Pastor Joel Webbin and Jared Longshore analyze the waning influence of "woke madness" and Critical Race Theory, noting how pragmatic fear often hinders biblical fidelity in societal engagement. They warn against opportunistic leaders who mimic enemy methods rather than fearing God, contrasting this with true believers who must actively build Christian communities instead of merely surviving in exile. Announcing an upcoming conference in Williamson County, Texas, on March 12th featuring A.D. Robles and John Harris, they urge the church to transition from defensive postures to advancing God's kingdom through schools, households, and genuine social justice. [Automatically generated summary]
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A Request for Reviews00:07:08
Hey guys, real quick before we get started, I have a small request.
If you've been blessed by our content and you like this show, would you take just a brief moment and leave us a five star review?
This is quite possibly the most effective thing that you can do to ensure that this content gets out to as many people as possible.
Thanks.
Hi, this is Pastor Joel Webbin with Right Response Ministries, and you're listening to another episode of our show called Theology Applied.
Today, I was privileged to have as a special guest Jared Longshore.
Jared Longshore was actually one of our very first guests when we launched this show all the way back in, I believe, October of 2020, and here he is joining us once more.
Our topic, I believe, is very interesting and very pertinent.
What we talk about in this episode is this the woke madness is coming to an end.
I truly believe that.
Jared believes that, that wokeness is on its last leg, that this particular lie from the pit of hell is not going to last much longer.
We see a shift in the culture from school board meetings to politics.
Even Democrats are pulling off of certain issues like.
Defunding the police and Nancy Pelosi kind of apologizing and retracting her previous statements, wokeness is on its last leg.
The question, though, for the church moving forward is what's next?
And how do we navigate as a church through this post woke world?
One of the great mercies of God throughout the woke madness has been this God has used this to rip the veil off of certain leaders in evangelicalism showing us their true colors.
But as all of a sudden, The culture shifts and the church very likely will follow suit.
Your opportunist in evangelicalism will run out in front of the conservative parade and act as though they engineered it.
It'll be difficult once more to see who is truly faithfully following Christ and who is just pretending.
These are all the issues we address in today's exciting episode of Theology Apply.
Real quick, before we get started, I've got some exciting news to announce.
I've got A.D. Robles and John Harris from Conversations That Matter coming out.
For a whole weekend in the month of March to join up on a Friday, we're going to come in our studio right here, and all three of us are going to record a multiple part series on some of the subject matter that you guys have requested that the three of us address through our YouTube comments.
Some of you have emailed, we're taking that into consideration as well, but we're definitely looking at the YouTube comments.
We've asked you guys, hey, what are topics you want us to address?
And so the three of us are going to record for several hours a multiple part series in our studio right here in the great state of Texas.
In March, and we're going to be releasing that content over the coming weeks.
Now, here's the other thing that's on the Friday that they're going to be in town, but on the Saturday, we're going to hold a one day conference.
Now, that's going to be March 12th, Saturday, March 12th.
It's going to be a one day conference where AD is going to do a session on practical, obedient defiance how to resist civil tyranny, how to resist medical tyranny, and how to do this in practical, on the ground ways as households, as head of households, husbands, fathers.
How do we resist as a family?
Against the cancel culture and the tyranny and persecution that's coming to America.
That's gonna be AD's session.
I'm gonna do a session called Debunking the Boogeyman of Christian Nationalism.
I'm gonna kind of reveal the fallacies of the Gospel Coalition and all these kind of things.
Oh, Christian nationalists, the greatest threat to America.
I'm gonna show why that's not biblical and how that's not actually happening.
And the irony that, if anything, Russell Moore, he's the type who's actually the Christian nationalist in a negative sense.
And then John Harris is gonna do a session.
On social justice versus biblical justice.
Again, that's social justice and how it's completely opposed, completely opposite to biblical justice.
And then lastly, the three of us are going to come up all together and spend a whole hour doing QA.
We're going to take live questions from the audience and address those questions.
It's going to be a great time.
You'll get to meet John Harris, you'll get to meet Adi Robles, you'll get to meet myself.
So if you're anywhere in the area in Williamson County, or if you're in Austin, Texas, or you're north of Williamson County, or to the west, or to the east, and you want to come out and join us for that one day conference, Saturday, March 12th, come on out.
It's free registration.
We're going to have some refreshments free.
Everything's free.
So we're paying out of pocket as a ministry to make this happen.
We're covering the cost to fly out John and AD to put them up in a hotel.
So you don't have to pay a dime to show up and attend this.
However, for anybody who wants to be generous and help us offset these costs, you can do so donating towards this conference by simply going to rightresponseministries.comslash donate.
Again, that's rightresponseministries.com.
