NXR Podcast - THE LIVESTREAM - Ask Us Anything
Aired: 2025-07-30
Duration: 01:31:11


=== Three Questions for Prioritization (02:10) ===

[00:00:00]  Leave us a five star review on your favorite podcast platform.
[00:00:04]  I get it.
[00:00:04]  It's annoying.
[00:00:05]  Everybody asks, but I'm going to tell you why.
[00:00:07]  When you give us a positive review, what that does is it triggers the algorithm so that our podcast shows up on more people's news feeds.
[00:00:16]  You and I both know that this ministry is willing to talk about things that most ministries aren't.
[00:00:21]  We need this content for the glory of God to reach more people's ears.
[00:00:34]  All right, welcome.
[00:00:35]  It is Wednesday afternoon.
[00:00:36]  For those of you who are new to our channel, we broadcast a live stream three times a week Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 3 p.m. Central Time.
[00:00:46]  And what we're going to do today is we're actually just going to do a live QA.
[00:00:50]  We usually have a topic that's lined up and we have three segments.
[00:00:54]  And by the third segment, we'll deal with the live chat and take questions from the audience.
[00:00:59]  And so we do that in every single one of our broadcasts.
[00:01:02]  But today, all three segments, Including starting right now, we are going to be handling questions from the chat.
[00:01:08]  I will say that in terms of prioritization, we'll do our best to get to as many of the questions as we possibly can, whether it's a super chat or not.
[00:01:17]  But we are going to prioritize the people who are being generous and giving towards this ministry so that we can continue doing what we do.
[00:01:25]  So if somebody sends in a super chat, the likelihood of your question being answered is far greater.
[00:01:31]  The super chats, we've got our tech guy, Nathan, back there, and he's going to be Taking all those to the top of the list.
[00:01:37]  So, if you really have a question that you're dying for us to answer, then go ahead and send it as a super chat and we'll definitely deal with that question.
[00:01:47]  So, we curated a couple questions, three questions for ourselves just to get started as you guys are typing some in.
[00:01:54]  And so, we'll just take one of those and then we'll go to the chat and see what you guys have produced.
[00:01:59]  So, the three questions that you'll see in the thumbnail for this video one is, What is an American?
[00:02:04]  Another is a question that we got recently from some of our listeners related to.

=== Generations and National Compatibility (14:29) ===

[00:02:10]  What is the largest age gap that would be appropriate and permissible when it comes to dating?
[00:02:16]  Right?
[00:02:17]  Like, you know, is it, you know, you're 35 and 25?
[00:02:20]  Is that okay?
[00:02:21]  What about 45 and seven?
[00:02:24]  It's like, well, no, we're not Muslim.
[00:02:27]  You know, Muhammad, he did that, but we don't do that.
[00:02:29]  And so that's one of the questions.
[00:02:31]  And then I believe the third question is, you know, how ecumenical should we be when it comes to not our local churches or our denominations, but in the political and cultural?
[00:02:43]  Realms, who can we partner with?
[00:02:47]  And so those are the three questions.
[00:02:49]  Antonio and Wes, out of those three, what is an American?
[00:02:52]  What's an appropriate age gap for dating?
[00:02:55]  And how ecumenical should we be in the realm of culture and politics?
[00:02:58]  Which one of those would you like to start with?
[00:03:00]  Any opinion?
[00:03:02]  I think what is American is the top one.
[00:03:03]  Yeah, sure.
[00:03:04]  Okay, let's start there.
[00:03:06]  What is an American?
[00:03:08]  I have my opinion.
[00:03:09]  Wes, you have your opinion.
[00:03:10]  Antonio, you have your opinion.
[00:03:11]  Anyone want to go first?
[00:03:14]  Yeah, I can go first.
[00:03:15]  I think.
[00:03:16]  I don't think the half black guy gets to go first.
[00:03:20]  I think I'm going to have the most liberal view, but because I am a heritage American and you're not, I should answer.
[00:03:27]  Go ahead.
[00:03:27]  You go first, and then I'll go, and then West can go.
[00:03:29]  Yeah.
[00:03:29]  So, yeah, when I think about what is an American, I will start with blood and soil.
[00:03:35]  I do think that's important.
[00:03:37]  Yeah.
[00:03:37]  Shouldn't be looked over, and then you can sort of build from there.
[00:03:40]  I do think you think about what is, well, an American is someone who.
[00:03:45]  Has lived in this land not only currently, but they have lived in this land for a number of generations.
[00:03:50]  I think three generations is a pretty good indicator, so long as you have forced assimilation, that someone will.
[00:03:57]  I think, like, here's, I'll just zoom out real quick.
[00:04:00]  I think humans are pretty, actually pretty malleable in terms of the nurturing, not only of parents, but the nurturing of a civilization.
[00:04:07]  And so that's where you're gonna, you know, you'll see the most fundamental disagreement is like, well, in three generations, how much can sort of the conceptions of a group of people change?
[00:04:18]  But starting from there, you say, okay, blood and soul, have you lived here for three generations or longer?
[00:04:23]  In that time, have you assimilated?
[00:04:26]  Have you bought into the traditions and the myths and the religion, the ethos, the spirit of that people?
[00:04:34]  And I think practically that looks like converting to the faith of America, which is Protestant Christianity.
[00:04:42]  I think part of it is educating, right?
[00:04:46]  So, do you raise your children up and educate them on the history, American history specifically?
[00:04:51]  Do you know who George Washington is?
[00:04:53]  Do you know who the founders are?
[00:04:56]  Why the revolution was fought, what independence was for, all of these things that are embodied both in history, but also kind of in myth as well, and stories and those sorts of things.
[00:05:05]  And are you incorporating those into the family as you educate your children, so on and so forth?
[00:05:11]  So, yeah, so I think obviously still a right wing view.
[00:05:17]  I mean, it's by no means like what the liberal can consistently say.
[00:05:20]  It's not the Vivek Ramaswamy view.
[00:05:21]  Right, but it allows, it affords a little bit more malleability in the sense of, you know, you can have people from.
[00:05:29]  Non European ancestry incorporated in that through time, assuming the right conditions.
[00:05:36]  And by the way, I say that, and that's not even necessarily me promoting that that be done.
[00:05:41]  It's simply just we have to recognize we're here in a place in time where America actually is, it has various different ethnic groups within it.
[00:05:50]  And you have to allow for a principle that says, like, there are going to be some people who are more like what an American is and some people who are less like it.
[00:06:01]  So it's a gradient.
[00:06:02]  And yeah, so that my view just simply allows for a recognition that some people can be more like an American despite being from, you know, Eastern Europe or something like that, so on and so forth.
[00:06:14]  Okay.
[00:06:16]  For me to answer the question, the first thing that I would start with is this there is a difference.
[00:06:21]  I think it's helpful to distinguish with the question.
[00:06:23]  There's a difference in asking something that we've talked about a lot in the past.
[00:06:27]  What, you know, as a Christian nationalist, what do I want America to become versus what is an American?
[00:06:34]  You know, today.
[00:06:36]  And so, if we're talking about, you know, what do I want to see for America in the future when it would come to something like immigration first, about 50 million people and maybe more need to go back.
[00:06:49]  Secondly, I think we need to have decades of net zero immigration and no immigration whatsoever from the third world.
[00:06:57]  Eventually, when we started to, you know, have reasonable immigration again one day, then, you know, the characteristics that I would like to see is number one, I want them to be Christian.
[00:07:08]  And then, if they're going to eventually be voting citizens, they'd have to be here, similar to what you said, Antonio, for three generations.
[00:07:16]  I would want it to be heads of households.
[00:07:19]  So it would be males.
[00:07:20]  They would have to be married.
[00:07:22]  So they have three generations.
[00:07:23]  They have a stake in the past.
[00:07:24]  They're married and intend to have children.
[00:07:26]  So there's a stake in the future.
[00:07:28]  They're males.
[00:07:28]  So it's head of households, representative government, not atomistic, not each individual, but each household being represented.
[00:07:36]  And then also landowning and taxpaying and law abiding.
[00:07:40]  And Christian.
[00:07:41]  So that's what I want as a Christian nationalist when I look to the future.
[00:07:45]  In terms of who is an American today, I don't particularly like it.
[00:07:49]  But as far as I know, Joe Biden is an American.
[00:07:53]  He's a lousy one, you know, but he is an American.
[00:07:57]  So if we're talking about like, I want America to be Christian, but we just need to be honest.
[00:08:01]  America has been Christian, but currently it is either not a Christian nation or it is a Christian nation in the midst of apostasy.
[00:08:07]  But I think those are really the only two answers that can be given.
[00:08:10]  There's no way that you can slice it where you say, America is a Christian nation and we're in our Christian prime.
[00:08:16]  I don't know anybody who's saying that.
[00:08:18]  So, in other words, we are currently, we're either not a Christian nation at all or we're currently in apostasy, which means we have a lot of non Christians in our country.
[00:08:27]  But I'm not willing to say that every non Christian in our country isn't an American.
[00:08:32]  I want to see Americans saved, converted, right?
[00:08:36]  But what that presumes, what that assumes, is that Christianity is not one of the characteristics that makes you an American.
[00:08:46]  I want to see Americans saved, just like I want to see Ugandans saved.
[00:08:50]  I don't want them to be Americans.
[00:08:51]  I want them to be Ugandans, but I want them to be Christian Ugandans.
[00:08:54]  But what that assumes is there are Ugandans who are not Christian.
[00:08:58]  There are Americans who are not Christian.
[00:09:00]  So if we're answering that question, like who is an American, then I don't think that you can hold professing Christian as one of the conditions for being an American.
[00:09:11]  It would include Nancy Pelosi, it would include Joe Biden.
[00:09:16]  And so I think that's inescapable.
[00:09:18]  So to answer that question, I would say yes, we've talked about this before, but land.
[00:09:23]  Lineage, laws, language, loves, liturgy.
[00:09:27]  That's what we're aiming for.
[00:09:29]  But in terms of today, right now, land and lineage is inescapable.
[00:09:33]  I think language is also inescapable.
[00:09:36]  Laws, right?
[00:09:37]  So they're abiding by the laws of this land.
[00:09:40]  That's also inescapable.
[00:09:41]  And I think there has to be some kind of common, like you were saying, Antonio, ethos, loves, myth, shared values, virtues, those kinds of things.
[00:09:54]  In terms of how long they're here, I have to be here in order to qualify as an American.
[00:09:58]  I think it depends, me personally, from a biblical perspective, I think it depends where they're coming from.
[00:10:04]  So, if you look at Deuteronomy, when it came to Israel and its citizenship, it was the third generation kind of across the board, but then there were certain nations that were specified that would require more generations all the way up to the 10th generation.
[00:10:20]  And exegetically, there's a debate to be had that in the case of the 10th generation, it may be similar hyperbolic language like Jesus uses.
[00:10:28]  When he says, you know, how many, when he's answering the question, how many times should I forgive my brother?
[00:10:33]  Seven times?
[00:10:33]  And he said, I tell you not seven, but seven times, 70 times seven times.
[00:10:38]  And it's like, okay, so I can bust out my calculator and that's how many.
[00:10:41]  Like, no, Jesus is saying you just keep forgiving.
[00:10:44]  He's using hyperbolic language to say that there actually is no limit on that.
