March 31, 2025

New Reformation: Reject The Trinity

New Reformation: Reject The Trinity

A look at what is happening to American Christianity

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A look at what is happening to American Christianity

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Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is

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the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central, ladies and gentlemen.

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I had such an easy plan. It was simple. I

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was going to simply walk up the steps to the studio,

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come around here to this chair, sit down, hit the

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button to start the live stream, and tell everyone, Hey,

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yesterday at Victory Baptist Church, we were discussing Isaiah chapter

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forty two, and we came up with a completely unique

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way of interpreting Isaiah forty two that would probably put

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us outside of the majority of everything. Nobody's going to agree,

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and we need to talk a little bit about this.

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I'm going to I'm going to talk to you about

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how artificial intelligence analyzed and critiqued my interpretation, our interpretation

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of Isaiah forty two. Because it was kind of a

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it was a collaborative thing. Someone in the congregation actually

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came up with the idea and how to interpret Isaiah

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forty two this way, and then I took it and

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ran with it. So that's what I wanted to do.

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I wanted to talk about Isaiah forty two and talk

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about this new way of interpreting Isaiah forty two and

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what AI had to say about it, and just kind

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of add more to that discussion. However, I made a

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bad mistake. I made a fatal mistake when I walked

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up the stairs to the studio and sat down instead

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of just immediately turning on the microphone, hitting the button

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to start the live stream and say, ladies and gentlemen,

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we're going to talk about Isaiah forty two. I opened

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up a Christian website. I opened up a Christian website,

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and I was immediately slapped in the face with this headline,

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most American Christians don't believe in the Trinity. Most American

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Christians don't believe in the Trinity. And I'm like, WHOA,

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what is going on here? What is happening? Because I'm

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already confused. If you reject the Trinity, can you be

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considered a Christian because you're then believing in a completely

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different God. Either God is a trinity or God is not.

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Either there is one God coexisting three distinct persons who

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are coequal and co eternal, right, or if you reject

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the trinity, then you have a God that is not

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a trinitarian God. To state it that way, well, then

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is that the same God? So can you even be

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considered a Christian? What is going on? So I read

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the article, and within about three minutes of reading the article,

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I was no longer worried about most American Christians, no

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longer believing in the Trinity. I was then concerned with,

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wait a minute, this article is pointing out what I

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have been screaming about for twenty five years. Oh, I've

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got to talk about it. So that's what we're going

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to be talking about. I guess we're experiencing a new reformation,

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and this new reformation is reject the Trinity and accept Well,

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I'm going to tell you about it right after I

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say good morning everyone. It is Monday, March the thirty first,

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twenty twenty five. It is currently eleven forty one am

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Central time, and I'm coming to you live from the

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Theology Central Studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. So

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are you ready to discuss this? Are you ready to

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hear what's going on? First, if you want the article

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that has sparked this discussion, you can go to the

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Christianpost dot com. Look for the headline most American Christians

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don't believe in the Trinity survey right, So you can

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check that out. I know immediately some people say, well,

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I don't believe this, or I don't believe the statistics,

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or I don't believe that. I don't like the way

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they did that. Everyone typically will explain away when surveys

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say really negative things about Christianity, surveys will people will

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always say, I don't believe the surveys, I don't accept

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the way they ask the questions. And look, I'm not

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saying that there aren't valid concerns with surveys, and I'm

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not saying it's not right to question surveys. But sometimes

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I get kind of a little tired of that because

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if any survey or if any study seems to show

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anything negative about Christianity, Christians just want to immediately want

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to immediately reject it. And I think, look, we may

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not agree completely with the surveys or completely agree with

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the methodology, but I think it's always important for us

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to stop and go, wait, what is going on here?

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We should at least be a little bit concerned. And

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when I see if anything is indicating that most Christians

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are now rejecting the Trinity, then should be extremely concerned.

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And I will argue that what I have seen throughout

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my Christian life, listening to sermon after sermon after sermon

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after sermon after sermon after sermon, and even talking to

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professing Christians, I will argue that practically speaking, functionally speaking,

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most Christians do reject the Trinity, and they reject the

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Trinity in many cases simply because they don't even know

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what the proper definition of the Trinity is a lot

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of times Christians will define the Trinity as one God

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who manifests himself in three different ways. Well, that's not

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trinitarian doctrine theology. That's modalism, that's Abelianism, that's an actual

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ancient heresy. I mean, I've told the story a thousand times,

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but I tell it again. I finally become a pastor.

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It's my first church, the middle of nowhere, Texas. I

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preach that Sunday morning. It's Sunday night of my first

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Sunday being a pastor. I stand behind the pulpit. Well,

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it wasn't even really a pulpit at that time, Okay,

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but this broken down building in the middle of nowhere, Texas,

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and I ask everyone, define the Trinity. Here's my new congregation.

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Everyone in the church tries to answer, and they all

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give me absolute heretical definition of their not a heretical

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definition of the Trinity. Not one person gets it right,

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not one person. These are all people who've been going

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to church for ten fifteen years, and it's all like

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one God manifesting himself or revealing himself. And I'm like,

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what are you talking about? No, it's and now at

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that point I didn't say anything. I just kind of like, Okay,

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I just remember getting in the car driving home, going

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what has happened? I have a church filled with people

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who functionally, practically speaking, are complete heretics. They believe in sibelia,

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they believe in modalism. They don't even know how to

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define the Trinity. And they've been going to church for fifteen,

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twenty twenty five years. What do I do? And I

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was like, this is a mess. So I made it

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a let's just say for the next five years, I

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think I talked. I talked about the Trinity every Sunday

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for five years. How do we define the Trinity? I

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think every kid at that time could tell you give

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you a philologically sound definition of the Trinity. It's not

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one God manifesting himself in three different ways. It's one God, coexisting,

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co eternal, three distinct persons, all right, the Father, the Son,

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and the Holy Spirit. Over and over and over we

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would go. We would try to get this right. And

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I did a discussion about the ancient heresies related to

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the Trinity. But it was it was crazy. And then

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years later, years later, I had someone who was attending

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classes at Dallas Theological Seminary and for one of their

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class projects, they had to contact pastors in the local

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area and to get their definition of the Trinity. And

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guess what they got. Almost everyone got it wrong. These

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are pastors in the local area. Guess who got it right.

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The only one who got it right the Catholic priest.

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The Catholic priest got it right. And when the Catholic

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priest was kind of told that all the Protestant pastors

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got it wrong, he basically just laughed and was like, well,

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I'm not surprised, and I'm like, that's embarrassing. That is

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absolutely embarrassing. So and then I can tell you about

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local churches that when they start talking about the Trinity

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once again almost falls into this modalistic Sibelianism type way

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of understanding the Trinity. I have emailed them and say, guys,

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this is just this is wrong. Every single time I

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am ignored, they will not even respond to my email.

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They just ignore me. They don't care. They just don't care.

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And nobody in the Pew seems to care. So even

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if even if Christians say they believe in the Trinity,

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almost inevitably when they define it, they show that they

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don't even understand it. So then if they don't even

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functionally understand it, that means they don't functionally even understand God,

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which is I don't even know what does it even mean? Yeah,

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I just I don't even know. So I saw so

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the article. You can find it at the Christianpost dot com.

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And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna try

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to break this down. So here's what we're gonna do.

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I think we're gonna dive into something here that I believe,

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in my opinion, should stop, should bother, should concern every

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single Christian in some ways, it should at least stop

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every Christian in their tracks. Because we have this brand

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new survey and the numbers, I believe, or at least look,

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maybe we want to classify these numbers as staggering. Maybe

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when we want to classify these numbers as troubling. I

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think they these numbers are at least revealing something because

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one of the things that survey, this new survey that's

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out is revealing is that most American Christians no longer

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believe in the Trinity. But maybe what's even more concerning

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is possibly the why. See to me, the trinity issue

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has been going on for thirty years. For thirty years,

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you can just talk to it. Oh, you go to church,

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you've been, you're a Christian, Okay, define the Trinity. Explain

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the Trinity. To me, almost inevitably, it's just a total

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train wreck. When they try, they don't functionally understand what

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even the Trinity is. They don't even understand it, and

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then pastors give them these ridiculous illustrations to try to

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understand the Trinity that almost leads to modalism and Sabelianism

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versus an actual Trinitarian understanding. So, to me, what's more

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disturbing is not the trinity issue, is the possible reason why.

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It turns out that for many Christians, the loudest voice

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shaping their theology are no longer pastors. It's no longer

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the Bible it's no longer even teachers, Bible teachers, or

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even scripture itself. What Christians are listening to and turning

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to is something other than sermons, other than Bible teaching,

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other than lectures on theology, other than the Bible itself.

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And I've been mentioning this forever, and we will talk

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about it in greater detail. So I'm not gonna name

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the names right now, but we will. We will name

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the names. What this survey because what the survey revealed.

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I was just completely shocked by this. So what does

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this all mean for the church. What does it say

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about the depth or the drift of modern Christianity? What

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is it going to tell us about the church? What

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does it say about this drift of modern Christianity? Now

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I have been saying it for a very long time

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on this podcast that to me, if you look at

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all the money that goes into keeping churches open and

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for them to function, and what people are actually getting

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from those churches, it's a waste of money. The churches

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take all of this money to stay open and what

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the people are actually provided. Look if churches, if it

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costs all of this money to keep churches open, and

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now what we are discovering is that functionally, if not

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just absolutely, from an even a philological perspective, Christians no

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longer even believe in the Trinity. Then all that money

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to keep those churches open was a waste of money.

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At the very least, a church cannot turn out people

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who believe in the Trinity, then I don't even know

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what are you. You're just throwing money. You're just walking

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to a pit, throwing money in the pit and then

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pouring gasoline on it and throwing on fire. You're just

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throwing money away. And I already believe that most of

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the money that goes to keep churches, and when we've

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talked about the statistics how much it costs to keep

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a church open on average, and how much of that

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money goes to everything other than actual teaching and discipleship material,

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goes to all kinds of administrative costs and salaries and all,

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and then you look at the amount of teaching actually

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provided by churches. It's a waste of money. What it takes,

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what it takes, and I mean this, what it takes

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to keep a church operating for one year. If I

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receive that money, that it would take and this is

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this is just as true what it takes to keep

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an average church functioning for one year. If I was

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to receive that money for this podcast, I would be set,

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not for a year, I'd be set for life. And

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I produce more content than any church does almost well.

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I mean, there's always some that would would be would

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be different, but I'm saying for the majority, and it's

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it's just like someone's got to look at the problem here.