Dot com slash donate.
Now, to find the address, physical location for the conference, and exact times for each of the sessions for that Saturday, March twelfth, again, go to our website, rightresponse ministries.com, click on the menu button at the top, and scroll down, and you'll find conference.
Click on conference, you'll find all the details that you need.
And one of the details there that we need is although registration is free, there's a form at the bottom that says RSVP.
We would really appreciate if you could let us know whether or not you're coming.
And how many people you plan on bringing with you, right?
If you've got 10 kids, God bless you for having 10 kids, but we would like to know that you're bringing yourself, your wife, and your 10 kids.
Please come, but please let us know so that we can adequately prepare for this.
The last thing that I'll say is that that Sunday, which would be March 13th, for anybody who wants to join our church, Covenant Bible Church, John Harris will stay in town.
He's going to linger and he's going to preach that Sunday morning at our Lord's Day worship service.
That's 9 30 a.m. on Sunday, March 13th.
At my church that I pastor, again, that's Covenant Bible Church.
We're in Georgetown, Texas.
That's the Williamson County area.
So if you're in Williamson County or you're in North Austin or you're somewhere nearby and you don't have a church home, if you've got a church home, go there.
But if you don't have a church home, you're looking for a church that has courage, that has biblical fidelity, and you want to hear John Harris preach a dynamite sermon from the Word of God, then come and join us again, Sunday, March 13th.
You can find details or directions to join our church that Sunday morning.
At covenantbible.org.
Our website for Covenant Bible Church is covenantbible.org.
Without further ado, let's go ahead and jump into our episode.
Applying God's Word to every aspect of life.
This is Theology Applied.
All right, welcome to another episode of Theology Applied.
I'm your host, Pastor Joel Webbin.
Today, I am very honored to have Jared Longshore joining us on the podcast.
The Sufficiency of Scripture00:15:28
Jared was one of our very first guests.
Before anybody knew who we were.
So I think your first video got maybe, I don't know, 300 views or something like that.
And now we, you know, we average, you know, a couple thousand with each episode.
And so I'm honored to have you back on an episode that people actually watch.
Jared, thanks for coming on the show.
Yes.
Yeah.
Happy to be here.
Back in the good old days.
Yeah.
Back in the good old days.
Yeah.
So, Jared, so, you know, things have changed.
You're, you know, God's doing a lot with you and your family and your theology and all those kinds of things.
But a lot of things have stayed the same.
You love the Lord.
A lot of your doctrine has remained the same.
And one of the things that you have always stood against, and I think really courageously and articulating these things really well, is the woke madness, the CRT, but then also COVID.
You know, it seems like those are the two big things, right?
It's CRT and COVID.
And it's not just a church conversation, it's a national conversation.
You got, you know, for better or worse, and I would argue better, but you got Youngkin, you know, in Virginia that won that election and won it not on tax cuts or, you know, your typical, you know, rhino Republican kind of thing, but But he wanted on the culture war kind of stuff.
He wanted on the backs of moms at school board meetings and things like that, voting for him because they were concerned about the cultural issues of masking their kids in schools and teaching the white kids that they're racist, simply inherently by the color of their skin.
And it seems like, my point is, it seems like we're coming out of the woods on that.
Would you agree?
Yeah.
You know, I'm not the prophet nor the son of a prophet.
And especially when it becomes, you know, what's the nation going to do?
I've whiffed a number of times when I've made predictions.
But it certainly seems like I would say the evangelical world, a lot of the conservative evangelical world, has really done kind of a whack a mole on the woke.
Like it has been stamped out.
I wrote a piece at Founders Ministries called Not Woke Is Not Enough.
And that was, I don't know, that was 2000.
That was late 2021, mid 2021, I think.
But I remember starting to look and say, okay, there was a time when you could write a book called Woke Church.
Eric Mason did that.
Lig Duncan writes the Ford or Introduction, I think.
And you could write that book and sell a lot of copies.
And I realized you could write a book called Not Woke Church and you would sell a lot of copies, like a lot.
So people are very hungry for that.
Now, the problem is that doesn't mean that we're done with a pagan.
Worldview that manifests itself in a pagan ethic, which would be social justice and would be all of the COVID tyranny that happened.
But what I've been trying to do now for a while is help people to see the root.
I go back, oh, I remember years ago now, I was thinking conceptually about intersectionality.
You know, this, this, and I was, people were saying it's a new religion.
And I was saying, okay, fine, but like think about the structure.
Intersectionality is the church growth strategy of the new religion.
Right.
It's, we will measure out, you know, we will advance our cause with this system, with this particular ethic.
It's like the ethic of the new religion.
So there's something, my point is, there's something behind it.