[00:10:50]  And there's an argument to be made exegetically that in this passage in Deuteronomy, that with nations where it says they cannot be full citizens in Israel till the 10th.
[00:11:02]  Generation, it may mean never, actually.
[00:11:06]  And it's just simply hyperbolic language.
[00:11:08]  So I think I'm open to go either way on that.
[00:11:11]  There could be a debate.
[00:11:12]  But to answer the question, my point is I think there are some nations that are more compatible with America and other nations that are less compatible.
[00:11:19]  So I would say third generation, that means both sides of the family.
[00:11:22]  So both mom's side of the family and dad's side of the family, and both mom's parents and dad's parents have to have been American citizens born in America.
[00:11:32]  Born in America.
[00:11:33]  Your grandparents on both sides were born in America.
[00:11:37]  For you to be an American, for you to be an American.
[00:11:40]  And that would be baseline.
[00:11:42]  And then using a general equity kind of principle from that Deuteronomy passage, I would say there are other nations, not all, but there are some nations where they are so incompatible with America that it simply requires more time.
[00:11:58]  And so if you're coming from Haiti, three generations simply may not do the trick.
[00:12:04]  It might actually require more generations, multiple generations before.
[00:12:10]  That the descendants of those first Haitians that came actually have enough in common when it comes to land, lineage, laws, loves, all these things, language, to where it may be that it's not until their great, grandchildren and my great, great, great, great grandchildren are able to look at each other and say, Yeah, we are fellow citizens.
[00:12:37]  And that could just simply take longer based on that nation, how compatible it is with its culture.
[00:12:44]  It's religion, it's language, and also its ability.
[00:12:50]  Like part of it also includes even things like IQ.
[00:12:54]  And none of this is meant to be disparaging or hateful or mean or anything like that.
[00:12:59]  But that is, if you're coming from a nation that didn't know what the wheel was until the last 190, 200 years, then yeah, it's going to take a while.
[00:13:15]  For you to have be sharing in the same kind of culture as an American, and so yeah, the big answer, both for Antonio and I, what we share in common, um, is neither being granted citizenship does not mean you're an American.
[00:13:33]  You may be an American citizen, but just like I could gain citizenship in Japan, that doesn't make me Japanese, that matters.
[00:13:41]  Yes, any thoughts?
[00:13:42]  Yeah, no, we had a really great episode with Ben Garrett where we talked about traducianism, which is kind of the view that the spirit, the soul that an individual possesses, is passed down.
[00:13:50]  From their parents, that God created Adam as a life.
[00:13:52]  He having a soul and Adam joined together with Eve, the two becoming one, they give birth to a new soul that shares a lot of characteristics.
[00:13:59]  And so there's very much so a view that a nation, there's something immaterial about it.
[00:14:03]  It's a people with a spirit, an ethos that we can't just sit down and list out all 150 characteristics exactly of it.
[00:14:11]  And so my definition, I'm just going to give a short one here that just kind of has some key points, very much so in agreement with yours.
[00:14:17]  But at best, what we're doing, I mean, if you looked at the number of live streams in the last two years, not just from us, but from others, It is tough to quantify a nation because it is not just a physical thing, it's a spiritual thing.
[00:14:26]  And God creates nations, He sets their boundaries.
[00:14:29]  Michael wrote a book, The Nations Are His Tool to Accomplish His Good and His Will in the World.
[00:14:33]  And there just isn't a way to exactly quantify down to the detail, down to the atom.
[00:14:38]  This is exactly in every single case, even the fringes, what makes it.
[00:14:41]  But my best offering for a definition of an American would be individuals descending from the founding stock of America, descending from American parents, speaking the English language, residing in the United States, and subject to its laws and customs.
[00:14:54]  You're part of the state.
[00:14:55]  You live here, you speak English, and to your guys' point, you're descended from people that were here.
[00:15:01]  I think that's the best way.
[00:15:02]  You've been here, you speak the language.
[00:15:04]  And again, it's not religion, it's a supernatural category, a spiritual category.
[00:15:08]  It's not a natural category.
[00:15:10]  And so, as far as naturally, as far as citizenship, I think that's the best way.
[00:15:13]  That's personally, there's certainly some holes in it.
[00:15:16]  That's what I would define it as American as.
[00:15:18]  I think that's helpful.
[00:15:19]  Yeah, and it's sad, but it's like, again, none of this necessitates animosity or hatred or.
[00:15:27]  Or necessarily, even a feeling of superiority, right?
[00:15:30]  You're either superior or you're not.
[00:15:31]  There is, like, not everybody's the same.
[00:15:33]  Egalitarianism is a myth, it's a lie.
[00:15:35]  So, but not necessarily a superiority that's rooted in arrogance or pride or haughtiness.
[00:15:41]  But the fact still remains about 50% of my neighbors that live in my little neighborhood are not Americans.
[00:15:47]  Right.
[00:15:48]  And that's sad.
[00:15:50]  Because I would love, I love America and I would love to live with my fellow countrymen.
[00:15:56]  But when I say 50% of them aren't Americans, it's like, well, what do you mean by that?
[00:16:00]  What I mean by that is, we see them at the neighborhood swimming pool.
[00:16:06]  We pass by them on neighborhood walks.
[00:16:08]  They're literally speaking another language.
[00:16:10]  They're dressed in non American clothing.
[00:16:15]  They're dressed in hijabs and all this different foreign attire.
[00:16:23]  It's not just that they're not Christian.
[00:16:25]  Like I said earlier, there are many Americans that have apostatized, but they're Hindu or they're Muslim, which these are foreign religions that have no heritage.
[00:16:36]  There's no history of Islam in America.
[00:16:39]  There's not.

=== Islam, England, and Cultural Change (04:25) ===

[00:16:40]  We all have to agree.
[00:16:42]  Islam here, Islam elsewhere, that's a different story.
[00:16:45]  But Islam here in America has no historic roots.
[00:16:50]  Hinduism in America has no, like, whereas if I lived in Utah and all my neighbors spoke English, dressed like Americans, talked like Americans, were of European descent, and were Mormon, I would strongly disagree.
[00:17:06]  They're going to go to hell if they don't repent and believe the gospel.
[00:17:09]  Mormonism is a Christian heresy.
[00:17:11]  But Mormonism, even as a false religion, is one of the few false religions that I would say actually does have a history in America, especially in Utah.
[00:17:21]  It actually has some kind of heritage.
[00:17:23]  I wish it didn't, but it does.
[00:17:25]  Whereas you cannot say that of Islam.
[00:17:28]  You cannot say that of Hinduism.
[00:17:30]  And so, yeah, so in my neighborhood, there's a lot of people who actually aren't even citizens.
[00:17:37]  But I would say probably about 80, 90% are American citizens.
[00:17:41]  But only about 50% are Americans.
[00:17:44]  Yeah.
[00:17:44]  Anything you want to add?
[00:17:45]  I was just going to say something quickly that back to Wes's point about a nation being difficult to define.
[00:17:51]  I think one of the reasons that that is true is because the idea of a nation isn't fixed.
[00:17:58]  And I want to look at, we can look at a case study in England of this being true.
[00:18:02]  I think something like 10 to 20%, fact check me, 20% of the words in English are of Scandinavian origin.
[00:18:10]  Okay.
[00:18:10]  So that means that around the turn of the first millennia, You have Vikings coming and living on the land, the island that is Britain, and their culture influencing what it means to be English.
[00:18:23]  Early England, the sort of kingdom of England, you think about King Alfred and uniting the kingdoms together, they would have considered themselves to be Frankish, I should say, which is the descendants of the Franks because of King Norman of France.
[00:18:39]  He had brought many elite into the English sort of.
[00:18:44]  Monarchy, essentially.
[00:18:45]  And so you have a lot of French influence in England.
[00:18:48]  And as time progresses, by call it the 1500s, there's a new conception of what it means to be English that embeds all of those things together.
[00:18:58]  And so all that to say that the idea of what a nation is is going to change through time.
[00:19:03]  Nations change.
[00:19:05]  But slowly.
[00:19:05]  Slowly.
[00:19:06]  And then so I was going to use that to contrast what's happened in this country, which is actually the opposite.
[00:19:12]  It was an intentional, deliberate undermining of what.
[00:19:17]  What the nation was and how it conceived itself.
[00:19:19]  And so you're bringing in all of these immigrant populations, you're bringing all of this foreign influence into the nation that has changed our country, actually.
[00:19:27]  The nation's complexion has literally changed, but it was unnatural.
[00:19:32]  And so we have to be able to tease out what's natural and unnatural.
[00:19:34]  And I think that even for our sake, as we're like, okay, what does it mean to be an American?
[00:19:40]  Is this particular kind of clothing and dress American?
[00:19:43]  So on and so forth.
[00:19:44]  That's really where it's going to get difficult.
[00:19:46]  And it's difficult today because it's like, There's been so much outside influence in the American sort of ethos and culture, it becomes really hard to tell what is what.
[00:19:58]  I think of like heritage Hispanics, you know, that actually were here and helped us fight.
[00:20:03]  You know, like I was born and raised in Texas, so we did our field trips to the Alamo and all those kinds of things, but it helped us fight in historic battles on our side.
[00:20:12]  And so, like, those would be some of the circumstances that historically have happened with nations like that you could conceive of.
[00:20:20]  I hope it doesn't happen, but like we go to war with China, you know, one day, and El Salvador, you know, comes to our aid, you know, and we have this, you know, 30 year long battle and we emerge victorious because of this alliance, you know, and blah, blah, blah.
[00:20:35]  And it opens up even greater measures of trade and immigration and stuff.
[00:20:41]  And all of a sudden, El Salvadorians have more of an impact and influence on America.
[00:20:46]  And 100 years go by, and there's pieces of that that still remain.
[00:20:51]  That would be an example of a natural evolution of a nation.
[00:20:56]  What we've had is it's not like we were conquered, it's not like we were forced to ally with someone, it's our own leaders literally sold us out.

=== Primitive Baptists and Biblical Kinism (14:37) ===

[00:21:05]  Right, it was completely manipulated and manufactured.
[00:21:08]  All right, this is Christian Truth Seeker.
[00:21:09]  All right, here's the first one of the day five dollars.
[00:21:11]  Thanks, we appreciate it.
[00:21:12]  He said, Could you do a program on interracial marriage from a biblical view?
[00:21:17]  There is a good book on this topic titled A Case for Biblical Kinism by Matt Dyer.
[00:21:24]  Okay, cool.
[00:21:25]  Um, I'm open to reading the book and seeing if I agree.
[00:21:28]  I'm sure I would have some things I agree with, some things that I don't.
[00:21:30]  That's usually the case when I read most books.
[00:21:33]  Um, and I would be open to doing an episode on that.
[00:21:36]  I have My position on the topic, and I've talked about it publicly, so most of you are probably aware of where I stand.
[00:21:43]  But for us to do a deeper dive on that particular topic as it pertains to interracial marriage, I would be totally open to doing something like that.
[00:21:52]  I think we've got a couple questions about it.
[00:21:53]  Okay, cool.
[00:21:54]  All right, next one The Fog and the Whirlwind.
[00:21:57]  $2 from The Fog and the Whirlwind.
[00:21:58]  Thanks so much.