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So let's dig in. Are you ready. Let's ask ourselves

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what's really shapping or maybe who's really shaping the beliefs

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of American Christians. So we have a new survey from

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the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, and it

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has revealed a troubling trend. Now, I will argue there's

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been survey after survey after survey after survey that's been

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revealing troubling trends for the last thirty years, and for

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the most part, churches don't care. Pastors don't care, Christians

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don't care. Nobody's stinking cares. Okay, oh all right, but

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here's one of the troubling things they identified in this

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new survey. Most American Christians no longer believe in one

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of the most fundamental doctrines of the faith, the Trinity.

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And you watch when this gets uploaded to YouTube. I

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almost guarantee you I'm going to get the people who

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reject the Trinity. Who's going to come on strong, because

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there's a lot of professing Christians on YouTube who obviously

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reject the Trinity. I mean, they don't just have a

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misunderstanding of the Trinity, they actively rejected. Only eleven percent

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of all US adults and just sixteen percent of self

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identified Christians affirm the traditional Christian belief that God is

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one being and three equal and distinct persons, coequal, coeternal Father, Son,

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and Holy Spirit. You hear that only sixteen percent of

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self identified Christians affirm the traditional belief of the Trinity,

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only sixteen percent that Look, I don't even I don't.

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And I will argue that there are many people will

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say that's just not true, that's just not true. You

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can argue that's not true. But I'm just telling you

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you just listen to Christian preaching on when they try

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to even describe the Trinity. These are from churches who

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say they believe in the Trinity. They almost inevitably describe

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it and teach it in a way that's fraudulent. Not all,

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but many will do that. Okay, I'm just looking at

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these numbers. Right, While fifty nine percent of respondents say

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they believe in Jesus, only twenty nine percent believe in

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the Holy Spirit, and overall, belief that God is real

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and active in people's lives sits at just forty percent. Now,

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those numbers are staggering because these are numbers coming from

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self identified Christians. Only fifty nine percent say that they

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believe in Jesus. What does that even mean? Twenty nine

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percent believe in the Holy Spirit and only forty percent

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believe God is real and active in people's lives. I

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don't even know how we process those numbers, right, Those

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numbers just make absolutely no sense. They're confusing, and they're staggering.

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So I'm not here to get into a debate about

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the numbers. There'll be other podcasters will take these numbers apart.

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They'll try to argue against the numbers. They'll go after

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the methodology of the survey. Fine, you can go debate that.

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So if you're gonna email me about that, I'm not

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That's not what this episode is about. It's about the

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next paragraph in my summary about this article. According to

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George Barna, now he's obviously the one who does all

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the surveys and does all the research, here's what the

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bigger issue is. Right, here's what the bigger issue is.

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This is the issue, not just the bigger issue. To me,

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this is the supreme issue. Are you ready? George Barna says,

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these findings, those statistics I just gave you, and again

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they don't make a lot of sense to me. They're

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all over the place. But okay, these findings reflect how

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this is. According to George Barna, how little influenced the

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Bible and the Church now have on shaping people's beliefs. Now,

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let me stop right there. How much influence does the

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church really have anymore on shaping people's beliefs? I think

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this may be the core question here when it comes

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to a church. Think of all the money it goes

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and keeping those doors open. How much influence does the

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church really have? Now we'll forget Catholicism. Let's just look

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at the non Catholic Protestant world. I will say the

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church has no influence because Christians will go in and

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as soon as they don't like what they hear. They

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just disagree, believe what they want, and just walk out

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the door and go anywhere they want. The church has

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no authority. The church has no influence. It only has

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influence as long as the people sitting in the pew

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agree with it, and as soon as they disagree with it,

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they just believe whatever they want to believe. The church

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doesn't determine anything anymore. The church is irrelevant. The church

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is useless. The church has lost all power and authority.

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The church is a shadow of its former self. And

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I don't think that that's being too hyperbolic. Now churches

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can pretend, churches can make it sound good and look good.

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And I'm just speaking in general. I'm not speaking of

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every single church because someone's gonna email me go, well,

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not this church. There's always exceptions to this. I'm just

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saying the general idea. In twenty twenty five, the church

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has I constantly ask what are we getting from all

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the money going to keep these places open? But now

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George Barne is saying that, hey, the church no longer

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has has Okay, let me state this again. George Barna says,

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these findings reflect how little influence the Bible and the

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church now have shaping people's beliefs. Now, the fact that

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the Bible is not shaping their beliefs, Okay, that's a

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who's separate issue, and we'll get to that as well.

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But the church. When the church becomes completely basically irrelevant,

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then what's the point of paying all this money to

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keep the thing open? Here we go, This is what

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George Barna says. Now, I have been saying this for forever, right, okay,

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And I'll tell the story of when the first became

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started coming to my mind that there was really two

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me a couple of events, and I'll kind of tell

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We'll do story time here in a minute, all right,

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But instead, George Barna says, the primary theologians for many

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Americans today aren't pastors. It isn't preachers, but it is

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cultural commentators and podcast personalities. George Barna lists one, two, three, four, five,

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six specific individuals by name. Six individuals would anyone like

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to write? Now, grab a piece of paper and write

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down your guests of the six names that George Barn

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is saying, here are the people. Here are the people

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who are really influencing even Christians today and Americans today.

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Six names. Go ahead, go ahead, write it down on paper,

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take a screenshot of it, but put make sure it's

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got the date and time. Well, what are the six names?

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Come on, who do you think I'm gonna read this again?

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He'd give you time to write instead. Barnes says, the

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primary theologians for many Americans today are no longer pastors.

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It is not preachers, but it is cultural commentators and

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podcast personalities. Who do you think they are? Number One?

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Tucker Carlson. What Tucker Carlson used to be, you know,

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the big name on Fox News, then he was fired,

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has his own podcast, now, has his own little media group.

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Now there's Tucker Carlson. Now, when when Christians are being

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more influenced by Tucker Carlson than they are Matthew, Mark, Luke,

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and John When they're being more influenced by Tucker Carlson

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than they are preachers and Bible teachers and theology, well

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then you end up with a large well, most Christians

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now reject the Trinity because they're they're they're not really

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being fed Christianity. They're being fed maybe a form of

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a cultural conservative, politically hijacked kind of Christianity. So Tucker

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Carlson is the first one listed. Who do you think

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is number two? Everyone knows number two. Come on, Number

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two actually is probably number one as far as numbers,

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But this is just the way they're listed in the article. Joe, Oh,

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come on, everybody knows Rogan. Millions upon millions. Okay, now

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I'm pulling from my professional wrestling influence of in my life. Okay,

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Joe Rogan is listened to by millions and millions and

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millions of people. And guess what, many and many of

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those people are Christians. I think a lot of them

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are Christian men. They'll spend two, three, four hours listening

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to a Joe Rogan podcast. They're not going to be

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listening to sermons. They're not going to be listening to

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philological lectures. So you've got Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Russell Brand. Oh,

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he started, he started becoming super influential, Russell Brand. Now

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we could throw in Andrew Tate here, but we won't

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even get into that whole debacle. The Christian Post does

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have an article about all of that. That's a whole

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other concerning situation. But Russell Brand, Jordan Peterson, Oh, I

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had to deal with that. I had to deal with that,

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even with someone who attended my church and no longer

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attend my church. But they called me, what do you

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think about Jordan Peterson. I think he's really good. I

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think he's really got. I'm like, wait, you're now going

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to be more influenced by Jordan Peterson. Wouldn't you want

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to listen to someone who understands scriptures correctly, someone who's

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hermeneutically sound, philologically sound. But Jordan Peterson, Jordan Peterson, Jordan.

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I saw him on YouTube, Jordan Peterson, and I'm just thinking,

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and of course I did not accept it and pushed

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back and well, they didn't leave the church for that reason,

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but I mean it was one of many things that

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we started disagreeing with that same person as the one

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who also who told me how great the Chosen was,

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and I pushed back on that. So immediately I was like,

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this person's being influenced by everything other than sound biblical theology. Oh,

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who's the next one? Oh? Come on, if you have

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the serious XM app, you know this one, because she's

387
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all over it. Megan Kelly, I've got Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Russell,

388
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Bran Peterson, Megan Kelly, and then last they have Bill Maher,

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which is kind of interesting. Bill Maher is an atheist.

390
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Bill Mahers tends to be more liberal, although those others

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are far more obviously conservative. Now I could throw in

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other names here. We can talk about Fox News just

393
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in general, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Andrew Tate. Now,

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to me, this is not at first. I'm just shocked

395
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that an article put out in twenty twenty five it's

396
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finally acknowledging this because I've been saying this forever. I

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first noticed this in the nineteen nineties, right nineteen nineties,

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and I noticed this amongst Christian men. Now I started

399
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noticing something was wrong as a teenager, because again I've

400
00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:56.400
talked about it before. So I'm a teenager. I walk

401
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into church. I believe it's a Wednesday night. President Ronald

402
00:26:01.160 --> 00:26:04.279
Reagan had launched air strikes. I think on Beirut. I

403
00:26:04.279 --> 00:26:07.720
can't remember where. So he had launched air strikes. The

404
00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:10.359
pastor stands and says that the president of the United

405
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States had launched air strikes. I don't know if anybody

406
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had been killed. Maybe people had been killed. And the

407
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people in the church stood up and applauded, and I

408
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was sitting there as a teenager. I looked around. I'm like,

409
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we were applauding military action and possible death of human

410
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beings who have eternal soul, who probably was just sent

411
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into eternity. I don't think this is Christianity. This sounds like,

412
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I don't know, American propaganda, American nationalism. We're not here

413
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to support America. We're not here. We're here to learn

414
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about Jesus Christ. And I got ticked off, and I

415
00:26:48.279 --> 00:26:52.359
got up and walked out, and I did not get

416
00:26:52.359 --> 00:26:55.039
along with the conversation with the pastor after that was

417
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not good because I was like, I don't get this.

418
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What is the problem with these people. I thought they

419
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come to church to learn about God and Christ, not

420
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to support the United States of America. And then started

421
00:27:06.640 --> 00:27:07.960
to make me go. And that's probably why we have

422
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this huge American flag right here in the sanctuary, because

423
00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:13.039
this is more about America than it is about God.

424
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Because Jesus is not an American. Okay, the Bible is

425
00:27:16.119 --> 00:27:20.799
not pro America. But I got myself in trouble immediately.

426
00:27:20.880 --> 00:27:22.920
So I already started. That was in the eighties, so

427
00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:25.559
I already knew something that It's just like, I think

428
00:27:25.640 --> 00:27:29.200
Christians are more influenced by their their love for country

429
00:27:29.599 --> 00:27:31.839
or their political party than they are christ But I

430
00:27:31.839 --> 00:27:33.880
didn't know how to process this. I was a teenager.

