deal. Every one of us can make a difference. Folks, I'm talking to Michael Brown. The book is Turn the Tide. We'll be right back. Hey, it's Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs, and I've got a movie coming out on June 27th, and it is surprisingly clean.

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Use the code Eric for 15% off. Again, Neutrametics, N-U-T-R-A-M-D-I-X.com. Nutrametics.com use the code Eric for 15% off. Welcome back. Talk to my friend, Dr. Michael Brown, host of Line of Line of Fire. and the author of a new book, Turn the Tide, How to Ignite a Cultural Awakening, Mike, I just have to say it blesses me to hear you saying in this book and what you're saying now, stuff that I am saying everywhere I go, it's got to be the Lord speaking to his people

because you're saying in many ways virtually the same thing that I'm saying. It's the Holy Spirit speaking through us and through others that he wants us to be hopeful. He wants us to be the change rather than just sit around and saying, it's all going to heck. Where do you think the church got this idea? I mean, because it's a heresy, isn't it, this idea that we know that things are supposed to get worse and then Jesus comes back. And things are getting bad, so we assume Jesus has come back soon. Therefore, we will do nothing. It's really a hopeless, diabolical lie, and it leads to things getting worse, ironically.

Yeah, what's interesting is that in the 1800s, even the, the Great Awakening in the 1700s, many of the Christian leaders held to a theology that the kingdom of God would be victorious, and they could actually see it introduced on the earth. Now, I don't agree with that theology called post-millennialism, but I agree with the optimism of it, the confidence of it. So what happened was with the spread of dispensational teaching, the idea that Jesus can come any moment that there's going to be a secret rapture, which many of your listeners may hold to and love the Lord and they may not be escapist.

But with that, the mentality that everything's coming down, everything's getting worse, there's nothing we can do to bring about change, and we don't know how long we're here. That's a totally crippling mentality. Think of two people that are going to start working out at the gym. One really believes I can change. I can get better. I can get in better shape. I can live longer. I can change my diet.

And the other thinks, this nothing is going to happen. Nothing is going to change. No matter what I do, I'm going to die fat and young. who do you think is going to get better results? And to me, let's even put aside the theological, eschatological, end time debate. And let's just ask this, when you read the scriptures, when you gaze on the character of Jesus as Lord, when you read the Great Commission to go and make disciples of the nations, when you hear him say, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, when you read the scriptures saying we are more than

conquerors through him who loved us, through life or death, that we overcome by the blood of the lamb, the word of the testimony, and not loving our lives even to the point of death, we are overcomers by your faith. When you read that, do you have faith and confidence or pessimism and hopelessness? I don't understand how we can really know the God of the Bible. And then we know around the world, I've been outside the U.S. over 200 trips. Around the world, God is moving mightily. More people have been saved in the last 50, 70 years than in the previous 19th centuries combined. More Muslims have come to faith than the last 50 years than in the previous 1,400 years. God's moving all around the world. The Holy Spirit's being poured out.

we should be encouraged. We should be full of faith. We should be full of expectation. And I have a whole chapter and turn the tide what the church can learn from gay lesbian activists. The purpose they had, the mindset they had, the strategies they had. It wasn't a matter of going to a gay meeting, but being gay, this is who I am, the identity issues, reaching out to the marginalized, emphasizing the children,

they had long-term multi-generational strategies because to them, these were matters of life and death. we could actually learn from their mindset and then say, wait a second, the gospel says this all the more clearly, all the more powerfully. Plus, we have the Holy Spirit working with us. They didn't. We have the power of the word. They didn't. We have Jesus as a Lord.

They don't. How can we not see change come? Well, I mean, again, it's almost unbelievable that many Christians believe the lie that it doesn't matter what I do. Again, this is this kind of like heresy where we basically say, oh, it's all about the kingdom. So forget about this world. I'm all about the kingdom. I don't care about America. And you think, wait a minute.