You know, there's something that gives rise to a social justice ethic.
And what is that?
And what is the idol behind it?
That's the thing.
Here, I think it's Herbert Schlossberg.
I would commend Herbert Schlossberg's book.
Idols for Destruction is the book.
It's a deeper, like I read that and I said, here's a deeper.
Analysis of the current moment.
So there is certainly a manifestation of chaos in our society, and then it began to weave its way into evangelical Christianity, no doubt.
And there are a lot of good men that have stood up and really said, We're going to put a stop to this, and they have.
But I'm suspicious that even some of the good guys have some of the pragmatism and some of the by any means necessary going on in their operation, maybe more than they realize.
That never works.
So that's not the way God has wired up the world for success and for dominion.
And you don't get to use the enemy's methods to bring about reformation.
And so the problem is, it will be external.
So you'll cut off the flower right at the top, but you didn't deal with those roots.
So you might get people to leave your particular denomination.
Oh, hey, big victory.
We got the people that were sketchy.
They're now gone.
They're now with the liberal Anglicans or wherever they are.
But how did you do that?
How did you do that?
I actually had guys that, you know, leading seminaries telling me that, you know, I talked to one guy who was a true believer.
He really thought we Christians could not adopt critical race theory and intersectionality, but he thought there could be some kind of harmony, some kind of use of those ideas.
And he was really moving in that direction, teaching it.
He was a true believer in that sense.
I believe that we can really partner and then not buy into the worldview, but actually get something good done in the world.
And there were a lot of guys that were partnered up with him.
And when those who were speaking against the wokeness and against CRTI spoke up, he told me straight up all the guys that were with me, that were doing it when it was cool, have backed away from me.
Right.
And he was saying, I wasn't doing this because it was cool.
Right.
He was an ideologue.
He actually believed it.
All the other guys were opportunists.
Exactly.
And he and I grew in respect.
For each other.
I said, well, I mean, we had more in common together within this other group.
I realized that, okay, they're really operating without principle.
Yeah, for them, it's just whatever's cool in the moment.
And I think that represents a lot more of where even conservative American evangelicalism is.
I agree.
We're all, you know, Rick Warren.
We're all Rick Warren.
It's just some people do it, they do it without.
You know, looking like they're doing it, but they're operating in that kind of church growth, pragmatic worldview.
Right.
So I think it's pragmatism.
You're right.
So I think it's at least two things.
I'm sure we could name 17, but two that first come to mind.
So one is pragmatism.
And to root that even deeper, you know, you're saying, like, well, what's the root?
We got to not just snip off, you know, the flower, but pull it up by the root.
Well, I think, you know, with pragmatism, ultimately that comes by a denial of the sufficiency of scripture.
And so, like, you're saying, like, there are guys who might join you in fighting against one enemy.
One particular enemy, but not actually the root causes producing that enemy.
So, somebody who just really doesn't like Goliath, but will be tolerant of his five brothers.
And so, the next battle, they may not be with you until, again, it becomes popular to take on that giant.
And so, pragmatism, I think, comes.
One of the roots there is the denial of the sufficiency of scripture.
And I find it really interesting that in the SBC, Right?
So it's like you've got the old guard, and we honor them and rightfully so for the ways that they fought in the trenches for inerrancy.
But I think one of the, this is maybe a strong way of saying it, but I think one of the reasons they were successful in winning the battle for inerrancy is because the fine print, and I don't even, this may have even been subconscious for them.
I don't think they were intentionally meant to do this, but I think one of the reasons why they could win on the front of inerrancy is because it didn't come along with sufficiency.
And at the end of the day, it's completely fine because it poses no threat in the world in any practical manner to believe that God's word is, in fact, God's word.
It's infallible, it's true, it's inerrant.
But if you, in the very next breath, say, you know, in a hushed tone, yeah, God's word is his word.
But don't worry, it doesn't apply to anything outside of family, marriage, and the church.
It doesn't apply to governments, it doesn't apply to culture.
So you win over here with inerrancy.
And I think, in part, the way you're able to win with inerrancy is because if you give us inerrancy, we will forfeit sufficiency.
And so then, then sufficiency has never been there, not in a widespread kind of thing.
And so, with the lack of believing scripture is sufficient for all of life, in comes pragmatism.
And then that pragmatism, um, it will adopt any culturally relevant tactic in the moment that seems as though it might accomplish the ends.
And that's where the woke stuff comes from.
Would you agree with that assessment or you have some thoughts?
Yeah, absolutely.
I have a lot of thoughts.
You said a lot of good things.
The sufficiency, um, Take the sufficiency issue, and you mentioned SBC, so I'll note here you know, I was kind of born and raised in Southern Baptist Church, and I'm not there anymore.