431
00:27:33.920 --> 00:27:36.559
I was just like, this seems so weird to me

432
00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:40.279
that we're celebrating. I mean, we may be in agreement

433
00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:42.640
with the military strike and think it was necessary, but

434
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to celebrate it, to applaud it. I had problems with

435
00:27:46.279 --> 00:27:49.079
it all right, So our was already knowing something was up.

436
00:27:49.079 --> 00:27:52.880
In the nineteen nineties is when I really started seeing this.

437
00:27:53.559 --> 00:27:56.839
I would hear Christian men talk about certain issues, right,

438
00:27:58.279 --> 00:27:59.920
and it would be like, you know, if something's going

439
00:27:59.920 --> 00:28:01.400
on in the Middle East, we just need to turn

440
00:28:01.440 --> 00:28:03.119
it into a parking lot. I'm like, what do you

441
00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:05.319
mean turning into a parking lot? You know, nuke the

442
00:28:05.359 --> 00:28:08.440
whole place. Wait, there's human beings who live there. They'll

443
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all die. And some of the things they would say,

444
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and then they would use little little derogatory terms towards

445
00:28:16.440 --> 00:28:20.039
you know, maybe Democrats, and I'm like, what is going on?

446
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And then I realized what was happening. These Christian men

447
00:28:26.359 --> 00:28:29.559
on their lunch hour. They were not sitting down to

448
00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:36.559
read Matthew, Mark Luke and John or Paul, or Leviticus

449
00:28:36.680 --> 00:28:42.279
or Ezra or Isaiah or the Psalms or Jeremiah. They

450
00:28:42.279 --> 00:28:47.640
weren't doing in depth Bible study. They weren't listening to sermons.

451
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They were listening to Rush Limbaugh. And I started noticing

452
00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:56.799
that the Christian men would talk like Rush Limbaugh. Now

453
00:28:56.880 --> 00:28:59.960
they would merge it with their Christianity and use christian

454
00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:03.119
and the need to justify these political ideas. And I

455
00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:06.920
was like, something's not right, Something's not right. So I

456
00:29:06.920 --> 00:29:10.480
already started noticing it in the nineties. So and then

457
00:29:10.839 --> 00:29:13.200
you just move forward. I over and over I've said

458
00:29:13.359 --> 00:29:17.519
that Christianity is being influenced by something other than Christianity. Well,

459
00:29:17.799 --> 00:29:21.640
now twenty twenty five, if I can give the number correctly,

460
00:29:22.119 --> 00:29:24.880
we now have George barn Is saying these are the

461
00:29:24.880 --> 00:29:29.480
people shaping Christianity, Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Russell Brand, Jordan Peterson,

462
00:29:29.640 --> 00:29:32.200
Megan Kelly, and Bill Maher. And I'm like, what is happening?

463
00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:37.000
George Barnecut continues, and he argues that even though some

464
00:29:37.039 --> 00:29:40.640
of these individuals express interest in religion or Christianity, their

465
00:29:40.680 --> 00:29:48.599
influence blend's philosophy, pop psychology, and unbiblical theology. Meanwhile, many

466
00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:52.480
churches are offering lightweight sermons series that don't grin ground

467
00:29:52.480 --> 00:29:56.039
people in core biblical doctrines, leaving Christians ill equipped to

468
00:29:56.119 --> 00:30:00.759
resist the cultural narratives flooding their media feeds. Many Christians

469
00:30:00.759 --> 00:30:03.440
are being spiritually shaped more by a daily dose of

470
00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:08.960
political and social commentary than by scripture. Barner warns that

471
00:30:09.079 --> 00:30:12.720
without a renewed commitment to biblical teaching and worldview formation,

472
00:30:13.079 --> 00:30:19.880
American Christianity become American Christianity risk becoming little more than

473
00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:23.799
a cultural label. I want you to hear that George

474
00:30:23.799 --> 00:30:29.960
Barnet is saying, if something does not change, American Christianity

475
00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:34.440
is I mean, the risk exists that American Christianity will

476
00:30:34.480 --> 00:30:39.400
become little more than a cultural label. Just a cultural label,

477
00:30:40.160 --> 00:30:46.200
doesn't have any real philological significance, just another cultural group,

478
00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:51.920
another cultural identity. It doesn't mean anything. It just in fact,

479
00:30:51.960 --> 00:30:56.880
it'll be more shaped by something other than well Jesus Christ.

480
00:30:58.519 --> 00:31:00.839
So I when I was trying to process all of

481
00:31:00.880 --> 00:31:03.720
this and think about all of this, I started thinking, well,

482
00:31:03.720 --> 00:31:07.279
how did we get here? So let's obviously a massive

483
00:31:07.319 --> 00:31:10.039
shift is occurring now I think this shift. I already said,

484
00:31:10.039 --> 00:31:11.319
I can trace it all the way back to the

485
00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:14.200
eighties just in my own experience. But let's try to

486
00:31:14.279 --> 00:31:17.240
trace this the origins and kind of how we got

487
00:31:17.279 --> 00:31:19.440
to where we are today. Right, So let's try to

488
00:31:19.480 --> 00:31:23.400
consider this to try to understand where American Christianity is today.

489
00:31:23.799 --> 00:31:30.279
We have to look back, maybe to where the erosion began. Historically,

490
00:31:30.839 --> 00:31:35.799
the church was the center of philological formation. Right. I

491
00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:38.240
believe that there was a time the church was a

492
00:31:38.359 --> 00:31:42.680
center for philological formation. Now, I wanted when I first

493
00:31:42.759 --> 00:31:44.960
became a pastor, this is what I wanted. I wanted

494
00:31:44.960 --> 00:31:47.759
the church to be a place of philological formation. But

495
00:31:47.839 --> 00:31:50.680
I was accused, it's too much like a seminary, it's

496
00:31:50.720 --> 00:31:53.720
too academic. I just wanted to feel like church. And

497
00:31:53.759 --> 00:31:57.640
I heard it all the time, criticized, criticized, criticized for it,

498
00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:01.279
and that's fine. And I said, well, then go get

499
00:32:01.319 --> 00:32:03.839
your fun food in entertainment somewhere else. All right, this

500
00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:06.359
place is not for you. It's going to be a

501
00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:09.119
center of theological formation. And at some point we're not

502
00:32:09.160 --> 00:32:12.240
gonna just learn theology. We're gonna do theology. At some

503
00:32:12.359 --> 00:32:15.680
point we're not just gonna learn hermanutics. We're gonna do herminutics.

504
00:32:15.680 --> 00:32:18.000
And if you listen to my sermon from the second

505
00:32:18.039 --> 00:32:21.160
hour on Sunday, you listen to a small group of

506
00:32:21.160 --> 00:32:23.960
people because you know the church, the Church for what

507
00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:26.640
it is, is basically over. It's dead. We're just waiting

508
00:32:26.640 --> 00:32:28.839
for the building to sell and it's no longer going

509
00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:31.799
to exist. But for what we still have left, you

510
00:32:31.839 --> 00:32:34.640
will listen to a group of people actually engaged in

511
00:32:34.799 --> 00:32:39.200
doing hermanutics, not just learning about them. And that's why

512
00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:42.119
we put forth a brand new interpretation of Isaiah forty two.

513
00:32:43.559 --> 00:32:45.799
All right, so you can go listen to it. But

514
00:32:46.200 --> 00:32:50.039
historically the church was the center of theological formation. Christians

515
00:32:50.079 --> 00:32:53.200
look to their pastors and the Bible as the primary

516
00:32:53.240 --> 00:32:57.039
sources of truth and guidance. But over the last few decades,

517
00:32:57.960 --> 00:33:07.599
the foundation again the crack. Now where do we go. Well,

518
00:33:07.680 --> 00:33:10.279
I'm going to take it to what I know. That's

519
00:33:10.319 --> 00:33:12.440
what I'm going to do right now. Some of you

520
00:33:12.480 --> 00:33:14.720
may be able to trace this back far back into

521
00:33:14.880 --> 00:33:18.000
church history, and I probably could from a historical perspective,

522
00:33:18.079 --> 00:33:19.839
but I thought it would be more interesting to trace

523
00:33:19.880 --> 00:33:22.000
it back to what I know, so I can speak

524
00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:25.880
from my own experience, and we have to go back

525
00:33:25.920 --> 00:33:30.960
to the nineteen eighties, because this is when I get

526
00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:34.960
introduced to Biblical well to Christianity. And you know what

527
00:33:35.039 --> 00:33:40.839
came with being introduced to Christianity. I was introduced to Christianity, Jesus,

528
00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:48.839
the Bible, Heaven, Hell, the Second Coming, Salvation, baptism, you know,

529
00:33:49.240 --> 00:33:52.519
going to church, Sunday, school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night,

530
00:33:52.759 --> 00:33:55.519
all right, And so I was getting at least a

531
00:33:55.559 --> 00:33:57.160
taste of that. But you know what I was also

532
00:33:57.759 --> 00:34:04.519
immediately thrust it into the rise of the Christian pop

533
00:34:04.680 --> 00:34:14.599
culture in the nineteen eighties. In the nineteen nineties, Christian

534
00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:22.960
media exploded. Christian music CCM, contemporary Christian music, Christian rock,

535
00:34:23.159 --> 00:34:27.039
Christian metal, Christian hip hop, Christian R and B, Christian punk,

536
00:34:27.199 --> 00:34:30.239
Christian SKA. You just named the genre. We had this

537
00:34:30.599 --> 00:34:33.760
Christian easy listening, Christian country, we name it. We had

538
00:34:33.760 --> 00:34:37.679
it all. It was everywhere, right, Christian music, Christian everything

539
00:34:37.880 --> 00:34:40.679
you started having, especially in the nineteen nineties, you had

540
00:34:40.960 --> 00:34:44.519
the rise of Christian basically a form of Christian MTV

541
00:34:44.960 --> 00:34:49.360
known as TVU, right, and it was they had vj's

542
00:34:49.559 --> 00:34:52.519
just like MTV did, and they played music videos and

543
00:34:52.599 --> 00:34:55.559
did countdowns of the top ten and it was like, man,

544
00:34:55.639 --> 00:34:58.199
it was like everything that was in culture now we

545
00:34:58.239 --> 00:35:04.000
had our own Christian pop culture. You had Christian music,

546
00:35:04.039 --> 00:35:07.039
you had conferences, you had TV Christian TV shows, you

547
00:35:07.079 --> 00:35:12.719
had Christian movies. Much of it was more emotional and entertaining.

