All Episodes
Previous Next
Feb. 5, 2021 - Dennis Prager Show
09:53
Eric Metaxas Tells His Story
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
It's a problem, actually, which we have engaged in on a number of occasions.
Eric Metaxas, for those of you who don't know, is truly a best-selling author, host of a great radio show called...
I have a little problem with this.
He named it after himself, the Eric Metaxas Radio Show.
It's on the Sun Radio Network.
Eric Metaxas has written a classic, and that's rare.
The biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Christian pastor who dissented from Nazism.
He was a German, of course, and was executed by the Nazis.
The book is a classic.
It is a modern classic.
And he is now written.
It's coming out.
When is it coming out, Eric?
Oh, I get to talk now.
Yeah, that was good.
That was good.
See, even that I like.
That's great.
It came out a couple days ago.
I was supposed to be on your show for an hour, and I got kicked to the curb.
I don't know, Mitch McConnell stabbed somebody or something.
I don't know what happened.
That was bigger news than me coming out with this book, but yeah.
There is actually insignificance.
Your book ranks number one.
Actually, no, Cruz tried to kill that young woman.
The congresswoman.
Oh, that's such a good point.
You know, Ted Cruz needs to settle down.
I mean, trying to murder people, I mean, what is he thinking?
That's not going to be good in the long term, really, for his career.
Mike, you know, I was just thinking that when you said that we joke around and it spurts a problem, it is a problem because we can't stop joking even when we both are trying.
So I'm going to try hard.
Right.
I want you to know, folks, that Eric Metaxas, my wife and I, and another couple, that was it, just five of us, were guests in the Vice President Pence's home, his lovely wife, and his daughter was at the table.
And I began the evening, and those of you who have any sense of the now former Vice President know that he is not a knee-slapper.
He's a very serious man.
But the evening began, and I very straight-facedly looked at the Vice President of the United States and said, it's an honor to be here, Mr. Vice President, but I just can't figure out why you invited Eric Metaxas.
Unbelievable.
Yeah, he couldn't see us coming, and that's a good thing.
That's a good thing.
Well, listen, the book that I'm coming out with, you're so kind in your words about my Bonhoeffer book.
I've written all these different books.
I've never written a book about the story of my life, but I've wanted to for years because people often ask me how I had my God miracle around my 25th birthday, and it's a real story.
It's a miracle.
God came into my life, blew my mind, utterly, miraculously.
I can't make it up.
I can't take credit that I reasoned my way to God.
He punched a hole in the sheetrock and said, hey, I'm out here if you need me.
And it changed my life.
I mean, literally, I've never been, you know, the same since.
But in order to tell the story of what happened then, I kind of have to tell what happened before that.
So that happened on my 25th birthday.
So I started writing my story, and it's a crazy story, Dennis.
I mean, I am the son of European immigrants.
My dad's from Greece.
My mom's from Germany.
They met in an English class here in New York City.
And their first date was to the Teddy Roosevelt Museum on 20th Street.
You know, it's a crazy, beautiful American story, but there's a lot of humor in it.
There's a lot of really crazy, crazy stories on the way to the despair after graduating Yale.
And by the way, that's Yale's job, is to take your parents' money and then to give you hopelessness and meaninglessness and, you know, the good prospects for a job.
So, yeah, so it's a crazy book.
It's called Fish Out of Water, Search for the Meaning of Life.
And it's not a joke.
It's not really a joke.
It's true.
It's the story of my search for the meaning of life, including the question, is there meaning in life, or is life meaningless?
Because being at a place like Yale, you kind of get the impression, nobody comes out and says it because they don't have the guts, but that life has no meaning, there is no God, and we'll just try to have a good time in the meantime.
Eric Metaxas' book is Fish Out of Water.
It's just coming out this week.
A Search for the Meaning of Life, a memoir.
It is up at DennisPrager.com.
So, to be truly and deeply serious, here's an interesting...
It's so big, the question, and I'm not expecting you to have even a great answer, but I am curious what you would say to the question, why did God make man?
Well, that's easy.
Because God is love.
We're talking about the God of the Bible.
We're not talking about some New Age fake divinity.
But the God of the Bible is love.
And He created us in His image so that He could share His love with us.
us so creating us was an act of love and the goal was to have in someone like him to uh...
it's true to it to have a love relationship with it I mean, it's like, why do we have kids?
Part of that is because we know we will love them, and if we're lucky, they will love us.
And there's nothing more beautiful than that.
And that's part of the answer of why God created us.
It's a lovely...
I mean that not patronizingly.
It is a lovely answer, and I buy it.
I was on a panel many years ago in Washington D.C. I was, as you know, the Jew, which...
You always make hilarious reference, too, in front of Christian audiences, and I get a big kick out of that.
And I was with a Catholic priest and a Protestant minister, and they just...
It was at a YPO, Young Presidents Organization, meeting in Washington, D.C. Yeah.
And they said, we're just going to throw questions at you.
They didn't tell us in advance, which is good.
I don't like questions in advance.
I'm like...
I'm with you, and neither do I. I knew you wouldn't.
I knew it.
We're kindred spirits.
So the first question was, why did God create...
Man.
And the priest and the minister were truly eloquent.
I don't say that often.
They were eloquent.
And their answers was different from you.
And then I'll tell you my answer.
Their answers were to glorify God.
Well, that's the cheating answer.
Of course.
God did everything to glorify himself.
But that's kind of like skipping.
That's like showing you the answer, but not showing you the work.
You know?
Like, that's the textbook.
No, no, no, that's fine.
And then when it was my turn, I said, you know, after these beautiful theologically erudite statements of the pastor and the priest, I'm almost afraid to give you my answer.
It will sound so prosaic.
But I believe God made us to enjoy life.
Oh, he made us so that we could enjoy life.
Yeah, so that we could enjoy life, which corresponds in many ways.
I don't want to put any words or thoughts into you or your mouth.
No, no, no, that goes exactly along with what I said.
Well, right.
I mean, if he did create us out of love, do I not want my children to enjoy life?
I loved your analogy.
That's right.
And if you want them to enjoy life, you're going to give them strict rules.
So they don't screw that up.
That's right.
That's exactly right.
Eric Metaxas and I have a great deal in common.
I did not know this background, and this is a book, probably my next book, because I read your book on the abolition of slavery, and what is it again?
Wilberforce.
I mean, I just enjoy your writing a great deal.
That's my...
Your parents...
Your father came from Greece.
Yeah.
And your mother from Germany.
Was your mother in Germany during the war?
Of course, yeah.
Yeah, it's all in the book.
I actually write their stories at the beginning of the book.
And then during telling my story, I kind of weave more of their stories back into it.
So you get their stories, too.
Because that's who I am.
I mean, my parents...
If you're raised...
By a mother and a father who grew up during the war in these separate locations, but they both experienced the war.
Both lost their fathers when they were 10 years old.
And so the war and that whole experience was my experience growing up because their stories and everything about who they are comes out of that, you know?
And so I was...
I was raised...
So I'll ask you...
Forgive me.
We've got to take a break, and you know well about breaks.
So when we come back, a very...
I'm just curious.
This is the only reason I'm asking, but it's an interesting question.
▲
Export Selection