That's like saying, I'm all about Jesus. I don't care about my wife. Your love of Jesus will make you love your spouse more, love your family more. The Lord doesn't say, like, you can't love your wife. You just have to love me. You can't love America. You can't want to bless your community. You have to be all about the kingdom.

If you're about the kingdom, you're going to be about bringing the kingdom and the kingdom values into this world. So people make this theological mistake, and they say none of this matters. So, you know, it happened, as you said, in the 70s. People said, we're just going to wait around, and Jesus is going to come back. And he didn't come back, and they did nothing. And activists on the secular side, on all kinds of issues that we disagree with, they were working overtime while Christians were just thinking, well, we don't need to do anything. And so the church allowed things to get worse and worse and worse.

It's an amazing indictment of the church, and we need to reverse that, folks. We need to get busy. And, you know, also this idea that, well, nothing's ever going to get better. I just want to say, I want to point out, America once did not exist. And by the grace of God, America, a nation that believes in freedom and self-government, in the sanctity of the individual created an image of God, that nation came into existence. Israel came into existence 70 plus years ago. Things that people thought might never happen happened.

And so we need to understand, yes, it's possible Roe v. Wade might be overturned. And guess what? It was overturned. All of these things, slavery was abolished, the slave trade was abolished, Jim Crow laws were abolished. I really believe the Lord wants to encourage us to think about what might yet be done and to understand, just as on the other side of all these things I just mentioned, where people said, oh, nothing could ever happen. Yes, it actually could happen.

Who knows what the Lord might yet do? I just have to say, my new book is called Religinalist Christianity at the end of it. I kind of think about this, that where do we get the idea that the Lord is done, that there aren't good things that he wants to do? He's the one that is going to decide when it's over and when he's going to return. Speaking of that, when I return, I will continue. my conversation with my friend Dr. Michael Brown. His new book is called Turn the Tide, How to Ignite a Cultural Awakening.

Don't go away. Welcome back. Talk to my friend Michael Brown, Dr. Michael Brown. The new book has Turn the Tide, How to Ignite a Cultural Awakening. So Michael, we were just, I was just talking about what God. might yet do and where did we in the church get this idea that God is done it's all going to hell we're under judgment there's nothing we can do uh that until the Lord says that we're not supposed to go along with that you know there's there's a little verse in Proverbs better is the end of a thing

than the beginning thereof and I believe that's that's who God is as well so there's no question that there are verses that seem to point to an end time shaking of some type, some type of end time cataclysm. And I believe as we get closer to the end of the age, whether it's in 10 years or 300 years, that the shaking will see the hand of God, even more powerfully, and the hand of Satan more openly. So a final shaking. But here's what I know. When I read scripture, I see many promises about God, his character. Things have not yet come to pass that he promised. I read the word about end time outpouring. And I know, there has to be more. I read the prayer of Jesus for the unity of his body, and we are so fragmented.

Is that the way it ends? I read about a glorious church without spot or wrinkled in Ephesians 5. Does that just happen instantly when we're in the world to come? Or is there more that he wants to do? And I know, as I approached 70 years old, 69 out, but feeling great, healthy, vibrant by God's grace, there are dreams inside of me burning. I feel like I haven't done anything yet. I feel like I barely scratch the surface and those dreams come from being in the presence of God. And for whatever it's worth, people can take it or leave it. When I return the tide with specific strategies, okay, what do we do? Moms and dads, business people, people with a political burden, people with a social burden. What do we do? How do we live? Practical strategies. Eric, you know what it's like to write. I felt stirred. The words

were pouring out. Again, let others judge. But what I often find is when I'm stirred like that when I write, people read it and they feel that same holy energy. So I believe like you, it's God who stirs our hearts to pray. I just met with some pastors in New York City. They are praying. They're crying out day and night. They believe they're on the edge of a powerful outpouring beyond what they've seen. Who is it that's moving us to pray and fast? Who is it that's moving us to get on our faces and say, God, have mercy? Who is it that orchestrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which is so momentous. And my, my, my pro-life friends who were in the movement for 50 years said, Mike, it was over.