548
00:35:13.360 --> 00:35:17.519
It was not philological. It was more shaping how people

549
00:35:17.679 --> 00:35:22.519
felt more than how to think. It was about having

550
00:35:22.559 --> 00:35:26.400
this alternative. Hey, the culture out there is ungodly and

551
00:35:26.440 --> 00:35:30.039
it's messed up, and but hey, you have the Christian

552
00:35:30.119 --> 00:35:33.639
alternative now. And you and you would buy into the

553
00:35:33.719 --> 00:35:36.800
Christian alternative because it was Christian and you think you're

554
00:35:36.840 --> 00:35:40.360
doing something biblical. But it was more about feeling and

555
00:35:40.440 --> 00:35:44.199
having an alternative culture than it really was about being

556
00:35:44.239 --> 00:35:53.360
philologically sound. I mean, we can't ignore what happened. You

557
00:35:53.360 --> 00:35:55.719
had the rise of this entire pop culture. So you

558
00:35:55.760 --> 00:35:58.960
had all these people who became Christians and they finally

559
00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:02.199
they really immersed themsels more into this pop, this Christian

560
00:36:02.239 --> 00:36:05.559
pop culture, and they were not being philologically grounded. They

561
00:36:05.639 --> 00:36:08.760
may have been. They may know all the top hits

562
00:36:08.800 --> 00:36:12.519
on Christian radio, they may know the latest Christian video,

563
00:36:12.639 --> 00:36:15.320
they may know what's going on in the Christian show,

564
00:36:15.440 --> 00:36:19.119
Christian movie, Christian book, Christian novel. They may know about

565
00:36:19.119 --> 00:36:22.360
Piercing the Darkness by Frank Peretti, they may know about

566
00:36:22.440 --> 00:36:29.079
Left Behind, but they there was something completely lost, completely lost.

567
00:36:29.519 --> 00:36:33.079
As far as sound biblical theology. I'm not saying it

568
00:36:33.119 --> 00:36:35.840
wasn't out there, but a lot of times you were

569
00:36:35.880 --> 00:36:38.840
getting maybe sound biblical theology, maybe in church, but the

570
00:36:38.920 --> 00:36:44.079
church even itself started pushing towards promoting this pop culture concept.

571
00:36:46.079 --> 00:36:48.360
So what you have the rise of pop culture, then

572
00:36:48.400 --> 00:36:51.559
we get the rise of seeker, sensitive and topical preaching.

573
00:36:51.679 --> 00:36:56.639
Churches shifted to user friendly sermons, shorter, lighter, more therapeutic.

574
00:36:56.920 --> 00:37:01.559
Sin doctrine and theology took a backseat to life tips

575
00:37:01.800 --> 00:37:07.639
and inspirational themes. The preaching began to change. And even

576
00:37:07.639 --> 00:37:11.119
in many sound churches, even if you had good preaching,

577
00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:13.599
they still had to mix in plenty of fun food

578
00:37:13.639 --> 00:37:18.440
and activity and programs and everything there. And when you

579
00:37:18.480 --> 00:37:20.960
started looking at the amount of actual even in churches

580
00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:24.000
that did good teaching, what was happening. Many of them

581
00:37:24.239 --> 00:37:27.519
started sacrificing, say Sunday night to do small groups because

582
00:37:27.519 --> 00:37:29.880
small groups was going to be where we really got disciples,

583
00:37:29.920 --> 00:37:33.280
but they became more about life groups and getting to

584
00:37:33.360 --> 00:37:38.239
know people and making friends and living life together and

585
00:37:38.239 --> 00:37:42.440
singing Kumbaya and talking about our feelings and holding hands

586
00:37:42.679 --> 00:37:44.920
and drinking a coke and having a smile. And we

587
00:37:44.960 --> 00:37:46.840
got this activity. We have a putt luck, and we

588
00:37:46.840 --> 00:37:49.800
have a picnic, and we have a quilting group, and

589
00:37:49.840 --> 00:37:51.559
the women are going on a shopping trip, and the

590
00:37:51.639 --> 00:37:54.599
men are going hunting so we can kill bambi. And

591
00:37:54.639 --> 00:37:58.880
there was activity, activity, activity, activity, activity. But even though

592
00:37:59.119 --> 00:38:01.559
when they did tea those churches, some of those churches

593
00:38:01.599 --> 00:38:06.039
still taught good sound theology, but church still became about

594
00:38:06.079 --> 00:38:08.039
all of these other things. And guess what when you

595
00:38:08.079 --> 00:38:10.320
have all of these other things, that time is not

596
00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:13.880
being utilized to disciple and to teach. It's being used

597
00:38:13.920 --> 00:38:19.159
to build friendships, build relationships. It's about community, right, all

598
00:38:19.199 --> 00:38:21.920
of the buzzwords that I yelled and screamed about for

599
00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:25.280
thirty years. And everybody's like, you just hate people, you

600
00:38:25.400 --> 00:38:27.599
just hate fun. I was like, I don't need church

601
00:38:27.679 --> 00:38:30.079
to get me fun. I can have fun without the church.

602
00:38:30.119 --> 00:38:32.760
I don't need the church to help me make a friend. Okay,

603
00:38:32.800 --> 00:38:34.039
if I want a friend, I'll find a friend of

604
00:38:34.159 --> 00:38:35.800
or I don't. Maybe you don't need a friend, just

605
00:38:35.880 --> 00:38:38.320
leave me alone, all right. So but the point was

606
00:38:38.599 --> 00:38:41.400
the church started becoming all of this other stuff. Well,

607
00:38:41.440 --> 00:38:43.559
guess what happened. You look at the church, You look

608
00:38:43.599 --> 00:38:47.199
at the total amount of teaching put together within a year,

609
00:38:48.119 --> 00:38:50.239
and you're like, are we really getting that much for

610
00:38:50.280 --> 00:38:54.960
the money that's going into it. So you have the

611
00:38:55.039 --> 00:38:57.519
rise of Christian pop culture, and then you have seeker

612
00:38:57.599 --> 00:39:00.440
sensitive and topical preaching. But then this leads to the third.

613
00:39:00.760 --> 00:39:05.000
Now the internet becomes a thing. The Internet begins to grow,

614
00:39:05.320 --> 00:39:09.960
and you get fragmented influence. Once the web opened up,

615
00:39:10.519 --> 00:39:15.119
so did the floodgates of influence. Christians no longer relied

616
00:39:15.159 --> 00:39:18.360
on their pastor or local church for spiritual input. They

617
00:39:18.400 --> 00:39:27.039
were being displaced by blogs, forms, and eventually podcast and YouTube.

618
00:39:27.199 --> 00:39:30.360
Now you've got all these other voices. You got all

619
00:39:30.360 --> 00:39:33.480
these other voices now, and in some ways is why

620
00:39:33.480 --> 00:39:35.480
would you not be looking to the other voices. Because

621
00:39:35.480 --> 00:39:37.880
the church is giving you more fun, food and entertainment

622
00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:40.599
and how to have a friend. Then they're giving you anything.

623
00:39:40.679 --> 00:39:42.480
I go to church to get a friend. I don't

624
00:39:42.480 --> 00:39:44.360
go to the church to get anything. So I'm gonna

625
00:39:44.360 --> 00:39:47.159
look to all these other sources because there's something there.

626
00:39:47.400 --> 00:39:50.920
It's more in depth, it's more interesting, it's more real,

627
00:39:51.159 --> 00:39:56.000
it's more raw. I'm getting this canned presentation, but really

628
00:39:56.039 --> 00:39:58.320
I'm going to church for all of this other nonsense.

629
00:40:00.440 --> 00:40:02.760
You can see the progression here. So you have the

630
00:40:02.800 --> 00:40:05.960
explosion of Christian pop culture. You have the seeker sensitive

631
00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:11.320
topical preaching. Church turns into all things for all people, entertainment,

632
00:40:11.480 --> 00:40:15.320
community center. And then we have the Internet explodes, and

633
00:40:15.360 --> 00:40:20.280
then everything becomes fragmented. Then you have a complete and

634
00:40:20.320 --> 00:40:24.559
total collapse of catechises. Many churches stop teaching basic doctrine,

635
00:40:24.599 --> 00:40:29.360
Sunday schools faded, Midweek service has disappeared. Most Christians today

636
00:40:29.400 --> 00:40:32.159
haven't been taught core beliefs like the Trinity, the attributes

637
00:40:32.199 --> 00:40:34.719
of God are justification by faith, and if they are

638
00:40:34.800 --> 00:40:37.519
taught it, it's not taught in a very like real

639
00:40:37.880 --> 00:40:41.800
let's struggle with it, let's work with It's like, hey, everyone,

640
00:40:42.239 --> 00:40:44.360
here's the book we're going to be working through. Now.

641
00:40:44.400 --> 00:40:47.039
Everyone go read a chapter and then we'll talk about it. Right,

642
00:40:47.079 --> 00:40:49.599
And you can't really dig into it or pastors. All

643
00:40:49.639 --> 00:40:52.400
they do is regurgitate what they were taught. Right, there's

644
00:40:52.440 --> 00:40:56.199
no actual doing theology. It's just like, ooh, today we're

645
00:40:56.199 --> 00:40:58.159
going to talk about the trinity. You're and it just

646
00:40:58.199 --> 00:41:00.599
someone basically walks through the points that they took from

647
00:41:00.960 --> 00:41:04.079
you know, grudom, systematic theology or wherever, and it's not

648
00:41:04.119 --> 00:41:11.000
really working or struggling through it. Now, these trends created

649
00:41:11.920 --> 00:41:15.880
a generation of Christians who felt spiritual. They felt spiritual.

650
00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:17.960
There was a lot of activity, there was a lot

651
00:41:17.960 --> 00:41:22.239
of sound and fury, but nothing was really deeply rooted

652
00:41:22.400 --> 00:41:24.679
in biblical doctrine. And this set the stage for what

653
00:41:24.800 --> 00:41:29.960
comes next. So we have the origins of the shift,

654
00:41:30.079 --> 00:41:33.679
and that really is the rise of Christian pop culture, seeker, sensitive,

655
00:41:33.719 --> 00:41:36.639
topical preaching. The church becomes all things to all people,

656
00:41:36.679 --> 00:41:40.960
becomes a community center, and the collapse of catechises. Right,

657
00:41:41.159 --> 00:41:43.800
that's that's kind of what what where we get to

658
00:41:44.000 --> 00:41:46.280
and then what happens now we get to the next phase.

659
00:41:47.079 --> 00:41:50.800
The next phase I will refer to the next phase

660
00:41:51.880 --> 00:41:58.880
as the political hijacking and the social media corruption of

661
00:41:58.920 --> 00:42:04.559
American Christianity. That the political hijacking and the social media

662
00:42:05.119 --> 00:42:08.840
corruption of American Christianity. Let's talk about the political hijacking

663
00:42:08.840 --> 00:42:14.400
of the church in the two thousands and especially you

664
00:42:14.480 --> 00:42:22.480
get around two thy fifteen, going into twenty sixteen, someone

665
00:42:22.679 --> 00:42:29.000
comes down the golden escalator and his name is Donald Trump.