Obviously, I'm not in that denomination or that convention of churches, but how I love them.
I've thought so often.
I was just down at the church in Texas leading a marriage conference and would preach there, and I was reminded again, like just the lovely saints in that massive, massive denomination.
And there's certainly a battle going on there.
And it's the same battle, just in a different way, that's going on more broadly with people that are conservative that are getting caught up in this pragmatism you've mentioned that have affirmed inerrancy.
But as you said, there's an issue with sufficiency.
But I would follow the trail.
So the problem is, all of these people are going to say they believe in the sufficiency of Scripture.
So I believe in the sufficiency of Scripture.
Okay, well, but you're operating like Malcolm X. Like, what's going on there?
And I think this dawned on me.
I was at the last Southern Babs Convention.
We had a conference, founders had a conference, and I preached on, you know, if Baal is God, serve him.
And if the Lord is God, then serve him, then follow him.
And then related to that is, well, what happens if you're still talking about, you're using biblical language about God, but you have made the mistake that Job made, right?
God says, you thought I was altogether like you.
What's going on with that?
I don't know if that's from Job.
Same spirit in Job.
It might be from Job, might be from one of the Old Testament prophets.
But what is that?
You thought I was altogether like you.
So, sufficiency of scripture, whose word is it?
It's the word of God.
But if you begin to marinate with the culture around you that I believe is thoroughly pagan, or in moving that, manifesting that paganism now in our civil society, and by pagan, I mean worship of the creature rather than worship of the creator.
Follow your heart.
You're God.
We're all God together, statism.
So if you have that going on, okay, but if the Christians begin to syncretize with that idea, then God is not creator who is set apart from us, who is holy to be reverenced.
When his word comes to us, when the word of God comes to us, it is a word from outside of creation.
Creation's down here angels and ants and you and me and everything that has been made.
And up here is God, the creator creature distinction, divide.
God is creator, and that word comes to us.
Therefore, my orientation to it is one of reverence.
This is the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
So it is sufficient and it is other.
So there's a reverence for scriptures.
The problem is people are paying lip service to it.
I believe scripture is sufficient, but it's like they're receiving it as if God were like us.
As if we're common.
They're not trembling at the word.
Here's the one to whom I will look.
He was humble and contrived and trembles at my word.
So it's like confessing this.
I believe in the inerrancy of scripture.
I believe in the atonement.
I believe in the sufficiency of scripture.
But as a whole, you're watching a community, you're watching modern evangelicals not operate that way.
And I think it is a deep, I think it's a worldview issue.
I think it's a way that people are oriented to the Creator.
We need to bow before Him in reverence and believe that His word is sufficient to bring about His purposes on earth.
Right.
That's what we're talking about.
And they've disassociated that.
So it's like His word is sufficient.
You know, for me as an individual, my journey, my life, but not to bring about the kingdom, not to bring about the work that needs to be done here.
Right, because they don't think God cares about that.
That's so everything you're saying.
So, first, a higher view of God as the creator and the distinction between creator and creature.
But also, I was, I was going to, and you're, you're bringing it up, but that's what I was going to say is it's also sufficient for what is the question?
Sufficient for what?
Is it sufficient for churchianity, as Joe Boots says, or pietism, you know, a private lordship for individuals?
You know, that's one of the things that Joe Boots has been so helpful for me is just seeing the distinction between, um, The church as instituted, the institution of the church, and how the church grows versus the kingdom of God, and those being two separate things, or the mission of the church as the institution of the church versus the mission of individual Christians, which, you know, the Apostle Paul talks about, you know, people remaining in their station that they were in when the Lord called them.
So you've got a jailer, you know, or you've got a politician, or you've got an artist, or you've got a teacher, you've got, you know, and all of a sudden they're converted.
And then what does it look like for them now to follow Jesus?
Well, to fulfill the Great Commission is It's not just to go and make disciples and baptize them into the name of the triune God, but it's also to teach others, which implies that you yourself are obeying all of Christ's commands.
So, what does it look like to obey all of Christ's commands, which is not just red letter, but the whole Bible?
What does it look like to obey all of Christ's commands in this station of life?
What does it look like, not just for a mother and father, but for a teacher, for an engineer, for this, for that, for a government official?
And so, I think that's part of the issue people who believe in errantcy tip their hat to sufficiency.
But then, even those who agree with sufficiency, they would truly believe in both inerrancy and sufficiency, that we still miss them on the question of sufficient for what?
I think they would say sufficient for salvation, sufficient for a healthy marriage, sufficient for parenting, sufficient for how to organize your church polity, but not sufficient for all of life.