[00:21:59]  Primitive Baptists, based or cringe?
[00:22:02]  Primitive Baptists are a Calvinistic sect, and they're pretty much against a lot of overseas missions, if I understand correctly.
[00:22:07]  So, very much so.
[00:22:08]  Congregational.
[00:22:10]  Honestly, like congregational, so local, Baptist in their ecclesiology, but Calvinistic in their soteriology.
[00:22:16]  As far as I know, based, there certainly is a Baptist tendency to be Anabaptist, so removed from the political process, and also to be fundamentalist to the point of being autistic.
[00:22:26]  Like we insist on this exact modality, and the people who have schism from us are literally outside of the faith.
[00:22:31]  So, insofar as primitive Baptist means we're Calvinistic, we're Baptist in our ecclesiology, and we mostly stick to where we are, we don't do funding overseas missions or funding this.
[00:22:40]  My verdict then is based.
[00:22:42]  Right.
[00:22:42]  Yeah.
[00:22:43]  Insofar as it actually represents that.
[00:22:46]  I've had conversations with primitive Baptists, and like any other denomination, there's a sliding scale, there's a spectrum.
[00:22:54]  And so I've met some where it seems like the emphasis rests with primarily a very strong, like pre millennial, even dispensational eschatology that the world is going to get worse and worse.
[00:23:10]  And so we're just building our compound.
[00:23:13]  And letting the world rot, and so that that separatist kind of we're the only ones left, Anabaptist instinct.
[00:23:21]  Um, I think all three of us despise that.
[00:23:23]  So, I'll abstain on that one.
[00:23:26]  I haven't engaged much with primitive Baptists, so um, I don't think jean skirts, lots of jean skirts, which I the modesty, the women are god bless, they're feminine, they're modest.
[00:23:37]  I really appreciate that.
[00:23:38]  I but I do sometimes want why, why, like, why jean and why dem, yeah, because it's all, yeah, because in terms of like we want women to look like women, so skirts instead of pants.
[00:23:47]  Uh, we want them to be modest, but we also, uh, you could do modesty where it's frumpy, and then you can do modesty where it's also modest and feminine and elegant.
[00:23:56]  Um, and and I like that so, like, a dress I like dresses.
[00:24:00]  I have always wondered why.
[00:24:01]  I'm guessing denim's like a tougher fabric.
[00:24:03]  Maybe they're out in the.
[00:24:04]  It's not as shape conforming.
[00:24:05]  They were shape conforming.
[00:24:07]  Probably.
[00:24:08]  Yeah, maybe.
[00:24:08]  Maybe it's less.
[00:24:09]  I could also see them like you're out in a garden.
[00:24:11]  You're dealing with animals and things like that.
[00:24:14]  I think it might be.
[00:24:14]  It's not getting caught on fences.
[00:24:15]  It's not, you know.
[00:24:17]  So these women are hardworking.
[00:24:19]  It is not the most flattering, though.
[00:24:20]  That's kind of our point.
[00:24:21]  Okay.
[00:24:22]  Next one.
[00:24:22]  You want to read it?
[00:24:23]  Just go to the top, Nate.
[00:24:24]  I think we had one more that you'd already starred.
[00:24:27]  Okay.
[00:24:28]  So, yeah.
[00:24:28]  So Luke 21 33 says Have you seen the work of Dr. Judy Wood on 9 11?
[00:24:33]  God bless.
[00:24:34]  Thanks for your ministry.
[00:24:35]  It encouraged me to leave DC before getting married this nice.
[00:24:39]  Great for you.
[00:24:40]  God bless.
[00:24:40]  Good gracious.
[00:24:41]  DC.
[00:24:42]  Can you imagine getting married and having kids in DC?
[00:24:45]  That's gnarly.
[00:24:46]  Yeah.
[00:24:46]  I have not heard of Dr. Judy Wood on that.
[00:24:48]  I have.
[00:24:49]  I have any.
[00:24:50]  Yeah.
[00:24:50]  Sorry.
[00:24:51]  Apologies.
[00:24:52]  That's all we got.
[00:24:53]  But we appreciate you giving us a super chat.
[00:24:56]  Thank you.
[00:24:57]  All right.
[00:24:57]  Next one.
[00:24:58]  Cool dude.
[00:24:58]  He gave us $5.
[00:25:00]  He said, Any good book recommendations for starting out to learn about Reformed theology?
[00:25:06]  Great question.
[00:25:07]  I'm fairly new to Christianity.
[00:25:09]  I was not raised Christian.
[00:25:10]  Thank you.
[00:25:11]  Any good books on R.C. Sproul?
[00:25:13]  What is Reform Theology?
[00:25:15]  Yeah, because it's not super old English where you're like, what is he saying?
[00:25:19]  All these these and thou's.
[00:25:20]  And it's not something Reform Theology, Covenant Theology, it's not something you master in one book or one lecture.
[00:25:25]  Like, well, what's my one stop source that I can learn all about?
[00:25:28]  It's going to be a tradition, hopefully, I would hope for Cool Dude.
[00:25:31]  I'm going to inhabit it for the rest of my life.
[00:25:33]  So you'll always be learning about Reform Theology and never consider, well, I don't feel like I know much or.
[00:25:37]  Just keep adding pieces to it.
[00:25:39]  But what is Reform Theology?
[00:25:40]  R.C. Sproul, as well as his video lectures.
[00:25:42]  So, well, maybe a book.
[00:25:44]  I'm busy.
[00:25:44]  He has hundreds of lectures on different aspects of Reform Theology, our soteriology, Ligonier's great for that.
[00:25:50]  Covenant Theology.
[00:25:51]  Yeah.
[00:25:51]  Like we've never hated on Ligonier.
[00:25:54]  We appreciate Ligonier, but we're just different.
[00:25:57]  We're trying to do a lot of things that are practical application.
[00:26:01]  Ligonier has really, I think, done a good job in staying in the slain.
[00:26:04]  So, it's not, there's not a lot of practical application.
[00:26:07]  It's not political, it's not cultural, but it's just the Reformed.
[00:26:10]  Tradition, but what I appreciate is that there's a lot of other reform ministries that claim to be that they present themselves as like, well, we're not political, we're not cultural, but then they were all involved in BLM, yeah, or they were all shut down their churches with covet, or so it's like, no, you are political, you're just libs, you know.
[00:26:27]  Whereas Ligonier, um, really it just has stayed out of that on both sides, they're not progressive, and I think they're great artists of communism and Marxism, for example, from a biblical perspective.
[00:26:38]  Yeah, Sprole was concerned, but he's not pulling up New York Times and being like, all right.
[00:26:41]  Here's my breakdown.
[00:26:42]  So that's a good, like, just to get your feet wet.
[00:26:45]  And then if you want something more exhaustive, I wouldn't read it from front to cover, but to use as a reference as you come to, you know, what's the reform view of gifts of the Spirit?
[00:26:56]  You know, what's the reform view of parenting?
[00:26:58]  Or what's, you know, then to be able to have a resource like that, a systematic theology would be really helpful.
[00:27:05]  And Bob Inc. probably would be one of the best.
[00:27:09]  Yeah, he has an abridged version called The Wonderful Works of God.
[00:27:12]  It is pretty dense reading in my experience.
[00:27:14]  He has the Full four volumes, and there's the abridged one.
[00:27:17]  Both are pretty dense.
[00:27:18]  I think the Reformation Study Bible was probably the best.
[00:27:21]  So, as you're kind of reading the Bible, there will be notes in there.
[00:27:23]  It's actually from Ligonier.
[00:27:25]  Yeah, or maybe before systematic, something like that.
[00:27:27]  Yeah, and then this isn't necessarily like getting into it, it does get into covenants, but Stephen Charnock, Attributes of God, is really good.
[00:27:37]  And then, in terms of like the Puritans, they were reformed.
[00:27:40]  Best Puritan to read, in my opinion, is Thomas Watson.
[00:27:43]  People will always start with like John Owen because he's more notable.
[00:27:47]  But he's arguably one of the hardest Puritans to read.
[00:27:50]  Like, each one of his sentences is like three pages long.
[00:27:53]  And, like, seriously, like, three pages long.
[00:27:55]  And he's just not a systematic thinker the way some of these other guys are.
[00:27:57]  Right.
[00:27:57]  But Thomas Watson is great.
[00:27:59]  So, like his book on the Ten Commandments, like just going, giving you a reformed view of each of the Ten Commandments.
[00:28:06]  So, okay.
[00:28:08]  You want to read the next one?
[00:28:08]  Or I'm sorry, were you going to add to it?
[00:28:10]  No, that's all great.
[00:28:11]  No.
[00:28:12]  Yeah, so next one, this dude Rocks sent $50.
[00:28:14]  Nice.
[00:28:15]  Thank you.
[00:28:15]  That's great.
[00:28:16]  Yeah.
[00:28:17]  He says, I would love to see encouraging roundtable discussions among disagreeing reformed figures.
[00:28:23]  I think that there has been a growing pains recently, but in particular, I would like to see a dialogue, not debate, among people like you, Joel, Jeff Durbin, and Wolf.
[00:28:32]  That'd be great.
[00:28:33]  Yeah, I'm not opposed to that.
[00:28:34]  If Jeff Durbin wanted to, so Wolf and I obviously we've talked regularly, and I've had some conversations with Jeff Durbin in the past, and I'll always try to be respectful and polite.
[00:28:45]  And I feel like he's been mostly respectful towards me.
[00:28:50]  Not as much respect between him and Wolf, so that would probably be the challenge.
[00:28:54]  Durbin would have strong disagreements with me.
[00:28:57]  He doesn't like some of the directions that I've taken, but I haven't blasted him publicly.
[00:29:03]  You kind of close that door when you start.
[00:29:05]  You know, when you start going after someone publicly.
[00:29:09]  And so I've done my best.
[00:29:10]  So, like James White, you know, none of these things are secret or a mystery.
[00:29:14]  Everybody knows, like, James White is not very happy with Joel Webb lately.
[00:29:18]  Doug Wilson's not particularly happy with Joel Webb.
[00:29:20]  Jeff Derber's not particularly happy with Joel Webb.
[00:29:22]  But I hope you've seen from my side, I either say something respectful or I say nothing at all.
[00:29:28]  And that doesn't mean that I don't disagree.
[00:29:29]  Of course I disagree.
[00:29:30]  Of course I disagree.
[00:29:32]  But they're older men.
[00:29:34]  And I want to try to be honoring.
[00:29:37]  And I feel like I'd rather push back in the form of long form arguments of my positions rather than just addressing a single person.
[00:29:45]  I'd rather just say, here's my position, here's my position, here's my position, and just further form and outline what I believe and then let people decide for themselves.
[00:29:56]  So I think I'm a sinner, saved by the grace of God, so I'm sure I haven't been perfect, but I think if memory serves me, at least on the whole, I don't think that I've done anything either privately or publicly.
[00:30:10]  To burn the bridge with Jeff Durbin.
[00:30:12]  That said, Doug Wilson, you know, I mean, he literally, you know, at the beginning of no quarter November last year, he did a video where he was quite literally burning bridges.
[00:30:21]  You know, so my point is it would have to be mutual.
[00:30:25]  So we're very much open to that.
[00:30:27]  But Doug Wilson is not Jeff Durbin, so maybe it's different for Jeff.