It was over. And then in the 80s, when the Supreme Court reinforced the decision even more, it was over. It was never going to happen. And yet it did. So we would be dishonoring God. We would be dishonoring the power of the gospel and the power of the word if we thought it only goes downhill from here. And what's interesting is you take a verse like 2 Timothy 3 in the last days,

perilous times will come. people say, look, look at that description. When you read it, you think, wait a second, that's the description of every generation in human history. And what's Paul's point? At the end of the passage, he said, avoid such people. Timothy, avoid people like this. He's not saying, Eric, I want to give you a warning. 3,000 years from now, there'll be an earthquake in New York. No, no.

He's giving Timothy practical advice for that moment saying, hey, in these last days in which we live, from the death and resurrection of Jesus until he returns, It's not just going to be a cakewalk. It's not just going to be glory. It's going to be perilous times because human beings are very sinful. So hold on to your faith. It was a warning to Timothy then. And it's a warning to us now.

It's not a prediction. Everything is getting worse. Why bother? I read about a multitude that no one could number. I read ultimately about the final salvation of Israel. These are glorious things that have not yet happened. You know, I was just going to say you're familiar with some in the prophetic movement. There have been prophecies by people that I respect of a billion soul harvest, of revival. And I think

that doesn't square with those who say it's over, doom and gloom, everything is going downhill. We're under judgment. It's that don't do anything. I really do believe that the handful of voices, prophetic voices, that I trust, they seem to say that God does have beautiful. things ahead. And I, again, I don't, it's not that everybody's saying that, but people whose voices I trust are saying that. So it's not everybody who's saying doom and gloom. And here's, here's another voice, not the prophets, quite the opposite. For years, I've written and said that the left will overplay its hand, I mean, it was self-evident, that the radical LGBTQ plus-plus activism will keep going too far and there'll be a pushback. You know who I can

quote to back our points today. I can quote atheists like Richard Dawkins and Bill Moore. I can quote people like Kid Rock and Joe Rogan and J.K. Rowling and Pierce Morgan saying the same things we've been saying for years on social issues because things go too far. And people say, wait a second. So I've been saying for years, the pushback is coming. The pushback is here. And look, this is not to bash those who identify as gay and lesbian and Jesus died for them the same as he died for everybody else. We're all created an image of God, all flawed, fallen, all need redemption. But Pride Month in 2024 was a lot quieter than Pride Month in 2023, because enough people say,

enough, what is this? So when the world is seeing these things, how much more now, in love and truth and power, can the church lead the way? And here's our message, not just bashing others, we have a better way. And in turn the tide, I laid out for families. for individuals, for whoever we are, God's ways or ways of life and thriving. We see our universities are bankrupt. We see so much in our culture is bankrupt.

Let us rise up and show the world a better way through Jesus. Well, I mean, it's so interesting to me that you and I both believe that it's our job as believers to live out our faith. And folks, if you're going to a church that gives you permission to do nothing except, know, have your faith and to play church and to talk about the Bible, but not to live it out. We're not supposed to just read it and study it. We're supposed to then live it out. What's the point of studying it?

To live it out, to obey what the Lord is telling us to do in it. And I really believe that a lot of churches think, like, well, no, that's controversial. We just want to have a nice church, and that will attract people to us. And ironically, churches that are not speaking about all these hot button issues, people are saying, you know what, that's not relevant to me. I need a church that is speaking out on these issues where my faith gets activated. Michael, we're at a time. I just want to say congratulations on the book, Turn the Tide, How to Ignite a Cultural Awakening from Revival to Reformation.

Thanks for being my guest. God bless you. God bless. Heba, hey, be, hey, ba. I just wanted to quote the Cosby Kids. Remember the Cosby Kids? Hey, hey, hey, hey. And then there was mush mouth.

Who doesn't remember mush mouth from the Cosby Kids? I don't know if you can do a mush mouth and not get canceled. Mushmouth from the Cosby Kids. Google Mushmouth from the Cosby Kids. And if you really want to get canceled, Google Bill Cosby. Hello. Hey, but Fredba. Why, Badoobu, you?