Fear Man vs Fear God00:06:47
And I would say that that's a big disconnect.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You've got some, and this is why it's a worldview issue that's going on.
So, the voice of the Lord is powerful and causes new birth for the individual, right?
Born again by the word.
And the voice of the Lord also causes the deer to give birth.
So, I think there's a lot of modern conservative evangelicals that fully get that, yeah, okay, the voice of the Lord is powerful for the new birth of an individual, but they don't understand that it also causes the deer to give birth and it breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
And so it actually, so what's happening is they're operating very spiritually in spiritual things.
But when it comes to these physical things, there's this.
Did you say spiritually or gnostically?
I think you said.
Well, yeah, they're both.
This is why you can lay over so many.
I mean, it is gnostic.
That's totally.
And of course, the problem is with Gnosticism, there's going to be all kinds of good people there.
They're going to say, I'm not gnostic at all.
And I wouldn't say that they are.
I'm not saying that you're a heretic.
It's just a subtle, latent sense that physical things are bad or that when we're in these physical.
When we're doing these physical things, we begin to operate according to other standards.
You know, we don't realize how much of it you don't realize you're being canonized, but it's like this is what's going on here.
And the worldview doesn't work because we still have this separation going on.
And again, there's distinction, but distinction is one thing and entirely separated.
Like, you know, I'm saved and I'm going to heaven.
But when it comes to trying to get good things done in the world, you know, I'm going to.
Operate accordingly.
So, I think I've said somewhere that, you know, there's a lot of modern evangelicals that aren't sure about the advance of the kingdom of God in the world.
They don't know that that's actually guaranteed.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth.
But they sure do want good neighbors.
And so they end up like operating to get the good neighbors in a way that's detached from their Christianity and from the word of God.
Yep.
I completely agree.
So, I named the SBC as a case study, but, but, We both agree that this, at a larger general level, evangelicalism, one of the problems is belief in inerrancy, but merely a tip of the hat to sufficiency, or they believe the Bible actually is sufficient, but it's a truncated sufficiency.
It's sufficient for the spiritual matters, but not for practical matters.
So, one issue is not just an SBC, but evangelicalism across the board holding to inerrancy, but a denial, if not outright or even conscious, but still in.
In function, a denial of sufficiency, and that gives birth to pragmatism.
And the pragmatism tempts the heart of men to take advantage of unbiblical means to try to achieve biblical ends.
I would say the other thing tempting the heart of man, because I said I think there are two, at least two, another one would be so you got pragmatism coming out of a denial of sufficiency, but you also have the fear of man.
So part of it's pragmatism, but I think part of it is.
Is the fear of man that, like, I have no doubt that we're going to have so many guys, so many pastors, so many politicians.
So, like, it's, you know, I said it's not just the SBC, it's evangelicalism, but I really do think it's the whole nation.
It's a national conversation.
I think we're going to have everybody and anybody coming out of the woodwork and jumping in front of this parade, you know, because everybody wants to be on the right side of history, which that whole thing is a problem because what we should be saying is that we just want to be on God's side.
We want to hold to God's virtues, God's values, God's commandments.
And we want to do so faithfully, regardless of how history pans out.
But everybody else, they just want to be on the right side of history.
So as soon as they see that a particular moment or a particular virtue is winning in terms of popularity, then you have a bunch of people come out.
So my point is COVID and critical race theory.
COVID and critical race theory.
The last two years I've been grateful for, it's been hard, but I've been grateful for in God's merciful providence because if nothing else, God made it really, really clear.
Who's on what team?
You know, like who's on what side of things?
And my concern is that I think that wokeism and mass mandates and vaccine, I think this is going to be very quickly a thing of the past.
I think the tide is turning, like rushing in, and critical race theory and COVID are getting drowned because people have had enough.
And I think conservatives have won.
The problem is, though, then we go right back to where we were just a few years ago, where you look around and you can't tell whose heart is really for the Lord and whose heart is merely bowing to man.
What do you think about that?
Yeah.
Well, the fear of man, I'll talk.
You mentioned two things.
So a note about the fear of man.
And then the second thing, what do we do now that a lot of people are now anti woke?
And how are you as a Christian to know where you're supposed to be?
Who am I supposed to be with now that maybe the dust has settled?
And it seems like everybody's now standing on the right side, at least as far as conservative American Christianity goes.
The fear of man is interesting.
Saul's a case study.
He was so afraid, he was afraid of David.
The lady started to sing with her tambourines.
Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands.
And he says, the text says multiple times that Saul feared David.
He feared him.
And then, even at the end of his life, when he's going to the witch at Endor, he's afraid.
He's dreadfully afraid, but he keeps doing the wrong thing.
So, it's an inescapable concept.