[00:30:30]  But in the case of Doug, I mean, he wrote a blog about closing a submarine hatch where Ogden and me and everybody else who's not on the submarine drowns.
[00:30:41]  He did a video of dressing up like Mr. Rogers and lighting bridges on fire.
[00:30:46]  So, when a guy does that, I'm not even saying he's mean.
[00:30:49]  I'm not saying he's not a brother in Christ, but I am saying I think he's made it clear that he's not interested.
[00:30:55]  So, I can't have a conversation with someone who's not willing to do it.
[00:30:59]  So, if Jeff was willing to do it, sure.
[00:31:01]  I know that Stephen has said that he would have a conversation with Jeff.
[00:31:04]  I'd be willing to do it.
[00:31:06]  It would mainly be up to Jeff.
[00:31:07]  Okay.
[00:31:08]  No nuance.
[00:31:09]  $50.
[00:31:10]  Thank you so much for that donation.
[00:31:11]  Really appreciate it.
[00:31:13]  Hey, fellas, it's an important question.
[00:31:14]  Question If you had to choose one or the other, is it more important to live where you can attend church you align with very well or to live near family/slash grandparents for the sake of my children?
[00:31:25]  That's a good question.
[00:31:26]  It is for sure the non-negotiable you have to go to church.
[00:31:30]  As far as living near family, it is not biblically required, absolutely, in every case, to live near family.
[00:31:36]  And so the absolute is attending church.
[00:31:38]  Unfortunately, it's impossible to say for sure because it depends on the church.
[00:31:42]  Are we talking My family's in Southwest, South Idaho, and I'm thinking about going to Ogden and say that's three hours away.
[00:31:49]  So, really, I'm there for weekend trips for family, but I'm going to a church that on every single thing I perfectly align with.
[00:31:55]  Like, is that what we're talking about?
[00:31:57]  Are we talking about moving across the nation to a church that you've never visited?
[00:32:00]  We'll see me, Ma, and Papa once a month versus we'll see me, Ma, and Papa once a year.
[00:32:05]  So there's a lot of depending factors.
[00:32:07]  Yep.
[00:32:08]  But if you're talking about, I'm living near family and grandparents right now, but there is literally, as far as it goes, I just, there is no church in the area.
[00:32:15]  I think at some level you have a duty and this matters.
[00:32:18]  Like, why does this matter?
[00:32:19]  Like, well, we could do church at home or we could do with me, Ma, and Papa.
[00:32:22]  Well, your children need people to marry for one.
[00:32:24]  Yes.
[00:32:24]  One of the questions we're going to get to in the second segment.
[00:32:27]  Comes from an episode where we're talking about how hard it is to date.
[00:32:30]  One of the greatest services that you can give your children is to live around a community of people that are like minded, that are Christian, that your children can potentially date and marry from.
[00:32:40]  That's huge.
[00:32:40]  They'll have suitors, they'll have people that they've known their entire lives.
[00:32:45]  So it's not just, well, we have some type of church here, but it's 15 people or it's me and just family.
[00:32:50]  It's what's the health of this community?
[00:32:53]  How is the teaching and the edification and the discipleship that's going on here?
[00:32:57]  So I would say it is valid to say we are going to go to a real church.
[00:33:02]  But a church that is not our ideal to live near family.
[00:33:05]  That is a valid position.
[00:33:06]  It is also valid to say there is nothing nearby that we are setting up our kids for, and we will try to stay as close as possible.
[00:33:13]  Again, the three hour drive is not the same as a 20 hour drive, it's not the same as a flight.
[00:33:17]  We're going to stay as close as possible, but we are going to leave the state to be near a church because this is what matters for our family.
[00:33:23]  So both are valid, but it very much depends what stage of life my parents are, what's available in the area, what church am I going to, what options do I have for my kids to marry, et cetera.
[00:33:32]  Yep.
[00:33:33]  Any thoughts?
[00:33:33]  Yeah, I mean, I would just say, like, practically, you're going to feel strain either way.
[00:33:36]  So, one very tactical decision is well, can the church life sort of support in the way that family typically supports better than family can support what, you know, in the way that a robust church life supports my family?
[00:33:52]  And I think, you know, what I found is that church actually can supplement family better than family can supplement church, frankly.
[00:34:01]  And for some of the reasons that Wes just listed out, there's many other reasons as well.
[00:34:06]  And so I would always lean toward having a more robust church life.
[00:34:12]  But again, there's, like you've said, there's so many different dependencies and how far you're going and so on and so forth.
[00:34:18]  And certainly if you're 20 hours away, you're going to feel that strain even more intensely than if you're five hours away.
[00:34:23]  And so those are just things that you have to weigh.
[00:34:26]  But I think, particularly in this day and age, like finding a good church, getting grounded is super, super important.
[00:34:35]  Yeah.
[00:34:36]  Good.
[00:34:37]  Okay.
[00:34:38]  Next, Appeal to Heaven 7.
[00:34:41]  $4.99.
[00:34:42]  We appreciate that.
[00:34:43]  Thanks.
[00:34:43]  He said, I'm leaving the IFB, that's Independent Fundamental Baptist denomination.
[00:34:50]  My family is all, so his extended family is all independent Fundamental Baptist.
[00:34:56]  My family therefore thinks that I am leaving Christianity altogether.
[00:35:00]  I am trying out a Reformed Baptist church and I like it.
[00:35:04]  Do you have any stories or advice for me in this situation?
[00:35:08]  Where his family thinks that he's apostatizing, he's leaving the faith altogether.
[00:35:13]  I'll go first on this one.
[00:35:15]  So, my problems, I'll start with this.
[00:35:17]  My problems with independent fundamental Baptists, biggest problem is just a mentality and an ethos, just an overarching culture of being severed from church history, like severed from the historic church.
[00:35:36]  This mindset.
[00:35:37]  So, I don't think they have a monopoly on this at all.
[00:35:41]  Mormons do it.

=== Family of God vs Literal Family (09:52) ===

[00:35:42]  There was the first century church.
[00:35:45]  They were faithful.
[00:35:46]  And then it's just nothing but crap until Joseph Smith.
[00:35:52]  Charismatics do it.
[00:35:53]  Right.
[00:35:53]  First century, they were faithful, nothing but crap until Azusa Street Revival, 1906.
[00:35:59]  So the Charismatics, the Pentecostals, they do it.
[00:36:03]  I want to be fair here reformed.
[00:36:06]  Right.
[00:36:07]  First century, faithful, and then nothing but crap.
[00:36:10]  Right.
[00:36:11]  And they would, to be fair, they would say maybe the first three centuries, faithful.
[00:36:15]  But then Constantine came and he screwed it up, and we got sacralism and Roman Catholic integralists.
[00:36:25]  And you've got, you know, from Basically, like 300, give or take, 8,300, give or take, or 400, all the way up until Martin Luther.
[00:36:34]  And Martin Luther, like, obviously, I'm reformed.
[00:36:37]  His theology was way better than a heretic like Joseph Smith, but it is still conceptually the same idea.
[00:36:44]  It's basically, there was virtually no faithful witness in the world for centuries, close to a millennia or more.
[00:36:55]  So, with a lot of these guys, like Mormonism or Pentecostalism, it's 1900 years.
[00:37:02]  Of, you know, or 1800 years of no faithful witness.
[00:37:05]  And the Reformed are like, isn't that crazy?
[00:37:07]  These guys hate church history and they don't realize that church history began in the 1500s, you know, with Martin Luther.
[00:37:13]  And we sit there bragging because we have a 1400 year gap, you know, or a 1200 year gap instead of a 1800 year gap.
[00:37:22]  Still a pretty big gap, you know, to be fair.
[00:37:25]  So, all that being said, for me, yes, I think covenant theology matters.
[00:37:31]  Yes, I think that.
[00:37:33]  A big God theology and a view of his sovereignty as it pertains to soteriology and salvation.
[00:37:38]  You know, that it's monergism, God reaching down, saving man, and certainly not Pelagianism, which is a heresy, or even synergism, a semi Pelagianism, which is, I think, heterodoxy.
[00:37:49]  It's not full blown heresy, but I think it's wrong.
[00:37:52]  So the soteriology, the doctrine of salvation matters, the theology proper matters, all these things matter, covenant theology matters.
[00:37:59]  But for me, one of the biggest things is.
[00:38:03]  Not being pigeonholed and being a part of something that is so isolated, something that really did, like if we're being honest, really just came out of the ether.
[00:38:17]  It doesn't have any roots of what it goes back to.
[00:38:20]  It's just there's nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.
[00:38:23]  Any kind of tradition that is ex nihilo, right?
[00:38:27]  The world was created, the physical world, ex nihilo, that's great.
[00:38:31]  But I don't want my church to be ex nihilo out of nothing.
[00:38:35]  And so even for me as a Baptist, That's my biggest problem with Baptist theology and its history.
[00:38:44]  I have to recognize as a Baptist that, in the big scheme of things, this is relatively novel.
[00:38:49]  And I don't like that.
[00:38:51]  And I don't think that should sit well with you.
[00:38:53]  And so, even as a Baptist, I'm saying, yeah, I have, like, I'll explain it like this when it comes to catechism with my children.
[00:38:59]  Well, there's, you know, Keech's catechism, Benjamin Keech, who was a Reformed Baptist, who helped with Nehemiah Cox and others, you know, with.
[00:39:08]  With the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, which I prescribe to theologically.
[00:39:13]  But when it comes to my kids, I don't want my kids, Keech's catechism is fantastic, by the way, but I don't want my kids to memorize a catechism, even though it shares 95% of the theology of the Westminster.
[00:39:27]  I don't want them to know the exact wording for a catechism that 14 other children in the world will share with them.
[00:39:35]  It's a great blessing and benefit to be aligned.
[00:39:41]  With other believers, as much unity as we can have.
[00:39:46]  So, for me, within the Reformed tradition, even though I may have some disagreements on baptism, there's no denying that within the Reformed tradition, the quintessential catechism is the Westminster.
[00:39:59]  And if my kids memorize the Westminster, when they enter any town or wherever they may live in the future or whatever church they may be a part of, it's still going to be a minority, but they have a hundred times greater likelihood.
[00:40:13]  Of sharing that in common than they would if it was Keech's Catechism.
[00:40:17]  And so, all that back to your question with IFB, and as it pertains to your family, that's what complicates it.
[00:40:26]  But I guess the point I'm making is that basically the dichotomy that's before you is your family or your literal family or the family of God in the sense of not just fellow Christians today, but Your family down through the ages, the great cloud of witnesses, the like all these other.
[00:40:51]  I just don't want to be in a position where, like, I wouldn't want to lose a relationship with my mother and father.
[00:40:58]  But I also don't want to be in a position where I have to anathematize Augustine and, you know, Athanasius and Constantine and, you know, Origen and Irenaeus and all.
[00:41:11]  Like, I don't want to do that.
[00:41:12]  I don't.
[00:41:13]  And so if your parents, like, they don't.
[00:41:17]  Probably intend to do this, but essentially, what they're doing is they're saying, in order to have us, you have to condemn to hell about 90 plus percent of all the Christians who have ever lived.
[00:41:32]  Right.
[00:41:33]  And that's a really big deal, like, you should feel the way.