I mean, really? Why are we talking about the Cosby kids? No one knows, including. The Brown Hornet. I don't know. The Brown Hornet. Okay. So we have a couple things to mention here.

First of all, I want to mention to everyone the other night we did a Socrates in the city event with RFK Jr. It was electric. It was crazy. Honestly, you set the bar. I'm a little concerned we set the bar too high because where do we go from here? Where do we go from here? We get an interview somebody who's walked on the moon, for example. Oh, we've already done that.

I think now we've just got to get, you know, Elon Musk. That's right. That's right. And, you know, we have to just... That's right. We have an A-list and we just, like, kind of mark them off. Like a disgruntled middle schooler. Yeah.

You know, he's like, someday, I'm going to get these guys. Yeah, yeah. Oh, wait a minute. Before we talk about this other stuff, I want to mention our friends at Americans for Prosperity. They are again on the front lines fighting against the border crisis. Did you know that there was a border crisis? Did you know that the Biden administration is allowing millions of strangers into the country to destroy the America we love? Did you know that, folks?

I hope you're going to vote in November, by the way. I hope you care about your country. But it's clear the politicians aren't going to solve this on their own. It's going to take good old-fashioned grassroots activism. And that's what Americans for Prosperity specializes in. The Americans for Prosperity Foundation has taken hundreds of concerned citizens to see the border for themselves, turning them into informed activists. We need that, folks.

Everybody needs to become an informed activist. And they're helping underscore what we need at the border, more border agents, more walls, more technology, mobilizing people. They've just announced a major campaign to hold Biden and his allies accountable for the crisis at the border, which they created. You can learn more at SecureBorder, SecureAmerica.com. That's secureborder, secureamerica.com. Chris. Yeah, it's scary down there. It's ironic that it's Sleepy Joe because he seems fond of sleeper cells.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Read them bedtime stories. I was just going to crack the same joke, but then I rejected it as insufficiently funny. But here's the thing. There's something there. I'll be back with those two. But here's the thing. I probably haven't mentioned it.

Tomorrow is my birthday. Hey. Tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen, it's my birthday. And I want to ask you, I'm going to be posting some stuff on Instagram. And if you do not get my newsletter, Eric Mataxis.com, you got to sign up for the newsletter. sign up quickly because you'll miss tomorrow's post. But we're putting out the Socrates event we had the other night. We're going to be posting photos.

There were a lot of people there. I looked out in the audience. Yeah, I was full. And I was freaked out. My brother was there. Yeah. I was thrilled to see my brother there. And lots of, like, really old friends that I haven't seen in a while.

And for security, they had a thing that we've never had before there. They had a barricade. A little like they had a barricade. And when your brother jumped over to give you Nugie halfway through, it was uncomfortable. They, uh, but they did have a barricade. They had a barricade. No, it was, it was very interesting. I mean, the whole thing was crazy, but.

There was like extra, extra security there. And in my monologue, I came out for Joe Biden. I want to be very clear. I cannot vote for RFK Jr. I would not vote for him because I'm a Biden guy. Yeah. And, you know, I'm not, I'm not ashamed of that. But, but I, everyone, everyone thinks Eric Metaxis, they think that's pulling the lever for Biden right there.

Yeah, that's me. That's who I am, because I just don't care anymore. Actually, we've got a lot of exciting guests this week, folks. Tomorrow, as I say, it's special because it's my birthday. And typically, I only have my birthday once a year, which is rare. So one out of every 365 days is my birthday. I can't speak for other people. But it's tomorrow.

I'm excited about it. I'm going to be posting some stuff on Instagram, on Twitter, and on the newsletter, yada, yada, yada. Anyway, thanks for listening. Don't forget to support our friend Mike Lindel. Go to mypill.com. Use the code Eric. Mike Lindell, Mypillow.com. Use the code Eric.