You either will fear God or you will fear man.
It's not whether but which.
And if you don't fear God, then you're going to fear everything.
And the fear is not going to help you at all because you're still going to keep making the wrong decisions.
But you're doing that.
Saul's doing that because he is operating as a pagan.
He's operating apart from God.
He's not thinking about God.
I mean, God told him, I'm going to tear the kingdom from you.
I'm going to give it to someone who's better than you.
We just told him straight up.
And so then he sees David and he's starting to put the pieces together.
Oh, David's the one.
Well, who?
God is the one controlling David.
God is the one who just told you you should be fearing God, dealing with God.
He's not doing it.
When Wokeness Goes Away00:02:51
I think that's what's going on in kind of.
Pagan America.
So you have people that are watching what's going on around them.
And there's a tendency to be, you know, to be not just bombastic, but defensive and then kind of shrill in the way that we're, you know, you get people stirred up because here we are.
We're all being afraid of what's coming, you know, with the tyranny that's coming.
But if you're not dealing with God, then you're not going to be dealing with that situation correctly.
And So, your point about the wokeness being gone, what's interesting, I go back and say, I don't know what's happening in the culture.
I'm not entirely convinced that the wokeness is entirely gone.
It's certainly around in your universities.
It's just.
Oh, I'm not saying it's gone.
It's about wokeness.
Right.
But I'm not saying it's gone.
But I think there are certain battles in the war that are pivotal and determine the outcome of the war.
And I think we've had some pivotal battles to where I feel confident enough to say that the wokeness isn't gone, but it will be gone.
I heard on the news just recently Nancy Pelosi has talked about how bad the defund the police.
Yeah, she pulled back and said, oh, public safety is our number one issue.
It's like, that's not what she was saying.
It wasn't that long ago.
And so, yeah, I mean, everyone's pulling back.
And that's the whole thing.
When Democrat politicians are pulling back, stepping back off of certain Marxist talking points, it's because, right?
Because if Democrats are good at anything, they're good at this.
You know, licking their fingers, sticking it up in the wind, and seeing, you know, what direction it's blown.
So, I take that as that's one of the things that I have such confidence that this thing is ending is because when Democrats start pulling off of certain issues, that's because they realize this is not where the heart of America is anymore.
This issue will not win us elections.
And so, I look at that, that would be a prime example with Nancy Pelosi, but there are several other ones just in the last couple of weeks.
I mean, states pulling off, even if Biden won't, states pulling off of mask mandates and this and that because they realize this is not popular.
So that's where I say, like, I don't just think it's conservative, you know, evangelicals.
I think nationwide right now, the whole nation is, and not just the whole nation, the world, because I think a lot of it has to do with Canada and the truckers.
And so I think, like, the whole world and France, you know, revolutions and protesting.
And so I think, like, the whole world right now has finally gotten enough visibility of civil tyranny and cultural tyranny, CRT and wokeness, to where everyone's like, oh, this, I think it has been ousted.
The mask has been pulled off and it has been seen for the ugly, hypocritical monster that it actually is.
Building Community From Below00:06:15
And so I think it's like Goliath has been slain.
And yeah, we still got to chase down the Philistines and chop off all their heads.
But I think the outcome of the battle, the battle's not done, but there's work to do, but the outcome is settled.
But for me, that's the issue I think the outcome is settled.
And if the Democrats know it, then the gospel coalition knows it.
And they're going to start pulling off the issues too.
So, how do we discern who is for us and who's against us?
Who is for the Lord?
Yeah.
So I would encourage Christians kind of all across the land to consider now what is it going to look like to actually live for the kingdom of God and to see what a Christian community is actually going to look like.
What's it going to be like to actually build that, to rebuild the walls?
And there are certainly certain communities where they were great at defending, they were fantastic at defending.
Defending and striking down what needed to be struck down.
But what's it going to actually look like to build?
I wrote a piece at Reformation and Revival, my blog, jaredrlongshore.com.
You can also find it on Canon Press.
We have a YouTube channel out.
You can find it there.
And then Canon Plus is an app that you can get where you can find it there.
It was a few weeks back, and I mentioned there are three types of Christian communities.
One being a separatist pietism that just wants to be done and kind of out of the cultural chaos of our moment.
The second is defensive evangelicalism.
And I think that's where the majority of conservative evangelicals are.
And they can't stand the woke nonsense.
They want good neighbors, but they don't actually have an understanding of the kingdom of God where they're thinking about what it's going to look like when God answers yes to the Lord's prayer.
And how do we pursue that and not manufacture it?
We're not going to bring it in by any means necessary.
But we're going to depend upon the Lord and actually live wisely in the world.
And that's going to involve the Kyperian vision.