[00:41:36]  So it's not just I'm going to a church that I like for my particular preferences.
[00:41:41]  Like that.
[00:41:42]  If that was the case, then just maybe consider sucking it up because the fifth commandment to honor your father and mother is a big deal.
[00:41:50]  But the fifth commandment stretches back.
[00:41:52]  Everybody who's exegeted, it says, like, yes, it applies to your little mother and father, but it also applies to ancestral and church fathers, you know, and stretching back.
[00:42:02]  And so if your father and mother are saying, in order to honor us, you must dishonor every other father there is in the church, every other spiritual father there is, until, you know, and except for, you know, Pastor Todd, who's 300 pounds, of course, you know,
[00:42:17]  and wears, you know, dockers and, you know, And preaches from the King Jimmy and has a sweat rag, even though he's white, but he can't get through 10 minutes of his sermon without a gallon of sweat pouring to the floor.
[00:42:33]  That's an independent fundamental Baptist church.
[00:42:36]  And it's like if Brother Bob is the only person I'm allowed in order to keep this relationship with my parents to validate as being a Christian, and there were no Christians for 1900 years before him.
[00:42:53]  Then that is such a serious thing that I actually think that your obligation to God is above all of it.
[00:43:00]  And I really think that God would have you not condemn millions and millions of Christians for 1900 years.
[00:43:07]  And you just have to say, I'm sorry, mom and dad, I'm not cutting you off.
[00:43:12]  I want to keep a relationship with you, but I'm not willing to stay in this tradition that condemns so many brothers in Christ to help.
[00:43:23]  Yeah, I grew up IFB and obviously made the transition.
[00:43:26]  And honestly, it's very hard.
[00:43:28]  And like you said, like your family feels as though you're leaving the Christian faith.
[00:43:32]  But honestly, fast forward five years, it's going to be really hard for them to make that argument.
[00:43:36]  If five years later you love Jesus more, your family's flourishing, like some of it, you're going to make the transition.
[00:43:41]  You're the leader of your home, you make it.
[00:43:43]  And for a little while, they might be like, it's going to be confrontations or we're worried about your soul.
[00:43:49]  But the tale of the tape, two, three years, like I said, five years, it's going to be very hard for them to positively make the assertion this man has left Jesus because he actually loves him more and he's more devoted to him.
[00:44:01]  He cares more about the loss and he leads his family in an even more masculine and godly way.
[00:44:05]  So, My advice would be to let the long game play the long game and say, right now I can't convince you, but let the evidence and the fruit born from this tree and from this decision be the factory weigh.
[00:44:18]  That's good.
[00:44:19]  Okay, let's go to our first commercial break.
[00:44:21]  We'll come back and we've got more super chats lined up.
[00:44:24]  Keep sending them in and we'll do our best to get to all of them.
[00:44:28]  America is a country that was founded for the purpose of allowing Christians to do their duty before God, not to have their consciences ruled by the doctrines and commandments of men.
[00:44:36]  Reese Fund exists in order to see the Ten Commandments properly applied, not just as a plaque on the wall, but to actually be used in business as though they're commandments from God that we're supposed to obey.
[00:44:47]  Our goal is to find businesses and to buy them and to build them up.
[00:44:52]  We want to find manufacturing businesses and use them to make sure that we can maintain our capacity to do things here.
[00:44:58]  Reese Fund, Christian Capital, boldly deployed.
[00:45:03]  Running your business with purpose means looking beyond last month's numbers to next year's vision.
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[00:45:11]  CFO level strategy scaled just for small businesses.
[00:45:15]  At Mid State Accounting, she takes care of your compliance, bookkeeping, and tax returns while providing holistic advisory and fractional CFO services to help you steward your resources with a distinctly Christian perspective.
[00:45:32]  Ready to align your finances with your future?

=== Adoption as a Heritage from the Lord (14:26) ===

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[00:45:42]  For a free, no obligation consultation.
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[00:45:59]  Again, that's MidstateAccounting.net.
[00:46:02]  With Midstate Accounting, you'll plan for tomorrow while operating in faith today.
[00:46:08]  So call Kaylee Smith at 573 889.
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[00:48:20]  Great.
[00:48:21]  All right, let's keep it going here.
[00:48:22]  We're going to take a super chat from Jesse Hughes.
[00:48:24]  Jesse sent $10 and he says, What is your opinion on adoption?
[00:48:28]  Some say that those adopted.
[00:48:30]  From foreign countries by heritage Americans are adopted into that heritage while others disagree.
[00:48:35]  Does it depend on the nation?
[00:48:38]  So, the first thing I would say is just to qualify this a little bit I do not believe that children that are adopted into a particular family are in the same classification as natural children.
[00:48:53]  So, we have to recognize that there is a distinction between the children that you've brought in and by God's grace, you'll raise in the customs and traditions of your family.
[00:49:03]  But fundamentally, aren't carrying on, don't hold on to your genetics and your common lineage with your nation.
[00:49:11]  That said, I do think there's a little bit more nuance here than with just any kind of immigration that happens.
[00:49:18]  You can imagine, and this is, you can't imagine because it's been very common in the church to adopt children, for example, from Africa.
[00:49:24]  And those children, I think Amy Coney Barrett, actually, Supreme Court Justice, has at least one adopted child, maybe two, I don't know in particular.
[00:49:34]  That are of African descent.
[00:49:36]  And I'm sure that those children are actually reasonably well adjusted.
[00:49:39]  I think they've probably done their, you know, assimilated and their conception of themselves is probably largely a white European American conception.
[00:49:48]  I don't think they probably know any different.
[00:49:51]  Of course, they're going to be cognizant of their differences.
[00:49:55]  They obviously look in the mirror, they look at their family, and they see that they're different.
[00:49:58]  And so you can't flatten these things.
[00:50:01]  I think it's important to say that.
[00:50:03]  And in that way, I don't think they can ever, you could say adopted children have.
[00:50:08]  Completely bought, sort of, been born into through adoption into the heritage of a nation.
[00:50:13]  In other words, I wouldn't say that a child adopted at six from Africa is a heritage American by adoption, simply because there are just natural barriers that would prevent that ultimately.
[00:50:24]  But it is different.
[00:50:26]  I do recognize a little bit more grace and sort of recognizing that they're probably more American and their conception of themselves is probably more American.
[00:50:33]  Interested what you guys think.
[00:50:35]  Yeah, no, that's good.
[00:50:36]  For those who don't know, I was adopted.
[00:50:39]  So, I'm a fan of adoption, but I think adoption is good.
[00:50:49]  The Bible speaks highly of adoption, so I absolutely think it's good.
[00:50:54]  But I think that there are many people here, many children here that need to be adopted.
[00:51:01]  And I think primarily adoption should belong to couples that cannot conceive.
[00:51:08]  That doesn't mean that if you can conceive, you're not allowed to adopt.
[00:51:10]  I'm not saying that.
[00:51:13]  But I think that when you have married couples, husband and wife, who, for whatever reason in the providence of God, are unable to conceive, I think a lot of times the Lord closing the woman's womb is a great indicator of a calling towards adoption.
[00:51:31]  That was the case with my adopted parents.
[00:51:34]  They could not conceive, and so they wanted a child, they wanted to adopt, and they adopted a child in their nation that was hurting.
[00:51:43]  So I think part of Loving America and being America first does include that.
[00:51:50]  I would never go so far as to say that it's sin.
[00:51:53]  I don't think there's any clear biblical commandment forbidding adoption from other nations.
[00:51:59]  But I would say that we have a lot of problems here at home.
[00:52:03]  There are orphans at home.
[00:52:05]  And the order of morals, the same way that it applies with immigration and national priorities, civil priorities, I think that would apply to adoption as well.
[00:52:16]  That we, you know, the church is called to care for widows and orphans.
[00:52:22]  But there's a triage, right?
[00:52:25]  Because the church is finite, the church being, you know, the people themselves, Christians.
[00:52:31]  Christians are finite.
[00:52:32]  You can only adopt so many children and love and provide and protect them well.
[00:52:39]  And because we live in a world that's riddled by sin, there are many orphans.
[00:52:43]  And so if you are one of those couples that feel called, Toward adoption, and you're unable to conceive, or maybe you're an older couple that feels like you're unable to conceive anymore, but you've done exceptionally well.
[00:52:58]  God has blessed your parenting, the children that you have biologically, all of them fear God and are serving the Lord, and you have more capacity and still vitality and energy, and you like to adopt others.
[00:53:13]  I think starting at home is important.
[00:53:17]  Again, I wouldn't draw a hard line and say it's sin to adopt a little girl from China.
[00:53:23]  Obviously, that was not only has it been done, but it was pretty popular and common for a while.
[00:53:29]  I think of like in the 90s and the early 2000s.
[00:53:33]  Chris Tomlin, I think, he would, every time he would do a Christian concert, worship concert, he would, you know, tend to parade his family and all his adopted, you know, Chinese children on stage.
[00:53:47]  And so that caught on and influenced others and it became, you know, a thing.
[00:53:50]  It's like, you know, how Christian are you?
[00:53:53]  Well, I'm so Christian.
[00:53:54]  I adopted a child from, you know, China, well, I'm so Christian.
[00:53:57]  I adopted a blind kid from China.
[00:53:59]  Well, I'm so Christian.
[00:54:00]  I adopted, you know, a blind and deaf kid.
[00:54:02]  You know, I adopted Helen Keller, you know, but the Chinese version, you know, and I don't think that's in the Bible that you score extra bonus points by doing that.
[00:54:16]  So is it permissible?
[00:54:18]  Yes.
[00:54:19]  Is it a sin?
[00:54:21]  No.
[00:54:22]  Does it make you a better person?
[00:54:24]  Does it score points with God, make you more spiritual?
[00:54:27]  No.
[00:54:29]  In terms of does the Ordo Amoris apply to even adoption?
[00:54:35]  Yes.
[00:54:36]  And I'll apply it further than just nations.
[00:54:39]  You may not feel particularly called to adopt, but if your brother and wife, his wife, sister in law, die in a tragic car accident and they have four kids, I do think that you would be first in line to very serious, like if there's another brother, you know, like maybe there's a conversation of who.
[00:55:02]  But if you're the only living relative, those kids don't need to go to strangers.
[00:55:07]  So, my point is the order of morals, I'm not just talking about at a national scale, America versus China.
[00:55:12]  I know that's the first example I gave, but there's multiple, the triage matters and it requires discernment.
[00:55:18]  I would talk to your elders at your church and get counsel, but I would say that there are varying degrees of obligation depending on proximity and closeness.
[00:55:30]  And so, if this is an extended family member, then you probably need to do it.
[00:55:38]  If this is not an extended family member, but it's a family in your church, your local church, you probably need to be praying and talking with other families in the church.
[00:55:48]  And they didn't have any family, right?
[00:55:49]  And they died, the parents, and there's these four children now, and there is no aunts and uncles or anyone else, you know, familial related that could adopt them.
[00:55:59]  Then the families in the church, one of those families probably needs to adopt those kids.
[00:56:03]  And so there's degrees of relation.
[00:56:06]  And I think that the nation, Is one of those.
[00:56:09]  It's not the closest, like family or then local church or neighbors, but it still should.