666
00:42:30.639 --> 00:42:32.840
And whatever you want to say about what he does

667
00:42:32.880 --> 00:42:37.159
to American politics, to me, he came down the golden

668
00:42:37.280 --> 00:42:47.079
escalator and it immediately began to destroy American Christianity because

669
00:42:47.079 --> 00:42:49.719
in the two thousands and especially leading up to the

670
00:42:49.800 --> 00:42:55.400
twenty sixteen and after, politics took over the pulpit and

671
00:42:55.440 --> 00:42:59.199
it took over many christians hearts. Political identity became more

672
00:42:59.239 --> 00:43:03.159
important than phil logical identity. Christians started filtering scripture through

673
00:43:03.159 --> 00:43:05.760
their political views. As said of the other way around.

674
00:43:06.280 --> 00:43:10.599
Churches began to divide not over doctrine, but over party allegiances.

675
00:43:11.079 --> 00:43:14.679
Sermons and small groups reflected culture wars more than they

676
00:43:14.719 --> 00:43:18.599
did gospel clarity. A growing number of Christians became more

677
00:43:18.639 --> 00:43:21.840
emotionally invested in what was said by politicians and pundits

678
00:43:21.920 --> 00:43:25.760
than by their own pastor. This opened the door for

679
00:43:25.840 --> 00:43:30.519
political commentators to become spiritual authorities. All of a sudden,

680
00:43:30.679 --> 00:43:33.119
everyone in the church was more They started sounding like

681
00:43:33.159 --> 00:43:37.000
Donald Trump's Twitter feed or x feed or truth social

682
00:43:37.119 --> 00:43:41.960
wherever he was, he was putting forth his words I'll

683
00:43:41.960 --> 00:43:44.800
be nice, okay, and then well, and then it started

684
00:43:44.840 --> 00:43:47.800
and then Christians started sounding like Alex Jones, started sounding

685
00:43:47.840 --> 00:43:51.440
like Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and it's like,

686
00:43:51.519 --> 00:43:54.559
what is happening? And it was all like pro America,

687
00:43:54.679 --> 00:43:58.199
make America great again. We're maga, We're maga, and we're

688
00:43:58.239 --> 00:44:00.920
Trump Trump supporters, and it's like, oh my goodness, what

689
00:44:00.960 --> 00:44:11.400
has happened to the American church? Politics politics, politics, politics, politics, politics, politics, politics, politics,

690
00:44:11.400 --> 00:44:15.599
conspiracy theory, conspiracy theory, conspiracy theory, conspiracy theory, the rise

691
00:44:15.639 --> 00:44:18.559
of QAnon. We can go in all these crazy things

692
00:44:18.599 --> 00:44:22.280
that started happening because why the church had already let

693
00:44:22.280 --> 00:44:26.840
them down. They had been so not It's almost like

694
00:44:26.880 --> 00:44:30.199
they didn't think theology or Christianity really had the answer.

695
00:44:30.280 --> 00:44:34.119
They Christianity needed politics to really do what I guess

696
00:44:34.119 --> 00:44:36.280
they wanted to. Everything was about a culture war at

697
00:44:36.320 --> 00:44:41.039
this point, then about biblical Christianity. So there's the political

698
00:44:41.119 --> 00:44:43.800
hijacking of the church, and then we know the rise

699
00:44:43.840 --> 00:44:47.000
and rule of social media. At the same time, social

700
00:44:47.079 --> 00:44:54.639
media radically changed how people consume information algorithms became disciple makers.

701
00:44:56.559 --> 00:45:02.480
Algorithms became the disciple makers. They delivered content designed to

702
00:45:02.480 --> 00:45:07.960
stir emotion and deepen tribal loyalties. TikTok, Instagram and YouTube

703
00:45:07.960 --> 00:45:12.599
creators began shaping people's theology, often in short, meme able

704
00:45:12.760 --> 00:45:19.880
content lacking depth or accountability. Algorithm becomes the new disciple maker.

705
00:45:20.800 --> 00:45:23.719
You're you're on social media, and it's what's in your feed,

706
00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:25.760
and if you don't like something, block if you don't

707
00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:31.440
like something, and so you build echo chambers. So then TikTok,

708
00:45:31.519 --> 00:45:35.719
Instagram and YouTube creators began shaping people's theology, often and short,

709
00:45:36.039 --> 00:45:39.199
meme able stuff that you can easily turn into a meme.

710
00:45:39.440 --> 00:45:41.760
It's it's, it's, it's, it's ready to go. It's meme,

711
00:45:41.880 --> 00:45:45.320
ready to go. And then memes start becoming how Christians,

712
00:45:45.440 --> 00:45:48.519
I guess start thinking content, and this kind of content

713
00:45:48.800 --> 00:45:53.119
lacked any depth or accountability. Influencers who were charismatic and

714
00:45:53.159 --> 00:45:57.039
real became more compelling than their faithful but less flashy,

715
00:45:57.320 --> 00:46:02.920
flashy pastors. The people online, the people in your social

716
00:46:02.920 --> 00:46:05.840
media feed, well, these are more real, they're more organic,

717
00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:09.599
maybe they're more charismatic. They can present it in a

718
00:46:09.679 --> 00:46:12.840
much more flashy way. I staid of just a man

719
00:46:12.920 --> 00:46:16.119
standing behind a pulpit saying, today, open your bibles. We're

720
00:46:16.119 --> 00:46:18.880
in Romans chapter one. We're going to cover verses one

721
00:46:18.920 --> 00:46:24.360
through four. Booooooo boom. Now it's not that people we

722
00:46:24.400 --> 00:46:27.159
start booing, but in reality they're kind of like tuned out.

723
00:46:27.280 --> 00:46:29.960
Oh I wonder what's going on on YouTube? Oh wait, wait,

724
00:46:29.960 --> 00:46:32.440
there's a new TikTok. Wait. I got a notification on

725
00:46:32.480 --> 00:46:35.519
the on the gram, I got, Oh, what's going on here?

726
00:46:36.840 --> 00:46:40.360
That's more flashy, it's more interesting, it's more real, it's

727
00:46:40.360 --> 00:46:42.679
more organic, or at least in part it appears to

728
00:46:42.719 --> 00:46:49.760
be so. Christians began following figures who offered meaning, identity,

729
00:46:49.760 --> 00:46:52.119
and a sense of belonging, often outside the church and

730
00:46:52.199 --> 00:46:57.519
sometimes outside the faith altogether. Because in many cases, these influencers,

731
00:46:57.599 --> 00:47:01.880
these people on social media, the YouTubers, they were reinforcing

732
00:47:02.079 --> 00:47:08.239
their political thoughts, right, so they because they start becoming

733
00:47:08.280 --> 00:47:11.639
so consumed with politics, pastors aren't. I want a pastor

734
00:47:11.679 --> 00:47:13.519
out talk about what's going on in the world. I

735
00:47:13.559 --> 00:47:16.039
want to talk about what's happening, because you want to

736
00:47:16.079 --> 00:47:22.199
just get drown yourself in a political cultural issue. And

737
00:47:22.280 --> 00:47:26.159
not just theology. And look, I I was yelling about

738
00:47:26.159 --> 00:47:30.239
this all how many years ago, I used to talk

739
00:47:30.239 --> 00:47:33.400
about this all the time, and I and look, it

740
00:47:33.480 --> 00:47:38.119
had a massively negative profile impact on my own spiritual life.

741
00:47:38.159 --> 00:47:40.920
Look any mistakes in any sin that I've ever committed,

742
00:47:41.079 --> 00:47:44.199
it's only it's my fault. It's nobody else's fault. But

743
00:47:44.320 --> 00:47:46.639
I can see how some things had negative impact on

744
00:47:46.679 --> 00:47:49.559
me because here's what happened, right. I started realizing a

745
00:47:49.719 --> 00:47:53.079
long time ago, even on sermonadio. And I'm not going

746
00:47:53.119 --> 00:47:55.920
to say how it's still true to some level today.

747
00:47:56.519 --> 00:47:59.119
I get if I go on Sermonadio and I post

748
00:47:59.239 --> 00:48:02.800
a something about something going on in the culture, right,

749
00:48:03.079 --> 00:48:07.400
something about Trump, something about the Democrats, something about LGBTQ,

750
00:48:07.719 --> 00:48:12.039
something about transgender, something about if I go after the

751
00:48:12.119 --> 00:48:15.760
culture wars, if I go after current events and I

752
00:48:15.840 --> 00:48:20.119
make the title shocking or controversial, if I call out

753
00:48:20.480 --> 00:48:24.079
you know why the Democrats are Satan's tools Taylor Swift

754
00:48:24.119 --> 00:48:27.840
as a Satanist. You know, if I go after Hollywood

755
00:48:27.920 --> 00:48:30.960
is full of pedophiles. If I go with all this crazy,

756
00:48:31.039 --> 00:48:34.679
this kind of typical content, boom, the numbers will go

757
00:48:34.760 --> 00:48:39.920
from ten downloads twenty to five hundred to one thousand.

758
00:48:41.440 --> 00:48:46.639
People want controversy. They want they want something shocking. They

759
00:48:46.679 --> 00:48:49.840
want something, you know, ooh, you know, pulling back the

760
00:48:49.880 --> 00:48:55.280
curtains and exposing people. They just want conflict, controversy, shocking.

761
00:48:55.440 --> 00:48:58.239
They want because they see so much content, it's got

762
00:48:58.320 --> 00:48:59.760
to be something that's going to get them. And you've

763
00:48:59.800 --> 00:49:01.679
got to be quick. You gotta be quick, man, you

764
00:49:01.760 --> 00:49:04.920
gotta be Oh wha, wha, wha, what the story just broke. Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry,

765
00:49:04.960 --> 00:49:06.920
go go, go, go go. We're coming to you live

766
00:49:06.960 --> 00:49:09.639
from the Theology Central podcast. I know this news story

767
00:49:09.679 --> 00:49:11.679
is just breaking, but I gotta let you know that

768
00:49:11.800 --> 00:49:14.519
President Trump is the Antichrist. Oh get it, I'll get it.

769
00:49:14.559 --> 00:49:15.920
Put oh. I don't want to say that. I'd get

770
00:49:15.920 --> 00:49:18.679
me in trouble, but you get the ad. Obama's the Antichrist.