It's going to involve the Lordship of Christ over all things.
There are real wrongs out in the world, and those need to be rectified.
And how are you going to do that?
What is the role of the Word of God and the law of God and its relationship to our society?
And then actually getting at it in their local context.
I think, you know, we're out here in Moscow at Christchurch.
And people are flocking here.
It's remarkable.
I mean, we've only been here for a few months, and it's insane because there are a lot of families that are looking around and saying, Oh, I see it is Christ or chaos.
And I actually, they're making some connections with their life, and they're saying, I need to move my family to a place where there's a Christian community, where there's classical Christian education, where there's a development of cultural life, where people are actually public in their faith and vocation.
You know, and it's not Christian bumper sticker stuff, it's not, you know, the Christian section at the library stuff.
But it's like, oh, Jesus rules over this whole library.
Jesus rules over this whole thing.
So I would encourage people to find that community.
Like now would be the time.
Don't think that.
So one of the problems is, and you see this a lot, this was in the SBC and it's in a lot of denominations.
They think the Reformation is going to come from the top.
And so we just get the right man.
So in the political world, that's your president.
That's our federalism that we're infected with.
It's like we get the right man and that will fix our problems.
We get the right president and that's going to have a This trickle down effect is going to impact, but that's not the way it's going to work.
It's an inside out kind of thing, and it's going to be a bottom up kind of thing.
Left for you.
It's inside.
Oh, for the Christians that are all like torqued up about what they're seeing in the world, it starts right there at your house.
Like, how are you speaking to your wife?
What are you doing with your children?
There's plenty of problems right there.
And as everyone gets going on those, all of a sudden it starts to.
Manifest itself outside of the home in this community.
That's certainly what's happening here.
And that people need to look for a community like that.
It certainly seems to be the time.
I know you made a move from California to Texas, right?
I think you made that transition.
Well, and just a real quick advertising, you know, so Moscow, you know, is growing by leaps and bounds because everybody wants to be a part of Doug's church and praise God for that.
But just so our listeners know, there are a couple other places, you know, besides just Doug.
You know, the testimony has been similar for us that you know, we just moved here December 2020, so that very end of 2020, and we were worshiping for three months on the Lord's Day with other like minded churches here in Texas, getting a lay of the land in Georgetown, Texas.
And then in April, we started holding our Lord's Day gatherings in my home.
So we started with 15 people in April of 2021, and here we are now in February of 2022, and we have already have 85 people.
And just two weeks ago, I had four men, and these aren't you know, 20 year old single men, but but um, four men in their late 30s.
With wives and children that they left behind in California.
But these four guys got on a plane and came and spent a weekend with me to scope out should we move our four households.
And we've got two other guys that are talking about coming with us.
And same thing, they're like, we're going to go visit Moscow next.
And so it's between Georgetown with Joel or it's going to be Doug in Moscow with you.
And so my point is the whole, like Christians are waking up to this and they're realizing exactly what you're saying is that the solution is not just here come the midterm elections and we need to vote better.
Um, you do need to vote better, but uh, but in addition to that, it's also um, uh, we need a distinctly Christian church, uh, distinctly Christian schools, uh, and and distinctly Christian households.
True Progressives Move Forward00:08:24
And uh, we need we need to build, we can't it's it can't just be the wall defense, uh, we need to build.
And so, who's building?
Where can we go where where somebody is building that we can join them in that work?
And so, back to you, back to you, yeah.
Well, no, that's the beauty of it, and it's it's a wonderful, it's a wonderful, um.
Life to live when you're actually producing that kind of fruit, you know, when you're be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, have dominion.
And that's going to be an interesting year, 2010, kind of in the wake of this cultural spasm that we went through, because there's a lot of good people doing a lot of good things and they're getting the right kind of flack for defending against what was going on.
And the church kind of got a taste of what we should have had a taste of for a long time.
So I think we need to be.
We need to be living in such a way that we're being persecuted, right?
All who seek to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
It's kind of like we weren't being persecuted.
And then CRTI came on the scene and the church spoke up about it.
And then we suffered some of that attack.
But we need to be doing that kind of thing.
We need to be having the dominion that God tells us to have, which is going to result in that experience, even if the CRTI thing goes, because there's a flourishing of the kingdom.
I think it was an Anglican bishop who once said, Anywhere the Apostle Paul went, there was a riot.
And anywhere I go, they serve tea.
And that marks so much of our kind of pastoral ministry.
It has, at least, in the United States.
And you say, Well, the crumbling of our civil order is very clear.
And so while the CRTI thing may be settled in conservative evangelicalism, we don't just need to look for another defensive fight.
But we need to actually start seeing Christian community, Christian civilization flourish.