[00:56:17]  To say that it's not a characteristic at all, that it's meaningless, that it's completely insignificant, I think that would be a hard argument to make.
[00:56:25]  So to say that it's wrong, morally impermissible, I'm not going to make that argument.
[00:56:31]  I don't see how you can make that argument that a Christian couple in America can't adopt a kid from another country.
[00:56:37]  But to argue that there's no difference at all.
[00:56:41]  That there's no added obligation to care for orphans in your country as opposed to orphans in another country.
[00:56:48]  I don't know how you make that argument either.
[00:56:51]  The order of Morris, order of loves, exists.
[00:56:57]  And it's well rooted in Christian tradition for centuries.
[00:57:01]  And I think it should be considered.
[00:57:03]  So, okay.
[00:57:05]  We've got another one.
[00:57:06]  This is from Philip Nathaniel.
[00:57:08]  Let me read this one.
[00:57:10]  So, Philip Nathaniel, he gave us $499.99.
[00:57:15]  Might want to hold on to that one.
[00:57:16]  I always think of like Dumb and Dumber with their IOUs.
[00:57:18]  You know, that one's, you know, $275,000 for a Ferrari.
[00:57:22]  Might want to hold on to that one.
[00:57:24]  Thank you, Philip Nathaniel.
[00:57:25]  That's very generous.
[00:57:26]  We're very grateful.
[00:57:27]  Appreciate it a lot.
[00:57:29]  He writes in the following My wife and I are tuning in from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
[00:57:36]  Our daughter was born two months early.
[00:57:38]  Wow.
[00:57:39]  She is struggling to eat.
[00:57:41]  And we have been battling this for eight weeks now, asking for prayer that the Lord would work.
[00:57:47]  His will through her.
[00:57:49]  Thank you, gentlemen, and thank you, Right Response Ministries.
[00:57:52]  God bless.
[00:57:53]  All right, let's go ahead and just pause and pray now together.
[00:57:57]  Father, we thank you for Philip and his wife and their daughter.
[00:58:03]  Lord, we thank you that children are a heritage from the Lord.
[00:58:06]  Psalm 127.
[00:58:08]  They're a blessing from the Lord.
[00:58:09]  Our culture lies to us and tells us that children are burdens.
[00:58:13]  They're not, they are a blessing, and a man is blessed.
[00:58:18]  When his quiver is full, when he has many children.
[00:58:20]  So we thank you for the gift of this daughter, the gift of this blessing.
[00:58:25]  And Lord, we just pray right now for your supernatural healing.
[00:58:29]  Lord, we pray that even now that you would begin, Lord, just to work a miracle in her body, that she would be able to digest, that you would give her an appetite, that she'd be able to latch with nursing with her mother, that her mother, even though it's early, that those hormones that you've designed, In her body, that they would immediately kick in, that she would start producing milk.
[00:58:57]  And Lord, we pray every single one of her organs, her heart, her lungs, her kidneys, her liver, that they would be fully developed.
[00:59:06]  If there are any deficiencies, Lord, we pray that you would heal them in the name of Jesus.
[00:59:11]  Lord, we pray that this little girl, that her life would be long, that she would live a long life on this earth and be blessed in this land that she's inheriting.
[00:59:19]  We pray that you would save her at a young age, sparing her a life of sin and the sorrow that comes by it.
[00:59:26]  That you would teach her obedience to her parents, and that obedience to her parents would lend towards a long life, which is a promise that you gave, and that that obedience to her parents would quickly, at a young age, become obedience to you, that you would grant to her a new heart and the gifts of faith and repentance, that she would turn from her sin and turn in personal, implicit trust to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:59:49]  We pray all these things for your glory, for her and her parents' good, and for their joy.
[00:59:55]  We pray this in the name of Jesus.
[00:59:58]  Amen.
[00:59:59]  All right.
[01:00:00]  Let's go back up.

=== Billy Graham's Biblical Worldview (16:13) ===

[01:00:01]  I think we skipped one of the super chats now.
[01:00:05]  BJJ wins again.
[01:00:07]  Wes, you want to take that?
[01:00:08]  Yep.
[01:00:09]  He said, Great seeing you yesterday, Wes.
[01:00:11]  Saw him.
[01:00:12]  Very important things are happening here in Texas.
[01:00:14]  Suggestions you guys should make a practical playbook for taking local power politically, something for normies.
[01:00:19]  I would love to do that.
[01:00:20]  However, that's honestly as far as we've talked about it before, people have different roles.
[01:00:25]  I'd probably a PAC, a political action committee, would be the best to do it at the end of the day.
[01:00:29]  We are media, so it is definitely needed.
[01:00:32]  Um, someone has that idea, definitely reach out.
[01:00:34]  I'd love to see how it can be accomplished, and we need that.
[01:00:36]  Um, but ultimately, we've said this before, solutions are going to look very different for one just in the state where state rep is a full time job versus where it's not.
[01:00:44]  So it is needed, it's probably going to be very regional.
[01:00:47]  I think that's the name of the game, and uh, maybe someday we'll have the bandwidth to do it.
[01:00:52]  But my hope would be that there's other men that say, I have the bandwidth, the experience, the knowledge, and I'm going to take this over, right?
[01:00:58]  I think, yeah, everybody this is part of what Stephen Wolf talks about, and people give him such a hard time, but like.
[01:01:04]  Where he's not trying to de emphasize the importance of theology and knowing the Bible and the work of a minister in the church with word and sacrament.
[01:01:16]  Obviously, he cares deeply about those things and has written about them ad nauseum.
[01:01:21]  But his point is that we've gotten to the point, like he said, I don't like the word worldview.
[01:01:28]  And I know what he means.
[01:01:29]  I think it's still a good word.
[01:01:31]  But what he means is for quite a while now, people have said, well, What we need is, you know, the solution to all of our problems is we just need Christians to have a biblical worldview.
[01:01:43]  But what many of them mean by that is that the biblical worldview would function as a master key that would let you into any room in the house.
[01:01:52]  So you remember, you know, this is me probably aging, dating myself, but there used to be these commercials for Holiday Inn.
[01:02:04]  And it would be like, you know, there'd be like a brain surgeon.
[01:02:07]  You know, in an operating table in a hospital, and somebody would walk in and just dressed in normal attire, and they'd be like, What are you doing here?
[01:02:17]  And he's like, Oh, I'm here to perform the surgery.
[01:02:19]  And they're like, Are you even a doctor?
[01:02:21]  And he's like, No, but I did stay in a holiday inn last night.
[01:02:25]  And that's kind of how people are with Christianity.
[01:02:28]  They're like, Are you a politician?
[01:02:30]  No, but I do have a biblical worldview.
[01:02:33]  Are you an artist?
[01:02:33]  No, but I do have a biblical worldview.
[01:02:35]  Are you an engineer?
[01:02:37]  Like, have you ever coded?
[01:02:38]  No, but I've read Rushdini.
[01:02:40]  I'm sorry, my brother in Christ, but we need someone who can code.
[01:02:45]  And so, yes, you need to know the scripture.
[01:02:48]  And yes, we believe that the scripture applies to many, many, many things, but it does not make you qualified in the common kingdom in a particular arena.
[01:03:00]  We actually still need experts.
[01:03:02]  The reason why we're not listening to experts is because the experts turned out to all be liars, turned out to not actually be experts.
[01:03:08]  That's not because we think that institutions and experts in society are a bad thing.
[01:03:12]  Like all three of us, to varying degrees, I think, correct me if I'm wrong, but all three of us kind of like aristocracy.
[01:03:19]  We kind of like elites.
[01:03:21]  We think that that's like every healthy, whether it be a republic or a monarchy, like even a monarchy would still have, beyond the king, lords and vassals and experts and philosophers.
[01:03:33]  And like every healthy society has experts and institutions.
[01:03:38]  And yes, you'd like to see Christians in those things, but you don't want Christians with no experience.
[01:03:46]  And like it has to be both.
[01:03:48]  You want Christians and for them to know philosophy and to know engineering or whatever it is.
[01:03:53]  So, Wes is right.
[01:03:55]  I would like to see guys who politics is their job write something like that.
[01:04:02]  And he's also right that it would vary from state to state, maybe even county to county.
[01:04:07]  And then for us, staying in our lane, we talk about politics all the time.
[01:04:10]  We talk about culture all the time.
[01:04:12]  But something like that that's very practical, like do this, do that, that's less general and very specific.
[01:04:20]  And so that would require, in my mind, somebody who's an expert in that field.
[01:04:24]  And how we would play, you know, like us, like this guy's a rook and this guy's a knight and this guy's a bishop.
[01:04:29]  Well, like our role on the chessboard with something like that would be to have, you know, one of those guys come in on the show and to give exposure to the book that they've written to help ensure that it gets into people's hands.
[01:04:41]  That's something that we can do in media as Christians in media is visibility.
[01:04:46]  There are a lot of guys, smart guys, gifted guys who have done some great things that their mom and their great aunt have read and really enjoyed.
[01:04:53]  But that's it.
[01:04:54]  Like, you know, so like there are lots of guys who do something awesome.
[01:04:58]  But what they can't do is achieve visibility.
[01:05:01]  So that's where we come in and say, I can't write this thing that you just wrote, but I can make sure people read the thing that you just wrote.
[01:05:08]  Yeah.
[01:05:10]  Yeah.
[01:05:11]  I would say, like, we, in the short term, at least, we aren't living in an age where there's truly an art of politics.
[01:05:16]  Like, we truly have, like, the basis politics imaginable, which is money is power, essentially.
[01:05:23]  We do kind of live in that context.
[01:05:25]  So it's like, I say this tongue in cheek, but, you know, The absolute black pill in this country is that our politicians are bought and paid for.
[01:05:33]  But the white pill is that our politicians can be bought in the short term.
[01:05:37]  And so, like, there is an element of just like Wes alludes to, like, PACs and having money and being able to move some weight around the political realm, I think makes a big difference in the short term.
[01:05:50]  And then I think ultimately, Joel, we have this vision for truly professional politicians who are well versed in political theory and moral philosophy, so on and so forth.
[01:06:02]  Who actually do look out for our nation.
[01:06:05]  But unfortunately, we find it particularly in the federal government.
[01:06:08]  I mean, local is a little different.
[01:06:10]  I'll caveat that.
[01:06:11]  But particularly in the federal government, a lot of people who just simply do not have our interests at heart.
[01:06:16]  And so we hope that a check changes their mind, frankly.
[01:06:20]  Yeah.
[01:06:21]  Black pill that can be bought.
[01:06:22]  White pill, they can be bought.
[01:06:25]  That's funny.
[01:06:26]  Okay.
[01:06:27]  Antonio, will you read the next one?
[01:06:28]  Panda art, I believe.
[01:06:30]  Yeah.
[01:06:30]  Yeah.
[01:06:30]  Panda art sent $10.
[01:06:32]  They say mind speaking.
[01:06:34]  On Tim Keller.
[01:06:37]  One, if you knew him personally, any fun memories?
[01:06:39]  Two, Tim nor Billy Graham focused on replacement theology.
[01:06:43]  Are we over focused on this topic or were they under focused?
[01:06:49]  We're focusing on it now because the extent to which the Israel lobby has influence in the United States is bringing up the question of what hath Athens to do with Jerusalem?