771
00:49:18.760 --> 00:49:21.440
Obama's gonna put us in FEMA camps. Oh oh, the

772
00:49:21.480 --> 00:49:23.800
flu vaccine is putting the mark of the beast. And

773
00:49:23.840 --> 00:49:26.920
I just throw out every create. Reptilians are taking over

774
00:49:26.960 --> 00:49:30.719
the world, you know, just go crazy, man bloom. I

775
00:49:30.719 --> 00:49:33.679
get the downloads, I get the streams, and people will

776
00:49:33.679 --> 00:49:36.199
be like, hey, let me sign up for your Patreon page.

777
00:49:36.239 --> 00:49:44.719
I'll give you money. I watched it happen over and

778
00:49:44.800 --> 00:49:47.280
over and over. I could I could be like, Oh,

779
00:49:47.320 --> 00:49:49.960
I'm gonna do a I'm gonna do a daily devotional.

780
00:49:50.480 --> 00:49:52.159
I'm just gonna dig in. I try to do something

781
00:49:52.199 --> 00:49:57.000
called the Daily Manna. Way back then, I get ten downloads,

782
00:49:57.760 --> 00:50:00.280
twenty downloads, We're gonna go first. By the rest of

783
00:50:00.280 --> 00:50:04.320
the book of Levitigus, you give maybe fifty downloads. Oh,

784
00:50:04.440 --> 00:50:13.239
cover something controversial, Boom, five hundred one thousand. It became

785
00:50:13.360 --> 00:50:16.719
it became a joke. I don't even need to really

786
00:50:16.800 --> 00:50:19.599
talk about now. When I do those when I do

787
00:50:19.639 --> 00:50:21.679
those controversial programs, oh, of course, I got to read

788
00:50:21.719 --> 00:50:24.559
some scripture and rip it way out of context. Of course,

789
00:50:27.440 --> 00:50:28.960
And you can even see it on the sermon on

790
00:50:29.039 --> 00:50:30.920
sermon audio today. You look for the people who are

791
00:50:30.960 --> 00:50:33.519
going to be doing those more controversial kinds of programs,

792
00:50:33.639 --> 00:50:44.280
they get the numbers, so and and this all just

793
00:50:44.400 --> 00:50:47.320
falls into this. What would get the political hijacking. And

794
00:50:47.360 --> 00:50:50.840
then the rise of social media, and so algorithm becomes

795
00:50:51.719 --> 00:50:58.400
becomes the disciple maker. It does controversy cells and so

796
00:50:58.480 --> 00:51:02.079
then TikTok Instagram and YouTuber. They catch on, So you

797
00:51:02.159 --> 00:51:06.800
begin shaping people's theology and the short mean type content

798
00:51:06.960 --> 00:51:11.559
and no depth or accountability. Christians began following figures who

799
00:51:11.559 --> 00:51:14.079
offered meaning, identity, and a sense of belonging, oftening outside

800
00:51:14.159 --> 00:51:16.960
the church and sometimes outside the faith altogether. So now

801
00:51:17.079 --> 00:51:19.039
that leads us to what's happening now. So we have

802
00:51:19.079 --> 00:51:22.159
talked about the origins of the shift. We talked about

803
00:51:22.239 --> 00:51:25.480
the next phase, which is the political highs, hijacking and

804
00:51:25.519 --> 00:51:28.039
the rise of social media. Now let's talk about what's

805
00:51:28.039 --> 00:51:30.440
happening now. Well, what is the result? Well, we just

806
00:51:30.440 --> 00:51:33.400
got to study today. The latest study by the Christian

807
00:51:33.440 --> 00:51:36.880
Research Center at Arizona Christian University says only eleven percent

808
00:51:36.880 --> 00:51:39.599
of all US adults and just sixteen percent of self

809
00:51:39.599 --> 00:51:43.320
identified Christians affirm the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. That's

810
00:51:43.360 --> 00:51:45.920
not a minor doctrinal detail. That's one of the pillars

811
00:51:45.920 --> 00:51:50.400
of historic Christianity. Even more telling, George Barna, the lead researcher,

812
00:51:50.440 --> 00:51:53.599
says that the most influential theologians for American Christians today

813
00:51:53.760 --> 00:51:57.880
are not pastors. They are podcasts and broadcast personalities. Trucker

814
00:51:57.960 --> 00:52:02.199
Carlson Joe Rogan, Russell Brand and Jordan Peterson, Megan Kelly

815
00:52:02.280 --> 00:52:06.119
and Bill Maher. Some of these voices are openly spiritually, spiritual,

816
00:52:06.239 --> 00:52:09.679
or respectful of Christianity. Others are skeptical or even hostile,

817
00:52:09.880 --> 00:52:14.360
but they all offer answers to life's big questions identity, purpose, suffering,

818
00:52:14.440 --> 00:52:17.519
and morality. Many Christians now spend more time listening to

819
00:52:17.559 --> 00:52:20.599
these voices than they do to scripture or their pastors.

820
00:52:20.880 --> 00:52:25.480
Philological formation is happening, but it's happening somewhere else, because

821
00:52:25.519 --> 00:52:30.119
the church is not. It's it. I don't even know

822
00:52:30.119 --> 00:52:32.599
what the church does anymore other than get a lot

823
00:52:32.599 --> 00:52:39.519
of money to keep buildings operating and pay salaries. So

824
00:52:39.559 --> 00:52:43.000
that's where we are today. You can now put you

825
00:52:43.039 --> 00:52:47.719
can put the names in. Look at the latest podcast charts,

826
00:52:47.760 --> 00:52:52.159
that's what you do. Look at how many downloads of

827
00:52:52.239 --> 00:52:55.000
Joe Rogan gets or a Megan Kelly gets, or Jordan

828
00:52:55.079 --> 00:53:00.239
Peterson or a Russell Brand or an Andrew Tate, look

829
00:53:00.239 --> 00:53:02.719
at look at look at the are an Alex Jones.

830
00:53:07.719 --> 00:53:10.039
And then when you do, look at the top of

831
00:53:10.119 --> 00:53:13.599
the of the Christian podcast. Look at how shallow they are,

832
00:53:14.119 --> 00:53:17.880
look at how how how little, look at when you

833
00:53:17.920 --> 00:53:21.840
listen to the to the Top Christian podcast. Listen, look

834
00:53:21.840 --> 00:53:26.960
at how overly produced they are, how manufactured here, how

835
00:53:27.079 --> 00:53:31.840
generic they are, how shallow they are. They're not real,

836
00:53:31.960 --> 00:53:34.760
They're not raw. Now I'm not saying there aren't any,

837
00:53:34.800 --> 00:53:37.840
but so many of them. It's just like, oh, my goodness, this,

838
00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:41.480
what is this? I'm not getting anything from that. There's

839
00:53:41.519 --> 00:53:45.039
nothing of depth. Now, there are some who have who

840
00:53:45.079 --> 00:53:48.599
have fought back and have done a good job, and

841
00:53:48.719 --> 00:53:50.920
they should be applied. Whether I agree or disagree, at

842
00:53:51.000 --> 00:53:56.280
least they're offering something of substance. So what what what

843
00:53:56.400 --> 00:53:59.320
it means for the church? Well, this shift carries deep

844
00:53:59.360 --> 00:54:03.880
consequences for the future of Christianity. Doctrinal collapse. If the

845
00:54:03.920 --> 00:54:07.920
belief in the Trinity is fading, then the belief in

846
00:54:08.000 --> 00:54:11.960
Christ's divinity, salvation, sin, and the resurrection, well, if they

847
00:54:12.000 --> 00:54:14.400
haven't already collapsed, they're not far behind. And again, I've

848
00:54:14.440 --> 00:54:16.559
talked about it so many times. You start even talking

849
00:54:16.599 --> 00:54:22.599
about justification based off an imputed righteousness, not an infused righteousness,

850
00:54:22.639 --> 00:54:25.039
and you listen to sermon after sermon after sermon, at

851
00:54:25.119 --> 00:54:29.000
least functionally, at least practically practically, they all deny justification

852
00:54:29.079 --> 00:54:32.079
by an imputed righteousness. Righteousness over and over and over.

853
00:54:32.119 --> 00:54:35.119
We've identified that a million times, and listen to how

854
00:54:35.159 --> 00:54:38.639
the text are handled over and over and over, so

855
00:54:38.719 --> 00:54:40.599
we have a complete doc. We're in the midst of

856
00:54:40.599 --> 00:54:46.119
a complete doctrinal collapse. Next, cultural Christianity reinforced, more people

857
00:54:46.159 --> 00:54:49.559
will wear the Christian label while rejecting Christian beliefs. More

858
00:54:49.559 --> 00:54:53.159
and more people will claim Christianity, but they were actually

859
00:54:53.559 --> 00:54:57.320
not Christian in any functional way. They're Christian, they just

860
00:54:57.440 --> 00:55:01.800
use Christianity to support Trump or their politics or putin

861
00:55:01.960 --> 00:55:04.519
killing everyone in Ukraine or whatever they're going to use

862
00:55:04.599 --> 00:55:11.960
Christianity to justify today. Christianity is just something. It's just

863
00:55:12.079 --> 00:55:15.639
a cultural label that they utilize to justify their culture

864
00:55:15.679 --> 00:55:23.199
wars and their political leanings. Biblical illiteracy is the norm.

865
00:55:23.800 --> 00:55:28.559
Without deep teaching, Christians can't tell biblical truth from cultural ideology.

866
00:55:28.639 --> 00:55:31.679
And biblical illiteracy has been a problem that goes all

867
00:55:31.719 --> 00:55:35.400
the way back to when I was in Bible college

868
00:55:35.440 --> 00:55:40.039
and seminary in the nineties. I was being told, man, look,

869
00:55:40.280 --> 00:55:42.559
whenever new freshmen come in, we have to start over

870
00:55:42.599 --> 00:55:45.280
with the basics because they're coming from churches and they

871
00:55:45.320 --> 00:55:47.440
don't know anything. I'm like, you know why they don't

872
00:55:47.440 --> 00:55:50.880
know anything? Because the church is a stinking joke. It's

873
00:55:50.920 --> 00:55:54.559
pizza parties, it's fun food. It's very little preaching and

874
00:55:54.599 --> 00:55:57.239
teaching of anything in depth. Or it's holding hands, sitting

875
00:55:57.280 --> 00:55:59.519
in a semi circle talking about what you think to

876
00:55:59.559 --> 00:56:02.760
text me. I was yelling and screaming about it in

877
00:56:02.800 --> 00:56:10.639
the nineties, but nobody was stinking listening. Biblical literacy has

878
00:56:10.679 --> 00:56:13.320
been a problem forever, and there's been study after study

879
00:56:13.360 --> 00:56:16.519
after study saying biblical literacy, biblical literacy. Now, I do

880
00:56:16.599 --> 00:56:20.480
blame the churches for it, but I'm done blaming churches

881
00:56:20.639 --> 00:56:23.679
right because I used to blame church. Now churches are

882
00:56:23.719 --> 00:56:25.599
just I don't even know. Did we just throw money.