Amen.
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
I think that we should be persecuted.
I think one of the reasons why the church isn't persecuted, and this should be received as a strong indictment to Christians, all of us, myself included.
But part of the reason we don't have a lot of persecution is because leaders, the person who gets persecuted is the prophet, right?
Or you could liken that to, say, the thought leader, or you could say in a word, The person who's first, right?
The person who's first, right?
Like the flying V, the geese, you know, the one who's flying point, he's the one who's breaking the wind.
He's receiving the most resistance.
And part of the reason why I would say, even over the last two years, the church still received, I would argue, somewhat little resistance.
I know some guys, you know, in evangelicalism came out, you know, real early.
Michael O'Fallon, I think he deserves some props.
He came out real early against CRT, you know, and those kind of things.
And there's some other guys who joined him and received some serious resistance.
But part of the reason I think we're winning right now, and I can rail on CRT and wokeism and what it amounts to for me.
And sure, there's some people who don't like me, but what it amounts to for me, like just being painfully honest, is my church growing from 15 to 85 people, my YouTube page growing, getting more views, more subscriptions, more donations, more this, more that.
Meaning, I'm actually, my courageous stand, and I still think it's the right thing to do, and by God's grace, I do think it comes from a place of Christian courage, but I have to be honest and admit that it's being rewarded.
Which means what?
I think what that means is that it means that I'm not the front bird in the flying V. Somebody else got blasted, and I'm pulling up the rear after they've already paved the way and reaping the rewards.
And I think at a larger level, not just Joel Webbin or Jared Longstrode, but at a larger level for the church in America, sadly, I think that, yeah, some Christian guys stood up and did some great work, but I think that some Christians are holding onto the coattails of the Daily Wire.
And Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan, and the list goes on and on.
The Blaze Network and Tucker Carlson.
And I can name so many people who I would argue exercised more courage, took more hits, really started tipping, really caused the tipping point and the turn of the tide.
And then some evangelicals, we quickly got behind it.
And Christians, really courageous.
Yeah.
And that's the way it has always been.
It's sad, man.
When was the last time Christians actually led the culture?
Well, my point is like that.
If you look at the different, you know, different movements, this is what's going, this is what happens.
So some people have to have to die on the hill, and then you end up taking the hill, you know.
And so the point would be is there's more hills to be taken.
And that is, I think that's what really this has been all about.
Find what that is again, which is not, it's going to involve defense, but it's not only going to involve defense, there's actually going to be what would God have us do?
Here, as we pray, your will be done, your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen.
Yeah, Christians should.
It's funny, we have conservatives and progressives, but really, we got three categories.
We've got regressives, which the political progressives are actually regressives.
That's all they want to regress, they want to go backwards.
And then you've got conservatives, which I would argue are liberals.
They're just late liberals.
They're liberals that are just moving a little bit slower in the wrong direction.
And then you have the true progressives, which should be Christians.
Meaning, Christians, it's not just a defensive posture, like you're saying.
It should be a progressive posture of we are kings and priests and we're inheriting the land.
And I think that, again, that gets to your theology and those kind of things.
But, like, are we, you know, is it Jeremiah 27?
Are we in exile and, you know, just going along to get along, you know, for a little while until the Lord brings us home?
Or are we more likened to Jeremiah or are we more likened to Joshua?
You know, are we taking over the land, um, or are we just living in the land for a while until the Lord brings us home?
And because if you're just living in the land, then yeah, you're be a conservative and build up some walls to protect just you and your children from being influenced by pagans.
Uh, but if our mission is to uh, that the Lord's will be done, the Lord's prayer, like you said, the Lord's will be done on earth as it is in heaven, or the Great Commission, um, that that that and and we actually think it might work that the gates of hell will not withstand against the battering ram of the church and that Christ will build his church.
If we actually believe that, then Christians should be the true progressives.
We're not conservatives.
We are progressives taking hills and pushing the ball forward.
God's will, his kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.
So you've got the regressives, that's your leftist progressives are actually regressives.
Then you've got your conservatives who are actually just regressing more slowly.
And then you should have Christians, the true progressives, who are moving forward.
And sadly, often we're not.
And I think a lot of it is because of our eschatology, but a lot of it also comes down to.
Really, just what we view, what is the kingdom of God?
And is it just surviving or is it thriving?
So, any final thoughts for this topic?
No, thanks for having me on.
And God bless Texas down there, man.
It's a little warmer than it is up here.
Yeah, we can't all be quite as conservative as Idaho, but there's some guys in Texas who are trying.
Pray for our elections coming up.
We'll see what happens.
So, we'll be praying for you too.
All right.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks, Jerry.
Thanks so much for listening.
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