[01:06:58]  What does DC have to do with Tel Aviv?
[01:07:00]  I think that's why we're focused on it right now.
[01:07:02]  It just wasn't a mainstream question during certainly it should have been, but during Billy Graham's ministry and then Tim Keller's, just at the level of mainstream consciousness, people weren't asking those questions, they weren't listening to content on that.
[01:07:14]  And so, to answer the first part, I did not know Tim personally.
[01:07:17]  But on the second part, I think we're focused on it now because it's been an area we've been lacking in.
[01:07:21]  And current events have required us to turn around and say, we had some gaps that we need to shore up.
[01:07:27]  Yeah, we're all men of our times, right?
[01:07:29]  We're going to focus on the things that are most relevant.
[01:07:31]  And certainly, this topic around who is Israel, what is the church, what is Israel as a nation, all of these things have been incredibly relevant for at least the last decade.
[01:07:41]  Yeah, and it's coming at the same time as we're asking the question, like, you know, not just, you know, what is a nation in the case of Israel, but what is a nation in the case of America?
[01:07:51]  And every other nation for that matter.
[01:07:53]  So it's like the timing is, I think, very providential.
[01:07:56]  So you have one, like our own nation overrun by immigration, anybody in the world, like it's like there's Americans and then there's potential Americans, right?
[01:08:05]  Like who lives in India?
[01:08:07]  1.3 billion potential Americans, you know?
[01:08:09]  So it's like, so because that's where we are with globalism and anti racism, you know, and all the liberal nonsense, we're having to think deeply about these things that were either taken for granted or just outright neglected or.
[01:08:26]  Many in nefarious fashion manipulated.
[01:08:30]  And so that's just kind of the topic of the day is looking at some of these things in the common kingdom, like nationality.
[01:08:39]  And then that, so you have that on the one hand, and then you have the fact that there's all, you know, there's war right now in the Middle East and what's going on in Gaza and Palestinians literally starving.
[01:08:55]  I mean, Trump just came out, either, you know, just in.
[01:08:58]  The last day or two, and acknowledged publicly that there are children actually starving in Gaza.
[01:09:06]  And you have Israeli citizens that are blocking, putting up roadblocks to make sure that the supplies can't get to them.
[01:09:16]  Of course, their argument would be well, it's because Hamas will take it and we don't want to resource Hamas.
[01:09:23]  Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't.
[01:09:24]  But what you're guaranteeing is if you let them through, a kid might get it.
[01:09:30]  If you don't let them through, a kid will starve.
[01:09:32]  And so, right now, Israel is just constantly in the news beyond covenant theology because they're literally starving children.
[01:09:40]  They're ethnically cleansing Gaza.
[01:09:42]  Yeah.
[01:09:42]  That's literally what's happening.
[01:09:44]  Yeah.
[01:09:44]  It's a genocide.
[01:09:45]  So, anytime a nation is committing a genocide in another nation, that becomes a pretty hot topic of conversation.
[01:09:57]  And then, when you add the layer of a bunch of people in America supporting that nation, Because, like Tel Aviv Ted Cruz recently said, because their Sunday school teacher told them that that's God's will, it's his command, then that just becomes a bit.
[01:10:16]  So, all that being said, I mean, there's been wars in the Middle East for quite a while, but I bet that's probably part of the reason that Billy Graham, you know, didn't.
[01:10:26]  Now, that said, with Billy Graham, Billy Graham was a little based.
[01:10:31]  So, look it up.
[01:10:32]  You don't have to take my word for it.
[01:10:33]  I'm sure you can find it, especially with.
[01:10:35]  Grok and AI, and all these kinds of things today.
[01:10:38]  But there's a phone conversation that was recorded between, if memory serves me, it was Nixon.
[01:10:44]  Yeah, it was Nixon.
[01:10:45]  It was Nixon and Billy Graham.
[01:10:46]  And Billy Graham is telling Nixon about all the Jewish corruption in our government.
[01:10:53]  And Nixon's agreeing with him.
[01:10:54]  And Nixon is on the phone saying, I agree with you, but I can't say that.
[01:10:58]  If I say that, I'm done.
[01:11:02]  And just basically, so the president at the time of the United States is agreeing with Billy Graham, the biggest Christian minister in the United States at the time.
[01:11:11]  And saying, yes, Jews have a stranglehold on America and its politics to the point where I can't say a word about it or I'm done.
[01:11:22]  But that was Billy Graham.
[01:11:23]  So, my point is Billy Graham publicly, maybe not a lot, but I'm willing to bet that privately, I think privately, Billy Graham actually was trying to use his influence with high up figures as high as the president himself and saying, this is a major problem.
[01:11:39]  So, who knows what, whether it be Billy Graham or Tim Keller or whoever.
[01:11:45]  I'm not the biggest fan of Tim Keller, but there may be more guys than we know, I guess is my point, who are trying today or guys in the past who are like, How did you let this happen on your watch?
[01:11:58]  We don't know every private conversation they had.
[01:12:01]  Maybe they were trying to fight against it, you know?
[01:12:04]  And it just, sometimes the good guys lose.
[01:12:08]  Like, that's, you know, like, who's the comedian who said, Isn't this funny?
[01:12:12]  I was reading the history book the other day.
[01:12:14]  What's his name?
[01:12:15]  He recently passed away.
[01:12:16]  Yeah, Norm McDonald.
[01:12:18]  The funniest thing, you know, I was reading a history book the other day and I realized that over thousands of years, the good guys always won.
[01:12:24]  Isn't that cool?
[01:12:25]  And of course, he's, you know, being facetious.
[01:12:27]  Like the victors, to the victors go the spoils.
[01:12:30]  And one of those spoils is the right to, you know, get to write the history books.
[01:12:34]  And so it always looks like the good guys won.
[01:12:39]  And, you know, and so some of these things, it's like, well, they didn't do anything.
[01:12:45]  Maybe they didn't do anything, or maybe they were the good guys and they just lost.
[01:12:50]  Sometimes the good guys lose.
[01:12:51]  And I'm post millennial.
[01:12:52]  I think that we win ultimately, but not without great trials and tribulations.
[01:12:57]  And there are setbacks and there are losses along the way.
[01:13:01]  So, any other thoughts?
[01:13:03]  Nope.
[01:13:03]  On that one?
[01:13:03]  Okay.
[01:13:04]  Last one.
[01:13:05]  Is this the last one, Nathan, or are there a couple more?
[01:13:07]  There's a couple more.
[01:13:09]  No, there's a couple more super chats we didn't hit from above Phillips.
[01:13:12]  I don't think so.
[01:13:13]  Yes, there are.
[01:13:14]  We'll look at it.
[01:13:15]  So, this is mostly peaceful merch.
[01:13:17]  And then we get to settle a bet between me and Wes.
[01:13:21]  There's no amount of money.
[01:13:22]  I know the two questions.
[01:13:23]  Okay, great.
[01:13:24]  So $5 from Mostly Peaceful Merch.
[01:13:26]  We appreciate it.
[01:13:27]  Thank you.
[01:13:27]  He said, You should talk to the DOR brothers when it comes to state level political strategy.
[01:13:38]  They've been very effective.
[01:13:39]  And I know Ben Dorr is a listener.
[01:13:42]  Great.
[01:13:43]  Tell them to send me an email and I'd be happy to get in contact with them.
[01:13:48]  All right, now we're going up.
[01:13:50]  So, sorry about sin consequences.
[01:13:52]  We did LA Man.
[01:13:53]  Sam M and LA Man.
[01:13:55]  No, we didn't.
[01:13:58]  Oh, okay.
[01:13:58]  Sam M. All right.
[01:14:00]  So, Wes is right.
[01:14:00]  There's two more.
[01:14:01]  Nathan, we were wrong.
[01:14:02]  Let's hit our last commercial break, maybe, and then address these.
[01:14:06]  Yeah.
[01:14:06]  We're going to have to hit our last commercial break.
[01:14:08]  We'll come back and we will do the super chat with Sam M and LA Man.
[01:14:12]  Let me just read them just to whet the listener's appetite so that you guys are willing to hang with us.
[01:14:18]  So, Sam M, he said $10.
[01:14:20]  Thank you.
[01:14:21]  We appreciate it.
[01:14:22]  He said, regarding great sin consequences, spiritual scar tissue, as it were, of even the elect who practice severe sin in their past, for example, native paganism or drug addiction, us reformed cessationists feel flat footed sometimes when dealing with these supernatural issues.
[01:14:45]  What are your thoughts?
[01:14:45]  So that's a great question.
[01:14:46]  And then LA man, he wrote in $10 from him.
[01:14:49]  Thank you.
[01:14:50]  He said, How should we apply freedom of association to churches?
[01:14:54]  Is it ever grounds for rejecting people from joining our congregations?
[01:14:58]  All right, that's an interesting question.
[01:15:00]  So we'll come back right after the commercial and deal with both of these.
[01:15:03]  One more time for the listeners on YouTube, please subscribe and hit the bell.
[01:15:07]  And on X, the handle is at rightresponseM, M for Ministries.
[01:15:12]  Make sure to follow us on X and go ahead and retweet the video.
[01:15:17]  We'd appreciate that very much.
[01:15:18]  Here's our last commercial break.
[01:15:20]  We'll be right back.
[01:15:21]  Hello, brothers in Christ.
[01:15:22]  Let me ask you something real.
[01:15:24]  Are you truly protecting and providing for your wife and children?
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[01:15:40]  That's not good stewardship.
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[01:19:08]  All right, so I'm going to tackle Sam M's question here.
[01:19:11]  Basically, his question was regarding great sin, and he went on, he clarified it a little bit more and said, Talk about, for example, drug use, the occult.
[01:19:18]  Say that you were a practicing witch before you came to Christ.
[01:19:21]  You were in a gang.
[01:19:22]  You killed people.
[01:19:23]  When it comes to some of those that carry not just physical toll, as in maybe, hey, I have scars or I lost a leg, but spiritual toll, sometimes the Reformed can feel flat footed.
[01:19:33]  We're cessationists.
[01:19:34]  And so we would say, as far as the supernatural sign gifts of the Spirit, those that typically be prophecy healing, we say those have ceased.
[01:19:41]  So we say there's a cessation of those supernatural gifts.
[01:19:44]  Not that.
[01:19:44]  But then we, as far as on demand, is that what I would categorize?
[01:19:48]  Yeah, healers.
[01:19:49]  Yep, God still heals, but nobody has the gift to heal.
[01:19:51]  Yeah, I see.
[01:19:52]  So, sometimes when we do that, we then lose categories.
[01:19:55]  Then again, you come to someone that, hey, I was in the occult.
[01:19:58]  I was in a gang before this.
[01:20:00]  And it affects, as I'm trying to follow Jesus, it affects it.
[01:20:04]  And sometimes we don't have a category for that.
[01:20:05]  And I do think it's true.
[01:20:07]  Sam is putting his finger right on a real problem.
[01:20:10]  The Reformed world can tend towards, we have really good theology in that we're good Western thinkers and we're systematic.
[01:20:17]  We have our dogmatics, we have our systematic theology.
[01:20:19]  Everything is very well connected.
[01:20:22]  It's in its proper bucket, it's in its proper place.
[01:20:24]  But what has happened, and it does happen, and people need to realize this you also lose the magic of life.