883
00:56:25.719 --> 00:56:27.719
That's just a place to give money to to keep

884
00:56:27.760 --> 00:56:29.880
buildings open so that we can all feel like we're

885
00:56:29.920 --> 00:56:32.239
doing something for God. To me, it's a waste of

886
00:56:32.679 --> 00:56:36.039
absolute time. But now I no longer blame churches. Any

887
00:56:36.119 --> 00:56:38.920
Christian who's biblically illiterate, it's no one's fault but your own.

888
00:56:40.920 --> 00:56:43.559
You've got more tools available to you than any Christian

889
00:56:43.599 --> 00:56:46.960
has in the entire history of Christianity. You've got billions

890
00:56:47.000 --> 00:56:51.360
of sermons available to you, philological every theological work you

891
00:56:51.400 --> 00:56:54.239
can imagine, you've got. I mean we could go on

892
00:56:54.320 --> 00:56:56.760
and on. Just again, just take one app the sermon

893
00:56:56.760 --> 00:56:59.320
audio app over six about between five to six thousand

894
00:56:59.360 --> 00:57:02.679
sermons are at every single week. You've got an entire

895
00:57:02.760 --> 00:57:06.039
seminary education waiting you twenty four hours a day, seven

896
00:57:06.119 --> 00:57:08.480
days a week. And if you don't want it, it's

897
00:57:08.480 --> 00:57:11.559
because you would rather listen to Joe Rogan and rather

898
00:57:12.079 --> 00:57:15.239
yelling and watch Fox News and tell everyone how great

899
00:57:15.239 --> 00:57:17.960
Trump is. Then you care about actually doing any serious

900
00:57:17.960 --> 00:57:20.760
theological work. That's on you. I'm sick and tired. I

901
00:57:20.840 --> 00:57:22.960
used to blame the church. Done blaming the church. Just

902
00:57:23.000 --> 00:57:25.639
know it's the people sitting in the pew. You don't care,

903
00:57:25.840 --> 00:57:28.199
you don't want to know. It's on you. Stop whining

904
00:57:28.239 --> 00:57:32.079
about anybody. So nobody taught me because you didn't care

905
00:57:32.199 --> 00:57:36.199
to learn. And I used to say, well, if you

906
00:57:36.360 --> 00:57:39.239
just create a church that will offer in depth teaching,

907
00:57:39.360 --> 00:57:41.519
people will flood to it. No they won't. They come

908
00:57:41.559 --> 00:57:43.440
into it, and then they go, I really want this,

909
00:57:43.519 --> 00:57:45.519
and I want this, and I want this and I

910
00:57:45.639 --> 00:57:50.480
want this. Well, then go to your stinking little playtime

911
00:57:50.760 --> 00:57:55.559
and be happy. I used to be blamed the church.

912
00:57:55.639 --> 00:57:58.320
Now I'm tired of that, tired of blaming the church

913
00:57:58.360 --> 00:58:00.920
people sitting in the pew. What you want, then just

914
00:58:00.960 --> 00:58:06.920
stop pretending you want fun, food, fellowship and activities, because

915
00:58:06.920 --> 00:58:08.280
as soon as you get into a place that's going

916
00:58:08.320 --> 00:58:12.199
to actually challenge biblical literacy and do theology and do hermaniitics,

917
00:58:12.239 --> 00:58:14.280
you get offended and you get mad and you walk away.

918
00:58:18.800 --> 00:58:21.599
Churches are losing their authority. If voices like Rogan or

919
00:58:21.639 --> 00:58:24.800
Brand are more trusted than local pastors, the church becomes sidelined,

920
00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:27.519
even to its own members. The church is beyond sideline.

921
00:58:27.760 --> 00:58:31.719
The church has been. The church is just a it's

922
00:58:31.760 --> 00:58:38.440
a it's an it's a it's an antiquated leftover. I

923
00:58:38.760 --> 00:58:41.360
don't even know what it's to say. It's just a relic.

924
00:58:41.559 --> 00:58:43.920
It's a relic of a time gone by. But yet

925
00:58:43.920 --> 00:58:47.559
we're still spending money and money and money propping up buildings,

926
00:58:48.559 --> 00:58:51.320
but nothing is happening in them. The people sitting in

927
00:58:51.360 --> 00:58:54.599
those those pews are being more influenced by everything other

928
00:58:54.679 --> 00:58:57.280
than what's going on inside that building, because much of

929
00:58:57.320 --> 00:59:01.199
what's going on in that building is not enough substance

930
00:59:01.400 --> 00:59:10.239
to really make an influence. Christianity becomes more of a vibe.

931
00:59:10.480 --> 00:59:14.199
It's less of a system of revealed truth. It's more flexible.

932
00:59:14.639 --> 00:59:18.920
It's a spiritualized framework that blends self help, political ideology,

933
00:59:19.079 --> 00:59:27.280
and personal experience. That's what Christianity is today. So how

934
00:59:27.280 --> 00:59:31.880
do we correct it? I don't know. I don't know

935
00:59:31.920 --> 00:59:35.880
how to correct it. I don't. I really don't. I

936
00:59:35.880 --> 00:59:39.400
could sit here and offer a million. I look, everything

937
00:59:39.480 --> 00:59:44.559
I've tried to do has been a failure. It's just that.

938
00:59:44.639 --> 00:59:47.559
I mean, I can give you example after example of

939
00:59:47.599 --> 00:59:50.119
things I try to do to get people into I mean,

940
00:59:50.119 --> 00:59:53.039
I try to start create a church that was all

941
00:59:53.079 --> 00:59:56.119
about this, and I watch what happened. People would come in, Oh,

942
00:59:56.280 --> 00:59:58.840
I'm so tired of church as usual. And then next thing,

943
00:59:58.840 --> 01:00:00.760
you know, where do they all got? Oh they go

944
01:00:00.800 --> 01:00:02.920
to a church. It's just like the churches they said

945
01:00:02.920 --> 01:00:05.559
that they were tired of. That's what people want. And

946
01:00:05.599 --> 01:00:08.519
you try to do theology, do harmoneutics. People get offended,

947
01:00:08.519 --> 01:00:11.039
they get mad, they leave. It's just I mean, it's

948
01:00:11.079 --> 01:00:14.360
an exercise in futility. I can sit here and put

949
01:00:14.400 --> 01:00:19.800
out fifteen thousand hours of content on Bible study exercise.

950
01:00:19.920 --> 01:00:24.199
I could even try to provide digital curriculum available to everybody.

951
01:00:25.519 --> 01:00:29.679
I watch it. Why those numbers to those programs are low, low, low,

952
01:00:29.840 --> 01:00:33.480
low low. I can do one program about something controversial,

953
01:00:33.679 --> 01:00:36.639
and boom, I can triple the numbers of trying to

954
01:00:36.719 --> 01:00:40.159
do actual Bible teaching. Now, I'm going to continue to

955
01:00:40.199 --> 01:00:42.320
try to do my best at doing Bible teaching. I'm

956
01:00:42.360 --> 01:00:44.960
not saying that. I'm just saying I understand the futility

957
01:00:45.039 --> 01:00:48.000
in it. I mean, we try to provide, you know,

958
01:00:48.199 --> 01:00:51.760
digital curriculum for everyone. We tried how many people actually

959
01:00:51.840 --> 01:00:54.599
used it? How many people were even willing to support

960
01:00:55.000 --> 01:00:58.000
the offering of it. We were giving, we were paying

961
01:00:58.079 --> 01:01:00.599
money to try to make it all available. People wouldn't

962
01:01:00.599 --> 01:01:06.079
even support it. We tried to do giveaways of giving people,

963
01:01:06.880 --> 01:01:10.360
you know, books and reference tools. Were people willing to

964
01:01:10.400 --> 01:01:19.760
help give money to support that. No, it's like it's

965
01:01:19.960 --> 01:01:24.599
just oh man, it's so it's so maddening where the

966
01:01:24.679 --> 01:01:27.559
things are, and and just I can just think about

967
01:01:27.800 --> 01:01:30.639
how things have gone in my own experience as a pastor.

968
01:01:32.480 --> 01:01:36.480
The different thing I'm reaching back trying. I gotta plug

969
01:01:36.559 --> 01:01:38.159
in my iPad because it's about to die here, and

970
01:01:38.199 --> 01:01:40.840
that's where I have all my notes. So I'm sorry.

971
01:01:40.840 --> 01:01:43.199
I had to lean way, way way away from the microphone.

972
01:01:45.280 --> 01:01:47.599
There we go, because also I get that warning on

973
01:01:47.639 --> 01:01:50.840
my iPad you've got like three five percent left of

974
01:01:50.920 --> 01:01:55.239
your battery. Your iPad's about to die. So but yeah,

975
01:01:55.280 --> 01:01:56.480
I mean, I don't know. I mean, I've got a

976
01:01:56.559 --> 01:01:58.320
list of things here putting down on my notes of

977
01:01:58.400 --> 01:02:00.559
things we could try to do. But to me, it's

978
01:02:00.559 --> 01:02:03.079
a waste of time. People have been trying to say

979
01:02:03.119 --> 01:02:06.760
what to do since the nineteen nineties. I can remember

980
01:02:06.840 --> 01:02:08.960
when when in the nineties there used to be a

981
01:02:10.360 --> 01:02:13.119
magazine that came out called the Discipleship Journal. Oh. I

982
01:02:13.239 --> 01:02:16.039
used to love getting that. I would go to Divine

983
01:02:16.119 --> 01:02:19.320
Truth and Papilia, Nebraska and get my copy every every

984
01:02:19.599 --> 01:02:23.519
I think I think it was ever quarter of Discipleship Journal.

985
01:02:23.639 --> 01:02:26.400
I would get that magazine. Oh, I'd tear that thing apart. Now,

986
01:02:26.440 --> 01:02:29.199
it was really designed for the explosion of small groups.

987
01:02:29.239 --> 01:02:31.559
But it was like giving you these things to study

988
01:02:31.639 --> 01:02:33.920
and giving you things to read. And I love that.