[01:20:30]  How many Reformed guys know so much Reformed theology?
[01:20:34]  But it also, when it comes to men and having a callus on their hand, they're complete strangers to it.
[01:20:38]  They have a head knowledge, it's intellectual, but then it comes down time to sit in front of someone that's grieving or counsel someone, as in this example, who's dealing with the spiritual weight of terrible things that they've done.
[01:20:49]  I would certainly say that's one of our shallow areas.
[01:20:52]  And to recover from it, you're going to have to.
[01:20:55]  You certainly have your Reformed theology.
[01:20:57]  That's one part of understanding the world, of understanding God.
[01:21:01]  But also, too, you're going to have to know people and be widely read.
[01:21:04]  You need to read broader.
[01:21:06]  You need to understand the world and other things, other experiences, and to be able to say, yeah, I can understand these things you did, how those would impact you now.
[01:21:16]  Well said.
[01:21:17]  All right, here's the last one.
[01:21:18]  It's from L.A. Mann.
[01:21:19]  Just to remind the listener, we read it before the commercial, but I'll read it one more time.
[01:21:23]  His question How should we apply freedom of association to our churches?
[01:21:28]  Is it ever grounds for rejecting people from joining our congregations?
[01:21:33]  I'll answer this one.
[01:21:34]  Simple answer How should we apply it?
[01:21:36]  We shouldn't.
[01:21:38]  It is another sphere, it's another kingdom, it's entirely other.
[01:21:43]  The church, its chief function and purpose is word and sacrament, and it is a heavenly kingdom.
[01:21:51]  And so, how we arrange our nations in a civil capacity, how we arrange even our families, physical families, that's a different conversation.
[01:22:03]  Or businesses, or economy, or whatever it may be, that's all a different conversation from the church.
[01:22:09]  The church abides by spiritual principles, not human temporal principles.
[01:22:14]  So, just as there should be criteria for a nation.
[01:22:18]  And this is kind of the blurring of lines.
[01:22:20]  So, the question kind of is talking about how you can blur the lines in the other direction.
[01:22:26]  But a lot of guys in the church right now are using the church's stipulations and qualifications and trying to apply those to nations.
[01:22:37]  So, they'll say, like, but we're Christians and there's neither male nor female, you know, Jew nor Greek.
[01:22:41]  And so, all the Haitians in the world can come and live here.
[01:22:46]  Or, you know, like, well, yeah, you know, they know illegal immigration, but even more legal immigration and legal immigration from where?
[01:22:54]  Anybody, you know, who wants to and is willing to go through the legal process.
[01:22:58]  And they would say, like, for us to show prejudice, to actually say, yeah, we'll take this number of people from this nation, but we won't take them from this other nation.
[01:23:10]  They would, they're like, well, that's racist, that's immoral.
[01:23:13]  On what biblical grounds, on what principles?
[01:23:15]  No, it's not.
[01:23:16]  And the reason they think it's immoral is because they're taking the qualifications that belong to the church and applying them to a nation.
[01:23:24]  It doesn't work that way.
[01:23:25]  But likewise, in the opposite direction, because we're consistent, it also doesn't work the other way around.
[01:23:32]  So a nation actually can be particular about who it will take in as its citizens.
[01:23:38]  A church is also particular, but with different criteria.
[01:23:43]  And the criteria is spiritual criteria.
[01:23:46]  So, a church can turn people away, absolutely.
[01:23:49]  But it's not turning people away based off of nationality.
[01:23:52]  It's not turning people away based off of genetics or color or gender with two genders, male or female.
[01:24:02]  It can turn someone away who's a furry gay puppy or whatever.
[01:24:06]  But that would be moral categories because their gender doesn't exist and they're perverse.
[01:24:13]  So, when it comes to the church, are you baptized?
[01:24:17]  Do you affirm the Apostles and Nicene Creed?
[01:24:20]  Have you made a public profession of faith?
[01:24:25]  Are you seeking to live a life morally that abides by Christian principles?
[01:24:30]  Do you believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?
[01:24:34]  Then you're welcome in the church.
[01:24:38]  And so, churches in different places, in terms of the leadership of the church, there's an argument to be made that if you're in Uganda, And your church is 100% Ugandans, then it would be a little strange to have five elders and to import kind of like a reverse H 1B visa situation to import five Scottish men to be the five elders there,
[01:25:07]  that they have nothing temporally in common with the people of their congregation and vice versa.
[01:25:14]  If you live in America, America is very diverse, more diverse than it probably should be, as we've argued several times.
[01:25:21]  But it is, nonetheless, it is what it is.
[01:25:24]  So if you're living in an area in America that's diverse, then you may have one.
[01:25:31]  They have to meet the biblical qualifications, Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3.
[01:25:35]  But let's say your church is 200 people and you feel like we really need eight elders.
[01:25:43]  And having 10 elders would be fine, but it would complicate things to have 20.
[01:25:47]  But we have 30 men that we really believe are meeting the biblical qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 for eldership.
[01:25:53]  30.
[01:25:54]  But we really only need eight, and maybe we could take 10 and maybe 12, but we certainly can't take 30.
[01:26:00]  So, first and foremost, it's what are the biblical qualifications?
[01:26:03]  Then beyond that, though, you may consider well, what's the makeup of the church?
[01:26:09]  Well, we live in this area that, you know, is these metrics, and our church matches these metrics.
[01:26:15]  And so we're 20% black, and we're 40% white, and we're 20% Hispanic, and we're 20% Asian.
[01:26:22]  Okay.
[01:26:23]  Well, in that case, you know, I probably, assuming this is not a Matt Chandler, you know, Anglo 8 kind of thing, right?
[01:26:32]  Assuming all other things being equal.
[01:26:35]  Please hear that disclaimer.
[01:26:36]  All of the things being equal, you have 30 men who equally, in this scenario, meet the biblical qualifications for eldership.
[01:26:44]  And you can't have 30 for the size of your church.
[01:26:48]  Then I think you could consider some of those other factors.
[01:26:52]  But aside from that, in terms of that's with leaders, but the makeup of the church, the congregation itself, if you have somebody who is a legal resident, Even if the laws suck,
[01:27:07]  but they are a legal resident in your area and they're looking for a biblical church and they are a biblical Christian in good standing, to deprive them of membership for something like nationality or ethnicity, I believe, is wholly unbiblical, entirely unbiblical.
[01:27:27]  I think that that's wrong.
[01:27:28]  So, no, segregation in the church, I don't believe, is biblical.
[01:27:32]  I don't believe that it should be done because the church abides by spiritual criteria.
[01:27:38]  But to then take that and to say, and so should nations and so should governments and so should every other association, that's when you start getting ridiculous.
[01:27:50]  It's like, well, women are allowed to be members of the church.
[01:27:52]  That's right.
[01:27:53]  And so therefore, we can't have a male only gym.
[01:27:56]  Wait, what?
[01:27:57]  No, that's dumb.
[01:27:59]  But this is reformed ministers are thinking like this right now.
[01:28:02]  So, as Stephen Wolf would say, we've got to learn to think in categories.
[01:28:07]  Got to learn to think in categories.
[01:28:08]  Okay.
[01:28:09]  We had one final one that just tuned in.
[01:28:11]  The other Paul, he gave us $5.
[01:28:13]  Thank you, the other Paul.
[01:28:13]  I appreciate that.
[01:28:14]  Five Australians.
[01:28:15]  Five Australians.
[01:28:16]  So they're worth nothing?
[01:28:17]  Oh, no.
[01:28:18]  And they're upside down.
[01:28:19]  They're printed backwards?
[01:28:19]  Yeah, they're printed backwards.
[01:28:20]  They're not worth anything.
[01:28:23]  The other Paul's a good guy.
[01:28:24]  So he said predictions for the PCA study committee on Christian nationalism.
[01:28:30]  That's funny.
[01:28:31]  Predictions.
[01:28:32]  That's easy.
[01:28:33]  They will decide that Christian nationalism is a heresy.
[01:28:37]  Yeah, looking at the lineup.
[01:28:38]  It's the PCA.
[01:28:38]  Looking at the lineup, it doesn't look like a.
[01:28:41]  I don't think anyone who holds the position.
[01:28:42]  There's not one person who holds the position on the study committee.
[01:28:45]  There's one guy, I think, in particular, who has been outspokenly against Stephen Wolfe on Christian nationalism.
[01:28:53]  And you already can see the engagement between Stephen and some of these guys online going back and forth.
[01:28:59]  And the accusations that they're levying against him are ridiculous.
[01:29:04]  Like Stephen said that, hey, you can do something that's outwardly good as an unbeliever, but is not truly good in the heavenly, truest, eternal sense.
[01:29:13]  Uh, because it was not done with faith, he's just citing Romans 14.
[01:29:16]  Anything that does not proceed from faith is sin.
[01:29:18]  And the guy, um, said it was heresy, and OPC, yeah, said it was heresy.
[01:29:24]  And then Stephen proceeded to give him, like, like, literally, almost 50 different citations from the reformed tradition, you know, from Calvin, from Luther, from all these guys.
[01:29:37]  Um, that basically, Stephen was being very respectful, but each quote basically said, You, Jim Cassidy, are retarded, and also.
[01:29:44]  Luther thinks you're retarded and Calvin thinks you're retarded.
[01:29:47]  And so, but when they're not, let's just say it this way, they're not sending their best.
[01:29:52]  Yeah.
[01:29:53]  So I, yeah, I do not think it's going to be a committee report.
[01:29:57]  It'll be academic, it'll be long, and it'll be bad.
[01:30:01]  It'll be done.
[01:30:01]  Yeah, absolutely.
[01:30:03]  Okay.
[01:30:03]  Well, thank you guys for tuning in.
[01:30:05]  And on Friday, we will see you again.
[01:30:08]  Do we have any?
[01:30:09]  We don't have an episode lined up as it stands.
[01:30:12]  Okay.
[01:30:12]  So we will all be surprised, including myself.
[01:30:14]  But thanks for tuning in.
[01:30:16]  We appreciate you guys.
[01:30:17]  God bless.
[01:30:18]  And please remember to be praying for Philip.
[01:30:22]  It was Philip Nathaniel and his daughter who was born two months early and is struggling right now to eat.
[01:30:30]  And yeah, which is.
[01:30:32]  They're about eight weeks in, and that's where they're having to do the transfer.
[01:30:34]  It's not just Nikki anymore, but because.
[01:30:36]  Because she's not eating, a difficulty just actually bringing her home.
[01:30:39]  She's probably very small, lost a lot of weight.
[01:30:41]  I can sympathize.
[01:30:43]  My wife has always struggled with milk production and all of our babies.
[01:30:48]  I think it's actually, this is a good friend of mine.
[01:30:50]  I grew up with him, and I think it's actually with taking the bottle, especially.
[01:30:53]  So she needs to be able to take that so that she can go home, and that's especially what people can pray for.
[01:30:58]  Okay.
[01:30:59]  All right.
[01:30:59]  Be praying for Philip Nathaniel and for his wife and daughter.
[01:31:03]  Okay.
[01:31:03]  We will see you guys, Lord willing, on Friday.
[01:31:05]  Until then, God bless.
[01:31:07]  And yeah, we'll see you next time.
[01:31:10]  Thank you.