989
01:02:34.119 --> 01:02:41.639
And that thing it fell apart, went away and I

990
01:02:42.480 --> 01:02:44.760
could just you could just see that Christians didn't really

991
01:02:44.840 --> 01:02:47.840
care to dig in and then as a pastor man

992
01:02:47.880 --> 01:02:50.480
all the things we tried to do, do I even

993
01:02:50.559 --> 01:02:53.519
have it here. I got it laying right out feature

994
01:02:53.679 --> 01:02:56.239
the Daily Bible Study Guide. I told every I've told

995
01:02:56.239 --> 01:02:58.320
everyone even on this podcast, how to get a subscription

996
01:02:58.440 --> 01:03:00.719
to feature a daily Bible Study Guide really cheap for

997
01:03:00.800 --> 01:03:02.559
a year. I think it's like twelve dollars for a year.

998
01:03:03.239 --> 01:03:06.039
The thing is a really good devotional. It's like, at

999
01:03:06.119 --> 01:03:08.159
least from a devotional perspective, the best you're gonna get.

1000
01:03:08.159 --> 01:03:09.880
I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's best gonna get

1001
01:03:09.880 --> 01:03:12.360
because a lot of times it tends to be exegetical. Well,

1002
01:03:12.400 --> 01:03:14.360
we try to give those away to everyone in the church.

1003
01:03:14.599 --> 01:03:17.519
We would have like a hundred of them just to

1004
01:03:17.599 --> 01:03:20.000
hand to people, right, and then we try a thing

1005
01:03:20.119 --> 01:03:23.159
where we did, Hey, you go do the devotional each day.

1006
01:03:23.960 --> 01:03:25.639
You'll come to Sunday school and we'll do a test

1007
01:03:25.840 --> 01:03:29.280
on the devotional readings for that week. That was a failure.

1008
01:03:29.440 --> 01:03:32.039
That was a failure. We used to give away at

1009
01:03:32.079 --> 01:03:34.119
the beginning of every year, we would try to give

1010
01:03:34.159 --> 01:03:36.960
everyone two books. Here are the two books. You have

1011
01:03:37.000 --> 01:03:39.159
an entire year to read these two books, and these

1012
01:03:39.199 --> 01:03:41.639
books are going to influence. Nobody would read the books

1013
01:03:42.280 --> 01:03:45.239
we tried to do study guide nobody. Half the people

1014
01:03:45.280 --> 01:03:47.960
wouldn't use them over and over in a failure fail

1015
01:03:48.079 --> 01:03:50.719
your fail, your fail, your fail, your fail, your fail

1016
01:03:50.800 --> 01:03:53.840
your failure, and you're just kind of like, man, what

1017
01:03:54.599 --> 01:03:57.000
do you look? The church can do everything, but it's

1018
01:03:57.079 --> 01:03:59.920
the people in the pew have to decide what they want.

1019
01:04:02.960 --> 01:04:05.519
And I understand the people in the pew are somewhat overwhelmed.

1020
01:04:05.599 --> 01:04:08.800
I will give them that they are bombarded twenty four

1021
01:04:08.960 --> 01:04:13.000
seven with their phone and their social media and this

1022
01:04:13.159 --> 01:04:15.400
content and this content and this content and this content

1023
01:04:15.480 --> 01:04:17.679
and this content and this content. At some point that

1024
01:04:17.760 --> 01:04:20.280
they have to stop and go, well, where what am

1025
01:04:20.280 --> 01:04:24.559
I doing? Spiritually? And then the people in the pew

1026
01:04:24.599 --> 01:04:31.280
are politically hijacked, I mean beyond that. But I can

1027
01:04:31.320 --> 01:04:35.360
say I do believe this. We are witnessing a reformation,

1028
01:04:38.079 --> 01:04:45.760
only this one is not being driven by Bibles, by counsels,

1029
01:04:47.400 --> 01:04:49.920
not by the ninety five pieces nailed to a door.

1030
01:04:50.280 --> 01:04:52.920
If that's historically accurate. I know that's called into question

1031
01:04:53.000 --> 01:04:54.679
whether he actually nailed them to a door, but he

1032
01:04:54.760 --> 01:04:59.840
did publish them. But this reformation is not being a

1033
01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:03.280
influenced by any of those things, but it's being influenced

1034
01:05:03.320 --> 01:05:12.920
by influencers, by algorithms, by cultural celebrities. The question now

1035
01:05:13.159 --> 01:05:16.639
is will the church reclaim its role as the source

1036
01:05:16.679 --> 01:05:19.760
of truth or will it stand by wile others rewrite

1037
01:05:19.840 --> 01:05:32.760
what Christianity means. I think the church is I don't know.

1038
01:05:34.000 --> 01:05:36.039
I don't know what to say. I've been saying it

1039
01:05:36.119 --> 01:05:39.440
for years now again, I'm just when you start digging

1040
01:05:39.480 --> 01:05:42.119
into the numbers, how much money does it take to

1041
01:05:42.239 --> 01:05:46.280
keep a church just just functioning, just to keep the

1042
01:05:46.360 --> 01:05:48.519
doors open, And you look at that amount of money

1043
01:05:48.519 --> 01:05:50.760
and you're like, okay, so it takes this much money

1044
01:05:50.800 --> 01:05:52.559
to keep a church open. Then you go look up

1045
01:05:52.559 --> 01:05:55.480
and say a church website, and you're like, that's how

1046
01:05:55.519 --> 01:05:57.400
many sermons you gave me in a year. That's it.

1047
01:06:00.559 --> 01:06:06.719
I could get better teaching from anything. Well, then the

1048
01:06:06.840 --> 01:06:10.119
church becomes more and more irrelevant. But the problem is,

1049
01:06:10.199 --> 01:06:12.079
even if you're a Christian podcaster is trying to put

1050
01:06:12.119 --> 01:06:15.039
out all the Christian all the Bible teaching in the world,

1051
01:06:15.440 --> 01:06:18.519
the people still are more much more drone to drawn

1052
01:06:18.599 --> 01:06:21.679
to sensationalism. And I was watching this the other day.

1053
01:06:22.679 --> 01:06:25.199
I've seen a number of YouTube videos now and Christian

1054
01:06:25.280 --> 01:06:27.719
the Christian YouTube world. A lot of YouTubers are like,

1055
01:06:27.800 --> 01:06:30.000
you know what, guys, I've kind of had it. I'm

1056
01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:33.000
thinking about quitting because this is what I realize. I

1057
01:06:33.079 --> 01:06:34.960
can do a YouTube video where I'm trying to offer

1058
01:06:35.039 --> 01:06:40.760
biblical teaching and I'll get fifty downloads, right, But if

1059
01:06:40.800 --> 01:06:43.559
I do one with a thumbnail sketch of me with

1060
01:06:43.679 --> 01:06:46.440
a shocked expression on my face. Oh, and you'll see

1061
01:06:46.480 --> 01:06:48.639
this all the time on YouTube. Oh shocking. And you

1062
01:06:48.719 --> 01:06:54.320
give a shocking headline, you know, this pastor exposed his

1063
01:06:54.559 --> 01:07:00.079
teaching shown to be satanic or the Satanic influence on

1064
01:07:00.559 --> 01:07:08.159
Taylor Swift or whatever. Just shocking, sensational boom. You get downloads, downloads, downloads, streams,

1065
01:07:08.199 --> 01:07:11.599
stream streams, and comment comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, fighting

1066
01:07:11.679 --> 01:07:13.719
and arguing. If you deal with a cultural issue, a

1067
01:07:13.800 --> 01:07:17.159
political issue, you get all. Everett, that's what everybody wants.

1068
01:07:18.800 --> 01:07:21.000
Nobody wants you just to do well, We're gonna spend

1069
01:07:21.079 --> 01:07:24.639
six weeks doing a systematic teaching on the doctrine of

1070
01:07:24.679 --> 01:07:27.519
the Trinity and all the trinitarian heresies that have been

1071
01:07:27.559 --> 01:07:31.920
present within church history. People are like, oh no, now

1072
01:07:31.960 --> 01:07:34.159
they may act like excited for fifteen seconds, but then

1073
01:07:34.159 --> 01:07:36.519
they're gonna go, oh, look over there, Oh look over there,

1074
01:07:36.719 --> 01:07:44.599
that's exciting, that's controversial. That So even on Christian YouTube,

1075
01:07:44.599 --> 01:07:46.440
many of them are like, I'm either going to just

1076
01:07:46.519 --> 01:07:48.719
keep putting out this kind of content or there's no

1077
01:07:48.800 --> 01:07:51.119
point in even doing this anymore. And when you get

1078
01:07:51.199 --> 01:07:53.960
Christian YouTuber starting to realize, look, if I want to

1079
01:07:53.960 --> 01:07:56.960
make money on this, I got to be mister controversial

1080
01:07:57.079 --> 01:08:00.840
sensational I gotta make sure I'm quick. I gotta pick

1081
01:08:00.920 --> 01:08:05.719
up the algorithm. The algorithm controls everything. Same thing with me.

1082
01:08:05.920 --> 01:08:07.679
I when I if I, I have to look at

1083
01:08:07.719 --> 01:08:09.159
what do I want to accomplis do I want to

1084
01:08:09.440 --> 01:08:11.559
do I want to broadcast what I want to broadcast?

1085
01:08:12.519 --> 01:08:14.599
Do I want to broadcast maybe what is needed? But

1086
01:08:14.679 --> 01:08:16.319
the people may not want it. And if the people

1087
01:08:16.399 --> 01:08:18.279
don't want what I think is needed, well then they're

1088
01:08:18.319 --> 01:08:19.880
not going to listen. So then it doesn't really matter

1089
01:08:19.920 --> 01:08:22.520
how many hours I sit here in this room producing content.

1090
01:08:23.399 --> 01:08:26.479
Do I listen to what everyone tells me they want

1091
01:08:27.880 --> 01:08:30.680
and try to provide that or do I just say,

1092
01:08:30.720 --> 01:08:39.920
you know what people really want? Is sensationalism controversy well,

1093
01:08:40.159 --> 01:08:42.640
I can try to give people what they want, maybe

1094
01:08:42.640 --> 01:08:45.199
even grow the podcast and may even actually get support.

1095
01:08:47.760 --> 01:08:51.439
Not gonna help this problem. We're gonna become more and

1096
01:08:51.520 --> 01:08:59.880
more biblically illiterate and more and more philologically corrupted. All right,

1097
01:09:02.159 --> 01:09:05.279
that's my positive, uplifting message for today. There is a

1098
01:09:05.720 --> 01:09:08.680
new reformation that's taking place, and it's not a good one.

1099
01:09:08.760 --> 01:09:13.239
And it's been going on for quite a while. I

1100
01:09:13.319 --> 01:09:16.600
tried to take you through the history of it. Thanks

1101
01:09:16.640 --> 01:09:22.159
for listening. Everyone, have a great day. God bless